Motivation

I am a firm believer in steering those you love into thinking something they choose to do was their own idea, no matter how much they have put that idea down or belittled it, previously.

I have watched this played out in movies and cartoons and with little ones at school and adults at training classes and finally, in real life marriages. I know many women who will joke that everything is perfect when you just let the guy think everything was ultimately his idea. It works that way a lot. I am happy to oblige this more often than not!

Today was one of the best days ever, in my marriage. I went to a motivational seminar, with Tommy. It was literally a full day of jam-packed stuff and for me, I felt like we were the only two people there. Well, that is, until the fat man that smelled like fritos had to sit next to me.. Anyways, the list of speakers was long and quite impressive:

*Kurt Warner
*General Colin Powell
*Rudy Giulliani
*Steve Forbes
*Laura Bush (I wish she had more to say on a motivational level. Anything that was not read directly out of her book would have been better than hearing an update on what her twins are doing or what her husband does in his spare time. She didn't have too much to say that was truly motivational. I passed the time during her talk counting secret service agents through out the building. Tommy thought I was nuts! I am sure 99% of the people there had no idea they were even agents.)
*Zig Ziglar
*Steve Nash
There were so many more phenomenal speakers, but their names are in a book, too far for me to walk downstairs to actually go and get.

For the most part, I was only interested in Kurt Warner. I am mesmerized by this man. I have been for a long, long time. Long before he was a big shot. Long before he played in the winning superbowl game for the Rams, and then went on to win the hearts of many. Not because he is a professional football player with Superbowl rings, millions in the bank and nice clothes. He is the epitome of an amazing man. If you ever watch him give an interview with his wife, watch what he does when she speaks. His undivided attention is on her. 100%, and it shows in his face as he watches her. He is amazing. The talk he gave us reminded me of the speech we received when I graduated from the M.C.S.O. academy. It was the talk on, "your window." I will never forget that talk. You can read parts of it here.

The stories Kurt told had us laughing, but in the end what he impressed upon all of us was that,

"If you are not, first, willing to suffer and sacrifice, then you will not be worthy to reap of the rewards."



His words are stuck in my head. His words and many others'.

We also learned about investing. Our instructor was amazing. I am taking his seminar in a few weeks. What they taught us made complete sense... why pay thousands and thousands to investment companies that are only netting us maybe 3% to 5% on what we are investing when we can learn to do it on our own and net 20%-40%. Makes sense.

I have met Rudy Giulliani previously. He came and spoke to our SWAT team when Sgt. Hontz was killed. We did not get to listen to what he spoke about that day. We had the honor of escorting his motorcade at mach 3 with our bike on fire. That was 2 days before my wreck (February 25, 2002). I took full advantage of our photo op at the private air hanger. I am gonna have to search high and low for the disc with that picture on it so I can post it here. I thought my Sgt. was going to stroke out on me when I whipped out my TIME magazine with him on the cover as The Man Of The Year, and asked for an autograph. That's how I roll I guess. That, you see, was another lifetime ago and today is what matters.

At any rate. I am totally motivated in a lot of new areas now. Unfortunately I am still sick. And Jaxi is sick. And we have 60+ people coming to watch the BIG game on Sunday. And this house needs cleaning and organizing and we need to get the food. For now I can't really stress about any of it, because I am too busy checking WEALTH Magazine and stocks. I am going to make my children millionaires by the time they are 21. One day at a time.

And, the best thing that came out of, "Getting Motivated," Tommy decided we should try going to church. What a fantastic idea! (I wonder where in the world that one came from!!!!)