isaacmartinez

[isaacmartinez]

I hope.

I hope that your hard work stops going unnoticed.

I hope that you start to give yourself the credit you deserve.

I hope that you stop beating yourself up for your past mistakes.

I hope that you’re able to find happiness within yourself.

I hope that you realize all of this someday.

[isaacmartinez]

The Power Of Positive Interactions by John Gordon

John Gottman's pioneering research found that marriages are much more likely to succeed when the couple experiences a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions whereas when the ratio approaches 1 to 1, marriages are more likely to end in divorce. Additional research also shows that workgroups with positive to negative interaction ratios greater than 3 to 1 are significantly more productive than teams that do not reach this ratio.

So what does this mean for you and me? For most of us it means we need to increase the number of positive interactions we have at home and at work and reduce our negative interactions.

We need to engage each other with more smiles, kind words, encouragement, gratitude, meaningful conversations, honest dialogues and sincere positive interactions. And to foster these actions we need to create personal and team rituals that help us interact more positively. If we make them part of our organizational process and individual habits they are more likely to happen.

For instance, at home you might decide to take a walk with your spouse each night after dinner and talk about the positive things that happened at work. The more you practice this the more it will become ingrained in your life. At work you might make it a point to smile at your co-workers and customers more often. As a manager you would spend more time praising your employees for the things they do right rather than always focusing on what everyone is doing wrong. A manager I know makes it a point to personally praise 5 people every week. As an organization you might gather all of your employees on a call once a day to share a positive message. Or perhaps you might gather your sales team together each week and have your team members share success stories. The ideas are infinite. The key is to intentionally cultivate more positive interactions to fuel success.

However, please know that this doesn't mean we should never have negative interactions. Barbara Fredrickson’s research from the University of Michigan shows if a work group in a company experiences a positive to negative interaction ratio of 13 to 1 the work group will be less effective. This implies that no one is willing to confront the real problems and challenges that are holding them back.

Sometimes we need to confront a situation to move past it and, as we know, ignoring problems that stare us in the face doesn't work. Negative interactions are necessary so long as they should occur much less frequently than positive interactions.

Positive interactions are essential to a healthy marriage, positive work environment and individual and team success. In this spirit when you are finished reading this, I encourage you to go thank someone at work or at home and let them know how they impacted your life in a positive way. Then make it a habit.

[isaacmartinez]

[isaacmartinez]

"don’t rush through growing up. it’s a priceless feeling to be able to break one more glass, skip one more class. there will come a time where things will slow down and we will miss our days when being young and reckless was all that meant to us. every tree started from a bud. you will do great things one day, but till then, live freely and without regret."

it's always been a tradition on my mom's side to take a family picture on thanksgiving to send out to loved ones during christmas time. this year marks the second anniversary of my baa-chan's (grandma's) passing and the first year that we did not spend thanksgiving, in my twenty-four years of existence, at her house, as well as the first year that we didn't take a family picture. and i guess things change over time and the thing i should be really thankful for is that we are able to get together and enjoy each other's company, but part of me misses the traditions and familiarity of yesteryear. i guess it's been on my mind more and more as the saturday dinners have stopped and the family has been drifting more and more apart. and being raised around such strong family values causes me to scramble to hold onto some sort of tradition, but i feel it's just sand slipping though my fingers and there's nothing that i can do. my grandparents were the foundation, they brought together five siblings, seven grandchildren, and now three great-grandchildren under one roof. the amount of love that i have for my family is unfathomable and i think that's why it's killing me to see us drifting apart.

[isaacmartinez]

i'm not scared of never meeting you. i'm scared of having met you, and let you go.

iwrotethisforyou - "the water is on fire"

[isaacmartinez]

if you've got the time, we can play a game. it’s easy. we just see if i’m the same shape as the space you have inside you. if everything fits, we both win. if it doesn’t, don’t force it. that's how you get splinters in your heart.

iwrotethisforyou - the circle, triangle, square

[daneephermsin-blog-deactivated2]

"I think that if life separates us, and we end up in totally different places, I will always remember when our paths were aligned during this period of time, and I will be thankful for that. I hope that wherever you are, you will be thankful, too."

[isaacmartinez]

a good life is when you assume nothing, do more, smile often, dream big, laugh alot, and realize how blessed you are with the people you surround yourself with.

[frankoceano]

[isaacmartinez]

do not fear failure. do not let negative experiences - and there are always plenty - get in your way. in your life, many things - especially the biggest heartbreaks - will only make sense as you look back, not as you are experiencing them. many of what seem at the time to be your biggest setbacks will end up leading to your biggest opportunities, and in ways you can't predict. so don't let that voice of doubt - the obnoxious roommate in your head - have the last word. as montaigne said, "there were many terrible things in my life, but most of them never happened."

arianna huffington

[isaacmartinez]

the universe curves, as does the earth. and as hard as you try and run away from everything you are, you'll find yourself where you left yourself when you come home. just tired. fix yourself before you try and outrun yourself.

iwrotethisforyou - the person you meet at the end is you

[isaacmartinez]

when bad things happen

do you ever wonder why, no matter how much you try to live your life as an example to others and be a good, caring person, bad things still happen to you? do you ever ask yourself where you went wrong to cause such an awful circumstance?

i have been through a lot of bad things in my life and it has taken me a long time (probably too long) to figure out that no matter what happens, be it good or bad, that it is a valuable lesson for me to learn from and use it to better my life. i’ve spent so much time thinking that there was something wrong with me because everything that i touched seemed to fall apart.

and then i finally began to realize that there WAS something wrong with me! not physically, but emotionally and spiritually. i had to admit to myself that all of those relationships that had fallen apart had nothing to do with me not being attractive enough or caring enough; it had to do with the fact that they were a lesson for me and i could not even begin to see it at the time.

once i finally realized that my attitude had everything to do with my success, whether in business ventures or in personal relationships, i began to realize how much i had been suffering from the “poor me” syndrome. that was a really swift kick in the gut to have to admit but a necessary lesson in and of itself.

it was because of the “pitty party” that i had been living in for so many months that i went through a lot of depression, even to thoughts of not wanting to live anymore. once i was able to admit this to myself, i was able to see all the bad things that had happened in my life as the blessings that they were. everything that has happened to me over the course of a lifetime has simply been stepping stones to get where i am today and lessons to look back and learn from. granted, i would love to have not had to relive the lessons quite so much but i wouldn’t have if i had learned the first time i made mistakes.

no matter who you are, bad things are going to happen. the difference in how you choose to deal with these circumstances is what can make the difference in what happens next. will you keep repeating the same mistakes using the “poor me” excuse or will you look at the situation and ask what you can learn from it and what you can do to make the situation better the next time? instead of concentrating on all of the bad things that happen, be grateful for all the good things in your life. when you feel yourself slipping into the “poor me” mode, sit down and make a list of everything you can think of to be grateful for. you have the power inside you to completely change your way of thinking and to turn your thoughts to “good” versus “bad” thoughts.

one of the first things that i noticed happening once i changed my attitude and started to use my power inside to control my thinking was that i started to smile a lot more. once i began to smile more, i began to feel happier, more confident and more content with myself and the path i was taking. that feeling became addictive and i wanted to feel it all the time! i began to look at life differently and i have found that not only has it impacted my personal life but also my professional life as well. i have been able to reach new goals, see more hope, be more confident and secure in my business simply because i chose to see the “good” that comes from the “bad”. now, when i start to feel down because something bad has happened, i just ask myself, “what can i do to turn this into a positive situation?” i think of all the things that i have to be grateful for and i realized how blessed i really am!

if you are feeling overwhelmed and helpless, down on yourself and depressed, ask yourself what you can do right this second to change your life for the better? make that decision to use the power inside you to control your own destiny. once you decide what you can do to change your life, take action to do it! if your life hasn’t produced the results that you want in the past, look back and learn from it what you should do differently to change the results you receive.

for example, if you create this wonderful meal and you discover that it isn’t exactly what you wanted it to be, are you going to cook the same meal using the same technique tomorrow or are you going to try something different to get the meal that you truly want? simply change the recipe to try to improve on the taste. if that doesn’t work, try changing something else! keep changing the recipe until you create the results that you want to achieve.

hey, most people who are really perfectionists didn’t achieve this goal on their first try! keep changing your stradegy until you achieve what you want to achieve.never give up! and don’t let bad things pull you down. instead, learn the lesson that you are blessed with receiving from it and use that lesson to change your recipe!

[anditlingers]

[isaacmartinez]

my worry is that what you measure yourself with ends up defining you. you pour yourself into the thing that measures you and it defines you. and i just hope that one day you find out that you're fuller when you measure yourself in love and people and moments, instead of things, adoration and money.

i wrote this for you - "the way we're measured"

[dopeandlegit]

[isaacmartinez]

the six people you need in your corner

nothing incredible is accomplished alone. you need others to help you and you need to help others. with the right team, you can form a web of connections to make the seemingly impossibly practically inevitable. here are the six people you need in your corner:

the instigator:

someone who pushes you, who makes you think. who motivates you to get up and go, and try, and make things happen. you want to keep this person energized, and enthusiastic. this is the voice of inspiration.

the cheerleader:

this person is a huge fan, a strong supporter, and a rabid evangelist for you and your work. work to make this person rewarded, to keep them engaged. this is the voice of motivation.

the doubter:

this is the devil’s advocate, who asks the hard questions and sees problems before they arise. you need this person’s perspective. they are looking out for you, and want you to be as safe as you are successful. this is the voice of reason.

the taskmaster:

this is the loud and belligerent voice that demands you get things done. this person is the steward of momentum, making sure deadlines are met and goals are reached. this is the voice of progress.

the connector:

this person can help you find new avenues and new allies. this person breaks through roadblocks and finds ways to make magic happen. you need this person to reach people and places you can’t. this is the voice of cooperation and community.

the example:

this is your mentor, your hero, your north star. this is the person who you seek to emulate. this is your guiding entity, someone whose presence acts as a constant reminder that you, too, can do amazing things. you want to make this person proud. this is the voice of true authority.

[isaacmartinez]