This summer I was invited to a seminar. On the way, my friend Bettan and I stopped for lunch at a fairly nice place. I think it was a “Pappadeaux’s” there in the Houston airport.

While we were waiting for our table, I noticed that one of the many soldiers in the airport that were shipping off to Iraq was there all alone waiting for her lunch. I found myself wondering “Do the soldiers heading off to war actually have to pay for their meals?” “Do they get reimbursed somehow?” and “What if this was her last decent meal before landing in the middle east… with only the mess hall or MRE’s to look forward to”

I couldn’t get it out of my head… it was really bugging me. I asked Bettan what she thought. She didn’t know either. So, we decided to ask one of the waitstaff to discreetly find out.

Without batting and eye, our waitress informed us that “a lot of soldiers come through here, they definitely have to pay for their own meals.” She added “During the recruitment process the recruiters pay for them.” She shrugged and said; “but not now, not when their being shipped out… they’re on their own!”

We discussed the obvious for a few minutes and decided to ask for the soldiers check and instructed the staff not to let on to who was picking it up. It was incredibly satisfying watching her look around trying to find who had done this random deed. But even more satisfying was thinking of her carrying this act of kindness off to war with her.

The cost was so little compared to the reward and now you know the story. Whether you believe we should be in Iraq or not doesn’t matter. I encourage you to think of this, be aware of how little things can mean so much, and I encourage you to act.

Anyone reading this can simply add “Random Acts of Kindness” to the list of simple actions you will take on a daily basis. What do they say? Just Do It!

This is your invitation… Will you show up?

~Ron

Some time ago my friend and business associate Micah Crawford experienced something I wouldn’t wish on anyone . His childhood friend was severely injured in an automobile accident. The story hit home with me because of a similar experience in my past with my brother.

Since the accident, Micah has taken a number of simple actions to help Chris. This is a true story of a best friend who decided to really do something, He decided to help.

Micah Crawford doesn’t consider himself a hero, that’s reserved for the people that helped Chris on the scene of the accident, in the emergency room, and the caretakers that care for Chris every day. And, it’s reserved for Chris’ Mom and brother who stand by their son and brother.
Among all the actions that Micah has taken to help personally, He also started The Chris Williams Fund.

The Chris Williams Fund is a growing organization working to help young persons with severe brain injury get appropriate care to restore their quality of life. They focus efforts on patients like Chris whose insurance coverage is insufficient to cover appropriate therapies and treatments necessary to realize their full recovery potential.

“The specific [current] goal is to transport Chris Williams to the Tennant Institute of Integrative Medicine in Dallas, TX for a complete round of specialized treatment and therapies to restore his quality of life.” (The Tennant Institute of Integrative Medicine provides a unique method of treatment that has produced outstanding results for patients with severe brain injuries.)

I received a call today from Jon Biel, co-founder of “Make The Difference Network” with his daughter and Hollywood actress Jessica Biel. I have had the privilege of getting to know Jon a bit and being part of the site since pre-launch. Jon had called to check in and chat for a bit, but the topic quickly moved to Micah and The Chris Williams Fund.

We talked about how inspiring Micah’s support for his friend has been to so many people. And specifically how the story of Micah and Chris inspired us personally. We were caught in a brainstorm of ideas that could continue the cause and get Chris and others like him the extra health care they desperately need.

For more information on MTDN and/or The Chris Williams Fund you can start by going to my MTDN profile located @ www.mtdn.com/ron Look for Chris under the “Donations I Made” section. We are working on a “Save a life, one mile at a time!” campaign. Spreading the word about this wish is a great way to help.

Thanks,
Ron

I was reading over some of the articles on EcoGeek the other day, listening to the various solutions being offered by the politicians, replaying the many conversations I’ve had with others about what we could do to make a difference with the environment. Being a nationally published landscape photographer, you’ll understand why I have a particularly high interest in preserving the beautiful places left on Earth.

One of the main conflicts people have on the topic seem to come up around the believability of the science backing global warming. For the sake of this specific blog entry, I’d like to establish a brief conversation in a neutral place about the simple actions that you can take to help reduce your footprint on the planet even it you think the whole global warming thing is hogwash!

Here’s the idea; Lets simply “pretend” that all the scientists studding global warming are totally wrong. Wouldn’t it still make sense to leave the smallest possible footprint? Preserve our natural resources for future generations? And do the best we can to support our environment? After all, the USA population makes up less that 5% of the World’s people and we use 25%+ of the resources!

My Mom is always talking about what a big deal people make about recycling. They have done it their whole lives because when they grew up everybody was required to do it due to the war. Funny thing is, that experience has turned my Dad into a guy that saves everything and can fix anything!

The point is; There are a ton of things we can do that are so simple, so easy, and many of them will save you money… so why not? Who cares about arguing over the validity of global warming. Let the politicians do that! In the meantime, save the Planet and save yourself some money!

Look at these “Top Ten Ways to Be Green” from Yahoo!

1. Tip #1: Unplug
2. Tip #2: Use Less Water
3. Tip #3: Switch to Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
4. Tip #4: Choose Products With Less Packaging
5. Tip #5: Buy Organic and Local Foods
6. Tip #6: Drive Less
7. Tip #7: Plant a Tree
8. Tip #8: Recycle More
9. Tip #9: Switch to “Green” Power via Your Local Utility Company
10. Tip #10: Spread the Word

There is so much information out there it can seem overwhelming! Here’s the deal… pick one, start applying simple actions to create a new positive habit, pick another… Repeat! There is more detailed information on the Yahoo site above to help you.

~Ron

P.S. This blog is hosted on a green server.

Many of you have heard something like this in business training’s: “You must have a reason WHY to be successful.”

I was wondering; What if that wasn’t good enough?

In conversations with many successful people, I’ve learned that their reason why tends to be a lot bigger than those less successful. And it doesn’t matter which area or type of success were talking about. Sports, Business, Relationships, Politics, etc.

I’ve told many people along the way that in my opinion “you need to have a compelling reason why!” Your reason why you are doing what ever you do has to be so big that it keeps you up at night and wakes you up ready to go each morning! You know, the kind think that makes your goal so personal that you can feel passionate about everything you do, every step of the way.
I like the example of an Olympic athlete. I can’t even imagine what it takes to train like that for years and years. Can you? Where does a level of dedication like that come from? Now, what I can imagine is that they must have a major reason why!  So compelling that the drive to achieve their goal of being an olympian.

In the post “Willing it -vs- winging it!” I talked about how we “charge” the events in our life with specific emotions. And how when we emotionally charge or miss-charge the events in our lives (Especially those perceived as bad ones) we can actually label certain events as failures when the could actually be a big success in the long term.

When it comes to your compelling reason why… The emotions based in your reason can be very helpful. In fact, the drive based in emotion can stem from a positive or negatively charged event. In my own life the experience of a personal bankruptcy left me with the energy, desire, and drive to achieve more than I ever imagined. It lead me to creating a six figure residual income that I am still enjoying today!

I’m sure we could name hundreds of the most successful people and trace their drive back the a compelling reason why. And in addition, we can count on the fact that they started to make better choices in life to guide them on their journey to success.

What is your reason why?  Is it compelling enough to carry you all the way to your goal?

Jean Asks:

Couldn’t college students apply this principle too?

The whole time management thing—doing simple steps one right after another, to get consistent study time in each day

Sure Jean,

Any student for that matter.

You’ll notice that the more passionate the student is about the subject of choice the more intent and consistency they have when studding, attending classes, etc. (Interesting that it’s called subject of “choice”)

If the choice is made based on a true passion for the outcome, the trip along the way can be much more enjoyable. Everyone will tell you that people must have a reason why that is big enough to get them through the rough days and challenges along the path. Watch for a future post on this I like to call “Your compelling reason why.”

As far as the whole time management thing goes; I like Anthony Robbins take on it from his training called “The time of your life”. (of which I can only paraphrase, because it’s been so long since I’ve actually listened to it…) He basically teaches that by only doing the things required to meet your goals you are therefore always being efficient with your time. (Maybe if there’s anyone that has done that training more recently you could add to that.)

This reminds me of the “contrasting” conversation. (see http://www.simpleactions.com/category/contrasting/) Doesn’t it make sense that the more interest the student has of the subject, the easier the contrast between the many choices a student has to make becomes naturally clearer? I guess that to study or not to study could be the question here. For example: In my personal experience, the choice between study and going out to play as a young boy was obvious. I wanted to have fun! But as I entered a more serious time in my education, the education became the priority.

So, you’re right: The Simple Action of studying, Consistently done, Compounded over time, will create a Predictable and Controllable Result. and that’s called an A+

I hope this helps, and Thanks for the comment.

~Ron

As promised on the welcome page of this blog, “You don’t even have to rely on willpower at all to accomplish more than you ever imagined.” ~Yeah, right!
(but it can be a lot easier than you think.)

In my experience using the SimpleActions concept, I have noticed one thing. When I make a decision to do something, I have the ability to simply do it. I think it’s because I have learned the ability to take a less emotional approach to every decision. It took a bit of consistent work to get there, go figure!

Now, I make a conscious choice and take action. What’s cool about this is… I also have the ability to choose not to make a choice & not take any action when I want to. But the key is that I am conscious of it and I have the reins. I’m setting the priorities and the old game of running around “putting out fires” is over.

The main thing I have noticed is that willpower is instant and takes virtually zero energy to maintain. So, those of you who feel you might not have the willpower to meet your goals, even half way, you’re in for a treat! And those of you who have willpower out the yin-yang… you’re in luck too because the energy it took to maintain it in the past will be greatly reduced over time.

Here’s a story that will help me explain this willpower thing: I have a friend that was trying to quit smoking. She would go along for a few days doing quite well until things got rough a few days into that first week. Then along came that bad day and out came the cash to buy a new pack of cigarettes!

The problem was that she felt defeated, ashamed, and guilty for backsliding and wasting the money on cigarettes. She not only threw them away when she quit, she turned around and spent more money replacing them a few days later.

So, she did the logical thing… she “re-quit.” But this time the last pack was stashed away just in case. You can see the logic, right? Who would want to throw away a perfectly good pack of cigarettes when you are just going to have to replace them when you fail to quit?

My friend had attached so much emotion to quitting that she forgot to count all the good days that she went without smoking! Out of the first week, had she simply “re-quit” and gone the whole seven days… she could look back and see she went 6 out of 7 days without smoking! Cool right? Even if she successfully quit for 5 of 7 days for 52 weeks that’s 260 of 365 days. Great, right? But logical thinking is tough when something is so habitually, physically and psychologically addicting. So, those emotions came in and she went back to smoking—until the urge to quit comes up again.

The lesson here is more about how we “charge” the events in our life with specific emotions. Her “failure” that we can so easily see as a mathematical success (over many weeks, months, or even years) could have looked like the success it truly was to her had the moment of weakness (or the “event”) been properly assessed and had the “charge” attached to it been reframed.

As an example; I ask you to think of a time when someone around you was over reacting to a situation. I bet you can think of a lot of times this happened. Has there been any times you’ve over reacted? Thought so.

We’ll talk more about properly charging the events in life in a more productive way later. For now, imagine the most “Level Headed” person you know, or a situation when you witnessed someone’s cool-headed or quick reaction to an emergency. Impressive isn’t it!

I hope you can see that my friend, the smoker, would have had a great leverage over the bad habit she wanted to change. If she would have made a simple choice to take a more level-headed view and allowed her disappointment to convert to determination, drive, desire, it would ultimately create pure effortless willpower.

Have you ever been to Hawaii? Or for that matter, have you ever flown… anywhere? If you haven’t flown, how about a cross-country cruise on route 66? As an example to illustrate the Simple Actions concept & the simple choices that you’ll make we could look at it as two roads. They are right there in front of you waiting for you to make a choice.

I’ve heard “As humans, we may not have the ability to make a great choices 100% of the time, but we do have the unique ability to adapt to that choice and make it right” I was thinking about that today as I sit here in the Chicago Midway Airport.  Lets look at it for a moment using the Hawaii story. And I want you to really picture this…

You’re all packed, got your flip-flops, your water wings, and your best swim fins all packed… It’s going to be a great time on Maui. The sound of the surf and the fresh smell of salt water in the air, the vision of yourself sitting back enjoying a cool island drink… the announcement interrupts your tropical daydream “Now boarding flight 1263 to Maui” Wait, that’s us, what? Here we go…

Now imagine cruising over the ocean heading to the islands with just enough jet-fuel to get you there. Weird thought isn’t it? The very idea of it keeps many people from ever making the trip. What if the plane couldn’t find the Maui Airport? What if it didn’t have the ability to adjust it’s course during the long journey? and what’s amazing to me is that if your plane is off by even 1% when you leave L.A. and didn’t make the adjustment, wouldn’t it end up hundreds of mikes off course with not enough fuel to land? Yikes!

You said you wanted a tropical vacation, but not a permanent one!

These adjustments in course are no different than the simple choices we need to make in our lives, in every category. The problem is too often that people simply do not recognize the importance of the little things that result in catastrophic disaster! They get there and find that they missed the island entirely!! They waste all the rest of their “jet-fuel” looking around for a place to land, only to realize that they could have made simple adjustments along the way and landed with fuel to spare.

Others misuse their “jet-fuel” by spending countless years spinning their wheels [turbines In this case] focused on the drama of things. You know, the events in life that people have emotionally charged, trapping them in their never-ending stories that distract them so completely they live in their own self imposed “fog-of-war”. (More on that later) Again, waking up later to find that they could have made simple adjustments along the way and landed with fuel to spare.

Are you enjoying your trip? What if you had an auto-pilot like a plane that you could switch on just after take-off? Well my friend… you do. You have the ability to take-off, flip the switch, and cruise to the islands of your dreams with ease. I challenge you to so fully adapt the Simple Actions concept that every choice you make will be down the “right” road. I also challenge you to accept the responsibility for your in-flight course correction in the same way. It is simple, and the benefits will affect not only you… but all those you come in contact with.

You’ll also enjoy the ability to unconsciously tap into unlimited willpower. I know, I know… I can hear you… “He keeps saying that” and some of you might be wondering “I don’t have a problem with willpower, I have a ton of willpower” So, let’s go there next…

The principle of taking simple actions can be applied to many areas—such as exercise: walking vs being a couch potato; financial: paying the “pig” vs well…not having a savings or investment plan at all; relationships: making healthy deposits to enhance a relationship vs staying in the ruts of drama, mistrust and deceit.

You must find contrast in the choices you make. You can do this be asking yourself questions about the choices that present themselves. I’ve heard over and over that “the better questions we ask the more powerful answers we get”. But, even simple questions can give you just enough contrast between choices to make the more positive outcome you desire the new reality. “If I did X consistently, compounded over time… where would that possibly lead me?” and “how does that compare to the other options I see for this particular decision?” For some, this can be the most challenging part as they are the chronically undecided. The bad part about this is; Deciding not to choose is still a choice!

Those that do not choose suffer from a lack of taking any action at all… It’s hard to believe, but they simply choose not to make a choice. They think if they wait long enough that “Things have a way of working themselves out”. Like things will just manifest out of thin air! Don’t get me wrong, I am a big proponent of “The Secret” and the “Law of Attraction” but…
I completely, 100% believe that those who apply some focused, specific, and consistent action, will tap into the power of these belief systems at a much greater level.

Break your goal down to the simplest possible steps. [or actions] Create a list of what you need to do and are definitely going to get it done. You’ll seize the opportunity to “Just do it!” and those that combine action with “The Secret” and the “Law of attraction” will achieve great things in a remarkably short time!

~Ron

I can hear you now… “It’s not that simple Ron… There are a lot of unknowns.” or “Who is this guy? Can’t he see the holes in this theory?” My answer to you is; It’s just an example!  Of course the other things a person does have an influence on every other area of life, health, fitness, relationships, etc.

The apple eater could also have a 3 pack-a-day smoking habit, eat a nightly Jethro bowl of Hagan Dazs® ice-cream, Pizza or Mickey-D’s every lunch, and never get out and exercise! Look at Michael Phelps’ 10,000 calorie a day diet. The man is a machine! This guy might get away with the Twinkie-a-day plan. But not me… and I would take it to Vegas that you couldn’t do it either!

The great part is you can apply the same scenario to any area of your life in which you want change. How about your financial-health, your exercise, your relationships, or your community. Consider what Dr. Daniel Pénoël M.D. once said about heath: “Health is a Habit… Not an Event”

We can take this and simply apply it to each area. It might not sound as nice… but it works; “Exercise is a Habit… Not an Event” or “Finance is a Habit… Not an Event” Remember what I said about this being old advice?

Dr. Pénoël was right on. People make these great decisions to change, but treat it as if they’re planning a wedding or something. They make their “New Year resolution” and then what? A week later, most of them are back in the same old slump feeling guilty and sorry for themselves for quitting. Or worse, justifying their “failure”

I think what Pénoël was saying is about making simple choices, allowing them to  become healthy habits because a “weekend warrior” never becomes an olympic athlete or Mr. Universe!

Here’s the deal; You get to pick as few or as many things you want to take on. You get to make these [and many other] choices one at a time, then move to the next. As long as you are making choices, why not make the best choices possible, in a logical step by step order? There is an exercise I use to help determine “what’s important now” (or W.I.N.) we can cover later to help you do just that.

Note: Over the course of the blog, I would suggest that you create a SimpleActions note book, uniquely yours, and specifically for making notes on this topic only.  You may find it helpful to record any ideas that come up that may help you hit your specific goals.

In joining me in this discussion through commenting on the blog, I encourage you to express what’s working, what’s not, and/or the area [or areas] in your life that you are choosing [Key word] to apply SimpleActions.