Gratitude

“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.” - Frances Rodman

Gratitude. What a powerful thing. I read that line this morning and knew it was so powerful. People are driven by any of many different things. The most powerful things I do for myself is every morning go through  gratitude list and do the same thing in the evening. Some days I have a hard time doing that exercise. I think I become so accustomed to everything I have I take it for granted. That and I start to focus on my difficulties and not the things I have to be grateful for.

Where would I be if I lost EVERYTHING. Well, the most important things are Linda, Ainsley and Morgan. My house and stuff is just that - - stuff. But I am grateful for everything. I have a place to live, I am warm and dry. I have a business. I teach. I have clothes.  

Some of the students I teach have less than what I have – a lot less. They go to school and at least on the outside seem to be grateful for what they have. Imagine having nothing.

My grandfather came to Canada with nothing, not even the ability to speak English (from what I know). He got off a boat in Montreal, took the train to Hamilton and started working in the steel mills. He became one of the highest ranking people in the foundries and all from nothing. So what right do I have to complain.

I am truly grateful for my life. I realize that what I get out of life is a direct reflection of what I put in. I want more out of life so I have to give more to life. By that I mean I need to be of more service to more people. Can I do that? Of course I can. I wonder though. I have many things I can do for others. I often get bogged down in trying to figure out what the universe wants me to do. I think what I need to do is relax and let it tell me on its own.

I have what my mom would say is “too many irons in the fire”. People will tell me to focus on one thing and do it well. I honest look at everything as just one giant thing. So in fact, although it looks as if I am accomplishing nothing, everything is moving ahead however slowly though it is moving ahead.

And I am grateful.

Perseverance

"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This has been a busy few weeks for us. We are in the middle of fall clean ups and all of the other things we do at the end of the season. We are also trying to plan for the winter and getting things up and running so next year will be better than this year.

Why perseverance? Well, I think it is quite simple. When we wake up and the days weather looks sour and cold you must push through to get the work completed. That sounds really simple and it is. But that is only one part of perseverance. The easy part. It is so easy to wake up, look out the window at the weather and decide what to wear to stay warm and dry.

The hard part is the unknown. Trying to build new business and not knowing if it will work. I honestly believe that if my creative mind could conceive the idea then there is a receptive mind somewhere else. So we have these ideas to build our business. Are we convinced the ideas are sound? Yes we are. We have built some business models about the product and pricing and service. What is next?

We need to keep pounding at the gate until someone stirs and answers.

I honestly believe that as soon as we have one customer we will have a hundred customers. When we have a hundred customers we will have knocking at our gate. Once people see what we can do for them and their environment they will want us to work with them.

So what now? Keep on truckin’! We have what we believe is a service people want. We know how to do it, we can do it and we are ready to do it. So we need to start knocking on gates until someone answers.

I am sure you have something you want people to know about. So knock on gates. Do not be belligerent, be remarkable. Be worth remarking about. Be something, do something that people will talk about. Be better than the rest. Be unique. Be yourself.

When I am talking about knocking at the gate I don’t mean with a mallet or stick or something like that. Just gently tap to make them aware you are there and then show them what you are up to. If you have done a good job being worth remarking about, they will listen.

I think one of the best things I can say here is be persistent. Stay on message. Review to be sure but keep your core message consistent. It WILL pay off.