When I was about ten or eleven years old, I was sitting with my dad on the front steps of our house and he asked, “Is there anything interesting you would like to talk about son?” My reply was something like, “No, not really dad. Nothing really interesting.” He responded quickly.
“There is always something worth talking about if you are living life.” I was sort of shocked in how he said it too. It was not casual. It was more like, “DUDE, start living life so that you will have something interesting to talk about.” He didn’t actually use these words, but it was sort of how I remember it, …maybe without the “dude”.
After this short exchange, my dad said something that I have heard quoted since then over the years by highly successful people that I had the good fortune of being around in my early adult life. This mindset of what meaningful conversation looks like changed my whole way of looking at how to communicate with others.
He said, “Small people talk other people. Average people talk about events. But those destined to accomplish great things in life and who are world changers – they talk about thoughts and ideas that can change the world for the better.” He went on to tell me a lot of other things that I remember to this day, but this thought on what I choose to talk about really stuck with me.
I have always remembered that conversation with my dad. It was one of the many he and I had over the years that in large part, shaped who I am today. Those many conversations also shaped how I think about those around me and about how I perceive the world that I am engaged with.
The result of my father’s influence on me growing up has been an ongoing life passion to help, encourage, inspire, and empower others to live life to a fuller degree than just settling for the mediocrity that 95% of the world settles for in their lives.
Over the years I learned the power of listening from my dad as he would treat the animals of his clients as a veterinarian. Along with learning to listen, I was also fortunate enough to learn the power of storytelling. My dad was a great storyteller! Once I reached adulthood, I was fortunate enough to have heard a great many life changing stories from people that I looked up to and admired. I listened to a lot of stories. I heard about lots of life events and challenges that others experienced, and what they learned from those challenges.
Today, like most people who actively engage the world around them, I have my own stories from the challenges, victories, and failures over the years. Each one, like the stories of others I have gleaned from, has brought me a great deal of insight about people, the challenges of life, and about living life to its fullest. This is the purpose of this area of my website.
I want to bring you encouraging words, lessons, and training in necessary life skill sets that can help take you to a higher level of success in life, not matter where the path of your success takes you. I want to share the knowledge, understanding, wisdom that I have gleaned over the years from the life experiences and life challenges of others and myself that we all face at one time or another. Please feel free to comment on anything you read here. Your comments and thoughts matter to me.