Positive Imaging

Posted on 12/07/2020 by Grumpa Joe

What to talk about today? The sky is cloudy and rain is imminent. There are still too many weeds to pull in the garden, but I’m not into it. My attitude is dreadfully morose. That condition requires me to work overtime to eliminate. How? By prayer, and huge doses of mindless work of some kind, like writing a post for my blog.

My life which was filled with the activity of caring for my late wife, and has become empty. The virus has cooled my second passion after Peggy, the Lions Club, and I am very down about the members not showing any interest in revving up the juices to serve the community. Many of our members are my age and some older, so they are afraid of their shadow and are hunkered down. I still think I act and feel twenty years younger than the average aged 62 year old in our club. Just yesterday, I attended an online Zoom webinar on virtual fund raising. I was amazed by the activity presented by a newly formed club during the pandemic. They chartered as a virtual club, meaning they don’t meet in person. All of their communication and activities are done using eMail, Messaging, Zoom, Facebook, Youtube, and other social media platforms. They collect money using apps like Go Fund Me and PayPal. Their projects, what ever they are, require fund raising. I have often thought that lots of activities that require fund raising for each one is a smarter way to keep club members engaged and active. The one giant fund raiser of the year approach which our club evolved into requires a huge effort during the fund raising process which wears everyone out for further activity. In the meantime members leave because there is not a lot of activity for them to participate in to bring service to the town, and which gives them a feeling of “giving back”.

Another habit or culture that our aged club has evolved into is to write checks to help causes within the town, this is a good thing. What is bad about it is that the causes are determined by a very limited number of people who decide behind closed doors how much should be donated, and who will get it. The list of charities is then presented to the regular membership for approval. That vote for approval is the only action a person gets to make him feel he is giving back to the community. On the opposite side of this process is the scheme which has members bringing project ideas to the services committee for approval and then they organize into a team to raise funds to bring the idea to fruition. This method gets more members directly involved with the implementation of the service. It all sounds good on paper. The downside is that our culture at this point works against such a system. The one big project for the year system seems to shade out any new activity. It’s kind of like trying to present an idea to Congress who will discuss, debate, present to committee, and maybe vote to bring it into law. Nothing happens fast. In our world today the key words are fast, action, team, solution, next!

Above I stated that I think younger than the average person in the club even though I am in the upper quartile of senior members. I must learn how to present ideas to the hipsters because my ideas don’t gather any interest for action by the young crowd. For them these things all sound like a dirty four letter word spelled W-O-R-K. If they can’t push a button or get it done on a keyboard it isn’t for them to do. That is what frustrates the hell out of me. I can get more done using those tools even though I am a dinosaur pushing the keys and thinking outside the box. All I can do is to continue to push ideas into their brains and hope these thoughts break through the blood-brain-barrier. In the mean time I will remain despondent about my ability to lead this club forward.

Now, I have to take a long walk to build a pile of endorphins, and follow it up with a mediative trance during which I will envision myself making a ground breaking positive presentation that will cause members to line up with ideas and a desire to serve.

Filed under: Aging, family, Lions Club, Motivation | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Day 49-SIP-Together We Stand, Divided We Fall

Posted on 05/05/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Throughout this day I have been getting ideas for what to write about and now that I am finally at the keyboard they are all gone, damned old age and dementia. When I opened the writer I realized that my titles with the number of days for the posts are out of sequence, and that is something to write about.

I first began this blog with a goal to promote the power of positive thinking. I finished my work career on a high note because I finally adopted positive thinking as a lifestyle. My life began as a negative human being. My parents were always saying no to my ideas, actions, or aspirations and it rubbed off.

Ungovernable: The Victorian Parent’s Guide to Raising Flawless Children, by Therese Oneill

My first positive move was to break away from my parent’s recommendation to be a barber, butcher, doctor, or lawyer. At least I considered the doctor route while recuperating from my polio, but before I left the hospital I had resigned that I was way too lazy to become a doctor. The prospect of eight years of school, internship, and residency convinced me not to even give it another thought. I chose to become an engineer. I didn’t even know what an engineer was, at least not one that didn’t drive a train, streetcar, or subway. Why? My older brother was in that curriculum and he liked it so I will also like it.

As a kid, I was always taking things apart and greasing wheels or making a push car to race with my friends. Making model airplanes was also a favorite hobby. I enrolled in the science program at a local Catholic High School, also against my parents wishes. There I began to learn what engineers do. Math, math, and more math, German, chemistry, physics were all new subjects to me. I was determined to succeed, but it was with great difficulty. When it came time to take the tests to determine what kind of career I would be good at, all I learned was that engineering was not it. I never learned what I should have headed for. I prevailed and to soften the blow with my parents and counselors when it came time to enroll in college I joined a curriculum that was liberal arts-engineering. The program required that I spend three years at the liberal arts college and then transfer to an approved engineering school for two years. After the fourth year I would receive a degree in Liberal Arts, and at the end of the fifth year I would receive a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

I finally got the B.S.M.E. degree in 1961 and became an engineer with Danly Machine Company. How I came to Danly is another long story for this blog.

Throughout my early career I had some pretty critical bosses. If I had an idea that collided with his, or his superior’s direction it didn’t fly. In other words I had my parents all over again except at least now I was earning money while being told no. That negativity went on for at least fifteen years. Whenever someone came up with a great new idea I had been trained to see all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, and of course I could never make it work either. One day I was tutored while in a design review meeting with our CEO and his Chief Executive. The Ceo was famous for ideas, and I was only known for seeing the negative side first. Then, the Exec stepped in a looked me straight in the eye and very sternly said, “why don’t you look at what will make this idea work instead of what will make it not work?”

I left the meeting and on the way to my cubicle the giant idea light-bulb lit over my head. I got it!

Why am I bringing this up when this diary is mostly about COVID-19? I see President Trump using every principe of positive thinking in every decision he makes. He projects positivity, he sees the positive outcome, and he encourages others to see it with him. I have never heard him once give a reason why something cannot be done. I have heard him brainstorm out loud much to the chagrin of the press. They have a field picking apart his ideas and use them against him. I see his ideas and am reminded of working with my boss who had the very same habits.

The President never gives his team open ended directions. He gives them positive instructions to get a job done, and then directs them to get it done.

President Trump is wise enough to select people who are action oriented toward the achievement of goals. He lets them know what he sees as success and what his expectations are.

I see and hear positivity from this man everyday, and I know from my own experience that positivity works. Just imagine if we had a two party system that believed in the same philosophy. What great things would we accomplish in America? Instead we have a two party system that is adversarial, like two nations at war. What we should have are two parties that debate ideas about how to make America stronger, and better. If they worked this way the result is often a compromise that makes the country healthy and strong for all the people not just the people of one party. When we enter into congressional dialog today, we enter as lawyers do when they enter a court of law. Instead of solving a problem that makes things amenable to each side, we lock horns and fight to win. The outcome is one side wins, and the other loses; the result is a divided country.

We all know that there is nothing worse than division be it in family, at work or in government. Unison works, positivity works, I pray we finally put them together and Make America Great Again.

Filed under: Biography, Education, family, Government, Motivation | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

I see It and Believe It

Posted on 02/09/2008 by Grumpa Joe

This election has me in a quandry. I see the B.O. making many great moves. I see him using PMA techniques in everything he has done, and I am more convinced than ever, that positive works, while negative sucks. When I watch B.O. give his speeches, it is obvious that he sees himself as President, and acts like the goal is in his pocket. Those two attributes are among the commandments of the positive mental attitude, and the goal achieving gurus. How many times have I heard the phrase, “see yourself owning the dream,” or “act like you own it.” “If you can see it, and believe it, you can have it.”  What B.O. has not shown is his vision for our country. Just once, I’d love to hear him define “Change,” in tems that we can all get our hands on, and not change that is all “smoke and mirrors.”

My political philosophy is the complete opposite of B.O.’s, and I will not vote for him, but I can see the desire in his soul. It concerns me that his total commitment to the strong tools of PMA will work against my own dreams.

What do “I See and Believe?” I see our country strong and powerful. I see our country making allies with every leader in the world. I see a country that continues to draw people from all areas of the world because this is the land of opportunity. I see a government that works to give people liberty to make things happen for themselves, and not one that disincentivizes its citizens by legislating what and how to do everything. The way to do that is to reduce the size of government. B.O. wants to make the government larger to provide more of us with less. Not a single government employee contributes to the development of “goods and services” that can be traded. Let us do what is important, in ways that are cost effective. I see a country where people have real jobs performing services and producing goods that  are a benefit to mankind. I see our senators and congressman serving for the good of the people and not their careers. I see a country where our spokesman are ordinary men and women  with backgrounds like salesmen, teachers, engineers, doctors, but not lawyers.  I see a country where men and women create new and exciting products and services because they are free to do so. I see a country weaned off fossil fuels and not dependent on any dictator for energy. I see a country where men have a strong  belief in God, and worship freely.

My vision for our country is very much like Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City on the Hill.” I believe it, and I see it. I see my vision more clearly than the B.O. sees his Leninist vision of our country. He sees it  ruled by legislation meant to equalize all of us into mindless receivers of a handout from Big Brother.

Filed under: Election, family, Motivation, Uncategorized, Writer | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Picture it!

Posted on 03/04/2008 by Grumpa Joe

See it clearly in your mind. Think in color and exact details. Make mental image of your goal, then make a physical image. Create a collage of your vision. Use photos from the net, magazines, wherever you can scrounge them. Paste them together into the vision you are trying to achieve. Place the picture on your mirror so you can see it first thing every morning. Make a copy of the dream for your pc. Put it next to the screen where you can see it all day long. Whatever the goal is, a car, house, vacation, job, picture it in your mind.

Visioning is a powerful tool. Many men have advised that

 “If you can see it, and believe it, you can have it.” I have used mental visioning many times very successfully. In my career, I used visioning when I had to make a presentation before the CEO and the president of the company. I saw myself giving my report in a confident, knowledgeable way. I rehearsed the report over viand over again in my mind. I could see myself overwhelming these powerful leaders with my confidence.  When the time came to report, I was prepared, nervous, but prepared. Each time , I received kudos from the CEO and the president.

In my private life, I see my goals clearly and keep them in front of me all the time. As the goal becomes more and more clear, the reality of achievement steps in and the vision of accomplishment takes over to finish.

You too should use visioning to “see” your goals. “See” the benefits you will receive after you complete the goal successfully. In other words, “PICTURE IT!”

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