Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker
One million+ people globally while at Disney Institute.
“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” — Life Is Good slogan
I used to look for sea shells on Sanibel Island, Florida. You know the ones – the perfect shape and color. The ones that looked like they came from the sea shell store.
Not any more.
Now, I look for ones that are unique and special – broken and beautiful.
Just like us humans.
Broken and beautiful.
Like Tiger Woods.
Like me.
Like you.
Hard work is a great game plan.
Hope is not a game plan.
Hope is indispensable, please don’t misunderstand the intent here.
But hope alone, is not a game plan, hard work is:
Rather try hard and fail, than to simply hope and never try hard enough.
Resist the temptation to lean on self-pity. Click here if all you want right now is hope. You must have hope. It’s not a game plan, but it is the start.
jeff noel Burning The Candle?
A friend recently asked, “So how has writing five daily blogs affected you. What have you given up”?
I’ve given up:
It struck me later that night, while reflecting on his question and the answers. Cutting back on work, or anything remotely related to cutting back on work, wasn’t mentioned.
I am addicted to work. Many people are and simply don’t know it because they associate with others who are the same.
Nevertheless, I’m driven to create something bigger than myself, to help raise money until a cure is found for Crohns disease. What are you sacrificing? What are you sacrificing it for?
“More Ovaltine please”? A classic commercial tag line from American television and radio.
More Ovaline? No.
More pictures and You Tube videos please. I hear ya. I’m with ya. Busy. Man, am I busy!
All good things take time. Which is why I give myself some credit for coming so far in only six months.
Six months? Well, writing consistently for six months.
The actual vision for doing this started about 30 years ago in college. That’s a tale for another time (maybe).
Last night I was transferring photos to several external hard drives, when I found this, from April 2007. Well over two years ago, I had started to write the first page. Had completely forgotten about this attempt. Here it is for posterity:
EVERYTHING’S IMPORTANT: April 02, 2007
How many books and articles have been written, over time, about what’s really important in life? In business? In leadership? In raising children? In becoming successful? In learning to prioritize your life? In achieving financial freedom? In becoming the best you can be? The answer, we all know. It’s thousands and thousands. This begs a profound question. What are they all trying to say? Really?
Two of the most magnificent days in your life are the day you were born, and, the day you figure out why!
Have you figured it out yet? If you’re like me, and the rest of your human brothers and sisters, the obvious answer is no! Most of us, simply because we’re human, will go to our graves not knowing. How tragic is that? It’s criminal, eh?
How then, is it possible to travel for decades on this glorious planet, and never figure this out? This too is a no-brainer. It’s because, “EVERYTHING’S IMPORTANT”!
What do you mean, Jeff? Think about it. We have all had bosses, or maybe we were the boss, and, it’s one fire-drill after another. Everything’s important, right. It gets so confusing that we finally just cave in and say, “OK, everything’s important”. It’s that seemingly insignificant moment that you doom yourself to a life of mediocrity. Really!
It’s like the story of the frog in a pan of room temperature water, sitting on the stove. A group of teenagers slowly turn up the heat to see what the frog will do. We all know how this plays out. The frog never notices the slowly changing water temperature and dies as the water finally reaches the boiling point.
How is this possible? It’s possible because you and I are weak. We are conditioned to accept mediocrity. We are shown images of greatness in the media. Constantly. No one ever talks about the serious, but do-able, effort required to be excellent. And so it goes. We give up, It’s perfectly acceptable to give up. Everyone does it. Why should you be any different? Because!
Because if you don’t try harder, you will never know the difference between joy , liberation and inner peace, compared to the alternative – a life sentence in your unfulfilled journey. Is this your legacy? The legacy you want your children to see and model? Go to jail, go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 dollars.
Right now you should be feeling some pain. Emotional, psychological pain. This is a very good sign this book is for you.
It has taking years, no, decades, to discern the truth. You’ve probably heard it said: “Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from making mistakes”. The truth is here at your fingertips. In these pages. You can do what you want at this point. The choice is yours (there’s a BFO)!
I know of no other person who’s invested more time and emotional labor to simply life’s truths. They say, “to teach is to learn twice”. Your journey is like mine. We are born. We grow and learn. Somewhere on your path, is your answer to your question, “why am I here”?
Are you ready?
Pause!
Yes, pause and think.
This will make you feel uncomfortable, no doubt. You should get used to this feeling, so that, in time, you will welcome your pain that comes when you slow down and looking inside yourself. You will discover, there is no other way.
If you think about why you are reading this book, then your answer to continue or not will be automatic. Yes!
Please turn the page when you are ready.