Could we already possess a wonderful tool for increasing effectiveness and averting disaster?

At  some point along my journey it became clear that most of the time I  operated on emotion. I’d grown up watching others engage emotionally, no  other way was known.

Then life began to educate me.

One  of the first things to go when operating out of this mindset is  self-care. I can think of story after story, times when fuzzy-headed  from emotional turmoil, decisions were made that cost me something.  Sometimes the cost was trivial and other times it was and still is  life-altering.

Warning: The next paragraph contains some graphic descriptions of events.

Once,  while on my way to work in Philadelphia, I was stuck in slow moving  traffic behind a semi-truck. Suddenly, I noticed a passenger door open  on a car in front of me, next to the big rig. A young woman appeared  from the back seat of a taxi-cab stepping into the roadway.

What happened next is one thing to read a story about, It’s a whole other thing to witness in person.

The  woman hurled herself under the semi truck in front of me. She  disappeared from my sight as I saw the semi lurch forward and then raise  up and back down like it had hit a speed bump.

A  poor woman had timed it perfectly, ending her own life right there, one  car length away from me. I think of her often even though the event  happened over 30 years ago.

Her  action set hundreds of other little events and emotional reactions into  motion for many people. I was a stringer for a local newspaper at the  time. Clearly, this was a news story. I struggled with the personal  nature of it and as a result, never took a picture even though my gear  was in the trunk.

What  had she been dealing with? Had she made a split second decision in that  very moment and acted? Or, had her misery been ongoing and it was all  premeditated? Could the HALT method have save her life?

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How do we know what looks good in a picture or design and why?

The rule of thirds.

It  is interesting and curious, how we evolved into deciding what we like  to look at? Color, form, lines, contrast, shape and intensity are some  of the variables involved. Can you talk about what it is you like about  the way a view of something appears to you? It can be on the internet,  with text and images arranged just so.

Or,  on the TV program you have going in the background right now. It’s  defined on the art you chose to hang on your walls and maybe most  importantly on the faces of those you love most.

Today, there only two established rules I desire to talk about. The Rule of Thirds and the Golden Mean or Ratio.

Read the entire text and see the illustrations on Medium.

I wonder if a farmer feels motivated each morning on the 120 days of work before harvest?

"The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer. " ~ Will Rogers

My grandfather was a farmer, my Mother’s Father, I always admired him.  They, he and my Grandmother, stopped farming when he turned fifty and  moved into the city. The work just began to take it’s toll on his body,  all the physical labor.

Motivation had finally run out, but he did not stop working, instead went down to the Farm City Supply store and shared his decades of knowledge with those still toiling.

Farming  is really unique as a way of earning a living, think about it. In  Agriculture one must do much work before there is any payoff.

Plowing,  fertilizing, seeding, watering, insect fighting, harvesting and finally  transporting to market. This adds up to a bunch of days where one may  not feel like getting out there.

Read by  Brandon Rouzan

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Could you stop building everyone else’s empire and start your own?

My first real full time job was my forth one. I was no stranger to working  having already had three part time gigs. Just out of High School, a  friend and I went to apply for positions in this little strip mall deli.  To our surprise, we both got hired on as cooks.

My  life was about to get impacted, I learned much there. I’ll never forget  that experience, the menu had 8 items and one of the specialty  sandwiches was a Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly. It was a humble and  simple beginning and all I could see from there. No mentors around to guide me, I had had it with school, cook was it, for now.

The  owners were a young couple really not much older than I was at the  time. It would not be long before I was offered the role of Assistant  Manager. On I went, cooking PB&J’s, ham sandwiches, prepping and  making steak soup. We also kept knocking down walls, expanding the  restaurant.

I  gave that couple 5 of my best years only to have a slight dispute with a  waitress over a short till somehow end in my firing. Then, my boss  decided it would be appropriate to fight the unemployment claim saying  that I quit. He won and my education in the sometimes harsh realities of  employment began.

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Wisdom gained from over 4 plus decades of recruiting or employment seeking.

My  working career started around the age of 11. Having already decided to  be an artist, I was inspired to create. Much time was spent creating  drawings, pottery, painting, poetry or even what we called “alley  hunting.”

One of my favorite places to be was in Art class or at the small desk in my room making something.

A  year or so later, after asking my Mom for some money, I found myself  shipped off to rural Nebraska where my knuckles got bloodied while bees  chased me around as I tried to throw hay bales.

Somehow,  I talked the decision maker into letting me drive the tractor. Selling  him on the fact that I was not that strong and was slowing down  production.

Later,  I would enter sales as a profession, but would have to finish my time  on the tractor first. That ended abruptly when I failed to negotiate a  turn coupled with an elevation change, overturning the almost full  flatbed trailer.

This event is seemingly so rare, I could not find even one picture ANYWHERE depicting a similar event.

I was not very popular after that and was shipped back home.

Read the entire article with illustrations on Medium 

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How to put your writing in front of a new market in the eBook format

In  years of creative and business experience I have found myself sometimes  leaving money on the table. Usually by failing to see possibilities or  take new action.

This reality has me looking at the library of my authorship with new eyes.

Up until now it has been exclusive to Medium, but changes do come, humans tweak things and income invariably slides south.

However,  we are not powerless and the first step in taking new actions may be to  assign the proper value to our creative product.

Read the entire article with illustrations on Medium

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Owning a Dog can be one of the most rewarding experiences, unless it’s not.

Dog Illustration

Owning  a Dog can be one of the most rewarding experiences, unless it’s not.  One rule for the former to be true is a well-behaved and obedient  Canine. In 5 plus decades of life I have had the joy to have provided  care for a dozen dogs as an owner, and hundreds as a boarder. The  perception that we have creates how we respond and in turn a change in  our response carries on into the canine and the outcome. Please allow me  to pass on FIVE of the key principals this experience has taught me.

Key #1: Understand the Difference between Posturing, Aggression, and Fear.

A  common trait among dogs is the instinct to self preserve. As a result  of this it’s common that he or she will appear to be aggressive and  ready to fight another animal. Most often this reaction is fear in the  animal, some reasons they may engage in this activity follow.

A  mother with babies who perceives a threat will almost always behave  aggressively, remember the need to preserve life. Dogs in their own  territory will ALWAYS respond with a call to arms” when an intruder or  unknown canine enters their territory, like inside the house or yard.  Even on a walk, some dogs may show aggression to a passing pack, feeling  compelled by centuries of evolution to do their job as protectors.

Once  we as pack leaders understand this is normal, our reaction naturally  changes. In the mother with babies scenario we move out of fear, feeling  the need to stop or correct her, into a partnership with her,  protecting the family from harm together, preserving the pack. We may  keep the fence closed and tight not allowing foreign animals to invade  her space while caring for her young.

On  a walk instead of being embarrassed and going to the other side of the  street, we can make a point to stop and meet the other pedestrians.  Allowing time for new connections to be formed for all involved.

If  introducing a new animals into our homes we can expect some posturing  as normal and support calm and safety until anxiety lessens. As we show  consistency in the way we lead and protect our pack, they in turn become  more confident and calm following our lead or example. As we reinforce  their actions replacing “bad dog vibes” with a “yes” or a “good dog’ and  a touch more often, more stability and joy will become normal feelings  for all.

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It’s not just for selling things or finding a job there's at least one more important function.

Craigslist, you know, the very simply coded interface that’s offers online classified ads.

A  valuable tool to connect people looking for work or workers. Hooking up  buyers with sellers for all kinds of products new and used from bikes  to semi trucks. Yet, it can be so much more.

I’ve scoured the FREE STUFF section and found free pavers, fencing, and even a full set of chrome wheels with tires mounted.

Craigslist first effected me profoundly, after getting separated from my canine Wolfhound Melvin.

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Could you be more effective than you think? It’s just one decision

That’s  right, just one decision. A friend of mine called me recently to talk.  He was unemployed at the time feeling frustrated at what he thought was  the situation in the market.

At  the same time I was seeking to hire a salesperson and was also  frustrated, but for a different reason. He had his eye on a particular  position but had not approached or applied, imagining there was a vast  sea of applicants. He would never been seen, why bother, he was making  himself angry while shooting his own foot.

I  had also been frustrated with the results of a tired old ad, that had  been copied and pasted 50 times into Craig’s List. It was about as  boring as you could get and I was getting only 5 to 10 resumes. Hardly a  large enough pool to choose from.

Informing  my friend that his perception may be skewed, I encouraged him to apply.  I said “they may only get 10 qualified candidates, you will stand out  in the group, but you have to make the effort.”

He took my advice, got an interview, then an offer and took the job. He was elated.

With  this new information I also made a change in behavior, completely  rewriting the help wanted advertisement. Really thinking of it from the  job seekers view, I crafted an exciting few paragraphs that changed  everything. The week it ran I received 100 resumes. There were so many  coming in I could hardly find time to look over them all.

Breaking  this self limiting belief for my friend, taught me a lesson too. This  new outlook resulted in a much higher quality new hire.

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Don’t let what others think get too far up in your head, it’s just like flipping a coin…

I love to call the flip of a coin, for some reason the side I pick most  often is tails. It’s like a hope in me for the perceived underdog right?  I mean look which side the photographer decided to focus on, in the  image above, it’s heads.

We  perceive heads as the right one the correct choice. If you doubt me on  this just check a couple of the bills in your wallet or purse, do you  see any tails in there?

My  experience has taught me over 50 years of creating and people mingling  it’s all just about 50/50. Innately, you may feel that’s just too even  so, the majority of the time we will pick heads. We all have these  personal beliefs we are trying to confirm, some special ability believed  to be within ourselves, with each coin flip.

Pursuing  a high likeability factor could indeed be like an unattainable quest’  following a carrot on the stick, soon meandering right over the nearest  cliff.

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