Message of the Day - I AM Happy

Good Morning,

 

No, I am not taking back my message from yesterday. What I want to do is look at the same message from another side.

 

We know life happens, and there are times that the happenings of life are unbearable.  And worse, when we find ourselves not able to take any more, something else happens. It’s as if the world has it out for us and we are the butt end of some cosmic joke.

 

In all things that happen to us, we get to chose how we face these things. It is our choice in how we react.

 

Yeah, okay, that is old news. The truth is, it works. The truth also is that it is hard to get it to work consistently.  It takes a lot of practice.

 

When bad things happen, and they often do, if we look for the bright side [and I am not suggesting we make light of anything that happens to anyone, rather it is a choice.] we can find something to help us get through.  

 

We can get pissed off and hate the world when bad things happen, or we can look for the lesson in the mess. Sadly, there is not always a lesson in the mess of bad things. Sometimes things just happen. Even so, there is always something we can learn, if we look.

 

When I get up in the morning, I look at the day ahead and what needs to be done, and what I would like to do. I prepare myself for the day, and find myself facing those negative thoughts I shared with you on my last blog.

 

The difference is that I have learned to stop those thoughts and redirect myself to something positive. Often using the tools I listed yesterday. Sometimes it happens automatically, and others, I have to wash rinse and repeat a few times.

 

Sure the bad stuff happens. It happens to us physically, mentally and spiritually. And yes, there is pain. And yes there is suffering.

 

Being hateful about it sounds like a good idea to some, but what I have found that if we allow the anger in, even a little bit, it grows. It is one of the fastest growing weeds ever.

 

Allow the anger in and it will fester and consume you.

 

Stop it.

 

Stop it with a prayer for those who have angered you. Stop it by reading the Word. Stop it by listening to uplifting music (even if that uplifting music is used for psychological warfare).

 

We do have a choice. We can allow the negativity consume us. And if we look for the dark and negative, we will find it.

 

Or we can choose happiness. That in the mess of our lives, we can find something to be happy and thankful about.

 

It may be harder to find, but those things are also all over the place.

 

Since my leg surgery, I have had pain pretty much every day. I walk, but in pain. I start out slow and move faster.

 

Folks wonder why I went through the surgery when I was trying to avoid pain only to get more. What I have earned, is the right to walk. Without the surgery I would have lost that. I am thankful for the pain. Because of the pain, I can walk.

 

And that is something that is a part of each and everyone’s lives. If we become thankful for the pain and suffering, we find something even better to be thankful for.

 

I miss my Mom, she passed over two years ago, and it is painful to hear people talking with or about their Moms, knowing I cannot ever do that again in this life. I choose to turn that pain into happiness.

 

That is, I had a Mom worth suffering this pain for. She loved me, she drove me crazy, and I love her, and I suppose I drove her a bit crazy too. I am thankful for the pain, because it means I had the chance of a great relationship with someone who I loved and adored.

 

There is happiness in life, even in the darkest pits of despair. It is there.

 

You need only look for it.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

 

 

 

Message of the Day - I am not happy

Good Morning,

 

Yesterday a co-worker asked me a random question. They wanted to know how I always seemed to be so positive in everything I do.

 

In my response I laughed saying that I am far from happy or positive all the time. Just ask my boss or my wife and they will tell you that I often have bouts with sarcasm and anger.  I am a recovering Yankee from New York.

 

I told my coworker that I am not a happy person, that I have to work very hard to be positive. It is something that I have worked on for years, and as I still have said bouts, I have a long way to go.

 

So, then, how can this so-called sarcastic and angry person come across as positive so often?

 

Good question, I wonder about that myself.

 

What I do when I am frustrated and angry is to try and get a chance to breath and vent. Sometimes this means going for a walk or listening to some heavy metal music (I prefer Skillet and Fireflight).

 

Sometimes I pick up my Bible and read a few verses. Usually of the Psalms.

 

Sometimes I pray for the people who are upsetting me, or take a cue from Norman Vincent Peale and give quick prayers to people as I see them walk or drive by.

 

What I also notice is that my anger and frustration is often surrounding a misconception that I am what everything is about.

 

And as we all know, it is not about me, or for that matter about anyone of us.

 

When we make that shift in thinking from it being about us to the bigger picture, the frustration and anger often dissipates quickly.

 

As each situation is different, I tend to use different tools to help get me back in control of my emotion from the hijacking that took place. One tool often is not enough if you use it over and over again.

 

Breaking it up, and doing different things helps you change gears when one trick is just not working. For example, when music is just not making the difference, I can step away and go for a walk. Or I can do some physical work to divert my attention. Etc.

 

With being positive, I guess it is working, although I am often brooding and dour most days. I guess the difference is that I refuse to stay in those dark places. Even if I have to sleep on the issue overnight, I refuse to let any situation hold me down. To take up residence in my brain and not pay rent.

 

I have a long way to go, but I am willing to take the trip.

 

I have seen the darkness that is within me, and I choose not to dwell upon it. Even though it tends to come clawing back to dominate some days.

 

It may be a struggle I have for the rest of my life, but if I give up, what then?

 

I am not going there.

 

I hope you don’t either.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Does Anyone Care Anymore?

Good Morning,

 

The last few weeks have been busy and I have had a hard time formulating messages I felt worthy of your time (I started about 6). For some of  you, you have enjoyed a nice respite, others, I am sorry for the delay.

 

Over the last few months I have been having troubles with my Garminfone, cell phone. I loved it when I first got it and it did well for many months. Then came the Android system upgrade and a series of problem that followed, including dropping calls, rebooting for no reason, locking up the Bluetooth and making calls just because I touched some random part of the phone. I have also had three replacements, two in the last 90 days. I have performed a master reset twice, and had a new battery sent, and changed memory cards.  During the last two months, I have not downloaded any applications onto the phone, as one of the first questions I get when calling customer service is what have I downloaded. It is kind of lame to have an Android phone and not use the Android market, especially with the apps I bought and did not install again.

 

With the phone running on core applications I have not been posting to facebook, twitter, etc., like I used to.  The technology had me hamstrung. And I wanted out.  I want to post again and share my insights and help others. I felt like a prisoner to my phone.

 

When I called in to see what my options were after all of these troubles, I was told I would be eligible for a replacement with a phone valued at about 1/3 the restocking fee for my phone (the cost I would be charged if I did not return the Garminfone within 7 days of getting the replacement). Yeah, that seemed fair to me too……not.

 

So I called customer service one more time to gauge what my options were. The technical support rep told me about having my phone eligible for an upgrade. I figured that would be fine. So I called and got a list of phones I could have upgraded for, and the cost for each. The phone I really wanted was the Galaxy S4. I did not want to spend over $100 for the replacement. The phones I was given were middle of the road and one low end. I told the technical support rep I needed a day to decide. They were pushing for me to decide right then and there, and I needed time to check them out.

 

I went to a local T-Mobile store and looked at the phones and asked the clerks what they thought. In the end I was not satisfied the choices they gave and decided that I would rather put out a little more money to get the Galaxy. This way I would be trading up instead of down.

 

Next I called before the technical support rep was to call me back today. I wanted to know if my company discount, for where I work, applied to upgrades. The customer service rep I spoke with saw the notes about the phones I was offered in the upgrade and the prices I was quoted. I found out my company discount, which I am happy to have, applied to my bill and new activations only (and they are good discounts).

 

The time for the technical support rep to call me back, 7:30 PM came and went. This would be the second time I did not get a promised call back.

 

At 8:30 PM I called the company back and started the ball rolling to get my replacement and for the Galaxy phone at the price quoted the previous day. The customer service rep quoted me a price over twice as high as the price from the night before. So I asked her to read the notes and see where I had been offered the phone at a lower rate. She said she could not offer the lower rate until she spoke with a supervisor.  I was placed on hold several times and finally I was on hold for about 45 minutes without a courtesy update and the call dropped.

 

I called back again and immediately asked for a supervisor. When I got to the supervisor I told her of my bad experience and what I was looking to do. So I was quoted another price. This one was right in the middle of the low and the high end.

 

I asked her why they had three different prices for the same phone for the same upgrade plan.  She told me that she could only tell me the offer that she saw on her screen.

 

I asked her if her peers and customer service staff had access to different information than she did because they kept giving me different information. She told me she could only give me the info she saw on her screen.

 

I then asked for a manager and was promised to speak with a senior supervisor, but that they were on break and they could call me back. I told them I would wait.

 

30 minutes later, some break….., I am told that they reviewed my account and saw where the supervisor from the day before quoted me the lower price, but she could not find information to corroborate it.

 

Next I get transferred to specialized customer care group for customers who are about to leave the company and go to another carrier.

 

I told the person that I was not looking to leave, I just wanted to upgrade my phone to one I knew would work (and one that was still in production and being supported, as the Garminfones are no longer offered).

 

She gave me another price, happily this one was lower than all of the other prices.

 

I asked her if she could suggest to her leadership the huge gap in the different prices I was given by the different people, front line representatives and supervisors. She told me that she was only giving me the low price because of my loyalty to the company and the troubles I had had with my Garminfone.  That the other people could not see her price.

 

So I reiterated that I was thankful for the price, but the point was they were going to have a lot of irate callers because of getting so many different price quotes on the same product, under the same circumstances.

 

Again, she reiterated why was giving me the price, that she understood what I was saying.

 

I don’t think she saw the big picture. I like getting a good price, and I like getting good service, and sure I like getting a good price after bad service, but the fact that no one seemed to care to fix the bad service was sad.

 

It was as if no one cared about the company. They did their own job and tried covering their own butts, but when it came for an opportunity to make something better, their eyes figuratively glazed over and they went back to ‘well that is what is on my screen’.

 

It is sad. And what is worse, it is endemic to many parts of our country.

 

Businesses and people who just don’t seem to care.  They don’t mind mediocrity or worse.

 

That is not the world I want to be in, or the country I want to live in, or the organization I want to work for.

 

But what do we do?

 

How can we make a difference?

 

The answer is not easy, and the road is even harder.

 

We have to suck it up and get tough.

 

We have to follow our hearts and keep true to our values.

 

We need to go the hard road.

 

It is lonely and there are a lot of people trying to derail you on the path to better.

 

If you choose to take the path, and go the route, it could be one of the hardest things we ever do.

 

Maybe if we help each other, we can make our way to the world of better together.

 

Are you with me?

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

 

Message of the Day - Wow how the world has changed

Good Morning,

 

Last evening, my family went to the University Club at the University of Louisville to attend a travelogue about Israel. At the table we were assigned we met some wonderful people. Two of which discovered they lived around the block from each other some 60 years prior. I am told that is the way it is in Louisville, it’s a really big small town.

 

Anyway, during one of the conversations, a lady talked about how air conditioners changed civilization. That what neighborhoods used to be before the advent of air conditioners is vastly different from how they are today. People would sit on their porches, kids would play outside and neighbors would spend time talking to each other and visiting each other often. After air conditioners, people spend most of their time inside their houses. Kids spend less time outdoors, neighbors spend less time interacting with each other. Etc.

 

This made me think about other advances in technology which have had equal and opposite reactions to the way we live.

 

Text messages are another game changer in the world we live in. Recent reports indicate that most teenagers communicate with each other through text messages than any other form of communication, including phone calls, emails, letters or even face to face communication. That if you go to a room full of kids, most of them will be texting other people in the same room without even so much as looking up and over at them.

 

In reading an article on the top ten changes in business, one item jumped out. We are so connected to our work and each other that we cannot go home, on vacation or pretty much anywhere without somehow being attached to work. That is the line between work and personal life has thinned and in some cases completely vanished. We do personal banking online at work, and send and receive work emails at home. Our lives are becoming decompartmentalized.

 

And there is the Internet, the global game-changer.

 

I find it interesting that the advances we have made, have had a nearly opposite effect on our lives.

 

These advances have in effect changed who we are. How we live, how we interact with others, and reduced or even eliminated the walls between the different parts of our lives. The speed of communication is blinding today. There is no time to breath, life happens so fast these days.

 

We need to be careful as to not to lose ourselves in the sea of technological advances and time-saving devices.

 

What other ways have you noticed our lives have been changed?

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

Message of the Day - Our Path is: Here, Right Now

Good Morning,

 

Watching a recent Sci-Fi movie rendition of one of my favorite Anime shows from the 1970’s –80’s, called Space Battleship Yamato, there was a scene where the captain gave advice to one of his officers. The officer, serving as Acting Captain, had to make some tough decisions. Crew members died, but the ship was saved so it could continue its mission to save the world. The acting captain questioned his leadership ability. He asked the sick and dying Captain if he did the right thing.

 

The old man’s advice was profound. He said:

 

The results are not there for us to brood over. What we should do doesn’t lie in the past, it’s here, right now.

 

The past is behind us. What has already happened is done. We can choose to learn from it, or not, and look forward for our future.

 

And while it is important to remember, we must not live in the past and brood over it.

 

Life is in the now, and our path, whatever path we take, is before us.

 

When we face challenges, we need to look around us at what we have right now.

 

·         Who is there now who can help.

·         What do we know now that can help.

·         What tools or resources do we have now that can make a difference.

 

Focusing on what could have happened or what we should have done is not there for us to brood over.

 

Our life is here, now.

 

Let’s not waste it.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336