A few of concepts I want to remember

Concept 1, f rom The War of Art – Professionals play hurt – Ametueurs play when they fell well.

Concept 2, from The Art of Happiness – The life is about suffering. Happiness comes from the good that we see and learn from that suffering.

Concept 3, from The Art of Happiness – We need to take responsibility for our emotions. Every emotion we feel is something we create in our own mind. So we should stop blaming others for the way we feel

This year our family is doing Thanksgiving on the day after because we were too late in scheduling the church and so we had to be creative and reserve it for the day after.

For quite some time now, I’m not sure it’s been a year, I have been trying to be more grateful. I have tried to find the little things that I take for granted and realize the blessings in my life.

First, I am thankful to have won the biggest lottery of all to be born at this time in the world in the United States and to be a citizen of this country. We enjoy freedom and abundance never before see and even in today’s world not experienced by very many.

I am thankful for running water, hot and cold. I am thankful for central air. I am blessed to have multiple pairs of shoes. I wonder how many of my ancestors had multiple pairs of shoes? I am thankful for the abundant availability of books. I have my own books and I have access to millions of books through the local library.

I am thankful for electricity and for the wonderful things it provides. I am thankful for how cheap light is now. It is amazing that I have access to so much information.

I am grateful for the family I grew up in I am grateful I am still friends with my parents and siblings. I am grateful that I have a wonderful wife and that I have the blessing of being a father. I am grateful that my children are capable and can take care of themselves. I am grateful for the relationships I have with my family members, extended family, and friends.

I am thankful for the education I have received and the things I continue to learn.

Even as I realized how blessed I almost feel guilty for not being more grateful and for the things I am constantly realizing I am taking for granted.

I started listening to Radical Candor. The lady that wrote the book has worked for some famous people and loves to name drop. I like some of her ideas and sadly my desire to have respect from my peers and from people encourages me to follow her advice

John Keller has changed the focus of marketing at work. So I am listening to 1 million followers in hopes I get more insight into how to market in the social media world and basically in the world of marketing in general. The main focus of the book so far is the use of facebook to test ideas and then put more money and attention to those things that best engage the audience. The focus is really on experimentation.

I am also struggling with the idea of how to get my family to see the benefits of waking up early every morning. I struggle with this myself because I cannot point to my life and say that waking up early has brought what I would call success.

I want to change my post a bit and start with three things I am thankful for.

• Cheap and readily available reading glasses – I can’t imagine not being able to read as many of my ancestors were not because they didn’t have access to reading glasses
• The abundant variety of food. Even in today’s world, not everyone has access to the abundance available. And certainly not in the past. Living in the United States is really a winning ticket to the Willy Wonka Chocolate factory
• The easy access to books and information.

I listened to The War of Art this last week and I am going to listen to it again this week. To run over the concepts again. The basic premise is that we are all artist and then there is resistance keeping us from what we are meant to do in life, keeping us from what we were born to be.