Category: Quips and Quotables

Short, memorable ideas, quotes and words of wisdom.

Be happy

September 24, 2020

Kennesaw, GA – Becoming happy. – (-) = (+)

Today, it’s sometimes really hard to be “happy” and “cheerful” all the time. It can be downright exhausting with negativity bombarding us from every direction. The news media, the economy, political unrest, current events, social media, etc.

Smiling every day is hard when things aren’t going our way and there are obstacles and challenges being thrown at us. What if there was a way to hit the “pause” button and breathe? What if we could adapt our thinking to better handle the constant change that is all around us?

We read from the self-help gurus that we have to be positive thinkers all the time to be happy and content. To always overcome weakness with strength. Have you ever tried to be happy, happy, happy all the time? People might look at you and think you are certifiably insane. Totally nuts. What if there was a middle ground that allowed us to “become” happy and contented? A process of continually thinking and acting in the moment?

Think about this for a moment…. In math class we learned that a negative integer multiplied by a negative is positive. What if this applied to our life as well? What if we simply removed “negative” thoughts and toxic things in our lives to became more “positive” without doing anything else?

Here is the math equation that I’m thinking of: – (-) = (+)

(-) (Negativity) = (+) (Positivity)

In English class, we were taught that a double negative statement becomes a positive statement but in my equation we are simply removing something negative and not replacing it with anything. By “removing” negativity we are becoming positive.

Trevor Moawad calls this “neutral thinking” and living in the moment allows this to happen. When we remove negative thinking, conversation or actions, we start becoming more positive without doing anything else. We begin living more positively inherently without even trying because of the void of negativity.

Friends, try this in your daily life. Slowly start removing negative items like corrosive music, negative news media, and maybe even toxic relationships. Just focus on removing negativity. Perhaps you will learn that positive living will happen naturally without any effort.

Bryan

bryanewilson@gmail.com

#Encouragement

#EncourageExcellence

Civility

September 22, 2020

Kennesaw, GA – Our destiny is in our hands

Being a good Presbyterian is difficult when we see so much evil and lawlessness today. I know I need to trust God and his sovereignty but good people have to step forward and engage! We don’t understand God’s plan but perhaps it’s us that is the plan. And doing nothing is unacceptable.

As a child of God, we are heirs to the Kingdom and our current society seems to be going down the wrong path. Using our talents and collective minds to effect positive change should be our goal for society. Burning buildings and destroying property is not the answer and remaining silent while thugs and hooligans loot and riot does nothing positive.

We have to embrace law and order for our society and encourage everyone to engage in the process of legislating change, not destroying the society that is the envy of the world. We are not perfect but we can walk toward a “more perfect union” if we apply Civility and dialog to accomplish a better United States.

Bryan

#Encouragement

Life choices

September 18, 2020

Marietta, GA – Choices create Consequences

Every time we make a conscious decision in the present moment we change the path of our life. Our actions either bring us closer to our desires or away from them. And if we have no ambition at all, and do absolutely nothing, we will experience physical, emotional and spiritual entropy.

Studies show that the exceptional few, the overachievers, execute their daily lives with focus and determination. Successful people are proactive and deliberate in the present moment making good choices that take them to their goals incrementally.

When we make poor decisions, we have to correct mistakes and get back to the path towards success. String enough good choices together and it gets easier to continue along the desired path. This is the flywheel effect that comes from good, incremental decision making.

Keep reminding yourself that making good choices, however small and seemingly insignificant, will create confidence to continue approaching your goals.

LIFE is a continuous stream of choices that define what we become.

#EncourageExcellence

Bryan

Neutral Thinking

September 16, 2020

Marietta, GA – Neutral thinking

Living in the present moment is something we have to accept and embrace if we are going to become significant.

We can’t change the past and the future is yet to come so we can only control NOW, the present. Trevor Moawad http://www.MoawadConsultingGroup.com is a performance coach that has worked with some of the world’s top athletes. In his new book, “It takes what it takes”, he explains what differentiates the champions from merely the exceptional.

Elite performers focus on the NOW. The present. What specifically needs to be done next. The next drive, putt, play, etc. Not dwelling on the past but what needs to happen next, neither positive or negative because it doesn’t matter. What exactly needs to be done now to get to the desired result.

When Tiger Woods stands over a putt, his only focus is the decisions that need to be made in the present moment to make the current shot.  He’s not thinking about any previous hits because he will analyze them later with his team. He can’t go back and correct any previous shots. String enough good decisions with execution and he will be in contention. That’s neutral thinking.

We should live our lives the same way. Our entire life is a continuous stream of present decisions. Our choices define us. We can beat ourselves up for poor behavior in the past but we can’t change what happened. We can only change what happens next. Neither positive thinking or negative thinking should cloud our thoughts on what we should do next. Live in the present moment and make good choices now.

Bryan

#EncourageExcellence

Relationships and Reciprocity

August 18, 2020

Marietta, GA – Relationships and Reciprocity

Author David Nour (www.nourgroup.com) lives in Atlanta, GA and I had the privilege to hear him speak a few years ago at a Vistage summit. He has written extensively about the value of key relationships and the importance of investing in your private and public networks.

If “Time is Money” as Ben Franklin famously stated in the 1700’s then our relationships have value too because we spend time with our friends, family and work associates. I am working on an equation that depicts the value of our relationships. If there is a time value of money equation, why can’t there be a formula for placing a value on our investment in others? Reciprocity is the result of our investment.  We get back what we put into our relationships.

Richard Koch (www.richardkoch.net), another favorite author of mine from Great Britain, calls our relationships a network of strong and weak links that connects us as individuals and “maps” the degrees of separation that define our social reach. In his book, “SuperConnect”, Koch explains how our strong and weak connections, reach beyond our core group of individuals that we are closest to.

Some relationships have a very small sphere of influence whereas some individuals in our network have massive reach. Koch calls these individuals superconnectors. The key ingredient that connects relationships and reciprocity seems to be our reputation. We are known by our reputation and associations. Guard both carefully my friends.

Bryan

#Encouragement
#Reciprocity
@DavidNour
@RichardKoch

Gratitude for Educators

August 13, 2020

Kennesaw, GA – Gratitude for Educators

It has become abundantly clear that teachers and educators are Essential Workers during this recent pandemic. Seeing our students sheltering in place and parents scrambling to home school thousands of children has been eye opening for sure.

When I think back, there have been teachers and professors that have shaped my thinking and encouraged me to be more than I thought I was capable of.

Next week I’m going to see if I can’t find a few of these special people and say thanks. It might be hard because at 57, many of these folks might not even be with us anymore. I wish I had done this sooner. Let me challenge you to do this with me.

#Gratitude

Bryan Wilson

@BarbStroupSmith
@TomBowman
@CoachMartyMartin
@LarryKilgore
@SilviaRawlings
@CarolWilliams
@CharlieSheldt
@ProfessorEleanorHicks
@CoachWaynePerry

Puzzles, Patterns and Predictions

August 11, 2020

Marietta, GA – Puzzles, Patterns and Predictions

Being a lefthanded student in primary school during the sixties wasn’t easy.  My mom attended teacher conferences where she had to insist that I be allowed to “write from the wrong side of the desk” and have my paper slanted differently from the other students.  It didn’t click with me until much later (in college) that us lefties think very differently from righties.  Being a good student was easy for me as long as I didn’t get distracted and daydream too often.  What made school easy for me in the classroom was seeing information as “patterns” and looking at problems as “puzzles” rather than linear equations that most of my righthanded classmates used when solving problems.  Using puzzles, patterns and predictions, I was able to be a good student with very little effort.  Looking back now, I wish that I would have applied my mind to pursue loftier goals for myself but that is another story for another time.

We can use this mental mind technique today in our careers.  When you see a problem, visualize a jigsaw puzzle where pieces can be moved around and put into different places until the solution appears.  What makes this type of thinking really cool is that the puzzle can always be further tweaked and improved upon.  Predictions change as better information comes into focus to be applied to the pieces.  Parts of the puzzle may have absolute answers but the entire solution can become better when individual pieces or “components” are managed differently.

I encourage you to try this type of intuitive or “integrated” thinking when looking at solving a problem.  Take a step back and visualize what you want the solution to be (prediction) and then work backward with the different components of the problem and arrange them in such a way that each “component” can be compartmentalized, segregated and solved independently before reassembling them into a complete puzzle.  Drop me a note and let me know how it works out for you.

Bryan

bryanewilson@gmail.com

#EncourageExcellence

Progressing to A New Perspective

July 30, 2020

Marietta, GA – While Bryan is away, today’s article is written by a special contributor, Kasey Eister.

Perspective: a mental view or prospect to gain a broader perspective on the international scene (Merriam-Webster)

As the months go on and the world continues with the ramifications of a worldwide pandemic, people begin to settle into a normalcy with what has and is happening.  We can wear masks, wash our hands, and social distance, but in the larger picture we must still wait out the virus.  I have heard and seen countless individuals complain about the “new normal”, how this pandemic has destroyed all they have known.  Yes, things are different, but does different always mean something bad?  COVID-19 is bad, definitely, but what is has done to our world as we know it is not all evil.

Before the pandemic, our countries, cities, people, were known to never stop.  We always had somewhere to be and something to do.  All that was forced to a standstill when the virus went worldwide.  Families are now spending more time together; nature is able to breathe from the lack of emissions with people having nowhere to go.  Now, as some of the restrictions pertaining to the virus are lifting in certain areas, I urge people to remember what we have learned.  Slow down. Breathe.  Instead of seeing all that has gone wrong from your known life before COVID-19, see instead what you can learn from it instead.  I hope for businesses to bring a better work-life balance into practice and for everyone to remember that all work is not always the answer.

Changing perspective can be difficult, but all it takes is a single thought that is expounded upon and put into practice.

Remember to slow down and breathe.

Kasey Eister

Embracing Change

July 28, 2020

Marietta, GA – While Bryan is away, today’s article is written by a special contributor, Kasey Eister.

“The only thing that is constant is change.” -Heraclitus

Our world is constantly changing.  This has been a known fact for thousands of years and it has been taught that to survive in a changing world, one must adapt to the new standard.  While some of this rings true, it is not always the case.

With LGBTQ+ rights rising more strongly in the past decade, the Black Lives Matter movement once more taking the front stage, and a controversial president at the head of America, things couldn’t be controversial.  In order to “stay with the times” numerous people have disregarded their personal beliefs and morals in order to fit into a societal stigma in our changing world.  

While those were just a few examples, they fit onto a larger scale.  Most times it is personal, community based bias that convinces groups of people to disregard their personal morals to be on top of the change.  It is important to remember one’s beliefs and morals so that despite change, one can still remain firm in what they know is right. There are always opportunities to learn, and perhaps one’s beliefs were not what was thought, but proper education and research is needed before following what the world dictates as correct.

Kasey Eister

If not now, when?

July 23, 2020

Kennesaw, GA – If not now, when?

Sometimes it’s difficult not to procrastinate. We get distracted, bored, or maybe frustrated. Maybe the first question to ask ourselves is whether or not the task which we are delaying is worthy of our precious time in the first place. Is it?

The second important question is when. Because if it’s worth doing at all, then it’s worth doing well. And if it’s worth doing well, why not begin working on it now. In the present. Don’t wait to do something the right way, the first time.

Bryan E Wilson

#Encouragement

#EncourageExcellence