A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”

With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, why he didn’t even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

Isn’t it amazing how often this happens to us where we think something is 100% true, only to find out it isn’t………

Dream It . Live It

Jeff

Only those who are asleep make no mistakes
- Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea, the world’s largest furniture brand -

Would you like to me to give you a formula for success?  It’s quite simple, really.  Double your rate of failure.
- Thomas Watson, founder of IBM -

Wonderful insights from two wonderful men!  And more importantly, how will this affect your life today?

Dream It . Live It
Jeff

jackson pollock's lost work found in Seoul??

I was in Seoul, South Korea, for 6 days recently to conduct training and coaching and introduce NLP tools to both the locals and expats. What happened was amazingly extraordinary because instead of sharing tools from my toolkit, the people I met gave me huge and overpowering daily doses of positive energy, kindness, joy, vitality and love. Have you ever walked into a room and you feel an amazing energy radiating from everyone in the room? Well, that happened to me ALL the time in Seoul so to all my new friends there ~

Kamsa Hamnida

Thanks must go to Mel and Stanton (owners of MindBodySeoul in Korea) who provided an inspirational room for us to learn and grow together, and for making those delicious, healthy and energizing smoothies and dips.

When was the last time you found all the parts in your life falling in place, similar to what I experienced in Seoul? Or to put it in another way, when was the last time you did something to make all the parts of your life fall into place to give you peace, serenity, energy and positive expectations? Or better still, what will you do NOW to make your day look like

Dream It . Live It
Jeff

Just read this excerpt from an Oprah interview with Maya Angelou, a really wise 80 year old American poet, novelist, educator, producer, novelist, actress, historian. Here’s two gems from Maya that really resonate with me!

“I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one”

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

 WOW!  That’s nice and thanks Maya for these lovely and timely reminders!!

 Dream It . Live It
 Jeff

“I look to the future because that’s where  
I’m going to spend the rest of my life”  

The late George Burns wrote this and we all remember George as the famous actor and comedian who lived to the ripe old age of 100 years and 49 days.  What’s more amazing is that he continued working till almost 100 – and loving every minute of it!

When we turn 100 and look back at our lives, I wonder how many of us will say “I loved every minute of it”?  Of course there are ups and downs, we are human after all, but just how great would it be when we have more ups than downs!  Think about it and do something about it NOW!

And what would you change today?

Dream It . Live It
  Jeff

“Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do.” 
- Rumi, 13th century Persian poet and philosopher -

 
Dream It . Live It
Jeff

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t”     - anonymous -

Stumbled on this clever quote recently and realized this was applicable to anything I do in life! Translated, it means do whatever it takes now so that you can do whatever you want forever! Imagine that!!

Dream It . Live it
Jeff

Was listening to an old Michael Jackson song, Man in the Mirror, and Mike had some really powerful words to share:

I’m gonna make a change,
for once in my life It’s gonna feel real good,
gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right…

I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change 

So instead of complaining about everything in life, Michael reminds us with his powerful message, “look at yourself, make a change” or in other words, for things to change I must first change! Nice!!  

Dream It . Live It 
Jeff

A cliché is an overused (or abused) word or phrase that’s lost it’s impact.  Yet, there’s loads of excellent clichés that’s kept me going in life.  Here’s one:

 READY – FIRE – AIM

 I like this so much more than the usual Ready-AIM-Fire because I’ve often spent way too long aiming and could never fire because I used up all my energy aiming!  Life’s the same isn’t it?  How often (too often usually) do we spend looking for “the right time”, “the right circumstances”, “the right team”, “the right place”.  And by the time we fire (another way of saying take action), the world’s moved on and we’ve lost the opportunity.

So instead of aiming forever, Get Ready (write your plan) Fire First (Take action – any action!), Get Feedback (what worked well? what didn’t?)  then Aim and do it again with better results!

Think of something you want to do, would like to do, should do and haven’t done yet. Imagine how much better your life would be when you go READY-FIRE-AIM today!

Dream It . Live It 
Jeff                                        

Shakespeare, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius – yes they are the great philosophers in the history of the universe.  Yet, there’s another group who are just as powerful – rock musicians!

On the way to my office this morning, I listened to Freddy Mercury and Queen sing their 1970s hit song “Don’t Stop Me Now”, and it dramatically and drastically changed my mood from slow Monday morning to go out and conquer the world!  It was an amazing transformation as I listened to the same song for 20mins and practically ran from the subway station to the office!  

Here’s a taste of the lyrics that shows the genius that is Freddy Mercury (who sadly passed away in 1991)

Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world I’m turning inside out Yeah!
I’m floating around in ecstasy
So don’t stop me now don’t stop me
‘Cause I’m having a good time having a good time

I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva 
I’m gonna go go go
There’s no stopping me

When you couple the wonderful imagery of the lyrics to the pounding beat of the song, you have absolutely no choice but to have the best day of your life (which is happening to me now!)  Be warned – “Don’t Stop Me Now” is a dangerous song as it goes from first gear directly to supersonic and takes you with it!!

When you need a dose of inspiration shooting through your entire body – rock music rocks!! 

Dream It . Live It
Jeff