50 Rules to live your life by.....

1. Focus on what really counts 2. You can’t please everyone 3. Choose friends wisely 4. Tell people what you’re really thinking. People are not mind readers. 5. Understand that you can only control yourself 6. Learn a new skill this weekend. Repeat! 7. Identify your preferred form of expression 8. Self-motivation is not optional. Get some! 9. Find great ideas then change the context 10. Wake up claiming the best day ever 11. Ditch the TV for more time 12. Do what’s in front of you 13. Set a limit for having unfinished tasks 14. Speak your truth 15. Spend more time with the right people 16. Set short deadlines for decisions 17. Consider your appearance and proper grooming 18. Reward yourself 19. Take ownership don’t blame others for your situation 20. Let the little things go 21. Learn how to negotiate a better deal on everything 22. Know your top 5 values 23. Simplify by eliminating anything that’s not essential 24. Start meaningful conversations 25. Know what you want 26. Limit what you borrow 27. Get the important work done first 28. Never be dissatisfied with what you have 29. Lay the groundwork for some future fun 30. Honor your commitments 31. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence 32. Create a routine and stick to it 33. Ignore the unimportant 34. Make it manageable 35. Be careful when you make comparisons 36. Character counts! 37. Never say, that’s not my job 38. Get organized 39. Schedule small tasks for a given time of the day 40. Don’t underestimate the power of support 41. Don’t browse online as soon as you get home 42. Get enough sleep 43. Speak less. Listen more. 44. Find gym and start going regularly 45. Pay attention to what you’re putting off for tomorrow 46. Stop caring about mistakes, learn from them 47. Get your financial house in order 48. No Cheating! 49. Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do 50. Know the difference between affirmation and information and be careful receiving too much of either

Officially stolen from Kurt Harden.

THE DAYS ARE GETTING SHORTER

From long time friend Sean Carpenter:

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think,

all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read,

and all the friends I want to see."

-John Burrough

Check out Sean's complete post: The Days are Getting Shorter

NOW IS NOT A GOOD TIME

The quote of the month
by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe

thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another,

and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time

to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

Busier Isn't Always Better

"In times of great stress or adversity, it's always

best to keep busy, to plow your anger

and your energy into something positive."

--Lee Iacocca

Click here to check out Scott's comments.

PUNCHING THE TIME CLOCK

"You don't get paid for the hour.

You get paid for the value you bring to an hour."

- Jim Rohn

Click here to read Sean's "It's More Than Punching a Time Clock"

SEAN'S FACING YOUR FEARS

"The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear,

only the hero confronts his fear

and converts it into fire"
~ Cus D'Amato, boxing manager

Check out Sean Carpenter's "The Realtors Tool Box" here.

SEAN'S INSPIRATION

"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try and be in the first group; there was much less competition."
~ Indira Gandhi

Check out Sean Carpenter's blog "The Realtor Toolbox" here.

Sean's comment: Start out your week by deciding which kind of person you'll be. Come Friday evening, I hope you're satisfied with your choice.

GEORGE STEINBRENNER-What I have learned

My dad never let me have an allowance. He gave me chickens. I had to feed them, gather the eggs, and sell them. I kept ledgers. I had to run it like a business. When I went off to military school, I sold the business to my sisters for too much, and they haven't liked me since.

The ability to have is so you can do things for others. If you can do things for others who are less fortunate, then it will come back to you.

When it comes to hiring, number one for me is loyalty. I want a person who's devoted to the task.

Click here to quickly read more from Esquire's Januanry 2020 issue.

THE GENIUS OF COMMON SENSE

"Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius."--George Bernard Shaw

What makes a garden grow? Daily attention. Observation. Watering and weeding and minding the weather. Slow and steady, with an eye on the pests, you bring a garden from a seed in the ground to a bush full of ripe tomatoes. Sure, you can make it as complicated an endeavor as you like, investing in expensive technology and expert advice and experimental nutrients, but if you're not consistently hitting the basics, tomorrow's salad bowl doesn't have a chance.

What makes a marathon possible? Putting on the shoes and running. Incremental mileage increases. Attention to injury, rest, and nutrition. You can buy that Garmin 405 and invest in cutting edge shoes and hiring a running coach, but unless you're dedicated to the common sense tenets of training, you'll never cross the 26.2 miles to the finish line.

So why do we often seem to think exceptional client service is any different? If you truly want to work by referral, it's not a rocket science marketing program you need... you simply need the basic tools and presence of mind to consistently reward your clients and remind them (both past and present) how much you care. A note, an interesting article shared, a small gift out of the blue... they all serve to make you a remarkable professional in a sea of "next shiny marketing trick" amateurs.

All of the tools and tips we feature should be applied in service of the common sense basics of uncommon client care. Add up enough common sense and it starts to seem like genius.
When the world seems to be moving too fast to keep track, keep in mind that the underlying principles of great building exceptional relationships has never changed. You have the power to grow your garden and go the distance.

Thank you to Scott Levitt

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Success is not always being better than everyone else...

it is being better than you have ever been before”

Thanks to Todd Harrold for passing this along.

SPECIAL ART FROM NICHOLAS BATE

Almost everyday, I look on Nicholas Bate's site to see if there is a new sketch.

Hope you save this blog in favorites and check it out from time to time.

Walk The Talk

This could be the best thing you do this week.

Click here: from Walkthetalk.com

Thank you NFD Capt. Jim Lewis for sending me this information.

Jiminy Christmas!

The other day I heard someone say "Jiminy Christmas", I had not heard the expression in years. I started wondering what it really meant, Google found the origin and meaning: someone perhaps thought an expression chosen to PREVENT swearing was appropriate.)"Jiminy Christmas" is much rarer than, and almost certainly derived FROM "Jiminy Cricket" -- both being "minced oaths" to avoid outright swearing by yelling "Jesus Christ" in what's considered a disrespectful or 'profane' manner. (I'm not sure whether it was originally singular or plural, though "crickets"does SOUND more like "Christ"...At any rate, Disney's use has established the singular.)

In fact, minced oaths for the names of God and Christ, and other terms connected with the sacred, or with eternal judgment, have been a common thing for centuries. More recent cases are based NOT on religious terms (which many people are less bothered about profaning in modern times), but "vulgar"/objectionable terms (the sort Yahoo!Answers turns into asterisks -- e.g., "shoot" and "freaking") They've been formed in many different ways, but one common method is to take the first part of the original word and substitute some other ending, perhaps very similar to the original. . or not. The final word MAY be a real word (like "cricket"), or complete nonsense. Other minced oaths are formed by rhyming. Jesus Christ - Jeepers Creepers, Judas Priest (in this case the LAST part of "Christ" is matched)Jesus - Gee whiz, Gee, JeeshChrist - Cripes or Cripes sakes (for "Christ's sake") CRIMINY (though in this case it starts with the sound of "cry"). Yes, it appears that"Jiminy" and "Criminy" are related. "Jiminy", it seems, came first (attested 1803)-- and was at first used by itself The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests the expression is based on Latin "Jesu Domine" (domine meaning "Lord")--using the first and last parts. "Jiminy Cricket" is first attested later (1848).

Looking at some other minced oaths. Here's a very partial list, with a few notes --

(by) God - (by) golly [perhaps also influenced by "holy"], Gosh, by Jove, egad (O God),damn - dang, darndamnation - tarnation God damn -dadgum (note that this one is based on exchanging the first part of each word gu- da- ) hell - heck

Health Care Reform

Daschle says: "health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."

The bad news is time flies.

The good news is you're the pilot.

~Michael Altshuler

Thank you Jerry White

YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT WORK, EVEN THROUGH TURMOIL

“No man knows what the future holds in any particular set of events, but every thoughtful person recognizes the probability that we shall live the remainder of our lives in turmoil…Instead of pining for easier days, the way of wisdom lies in learning to live realistically in times of strain.

“All experience the storm, but not all experience it in the same way. Though the storm may be beyond our powers, the response is not.”

- Elton Trueblood
“The Life We Prize”