Newsletter for July 2004:
Celebrate Your Freedom - Use It!
Contents:
- This Months Thought
- Celebrate Your Freedom – Use It!
- Quotes of the Month
- Strictly Business: Are We Half-Way There Yet?
- Humor: A Story for Our Time
This Months Thought
My challenge to you this month is to USE your freedoms. I challenge you to make a list, set a schedule, and express yourself! Do something different. Read something unusual, state a minority opinion. This month, USE your freedoms!
Celebrate Your Freedom - Use It!
For Americans, the Fourth of July is our Independence Day, when we remember our nation's birth and celebrate our freedoms. That is a wonderful thing. It is appropriate that we take time off, visit parks and beaches, have family reunions, and then after sunset, delight in the beauty of fireworks. These are GOOD things!
Too often we forget just how basic and profound these freedoms are. Today, as you read this, billions of people around the world must censor what they say, and what they think. In some places, opinions can get you killed, or cost you your job. In some places, only certain religious traditions are permitted, and in some places, books and ideas and movies and fashions are monitored and controlled.
For most of us, such things are totally foreign, in every sense of that word. We can barely imagine not being able to vote for whoever we wish, and the thought of not being able to watch late-night comedians lampoon our political and religious leaders strikes us as bizarre. It's part of our culture. These freedoms are "just the way it is." Aren't they?
Unfortunately, the answer is NO! Those freedoms are not "just the way it is." They come from a particular philosophy, a way of looking at the world, a way of seeing ourselves and the people around us. These freedoms come from a particular belief that "all are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights." These freedoms come from a belief, and they come at a cost.
Throughout history, societies have always had to choose between the chaos of freedom, and the false security of tyranny.
Adolf Hitler's reign of terror largely rose out of the desire for order. He stabilized the economy, simplified life and as the saying went, he made the trains run on time. There is ever and always a desire for order.
At the same time, there is the desire to be free. There is the desire to voice our opinions, to disagree with our leaders, to question authority, and to fulfill our potential.
My challenge to you this month, is to USE your freedoms. I challenge you to make a list, set a schedule, and USE your freedoms. I challenge you to do some or all of the following:
- Write a letter to your local newspaper. State your opinion. Let others disagree, but let your voice be heard. USE your freedom!
- Express your religious beliefs in whatever way, in whatever place, suits you. The right to believe, or not believe, is a marvelous thing. USE your freedom!
- Start a business, or support someone who is. Our freedoms include economic opportunity. Don't squander it. Encourage enterprise, creativity, and business. Take a risk. As Mary Kay Ash observed, "Nothing happens until someone sells something." USE your freedom!
- Visit and support your public library. You can read any book ever written. You have access to the world's best (and craziest) ideas. You have access to the sublime, the ridiculous, the practical and the inspiring. USE your freedom!
- Write a letter of thanks to someone who is devoting their life to defending our freedoms. Support a soldier whose life may be at risk. USE your freedom!
Quotes of the Month
"Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash." -- Harriet Rubin
What is at the summit of courage, I think is freedom. The freedom that comes with the knowledge that no earthly thing can break you." -- Paula Giddings
"The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for." -- Dostoyevsky
Strictly Business: Are We Half-Way There Yet?
When we were growing up, whenever the family was on a long drive, my siblings and I delighted in pestering our folks with the question, "Are we there yet?" I think kids the world over have discovered the power of that question.
It also has a business application. This past Wednesday was June 30th, and that is the half-way point in 2004. I know it's hard to believe. Summer is here and we want to slow down, take time to relax and enjoy the wonders of vacation. And, I DO hope each and every one of us get plenty of time to enjoy summer.
But the fact remains; you have certain goals for the year. You have sales targets - don't you? You have revenue projections and some personal growth objectives - don't you? You may have some fitness goals or objectives for family time or personal finances. You probably wrote down a variety of goals for the year.
Now, in the midst of summer, is the time to spend a quiet hour reviewing your progress, assessing your efforts and (if appropriate) revising your estimates. If you are doing well, pat yourself on the back and re-commit to continuing the program that is working well.
And, if you are not satisfied with your progress and the results you are getting, then resolve NOW to do something about it.
Take time this summer, during the long, lazy days when you can relax and get time to think and plan and imagine, and SET YOUR TARGETS for the rest of the year. The year is half over. Are you half-way? If not, do something about it!
If having a coach assist and support you seems like a good idea, give me a call or drop me an email. I have some openings for new clients, and while coaching can be difficult, challenging, and expensive, it can also be supremely rewarding! Think of it this way: what is the price of NOT having a coach?
If this is the time, contact me at: rodger@rodgerblaker.com
I look forward to hearing from you!
Humor: A Story for Our Time
I receive stories and humor from friends from time to time, and somehow this old joke struck my funny-bone. I hope it makes you chuckle, and keep them coming!
An unemployed man goes to apply for a job with Microsoft as a janitor. The manager arranges for him to take an aptitude test. After the test, the manager says, "You will be employed at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e- mail address, so that I can send you a form to complete and tell you where to report for work on your first day."
Taken aback, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the MS manager replies, "Well, then, that means that you virtually don't exist and can therefore hardly expect to be employed."
Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having only $10 in his wallet, he decides to buy a 25-pound flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. In less than two hours, he sells all the tomatoes individually at 100 percent profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night.
And thus it dawns on him that he could quite easily make a living selling tomatoes. Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplies his profits quickly. After a short time he acquires a cart to transport several dozen boxes of tomatoes, only to have to trade it in again so that he can buy a pickup truck to support his expanding business. By the end of the second year, he is the owner of a fleet of pickup trucks and manages a staff of 100 formerly unemployed people, all selling tomatoes.
Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decides to buy some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picks an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the telephone conversation, the adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he has no e-mail, the adviser is stunned, "What, you don't have e-mail? How on earth have you managed to amass such wealth without the Internet, e- mail, and e-commerce? Just imagine where you would be now, if you had been connected to the Internet from the very start!"
After a moment of thought, the tomato millionaire replied, "Why, of course! I would be a floor cleaner at Microsoft!"
Moral of this story:
- The Internet, e-mail, and e-commerce do not need to rule your life.
- If you don't have e-mail, but work hard, you can still become a millionaire.
- Seeing that you got this story via e-mail, you're probably closer to becoming a janitor than you are to becoming a millionaire.
- If you do have a computer and e-mail, you have already been taken to the cleaners by Microsoft.
Rodger Blaker is a Personal Coach who supports people in their desire to bridge the gap between where they are today and where they want to be! For info on resources for your success, visit: http://www.rodgerblaker.com
GIVE A GIFT TO A FRIEND! Please forward this copy to your friends and colleagues! That's how I grow!