“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” –Song of Solomon

The physical devastation of flooding, like what is going on simultaneously in Texas/Louisiana and on the other side of the world in Mumbai, is heartbreaking.

There’s no quick fix, logical or spiritual bypass to alleviate the human tragedy. No pithy words of wisdom to soothe the pain.

The metaphorical gist of flooding is, of course, a cleaning out and starting over.

That metaphor doesn’t do much right now for the victims of torrential rains, and yet we can all relate to those unplanned, starting-over points that life brings…from which we somehow arise.

I’m keeping it short and sweet today, and encouraging all of us — regardless of the floods of life experience we’ve been through or are currently in — to send mindful energy the way of those who need it most: to know that there is something on the other side when the water recedes.

I’m making The Back Forty Re-NEW-ALL Program below FREE for those who have been affected by this physical devastation. It’s all about taking a pro-active stance, in the face of devastation, to point ourselves toward our next and best life to come. Please forward this to those it can support, and have them simply reply email me.

And do consider supporting the relief efforts and renewal cause through finding appropriate organizations to support. This NYT article can help point you in the right direction. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/donate-harvey-charities-scams.html)

There’s nothing like a big, cold bucket of water in the face to wake us up.

What can you, personally and proactively, clean out and transform before your own wake-up call? And how can you actively renew yourself for your greater yet to come?

Got a flood of change?

“Under floods that are deepest, which Neptune obey, over rocks that are steepest, love will find out the way.” –Percy’s Reliques

The post August 30, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.” –Michelle K.

From the 17th to 19th centuries, nostalgia was considered a pathological disorder.

The term was coined by Swiss physician Johannes Hofer in his 1688 medical dissertation. The disease was considered similar to paranoia, except the sufferer was manic with longing, not perceived persecution, and similar to melancholy, except specific to an object or place.

How many of us are grateful that it’s not still considered a disease, for which you could be discharged from the army or medically “treated” through public ridicule and bullying?

Yet, let’s look around our homes, offices and other surroundings.

How much of what we see reminds us of who we WERE vs who we ARE…or, better yet, who we are BECOMING.

With thoughts such as “I might need this one day” or “Who knows if I’ll want to look at this again”, many of us can own up to being a nostalgiaholic.

Yet, for the sake of who we want to become–as a person, as a business, as a community–is it worth all that clutter-space to remember our less-than-who-we-are-now selves?

What stuff can you release of your old self to make room for the new?

Got nostalgiaholism?

“But here is the truth of nostalgia: we don’t feel it for who we were, but who we weren’t. We feel it for all the possibilities that were open to us, but that we didn’t take.” –Cecil Baldwin

The post August 23, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Stopping at third adds no more to the score than striking out. It doesn’t matter how well you start if you fail to finish.” –Billy Sunday

We can all talk a big game.

Many of us can even start a big game.

Yet, it’s the finishing of a big game which can prove eye-of-the-needle-ish.

Finishing touches can be tough to apply as every good reason and subconscious force comes to play on the defense’s team.

The fear of success. The fear of failure. The fear of being way outside one’s comfort zone that comes with anything of true impact or consequence for us or the world.

All of these suit up and show up to form a seemingly impenetrable line…

which we must cross.

Benjamin Franklin said “Well done is better than well said.” Perhaps in-any-condition done is more forgiving because perfectionism is just one more lineman. At least, if done, we’ve played. Now, we can reflect, learn, and get out and play again.

What ideas, initiatives, inspirations, projects or plans require your line-piercing completion?

Got finishing tough?

“A good inclination is but the first rude draught of virtue, but the finishing strokes are from the will.” –Robert South

The post August 16, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Appearance is something absolute, but reality is not that way – everything is interdependent, not absolute. So that view is very helpful to maintain a peace of mind.” –Dalai Lama

In the 3 1/2 years of this weekly JOLT note, I’ve not had a Wednesday birthday. I actually like the term “appearance” day, as it’s when I showed up on the planet.

So, for my birthday, in appreciation for your receptivity to my weekly inspirations (and the notes of appreciation you often send back), I’m giving you an appearance opportunity.

“Appearance” is a word that can carry many meanings.

There’s our outward physicality. Also, there’s our showing up…as either who we “are”, or who we choose to be. And then there’s the deceptions of the way things look vs. the way they really are.

If you personally have an “appearance” showing up that you don’t like, such as…

• you just got laid off
• you just lost a relationship
• you feel stuck in a rut of immobility
• your finances ain’t what they used to be
• you’re experiencing anything that has you feeling a victim to circumstances

Then I want you to know you have an opportunity to alter the appearances by the focus you take. The real “you” is bigger than any of it.

What if you could find, in the midst of all of it, 20 blessings?

What if, somehow, in some way, this unwanted “appearance” could be seen as the best thing that ever happened to you?

What if the way “it really is” is an opportunity for you to expand to the next level, personally, professionally, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

Believe me, I’ve been there and, like all of us, enjoy the ongoing “growth opportunities” that life offers.

I’ve found a way, however, to answer those “What ifs” with a “Yes, I get it!”

And, for my birthday, I’d like to offer you a low-bar opportunity to get it too.

So, short and sweet, can I give you a $20 bill as an ethical bribe for your finding your own 20 blessings in the midst of whatever you’re personally facing?

See below to take advantage of my appearance day offer in the next 48 hours…and please, whatever you do, enjoy this appearance day as one of your best.

Got appearance day?

“Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.” –Charles R. Swindoll

The post August 9, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ―George Bernard Shaw

In the soup of our daily lives, when the detail can fill up most of our waking consciousness and the challenges and next steps can rise like walls, it’s important to stop, look back, and realize how far we’ve come.

No, we may not be “there” yet, and we may have been through or currently be in the midst of seeming difficulty, and yet we can choose to see it all as progress.

Even if it’s the final time we’re hitting our head against a wall, that’s advancement… because it’s the final time and everything is earned and deserved growth from here!

The sister Schools of Life and Hard Knocks have easy admission standards but only minimal seasoned graduates. Those who view the schooling as progress rise to the top of the class.

In what ways and areas can you look back today to be empowered by how far you’ve come?

Seriously! Just look at where and how you were 3 years ago! Sheesh!!!!

Got progresso?

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.” –Benjamin Franklin

The post August 2, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden.” ―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Our life has a few grooves.

Some are new areas of fascination and exploration in which we’ve overcome fear and inertia so as to “get a new groove on”.

Some are the foundational structures that we’ve learned to count on and from which we express outwardly into the world. Home, family, career, friends, community, finances, spirituality, etc.

Some are simply ruts, carved deeply into the ground of what seems like the only path before us because it’s the only path we’ve known.

Thank God for regroovination! Available anytime and for anyone!

The only problems come when we don’t consciously choose it before it chooses us.

As we’ve learned from our own lives or watching others, the foundational structures can shift at any time.

As we’ve also learned from our own lives or watching others, the ruts just ain’t no fun.

Therefore, overcoming fear and inertia to regroovinate may be the smart, health-and-wellness, preventative measure to take.

What groovy areas of fascination and exploration are calling to you?

Got regroovination?

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” –C.S. Lewis

The post July 26, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.” ― Alfred Brendel

We’ve all heard and used the expression “It’s so loud, I can’t hear myself think!”

Yet, when we do sometime find a way to quiet the mind and ease the spirit, what is the thinking that we hear?

Is it default thinking, which may be more accurately defined as “thoughting”…where every old pattern of judgment, analysis, worry, concern, and slicing & dicing of people, places and things takes place?

The thoughts come and then land on us, without a whole lot of effort on our part.

Or, is it invented and creational, which stretches us outside the patterned bubble of our own current best thinking?

Certain individuals have found within themselves that internal, innovative guidance. Yet, more often than not, to think outside one’s own circle of best thinking requires inquiry from and engagement with the outside.

Thus, we have teachers, counselors, coaches, communities and courses to expand ourselves so as to, as the Queen of Hearts guided Alice in Wonderland, “believe six impossible things before breakfast.”

What are the life-, career-, relationship-, future- or purpose-related impossible things you could believe before breakfast today?

Got creative hearthink?

“Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a celing on yourself.” –Oprah Winfrey

The post July 19, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“I like situations that force me to rethink things.” –Marc Almond

July begins the second half of 2017.

What were the goals you had in place from all those plans and resolves made last December? What was this going to be THE year for?

Most new years “resolutions” disappear before the first week of January. Yet, some of us have been at it, moving our intentions forward, learning as we grow, overcoming challenges, and both experiencing the thrill of victory and the agony of (temporary) defeat.

July 4th is a great marker dividing each year to remind us of the idea of independence from our past, what’s now possible, and the opportunity to invent what’s ahead.

So, as we move into 2017 Take 2, what goals, intentions and dreams can you rethink vs. retreat from?

If the first half of this year was only R & D, research & development, for the fulfillment your Big 2017 Game, what’s possible now?

Got R & D rethink?

“Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.” –Bill Gates

The post July 12, 2017 – TGIW JOLT Note appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.” –Marcus Tullius Cicero

As we move on from our celebrations, a few last varying words on independence.

Enjoy your freedoms to produce more holidays ahead.”The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”Denis Waitley

“I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life – and I became that woman.” Diane von Furstenberg?

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” Malcolm Forbes

“Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives.  Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.” B. R. Ambedkar?

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.” Charlotte Bronte

“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity.” Thomas J. Watson?

“The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.” Virginia Woolf?

Got independence?“Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.​” –Stephen Covey​​

The post July 5, 2017, TGIW: Independence…and August Queen Mary INFUSE appeared first on CareerGuy.com.