The Most Popular Game of All-Time

THE BLAME GAME

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.” - J. Michael Straczynski When we were born, we were given 100% of all the talent, all the personality, all the energy, all it took to fulfill 100% of what you were placed on this earth to accomplish.

When we get the dream and then make it into a goal we go to terrific conferences - loaded with ideas, information and action steps to take. We read a book or watch a show that gives us inspiration and a blueprint for our desired outcome. We attend classes with brilliant teachers and take copious notes.

Unfortunately, I know, as many other speakers, trainers, writers and gurus know, that very few of the recipients of these useful messages will ever put them into practice. Why is it that we feel motivated, but don’t follow through? Why is it that we know we have a great idea, but never move to execute it? Why is it that we buy and/or download books, but never open them? Instead we make excuses (and don’t think that I am not guilty of this too!). Bo Bennett said it so well, “Not managing your time and making excuses are two bad habits. Don't put them both together by claiming you ‘don't have the time.’”

But isn’t that the excuse we make so often? When begin to play the most popular game of all-time – The Blame Game. When I find myself making excuses for not pursuing a certain project, I need to ask “Why are you putting this off? What are you afraid of?” You see, I feel that it all comes down to fear. We don’t like to admit it, but we all make excuses rather than facing the fear of failure, of criticism, of poverty, of success, and of looking foolish - to name just a few of the big ones.

Most of us already know what our core passion is. But, if we admit to it, we have to pursue it and that is the scary part. We desire to win so badly that we start playing a game – The Blame Game, a cheap counterfeit for winning at the game of “Life”. Unfortunately, the sad truth is, the only person you compete against in The Blame Game is yourself. And no one wins. You don’t win and the people you would have blessed lose too.

I have some great quotations to get you in the mood to stop playing The Blame Game: · George Washington Carver said that, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” · Melvyn Douglas advises, “Don't make excuses and don’t talk about it. Do it.” · Doug Hall agrees, “Don't make excuses. Make things happen. Make changes. Then make history.” · The successful James Cash Penney expressed strong feelings, “I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.”

So, how do we deal with the fear and forget the excuses that keep so many of us from fulfilling our dreams and goals?

First of all, realize and believe there is always a net to catch us. In her enlightening and beautifully written autobiography, Blood Memory, Martha Graham wrote, “Ben Belitt’s poetry more than once animated me to work on a ballet. There is that wonderful phrase of his, ‘Acrobats of God.” What is an Acrobat of God? I feel it is a person, not necessarily a dancer, who lives fully and completely. It is taking your chances whether you fall or not.” Secondly, know that the more times we fail and make mistakes, the more we learn and even faster than we can imagine.

And when you find yourself making an excuse: “I don’t have the time.” “I can’t resist chocolate.” “That computer stuff is too technical for me.” “I am too _____ (fill in the blank).” “I don’t have the ______ (fill in the blank).” “My metabolism is too slow.” Just stop yourself before you come up with another excuse. You get the idea. Let's work together to stop playing and start pursuing. E. Hubbard was correct when he once said, Don’t' make excuses, make good.

I'd like to hear about what you're pursuing. Leave a comment, send me an e-mail at chrisperez@katewwdb.com or leave a message at my office 866-853-4462

For fun, check out what the great sage, Rocky says about excuses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5OookwOoY&feature=related

CAP

The Bozo Principle

The Chicago Bozo franchise was the most popular and successful locally produced children's program in the history of television. I remember watching The Bozo Show on WGN-TV , channel 9 in Chicago. The show had a 13-piece orchestra, circus acts, games and prizes before a 200+ member studio audience – what more could an 80’s child ask for? The Bozo Show featured skits and local talent. My favorite game, was The Grand Prize game, where Bozo used the "Bozo Puter" to select a boy and a girl player from the audience based on a three-digit ticket! Now that I think of it, it was kind of a “kiddie lotto” – perhaps this was an attempt to make “gambling” cool with kids and create a hunger in these little Gen. Xers, which later could only be filled with state-endorsed Lottery game? Funny that the Illinois Lottery started in 1974, the same era, and the televised drawings were broadcasted on the very same channel, WGN? I digress – let’s put conspiracy theories aside. Anyways, these two players, with the “lucky” tickets would pick a postcard from the drum of an "at home player" which won duplicate prizes in the game. The game consists of dropping a ping-pong ball into each numbered “bozo bucket” up to bucket six where a $50 bill and a bicycle awaits the winner! Players had their photo taken with an instant camera after bucket one. There was also a team game in most episodes, with a red team and a blue team picked from the audience winning prizes for some physical contest – a precursor to Survivor. And each episode ended with The Grand March, where the audience sitting in the first several rows walk off the set past a camera that has the credits superimposed over it for an additional two seconds of fame. But what I liked most of all was all the characters on the show. Bozo the clown had lots of friends that accompanied him, like Cuddly Dudley, Cooky, and female characters like, Pepper and Tunia. Interestingly enough, as a young child, through observing the show’s cast I realized that clowns hang with clowns. Why so nostalgic? I was listening to an interview of Guy Kawasaki (Pioneer Apple Evangelist, best-selling author) and he made a statement that the interviewer jokingly called the “Bozo Principle” and it brought back old memories and had me thinking. The “Bozo Principle” states: “If you hang around with ‘Bozo’s’ that can’t deliver – you shouldn’t keep hanging around them…If you pick ‘Bozo’s’ over and over again to work with that makes you a ‘Bozo’!” Questions: Who are you picking to run with you? Who are you talking too? Who are you hanging with? Try this: get two “bozo buckets” (they don’t have to be actual buckets – think cups or jars) and play your own grand prize game. Label one bucket “keepers” and the other “bozos”. Now, take time to write the people you want in either the “keeper” bucket or “bozo” bucket. Next, take the appropriate actions to lose the “bozos”.

For Fun: Check out The Bozo Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqqqfZswWk

CAP

Don't Eat the Marshmallow - Yet.

A successful person uses small indicators to make big decisions. If he explains his methods to data-worshippers, he sounds like an idiot. When it later turns out that he was right, the doubters claim he was lucky, saying, “You can’t possibly forecast a positive outcome from those numbers.”

Interesting study: A large group of 4-year old children are led into a room, one at a time. The room is equipped with a two-way mirror. Each child is seated and given a marshmallow. “You can eat the marshmallow right now if you want. But if you wait until I come back to eat your marshmallow, I’ll give you a second marshmallow to go with it.” The giver of marshmallows then leaves the child alone in the room. One third of the children ate the marshmallow immediately. One third held out for a short time, then ate the marshmallow. One third waited 15 to 20 minutes until the giver of marshmallows returned with the promised, second marshmallow.

Small indicators are valuable to a savvy person, just as they were valuable to Walter Mischel*, a scientist at Stanford 40 years ago. Fourteen years later, at the age of eighteen, each of the original 216 children was located. Those who did not eat the fluffy goodness scored an average of 10 points higher on the SAT (610 verbal and 652 math versus 524 verbal and 528 math.) At age 40, the group that did n0t eat their marshmallows had more successful marriages, higher incomes, greater career satisfaction and better health than the marshmallow eaters. The 4 year-old who eats the marshmallow is oriented toward the present. The 4 year-old who waits is oriented toward the future. Yes, we can learn big things from small indicators.

For most, 2009 is going to be a year of change, temptation, upheaval. Will you be oriented toward the future? Or are you trapped in the present? Before you eat that marshmallow, let's talk. Tell me a story about when you "ate the marshmallow" and what you learned from it -- for the story I like the best --I'll send you a bag of puffy marshmallow!

*Walter Mischel was a professor of psychology at Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia Universities and a past editor of Psychological Review. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and became president of the Association for Psychological Science in 2007.

CAP

What to do if the joke's on you

"Knock, Knock." "Who's there?" "Not you anymore." --Dilbert A Downturn Provides the Ideal Opportunity to Force Hard Choices London Business School professor Donald Sull wrote in the Financial Times that we need to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented by the economic downturn: Major change efforts are difficult in the best of times, and many people worry that a downturn will halt future progress or financial gains made to date. Indeed, in a downturn, people too often scurry from fighting one fire to the next (lay offs, credit cards, baby needs a new pair of shoes, the house bill's due, oh look, the light bill's due too!) and thereby lose sight of the longer transformation effort. Large-scale change initiatives typically require eight to 10 years to complete and often run out of steam along the way. Downturns provide an ideal opportunity to re-invigorate an ongoing transformation. You can harness a downturn to renew a sense of urgency, justify unpopular decisions and overcome complacency or resistance to change or you can bury your head in the sand and hope everything will turn out alright. If you use the same strategy your parents used, you have a 90% chance you'll be broke, busted or buried with debt to pass to your kids. How's your 401K? If you're over 40 yrs old and you lost money in your 401K over the last 18 months, compound interest simply is not your friend. How's your job going? The days of "job security", working for a company and getting the gold watch are over. Why do you think over 70% of moms have to work? How has the last 3-5 years gone for you--have you made progress financially or went backwards? If you're honest, what will your response be in this time? Will you bury your head in the sand or STOP doing the same things that don't work and START something new? You need to get on one of my video conferences and learn how to take the next 9 months (that will go by if you join my or not) and put yourself in position to make a six figure cash flow by the end of 2009. Please click on the following link:http://conferencing.katewwdb.com/meetings/wwg/15064836/vlogin.php?id=2095 OR Please click on the following link:http://conferencing.katewwdb.com/meetings/wwg/15064836/vlogin.php?id=6001 CAP twitter.com/chrisaperez