Love is action

 

"To think that we need sadness or outrage
to motivate us to do what's right is insane."

    - Byron Katie

     Do we look to the media each day to give us a reason to be optimistic? That's insane, too. Because that's not the business they are in. They are in the fear business. Fear equals ratings equals money for the media.

     Yet I know many (otherwise intelligent) people who spend their days today addicted to the worst-case scenario imaginings of the media. Looking for a reason to be optimistic!

     But optimism has no external source. It's internal. It's in you. It's a thinking tool you can use or not use. It has a function. When you use it you can see opportunities and possibilities you couldn't see otherwise.

     Is there is reason to be optimistic about this economy? That would be up to you! To think it's up to the government distorts the power and value of optimism.

      BiltRite, a Valley business that supplies the building industry with ornamental iron, is refusing to sit on its hands and just wait out the economic storms. BiltRite President and owner/founder Brandon Craig is sponsoring an intense two-hour seminar for local businesses and individuals here in Arizona. I myself will be delivering this seminar called “The Power of Optimism in a Down Economy.”

    Brandon Craig says, "Tickets for one of Steve's events usually go for $275 a person but we are donating them to local businesses as our own stimulus for the local economy. Businesses like ours aren't going to get government bailouts, so we have to take matters in our own hands and strengthen ourselves from within. I find the challenge exciting, and so does Steve Chandler."

    Readers of this blog may attend simply by making a reservation (which is a $275 holiday gift to you and the guest you bring) THE MOTIVATIONAL EVENT WILL BE ON: Friday, December 12, from 10am to noon. LOCATION: 4541 E. Virginia Street, in Mesa, AZ 85215. (Red Mountain 202 and Greenfield).

     Seating is limited to 300 attendees (and more than 200 seats are already spoken for) so places must be reserved immediately by emailing seminar@biltritegates.com .  Attendees will all receive my audio CD program, THE FUNCTION of OPTIMISM.  You will be doing the right thing by attending.

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            Here's Katie's full quote from A THOUSAND NAMES FOR JOY:

            "To think that we need sadness or outrage to motivate us to do what's right is insane.  As if the clearer and happier you get, the less kind you become.  As if when someone finds freedom, she just sits around all day with drool running down her chin. My experience is the opposite. Love is action. It's clear, it's kind, it's effortless, and it's irresistible."

           

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       I find Clarence Bass's books on fitness irresistible. He is amazingly inspiring and informative in a very no-nonsense kind of way. And he walks his talk, too. Does he? Look at this photo of Clarence, at age 70!!!!!!!

 

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     People such as Clarence Bass and Brandon Craig enjoy challenges. They thrive on them. A down economy? Let's increase our action! Turning seventy? Let's pick up our exercise program!

     Victor Davis Hanson writes about the current fears, "We haven’t seen such frenzy since the Y2K sham, when we were warned to stock up on flashlights and bottled water as our nation’s computers would simply shut down on January 1, 2000 — and with them the country itself. Get a grip. Much of our current panic is psychological, and hyped by instantaneous electronic communications and second-by-second 24-hour news blasts."

     And Dr. Martin Seligman, whose book LEARNED OPTIMISM is one of the most informative ever written on how the mind creates its own reality, says, "The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe that bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe that defeat is just a temporary setback or a challenge, that its causes are just confined to this one case."

    My own CLUB FEARLESS (which I'll invite you to look at in January) is how I will deal with the global changes. A beloved reader of this blog, upon hearing that I was starting this inexpensive world mastermind wrote to me, "CLUB FEARLESS looks just fabulous. And the monthly live teleseminar is worth many many times the price of admission. Holy smokes. You MUST emphasize that! That and the "Who is FEARLESS?" monthly reports are the absolute best, imo. I think it's a great idea to really continually emphasize the opposite of what the mainstream media is telling us. That, in itself also, is worth much more than the price of admission. This is YOUR forte. This is the magic you provide that no one else does. That things can be as easy or as hard as you make them. I think you should really play that up. The FEARLESS aspect of living in the current economic situation, or current whatever situation we happen to be in, that we'll always hear is awful from most people. But NOT from you." 

 

Comments

[Yasmim]

Thank you for pointing this out. I'm on Erin's side of this. And in fact I am FB frdiens with Erin and not with Steve.Something that absolutely galls me, that I see a lot is that Erin's name is being dragged through the mud even by Steve's detractors.This is what happens when you are or have been married to a narcissist. The very best thing that could ever happen to her is if she were able to dissociate herself from this man, somehow, but I don't know how that will happen.I'm not at all convinced Steve's all that concerned with the children, except as an extension of himself. I know many, many involved, loving fathers and they mention their children in their FB status updates and in their blogs. Steve hardly ever mentions his children's existence and I'd be hard pressed to even know he had any if I'd only just started reading. His family is a mere afterthought.Ask me how I know all of this since obviously I'm not at all acquainted with Steve, personally. Known too many narcissists in my time.

[Roshan]

As a successful flrceanee graphic designer, I am familiar with your site and your cause. Both are a cauldron of misery. You bash designers for choosing to do spec work. You bash companies for asking for spec work. What happened to freedom of choice? What happened to mind your own business? Instead of mining for stories of negativity, why not show people how to be profitable flrceaneers? Or would that just be too positive?

[Lucas]

It makes me feel really old, but I read these arelicts when they first appeared in Guitar Player. Vai is mad as a brush but he's never been about how to play the pentatonic really really fast

[Sammy]

Carl, how do you hire a dentist? Oncologist? Accountant?A qeiotusn for the would-be contest holder: If you were not allowed to utilize crowdspring unless you agreed to earn a living by the same terms as set forth between you and crowdspring designers, how would that affect your decision to hold a contest (not to mention the effect on your revenue, salary and lifestyle)? Would you be willing to work on spec, and would you should you be lucky enough to win a contest accept deflated fees? If not, shame on you.e2€œGive me unlimited choices until I find one I likee2€9d is not the best process for choosing a logo or anything else. Of course that approach is cost prohibitive in the real world! Customers can ill afford to pay a designer to accommodate their own indecision. How will a customer know when to choose? There may be more than one e2€œrighte2€9d answer. Is ego the best judge?According to graphic design icon Paula Scher, e2€œIf the design presented is simple and contains a limited amount of information and imagery there are likely to be far more amendments and revisions. [Customers tend to] amend it until all of the interest and joy are removed or until they run out of time.e2€9dScher also tells this story, e2€œWhen a client once tried to persuade me to cut my fee on a e2€œsimplee2€9d job, I told him I needed the money to pay for all of the revisions he was going to make. He insisted that there would be few revisions. I offered him a deal: the design would be free, but every revision made e2€“ no matter how minor e2€“ would cost a thousand dollars. He refused the deal.e2€9dGood design is not entirely subjective. There are very many objective criteria that determine the success of a companye2€™s identification project. The best approach is a team effort working from an agreed criteria, driven by the client and guided by the designer. The idea that e2€œmy opinion is as good as yourse2€9d (design is purely subjective) is a pervasive fundamental misconception and puts the designer at odds with the client rather than on the same team.Design contests depend upon that misconception. Promoting the idea that e2€œdesign is only a matter of tastee2€9d devalues the profession of design by saying, e2€œYour education, talent, skill, time spent, experience and investment in computer, fonts, design, illustration, and file compression software, books, internet service are worthless to me. So I will request work on my behalf from people I have no intention of paying. I am going to pay one person, who works hard to be the best, a deflated fee. Or, I may just review the work and pay no one.e2€9dAs many e2€œcontest holderse2€9d think design contests are a great deal for them a word of caution. Presumably contest holders use this website to save money. If e2€œcheape2€9d is your overriding purpose and primary objective: Do you have any idea how much it will cost to reproduce the designs on letterhead or other applications? If you plan to e2€œsave moneye2€9d and design your own, and print it on your inkjet printer: Do you know how much toner you will eat up doing that? Do you know what you can afford to spend on revising your logo artwork each time you use it for a different purpose? Do you realize your production costs may be large due to lack of foresight in planning? A good professional would sort that out for you on the front end.

[Dila]

Chandler, I love reading your blogs and I think this is going to be a wnoferdul thing for you! You're very entertaining even on paper aka the internet. I hope you continue to blog as much as you can and I have so much faith in you, that you will get to where you want to be. I love you!

[jearproscoe]

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[Irene]

This has made my day. I wish all psointgs were this good.

[Supra Footwear]

ME is coming home for Christmas.

[Supra Shoes]

i envy you very much. you look like a million dollars.

[air max 90]

oh that's nice!