Interesting ideas with Stan Hustad

Most people have heard of Hanukkah but most people don't know a thing about it except to kinda describe it as a Jewish Christmas.  But it is not the case it is not a Jewish Christmas. It is a holiday that is celebrated a great deal now by Jewish people around the world even though it is not considered one of the most important of holidays.  But there is a wonderful story about where it came from and if you're an educated and thoughtful person you should know something about the Hanukkah story.  By the way many of my Jewish friends I'm very happy that I take time to learn about their condition and one of them even said to me. I learned more about Hanukkah from you than I actually learned in synagogue school.

Please take my challenge seriously that I put together in this 15 or 20 minutes because I've got a number of ideas that might be helpful to you and there is a great question that I'm going to ask you that is important and in a way the Hanukkah celebration is a part of the question,  and the question is do you believe in miracles even little ones.  So please hear me out because it is important for those of us who want to be leaders and influential people in our world and in the marketplace today.

He was going through some very hard times and I looked him straight in the eye and all of a sudden I said. "Remember that adversity is part of the plan."  How many times have you failed in your life?  What happened to you and what did you learn?  Well on this Friday as we go through the holiday season and to the end of the year and look forward to it very challenging year we need to remember a wonderful life that I just learned. " Failure is not a bug it's a feature."  Think about what that might mean and then let me share with you where I got it from is Mitchell from the Praxis Playbook tells us a familiar story but one that we always need to hear again and again and from time to time.  So take 20 minutes to learn something new and perhaps be reminded of something useful to you.

Let's begin with the sound effect of an old old radio program that said, The shadow knows.  Did you know there are all kinds of ancient beliefs and legends about our shadow. There is even a belief that some people don't even have a shadow and that's because there is something deeply wrong or deeply disturbed or maybe even evil about them.  And indeed I take a bit of a sidelight after hearing about the murder of the two policeman this morning to challenge us to believe that sometimes we have to deal with the reality of evil as a spirit force.  And all of us may have a shadow side to us that we need to be aware of so that we can truly be at our best.  But on a bright note may I suggest that there may be nothing wrong with you, but in terms of your career and business you may be in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.  

And just maybe it's time for a change and could it be that you should see if perhaps there is a powerful shadow career that you need to pursue right now.

With your permission please listen and let me tell you more.  It just might be very useful right now/

I confess it's a hard statement to make some time, but I try to remind myself and sometimes share with others, but I know it may be hard to do that because so many hard things have happened and are happening... The statement is God is good all the time.  I look at our world and the state of our leadership and shake my head at the sheer incompetence, often stupidity, and perhaps even a touch of evil that rattles and shakes our world.  And sometimes you understand the evil is very real and big and large.  Then what are you do. Well it may be time to remember and seek and live by faith that we do indeed live in a benevolent universe. It's hard for us sometimes to believe that indeed there is grace and it is real and it is amazing.

So on this countdown to Christmas starting today at 10 to go let's remember some of the things that might be true for you and me in the midst of the comfort and the joy and indeed the crisis that is Christmas.

I can honestly say that dying does not frighten me anymore. And once you get over the fear of dying perhaps you can get over any other fear in your life. But I do confess that the one fear I have is of totally losing my faculties of descending into deep dementia and being a burden to those I love. And the fact that it runs in the family, and many wonderful and brilliant and smart people that I have known have suffered from that leaves a little bit and sometimes a lot of anxiety in the work I do.

So in a recent idea on how we can preserve better our body brain and mind and body I was encouraged to see that by doing what I'm doing and working hard to create a daily podcast could be a powerful way to push back on the ever present possibility of declining into a demented state. So I do what I can but I also know that it may come to me and my prayer is that if so I will be as graceful as I can be to those who have to care for me!

Let's face it it could be true that the smarter your stuff is the stupider you are.  You see knowledge is not just knowing something it's knowing how you got the knowledge and how to do that.  As I just asked my good friend Jason who is a financial advisor how he deals with the fact that people can get financial counsel from a Robo advisor.  He has some real wisdom about that and perhaps I can talk him into telling you a little bit about that this week. In order to not be overwhelmed by your smart stuff you may need to be smarter yourself and certainly you need to be wiser about what is truly important

And one of the reasons I do and go to the effort I'm doing this podcast is it is good for my brain and may help put off dementia of sorts.  So join me as I respond to a wonderful new idea it's been around for a while but it's finally getting around as a result of a new book entitled the power of thinking outside your brain.  I'm pretty sure that this 15 minutes will have some smart stuff to help make you smarter and maybe wiser. Join me and let's see what happens

It's Sunday night and I just got back from a celebration with a friend of mine and we were celebrating for all practical purposes that he had failed in his ability to stay retired.  My friend John who is well past retirement age and had a successful career in the construction industry as a CEO of a major company has found a whole new project in life. It's remarkable. It truly is an indication that when we talk about having an ENCORE Plan.  Let me tell you the story about a new idea that you need to consider and maybe even embrace.  You may need an Encore coach and an Encore plan.

Yes I remember it well and I'll share a story with a collegial broadcaster who was actually in New York City that very tragic day on December 8, 1980.  And then you will discover a little bit about what I learned by certainly being a child in a young man during the Beatles era and perhaps you would like to hear my program someday about everything you need to know about business you can learn from the Beatles.

Then with your permission may I continue and tell you that in this day of danger and insecurity and we're many people are quitting or want to quit, that you might understand that life is not necessarily a journey but it's much more than that it's an adventure, and that's different.  And I'll shake you up by telling you should not seek a job or a career anymore you should seek something else and if you're young all you should be doing is experiments in your life and career path.

This is a tribute to a man who mentored me from a distance, the incomparable world-class broadcaster and motivator, Earl Nightingale. Many things that he said were very helpful to me and he taught me how to be a broadcaster, and I believe a pretty good one. But one day while listening to him on the treadmill through my old Walkman he shared a lesson with me but if we all did it could truly not only change your own world but perhaps the world itself. So may I challenge you to take 15 minutes to listen to my story and see my show on the radio

 I think I'm well known to many people because I have the reputation of persistence and in some cases real resilience.  Indeed I am well known in many ways for pressing on.  However there is another side of me and in the work I do in which I will agree in some respect with a new book that just came out by Annie Duke who walked away from an academic career and became a professional poker player.  And in her book she takes some lessons that she learned from being a world class poker player into the marketplace and she shares that with and wisdom in her new book called Quit - The power of knowing when to walk away... I know something about that as one of the presentations that I've given to many people and they listen to my class is entitled, How to quit your soul sucking job!

Well after I give a tip of the hat to the real Santa Claus, I miss his day and remind us of the day that lived in infamy I'd like to share some ideas with you about how you might find some help because maybe the gift you should give yourself is the gift of quitting.  In about 15 minutes let me tell you that story!