Ever spent time with someone who was completely distracted by work, a situation or otherwise? 

Time without attention is worthless. (Tim Ferris).  

The value of time is based on where you place your attention. Time and Attention can only be spent once. Great times spent with family and friends are precious because the currency of time and attention combine to create great memories.

Consider creating an attention budget. (Chris Brogan)

“If you don’t have the time to give it your attention, then you don’t have the time.” 

“Is that Picasso?”

It is reported that a tourist approached Picasso at a Paris cafe to ask him to sketch her.  Moments later Picasso handed her a drawing saying: “That will be 5,000 francs.”  “It only took you 10 minutes.”, she said. “No, Picasso said, “It took me a lifetime.”

Your knowledge and experience communicate your value.

Value your knowledge. Be wise with your time and where you invest it. 

A Dream is the Answer to a Question We have not Yet Learned to Ask

Once a month, I will coach to raise funds for a cause. This month: Trina’s Dream. http://inv.st/SX  

Time to move forward? Know someone who could use some encouragement? Live your dreams as you help Trina to live hers. 

Click on the link to set up your appointment and make a donation.

Trina is a 14 year old dancer who will be attending the Alvin Ailey School starting July.  In exchange for a contribution to Trina’s dream, I am offering two free coaching sessions for you and or someone you know.

My bio? Please visit DreamDevelopment.com

For Customer reviews? Dream Development Reviews

This month, would you help me help Trina live a portion of her dream?

President Obama to those concerned with the authenticity of his birth in his morning White House Press Briefing stated the following:

 27 April 2011

“…I am speaking for the vast majority of the American people as well as for the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We have better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We have got big problems to solve.” “We are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted, we are not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other … if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts, we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers,” the president declared earlier. 

Dr. King to those clergy who criticized his leadership in the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, said:

16 April 1963

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I am freakishly attracted to novel ideas.

I have been hanging out with my latest “idea” infatuation for almost 7 months. No longer infatuated, we have moved to commitment.

I tend to build into the design of my businesses, systems which reflect their missions. When I began my first company, I set a modest price for services, unchanged… until recently.

People respond differently to difficult economic times. I tend to see opportunities in times of struggle.   

So, I find business models like pay what you can afford or “Freemium” freakishly attractive… LinkedIn is a one example of freemium - offer it for free; build a large base of free users; charge for select services. 

Better yet consider, Prince, who gave away his latest album music release in the U.K. in the face of ridicule. He then proceeded to sell out his London concerts. Who is laughing now?

                                             hmmm?

Pay what you can afford is a business model that has seen success in café’s worldwide. A café in Melbourne, Australia expanded to 3 locations. Panera Bread is one of the first U.S. chains to test the model. Panera is opening a new Brooklyn location. I am not sure if they will employ this pricing.  

I do and I enjoy it! My clients enjoy it as well!

The pay what you can afford model for service sets a tone. Clients want to make an investment in themselves. The payment for services to Dream Development is simply a reasonable exchange towards this commitment.  For me, pay what you can afford goes beyond marketing. It is transformational, adventurous and grateful.

I have been thumbing through the Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk and appreciating the call to care.  Pay what you can afford is the kind of pricing concept that honors the client, the cost and community.

 If my passion is to serve, why should price stand in the way?

Believing we are “right”, doing the “right” thing, looking like the “right” person, arguing the “right” perspective with loved ones, making the “right” career moves, choosing the “right” person to spend our time and ultimately our lives with, teaching children “right and wrong”.. .  Trying to put the “right” words on this page… How much energy is spent on trying to be “right”? 

It’s like a giant red marker that teachers use to grade papers is drawn across our minds in a driving desire to make the grade. Perhaps a better question is “How much energy is wasted being afraid to be wrong”?  How many times do we misrepresent ourselves because we do the “right” thing for the wrong reason?

Pause. 

If anxiety is rising as you read this, I am not saying there are no right decisions. I am asking us to call out the “fear” behind being “right” as we make decisions; and to consider how regret actually clouds decision making. 

Listen, collect information. Weigh options. Make the most loving choice you can for all involved. Then be prepared to have missed something, to have made a mistake, to apologize, to eat humble pie. In some cases, to walk away from things you can’t fix or undo.  And then rinse and repeat. 

Got this sneaky little suspicion, it’s not about what’s “right” but about what’s best. Perhaps:

• In a heated argument with a loved one, instead of being right, sometimes it’s best to remain silent, to walk away or simply say “I understand”….
• When sharing beliefs, instead of beating people with words, sometimes it’s best to love them with your actions… 

Keep loving, living, laughing and doing the best we can with what we have and what we know. Its the “right” thing to do.   

Here are a few resources to help you fund your dreams:

• indiegogo.com
• kickstarter.com (personal favorite)
• rockethub.com
• gofundme.com
• peerbackers.com
• invested.in
• spot.us

Good resources reported on GMA this morning. I have funded projects through kickstarter.com

qadirayasmin:

wow this made my heart skip a beat…whoever made this is a genius

Dr. King once stated

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” 

The door flew open. Exasperated “Carrie” burst through! “He won’t let me help him!” She talked on and on about what he needed and could not see; the pending pitfalls on his road ahead and the looming doom from his choices. She had to save him from himself. To save myself, I jumped up and grabbed her backpack. “Let my bag go!” she said and pulled back.  “Let his baggage go.” I said. “It’s not yours to carry.”

What’s in your bag? We all have one. The difference between a bag and baggage is the weight of the load. A bag won’t slow you down. Baggage will. We are all traveling life’s path of possibilities. We all have potential. Yet, many struggle down the path of potential under the heaviness of emotional or circumstantial baggage tightly packed with self-inflicted labels, other people’s opinions, destructive habits, outdated situations, fraudulent relationships, uncertainty, dis-ease, world traumas and personal tragedies.  If this sounds familiar, maybe it’s time to lighten your load.

Come on, open up your baggage. What’s in there? Is it a person, place or thing that you have outgrown or that has outgrown you?  It’s time to travel light. Is it a destructive habit that you must overcome to live your best life? It’s time to let it go.  Is it a suitcase of labels that don’t fit the person you know you could be? It’s time to take the labels off.  Is it a satchel of negative opinions so full of holes your self-esteem keeps leaking out? It’s time for repair or release. Or maybe like Carrie, lugging around other people’s baggage is your specialty. Admit it, you are tired.  It is said that when misery exceeds fear, change will occur.  We must learn to pack light in order to travel well.  

So you know what I am doing this New Year’s eve?  I am saying goodbye to baggage. To the things that are not my size, my color or my style – the things that belong to someone else or things I have outgrown.  These things were “frenemies” that I welcomed and entertained.  They served their purpose and have served well – as powerful motivators.  However, we have danced our last dance and now they have been invited to leave, with the courage of change and the excitement of welcoming the new.  

What remains is light enough to fit into a carryon bag — unique pieces, favorite items, useful perspectives, things I need, stuff I want, tools for life, memories I treasure, relationships I grow from…    I want nothing that has to be checked in at the counter or needs to be picked up at baggage claim.

Although I have been writing symbolically, this is literally true. I never check bags when I travel. I have mastered the art of the one bag because carrying baggage can be expensive. Airlines have made billions in revenues from checked baggage, alone. There is always a cost to carry baggage that is beyond our capacity, ability or responsibility.

As we enter the New Year, will we begin fully loaded or loaded down?

Our mental movies play stories of truth & truimph or limitations & lies.