Thanks...My Pleasure

Key Points:  What gets our attention determines our direction and, ultimately, our destination.  Whereas emotion fuels the things that grab our attention, intentionality fuels our decision to give certain things our attention. Attention, direction, destination. Why do people tell us to pay attention? Why pay ? Pay implies price. Pay implies a cost. Pay implies giving away something of value. And it is this sense of loss that keeps us from paying attention to the things that deserve our attention and would serve us best in the future. Your eye-- what you see, gaze at, and pay attention to-- is the lantern of your entire life. It lights or leads your way. As your body follows a light in the dark, so your life follows what your eye focuses on. The problem is not the lack of understanding as much as it is a lack of application. As your attention goes, so goes your life. So pay careful attention to what you are paying attention to.

Key Points: All of life, you see, is filled with decision making situations that occur in emotionally charged environments. Your decision-making environments are not emotionally neutral. More often than not, the circumstances we face are saturated with powerful emotions. Those emotions easily turn into misguided passions. In the end, passion clouds the ability to accurately evaluate the circumstance in order to choose the right path. Emotions cloud our ability to see things they actually are.  Emotionally driven decision making rarely leads us down the right path. In the emotion of the moment, we are easily swayed by conventional wisdom, cultural norms, the herd mentality, or even our own patterns of behavior.  A moral imperative is any situation in which there's a wrong that needs to be right. In the story of David, he pointed to a principle he knew he had no business violating. Simply put, he had no right to replace what God had put in place. One ne...

Key Points: Life would be so much easier the second time around if we had an opportunity to learn from our first time around. How do we know which way to go when you've never been where you are going? Eyes on the Road The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. (Prov. 27:12)  A prudent man or women understand that all of life is connected.  In the light of my past experience, and my future hopes and dreams, what's the wise thing to do? The simple or naive person lives as though life is disconnected; as if there is no connection between today's choices and tomorrow's experiences. Course Correction We have all heard that experience is the best teacher. But the truth is, about the only thing most of us learn from experience is what to expect when we repeat the same bad decisions. The primary difference between the prudent and the simple is not what they see but how they respond to what they see. Forgiveness an...

Key Points: What if there was a road that led out of the valley of guilt, shame, or even depression? If that were the case, you would stop looking for solutions to problems, and you would start looking for the right path. Recognizing the distinction between a solution and a path is the first step in understanding the principle of the path.  There is no fix for being lost. To get from where we don't want to be to where we do want to be requires two things: time and a change of direction. There isn't a quick fix. Hard times reveal where we are (and where we aren't) faster than anything else. What we experience as unrelated isolated events are really steps in a specific direction. You don't have problems to fix; you have directions that need to change. Direction --not intention-determines our destination. Simply put, you and I will win or lose in life by the paths we choose.

Key Points: The principle you employ every time you look at a map or fire up your GPS (i.e., roads lead to the same place every time) applies to other areas of life as well.  You can break a law. But the principle of the path has the power to break you. You don't have to know it or apply it to be impacted by it,  Chances are you've heard the principle of the harvest applied outside the realm of agriculture, The principle of the harvest applies to friendships, finances, and marriage. What you put into something impacts what you can expect to get out of it.  Perhaps you've heard someone make the argument that experience is the best teacher. That may be true, but that's only half the truth. Experience is often a brutal teacher. Experience eats up your most valuable commodity: time. The Principle of the Path is a principle that cannot be broken that is evaluated by the decisions you make. Each decision is interconnected and has value on the path you are taking...

Social Currency: Does talking about your product make people look good? Can you find the inner remarkability? Leverage game mechanics? Make people feel like insiders? Triggers: Consider the context. What cues make people think about your product or idea? How can you grow the habitat and make it come to mind more often? Emotion: Focus on feelings. Does talking about your product or idea generate emotion? How can you kindle the fire? Public: Does your product or idea advertise itself? Can people see when others are using it? If not, how can you make the private public? Can you create behavior residue that sticks around even after people use it? Practical Value: Does talking about your product or idea help people help others? How can you highlight incredible value, package your knowledge and expertise into useful information others will want to disseminate? Stories: What is your Trojan Horse? Is your product or idea embedded in a broader narrative that ...

Key Points: People do not think in terms of information, they think in terms of narratives. But while people focus on the story itself, information comes along for the ride. Effort pays off. Take the time to do something right. You might not have as much fun right away, but you'll find that it's worth it in the end. Stories, then, can act as vessels, carriers that help transmit information to others. The mere fact that it happened to someone who is like me makes me feel that there is a pretty good chance it will happen to me too.  People are also less likely to argue against stories than against advertising claims. Trojan Horse:  Just like the Trojan Horse itself, stories are more than they seem. Sure, the outward shell of a story, we could call this the surface plot-grabs your attention and engages your interest. But peel back that exterior, and you'll usually find something hidden inside. Information travels under the guise of what seems like idle chatter. ...

Key Points: People often imitate those around them. They dress in the same styles as their friends, pick entrees preferred by other diners, and reuse hotel towels more when they think others are doing the same. If it is hard to see what others are doing, it's hard to imitate it. Making something more observable makes it easier to imitate. This a key factor in driving products to catch on is public visibility. If something is built to show, it's built to grow. Behaviors are public and thoughts are private. College students may personally be against binge drinking, but they binge drink because that is what they observe others doing. Public Visibility boosts word of mouth. The easier something is to see, the more people talk about it. Cues in the environment not only boost word of mouth but also remind people about things they already wanted to buy or do.  Social Proof: Social Proof. People assume that the longer the line, the better the food must be.  Every time ...

Key Points: Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way: (1) find inner remarkability; (2) leverage game mechanics; (3) make people feel like insiders. Inner Remarkability Remarkable things are defined as unusual, extraordinary, or worthy of notice or attention. Worthy of remark. Worthy of mention. Learning that a ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber is just so noteworthy that you have to mention it.  Leverage Game Mechanics This in a greater sense means make your product or service a game that others can work towards for personal and social status. People don't just care about how they are doing, they care about their performance in relation to others. After all what good is status if no one else knows you have it? Great game mechanics can even create achievement out of nothing. Airlines turned loyalty into a status symbol. Make People Feel Like Insiders ...

Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, spent the last decade answering one question. What makes things so popular? We will follow Jonah throughout his book to discover why ideas, products, behaviors, and services are contagious and catch on in our world.  Introduction:   Why do products, ideas, and behaviors catch on? Some become popular because they are just plain better. Other because of an attractive price, and advertising. Although quality, price, and advertising contribute to products and ideas being successful, they don't explain the whole story. Social Transmission: Social influence and word of mouth. People share more than 16,000 words per day and every hour there are more than 100 million conversations about brands. The things others tell us, email us, and text us have a significant impact on what we think, read, buy, and do. Word of mouth is more effective than traditional advertising for t...

We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act but a habit.      A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things. Athletes often worry so much about where they want to end up that they lose track of the particular day-to-day things they need to focus in order to get there. Stick to the improvement plan, one mindful step at a time, and your talent will naturally grow.  Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all these things and still be calm in your heart. This is the real meaning of peace. Questions to ask yourself: Am I a student of the game and open to learning? Do I take 100% responsibility for my successes and failures? Do I give everything I have? Am I just mindlessly working hard, or am I aware of what I'm doing? If I won't trust my sports skills in competition, then why am I working so hard to practice? Am I mindful at p...

Goal Setting: The key is to identify which goals are the most important to you and then write them down and display them in a location where you can look to them for motivation. Then set your sights on strategically taking your goals one at a time. Step by step. Day by day. Mental Imagery: Visualize to Actualize Imagining optimal performance is accomplished by creating or re-creating the whole or part of a sporting event or meeting. Imagery is one of the most powerful performance weapons we have in our mental arsenal. Mastering this mental skill will increase the probability of success in sports and business. Self Talk: Feed the Good Wolf One wolf is positive and beneficial, while the other wolf is negative and destructive. These two wolves fight for control over us. Which wolf is going to win? The one that you feed. The first step in feeding the good wolf is learning to identify your own negative and self-defeating thoughts.  The mind guides action. If we succeed...

Introduction:  Admiration and envy are our common psychological responses when watching extremely successful people perform at extremely difficult times.  Rather than merely trying to mimic these qualities, why not seek your fullest expression of your positive aspects and attributes and become like the champions you admire? Sports are 90 percent mental, and the other half is physical. If you want to play like the best athletes, then you have to think like them.  Chapter 1: Be Your Own Champion  What separates the top few from the many in a sport or business? Mentality The attitude with which we approach the situation can determine our success or failure. If you aspire to be a champion, don't be awed by the glitter of their excellence; instead, know that they also put in thousands of hours in the library, office, court, pool, and the track to build up their bodies and minds. Maintain an eagerness to learn and grow, and to take well-trained...

Key Points: Once we venture beyond our regular stomping grounds, we need assistance. We need a map. We are all trying to get somewhere we've never been before. The herd assumption happens when you assume that since everybody you know is doing something the same way, it must be all right. Therefore, putting you in the middle of the herd. So why wouldn't we want to learn what we can from people whose lives and lifestyles reflect our goals and aspirations? According to Solomon (the wisest man to ever live on earth, besides Jesus), he said wise people listen and learn.  A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. -(Prov. 1:5) People who always have to be right will always be limited in their decision-making ability. They will be limited to what they know and what they have experienced.  It is next to impossible to hear the voice of wisdom if we are not really listening for it to begin with. The b...

The Champions Mind is a unique book that looks at how great athletes think, train, and thrive. It is a sports psychology material that can also be useful in a business, family, and corporate settings. In the coming days, we will be looking chapter by chapter on how Olympic athletes, as well as professional athletes, thrive in their sports at the highest level possible. It is called The Champions Mind because we will look at the minds of those who have achieved greatness.

Key Points: Our problem rarely stems from a lack of information or insight. Our problem stems from the fact that we are not on a truth quest. That is, we don't wake up every morning with a burning desire to know what's true, what's right, what's honorable. We are on a happiness quest. We want to be-as in feel- happy. And our quest for happiness often trumps our appreciation for and pursuit of what's true. Pursuing the happy-path every day would not be a good thing. It's these forks in the road-- or for our purposes, forks in the path--that makes things complicated. When happiness points in one direction while wisdom, truth, integrity, and common sense point in another, that's when really smart people start doing really stupid things. When we stand at the crossroads between prudent and happy, we lie to ourselves. We begin selling ourselves on what we want to do rather than what we ought to do. It is not a lack of information it is a lack of honesty. W...

Key Points: Choosing the right path begins with submission, not information. Submission to the One who knows what's best for you better than you know what is best for you. Do as I say, not as I did. If we trust with all our hearts, refuse to lean into our limited understanding, and submit every aspect of our lives to him, the best path will become unmistakably clear. Divine direction begins with unconditional submission. In order to make the best decision now, we need much more information, common sense, or conventional wisdom. We need God. We need to live with a posture of dependency. We need to acknowledge him in all our ways. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him; and he will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3-5-6)

The Templeton Plan is written for those who consider themselves students in the school of total success. It is suggested that you devote yourself to one step each day, over a period of three weeks, Each step should be studied carefully until the following questions can be answered in a satisfactory and thorough manner: What do these ideas really mean? How do they apply to my own life? How can I use their meaning in achieving success? Step 21: Seeking Solutions Success goes to people who seek solutions rather than problems. Wealth for a successful person has a purpose that goes well beyond mere accumulation. Material goods can actually careen out of control, turn on their possessors, and ultimately destroy them. When deciding what career path you should involve yourself in, pick a career that you can become an expert in. People will pay top dollar for an expert in anything. Points to ponder: Be a problem solver, not a problem maker. Choose a career wher...

The Templeton Plan is written for those who consider themselves students in the school of total success. It is suggested that you devote yourself to one step each day, over a period of three weeks, Each step should be studied carefully until the following questions can be answered in a satisfactory and thorough manner: What do these ideas really mean? How do they apply to my own life? How can I use their meaning in achieving success? Step 20: Discovering New Frontiers The personal contacts you make and the experiences you have will later prove invaluable to you. Success bound people have to believe in themselves because the frontier exists inside of them.  Discovering new frontiers is the thought of leaping out to experience new ideas and desires. It means leaving your comfort zone to get a different perspective.  Life is a great adventure and the worst of all fears is the fear of living. There are men and women who have the courage to strive for the hap...

The Templeton Plan is written for those who consider themselves students in the school of total success. It is suggested that you devote yourself to one step each day, over a period of three weeks, Each step should be studied carefully until the following questions can be answered in a satisfactory and thorough manner: What do these ideas really mean? How do they apply to my own life? How can I use their meaning in achieving success? Step 19: Winning Through Humility  The unseen--the beauty that exists as potential in all of us--is what makes us alive. By learning humility, we find that the purpose of life on earth is vastly deeper than any human mind can grasp. Look for the positive in all the people you encounter. Only then will you truly be successful and happy. Points to practice: Try to appreciate some positive quality in all the people you meet. Try to be humble in all your actions. Try to face the most difficult situations with patience. ...