The 3 Stars are back but I will probably just recognize them on a monthly basis. There are a bunch of great people out there and many, many impact and influence my life but most of you couldn’t get excited about the kudos I was expressing. I invited you to nominate impact people in your lives but you just didn’t want to contribute or you are doing it all alone. I hope you all were just a little on the lazy side.

I appreciate and have great gratitude for those that help me mentally, physically or spiritually.

Here are 3 “special” people you need to know about.

1) Madison Veterinary Hospital. A few special people here and most of all a caring, special staff. A couple weeks ago we lost our friend, our family member Roxy. Roxy was our family dog (a corgie) fro the last 13 1/2 years. Dr. James Coleman was her vet for all that time and did an excellent job. Dr. Coleman was on medical leave when Roxy passed but Dr. Scott Isaacson filled in and helped very well. The staff at Madison Veterinary was helpful, caring and compassionate. We couldn’t have asked for more. Many thanks to all that helped through out the years ! http://www.madisonvethospital.com/

2) Tom Hindes woodcarver extraordinaire ! Tom carves fantastic stuff but considers anything carved  using wood larger than 2 inches a waste of trees. Tom sent to me after a long, tough, pain in the butt a 2 inch tall leprechaun. Tom knows of my book A Leprechaun in Your Pocket http://aleprechauninyourpocket.com/ and wanted me to have one for my pocket. Tom was just being the nice guy he is but his timing was fantastic as the carving !

3) John Maxwell-Mr Leadership. John is a leadership expert, author, pastor and speaker. I have read many of his books, listened to his cd’s in my university on wheels for a long time. I found an old cd of John’s that he did for a MLM group years ago and hung on his every word. Out of all I had read and heard, this cd had the biggest impact.Besides getting me thinking for days, I realized just how much of my coaching of individuals and Companies involved leadership training. John’s style is so relaxed you’ll enjoy it for sure. I’d love one day to sit with him and just chit chat about life. Maybe one day, I’ll have the chance. http://www.johnmaxwell.com/

These are my 3 Stars. Thank them for me, support them and be sure to find out more about them . You will be glad you did !

Bang your sticks on the ice for these stars !!

To me it seems like ages since I last posted on this blog. I started to post several times and really struggled determining a deep message to share versus a “hi,how are you?”

I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on how I can improve myself, my direction, my message in 2012.

Leadership is a topic that keep surfacing as I daily see more and more examples of poor leadership, missing leadership or unethical corrupt leadership. To be honest, this really bothers me. I have searched within myself, have asked others and researched what you and I can do about this. Clear conclusions have not been found but small parts have become more clear.

I have read “How to Kill 11 Million People” and “Every Day a Friday”.

I am in the middle of reading “The Mentor Leader” and “Make Today Count.”

All four of these books have the wheels turning. Deep thoughts are taking place.

I have been contacted by more people in the last couple weeks than the last 3-4 months wanting to know my story, know more about my products, more about my direction.

I have questioned myself more and more looking for the right answers.

In the middle of this, I lost my buddy, Roxy who has left a void and caused deeper reflection about life, love, purposes, direction, legacies.

More on all of this as time goes on but I wanted to share my thoughts, my direction and hope in some small or big way it may help you.

This political correct nonsense has to be reined in. It is
has gone overboard. It has gone too far and “jumped the shark!”

Now what happened you may ask ?

Recently, various protest groups object that the new. Girl’s Legos “promote an overt form of sexism.”

These Legos scream “being pretty is more important than what you can do”. They have
fashionable hair styles discriminating against the poor. The Girl Lego’s  are too slim therefore ostracizing overweight little girls and they dress at a middle to upper class level so the poor cannot
relate or feel improper pressure.

Really?

Probably somehow the pegs and the holes on the bottom of the
pieces symbolize something too!

This is HOGWASH!

These are toys and
only twisted adults with too much time on their hands could think like this!  Personally I can’t believe this is even making
the news!

Did you hear that Barbie wears too much expensive jewelry?
Plastic surgeons also want Barbie to go back to her original bust size because
now she doesn’t reflect all the enhancements that millions are spent on enhancements
each and every year. With an average bust on Barbie, millions maybe billions of
dollars are being lost by these poor doctors.

Is this fair??

GI Joe carried a gun so he must be in favor of killing and violence!

Train sets have locomotives that bellow smoke and pollute
the environment. They are not “green”!

Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robots are in favor of bullying and just
want to fight ! They are the cause of all violence in our schools!

Sorry is a game that doesn’t apologize in a polite and full
manor-it’s apologies are way too terse !

Monopoly ?—Nope they are illegal and only played  in Washington DC and  in election years when BIG donations are sought.

Tinker Toys—they did not pull all necessary permits to begin
construction and are structurally unsafe.

Lincoln Logs—they have to be renamed as all other past and
current Presidents are offended that the logs aren’t named after them.
(Roosevelt Logs?)

Baby Dolls can’t be sold as the pro-life people think they
should have been aborted before they hit the shelves!!

Blah, blah, blah.

My God, let the kids play!

Let them have fun.

Let them grow up.

Let them use their
imaginations and play over,and around any objections they may find.

Forget the objections found by Mom,. found by Dad!

I can’t believe the junk our media picks up and endorses.

Where does it stop?

When does it stop?

I’m worried for kids today and the children of the future.

Please, let children be children.

My hope, my wish is that by the time the kids playing with Legos
grow up, we will fix the silly laws, the silly rules, the silly thinking that
has polluted our everyday lives.

It’s time to speak up and let the goofballs out there know
they are goofballs.

Be assertive, take a stance, get involved and reclaim America for the land that MOST of us love!

The health benefits of laughter maybe debated but no medical expert would argue it is bad for you.

Laughter and smiling are known stress reducer and help lower blood pressure. Laughter also helps free those Radicals that also seem to need help and want to be “free”.

Charlie Chaplin once said:

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”

When laughter helps reduce your stress, you think better, have better ideas, interact better with people and help reduce the stress of many others.

You need to laugh with not at others and most of all laugh at yourself.

If you have or have had small children you have excuses to laugh at their actions, comments and new found words every day. These same small children may also be at times a major source of stress so smile and laugh every time you can !

Last week end we went to see The Muppets Movie and laughed at the sillyness of the old characters of years gone by.

In the movie, Kermit T. Frog describes laughter as the third greatest gift of all.

I have a special prize for the first person that knows the 1st and 2nd greatest gifts according to Kermit E-mail your best guesses to claim your prize !

I know laughter helps,I know laughter is fun and I know it’s Un-American to argue with an icon like Kermit !

Enjoy this short clip and SMILE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_tupPBtWQ

I sure hope we are and will not be killing anywhere that number of people but one of my mentors Andy Andrews has just released his new book “How Do You Kill 11 Million People”.

I ordered Andy’s book and have already read it. It’s a powerful 72 pages long and challenges people to THINK ! How about that !

My favorite all-time book was written by Andy- ‘TheTraveler’s Gift”. It is required reading for 95 % of my coaching client’s and teachs some valuable lessons in a storybook fashion. “How Do You Kill 11 Million People” forgets the story and gets down to the facts in an “in your face” fashion.

I don’t want to give the story away but Andy and I agree on many, many points that I have discussed in homes, planes, over a cup of coffee and even over a beer or two.

I have 7 points that Andy and I agree upon that he details in his new book. Here they are:

1) Our Country is in BIG trouble
2) It’s not a Democrat/Republican “thing”.
3) The government doesn’t always tell the truth to the media and the media doesn’t always pass on anything that resembles the truth to us.
4) Washington DC has lost touch with the majority of Americans.
5) Our Country is stuck in an “apathy” mode.
6) Most Americans won’t speak their mind. They won’t rock the boat. They are conditioned into thinking they must ‘always play nice in the sand box”.
7)Never question what we called in the 70′s “the Man”, the government is always right !

I could jump on my soapbox for another hour or two but I’ll leave that to Andy and his new book.

This book has to get you THINKING–so…please do. I’d love to hear your feedback once you have read it !!

I guess every New Year can start whatever way it wants. My last post told you 2011 ended with a bunch of bumps.

New Year’s Eve my wife and I went out for a nice dinner, she caught a mild case of food poisoning and our evening ended early.

New Year’s day and yesterday I spent a bunch of time planning 2012, setting goals and figuring out what changes I needed to make and how I had to change my thinking.

Today I woke up with a cold (I guess) and need a cork to stop the dripping nose. As the day went on, it won’t stop. Called the Doc and of course I was never called back.

I had breakfast with a great leadership coach John Daly discussing what we planned on 2012 bringing us both. The year will bring us what we attract and work to achieve.

Progress maybe accomplished the hard way or the easy way. More likely than not, a combination of the two.

I wish, hope, pray for many things this year and have them all written down. It’s a plan, a plan to get started that will get tweeked as the journey evolves.

I reflect on many things, worry about my wife, a sister and the political games they play each day. Games I can’t play and refuse to play. Games that upset me. Games that should never be but are a reality.

I worry about my children’s future as they fight the system and mindset that floats around and around today’s society.

Worry yes, but I know they have strength, inner strength to tackle whatever comes at them. A strength I hoped shape at least a “tad”.

This worry comes with concern. Concern that my family and way too many others struggle and get hurt too much, too often.

Concern that causes me to continue to do all that I can to minimize this struggle and pain and help as many as I can to take day by day life as easy and peaceful as they can.

It’s just what I do.

Sorry I haven’t posted recently.

Times have been beyond crazy.

In the last 3 weeks, I have have attended 6 funerals or viewings. I’ll attend another viewing tomorrow and a funeral Thursday.

I have had some funky stomach bug, my wife was sick and we rushed my son to emergency after he passed out at the house. As I started to write this, I received a call another friend who just went into emergency, I’ll go see him later today.

Another friend was scheduled for surgery during all this but was delayed until after the first of the year.

Oh ya, we were behind in our Christmas preparations before all this and these events didn’t speed things up.

We did get to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with family and it was special time but it had this cloud overhead.

We were able to thank the Lord during this special season and properly reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

I had some clever Holiday thoughts and suggestions for you all but we were busy just hanging on.

I had to dig deep to follow some of my own teachings and to recall what I was taught years ago by Vic Johnson and Bob Proctor.

Sometimes, holding on is all we can do for awhile.

For now we are holding on and planning for a Fantastic New Year!

Things are crazy at the Evans house. A lot of family gatherings, way, way too many funerals, Christmas shopping, decorations outside and inside , year end planning, year opportunities,  spending time to see what worked, what didn’t in 2011, doing a little dreaming and goal setting for 2012.

I put all that in one sentence because to me it feels it is all attached and happening at the same time.

What is your month looking like ?

What December challenges are you facing ?

Do you set goals or just make resolutions ?

An active part of my coaching is goal setting so I know folks operate in many, many ways. Some effective,  some not.

I’d love to hear from many of you and what you struggle with this time of year.

Although you may feel it is unique to you, I know it isn’t.

Please chime in and we’ll let everyone know that you aren’t all alone out there .

Let’s support one another and let me know if I can help you.

We’re in this together !

December at the Evans’ house and for most people is a crazy special time a year. We celebrate Christmas in a BIG way, exchange tons of gifts with the kids and grandkids, attend tons of family events, shop until we drop too many nights, melt our credit cards shopping online & I hand carve a bunch of gifts.

Crazy-yes !

Special-yes !

Now ontop of this every business group I belong to, many friends, clients have Holiday parties that get added in .

Let’s not forget the regular day to day work that pays the bills day in, day out.

For myself, and if you are doing it right, for many of you, there is a big push to finish the year strong and reach goals which we set for ourselves in December of last year.

Oh yeah, let’s add setting aside time to properly reflect on the past 12 months. What worked for us, what did not, what did we let slip, what didn’t we get done that we just can’t excuse, what special blessings happened, what are we  are most proud of, what did we add to our legacy, how did we make the world a better place, how did the world make us a better person.

And…..looking at our dreams and setting goals for next year.

Setting goals in all aspects in out lives.

Planning carefully our action steps and our future.

We have don’t have a lot of time to do all this.

Being dragged in so many directions causes some stress. It has to.

Dealing with the stress is the challenge.

Dealing with stressed people in all aspects of our lives and doing all we have to do.

Crazy-yes !

Special-yes!

There is a bunch of confusion.

With all these challenges, please be sure if this is your faith, like mine, to take time to also remember the “reason for the season” .

It’s all important.

It’s all carzy.

It’s all special !

The Byrds were a popular rock group back in the 60′s who actually shot pool one table over from us at Metro Airport all too many years ago.

The had a hit song back then, Turn, Turn, Turn which was written by Pete Seeger based on Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

Today, I attended my good friend, Dave’s,  mother’s funeral and the Pastor read to us this Chapter for our reflection.

It speaks to the confusion we have when to act on anything we may do or plan to do. I can’t reword or paraphrase any better than the original words so I am including them below as I conclude.

For most of you these won’t be new words but rather a refresher of their deep significance.

Today, this words were used to try to explain why someone dear to so many was taken away. Why today was selected versus next week, next month or next year.

I challenge you all to think of a struggle your are facing, a tough decision that will not go away and see how these words help you to time the next step or face your fears and step out in faith to take the action step you know you need to make.

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, verses 1-8

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heel; a time to tear down, and a time to build

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

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