Jeff Davidson's Blog, page 12
November 6, 2018
Carve Your Own Path
The most effective way to compete in this world for jobs, lovers, and that which is coveted, is to not compete at all. Don't compare, analyze, or dwell upon whatever others are doing. But instead create your own path -- your internal guidance system -- and have faith that your way will work.
November 3, 2018
Widespread A.D.D.
We've reached the point where a typical person in our society now has Attention Deficit Disorder, culturally induced. The rising decibel level in public spaces, as documented over the last 25 years, all but confirms that our society has embraced a perpetually higher level of noise. Added to that, the number of messages that each of us is bombarded with on a daily basis has no end.
From billboards, to bus panels, to ads over urinals, at all times, in all places, someone is vying for our attention. E-mail and the Internet have exacerbated the problem, but even those who are not online and not wired are subject to cultural Attention Deficit Disorder. Why? Because the general level of message bombardment in our society is exceedingly high.
Retrieve a person from a primitive society, someone who has never been exposed to television or telephones, or, if you could, retrieve someone from 1918, and today’s information bombardment would have immediate impact: I would be surprised if such visitors to our culture did not have near-instant nervous breakdown.
From billboards, to bus panels, to ads over urinals, at all times, in all places, someone is vying for our attention. E-mail and the Internet have exacerbated the problem, but even those who are not online and not wired are subject to cultural Attention Deficit Disorder. Why? Because the general level of message bombardment in our society is exceedingly high.
Retrieve a person from a primitive society, someone who has never been exposed to television or telephones, or, if you could, retrieve someone from 1918, and today’s information bombardment would have immediate impact: I would be surprised if such visitors to our culture did not have near-instant nervous breakdown.
October 30, 2018
October 19, 2018
Discovering the Laws of Life
Notes from Discovering the Laws of Life by John Templeton, Templeton Press, 1997.
* No one knows the weight of another’s burden.
* Enthusiasm is contagious.
* You fear what you do not understand.
* Thanksgiving leads to having more to give thanks for.
* Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.
* Every ending is a new beginning.
* Practice within when you are without.
* Perseverance makes a difference between success and defeat.
* The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. ***
* Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.
* If you would find gold, you must search for where gold is. ***
* Happy relationships depend not on finding the right person, but on being the right person.
* You cannot discover new oceans until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
* We receive freely when we give freely.
* Your life becomes what you think.
* The seven deadly sins are: pride, lust, sloth, envy, anger, covetousness, and gluttony.
* There is as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.
* Find a need and fill it.
* Thoughts are like boomerangs.
* Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.
* Beautiful thoughts build a beautiful soul.
* Success feeds on itself and creates more success.
* No one knows the weight of another’s burden.
* Enthusiasm is contagious.
* You fear what you do not understand.
* Thanksgiving leads to having more to give thanks for.
* Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.
* Every ending is a new beginning.
* Practice within when you are without.
* Perseverance makes a difference between success and defeat.
* The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. ***
* Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.
* If you would find gold, you must search for where gold is. ***
* Happy relationships depend not on finding the right person, but on being the right person.
* You cannot discover new oceans until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
* We receive freely when we give freely.
* Your life becomes what you think.
* The seven deadly sins are: pride, lust, sloth, envy, anger, covetousness, and gluttony.
* There is as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.
* Find a need and fill it.
* Thoughts are like boomerangs.
* Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.
* Beautiful thoughts build a beautiful soul.
* Success feeds on itself and creates more success.
To Give and to Receive
We must be as good at receiving as we are at giving, so that we stay in balance
Wayner Dyer: Wishes Fulfilled
Note from Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering the Art of Manifesting, by Wayne Dyer
* The ability to feel and to trust in our divine connection is exactly the key to manifesting, your “wishes fulfilled.”
* We can develop this ability to trust despite the absence of physical evidence as perceived by our senses.
* No matter the circumstances or obstacles, draft your dream and the way can be cleared.
* Trust your divine connection, know that your soul has no limits and the universe responds and works with you to manifest that idea into a physical reality.
* Feel the connection, focus on what you have to give, have faith in your dreams, and you will overcome all doubt and make your wishes reality.
* Faith is the complete reliance on the power and goodness of Spirit and the firm belief that you are always connected to this goodness.
Faith versus Doubt
* Always affirm your faith and not your doubt.
* When you affirm that things might not work out, that your troubles continue to mount, that your problems are insoluble, that God has not been listening, or that you are powerless in the face of so many struggles, you are affirming doubt rather than faith.
* The ability to know faith and affirm it allows it to manifest in your life.
* Learn to affirm your faith in the face of doubt with thoughts that things will work out, things will improve. Think, write, and say affirmations like these:
I intend to create prosperity.
I’ll do what is necessary to eradicate this problem.
I know I am not alone.
I have faith that all is for good.
I give no energy to the negative because I know all is in divine order.
* The ability to feel and to trust in our divine connection is exactly the key to manifesting, your “wishes fulfilled.”
* We can develop this ability to trust despite the absence of physical evidence as perceived by our senses.
* No matter the circumstances or obstacles, draft your dream and the way can be cleared.
* Trust your divine connection, know that your soul has no limits and the universe responds and works with you to manifest that idea into a physical reality.
* Feel the connection, focus on what you have to give, have faith in your dreams, and you will overcome all doubt and make your wishes reality.
* Faith is the complete reliance on the power and goodness of Spirit and the firm belief that you are always connected to this goodness.
Faith versus Doubt
* Always affirm your faith and not your doubt.
* When you affirm that things might not work out, that your troubles continue to mount, that your problems are insoluble, that God has not been listening, or that you are powerless in the face of so many struggles, you are affirming doubt rather than faith.
* The ability to know faith and affirm it allows it to manifest in your life.
* Learn to affirm your faith in the face of doubt with thoughts that things will work out, things will improve. Think, write, and say affirmations like these:
I intend to create prosperity.
I’ll do what is necessary to eradicate this problem.
I know I am not alone.
I have faith that all is for good.
I give no energy to the negative because I know all is in divine order.
September 26, 2018
For Fun: 50 Movies
Just for fun: 50 movies that will stir your mind and emotions
Alive (Ethan Hawke)
Lost Weekend (Ray Milland)
Shadow Lands (Anthony Hopkins, Deborah Winger)
Twelve Monkeys (Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, Martin Landau)
The Year of Living Dangerously (Mel Gibson, Sigourney Waever)
Glory (Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington)
A Soldier's Story (Howard Rollins, Denzel Washington)
Full Metal Jacket (Matthew Modine)
Days of Wine and Roses (Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick)
The Next Man (Sean Connery)
Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, Katherine Herrold)
The Man Who Would Be King (Sean Connery, Michael Caine)
Real Life (Albert Brooks)
L.A. Story (Steve Martin)
Fail Safe (Henry Fonda)
Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, Mia Farrow)
Far and Away (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman)
The King's Speech (Colin Firth)
Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks)
Malcolm X (Denzel Washington)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)
The Trip to Bountiful (Geraldine Page)
The Sure Thing (John Cusack)
Enchanted April (Miranda Richardson)
A Month by the Lake (Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox)
Hear My Song (Ned Beatty)
The Local Hero (Peter Reigert)
Drugstore Cowboy (Matt Dillon)
Gallipoli (Mel Gibson)
The Marrying Man (Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger)
Restoration (Robert Downey, Sam Neill)
Millennium (Cheryl Ladd, Kris Kristoferson)
Honeymoon in Vegas (Nicholas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker)
Casa Blanca (Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman)
Dr. Zhivago (Omar Sharif, Julie Christie)
"Z" (Yves Montand)
Serpico (Al Pacino)
The 7 Beauties (Giancarlo Giannini)
Close Encounters (Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon)
Chariots of Fire (Ben Cross)
An Officer and a Gentleman (Richard Gere, Deborah Winger)
Time Machine (Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimmeux)
Day of the Jackal (Edward Fox)
It Happened One Night (Clark Gable, Claudet Colbert)
Women in Love (Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates)
Any Which Way you Can (Clint Eastwood, Sondra Lockwood)
Prince of Tides (Nick Nolte, Barbara Streisand)
The Usual Suspects (Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey)
The Sixth Sense (Bruce Willis, Halley Joel Osment)
Alive (Ethan Hawke)
Lost Weekend (Ray Milland)
Shadow Lands (Anthony Hopkins, Deborah Winger)
Twelve Monkeys (Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, Martin Landau)
The Year of Living Dangerously (Mel Gibson, Sigourney Waever)
Glory (Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington)
A Soldier's Story (Howard Rollins, Denzel Washington)
Full Metal Jacket (Matthew Modine)
Days of Wine and Roses (Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick)
The Next Man (Sean Connery)
Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, Katherine Herrold)
The Man Who Would Be King (Sean Connery, Michael Caine)
Real Life (Albert Brooks)
L.A. Story (Steve Martin)
Fail Safe (Henry Fonda)
Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, Mia Farrow)
Far and Away (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman)
The King's Speech (Colin Firth)
Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks)
Malcolm X (Denzel Washington)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)
The Trip to Bountiful (Geraldine Page)
The Sure Thing (John Cusack)
Enchanted April (Miranda Richardson)
A Month by the Lake (Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox)
Hear My Song (Ned Beatty)
The Local Hero (Peter Reigert)
Drugstore Cowboy (Matt Dillon)
Gallipoli (Mel Gibson)
The Marrying Man (Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger)
Restoration (Robert Downey, Sam Neill)
Millennium (Cheryl Ladd, Kris Kristoferson)
Honeymoon in Vegas (Nicholas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker)
Casa Blanca (Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman)
Dr. Zhivago (Omar Sharif, Julie Christie)
"Z" (Yves Montand)
Serpico (Al Pacino)
The 7 Beauties (Giancarlo Giannini)
Close Encounters (Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon)
Chariots of Fire (Ben Cross)
An Officer and a Gentleman (Richard Gere, Deborah Winger)
Time Machine (Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimmeux)
Day of the Jackal (Edward Fox)
It Happened One Night (Clark Gable, Claudet Colbert)
Women in Love (Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates)
Any Which Way you Can (Clint Eastwood, Sondra Lockwood)
Prince of Tides (Nick Nolte, Barbara Streisand)
The Usual Suspects (Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey)
The Sixth Sense (Bruce Willis, Halley Joel Osment)
September 17, 2018
Competing Only with Yourself
Often the most effective way to compete in this world for jobs, lovers and whatever you covet is to not compete at all. Don't compare, analyze, or dwell upon what others are doing. Instead created your own path, follow your internal guidance system, and have faith that your way will work.
September 7, 2018
Every Last Digital Scrap About You
As this article by Sara Marie Watson in The Atlantic reveals, Google is collects every last digital scrap about you and sell it to vendors with reckless abandon.
August 26, 2018
Book: Lions Don't Need to Roar
A classic worth revisiting: Lions Don't Need to Roar, by D. A. Benton, Warner Books (1992)
You could also say lions don't need to race around frantically, as well!
From a 26-year-old review: Leadership-development expert Debra Benton interviewed and observed more than 100 CEOs, COOs, and company presidents to see what made them successful. "Top people are not magical, blessed, or dramatically different from you or me. They simply have skills and outlooks that the rest of us may not have - but can get."
Far from stodgy, top people:
▪ Like to tell stories that convey a point;
▪ Smile and laugh often;
▪ Know when (and how) to physically touch others;
▪ Often ask for favors, knowing that it makes people feel important.
Benton also debunks myths. Plain old energy isn't necessarily a key to success, for example. People who project "frantic" energy -- those who rush about, maintain rigid time schedules, or wolf down their sandwiches -- don't get far. The successful develop a relaxed energy that lets them work long hours, concentrate on complex problems, and focus on the matter at hand.
You could also say lions don't need to race around frantically, as well!
From a 26-year-old review: Leadership-development expert Debra Benton interviewed and observed more than 100 CEOs, COOs, and company presidents to see what made them successful. "Top people are not magical, blessed, or dramatically different from you or me. They simply have skills and outlooks that the rest of us may not have - but can get."
Far from stodgy, top people:
▪ Like to tell stories that convey a point;
▪ Smile and laugh often;
▪ Know when (and how) to physically touch others;
▪ Often ask for favors, knowing that it makes people feel important.
Benton also debunks myths. Plain old energy isn't necessarily a key to success, for example. People who project "frantic" energy -- those who rush about, maintain rigid time schedules, or wolf down their sandwiches -- don't get far. The successful develop a relaxed energy that lets them work long hours, concentrate on complex problems, and focus on the matter at hand.
