Tag: inspiration

IT IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE 🤔

This picture reminds me of a couple of things. First is the fact that for the first time in 4 years, Margie and I will not be going on a nice tropical vacation. Saving for a wedding will do that. Second, and most important for our time together today, is the power behind focus. These people are on the same bus, yet they are focused on two very different scenes. That focus will go a long way to determining the quality of their journey. The same is true in our life. That is why the power of gratitude, and developing an attitude of gratitude is so important.

In my own life, this could not be more true right now. My 2025 has started with these events. My grandmother on my father’s side passed away. Then, I dislocated my shoulder. Shortly there after I got an ear infection. Recently, my younger cousin on my mother’s side passed away. Nobody even knew she was sick. Yesterday, I found out my aunt on my father’s side passed away. All that and it is only February. Not quite the start to the year I would have chosen, but here we are. I could focus on all of this and start to predict what a miserable year I was having. If we looked at the facts, I could be excused for thinking and saying so.

While all of those above facts are true, here is some other things that are true as well. With the passing of my one cousin, I have reconnected with another cousin. I was able to purchase a new car which has made not going on vacation a little more tolerable. My health has rebounded and with therapy I am getting better every day. My beautiful lady and I continue to make progress planning our wedding for next year. Finally, there are words typed out to start the fourth book I have been working on for years. With any luck, it will even be published later this year. These facts are also true and are what I am deciding to focus on.

This is not me being ignorant to the fact that there is a good amount of challenging circumstances that have occurred in my life so far this year. It is just that I am choosing to focus on the ones that reflect all the blessings and good fortune I am grateful enough to have. I am choosing to be like our friend in the bus looking out the window. Yes, it is a choice. What wrong is always available. What right is also available to focus on as well.

Some may view that as ‘sticking your head in the sand’ or ‘looking at the world through rose-colored glasses’. As if it were somehow cheating hardship. The opposite is the truth. It takes more work to look for and focus on the positive. Especially when there can be so much negativity and chaos occurring around you. Being able to say confidently, “Despite all I may be going through, I sure have a lot to be grateful for.” takes a lot of courage and resilience.

Remember the axiom, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” What we focus on determines how we feel. How we feel determines the quality of our lives.

TIME TO STEP UP! 🤑

Many of us hide our true goals and ambitions from the world for fear of what they might think. It is time to ask yourself, it what ways have you been playing small? Why have you been doing so? In what ways might your world benefit from being who you truly are and chasing what it is that you really want?

YOU MATTER ALL OF THE TIME ⏰️

Here is a very important message all of us need to see. Yes, you reading this matter. It does not matter if you just accomplished the biggest goal of your life, or just made the biggest mistake of your life. You matter. If you are on top of the world, how you treat others who might not be there yet, or who can do nothing for you can tell a great deal of your character. Plus, how great does it feel when someone you think is further along in life than you, stops to compliment, encourage or help you? I know that makes a world of difference to me. You also serve as an example of how hard work and perseverance pays off. That could really help the determination of others who are struggling.

What about when you are seemingly on the bottom of the world? You may have messed up at work? Perhaps you made a mess of things at home? You certainly matter then. How you manage to treat people when you are hurting or struggling will not only speak volumes about your character, but inspire others. How valued do you feel when you know someone is really hurting but they still go out of their way to be nice or support you? You not only feel really loved, but your opinion of that person goes through the roof. When my beautiful lady still puts together a delicious meal even after a long day of making cakes, it has me loving her, and appreciating her more than ever.

When you are down on your luck, how you pick yourself up, and dust yourself off, can really inspire others. It also happens to be a great jazz song, but that is beside the point. We love reading stories of people who were down on their luck and came back. Why not have your story be one of them. Not only will you inspire those who know and love you, but looking back you may just inspire yourself.

You see, no matter who you are, or where your life is at, you matter. You can make a big difference and you can inspire others and yourself. Never give up. As cliche as it may sound, rock bottom makes a great foundation to build upon. Many great stories started with a very tough beginning. Yours may be the next great story.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS DAY 😇

Today is random acts of kindness day. It is our chance to make the world a brighter place for each and everyone! Don’t think that one act of kindness could make a difference? There are over 8 billion people in the world! Imagine if just 1% of them did a random act of kindness. That would be 80 million people doing a random act of kindness. Let us say that act only affects 1 person. That brings us to a total of 160 million people being positively affected! Consider the ripple effect and you can’t begin to imagine how big this could get. All that from one simple act of kindness.

It can be hard to decide what kind of act of kindness to do. Above are some great ideas! These are certainly not the only things you can do. They are just to get you thinking. One thing we can notice is how many of them will positively affect far more than just one other person. Consider one of my favorites, picking up litter. It may not give you that initial boost of dopamine that a personal interaction could, but imagine how much you could improve the world! Using our numbers above, say the 1% just picked up 3 pieces of litter. That would get rid of 240 million pieces of trash! Think of that much garbage removed from the streets and sidewalks of the world. Can you imagine if each person just did a small grocery bag full?

Let us take a quick look at some of the others. Donate to a food pantry. That is a good one! According to the all wise Google, the average American throws away between 219 and 400 pounds of food each year! That is crazy. That amount is equivalent to 30-40% of the total food supply in the country. Imagine if that food went to people who were struggling. My mother donates to her church’s food pantry. I often think of the good that does. Not only does it allow for the feeding of people who are down on their luck, often through no fault of their own, but their children as well. It also shows those individuals that someone they don’t even know cares. That will give them faith in themselves and humanity. What you donate to a food pantry could help several families, not to mention children. Again, just using the 1% figure, can you imagine the impact that could have?

All these ideas above are so good that I am going to try several of them! Start the math on that. If the 1% did 2 or even 3 random acts of kindness! Buy someone’s coffee. How great would you feel if a stranger just paid for your coffee? hand a bird feeder? Helping out our feathered friends. Put a book in a little free library? Another great one is giving a good review. How many business have the headache of dissatisfied customers telling everyone about an issue they may have had? As a business owner myself, I can tell you how amazing good reviews feel and help! (In case you want to jump on that go to http://www.amazon.com/author/neilpanosian) I could go on and on about each one of these.

How about you? What is your favorite random act of kindness to do? What would you like to see others do? Let us spread this message and get as many people involved as we can!

WHEN HAPPINESS COMES 😊

So much is made of gratitude in today’s world, and on this blog quite honestly. The funny thing is, with the power of gratitude talked about on whatever media you happened to be enjoying, less people than ever seem to be practicing it. Perhaps it is too simple of an idea to grab the attention of a world that has new technology appearing daily. It could be the amount of advertising that we see encouraging us to seek, buy and strive for more. While there is nothing wrong with wanting better for yourself, focusing solely on that will leave you feeling poor and in a state of lack. When we focus on what we don’t have, that is what we will feel. When you think about it, isn’t life how we feel? If we are happy, life is good. If we are unhappy, life seems gloomy and hopeless.

After reading and contemplating the words above, one question pops into our minds. “How can we be happy more often and therefore making our life better?”. The answer should be obvious. Foster an attitude of gratitude. There is always something to be grateful for. Even if our life is seemingly becoming a dumpster fire, we can be grateful for troubles we do not have. That is the power of the first quote. Although every life has its share of challenges and troubles, we can be grateful for those troubles we do not have. How can we do this? The answer was brought to my attention is the most unlikely of places.

I was trying to get the motivation to go to the gym after a long 10 hour work day. I saw a video from the late Greg Plitt. He was great at motivating others into a life of health and fitness. It was titled “Burnout”. Thinking this was perfect, I hit ‘play’. What I did not expect was the powerful message and change in perception that followed. He said if you are ever feeling like you are burnt out and can’t take any more, just go to your local hospital. Walk through the cancer ward and look at a 4-year old who has cancer and may not see 5. Talk to a soldier who just came back from war and may be missing a leg. Look them in the eye and tell them you are feeling burnt out and can’t go on. Wow! Even thinking about that made me realize how lucky I have it.

This is not to advocate ignoring self-care, or pushing beyond your limits. It is to show the power of gratitude can allow us to continue even when we feel like we have no more left in the tank. Yes, I did include the same quote twice in a row. No, that wasn’t a mistake. It is such a good message, I thought we should all reflect on it again. When I say that we all should use the power of gratitude more often, I am including myself. It is all too easy to get caught up focusing on what is wrong in our life instead of what is right. At any given time, they are both available. Spend as little as 5 minutes a day focusing on everything you have to be grateful for in your life and I promise you a week from now your life will be dramatically improved and you will be so much happier.

To close out, please share one thing that you are grateful for in your life. Let us all celebrate together.

KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED! 🙊

Just a quick reminder to speak only truth and to do so diligently. Ask yourself, is what I am now saying truly reflect on who I am and what I wish people to think my character is?

It seems in our modern world people feel compelled to say something. Focus more on quality over quantity. This holds true for everything in life, but especially in our speech. Nobody enjoys being around someone who talks just to hear the sound of their own voice.

A quick parting thought. If you wish never to be thought a fool, speak life, empowerment, and encouragement to all that you encounter. There is always room for words that uplift.

A DAY OF CELEBRATION AND MOURNING 🌄

Today is my mother’s birthday. Normally, this would be a post celebrating that fact. It still is, but this year is a little different. A little over a week ago, my cousin who is two years my junior passed away. None of the family even knew she was sick as she wanted to keep that to herself. Today is her funeral. It is a reminder of two very important things. The first is that life is cyclical. We are at once celebrating a birth and mourning a passing. It is the end of life that gives life its precious value.

This Latin phrase translates to “Death is certain, the hour uncertain.” It happens to be one of my lady’s favorite quotes. It is with some irony that her man experienced it first hand. Life can be likened to an hourglass. The sand in the hourglass that is forever running out is the time we have left here. In life, it is as if someone put a cloth on the top part of that hourglass preventing us from knowing how much time we have left. All we know is that the sand is less every second. It could be several years of sand left, or it could run out tomorrow. We are having a funeral for a woman two years younger than me, and celebrating the birth of a woman 17 years older than me. Proof that we never know when our time may be.

What we do with this knowledge is up to us. How much of life will we spend in fear and anger? How much will we spend in love and compassion? What legacy will we leave behind? When are we going to begin to work on it? We only have so many tomorrows left. What we do with today is entirely up to us.

BE YOU! 😃

What a powerful message from Bob Marley, who would have celebrated his 80th birthday only a few days ago. In today’s age of being ‘internet famous’, so many people are trying their best to be the next big thing. What you run the risk of is losing yourself. Staying true to ourselves despite the world, and often others, pushing us to be something they think is better is one of the greatest challenges.

When we are not true to ourselves it can cause us all kinds of stress. Maybe you did something that went against one of your values or beliefs in order to look good in someone else’s eyes, even if nobody else were to find out, the guilt that would put on your conscious would be enough to keep you up at night. You might end up experiencing indigestion. Keeping doing that, or feel the guilt long enough, and you will end up with an ulcer and maybe worse.

Plus, keeping up an image of someone you are not takes a lot of work. You can never just relax and be yourself. After a while, you may not even remember who you really are. Talk about stress and confusion. This is not to say that if people do not like a certain aspect of you that you might investigate whether a little self-improvement is needed. Saying, “That is just who I am.” can be a very immature and unenlightened way of making excuses for not putting in the work on ourselves. Just make sure the person hating on you doesn’t have a good point. If they do, maybe even a little show of gratitude while you work on becoming an even more amazing person?

What happens when you are working very hard on being the best version of yourself that you can be and there are still those who do not like you or speak ill of you? Remember the picture above. You can be the best cup of tea, or the best version of yourself, and that person just might be a coffee drinker. Do you know what? That is alright. It is not our mission to be liked by everyone on the planet. There are over 8 billion people. Tell me one thing that every one of them likes. There is nothing. That includes you. As long as we are working on being the best that we can be, others opinions are none of our business.

WHAT IS YOUR WORTH?

We are all like this bar of iron. We have so much potential inside of us. What we do with that potential goes a long way to determine our worth. This is why it is so important to do what feeds your soul. You may not be lucky enough to do it for a living, but you can even pursue it on the side as a hobby. What you create and bring to the world will be amazing. When people live with passion, everyone in the world benefits.

Perhaps, like myself, you are in a job that does not make the best use of your talents. What you should do is find a way to put those talents on display. It may cost you some recreation time, and maybe even a little sleep. Let me assure you that the sleep you will get will be far better knowing that you allowed the gift inside you to see the light. It will not only bring you more inner peace, but may also lead to a new, more fulfilling career.

Another thing to be careful of is letting others determine your worth. Some may look at you and believe that you are that bar of iron. Not worth much. Try to limit your exposure to these people. Some can see the horse shoes or even the watch springs inside of you. Meaning, they can see how amazing you are even if you are not there yet. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and see the best in you. That belief may help you push yourself to be the best version of you that you can be.

HOW IT WILL LIKELY BE 😮

Monday morning will be time to start our weekly grind. For those of us in business for ourselves, the work never stops. Whether we are talking financially, spiritually or even relationships, the picture above holds true. I am not sure why we assume that success, in any endeavor, will be linear. There are peaks and valleys. How we view each will go a long way in determining the quality of our life. Understanding this will happen is the first key to success. Having the unrealistic expectation that life will be a continuous series of ups will only set us up for disappointment.

Most of us understand this point intellectually. Yet, when it happens to us we feel like we are failures or may never succeed. This is why sites like this, and motivation in general is so important. There are moments even the most enlightened and driven of us find ourselves in a world of doubt. That is why it is so important to continue to prepare for challenges before they happen. On my appearance on the television show, Positively Milwaukee, I used the analogy that it is better to learn to swim on the shore then when the boat is sinking. In other words, know there will be challenges, on all levels and do your best to prepare for them.

This quote from Zig Ziglar rings true. We never know when challenges will arise. If it happens today, chances are that thing you read, or video you watched last week, will not help you. We need to feed our spirit daily. When we talk about feeding our spirit, it is the same as feeding our body. What we feed it is just as important as how often we feed it. There is a saying in the computer programing field, “Garbage in, garbage out.” The same holds true for what we allow in our spirit. Is it filled with people who complain, and talk shows that tell us the sky is falling? Do we spend a few minutes a day in quite meditation, or at least contemplation? Do we read/watch/listen to something inspiring every day?

In life let us take the lessons from the both the peaks and valleys. Let us also understand they are both part of our journey and we are going to experience both on the way to success.