Author: jeff noel

The very first blog post I ever wrote was on August 8, 2008.

The blog is entitled, One Push Up, and the post is similarly titled, “One push up a day?”

Thought is was lost in cyber-space.  Couldn’t find it, but today it fell from Heaven so to speak.

It’s really long. And I even ended it with a promise to write the next day. Of course, that never happened.

You see a lot of this on the Internet. Eager beavers, with good intentions, but no vision, no plan, no drive to do the hard work.

Just wanted to capture it for the archives, the record book, the history lesson, etc.

Write a book?  Are you kidding me?  Who’s got time?

You don’t know where to start, right?  Why should you write a book?  Why should you blog?   Why should you do anything that’s hard?

If you ever decide to go beyond blogging and write a souvenir copy called a book, click here for an interesting, but mostly entertaining (which is actually quite refreshing) article chock full of things to ponder, mostly good things.

There are, however, a few things that my small-town brain doesn’t understand. And in a busy world, there’s not enough time to worry about those parts (which is also refreshing).

Don’t die with a book in you.

Write?

As we journey through life, unexpected things happen. Some really good. Some not. Some are in between. And there are “constants” in our lives, even as things ebb and flow.

Just spent four days in Hartford, Connecticut on a business trip.

So?

Well, traveling is simply part of the landscape of my work.  Some trips are long. Some short. Some close. Others far away.

But there was always one thing I could count on.  And sadly, I can no longer count on it.

The remarkable sound of a happy and barking Dog, tail wagging wildly and following me everywhere I go, as soon as the garage door opened.

Learn

Grow.

Transform.

Repeat.

I used to think people would notice if you did a great job.  Then I realized that I was surrounded by alpha dogs. Everyone around me is doing a great job. Should have seen that one coming, but I didn’t.

The antidote?

Work harder or shut the hel heck up.  You either get this or you don’t.

(transformation dwells at the far, far end of hard work)

Last night on the phone call from my Hartford, Connecticut Marriott Hotel room, Cheryl and Chapin recounted the day they had.  The one I missed.

It was a milestone day for Chapin. He played the lead part in a musical production at his school.  He even surprised Cheryl with his confidence “onstage”.

I was not surprised to hear the news.  Sure, it was sad to not be there, but when I think about our United States Military Men and Women, defending our Country’s freedom in remote places far away, I quickly got over any guilty feelings.

Why wasn’t I surprised?  Because I am Chapin’s teacher.  As a professional speaker, author, blogger and entrepreneur, I’ve come to know the universal law of success.  Nothing succeeds like success.

It was like when Walt Disney World Resort opened in 1971.  People where sad that Walt Disney didn’t get to see the “opening day”.  It was the one Walt Disney missed.

On the contrary, Walt Disney “saw” it so vividly before he died in 1966.  That’s the only reason his older brother Roy O. Disney didn’t sell those 27,443 acres of cheap, alligator, snake, and mosquito infested swampland.

Time marches on and so do the ones we miss.