Back to the basics

Drew’s Reminder,

Back to the basics.

     We live in a very complex world.  We have smart phones.  We have smart cars.  We are all connected to the worldwide Internet through numerous devices.  You are reading this post on your MacBook pro, your Surface, your new Windows 8 pc, your Apple Ipad, your Samsung Galaxy 5 and the list goes on and on.  Years ago you would have been reading this in some periodical that was published, printed and then mailed just to make it accessible to you.

     However, with all the technology out there, don’t lose sight of the basics.  Technology can be great and provide some much needed improvements in our life.  Yet, if you rely on it too much in the wrong way it can have an adverse effect on your life.  It can make you lazy.  It can make you feel a little too complacent.  It can make you take things for granted.  Some of you may say, so what as long as I’m getting the results that I want.  I’m interested in getting results too.  I’m just more interested in getting sustained results.

     So what does complexity have to do with sustained results?  It's simple.  If you make things too complex it makes you run the risk of a small failure having too large of an impact.  

     As an example, I once owned a used 7 series BMW.  It was my dream car or so I thought.  The car itself had over 30 computers inside of it.  I thought that was great until the battery died.  In the past I would have been able to go to any parts store and get a compatible battery to replace the dead one and I'd be on my way.  Because of the complexity, I not only had to purchase a relatively expensive battery but I also had to take it to a BMW dealer to have it programmed to the car in order for it to work.  This is just one example of many I had with that car.   I no longer own that BMW because to me the complexity wasn't worth it in the end.

     Another example can be found in the world of getting in shape.  The exercise and fitness industry makes billions of dollars a year.  There are supplements, special equipment, exercise videos, fitness trainers, special clothing, special shoes and the list goes on and on.  Everyone is in search of the golden nugget that will take them to the 6 pack promise land.  However, if you run out of money and can't afford the gym, the trainer, the supplements or the special shoes will you still get the results you want? You can and I have.   After all the years of my searching for the golden nugget I'm actually getting the best results now.  I'm getting those results because I'm eating more fruits and vegetables.  I'm doing body weight workouts that don't require any equipment.  I'm working out in thin, flat, barefoot based, running shoes.  I'm spending far less money and my regimen is far less complicated.  The beauty of it all is I've been able sustained my results over the long period of time. Ask any Marine about the good ole jumping jack.  They’ll tell you it is the best exercise ever invented. 

     My last example is the standard paper and pencil.  I've gone through many computers in the last 20+ years.  I've had several of them crash.  I've had some just get so slow that it was no longer worth the effort to turn them on.  I've never had one stolen but I know plenty of people who have.  What is great about the paper and pencil is I still have a notebook that's almost 20 years old.  The notebook was my go to when it came to writing down my ideas.  Every time I had what I thought was my million dollar idea I would write in that notebook.  I recently purchased some new notebooks that have had a great impact on me recently.  I used a notebook to write 10 things every day that I was grateful for during my 28 day journey while reading the book, "The Magic".  I also bought a journal to write down goals, ideas and other writing techniques.  It’s all so simple and basic.  I can go to just about any store and buy a college ruled composition notebook and a pack of pencils.  I don’t have to worry about new downloads or antivirus security.

     As I have tried to give you some real life examples from my world where I have had success reducing the complexity in my life, I want to make sure I get the point across for this reminder.  Technology is great. Trying the latest new age solution to any problem is great.  If those options are your plan A then go for it.  However, you should always be ready to implement plan B.  The B stands for basic.  As you know many times plan B will work out much better than Plan A in the end.  That’s because Plan B has actually proven itself successful in the past. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel to get to where you are going.  Sometimes a basic wheel is all you need.  Enjoy the journey!
 

With gratitude,

Drew

Focus on the good.

Drew’s Reminder,

 “Focus on the good”  

      Are good things going to happen to you in your life?  Are some not so good things going to happen to you in your life?  Are good things to going to happen to people you don’t know?  Are some not so good things going to happen to people you don’t know?  Of course the answer to all those questions is a resounding, yes.  The more difficult question is why some of us tend to give more focus and attention on the not so good things than on the good ones.

     I have my own theory as to why.  I think many people will acknowledge good things and enjoy them as they occur.  But once the euphoria of enjoying that event, situation, win fall, etc surpasses some tend to place that memory away and move on.  They move on and wait for that next good moment to occur.  They listen to that inner voice telling them that yes that was good but now it’s time to get back to reality.   

     Along the way to that next good thing some not so good things will likely happen.  Those not so good things will catch that person’s attention.  Even if that not so good thing doesn’t happen to them personally, it won’t be difficult in today’s media to see something not so good that has happened.  Once it has their attention they will analyze it and wonder why it happened.  They will wonder if it can happen again.  They will discuss it with their friends.  They will research it on the internet.  They will watch the local news to see the coverage of it.  They will focus a lot of their attention on it.

      Funny thing is when the good thing happens they often don’t do half of those things listed above.  Why is that?  I believe it’s because of fear.  A large number of people let fear play an important role in their lives.  I’m not talking about the run and scream at the top of your lungs fear.  I’m talking about the type of fear that we mask as protection.  We want to protect ourselves or someone we know from the not so good things.  Some believe if we don’t put in that type of energy on the not so good things we will ultimately not be as protected as we could be. 

     Now think what if we replaced that fear with faith.  I believe we would flip the process.  We would now do all of the work for the good thing because we would have faith that it would happen again.  We would analyze why it happened.  We would talk to our friends and neighbors about it.  We would research and learn all we could about it on the internet.  We would do all of this in an effort to make sure it happened again.  We would have faith that we could make it happen again.

    When the not so good thing happened we would acknowledge that it happened.  We would feel some emotion about it when we first learned about it happening.  Once that emotion wore off we would put it in our memory and move on.  We would have faith that even if/when something not so good happens again we’ll be fine.  We would not look for things that are not so good to happen but we would just let them happen when they do.  Our faith would serve as our protection.

     What a wonderful change that would be.  If you are one of the people I described above, think about the possible results if you implemented this change.  If this is already your process then I applaud you.  This is just a little reminder that the ball is in your court.  You can make this change anytime you want to and sustain it as long as you want to.  After all fear and faith are on the same scale just at opposite ends.  Fear itself is just a lack of faith.  So move down the scale and element the lack.  The results will be well worth the effort.

With gratitude,

Drew

What has gratitude done for me?

Drew’s Reminder,

 “What has gratitude done for me?”  

     I’d like to tell you a story.  A story about a journey I’ve recently taken.  Now that I’ve reached this destination I know how lucky I am.  You see this was a journey that I didn’t plan.  That’s why I say that I am lucky.

     I’ve always had an interest in creating my own business.  I’ve tried a few and nothing has really stuck.  Luckily I don’t have to rely on my entrepreneur talents, or lack there of, to survive.  I have a great education and great work experience. 

     Before I took the journey I will tell you a story about when I was working with a friend on a new business idea.  The idea was to create a business named Man Appreciated.    The goal of Man Appreciated was to create products solely focused on showing men how much they were appreciated.  Being a man myself, I was thoroughly in love with this idea.  But at the end of the day this was just an idea.  It was not a business.

     To try and get closer to an actual business, I decided to research as much as I could about appreciation.  That is when it all started.  Researching appreciation led me to the topic of gratitude.  Once I started reading about gratitude I was hooked.  I’ve always been a very optimistic, feel good person and the things I read about gratitude just felt good to me.

     Then it happened.  I was called into my boss’s office for a meeting and sitting in the room was the Human Resources lead.  That day I learned that my job had been eliminated and in 60 days I would be unemployed.  It was a shock, however, I wasn’t upset.  I actually agreed that our department was top heavy with management.  There were a total of 3 of us doing the same job and now there would only be 2.  This wasn’t the first time I’d experience this before either.  The previous time I found another role within those 60 days so I never actually left the company.  This time would be different.  I was employed at the end of day 60.

     I kept a good attitude during that time period before I was let go.  I figured things would work out and I just kept trying to make sure they did.  Sometime during the last 30 days I purchased a book on Amazon titled “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne.  Many of you have heard her, as she is the author of the wildly popular “The Secret”, a book about the law of attraction.  “The Magic” is also about the law of attraction but it is solely focused on the topic of gratitude.  Even though I was facing unemployment I wanted to keep up my research on appreciation/gratitude and that’s why I purchased the book.  This was the best decision I made during this time.  This was a decision that changed my life.

     The entire premise of “The Magic” is to follow a 28 day regimen of practicing gratitude. As you know if you do something for 28 days straight it becomes a habit.  Each chapter represents a day in your life and it tells you exactly what steps to take.  I followed each step for 28 days straight.  I was committed.  I even took the book with me on a cruise that we had paid for 6 months earlier that I made my family take regardless of the looming situation.  I bought a journal and I kept my journal and my book with me at all times.  The Thursday before our Saturday departure for the cruise I interviewed for a job with a new company and had my second interview the week we returned from the cruise.  I ended up finishing day 28 of the book in my new role at the new company.

     Those 28 days changed me in a way I didn’t know was even possible.  It forced me to really look deep at my life in a way I’d never done before.  I looked at all the things I was grateful for, the big things and the little things.  I learned through experience that you can’t truly being grateful for something and not be in a state of happiness.  That lesson was the biggest of all.  I felt happiness that I had never felt before.  Not only did I feel it, I was able to sustain it.  I started to look at life with a different set of lenses.  I looked a life with a view of gratitude.  I saw beauty in things that I had taken for granted before.  I took pride in things I had accomplished that I never really acknowledged before.  I became at peace with myself even though I didn’t realize that I wasn’t truly at peace with myself in the past.  I simply changed. 

      Over a year later that change is still here.  I am a new me.  I’ve continued practicing gratitude.  I’ve continued filling my mind with new information.  I’ve listened to 100’s of podcasts on the law of attraction.  I’ve read numerous books.  I’ve started a group on a company information sharing site focused on having moments of gratitude.  I’ve created You Tube videos about moments of gratitude.  I’ve started blogging. I’ve started meditating. Those are some of the actions I’ve taken.  But the biggest thing that has happened to me is that I have sustained that feeling of happiness.  Yes, I’m human and I have some ups and downs.  My downs only last a short period of time now because practicing gratitude pulls me up and keeps me up more than I’ve was ever able to do before.

     The beauty of this whole story is that nothing new was created.  All of this happiness was always available to me.  I just needed a reminder to bring it out.  “The Magic” served as that reminder.  I now can access this happiness, this peace anytime I want.  The same is true for you too.  Do some research on the benefits of practicing gratitude.  Choose a path that works for you.  If you already have experienced it then keep doing what you are doing.  You know exactly the happiness that I described above.  Tell your neighbor.  Tell your friend.  Tell a stranger.  No one should miss out on this wonderful experience that is right at their fingertips to experience if they take the time to make it happen.

With gratitude,

Drew

Are you giving the proper attention to the things you value?

Drew’s Reminder,

“Are you giving the proper attention to the things you value?”  

      Value is a very interesting subject.  It is a concept that we are privileged to have the opportunity to discuss.  Because of our great intelligence we created a system for quantifying value as we have progressed.  That system was the use of money.  The first use of money can be traced back to about 3000 years ago.  Prior to money the bartering system was the prevalent way to exchange goods and services.  Over those 3000 years the value of money hasn’t really changed.  At its onset it was always a perceived value.

              At one point in history money was made of a material that people coveted or it was made in some artistic mold that people coveted.  In both instances the people themselves put some kind of value on that money which made it worth exchanging goods or services.  Collectively each individual had to perceive that same value or the money would have never worked.  Let’s take gold for example.  At some point in our lives we decided that gold was pretty, it was scarce and it was desirable so it had value.  There are other materials that are scarce but not perceived as pretty and therefore don’t hold any value.  The point that I’m making is that the value is perceived.

     The same can be said for bartering.  The only difference is you can immediately see what you are getting for the exchange.  When you exchange money for goods or services you don’t actually see the goods or services you get until you spend the money.  But in both cases you put some perceived value on the exchanged goods or services.  Someone could wash your car in exchange for a ride into town and back.  In order for that to work the person receiving the car wash would have to perceive a value of having a washed car and see a value in not driving someone into town if they don’t have to.  It’s all up to the two individual’s perceived value for any exchange to work.  So it is all about perception.

     There are some perceptions that are accepted by the majority so there’s no need to really look into how you perceive it.  Your perceptions don’t matter as much in those cases.  That is the case when it comes to money.  It’s only a piece of paper or a coin made of common material, but everyone perceives value in it.  Therefore, it is important for you to have money to use to exchange goods and services.  Without that perception money wouldn’t place such a big role in our existence. 

     I’ve talked a lot about money and its perceived value.  I did that so that I could make a point.  We put a lot of effort into getting money because of its perceived value.  What else are we putting a lot of perceived value in when it comes to other parts of our life?  Do you perceive value in being in love?  Do you perceive value it having integrity?  Do you perceive value in being a great parent?  Do you perceive value in being happy?  Do you perceive value in giving?  Do you perceive value in gaining knowledge?  Do you perceive value in being at peace?  Do you see value in having friends?  Lots of questions right?  You don’t have to answer all of them at once.  If you answered yes to any of them, I want you to think about the actions you are taking to increase your amount of any of those items.

     When it comes to money, we can all talk about what we do to increase the amount of it.  We work, we save, and we borrow.  We do whatever we can to get more money.  But let’s say you value gaining knowledge.  What do you do to gain more knowledge?  Do you read books or research information wherever you can?  I know many of you will say of course I do.  However, let’s compare it to the time you spend trying to increase the amount of money you obtain.  There are only 24 hours in a day.  We sleep 6-8 hours of those 24 if we are lucky.  That leaves 16-18 hours for us to work with. Many of us work 8-10 of those hours.  So we spend 50-56% of our available time working to gain more money.  Even more of that time is spent if you do something on the side besides your normal 8-10 hour of work time. 

     So let’s assume you do have 6 hours of time that you can spend gaining other things you perceive value in.  I know this isn’t realistic for most because of family, commitments and other things that take your time.  I’m hoping you are spending at least 50-56% of those 6 hours the same way you do for the amount of hours available to work.  And before you tell me you need some time to relax or rest, that’s what those 6-8 hours of sleep are for.   Too many of us are not utilizing that time the way we should.  Some of us are caught up watching 4 hours of television every night (the news, reality tv show, Scandal, Empire, Glee, etc).  That tells me you have a perceived value in watching television.  Otherwise you wouldn’t invest so much of your time in it.  I’m sure you won’t admit to it but like the old saying goes “actions speak louder than words”.

     Trust me I’m not trying to judge what you do or how you spend your time.  I just want you to think about what you perceive value you in and are you investing the proper amount of time and effort into it to get more of it.  If you value gaining more knowledge, set a goal to do just that.  Read a book or research a topic.  If you value being in love, invest more time in the art of loving.  Make a conscious effort.  If you value being a great parent, invest more time and effort into parenting your children.  If you value being at peace, invest some time into meditating or yoga to make you more peaceful.  If you value being happy, make a conscious effort to experience happiness as often as you can.  If you value giving, invest you time into finding ways to give.  The list goes on and on.  I’m just asking you to take some time to evaluate where you perceive value and then appropriate the right time and effort to get more of it in your life.

With gratitude,

Drew