Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Laughing Baby Makes Me Smile!

Hi Max!

This video reminded me of you. Too funny! I laughed out loud while watching this baby get so excited over ripping paper. Reminds me of your bath time. :)

Here's another one:

My promise is to post a video of you laughing soon. I'm smiling as I type this because you are such a happy little boy. You laugh and smile all the time! :) You make me laugh and smile all the time.

It's amazing how contagious a laugh or smile can be.

Are you going to smile all day? :)

To Your Success,

Michael

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Today is a Beautiful Day!

Hi Max!

Wanted to share my affirmation with you today...

Today is a beautiful day. Today is a great day to be alive! Today I am full of energy - feeling dynamic - full of ZEST! A bounce in my step, a smile on my face, a jig in my mind, and a warmth in my heart. I'm in love. I'm in love with life. Won't you join me in this appreciation for this beautiful day?

Love you son! You are the sunshine brightening my every day!

To Your Success,

Michael

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Zig Ziglar & Michael Maher - The Lunch of a Lifetime

Hi Max!

Big thing in my life happened yesterday and I wanted to share it with you. I had the honor and privilege of speaking on Zig Ziglar's World Wide Webcast. It's quite an honor, they only have 24 per year and they have had such top names as Andy Andrews, Rudy Reuttiger (Rudy the movie), and others. It was really nice to hear that we had the third highest attendance ever. The top two? When Zig himself was presenting... :) I can live with third place considering that. :)

The title of my presentation was The Lunch of a Lifetime. Want to hear something funny? I had the Lunch of a Lifetime right before the Webcast! I had lunch with Zig, his wife Jean, and Tom Ziglar, his son. It was absolutely wonderful. I had Zig sign several of the books he wrote and I even signed one of my books for him and Jean! Zig is writing a book about encouragement. And I was really happy to share a story about geese.

There are animal sociologists who study groups of animals and how they interact. The reason geese fly in a V is to maximize what is called drafting (it takes less energy to follow someone than to be the lead and take on the wind resistance and friction). The lead goose is taking on 4 times as much wind resistance. It will fly as the lead for a while and then after getting tired, fall back to the end of the line and recover. This allows the flock of geese to cover large amounts of distance without having to stop. While the lead goose is flying, the geese immediately behind honk. Well the animal sociologists guess that those geese are "honking encouragement" to the lead goose. "Keep going", "Great job", "Press on", "Thank you", and other phrases come out as a simple little honk. I told Zig. You have to have that story in your book!

Tom looked at me a little funny and said, "Where did you get that story?"

I said, "I read it somewhere. I've read so many books I don't remember."

Tom, Jean, and Zig looked at each other and laughed. "That's Zig's story from 20 years ago."

"Oh," I said and we all had a big laugh. Then I said, "Yes, but do you know one side of the V is longer than the other side?"

"No," they said together.

"Because there are more geese on that side of the V," I said smartly. :) We all laughed again.

I love that story and through my reading and studying had taken it, internalized it, (even called it mine - taking ownership), and told it to 100s of people.

It really was the Lunch of a Lifetime.

Love you son.

To Your Success,

Michael