Everything I Know I Learned From Television

Time To Count Your Blessings

5 Comments

Count Your BlessingsA major tragedy hit the Bay Area last Friday night. A fire broke out in a warehouse with 36 people trapped inside. Known as the Ghost Ship, this building was home to a collective of young artists and musicians who’d built a community to support the arts. Sadly, this was a preventable tragedy and there will be plenty of blame to go around. But while this community mourns its loss, it’s time for you to count your blessings.

Major events like this cause us to check ourselves, and be grateful that we aren’t the folks suffering the loss. But the idea to count your blessings has far-reaching benefits beyond the momentary display of empathy for others.

Successful people make a practice of looking back each year to acknowledge where they’ve done well. They feel gratitude and give thanks. But they don’t do this because they’re touchy-feely types trying to game their way into Heaven.  They do it because when you count your blessings, you receive more blessings.

What?

Yeah, that’s right. The more grateful you are, the more you’ll have to be grateful for. There are two ways to see this:

1) The more you focus on the good things in your life, the more good things you’ll see. This will put your mind in receive mode for good ideas and opportunities.  Next thing you know you’re coming up with all kinds of good ideas, and your confidence and positivity will attract people to you. They will tell you YES.

2) Sometimes we get so focused on what we’re not achieving, we get down on ourselves. We don’t see what’s right with things, and while we’re bemoaning our poor fortune, good fortune passes us by. Because when a pissy attitude leaks out, it will repel people from you. They will tell you NO.

It’s Like That Febreze Commercial

Continue reading Time To Count Your Blessings →

Advice for the Manic Impressive

Start Planning 2017 Now

5 Comments

Start Planning 2017 Now!No I’m not out of my mind. Yes, like you, I hate that stores display Halloween gear in September, Thanksgiving stuff before Halloween, and Christmas crap before Thanksgiving. Hate it. But I’m not trying to rush things here, so please hear me out. Before you start heading headlong into that final dash towards the holidays, it is time to start planning 2017 now.

You know how it goes. Your best intentions end in a flurry of last-minute impulse buying, sappy holiday movies, and binge-eating sugary baked goods. That’s all okay.

You deserve all that. A nice celebration with family and friends and a break from work. But to get the New Year started like a sprinter out the gate, you need to do your planning and goal setting now.

The next three weeks will be hectic, but it’s important to schedule time to slow down and review the past year. What went well. What you accomplished. What you struggled through. What you learned.

This is a crucial process to your success next year. So we’re going to start now by giving 2016 it’s due. Continue reading Start Planning 2017 Now →

Impressive People

You Don’t Know Squat About Squanto

2 Comments
Squanto
The First Thanksgiving

You know the story they told you in Kindergarten about the  First Thanksgiving? The Pilgrims were thankful they survived their first year in America so they threw a big party. They invited as their guest of honor a helpful Native American named Squanto. He taught them how to grow their crops and they all lived happily ever after. Aside from this, I’m guessing you don’t know squat about Squanto.

This story isn’t a complete a bunch of hooey, but there’s a whole lot they left out.

The Real Story

Squanto was a real person, but that wasn’t his real name. His name was Tisquantum and he was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe that lived in the area for 10,000 years before the white folks arrived.

Typical American white people, the Pilgrims couldn’t pronounce his name correctly and called him Squanto instead. He was a hero for helping them survive the winter, but he was a far more complex and shady guy than they led us to believe in Kindergarten.

Squanto did teach the Pilgrims to tap trees for sap, to plant Indian Corn, and to use fish to fertilize their crops. This, according to Wikipedia, is what he looked like: Continue reading You Don’t Know Squat About Squanto →

Manic Mutterings

Listen To Your Smarter Inner Voice

2 Comments

Your Smarter Inner Voice and Eliminate the Weed of Self DoubtTwice in one day it happened. Two unrelated situations where I should have stopped, but that little voice said “Go!” So I went. And both times good things came to me. Yeah, they were minor things, but each time I followed the voice I was rewarded. If you listen to your smarter inner voice, you’ll be rewarded too.

The First Time

I’d had a great visit with a friend who lives on a gated street. The next day I realized I’d left my reading glasses on a bench in his front yard. I was headed to a rehearsal where I really needed those glasses. But he wasn’t answering his phone and that gate wouldn’t open itself for me.

Common sense said forget it, get by without the specs. We’ll deal. But my smarter inner voice piped up and said “Go Anyway.” I did and damned if that gate wasn’t wide open. I hesitated, surprised by my luck, and as it started to close I punched it and drove through.

Glasses found.

The Second Time

Later that night my wife and I  went to see Arrival at a theater with those new recliner seats. But once in line at the box office we saw the bad news on the sign. The 7:05 show was sold out. My wife started searching for another movie.

I was second in line and about to step out when the voice piped up again and said,  “Stay And Ask.” I did, and the cashier found two seats together for us. We slipped in, claimed our seats and reclined.

Movie seen. Continue reading Listen To Your Smarter Inner Voice →

Advice for the Manic Impressive

Time To Forget Politics And Find Your Magnificent Obsession

4 Comments

Magnificent ObsessionIt’s over. The longest and nastiest presidential election in American history. We’ve all been in a state of anxiety caused by our unhealthy obsession with Trump vs Clinton. But now you know who your next president will be, which party will  control the Senate, and that it’s legal to smoke pot in California. So it’s time for you to stop obsessing over politics and develop a Magnificent Obsession.

What is a Magnificent Obsession?

Google the phrase Magnificent Obsession and you’ll find a bunch of Jesus quotes, a book by Lloyd C. Douglas, a cheesy film made from the book, and some nonsense about waking up everyday at 5 in the morning spouting affirmations.

That’s all great, but I’m not talking about any of that.

I’m talking about an extreme focus on something that’s important to you. Something you’re passionate about that you want to manifest in the world. It’s that thing inside you that wants to leap out and change your life and the world.

You may be afraid or embarrassed to commit to it. But it’s what your deepest, darkest desires say you were put on this earth to do.

It’s time for you to obsess over that thing. Continue reading Time To Forget Politics And Find Your Magnificent Obsession →

Everything I Know I Learned From Television

The Reverse Of An Idea Almost Lost the Series

7 Comments

The Reverse of an IdeaAll Hail the Chicago Cubs. After more than a century of futility and broken dreams, Cubs fans are dancing on Waveland Avenue. Their team finally overcame the curse of the Billy Goat and Steve Bartman to win their first World Series title in 108 years.

Last night’s Game 7 was a nail biter for Chicago fans. The Cubs blew a 3-run lead late in the game. Closer Aroldis Chapman made a mistake, throwing low and inside, right into Rajai Davis’ wheelhouse. Davis hit it out of the park, sending the game to extra innings and Chapman to the bench.

Fortunately for him, the Cubs rallied in the 10th, and from the dugout Chapman watched his teammates pull out the game and win the series.

The same thing happened in the 1957 World Series. In the 9th inning of Game 4, Hall of Fame Braves pitcher Warren Spahn was trying not to blow a 3-run lead. With two men on and two outs, Yankee slugger Elston Howard stepped to the plate. Braves manager Fred Haney came out to the mound to give Spahn this helpful advice: Continue reading The Reverse Of An Idea Almost Lost the Series →

Manic Mutterings

Why A Moral Victory Can Be Better Than A Win

6 Comments

wipeoutIt’s raining in California and that means only one thing – ski season is on its way. And it was on a ski slope where I earned a moral victory and learned that losing can be better than winning.

I was living in Tahoe when my friend Pat asked if I was going to the ski instructor tryouts. Still snowplowing down slopes, I’d never considered it. But she convinced me that they weren’t looking for great skiers, they were looking for great instructors. If you were good at teaching they would teach you the skiing part. Okay, I’m in!

So there we were with 30 other wannabe ski instructors when Don, the head of the ski school at Sierra Ski Ranch, assembled us at the foot of the mountain. It was early November, there was little snow on the ground and the lifts weren’t running.

I should have known something bad was about to happen. Continue reading Why A Moral Victory Can Be Better Than A Win →

Advice for the Manic Impressive

How To Build Confidence With Foundational Wins

7 Comments
Foundational Wins
The Proof of my Foundational Wins

Self confidence is something we all need to compete in the world. One of the best ways to build your confidence is through what I call Foundational Wins. The type of success that lays the foundation for confident feelings throughout your life.

Foundational Wins often come in early school years, when we achieve something in academics, sports or music, and receive accolades from our teachers and peers.

How does this help? Throughout our lives we’re going to face challenges, tough times, tough competition. At these times we need to reach back into our memories and find a time when we were strong. Without this turbo boost of confidence, we’re likely to give in to self-doubt at the worst possible times. When we most need to believe in our abilities. When something’s on the line and we need to perform.

Like in job interviews and auditions. Or when your job interview is an audition.

If you work in training as I do, you often have to audition for a job. I’ve auditioned at least a dozen times, and each time, while I was prepping and just before I went on, I was able to reach back to that reservoir of personal strength that came from Foundational Wins.

My first one came in 4th grade. I was brought up in front of the entire school at an assembly to receive a blue ribbon. My first chess tournament win. Again in 5th grade and 6th grade I stood in front of the entire school and received a blue ribbon. School Chess Champ.

The entire school clapped and cheered for me.

Sure, it was a geeky award. But it was also respect. I was the best. I’d beaten all comers and came out on top. Even the jocks and the cool kids had to admit that in that one little area, I was a badass. Continue reading How To Build Confidence With Foundational Wins →

Manic Mutterings

Why You Should Be Like Christopher Columbus

2 Comments

cc At the tender age of 17, Marco Polo, intrepid Italian adventurer and backyard swimming pool icon, left Italy and traveled with his father and uncle throughout the Orient.  After an epic 24-year journey he returned home with exotic treasures and amazing tales of adventure.

200 hundred years later, inspired by Marco’s adventures, another young Italian set out on a quest for fame and fortune in the Orient. Or as they called it at the time, the East Indies.

To finance his project, he approached the kings of England, France, Portugal and Spain, and got blown off by them all. They thought his calculations were way off and his plan wouldn’t work.

And for good reason, because Christopher Columbus was a nut. Instead of taking the direct route, sailing up the Mediterranean, hanging a right through the Suez Canal and bang, there you are, Chris figured he’d go West to travel East and sail all the way around the globe to get there.

On one hand, he was embracing the idea that the world was not flat. He got the possibilities of a round planet. On the other hand,  his calculations turned out to be off by about 17,000 miles. Oops!

Somehow he got a third chance in the Spanish Court.  And somehow, whether it was all the practice from his earlier pitches or that Queen Isabella just liked the cut of his jib, Columbus got King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to greenlight his project.

So on August 2nd of 1492, Columbus sailed west from Spain with his three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and his flagship the Santa Maria.

Sure enough, on October 12 , 524 years ago yesterday, Columbus did it. He landed on an island in the East Indies just off the coast of China, and declared all he surveyed to be under the domain of the King and Queen of Spain.

At least that’s what he thought he’d done. Continue reading Why You Should Be Like Christopher Columbus →