All posts by Vic

Seen Elsewhere

SHAM is a sham!

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CNNI don’t know about you, but self-help and personal development literally saved my life. Having been evicted from my home and losing my last automobile among other things, I shudder to think where I could have turned if it hadn’t been for self-help.

Now along comes some hungry author (who didn’t have any problem when he himself was making money in self-help) and writes a book called “SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America helpless.” Fortunately, when CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed him, he got another opinion from Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the famed Chicken Soup series. And Mark did an incredible job in the interview demonstrating how self help/personal development is serving the greater good of humanity.

The book should be re-titled SHAME, and it’s all on Steve Salerno, who helps no one but himself.

You can watch part of the interview here… (scroll down the page to the CNN logo).

The Way I See It

Rain on your parade

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Rose ParadeIt hasn’t rained at the world-famous Tournament of Roses Parade in more than 50 years. On January 2, 2006 it rained enough for all fifty years put together. I know — I was there for every rain-slogged moment. The front row seats in the same section as the television networks was eagerly anticipated, but I had no idea my “rain gear” could hold so much water — and that it would be so cold.

But it was hard to think about how bad I had it when I looked at the multitudes of parade participants, many in skimpy clothing, who braved the weather as they gamely marched the five and half miles along the parade route. Not one looked like they were affected by the weather, and the USC Trojans marching band made an even bolder statement — they wore sunglasses 🙂

The thought occurred to me that as you go through life there are people and circumstances that literally “rain on your parade.” But in the end, it’s not the rain that matters, but whether you march on or not.

Seen Elsewhere

In My Own Mind

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I recently saw Lyle Lovett perform on Austin City Limits and one of his songs captured me so much I went to Amazon and ordered the entire CD.

The title of the song is “In My Own Mind” and some of the lyrics are:

“I live in my own mind
Ain’t nothing but a good time
No rain, just sunshine
Out here in my own mind.”

While the song has some traditional country music themes and lyrics (Randy and Danny Ray are hooked on fishing and hunting 🙂 ), I was most struck by the chorus above. Very few things have I ever seen or heard that reflect the truth more than those words.

When we fully realize that the only way we ever really know the world is through our own thoughts and feelings — “in my own mind” — we determine the quality of life we live. If there’s “no rain, just sunshine” in our mind, that’s exactly how we see the world and the circumstances we encounter. Just as one person sees failure and another person sees opportunity in the exact same circumstance.

Of course, James Allen turned the Proverb writer’s words into a book — “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” and Earl Nightingale taught us that “you become what you think about.” But I kinda like the way the rural poet Lovett reminds me: “I live in my own mind, ain’t nothing but a good time.”

(Listen to a short clip here)

Seen Elsewhere

The Comeback Kid

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James BlakeThis is a story of a remarkable young tennis player. He is one of the best in the country, one of the best in the world, and he got there despite a series of catastrophes that almost killed him. It is also a classic improbable story about the power of positive thinking. – CBS 60 Minutes

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