Hey, everybody..... Just a quick note today. I have been away quite awhile. I took the better part of the last three years to be mommy, daddy and granpa to a now 3 1/2 year old grandson. It has been a rewarding journey and the saga continues....but the ground work has been laid. He is 3 going on 13 and the challenges are a little different now than making bottles and changing diapers.

So.... "I'm back....." I will be moving the blog to a Wordpress platform soon but will get this pony on the trail and make the adjustments as they begin to take place.

Suffice it to say, I'm ready to run with this thing again and my focus hasn't changed.

There is a big, bright beautiful future out there for those who dare to dream and it's 'always too damned soon to quit' on achieving them!!

With that in mind.... I bring to you a Facebook post from, highly successful network marketer Mr. Bob Crisp. I don't know how many of you had a chance to see it but the post was a classic:

DEMOGRAPHICS... funny how we Baby-boomers have been shoved aside lately... like we are done? Finished... kaput... overthehill... sitting in a retirement community called "The Villages" in central Florida where my mom now lives... and everyone owns a golf cart to get around in... I kid you not... and these old folks can be brutal... so many angry people... and I'm sitting here wondering why? So here's my take... I think the most prolific/productive generation (That'd be us boomers) ever in history cannot believe we are over... done... through... cast aside forever... I guess most of us thought that "Retirement" was nirvana... play golf, lay in the sun, travel a bit... play bridge or parchessi... eat dinner at 5 pm... watch the evening news and go to bed at 8 pm... "The Good Life" they call it... well, I think we bought a pig in a poke... this retirement horse is lame... swayback mule... no Kentucky Derby Winners... just hayburners being put out to pasture... or sent to the dog food makers... well I didn't sign up for that kind of ending... did you? I still have a fire in my belly, some nitro fuel left in the tank... a go for it mentality... still get my juices flowing when the firebell rings... run toward the sound of the shots... and yes, I do get angry when I feel shunted aside... "Society may predict but only I can determine my destiny" never understood why the ugly guys got the pretty girls... still don't... talked to my old upline Diamond the other day... he said he was tired but that he'd just driven 500 miles that day to do a meeting... fired me up... I use to call him at 2 a.m. from some dark country road in Oklahoma or Texas... and just asked him "Are you still in?" he'd affirm he was... and asked me if that was all I said yep... that's all I needed to know because I needed a lead dog to follow... and he was it... hey,. if you're looking for a lead dog... (and who doesn't?) know that I'll never give up or give in... it just ain't in me.... but it was reassuring to hear a guy my age saying his butlt was dragging his tracks out... mine too Rick... mine too... just can't imagine why anyone would retire from networking... Dexter Yager used to say he'd always be ahead of us... because we were doing the business to do something else we loved more... but he said I do this because I love it most... took me a while to come around to that way of thinking... society had indoctrinated me into a "Someday" mentality and I thought there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... now I know the pot of gold was in my heart all along... just sayin 

Thanks for the thoughts, Bob! I have never had the pleasure of working with Bob but I sure agree with his thinking. Do you have that fire in your belly he speaks of? Are you not ready to be put out to pasture? Are you ready to run...to still accomplish that grandest of goals?

Then....lets make it happen! It's too soon to quit!! Isn't it? Can you imagine just 'hanging out'... til the lights go out?

The Question

The Question is...... Do you have to finish "first" or in the top few at your earliest attempts to succeed? Look around and you will see the huge number of people who's personality, passion, drive or ego are stopping them from having any chance at all to achieve success.

As you look around, can you spot all of the people who have simply given up on doing anything special with their lives? Living in quiet desperation......

Why? Don't you suppose that, when they were children, they had wonderful dreams of what the future held for them? Have you ever known a child that didn't? Aren't they all going to grow up to be a fireman, a doctor, a leader, a president? Something grand and special to them... perhaps inspired by their parents, a teacher, a movie or television program.

Somewhere around 3% of the population wind up living their personal DREAM...heck, let's be generous and make it 10%. What happened to the rest?

In short, LIFE happened. Perhaps they tried and failed. Maybe even a number of times. Perhaps someone they respected and loved 'rained on thier parade'....minimized thier dream.... told them it wasn't realistic!

So, eventually, most simply QUIT! Give up on thier dream. Walk away to live....yes, quiet lives of desperation. Now only dreaming of their DREAMS, what could have been.

Where are you....today? Still dreaming the DREAM? Still fighting? Still working to make it happen?

Don't let anything or anyone get in your way. How many times are you willing to fail before you give it up...for good?

Before you do consider the alternative and continue to fail until you succeed!

"Ninty percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit." - Paul J. Meyer

The Power of Fear

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really look fear in the face....we must do that which we think that we cannot.
Eleanor Roosevelt

What role has fear played in your life? Have you failed to take action on something that would make a positive change in your life because you were afraid to take action?

Does that fear have you 'stuck' in a place you don't want to be? That truly is the situation for most of us. The sad thing is that fear is uncommonly simple to overcome!

The solution? Action! If you will take those first small steps in the direction of your goal the fear will simply begin to evaporate. One action step leads to the next and you will soon find that the fear is beginning to turn to enthusiasm and doing the thing that you once feared becomes energizing.

Each step leads to a bigger step and it becomes easier and easier to be bold enough to take yet another step in the direction of your dreams.

Live your dreams! Take Eleanor Roosevelt's advice.....do that which you think you cannot.

What if you didn't know?

What if you didn't know that you could fail?

What if you removed all of the self imposed limitations from your life?

Yould you attempt more things that you currently don't consider? Would you live life more fully? Start today to live life like there was no possibility of failure.

Start with something small that you have put off because you weren't sure you could get it done or, worse yet, were afraid you might fail at. Take a chance. Learn a new skill. Try something new. Step outside of your own limitations!

Little steps lead to bigger steps which lead to small successes...which lead to big successes. Are you willing to risk your 'status quo' for something more?

Start or Finish?

Here's a quick (and true) story that really spoke to me and I thought everyone would appreciate.

Long after the crowd had left and the cameras had moved, a lone runner entered the stadium to complete the 26-mile-long marathon in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Injured earlier in the race during a fall, he stumbled along, more than an hour after the others had finished.

Hurling himself to the finish line, John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania finished dead last. But before you judge him as a loser, take careful heed of the words he uttered when asked why he did not quit earlier when he had been injured:"My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race.

"They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

So.... What's your story? Are you a starter or a finisher?

A Journey of a thousand miles....

As I said on todays "tweet".... Every journey, no matter how difficult, begins with a single step.

We all have a choice to make. In order to change, to challenge ourselves, we must take that single step forward.

What is your challenge? Better health, greater income, freedom to choose? Whatever...take the first step today! It doesn't have to be a big step, just a mindful beginning.

One you take the first step, commit to taking one more step every day. You'll be suprised. Soon the steps will get bigger and the results will begin to compound more quickly.

It all begins with a decision to 'step forward'. Do it today!

Another Day Closer

Whatever it is that you have set as your primary goal....you are another day into it.

Are you another day closer to achieveing your goal; or are you another day farther away?

One way or the other, as trite as it is, "Today truly is the first day of the rest of your life." Every day is a fresh opportunity.

When the sun came up today and you woke up, with a heartbeat, you were given yet another chance. What are you going to do with it?

The universe is incredible. Every day is fresh. What will you do with your new day?