Vacation

Just off vacation with my wife it once again reminds me how important vacations are.
The down time helps you rejuvenate and through that you become more productive and more important you become more happy.
At this stage in my life I enjoy doing very little on vacation, sitting enjoying the warm weather and the beautiful Caribbean water with my wife is my happy place.
When my family was young we did not have much money and we lived paycheck to paycheck but we always had vacations to look forward to and those memories are priceless.
Vacation back then may have been going in with other friends on a house in New Hampshire or camping in New York or Disney - they ALL hold special memories.
You owe it to yourself and your family to dial it back and plan a vacation- NOW- stop putting it off.
Life is short... enjoy it !

New England

The New England Patriots team in the National Football League are a dynasty.
The Patriots have won more then any other sports organization but was not always that way, they began their dynasty back in 2001 and they are still going strong in 2019.
They are a good study for any other sports team or any business as well as a study for individuals.
What makes them so good ?
As I said it was not always that way, before 2001 they had never even won a championship.
What changed ?
Coaching and players- especially one coach and one player, football is a team sport and no matter how good one coach and one player may be they still need other coaches and other players and they need complete “ buy in “.
Great coaching without great players will not succeed and vice versa.
It begins with a philosophy and a determination.
Everyone- EVERYONE- needs to know their role and DO THEIR JOB!
How does that occur?
It starts with choosing the right players , players that are smart and tough, players that respect one another and are willing to sacrifice for the team for the ultimate goal.
Coaches need to start on day one and have a great training program to give their players the tools to do their job so they begin to believe in their team and their coaches and their goal and themselves.
You are ALL constantly learning to get better and to be better !
Business can learn a lot from The Patriots and so can you, rather you are an owner or a boss or an employee you are all part of a team.
Know your role- study and strife to improve and do your best- Do Your Job !
Believe !

Worry

As adults we spend far too much time worrying.
We worry about finances the most but tied to that we worry about our jobs, our bosses, our weight, how people perceive us, our fashion, our looks and pretty much everything else that may effect our day... really- think about it.
Also as we get older , like late 50’s or 60’s we begin to experience more friends and relatives and coworkers passing away and it starts to make you wonder about all the things we worry about and all the time we waste.
We are all on borrowed time and we all do not know when our time may be up so how crazy is it that we spend it worrying about crap that is either out of or control or that will make no difference in our life ?
YOU have the controls and the power - how you choose to use that power is up to you - do not hand YOUR power over to others. When you start to worry so much about what others think or start to bow down to your bosses because you are scared to lose your job or position you are giving away your power.
If your goal is to always do your best and to continue to learn and help others the rest will follow.
In the end your life is like a blink of an eye, do not waste a day.
Enjoy - Live- Learn- Love

Be yourself and worry less

1. The biggest regrets come from pleasing other people. A Buddhist monk said if you meditated for 20 years the final message you would arrive at is, "Be yourself."
2. Talk to new people. All opportunities come from the people you meet. It's humans who make things happen, nothing else.
3. Focus on your strengths, always. Crafting your strengths will get you much further than improving your weaker areas. Let your strengths shine and don't apologize for them!
4. Say no and don't feel guilty about it. Martha Beck put it best, "When it comes to saying yes or no to something or someone, choose the answer that feels like freedom."
5. Forgive others no matter what they did to you. This is like inner-peace on a platter. BUT you don't have to be friends with people who've hurt you.

1. Worry less. As happiness researcher Shawn Achor says, "Adversities, no matter what they are, simply don't hit us as hard as we think they will. Our fear of consequences is always worse than the consequences themselves."

Always leave work on time

1) Work is a never ending process .  It can never be completed.
2) Interest in a client is important. So is your family.
3) If you fall in your life, nether your boss nor client will offer you a helping hand; your family and friends will.
4) Life is not about work, office and client. There is more to life. You need to socialize, entertain, relax and exercise. Don’t let life be meaningless.
5) A person who stays late at the office is not a hard working person. Instead he/she is a fool who does not know how to manage work within the stipulated time.
6) You did not study hard and struggle in life to become a machine.
7) If your boss forces you to work late , he/she may be ineffective and have a meaningless life too; so send this to him/her. 

Really- Always leave your work on time. 

Follow

To learn how to Lead ... you first must learn how to Follow.
Good leaders know loyalty and they would of had to show loyalty.
Loyalty comes from respect and when people know that you have their best interest at heart.
It is possible to be tough and hold others accountable but you must also be accountable, people will watch what you do and what you do means more then what you say.
Somewhere along your way I hope you had a mentor and someone that respected you and showed you the way, pass that on... think of them.
That is why good leaders would of had to be good followers.

John Wayne

For those of us that were young in the 50’s and 60’s we know who John Wayne was.
John Wayne was a movie actor and was in dozens of Western movies and more important John Wayne always played the “good guy” and was an example of “honor” and he always did the “the right thing”. John Wayne was always a gentleman and he was a man of his word. He represented everything that you wanted to be and a person and had the character of a true American hero.
Where is that person today ? Where are our John Wayne’s ?
More important- where is “ Honor” ?
Has money and power taken over ? The win at all cost mentality?
Our children learn more from what they see and hear then what they learn in school, and if our leaders show them that respect and honor takes a back seat to “ winning” then that is their take away.
Your kids watch and listen to the world around them , as I grew up watching black and white TV and John Wayne movies we also listened to the speeches of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King , it shaped our world.
Where are the John Wayne’s ? Where is Honor ?