Days 231 - 235 - Still Kickin'

I would have preferred to have written every day. After all, this is what I had committed to, but with recent events and an overwhelming workload and travel, it's become increasingly difficult to find the time and energy to create new content on a daily basis. I think anyone would agree that I had a great run, writing for over 200 consecutive days including holidays.

I intend to finish the 365 days, but I won't be writing every day anymore (as you can tell.) I will hopefully find useful or interesting tidbits to share with you from time to time and I will bring them to you right here.

The truth is my priorities are shifting. With the recent tragedy my family suffered, I find myself more cognizant of what really matters. As much as I love writing this blog, it's not my number one priority. My priorities are God and family. Everything else is a distant third. I hope that I will soon be able to re-balance my life and write every day, but if not, it matters to me that you, dear reader, understand that I am not ignoring my commitment, I am simply realigning things.

God bless you. Make it your best day yet.

- Adolfo

Day # 185 - O Christmas Tree

The tradition lives on. Every year since moving into our home, we have bought our Christmas Tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Lots of people do, I'm sure. I come from a family that didn't really have a lot of tradition so I feel it's important to establish traditions of my own.

Last year, I had just lost my job a few days before Thanksgiving and was understandably depressed. I still put up a tree. I skipped the decorations on the outside of the house, though, and I realize now what a mistake that was. My children love the lights and the inflatable Santa Claus up on the chimney and I cheated them of it because I was down in the dumps.

I look back now and can see that losing my job was the best thing for me. I needed to be shaken up, kicked out of my comfort zone, and I know that can never happen with a cushy job that doesn't challenge your intellect or your skill. But I digress...

Trimming the tree while listening to Christmas music and that great feeling of seeing little ornaments I hadn't seen since last year; lifting the girls to top the tree (we have a snowman instead of a star this year) all filled me with happiness as I looked into the future and saw them doing the same in their own homes with their own children. It helped me understand that tradition has more to do with the future than with the past.

Enjoy your traditions and share them. If you don't have any, create them, and don't fail to see the difference between tradition and ritual.

Make it your best day yet. God bless you.

- Adolfo

Day # 175 - Pull

Inertia is one of the most powerful inside-of-us killers of potential. It's so easy to stay with what is comfortable. It's easy to stay on the couch in front of the TV and not read a book that will make you better. It's easy to gossip with your friends by the water cooler when you should be making prospecting calls. It's easy to eat cookies when you should be at the gym or riding your bike. With the exception of the TV, I am, to some degree or other, guilty of all of the above.

I get my work done, I go the extra mile, but I often pull over when on the extra mile and see the sights. I agree that you have to stop and smell the roses, but not until your work is done. You must fight the pull.

Pull comes in many forms. There are millions of productivity and personal-development thieves out there. Television is my pet-peeve, but the Internet can be as bad. News is a killer, gossip is a killer, laziness is a killer. The list goes on and on. In order to better yourself, you must resist pull. You must realize that your natural inclination will always be toward the easy, the lazy path.

I want to make a distinction between inclination and instinct. I trust my instinct 100%. You should listen to your gut. Listen to still small voice in your heart. Inclination is our body's natural, often lazy, tendency to do what is easy or pleasurable. Follow your instinct, but fight your tendency. Until your tendencies are all transformed into positive habits, it's an uphill, in-the-snow and driving wind battle. But once you create new tendencies, you will be better off.

I have won the battle against caffeine. I resolved on June 11, 2010 that I would never drink another drop of caffeine and I haven't. It's been five months and I can't imagine ever drinking caffeine again. I wake up early, I function perfectly, no crankiness, sleepiness, irritability, or any of the other things caffeine addicts experience when they don't get their fix. I know, I used to be one of them. I find myself rejecting alcohol, too. I used to enjoy the occasional glass of wine. Abby and I have quite a few very nice bottles in the house. Now, they all taste like vinegar to me. This is not to say I'll never drink another adult beverage, but I probably won't.

I resisted the pull of caffeine, suffered for days through the worst headache of my life, and now I'm free. I resisted the pull and I won. I resisted the pull of news and I am now a much more positive person. I am not an alcoholic and don't have a problem with alcohol, but I am not drawn to it. It can only be good for my health so I won't fight it. I welcome it. Now, about those cookies...

God bless you and thanks for reading. Resist the pull and you'll be on your way to a better you.

- Adolfo

Day # 173 - The Right Moment

Have you ever felt the urge or the desire to do something big, something out of the ordinary, and then stopped yourself because it didn't seem like the right time? I don't mean buying a sports car you can't afford or a $1,000 pair of shoes. I mean something of substance, something of importance.

Have you been thinking of starting a business or going back to school? Have you thought about switching careers and doing what you really love? Have you thought of quitting everything and backpacking across Europe, or the U.S.? How about training to run a marathon? Where does it itch?

I can tell you from my own experience that waiting for the right moment is no different than deciding not to do it at all. Why? Because the right moment will never arrive. The stars will never align just so. The right moment is the moment when inspiration strikes. Do not doubt your gut. Your gut is the voice of God whispering in your ear. If that still, small voice says it's time, then you'd better believe it's time. Don't fear failure. Don't fear rejection. The biggest failure is the failure to act. The biggest, and most painful, rejection is when we reject what the voice is telling us; when we put things off, waiting for another, better, moment.

Whatever it is that's been itching, scratch it. Do what you have to do in order to do what you want to do. All you have in the end are the memories. All you create will be left behind. Decide what that will be and then make it happen. You don't want to lay there at the end of your days, wishing you had done something. People who find themselves there will tell you there was never a right moment or a wrong one, but that every moment could have been the moment, if only they had chosen to make it so.

- Adolfo

Day # 165 - In His Service

For years, all I thought about was becoming a writer. I dedicated every spare moment to my craft, waking early to let the creative juices flow. I was prolific, writing six screenplays, five novels, hundreds of poems, dozens of short stories and essays.

Then I stopped.

Just like that. I stopped writing. Years went by and it was always somewhere in the back of my mind, like a dirty secret. I talked about it once in a while, like an old man who'd been the high school football star. Yeah, I'd tell them, I used to write. Wrote a whole bunch. I could have been one of the good ones.

Eventually, I started writing again, but fiction seemed so trivial. I wrote speeches and I wrote on politics and social issues. Suddenly I was creative again. But I missed fiction. Is it really trivial? No. It's vital.

I wrote a column for the chamber of commerce during my chairmanship. It was cheerleading, mostly, I was vacuuming the carpets on the Titanic post-iceberg. Pointless, but it kept the muscles somewhat loose.

Then I started this blog. I don't know what I hoped to accomplish. I'm not even sure what inspired me, but here I am, writing. Is it "creative" writing? Probably not. Am I going to win a Pulitzer or make a fortune doing this? Nope. Does that matter? Not in the slightest.

The point of this project was to improve myself. Mission somewhat Accomplished. The beauty is that self improvement never ends. We can always get better. We can always do more, be more, expect more (of ourselves.) With this in mind, I volunteered at my church's creative arts department. I went in last night, with several other members of the church, and discussed how I can be of service to God through my writing.

When I think of some of what I've written, I feel a bit embarrassed, maybe even ashamed. Would I want my children to form their opinions of me by reading this stuff? Probably not. The best way to counter it is to write something they can be proud of. And what better than service to God and to mankind? It is my sincere hope that this blog helps you, dear reader, as much as it's helped me. I know many of you who read me, mostly on facebook, make comments, and many more of you don't. I pray that in some small way, I can inspire you, even though that was the last thing on my mind when I began.

I wanted to work the fat out of my mind with this project. I wanted to become a novelist, or essayist. I wanted to make my life better, and, perhaps, make a better living from my keyboard. I still don't know what will happen, but I know my life is better. I also know that if I can serve God using this ability (is it odd that I don't want to call it talent?) that I have put it to the best possible use.

In a time in my life when I feel my heart being pulled in the direction of ministry, this may be the perfect way for me to begin down this path. I hope you will be there with me. I hope my experience will inspire you.

In spite of the challenges of the past year, I feel happier and more fulfilled than I have at any other time in my life. Yes, there are things I need to fix, relationships in need of mending, but I feel as if God is giving me the tools to make the necessary repairs. Every day is a new beginning, every day is the best day of my life.

Take care of yourself. Use your talents to serve others. God bless you.

- Adolfo

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Day # 162 - Immigrant Values

There was a time when people came to this country looking for an opportunity to earn a paycheck, not just have one handed to them. I know because I witnessed it growing up. I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Miami and Hialeah. I remember the house I lived in when I started kindergarten: my parents owned it. They had been in the country less than a decade by that point. They still didn’t speak any English. They had low-paying factory jobs – more than one apiece. I like to tell people I grew up in a family that was in banking. It’s true, because my parents moonlighted cleaning banks and since they couldn’t afford a babysitter, they brought me with them. I became a bank robber at an early age, stealing candy from the teller’s candy dishes.

Around the time I was seven, I needed an ear, nose, throat operation. My parents took me in for the surgery, and paid for it by selling their house at a profit and buying a less expensive condo. Eventually they sold the condo and bought the house my mother still lives in. They took 15 years to pay off the house, in spite of the 3 mortgages, one of which was a 30 year deal. They never asked the government to pay for anything. All they asked for was an opportunity. It’s all they deserved. An opportunity is all anyone deserves.

Yet, we live in a time when people want more than opportunities, they want guarantees. There is nothing more dehumanizing than telling a person they are not responsible for their own fate. When we look at successful people, we should admire and even emulate them. Instead, we are told by the “leaders” in Washington that those people somehow cheated their way to where they are and that they don’t pay their fair share (they pay well beyond their fair share – they also create jobs.) Politicians use class envy to keep their jobs, but the other, intended, consequence is that the people they tell these lies to believe what they are told and never reach their potential. They believe the only way to get anything out of life is by coveting that which another man has earned. It’s nonsense and the losers in Washington know it.

If you come to this country (legally) you should have every opportunity my parents had. Every opportunity Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Warren Buffet, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and millions of others have had. Yes, you deserve the opportunity. No, you do not deserve any guarantees of success. And no, their success did not cause you to fail. There is nothing unfair about it. It is the most fair and perfect thing there is, that a person should reap rewards equal to their effort – no more, no less.

Immigrants of way back when looked for opportunity. They came to America and thanked God for the opportunity. Now, politicians hand them a check, try to make them citizens right away so they can get them into the voting booth, and teach them to throw rocks at the producers instead of becoming one. People have changed, because the system has changed. Rather than coming here and absorbing American values, they come here and try to turn this into the very system they abandoned, not understanding that if they get their wish, the system will, once again, abandon them.

Work for what you want. Don’t expect it to be handed to you. Earn it, so you can appreciate it. Educate yourself, so you can become a person of value.

- Adolfo

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Day # 149 - Build Your Ark Before it Rains

Keith Ferrazzi, the relationship marketing master and networker extraordinaire, says of networking: build it before you need it. You don’t put on your seatbelt after crashing your car. You wouldn’t trust a doctor with your kids if he was walking into the operating room with “Tonsillectomy for Dummies” under his arm. Preparation is crucial.

I see this time and again in my business and personal life. I find myself making the same mistakes sometimes and it all comes to preparation – or the lack of it.

The thing about preparation, or whatever necessary steps there are to the successful execution of any process, is that we know the steps, we know what we have to do, and we often choose to take a shortcut, and the result is always the same: subpar performance.

Remember the 7 “P’s”: Proper-Prior-Planning-Prevents-Piss-Poor-Performance

But it isn’t always a matter of planning. Is there anything in your life right now that you need to do? Something you may not want to do. It could be boring or expensive, or tedious, but think about the consequences if you don’t do it. There are plenty of things that don’t matter – until they matter. You know what they are and you know what you have to do, so get off the couch and do them.

Whoever said good things come to those who wait should have explained a little further. While patience is a virtue, inaction is a vice. Waiting for things to happen will only ensure that they happen to other people or that you will miss them when they happen to you. Prepare, and get out there and make it happen. No one ever became successful by not taking care of the simple things and no one ever became successful by waiting for something to happen.

I have a friend who has the makings of a major director. For years, I have tried to entice him with all kinds of projects and ideas and his answer is always that he is too busy or some other lame excuse. Now, the small film-production company I have been involved in for the last year is about to take some big steps. We will need directors. Will I be calling him? Of course not. Why would I expect him to be ready for the big things when he was too busy for the little things? Why should I have confidence in a person who wasn’t willing to build his ark before it rained?

The lesson is: Do not ignore the little things. Little things mean everything. Be prepared for anything and don’t procrastinate. The only thing that comes to those who waits is the disappointing news that they missed their opportunity.

God bless you. Go out there and make it your best day yet. Do it now!

- Adolfo

Day # 141 - Better Late Than Never

I normally would have completed this post about 13 hours ago. I had a long night and a long day and here I am on a Friday night writing to you, dear reader.

Why am I doing this?

Because 141 days ago I started on a quest to better myself and to write for 365 days while not watching news.

Today was long, but productive. The lessons learned today are: Expect the best and you'll likely get it, and keep your promises.

More tomorrow. I want to go hug my daughters.

- Adolfo


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Day # 134 - Ms. Rodriguez

She's standing in the hotel lobby and as I walk by she stops me. She asks if I am the manager. I tell her I am and she asks if I know of a local church with office hours. Since I don't know the answer (my church is a little too far) I offer to look it up for her. She follows me to my office and sits in front of my desk. I start searching and she starts talking. She tells me her identity has been stolen and that a police officer and his girlfriend have stolen everything from her as well as abused her in so many other ways.

I get through to a shelter and the woman on the phone is completely indifferent. She cuts me off and tells me they have no space, offering no further assistance. Ms. Rodriguez keeps talking. She asks about my dark features and if I'm Hispanic. I tell her my parents were both born in Cuba. She tells me she was in Cuba in 1997 and what a nice guy Fidel Castro is (she's lost me at this point.) I tell her I would love to meet Castro so I could stab him in the eye with a rusty icepick.

I'm having no luck finding a place to send her. She keeps talking, telling me about the $900 million that the black church stole from her and how she is being tracked. When I print up a web page for her, and there is a picture of a black person on it, she tells me "they" did it. They are watching her and they decide what happens. She warns me to stay away from black women. She tells me "they're voodoo" and will ruin me. She tells me about how the black church used $600 trillion to get Barack Obama elected. I want to tell her that there isn't that much money in the world, but what's the use. Although she is clean and articulate, she is obviously sick. She is calmly ranting about the evil black man and woman and how she intends to use her money (when she gets it back from the evil black church) to put through a bill in congress that will legalize any Hispanic person in the US illegally.

The thing about Ms. Rodriguez is, she's black herself. She spoke no Spanish. When I put her on the phone with an attendant, she handed me back the phone, saying she wasn't going to "talk with no n----r." I explained to her that the woman on the phone was obviously Hispanic, and a couple of minutes later, she finally got on the phone. I gave her money for a cab to get her to the shelter and she eventually left.

Now, it's obvious Ms. Rodriguez was sick. She had written manifestos, of which she gave me a copy. She painted her nails with my liquid paper, and was all over the place, mentally speaking. I don't know that she would have been a danger to anyone, herself included, but she was in need of help and it seemed pretty damn near impossible to find it for her.

How is it that a government that taxes the hell out of us under the pretense of "spreading the wealth around" has no services that can be offered to a person such as this? Christ said what you do the least among you, you do to me. Well, he must be pissed. This woman was no drug addict. She struck me as someone of at least average intelligence and of some education. She was paranoid, of that I'm sure, and what else?

We spend billions of dollars on Woodstock museums and bridges to nowhere and the NEA and to fund abortions. We pay farmers not to grow food in order to artificially inflate food prices while the rest of the world starves. I have no doubt that God put Ms. Rodriguez in my life for a reason. I believe I did the right thing. I tried to get her help. I got her to a shelter and I am praying that she finds the help she needs. While I did what seemed like enough at the moment, I wonder if it was. I wonder if I failed a test. I wonder if my humanity was enough. I wonder where she slept last night. I wonder if she slept last night. I wonder. I wonder. I wonder...

If you are given the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life, you must. You do have time. You can spare a few dollars. You can help. Be a blessing to others and God will bless you.

- Adolfo


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Day # 129 - Believe It!

A friend of mine called me on Thursday, letting me know that a spot opened up in a cake-decorating competition to be held on Saturday (yesterday.) She asked if Abby would be interested in competing. My initial reaction was to decline, but I thought it best to let Abby decide. Abby accepted and this started 48 very sweet and stressful hours. Even I got in the action, helping with the baking and PR at the event.

Abby won! That's right, my girl won! If it was up to me, we would have sat at home, wouldn't have challenged ourselves, gotten the great exposure or experience and I'd have nothing to write about this morning.

I will post pictures of the winning cake on Facebook if you're interested in seeing it, but the lesson has nothing to do with sugar art.

Abby made the right choice. Even if she'd lost, her choice would have been the right one. Fear of failure is the most paralyzing, limiting thought in the universe. The inability to act when an opportunity arises is no better. Simply put: failure to act is the only action that guarantees failure.

To be clear, I was not afraid of losing, but my initial reaction was that it couldn't be done. Our competitor came with a cake that was twice as big as ours and was already done! She has twenty years of experience, her training and business have taken her around the world! But we won. We would never have won if we'd sat out.

Never be afraid to take a chance. Never let an opportunity pass you by. Never miss a chance to exhibit your talent, your ability, your greatness. Congrats to my Abby. I love you and I couldn't be prouder.

- Adolfo

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Day # 128 - No News is Good News

I am a Yahoo! user. If you're familiar with Yahoo! you know that their home page is loaded with information including news headlines. I'd call them deadlines for what they do to your spirit. This is not a dig at Yahoo!, this is a comment on the nature of the stories being reported. The headlines right now are about 36 people dead in a train crash and bank robbers killing a poor security guard. Has nothing else happened in the world in the last 24 hours? In the last 24 minutes?

This is what we are force-fed, and I believe it is destroying dreams and happiness. Further, I believe the helplessness one feels as a result of this feeds the government and the "news" organizations, giving them more and more power over our lives.

I used to be one of those people, reading news all the time, pausing whenever a TV was tuned to CNN, my car radio was always tuned to the news station. I feel as if God was trying to do good things in my life but I was so focused on all the bad things happening in the world that I ignored Him.

If you are a news junkie, stop. I'm not saying become uninformed or ignorant, just cut down on the amount of garbage you consume. Think of it as eating one cookie instead of a whole box of cookies. Satisfy the craving without overdoing it. Since I have cut out the noise, I have noticed an incredible difference in my life. I am more positive, closer to the people I love, I don't lose my temper the way I used to. Part of this, of course, is because I committed to make my life better in every way, but there is no doubt in my mind that I would not have made these strides if I was still eating garbage three hours a day.

Replace the news with a positive, uplifting book, or dedicate the time to learning a new skill, something you've always dreamed of doing but thought you never had the time. Every minute spent glued to the idiot box is wasted and does not improve your life one bit. Put that time to better use.

Start right now.

- Adolfo

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Day # 117 - The Family That Reads Together

I decided that if I were to write an autobiography covering the first 39 years of my life, it would be called, "The Dangerous Middle." No, I'm not referring to my waistline. I'm referring to where I have spent a great deal of time.

Abby and I have gotten on the same page about our goals and we are setting and woring toward them together. It's a live-in buddy system and it will work great. We talk about our progress and our setbacks, we talk about ideas, goals and dreams. We (gently) critique one another, and we offer feedback.

Accountability is key. Not to say you can't do it alone, but sometimes the goals get too hairy and you have to call in backup. I have gone 117 days without news and almost 100 days without caffeine, my TV watching is down to about an hour a week (not including football, which doesn't count. Why doesn't it count? Because I said so - my house, my rules!) But these are only a few of my goals, a small step of the journey I must complete to become the person I'm meant to be. The road gets rough and it's nice to have someone in the passenger seat holding the roadmap. (Or the GPS - you get the picture.)

So we have set aside an hour every night to read self-help books, or listen to CD's currently "The Compound Effect," by Darren Hardy. We read the bible and discuss our ups and downs, with a greater emphasis on the ups. Moods are like people: if you ignore them, they go away. Continue ignoring them and make them feel unwanted, they'll stop coming around. It helps to have a wingman (or wingwoman) to give you the boost and the strength to make that happen.

So get a buddy - your spouse, roommate, friend, parent, co-worker, anyone you can trust - and get started.

Make it your best day yet (for you and your Buddy!) God bless you.

- Adolfo

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Day # 115 - Off To Church We Go

I am not particularly religious. I don't have many rituals. But I am spiritual and I am always in need of a boost because the road ahead is always challenging and full of temptation.

So, in spite of the exhaustion and the pain in my ankle that won't go away, I will be in church at 9:30 this morning. The music, the message, the feeling of being around other, positive people, will give me the boost I need. And this feeling will last me all week. The lessons will last me all my life.

I am not here to witness to you. I am not going to try to convert you. If that happens, great, but it was never the intention of this project to do so. I write this for posterity. I want my children to understand me. I want to make it possible for future generations who come from me but never meet me to know who I was and why I did some of the things I did.

But, like most of the reason for this project, I go to church for me. It's a wonderful way to release emotion, to gain perspective, to grow as a person, and a Christian.

Find yourself a spiritual home, whatever it may be - church, synagogue, whatever. The benefits outweigh the "sacrifice" of waking up early on a Sunday (or Saturday.) Besides, I'll be home in time for football.

Go Dolphins!

Make it your best day yet. God bless you.

- Adolfo

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Day # 109 - Alarm clock? Never!

I overslept this morning. Have I been away from my home planet too long? This tiredness is a little odd. I slept until 6:30 this morning. That's about 90+ minutes beyond my normal wake up time. Am I going to have to do what I have never done? Am I going to have to (gasp!) use an alarm? Heaven forbid. This is a matter of mind over matter. If I choose to wake up early, I will. If I do not make the conscious choice to wake up by a certain hour, I will sleep until...whenever.

And isn't that how it works? I slept until an hour when most of the world is starting to get up and I feel like I have wasted half the day. I rely on that extra 90 minutes every morning. It's my productivity time. It's my "Me" time. It's the time I use to stay sane, stay connected, stay myself.

So, I'm rushing because I have a meeting to get to. I have a long day of meetings, lectures, etc. I'm looking forward to it. No, really, I am. It should be interesting.

The lesson is: There is always time if you are willing to make time. What are you willing to sacrifice? T.V.? Hanging out? News? Sleep? If you will dump something you don't really need, you will be amazed at how much time you give up. I sacrifice sleep and it makes me more productive. And sacrifice is not really the word. There'll be time to sleep when I'm dead. (a hundred years from now!)

Make it your best, most productive day. God bless you.

Adolfo

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Day # 108 - Going Through The Motions

I'm not sure what it is, but I've been procrastinating this morning. I've been at the computer since 6:00AM, it's now 6:38 and I'm finally getting my rear in gear. Sure, it's Sunday and most of the world is still asleep (or just getting home from Saturday night parties) but I am awake and feeling unproductive even though I have plenty to do.

So, I sit here and I type, in the hopes of finding inspiration by going through the motions. Will it work? Only if I put my heart and soul into it.

How many of us are going through the motions? Like postal workers or other government workers, who do not have an incentive to provide efficient, quality service, but ain't going nowhere because of the retirement package at the end of the career rainbow. Do you feel inspired in your life? Do you wake up in the morning and feel like the day ahead of you is full of endless possibilities, or do you expect another endless day? You will get what you expect. May as well expect the best.

Going through the motions because you have to is a sure way to fail and be miserable. Going through the motions to find your flow is a great thing. It works. I am sitting up a little straighter than I was a while ago. I am typing a little faster. I am more awake and alert. All because I chose not to skip writing this morning.

Get up and do what you have to do. Do it with pride and do the best you can. You'll be glad you did.

- Adolfo

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Day # 105 - You'll meet yourself there

It's funny how God will give you exactly what you expect. He won't always give you what you want, because what you want and what you expect are not always the same thing.

Think about it: If someone says, "I want to be a millionaire, but I know I'm going to lose my job, go broke, and end up on food stamps." Which is more likely to happen?

If someone says, "I want to be a millionaire, and I know doors are opening up to make that happen," they're more likely to achieve their seven-figure dream.

Why? Because you will meet yourself at your expectations. If you expect good things to happen, they will. If you expect disaster, make sure your insurance is paid up. Donald Trump said, "If you're going to be thinking anyway, you may as well Think BIG." And he knows all about the power of thinking big. How else could someone with that hair be that successful?

Change your thinking today. Cancel the bad, negative, self-defeating thoughts. Don't just wish for good things, expect them. And remember, this is like exercise; you won't lose 20 pounds in ten days of going to the Y, so don't be disappointed if it takes a while before the rewards show up. Persevere and continue to expect the best. Know that you must work hard and keep your chin up. Quit the gossip and negative self-talk, and the rewards will be yours and they will be plenty.

Lessons:

- You will meet yourself at your expectations. The greater your expectations, the greater your accomplishments will be. Don't be afraid to think big. It works for the Donald and it can work for you.

- Eliminate the negative: negative talk, negative thoughts, negative expectations. Get rid of them because they are a cancer on your future and an obstacle between you and your better self.

Declarations:

- Day by day in every way, I am getting better and better.

- I expect great things and my life and I will get them.

Keep the faith. God bless you. Make it your best day yet.

-Adolfo

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Day # 96 - Never never never quit

Winston Churchill was known for his oratory. He gave amazing speeches that inspired a nation to rise up against Nazism and defend herself. His words managed to keep the English people fighting and hoping when everything around them had been reduced to rubble.

One day, when he was no longer Prime Minister, he was called upon to give a commencement speech at a university. Everyone was nervous with anticipation. He stood, looked out over the crowd, and said four words: "Never, never, never quit."

And then he sat down. Initially, some of the students felt they were short-changed, but their professors helped them understand that they had just received the most important lesson of their lives.

It's easy to let the setbacks become failures. It's easy to let the bad times get the better or you. It's easy to feel like your goals are a million miles away. The truth is, you never know how close you are and you are probably closer than you think. Of course, if you quit, you will never get there even if your goal was a day away.

Keep working, keep believing, set goals and reach them, make promises and keep them. Work until you can't work any more and then work some more. You are never as far as it seems. As Joel Osteen puts it: You're closer than you think.

God bless you. Make it your best day yet. And never never never quit.

- Adolfo

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Day # 94 - Spin Psycho

What a day yesterday. I started the morning with a spin class. I was determined to do it. In my case, it's always been a matter of finding the time more than the motivation, but I also believe there is always time to be found. We have to just shift our priorities. How much time do you spend watching TV? What are you getting out of it? How much time do you spend in traffic each day? What's on the radio? Often, you're just misusing your time. This is one of the lessons I have learned thus far.

Exercise as a metaphor for personal development?:

Aside from the instructor and myself, everyone in that spin class was a woman. Talk about motivation! I hadn't taken a spin class in about two years. I wasn't expecting to take anyone home or anything, but it's one of those guy things. Quitting sucks, it sucks more in front of a room full of girls. I looked around at some of the ladies as they walked in and they didn't seem to be in amazing physical condition, just average. A ways into the class, when none of them had stopped but my legs were burning and I was gasping a little for air and wanted to quit, looking at them kept me going.

By the way, if you're not familiar with spinning, it's what happens when you combine a stationary bicycle with a CIA secret torture prison.

Sometimes we are motivated by our desires: It was my desire to lose weight and improve my overall physical condition that got me into that class. And other timers we are motivated by external stimuli: There was no way I was going to rest, much less quit, in front of a room full of people - especially women.

I came home yesterday from spinning and was treated to four hours of hard labor. Last night, I went to work around 9:00 PM and worked until about 1:30AM. My back is killing me, my legs are sore, and I feel great. I did what I set out to do. I didn't quit and didn't slow down. That's how it's done.

Next spin class is on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes.

Remember: It doesn't really matter where your motivation comes from, as long as you don't ignore it. Use the motivation in your quest to become the best person you can be.

And spin psycho spin!

- Adolfo

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Day # 90 - Isaiah 31 or something like that.

Last night I read my bible for a while. I am no biblical scholar. I'm not a scholar of any type. But I know when God is speaking to me - and lately He's been shouting!

For too long, I have refused to learn from my mistakes. I have become too comfortable, too fat and lazy for my own good (like an elected official.) Well, He decided it was time for me to learn my lesson.

Example 1:

I have a knack for making money. Not millions (yet) but I always find a way to make a buck. So when I lost my job and went seven months without work, and then my business fell by 90% because of the economy and the unusually cold winter, I should have learned my lesson. By the way, shouldn't both of my issues been avoided with the stimulus and global warming? No? Maybe I missed the memo. My life should have been extremely rough during those seven months, but it wasn't. Everything was fine. I hustled, kept earning a little money here and there and I was fine. Now, I am working and things should be back to normal, but I find this isn't exactly the case. God is making sure I learn my lesson.

Example 2:

I've owned my house for seven years. Like most homeowners, I started out taking great care of it but lately, I have kind of abandoned it. I haven't taken care of it the way I should. Now, the house is complaining.

I feel like I'm being spanked in a cosmic sense. My butt is not sore, but I am hurting.

I am not whining or complaining. I am simply making an observation and sharing it. It's important to listen to the still small voice in your hear, the feeling in your gut. When your thoughts wake you at three in the morning, listen to them. There is wisdom in the morning breeze.

My interpretation of Isaiah 31 was that God helps those who help themselves and that those who look to the government or blame everyone else will get nothing. I am sure bible scholars would tell me I am wide of the mark. That's fine. This worked for me and helped me see what I needed to see. The development of Adolfo Jimenez took a big step today.

God bless you, make it your best day yet.

-Adolfo


http://bible.cc/isaiah/31-1.htm

http://www.honeybeepartyrental.com
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Day # 88 - A Little Friendly Competition

Back in June, I announced I would give up caffeine. I have. As you see, it hasn't affected me, because it's 5:29AM as I write this and I've been up for a while. My life has improved. More importantly, my children are pretty much at zero caffeine. We serve water with every meal in the house now. I also gave up fast food for the most part. There have been a couple of lapses, but I try to go with the best choices. Abby is also losing weight and changing her eating habits. In fact, she is at the YMCA pool right now. Tomorrow morning it's my turn for an early morning swim.

For ten years we have been one another's enabler. One of us would take our health seriously and the other wouldn't be interested or supportive. Now, we have made a game of it. Every morning we are on the Wii Fit Plus weighing ourselves, congratulating one another on our progress. We go walking, swimming, or bowling. We have eliminated junk food from the house. Abby is a great baker (it was the family business a few years back) and has been experimenting with new recipes, but most of it is out the door to our testers so we don't see it or we see very little of it. Small disciplines are adding up to big differences.

Of course, there is the trash talking. We challenge one another constantly. I keep reminding her that I am the superior athlete and she reminds me of her superior will power. We never hurt one another. We each have a vested interest in the other's success, so we're just having fun and keeping each other motivated.

It's hard to change your life without someone to be accountable to. I've tried it several times and failed. 88 days into this and I feel accountable to the readers of this blog. I feel accountable to my parents and mostly to my children, who deserve a healthy father. Mostly, though, I am accountable to myself. I owe it to myself to be my best. God has blessed me with two hands, two arms, two legs and feet, not too bad of a brain in my head. For me not to use everything I have to the best of my ability would be a sin. Sadly, it is a sin committed by millions and millions of people every day. Are you one of them? If so, I challenge you to make one little change. Maybe less TV, more exercise, giving up alcohol. Work a little harder. Save more money. For me, it started with giving up news and it is compounding daily. The same can happen to you. 277 days to go and who knows where I'll land!

Today's Lessons:

- We are all competitive to some degree (or should be) so make a competition out of your goals, even if it's the person you want to be competing against the person you used to be.

- Be accountable to someone. Whatever you're trying to accomplish, find a buddy. Join a Meetup group or get together with some friends or co-workers, and be the voice in each other's ear.

- Don't be afraid to engage in a little friendly smack talking. Always respectful, of course.

- Make a competition out of goals and then make a game of competition.

Today's Declarations:

- Day by day in every way I am getting better and better.

- I am working toward my goals and I am focused.

- I am unstoppable.
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