The Inspiration Nation

Have you seen the Nike video ad about courage?  It is awesome.

It gives me chills of joy and excitement to watch it.

It inspires me.

It also teaches me a little something about effective marketing.  If I can connect emotionally to my potential clients, I don't have to sell them.

They're already sold.

Just Do It.

I get a lot of forwards in my email inbox from friends and family.  I'm sure you do, too.  To tell the truth, I generally skim over them pretty quickly and then hit the delete key.

This morning, something moved me to give more than cursory treatment to a YouTube video -- sent to me by my sister, Tahirah -- that I also want to share with you here.

Far more articulate than me, recently-naturalized US citizen, Derrick Ashlong, offers an answer to would-be critics of Obama who assert that he is heavy on emotional appeal, but lacking in substance.  Derrick illustrates with incredible reasoning that nothing can be further from the truth, and shows with equal power the depth of engagement young people have in this politcal process at this historic time.

This spontaneous, impromptu interview (where it is clear the interviewer intended to catch Derrick unprepared and uninformed) is just shy of 6 minutes long.

 

Awesome, don't you think?

Those who know me know that I have been won over by Senator Obama.   I am inspired by the message and politics and consistency of Senator Obama, particularly his broad appeal and commitment to collaboration and unity -- as opposed to a hardline, go-it-alone attitude -- as the vehicle through which positive change can occur.

This has been my impression of the man already.  Derrick's interview only served to further seal the deal. 

In fact, the response was so great, Derrick was moved to record a follow-up response to this interview to explain his deeply personal and emotional reasons for supporting Obama.

I hope you'll take a moment (about 7 1/2 minutes) to also view the following video by Derrick Ashlong.  I think you'll find it inspiring and moving, regardless of whether you agree with his choice of candidate to be the next President of the United States or not.

I would love to hear from you about your thoughts and your impressions.

For now, I leave you with Derrick Ashlong:

 

 

The world mourns a great man today.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It's a somber and sobering day, as I remember Dr. King and the legacy he created in life and in death.  Forty years after the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., there is still much work to do.

That's why it is also a day of rejoicing that you and I have the honor and privilege of embracing the spirit of Dr. King and taking up his torch of freedom, racial equality, and economic justice for everyone.

Will you take up the challenge? 

I am also reminded today of my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Dov Baron (who was just a 10-year-old boy when Dr. King died), whose mission is to raise consciousness and impact the world with the same magnitude that Dr. King impacted his.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but Dr. Baron has surely impacted me in immeasurably powerful ways.

If you're a student of Tony Robbins, you have probably already seen this 12-minute segment where George Stroumboulopoulos interviews him.  I just discovered it when Alvin Cook shared it over at LifeCoachesBlog.com.

The video shows a down-to-Earth and refreshingly imperfect Tony who shares a little insight into his own humanity and what it means to be a student (and teacher) of peak performance.

(I have to say that I still think he talks a bit too fast, which sometimes -- for me, anyway -- takes a bit of energy to keep up with!)

For me, one of the most encouraging parts of the interview is when Tony minds us that when the chips are down, nothing in life is permanent.  Tony, of course, is the guru of 'state management,' a proponent of consciously changing any emotional state we may be experiencing in the moment to one we would prefer to be experiencing. 

The segment is only 12 minutes.  Take a look and listen:

 

It seems that people are always looking for the secret to staying positive and "up."  They want the key to lasting happiness or the magic pill to true contentment and satisfaction.

Can you relate?  Have you been searching?

Regardless of our level of joy and contentment and happines and peace, I think it's natural to desire more of what is right and good for us.

Motivational speaker and fitness coach (among other things), Craig Harper is consistently in a peak positive space most of the time.  Asked how he does it, he gives 20 deliberate tips for staying positive and productive.

I highly recommend Craig's list, but I have to give fair warning:  None of the tips is rocket science.  You don't have to go on a pilgrimmage or contort your body in unnatural pretzel-like formations or starve yourself for 30 days and 30 nights.

Happiness and positivity are really quite simple (though not necessary easy), really, provided you consistently master your mind, monitor your thoughts and feelings, take quality time for rest and relaxation, and surround yourself with positive and productive people.

That's it in a nutshell, and Craig tells just how it's done. 

The other day, I found myself opening up the Cascadia Weekly, a free Bellingham weekly independent newspaper and noticing an opinion piece authored by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, entitled "Eyes On The Prize:  Civil Rights deserves civil response."

(By the way, you can download specific issue -- the Jan 15 - Jan 23 issue -- and read the short article yourself by clicking HERE.  The opinion piece is on page 6.) 

I read it with rapt attention.

I think it is brilliant.  So brilliant, that I quickly penned an email to Jesse Jackson to inquire if I might have permission to reprint the article here on this blog.

I haven't heard back from them.  Of course, it's only been a day or two, and I'm sure they at RainbowPush.org receive hundreds of inquiries a day.

There were many great points Jesse Jackson made.  I appreciate how he opened his article commenting that Martin Luther King, Jr., were he alive today, would be both please and troubled by the current state of affairs in America today.

Undoubtedly, it would bring him joy to know that among those seeking the Democratic nomination to become President of the United States include "an African America, a woman, a white male populist and a Hispanic."  This reality today would be unheard of during Martin Luther King's lifetime.

The disappointment he would feel, Jackson asserts, is the disappointment most of us lovers of freedom, human dignity, and equal civil rights likewise feel.  Says Jackson "Poverty is up; hunger spreading. Millions of children go without adequate health care.  Affordable housing is lacking...the recession has been going on long before the economists woke up to it."

Last month we remembered the legacy of Dr. King on the anniversary of his birth.  "I have a dream!" are perhaps the four most famous words the fallen leader is known for.

Yet, Jesse Jackson noted "King had a dream, but he was not a dreamer."  He realized that changing laws is not the same as changing hearts.  He knew that there was much work to do in the word to raise consciousness and bring humankind together as the brother- and sisterhood they are.

All of this Jesse pointed out to address the current distraction from the all-important work of uniting America that is dangerously close to dwelling on what divides.  The media and others blow little, innocent things completely out of proportion, rather than creating constructive, meaningful dialogue.

Jesse Jackson explains what he means (referencing the two front runners, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama) in the following two paragraphs I have extracted from his opinion piece:

When Obama said that Hillary was "likeable enough," it was not a gender insult; it was a gentle compliment.  These two were friends; they have compaigned together.  To turn it into anythin else is simply silly.  When Hillary said Lyndon Johnson was necessary to get the Voting Rights Act passed, of course she's right.  It took years of demonstrations, litigation and legislation to challenge segregation.  King appreciated what Johnson helped achieve, even as he continued to challenge him.  Hillary's statement is not a racial insult.  When surrogates state demeaning Obama's experience as an organizer or insinuating garbage about his past, that degrades all of us, not just him.

The problem with this stuff is that it can easily get out of hand, embittering supporters on both sides.  We're having a vital competition inside the team about who should be the first-string quarterback.  And it's great that the competition is stiff and the competitors all highly skilled.  But the battle for position shouldn't be so bitter that it divides the team . . . 

 Yes, we live in exciting times.  The truth is, we all want essentially the same things.  So rather than be at each other's throats and taking cheap, mean-spirited shots, I think Jesse hits the nail on the head when he concludes, "Let's appeal to people's hopes, not their fears, and give them someone to vote *for*, not against."

 

I spotted this sign yesterday and could think of nothing else, so I took a quick snapshot to remind me.

Pretty cool, huh?

26 Mar 1964. Martin Luther King leaning on a lecternToday is a federal holiday in the United States, set aside to remember and honor the civil rights leader and peace activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The holiday alway falls on the third Monday in January, though King's actual date of birth was January 15.

On Friday, I attended a viewing of the documentary film on Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement called The Intolerable Burden.

The documentary revolves around the situation in Drew, Mississippi in 1965 when the school board created a freedom-of-choice plan where students, black or white, would now be permitted to attend the school of their choice.  This plan was created in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which required compliance in order to continue receiving federal financial assistance.

Because the all-black schools were grossly inferior to the white schools, Mae Bertha Carter and her husband made the decision to enroll their children in the (still) all-white public schools.

The film took a powerful look at the state of affairs during segregation, the "intolerable burden" the children carried as the only black children in a very hostile white environment, and the subsequent white flight that resulted in the resegregation of the schools that continues into this new millennium.

There are many things that impressed me about the film, particularly the strength of the Carter children and of their mother, Mae Bertha.

At one point in the film, she quotes Martin Luther King as saying that there ought to be something you are willing to die for.  This is in the context where, because of her actions, white people were talking "'bout they gonna kill you."

Mae Bertha's answer?

"You already dead you let somebody control your life."

Wow.

Martin Luther King had a dream.  He had "seen the promised land."  So did Mae Bertha.

What about you?  Have you seen your promised land?  What's your dream?

The February 2008 issue of Reader's Digest is out already.  There's a great make-you-think article written by Cynthia Dermody called "Words to Inspire;  7 things you should say to your kids -- and 7 things you shouldn't."

How can parents (or anyone who interacts with kids) communicate, offer feedback, be constructive without sounding condescending or insensitive?

It's not an easy task, to which any parent or teacher can attest.   Dermody offers the observation that "Your child may not hear the words you're sure you sad."

Sound familiar?

This Reader's Digest article offers a bit of helpful advice.  Here are 7 suggestions to better communication with kids:

(Of course, you'll have to get your own copy of Reader's Digest to go beyond this simple bulletted list, but hopefully this snippet reveals the power of a small shift in how we word things and the impact of that small shift on the self-esteem and development of a child, teen or young adult.)

1. You Say:  "You're the best."  They Hear:  "Your job in life is to make me happy."  Better:  "You should be proud of how hard you worked."
2. You Say:  "Watch your language."  They Hear:  "I've turned out what you're really trying to say."  Better:  "I'm so glad you came to talk to me, but I have one request for the future.  I find that word offensive, so please don't use it."
3. You Say:  "We can't afford that."  They Hear:  "Money is the answer to everything."  Better:  "The store is filled with great things today, but we've got lots at home already and we're not going to bring home anything more."
4. You Say:  "Don't worry -- it'll be okay."  They Hear:  "You're such drama queen!"  Better:  "I totally understand what you must have gone through.  Tell me about it."
5. You Say: "Don't talk to strangers."  They Hear:  "Anyone you don't know is trying to hurt you."  Better:  "Don't talk to people who make you feel uncomfortable.  Here's how to tell."
6. You Say:  "Make sure you share."  They Hear:  "Give away your stuff."  Better:  "Jesse would like to play with your race car for a while, but it's still yours and he will give it back."
7. You Say:  "Why did you (miss your curfew, hit your sister, etc.)?"  They Hear:  "You messed up again."  Better:  "My guess is that you missed your curfew because you were having fun and didn't want to come home, but tha's still not okay."

Of course, these are not perfect.  For example, the "better" example in number 1 seems to equate doing your best and doing well with working hard, or that only by working hard can success be obtained.

Perhaps an even better response might be something like "You should be very proud of what you accomplished."

What do you think?  How important are the words we say to kids and how we say them?

Do these examples from Reader's Digest really offer a better way to inspire our children?

by David Jaquay, under a Creative Commons licenseI'm sure you're familiar with goal setting. 

Maybe you want to lose weight, so you sit down and decide how much you want to lose by when.  Or, you want to save for a new car, so you set a goal to set aside X number of dollars each month for a specified period of time until you have enough to purchase the vehicle.

In the world of business, goal setting is an integral part of how things are done in order to move to the next level of productivity and profitability, measured in any number of ways.

We tend to set goals at the beginning of something, like the first day of the week or month, on a particular anniversary or significant date, or at the beginning of the New Year, for example.

Trouble is, many people set out with noble intentions, but the goals never seem to go any further than the sheet of paper -- if, they bother to write them down at all.  Unfortunately, it isn't possible to ever reach a goal if along the way there isn't any action that progressive approximates what you desire to achieve.

Goals like these are impotent; they have no power behind and within them to affect your life right now, in the present moment. 

I came across some notes the other day that I must have taken while listening in on a teleconference interview some time ago (How embarrassing that nowhere did I note the date or the person being interviewed or even the name of the person conducting the interview!) on how to affect our present behavior by putting into practice proactive goal setting.

Proactive goal setting.  I like the way that sounds, don't you?

This is not wishing things were better or simply writing the goal down and hoping for the best.  Nor (as many entrepreneurs and salespeople seem to want to do) is this technology about manipulating people or things in an effort to force your way.

The premise is that our future creates our present, or that the future is almost irrelevant, except as far as it affects behavior right now.  We can never be literally in the future anyhow; we're always in the present moment.

My suspicion tells me that this is where the transformative power begins to work its magic.  

My notes offer at first glance what you might expect:  deliberate, conscious envisioning of the goal, the ideal outcome.  Actually seeing the future in the mind.  What does it look like?  What does it smell like?  What does it taste like?  How does it sound?  How does it feel?

It goes a step further.  The goal must be aligned with "the future that makes your heart sing."  Just thinking of your heart singing has energy and momentum behind it.  We're not talking about simply remembering to take out the garbage.  No, we're talking about your ideal world, your future.  This is serious business.

The trick with proactive goal setting is that when you are seeing the future in your mind and really feeling what it would be like to have it is to hold the feeling, hold the imagery, the sounds, the tastes long enough to write it down.

Then, what your next inspired action toward that goal will be automatic.  It will just come to you, and you'll know it.  The vision you have created will literally affect and even transform how you are operating right now.  This is what is meant by acting "as if" you already have it, because you have created it in all it's vivid detail already in your mind's eye.  You cannot help but act in harmony with your compelling, powerful vision.

It's because you have engineered your present actions by imagineering your future.

Imagineering. Isn't that another great word?! 

It comes from an older audio recording of Joe Vitale speaking that I've listened to over and over again, entitled "Think Like God."  That title itself is compelling, as it speaks to this idea of proactive goal setting.

A friend of Dr. Vitale's, Mike Vance, a creativity expert, did a seminar with Joe Vitale.  He talked about the future and said, "If you want to be creative, think like God."

Well, doesn't that change everything?  "Think like God."

If we played with the possibilities, what could we not do?  (If you have trouble with the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of a monotheistic god or any other idea of god, remember that reality is just a subjective illusion anyway.  The point is using the awesome power of imagination.  Dov Baron makes the comment that "imagination is the faculty of the soul, not of the mind."  So whether you believe in God or a god at all is beside the point.  Imagine what it would be like if there was a god.  What would it be like, then, to think like God?)

If you think like God, there are no limits.  It would be a no brainer to see the future, look out at the figurative darkness over the surface of the deep, and say "Let there be light."

If you were God, what would you do?  What would you create?  What goals would you set? 

Joe Vitale goes on to talk about a book called Imagineering (The only reference I could find to "imagineering" on the Web was Walt Disney Imagineering.  This very well could have been to what Joe was referring. As Gordon Flagg of Booklist points out, " 'Imagineering' is a coinage of the Disney corporation that denotes the combination of imagination and engineering it employs to create the attractions in its theme parks. . .It takes readers through the entire imagineering process, from original idea, through blueprints and scale models, to actual construction. . .")

It's a great word because it brings even greater depth and meaning to the idea of proactively understanding and setting goals.  Imagineering means going into the future to see what's needed and designing it now.  It means visualizing and feeling every last detail of what you might do, have or be in the future and coming back here to engineer it right now.

If your vision is clear and compelling enough, everything you do now will propel you toward your goal.  Because you imagineered it, your now-certain future gives fuel to how you are operating in this moment.  You begin to make your future happen now, effortlessly.

The idea of "vision" also takes on a new meaning.  It's traditionally thought of as future-oriented; Deepak Chopra illustrates in his book Peace is the Way that this is not so:

"A vision isn't about the future.  It's about taking on what is truly yours, right here and now.  If transformation doesn't take place every day, it is little more than an ideal that always lies just over the horizon."

Which explains why so often traditional goal setting produces mediocre results, at best. 

The compelling vision we create in three-dimensional, vibrant technocolor with full, all-out feeling, tasting, smelling, savoring -- as we get into the energy of that, all of that feeling is happening with us and in us right here and now in this moment, not in the future.

What do you think of all this?

How might you use proactive goal setting and imagineering to consistently move positively in the direction of your goals?