You've heard of the horse whisperer, the baby whisperer, and the dog whisperer. And now for something completely unexpected. Check out this video for something beautiful and paradigm shifting:
Sometimes I look at my circumstances and say "Woe is me!" Now I will think of this guy :
Thanks to Jobina for showing me this incredibly inspiring video!
Did you know that obesity is contagious? It's true. Hang around a lot of overweight people and the environment (the obese people) will have an impact on you. On the other hand, if you hang around people who are healthy and are making healthy changes then chances are you will be influenced to become healthy yourself. In the last month it seems that many of the people I know or who I read their blogs have been doing some great work to get healthier. Lots are feeling better, losing weight, and improving how they feel about themselves. This caused me to look at myself the other day and go, "Hmmmmm . . ."
I'm not terribly overweight but I am terribly out of shape. I have the stamina of a near dead sloth. Counselling is a great workout for the mind - but it's terrible for one's body. Basically I sit around a lot and it's taken it's toll on me.
Being in an environment where so many people are making changes to their health has put social influence on me to think about changes. So for the last week I've started running. Not far (or fast) mind you, but it's something. And I'm surprised but I'm actually enjoying it - and I miss it if I can't. My first goal was to do my little run without feeling chest pains! Today I achieved it for the first time. Here's a great video I saw the other day on Neatorama about someone who also decided to make a change. I hope it inspires you today:
Robin Elliot wrote this recently in a newsletter of his.
Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver:
He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey ..
He handed my friend a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’
Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally’s Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment….
This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!
As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’ My friend said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’ Wally smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice..’ Almost stuttering, Harvey said, ‘I’ll take a Diet Coke.’
Handing him his drink, Wally said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today..’
As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’
And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts…
‘Tell me, Wally,’ my amazed friend asked the driver, ‘have you always served customers like this?’
Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.
He had just written a book called “You’ll See It When You Believe It.” Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’
‘That hit me right between the eyes,’ said Wally. ‘Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.’
‘I take it that has paid off for you,’ Harvey said. ‘It sure has,’ Wally replied. ‘My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.’
Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.
How about you?
Since the release of the iPad (in the US anyway - the Canadian release isn't until the end of May), we've seen all sorts of unlikely computer users playing with the new device. Now a new video of a 100-year-old woman using her iPad though is both heartwarming and inspiring.
100-year-old Virginia suffers from glaucoma, so the iPad's zoomable screen is ideal for her to read books (she's read 2 already) and write limericks (she's composed 12). Her children and grandchildren realized that this was cool enough to share on the internet and posted a video of the centenarian iPad fan to YouTube, including one of Virginia's limericks. I'm not sure what impressed me more; the fact that someone who is 100 could find Apple's iPad that easy to use or the fact that someone who is 100 is still composing poetry! Enjoy.
Here is a quick note from Virginia's family:
We, Virginia’s family, wish to say this video was made within minutes of her receiving her iPad. ? She quickly caught on to how to read and write on it, activities which were impossible before. She cannot read large print books any longer as her glaucoma prevents this. Glasses are useless. She loves to read and is a avid poet, now writing many many limericks for fun. She does not bend over the iPad, as you see in this video, but now puts it on several pillows.
“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people."
-Spencer Johnson
I want to talk about a professional golfer for a minute. No, not that golfer. I'm talking about a lesser known guy by the name of Brian Davis. Davis has been in the trenches of the professional golf world without winning a major PGA tour event and I wouldn't be surprised if you had never heard of him.
Luck was with Davis on April 18th when for the first time he was within spitting distance of winning his first ever PGA tour event. Up against Jim Furyk, they were both down to the wire on the final hole. Davis's approach shot on the first hole of the playoff bounced off the green and fell into some weeds. When he tried to punch the ball up onto the green, his club may have grazed a stray weed on his backswing.
Unfortunately hitting any material around your ball during your backswing constitutes a violation of the rule against moving loose impediments, and is an immediate two-stroke penalty. And in a playoff situation, that means, in effect, game over.
Amazingly no one saw what happened except one man: Davis. And so he actually called the violation on himself. "It was one of those things - I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye," Davis said. "And I thought we’d check on TV, and indeed there was movement." Immediately after the shot, Davis called over a rules official, who checked the video replays and confirmed the movement -- but movement which was only visible in slow-motion.
This guy is my hero.
As soon as the replays confirmed the violation, Davis conceded the victory to Jim Furyk, who was somewhat stunned -- but, make no mistake, grateful for the win. "To have the tournament come down that way is definitely not the way I wanted to win," Furyk said. "It’s obviously a tough loss for him and I respect and admire what he did." Indeed, Davis said afterwards that he was sure of the violation and wouldn't have been able to live with himself if it wasn't.
Such integrity. In an age where people are almost expected to cheat, it is a breath of fresh air. For six years the Englishman turned Florida resident has been trying to win one on this side of the pond. He could have pretended he never saw the club graze the reed, and taken the chance no one else saw it either. But he didn't. The truth was more important then then the fame and money. I think we can all learn from this inspiring act of . . . honesty. Well done Brian Davis, my hat is off to you.
If you are tired, if you are discouraged, you might want to take a few minutes and watch this video:
Truly, he was one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived. One person can make a difference.
I had a good talk with Cole Choken, an old friend from my OG days this weekend. Cole is an amazing guy; he used to weigh 320 pounds and now's he's dropped over a hundred of that and is in the best shape of his life. Cole ran from Calgary to Winnipeg a year ago and is training to leave in December on a much longer run; Mexico city along the eastern seaboard of the USA & Canada and then back home to Winnipeg. He's raising money for diabetes, a disease that is very prevalent in Native Canadians (and one that has affected many people in his family as well). He's also just a really good guy.
Cole is a good study in motivation. What is his secret? While talking to him on the phone he mentioned how he is super excited about visiting two places on his upcoming big run. The first is Thunder Bay where the Terry Fox statue is located. Terry Fox is one of Cole's heroes. The other place is Philedelphia where the famous "Rocky Stairs" are located. Apparently when Cole was a boy, he lived with his Dad and they only owned two movies. One of these was one of the Rocky movies (I can't remember if it was 1 or 2) and he and his Dad used to watch that movie once every two days. Once every two days! That's a lot of times to watch an extremely motivating movie. I believe Cole was primed by this experience to be ready to accept the challenge to change his life when the time came. And when he chose to change - well, he knew where to go to find motivation to follow through.
Cole knows how to motivate himself and that is what separates him from others with lofty intentions. He is continually feeding himself motivation. He listens to inspiring music. He watches inspiring movies. He continually tells everyone what he is planning to do, inviting them to be a part of his journey with him (brings others onto his "team" and gains accountability at the same time). Who is responsible for motivating us, for inspiring us? We are. Or more specifically, you are.
Billy Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek was once asked why he takes speaking engagements in small churches that are celebrating momentous events. After all, he's a busy guy and he has "bigger fish to fry" as the saying goes. The explanation he gave is that when he attends such an event, he actually gets more out of it then his audience. Hybels find those kind of celebratory events inspiring and motivating - they get him hyped, engaged, and on fire for the local church. He comes back from such an event energized and hyped to see the church prevail. So he speaks at these events not just because it's a good thing to do, but because he needs it to stay motivated in his ministry. It's not a option for him. Like Cole, he knows what he need to do to stay motivated. Do you? And if so, are you making the time for it? I believe that discovering/knowing what fires you and making time to do it, is the single most effective thing we can do to fulfill the dreams and goals that God puts in our hearts. It's not a substitution for discipline, rather it is the foundation of it - the catalyst for it. What step do you need to take to feed your motivation/inspiration fires this week? And what's stopping you?
Really think you should work out but are having trouble finding the motivation? Think you should get in shape but finding excuses? Ever blame your age for you inability to reach your goals? Here's an inspiring person that might help you:
Heavy Metal Grandma
Thanks ysmarko for pointing out this video. It's a great illustration of how it is possible to overcome our weaknesses and limitations:
Are you focusing too much on your limits/weaknesses and not enough on your potential? What action can you take (today) to change view of yourself and your situation?
STORY NUMBER ONE
War II produced many heroes. One such man was Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.
As he was returning to the mothership, he saw something that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese Zeroes were speeding their way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor, could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger.
There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until finally all his ammunition was spent.
Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the Zeroes, trying to at least clip off a wing or tail, in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. He was desperate to do anything he could to keep them from reaching the American ships.
Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He was recognized as a hero and given one of the nation's highest military honors.
And today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.
STORY NUMBER TWO
Some years earlier there was a man in Chicago called Easy Eddie. At that time, Al Capon virtually owned the city. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. His exploits were anything but praise worthy. He was however, notorious for enmeshing the city of Chicago in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Easy Eddie was Capone's lawyer and for a good reason. He was very good! In fact, his skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capon paid him very well. Not only was the money big; Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago city block. Yes, Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.
Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had the best of everything; clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object.
And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Yes, Eddie tried to teach his son to rise above his own sordid life. He wanted him to be a better man than he was.
Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things that Eddie couldn't give his son. Two things that Eddie sacrificed to the Capone mob that he could not pass on to his beloved son... a good name and a good example.
One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Offering his son a good name was far more important than all the riches he could lavish on him.
He had to rectify all the wrong that he had done. He would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Scar-face Al Capon. He would try to clean up his tarnished name and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this he must testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. But more than anything, he wanted to be an example to his son.
He wanted to do his best to make restoration and hopefully have a good name to leave his son. So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. He had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer at the greatest price he would ever pay.
I know what you're thinking. What do these two stories have to do with one another?
Well you see, Butch O'Hare was Easy Eddie's son.
Charles Wigan is learning disabled. Yet he hasn't let that stop him from creating art that is simply extraordinary:
Thanks to my sister for showing me this.
Ever heard of Norman Borlaug before? I hadn't either but I thought he fits well into my "inspiring people" series. Neatorama has a cool write up about this plant pathologist/geneticist who is credited with saving more life than anyone else - ever! How did he do it? You'll have to read the link for the details. But to sum it up: Borlaug created new strains of wheat that were hardier, shorter, stockier, and disease resistant then ever before, increasing yields 200-400%. He singlehandedly helped some poorer wheat-importing countries become wheat-exporters! Who would have thought that so much of the world's population could be saved by advances in farming technology? Very cool.
After reading Franklin Graham's biography recently I thought I would also read his Dad's story titled Just As I Am. Though he wasn't perfect, I'm a big admirer of Billy. He is a good example of what someone sold out for Christ looks like. Anyway, I'm reading and I came across this story (p. 123-124):
It was October 1948 and we were in Augusta, Georgia about to conclude a fairly successful two-and-a-half-week citywide Campaign. Though I had recently taken on the presidency of Northwestern Schools, I was still on the road a great deal, speaking at YFC rallies, conferences, and evangelistic campaigns.
Our Augusta Campaign clearly was not having any impact on the people in the hotel. An automobile dealers' convention was in town that Saturday night, and around one in the morning a wild party erupted in the next room, awakening me from a deep sleep. Grady came to my room to complain.
"I can't sleep."
"I can't either, and tomorrow's a big day," I said to him. "I'm going over there to put a stop to this." I wrapped my bathrobe around me and went out and pounded on their door.
"Whad'ya want?" asked the drunken man who responded to my knocking.
"I want to speak to this crowd!"
I had intended just to tell my neighbors to stifle the noise, but I guess the preacher in me took over. I yelled for silence into the crowd of thirty or forty carousing man and women behind him. Startled they quieted down.
"I'm a minister of the Gospel," I began. Pin-drop silence. This was a bunch of South Carolina auto dealers who knew a Bible Belt evangelist when they saw one, even in his bathrobe.
"I'm holding a revival Campaign in this town. Some of you may have read about it in the paper."
Not a reasonable assumption.
"I daresay most of this crowd are church members. Some of you are deacons and elders. Maybe even Sunday school teachers. I know your pastors would be ashamed of you, because you're certainly not acting like Christians."
I got bolder: "I know God is ashamed of you."
"That's right, preacher," one of them piped up. "I'm a deacon." "And I'm a Sunday school teacher," a woman confessed.
Well, I stood there and preached an evangelist's sermon to the crowd. I don't know what happened to the party after I left, but there was no noise for the rest of the night.
That was not my usual pattern, of course, although I have endured more noisy hotel rooms than I care to remember. But sometimes an evangelist has to be bold, and sometimes he comes across as brash!
The image of Billy Graham in his bath robe breaking up a late night party makes me chuckle. May we all have the guts to confront our brothers and sisters in Christ when they forget that being a Christian means acting like one.
May Light increase!
Book Review: It's Not About The Bike by Lance Armstrong (with Sally Jenkins)
With all the bad stories we hear about cancer it is occasionally nice to hear a positive one. When it comes to accounts of fighting and beating cancer I can't think of one better then Lance Armstrong's. Lance Armstrong was an up and coming cyclist from Texas. A super aggressive personality with a tough background he was shocked one day when he went to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well to find out he had testicular cancer. He'd had it for awhile and his prognosis wasn't good. In a very honest fashion he chronicles what fighting cancer was like; the fear, the hope, the frustration, the pain, and especially the helplessness. For a driven man like Armstrong, cancer was the last thing he expected or wanted. He had to face not only the loss of his health (and possibly his life) but also his dreams and ambitions which he thought were about to be realized. What he experiences mentally and emotionally is brought to life in his simple prose and vocabulary. I felt along with him as he describes his fear and the reactions of those around him. This is gut wrenching stuff.
The book goes back into Armstrong's less then perfect upbringing and sets the stage to explain the persevering spirit, pure stubbornness, and willingness to embrace (and defeat) suffering that helped him so much in his fight against cancer. The fact that he survives the cancer physically is wondrous enough, but how he goes on to recover emotionally and then revive his career is pure inspiration. Cancer transforms Armstrong into a different person. I don't want to give too much away, but the new Lance is able to achieve things the old one was never capable of. He believes the cancer was his enemy but it also made him into a better man and in the end he is glad he got it. I tend to agree with him.
You don't have to enjoy cycling, stories of healing, or even biographies to really get into this book. I think that about 80% of the reading population would find something enjoyable and inspiring in it. I have read it three times now and every time I'm impacted differently. This time I was moved by what may have been his toughest battle of all, living after cancer. How do you live when others who fought the battle with you didn't make it? What does life mean now? These deep questions (and Armstrong's journey through them) are authentically explored and I appreciated it.
It's Not About The Bike is everything a book should be. It is absolutely fascinating, inspiring, emotional, and down to earth. Armstrong is not a saint (far from it actually) but his honesty is refreshing. In many ways it is one of the best books I have ever read. If Armstrong was a Christian, was more relationally savvy, and he swore less this would be one of those blanket "you have to buy this book" books. If someone you love gets cancer (especially testicular cancer) you should definitely consider buying them this book. I rate it 4.8 ninja stars out of 5.
If you were a professor and you were dieing and you were about to deliver your last lecture, what would you say? Randy Pausch was in that situation . . . and he decided to make the best of it. If you have some time (and high speed), here is his famous last lecture entitled ""Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." It's a little long (an hour and sixteen minutes ) but hey, it was his last lecture:
If you want a shorter snippet (six minutes) of this amazing man's thoughts, check out his surprise address to the Carnegie Mellon University graduation class of 2008:
If you were caught in a riptide and rushed out to sea (without) a life jacket, how long do you think you'd last? My guess for myself used to be an hour or two. So I was amazed to read this story about a Dad and his autistic son who this very thing happened to and were able to last for over 12 hours in the open ocean. It is truly an amazing story. I can't image what it would feel like to slowly drift away from your son and listen to his voice getting fainter and fainter . . .
As a student of human development I read stories about the so called feral child, a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no or little experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.
The idea that nurturing is so imporant to a child's development children is illustrated in the heartbreaking story of Danielle, a feral child found living in an urban apartment under horrific conditions. Danielle was almost seven years old, yet she had never been to school, didn’t speak, and did not react to human contact. If you have a few minutes, check out this story of human evil and goodness here. Oh, and if you have kids, why not give them a few extra hugs today?
(H.T. to Neatorama for bringing it to my attention.)
If you know me, you know that I am huge fan of Apple, Inc. and it's charismatic founder Steve Jobs. Jobs is widely seen as the key to Apple's huge successes (and mistakes) over the years, a creative and demanding CEO who defies conventional wisdom and creates his own. I don't agree with everything he says or does but I do think he has lots to offer and a way of looking at things that is out of the ordinary. If you have some time and you are in a reflective sort of mood, check out this video of Jobs giving the commencement address (about 15 minutes) at Stanford University in 2005. I found it inspiring. It's classic Steve Jobs but with the added surprise of unusual vulnerability for a usually private man. His life stories are genuine and compelling. Enjoy!
