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When you throw a pebble in a pond, do you watch the rings form and do you ever count how many there are as the water slowly stills?

I was thinking about that yesterday as I was helping a customer with a difficult problem. Every person has the same chance to make a difference. You decide whether to be a force for good or evil. That is a little black and white so let me quantify it better by using math. You can add or you can subtract.

When you lift people and support their dreams, you add.
When you say things like, “you can’t do that” “that’s silly” you subtract.

Be an good pebble,not a bad pebble. you have no idea how far out your rings extend.

Who knows, you could inspire the next Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Mahatma Gandhi.

Think about it!

As an actor, I spend a lot of time thinking about being present and “in the moment” but its not exclusive to being an actor. It’s a great way to be a human as well.

Over the last seven days, I have had the opportunity to really take in life and my surroundings in cool and comfortable Portland, Oregon, and Camas, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho. We went to the beach, we went to the mountains, we drove near a waterfall and every single place we looked at or drove through had the same reaction. “Wow” “How beautiful” and while I wanted to capture every moment with my camera (read Iphone), I actively did not. I wanted to live through the experiences I was having and I think I did that. I still took pictures but not nearly the volume I would have in the past. In fact, as a result of the trip, I decided I will take the photos and put them in a photo book which will allow me to add the ticket stubs and programs from the events we went to. If I was posting every five minutes on Facebook, I don’t think that thought would have been born. Think about it.

The irony that you are reading my post and then heading to a link, does not escape me, but Social Media can be good. As people far smarter than I have penned, everything in moderation. I have seen lost animals and people found by use of its ability to get information out there as quickly as possible. Take five minutes and watch this and then look up from whatever you are doing and go outside and enjoy the Vitamin D that is available to you and the life you are in fact living.

Think about it!

Dear Readers, Happy Friday and I hope you are enjoying your day!

I went walking on the Mueller Lake Trail on Sunday and was not with my workout buddy as she was in Chicago enjoying the sights. So I had on my Ipod and was running and walking and running and walking and noticing people giving me slightly perceptible looks of encouragement, thumbs up, and in one case a high five after I did a sprint, I even had a groundskeeper look on and say are you okay, as i passed him after some exertion, I smiled and said thank you (gasping)

This encouraged me to keep moving, but more importantly, it was an opportunity to engage and nod and thumbs up and high five others who might have needed it just as badly as I did. It struck me then how many times we focus on how awful and evil the world is when that simply isn’t true. Inherently, people are good and they want to help others. There are definitely bad apples out there to be sure, but try not to let a rotten one or two on a branch stop you from seeing the whole tree.

Think about it!

And while you are “thinking about it” do something too.. My friend and World Champion of Public Speaking, Ryan Avery is doing a 31 days of kindness challenge #31daysofkindness (for more details see below)

For my birthday, I typically don’t ask for presents, I ask people to do random acts of kindness and then tell me about it, leaving it open to the giver what they want to do.. There have been some pretty creative ones. Buying broke students pizza, paying for someone’s coffee. Really think about what you can do (doesn’t have to cost money) to make the world better. Sounds pretty daunting till you think about one step YOU can take, then it seems pretty easy!

http://ryanavery.com/join-us-for-the-31-days-of-kindness-challenge/

Dear Readers, I got to thinking today about what that statement means.

In this life, we have 24 hours in a day and with this finite boundary we decide where to “budget” the time.

After almost two years of solidly budgeting our money, I have come to realize what a precious commodity time is and will be looking at it more along the lines of money moving forward. For instance, I will put a limit on how much time I am willing to spend with those who are not committed to living their lives with purpose and intentionality towards good. I will also limit the amount of time spent complaining about a situation instead of doing something about it. I will spend less time worrying about what other people think and focus on making a difference instead.

I will spend more time smiling.
I will spend more time being happy and less time worrying.

But mostly, I will spend more
time being with the people I am with and focusing on how to help them find and follow their dreams.

What time are you losing or squandering? Think about it!

I had coffee with a friend last night and while talking I realized we don’t agree on finances. Not the end of the world, and we can certainly talk about a myriad of topics without bumping into this but it struck me later that one of us said, “I don’t agree with that” and I found myself probing to better understand the point of view alien from my own. I think it was Einstein who said it best, “The definition of intelligence is being able to hold two opposing viewpoints at the same time.” I may be grossly paraphrasing it but no matter, someone will be along to correct me shortly.

Seriously though, with all the negative vibes and judgment surrounding the recent Supreme Court ruling “you must be crazy to think that” I think we miss a huge opportunity to educate, not necessarily to change their mind but to make things more clear.

How many people are willing to ask questions about something that is almost sure to start a controversial discussion and admit that they don’t have all the answers. I certainly don’t and will assure you that I would rather soak things up like a sponge than ask a question and get doused with a bucket of hate. Sadly, this is often the case.

So what am I saying? Balance is everything. The next time someone asks you a question or says something you completely disagree with, I challenge you to say, “That is interesting that you say that, can you tell more about why you feel that way?” Here’s the kicker, you have to really listen to their answer and seek to not necessarily agree but come away with new information.

Think about it!!