We live in an era of sound bites and 140 characters. Here’s a few that influence me. I don’t remember where I heard most of them, but if you know the source pop me a note and I’ll attribute them correctly.

• Live in the moment
• How you do anything is how you do everything
• Motivation is the key
• If you are always early, you are never late. @philpringle
• life makes you hard, Jesus makes you tough @markkelsey
• play to your strengths
• provision follows vision
• money is just a concept
• believing is seeing

It would be kinda cool if you could add some of the one liners that influence you. Maybe a tweet that really motivated you. Add them in the comments below and I’ll update the post. TIA.

Lately I’ve been working through an hypothesis of mine.

I realize that I spend a lot of time trying to get things just right. For instance, I probably spent four hours trying to work out the new design on this webpage. I also spent at least three hours the other night designing a flowchart to give to a programmer. My reasoning is that I want it done right.

Now I know that doing things right is a bit of a strength/weakness of my melancholic personality. I can get so caught up in the details or mechanics of something so it never gets completed. In the quest for getting things right, things don’t get done.

So my new theory is that if I can convince myself to accept ‘good enough‘ then I will actually get more done and be more productive. Even now, I’m resisting the temptation to explain myself more fully so that I can do a better job of getting you to understand what I’m talking about.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers has some thought-provoking stats on what good enough really is.

Update: After I posted this article, I came across Seth Godin’s thoughts on the same subject.

So there’s my theory. It’s not complete, but it’s good enough. I’ve decided that ‘okay’ is better than incomplete. What do you think?

A couple of years ago, I was more active in writing blog posts, visiting other blogs and commenting. You know, being involved in the conversation in the blogging world. I very much enjoyed the networking and connections with people around the world. It was encouraging and enlightening as part of that environment.

Recently, as I’m blogging more often, I revisited several of the sites I used to frequent only to discover they were gone. At some I encountered the ominous message that the site was not loading. At others the message by some domain provider wishing to sell me the name that used to belong to a friend. It was kinda sad.

Of course there were other sites that were blossoming and some who I know had just changed domain names to make a greater impact. In every case, nothing had stayed the same.

That’s really the point isn’t it? Nothing stays the same and it shouldn’t.

Things need to change.

Some things need to end and some things need to start. I’m reminded of the fact that often the very thing that is keeping us from our best life, is actually our present life. We can’t let go of what we have to reach out for what would be better.

I have a confession to make. I don’t quit things very well. I’m the kind of person who hangs on and hangs on regardless of the circumstances. When Kim and I renewed our wedding vows on our 25th anniversary, one of the things we renewed was our stubborn inability to quit. We just don’t quit. In that instance it’s a GREAT thing.

Other times though, not quitting isn’t so good. Holding a losing business venture when the financial drain is keeping you from starting something successful or even enjoying life. Or driving a car that keeps stranding you because of some sentimental attachment?

My friend Ps Dean Sweetman knows how to quit better than anyone else I’ve ever met. He quits stuff if there is a better way. He doesn’t get emotionally attached to programs, just to people. (but not to people’s attachment to programs:)) I don’t know how he does it, but I think it’s one of the reasons he’s so successful.

Knowing how to quit and knowing what to quit are two different things though.

I’m trying to work on quitting things early and using my resources more wisely. Any suggestions?

Been thinking…. about influence!

If we measure our influence within the span of our lifetime, is it really influence? I mean like how many facebook friends we have or how many twitter followers. Or how many people come to our church or how many subscribers we have to our blog, magazine or newsletter. All ways of measuring influence but is it really influence or just a fad.

by Yoni Lerner

I think real influence should be measured in generations not circulation. The most influential people in history may or may not have been hugely successful or had many followers in their lifetime. In fact the the most influential person in history had only 120 people show up to follow his last instructions. If Christ’s influence would have been measured by the popularity standards we hold to now, Ashton Kutcher or Oprah would have to be considered more influential.

But… and it’s a pretty big but, if we measure influence in generations, then Christ’s influence has outlasted anyone in history. In fact when we look back on history, the only real influencers are still remembered generations after they had their earthly sojourn.

So… my point is this: shouldn’t we spend more time living for the generations that will follow us and less time building for today? What do you think?

You may teach what you know, but you can only reproduce what you are.

I really wanted to come back to the whole concept of generosity today.

Sowing and reaping. Law of Attraction etc…

Alex asked why people serve, but I’m wondering about what drives generosity in people.

Several months ago I started supporting Kiva.org. In fact we even ran a contest here and I ended up giving away three gift certificates. Jonathan-C Phillips got on the bandwagon as well as many others. Since that time, I’ve continued to support Kiva as you can see from the sidebar. In fact our church has been supporting Kiva for quite a while now too.

Since I gave my first loan to Kiva, the first entrepreneur has already paid back one loan. That’s exciting to me.

The last few times I’ve been at the kiva.org website, there haven’t been many entrepreneurs to lend to. The reason: Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton have featured the organization in books and on television. As a result of the exposure, lot’s of people have gotten involved.

My question is this: Why? Did they suddenly become generous because there was an opportunity? Or were people moved to generosity because someone said they should be?

Did Oprah and Bill Clinton (funny that the former president has to be identified by both first and last names) simply point out something that people were looking for? Or is it the power of personality?

My friend is headed to Sudan to provide some basic humanitarian aide. What would it take to get you to support him?

What moves you to be generous? What are the basic criteria you insist on in a charitable project? Let’s talk!

Sometime ago fellow blogger Alex Shalman asked what I get out of serving. Since I’ve taking soo long to answer the question I figured I better have a really good response.

I’d like to be altruistic and super principled and say that serving is it’s own reward, however that’s not the complete picture. While serving others definitely leaves me feeling fulfilled there are other things at work.

Sowing and Reaping

One pretty important life principle to me is the law of sowing and reaping. (I know others may call it Karma or the Law of Attraction)There are returns to everything I do. If I’m building into other people’s lives then ultimately there will be a payback in my life. I don’t really serve for what I can get out of it but I know I will get something back.

I think this law plays out a lot in the blogverse. There are people that particularly demonstrate it. Three people that live this out most obviously to me are:

• Aaron Potts at personaldevelopmentpartners.com
• Liz Strauss at successful-blog.com
• Jonathan-C. Phillips at smartwealthyrich.com

These are friends who are constantly doing things for others and as a result, they themselves are benefiting. They don’t use people to get what they want. They genuinely devote themselves to seeing others succeed. They are great examples of the sowing and reaping principle.

Which leads me to the other benefit I get out of serving others.

FRIENDS and great connections.

’nuff said.

What’s your take? What do you get out of serving others? Why don’t we start a conversation in the comment section. Let’s talk!

“Truth unapplied is the beginning of arrogance”

This week I met a remarkable young woman who’s living with Cerebral Palsy. Well I didn’t actually meet her meet her. We discovered each other on the internet. Her name is Glenda Watson Hyatt.

She proves that limits don’t have to be limiting!

I first noticed Glenda’s name in a comment on another blog I read. I would link to it if I could remember which one it was. At least I think that’s where I first noticed her name. Funny how those things work. The little details get lost in the more important ones.

The fact is, I didn’t meet her until she sent me an email. She was wondering what part of Canada I lived in. I guess she noticed my face among the myBlogLog readers on her site and decided to say hi, after first checking out my blog.

Anyway the point of all this is to get you to read Glenda’s blog. It’s called doitmyselfblog.com. When you get there, on the right sidebar is a little button that says help me blog for a year. Click it and vote for Glenda.

I think Glenda is a champion.

She’s living the GREAT life that she desires.

A few days ago, Liz Strauss wrote a great article about Boomers, GenY and changing the world. Read the whole article. It’s quite thought provoking.

Boomers and GenY

As I read her article, it seems there are three things that characterize the two generations.

• Authenticity
• Views and values
• The necessity for active communication

It is those things that make us more similar than different. (for the record, I’m a boomer)

When I was growing up, I heard a lot about the “generation gap”. I’ve since been told that it’s a myth. Yet there is a gap if we don’t learn how to work together. There is a gap if we don’t bring our unique strengths together to enrich the world.

With the dreams and energy of GenYers and the dreams and wisdom of Boomers, who knows what could really happen. IF… we found the synergy between two different generations.

I’m really interested in exploring how we can bring two great generations together to impact the world.

I know there are several GenYers who read this blog and I’d love to hear what you think. Jonathan, Alex, David… what do you think? How could boomers contribute to your life? How do you think we could better work together?

What about the boomers? How can we work with GenYers to change the world? How could GenY contribute to your life?  Liz… you started the conversation. What do you think?

Being very careful not to accuse anyone else of being in the boomer camp, how about Wendy, Char, Dawud, Aaron, Rory, Robyn and Adam. What do you think? I think your opinions are really important. I would love to hear from you. Let’s talk!