December 2007

You never know where the next really great idea will come from.  It might even come from you or me!  On second thought, it probably won’t come from me since my brain is incapable of two thought trains at once and the Christmas Express is occupying my thoughts right now.  If you could look inside my mind…though I’m really not sure anyone would want to…it’d be covered with candy canes, snowmen, lights (blinking, of course), gift wrap, and cookies.

So, yeah, if anyone’s going to wax brilliant, it’ll have to be you.  Check back with me sometime in January.

In between baking, decorating, wrapping, and shopping, I’ve been reading a lot about inventions and life-changing ideas lately. I enjoy spending time learning about people who think (or thought) outside of the box. There’s nothing quite as exciting as the human mind at work - not even a sale at JCPenney. Welllll…

The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. - Earl Nightingale

• In 1937, Sylan Goldman, owner of two supermarket chains, noticed that customers rarely bought more groceries than they could carry in their arms.  So an idea came to him - help the customer, as well as himself, by designing a basket on four wheels.  The shopping cart was born and now we can’t even imagine stores without them.  That reminds me, I need walnuts.
• Q-tips were invented by Leo Gerstenzang when he watched his wife cleaning their baby’s ears with toothpicks and cotton.
• Ralph Schneider decided to form Diner’s Club one evening after he lost his wallet.
• Ole Evinrude helplessly watched his ice cream melt as he carried it in a rowboat to an island picnic.  The frustrating (and messy) event led him to invent the outboard motor.

A new idea is delicate.  It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow. - Charles Brower

I’ve saved my favorite master of ideas for last.  What makes George Washington Carver so remarkable is the fact that, as a black man living in the late 1800s and early 1900s - he probably saw more yawns than a bedtime story.  But he never let doubters or their sneers or snips get in the way.  Thankfully, he just kept on keeping on. As a result, we have the adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder, wood stain, and peanut butter that we know and love today.

Mr. Carver also developed a crop rotation method that blew the lid off of southern agriculture.  He, singlehandedly, changed the south from being a one-crop land (cotton) to a multi-crop powerhouse.

Most remarkably, he didn’t profit from his inventions.  To continue his research, he even turned away from a $100,000 a year salary.  That’s almost a million dollars today!

About his ideas, George Washington Carver said, “God gave them to me.  How can I sell them to someone else?”

An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. - Arnold H. Glasgow 

[ More Quotes about Ideas ]

The following is an article I recently added to the SHD article section. It inspired me and I think it’ll do the same for you! 

by Ton Pascal

Just after publishing my first ebook, Dream Your Life Positively which dealt basically with the universal laws of attraction, a good friend asked me: Does it means that all disasters, diseases, or personal loss are a reflection of my thoughts?

The world we live in is our responsibility I said.

We act and interact with the other inhabitants of this planet. By direct or indirect connection, these negative energy waves cross your path. It is not the ACT itself of this negative energy the important factor.

You are not to be blamed for all the horrors happening in your life or around the world but your ACTION and reaction towards them is very much a direct cause of how these energies will decrease or increase.   [ Continue Reading ]

As you know, one of my favorite things to be able to do on Self Help Daily is to recommend a great book.  Since my last book review, I’ve actually read three books. The first two were as bland as unseasoned cafeteria food.  In fact, I forgot about them before I even finished them.

But the third boook - wow! If, by some whacked out laws of literature, I had to re-read the two bores just to get to the third book again - I’d do it. 

The third book is titled Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True and was authored by Gay Hendricks.  Mr. Hendricks has written a perfectly delicious little book and I’m highly pleased to recommend it to anyone who:

• Appreciates a great author doing what he or she was born to do.
• Loves great Non-Fiction that reads like Fiction.
• Is always looking for ways to grow.

If any of the above describe you, this book will fit you like a glove.

Five Wishes is composed of an Introduction and six chapters.  For the first time in my reading life (from Grimms to Grisham), I was profoundly inspired and motivated before I ever hit Chapter 1. How’s that for a powerful introduction?

There are so many life-changing lessons to be carried away from this book!  With the most provocative and challenging Introduction imaginable, you hit the ground not just running, but running for your life…more to the point, running for the life you want.  Momentum builds with each inspiring chapter as the reader lives through the author’s Five Wishes.

From the back cover of the book:

In my thirties I received the gift of a question that changed the course of my life.  My decision to answer that question gave me a life in which all my dreams came true.  Now I want to offer you this gift, so you can use its gentle power to create your own fulfilled life. - Gay Hendricks

From a “Self Help” standpoint, the thing I loved most about this great book was the bridge the author built from his past to his future.  In order to attain his own personal five wishes, Gay Hendricks didn’t stare starry-eyed into the future hoping that the wishes would come true. He first looked at his present - to find out exactly where he came up short.  If things were perfect, the wishes wouldn’t be wishes, they’d be bragging rights!  He had to take a good, honest look inward to learn why the outward wasn’t what he’d hoped or wished for.

After determining that renovations needed to be done, he wisely took a good, long look at the foundation - also known as the past. By looking back, he found the information he needed to bring change and improvement into the here and now. He beautifully tells how each change came about and how, as a result, each of his five wishes came true.  If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will!

I really hope you’ll grab a copy of this book.  If you use the links in this post, you can order from Amazon without ever leaving the house.  If you don’t want to wait a few days, grab a copy at your favorite store.  Whichever way, you go about it - be sure to get your hands on, eyes in, and mind around this book.  If you’re one of the technological whiz bangs that has an Amazon Kindle (A Wireless Reading Device - the ultimate in cool.), you can be reading it within 5 minutes. Show off! 

It would also make a perfect Christmas gift - it’s a beautiful little book in addition to being a motivational masterpiece. Stuck inside a stocking or gift bag, it’d be the ultimate Christmas gift.  Who wouldn’t want to receive Five Wishes?  Even genies just give three.

 Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True by Gay Hendricks.

Are you giving yourself cancer? - That’s the question a very informative poll on AOL asks. There are only 10 questions in all, so it takes hardly any time at all to get through them.  After each answer, you’re given a short paragraph that tells why your answer is healthy or why you may be giving yourself cancer. 

You’ll learn:

• Why you should be sleeping in total darkness
• How many hours of sleep each night is needed to lower your breast cancer risk.
• Why you MUST start eating more fruits and vegetables, and why washing them down with green tea would be a stroke of genius.
• Why you should be cautious of taking antibiotics unless they’re absolutely called for.
• Something interesting about dry cleaning I certainly never knew.
• Why you should keep a very, very close eye on your pots and pans.
• Why it’s healthy, if you’re in a monogamous relationship, to (in Borat’s words) make sexy time.
• Why you should make certain everyone washes their hands after playing outside.
• What exercising for 30 minutes a day does for you.

Make sure you aren’t giving yourself cancer by clicking the link.