Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Pick Your Travel Partners Carefully We have all had our share of “fair-weather” friends. They are the ones who call you whenever they need something, but not available when you need something. They are the ones who call you when they are down or worried about their jobs, love life, or are facing a challenge. They want you to comfort them, console them, and listen, but are often too busy or not available when you need a friend in return. Do you have any friends like that? I used to. I think we all do. But several years ago I told a bold step with a few of my “fair-weather” friends. I released them from my circle. When I thought back to all the times that I had shared with these people, I realized that it was a one-way street. I remember one friend specifically. She only called when she needed something, and those calls might be years apart. When I talked to her, it was obvious that she did not care what I was talking about and was always quick to turn the conversation back to herself. I released that “friend” about five years ago, without regret, or malice, just gave thanks for the time we had shared and closed the door with kindness. She wasn’t a bad person, just not a “good friend”. Good friends fill your cup, not drain it. As we get older, we realize we need fewer people in our circle, and the ones who remain are the ones who truly become our forever friends. Why is it so hard to release people from our life? Even the toxic ones? I don’t have the answer to that, but I can assure you that when you do release them, life changes for the better. Something to Think About Choose to travel through life with friends who take turns driving and enjoy the journey with you. Weekly Activity If you have people in your life who are “toxic”, make the conscious choice to release them from your life. When you do, you make room for the good friends that matter most. Words of Wisdom A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. - Bernard Meltzer A true friend encourages us, comforts us, supports us like a big easy chair, offering us a safe refuge from the world. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr. It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Remember, you don’t need a certain number of friends, just a few good friends that you can be certain about. – Unknown Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. - Ann Landers

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

No Need to Wait for an Invitation As I look back on my life, there were so many times when we wait for “that invitation”. An invitation to a party, a meeting, to join a group, to approach the boss about a position that I felt I was qualified for or to have coffee with someone who seemed interesting or special. Why is it that we feel that we need an invitation? There are times when you look back at the invites that didn’t come. Or felt as if we wouldn’t be accepted by someone or “fit in” with a group. Here’s what’s interesting – is how many of those times did waiting for the invite mean we missed opportunities that could have changed our course for the better. Like many things, “waiting for an invite” is rooted in the category of “the way things have always been done”. That, my friends, doesn’t mean it still holds the same value, truth, or relevance that it once did. Stop waiting, do the inviting. In fact, invite YOURSELF. To jump in. Ask to join. Participate. Love the moments. When you do, you show others that it’s all right to do the same. Something to Think About Change your perspective. Understand that it’s not just OK to say, “I would love to be a part of this project”, or “Can we have coffee sometime. I would love to talk to you about…”, it could be just the magic moment you’ve been waiting for. Maybe you did not get the invitation because the person did not think you were interested. Weekly Activity Don’t wait for the invite. Pursue those things you are interested in this week! And don’t wait for a “business invitation” from past clients – reach out to at least 10 this week to check in, see if they have any questions, and let them know you appreciate their business and that you are there for them. Words of Wisdom I'm always shocked when I get an invitation. People are always shocked when they see me at a party. Joan Rivers Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here, shall we dance? – Anonymous If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun. - Katharine Hepburn Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. -George Herbert Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. -Charles R. Swindoll

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Change – It’ll Do You Good How many times have you been headed in one direction, only to be surprised by an unexpected event that altered your course? When we are young, we try to control everything. Always checking to be sure we are on the right path. When life knocked us off that path, we fought fiercely to get back on, believing that was the direction we were SUPPOSED to take. However, as we grow older and wiser, we come to learn that change is inevitable and that it’s often the very best thing that can happen to us. Change opens up new opportunities and new life experiences. No matter what happens in life, we’re here to live and learn. When the world throws you a curveball, make an adjustment in your swing, and hit it out of the park! When change alters your path, be ready and willing to take on the unexpected adventures and see where they might lead. While it might be scary at first, you have been given all the tools that you need for this life, so move forward boldly and as Henry David Thoreau said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” Something to Think About Don’t panic, don’t hurry, and don’t race through life. Instead, appreciate each and every moment you are given, and learn from it. Weekly Activity Take a new path to work this week, I can’t tell you how many times that has led to something fun or interesting. In fact, I know plenty of agents who have even discovered new BUSINESS by altering their routes. Now there’s motivation! Embrace the changes in your life this week and go with the flow. Words of Wisdom Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. -Maria Robinson Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together. -Marilyn Monroe Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. –Jim Rohn Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” -Mary Anne Radmacher 20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Live the Miracle! Good morning and how was your week? Did you witness a miracle in your life or the life of someone you love?  This week, I would like to share a poem by Ralph Marston. Enjoy! Live the miracle Life is what you make it. Make it beautiful. Your very best days are the days when you live with true purpose and joy. Make today one of those days. Fill this moment with meaning. Fill this life with the pure and limitless love that flows from deep within you. There are unique opportunities in every situation. Focus on bringing to life those possibilities that create the most value. Allow the best that is within you to freely flow far, far beyond you. Fall in love with life all over again and again. Feel the awesome power of purpose. And truly live the miracle that is you. — Ralph Marston Something to Think About It’s so simple but so profound. It’s what we want for those we care about. My wish you for this week is to live the miracle! Weekly Activity Pick any single line from the poem about and apply it this week. Words of Wisdom Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.  - Eleanor Roosevelt Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. - Lou Holtz Optimists are right. So are pessimists. It's up to you to choose which you will be. - Harvey Mackay May I never miss a sunset or a rainbow because I am looking down. - Sara June Parker The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude.  - Dennis S. Brown

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

What Are Your Focused On?  At a time when there is so much negative info in the world, it’s time to pay attention to what you are absorbing daily. Be more conscious of the information that you are exposed to. What blogs do you read? What shows do you watch? What books do you read? What stories do you read in the newspaper? Whose opinion do you seek? What do you focus on throughout your day? This isn’t about being in denial or out of touch with what’s going on in the world. It’s about understanding how the content that we let into our minds and spirits affect our ability focus, move forward with momentum, bring our best selves to our work and our families, and about creating an extraordinary life. Are you more focused on the negative situation or are you gathering info that you will allow to you contribute to a positive change? When you constantly take in negative influences, they will start to show up in other areas of your life.  Keep your frequency high and do your work and live from a place of power and joy. Something to Think About The news stations are famous for keeping a tragedy alive for hours, days, and even weeks.  When you are working, with the news on in the background, reliving that situation over and over, you are pouring negativity into your subconscious on a continuous loop. Remember, as Napoleon Hill shared, “Thoughts are things.” And thoughts are the roots of what manifests in your life. Be mindful of your influences. Guard yourself against toxic thoughts just as you would guard any other toxin you might put into your body. Weekly Activity This week try this: Listen to the news to see what is happening and then turn it off until the next day. If you want something in the background, listen to music, motivational speakers, comedy, anything except hours of sadness and tragedy. And when it’s time for bed, definitely do NOT put on the news and set a timer to fall asleep to the news! Dr. Wayne Dyer spoke eloquently about the things we think about before we fall asleep are like planting seeds for what we’d like to manifest in our lives. Think about the seeds your planting before you lay your head to rest at night! Words of Wisdom Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. -Henri Nouwen Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively use words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. -Yehuda Berg You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind. -Joyce Meyer Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you. -Joel Osteen If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought. -Peace Pilgrim

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Exhaustion.  It’s been a great, but very busy year so far and everyone is talking about how they are feeling.  Are you exhausted? The belief that taking time off will cause everything to fall apart is not only unhealthy, it’s not true. Life goes on when you slow down and take time for you. If you don’t take time off, your body eventually will put its foot down and make you slow down. Bodies do it all the time. Stress is a leading cause of cancer, heart attacks, liver failure, grouchiness and a sudden lack of breath. Aside from the health issues, taking time to do the things that inspire you, should be a priority because that’s why we work so hard. So that we can enjoy life and those in our life. This is not a luxury reserved for the people who are smarter, richer, or less bogged down than you are. It’s a luxury reserved for people who take the time to figure it out and choose to design a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Something to Think About What’s the point of making lots of money and saving it until we are 70+ and finally have “time”? No one knows how much time they will have, or what the quality of life will be when we finally determine that we “have the time” to slow down and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Think how silly that sounds. If you are too old to work, how much pleasure will you have playing and traveling? What is more important than you and those you care about? Weekly Activity: Do something to enjoy your life now, this week, with those you love and care about. Take a good look at your calendar and determine where you can block personal time. Words of Wisdom Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour. - Walt Whitman We are always getting ready to live but never living. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. - John Lennon You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. - Henry David Thoreau The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Morning Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

What is Your True Calling?  While there are many people who have always known what they were going to do and what they were destined to do, the majority of people spend most of their life looking for that one thing that they are supposed to do. Do yourself a favor and let yourself off the hook if you haven’t figured out that one “big thing”. Instead, start feeling good about the fact that you’ll probably fulfill several callings throughout your life.  If you think about it, it makes more sense that we evolve with age, right?  When I think about who I was in my twenties, compared to who I am today, I can’t imagine my life without all those stages of growth and development. I evolved into who I am and that is who I am supposed to be. I responded to what resonated with me at each bend in the road and hit a few roadblocks, but they always provided a few and rewarding path. Follow what feels good in the moment. Follow your intuition and it will lead you through a most excellent life! Something to Think About: Perhaps it’s not about discovering that “one thing” for everyone but knowing when to move on to another thing when you are no longer feeling challenged, interested or engaged.  I think we all know when we are on the right path, but what happens when that path suddenly turns into a fork in the road? Weekly Challenge: If you know someone who is feeling bored with their life, help them to find a new path. Perhaps take a new agent under your wing and share some valuable insights. When we help others, we create a lift in our own lives and often spark a connection to our calling. Words of Wisdom The best way to ensure you achieve the greatest satisfaction out of life is to behave intentionally. - Deborah Day The purpose of life is a life of purpose. - Robert Bryne The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better. - Robert F. Kennedy You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously. - Steve Maraboli The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky