My friend Cindy shared the following on Twitter recently. What does best really mean? Obviously I already tipped my hand in the title of this post. Clearly what Cindy does is deliver the goods at a fair price. That price may not be the lowest and based upon Cindy's track record I'm guessing it's … [Read more...]
Goals Define Choices
Everything you do in life takes you closer to your goals, or further from them. Without clearly defined goals you have no standard by which to judge your choices. Yesterday I shared four of the key choices I have made in my life over the past year. Each of those choices has brought me closer to my … [Read more...]
Trust as Currency
Today I experienced first hand what if feels like to hold the currency that is the trust of another human being. Early in the day I learned that a new customer has chosen to go with my proposal based upon the recommendation of "Fred," a customer I wrote about in my Regaining Trust post. Later in the … [Read more...]
Blogging is How I Live Real, Authentic and Sustainable
It's real because writing is the doing part of thinking. It's authentic because my writing comes from the heart about what's going on in my life right now. My life is sustainable because my thoughts turn into words which in turn become actions. Earlier this week I had the privilege to speak at … [Read more...]
vBlog: A Real #shoplocal Experience
Last weekend my wife Cheryl and I ventured to In Step Running and Waking Center in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, a shop local mecca of restaurants and shops. Cheryl had come in search of new running shoes. Our salesperson Amy did such a great job properly analyzing our running shoe needs and … [Read more...]
New Source of Daily Inspiration
I am often asked how I sustain a positive and upbeat attitude. Referring back to My Top 10 Personal Development Success Tips, take a look at tip #9. Everyday (Monday - Saturday) for at least the last five years and probably longer I have read Ralph Marston's The Daily Motivator web-site. In my … [Read more...]
More Time Through Radical Thinking
If you are like me you need more time and energy to sustain all the wonderful projects and relationships in your life. Until recently my own linear thinking had me believing the conventional wisdom that time and energy are finite. Neither assumption is true. Let me explain. Recently while loading … [Read more...]
Fit Milwaukee is Real, Authentic and Sustainable
I have these three friends Anne Munkwitz (@bananza), Tracey Gessner (@tmgessner) and Brennan Stehling (@BrennanMKE). Together they started Fit Milwaukee. Yesterday two teams of four people (who did not even know each other one year ago) ran a marathon relay together. Some people ran and some of us … [Read more...]
Life at a Conference the Real, Authentic and Sustainable way…
If you follow me on Twitter you know that recently on a moment’s notice I spoke to about 150 people on the topic of social media...what follows are my speaking notes.... 1. I am Jim Raffel and most of you know me as a "color guy," after all, my company ColorMetrix does sell the best color … [Read more...]
Q: Work More or Less? A:Yes
I suspect the title of this post leaves you thinking "huh, he wants me to work more and less, how does that work?" Well, let me explain how this works. My friend Joe, who has only known me for a few months, somehow managed to crawl inside my brain and figure out what makes me tick (perhaps even … [Read more...]