Monday Motivator

Can you believe the first quarter of 2008 has slipped away? Well, believe it! How are you doing with the resolutions you set back in January? I am following through and staying the course, slip-ups and all.

I finally feel like I am home and things are back to normal. Vietnam was a wonderful experience. It amazes me how no matter how different we all may be in ethnicity and culture; we are all so much the same in heart and emotion. People are people. Our first stop in Saigon was “in your face” fast, congested, millions of honking motorbikes (mopeds and small motorcycles) mixing with bicycles and a few cars. Our tour bus was like a grand God that moved slowly but without hesitation through all this energy in motion. There are 3 people on the motorbike in this picture.

The one thing I never did get used to seeing was infants and toddlers riding in their moms arms on these motorbikes. The whole family (yes, 5 people) ride on one motorbike! As a matter of fact, they move everything with their motorbikes; boxes, fine china dishes (not wrapped and packed), furniture, refrigerators, full panes of glass, 1-5 full grown pigs, baskets of chickens, and even a 1500 lb water buffalo! They get the animals drunk with homemade rice wine and tie them on the back of their motorbikes. It’s really a bad thing when the animal wakes up before the trip is over. The farmer has to make sure to have more rice wine with him to settle the animal back down to sleep for the rest of the trip.

Saigon was also where there was a concentration of war propaganda. Once we headed north, we heard less about the history of the country as it pertained to the Vietnam War. This aspect was good for me, in that I was just born when that conflict was going on. I really knew very little about any of it. I am very aware however, that learning from the Vietnamese presents a slant that my fellow Americans would be fast to question. In any case, it gave me a good foundation to ask Ken questions and have a better understanding of his answers. We crawled through the tunnels, visited pagodas, talked with many of the local people, and played with many children. We were ready to leave the city and head north to Hoi An and Da Nung. I’ll tell you about that next week. Scroll down to see more pictures from Saigon.

Have a wonderful week and take a good look around you, right now, and acknowledge how much you have. It is unbelievable how abundant our lives are. You don’t have to go to a third world country to see how much you have, you know where I’m going with this. Be sure to make time to say “thank you.” Say it now, say it in an hour, and then say it again after that.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.-- Meister Eckhart

Saigon Pictures

Men moving two full panes of glass. They held the glass between the two of them while weaving in and out of insane traffic!









Family of four commuting.





Here is a shot of a young family on their way somewhere. That baby can't be more than 3 months old!

This is Dahlynn in the tunnel with me. It took an act of God (which by the way, there are no shortage of in Vietnam!) for me to turn around to take this picture. These tunnels are very small. What an experience to have actually been in one.

E-Mail Versus Blog

Hi Friends,

Happy Spring! You all know how much I love the fall season, well, spring holds a close second.

So I have my feet back on the ground with no plans to be on an airplane in the coming months. I love to travel, and with traveling comes the I love to be home part. Dave leaves for five weeks starting the 10th of April. He is going to Arkansas for military training, with many other shorter trips already on his calendar in the coming months.

I did a personal query about having content in the body of an e-mail versus clicking a link. I went to the blog format because I thought it looked nicer, cleaner, in color, and it provided you with the ability to look back at past motivators. I like that the history is in one place as well. It never occurred to me that clicking a link would deter or eliminate more than half of you! I write this silly thing so it doesn't matter to me where it is, I can cut and paste all day long! Laughing! It was also mentioned that the blog seems less personal. I have a specific blog just for the MM so I know who is going there and I don't have to worry about "Joe Public" reading it (unless they happen upon it, and in that case, I don't care). I will put the content in the e-mail, and post it on my blog as well. The benefit of to going to the blog will be that is where I will post pictures when I have them.

The trip to Arizona was a huge success. Dave invented something and I am pursuing the patents. We got yes after yes meeting with patent attorneys, venture capitalists, licensing attorneys, and other successful inventors (very successful!). QVC even wants to introduce it! So there you have it! More details as soon as our patent is pending.

Mike sent me this Ralph Marston motivator on Being Success

Be success

Only when you're able to accept the possibility of getting it wrong will you have the persistence to get it right. Meaningful success rarely comes from a single transaction.Success is a consistent pattern more than it is an isolated event.

It is the way you live rather than some object or experience you acquire.In fact, the way to truly have success is to be success. Success is yours when you persistently embody the discipline, the integrity, the positive attitude, the respect and all the other attributes of which it is made.

Visualize yourself today as a living, breathing, active and dynamic manifestation of success. In what way does such a vision compel you to think, to speak, to act and to live? If you consider success to be something outside of you, that's where it will always remain -- outside of you and apart from you.

Instead, choose to not merely be successful, but to be success itself.In your thoughts, your words, your actions and your expectations, be the living embodiment of success. And whatever you envision will surely be within your reach.

Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator with permission www.thedailymotivator.com

Monday Motivator

Hi Friends,

Happy St. Patrick's Day! May the luck O' the Irish be smil'n on ya! I am home and feel a little spaced out. I am not really jet lagged, I am just not quite in the right time zone.

I have a ton of stuff to do today and tomorrow and then I am back on a plane for Arizona. I am going to do some business that I am fully intending will change the life of my family significantly (for the better, that is)! I can't share the details just yet, but suffice it to say, there are great things on the horizon. When I can spill the beans, you will be the first to know.

I had a wonderful time in Vietnam. The people there are very friendly and the people we met in our tour group were the best. I will share the details of the trip later since I am very tired, very busy, and got lucky enough to get the belly issues (if you get my drift) once I arrived home.

Have a great week and I'll see you next Monday!

Monday Motivator Guest

Hello all!

This is only the second time in Monday Motivator history that I have written the MM for Kathy. The first was the day of our son, Mason's birth. As you all should know she is spending a well deserved vacation with friends in Vietnam.

I say well deserved because she is the engine behind our family and she has been running hard for quite some time. I kind of consider myself the oil that keeps everything lubricated but without all of her efforts we would get nowhere. She is the Yin to my Yang and right now my Yang is hanging out.

It is when someone is gone you realize how much you depend on them. Kathy keeps reminding me of how much she does and that I don't realize it or give her credit for all she does. That is true, I don't (give her credit that is, I realize what she does). Now if I was single, I wouldn't be living out of my car or begging on the streets. I have managed okay for twenty years without her, but she definatley has improved my life from what it was. As we say in the Army she is a "force multiplier".

So Mason and I are batching it. He spent the last four days with me while I was in Millbrae working on a seminar for the National Guard. It was fun, but very stressful having to worry about him and accomplish my job. Thank goodness for my sister and mom who took care of him for the actual day of the seminar. We went to dinner, layed in bed and rented movies, he ran thrgough the hotel and generally had a good time. Everyone said he was well behaved. I guess I just have higher expectations for him. But not having Kathy to take care of him while I worked was keenly felt.

Take a moment to thank someone that you rely on to help make your life simplier or more enjoyable.

As Kathy always ends with some motivational quote I will leave you with this one because it reminds me of her.

"I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing of the engine inside of me which is saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you."

General George S Patton

Kathy's engine is always going.

Monday Motivator

Happy Monday!

This week and weekend was a busy one. I am getting ready to go on vacation, so I've been doing all the stuff I have to do to be gone. It reminds me that I should spend everyday working like I am getting ready to vacation.

If I can check in next week, I will. I am going to Vietnam with Ken, Dahlynn, and Teresa. I know, I know, "Why?" you ask. Let me ask you, "Why not?" I want to see all of the world and as far as I know, I have to see it one country at a time. Ken is a Vietnam Vet and he wants to go back and see this beautiful country in a time without war. It has been nearly 40 years since the conflict ended, so Vietnam is hardly war torn. I've learned that it is in the top 6 safest places to vacation and it's suppose to be gorgeous. I'm sure I will have lots to share when I return on the 16th. Dave said he has no interest in visiting Vietnam so he will be vacationing in Pennsylvania later this summer on a trip he is equally excited about.

Be sure to visit my Intentional Winning blog while I am gone and answer the new poll. I have written all the posts, and Dave will be making sure they get published. March is all about luck and being lucky. Have a great two weeks and I'll be back on the 17th. This quote best represents my wanderlust. I hope it stirs some of the same in you!

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -- Robert Louis Stevenson