Choose Your Attitude, Grow Your Brain, Choose Love
Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Frankl
Don’t just “Golden Rule” it. Golden Rule IT OVER THE TOP!
Sunday I taught about thinking divine thoughts verses thinking human thoughts from Mark Chapter 8:31-38, Jesus’ famous encounter with Peter… “Get behind me Satan (Jesus says to Peter) For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
As news outlets show, people have a preference for negative and bad news. Scientists believe that the role of the almond shaped Amygdala in the brain is to heightened awareness of danger and act as our early warning system. It keeps us vigilant about trouble. The bad media news triggers our built in early warning/danger system, the Amygdala, and causes us to pay attention to the bad stuff. News outlets know people are attracted to bad news and they feed more of it to the masses in order to generate income for their business. Bad news sells.
We can override the Amygdale (human thoughts) with Higher (divine) thoughts. Jesus models 5 behaviors to help us.
- Be up for the challenges because they are real and they will come. The passage begins with awful news. But Jesus twists that news with faith. Be realistic about the challenges but always believing the best; God is working even in the worst situations! Faith cures the awfulness and leads to the best life.
- Take a stand on the important things. Jesus wouldn’t tolerate Peter’s pushy negativity and he took a stand. But I would advise you don’t go around calling people “Satan.” Here is a script you can use when people dump their negativity on you: “Yes, and more than that isn’t it amazing how great things eventually triumph over awful things. Believe for the best!”
- Don’t just “Golden Rule” it. Golden Rule IT OVER THE TOP! The one who focuses only on his own world and life loses it! Never let the negativity keep you from giving deeply of yourself from your hearts. Love unconditionally, give and you will live the best life.
- Live abundantly with your scarcity. Everybody has limitations (yes you do!) and they reveal our scarcity. The best lives live abundantly in spite of their limits. The Greater is found in the lesser.
- Be proud of your Spirituality and skeptical of your religion. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time rejected the spirituality of Jesus. Guess what; Jesus rejected the religion of the religious people. The life of faith, not the religious life, is the best life.
Stop listening to the purveyors of negativity (News outlets and negative people) who manipulate with omens and fear. Think divinely and live the best life possible.
Becoming A Person of Influence Master Mind
Bryan Martin presents the Master Mind: Becoming a Person of Influence.
4 weeks begins 11:15am to Noon, February 28, 2012 FREE!
1171 W Shaw Ave., Fresno CA 93711.
Bryan Martin is a Certified John Maxwell Team Member, a coach, teacher, and speaker.
Register at http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/353700421337268/
It is Ash Wednesday and you are NOT dust…yet!
Ash Wednesday reminds you that you are not dust… yet! So live your life INTENTIONALLY and PASSIONATELY with THANKFULNESS. Don’t waste a moment with regret and self-pity. COMPLETE your God given life task, while you can, with ENTHUSIASM and LOVE.
BryanLeeMartin.com and on Facebook.
Revisiting the Powerful Story of The Pursuit of Happyness
Who would have thought that I would have anything in common with a big black homeless man living on the streets with a baby in diapers?
Chris Gardner is the father (played by Will Smith) in the movie Pursuit of Happyness. I heard him speak, again, recently. If you saw the movie then you know the story about one man’s struggle through one dramatic and god awful downturn after another, to be THE formative presence in his son’s life. I won’t go into detail here but it is enough to say that the driving force in Gardner’s life was to be there for his son.
The story in the movie is true but one important point was modified. The boy in the movie was 5 years old; in real life he was a diaper wearing 14-month-old. Can you imagine trying to live life on the streets with a baby for a year while trying to escape the blackhole-like pull of poverty to get a foot hold in a new business and a better life? The movie is very moving, but hearing the story from Gardner himself is powerfully emotional.
I’m writing this today because of what happened to me while I was sitting there.
First, I have to tell you that Gardner was the keynote speaker at our annual Keller Williams Realty International meeting (officially called “Family Reunion”). We were there to learn how to have “careers worth having, businesses worth owning and lives worth living.” It is in this context while listening to Gardner speak of his passion to be present for his son that I had the sudden realization that my own daughter and son were sitting right there next to me. Chills popped out.
My mind went retro and I was instantly sitting with my pregnant wife Jennifer (our first baby) as we planned our children’s lives before they were born. I can almost recall the exact words as we strategized three specific goals for our lives and their lives. We would raise children who knew the love of God, were competent capable people with high self-esteems and who make an impact in the world (Love God, love self, love neighbors.) Those were the beginning of days and years that were very challenging, fraught with poverty and tough times of our own but not just for one year. We had year after year of poverty living. The only reason we did not end up on the streets was because of our loving supportive families… but, wow, we struggled.
The next moment I was flashed back to reality, Gardner made a funny point and the 9000 person audience laughed. I was back to today, I was with my family. We have overcome incredible life circumstances, and my children, now adults with kids of their own, are successful by every measure and especially in love.
With his good fortune and hard work Gardner’s movie and books have touched millions of people across the globe in ways he never imagined possible. My own good fortune is not as expansive as Gardner’s but it is no less impactful. Jennifer and my love and influence in our children’s lives is having its ripple effect in the world spreading not only through generations but touching people around us in untold ways.
Gardner’s good story is an ancient story told over and over again about the power of love in family and how family love can and does impact the world. Love is the greatest thing.
Call to action: 1) Be there for your family and friends in spite of the circumstance you find yourself in. 2) Tell me and others your own story of family love. Inspire us with your own story of triumph and love.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Accountability Partner Year
So… you want to be a better father, husband, mother, wife, friend, business person, thinner, richer, more giving, better connected, fit and trim, or any other worthwhile goal. What is holding you back?
What if you could give yourself a great accountability partner for Christmas who could help you meet your goal by the first quarter of the New Year? Would you?
I’m the guy. I will be your accountability partner.
I have researched goal achievement and the role of accountability partners and there is an art and science to reaching your goal. Here is what doesn’t work; just doing the best you can. It turns out that your chances for reaching your goal when “doing the best I can” are low.
Here is what works, according to the research; great big difficult to reach goals. Turns out that successful people have big goals.
And here is one of the main keys to successful goal achievement; accountability in the form of positive feedback. I’m not talking about your cubical mate saying they will hold you accountable to stop eating junk food. I’m talking about someone who will help you with a smart plan to reach you goal in a systematic step wise process.
I have the plan and the system to help you and I would be happy to do it as part my personal life goal.
Let me ask you. What do you want? More business? More love? Better health? Well… what is holding you back? Here is a link to more information and an Accountability Partner agreement. Check it out and get back to me. Give yourself the best Christmas present ever and start the New Year right!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_banLcHXUnmIVL_XokjYhLSrnSqB5aLUfL4FNx_6ENg/edit
Love you, Bryan
Dearly Beloved,…
Dearly Beloved,
Jadon and Joseph (my grandsons) wrestle with the Bad Donkey Wrestling Club in Clovis. Perhaps you can imagine another word for donkey and get the cryptic meaning behind the club’s name. They train boys and girls in the fine art of mastering their minds and bodies with subtle moves. They learn more than just how to dominate their opponents, they learn how to control their own thoughts and actions.
On this particular day Joe was using Papa Bryan’s Taxi Service to get to wrestling practice. Joe takes advantage of our alone time together to ask important questions about life, family, and friends. This time he asked me to pray for a class mate who was having surgery, it was something to do with his kidney and he would be out of school for two weeks. Then Joe asked, “Papa how did you get to be so wise?” I thought that was an interesting question coming from a nine year old.
“Wisdom comes from education and experience, Joe.” I’m not sure about how much and what kind of education makes one wise, but I wanted to reinforce the importance of an education. I am sure that life experience teaches wisdom. “I’ll bet your friend will gain some wisdom as a result of having life threatening kidney surgery,” I said. To which Joe replied, “My other friend broke his pinky finger, he is very wise.”
Christmas makes me think of the three wise men who visited baby Jesus. Why is it that wisdom is often associated with children, as when young Joseph asked me about wisdom and wise men sought baby Jesus? It is because we, young and old, are seekers of answers to the difficult questions of life.
What I love the most about Christmas is the answers it provides. Answers to questions like; Is there any hope for the world? How can we find any peace? Where is the joy? How can we grow in love? It also answers the question about how to have satisfaction in life; by being grateful for everything we are and have (such as it is) and sharing our gifts of love with others.
Of course I didn’t learn all those things in school. Well, I learn ABOUT them in school, but I experienced them in life and I am still learning/experiencing them. Maybe that is why I appear to be so wise in Joe’s eyes. Christmas reminds me that what really makes me so wise and happy is being surrounded by family, like Joseph, and friends, like you.
This Christmas I’m thinking about the hope, peace, joy and love of God; the mystery revealed in Jesus, and how people like you make my experience of life so beautiful. Merry Christmas my dear friend! Merry Christmas indeed!
With Love, Bryan
