When was the last time you were in total darkness?  I mean no night-lights or street lights, no alarm clocks glowing, no moonlight slipping through the blinds:  I’m talking TOTAL darkness. 

Doesn’t happen too often.  

Usually a bit of light from something, right? 

And when we were kids, this was a blessing, wasn’t it?  Light was reassuring, it meant safety. 

I’m not asking you to admit it publicly, but weren’t you scared of the dark just a little… when you were little?  Did you ever take a running jump into bed on the off chance that something underneath it might try to reach for your ankle? 

Consider this:  That wasn’t really due to a fear of under-bed-dwelling monsters… it was fear (more…)

If you have kids, you might have noticed there’s a certain age where they point at the moon every time they see it. 

If you don’t have kids, you should still be able to relate, because I’ll guarantee you this:  You used to point at the moon, too. 

A few nights ago we got home from our four year-old daughter’s dance recital just as the sun was going down.

Like usual, our son Tav wanted to stay outside and play, so he and I ended up on the driveway, just the two of us. 

Well, the three of us, counting the moon. 

He spotted it right off.  Tav’s at that “moon-noticing age” right now:  Two.  When he pointed, I looked up and saw it there, a classic crescent moon suspended just above the tree tops against a darkening blue sky.  As you can see by the picture, it did look just a little like it was made of cheese.

Tav spun around toward me and put his arms up, standing on his toes and tugging at my shirt.  I bent down to pick him up and he immediately started climbing me like a ladder, his arm outstretched at the sky—and I realized he wasn’t just pointing at the moon… he was trying to (more…)

Say to another person, “You’re going to die” and see what happens.  They might get mad.  They might run.  Or they might try to take you out first. 

Sure, it would sound like a threat.  But it’s simply a statement of fact—one that hits a little too close to home for most people to take well.

Have you ever considered this:  Why are people shocked when a person dies?  This is the ONE THING that we know will happen to every one of us:  Death. 

I’ve been accused, on occasion, of being cynical.  Truth is, I’m an optimist—and a realist.  But here’s the deal:  If you’re realistic about an upsetting subject?  You’ll be called cynical.  People get mad if you deceive them, and sometimes they get even madder when you speak the truth.  Just depends on the subject.    

The news of Michael Jackson’s death last week didn’t surprise me.  Now, it’s not that I expected (more…)

Have you ever considered that problems and obstacles are relative?  When things are going really well on a given day, we consider a flat tire, a stubbed toe, or even a hang-nail to be big deals, don’t we?

At one time or another, we all lose our perspective on what ‘real’ obstacles really are—and the fact that most times, the frustrations we face are relatively minor considering the whole realm of possibilities.

Leave a comment if you like, I welcome your thoughts…

-jef

I’ve often written and spoken about the power of our expectations, because I’ve understood this for a while now:  Good or bad, we tend to gravitate toward the outcomes we expect. 

Rather than harness this quiet, amazing force to achieve what they want, I think most people tend to ignore its influence, and by default it works against them.

But even more powerful than expectation, is the phenomenon of knowing. 

It holds infinite—and certain—abilities to manifest absolutely anything you want.

The catch?  The slightest shred of doubt will nullify the power of your knowing—in the presence of doubt, knowing ceases to exist. 

Because it’s so fragile, virtually none of us are able to fully tap into the force of knowing.  For it (more…)

Expectations are a thing of duality:

1-Your expectations of what you’re capable of will actually determine what you’re capable of. 

So beware:  Your expectations of yourself will always be accurate—even when you have them too low.

2-But your expectations of what others are, or will be, won’t be so accurate.  In fact, we all routinely misjudge others when we have little to go on. 

And the real kicker?  The less we have to measure them by, the more inaccurate our assessment will be.  That’s because of a little thing called distraction that I wrote about a few weeks back—even before the emergence of Susan Boyle last week on Britain’s Got Talent.

Even if you’ve seen the video, you might want to watch it again now, because I’m going to call (more…)

Whether it’s in a business situation, or a personal conversation with someone close to us, this is human nature:  We tend to focus first on what we want.

What we want may be to close the sale.  

Or sway their opinion.

Or just get them to agree with us.

As we try to accomplish the goal of persuasion, our subliminal ‘logic’ leads us to expose our true objectives, to allow the other person to plainly see what we’re after.  This makes (more…)

A few weeks ago I stepped out the front door of Beverly Hills Ducati, and as I started up the sidewalk toward my car I noticed a movie billboard a block North, looming over La Cienega Boulevard:  

                          Friday the 13^th

                            February 13^th

It was a couple days away, and naturally, February 13 was going to be a Friday.  Fitting enough, right?  Great day to open a movie by the same name, and it’s probably been done every time they put one of these out.  

Anyway, that was four weeks ago today.  So this is the second F13 we’ve had in two (more…)