Super Bowl Determination

Today is SUPER BOWL Sunday. For two teams today is the culmination of a road filled with hopes, dreams and gritty determination. And at the end of the day there will be one team who will stand up and will hold that coveted Super Bowl trophy and will be forever called Super Bowl Champions.

Beginning each September, every team in the NFL begin their competitive campaign with the exact same record. The New York Giants and the New England Patriots both started at square one with no wins and no losses. Somewhere along the way both teams found something that the other thirty teams in the league simply didn't. They found their stride, their will and ultimately the drive to succeed and best every one of their challenges and of course, opponents along the way.

Their teams started out not really any different than you or myself. Though we don't necessarily start with a football record of 0-0, we do all start with the same exact amount of time in our days, the same amount of days in our months, the same amount of months in a year...you get the picture. Though our lives can't be compared to that of a football season, we are in fact in a much more exciting position. We have the opportunity to demonstrate the same kind of commitment, the same kind of passion and the same kind of drive and best those challenges and competitors we face along the way.

I have said it before and I will say it again. You can sit the bench in the game of life and just let things happen to you....or you can decide to take your shot and be an active player and ultimate drive of it.

Which game would game would you rather be playing in?

Enjoy today's game (even though The Dallas Cowboys aren't playing in it) and tomorrow...get off the bench and go find your stride, your will and your drive to succeed. And maybe, just maybe, we will one day soon be saluting you, a coveted champion in your own right. Forget that, I am already saluting you....because I already believe in you!

Ripple On!!!

Mid-January Self-Check

So you ended last year thinking about all that you had accomplished and all that you want to achieve in the new year. You sat down and wrote out your list of goals, resolutions or commitments to yourself and at the end had this satisfying smile on your face of all that you were going to achieve in the coming year.

So you started off this month with a bang doing all the things you needed to do to stay on track and take the new year by the tail right? Yup...no doubt, this is going to be your year. 2008 is the year that everything is going to change for you right?

But now a few weeks have gone by. The routine of going back to work and having to stay for a full week (damn I miss the holidays) has started to sink in. Those lofty aspirations of hitting the gym several times a week and getting up at the ass crack of dawn to go running now suddenly seems less exciting and romantic. It looked so much better on paper didn't it? Those important contacts you were going to make now seem a little more intimidating. Those great events that you just knew you had to go to, to make the best connections, now all seem to fall on days that something more appealing (like a new episode of ER or a hot bath) or important (beer with the buddies) is happening.

Welcome to mid-January.

This is where the men are separated from the boys. The women are separated from the girls. The weak from the strong. The fun and exciting from the simply boring. The destiny makers from the destiny takers.

You get the picture right?

Where are you? Where do you stack up compared to all the lofty goals, dreams and aspirations you held for yourself a mere 17 days ago? Are you still approaching the new year like it's gonna be your best one yet or are you settling in to another year of mediocrity?

Where are you? Why aren't you doing more? Why have you given up already?

It's time for a self-check.

The good news.....it's only day 17. There are 339 more to go.

Don't waste them.

Ripple On!!!

Randon Acts of Kindness

So for years and years I have been trying to get Kathy, my wife, to go to Starbucks. She wouldn't do it...mainly because she doesn't care for coffee and I think out of protest for what I "spend on a cup of coffee!" (have to hear her say it to get the full effect). Then one day she discovered they sell iced tea and that was all she wrote. If coffee is my legalized drug of choice then iced tea is hers. Now months after discovering this little factoid she goes to Starbucks more than I do...which for those of you who know me..is a lot!

Anyway the other day I was at the office and my phone rang. It was Kathy. I could tell she was excited about something. She proceeded to tell me about how she just encountered something amazing while sitting at the drive-thru of Starbucks. Apparently she was down to her last two dollars but really needed that iced tea so she steered her car into the line at Starbucks. As she scrounged for some change to insure she had enough she pulled up to the window and the Barista handed her her iced tea and said the car in front of her had paid for hers. I would have paid for the next fifty cars to have been there to see her face!

She was certain that she didn't know the person. They left no indication with the Starbucks worker that they knew Kathy either. They simply did a random act of kindness and boy did it make her day. Kathy immediately called my dad who, if you read my BLOG regularly, has experience his own random acts of kindness (search Breakfast Fairy on the BLOG search tool) and I am sure they both went to town on the Ripple Effect of what had just happened.

A simple act of kindness like buying someone's coffee (or iced tea), breakfast or whatever can have the biggest impact on another person. My question to you is how many Ripples are you willing to create anonymously just for the sake of making this world a better place?

That many huh?

Ripple On!!!


Steve

P.S. Here's a neat article on the Starbucks Pay it Backwards concept.

ALL IN

She stood at the door to the conference room. The biggest presentation of her career was about to begin. She thought to herself, I can't do it. They will see right through me. But she knew in her heart of hearts that simply wasn't the case. She was made for this moment and she was going to take what belonged to her. She deserved to be here and both the team and their client would see that too.

It was now or never and there was no looking back. She was going to give the presentation of her life and leave nothing in the tank. She was going ALL IN and in the end would be a better person, personally and professionally, for it.

She opened the door and over the threshold into destiny.

Could this be you? Do you have something big coming up? Perhaps an opportunity to take advantage of a defining moment in your life or career.

Are you ready for it? Are you 100% prepared to give it your all and take it?

Just like the guys you see on television that play those big poker tournaments, you too will eventually reach a point where the only play is to push all the chips towards the center of the table and go ALL IN.

Are You Ready With Arms Wide Open?

2008 is finally here!

As many of us return to the normal routine of work, school and regular (unabbreviated holiday) every day life, it will be so tempting to let this day become no different than any of the days you had in 2007. And if today is going to be like all of the other days you had last year, it becomes easier and easier to let tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that become the same.

Is that what you really want?

Is that what is going to make 2008 your best year ever?

I think you know the answer to that....but just in case you don't....NO IT IS NOT.

In order for 2008 to be the best year of your life you need to be ready to take on each new day with an increased sense of purpose. Don't remain a passenger in this bullet train of life. No, be the conductor.

I love the opening lines of this song by one of my favorite bands Creed. Take a listen. Seems your life is about to change also. Are you ready to embrace it with arms wide open?

Go Big or Go Home

"Go Big or Go Home."





It was 1998 and I was coaching my girls under sixteen soccer team in the Capital Area Youth Soccer Tournament semi-finals. We were down two scores when the halftime whistle blew. Every girl looked dejected when they came to the sidelines. Heads were down and hearts were broken.

We were a young team. The core group of my girls were younger than sixteen, our team had played up an age division that season. Now as the scoreboard seemed to loom, each of them were feeling the age difference and looking way out of their element. I never will forget the look they had in their eyes and just how sad and broken each of them looked.

I am a fiery personality. Bet you couldn't tell that from how I write right? Well this fiery coach was also feeling a bit dejected but not because of the score but because I knew that these girls had one shot; one half to make a difference that could and would forever impact their little lives and their individual self-confidence forever. And it was my job as their coach to not make it easy for them to give up on themselves. So I didn't.

I pulled the girls together and I asked each of them to look at me. Look in my eyes. Did they see my fire? Did they see my passion? Did they see my pride? Did they feel it? Did they understand? Could they appreciate that they were the reason that it was there. I had coached a lot of soccer teams but none that had showed the heart and determination these young ladies had showed. I smiled big and for the first time, probably spoke much softer and with more caring than the girls were accustomed to seeing in one of Harp's halftime sermons.

We didn't belong in that tournament. No one gave us a shot at the beginning of the season. We were nobodies but through the course of the season we became somebodies. We did that. We shocked the world (or at least our little soccer community) because we never gave up and we believed in ourselves....when no one else would. I reminded the girls of all that they had accomplished and that they did it all as a team.

I asked one simple question. Were we going to let the other team take that from us? Were we really prepared to say, "Oh ya'll were right, we don't belong. You just need to look at the score to see that."

That got a laugh. Then two. Then my motley crew of young girls were all laughing.

Surrender? No way!

I then settled them down as the referee's whistle went off to call the teams back onto the field. A noticeable calmness settled over all of us and I said, "Ladies we either go big or go home! It's your choice but each of you have to make it. Oh and ladies, its alright to go home but going out big, regardless of whether we win or lose, is so much more fun don't you think?"

That was the loudest team cheer we probably ever did. Loud enough to announce to the other team we weren't going away. No far from it.

We won that game in a shootout. To this day likely one of the greatest games I have ever been a part of.

Why do I share this with you? Because the statement is true and is particularly relevant as each of us find ourselves facing a brand new year ahead. Are you prepared to make your 2008 a bigger, better, more successful, more rewarding, more financially lucrative year than 2007 was?

Are you prepared to Go Big or Go Home?

The whistle is going off and it's time to start the next half of your life. Are you ready?

Ripple On!!!

Steve