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You’re Roughly Six Feet Tall (A Video)

March 5, 2010 in Being human, Dreams, Good Clean Fun with 0 Comments

With sick kids and wife, it has been tough this week to keep up with both blogs. So this one suffered a bit. Sorry.

But, it’s Friday now and I wanted to share with you a fun video and song I learned about this week. It may be old news for some of you, but I don’t listen to the radio very often and so I miss out on some good music sometimes.

Anyway, I heard this at the Chapman’s Retreat Elementary School talent show on Monday night and had to find the original. I love the song and the video. I hope it gives you a little boost as well.

Enjoy!

Getting to Did, Part 17: PASSION

July 30, 2009 in A Springboard for Your Professional Life, Dreams, Getting to DID, Our big BUT, Passion, Personal Responsibility with 0 Comments

football coach Getting to Did, Part 17: PASSION(If you have stumbled across this post, you have found me blogging my upcoming book “Getting to Did: How To Lose Your Big But and Live a Life Without Regret.” In the last installment, Sam met the coach. If you need to catch up on the whole book, you can start with “Sam’s Crumbling World” which has an index of all the posts or you can follow the successive links.)

PASSION

“First, we have to start with PASSION.”

“I think I have that one down,” Sam interrupted. “This goes along with what the PROFESSOR taught me. She said she was stepping on your field a little bit. PASSION means doing what I am PASSIONATE about, what I enjoy and can really get into. It makes sense to teach this while we talk about motivation as well. After all, it’s a lot easier to be motivated doing something you love than something you hate.”

“Allow me to illustrate,” the COACH added. “When I started off in college, I was majoring in Business and Marketing. My plan was to make big money in some Fortune 500 company. I had it all mapped out. You may love that sort of thing Sam, however, about half way through my junior year, I realized I hated what I was doing. That explained why I was always on the verge of getting failed for missing too many classes and why I started getting low C’s when I was usually a pretty solid A and B student. I was talking to an older friend of mine who worked as a high paid accountant for a local company. I asked him how he liked his job. He said, ‘I hate it. But it keeps the family fed.’ He looked miserable. In that moment, I decided I didn’t want to live like him.

“Getting to where I am now was a bit of a journey but this is where I SHOULD be. Most days, I can’t wait to get to work. It’s more like playing than work to me. I love what I do. I love the practices, the games and I love working with the kids. I feel like I’m making a difference in their lives. Sure, there are some down days. But most of the time, being motivated comes naturally because I absolutely love what I do. I have PASSION.

 “One of the areas where PASSION is most helpful is in accomplishing those self-discipline habits that are so easy to overlook for a few days and then stop completely. I love to exercise and I love to be healthy. I start most days with running, swimming or something to get my heart pumping. That’s easy for me ‘cause I’m PASSIONATE about exercise and health.

“My sister, on the other hand, hates exercise. I helped her get started running. She got so upset, wondering when it would be fun, natural or easy like the running magazines said it would. As I was helping her get into the habit I tried everything. I tried systems of rewards and punishments. I tried getting her to read about healthy people and unhealthy people and what their lives are like when they’re older. I tried guilt. I tried praise.

“Then one night she had me and my family over for dinner.  I was in a slightly grumpy mood over issues at the school. Therefore, regrettably I was being a little short about everything. As usual, the issue of the kids growing quickly came up and she said something about her seven year old’s graduation being just around the corner. Without any real intention of trying to impact her health and mostly because I was irritated anyway I somewhat caustically said, ‘I hope you’re still around for it.’

“The conversation that ensued was life-changing for her. For all we had tried, she never made the connection between her health and her relationship with her children. If she is not PASSIONATE about her health or exercise, she is extremely PASSIONATE about her family. When she made that connection, the PASSION for health and exercise was suddenly in place. She can’t run circles around me, but she’s sure trying.

“Work to tie those pesky habits of self-discipline about which you can hardly be PASSIONATE to something about which you are PASSIONATE. Then be amazed at how much easier those issues become.”

“That’s powerful,” Sam replied. “I’ve never thought about that before. The health and kid thing, that is. Maybe all of this is going to help me with more than just my financial life.”

“Let me explain the other benefit of PASSION. Not only does it help you get up in the morning, it also helps you strive for excellence. There are coaches who are just making a paycheck. They played football in high school and thought it would be an easy job. You can tell their teams; they have the losing records. The ones with PASSION push that extra mile. Since they are so PASSIONATE about what they do, they want to be the best they can possibly be. Good enough is never good enough for the PASSIONATE. They don’t settle for minimum job requirements. They go above and beyond for the sake of their PASSION.

“If you’re going to Make the PLAY, Sam, you’ve got to have PASSION.”

“PASSION. Got it,” Sam responded.

“Listen, I have some exercises for you to work through this week,” the COACH said handing Sam a piece of paper.

“Why am I not surprised?” Sam asked as he looked at it.

passion Getting to Did, Part 17: PASSION

(Come back next Thursday when the coach teaches Sam to Look to the Future.)

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Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned

November 22, 2008 in A Springboard for Your Professional Life, Autism, Dreams, Passion, Raising Kids, Success with 2 Comments

liskefamily 300x199 Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned

Juli, Ben and Gordon Liske

Meet the Liskes

Can you imagine what it is like to listen to a doctor announce that a child you love with all your heart has a disability? Some of you don’t have to imagine, some of you know first hand. 

I can imagine that there are basically three different approaches. 1) Ignore it and try to act like it might go away. 2) Turn to absolute despair and view it as a veritable death sentence. 3) Let it spark a passion of service in you. Option three is the choice Gordon and Juli Liske made.

On April 23, 2002, the Liskes learned their son Ben had autism. On top of that, there weren’t any good service centers near where they lived. What would they do? The Liskes took it upon themselves to study and figure out how to implement an educational approach that would help Ben grow. They had unprecedented success. In fact, “Today, at eight years old, Ben Liske is a National Young Scholar, a member of American Mensa Society, and an accomplished mathematician, artist and performing musician.  Ben served as the poster child for the 2006 Autism Society of America “Voice of Autism” ad campaign.”

 

The Dream Becomes a Reality

The Liskes didn’t stop there. They didn’t just want to serve themselves, they wanted to serve others. Juli’s passion to help her son became a passion to help other children with autism and other parents of children with autism. The natural response? Write a book.

And so IN THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned was born.

41lwbcjsm3l sl160 Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned

The Liske’s didn’t stop there. They began to take their message to other parents. Now, they are deeply immersed in the work of educating parents and helping children. Juli now speaks to groups all over the country about raising children with special needs and even just about raising children. Watch over the next several years as her demand as a speaker and educator increases.

 

It Just Keeps Growing

As if that wasn’t enough, the Liske’s didn’t stop there either. Within this past year the Liskes have taken their passion to the next step. In January 2009, they will be opening The Brown Center for Autism, Inc. in Nashville, a non-profit organization dedicated “to deliver an innovative, comprehensive, therapeutic experience to young children impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorders, by providing fully integrated and coordinated services in a truly caring environment.”

the brown center for autism ref 300x230 Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned

the brown center 1 300x154 Find Your Dream through Your Own Struggles and Then Serve Others with What You Learned

 

The Passion behind the Dream

The Liskes are personal friends and I am grateful to have had a part in helping them as they get the Brown Center established, opened and growing. Marita and I were talking to Gordon and Juli the other day about authorship and publishing. Juli said something that shows the key to their success. We were talking about her book and the future of other books when she said, “I wasn’t worried about royalties or becoming a best seller. As far as I was concerned, if one family got the book and it helped them, it would be worth the work.”

There’s your key. I don’t know how much financial income is getting to the Liskes because of the books, the counseling, the speaking engagements and the Brown Center. But I know they are successes. I know they feel like successes. Why? Not because of money, but because their life produced a dream and a passion. Instead of saying their dream would go nowhere so they needed to just stick with their traditional jobs, they pursued their passion as a team and look at where it is taking them–to a life filled with meaning and purpose which provides satisfaction whatever the financial rewards become.

 

Two Springboards for You

I’ve shared this first springboard before and I’ll probably do so over and over again, if you are trolling around for some idea that will make you lots of money, you will never have success–even if you make lots of money. Like the Rolling Stones you won’t be able to get no satisfaction. If you quit worrying about how much money you make and start following your dreams and passions and figure out a way to pursue them in service to others, whether you ever make lots of money or not, you will find success because you will find meaning and fulfillment.

The second springboard is about finding your dream and your passion. You’ve heard the cliche, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” No doubt, you have faced troubles and struggles. You have probably had to overcome some issue without a great deal of help. All that help you wish you had and didn’t get translates into help thousands of others just like you wish they had. You can give it to them. Take the passion to overcome your own struggles and turn it into a dream to help others. You’ll be amazed at what you accomplish.

 

PS. Since posting this, Ben Liske was chosen to participate in a national Autism Self-Advocacy PSA sponsored by the Dan Marino Foundation. You can find the commercials here.

Get a Real Dream and Pursue It with Passion

October 16, 2008 in A Springboard for Your Professional Life, Dreams, goals, Money, Success with 0 Comments

DanMillerBannerLong Get a Real Dream and Pursue It with PassionI was recently listening to one Dan Miller’s excellent podcasts in which someone chastised him for telling folks they could reach their dreams even in troubled financial times. Of course, Miller, using his own life experience, gave an excellent and helpful reply. However, as I was listening to the letter berating him and then heard his first illustration, a thought solidified in my mind. 

The letter had been talking about just how hard it can be to achieve early retirement or financial prosperity in difficult economic times. It then said Miller shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the present economic climate and tell folks they can all just achieve their dreams. Miller’s first illustration was Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals at the most recent olympics. 

Wait a minute. Winning eight gold medals isn’t about finances. Granted, receiving those medals has given Phelps the inside track on some major endorsement deals I’m sure. But what Miller used as his illustration wasn’t really what the writer was talking about. 

Then it hit me. This letter writer doesn’t have the right dream. His dream is about having lots of money. This demonstrates a problem for many today. If your dream is lots of money, you probably won’t ever get it. Of course, even if you have lots of money by other people’s standards, you will always view yourself as falling short. 

Financial success will rarely come by dreaming of financial success. If all you dream about is financial success, you will wander around aimlessly trying to latch on to the next scheme that might make you some money.On occasion you may end up with some money in your bank account, but it will all be used up and you will be right back where you were, wandering aimlessly looking for the next cash cow. Real financial success comes from a dream that you follow passionately. That passion will set you apart in whatever field your dream causes you to pursue, which will then cause you to find the financial success. Your dream may be helping folks with cancer. It may be helping folks overcome addiction. It may be playing baseball. It may be manicuring lawns. It may be swimming. It may be making people laugh. It may be any number of things.

Here is the very interesting thing. When your dream is properly aligned, the guy who is only dreaming of financial success may not see you as having achieved financial success. You may not reach Trump status when you pursue your dream. However, because your dream is not about making money the fact that your dream is supporting you at all causes you to be satisfied and fulfilled by your dream. 

Let me ask you, do you think if Michael Phelps was not getting endorsement deals that he would be upset about the eight gold medals feeling like it was all a waste? Of course not. He achieved his dream even through tough circumstances. Because his dream was aligned properly, he would probably wonder, what on earth do you mean we can’t achieve our dreams in an economic slump. Sadly, too many people equate achieving their dreams with being rich. They rarely end up rich and they never get their dreams whether the nation is in an economic slump or not.

The economic slump only keeps you from achieving your dreams if they are only about money. The fact is, if your dream is only about money, it’s not a dream worth having. Get a real dream and pursue it with passion.

ELC

P.S. For more great professional advice and some practical tools, click the Dan Miller link above.

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