Gratitude and Shiny Object Syndrome

My daughter has enough toys for three kids. Still, every time we go to a store, she wants to get a toy.

Perhaps this sounds familiar from your business?

How many books do you have that you haven’t read? How many courses have you paid for that you haven’t completed? How many networking connections have you yet to follow up on?

If the answer to those three questions is 0, then you have achieved enlightenment and can stop reading. For the rest of us, read on.

Not only do you have that stack of unread books, unfinished courses, and unfollowed up connections, but you’re still buying more books, signing up for more courses, meeting more people.

Why do we do this? We do it because we are unsatisfied with where we are in business or life. Being unsatisfied with our current situation, we assume that we must not have what we need. We look for the new shiny that will change everything.

What if I told you that the opportunity that will lead you to realization of your vision may already be in your hands?

When we think of gratitude, we often think of it as a tool to be happy with what we have. We may think of it as a way to be satisfied with settling, although that’s not quite accurate.

I would like to suggest that gratitude not only brings happiness today, but it can also lead you to success tomorrow.

When we lack gratitude and appreciation for the good things in out lives, we can overlook the opportunities and resources at our disposal. Our opportunities are part of our present life.

When we start to appreciate what we have, we start to appreciate what it can do for us.

Instead of always looking for a new book or idea, we can meditate on the ideas we already know and seek new solutions from them.

Instead of a new course or technique, we can focus on how to execute on the techniques we already have.

Instead of constantly seeking new connections, we can find ways to deepen our existing connections.

When we have gratitude for what we have, we feel less need to chase after the new shiny thing. The things we already have are often pretty shiny themselves.


Do you find yourself wasting time, money, and energy chasing after shiny objects rather than advancing your business, career, or life? Would you like to have more gratitude and appreciation for the shiny things you already possess? Schedule a free coaching session with Michael Whitehouse to build that gratitude and appreciation that will guide you to the right tools to live the life you want. Click here to schedule now.

Values and Shiny Object Syndrome

Have you ever done something and immediately wondered why you did it?

We are driven by our values. Values aren’t just the positive things we value. Some values are neutral or even seemingly negative.

We can value virtues like honesty, integrity, hard word, compassion, and community.

We can also value things like attention, adulation, respect, sexual satisfaction, rest, and even vengeance.

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Derek Pacque, CEO/Founder of Chexology – Podcast Episode 66

What do coat check, bag check, valet, and businesses like ski rentals have in common? Frequent lines and claims concerning “misplaced” or “damaged” goods. Their app uses a patented visual profiling process that eliminates these century-old stigmas. Today, their clients include the likes of Dream Hotels, Hilton, MoMA, Live Nation, AMEX, and Nike.

Their vision is to expand markets that share, store, and lend out items.

If they can use tech to allow strangers to trust each other with their stuff, anything is possible!

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Better an Awesome You than a Mediocre Knockoff

Profile photo of RJ Redden

I often see discussions on business forums on personal appearance and professional appearance. People will talk about having to dye their hair back to normal colors or hide the more colorful parts of their personality from their social media.

The solution is not to remove your unique elements. Rather it is to clearly lean in to them 100%. Be the most awesome and badass version of yourself.

Above is the LinkedIn profile picture for RJ Redden. She is a marketing consultant that I met at the Strategic Alliance Live conference last week. She was there, googles, cape, purple hair and all and not a single one of the hundreds of highly successful entrepreneurs in attendance blinked an eyelash at her attire.

In fact, the reason I know her is that our conversation started with me saying: “I don’t know you, but your goggles tell me I want to.” I was right. She’s awesome.

The place you get in trouble is when you are apologetically yourself. When you sneak into the room with purple hair and wonder how people will react. She didn’t wonder. She knew. Her demeanor said “If you have a problem with my googles, that’s your problem, not mine.”

It’s 2021 and all the rules are in flux. No one knows what the cultural norms are, so why not make your own.

By the way, she has this super cool personality assessment tool. You should go there and check it out.


You might enjoy my impactful daily Morning Motivation podcast. Less than 5 minutes a day to get you fired up and ready for greatness. Listen and subscribe at http://morningmotivation.fun.

The Hardest Person to Forgive Is Oneself

As I am writing my book on Values, Vision, and Gratitude, I thought that it might be valuable to bring in stories from my Phoenix Games days, a time when my values were so clear and my vision so vivid that an entire community formed around what I was building.

You might think that this would be an inspiring walk down memory lane. A chance to relive my glory days!

However, you might also observe that I do not, today, own a game store, run a Rocky Horror shadow cast, or lead a scifi convention. Something happened from then to now to change these things.

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Swagger

swagger

What is swagger? It is a sense of comfort in the world. It’s taking the sense of familiarity you have on your home turf and taking it everywhere because the entire world is your home turf.

Have you ever been at a party and met someone you assumed was the host because they were so comfortable? That’s swagger.

Have you known someone who would cut through back hallways and “staff only” doors to get where they needed to go and no one ever questioned them? That’s swagger.

It’s not arrogance. If you’ve got swagger, you don’t need arrogance. Arrogance is what it looks like when someone pretends to have it but is secretly worried that they’ll be found out.

You’ve heard the expression “what could you do if you knew you could not fail?”

How about this one: “What could you do if you did not care if you failed?”

If you’ve got swagger, you don’t care if you fail because you know you can never really fail. You can try and succeed, or you can try and learn something.

Everyone feels imposter syndrome. Everyone looks at others who are better than them and wonders if they fit in among those great people.

Swagger is deciding that you do. It is acknowledging that you’re not the best and you don’t have to be because you’ve got something to offer and people are luck to have it.

You don’t need permission to have swagger. You don’t need success to have swagger. You just decide to have it.

It is as simple as that. It is as complicated as that.

It is as easy as that. It is as hard as that.

When you can master yourself to the degree that you can decide to have swagger, then you are entitled to it.


Would you like to find your swagger? That’s part of what a coach does. I help people get in touch with makes them powerful and develop that self mastery to get that swagger. To learn more, set up a complementary coaching session at http://michaelwhitehouse.coach.

The Burden of Unsolicited Advice

The burden of unsolicited advice by Michael Whitehouse

Unsolicited advice is a bit like performing surgery in the dark. While well intentioned, it is unlikely to hit the mark, and it creates a burden on the person who receives it.

This is different from general advice. If I make a general post with an idea or tips, then you are free to choose to embrace it or not. It is up to you to read it or just keep scrolling. On the other hand, if you comment or private message you, then I have created a burden and even obligation.

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