Let's Go Invent Tomorrow

Today is done.  Last week and last month are distant memories.  I can’t go back and change anything that happened in the past.  But tomorrow is coming. 

Steve Jobs made the statement, “Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday” when he was reinstated as head of Apple Computers in 2007.  Living in the past is … the past.  Yesterday’s meal was for yesterday.  Last week’s sale was great, but now we need tomorrow’s sale. 

I love looking back as much as the next person, but only long enough to reflect on where I’ve come from, and to navigate my moves for tomorrow and do better.

It’s all about tomorrow.  What can we create tomorrow that will have lasting significance?

There are sales to be made tomorrow.

There are blogs to be written tomorrow.

There are kids to hug tomorrow.

There are conversations to be had tomorrow.

There are grand plans and vacations and destinations to be anticipated tomorrow.

Move toward tomorrow.  Hold onto the memory of today, but go and invent tomorrow.

You and I get a blank page on which to write tomorrow.  We can create, dream and invent and become anything we want to become -- tomorrow.  Tomorrow is not stuck on yesterday. 

I made a misstep today. 

I spoke out of turn. 

I looked bad in that performance.

I didn’t listen with both ears before I spouted off.

I over-talked a critical contact person yesterday.

Tomorrow I will do better, be better, listen better, act better.

How can we invent tomorrow?

1.      Learn from today; note our weaknesses and do better.

2.      Read more on subjects of interest for our future.

3.      Take a class in our area of interest.

4.      Ask for help from someone who is successful.

5.      Write down five things we  can do better tomorrow.  Tackle them one at a time.

6.      Know thyself.  Take a personality assessment to help with our self-understanding.  Live the examined life.  Discover our own acres of diamonds.  (If you haven’t read this book, you really should.)

Our tomorrows are waiting. 

Just Who Are You?

Some say ..

“I’m just a …”

   “I don’t have …

      “I can only do …”

         “I never finished …

            “I thought about it but …”

               “I tried but …”

Me?  I’m just a guy, living in Edmonds, Washington, married to a wonderful woman named Carolyn.  I write something each week that I hope will make a difference in someone’s muddled world.  I’m just me, doing my thing.  It’s not much, but it is something. 

You see, it’s what I can do, for now, to help improve my corner of this world.

What about you?  What can you do for now? 

Who are you? 

Maybe you’re a mom, raising kids alone with no husband in the picture.

Are you a mid-level manager with dreams and ambitions?

Is retirement your lot in life, and you feel on the shelf?

Do you have that next great idea for a widget, yet can’t find investors?

Who are you, really?

I know a bit about disappointments, setbacks, hopes and dreams yet unrealized.  I understand that people will sometimes let you down. 

What can you do, right now that will improve your lot in life?

--Can you spend an hour in deep thinking?

--Can you re-tool an idea and create a better solution?

--Can you restore a relationship that has gone sour?

Take heart.  Have hope.  You are better than you think you are.  You are resourceful.  You can do more.

We are all human beings, with dignity, and we’re made in the image of God.  We have divinity in us.  We each have goodness -- stuff that this world needs. 

Don’t despair.  Don’t throw in the towel.  Hang on.  Have hope. 

Be a becommer.  Be you.  “Be all you can be” (thanks to the US Army).

Just who are you?

You are an amazing individual with so much to offer. 

Discover you! 

You are something else!!!

What a fitting close for this thought from the Psalms.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, and then out; 

you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking
Body and soul, I am marvelously made
I worship in adoration—what a creation
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
the days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

(The Message - Psalm 139: 13-16)

Where Is Hope?

“Where is hope” you ask? 

If we listened to the doomsday thinkers of this age, we wouldn’t even look out our windows, for we would be convinced there is no good in this world, no one cares, and we are going to meet our end at any moment.

So, where is hope?

It comes sauntering down the street, smiling, offering to help a neighbor clean up his yard after a strong windstorm.

Hope is found at the end of your wrist as you reach out your hand to help someone in need.  And you respond simply because you can.

Hope is a sack with a hamburger and fries handed out a car window at an intersection where one is asking for a miracle.

Hope is heard in the prayers of a mother offered for her child who lies in the hospital on an operating table.

Hope is found in an envelope containing $100 or $1,000 that is left anonymously with your name on it.

Hope is an encouraging card received in the mail from a friend who just happens to know you are struggling at this particular moment.

Hope is an email with just the right word for you in your moment of greatest need.

Hope is you buying a family in need a sack of groceries.

Hope is a smile and a kind word to someone down on their luck.

Hope is an encouraging word spoken when it is most needed.

Hope is seen when the electricity is turned back on after a devastating storm has ravaged your part of the world.

Hope is a Good Samaritan coming along when your car has stalled on a cold and rainy night.

Hope is a job offer when there were thirty other candidates.

Hope is a doctor coming through the door with a smile and the words “He/She is going to be Okay.”

Where is hope?

It’s found at odd moments, in simple expressions, and offered by a variety of individuals; those who simply want to make this world a better, a more forgiving, grace filled place to live.

How can you give hope?

Love.  Reach out.  Extend your hand of help and your heart of compassion. 

Sometimes you may need to reach for your credit card or cash in order to offer hope.

Sometimes, it’s a phone call, a card, an email. 

Where is hope?

Hope is in the heart of the giver and the receiver.

It is in a quiet cathedral or sanctuary.

It is in the Bible.

It is in a lovely song.

It is in any form where the giver and the receiver connect in love and compassion.

Where is hope?

It is here, now.  It is in you and me.

Hope is two people connecting with human kindness.

My life verse from the Bible contains these words.  “For surely I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.  Plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

A future with hope!

                              I like that!

And it is offered to everyone. 

  -No race requirements.

            -No economic requirements

                      -No height and weight 

                       requirements

                                -No age or gender 

                                  requirements. 

A future with hope.

Move confidently toward your future filled with hope!

Do I Matter

What a sad cry for help.  It speaks of despair and loneliness; of aloneness and desperation. 

It’s spoken where injustice reigns.

It’s spoken at the gas pump when prices soar above $4 a gallon.

It’s spoken on the streets when craving for that next fix.

It’s spoken late at night by a child forced to do unspeakable things.

We cry “Do I Matter?”

We SHOUT it.

We whisper it

Yet it still comes out as …

Do     I     Matter? 

If I could, I would wrap my arms of love and compassion around everyone who has ever uttered this cry.  I would bandage up their wounds, both visible and invisible, and whisper softly in their ear, “Yes, you matter.  You matter to me, and you matter to the God of the universe.” 

You matter.

Yes, you matter a lot.

Always remember this:

God knows where you are every moment of the day.

He never loses track of you.

He never takes his eye off you.

And there are some good and wholesome organizations that have become the hands of God who care too.  They would love to reach out to you and wash your wounds.  Feed your stomach.  Nourish your body.  And offer a healing touch, a comforting word, a place of solace, even if only for the night.

Do I matter?

Yes, you do matter.  Maybe your plight is not as desperate as those described above.  Maybe you live in a modern home, have lovely furnishings, stylish clothes, and the latest cell phone.  Do you sometimes wonder if you matter to anyone?

Perhaps you are older now.  Retired, yet with a mind that is still active and able to reason, create and contemplate.  But no one reaches out to you any longer.  Do you matter?

Yes you matter.  As long as you take a breath you shall matter in this world.  Your significance is not diminished simply because you have aged.  You are, therefore you are significant.

We all are searching for a place to plug into.  Where do we belong? 

Oprah Winfrey says that every person alive simply wants to be validated.  We need, we want, we crave that stamp of approval that says “You, the skinny kid with the dirty tennis shoes. Yes you.  You matter to me.  You belong to me.  You are mine and I’m proud of you.”

So how can we validate others? 

-We can look each other in the eyes when we talk.

-We can value time spent together as more important than any TV 

  show, electronic game, or cell phone activity.

-We can listen with our ears and our hearts and offer empathy, 

  compassion.  Sometimes, just being heard is enough.

-We can avoid preaching a sermon.  That’s the last thing 

  needed by someone in desperate need of validation. 

People simply need to be validated. 

You need to be validated. 

You matter.  You are important.

You are created in the image of God, and as Ethel Waters, gospel singer, once remarked, “God don’t make junk.”

          You are a valued jewel.

      You are precious in God’s sight.

  You are somebody!

  You are somebody important.

      Somebody of value.

          Somebody of worth.

             Somebody with skills and a destiny.

                Somebody worth knowing.

You are valued simply because you exist.

“DO I MATTER” you ask?

Yes, you certainly do.

You matter!!!

A lot.

The Parachute

Charles Plumb was a U.S. navy jet pilot in Vietnam.  After seventy-five combat missions his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.  Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy territory.  He was captured and spent six years in a communist Vietnamese prison.  He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb!  You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.  You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied.  Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.  

The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!”  Plumb assured him, “It sure did.  If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”   

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man.  Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, and bell-bottom trousers.  I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, ‘Good morning, how are you?’  After all, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Plumb thought of the many hours this sailor had spent at a wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Plumb asks his audience, “Who’s packing your parachute?”  

Everyone has someone who provides a needed ingredient to help them make it through another day.  

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important.  We may fail to say hello, please, thank you.  We pass up opportunities to congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them.  We miss chances to give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.  

We are connected.  You do know that, right?  Whether I meet some of my readers face to face or not, we are connected nevertheless. 

I’m all about making connections and re-connections at this point in my life.  Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are wonderful tools for helping us with this reconnecting experience. 

People who played major roles in my life and were forgotten a few years ago are now vivid in my memory again, simply because of the reconnect. 

Some of these individuals packed my chute and I had a hand in packing other’s chutes.  The cycle continues. 

To you, my friend, my family members, and my cherished inner circle of friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for carefully packing my chute.  I have had a few bumps along the way, and so have you, but I’m floating relatively safely and securely, thanks to your careful hand in my life at the times I needed your hand the most.

We have had our chutes packed in dozens of ways.

-A skill taught that has stood the test of time

-A word spoken at the precise moment it is needed

-A life modeled before me of integrity and respect

-An act of kindness when I was down on my luck

-A job offer when I was down to my last dollar

-An encouraging word when all else I heard was put-downs and negative nonsense

I could add a dozen more examples. 

Think about your life.  Add your own experiences. 

Above all, reach out to someone who has packed your parachute.  Call them.  Extend to them the gift of kindness, thanks, appreciation and a re-connect. 

It’s yet another way of packing someone else’s chute.

OXYGEN

Oxygen. 

The stuff of life. 

We need it to live. 

We need it go grow. 

It has been said that mankind can live …

--Forty days without food

--Four minutes without air

--Four seconds without hope. 

I want to offer hope in the form of words to those around me. 

What if you had it in your power to give someone hope, and it wouldn’t cost you a dime? 

Nothing!

Nadda!

Would you give it?

Would you give a “dying” person hope?

Of course you would.

Listen carefully!  Lean in and let me whisper in your ear.

Words bring oxygen!

Did you get that?

                    Words bring oxygen!

Let’s try one more time.

WORDS BRING OXYGEN!

The stuff of life is found in words. 

Words nurture the soul.

   Words encourage the spirit.

      Words offer hope for one more day.

         Words heal.

         Words inspire.

            Words bring one back from the brink.

         Words restore relationships.

      Words release tension.

   Words renew relationships.

Words sometimes can make the difference between life and death.

So, let’s brush up on our vocabulary with some oxygen-generating words of hope and help. 

Somebody in your world right now is waiting for your words, your supply of fresh air that only you can offer. 

Breathe into them life-sustaining words.

Here are some oxygen-giving words that just might make a difference – for you today, or for someone in your life.

-I believe in you.

-You’re going to make it.

-You can do better next time.

-I see such potential in you.

-I have high hopes for you.

-I know your heart, and it is a good heart.

-You are a great one in the making.

-What a creative person you are.  I love that about you.

-You can accomplish that impossible task.  Just hang on a little longer.

-I see a winner in front of me.

-I love you just as you are.

-I’m so proud of you.

-I know this is a tough spot you are in.  Let’s see if I can help get you out.

-I’ve got your back.  You can count on me.

-God cares.

-God is near.

-You are closer than you think.

-Believe in the possibility.

-Believe in a God who believes in you.

Go.  Breathe into someone.  The word “inspire” means to “breathe into” someone.

Be an inspiration.

Spread the oxygen.

What's in a Word?

I believe in the power of the right word spoken at the right time.  Do you?

I write about this topic often; partly because my imprint, my website and my blog is all about Up-Words.  I want to write to offer hope, encouragement and inspiration one word at a time.

Words Penetrate

Words seep down into a person’s heart and inner consciousness and lie there allowing a person to think about them, mull them over and cogitate on what has been said long after they were originally uttered. 

That is all about the power of the subconscious mind.  Psychologist and author Dr. Denis Waitley notes that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined experience.  It only accepts what is offered.  The subconscious makes no judgment on what it experiences.  It accepts what is offered.

I can remember certain words that have penetrated straight to my heart down through my years of living.  Some have been good and wholesome.  Others have hurt, yet I recall them.

Here are a few:

“Get away from that thing, boy.  You don’t know nothin about machinery.”

“Michael, what are you pretending not to know?”

“I love you and the way you care for me.”  (Spoken by Carolyn to me on many occasions)

May you and I speak good and wholesome words that will penetrate deep down into the inner sanctum of a person’s soul and heart, and may they lie there and be discovered over and over again. 

Good, wholesome, kind, nurturing and healing words of grace and love. 

Words Liberate

The right words can set a heart free.  Guilt, remorse, regret and a sense of lose can be turned into gladness, joy, hope, faith, fullness. 

The scriptures are full of such power words and phrases. 

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

“I will be with you wherever you go.”

“I AM!”

“For God so loved that he gave …”

“Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”

My goodness.  I feel as if I’ve been to a majestic cathedral somewhere and heard from God himself, and all I’ve done is sit here at a desk with no one around and let my mind wander down this track.

I feel liberated just by typing these words on this screen. 

Words Elevate

I’ve heard and read numerous stories of men and women who have had a dramatic turn-a-round experiences simply because of a few words spoken by someone who crossed their path.

One man was put on the path of regaining his self-respect simply because a businessman noted how he had neatly tied his shoe laces.

I know a lady who was elevated one day when someone saw her do something less than respectable and simply commented, “You are better than that.”

When people see the better side of us, even though we don’t always show it, and offer a word of encouragement and hope, we experience that elevated feeling that says “Yes, I can see that for me.” 

Words Illuminate

I am a reader.  I read somewhere between 15 and 60 books every year.  Words in these books and magazines often illuminate my path.  I am in constant search for the next great blog idea or chapter for the book I’m writing.  I find these nuggets in all kinds of places and all kinds of material. 

“I Approve of Myself” was found in a magazine.

The idea for this blog came from a book I read recently.

The scriptures are full of illumination. 

Friends toss words my way often and these words of hope have proven to be illuminating in my life.

Now, I’m seeking for ways to illuminate other’s pathway as well.

Words Rejuvenate

Words bring new life to old and dead bones. 

Words heal. 

Words restore. 

Words build up.

Words give one meaning.

Words repair the damaged soul.

Words offer grace in a sometimes graceless world.

May your words do the work of healing and restoration in the lives of those you meet.  There is power in the right word spoken at the right time.