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.

ORDER NOW!

Before you neglect to honor and be thankful for those people who have served to uphold your standards and battled for your benefit, be reminded that without veterans we would live in a far more frightening world. That world would include slavery of many people worldwide, killing of entire races, unchecked religious persecution, and tolerance of things that only the vilest individuals could imagine.

If we had a perfect world, there would be no need for warriors or fighting. This is a great goal to live for and work toward. In the meantime, we have veterans. So, regardless how you have benefited from the hard work and security granted by those who have put their dedication into action and laid their lives on the line for you, I hope that you will take a moment to give compassion and honor to those many men and women who care enough about you to give everything.

They are working for you right now.

If you would like to honor a veteran, I welcome your comments here. I will share your comments with soldiers working hard today and let them know we appreciate them.

“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.

ORDER NOW!

Come and watch a live discussion about “Living in the Storm” during The Jim Cates Show. We will discuss how each of us can make better choices in life and begin to live in the storm instead of just waiting it out.

You may ask questions or comment about the interview in the comments section here on the blog or you may send questions or comments via Twitter to @murnahan. I will be checking for comments and answering questions during the show.

Following the show, I will be at Hastings at 21st & Fairlawn (Fairlawn Plaza) in Topeka Kansas for a meet and greet. Then I will return to Hastings for a book signing 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Click here for the Webcast!

About “Living in the Storm”

Each of us have a storm raging around our lives that can sometimes seem out of control. It is easy to be blown off course, but challenging to put things back into place. When you choose to live in the storm, rather than just wait for it to blow over, you regain control. Decisions become clearer, joy increases, and you pass inspiration on to others.

Living in the Storm presents ways to help you:
- Take a fresh look at your surroundings.
- Recognize and overcome cynicism.
- Become more thankful and apologetic.
- Become more influential than influenced.
- Break a cycle of negative expectations.
- Create a cheering section of people who want you to win.
- Gain patience and live life long-sighted.

Many moments of joy and inspiration go unnoticed in the storm of life. Rediscovering those moments can create a break in the storm. It may even create the extended break that you have been seeking all along.

Immediately after the show, I will visit Hastings and enjoy their coffee shop. I plan to be there by 10 a.m., so if you can make it to Hastings either from 10-11 a.m. or from 5-7 p.m., I would like to meet you.

I will also have copies of my recent release “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“, and answer questions about any of my three book releases for 2009.

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!

Family Breakdown

Times are changing fast and it may sometimes feel like the world is spinning out of control. Parents of all ages have claimed the troubles of “kids these days”. Some have claimed that “these are the worst of times”. People have likely said these things for centuries, but let’s look at some of the changes, and consider some possible shortcomings in our adaptation.

I have written about being selective of who you spend your time and attention with. I even told a story of severing negative family ties. Of course, this is not to be the standard. Family is a precious resource that is very often neglected and taken for granted. I also wrote of inviting family into your cheering section and winning them over. This is preferred, whenever it is possible.

Necessity or Negligence?

I am not the first person that you have found expressing a concern of family values. Deterioration of families is a widespread epidemic that is often very pronounced in Western culture. As people found more things that they “needed” such as color television, air conditioning, and two automobiles, that feeling of need grew greater. Those “needs” of yesteryear sprung into demands for larger homes, fancier cars, cellular phones for each child over the age of seven, and a lifestyle that every neighbor would envy. The rat race was on, and the forces of peer pressure took men and women by the nose and led them away from their families.

I am not only addressing Western society, so do not mistake this. The closeness of families is a worldwide concern, and the epidemic is spreading. When people drift away from families, they also drift away from much of the positive nurturing that only a family can provide.

I have witnessed cultures from all around the world, and the precious demand for more hours in the day is not exclusive to any nation. More than anywhere else, I find that many of the swift changes in American society have fallen tragically short of the joys that were expected by the changes. We have thrown ourselves into so many changes that our adaptations have often been made in haste.

Consider this common acceptance of cultural failure in the past couple decades, and question whether it is based on necessity or negligence. As families accepted both parents working, daycares and schools were left to raise the kids. As parents took second and third jobs, the family suffered further demise. Kids are often left to raise themselves, and each other. I see this every day, even in my insulated upper-middle-class cocoon. Kids are off on their own, or in groups of other kids who may or may not be a good influence. That influence often goes unmonitored while parents’ communication is limited to the time they wake up and the time they go to bed, perhaps with a few text messages in between. I am not saying that this is the standard. I will say, however, that it is prevalent enough to warrant parents’ attention. As a chorus, we all say “not my kid”, but just remember that it is somebody’s kid who will bring a gun to school or teach your kids to use drugs. Their parents probably do not expect it either.

As the work-related pressures add up, parents communicate less, kids become more troubled, and the family breaks down. Before you know it, they give it all up for divorce and try over with a whole new dynamic. Does any of this sound familiar?

In such a self-indulgent society, we do what feels good for the moment and then we expect our children to learn from that example. When it all comes undone and it is too late to take it back and start over, we just hope that our kids will do better than we did.

Stop it! You do better, and you teach them right. Now is the best time to set a legacy into action. If you do not provide the best example now, then you really have neglected your family. Family should never be subjected to living here and now and doing what feels good for the moment, without weighing it in favor of what is best in the future. This kind of neglect is far too popular, and it is usually bred of despair. Family is the genesis of all society. We all come from somewhere, and we learn most of our best and worst lessons as a result of how we were raised within our family. If you worry for society, be mindful that it starts with the responsibility and dedication of each family.

Whether you are the kid in this scenario, a spouse, a grandparent, or just a curious onlooker, I hope you will share your time and share support to prevent the breakdown. If you feel that you have already been sucked into this tornado-like storm, please take the care to remember the things that once made your family happy and positive about your future. Make a commitment to needed adjustments to prevent the breakdown. Sometimes dedication to an old standard of sitting together for dinner is enough to improve the dialogue within a family. It sounds so simple, but yet it is one of the first things to blow away in the storm.

Take the time to express yourself, and do not wait another day!

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!

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!

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!

Sometimes using what you already have available to reach your goals of happiness fails. It takes a refresher course and taking a new view of your direction. It can also take implementing new tools to better address the changes that have taken place in your life.

I realize that it is easy to be cynical when it relates to bettering your life. It takes a lot of work! So many doubts exist, and it is so hard to believe in another message of hope to rejuvenate broken dreams. Cynicism comes easy … After all, what can this Murnahan guy do that will make my life so great?

The truth is that I cannot make your life great. What I can do is to offer new ideas and new tools that I know from experience can help you. I am offering you a tool, similar to handing you a hammer. You decide whether you use the hammer to build a home or take a life, because a hammer can do either. I am just offering tools. How, or if, you choose to use the tools will be up to you.

If you are ever going to make progress toward a happier life, it is time to rise above the doubts and progress your life through the storm instead of waiting for it to blow over. Have some faith in yourself and take a risk. What do you really have to lose?

Maybe you have tried and failed. So what is next? Do not underestimate the value of persistence. I know you, and I know how hard you have tried to live a better life each day. I also know that there are roadblocks that slow your efforts as you progress through life. Consider what you will have if you stop trying.

Maybe your life is perfect, but it has probably not always been that way. If this is the case, you probably have some people to thank, and some people you would like to assist with inspiration like you received. If this is the case, here is your chance to pass along the favor.

Here is an early look at my latest book titled “Living in the Storm”. I hope that you will give it a careful look and consider how it may offer a benefit to your life or that of somebody you care about.

Coming Soon!

I submitted the final files for “Living in the Storm” just a short number of hours ago. I have received notification that my proof copy has been shipped by the printer, and I will release this new book after my review once my proof arrives. Please check back soon for ordering availability within the next couple days.