Do I really have to choose?

I used to be very interested in politics and the whole political process. Having followed presidential politcs for decades, I have at times taken both sides. There was a time when both parties, Republican and Democrat had a lot to offer. Things have changed.

Is it true that all Democrats are liberal and all Republicas are conservative? Can I be conservative on moral issues and liberal on social issues? Can I care about the poor and still be pro-life? The answer is an undeniable YES. I really don't have to choose all of the policies of one party or the other. I don't have to agree with some issues of one party and need to defend that party overall.

I used to be very interested in presidential politics. It is no longer interesting. I will choose to believe and support whatever beliefs that I choose without regard to party lines. America is still a great country. I hope that we can get back to the two-party system that chose to serve the needs of all Americans. It is no longer interesting.

Advice for selling ... advice for life

Author, Jaynie L. Smith has written a very helpful book on selling titled Relevant Selling. She advises all sales entities to know what their customers want and like about what the seller is selling. In other words, a sales organization should know which values that their customers percieve to be the most valuable.

Smith advises companies to do blind surveys to their customers to learn what values are most valued. This is great advice because a sales person can promote and highlight certain attributes of their product or service offering without even knowing whether the customer thinks that those attributes are important.

For example, a travel agent could advertise and promote the fact that they have received awards for their work. On the other hand, their customers may be most interested in the experience of the agents and the commission rate. So, they really don't care about the awards. A roofer may brag that they only carry the highest quality materials, while the prospects may be most concerned about pricing and mostly interested in middle-range materials. It helps to know what the customer values and wants.

The same is true in every aspect of life. In order to nurture any relationship, it helps to know what your family, friends, and acquaintances really value and want. What good is it if you are funny when everyone wants friendly? What good is it if you are rich and eveyone wants compassionate? It helps to know what others value.

Share your ideas ...

Many people make very good use of Facebook and other social media outlets. Everyone has ideas and everyone has good ideas. Social media provides and excellent opportunity to share.

It should not and will not take the place of interpersonal interaction. Instead, it is a part of it and supplemental to it. It is cool that people share photos and successes and milestones on FB. It think that it is great that ideas and news stories are shared on Twitter.

Of course, there are many negatives too and you know what those are if you are a regular social media user. I really hope that we can use this new technology to share good and useful ideas!

The Walk series by Richard Paul Evans

If you never read anything from author Richard Paul Evans, you are really missing something. In my opinion, he is a truly inspirational writer.

He has recently published the third installment in the series about a character named Alan Christoferson who has some very tragic turns in his life and he decides to sell everything and walk across America from Seattle to Key West. It sounds like a fairly simple plot. In book three, he has made it roughly half way.

This is a strong recommend.

Every day is a new opportunity

In the continuous self improvement process, what you did yesterday is important, but today matters. If you are on a continuous building and improving process, adding on to what you accomplished yesterday and the day before is important.

But, even if yesterday and the day before were not successful in your journey, you have a new opportunity today to get going. Every day is a new opportunity to continue, get on track, or get started. I also think that it is very important to include work on all aspects of your self improvement every day, including physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional.

As author and motivator, Brian Tracy suggests, reading at least 30 minutes per day in your field of improvement is essential to growth and success. This is a practice that takes some determination but it does pay dividends. Get some books that will help you to be the best version of yourself and devote at least that amount of time every day.

Being the best version of yourself ...

What does that really mean? What is a not so great version of what I could be? Those are very important questions to answer.

One thing that I have known for a long time is that you won't be the best version of yourself if you do not work at it every day. There probably is no standing still or maintaining your best self. Instead, being the best version of yourself requires continuous improvement.

That continuous improvement should probably take place in every aspect of your life including mental, physical, spiritual, social, and emotional. It is very likely that doing nothing to improve in these areas leads you to be less than the best version of yourself.

Defining where you want to improve, setting goals, and then going about acheiving them should get you most of the way if not all the way to the best version of yourself. There is no better time than now to get going.

Magnetic Christianity - a strong recommend

I just finished reading the book Magnetic Christianity by Gus Lloyd. I really like listening to Gus on Sirius XM 129 in the mornings on the Catholic Channel. Now I have read his book.

The subtitle of the book is Using Your God-Given Gifts to Build the Kingdom and it outlines several attributes of what a magnetic Christian personality can be. The descriptions include attributes like honesty, friendliness, and enthusiasm and full chapters are used to fully explain what these attributes are about and to give examples.

Each chapter has at least one Magnetic Insight spotlight the indicates the key point given in the chapter. Also, rich scripture passages are interwoven into each chapter to tie the points being made to Holy Scripture. Each chapter ends with some reflection questions and a prayer.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone. No matter where you are with your faith journey, this book will help you.