Just read this and thought I would share. It comes from Michael Tate over at Aria.

How do you take courage when your whole world is collapsing around you? How do you maintain a continued vision and philosophy of success when everything around you turns to crap, and continues to do so? How do you maintain a vision when you’re under attack?

Each time I sit to write an article for the revenue.generator newsletter I try to create something helpful, something purposeful, and something hopefully not only valuable to your day in radio sales but also useful somehow in your life.
I suspect like you I read my fair share of motivational books and articles - sometimes a word, an idea, or some simple phraseology penetrates my dull brain and helps make some kind of difference to me and hopefully to the way I interact with those around me. But it’s when I’m struggling and drowning in the world that I need this stuff the most, yet I turn to it least.

It is extremely difficult to maintain courage ‘under fire’, particularly to maintain inner-strength, character, and the clarity of your ‘dream’ beneath a consistent and prolonged attack of what can feel like ‘you against the world’.

So what’s the difference between those who persist and those who cave-in under the outside pressure?

hat happens to the dreamers of big dreams?

What happened to the dreams you had as a kid?

What happened to the goals and grand visions you had at the beginning of last year; and of this year? Let alone the dreams you dreamed the day you finished college; the day you got married; or the day your child was born?

Whatever happened to fulfilling what quietly lives in your heart?

Have you all but stopped seeking and believing?

Have you become so tired, so jaded, and so mediocre that you’ve convinced yourself that your dreams were simple minded ideas of a younger more innocent you?

Have you stripped yourself bare of all your promise and power? Are you now simply quietly and cynically drifting through life (waiting to fade away) convinced that genuine success and joy is for others?

It’s absolutely true that the gutter is full of failed genius. Yet did these people truly fail because “that’s the way it’s meant to be”, or did they fall under the weight of their own self-imposed beliefs and barriers? Did they simply lack the strength of courage to fulfill their inner dreams and desires?

If you are going to allow fear to win the war for your life you will lose, and your dreams will die with you.

Don’t depart without showing us the real you.

Get rich, go broke, and do it all over again. Get married, don’t get married. Love your children; live your truth and speak your truth. Enjoy your madness and embrace your genius. A life lived less than genuinely is a mere façade, and then not you.

Helen Keller wrote: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
If you simply avoid living consciously and courageously, then that is equivalent to giving up on life itself, where your continued existence becomes little more than a waiting period before physical death - the nothing as opposed to the daring adventure.”

Sell (and live) without regret.

This is from the Aria Newletter.  Written by a new friend of ours, Michael Tate that we met at RAB.  Read when you have a free moment.

One of the greatest hurdles in living a successful life is the condition of being and feeling comfortable with our lives.

You know that place, not succeeding but not failing. Dreaming yet not living the dream. Quietly living in the in-between but not really living life to the full at all.

“I’m comfortable, everything’s okay”, we quietly convince ourselves. But are we really comfortable with our reality deep inside? For most of us I expect not.

We are so emotionally tied to this ‘comfortable place’; we’re just not willing to do what it takes to succeed because the actual process implies the possibility of failure.

Going for that big account; running your own business; meeting new people; stepping out in faith; learning new things; presenting your ideas with conviction; having an opinion (doing something about it); taking a chance; and exerting yourself; right through to the dilemma of surrendering to things as they “really are” around you. These are all very uncomfortable things to deal with, yet they’re all very necessary and pivotal points to overcome in pursuit of true fulfillment of our lives.

I once heard someone say “comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable”. I like the idea of this sentiment.

You can have anything, do anything, and be anything you want, or you can have nothing, do nothing, and be nothing you want - its entirely up to you, and frankly no one else will really care what you decide, other than you.

Take a hard and critical look around you today. At your parents, your partner, your children, your friends, your work colleagues, the guy you buy your lunch from, and at your clients; are they happy? Are they being who they want to be? Who they’re meant to be?

Take a moment and look at what it is you do (at yourself) each day. Try and understand what’s at the heart of your actions and the ‘why’ of your decision-making processes. Seriously ask yourself why is it you do the things you do? Why is it you make the decisions you do, and at what your motivations are? Are you passionate at any point in the day? What about the ideas of being happy, joyous, and free? Are your days always familiar, comfortable, and seemingly secure? Do you get apprehensive when you think about sticking your head outside your comfort zone? Are there things that you avoid doing because they might cause you some pain and uneasiness?

Do you procrastinate about you?

Do you ever have longings and doubts about you, your life, and your current path?

“It’s my belief this inward un-comfortability you feel is the quiet voice of God deep within you, seeking to call you out of all that is contrary to how you have been created. Contrary to how you should be, of how you really are; and how you really are deep down inside.” But this is what I believe.

Living our lives to the fullest requires we step outside of what is known and not known - it demands we step out of our comfort zone.

The truth is when we dare to go beyond our self-imposed and worldly created boundaries, our comfort zone opens out, and it grows as we grow. Slowly as it happens, success in some area of our life will give us more confidence to continue to grow and increase our comfort perimeter to seek out more, to live more.

Don’t allow yourself to accept a comfortable no-risk, low-risk life, and I beg you; steer away from a life of mediocrity because that’s no life at all. A short period of discomfort is far superior choice when compared against a lifetime of doubt, disappointment, and regret, and of course so much shorter in duration.

Do you ever have longings and doubts about you, your life, and your current path? I urge you to listen to your quiet inner-voice’s gentle direction today. It’s your intuition and its part of the key to you.

Sell with out regret.

Being well liked is what most people want in relationships. The benefits are obvious. You will get the help you need at the time you need it. People will give you information about new opportunities you didn’t know before. Above all, they will really care and love you.

But how could you get other people to like you? How could you become a well liked person? There is actually just one simple rule to follow: you should like other people before they like you. When people realize that you like them, it’s very likely that they will also like you.

Regarding this, I believe that there is one and just one message you need to deliver in your relationships. Delivering this message is the key to strong relationships, and here it is:

You are important to me. That’s it. No more, no less. Not “your money” nor “your knowledge”, but “you” - as a person - are important to me. Anything you should do in relationships stems from this message. There more you succeed in delivering this message, the more people will like you.

So here I’d like to share 33 tips on how to deliver this message in your relationships. Consequently, these are also tips to become a well liked person. Here they are:

1. Give your contacts a big smile when you meet them. Make them feel that you are really happy to meet them.
2. Give your full attention to the people you converse with as if nothing else is important.
3. When they ask for your attention, leave whatever you are doing.
4. When they call you, greet them with enthusiasm as if you are longing for their call.
5. Don’t make them wait.
6. Print the list of your contacts and look at it in your spare time. It will remind you of whom to touch base.
7. Always reply your contacts’ emails and text messages.
8. Reply their emails and text messages in the first chance you get.
9. Shake their hands with enthusiasm.
10. Praise them sincerely when they do something good. Make them feel that you are proud of them.
11. Always return their calls.
12. Send a message to them on their birthdays. Even better, call them.
13. Drop your old contacts quick emails or text messages to ask how they are doing.
14. Remember their names and achievements.
15. Remember important facts about them, especially the things they really care about (you may want to write them down).
16. Introduce them to the people in your contact who may help them out.
17. Actively find the deepest needs they may have (without waiting for them to explicitly tell you).
18. Take initiative to give them the solutions they need.
19. Give thanks for them in your session of gratitude.
20. Mention their names in your prayer.
21. Talk with them about their life.
22. Ask them specific questions about things they care about. They will realize that you care enough to remember their facts.
23. Give them something precious you have. Time is a good candidate.
24. Go eat with them. Even better, treat them.
25. When you meet them, don’t look at your watch as if you have something more important to do.
26. When you talk to them, don’t look over their shoulder as if you are looking for someone more important to talk to.
27. Send them quick tips or articles you just found which may benefit them.
28. Message them encouraging words or quotes.
29. Lend them the best books or DVDs you have.
30. Talk to them about how you like your other friends. They will think that you may talk the same way about them.
31. Don’t talk negatively to them about how you don’t like your other friends. They will think that you may also talk the same way about them.
32. Occasionally mention their names in your conversation with them.
33. Be creative to give them small surprises every now and then.

The Americans and the Japanese decided to engage in a boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance levels. On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese won by a mile. The American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action.The consultant’s finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.