Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak

Smile & Move: a reminder to happily serve (an excerpt)

Guest post by Sam Parker

I want to be needed. You want to be needed.

We all want to matter to the world.

And the way we matter is through our service to others… by giving more.

If we want to matter and to be happy, if we want more freedom, more flexibility, more responsibility or more money, we need to give more to those we’re supposed to be serving.

We need to get over ourselves.

We need to smile & move.

To smile is to…

Be awake, attentive, and engaged with others.
It’s being thankful for our opportunities, for our people, and for the occasional chance we have to be in the path to serve.
It’s being approachable and accessible to our customers, our subordinates, and our leaders.
It’s complaining less because we all have work to accomplish.
It’s smiling, really.

To move is to…

Start our days early and go long more than once in a blue moon.
It’s exceeding expectations for others and dismissing mediocrity in our work.
It’s having a sense of urgency with our efforts, predicting and pre-sweating the details for others.
It’s being resourceful and resilient when we fall short, making it all about results – exceptional results.
The truth is… You’re at my service and I’m at yours.

To enjoy more, we need to give more.

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When asked to do something for someone else (customer, friend, family member, colleague) does your YES say “yes, if I have to” or “yes, it would be my pleasure”?

How patient are you with the first from someone else?

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"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."  -- George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright and critic

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“Generosity is more fun. That’s the key.” -- Robert Thurman (1941 -    ), American scholar and Buddhist monk

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A little more about the topic and the author: Smile & Move™ can be read at www.SmileAndMove.com. It was written by Sam Parker as a follow-up manifesto to his bestselling book, 212° the extra degree® (www.Just212.com/video). Sam is a cofounder of Give More Media in Richmond, VA. He blogs at www.justparker.typepad.com and tweets @justparker.

Enjoy the Sandwich!

Lately I’ve been out of focus. I haven’t focused on the RIGHT NOW as much as I normally do, and the tidal wave of life has overcome me. I talked to a dear friend today who reminded me about this. Her grandmother is in her 80s, and she reminded me that SHE needs to make the effort to visit Grandma, to call Grandma, to love Grandma. Grandma had her time to invest in her, now is her time to invest in Grandma.

Every single moment of life is precious and should be savored, because you never know how many more moments you’ll have.

Enjoy the sandwich! – Warren Zevon

I lost both my grandmas a few years ago. I love my parents, and I am VERY thankful they’re both still alive but I was raised by my grandmas, and I miss them both a lot.

Each of the last few years of their life, I maximized the time I spent with them, to make sure I let them know how much they meant to me. Sure, I did that throughout my life, but I treasured those last moments even more. 

When I was 12 years old, Grandma Gerbyshak made me some very tasty sandwiches for my 4 AM trip into the woods for deer hunting with my dad and uncles. They were so tasty a deer came up to nuzzle them, and my ear too because I fell asleep in my deer stand.

You read that right: a deer nuzzled my ear.

But I didn’t wake up from the nuzzling. I woke up because my cousin Don took 3 shots at the deer less than 50 yards away and killed it.

I enjoyed that sandwich, and I was VERY thankful to be alive. I still think about that experience and those wonderful sandwiches Grandma used to make.

Take some time today to enjoy YOUR sandwich!

Hat tip to Joe Heuer for the quote, and photo credit for Sister Eating Big Sandwich to Randy Son of Robert

Believe

Please take 9 minutes to watch 10 year old Dalton Sherman. He shares a powerful message for everyone out there.

His message is centered around what you believe.

For those hard of hearing or that don’t want to push play and watch the video, here are 3 questions for you to think about this week:

Do you believe in you?

Do you believe in your peers?

Do you believe in everyone else around you?

He is 10 years old and he believes in himself. He is delivering a keynote speech to 20,000 people. He’s being his best authentic self, and his message definitely inspires me.

You owe it to yourself to invest 9 minutes in yourself to watch the video.

Thank you Stephen Hopson for sharing this amazingly inspirational video.

Embracing My Inner Goofball

Timothy Johnson and Stephen Smith – Two of my favorite goofballs
(Separated at birth???)

Pam Thomas is one of my favorite help yourself bloggers, and she has become one of my dearest friends as I go through this crazy universe. So today, when she encouraged me to embrace my inner goofball, and do something F-U-N today, I had to stop my busy life and think about some of the fun I want to have.

First, I wanted to look through pictures of my friends. That always feels fun to me. the picture above are two of my favorite friends, Tim and Stephen. Believe it or not, they are NOT related, but they are goofballs.

Second, I decided to have some pizza and chocolate dunking sticks for dinner, instead of broccoli, rice and beef as planned. That was AWESOME, and the chocolate got all over me. Fun stuff!

Last, instead of writing a bunch of articles or reading through all my e-mails or catching up with everything for work like I thought I was going to do, I decided instead to watch the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies in game 1 of the World Series. I LOVE baseball, so this is way fun!

Oh, and one other thing. I’m sticking my tongue out every time a politic ad comes on the TV. I’m doing it so much, my tongue hurts now :)

Baby steps towards embracing my inner goofball.

What are you doing to have fun and embrace YOUR inner goofball?

Forgiveness as an Attitude Vitamin

This week I am focusing on forgiveness, and going to use the power of forgiveness as this week’s attitude vitamin. 

Forgiving myself for all the dumb decisions I’ve made (because without them, I wouldn’t be who I am). 

Forgiving others for all the hurtful things they have done to me (because most people don’t hurt people on purpose).

Before I can forgive, I must understand.

That’s how I live; I crave understanding.

If forgiveness is something you want to learn more about or to do more of, I encourage you to check out Patricia Singleton, and her Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. Her blog, while not only about forgiveness, has recently had some amazing articles about forgiveness that have helped me with this very difficult topic.

3 Great Forgiveness Articles from Patricia Singleton   

• Forgiveness is for you, not the other person   
• Forgiveness Starts with a a Decision   
• What does forgiveness mean to me?

If you’re holding onto some past pain, I encourage you to make this week the week you let it go and FORGIVE. Start by forgiving YOURSELF and work from there.

Jump Because: Attitude Vitamin

Want to improve your attitude? Check out Jump Because, courtesy of Lisa Braithwaite.

It improved my attitude because not only can I see others jump, but I could also send in a picture of me jumping and get it posted on their site.

Go Jump Because you love to jump, or because you want to see the pure joy on the face of other jumpers.

Flickr photo courtesy of madaise

Ben Zander: Inspiration in Motion

If you’ve never heard of Ben Zander, you’re missing out on a big treasure. Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and an inspiring speaker. His keynote The Art of Possibility is one of the most engaging speeches I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. Just thinking about it warms my heart and reminds me to think about what I can do and not so much about what I can. What was so inspiring is his ability to get off the stage and get involved with the audience. He was scheduled to go 40 minutes and went almost 75, all action and energy packed. After he inspired us for 75 minutes, he signed autographs for 3 more hours. Amazing!

I’ve been meaning to share him with you for a while, so without further ado, what follows is Zander’s talk at TED. For those reading via RSS or via e-mail, here’s a link to Ben Zander’s TED Talk.  It’s not the 75 minutes I got, but it’s enough to give you a shot of inspiration to start your week off well.

Questions to ask yourself?

What can you learn from Ben Zander?

How can you implement some of his ideas into your daily life?

How can Ben Zander help you create a greater, more vibrant life?

Helping Others: A Daily Dose of Vitamin H

Guest Attitude Vitamin from Brandon Caudle

 

In the nutritional sense, Vitamin H (also known as Vitamin B7) is necessary for cell growth and a host of other processes within the human body. I also like to think of Vitamin H as the Vitamin for Helping Others (hence the H). We have countless opportunities to help others around us and the best time to help someone is at the exact moment that you see they need assistance.

 

Several years ago…

 

I was leaving a big box computer store and saw an older man struggling to change the tire on his red pickup truck. I walked over to him to see if he needed assistance. Though he was much larger than me, he turned to me and very gratefully said that he certainly could use the help. As I finished changing his tire, I noticed the World War II veteran hat he was wearing. He shared he never used to ask for help, but ever since he had both knees replaced a few years back, it was difficult for him to get up and down easily. I was even more glad I stopped to help him and when I finished, I proudly shook his hand and thanked him for his military service. He was also very grateful for my help. Vitamin H was in full effect for both of us.

 

Fast forward to this past weekend…

 

I listened to a local speaker talk about providing service to others. He related an experience that he had recently in which he as traveling though the Chicago O’Hare airport when he saw an elderly couple stuck on the moving sidewalk. Apparently, they were trying to go the wrong way on the moving sidewalk and, like salmon, were swimming upstream against the current of people. The speaker shared how he saw them, noticed them, went to get a bottled water, returned, saw them struggling again and got on his plane. As he sat on his plane, he regretted not helping them and wondered what happened to them. He missed his opportunity to take his Vitamin H for the day.

 

Just like the Boy Scouts motto (Do A Good Turn Daily), we should never pass up the opportunity to take a daily dose of Vitamin H.

 

Brandon Caudle loves Customer Service. You can find him talking about it at www.customerservicevoodoo.com

           

Original photo found on Flickr

Don’t Take Everything So Seriously

One of the things I need to remind myself about my job is to stop taking everything so seriously. I take my job VERY seriously and VERY personally, and it’s been stressing me out a LOT lately. This picture of me, Gene Simmons, and one of my best friends Bren Boddy-Thomas is a great reminder for me to stop taking everything so darn seriously and just smile and enjoy life.

 

Thanks Bren and Gene for the reminder, and for whomever was nice enough to take this silly picture of me rockin’ out!

This picture was a great attitude vitamin for me, and hopefully for you too, as I hope it makes you laugh.

And you can apply this to your life too. Find your favorite silly picture of you and share it with others who might enjoy it. Post it to your blog, print it out and post it at your cubicle, or go ahead and make it your desktop wallpaper.

Happy Monday everyone!

Improve Your Attitude In the Next 60 Minutes

Gretchen Rubin is writing a book called The Happiness Project which I cannot WAIT to come out so I can devour it. Lately I’ve needed more focus to find my happy, and Gretchen’s blog (also called The Happiness Project) has been a breath of fresh air for me.

Recently she shared an article about how to make yourself happy in the next hour, in which she shared a few awesome ways to improve your life in an hour or less. While the 8 tips Gretchen shared are awesome and VERY helpful, what she shared at the end of the list is what stuck with me the most:

Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal. To the contrary. Studies show that happier people are more sociable, likeable, healthy, and productive—and they’re more inclined to help other people. So in working to boost your own happiness, you’re benefiting others as well.

No wonder I enjoy being happy so much. I LOVE to help other people, and the happier I am, the more people I can help.

So come on, get happy, and then go help someone! Go make yourself happy in the next hour and do something GREAT!

P.S. Thanks to Karen Salmansohn for introducing Gretchen’s to me many months ago.

Flickr photo credit to tripplehelix