24-7 Pure Awesomeness...

You ever get that feeling of ecstasy, that moment when you know you just rocked out at something. Maybe you just scored the game winning goal for your hockey team or you just aced an exam? Or maybe you just cooked a kick-ass meal and everyone i s congratulating you on a wonderful meal? Who knows, but either way you get an immediate 'high' following these moments. A feeling that you just killed it, and knowing that there was no one else who could have done it the way you just did.

Posted in: compliments, Confidence, friends, friendship, good, laugh, moments, positive, random thought, reminder, smiling on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at at 8:44 AM 6 comments    

First off, I love this topic, and I would like to point out that all of us at times are either building or tearing down our own personal brand, all the time. But what we need to learn is, not how to tear or destroy it, but how to continue building it and creating more equity and trust in ourselves, from other people's point of view, which will create a stronger brand, "YOU." I also like to encourage people to build their personal brands as well. But before I get into it, I need to explain what our personal brand is?

• - Differentiate yourself from your competition, it creates a unique YOU.
• - Position your focused message in the hearts and minds of your audience, friends, etc. Let them know what they are getting when they are friends with you.
• - The way you act and react to people should reflect your personal brand.
• - Deliver your message clearly and quickly, it shouldn't be 'murky' as to who you are.
• - Create strong loyalty with your friends and family, they know what to expect from you every time no matter what.

If you establish a place of trust and relevance in others' minds, you're already in the door. The more people that believe in your brand (believe in you), the more it will spread throughout your network, etc. without your pushing. If your brand is clear, distinctive, and easily understood, and expresses a unique, compelling benefit that people believe in, it will bring you many people towards you, business related or personal related.

To summarize what I mentioned above, I want to say that building your own personal is something we do everyday anyways. We constantly 'give off' who we are and what we are about. This in and of itself is good, but are we doing it in the best way? Most probably not.. There is probably a few things that you could change, also that you want to change, that would make appear and be seen the way you should be as well as want to be seen. You want to be seen as trustworthy, honest, caring and efficient. So show yourself that way. Make sure you are always punctual and on time, courteous to others and always give 110% regardless of what it is that you are doing in your life. Take every task as an opportunity to showcase who you are and what your made of. Build the brand "you" will only help you in the future and make others see you the way you should be seen.

So go ahead and build the "new YOU!"

Posted in: advertisement, brand, improvements, positive, powerful, random thought, relationship, reminder, teaching, thinking on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at at 11:25 AM 5 comments    

The most contagious thing in the world... do you know what it is? Have you ever given this some thought?

What was the first thing you just thought of? Just now as I asked this question?

If you are like the majority of people, I am sure the first thing you thought of was a cold, flu or something bad. But why is that? Why did the thoughts of something negative pop into your mind first? (I don't really know either..) I mean go type in "most contagious" on Google and you will get a million hits for diseases and colds. It's crazy... So don't feel bad that you thought about it first as well.

I mean this could be because the word 'contagious' means, according to Webster's dictionary, 1: communicable by contact 2: bearing contagion 3: used for contagious diseases 4: exciting similar emotions or conduct in others. By these definitions, nothing positive is even mentioned until #4, the last one. And #1 and #3 are referring to something that you can 'catch', like a disease. So our own dictionaries are telling us it's bad before it's good, technically, right?

But that's not what I want to get at, and either way it doesn't matter, because I am going to tell you what I think is the most 'contagious anything' in the world. And the first thing I thought of when I asked myself this question. (Possibly even a few of you have guessed what I am about to say already?) And that is... ..

...a smile. YEP! That's it. Simple eh?

The most contagious thing in this world is a smile. Just think about it for a second. Think about how many times you smile in a day and then think about how many times you laugh in a day. If you are a happy camper, then you smile quite often. Which is great! And when you smile you pass it along. It hops from one person to another until it's filling the whole room that you're in, just like a "contagious virus", err... umm.. almost. :)

These little smiles are like gifts we give each other. It's like saying, "thank you for being my friend" to everyone that you enjoy, and are happy around. The best part about these gifts though is that they are quick, simple and free. We are always looking for something that can keep up with us and how fast we move, and quick we need it. Well here you go, here is one thing that will be able to hold up to your daily grind... I promise, so go ahead and use it more.

And just to prove to you that it's contagious, I am going to show you a few examples of smiles, and I bet at least one of them will make you smile back at it. ;) (click on the images to make them bigger)

Hope you have a happy Tuesday.

Posted in: addiction, contagious, happiness, kids, positive, smiling on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at at 12:18 PM 8 comments    

I am sure you have all heard the song called, “Hard Knock Life” and my favorite version is the one by rapper Jay-Z. He basically spends the whole time talking about how he went from the ‘bottom to the top’. How he went from ‘lukewarm to hot’, and how no one appreciated him until he released his second album.

Jay-Z is a good example of someone who has experienced defeat many times (or that’s what he says in his songs) and kept getting up. You fall down 11 times you get up 12, no matter how many times you lose or get knocked down you need to rise up again. I know sometimes it gets hard and you just don’t have the energy too, but think of how much worse off you will be if you just lay down.. (and die)

Another good song is by Chumbawumba, “Tubthumpin”. (ok well the chorus is preaching the same message) The whole song is basically the chorus as there is virtually no verses. But the chorus says, “I get knocked down but I get up again, no you’re never going to keep me down.” And then just goes ahead and repeats that 20+ times. This song is talking about getting knocked down again and that no matter how many times you, someone else or the world knocks them down, they will always get back up again.

I think people need more of this attitude in them. I think people need to dwell more on the good times, not saying we should forget about all the mistakes and stupid things that we do or happen to us, but more that we need to be persistent. Good things will never happen to us if we decide to quit the race or bail out of the journey early.

You are going to have your good days and bad days, but without the bad days we wouldn’t really realize the good days or they wouldn’t feel that good to us. So on those days when you are feeling down and out, do the following:

-Get up
-Be persistent
-Don’t dwell on any ‘one thing’ for too long
-Learn from where you are at that moment, then forget about it.
-And lastly be Awesome! We all are…

Too many random thoughts for early in the morning. Haha. This is what happens to you in the morning when you hear Jay-Z on your I-Tunes library.

Posted in: happiness, learn, moments, people, positive, potential on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at at 9:52 AM 14 comments    

The most attractive trait on a male, picked by women: CONFIDENCE.

Posted in: awesomeness, Boundaries, challenge, Confidence, happiness, improvements, limits, positive on Friday, March 27, 2009 at at 2:54 PM 4 comments    

People are so complex and so utterly amazing it’s incredible. It’s actually hard to wrap my mind around the complex things we put ourselves through and everything we can and do accomplish. People are crazy smart in so many different ways.

For example you have your dreamers and your abstract thinkers to the right who think about the craziest way to do something or the most amazing ideas ever. These are the people that help us think of all these neat gadgets and processes and unique, but better, ways of living or thinking. Then to the left you have the ‘doers’ and these people are the ones who can take a crazy idea and breath life into it until it grows and blossoms into something real that the dreamer could only believe in their minds just a short time ago.

And these are just two examples of the many cool people we have on this earth...

Our rapid ability to process complex information and to think outside of time and space is awesome. We truly have some great people on this earth and outside of the obvious recognized ones, most of us ‘normal folk’ are awesome as well and don’t even know it. I mean I have had children that just blow my mind with ideas they come up with.

People are such forward thinking creatures and it’s almost scary at how smart we are collectively. (This can work in the opposite way and we can be stupid as well) but when we want to its unreal what we can do. I mean we are literally the most complex super computers in the world.. we function unlike anything else and our brains are super cool.

Anyways, just wanted to start the week off by telling you that YOU are awesome and there is literally no end in sight as to what we can do and people can and WILL accomplish.

Either sit back and watch or get up and be part of it… your choice. You already know what mine is.

Ciao-

Posted in: abstract, awesomeness, brain, crazy, people, positive, potential on Monday, March 23, 2009 at at 3:36 PM 8 comments    

I am going to steal an idea from my buddy over at Awesomeness Inc, while putting my own twist on it of course.. haha. *sticks tongue out*

I got a comment about a post I wrote yesterday and this person managed to pull out a negative point in a post that was strictly supposed to be happy and nothing else? So I started thinking about myself and was wondering, "am I really posting negative things and writing about mind numbing ideas that make people get down?"

I don't think so? I mean tell me if I am wrong, but my main goal is to write awesome things and to give you guys something to munch on for a mid-lunch snack while you are working at the office or babysitting some crazy monkeys? (don't know what it is that you do.. you see I'm guessing)

So it got me thinking further about negative vs. positive. I think you need to have a positive mindset to even see the positive parts in a piece of writing, and if you have negative thoughts already flowing in your head, you will only be able to pick out the negative parts. Sounds simple and logical right?

I mean I try to wake up like my buddy 'A.I.' and I try to say "today is going to be a great day!" everyday I wake up. I mean I think I probably smile in my sleep and that's the way I like it. I like that happiness is contagious and that I can spread it like a disease.. haaha (watch out) You better all catch it too. If one of you walks away with a smile after reading about something good or about a thought you got from here, then I am stoked. (tell me about it, I would love to hear)

But on the other side of it if you are one of those chronic negative people, and I know you all just thought of someone you know that is negative 90+ percent of the time you see them, then I don't have time for you. I can handle a little negativity here and some there, but if you are throwing it in my face every waking minute I see you then I don't have the time for you. I mean if I could help I would, but these people really don't want help, they just want to be miserable to let the whole world know it. (please do the rest of us happy normal people a favor and leave us alone)

Here, I have a 24/7 awesomeness proposal for you. Try it! I want you to try to be happy even when shitty things happen, look at the good side for once. Look at the fact that you should be happy that you even woke up this morning, because you know and I know not everyone woke up from last night. And think about positive thoughts for a day, and this starts from the moment you get up... look in the mirror while brushing your teeth and say "today is a good day" just do it, just try it..

.. be awesome!

Ciao!

Posted in: happiness, negative, positive, try on Friday, March 13, 2009 at at 9:07 AM 6 comments