Forged by Failure

I missed my Friday blog post for the first time yesterday since the beginning of the New Year.  I had a pretty hectic week that threw my usual routine out of whack and forced me into some slightly less comfortable territory.  By the time my day ended Friday and I sat down in front of my computer to write this post, I didn’t really know where to begin.  My wife was sitting with me on the couch and we were searching for a show to watch, when I started to think.  What is more important to me; putting out a blog post every Friday or the quality of writing I produce.  It was a fitting thought, since earlier that day I made a Tweet about living your standard and owning it.  Now I was confronted with hurrying through a blog post just to get it out on time, or being patient and trying to write something worth reading.  Set a standard for who you are and how you operate and don’t bend or break that standard for anyone or anything. I’m sure some of you re...

Positive energy is a powerful tool for powering us through our lives.  It’s also vital for inspiring others to be a part of our journey.  Last week I discussed the value of vision and purpose in knowing who we are and where we’re going.  Knowing who we are and what our mission is creates confidence which in turn powers positive energy.  It’s hard to be positive and upbeat about the things we do if we’re not sure where we’re going.  Now that we have a vision of our journey, a direction for us and our passengers, it’s time to get more people to join us.  It’s awesome to have a vision and understanding of who we are, but getting to our destination requires help and that means attracting others to join us on our journey.  The only way to inspire others to join us on your path to success is through positive energy.  Nobody wants to join a journey, no matter how powerful or great the mission, if the leader/driver is a Debbie Downer.  That’s where...

I’m sitting here Monday morning thinking about the start of the week and the things I’m looking forward to trying to accomplish this week when a person comes into the gym and every word out of their mouth is negative.  They are the definition of an Energy Vampire.  It’s “I hate Monday’s,” “I have so much work to do,” “traffic on Monday’s is always the worse.”  Every single thing is against them and their whole week is going to suck because they have to give a presentation today and the project was so stupid to begin with.  I don’t know about you, but I felt some of my energy being sucked out of me just writing that introduction paragraph.  Yikes, imagine feeling like this every Monday, or working with this person, or thinking that everything that happens in life is such a downer, or life is always against you.  I’m exhausted thinking about this and it’s only been sixty seconds. It really is amazing how much better you can feel just by thinking positiv...