POWER QUESTIONS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY

By Jamie Ford, www.foresight.co.nz, Guest Blogger

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life: happiness, freedom, and peace of mind; are always attained by giving them to someone else.”
Peyton Conway March

In his book "Awaken the giant within” motivational speaker Anthony Robbins notes that our life experience is based on what we focus on. And what we focus on is often determined by the questions we ask ourselves on a regular basis.

The best questions to ask yourself are what he calls Power Questions. Power questions are designed to cause you to experience more happiness, excitement, pride, gratitude, joy, commitment, and love every day of your life.

Anthony suggests you come up with at least two to three answers to all of these questions.

If you have difficulty coming up with an answer, just add the word "Could". For instance you might want to ask “What could I be most happy about in my life now?”

Here are some Power Questions you can ask yourself first thing in the morning when you wake up:

1: What am I happy about in my life now?
What about that makes me happy?
How does that make me feel?

2: What am I excited about in my life now?
What about that makes me feel excited?
How does that make me feel?

3: What am I proud about in my life right now?
What about that makes me feel proud?
How does that make me feel?

4: What am I grateful about in my life right now?
What about that makes me feel grateful?
How does that make me feel?

5: What am I enjoying most in my life right now?
What about that do I enjoy?
How does that make me feel?

6: What am I committed to in my life right now?
What about that makes me feel committed?
How does that make me feel?

7: Who do I love?
Who loves me?
What about that makes me feel loving?
How does that make me feel?

Action Exercise:
Use some (or all) of these Morning Power Questions every morning for five days and notice how good you end up feeling.

It really is remarkable how much better you will feel when you make these Power Questions a regular part of each day.

What do you think? Are Jamie and Anthony full of caca de toro, or have they hit on something that you can use to improve your life? Please share your thoughts.

A LETTER TO AARP

Guest Bloggers Walt & Cyndy Miller, Miller Farms Equine Transport

This was sent to Mr. Rand who is the Executive Director of AARP

Dear Mr. Rand,

Recently you sent us a letter encouraging us to renew our lapsed membership in AARP by the requested date. I know it is not what you were looking for, but this is the most honest response I can give you. Our gap in coverage is merely a microscopic symptom of the real problem, a deepening lack of faith..

While we have proudly maintained our membership for several years and have long admired the AARP goals and principles, regrettably, we can no longer endorse it's abdication of our values. Your letter specifically stated that we can count on AARP to speak up for our rights, yet the voice we hear is not ours. Your offer of being kept up to date on important issues through DIVIDED WE FAIL presents neither an impartial view nor the one we have come to embrace. We do believe that when two parties agree all the time on everything presented to them, one is probably not necessary. But, when the opinions and long term goals are diametrically opposed, the divorce is imminent. This is the philosophy which spawned our 200 years of government.

Once upon a time, we looked forward to being part of the senior demographic. We also looked to AARP to provide certain benefits and give our voice a power we could not possibly hope to achieve on our own. AARP gave us a sense of belonging which we no longer enjoy. The Socialist politics practiced by the Obama administration and empowered by AARP serves only to raise the blood pressure my medical insurance strives to contain. Clearly a conflict of interest there!

We do not understand the AARP posture, feel greatly betrayed by the guiding forces whom we expected to map out our senior years and leave your ranks with a great sense of regret. We mitigate that disappointment with the relief of knowing that we are not contributing to the problem anymore by renewing our membership. There are numerous other organizations which offer discounts without threatening our way of life or offending our sensibilities.

This Presidential Administration scares the living daylights out of us. Not just for ourselves, but for our proud and bloodstained heritage, but even more importantly for our children and grandchildren. Washington has rendered Soylent Green a prophetic cautionary tale rather than a nonfiction scare tactic. I have never in my life endorsed any militant or radical groups, yet
now I find myself listening to them. I don't have to agree with them to appreciate the fear which birthed their existence. Their borderline insanity presents little more than a balance to the voice of the Socialist mindset in power. Perhaps I became American by a great stroke of luck in some cosmic uterine lottery, but in my adulthood I CHOOSE to embrace it and nurture the freedoms it represents as well as the responsibilities it requires.

Your website generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish. ARE YOU KIDDING??? Someone has broken into our 'house', invaded our home without our invitation or consent. The President has insisted we keep the perpetrator in comfort and learn the perp language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them.

I DON'T choose to welcome them.

I DON'T choose to support them..

I DON'T choose to educate them.

I DON'T choose to medicate them, pay for their food or clothing.

American home invaders get arrested.

Please explain to me why foreign lawbreakers can enjoy privileges on American soil that Americans do not get?

Why do some immigrants have to play the game to be welcomed and others only have to break & enter to be welcomed?

We travel for a living. Walt hauls horses all over this great country, averaging over 10,000 miles a month when he is out there. He meets more people than a politician on caffeine overdose. Of all the many good folks he enjoyed on this last 10,000 miles, this trip yielded only ONE supporter of
the current administration. One of us is out of touch with mainstream America . Since our poll is conducted without funding, I have more faith in it than one which is power driven.

We have decided to forward this to everyone on our mailing list, and will encourage them to do the same. With several hundred in my address book, I have every faith that the eventual exponential factor will make a credible statement to you....

I am disappointed as hell.

I am scared as hell.

I am MAD as hell, and I'm NOT gonna take it anymore!

Walt & Cyndy

Excellent letter and here is the link from snopes so y'all don't have to look it up.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/aarp.asp

Well, folks, what do you think? I'm inclined to think she makes a lot of sense and may just drop my AARP membership.

Hank

TEAM BUILDING

By Hank Trisler

Gresham's Law (GRESH-ums law) noun: The theory that bad money drives good money out of circulation. [Coined by economist Henry Dunning Macleod in 1858 after Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579), financier and founder of the Royal Exchange in London. Gresham, a financial adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, wrote to her “good and bad coin cannot circulate together.”]

Gresham's Law says that when both are required to be accepted as legal tender, inferior money remains in circulation while the good money tends to be hoarded or exported.

Examples of bad money could be counterfeit notes, coins that have their edges scraped off to siphon precious metal, or two legal tenders where one is intrinsically superior (e.g. a gold coin vs. a paper note of the same face value). In general, the law applies to situations outside the financial world as well: for example, bad politicians drive out good ones.

“But the main blame for the debasement lies with the Tories, who have conclusively confirmed that there is a Gresham's Law of politics: the most squalid party drags the others down towards its level.” Roy Hattersley; Exploitation Dressed Up As Compassion; The Guardian (London, UK); May 2, 2005.

“So what does that have to do with team building?” You might well ask. “Isn’t that about climbing ropes and paddling canoes and like that?”

I reply, Nah, that’s just programs to justify having a party at company expense. Team building is something you do every single day with your every word and action.

Gresham’s Law explains why we see good, intelligent, compassionate managers build squabbling, avaricious and lazy sales forces. We managers can’t get the people we want, so we settle for those we can get and then cry about our lot in life. Your best recruiting tool is your existing sales force. You will not be able to hire sales stars if they have to run in the same harness with slugs. The very best method of increasing the production of a sales force is to increase the minimum acceptable production.

Enforce it diligently. Every month look at each person in your sales force and determine whether they are a profit center or a loss center.

If a person is below your minimum acceptable sales production, you must help them increase their sales, or find a position with another company, and do so within ninety days.

Allowing them to hang around longer does no favor to them and will be the destruction of your sales team. You spend most of your time trying to make good wine out of bad grapes, when you should be lavishing your attention on your top producers.

I recall a real estate broker once telling me that if she dehired all her low producers, she’d be alone. GOOD! I told her she’d be better off alone, as she was likely taking some of her personal production just to keep the turkeys afloat. It took guts, but she made a clean sweep of the office and said she had never felt better. She had more time for her personal business and was very selective in allowing new people to join her. When she had one really good person, that person brought a friend in for an interview.

And so it grows. If you have a really great success sales atmosphere in your store, you’ll attract the sort of salesperson you want. Conversely, you’ll never get the people you want if you ignore Gresham’s Law.