Month: April 2014

Second Place?

What happened? Did you hesitate? Didn’t you hear the gun go off? Did you look away for a moment? Well, these are takeoffs from a Jerry Seinfield routine, but when it’s close, second place hurts, and if it’s something stupid, it makes you nuts! Even so, for win, place, or show in horseracing, Gold, Silver or Bronze at the Olympics, the athletes “in the money” have different takes for sure.

The winner cannot be anything but happy. Right? Or not. Sometimes, they wonder if it’s a fluke. They ponder whether indeed the second place person just stumbled, and the second placer is really better after all. Then there’s the Silver Medal person. They worked just as hard. They practiced, bled, sacrificed, competed. Continue reading “Second Place?”

Trust

Trust is the new barter system. We trade dollars, but we really work on trust. Trust says, ”My word is my bond.” Trust says, “I’ll work  to help you grow.” Trust says, “I believe in the Golden Rule.” Trust says, “If you really, really want this dream to come true —this book to be written, this business to fly —it will be done.”

Trust is the partner of hope. Trust finds power in the Universe. In fact, it draws power to us from the Universe. Not God, not Buddha, not anything religious, per se. It’s a piece of The Force from Star Wars. It’s the belief that we can win. It’s the David of David and Goliath. It’s belief in oneself. It makes the world work: babies are born with it, companies spawned from it, ideas spread through it. In this increasingly soulless, weary world in which we live, trust is the safety net we crawl into — a hammock that lets us sleep at night. Let’s protect it by trusting in someone or something today.

Meditation — Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

OHHHMMM. Some believe that meditation started 1500 years BCE, give or take. Meditation could be traced to Buddhist India and Taoist China in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, although it is still open for debate. Fast forward to present day, and the practice was not a  large part of Western culture until the Beatles popularized meditation in the 1960s and 70s.  There they go again … changing the world!

Most recently, the cacophony of today’s society is trying to offset itself by meditation. Indeed, Goldie Hawn, Dr. Andrew Weil, Harvard Business Review’s Peter Bregman, Good Morning America’s Dan Harris, and many more espouse its benefits for mind, body and spirit.

Meditation is trending higher for business people, the media, Hollywood stars and just plain folks. It’s an important trend to combat a scary trend. Maybe it will keep us sane.