Who did this?

Are we victims of somebody else’s behavior, or our own?

What did you do to cause what you have or experience?  

What did you not do?

What did you tolerate?

Who can change it?

Hijacked by the media

Many of us have a routine where we largely live in and around our homes and workplaces.  Yet we have developed opinions about groups of people, places and ideas that we have never experienced firsthand.

Often we got these ideas from the media. They presented to us what they wanted to, in the way they wanted to, to influence our opinions.  Slowly, and systematically, our minds were hijacked.

But that would never happen to you of course…or did it?

Let’s be careful.

Your Highest Values

If I asked you what your highest core values are, what would you say?  Really?  

One of mine is “making a significant positive difference in the world by helping myself and others be the best they can be”.

It may be one word.  Examples for me would be “loyalty” and “cleanliness”.

Tell me with the orange button and see what others have to say!

What are you paying attention to?

Where your attention goes, your energy flows.

What are you paying attention to these days?

Your "E vs. E" Ratio

What’s your Entertainment vs. Education ratio?  How many hours a week do you spend watching TV and listening to the radio and going to shows, concerts and sporting events?  How many hours a week do you spend learning by reading, listening to audio programs and audio books, or going to seminars and trainings?

Adjusting this ratio will likely improve your value to others and your earning ability.

Creating Value for Others

Yesterday we talked about getting what you deserve in the marketplace/economy.  What drives what we are worth out there?  

To answer this question, let’s say you are a consumer – a customer.  What would make you pay more or less?  How much value you get from a supplier of goods or services – right?  If what they provide is of more value to you, you’ll pay more.  If it’s of less value, and something you can get anywhere, you will pay less.

So that’s the answer. How much value we create for others drives what we are worth and deserve in the marketplace.

How much value are you creating?  How can you be more valuable?

You're getting what you deserve

Relative to success in the marketplace and economy, pretend you are getting what you deserve.

Sure some get a little less and some get a little more than they deserve for a time, but if we subscribe to the idea that life is unfair and we’ll never be able to improve because of this unfairness, then we may as well give up – and those that think that way often do.  So we must act as if life is mostly fair most of the time, and when it’s not, it will eventually change and catch up so that it is.

So if you are getting what you deserve now, what do you have to do to deserve more?

(Continued tomorrow)

Reframing tragedy

When something really bad happens, we feel devastated.  We can start to ask “Why did this happen to me?”, and live the tragedy over and over in our mind, and make it mean something to us.

I believe that everything happens for a reason, even if you don’t know what that reason is at the time. Moving past the bad luck, an accident, or misfortune, we can chose to become aware of the reason it happened to us, or not.

Consider this quote from Dorothy Parker – “And if my heart be scarred and burned, the safer, I, for all I learned.” 

Was it bad luck?  Or was it something that had to happen for us to grow?

Cause something better

Everything happens for a reason.  Change the reasons, and we change what happens.

Can you cause something different to happen in your life?

Getting smarter

Chances are, there is something we are still doing that we’ve done in the past that didn’t work.

What are you still doing that you know doesn’t get good results?

Behaviors, actions towards others, eating, drinking, watching, etc.

What should you be doing instead?