What path in life are you taking?

Today I ask you to take a look at yourself. No, not in the mirror but at your hearts. I have been watching my thoughts and my actions pretty closely and found that I have much to learn. I need to tune my ears closer to the wisdom that is offered by others who have insight and knowledge of the good that surrounds me. We have free will and can pick out what’s true and fair. Wisdom and knowledge are pleasant companions while common sense will help us travel the right paths and keep us from following the bad directions of the lost! When we aren’t paying attention to our hearts, we will find a lot of detours and dead ends. When we listen to our hearts and learn from really true friends we will find all the good trails.
Listen for the good in everything that you do, everywhere you go. You will stay on track. Don’t ever assume you know everything because there is so much more to learn! Earn a reputation for living well by doing well. Run from the ones who tempt you to do the wrong thing because they will only bring you into that maze of detours and dead ends. Don’t give that smooth talking temptress a second thought because it will only distract you from looking forward and only tempt you to join them on the path to nowhere. Don’t walk around with a chip on your shoulder. The ones who are straightforward are the ones who get respect.

Never walk away from someone who needs help. Don’t tell someone “maybe later” or “next time” when you have a pocket full of money or the time right now. Even worse, never try to figure out ways to take advantage of someone when they are sitting there trusting you and unsuspecting. This is one of the quickest ways to end up in a blind alley and miserable. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth, don’t tell white lies, or gossip. Keep your heart focused on the right path and ignore the sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the roads will be paved out smoothly for you!

WICC 600 a.m. Tuesday

Hi everyone, I will be getting hypnotised tuesday to become a non smoker! I will be on WICC 600 a.m. at 9:00 - 10:00 (Eastern time) and I will be sure to let everyone know how it was! I am guesting for the hour and will become a co-host every Sunday night (same time) on the "Life Changes with Mariette" show! If you are not local to Connecticut, New York, and Long Island just go on the web and live stream us - http://www.wicc600.com/

Have a fun week!  

Honesty and sales should be universal!

(This is a posting from October 2009 and rings even more true for todays slow growing economic times.)

A big part of my job is to do the sales end of the work that we do and today was a typical Friday where we are pretty busy because we do not do estimates on the weekends. I had a quote in New Canaan, Connecticut (we do air duct cleaning for heating and air conditioning) and walked into a beautiful castle where I was met by a wonderful older woman who thought she needed our services. I did my evaluation and found that her ducts were in mint condition and did not need our service (probably for another 5 years). I let her know of my findings and she was shocked and could not believe what I was telling her! So, I took her to the basement and opened up her system to show her with my camara system, to prove to her that I wasn't trying to talk myself or her out of a great job at her home. She asked me to come back upstairs and continued to show me two estimates that she had recieved in the past two weeks.In both estimates, the blower motors and return ducts (which we just visibly looked at and scoped with a camara system and found spotless) were heavily contaminated with dirt and debris.Thousands of dollars would be the cost of such a cleaning. We laughed and she thanked me for being such an honest business man. My point of this long, drawn out story is that when we are completely honest in everything that we do, we will never need to worry about being caught in a lie and your honesty will come back to you tenfold. Within the hour I recieved a phone call from her heating and air conditioning company thanking me for my honesty and two nieghbors want quotes for our services next week!


Being truthful with everyone in life will only be contagious and will help everyone involved. You are helping others and yourself at the same time and will gain a reputation that you are proud of! I took many classes in sales and marketing and the one thing that they seem to lack (not all) is integrity, my advice to anyone in sales would be "to be successful just treat everyone as you would your family not a customer." That would be the class and the rest will fall into place. Have a fun weekend and give someone a hug today!!

Laugh and pass along the energy!

My new fun shirt that I hope brings some smiles to everyone who passes by! Life is about enjoying life and helping others to smile along the way! I hope each and everyone of you have a perfect day knowing that you are making a difference in others lives!

Have FUN!

Slow down, Be nice, and open your fists!

How nice are you to people? How do you respond to a co-worker who speaks harshly? How do you respond to a rude receptionist? How about a friend who ignores you when you ask a question? These are good questions that remind me that everywhere we go people are hurting, in a rush, and might be discouraged. They may have made mistakes in life or are simply having a bad day. They don’t need anyone to criticize or judge them; they need someone who will take a moment to listen to their story and are probably looking for a friend who cares, but is in such a rare mood or in a rush that they are zoned into that moment. We can turn any situation around; it is all up to the way we look at the situations and how we react! Once we start letting God judge everyone and we start to work on our own flaws it will be much easier to see the good in others.

Today is a good day to open our fists and reach for the good in others. Our personal beliefs have much more impact on our lives than anyone else’s...

Pray for the dead

A few years back my aunt passed away at a young age. A couple of years later I was talking with another aunt who, told me about a dream she had that her sister, my aunt appeared in her dream asking why she had not prayed for her. As she was telling me about her dream all I could think of was my dad telling me as I grew up to always remember to pray for the lost souls when praying. So, yes I believe that, we should pray for the dead. I don’t even mean just the dead that we may have known in life or even in this century, it doesn’t even matter if they were good natured or bad. I am not talking about religion or whether the dead were religious, spiritual, or nonbelievers.

Prayer can be defined as many things, some believe you must be in a house of worship to truly pray, I do not. I was raised as a Roman Catholic and have many pieces of my spiritual life invested in my faith. I do not attend church as often as I would like but, I love the connection that I feel when I am there. I believe that church is a wonderful asset for both believers and nonbelievers alike. They are places of worship, love, beauty, and a sense of community. This book is not a book about religion, but, these are my thoughts about finding ourselves and how I try to live a spiritual, loving, and happy life. I feel strongly that our walk with God, is a daily effort and that we should all strive to do better with those who, surround us.

Prayer in my opinion is sending positive messages to God, regarding the universe, or anything that we truly believe in on behalf of our loved ones, others in need, and to those who, have passed on before us. Prayer is passing on positive and meaningful thoughts with sincere conviction. We all have prayed without even knowing it, even atheists! A good example; is a guy who passes by a sick person or a homeless person and feels a sincere deep sorrow or pity for them. The thoughts going through this person’s mind may be “my God, how sad, I hope they are okay.” Through those simple thoughts a positive message was extended for that person, therefore, there was a prayer being sent out for the betterment of someone else’s life. We all have different belief systems and we live in a very diverse world, especially today!

Growing up I found praying repetitive and exhausting, I admit it took me a really long time to remember the prayers being taught in Sunday school. I now love to pray at night before I go to sleep, even if it is just a brief prayer. Most nights my prayers consist of a lot of thanking God, for the good in my life and asking for me to live with the Light of Love. When it comes to praying for the dead however, one thing is for sure they have lost the earthly ability to pray for themselves. “The Purgatorian Manual” says “one who, is infinitely holy, not yet worthy to take possession of my dwelling - a place in heaven, is the greatest sorrow of the suffering soul.” If we no longer have the ability to pray for ourselves after death, what was the “Purgatorian Manual” saying? We need to be sincere in our prayers and not just repeating words that, have no meaning to you, this would defeat the purpose of praying which, is to send positive energies into the universe and heaven. I truly believe, that our beliefs have a lot to do with where we are and where we are going. It doesn’t matter if you pray to God, Ala, or another higher power, or whatever name you have for your belief, what matters is that, you have a belief in something which, will make your life truly meaningful.

Laugh at yourself...

What is really funny about life is that we forget how to live sometimes. We get caught up in the everyday drama, the mistakes, the rumors, and the stresses that we create for ourselves. We forget to laugh at the obvious laughable situations; I dropped my coffee as I was getting into the car this morning, it splashed up and hit me in the face. At first I was in shock then I laughed because I knew I should have made two trips instead of carrying a coffee by my teeth! Laughing at ourselves and situations we get ourselves into will have a positive effect on our daily lives, health, and our surroundings. Laughter causes our endorphins to be released instantly, which makes for a fun day!

Try to look at every situation that you may get yourself into in a way that a film maker would look at a situation who is making a comidy. Look at Sienfeld, that is exactly what Larry David did in every scene and show! Enjoy the uneasy moments of your day, the traffic, the rude co-worker, the radio that shuts off in the car when you go over a bump (Happy Days loved the broken juke box)! Laughing at these oddities and enjoying the beautiful day will be an instant anxiety reliever that will make for a funnier life! So get out there and laugh...      

Recognize faults and let go (excerpt from my 2nd book)

Have you ever gone into a beautiful church with beautiful antique artifacts, pristine walls, and perfect paintings and then you sat in a pew only to notice a crack in the stained glass window? You realize you keep looking at the crack and wonder why that ugly crack hasn’t been fixed; the church has plenty of money to fix it. All of the magnificent beauty of this church is suddenly reduced to almost an insult to you and your time. I use this analogy to make the point that we do the same with people; have you ever seen a friend after five or ten years and the first thought in your mind is “wow, they have gotten old and obese.” Our thoughts naturally go toward the negative. this is taught to us even as children, and it is a habit most of us have because of repetition of these thoughts. After a few moments of talking with your old friend, you realize the person had three grown children now working in fields such as nursing, social work, and teaching. It is exciting to know this person has brought up three children who all chose careers that now help society to be a better place.

No person is perfect, we all have flaws and when we point out other people’s flaws, we are just distracting ourselves from our own. I have found jealousy will always turn into hate and low self-esteem which, often causes us to notice flaws and we tend to gossip about others in order to boost our own feelings. When you are around someone who is gossiping, it is always best to remain silent and not even nod your head in agreement, because this will only encourage this type of behavior.

A wise man once told me there is good and bad in everyone and just always try to illuminate the good. This may not be easy at times and it may take practice but it is a habit worth reaching for. Most experts agree, it takes two weeks of daily activity to form a habit, good or bad. A good exercise would be to pick the person closest to you and write down on a sheet of paper, all the things annoying you about this person. On a second sheet of paper, write all of the positive things about the person. The second part of this exercise will be much harder but really dig down deep and free-write without even thinking. Remember sitting in the church and constantly looking at that crack in the stained glass window and dwelling on the broken piece. So often, we polarize the broken parts of people and ignore or simply don’t even take the time to notice the good attributes. Remember, we are not perfect but, we should work to improve our faults; a good way to do this is to let those imperfections of our loved ones and ourselves go! Once you have completed the exercise, draw a big box around the page about the annoyances of the other person and then crinkle it up into a ball and throw it away forever! Hang onto the second part of the exercise and read it once a day for two weeks; you will see a difference in the relationship becoming healthier and a change in the way you look at everything about that person.

Listen more and chatter less!

I have been doing a lot of writing lately about everyday situations and how I cope with some of the challenging moments. I learned at a really young age to not let others attitudes change our own unless it is for the better. I was talking with a person about a month ago whom told me that his life is so hard, he hates his job, he doesn’t get along with his wife, his kids don’t listen to him (no matter how loud he yells) and that he is about to lose his apartment because the rent was raised by 30 percent by his landlord! I felt his anger over all of the bad things that were happening to him and I suggested that he take a step back and look at his situation from another persons’ point of view. Sometimes when we are in the situation we are to close to it to see the obvious solutions, it is really that simple. When I screw up on an invoice or a quote at work my boss will come into my office and show me what I did, I will initially feel annoyed because I cannot believe I screwed up on something that I have done a million and one times before. His advice to me was so simple the other day, yet so true “when you are exhausted from a long day, stop what you are doing and just pick it up the following day!” When we try to do everything all at once we are bound to make mistakes, we are human. So, when I told this man to step back and look at what was really going on, he too saw what I was seeing. Instead of condemning people for what they do, let’s try to understand the reasons why they do what they do. If you have a kid who is being a terror why would that kid behave better when he is being screamed at? We need to step back and see what it is that this kid is looking for, I would bet you a large coffee that he only wants your attention! I try to always remember that most people would rather have bad attention over no attention at all, ignoring others wants and needs and putting our own first is a selfish act but, striving to help others first is being a loving person. You will get much more satisfaction in life when you put others needs in front of your own, try to see the other persons point of view from a distance and start listening more than you talk. Another bad habit that we all have at times is that we love to hear ourselves talk! I will tell you that I have been watching everything I say in the past few months and I listen more than I talk now and have solved many issues in my own life by doing so. If you listen to what your friends and family has to say, you will learn so much more about them. If you chatter nonstop you are only babbling and people won’t listen to you as much. Take the time to listen to everyone around you, be truly sincere in your listening and life gets much easier. Ask questions and seek the answers. I received an email from my friend we were speaking about earlier and he started to listen to his boss, his wife, and his kids more intently. He started to take a breather before he would get defensive and genuinely started to listen to what they were saying! Within the first two weeks of trying to break his habit of “talking over” everyone and “yelling” about what is going wrong in his life, he started to see the changes immediately. He told his wife and his boss that he was trying to “lose his angry temper” and is working on becoming a better husband, father, and co-worker. His wife immediately saw the difference in the kids. They actually looked forward to their father returning home from a hard day at work and spending a little time playing with them without the yelling. His boss noticed he was coming into work with a smile and his productivity has increased tenfold, so he gave him a much needed raise of 20% and is paying for night classes to get him to become a supervisor with a life changing career within the company. The raise will pay for the increase in the rent and be able to pay off debt within two years. His story can be common if we have the right attitude toward both ourselves and everyone who surrounds us. We create our situations in life and we can change those situations in a very short time if we put in a genuine effort to do the right thing for the right reasons. We just need to think of all the good that surrounds us and brush off the negative emotions that arise in situations in our lives, start thinking outside of the box and seeing our own situations from outside of that very same box as-well. Bottom line here is to listen more and chatter less!

Daily Living...

We are bombarded by both good and bad energies on a daily basis. We try to stay strong and wear many masks and armor shielding to appear strong and brave in order to feel like a leader, instead of looking as if we are followers. We build walls around ourselves to feel safe and try to keep a distance from the evils that surround us. This may seem like a good idea but, we might not realize that we are also making it difficult for the good to get close too! Why are we so stubborn? Why is it that we accept and maybe even are expected to yell at someone who disagrees with our opinions or even the simple act of someone stepping on your shoe by accident? Why is it considered being weak if we are followers? These are all questions that I ask myself as I write in my daily journal and I try to seek the answers to in everyday life. The one fact that we all must face is that just as we are born we will all die and we will never know for certain when. Our bodies do not live for eternity and we are not invincible. Our bodies are a true work of art and we should love who we are because there is only one of us! We are born tiny little babies, nurtured to childhood, grow into adulthood, and hopefully will grow old. The fact that death is a fact of life poses an even more powerful question, why is it so difficult to discuss sickness and the final stages of life, which is death? I have seen the tallest walls ever built around us suddenly crumble down in the final moments of life with a simple touch of a hand, a hug, and by the simple act of showing love and forgiveness. As we go through life we love to carry extra baggage, hold grudges, and carry around anger in our own hearts which is only imprisoning us behind those thick walls of hate and anger. Forgiveness and Love will knock down those prison walls, so why wait until we are on our deathbeds to get the courage to do so. One of the best ways to enjoy life today is to realize that we are not promised to live until we are ninety or one hundred years old. We are not even promised the rest of today let alone tomorrow! Live today to your fullest, enjoy the changing colors that autumn season brings, smile and laugh, sing and hum, give a squeezing hug and don’t hold back! The most important thing is to never walk away from someone with a hurtful thought, only walk away when you know for sure that you just left that person feeling better than when you first walked up to him or her. Never forget that we all make mistakes and that we are only hurting ourselves when we walk around angry and ticked off at everyone around us!

HAVE FUN & ENJOY TODAY

We are only on this earth for a little while so we really need to make the best of our limited time. I often wonder how ready I am to enter into the next life? If today is my last day and tomorrow never comes who will remember me, who will miss me, but more importantly who have I helped to have a happier life? Is it true that when he is out of sight, he is quickly out of mind? What helps me to enjoy life every day may seem cold or even gloomy, but it helps to remind me that our time is limited so we really should make the most of it; In the morning I consider for a moment the fact that I may not live till the evening. By living this way death will never take me by surprise and I will never have to move onto the next stage with unfinished business here on earth. These thoughts remind me never to go to bed arguing with a loved one, not to be rude to anyone, to say thank you more often, to help others and to never get greedy. Death is a fact of life that is a certainty and when we face that fact we will live a much happier life. Each night as you lay your head on your pillow and think about the day that had just past and you can you can smile and know that you did the best that you could and can be satisfied by the events of the day, then you should be happy to be where you are. When you have problems don’t try to tackle them in one day, just chip away a little piece at a time so that you won’t waste the entire day in that homemade stress, trust me when I say “It doesn’t even matter, just be happy.” Sometimes we are in places in life where we think “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.” I often wonder what people are thinking, I can sit on a bench at the casino or at the beach and watch people walk by and wonder by the expressions on their faces what they are thinking and where they are.I wonder if they know how lucky they are to be in such a great setting, maybe with their friends and family or even just a little getaway for the moment. By sitting back and people watching for a few minutes I realize that I too have it good and that I am in a good place. If we know where we are in life we will make our own destinies by our thoughts and habits; then we will be able to decide which paths in life to take and in turn better our lives while we are here. While sitting back on that bench at the beach yesterday I noticed that a dog kept returning to its own vomit and I wondered why and realized that we do the same thing when we stress out on issues that don’t even matter.

New year and new beginnings...

Here we are again with a perfect year to start fresh! The year is 2010 and the beginning of yet another great decade of learning, growing, and Loving. Every year I ask my family and friends “what is your new year’s resolution?” and get the same five or six responses. The most popular are to spend more time with the family, lose weight and get more fit, quit smoking, quit drinking, get rid of debt and be more organized. Then I hear the random ones of helping others more often, start volunteering, and learn something new. All are perfect resolutions and I am glad to see that we all put the effort into bettering ourselves and the world around us but, we will be discouraged if we don’t live up to these resolutions and in the long run (usually by February) will ultimately forget them.

Every day we meet new people and are in new situations that give us opportunity to learn something new and we may be surprised at the gems of wisdom that can affect us profoundly in our lives. We need to fully embrace the fact that it is essential that we acknowledge that everyone is valuable in their own way and is special. If we make a new years resolution to take an extra step in being a bit more compassionate, understanding, and kind to everyone we come into contact with, we will have the potential to enrich our lives in such a big way! All relationships whether brief or a lifelong friend can help us to open our eyes to new worlds of joy and happiness.

We need to remember that when we meet someone who we dislike or rub us the wrong way we still need to have that same compassion, while examining our own feelings carefully. Usually the reason that we may dislike someone who is different is because they compel us to question our own values and ideologies while threatening to undermine our self-assurance. We need to treat others how we would like to be treated, not how we are treated. If we treat a negative acting person with negative reactions, we are becoming that negative feeling. Our thoughts become who we are in our daily lives. Every action creates a reaction and we want to create a wonderful day for everyone we meet on our journeys in life. We need to start this new year with a positive attitude and spirit so we can work toward not only the best year of our lives but the best decade as well!

My point here is to start the new year with a new beginning and not just a new year’s resolution! We all make goals and work toward them on a daily basis, but what we may want to do are make changes to our thoughts as well. This in turn will help us on our way to reaching the resolution goals and to make us a bit happier while having a lot of fun along the way. Always remember that as long as we do better today than we did yesterday then we are heading down the right path in life. We all have the ability to make this a better world and should start with ourselves, our families, and our communities. Even the simplest gestures of a smile, holding the door open for the next person, or a quick wave can change the day and life of a stranger, so start embracing the beauty around us and make 2010 the best year of our lives!

Have a fun day,

Mike Keller

Patience

Sometimes we all take our friends and family for granted and forget to say "Thank you" and "I Love You." We sometimes don't realize how lucky and blessed we are until something changes, we need to be careful of what we wish for. Sometimes things that loved ones do can be annoying but, take a second to imagine not having those annoyances and imagine how boring life may get. Stop sweating the small stuff and start enjoying it instead, it will make for a better day. Oh yea, and never forget that we are not even close to being perfect and probably annoy someone as well!! So let's get outside and move our bodies and take in some fresh air with someone we care about.