Appreciation....

Very few things in life are guaranteed. It's important in life to strive for more, to stay thirsty, to grasp opportunities... but it's also important to appreciate what you already have. Things, friendships, opportunities, etc... come and go. Situations change. Circumstances change. People Change. Never take things for granted.

When someone does something nice, always thank them. Never expect kindness but appreciate it when it happens. People don't have to do nice things for others, consider them gifts and not expectations. You only get out of something what you put into them, so be kind to people.

In life we all have tiny expectations. We all hope that sometimes people will do special things for us. We may want it, we may wish it, we may dream it... but it may not come. Focus on the people who have done special things for you. Don't focus on the people who don't come through, appreciate the ones who do.

Stay positive in life. Kindness is a gift. Give it first. Find out who returns it to you. Appreciate it. Stay smiling everyone, today's going to be a great day...

Today is not over...

Today is not just any day, today is this very moment. This is the moment that decides if you have a smile on your face or a frown. It's today that can be molded and shaped. It's today you can control.

Yesterday is the past, did you make the most of it? Today is the now... will you make the most of it? Fortunately, you still have time to decide. Will you look back and regret or will you look back and smile.

Wasting time means you are wasting part of your life. Your life is a collection of days, a collection of experiences and opportunities. Laugh at the experiences and make the most of opportunities. Not very many things in life are guaranteed, but today is because it's here. Bask is the sunshine and keep smiling... today is going to be a good day.

Personal Growth...

People are dynamic. We are constantly changing and growing. Our outlooks grow and our thought broaden. With every experience we have, we take something back from it. We learn, adapt, and grow as people.

Experiences leading to change is how we become better people. We refine our lives by understanding what works and what doesn't, the things we like and the things we don't, and so forth...

We need not compare ourselves to other people. It's a comparison that will get you no where. We only need to compare ourselves to are previous selves. Are you a better person than you were yesterday? Are you better than you were a year ago?

Strive to be a better person. Learn from our mistakes and grow as people. You are not the same person that you were, but be sure that your changes are for the better. Open your mind and be more open. Seize more opportunities and take more risks. Care about yourself and also care about others. Be more than you were. Keep smiling everyone, today is a great day...

Looking forward...

Your actions today affect your future. Today's actions have consequences. Today is the day that matters not yesterday... but yesterday is very important. Life is lived forward and understood and rationalized backwards. The future is what matters, but so does the past. The past is what brought you to the situation you are in today. Don't dwell on the past, yet learn from it. Life is just a huge learning experience.

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Look ahead to the future and take advantage of the opportunity you have. We all make mistakes but we all have the potential for greatness. Don't look at your past as a bad thing. Don't focus on mistakes, focus on why they were mistakes and learn from them. Don't make the same mistake over and over. If you do the same thing over and over, you will get the same results over and over. Change what you do, get a different outcome.

Today is a great day and tomorrow might even be better. Look to the future and always remember to smile...

Happiness comes from within...

The older I got the more I realized that overcoming shyness simply wasn't going to happen without a little work. I began to understand it as a problem and started to tackle it. I started by observing the behaviors of more outgoing people to learn what made them tick. I found the results surprising.

Not having a ton of money growing up, I was envious of those who did have money. In a way I thought that money made the man. Since we didn't have a lot, I thought that was maybe why I couldn't muster any confidence? Then I realized this wasn't the case at all. Happiness doesn't come from the clothes you wear... happiness simply comes from inside of you. You are simply as happy as you want and allow yourself to be.

It's not the clothes you wear or the things you surround yourself with that lead to happiness... it's your core and the person you are that gives you confidence. I knew I had a lot to learn.

Winning and losing...

Winning is wonderful, it's what we aspire to do... but there's a lot to be learned from losing as well. Life is about learning and learning came be done in success and also defeat. There's a grace involved in both scenarios and both are necessary in life. You need to learn how to win as much as you need to learn how to lose. If both are necessary, is winning very important? The simple answer is no.

Character is revealed during hardship not bliss. Anyone can live an easy life, it's much harder to stay focused and upbeat during the rough patches... and yes they are just patches. Things do and will get better.

If winning is really important to you, focus on the real competitions in life. Fight to be the best person you can be. Compete to raise the best children you can have. Be a loving husband...

Life consists of battles and some you won't win. Never focus on the battles, focus on the war. Sometimes the path to achieving our goals have stumbling points. Accomplish your goals. Obstacles are just distraction and temporary. Stay focused and learn from your mistakes. We all make mistakes. We all lose at times. Stay positive.

A loss is never a loss is we use it as a stepping stone to a future win. Keep fighting, stay focused, and always remember to smile. Life is never that bad...

Dreams...

Life consists of phases. Certain phases are more significant than others but each phases is important to our overall growth. You are a product of the things you've done and the lessons you've taken back from these accomplishments. The fun part is when you realize that there is so much more waiting out there for you.

As a child we dream of the things we want to do and be. These dreams are elaborate and sometimes very specific. As we grow older we forget to dream. Work, responsibility, and life in general sidetrack us from dreaming. Without dreams how can determine what the next phases in our lives should be? Without dreams what do we strive for?

Changes happen regardless and life is unpredictable. Life moves on whether we do or not... whether we are ready or not. Set goals. Want things. Continue to dream.

We only become old when our regrets take the place of our dreams. Keep dreaming and stay thirsty to want more. Hard work gets rewarded in the end, keep working hard towards your goals. It's a beautiful day out, remember to keep smiling...

Have strong character...

Your reputation is how you are seen and judged by people who don't know you. Your character is who you are to the one true person that matters... you. People judge you in relative terms as to how the would act and behave in a particular circumstance, but nothing as it relates to your true character. It's far better to have good character than to try to impress other people.

Demonstrat your character with action, not words. Maintain solid behavior and act as a role model. What people think is really up to them, you can't live and think for them. Simply be the best person you can be to the people who matter and let the people whlmdont matter waste their own time judging.

Be kind and caring to the people who have earned it. They have the opinions that matter. Stay true to yourself and the people who understand and support you. Life isn't about knowing a lot of people... life is about forming meaningful friendships.

Spend some time in the sun and always remember all the wonderful things you have to be grateful for. Make the most of
life and always... remember to smile...

Finding your voice...

Growing up extremely shy I had a terrible time finding the courage to really say much. I was embarrassed of my voice and tried everything I could never to use it. The part of me that tolerated my voice didn't think the things I had to say were important enough to be said. I thought my thoughts were unimportant and began to feel like I wasn't good enough to ever speak up for myself.

As I began to learn how to overcome my shyness, I began to speak up more. If people were going somewhere I wanted to go, I found the strength to ask if I could go... and you know what, they usually said yes. At restaurants, I began to summon the courage to request my food the way I wanted it, and sure enough, it wasn't a major problem. I learned that you only get what you ask for... people can't read minds.

One of the things I remember that was a problem when I was shy was never really saying how I felt. I hinted about it. I could infer it... but there was no way I could ever be direct. Beating around the bush used to be my favorite game. Since people did not always pick up on my hints and since people do not read minds, I was often disappointed.

Not being direct lead to a few other problems other than not getting the things I wanted... I often wasn't understood. Things I tried to say got taken the wrong way. People made a lot of assumptions and I didn't really have to words to express myself. Poor communication will lead to countless fights and I was the king of poor communication.

Not being direct and being misunderstood a lot, I learned to keep a lot of my feelings bottled up inside me. After time I realized that was crazy. You can't keep everything you feel bottled up inside you, you'll explode.

The more I began to shed my shyness, the more direct I began to be. I was beginning to tell people the things I liked and more importantly the things I didn't. I learned to get things off my chest and it made me feel a lot better. My happiness mattered to me and I learned that no one would know how I felt unless I told them. I finally felt like I found my voice.

Finding your voice opened many doors for me. Understanding that being direct and communication would ultimately make me a happier person. People don't have to do the things you want or act the way you want them to... but if they won't if you never tell them. People can't read minds nor can they guess how you feel. Sometimes you just have to tell them.

Keep smiling everyone, it's going to be a nice day out...

First times...

The best paths in the world are the difficult ones. They involve twists and turns... adventures of a sort. Sometimes the adrenaline occurs because we don't know the path, but so does the fear. If we've never done it, we don't know the road. Not knowing is scary and a lot of people avoid uncomfortable and scary situations. This all makes sense except I said some of the "best" paths in the world are the difficult ones.

Not every road you take needs to be new. Not every road you take needs to be scary... but don't get scared by a new road. Something new is simply something you have yet to do. It's not insurmountable, just unaccomplished... until now! Take advantage of opportunities.

Opportunities are the gateway to options. Much like a path you have yet to tackle or a trail you haven't ran, trying new things give us a chance to learn more. Life is learning. You will never know what you enjoy or dislike without a comparison.

The first time you try something, you can't tell if it's good or bad, because there is nothing to compare it to. Subsequently, the only time you can tell if you do like or dislike something is to have other comparisons. These are the options we are talking about.

If you truly like something, the only way to know is to compare it against the other things you have done. If you have never done anything else and it's the only thing you know... perhaps you are deceiving yourself. Opportunities present themselves at the most random and sometimes inappropriate times. Take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, they may never reappear.

Life has no manual, but life is wonderful. There is no guilt, only laughter. Embrace happiness and always remember to smile...

Calm, cool, and collected...

We are affected by the people around us, so in understanding this... only allow yourself to be positively influenced and let the negativity wash away. Don't negatively change who you are because of the actions of someone else. Identify, understand, and learn from it... but don't change.

Anyone who has the power to anger us, controls us. Let's focus on taking control of ourselves. Stay non-reactive to things and simply learn from them. The things we learn from make us a better person, but the things we simply react to distract us from our goals. Keep your eye on the prize and stay focused.

Stay true to yourself and never allow a minor roadblock change your course. Continue to set good examples , stay positive, and always remember to smile...

Today...

Life grants you only one today... how are you going to use it? Will you affect other people? Will you change lives? Even without you realizing it, you will. Interaction (or lack of interaction) between you and the people that matter shapes us. Each interaction is an opportunity to put a smile on another person's face. Take advantage of those opportunities. Smiles are easy to give and they change lives.

You have the power to touch other people, use your power wisely. Keep dreaming, keep hoping, and always keep smiling...

To thy ownself (and everyone else) be true...

Being congruent is simply being the person that you portray yourself to be. Simple enough to conceptualize, but harder to pull off. A few quick examples would be someone who says one thing but does another or perhaps even someone who's personality doesn't match their external look.

If you portray yourself as supportive and positive but never do or act supportive or positively, then you are not being congruent. People's actions are a far more telling sign than their words could ever be. When words and actions do not link, there's a failure in congruency. If you tell people that you are caring and giving, but only act selfishly and only act in your best interest, you are not being congruent. There is a disconnect between image and reality.

I once told my sister that you can't date the mayor if you are dressed like someone who looks like they just got back from a rock show. There is an error in congruency. It's not a mistake in her character, rather the portrayal. Temperament, words, action, and even look all need to connect... in a word, congruent.

I hope everyone takes a moment to reflect on how great today is and find something in life to be happy about. Everyone has things coming up that they can smiling about, use these memories in life. Always remember to smile...

Understanding and support...

On the road to becoming a positive person, certain other aspects of your life follow suit. Becoming more positive implies developing an increased sense of determining the things you like and you don't like. Finding the things in yourself that you like and the traits in others that impress you as well. Becoming a positive person then doesn't become an attribute that you have, it becomes who you are.

Along with redefining your tastes, you also increase your pre-existing skill set to include values such as understanding and support. Appreciating other people for the good they possess instead of demonizing them for the traits they lack, will allow you to understand them in a new way. It will allow you to support them in their endeavors and further allow you to learn about yourself.

Everyone has flaws, but everyone has too many good qualities to notices the flaws. The glass is not half empty, nor is it half full... the glass is simply the wrong size. Keep smiling everyone, it's such a beautiful day outside...

Today is just as good of time as any...

I was talking to a girl the other day about this and that and she commented that it would have been fun to live where we live now, but 20 years ago. I don't have a time machine, never been in a DeLorean, I don't know a guy named Doc Brown, in fact I don't even know anyone named Doc... but I do any this moment. It's pointless to long for something that we can't have, but we can make the most of the time we do have. Today is tomorrow's yesterday. Make the most of your opportunities and you won't have any regrets. Twenty Years ago wasn't the best time to live somewhere, right now is the best time to live somewhere.

You can waste money and you become poor... but if you waste time, you lose part of your life. Today has been a good day and tomorrow will be a better day. Keep smiling everyone.

Enjoy the reward of your hard work...

If you worry too much about what other people think, you will never become the person you were meant to be... only the person you think other people want you to be. You can't please everyone and if you get in the habit of trying, it's a battle you will lose. The only way to truly be happy is to be comfortable with yourself enough to realize that you can't please everyone but you can treat everyone fairly. When it all comes down to it, the only person you have to answer to is yourself.

Decisions are a merely a comparision of pros against cons. If the reward is high enough, then you will take the risk. But what if you don't truly understand how powerful the reward is. Thinking you understand something and knowing you understand something are only seperated by a little action. The reward is usual worth the risk, but you won't realize that until you try. Take risks and value the reward... and if you don't, well at least you'll know for sure it's not your cup of tea.

Life involves growth. Challenge yourself to grow. People like what they are good at, I challenge you to work on the things that you aren't good at. When I was overweight, I challenged myself to get into shape... then worked with others to help them lose weight. When I was shy, I challenged myself to come out of my shell... and then worked with others to help them find their own value. When I feared speaking, I forced myself to speak more. When I couldn't read... I decided to write a book to help others.

There's safe roads and curved roads. Doesn't it seem like the best trails have turns? The hard work to get to the top of the uphill is rewarded by the coast downhill. When you are feeling tired or feeling down, take pride in knowing hard work gets rewarded and the pay off is usually worth it. Keep smiling everyone, it's a wonderful day.

What's the point in holding a grudge?

One of the most unnecessary things in life is a holding a grudge. Somethings in life are going to go your way and others are not. In life you are going to feel an array of negative emotions: upset, anger, disappointment, etc... the key to it all is how you handle those feelings.

The character traits I value are positive ones. I find things like being positive and understanding as important. I appreciate attributes like being supportive and encouraging to ones like stubborn and stand-offish. Choose the attribute set you would rather have.

You can blame people for your emotions or you can just let them go. People do make mistakes and it's completely ok not to like everyone, but you are wasting your energy when holding a grudge. If it's a waste of your time, then why do it? The people who deserve my support I give one hundred percent to... the others are just uncredited extras in my life. They don't influence my life nor do I waste my time being mad at them. Time is too important to waste.

I've often said that forgiveness isn't a character trait of the weak, rather it's sign of strength. Spend your time and energy on the people who are worth it and not on the people who aren't.

Keep smiling everyone. Appreciate the sunshine when you can and always stay thirsty and strive for more...

The art of being positive...

Becoming a positive person doesn't come naturally to everyone and honestly it can be hard for some. In order for it to be who you are and not just how you are acting, it requires a little time and a little work. Like all other aspects of life, becoming positive is a process.

Being a positive person involves different concentric levels. Positivity reeks from inwards towards outwards, from Your central core to the your surrounding aura. Believe in yourself, be positive in your assumptions, staying level headed during adversity, find the good in any situation, and being supportive of others.

Anyone can complain but a rare few can always find the positive side of things. Surround yourself with people who believe in you... they are the people who matter. Avoid people who tell you that can't accomplish something, they don't want you to succeed.

I live my life as a positive person. I interchange positivity and supportive as often as I can and on purpose. I will support the people in my life who have earned my support and avoid the people who try and hold me down. There's few things in life that you can offer people better than your support, it's one of the best gifts you can give. They may never see it, but that doesn't matter to you. It's just who you are... keep smiling, life is good.

Nothing says more than a smile. Smiles are refreshing, exciting, and create more smiles. Smiles say both hello and thank you. Always remember to smile... you never knows who's day you'll brighten :)