The Photogenic Mind

I was recently introduced to the Jock Jams station on Pandora. We all remember Jock Jams, the world's best motivational soundtracks for our lives. As I was listening, I read a very short blurb in Men's Health about taking time each day to reflect. I then began reflecting about reflecting and realized it is not a frequent habit in my life. With Jock Jams elevating my motivation, I began reflecting more than a lake on a sunny day. Spiritual and mental health are both critical to keeping our lives razor sharp. Being surrounded with many distractions everyday can often times evaporate personal time. Is there something you have wanted to accomplish? Start a new hobby? Reflect on current issues both good and bad in your life? Ponder about the future? The past? More than likely, you are familiar with Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell. In a time of crisis, he would shout, "TIME OUT" and began analyzing the situation to the audience. What a brilliant idea! Do you think t...

Have you ever found yourself saying that you were not able to accomplish a task? This task could be running a 5K, cooking, doing stand up comedy, building things out of wood, and much more. I think you get my point. I want to talk to you about the power of words; particular the power of one word. I cannot take credit for creating this (read it in a book), but it has impacted me so much that I feel the need to share with all. Who would have ever thought that the word "YET" could lead to a whole new level of inspiration? Let's take a personal example from my life. About five weeks ago, I said, "There's no way I could run a half marathon. I don't have the legs." Sounds like I made my mind up (and I did at that time). One week later, my mentality took a hard shift.  Let's change that sentence to look like this, "There's no way I could run a half marathon. I don't have the legs YET." Did you just feel that?! That was the light bulb g...

It is certain moments in life that can really test the determination of a person. I recently found myself in a moment of deterrence. From time to time, my gym has physical tests that we are suppose to accomplish. I failed one of these tests due to a lack of preparation on my part. After the failure, I found myself pissed, which then led to deterrence, and myself saying, "This is rubbish, I'll just move on and forget about it."  I then meandered around the gym like a dog who just got in trouble for getting into the garbage. As I was completing the rest of my workout, I asked myself, "What is something positive I can take from this moment?" The answer is pretty obvious, DETERMINATION! Yeah, I may have failed in front of a crowd of people, but that should not stop me from one day accomplishing this task. If anything, it should fire me up to set a goal of success! So I have now mapped out a schedule to devote time each week at working towards accomplishing this ...

We are all very familiar with MacGyver. He can build a pontoon boat from a slinky and a doorknob in under 60 seconds flat just to take his family water skiing. What an awesome example of how to handle unexpected situations. Often times you probably find yourself in a situation asking yourself, "What in the #@$% should I do now?!" This is when the MacGyver Method comes into play! The MacGyver Method is quite simple to learn. It's when you take whatever resources you have available and make the most out of them. You must always play it cool like MacGyver; stay cool, calm, and collective. He never let stressful situations stop him from building a refrigerator from a golf club and a used TV to keep his leftovers fresh and neither should you. Next time you find yourself in a situation and not knowing what to do, take a quick second and ask yourself, "WWJD." And then when you realize that you're not sure how to answer that, ask yourself, "What would MacGy...

So we are all familiar with the saying, "Keeping up with the Joneses." If you're not, it means keeping up with something you believe to be great/perfect. I believe all of us strive to keep up with someone or something in life. At some point, we might feel like we trying to "Keep up with the Joneses." The Joneses are not a bad thing. However, constantly wishing to be like someone/something and not getting there can be frustrating. Well what if we were to flip this and become the Joneses in a certain area of our lives? Instead of trying to "keep up", we become the bar. How much better would you feel if you woke up in the morning, looked in the mirror, and told yourself, "I am the Joneses!" Fireworks just might go off (I recommend keeping a fire extinguisher handy). Now I am not saying not to be inspired by something great. I am a firm believer that a person should always be striving to be great at something. I am saying that you are only as...

I am not an expert when it comes to setting goals. I have been the king at saying I am going to do something and never doing it. One day I found myself thinking,  I need to start doing more with my life. All I do is work, come home, eat, sleep, then hit repeat.  How many times have you told yourself that you were going to do something and never followed through with it? As we all know, it is so much easier to talk the talk, but often times difficult to walk the walk. As the new year approaches, many of you have probably found yourself saying, "This is the year I will (fill in the blank). Did you find yourself saying these same words at the beginning of 2010 or at some other point in your life? Why didn't you fulfill these tasks? The answer: DISCIPLINE! You made the choice to not have discipline and therefore you are setting the same goals once again. No one ever said that setting and following through with goals was easy. As the saying goes, "If it was easy, everyone wo...

When was the last time you gave a sincere compliment? Who was the recipient: a stranger, friend, coworker? Here's a short (real) story about a person complimenting me the other day. During a routine trip to Wal-Mart, I was purchasing a yo-yo when the cashier asked me, "Are you a champion yo-yo master?" I responded, "Not yet, but there's always a possibility!" A man behind me then said, "I love your attitude! You could have have responded no, but you didn't. If everyone had an attitude like that, we'd all be successful!"  I was floored! I left the store feeling on top of the world. I began thinking about how a complete stranger gave me a compliment. On top of that, he sincerely meant it. That's pretty powerful! He impacted me in a way that he will never know. So I challenge you, reach out to someone today and give them a sincere compliment. You never know how it may impact their life!