When Things Don’t Go Your Way

Garth Beyer

It happens plenty of times over. Things don’t go your way. Typically, you get upset, frustrated, hurt, emotional, skeptical, hesitant, and any other negative emotion until the next day.

Your mind thinks, “Well, this sucks. Tomorrow better be a better day.” And of course, this most commonly happens in the morning or afternoon of the day – with plenty of time to turn the bad day around. But no. You’ve already decided that since something didn’t go your way, your entire day is ruined.

From plenty of experience, I’ve learned something remarkable. When things don’t go your way and you sort of ignore it, you will end up getting other tasks done you have wanted to do, or something positive happens – maybe a friend calls to share the news that she is pregnant and they have chosen you to be the godfather – and your day ends up being great.

The only reason days don’t end up great when something doesn’t go your way is when you acknowledge that you will then have a bad day because of it.

Dispute it all you want, but our days are naturally set to be good. It’s our mindset that alters that. Lucky for you, you have control over your mindset.

The easiest way to alter your mindset, to reset your day to naturally good, to give fate another shot when things don’t go your way, is to ignore that they didn’t.

Stay Positive & Carry On

Garth E. Beyer

The Single Most Rudimentary Lesson About Advertising That People Don’t Realize

Garth Beyer

It’s been a great holiday with a lot of traveling and for once, watching some television. Making it an understatement, I saw a myriad advertisements. After seeing each one, I thought to myself, “absolutely no one will buy that because they saw this sign,” “no one will call the number because of the poster,” “no one will request the free information because the commercial tells them to.”

I had my advertising epiphany.

Advertising isn’t about creating action, getting someone to call, to buy, to request free information, even though it appears that way. No. Advertising is about creating a sense of familiarity because one day the world will work it’s weirdness and someone will need to call a lawyer because they know someone who suffered a heart attack from taking a specific type of doctor prescribed drug.

When that time does come, they will search for lawyers and notice one specific law firm. It will stick out for some reason, possibly stir some memory. It’s unlikely they will remember they saw an advertisement on a billboard for it, but that doesn’t matter, the sense of familiarity is there.

That familiarity, that’s what advertising is all about. That’s what creates profits. That’s why it’s okay for advertisers to blow money like crazy on what appears to be a pointless billboard advertisement.

Familiarity.

Meet By Chance

Garth Beyer

We meet few people by chance.

Every year we meet hundreds – and for some, thousands – of people willing to be a part of our lives, to benefit us in some way.

Pause and think of all the people who you considered as truly meeting last year. Was there something special attached to meeting that person? Did you help them? Did they assist you? Did one or both of you leave learning something? Are you still communicating and benefiting off each other’s energy?

You never meet anyone without something special transpiring from it. Every meet, all are opportunities in one experience or another. We are due them certain considerations as much as they are due us.

The people who get the most out of meeting someone are the ones who know there’s a reason for them meeting this person, and they are going to make sure they find it.

It’s not coincidence that the most successful people in the world have the most connections with other people, the most communications, the most meet-ups.

 

Stay Positive & Make This Year One Of Connectivity

Garth E. Beyer

Top Blogs And Blog Posts (2012)

Garth Beyer

These are the top 5 blog posts in the sense of the number of views.

These are the top 5 blog posts of my choice and popularity.

These are the top 5 blogs I kept up with throughout the year. Admittingly, Seth Godin’s is the only one that I read nearly every single blog post from. The other blogs I stop by every week or two.

Best Of 2012 (Books)

Garth Beyer

The list of books below are all the books which I read completely through in order of when I read them in 2012. After the title and author of each book, I have rated the book out of 5, with 5 being the obvious “must read.”

  1. Little red book of selling – Jeffrey Gitomer (3.5)
  2. The tipping point – Malcolm Gladwell (4.75)
  3. 4 hour body – Tim Ferriss (2.5)
  4. Born to win – Zig Ziglar (4)
  5. The alchemist – Paulo Coelho (5)
  6. Harry Potter 3 – J.K. Rowling (5)
  7. Harry Potter 4 – J.K. Rowling (5)
  8. Wild ducks flying backward – Tom Robbins (5)
  9. The power of influence – Chris Widener (2.5)
  10. The five major pieces to the life puzzle – Jim Rohn (3)
  11. Thinking body, dancing mind – Jerry Lynch (4)
  12. Linchpin – Seth Godin (5)
  13. Harry Potter 5 – J.K. Rowling (5)
  14. Harry Potter 6 – J.K. Rowling (5)
  15. Stop stealing dreams – Seth Godin (4.75)
  16. Harry Potter 7 – J.K. Rowling (5)
  17. Think on these things – Krishnamurti (4.5)
  18. Living green – Greg Horn (3)
  19. The secret to teen power – Paul Harrington (3.5)
  20. A little history of the world – E. H Gombrich (4)
  21. My Ishmael – Daniel Quinn (4.5)
  22. The mastery of love – Don Miguel Ruiz (4.5)
  23. The war of art – Steven Pressfield (4)
  24. The seasons of life – Jim Rohn (2.5)
  25. Twelve pillars – Jim Rohn and Chris Widener (3)
  26. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley (3.5)
  27. My Antonia – Willa Cather (3)
  28. House on mango street – Sandra Cisneros (1)
  29. Push – Saphire (1)
  30. A new earth – Eckhart Tolle (3.25)
  31. Edgar Cayce on Atlantis – Edgar Evans Cayce (2.75)
  32. Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell (5)
  33. The secret – Rhonda Byrne (4.75)

Stay Positive & Read On

Garth E. Beyer

Additional Content To My Feature Article: Doug Moe

Garth Beyer

If you haven’t read the feature article I wrote of Doug Moe, just click his name.

The content below is additional information, sidebars, for the article. Enjoy.

David Callender

Doug is a Madison generalist, well versed, and very curious about the world around him. He’s a great listener and a mold of the great urban newspaper columnist. Moe never pulled any punches; he really explored and explained the issues of his profiles. Moe is the last of a breed of people who wanted to be newspaper writers. He grew up in Madison and experienced its growth over the years firsthand and there is no substitute for firsthand experience and knowledge. Moe had 30+ years growing up and writing about the community. His sort of writing can only come from long-term investment.

Jeff Scott Olson

Moe doesn’t go out of his way to be unkind. He’s a great sportsman, competitive, but joyful. Although,  at times he can get glum about his performance. […] Moe, in his writing, preserves characters. He shares stories that are larger than life. The important parts of Madison won’t go away and that’s because of Doug Moe.

Doug Moe

So far as choosing the columns to write, I guess the overriding concern is: Will this be interesting to the readers? There really is no other consideration. Now, I also try hard to have a good mix of column subjects. I don’t want to write too often about books, or golf, or Madison history, or only men, or only women — you get the idea. I want people to not know what to expect when they look for my column. That is a goal. Then, how to write them for me gets down to a question of tone. What’s the appropriate tone? Light? Serious? A little of both? […] My dad was actually in broadcast management. He was general manager of Channel 27 here in Madison. I suppose growing up in a media family might have influenced my own decision to go into the media. The main thing was, writing was what I was good at. I wasn’t going to be a scientist or engineer.