You Can Be Your Own Inspiration

You Can Be Your Own Inspiration – Harvey Mackay

Joe was an ambitious young man who never missed a day of submitting a new idea to his boss, and his boss never missed a day of rejecting Joe’s idea. But one day, Joe submitted a suggestion, and his boss said, “That’s sheer inspiration!”

“No,” said Joe, “it’s 99 percent aspiration and one percent inspiration.”

Inspiration often starts with aspiration.

Thomas Edison had a similar take when he said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

The definition of inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

That might be why Dolly Parton said, “When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.”

Face it: sometimes it is hard to get inspired. It could be the weather or a variety of reasons. What is the best way to get back to being inspired?

Some of the most inspirational people I know are curious. The old saying, “You learn something new every day,” should be taken very seriously. There’s certainly no lack of opportunity. Be curious about everything around you. Do something that you’ve never done before, just for the experience.

The future belongs to the curious — the ones who are not afraid to try something, explore it, poke at it, question it and turn it inside out. Let curiosity turn “I don’t know” into “I want to find out.” Curiosity makes us interested in a broad range of information. We learn for the joy of learning.

Curiosity is a hunger to explore and a delight in discovery. When we are curious, we approach the world with a child-like habit of poking and prodding and asking questions. We are attracted to new experiences.

Another way to spark inspiration is through imagination. It’s never too late to develop your imagination, although I would caution that the longer you suppress it, the more challenging it will be. Even if you don’t think of yourself as the creative type, you can always amp your imagination up with a little effort.

Creativity, thinking outside the box, is another way to get inspired. What has always baffled me, however, is how we got in that box in the first place, and why it is so hard to get out. It can get downright claustrophobic.

Connection is yet another path to inspiration. Harvard University tracked the physical and emotional health of 700 people. They followed these people and tested them (e.g., blood samples, brain scans) for 75 years. Here’s the primary conclusion: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Good relationships help you deal with life’s minor annoyances and your most challenging problems. They can snap you out of a listless state and keep you inspired.

Why do most people seem to get their inspirations overnight? Because inspiration often comes from dreams. So don’t just follow your dreams, chase them. Maybe that’s why entertainer Carol Burnett said, “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”

The creation of Google can be traced back to a Larry Page dream in 1996. Page had a dream where he was admitted into college because of a clerical error and thought he would be kicked out at any moment. That anxiety fueled a dream of downloading and storing the Internet on individual PCs. When he woke up, he was curious to see if it was possible, so he did the math. It wasn’t, given the amount of data, but he could save everything as individual links. That gave him the idea of creating a searchable database of links to web pages that led to the creation of Google.

The melody for one of The Beatles’ greatest songs “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream. In “The Beatles Anthology,” McCartney recalls: “I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, ‘Hey, I don’t know this tune — or do I?’ It was like a jazz melody…. I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: ‘Do you know this? It’s a good little tune, but I couldn’t have written it because I dreamt it.’”

Speaking of “The Beatles,” John Lennon, a self-declared dreamer, said his inspiration for one of his best-selling songs came from a dream, and it was appropriately titled “#9 Dream.

Mackay’s Moral: Aspire to inspire before you expire.

You Can Measure Your Emotional Intelligence

You Can Measure Your Emotional Intelligence – Robert Rohm

In school, we all had to take tests. The main purpose of those tests was to see if we were learning anything or making any progress. Hopefully, we all learned a little bit, even if it was just by accident! We also had to take standardized IQ tests so that teachers could know our Intelligence Quotient. Even though all of us have heard of IQ, many of us are still learning about our EQ. Our Emotional Quotient has everything to do with our emotional intelligence. In other words, the issue is not how smart we are academically but rather how smart we are emotionally. There is a very simple test to discover your level of emotional intelligence. It is to answer one question, “How easily do you get angry?” Let’s discuss it.

I have found that a person’s anger level is directly related to their emotional intelligence. Your emotional intelligence is probably fairly low if you are easily upset and angered by the smallest things. On the other hand, if you are able to evaluate situations and respond appropriately rather than react inappropriately, your emotional intelligence is probably high. If it is easy for you to get angry, then it reveals a lack of stability on your part to calmly and rationally think things through. Not every issue or problem needs to be handled with anger or frustration. Further information or personal evaluation will often help you see a situation more clearly. Maybe a story will help.

Years ago, I had a friend who was a pastor. He was a very wise man and had a high emotional intelligence level. His first response to any problem was to look further into the situation to gain a better understanding or perspective to know the proper response.

His church supported many missionaries. At one of the board meetings, someone said he had heard that one of the missionaries had recently bought a Cadillac. The individual who brought it up seemed to be very angry that the missionary would take the church’s support to buy such an expensive car. He did not mind the missionary having a vehicle, but he just felt like it was inappropriate to buy a Cadillac. The pastor did not react but responded, “That does not sound like this missionary friend we are supporting. I will look into it a little more closely and get back to you. Before we cut off his support, why not let me do further investigation?” In other words, the pastor handled the situation in a calm manner, and he did not react. He simply asked a question that gave everyone some time to think. That demonstrated he had a high level of emotional intelligence.

The next day, he called his missionary friend, who was overseas and talked to him. As it turned out, there had been a miscommunication. The missionary had had some difficulty with his eyesight and had to have a cataract removed from one of his eyes. I will never forget the pastor saying, “There is a big difference between a Cadillac and a cataract!”

That is a simple story, but I have never forgotten it. The reason it means so much to me is because I want to be like that wise pastor who did not react because of the first news he heard but rather followed through and did a little further investigation before he made his decision on how to respond. I think the biggest mistake the average human being makes is reacting to a situation when we do not have all the facts. It is much better to respond to a situation after we have taken the time to do some research. It takes a little more time, effort, and energy, but it is well worth it.

Ask yourself a question, “Am I easily angered?” Or, “Am I a reactionary person?” If you are, it may be a direct result of your emotional intelligence level. You may read this Tip and say, “Well, I believe I have high emotional intelligence! I am a calm, rational, thoughtful, easy-going person.” And that may be true. However, you may want to ask some of those around you how they see you and your emotional intelligence. If you do not see things honestly, then there is no real way you can grow in this area of life.

One last thought: I have noticed that the people who are closest to me seem to be able to “push my buttons” easier than total strangers. If I have a misunderstanding with the guy at the local gas station, it is no big deal. But, when I have a harsh situation with one of my co-workers or family members, it seems to affect me emotionally in a deeper way. Therefore, I must be on my toes to exercise extra emotional intelligence around people who are closer to me. I work diligently to stay calm in every situation because I do not want my blood pressure to go up or have a heart attack unnecessarily. Most of the time, a little further investigation will offer a simple solution to whatever challenge I might be facing. Besides, my mother always told me, “Don’t be the north end of a southbound mule!”

I believe our emotional intelligence can rise higher each day if we practice keeping our anger level down. It is well worth the effort to do so.

Tip: You can measure your emotional intelligence.

Have a great week! God bless you! Dr. Robert A. Rohm

Never Stretch The Truth – It May Snap Back in Your Face

Never Stretch The Truth – It May Snap Back In Your Face – Harvey Mackay ~ / ~

One day a man named Truth and a man named Lie stood by a river just outside of town. They were twin brothers. Lie challenged Truth to a race, claiming he could swim across the river faster than Truth. Lie laid out the rules, stating that they both must remove all their clothes and at the count of three, dive into the freezing cold-water swim to the other side and back. Lie counted to three, but when Truth jumped in, Lie did not.

As Truth swam across the river, Lie put on Truth’s clothes and walked back to town dressed as Truth. He proudly paraded around town pretending to be Truth. Truth made it back to shore, but his clothes were gone, and he was left naked with only Lie’s clothes to wear. Refusing to dress himself as Lie, Truth walked back to town naked.

People stared and glared as naked Truth walked through town. He tried to explain what happened and that he was in fact Truth, but because he was naked and uncomfortable to look at, people mocked and shunned him, refusing to believe he was really Truth. The people in town chose to believe Lie because he was dressed appropriately and easier to look at. From that day until this, people have come to believe a lie rather than believe a naked truth.

How often do we reject certain truths in our personal lives or in the world around us for the sake of our peace of mind?

Several famous fibs come to mind: Your table will be ready in a minute. We service what we sell. Money is cheerfully refunded. It’s on the truck. One size fits all. Never needs ironing. And the classic: The check is in the mail.

Many people don’t believe what they hear because they’ve been burned in the past. That’s a shame. What kind of society have we created? Why can’t people tell the truth? Don’t they realize that a cover-up only adds to the loss of credibility?

As the father of three children, one of my rules – especially when they became teenagers – was to tell me the truth immediately. I insisted David, Mimi and Jojo tell me the truth about anything bad they had done or were a part of. And I had to know right away – not a day or week later. If not, they would pay severe consequences.

That philosophy seemed to work for me, and quite frankly, I’ve always believed that telling the truth is the best policy. In business, it’s a must.

At MackayMitchell Envelope Company we don’t tolerate anything less than honest negotiations and delivery guarantees. Envelopes today can be beautiful, colorful, complex products with foil, embossing or unique in a variety of styles. It can be a very complex manufacturing process.

Honesty and integrity are paramount all along the supply chain. Nobody can match us day in and day out, job after job, envelope after envelope, smile after smile. Our customers know we’ll do what we promise.

We also avoid vendors who are not upfront. Surprises from a vendor eventually can impact how we deliver to our customers. Customers wouldn’t stick around for long if we made their job harder. Can you blame them?

U.S. President John F. Kennedy said in a commencement address at Yale University, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

Of course, there will always be those who connive to dance around the truth for their own benefit.

The wife of an art dealer, who was anxious to sell some Gothic tapestries to a renowned art lover, was amazed and annoyed when her husband awakened her at 3 a.m. one morning and commanded her to say, “I’ll pay you a million dollars for your Gothic tapestries.”

An odd request, she thought, but sleepily she complied, repeating the suggested words, and then rolled over and went back to dreamland.

The next morning the dealer told his potential buyer, “I can swear on a stack of Bibles that at 3 a.m. this morning I had an offer of a million dollars for those tapestries.”

Alas, a shady business never yields a sunny life.

Mackay’s Moral: Speaking of truth, we should have regular checkups to avoid truth decay.

Be Persuasive!

Be Persuasive! – Robert Rohm ~ / ~

Years ago, Vince Lombardi was the coach of the Green Bay Packers professional football team. Most people have heard of him and his legendary coaching methods. He was extremely hard on his players, but they learned to love and respect him. In the ’50s and ’60s, Vince Lombardi took the Green Bay Packers from being a little-known team in a relatively small town in Wisconsin to world champion status. Because of his great acclaim, the victory trophy was named after him, and it is awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl each year. He was indeed a legend who will remain forever in the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

Lombardi was uniquely persuasive with his players. He could convince them to see things they were not able to see before. He encouraged them and took them to a place they could not have achieved on their own. One of his players, Willie Davis, said, “I owe everything to that man! He made me believe I could do things I never could have done without his help.”

In the early 1960’s, the Green Bay Packers were an outstanding football team. They had won enough games to go to the playoffs and had one last game to play. Before that game, the players were in the locker room joking around, asking, “What will the ‘old man’ say to us today? How is he going to motivate us? If we win today, it will not help us, and if we lose today, it will not hurt us. We are still going to the playoffs in two weeks. Today really does not even matter.” They continued their joking and laughing.

Suddenly, the door to Vince Lombardi’s office opened, and he stepped into the dressing room. The men got very quiet. Coach Lombardi walked around, looking each player in the eyes. One by one, he stopped in front of them and stared at them. He never said a word; he just looked into their eyes. Finally, after several minutes, he looked at all the men and said, “You men have had an outstanding season. Today’s game really does not matter. If you win, it is not going to help you. And, if you lose today’s game, it isn’t going to hurt you either. You are going to the playoffs in two weeks regardless of what happens today.”

Then Lombardi said something that his team would never forget. He said, “I was sitting in my office trying to think what I could say to you men that would motivate you today to go out and have another great game. And then, I realized there was nothing I could say. But suddenly, I began to wonder if I could go back and have a young man’s body that was healthy and strong, if I could go back to being your age and play football just one more time if I could choose any game to play in, what game would that be?” Then, he said, “I realized it would be today’s game. Today is the day I would want to play because, you see, today, you are not playing for the Green Bay Packers. Today, you are playing for yourselves, your wives, and your children. You are showing them the true champions you really are, even when you don’t have to be!” Paul Hornung, a running back for the team, later said, “If they had not opened the door to let us out on the field, our entire team would have run through the brick wall to get out there and play!”

That story touched me very deeply because I wondered how Vince Lombardi knew how to do that. What school did he attend? What books did he read to learn how to motivate people? How do you become persuasive enough to help people see things from a different perspective? How is it possible to continually guide vital truths around other people’s mental roadblocks? After thinking about it for years, I believe I understand the answer to that question, at least in part. Lombardi got it from looking into his own life. He must have asked himself questions like, “What would motivate me? What would I like to do? How would I like to be remembered? What scenarios or thoughts can I create in people’s minds that will help them want to achieve greatness?”

Anyone who has ever run a business, parented children, been married, or taught school realizes that there are some things in life that you have learned that could help other people. Others need to understand certain things you know, and you need to be the one to convince them! That is being persuasive. I am not talking about being pushy or trying to talk somebody into doing something they do not want to do. I am talking about trying to help someone step up a level, trying to help them be better than they are, trying to bring somebody along and help them see things they have not seen before, or doing things they have never done before.

I want to be a persuasive person. I want to convince people to have a better life. I want to talk them into working harder and achieving more. I want to be the one who encourages them to be more responsible. I want to persuade people to have a life that they will look back on one day and be glad they achieved success. I want to help them realize that, although they faced challenges, like everyone else, their life turned out to be productive and created more good experiences than bad ones.

I do not want to be average. Anyone can be average. Remember, average is just as near the bottom as it is the top. I want to be above average! I do not want to just rock along in life and let everyone believe whatever they want, whether it is right or wrong. I want to persuade people to believe that better things can happen, that they can achieve new heights they never thought possible, and they can experience rewards and greatness beyond their wildest dreams.

Are there some things in life that you feel are vital for you to pass along to your children, friends, or co-workers? Are there some things that you believe that you could do at work that would make a difference? Let me encourage you this week to begin being a more persuasive person. Look for ways to be persuasive in a positive, uplifting way, to bring people to places they have never been before, to do things they have never done before. Isn’t that an important goal worthy of pursuing? I know it is!

Tip: Be persuasive!

Have a great week! God bless you! Dr. Robert A. Rohm

Common Sense Has Finally Died

Common Sense Has Finally Died! – Robert Rohm

Recently, someone handed me a copy of an article that was printed in the London Times. As I read it, I could not help but feel deeply amazed at the accuracy and truth in the article. Although the information was fictitious in nature, it certainly drives home a very important point. I thought you would like to have a copy of this to help remind you of the value of good common sense.   Today, we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.   No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.   His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his condition.   Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing their job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.   It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.   Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home, and the burglar could sue you for assault.   Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.   Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; his son, Reason.   He is survived by his four stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is to Blame, I’m a Victim.   Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.   Again, after I read the article, I could not help but feel a deep gratitude for the common sense passed to me, by my parents, teachers, friends, and co-workers as well. Perhaps we should all reconsider the value of using good common sense on an everyday basis and make sure that it remains an important part of our lives. I choose to keep it alive in me and not let it die. I am sure you feel the same way.   Tip: Common Sense has finally died! Have a great week! God bless you! Dr. Robert A. Rohm