The Most Amazing Thing Happened Last Night…

I ACTUALLY SLEPT GREAT IN MY HOTEL ROOM!  I know this might not seem like a big deal to you, but for me getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep away from home is incredibly rare.  Last night I got a solid 7.5 hours!  I feel completely rested and ready for the day.

Today I have a few sales calls to make with reps, a quick manager’s meeting and then I’ll be headed back to Charlotte for a little rest.  I am not traveling next week which will be a nice break and then I am off to the coast to work with a property for a month.  It will be nice to be near the beach!  Plus Evelina is going to fly in on a couple of weekends for us to spend some time together.

Needless to say I enjoy traveling, but I miss my wife and Bentley.  Tonight we are meeting friends for dinner at Charlotte’s best Mexican restaurant and I’m not sure what I’m going to eat.  Dinner dates are great, but I now look forward more to the conversation and less to the food.  This UC situation is no joke and it greatly limits what I can eat.  I guess it could be worse.

That is all for today from me.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Danny

You Can’t Make People Want To Be Great…

There is one mindset that has allowed me success in my job and it is the fact that I set as my goal to be the best.  I wanted to be the top seller in my entire company and every single habit in my professional life was aimed at that goal.  All of my energy was aimed at that goal.  Every time I made a cold call I was thinking about that goal.  And every time I didn’t feel like working hard I thought about the other guy or girl who was going to outwork me to take my spot!

The problem is you can’t make people want to be great.  Some people simply don’t have that mindset.  Some don’t have the discipline.  Some don’t have the drive.  Some don’t have the desire.  I have all of the above.

I am sure you have been on one side of this equation or the other.  You’ve either been the hyper-driven person or you’ve watched the individual operate in hyperdrive.

What I am finding is the desire to be great can be developed and it can come about from one deep realization.  It can happen in a flash of a thought.  It can happen in a moment.  But not everyone will work hard enough to become world-class at what they do.  Most people will work just hard enough to be proficient, with few becoming elite.

And companies around the world are full of workers who are just good enough to maintain employment.  What happened to wanting to be great?  Where is the mindset of being the best?  Has ambition and drive crawled off in some hole and died?

Maybe being hyper-driven isn’t normal.   Is it possible that possessing the internal desire to be the absolute best is abnormal?  I’m not sure, but I don’t see a lot of drive in people I know.

Danny

Driving back from Florida on Sunday evening and turning right around and driving out-of-town on Monday for business has wiped me out.  I will be headed home tomorrow and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

I miss my wife and little B.

I struggle with getting a good night’s sleep when I’m away from home.  Night before last I woke at 2:30 am and couldn’t get back to sleep until 5:00 am.  Last night I slept through the night for the first time this week, but when I awoke I felt tired.

Hopefully tonight I’ll sleep a bit better.

Danny

I Love Vacation, I Hate Returning To the Real World…

Are you the type of person who wants to constantly be in vacation mode or do you like vacation for what it is, but like getting back to the routine of life?

I am the former although I do like my life.  When I return from vacation I go through a little down time where I look at pictures and miss the leisure that vacation affords.  I enjoy waking up in the morning and having a cup of coffee watching the waves crash.  I love choosing a new hole-in-the-wall for lunch.  I like to have nothing to do and all day to do it.

Then all of that comes screeching to a halt, it comes time to pack and hit the road headed home.  And I hate it.

I am the person who wishes to hit the lottery so I can spend endless days at the shore or in the mountain.  I like doing nothing.  Why should I be required to give that up??

Be alas here I am back out on the road on my quest to help my company transform.

One day I will live at the ocean or in the mountains and all will be right with the world.  It might take another 20 years, but I will be there one day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Danny

We got back last night from our Naples and Disney vacation and now I’m back out on the road headed to train another one of my company’s newspapers.  Because I’m traveling today I am going to extend the Meet and Greet one more day and then I’ll be back to normal posting beginning Tuesday morning!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

danny

We got the condo opened for the season.  Water turned on. Check.  Patio furniture out.  Check.  Grocery shopping.  Check.  Breakfast cooked.  Check.  A killer view….priceless.

Happy Saturday!!

Danny

What will happen on Dream Big while I’m on vacation…

I have made the decision to run a Meet and Greet the entire week I’m in Florida.  I will be posting some pictures along the way and giving updates, you know those “I’m in Florida lying on the beach while you are working” type posts.  And along with that I’ll offer the Reblog post for those interested and the MnG so there will still be some activity.

I’ll also be responding to comments in the morning before our days begin, but I will not be responding much after that so please be patient with me.  Also, I will not be answering emails until I return to North Carolina so you will have to wait until I get home.  Sorry, but I need a break.  I will however try to get caught up on emails today.

I hope everyone has a great end-of-week and a wonderful weekend!

Danny

We leave for Florida on Friday and I could not be more excited.  I cannot wait to have my feet in the sand with nothing to do but relax.  The only thing we have to do is go to the grocery store on Friday evening.  I plan to cook breakfast for us and we’ll buy turkey for burgers and a few other things for dinners.

Our condo has a pool which is nearly on the ocean so we can choose between it and the ocean.  And the weather is expected to be reasonable with temperatures is the mid-80’s and scattered thunderstorms in the afternoons.

I.  Cannot.  Wait. For.  Friday.

Danny

The reason I stopped following the “news”…

My morning routine is simple: coffee, blog update, put on ESPN and quickly check the goings-on around the world.

I don’t allow myself to spend more than a few minutes reading the “news”.  I do this because the media rarely reports the news, instead they create it.  The descriptive words they use show their tilt.  And the “news” is littered with Trump updates, events of racism and click bait articles about why I should care what a celebrity did or didn’t do.

Seriously?!  The media today has lost their way and those in the middle are the big losers.  I am not a conservative nor am I a liberal.  I am neither of these because I use common sense and understand that extremes are rarely ever good.  I am neither conservative nor liberal because I understand that not everyone thinks like me and I am okay with a world of diverse thinkers.  I didn’t vote for Trump, but understand that if you did that does not make you a racist.  I didn’t vote for Clinton either and understand that if someone did that doesn’t make them a liberal blow-hard.

What really bothers me is the fact that because the media is 100% click-bait, I lose.  I can’t follow the news today without wanting to jump off a bridge.  I cannot keep up with what is going on in the world around me because I cannot trust the reporting source.  And it is the loss of trust that is why many people like me are sick and tired of the “news”.

I wish there was a reporting website that simply reported the news without influencing the article or story with their own agenda.   Is that so much to ask??

Danny