Nothing Can Stop Us Now

A guest column from my friend Rev. Walt Brewer; couldn't pass up passing this along.

November 7, 2008 - "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson

Some days it seems like all is right with the world, everything is falling perfectly into place and the Universe is conspiring in our favor. Then there are those other days where nothing seems to work and every which way we turn, we face obstacles and road blocks.

What is the difference? Is the world really that different one day to the next? Do we have a certain number of good days and bad days that have to balance each other? Is the Universe a friendly place or not?

The world, the Universe, Law, it’s all constant. Our approach to it, our belief about what is possible for us and what we believe will most likely happen next are the variables that we each bring to our experience of the same day, the same Life.

As Jefferson says, our attitude determines our experience, our perception of what is possible and it is the filter through which we will interpret whatever is before us.

With the right mental attitude, a heightened expectancy of good now and good continuing, we will feel more adept, ready and able to take on whatever is before us. We will expect to move through this and onto something even greater.

With the wrong mental attitude, our pessimism will discount any present good and we will assume the worst regarding our future. Sometimes we can be quite creative in our visions of doom and demise.

While we cannot control the world and everyone else sharing it with us, the good news is that our mental attitude is completely within our power. It may not always feel like it when we get that message or letter or news that shakes us down to our foundation. At those moments emotions run rampant and our mind will scurry about from one fear to the other. It seems to take on a life of its own.

Yet in the midst of that creative process of entertaining an idea, basing our attitude and our actions upon it, we are completely free to choose another, bigger, bolder, inspiring idea, invest our energy into that and build our attitude and actions upon it.

Either way, the same amount of time will pass, the process we go through is essentially the same and the world will keep offering us opportunities. The difference will be the attitude we choose to entertain, nurture and engage whatever and whoever is before us in this moment.

Realize that you are always at a moment of choice and power. When you choose to believe the best about yourself and others, you align yourself with energy and support that is irresistible. With this attitude firmly established in each one, truly nothing can stop us.

Life is truly wonderful! Share this with those you care about.
God is All There Is,
Rev. Walt Brewer
Center for Spiritual Living Greater Austin"Creating Conscious Community, Individually, Collectively, Globally”
Office Contact Info:512-892-7777

Social Networking Do You Do It?

Lately there has been a lot of noise, talk whatever you want to label it around social networking and the next relevant thing. I will try to outline some of these for you to check out.

LinkedIn is fantastic if you want to look for a job or just be connected to various groups of people. I have been using LinkedIn since it's begininning; seems to be as relevant now as ever. The way I use LinkedIn now is different than when I was first signed up. I used it exclusively to find candidates and be get reconnected to people at consulting companies I had work for. But then I started being contacted by companies for my services; have actually recieved quite a bit of work off LinkedIn.

Whether you are a passive candidate, active candidate or general networker, LinkedIn is worth your time to fill out your profile and start getting connected.

Twitter is another story; little snack bite bits of information rushing across your desk on a minute by minute basis from the people you follow and of course from the information you share for the people who follow you. I have learned quite a bit from following some of my favorite recruiting folks on Twitter. It's important for me to add to my tool belt and the people I follow (my daughter included) are quite witty and brilliant and willing to share information.

The Ning system of Social Networks is fantastic; create your own Social Network or join others that suit your fancy or interest. I am partial to the MedxCentral Ning for all things medical related and all people in the medical field.

These are only a few of my favorite things/places to go for Social Networking. I hope you are inspired to cruise the web and get involved because your friends and even your family are doing it.

It's Been A While...let me break the ice

I know, it has been exactly two weeks since I stopped by to drop some lines...hmmm that sounds bad doesn't it? I guess I should say "write some lines"; better. At least my mom won' t think I am a coke head. Not that I ever was one or AM one. Okay this is getting out of hand I need to stop the stream of consciousness...moving on...

I was at the Alanis Morissette concert on Wed eve, Oct 15. I noticed that I couldn't really hear the words to the song; why? Because the Drummer was TOO loud that's why. This is not the first concert I have been to this year where the sound person mixed the instrumentals so loud you could not hear the voices. I mean lets face it if you go to a concert where the person is a vocalist you want to hear the words and the instrumentals as a support to the great voice.

All this loud drumming got me to thinking about artists on stage and job seekers or just everyday citizens being on stage (so to speak) I guess if you come right down to it we are ALL on stage (or in front of an audience) at some point during our day.

Just like the drummer, there are those of us that feel the need to be loud with our voices or in our clothing choices and others that are perfectly content to fade into the wood work. My advice if you are a job seeker is you need to stand out in this market. No I am not going to go all doom & gloom but you need to have the edge with more people looking for employment now than there were earlier this year.

By edge I mean a solid resume, good stories about your past experiences and you need to be polished and pressed in your suit with your hair combed and a shoes shined! If not you then the next person will and guess what: THEY will have the edge, not you. Don't think for a minute you can get away with sitting in your home on the computer to job hunt - that's only part of the equation. GET OUT and meet people; go to meetings that interest you and use them as a networking opportunity.

Now get out there on your own stage and *shine*

Information Overload

Do you ever just feel that there is not enough time to read everything you need to read to keep up with your industry or profession? OR that there is never enough time to read what you WANT to read for FUN!?

I have been feeling particularly overwhelmed lately with all the technology available. There is the chat on Recruiting Blogs, Twitter and then reading all the blogs I want to follow. (too many to list here) Oh yeah and that little thing called work; in my case my recruiting business and clients I would like to keep happy so they keep using me and I can pay my bills!

I haven't quite figured out how segment my time with access to all this technology for productivity sake. As someone once said to me "the discipline will set you free" I think I am going to take her advice and get back in the groove of being more disciplined in my day and my business. Then I can stop to smell the flowers!

I am leaving technology behind for a short time so I can re-focus. No I am not going cold-turkey but I do feel the need to not have to be so connected. There will always be someone smarter, better and faster than me in their ability to use technology. What I plan to do is get back to basics, what makes me, me? Why do my clients work with me? What is it about me that makes them happy and confident that I can deliver what I say I can deliver? THAT is what is important and as much as I would like to be seen as a recruiter that "gets" the technology thing, let's face it others are smarter, better and faster at adopting that stuff than I am. I just want to be able to understand and use enough of it so I don't become irrelevant to my clients.

trying to pingit people

The Many Ways We Connect With Each Other

I was thinking this afternoon on my drive to the hotel the many ways we as humans can connect or chose not to connect with one another. I was at a stop light and saw a homeless man with a sign that read "really homeless, live in the woods with wife who has ovarian cancer." This man absolutely looked homeless as well as exhausted.

My heart went out to him; as a human I felt compassion for his situation. I was in the right hand turn lane there were cars in the left hand turn lane. I wanted nothing more than to give him some money and look him in the eye and tell him I "see him" I wanted him to know I really saw him. I am still thinking about that man.

Do you miss an opportunity to connect with someone because you are in a hurry to get to your meeting, make your phone call or get to the bank before the deadline? Do you miss really seeing people, looking them in the eye and connecting with them even if its just a slight smile?

Or do you take every opportunity to find out more about them, ask them about their day, how they are doing? The girl at the magazine store in the Atlanta airport on Concourse B does. She was my first encounter today. As I payed for my water she simply asked me what kind of work I did. I explained that I had my own executive search business; a head hunter if you will in the health care and technology industries. She explained to me that she was going to school to be a surgical technician because working for $7/hour was for the birds! Even though she has a great personality I didn't get the sense that she really liked being a cashier. She proceeded to tell me that she was working full time, going to school full time, etc. She went on to say that she wouldn't be able to pay her rent if her parents didn't help out. I told her that she was on the right path; getting a job in health care would give her more security than most and that it was awesome that she was handling all that responsibility. She was smiling when I left the store.

Life certainly seems to be more challenging than it used to be; for everyone. I know you have a lot to do, so do I, so does everyone. Can you take a few minutes each day to be aware and awake enough and not afraid to look someone in the eye and let them know you you "really" see them?

That is your challenge; our challenge as human beings. Not human doings. We are all connected.

What a week..

I thought I would be able to keep you up to date on all the happenings with my executive search business and life in general. Business has been busy - lots of hiring, traveling for clients and we just started clearing the land on our 14 acres in Western, NC. We plan to build a guest house first on the site closest to the road. Our other site is up past the guest house in the hills. This picture shows the view from our eventual guest house. We are talking to a builder who seems to be a good normal guy, but we have never done this before and we just hear the horror stories about building a house. Hopefully it won't be too painful.

The girl (our daughter) is settling into her marketing maven position with the Internet marketing company; Mailchimp.

I continue to work at being a writer; look I basically write the way I speak. So you can pretty much get my voice from reading these words.

I promise to do a better job of writing when I am on the road and don't give me too much of a hard time for my first foray into the blog world; be kind; I am still learning! Thanks for your support and I'll be back soon!