Explain it to a Six Year Old

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself" ~Albert Einstein

This makes perfect sense. Have you ever sat down with a child and tried to explain something to them. You think you can explain it to anyone, but then you find that you can't find the words to make it understandable to someone who doesn't have an extended vocabulary.

I think this is how most self help gurus write their books. You should try this with something you know a lot about. Sit down and start writing. Split what you are trying to teach into sections. You want something that is separated into bite sized chunks. You want your six year old to be able to go away everyday with a small part of what you are teaching.

Now start writing each section as if you are trying to explain it to a child. Use small words. Don't try to expand on anything in exhaustive detail. Try to remember that the people you are trying to teach probably don't have any experience in what you know about. That means the parts you take for granted, they know nothing about.

When you are done, try your teaching on someone else. They don't have to be six years old. They just have to know very little about what you are teaching. When you do this, you will find out some of the things you left out. You will notice their face when you say something that does not make sense to them. Those are you ques to make changes to your teaching.

The interesting thing about putting together this teaching, you will learn so much more about what you are trying to teach. You will be surprised at what you have learned yourself.

Time or Money

"Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time." -Jim Rohn

This is something that we often forget. Then we wonder where the time went when we have wasted it watching TV or surfing the internet or whatever other pointless activities we do in life. Time is something that is finite. We only have so much of it. The problem is, we have no idea how much of it we will have.

I am a strong believer in making your time count. Make sure you know what you want to do in your life. Make sure you know who you want to spend that time with. Then when you get to the end of your life, you won't be sad to find that you have wasted the time you have been give.

Do you know what you want to do with your life? Even if you do or you don't, take a few moments to sit down and make a list of all the things you want to accomplish in your life.I like the website called 43things.com. The site allows you to make goals. Then it helps you accomplish those goals.

After you know what you want to do, take a few minutes to plan out the upcoming month, to figure out how you can get certain steps accomplished to get closer to those large goals. Then the only thing you will have to do to make those goals happen is to get out there and do them.

Promises are like Crying Babies

Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. - Norman Vincent Peale

If you make a promise, you must follow through with that promise. It will define your character whether you carry out what you've said you would do or not. If you don't follow through, then people will have a hard time trusting you with anything. They will not take you seriously. If you do follow through with your promise, then you will be admired, counted on, and the amount of responsibility given to you will grow. 

It says something about you as a person when you keep your promises. You say that you are a person who is going somewhere. It says that you should be someone that people can follow and not worry about being left behind. Keeping your promises will make you a better leader, and ultimately more successful in life.

Think about it. If we had a politician who could keep every promise they ever made, they would be someone worth getting behind. We would have someone who might just be in office for 8 years and who might be worth getting the law changed to give him (or her) a third term. That would be just awesome.

So how do you keep your promises? Don't promise something you can not deliver on. Remember to think about what you are promising before you make the commitment. If you know you can't do something, don't say you can do it. If you are not sure if something is possible, then don't promise you can do it. As for help and do it together. Then you will know if it is something you can do.

You Are a Success

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success." ~Dr. Joyce Brothers

This is a simple concept, but I think most people fail to live it. If you want something, you need to focus on it. If you don't focus on it, then your mind will not be aware of the things you want when they pass near you. If you are focusing on those things, then you will notice them when they approach. Then you can take action on those opportunities.

You can only do things if you believe you can do things. That includes being a success. If you don't believe you can, then what chance do you have to actually become that success. You have to know it is possible, and the more present tense you can make that belief, the sooner you will feel that success come to your reality.

I think you have to be ready to make something happen. If your mind is not ready, then it will be hard for your body to make it happen. The nice thing is that you can choose to be ready whenever you want to be. Once you make that choice then there is nothing outside your grasp. You just have to believe.

Make Others Become Great

"Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great"  ~Mark Twain

This is an interesting quote to think about. It is true if you think about it. Who in you life do you feel is a great person. It might be a teacher or a boss or someone else who you think does amazing work. Why do you think they are great? Usually it is because they have made you feel like you yourself might be great as well. That teacher prods you to do well on a test or compliments something you have written.  The boss tells you that you have been doing a good job and instructs you in ways that will make you a better boss.

One of my favorite examples is when we read authors. We think they are great. They don't know us. They have never spoken to us. They may never speak to us. Somehow, though, they are able to make us feel like we are someone great. I don't know what it is. Maybe because we get the opportunity to read something in their world, become part of that world. We get to see a small part of what is inside them.

We all strive to be great in some way. We all strive to be like those who we admire. The ones who, in our eyes, are already great. In that way we try to me more like them, making even the slightest bit of greatness. What we don't always see is that those we see as great once saw someone before them as great, someone who made them want to be better, to be great themselves. Soon you will have people looking at you wanting a little bit of your greatness to rub off on them. All you can do is be as great as you can be.

Ignore Your Limits

"Know your limits, then ignore them" ~John Mason

Sometimes it is good to not know how far you can go. Then you will surprise yourself by how far you can go. Lets say that you are invited to run a marathon. You say yes knowing you have never run that kind of distance before. You get on the starting line and start running when you hear the signal. You will be pleasantly surprised how far you can run without stopping. Then you will be surprised that you are able to walk the rest without stopping. Then you will be able to tell everyone that you have completed a marathon. It may take you 6-8 hours to complete the marathon but that is OK. You did it, and that is all that matters.

Now that you have an idea of what it is like to run a marathon, you know what your limits are. You will know what it takes to get yourself to the next level. Now all you have to do is train yourself to get past those limits. You start running everyday. You start to rat better, making sure you eat things that will give your muscles the nutrients they need to take the punishment you intend to put on them.

Instead of waiting for someone to invite you to run that next marathon, you start searching for the next one you want to run. You make plans to be at that marathon, and you set goals to get you to the point to run that race. When the day comes you start running, and are amazed when you pass the 5 mile mark without feeling too much strain. You keep running till you can't run anymore. Then you walk the rest of the way. When you finish, you find you have shaved off two hours off you last marathon. Now you know what your new limits are and you can plan for the next one.

Absorb what is useful

"Absorb what is useful, disregard the rest, Add what is uniquely your own." ~Bruce Lee

This is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever come across. It is important because everyone perceives the world differently. This means that one piece of information may be important to one person and completely useless to another. 

Personally I like to listen to as much information as I can. If the information that is being presented is not making some kind of movement within me, I move on to the next piece of information. If there is something I find interesting I will try to listen to it more than once. I want to listen to or read that information enough to absorb what it is trying to say to me.

That is another point I would like to suggest. The same piece of information could mean two totally different things to two different people. One might be thinking about the person who is talking and be focused on how the information changed the speakers life. The second person could be thinking about how the information could benefit the project he is currently working on.

When Bruce made this statement, he was talking about martial arts. The same techniques of different martial arts may not be as effective for one person as it is for another. He wanted his students to take the techniques that were beneficial for each person and build upon them. There is no point in spending time on a technique you can't do or don't do well when there are other techniques that will get you to your goal faster. Take what works for you and build upon it. That is my suggestion.

Stop Rowing and Look Around

"Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction." - Kenichi Ohmae

I don't know how often this happens to us, but it does happen often. We are doing one thing when we should be doing another. It's not until we fall into a hole when we realize that we were heading in the wrong direction.

There are other times when we know we are heading in the wrong direction be we make the decision not to turn around. Then we wonder why we arrive somewhere we don't want to be. The best example of this is how we eat. We know we should be eating healthy food. We make the decision to eat a lot of junk food and fast food. Then we wonder why we are fat and miserable.

Take some time to think about your life and what you are doing with it. Identify the things you are doing that are heading in a different direction than you truly intend to be heading. May a conscious choice to turn around and head toward a definite goal. You will enjoy your life much more when you start making some of your goals come true.

Are You Contagious?

"Happiness is contagious. Be a carrier" ~Robert Orben

Have you ever looked at someone and just laughed. Then because you laughed, they start laughing. I do this all the time to my little nieces. They have no idea why they are laughing. They have no idea why I am laughing. All they know is that my laugh is making them laugh. That's kind of funny.

Here is something you can experiment with. When you are out in public, start laughing for no reason. People will start to look at you with curiosity. They will want to know what is making you laugh. They might even start laughing because you are laughing. If anything you will have brought a little humor to other peoples lives.

If you think just laughing is creepy, then pick up your cell phone and pretend you are laughing at someone on the other side of the call. Or wear your earphones and point to them when other people look at you funny. You will have to laugh harder to get a response out of them, but at least you won't seem like a creepy, insane, happy person.

Love, Strength & Courage

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

I don't know why I like this quote. There is something truthful about the words. I wonder if it is the same for men as it is for women. I know when I think about it, women tend to give men their strength. If it wasn't for women, I don't think men would ever do anything. I think they would sit around and do as little as possible. When women (or anyone you might care for) comes into the picture, then men want to do things for her. The man wants to give her everything he possibly can. It takes courage to do that.

When that same person loves you back, that just makes you want to do more. It becomes a cycle. She loves you. That gives you the courage to do the things that will make you successful. Loving her in return makes you strong enough to continue to do the things that make him and her successful. The cycle continues as long as they continue to love each other.

So here is what I suggest that you do. Take the time to find someone who you can love. Allow that love to give you the strength you need to build your life. When she loves you back, that will give you the courage to continue to do the things you need to do to continue to grow your life together. It will take that courage to have kids and to be the parents you want to be.

Strength, Courage and Love. Those are a fantastic combination.