In the context of your business, start by asking yourself why you’re the best option for the consumer and watch as your passion to compete swells up. Listen to the conviction with which you describe the problems in your industry and how the lesser competitors could never compare to your compassion and level of service.

Then write it all down. Clean it up. Simplify it. Convert it into a simple claim based statement that tells the world why they should choose you. Then there you have it; the campfire that your mojo loves to gather around.

You can do this in any aspect of your life. Simply remember that all you need to find your mojo again is to turn your passion loose. You’ll always find your way back!

They’re everywhere! So why don’t we see them. Even with the explosion of the Internet, we still don’t see all the talent emerging that we should. Not everybody wants to jump on YouTube and be seen. Why?

We all tend to underestimate any talent that we have. We’re afraid to jump off the cliff and find that we really can fly. Some of course do. We call them Mavericks…risk takers. We watch them and marvel at their self-motivation. How do they do it without a push? Maybe they found a way to embrace the fear. Maybe the fear they feel is actually the rocket fuel that propels them to push their talents.

Yet for most, we need a push or at least a constant reminder. So this is a call to arms. Go out and encourage somebody to get on the stage, to express their thoughts without fear of embarrassment. Stay right next to them if that’s what it takes. When they get knocked down wipe them off and push them right back up.

Let’s stop hoping talent emerges, let’s go on the hunt for it and call it out. Free the talent!

I remember when I was young talking to a friend of mine who had become a great tennis player! I had not seen him in a while and was amazed at how great he had become…we actually whacked the ball around in the street together…pretty funny scene playing tennis on a skinny Boston street….I could hardly catch up to his shots. He had top spin, under spin, power…the whole box of tricks! So while we were playing I said to him, “Jimmy, you’ve gotten so good at this you must just coast when you’re ahead?”…but his reply was both unexpected and unforgettable: “Nope, exactly the opposite…when I’m ahead, I hit it even harder and play like I’m way behind!”

If you’re any kind of a sports fan like I am, I’m sure you can remember your team or favorite player being ahead on points only to watch them fold like a tent and act like there was no possible way to win without becoming completely defensive. I can think of boxers running away in the last few rounds only to lose on the judges’ score cards after having crafted a masterpiece up to that point…or how about golfers imploding on the final holes!

But think about the real winners…they never seem to let up on the throttle! How about Tiger Woods…he never seems content unless he has decimated the field and even then he finds the flaws in his game or the holes in his boat! How about the image of the great Muhammad Ali standing over his opponents as they lay stretched out on the canvas with nothing left as he willed them back to life hoping for more of that victory!

You see that’s the true heart of a winner! Those people that thrive on struggle…the ones who really aren’t keeping score at all! When you look in their eyes you see nothing but pure focus! Time is irrelevant, pay-per-hour non existent, distractions…all muted! Listen to them describe those moments…”the basketball hoop seemed to be twice it’s normal size”…”the holes in the defense seemed big enough to drive a truck through”…”the golf hole just kept swallowing my ball!”

The biggest reason for this phenomenon is that they make little or no room for rationalization! “Well geez I just couldn’t beat the wind and rain today, I felt lethargic out there tonight, I just wasn’t on my game!” You see those are the words of the mere survivors and ‘also-rans’!

Somebody told me about a book that talks about survivors and who would be most likely to live through getting lost in the woods and it turns out to be children! What? Kids? With no training? Yes! Why? Because they thrive with no overload of rationalization! They’re too young to be dumbed down like adults! Our whole lives we are taught to merely survive…watch out for that car, don’t play in the street, chew your food you might choke, do your homework or you’ll never survive out there!

So here’s my new rally cry! Why don’t we step it up to THRIVE! Let’s start talking about all the great opportunities to grow! The challenge, I realize, is that you’ll have to crush the old “survivor’s mentality!” You know that safe place where you sit back and wait for the world to come to you and when it doesn’t you smack down some ‘happy pills’ to make survival bearable! How about that thought…survival is not even bearable! You know why? Because it’s not even remotely fulfilling!

Think about what a disastrous place the world would be if we were all just survivors!How about a long time ago when it was pretty cold out and we hid in caves hoping the snow wouldn’t kill us…until one of those survivors got a little dose of inspirational dissatisfaction and started banging some rocks together and stumbled into fire! How about the survivors that got sick and tired of riding horse back and figured out how to take a natural resource and put it in a contraption called an engine…do you even have the remotest idea how that works?

So what’s the point? We need more people to graduate from survivors to Thrivers…the boat feels lopsided these days…too many people running for the life boats and casting themselves upon a tumultuous sea of despair! Why can they do that…because they know that the Thrivers are hard at work…planning and scheming new ideas! Just look around you and see what’s new…technology expanding at the speed of light…new means of transportation on the work table!

But beware…you can’t keep waiting for other people to thrive to bail the rest of us out!(Read Ayn Rand’s classic Atlas Shrugged) We need to keep pushing down on the gas pedal! We need to realize that Thrivers are producers and without them we are all nowhere! We need to be cautious about becoming a world of redistribution by overburdening the Thrivers…I certainly believe in taking care of the widows, orphans and otherwise truly handicapped but NOT the lazy and the scared!

Now I know this might scare you and make you a bit angry but understand that is exactly my intent! I know you might point the finger and start to rationalize this argument away but please don’t! Reach deep inside yourself and turn that anger into personal inspiration! You have a powerful mind that just needs to be turned on so let it be! The hour is upon us! We must no longer be satisfied with simple survival…instead we must thrive! So as you face each day play the game like you are way behind…step up and swing at that ball as hard as you can…you just might find that zone where you join the ranks of the true Thrivers!

There is something I just can’t get past this week! Why is it that we seem to keep accepting that the media…conservative or liberal doesn’t matter…just keeps pounding us with negative news! We sit on the couch and hear about the litany of local fires, shootings, attacks and especially how the financial sky is falling on top of Chicken Little’s head and we just soak it up like we have no choice!

What’s even worse is that we get together, especially in business discussions, and slam the media for accelerating the down turn! Well before you go extending the finger, what are you doing about spreading the good news? Honestly…if you have a business, are you telling people about the fact that your product is discounted to the lowest level it has been in many many years or are you just cutting your budgets to the bone and hoping that someone else does your job for you?

If you’re working at a company are you hiding in your cubicle and waiting for the Grim Reeper to come and harvest your life or are you looking for opportunities to step up and be the leader…you know…the one who gets to work before anybody else and leaves last?! The one who works for free if they have to, just to advance the cause of the team?!

You see the problem is that we’re too focused on the bad news…the end is always coming! Like my grandfather used to say when I was watching cartoons, “you believe that crap?” He was right! I did and we still believe it because we stop looking for the good news or even better the truth! Why not ask a few Bernie Madoff clients?

Do you really think that there is no good news on Wall Street? Do you think that every publicly traded company is losing money and on the brink of disaster? Of course not! I guarantee you that it will be easy for you to find many companies and industries doing just fine and some are even thriving. You know why? Because they are lead by the silently smart and positive people! They are the ones who are cutting all non-essential costs and investing in good solid people that aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty!

Here’s the best “Good News” flash: YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO GET WHATEVER YOU WANT IF YOU SIMPLY KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT! Nobody can stop you but you! If the pundits tell you that real estate “might” go down another 10%, 20% are you the type that dives under the bed shivering as the storm passes or do you go out with your fear proof gear and look for the best buy? If the analysts tell you that the stock market is going to collapse do you stop looking for undervalued companies and watch your 401K just fade away?

I had dinner with a friend the other night and we agreed that if you’re not watching your own money then nobody is! But I’ll guarantee you those that are active right now…you can be sure they’re winning! What’s their secret? Lots of cash? Maybe, maybe not! Great education? I’m not sure the last time an Ivy League diploma guaranteed anything? What’s really behind success is information!

That’s right…all you need to do is a little bit of homework! Don’t start whining about a little bit of schoolin’ because these days it’s just too darn easy! You think there is opportunity somewhere? Then research it! Sounds scary huh? Big old library with stacks and stacks of books…no problem! Real Estate? Google it! Stocks? Google them! Opening a small business or online opportunity? Google for help!

One of the fastest growing industries on the internet is information marketing! That’s right, you can buy access to information about whatever it is you want to study and it’s instantaneous…and yes, most of it is even FREE! Good News!!

So what’s the point here? The thinking tool is to make your news “self-directed!” Why just sit back and be brain washed by a particular station’s news? It’s either something about a major catastrophe or some company agenda being forced upon you, and by the way if you for one second think that any news station is unbiased then go take a cold shower, have a cup of high octane java and WAKE UP! I mean seriously folks…just follow the money!

But here’s the really GOOD NEWS!! We are finally fighting back and taking over! Who am I talking about? Us! You! Me! Look at the evidence…it’s called Web 2.0, which simply means user generated…kinda like “by the people, for the people”…sound vaguely familiar? Of course it all has it’s personal bias, but we are finally set free from the days of getting our news from a limited number of agenda driven sources…at least with so many media outlets we can begin to cut to the chase!

So here’s my challenge to you. The next time you are getting a dose of news, think of an old guy in kahki pants, stained with the ashes of an Optimal Owl cigar looking you in the eye and saying: :”YOU BELIEVE THAT CRAP?” Then just think! Does this make sense to me? Isn’t there always a yin to every yang? A flip side of the coin? Another side to the story? Well in this environment it’s called GOOD NEWS! I challenge you to go find some and share it! Share it with the world and ask them to pass it on and eventually we’ll stop digging our own hole and crawl back out into the sunshine!

If you think this post is good news then click on the DIGG button and spread the word!

P.S. I have put my money where my mouth is by doing three real estate transactions and doubling the number of people in two of my companies in the last 45 days! I’m in! Are you with me?

I’d like to start this post off by apologizing to all my fans and admit that during the years between 2002 and 2004, I did in fact take performance enhancing drugs! I thought that by taking these drugs I could move swiftly through the world of mediocrity and ascend quickly into the inner circle of the rich and famous! I would hope that you judge me only from this point forward and realize that I am back to being a working stiff and bleeding through the recession just like the rest of you! While I do miss being 6’5″ and looking like a gorilla in a bathing suit, I do feel much less pressure knowing that it’s just plain old okay to be a “real person” again!!

HAHAHA!!! Get it? Ridiculous eh? But seriously…why can’t we find humor in everything that happens? With the sports world in turmoil over the fact that…hey news flash…you might not believe this…but there are hundreds, thousands and probably the majority of professional athletes taking drugs to gain the tiniest of edges to leapfrog to the elusive brass ring and swing from the tree tops! Didn’t you notice a long time ago that a few German female athletes looked a little too “manly?” It’s everywhere…but why not find it funny? Why do we sit in front of the TV waiting to chastise the next exposed person like an angry, disappointed parent…you know why?! Because you’ve got nothing better to do!

Seriously, get off the couch and go do something fun! Watch a ridiculous movie and laugh your tail off! Go skiing with some friends and fall on your backside and laugh until you pee your pants! Listen to a bunch of kids mimic adults and laugh with them like you’re all a bunch of clowns! More importantly learn to laugh at yourself…all the ridiculous things that you do and say…just laugh! Why is it such a tragic blow to your self esteem when you screw up…like you even know anybody who’s perfect…if you do, bring them to us and we’ll hold them up for the whole world to see!

So right now we have some cranky, angry, mad-at-the-world types reading this saying that I’m wrong…you’ve got to take life very seriously! You better not fool around or the world will not accept you…you won’t get the right job, the right friends, the right school!! Hey, aren’t there a lot of happy, wealthy comedians out there that didn’t go to Harvard, work at IBM or hang with the “in crowd?” You know why…because they know what you need…a good laugh…and you’ll pay for it!

Consider the case of Norman Cousins who after having lost movement in his body retreated to a hotel room and ingested large doses of humor…that’s right…a whole bunch of funny movies and books! You’ll find plenty of naysayers that degrade Cousins and say it was simply the passing of the disease by itself, but let’s have those knuckleheads consider what that word says: “dis” – “ease”…aka not comfortable, or how about miserable! You don’t have to do too much in depth research to find out that laughter boosts the immune system by releasing stress relieving hormones into the body! Ever had a cut on your hand that mysteriously heals itself?…Hello! You have a built in repair system and you just need to know how to turn it on!

How about you? Think about the last time you took a break to have a laugh with some family or friends? If you have, I bet you’ll quickly put a smile on your face when you conjure up the images of all the nonsensical fun you had. Maybe I’m always reliving some kind of glory years, but every time I get together with my college buddies we still can’t stop talking about all the ridiculous times we had and then we go out and create some more! Laughter bonds us in the most positive way!

So here is my challenge…go have laugh for yourself! I don’t care whether your with friends or all alone! Get on the internet, go rent a movie from the comedy section, go act like a kid…just laugh and don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself most importantly! You know why? We all fall down! We’re all a bunch of clowns! And the ones that are not are downright boring! Seriously, what are we all trying to accumulate? Where are we taking it? Why do we think that it’s important to achieve at all costs? I’m not provoking the next 70′s style anti-establishment revolt…I’m just challenging you to have some fun…how sad would it be to read your own eulogy and hear: “Hey, I was a nice person but was way too caught up in my own world…I did everything to kick and claw my way to the top no matter who I destroyed on the way…and I won!…I did!…I had more gold than anybody else…but come to think of it I had no fun…I don’t even remember the last time I had a good time…I think I can remember laughing a couple times as a kid but then it ended…I do remember feeling a bit better when I started taking those “make me happy drugs”…but I really can’t remember having some real fun!”

Don’t let this be you today or any day! Find something you’d love to do for fun…screw it up and just laugh! Find someone who knows how to smile and run free and let them show you the way once in a while! I’ll never forget a girl saying to me once upon a misdirected-time-ago in my life: Danny, why don’t you ever take your shoes off and walk in the tall grass?!! She reminded me to belly laugh…so I’m reminding you to go get your laugh on!

P.S. Just in case you forgot how to belly laugh watch this whole thing!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Y4keqTV6w

Danny Griffin