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Live the Four Agreements in Real Life

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Although I haven’t read the book, "The Four Agreements," I know that I align with its premise. The concepts resonate with my personal experience of how I learned to speak my truth, eliminate needless pain, clarify what I believe is going on, and do my best. I try to live the Four Agreements in real life, although I do it very imperfectly and it's still in progress. But that's what real life is - halting, slow, steady progress. There is no overnight success, there are no shortcuts.

Here's what I've learned about the importance of and the rewards I've gained from my imperfect efforts to live the Four Agreements in real life.

Olympic Triathlete Susan Williams

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to become an Olympian? I just finished interviewing Bronze Medal Olympic Triathlete Susan Williams and came away with some impacting thoughts.

We talked a lot about family, something very important to her, and her Olympic journey.

Here were some of the things that stood out to me.

When she was 15, her swim coach brought his black and white TV to their practices during the 1984 Los Angeles Games. When a swim event came on, he would pull the team out of the pool to watch. In those moments, huddled around the TV dripping wet, that Susan’s Olympic dream was born. She knew she wanted to represent the USA swimming in the Olympics.

Amazing Teacher - Kyle Carnohan

One of the best, most amazing and gifted teachers I have known is Kyle Carnohan. The interesting thing, however, is that he isn't really a teacher. At least not professionally. He's a firefighter.

I sit in lessons taught by Kyle overwhelmed with how real, humble, and funny he is, and he does it all without really trying. It's effortless and natural, like a duck gliding into a pond.

WHAT MAKES FOR AN AMAZING TEACHER

1. Real

Vicki Tillapaugh - One of God's Greatest Gifts

Yesterday morning I learned of the passing of a dear friend, confidant, and counselor, Vicki Tillapaugh. Vicki was, quite simply put, one of God’s greatest gifts to the rest of us. She was insightful, wise, committed, kind, honest, reasonable, able, discerning, and amazing.

It’s not just in death that I say this. I frequently wrote such things in my journal and also told her when we spoke and communicated it via email.

She guided me through the roughest time in my life with pure and wholesome love, unbelievable insight as a gift from the Divine, and constant, steady counsel to do what was right.

She taught me how to be authentic. She helped me see where some of the greatest holes in my character were (and still are, I’m working on them) and showed me how to work on them. She constantly pointed me to Him. She cared about me and my well-being, as well as every other of God’s children. She had a pure Christlike charity that directed her every move. Her ONLY desire was to do what was right, to do the one thing which was needful, and to show others the way to Him. She reached a level of spiritual development, or enlightenment as some would call it, that few in this life even sniff, much less attain.

She was a trusted advisor and kind, wise friend.

It seems looking back on it I might have known something was up. I can’t really recall the details of our last conversation, but I seem to remember something foreboding, something that could have indicated this may be the last time we spoke. Something in her tone, some statement she made as we hung up that signaled she was giving me insight as to what was to come.

And I have a confession to make – a few weeks ago, maybe last week, I was prompted to reach out to her, to email to see how she was doing. I didn’t do it. I had the feeling a few times. I was busy and wasn’t sure what I was going to say, so I let it go.

Maybe that was God’s way of speaking to my heart, letting me know something was coming so I didn’t take it as a shock. Maybe I’m at peace because I’m so grateful she’s in a MUCH better place and is free from all of the constraints of this world.

Her influence will live on in quiet, simple ways. It will bless people’s lives, like my children’s, in ways they don’t even know.

Vicki was an amazing person and certainly one of God’s greatest gifts. I wish you could have known her.

Luvnberry FroYo - travel logs from the dairy diary

While traveling recently I found a new yogurt place to try - Luvnberry at the Washington-Dulles Airport. I was actually heading to Banana Leaf, from which I had previously enjoyed a fruit smoothie and was going to test their yogurt. But I saw Luvnberry, remembered I saw them last time, and wanted to test it.

I got a taster cup and went to what first caught my eye - Peppermint Patty. With excitement for the cool mint and smooth chocolate I sucked a bit of yogurt in from the cup.

It was undoubtedly the worst frozen yogurt I have ever tasted. It was so bad that I couldn't hold back a reaction of disgust.

Overcome Overwhelm

Overwhelmed is how many of us would categorize our feelings at the end of the day. Students, workers, single parents, executives, travelers trying to catch up with everything they missed while out, and those returning from vacation all know the feeling. It's that crushing blow that you have too much to do and not enough time and or resources to do it, so your first inclination is to scream or push it all away.

Another word for overwhelmed is stressed. You know what it is and how bad it is and so do I.

UMASS Lowell reports, "Job stress is estimated to cost American companies more than $300 billion a year in health costs, absenteeism and poor performance. In addition, consider these statistics:

The Fallacy of PMA - "If you can dream it you can achieve it"

"If you can dream it you can achieve it."

Dear Friends,

Please understand this point - there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation that is continually bandied about as the 'secret to success' or the 'mindset of millionaires' or a thousand other taglines for why you are not yet as successful as you want to be.

Part of this garbage (yes, that's strong, I know) is the popular, "If you can dream it you can achieve it" platitude or variations on that theme.

Fro Yo - The good, the bad, the dating

Froyo Yogurtini
Froyo Yogurtini

Yogurtini = good yogurt. I was impressed with the Cookies & Creme and Chocolate. Vanilla, although not bad, was pretty vanilla. Cookie dough topping (that's the standard). B+ rating. Let's Yo was not so good. C- rating. Bland flavors all the way around. Vanilla, chocolate, cookies & cream. It was as if the chocolate and cookies & cream were indistinguishable. Very unfortunate.

When I wanted more fro yo today where did I go? Yogurtini, of course. They were out of cookie dough, so I had brownie bits. The flavors weren't as good as the other night, but I still enjoyed.

Still conflicted about emotions and dating? Yep. Taking it easy for now.

Sales Performance Improvement - Janek Performance Group

Janek Performance Group is the leading authority on sales strategy and sales performance improvement. Cartier, California Casualty, Pearl Izumi, Chase, Visa, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and TIAA-CREF are just some of the organizations with which Janek has partnered to improve sales results.

The Sr. Sales Trainers and Consultants for Janek like me have the best gig in the world, deploying training and coaching engagements. It really is play time.

I get to know the client company through a pre-training consultation call and online research, then I get to understand their inner workings as we discuss things during the training engagement. My job is to make the training as relevant as possible to their real-world, so it's not a just general blast of information that doesn't really fit their model.