Message of the Day - Remaining Positive in Face of Adversity

Good Morning,

 

Do you ever have days where nothing ever seems to go right?  It's like a wave comes to knock sense into you for trying to be positive. You get up and another, bigger wave comes at you, and just before you get knocked off your feet, you notice an even bigger wave behind this one bearing down on you. You change your stance to better face the waves and remain positive, but now an undertow pulls your feet and legs out from under you and your positive attitude is shaken again.

 

How do we face this continual onslaught of negative waves which relentlessly pound us and our sometime feeble attempts to keep a positive attitude?

 

There are two ways I know of.

 

The first and harder way is to keep getting back up. If you get back on your feet each and every time you get knocked down, then in the end your positive attitude and will to be positive will defeat any and all obstacles and challenges.

 

The second way is to get help. Two people, working together are strong than one.  

 

Two people bracing each other as the waves of negativity sweep over them have a better chance of remaining on their feet than just one. Three is better than two and so on. Surround yourself with others who have the same desire to be positive and back each other up. You will find it easier to be positive when you have others right there with you, wanting to do the same thing.

 

If there is no one where you work or live who is positive, then go elsewhere and find someone. Maybe you can only meet once a week or once a month, but find that person and spend time building each other up. Send emails, texts, instant messages, whatever. If you can't find anyone, call me.

 

Be the positive for your group, and they will be the positive for you. With that synergy working together, eventually those waves of negativity will get smaller and smaller and eventually just cease to have any impact on you.

 

Be positive together, and take on the world!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

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

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

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Message of the Day - New Found Family

Good Morning,

 

This past few weeks have been a real journey into discovery for me and my family. Over the course of this time, I found out about the existence four first cousins and an aunt I had either never met or did not even know existed. You see the TV shows or read articles of family reuniting with each other after decades, and you get that warm and fuzzy feeling vicariously through them. It is much more intense when it is your family which you are being reunited with!

 

I knew I had close family who I had never met or do not remember meeting, but I had never thought I would meet them.  In the course of every day life, obscure memories from childhood seem to get lost in the chaos. Sometimes they trickle through your consciousness, brought forward through random encounters or just serendipity.

 

Like the movie Rain Man where Tom Hank's character 'Charlie Babbit' used to call his older, autistic brother Raymond 'Rain Man' before they were separated. Charlie had vague memories of Rain Man, but not until they were re-united did he understand what it meant. 

 

It was eye opening to find whole chapters of my life just reappear.  My father and uncles have half sisters, who they knew and met, but had not seen in over 30 some-odd years. Being 10 or less old at the time, I knew these people existed, but never knew much about them.

 

Like opening a book which has been in my collection for years for the first time, I eagerly look forward to the new found relationships that are being forged with the new extended family.

 

This new found family mean new opportunities to learn, love and share. While not everyone will have people just appear in their lives, they can reconnect with those they have not spoken to in some time. And then they can learn, love and share anew.

 

The joys of reconnecting give us all a chance to start a fresh relationship. We may even take one which was not so good, and start it over, to give it another shot.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
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Message of the Day - Obtaining the Goal we Did Not See

Good Morning,

 

Today I tried to give a pint of blood to the Red Cross during a blood drive at work. I breezed through the initial consultation and review part. Then when I got to the cot to start the draw of blood, that's when the problems started.

 

At first, I had the staff try my right arm, but after a few minutes finding a vein, they could not get an adequate flow from it, so they offered to either try sticking it again or using the left arm (my right arm screamed to be left alone). I opted for the left arm. Again, after finding the vein, the bloodletting started nicely. Within minutes I had filled half of the sack but the flow slowed down and eventually stopped. My body had started clotting where the needle was (actually doing its job).

 

When we stopped, they found there was not enough blood collected to provide for a transfusion. It bothered me that I had tried hard to help someone and couldn't. The lead tech there then told me that it was not for nothing, that my blood was going to be used for research and testing, so that these vital functions can continue with minimal use of blood slated for transfusions.

 

Although I failed in my primary objective, it may have been because I had succeeded in another objective, possibly a much more important one (research which could lead to more life saving information).

 

Life is full of these situations where what we saw as failure or missing our mark actually turns out to be something achieving a much higher goal, one we may not have even known had existed before.

 

We should look at what we see as failures again, and see if there is not something more promising to come from these situations. We may be surprised at what we find.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
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Message of the Day - Spending Time Alone

Good Morning,

 

My current read is Og Mandino's "Return of the Ragpicker" (http://www.amazon.com/Return-Ragpicker-Og-Mandino/dp/055329993X) which is the sequel to "The greatest miracle in the world". In this wonderful book, the Ragpicker, Simon Potter, who spends his time helping those who are down on their luck and helps them improve their lives.

 

The message Simon says is so critical for our generation to learn is to spend time alone and reflect, and think. That our world is moving faster and faster with new fangled gadgets to save us time, which turn out to be newer and even more insidious time leeches. That we spend so much time just trying to keep up in our world, that we are losing a lot of ourselves.

 

That is when we spend some alone time reflecting, contemplating and thinking, we are able to understand more about our world around us, the people around us and ourselves. Through reflection we can learn even more about what we already know. The challenge is that we seldom give ourselves the chance to do this reflection due to our jumping onto the next task or using the next time saving convenience.

 

Not taking this time means we miss out on all that we can learn from quiet reflection.

 

This is another point my friend Don brought up in his simple and quiet Thanksgiving. He was able to spend some quality alone time and reflect on his recent life happenings, etc.

 

I try to spend time reflecting when I first get up and just lay in bed and think, or when I get ready for bed, I take 10 - 15 minutes every few nights to just rethink what has been going on in my life.

 

Quiet alone time is a powerful tool. It can give us insights we may not be able to get otherwise.  It is well worth the effort to give yourself some alone time every now and then.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
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Message of the Day - The 'Uniforms' we wear

Good Morning,

 

In one of my recent 'Learn and Grow Daily Tips' (http://learningtip.blogspot.com/) I wrote:

 

"Uniforms. We all wear different 'uniforms' through life. I'm proudest wearing the 'uniform' for any role where I can help other people."

 

The uniforms we wear are not so much the actual uniforms of the places we work, or organizations we serve (although they could be), rather the uniforms often of the things we do or the roles we fulfill in life.

 

We can wear the 'uniform' of parenthood, or of caregiver just as easily has the 'uniform' of a firefighter or store clerk.

 

Throughout our lives, in all of our adventures both in and out of the workforce we wear different 'uniforms'. Some we wear by chose, and some are thrust on us by circumstance, or our own choices (whether wise or not so wise).

 

When I get to help others, it does not matter what role I am fulfilling, or what 'uniform' I am wearing. It just makes me proud to be able to be of service. 

 

In the end, helping others is what its all about and we should endeavor to do so no matter what 'uniform' we are wearing.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
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Message of the Day - Finding Job Security

Good Morning,

My current read is Ken Blanchard's "Leadership Smarts"
(http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Leadership-Smarts/Ken-Blanchard/e/97815629
21248) which is a compilation of leadership quotes and some further details
on those quotes. Many of these come from his many books. One quote that got
me thinking was "The Only Job security you have today is your commitment to
continuous personal improvement".

Wow…

There are no guarantees in the workplace other than companies want talent,
and when times get tough, they want to keep talent. Top performers are not
just the top producers in their line of work. Rather, they are those who can
adapt to the changing needs of the workplace while still producing high
quality, high volume work in the shortest amount of time.

These people are not just born. They are created.

How are they created? They learn and improve themselves. They embrace a new
situation, learn from it and use that knowledge to help them in a newer
situation. Continual learning and growing, as I said many times before,
helps you become that top performer who can adapt. With the rate of change
in the world today, the ability to adapt then is critical to success.

Continual learning and your attitude and how you face the situations you are
in are two keys to improving your marketability and security in a job, or
when looking for a new one. Being committed to personal improvement then
means truly putting time and effort into self improvement (e.g., gaining
more skills, knowledge and or experience) every day.

Yes, EVERY day.

Added to that commitment is the personal attitude we bring to the table. We
must be positive, and yes, we are all human and need to de-stress from time
to time. My bosses all have heard me vent over the years. When being
positive, even in tough times, combined with continual improvement, we
position ourselves to succeed.

Doing this tomorrow only, though, will not help you, unless you do it again
the next day, and the next, and don't stop. Continual improvement takes
time, and while we are bound to have bad days, the key is never stop, never
give up.

Be positive, and make a commitment to improve yourself daily and you will
improve your job security.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
502-533-9336

Message of the Day - Recharging Batteries

Good Morning,

 

In sharing recent Thanksgiving experiences, Don, a reader of this message shared with me that his Thanksgiving was quiet and peaceful. He had his dinner with his lovely wife and nobody else. Don told me that in the peace and quiet of this time, devoid of the multitudes of family, he and his wife were able to recharge and relax and enjoy this holiday without all the stress and hoopla which normally accommodate each holiday. The recharging instead of stressing made all the difference for him and his wife.

 

There is a lot to be said for taking time to recharge your batteries. A stay-cation is another wonderful way to take some time for yourself and not do too much (unless you have set up a remodeling project for yourself).

 

What seems opposed to popular belief, it is okay to take a little time for yourself. Maybe it is only ten minutes here or there, but this time will be well invested. Without taking some time to relax and unwind we only increase the amount of stress that we put on ourselves.

 

In today's world, adding more stress is not the direction we should be heading in. It is dangerous to our health, both mental and physical.

 

A little time spent for yourself or with a loved one can end up as a great investment in relaxation and time off.

 

Maybe take a play from Don's playbook and find a way to have a quiet and relaxing day, holiday or even fifteen minutes without all the hoopla and mayhem which surrounds our everyday lives.

 

Thanks Don for sharing!

 

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com ←-Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg <---- NEW
502-533-9336