Don't worry about complaining

People complain, A LOT!    Let them.   That is one of those things we cannot control.  

It has been almost 2 months since we went out to Dave and Busters for a day of getting out of the office.   During my talk we went over focusing on things you can control vs things you cannot.    Have you tried to remember that?    Have any stories you want to share.  A couple of you have shared a story or 2 with me on a certain topic.    It is fun to hear people apply something you teach.  Especially if it works.   But how great is it to be in that extremely tense moment and then in an instant just think to yourself…..you know what, I cannot control this and whether I’m mad for a minute or a year it will make no difference to anyone but me!    That is a very empowering feeling indeed.

But back to complaining.   We complain about the winter being too cold, the summer being too hot, raining days being too rainy, traffic being too heavy, gas prices being too high.  Too much, Too little. 

Next time you are complaining about something, or if you hear someone complaining about something give it the old 90 day test.   In 90 days will you even remember this?      In 90 days will you remember how much it rained today?   Or that someone cut you off?   Or that you got shorted a couple of French fries from McD’s?   Sometimes that answer will be yes, we do remember some of the bad things, typically the BIG bad things.   But for most of the things we complain about…..nope.   They will not be remembered.

Then think of the good things in life.     In 90 days will you remember we did bacon Tuesday?   After 90 days do you remember a bday present?   Do you remember a good chat with an old friend?   A vacation?     I would say that most of the good things are the things we remember for a long time.

So forget the complaining.   There are plenty of people in this world who just love to complain.   Complaining will not go lonely.  If you divorce yourself from complaining it will find another companion, I promise.    So don’t worry about the future of complaining, it will be just fine.

The Bacon Tuesday Revolution

We've been doing "Free Bacon Tuesday" once a month for about 4 months now.   Some have asked me....."Jason, what is Free Bacon Tuesday?"    Well, it is quite simple.   That is where I give you free bacon, and its Tuesday.

This idea started as a joke, to some, but to me bacon is a pretty serious topic.   During a round table meeting  a couple of reps named Roger and Dave put in an idea that once a week we get free bacon.    They were kidding.  I think.   But I was not.   I went down to Costco and purchased 100 pieces of bacon, cooked 50 pieces up in the morning, 50 in the afternoon and began to pass it around in our newly termed "bacon dispensing pumpkin."    We're south of Nashville so some may call that a punkin.  The employees seem to love it, big morale booster!  

Once a month on a random Tuesday we do "Free Bacon Tuesday".    And I don't think I'm ever going to stop it!

Challenge Yourself

Every once in a while it is good to go a little beyond what you know you can do.   If you are a runner and you are used to running 10 miles a day, go out and run 13 some time.  If you lift weights and you have a steady routine, pick a day and raise all your weight 5 pounds.

Ever heard of Roger Bannister?   He was the 1^st man to run a mile in under 4 minutes.   Through 1954 no one had ever run that fast for 1 mile.   In fact most people held the 4 minute mark as some number that for humans would be physically impossible.  In the 1952 Olympics Bannister had a subpar, by his standards, outing and took two months or so and really consider quitting.  He thought about never running again.   But then he snapped out of it and set out to be the 1^st person to break the 4 minute mile.      He ran a 3 minute 59.4 second mile.   Whew.    Funny thing was, not only was the 4 minute mile attainable, his record didn’t even last through the end of the year.   Before 1954 was over John Landy ran 1 mile in 3 hours and 58 minutes.

The point here is that had Roger Bannister pushed himself to do something no one thought was possible.  Once the myth of the 4 minute mile was broken others started running, all because they knew it could be done.

Think about what you do in your comfort zone and then push yourself to get better.  Break out of your routine, stretch yourself physically and mentally.  The more you do this the more flexible you will become.   Quite often you will surprise yourself.   I’ll be you are capable of far more than you realize.  If you stay in your comfort zone all the time you may never progress as a person.  Challenge yourself!

Achievement can be your best friend

Have you ever thought about how cool achievement is?

Here are some things that achievement does NOT care about –

 It doesn’t care where you came from.

·         It doesn’t care if you are rich or poor.

·         It doesn’t care if you are tall or short.

·         It doesn’t care if you are good looking or ugly.   (Heck, if ugly people couldn’t achieve things I’d probably live in a broke down car somewhere alone!)

·         It doesn’t care what you did yesterday or even 1 minute ago. 

You can achieve your goals.   It doesn’t matter if you said you were going to do something a million times.  If you choose to do it today, the achievement will be there waiting for you.   Like a best friend, achievement is always there waiting for you to just grab it. 

Achievement, no matter how big or small has worth.   So celebrate your achievements daily and start reaping some of that personal wealth that is surrounding you at all times.

Do you have an agenda?

So many agenda’s these days.    The liberal agenda.   A conservative agenda.  Right wing, left wing.   If you look at any of these agenda’s or just our news cycle in general most of what you will read will be negative.  

How odd that we live in a country where 90% of people say they hate negative political ads, but they person who wins every election is typically the one that runs more negative ads?    That doesn’t make much sense does it.

What’s your agenda?   Have you ever thought about it?

In the news we hear about the murders, we hear about the bad cops and even some of the bad things that happen in our military.   Rarely do we hear about the good side of those scenarios.    Teachers help children every day in this country and no stories.   A teacher does something inappropriate to a child and it will be front page news for weeks. 

My point is we have a choice here.   We can choose to do what everyone else seems to do and focus on all the negative stuff in this world, or even in our call center.   OR, we can seek out the positives.   It is just as easy to speak about the best customer you had today as it is to speak about the worst customer.   Yet we often choose the worst when we are speaking.  

Take on a positive agenda.  Talk about the customers who compliment you, the ones you help.   All the ones that say thank you instead of the ones that don’t.    Spend more time talking to the people in your life who always bring your spirits up and try to help you.   Not the ones that say “oh don’t do that , it will never work.”    Focus on the things you CAN do vs those you can’t.   Live your life putting effort into the things you can control vs the things you cannot.  

If something bad happens you can still control your reaction.   Remember that you can be mad about something for 15 seconds or 15 years.   Either way the only person you are impacting with your anger is you.

What agenda will you adopt?