General – Page 6 – I Don't Stink!

Kindness Challenge

Last weekend was simply an amazing weekend for me. I am so humbled by all the help from the volunteers as well as img_1048_edited the participants for the Kindness Challenge on Sunday, April 26th. In case you are unaware of what the Kindness Challenge was, here are the details. We challenged the attendees of the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest to do 100 Kind Deeds in 100 Minutes on Sunday afternoon. It was such a success, we completed it in only 41 minutes! We added another 30 cards and completed them in 20 minutes!

One thing that I realized is that it was much more than 100 kind deeds because a number of the kindness cards that were pulled contained up to 10 kind deeds. The totals for the event was 269 Kind Deeds completed in 41 minutes and another 140 completed in 20 minutes for a total of 409 Kind Acts in 61 minutes! Thank you to all the participants of the Kindness Challenge.

If you attended the event or witnessed any of the kind deeds, we would love to hear what you experienced. All you have to do is comment to this message. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

With love, gratitude, and joy,

Bill

"A Raisin In The Sun" – Another Stunning Performance

Last weekend my wife, friends and I went to see “A Raisin In The Sun” at the DeSoto Corner Theatre. We also went last year and it was just as good this time, if not even better. I tell you, I don’t know how the cast can do a performance like that night after night. The show is yet another gem by the African American Repertory Theater. If you recall not long ago I put a post on another play they did called, “A Soldier’s Story.” Man, these guys & gals are GOOD!

The play stars an incredible Irma P. Hall, Vince McGill, & Regina Washington as well as some other very, very gifted actors. I truly believe that kids of all ages should see this play as well as anyone interested in watching a moving performance filled with character growth and a peek into the American past. Just when you were about to give up on the main character, he does a 180 and you really do not see it coming.

Thank you to the cast of “A Raisin In The Sun.” You are all absolutely awesome! Thank you. The show dates are through April 12 on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. The DeSoto Corner Theater is located at 211 E. Pleasant Run – Desoto, TX 75115. Do not miss out on this incredible performance. You will not be sorry.

Peace and gratitude,

Bill

General, Kindness

Gratitude

Last weekend my wife and I went to Jack Canfield’s workshop, The Success Principles. It was an incredible event and I would recommend you going to one if you have the opportunity. I felt the workshop was reaffirming to me. It taught me that I am on the right track and it gave me a number of things to work on.

One thing in particular that really hit home with me was around gratitude. He talked about having a gratitude journal and updating it nightly. I have been journaling daily since the start of 2008 so that was nothing new to me. I also evolved my journaling into a section on gratitude. Every night I give gratitude to whatever comes to mind. I write at least 10 things I am grateful for.

What made Jack’s talk about gratitude so special was the following. He said something to the effect, “Just writing that you are grateful for something doesn’t mean a whole lot. You have to attach the feeling of gratitude as you write it.” He went on to say that one author he knows doesn’t get out of bed in the morning until he has a tear of gratitude. Wow! That hit me like a light bulb going off.

So what am I doing different now? Thank you for asking! Every night when I get to my gratitude section, I write the name, place, event, etc. and then pause for a moment and reflect on a very positive memory. Then I go to the next and repeat. It adds maybe 2 minutes but man, I definitely feel the difference. I am in a completely different state each night than I was prior to doing this.

Happy gratitude journaling.

Peace, love, and gratitude,

Bill

General, Positive Thinking

Fill In The Blank

Life is ___________________________________. I was listening to Tony Robbins today in my car and he said a few things that really got me thinking. In his particular audio Tony was talking about metaphors. Specifically how we use them in either empowering or destructive ways. Take a few minutes to fill in the blank. I suggest to write down 10 things that you believe life is. Try to do this without thinking too much. Just put down what you normally say or hear others saying. Then look for anything that has a negative connotation to you and cross them out. It is time for a new metaphor. For example if you wrote, “Life is a struggle,” mark a line through it. Then change it to something softer. Maybe something like this, “Life is like the spring. Sometimes it storms but other times it springs beautiful sunny days.” You see, that just feels better, doesn’t it?

Life is ____________________________________. Fill in the blank now, mark off the negative ones, and watch your life “Spring” into a brilliance.

Peace, gratitude, and sunny days!

Bill

General, Just for Fun

Oh What A Concert!

Back in December, on my wedding anniversary, my wife and I went to see Brave Combo in concert with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra. It was a Christmas show that I will always remember. Brave Combo, a new wave Polka Band, had people dancing in the aisles, dancing in the seats, and even had some dancing on the stage. I have been to many Christmas concerts in my time but nothing like this. I will say that I have been to some fabulous Christmas concerts but what Brave Combo provided cannot compare to anything I have ever witnessed.

I had no idea what to expect because everyone who had ever heard of them told me, “Well, they are different.” They did not say it in bad way or anything like that. I think it was because Brave Combo is so hard to explain exactly what they do. Even now, I find it very difficult to give specifics about their concert other than to say that I left concert feeling so good. Who would have thought that I would be doing the “Twist” and the chicken dance at a Christmas concert? How do your really explain that where others would understand? That should tell you enough. The positive energy displayed through the evening was exactly what my soul needed. What a great way to spend my anniversary!

THANK YOU Brave Combo for such an AWESOME performance and THANK YOU Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra for having them perform. PLEASE have them back next year! One last thing I want to repeat here is that this was BY FAR my favorite Christmas concert ever.

Peace and gratitude,

Bill

General, Positive Thinking

Fearless Focus

For those of you who received my eNewsletter last week, I thought I would share with you how I am doing the exercise this month. For those of you who have not signed up for my eNewsletter, not to worry. I will recap the exercise right now:

My 3 Frames for 2009

January’s Fearless Focus section of my newsletter challenged you do the following:

1) Create (3) 8×10 Picture frames based upon themes you want to accomplish in 2009. Mine were: Focus, Creativity, & Gratitude. (See image below)

2) Decide which theme you want to work on this month.

3) Create a 8×10 mini vision board each month of this year based upon the theme from those frames. (See my January’s FOCUS mini vision board below.)

My FOCUS Mini Vision Board

4) Place it on your desk or close to a place where you will see it all during the day. Take a few minutes to review the images, words, theme, etc. throughout your day.

My Desk

I thought it would be a good idea to illustrate how I am doing the exercise. I believe that it is important to stay “focused” on your goals for 2009 especially with so many negative people voicing their opinion these days. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the vision board software from my newsletter, you really should take a minute to evaluate it for yourself. Click here to check out the software. I created my FOCUS mini vision board poster using the tool in less than 10 minutes. I then printed and framed it. Since I will be repeating the same process each month, the vision board software is perfect for me because it saves me so much time not to mention it is so cool. What I like best about the software is that after I created my vision board screensaver, all I had to do was click a button to get all the images imported into my new poster board. That was how I was able to create the mini vision board in less than 10 minutes. Click here to find out how the software can work for you. You can thank me later.

I would really like to hear how you are doing with the exercise. Please place any comments or feedback directly using this post.

2009 WILL be my FINEST year ever! Will it be yours? Decide now and make it so!

Peace, love, and mucho gratitude,

Bill

General, Kindness

You Can Make A Difference

When I was walking on the beach this morning I noticed several pieces of trash. I walked to my regular spot where I turn around and head back when it dawned one. How many people walk by noticing trash in the street, in a park, by a lake, by an ocean, etc. and don’t do anything. I thought, why not me? and why not now?

So on my way back, I looked for anything that needed to be taken to a trash can. Very quickly I started noticing lots of cigarette butts. Each time I bent over to pick one up I woud think, how is this really helping? I continued this for a good 20 minutes and had at least 50 of them in my hand when I had a thought. That thought was how can I really make a difference? There was no way I could pick up all the cigarette butts up and it seemed the more I looked for them, the more I saw. I continued for another 10 minutes and made 3 trips to the trash cans to drop off my collection. I thought about what I was doing and it dawned on me, yes, I can and did make a difference, at least for this beach on this day.

It is kind of like the kindness challenge on my idontstink.com website. It all starts with one kind act at a time. If you try to fix the whole beach, the whole city, the whole country, the whole world, you probably will not get very far. Start changing the world you see by doing one kind act today. Then if the urge exists, do more kind acts for yourself and others. That is how you make a difference. As Gandhi put is so clearly, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Peace, love and gratitude,

Bill

General, Just for Fun

More Destin Pictures

Here are a few more pictures that I thought you might enjoy of Destin, Florida.

Peace and gratitude,

Bill

General, Just for Fun

Destin Dolphins

This morning I saw a bunch of dolphins playing around not far from the shore. It was difficult but I did get a couple of pictures of them. There was a baby dolphin that came completely out of the water several times. It was so awesome to see wild dolphins playing around.

As I took my morning walk down the beach, a few times they came very close to the shore. It was best beach walk ever with dolphins all over the place. I wish I had brought my camera because I would have been able to get some really close up shots.

Peace and gratitude from Destin, Florida,

Bill

General, Positive Thinking

Give Gratitude

I was sitting in the hot tub tonight looking out toward the Gulf of Mexico and replaying the last eight months in my mind. I recall when I gave my notice at my corporate America job it was the single hardest thing I have ever done. I had heard stories of others doing the same thing and when I heard them, I couldn’t even phathom the idea of doing myself. Aferall, I was in an executive level position with even higher levels of positions and salaries locked in my sights. I gave my notice anyway and I give thanks every single day for making that choice.

What I have learned from this experience is that when you give gratitude for things that have not yet happened, amazing things start showing up. For me, each morning and evening I give thanks to God for all the wonderful gifts that are on its way as well as the ones I have already received. I believe that this opens doorways because when you give gratitude for something you don’t have, it is like you are telling the universe it has already happened.

Bob Proctor uses something called a “Goal Card.” On this Goal Card he starts each goal this way, “I am so happy and grateful now that…..” I think it is an ingenious idea and it is what I have been doing since for the past eight months.

Give gratitude daily and watch what wonders the universe has in store for you.

Peace AND Gratitude,

Bill