We always try to help our friends when they come to us with marital struggles, and sometimes we are really helpful, but I thought a proactive approach would be even better.

I guess I am trying to lead by example, in hopes that others may start to think of their relationships, and how they can be even better. I wish to inspire others to share their love with their spouses and loved ones, and never wait for a better time.

… Read this story at aWebGuy.com

I watched this video of USA for Africa “We Are the World” and was very touched to recall the massive efforts given at the time it was made. It made me question what it takes to bring forth such an effort in reaching the hearts of the world and remind others to uncover their emotions and be more caring.

We can each receive great value by giving and caring. Be reminded that the giver receives great benefit along with the recipient.

Please take a break to enjoy a moment in time of caring and be reminded to be good to others more now than ever.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

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When this happens, it is time to reflect on the reasons you tried in the first place. Evaluate the joy you expect to find when you succeed. Perhaps most importantly, it is time to learn to enjoy the process and not just the outcome.

Begin again today! Take a moment to refresh your goals by focusing on the small achievements you have made along the way. This will help you to enjoy the storm that is life and not just push through it to get to the sunshine tomorrow.

Setting out to achieve any goal will come with sacrifice. You knew it when you set the first goal, and after some failure, you know the sacrifice better than ever. If you take the care to revel in your small achievements along the way, the sacrifice will get easier all the time.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

“I should exclaim that my latest book release has helped millions of people to enjoy a happier life … Well, not millions yet … but it will.”

Well, of course it has not helped millions of people yet. I just released the book! That is the good part. “Yet” means that it will, and without that attitude, it would surely help far fewer people.

Just think for a moment about how a similar attitude of reaching into your future with definitive goals and an outlook of possibility rather than blurred consciousness and pre-defeated hopes could feel good today, and not just once the goals are achieved.

Even the greatest optimist has hesitation and shortcomings. Why do we hesitate to look at the optimistic side of life? This has a lot to do with influences we have taken throughout our life, and throughout our day. Many people around you will caution you “for your own good”, or for their own selfishness. People often find more negative influences in life as they become adults, with fewer positive influences than as a child. Whatever the causes that influence you, there are solutions within you. You must reach for them, and sometimes it takes a map to find the way. I hope you will enjoy this map I offer.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

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They are only words, but it comes all too often that they are easy to take to heart. Don’t do it! Do not buy into other’s hate. Remember that they only use mean words because they cannot find a better way to hurt you or steal your hopes. They are the weak ones seeking an upper hand in any way they can find it, and hurting you is proof that they can beat you.

If you find that you are more offended by words like jerk, creep, fag, queer, dummy, shorty, fatass, idiot, moron, nigger, chink, coolie, gook, wap, spic, beaner, hymie, kike, bog, or others, than you are inspired to overcome and conquer these despicable standards of hatred and demoralization, then you may as well accept them. When you accept the values of hatred and anger into your life, then you are diminishing your potential and being a victim. Many of the greatest leaders and admired people of all time heard these words of hatred and many more. Did it hurt them? Sure, it probably did for a while, but then they made a decision to overcome the anger and pain.

Take a minute and think of the worst things people have ever said to you. Get upset, be absolutely furious, and cry if you need to. Then, when you are done feeling whatever it is that you have to get out, make a decision that from this day forward you will not hear these things. Let there be no concern for retaliation, no revenge, no anger, nothing! Let them say what they will. They are now the weaker ones. You have taken away their power, and you are the one who will win!

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

This is the introduction to “Diary of Betterment” which is the companion book to “Living in the Storm”. Please provide me with your feedback. Your comments mean a lot to me.

Introduction:

I want to keep this simple. Making a better life is not as hard as it looks. When you break it all down, a great life is really not so complicated at all. You can do this!

You can probably think of a dozen things right now that would make your life better and a dozen more ways you can achieve those things. A challenge that exists is in taking inventory and becoming more cognizant of these things on a daily basis. Life is busy, and many things get in the way of a better life. The biggest obstacle is you.

It is common to look at life as one huge picture, and that is often how we have been trained. We learn that if you look at the big picture, the little things do not matter so much. This is a way that people can feel better about temporary challenges in life. Ironically, without those little things, there is no picture at all. The truth is that the little things matter and they matter a lot.

When it starts to look cloudy, it is often important to break life down into smaller manageable pieces in order to sort it out and see things clearer again. Managing small improvements and working toward a long-term outlook not only helps you long-term, but it can help you today, too!

“Diary of Betterment” is your personal documentation of improvements to relationships, how you influence those relationships, and for creating and reaching goals. This book was developed as a companion to “Living in the Storm” and is intended to help you document and score progress as you make your way in the storm we call life.

This book contains action steps based on the book, “Living in the Storm” and outlines many of the principles included therein. It also provides supplemental information for defining, monitoring, and achieving your goal of enjoying life.

You may use this book individually, but if you have not yet read “Living in the Storm”, it is highly recommended in order to receive maximal benefit.

I cannot save you from all of the challenges in your life, but I can offer you a tool to help you work through them and to gain clarity through cognizance. When you pay closer attention to your life, you become much closer to the life that you want, and that you deserve.

If you think you are not up to the challenges of overcoming life’s obstacles and using them for benefit, you are probably right. Most people will never take the needed steps or make the best decisions. Why should you change the wind?

If you think it is time to turn the page and take steps to make improvements in your life and in the life of those around you, you are probably right. Turn the page, and let’s get started!

You have probably justified your failure many times. Lie to me if you like … that will make you feel better. When you lie to yourself, it is you who must live with it. Here is a short clip from my new book, “Living in the Storm”. Consider whether you or anybody you care about has justified their failure, and whether a new look at things may be in order.

Justified Failure

I have heard a lot of excuses from people for their failures. Some people justify their failure, and others will choose to never even try to succeed at achieving the life they want. Some wildly popular excuses that I have heard for failure include where they were raised, education, upbringing, race, genetically-imposed expectations, physical handicaps, economy, and more. The list can go on seemingly forever with excuses. These excuses help people to justify their failure, but how can that be justified? The list of people who have overcome these obstacles and much bigger challenges and subsequently become legendary proves these excuses to be invalid. The person with excuses for failure makes it impossible to succeed. If you have made excuses to justify your failure, that is over!

If you are smart enough to read this page, then you are smart enough to win in your life. You are smart enough to overcome your obstacles and use them for strength. You are smart enough to understand that being the victim will never give you what you really seek. Some people would say that is it easier to be a victim than a survivor. That may be true in some ways, but the lengthier outcome of being a victim has got to be a truly terrible life.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is presently available for order by three methods. It is now available at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

Nobody gets a perfect life, and we all have storms to weather. Even if life seems pretty close to perfect, there is always room to make it better, and to help others to do the same. I sincerely hope that you will accept my words of inspiration and begin to use the principles of Living in the Storm for helping to create moments of joy and inspiration in your life and the life of others around you. I am very confident that you will enjoy this book and that it can provide a benefit in your life.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is presently available for order by three methods. It is now available at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.



ORDER NOW!

The Happy Waiter

I will not claim that a waiter has the happiest job in the world, but I have sure seen some happy waiters. If you consider the work they perform, it should be easy to imagine their joy. You may not see it quite yet, but it seems so obvious to me. The overall function of their job is to give people what they want. This can be said for many professions, but a few things stand out about waiters. They often come into our lives when we are having good times with friends, celebrating, or just meeting to share a meal together. They are there to help us feel good, and extinguish our hunger. They are really a lot more important to us than it may seem at first glimpse.

The happy waiter, the one who really loves what they do, shares their positivity and gives us something to smile about. Perhaps the cynic would say that they are just working hard for a bigger tip, but that is the cynic. Cynicism has no value here.

Can you remember a really happy waiter? I can, and I see them as a great reminder of pride and joy that comes from serving others. In fact, one that comes to mind has not served me in over thirty years. He was a waiter who used to make funny faces at me and my brothers while standing behind our parents. When our parents would look around to see what we were laughing at, he would just shrug and act as if he had no idea what was going on. Maybe you think that I should have little reason to recall this man, but I do, and his name is Mahmoud Nasrazadani. As kids, we thought his name was cool. We never knew somebody with such a unique name, so it stood out, and I still remember his silly antics.

I am not saying that you may remember a waiter from your childhood, but I will say that the cumulative effect of people who treat you nicely and make you smile have much to do with the person you are. Maybe I am one of the few who remember Mahmoud in this way, but how compelling is it to imagine being one of those people that others will remember so many years later?

Of course, this will not be the same for all waiters, and it has much to do with how they see their work. The waiter who will give the best service is the one who truly enjoys creating joy, and you can spot them quickly. They are the kind of people you come back and request when you visit their restaurant. I think we should all try to learn from these people and try to be a happy waiter in our own lives.

The same trait of receiving joy from giving joy is available regardless of your profession or whether you have any job at all. A good lesson I consider is from my 92 year old grandmother who takes time each week to volunteer at “the old folks home”. I laugh when I hear her call it that, because many of the residents are much younger than her. She volunteers her time to serve them food and best of all, to make them smile. She is a happy waiter.

The very powerful feelings that come from helping others can be noted as some of the best success stories in your life. Just think for a moment about times that you have done something nice for others, and how it made you feel. There is no doubt that when you do this enough that it can form a truly valuable habit. Other people watch and learn from your actions, and will often follow your lead.

Becoming “The Happy Waiter” can start as simple acts of kindness and consideration of others. If you do it each day, in some way, you should never wonder if somebody received a benefit. The person receiving the greatest benefit is often you.

I certainly should mention the downside to being happy by creating happiness for others. There is always the cynical person who will call happy people “fake”. Before you decide to be happier by serving joy to others, I must first pose this very important question:

Would you rather receive suspicion of falseness for being happy and spreading joy, or as genuine for being grumpy and cynical?

I would rather be seen as fake for being optimistic than genuine for being a cynic. I know which of these is happier. If you are one of those cynics, you had better stick around and keep reading. You may be really surprised to find how much joy you are missing.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!