Keep at it

The Forbes article from yesterday inspired me to first of all, set intentions. I set intentions today and when I woke up at 4:45am, my intentions changed from good to great! Something about waking up early helped me to create even better intentions than I’d set last night. Once in a while, that happens, but sometimes when we set intentions, they’re slightly altered or we don’t follow through as we’d planned. If you set goals such as I am going to quit drinking coffee, or I am going to cook and clean every day for a power hour, it often takes several tries to accomplish the goals. If you set a goal and you want to accomplish that goal, keep at it. It might take a little while or several tries until you accomplish what you set out to do. 

Have a Great Day

In an article from Forbes by Nancy Collamer, 5 steps to having a great day are mentioned. 

“1. Set your intentions.

2. Practice distancing.

3. Plan strategic downtime.

4. Focus on one step at a time.

5. Practice gratitude.”

The article also mentioned some key questions I think are worth posting:

“Given my priorities, where do I want to focus my attention?”

“What will I think about this a month or a year from now?”

It can often be a challenge to think that we have control of what happens in our daily life when factors exist that are outside of our control. It is, on the other hand, refreshing to be able to set intentions as well as time to take a break from the expectations we make for ourselves. The theory of we are all doing the best we can, with what we have, where we are helps us to focus on the now.  

Thank you. :) 

Smiling Hope

Sometimes it’s difficult to write when there is so much sadness going on in the world. When do you tell someone we may not understand the way God works for a great while? Or that if you just hang on through the moments you don’t think you can get through, those moments will get you through to the next moments and so on and so forth until it gets better. When do you offer words of condolences when you don’t even know what to say? Or that it gives you hope to see someone else smiling, so when you have the chance to be happy, be happy. 

It can be an arduous task to watch the news, read articles, learn about current events, but oftentimes, our combined awareness is sufficient. When we are called to promote the general welfare, this is what it’s all about. Our combined efforts make it possible for people to get through what they have to go through. If your parents can’t get you a present for Christmas, Santa probably can. How can we promote hope, encourage wellness and practice healthy habits? Wash your hands, wear a mask, stay safe, if you have symptoms, get medical attention, quarantine, etc. 

Free Enterprise

 Free Enterprise is not an easy process. If you look at any successful business/enterprise, it’s foundation rests upon the basic principles given to us by our creator. These are: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and like I’ve mentioned prior to this post, these rights are ours only if we can keep them. The way we maintain our rights is by respecting our rights as well as the rights of others. The rest of what happens, sometimes only God knows. 

Great businesses/enterprises are built upon this type of foundation. The top priority is usually people and the main goals are usually to help people in some way or another. What happens when we join a great business? Lots of training. Learning about our rights, how to respect them, as well as respect the rights of others also takes the type of practice and training we encounter when joining a great business. 

Slogan Writer

 Talking to a guy at the park yesterday helped me to remember a slogan I wrote for Toyota. It was one of those that also makes me want to go and get a Toyota. Slogan writing came out of nowhere for me and I’m not sure why I decided to start in the first place. I remember sitting down at Disneyland near the vacation club and creating slogans for it. Then I started looking at cars and got inspired to write some more. Either way, I really enjoy slogan writing. 

My slogan writing is a part of what our country’s economy thrives from: Free Enterprise. Everyone gets to do whatever they do best. If Ford, or any of the other companies I’ve written slogans for end up deciding they want one of the slogans, the hard work could pay off. And if it doesn’t end up going anywhere at all, I have the right to try again. That is what free enterprise is all about and it’s what helps our U.S. economy grow. Walt Disney is one of the greatest examples we have of someone who has found success in free enterprise. 

Ford

 Yesterday we (the kids and I) went into the new Ford office in Upland. We’re going to need a bigger car once the baby arrives so we’re trying to decide what the best possible deal would be. Right now the inventory is low and it is unpredictable as to when it will get back to normal I was told. I wrote slogans for all kinds of different car companies. Mercedes, KIA, Chevrolet, Honda, Audi... and the one I wrote for Ford seems to be my favorite. I’ve been looking at it for the last week or so and falling in love with the slogan all over again. So much so that, with the slogan, I convinced myself that a Ford is what we need. 

After sharing the slogan with the Ford representative in the Upland office, I thought about it all night. What if the whole world was living in a dream? Are our dreams organized into countries and are there rules and guidelines for the dreamers the same as it would be in reality? 

Possibly

 The boys have their caterpillars in the little containers still. They’ve both (the 2 caterpillars) made a J shape at the top of the container and are looking like they’re just sleeping from eating so much. All that was in the container they’re in was food (nectar) and air. They have a sort of silky looking layer of cloud looking material around them and I’m looking forward to observing how they’re going to transform into a cocoon. They didn’t need anything but air and food. 

Sometimes in life we can feel like we’re just inching our way through. Every day is a repetitive cycle of eating, drinking water and sleeping. I guess we can think of this phase as the caterpillar phase while remembering that the caterpillar must go through this phase before it turns into a beautiful butterfly. Our world is in a sort of caterpillar phase. It’s exciting to think that maybe, just maybe our transformation, granted “we’re all in this together”, could be as phenomenal as the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly.