Thank Goodness It's Monday #454

WHAT’S WRITTEN ON YOUR HEART?

 

It’s been a lot of Mondays (454 divided by 52 = a bit short of a decade) since these weekly messages began their routine appearance as part of a multi-platform program created with my buddy Eric Taylor and The EmpowermentGroup.

Our first connection had been at a public event perhaps a year or two prior.

After that we spent some time assessing each other, trying to figure out just what the connection was between an older, words-on-paper, pass-along business soft-skills, jacket & tie guy (that was me at the time) and, dare I say, a brash, young, great-on-the-platform, hyper-energized, fit and trim people-motivator like Eric (often decked out in preferred-at-the-time Tony Robbins look).

To cut to the chase: In those ancient days of business “courting” we discovered much in common and that our complementary talents played nicely and well together. A mutual acquaintance noted once we were like Lennon and McCartney, which I always took as a compliment (although I’ve never been sure who’s who in that equation).

The grandest production of those days became, as I have suggested above, a multi-media program conceived as and modestly tagged, How to Have Your Best Year Ever. 

The BYE elements consisted of ballroom-filling half-day presentations, CDs and DVDs, ring binders filled with stuff from all the productions and more, e-delivery of content (before the idea of an “e-book” had seriously entered the equation), and weekly outreach, free of charge and low on promo, to anyone who would have us in their e-mail box.

 

Fast forward to 2014: The world has spun on its axis and made its circuit around the sun many, many times since TGIM #1. The road has been winding and sometimes challenging. Other paths have crossed ours and we’ve investigated them in our own way. And through it all –

 

The journey has been interesting, enlightening, rewarding. We’ve met good and stimulating people who challenged us. And, I like to believe, on all sides of those “meetings” we’ve all come away better for the experience.

 

So that gets us to today’s TGIM headline.

It’s a reference to a source, mentor, guru – you pick the description -- and a touch point that Eric and I, as Best Year Ever kind of guys, found we had in common in the early going.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

It’s been my custom in over two score-and-then-some years of writing for a business audience to pepper my editorial input with what I deem worthwhile and actionable quotations from noteworthy individuals. When I did this in an early exchange with Eric, his response (as I recall it) was the equivalent of –

 

“I love Ralph Waldo Emerson!”

 

OK, maybe not literally that. But close enough to win me over inasmuch as I, too, “love” the eminently sensible and quotable RWE.

I have little doubt this moment was influential in cementing our “You know, I think I can work with this guy” decision and has informed our relationship in the years since.

 

So … In its way this TGIM #454 post brings things full circle.

Visually it’s from the Volume of Contentment we’ve been sharing much of this month.

 

TGIM Takeaway: Thoughtfully, philosophical and realistically it’s precisely the kind of “How to have your Best Year Ever” guidance guys who “love Ralph Waldo Emerson” can heartily endorse:

 

 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Write it on your heart this Monday.

 

And Tuesday … 

 

And Wednesday …

 

And …

Every Day of this, Your Best Year Ever.    

 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S.  "I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope." John Lennon (October 9, 1940- December 8, 1980) said that, prophetically in December of 1980.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #452

AN ALMOST-IRISH “BLESSING”

FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) isn’t the most “Irish” name to invoke as the official day of St. Paddy pride and celebration rolls around.

Still, as every at-least-once-a-year connector to the old sod – from President O’Bama to me – knows:

Today’s the day when everyone’s allowed the honor of being Irish.

So as TGIM continues to share the wisdom and inspiration from A Volume of Contentment from 1920, it seemed fitting to pick a page with a message particularly appropriate to the St. Paddy’s Day as well as the Thank Goodness It’s Monday spirit.

What better then than a thought about “blessings” and “being blessed” in life?

A blessing can be defined as the infusion of something with a kind of holiness or spiritual redemption. It can also refer to the bestowing of such a, well, blessing. Stated more prosaically, the idea of giving or receiving a blessing is about sharing and conveying one's hope or approval.

Wikipedia tells us: The modern English language “bless” probably comes from the Middle Ages term blessen.  Earlier still, language experts say, it all traces back to variations in the Anglo-Saxon pagan period meaning “to make sacred or holy by a sacrificial custom.” And those origins are rooted in Germanic paganism; a word meaning “to mark with blood.” 

A St. Pat’s connection: The modern meaning of the term may have been influenced in translations of the Bible into Old English during the process of Christianization to translate the Latin term benedīcere meaning to “speak well of,” resulting in meanings such as to “praise” or “extol” or “to speak of or to wish well.

Wearin’ o the green. What makes a blessing “Irish” then is not necessarily much more than the nationality of the blesser/blessed or, perhaps, being delivered/received on St. Patrick’s Day, the date itself giving the blessing Irish Power.

And with Germanic origins for the idea of blessing, Goethe’s got enough bonus cred to make the “Irish Blessing” cut today.

 

 

Honorary Irishman or not, Goethe led –

A blessed life. He was the originator of many ideas which later became widespread. Certainly, by his standard, he thought himself blessed -- liking many, many things and doing them so well his activities, accomplishments and legacy across many disciplines are acknowledged and endure worldwide.

• He was a politician, nobleman, and military tactician.
• As a scientific thinker he shared a theory of colors and early work on evolution and linguistics.
• He was fascinated by mineralogy, and the mineral goethite (iron oxide) is named after him.
• He produced volumes of poetry, essays, criticism and drama.
• Writing fiction he produced what is considered by many the world’s first “bestseller (The Sorrows of Young Werther) as well as poetry and drama.
• His non-fiction writings, most of which are philosophical and aphoristic in nature, spurred the development of many seeking greater truth and insight.

Clearly Goethe’s sense of inquiry, wonder and enthusiasm for many of the things he both “had to do” and “liked to do” filled his days and life with pleasure and sped him on to his many accomplishments.

So, with our Goethe excerpt in mind, here’s an evergreen TGIM --
 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY CHALLENGE: When I look at my daily or weekly “To Do” list, do I like what I have to do? When I step back and look at the big picture of my life, am I doing what I like to do?

On a day of celebration like St. Pat’s it may be easy to spot a bunch of fun things that qualify as “like to do.” But every part of every day can’t be green beer (or green bagels; what’s up with that?) shamrocks, and jolly greetings. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Follow Goethe’s personal example and quotable wisdom to make yourself worthy and ready for the blessings you give and get today. Stretch yourself to find the things you really like to do. Then do them. Build your skills until accomplishing even the most difficult parts of what you do are pleasantly challenging and “likeable.” 

Then perhaps you’ll reap the substance of the classic (and authentic) Irish Blessing:

Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.

May the road rise with you.

Hope you’re liking what we’re doing and sharing here.

I’m liking doing it.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S.  Click, cut, copy, share this version of Goethe’s ideal of a blessed life if it appeals to you. And let us know what you think of it, either way.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #451

WISDOM FOR SHARING FROM

“A VOLUME OF CONTENTMENT”

In 1920 the Dodge Publishing Co., headquartered at 53-55 Fifth Avenue, New York published a compilation of wisdom gathered from noted authors.

Founded in San Francisco 1895 as Dodge Book and Stationary Co. it moved to New York in 1898 and thrived for a brief time as a calendar and gift book publisher. 

This tidy little volume -- entitled A Volume of Contentment -- acknowledges that its origins were in the company’s Calendar of Contentment. 

How that calendar was presented, we don’t know.

Here however each selection stands alone on its page, laid out, decorated and rendered in art-nouveau-trending-to-art deco style and unique calligraphic type.

 

The contented content? Words of thoughtfulness, wisdom, insight, and understanding sourced from thinkers we still hold in high esteem today.

 

One thing that particularly strikes me in our 21^st Century digitally connected world of the now-disappeared Dodge Publishing’s future, is just how much this ink-on-paper assemblage resembles in spirit, intent and presentation the kind of stuff folks of a certain mindset – many TGIM readers, for example – share by e-means in outreach like this and via social media.

So …

Let’s give it a try. From this Monday to the end of the end of March TGIM will pull a page from A Volume of Contentment into our world.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: The opening shot seems particularly on point for a winter-weary-creeping-toward-the-promise-of-Spring Monday.

I hope it’s uplifting after a lose-an-hour, turn-the-clocks-forward weekend. And it’s source is prolific writer, draughtsman, watercolorist, social thinker, philanthropist and art critic who would, no doubt, have something to say about this representation of his words and ideas, John Ruskin (1819-1900).

 

  

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Click, cut, copy, share if it appeals to you. And let us know what you think of it, either way.

 

Looking forward.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com