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The United States and the world just lost the last in a long line of Kennedy warriors.  U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy died this week after a long and courageous battle with brain cancer.  Edward was the youngest and the last of four Kennedy brothers to serve this nation with honor and distinction and to die while in service to their country.  Joe Kennedy, the eldest died during WWII.  John Kennedy was President of the United State while assassinated in office.  Robert Kennedy was a sitting U.S. Senator and was also assassinated while running for President.  And Edward Kennedy died while still holding office as a U.S. Senator. 

Throughout his life, Edward Kennedy dedicated his life to helping the under-privileged.  Partisan politics aside, Edward Kennedy’s most courageous act might have been his unsuccessful campaign runs for President.  With one brother was assassinated as a sitting President and the other brother assassinated while running for President, can you only imagine the courage it must have taken to put yourself in harm’s way of every radical nut in the country who would have liked nothing better than to go down in history as the person to assassinate the third of the Kennedy boys while he ran for or held the office of the President?   

I understand that, due to the nature of politics in this country, generally speaking, the Kennedy’s could have a polarizing effect on the right-winged population of our country.  I don’t expect that everyone will line up to praise Edward Kennedy and his life.  But politics aside, his family has given blood, sweat and tears for the betterment of our country and our people.  So what I don’t understand is the hate that is spewing forth since his death.  It’s time to cool down the tone of the rhetortic, the hate and the anger that underlies our political differences of opinion in this country.  As Abraham Lincoln said when faced with the biggest challenge that this country’s ever had, “A house divided upon itself cannot stand.” 

Hate and division is so much more easier to facilitate and sustain than it’s polar opposite, love and unity.  As a country founded upon the basis of protecting religious and spiritual freedoms, isn’t it time we returned to those principals?  It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable, but it’s not necessarily an easy thing to do.  But it is the right thing to do.  The road to healing the rift in this country and in the world begins within each and every one of us.  As Gandhi said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”  You can either manifest love and unity in this world or you can manifest hate and divisiveness.  It is up to you. 

You can do your part by turning off hate radio when you hear it.  Turn off the television commentators that try to spur fear and loathing among our populous. Quit listening to music and quit buying the records that demean or diminish women and/or other minorities.  Hate is losing it’s cool factor.  Love is the new way of cool.  As you learn more and more ways to manifest love, respect and civility in your life and into this world, you’ll uncover the secret of karma.  Your health will get better, your finances will improve, your outlook will brighten and your world will begin to transform forever.  Why not give it a try?  What have you got to lose?  

One of my favorite books is “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, written by Stephen Covey.  The book is a classic and is a must read for everyone, irregardless of what your career path may be.  One of the “seven habits” is “Sharpening the Saw”.  The chapter starts off with a little allegory about a guy trying to cut down a tree with a dull saw.  The guy has been at it all day long and is making very slow progress.  When someone recommends that perhaps he should sharpen his saw, he responds that he doesn’t have time to stop and sharpen the saw.  I hope you see where this is going.  The moral of the story and of the chapter for that matter is that with properly maintained equipment, we can be much more effective in whatever our pursuits may be. 

Our bodies and our brains are our main tools, if not our only tools.  Only with proper routine maintenance can we expect to produce at our optimal effectiveness.  How you chose to do that is your business, the important thing is that you just do it. 

I recently read a post by a well-known, nationally syndicated sales columnist, author and consultant.  In the article he basically advocates that sleeping is equal to wasting time and cuts into his productivity.  My personal opinion is that this is dangerous advice to be dishing out.  In fairness to him, he does mention that as he has aged, he requires less sleep, and I can attest to that fact.  But nonetheless, I worry that with his large sphere of influence, many people might get the wrong idea and start trying to cut down on sleep.  The quantity of work that will be gained will not make of for the quality of work that will be lost.  Sleep is extremely important to your ability to reach your peak performance and is one of the ways that you ”sharpen your saw”. 

Regular vacations and time away from work are another way to “sharpen your saw”.  I recently returned from a 5 day trip with my son where we took in two days of amusement parks, a zoo and a trip to the beach.  I’m pretty sure that my son enjoyed the trip, but for sure, I had a ball.  I could literally feel my batteries being recharged, in big part because I was able to leave all of my work behind.  Before I left, I changed my e-mail to automatically respond to all messages that I would be out all week and I gave other contact names and numbers of people who could assist them in my absence.  Of course, I gave them permission to call me if they wanted, and told them that I’d be checking e-mails on a very limited basis.  As a result, I received two or three calls during the entire trip, and all of the matters were either handled routinely by others or could wait till my return.  In order to do your best work, you need to make sure that you take routine time away from your office and your job.  And that means disconnecting from e-mails and phone calls.  If you’re convinced that your job won’t allow you to totally disconnect in this way, then your organization is disorganized. 

Good sleeping habits, regular vacations, recreational activities, exercise and meditation are just some of the ways that you can “sharpen your saw”.  As I stated before, it’s not how you chose to sharpen your saw that is important, what’s important is that you routinely have time built into your schedule to do it.    

For the past year and a half or so, I have been discovering Brian Tracy and his many books on self-development.  Much of Brian’s focus is on selling, but even if you don’t consider yourself to be in the category of salesman, you owe it to yourself to read some of Brian’s books.  “Many Miles to Go” is a true story about a sojourn that Brian and two of his mates made when he was young, from the western coast of Canada, they headed east, across the North American continent, over the Atlantic, down through Europe and ending with a perilous trip through the Sahara desert to the tip of the dark continent in the country of South Africa.  Brian ties the trip to many lessons that he learned about himself, people and business.  Brian has books that cover self-development topics from time management, to money management, to business management and everything else in between.  I highly recommend any of his books if you are working to develop yourself to your full potential.

One of the more interesting discoveries that I have encountered in the past ten years of my research into self development is the importance of spirituality.  It is amazing how many experts in the field of self development have all reached the same conclusion about how important faith, spirituality and karma are to your ability to develop yourself to your full potential.  And I must say that after several years of field research and using myself as a “ginnie pig”, I have seen the remarkable results first hand.  There was a time in the not too distant pass, that I was the center of my own universe.  Every action that I undertook was designed to benefit me first and everyone else second.  The results from this type of thinking was not very good.  I struggled financially, career-wise and in several other areas.  I finally decided to try and turn things around for myself by educating myself through reading books about selling.  It was through my reading that I soon discovered there was a common theme running throughout most of the books that I was reading.  That common theme was “karma”.  You reap what you sow.  Having tried just about everything else I could to increase my income and make a better life for myself, I figured I had nothing to lose, so why not try giving this “karma” thing a try.  It was the most amazing transformation of results within an unbelievable time frame.  You really do reap what you sow.  I could talk about it for hours and you could chose to believe it or not.  But the best way to see if it really works is to put it to use for yourself and see what your results are.  Have faith.  If you’re in sales, have faith that you can be the best in your field.  Put others first.  Work hard and study hard.  When things don’t go your way, as they inevitably won’t sometimes, just remember that you grow best through adversity and have faith that there is a reason that things go bad sometimes and try to find the lesson in these things.  Life first has to get better in your mind before it can get better in your world.