The words you use are a very powerful tool, period. Take a look at the words you use, and you can learn quiet a bit about yourself. You can also learn a great deal about other people by listening to the words they use. The average person uses about 10,000 words. That’s the limit of their vocabulary. What’s interesting is what those 10,000 words are. Are they powerful words, that produce change, and influence. Or, are they lazy words that don’t produce anything, and most likely leave people questioning your purpose, peace, and value? I want to tweak my 10,000 words – take out the toxic entries that don’t produce anything positive and add new entries that communicate purpose, value, and intelligence. Here we go…

Items to remove:

• I Can’t
• I Don’t Know – Google it, or find the answer.
• Never-mind – Why did I bring it up if it wasn’t important?
• What if – When used to think of negative outcomes.
• Problem(s) – I want to only think in terms of “Opportunities” and “Solutions”
• Cheap – It sounds poor
• Sit – sounds lazy
• Never
• Won’t
• Maybe – there’s no resolution
• Nice – too easy, and none descriptive enough
• Easy – I always shoot myself in the foot with this.
• I have time – Untrue, I almost never do.
• Good/Bad – Don’t judge, just except.
• It will take too long – Doesn’t matter, if it’s worth doing, do it.

Items to add

• Action – it’s always good.
• Plan
• Adventure
• Sure – it’s up beat and positive.
• Can
• Yes – say it with confidence and certainty.
• No – say it with confidence and certainty.
• Important
• Opportunities – There are no problems, only opportunities.
• I love it
• I will
• Thank you – Be nice and courteous.
• Rich – I need to be more used to saying this.
• Wealthy – I need to be more used to saying this.
• Producer – As in “He/She/They/We/I get things done.”
• Possible – Everything is possible.
• Definitely

Obviously this will take some time and work but I believe that with daily attention, and persistence it can happen.

Words may be either the servants or masters. If the former they may safely guide us in the way of truth. If the latter they intoxicate the brain and lead into swamps of thought where there is no solid footing. Among the sources of those innumerable calamities which from age to age have overwhelmed mankind, may be reckoned as one of the principal, the abuse of words. —George Horne.

Words are weapons, and it is dangerous in speculation, as in politics, to borrow them from the arsenal of the enemy. —George Santayana, Obiter Scripta.

This song randomly popped up on my itunes playlist this morning and reminded me just how much I love it. The melody, harmony and lyrics work together perfectly to make a great piece of music. They also communicate a very potent message.

“If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day… just to spend them with you”

What would you do if you could save time in a bottle? What person or thing is so important to you that you would put time with them in a bottle in hopes that it could last forever?

“But there never seems to be enough time, to do the things you want to do,
once you find them”

How many of us could relate to this line? You find something you really enjoy, a person or activity, but find there is never enough time to spend with that person or thing. You really enjoy writing, but find that you don’t have enough time for it. You really enjoy spending time with your kids, but there is just never enough.

What’s the lesson here? Well, I think it’s two fold:

1) Savor and enjoy every moment. Time is truly the most valuable and scarce resource we have. Use it to the best of your ability, and never, never, never waist it.

2) When you find something you really enjoy, give it time. Since time is the most valuable asset we can control, use it wisely. Use it to invest in the things most valuable and enjoyable to you.

1. Be the best. OK, so he had his issues, but undoubtedly Michael Jackson worked hard, and was the best at what he did. He will be remembered for what he was really, really, really good at. When you pass away, your best skills are remembered.

2. Have a signature move. When marketing your self, your skills or anything else, it’s important to have a signature move that identifies you and clearly is part of what you do and who you are. Did anybody else do the moonwalk? After you’re gone, people remember the catchy things that you always did.

3. Leave a legacy. We all can’t be Michael Jackson or Bill Gates. But we can in some small, or large or medium way leave an impact on the world, and leave it a better place. When we go, will others be able to say we changed them in some way?

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean you’re supposed to do it”

I heard this interesting statement last night and it really captured something I’ve been thinking about recently. That is, the difference between creating something and enjoying something. Let me explain…

I recently went to Disneyland. And, whenever I go to Disneyland I’m reminded of all the incredible little things they do to create an atmosphere of magic, creativity and fun. Every little detail on the rides are accounted for. All the little store fronts, streets, buildings and statues are carefully created so that the feeling of ‘magic’ flows seamlessly. It’s truly awe inspiring when you really start to look at all the details put into the park and it’s creation. Disneyland is another one of those creative masterpieces that I love to sit back and enjoy.

Step back 15 years. When I was younger, I wanted to be in on this creative process, I wanted to be a film composer. Like John Williams, I wanted to write music that spared no detail, and accented movies that left audiences craving for more. In short, I wanted to be a part of the creation of masterpieces. But slowly as I got older, and even worked at building a career in film scoring, I started to realize that while I thoroughly enjoyed film scores themselves, I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the process of creating scores. I found other things that I enjoyed much more than sitting down and writing music. This was big, and it taught me an interesting lesson that I’ve been learning over and over again – there is a huge difference between enjoying something and doing something.

Now, before I go out and do something, I ask myself: Do I really like doing this, or do I just enjoy the end result. Because it’s one thing to enjoy a movie, a piece of music or Disneyland, it’s quite another to create them. The difference can literally be night and day.

Contractors and water damage specialists came to asses the damage, and after all was said and done, we are now living in a hotel for at least 2 weeks while the condo is cleaned and rebuilt. Needless to say this has been a very tramatic time for our family. Being displaced, coming close to losing valuables and household items, and the sudden loss of all that we are used to has been difficult. We packed a couple small bags, headed to the hotel, and now we wait. If you want to keep peace in your life, there’s much to learn from a situation like this:

Live simple: When life displaces you, you have to be prepared to move on an instant. That means that if you rely on everything from specialized toothpicks to your special shower message system….you may have a problem. Frankly, this will cause you a lot of stress and steal the peace that you could have.

Focus on the good. When you face a situation like this, it’s really easy to focus on the negative things. I don’t have this, I don’t have that. But with a little work, you can keep a positive outlook and attitude, and that will change everything. You can suddenly change the whole mood of your entire family just by keeping a positive attitude.

Think about the concrete and the future. It’s really easy to get mad at the past, to get mad at the fact that your house is in 3″ of water, that you no longer have a place to hang your hat, etc. But it doesn’t help. And, as a matter of fact, it makes things worse. You cause yourself grief, and most likely cause friction with your family.

Notice what you now have time for. It’s amazing since this happened how I have cut out little things that are meaningless. Checking up on pointless emails, over use of social sites like facebook and twitter. It’s amazing when you are forced to trim down the fat, and really focus on just what’s important, what time saving mechanisms you come up with. Can I keep these when I’m not living crunch time?

Look for lessons not problems. The more you look for what you can learn from the situation the better. When you focus on problems and set backs, it’s like going in reverse on a freeway. You’re not likely to get anywhere you want to go, and you are very likely to damage and hit other people who are going the right direction.