Life Lesson

Garth’s Short Riff On Faith

Garth Beyer

It’s difficult sometimes to keep up with your own beliefs, even more so when you are the only one who has the belief. Yet faith is just a learning process, no one has faith until you are prepared to forgive yourself when you make a mistake, even if the mistake was your confidence in the faith you chose. At least you made a conviction and tested it. I think the world’s a bit short on those people who do that.

 

Stay Positive & Persevere

Garth E. Beyer

You can read this for an activity to help determine the principles that withhold your faith

Garth’s Third Law Of Emotion

Garth Beyer

You’re parents just got into a divorce now you are torn between who to live with, all of your role models that helped you get through the hard times went off into the army or moved away, your friends have excluded you from their group, your sibling that you are closest too has gotten far into drugs and alcohol, and your grandpa who you were really close to has recently passed away. In essence, you feel like you no longer have a family.

Each and every one of us goes through extremely harsh points in our lives where we feel like we have absolutely no one.

Anger.. guilt.. sorrow… nothing can compare to the feeling of loneliness.

Whether you notice it or not, we all eventually come out of the slum, and things get better bit by bit. Have you ever thought of how it all started going downhill though?

Some days we feel like one bad thing happens after another, and after each bad thing that occurs, we feel worse and worse, as if the world is dissolving around us. These occurrences affect our thinking. We begin thinking more and more negatively. If you are feeling down, you don think positively at all, you dwell further in your emotions and the unfortunate circumstances that have occurred.

I want to let you in on a secret, the one way to get through all life throws at you, the secret… Stay Positive. Easier said than done huh?

If you are reading this, you likely know me well or understand that I am a very optimistic person. But even a happy outgoing person can find it nearly impossible to turn some negative circumstances into positive ones.

The list I gave you at the beginning of this discussion, of the divorce, the losing of a close one to death, and having your friends move away or exclude you – these are all personal experiences that have happened to me.

How can one person make it through all of those situations happening to them in such a short amount of time? With practice, I’ve found there to be two different ways to not just make it through, but to also turn life around.

Now, I think we have all tricked ourselves or lied to ourselves at one point, whether it be by telling ourselves “I can do it” to get rid of some sort of fear, or lying to yourself that you aren’t still in love with your ex, so you can move on. The idea I have come to find to make it through such hard times is this.

First way: Deceive yourself, but do it in a positive way. To get rid of the sorrow that losing your friends has brought to you, start thinking about making new friends, and how much fun it will be hanging out with them.

You need to aim for a feeling. The feeling you want to have your friends make you feel, the feeling of company, of sharing, of fun. Soon enough you will see things starting to shape up. Maybe your old friends have invited you to go to the mall or you met a new friend. 

We noted before that one bad thing happens after another. It is the same for the good things in life if you can just lean your feelings in that positive direction.

Now the harder of the two ways to start turning your life back around is to find something good in every bad, and this is possible.

Coming to a close, I want you to think of something you disliked about today so far, something that set your temper off, or hurt you emotionally, something you would have done differently. It can be the sort of thing from having a fight with your dad, or your internet being out. So go ahead and think of something…

The Challenge: I want you to use the harder of the two ways to become more positive and in a better mood by figuring out one optimistic thing that came out of the one unfortunate thing so far today.

Maybe your thought is your dad is now going to surprise you with an apology gift, or because your internet was off you so you took a walk outside and ran into your soul mate. (Hey, it could happen)

Newton has said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, I would employ you to have the idea that, for every action of negative thought there is an opposite, if not greater reaction.

So remember, for every negative thing in life, there will always be at least one positive thing to be thought of about it.. it’s up to you.

 

Stay Positive & This Is The One Time You Don’t Want Balance

Garth E. Beyer

Everyone Can Live The Lumberjack Life

Garth Beyer

A small axe can take down a big tree if there is enough motivation, positivity, and lemonade.

 

Stay Positive & Keep Swinging

Garth E. Beyer

My Secret Obsession: Starbucks (Not their coffee…well..that too)

Garth Beyer

I was in New York last week for Seth Godin’s Pick Yourself event. Instead of writing a post about that, (which I will soon), I couldn’t help but write about the one thing that you see every 72 steps in any direction: Starbucks

1 out of 3 Baristas laughed. 2 actually thought I was named Voldemort

Guy Kawasaki, a likely idol of both of ours, had written an article telling how important mantras are and that the shortest are often the sweetest. The example he used for the greatest mantra from the greatest company on the planet is  Starbucks – “Rewarding Everyday Moments”

I apologize for those who disagree,  I can’t help but side with Guy. Starbucks is the the real deal, the perfect role model and incorporates every trademark of a successful company. For example, my friend (who works at Starbucks) had told me this story the other week.

“The other day in the drive through this woman wanted a small but ordered a venti because she thought it meant a small. When she was shocked at the size and the price, my manager told me to  just charge her for a tall. So many other places you just don’t do that. It’s always a pleasant surprise to people you meet at work when you get to be nice.”

Starbucks revolutionized coffee and the experience of getting it. Put together a CEO and marketing mavens and you get a company like Starbucks; who defy all logic and assumptions and who have altered the beverage marketplace by defining quality, creating convenience and most importantly, having heart.

That is why I couldn’t complain after every 72 steps when I would look up at see the Starbucks sign. The beauty of Starbucks is that it is available to the masses – “from the student who wants a latte to the CEO who needs it.” More importantly, it represents that you can find generosity, people who care, tentativeness and truly great people – in abundance. Simply walk 72 steps in NYC and you will know what I mean.

Starbucks also signifies risks.

“When Starbucks and other companies made stock options grants back in 2008, there was no guarantee that the companies would succeed. Performance was not a sure thing,” says Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson.

It was less than a sure thing, it was unexpected. It was an occurrence that only the greatest companies could actually leverage. In this case, Starbucks succeeded and continues to do so.

Stay Positive & I Solemnly Swear That Starbucks Is Up To Too Much Good

Garth E. Beyer

Business 101

Garth Beyer

If you were serving a skinny person food, you would of course over-serve them their food.

The same goes with business and sales… except it does not matter if the client is skinny or not.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Wait For The Customer To Ask For Seconds

Garth E. Beyer

The Tragedy Of A Glass Half Full

Garth Beyer

Sure, the glass can be half full but what is it filled with?

Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS magazine had posted an article regarding Wolf Blitzer and how he is hurting America. I had no choice but to pull this following segment from his post. Feel free to visit the full article here.

Your mind is like an empty glass. It will hold anything you put into it. You put in sensational news, salacious headlines and talk show rants and you are pouring dirty water into your glass. If you’ve got dark, dismal, worrisome water in your glass, everything you create will be filtered through that muddy mess, because that’s what you’ll be thinking about. Garbage in, garbage out.

You can flush your dirty glass with clean, clear, pure water. What is clear water? Positive, inspirational and supportive input and ideas. Stories of aspiration, people who, despite challenges, are overcoming obstacles and achieving great things. Strategies of success, prosperity, health, love and joy. Ideas to create more abundance, to grow, expand and become more. But it’s a constant battle as we are surrounded by those who want to spew dirty water into our glass constantly.

With that I would like to bring up the solution to the problem by introducing the concept of fasting. while fasting means to abstain from eating, it is better defined as the action of abstaining from [insert anything] for a period of time. In the following personal story, fasting holds true to both drinking and eating. Toward the end of the post, you will be acquainted with mental and social fasting.

A Glass Of Dirty Water

A while ago I was feeling a bit sick. I told my friend that I wasn’t going to eat or drink anything. She asked, “How are you supposed to feel better if you don’t eat anything?” I described how my stomach was like a glass of dirty water. If a glass is already half-way filled with dirty water and you put clean water in it. What do you have?

A glass full of dirty water. Now, you can add as much pure water to the glass as you want and it will overflow but still remain dirty. In my case, I was going to let my stomach get rid of and deteriorate all the stuff that was causing me to feel sick before I would fill it with more food and nourishment.

I used the analogy with my stomach sickness as a vehicle for the glass of water. I rather like Darren Hardy’s direction towards your mind being the glass that is filled with water. I have always loved the idea of a glass half full, it’s the worldwide mark of an optimist. Mistakenly though, I see a countless number of people trying to better themselves but only having more problems. While they have good intentions, they are fighting a losing battle. No matter how much pure, clean and fresh water you put in your glass or how much colorful positive assurance you pour into your mind, you are just adding more to what is already tarnished.

This means that before you can start living a life full of positivity, of a determined attitude and excellence, to truly have a “glass half full” life, you must first empty your glass.

Stay Positive & Start By Destroying Bad Habits

Garth E. Beyer

Destroying Bad Habits

Garth Beyer

Such a simple quick thing you can do to destroy bad habits —

get rid of the tools that allow you to sustain them.

 

Stay Positive & A Gun Doesn’t Fire If There Is No Trigger

Garth E. Beyer