Snowy Holidays

Hello from snowy Wenatchee.

This is the season of Good Will and Peace on Earth. Maybe it's just living in rural Americana but the people I run into are all Happy with the Season's Cheer. They take time to great friends on the street or at the coffee house. Most have already finished their shopping and are able to enjoy the holidays. What a nice change. Sure there are some jerks out there, but they are the exception and not the rule.

This is hoping all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Remember - we all create what we want. Think limitless thoughts for the new year.

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

Dream Manifestation

Optimism combined with hard work and positive manifestation will create a wonderful life but I have to do the footwork. What is the old saying - Luck is just work hard meeting opportunity.

I work hard when I create a screenplay, story development, seminar or anything in life. I must remember that the work is my part in the equation. The outcome, my dream, will be laid at my feet based upon my efforts.

When I was starting out chasing my dreams I failed to take the initial steps necessary to create my dream. I wanted to jump to the golden ring before any work was undertaken. After years of laying the pipe - a writers phrase - and accepting the results this created I now take joy in the work necessary.

Today - I have put a project "Revealing", that I have been struggling with for 6 months, in the drawer and picked up an older project "Risking" to develop. I have learned so much through my efforts on "Revealing" that will be paid off through my efforts in writing "Risking". In the end both projects will benefit. I am the winner.

What are your dreams you're working toward? Are you laying the pipe necessary to reach your dream? Today - I hope you realize that your dreams are waiting for you to put in the work that they deserve.

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

Unceasing Optimism

Unceasing Optimism by Tony Ventrella

This post was on the Seahawks Blog site. It has everything to do with Chasing Your Potential.

Nothing good has ever come about without at least one leader showing the ability and the will to get up off the canvas and fight on. I’m tempted to go on and on using boxing analogies but I might bore you to tears if you’re not a fan of boxing.

On Sunday before the Seahawks game I had the pleasure of meeting 12th Man flag raiser Lt. Buck Compton, the war hero about whom the television series “Band of Brothers,” is based. Buck is in his 90s now but still has a twinkle in his eye and an optimistic attitude about his life and his country.

Buck lived a life that would make “Forrest Gump” look like a boring character. He grew up in southern California where he quickly developed into a very good baseball and football player at the high school level.

He grew up quickly mostly due to his father’s suicide in July 1933 when Buck was just a teenager.

In his book “Call of Duty,’ published in May of 2008 Lt. Compton tells the story of his life. After his father’s death Buck went on to succeed at UCLA as a football player, seeing action in the 1943 Rose Bowl game against Georgia.

After college Buck did what every other healthy American did, he joined the service and on June 6, 1944 was one of the first member of the 101st Airborne to parachute onto the beaches of Normandy.

He helped liberate Holland, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, served in the military with baseball great Jackie Robinson and played college football with Hall of Famer Bob Waterfield. Upon graduation Buck went to law school and in the 1970s as a prosecutor for Los Angeles County helped convict Sirhan Sirhan of the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

That’s all I’m going to share here, I want you to read the book, it’s well worth it. My whole point of this story is that Buck Compton was just a normal red blooded American boy who did extraordinary things in his life because he was optimistic and never gave up.

Buck never let anyone pop his balloon and many tried over the years. In our everyday lives we struggle to remain positive about everything from the economy to our jobs to our families to our health. The last thing we need is a person or a situation with a pin ready to pop our balloon, but the reality is the pin carriers are out there ready to pop and we have to be ready.

The best way to be ready is to always look at the bright side of every situation. Seek out the potential in every single thing you see and do during the day. Is it easy? Of course not, if it were easy everyone would do it. It’s difficult but when you succeed you fortify yourself against those negative forces that serve to run you down and stop your progress.

Hang in there, protect that balloon and just for good measure keep a pocket full of new ones in case someone does get to you with a pin.

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

SUCCESS!!!

Well the word is coming in that like a lot of the elections. . . my surgery was a success. I have begun to eat solid food, small bites as a test, and walking about. I feel pretty good but a little nauseous which is to be expected. I should go home Friday and start the rest of my life pooping a little more but that is most of what should change in my life style.

Your Life Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

Catching up....!

A lot is going on in my life right now.

The biggest thing is I go in for surgery on Wednesday the 27th. I have over 1100 polyps growing in there. Too many to biopsy so they will be removing it. Scary? Yes. Fearful? No. My life style will change a little but not as drastic as I originally thought. I will be laid up for about a month though. I will miss my meetings and the great people I've met here over the last year and a half. But I have to remember that this is the reason I moved here from the Desert. I will finally get my energy back that the chronic infection from Crohns disease robbed from me.

I have been working daily on both my book and screenplay for "Revealing". It's a story that takes place here in Central Washington. Here's the logline. "A reluctant young man learns he is the One when a visitor reveals that he alone can prevent a war between two factions of aliens from a sister Earth." I'm excited about the way the first draft is turning out.

I've also had contact with my old writing partner from the desert. He asked me to cover his script "The Ranch" He is working with a producer and is into to his rewrites. It's coming along great and I'm excited for him.

Well that about it for this month. I hope all is well in your life.

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

Rules to Live Your Life!

Pete Carroll is my hero as a coach for going against the grain. As far as I initially can tell - he has basic principles that he leans on the live his life by. Rule are good. They allow you to stay on course even in rough weather.

In today's mixed up, self-gratifying world, this is unusual. My rules or principles are; Honesty, Hope, Faith, Courage, Integrity, Willingness, Humility, Love, Discipline, Perseverance, Awareness and Service.

Incorporating Carroll's rules along with mine I gain an assertive expectation to my life. After all these define how I live my life.

“Win Forever!” – In approaching life, day to day, strive to win everyday. Forever.

“Always Protect Your Team” – the team is your relationships; friends, company, workers, family, associations. Your job is to be on your best game. Give 100% to your team. Remain conscious.

“Always Compete” - No slackers here. Be your best. No excuses.

“Attack Challenges" – Prepare every day for the unknown by remaining conscious even in mundane occurrences. These reveal your character. Be professional.

“My mantra is: To Strive for Love, To seek knowledge, To Find happiness, and Yield not to fear.”

I stole this mantra from Pete Carroll. It sums up Chase Your Potential. My personal struggle is to "yield not to fear". I choose to define "fear" these days using the old definition that dates back 4,000 years - "respect". When I have respect for my fears; heights, performing, submitting my writing, being myself - I am to give my best and respect what is in front of me. I live in reality.

What are you principles? Rules to live by.

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo

Something Good

I have become a huge fan of Coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks. His enthusiasm for life and the people in his life is infectious. His energy. His positive attitude. His living in the NOW (No Other Way).

Yesterday I discovered that he wakes up every morning and says "Something good is going to happen to me today." OMG! Think of the power of that simple statement.

For years I woke up and thought "Well this is my life. What's next?" I wasn't exactly negative, but I wasn't setting my course toward the possibility of all the good things that could cross my path.

By establishing the preface that "something good" is coming my way, I tore down my walls of defense agenda. I allowed life to bring the best that it had for me into my life. I became vulnerable to the prosperous gifts that the universe want to bestow upon me. All I had to do was to remain open and welcome the ability to recognize these gifts and take action toward them.

"Something good is going to happen today."

Your Life - Your Rules!

Namaste Speedo