Jul 23 2015
2 Comments
Business Success, Personal Success

Email and the Use of Crayons

How many times have you received an email that looked like the author had written it with a bunch of old, busted-up crayons?

Worse yet, have you written any?

What are the signs of such an email?
  • The entire message is in lower or UPPER case.
  • There is no sentence or paragraph structure. Just a bunch of run-on words and statements separated by commas and/or dashes.
  • The text is cryptic and difficult to understand – by the recipient.
  • Bottom-line: The recipient ends up wondering: What in the world is this person trying to say to me?

I’ve recently been corresponding via email with a service provider, to my business, who demonstrates ALL of the above. Very unprofessional! And, it directly contributes to my lack of confidence in the services provided.

What could have been accomplished in a couple of back and forth messages, in a matter of minutes, has strung out to days. Admittedly, I wasn’t paying the appropriate amount of attention, being distracted with our recent adventure to Moosehead Lake, in Maine.

Finally, when I had the chance, I picked up the phone and called in response to the most recent email message to ensure we closed-out the dialog and made some forward progress.

I shan’t (again) cover the art of good e-mail communications, as a prior post provides that (click here to view).

In summary, consider the fact that each email we send directly reflects our image.

I know, I know…Some will say: I just don’t have the time to polish my emails. I only have time to say what I need to say, and move on.

Really?!?

To that I’d ask 2 questions:

  1. What about the wasted time spent going back and forth resulting from the NUMEROUS miscommunications and (quite often) related drama that ensues.
  2. Do you want to be viewed as a professional, or an amateur? The reality is: we are treated (and paid) accordingly. Make your choice.

In closing, emails and crayons simply don’t mix. Please stop 🙂

All the best!
Jul 22 2015
3 Comments
Personal Success

If It Happened And Nobody Saw, Did It Really Happen?

There are so many “cute” sayings along the lines of the title of this post, such as:

  • If it happens in Vegas, it stays in Vegas.
  • If a tree falls in the woods and there is nobody there to hear, does it make a sound?
  • If a man speaks while in the woods and his wife isn’t around, is he still wrong?
  • Does the light really go out in the fridge, after the door is closed?

Most recently, during our time at Moosehead Lake, I read the following quote on a bag of Tostitos chips:

  • On Double Dipping: If no one catches you it never really happened.

YUCK!

Not to mention, a very POOR choice of “seemingly cute” words to share with society. Not cool!

Let’s take this concept (if nobody saw, it never really happened) to a whole new level.

I recently read an article about an online service that provides married people the opportunity to “discreetly” hook-up with other married individuals, to cheat. Their motto: Life is short. Have an affair. The article covers a scandal which is currently unfolding, involving hackers who are threatening to expose personal details of the company’s 37 million customers.

OUCH!

When will people learn? If it happens and nobody “saw”, it still did happen!!!

This reality is just as true online as it is offline.

There is ALWAYS a trail of evidence.

Whether we are ultimately exposed, or not, it happened.

And, there are ALWAYS consequences.

The consequences could be external, in the material world, including: mild to severe embarrassment, broken relationships, job loss, arrest, health issues, financial implications, etc.

There are also internal consequences: we must live with ourselves and be able to sleep well at night, all without the need of artificial stimulation (prescription or non-prescriptions meds, drugs or alcohol).

Many years ago, when Cindy and I lived in Georgia, we had just exited a busy Home Depot with new goods for our southern home. As we approached the car, we noticed an item (I don’t recall what it was) in the bottom of our carriage. One that we had not paid for. We could have easily loaded it, along with our purchased items, into the car and gone home without incident.

As annoying as it was to have to return to the store to make things right, we immediately decided to go back in and pay for the item.

Some would say “Why on earth would you do that?”

To that I would respond: What do you do when you realize that you were over-charged, or charged for an item that you didn’t purchase?”

Most would respond to this situation by immediately bringing it to the attention of the business establishment to settle the matter. Most businesses are good enough about it and more than happy to make things right.

What about us? Can’t we be “good enough” about a similar situation, in reverse, to make it right?

We have found that, in so doing, we can feel much better about pursuing our own case, when we are over-charged. As an example…There have been more than a few occasions when Cindy has arrived home from the grocery store to find that something she had paid for was not among her bounty. Upon returning to the store (hours, even days later) she pleads her case and, with NO PROOF, is able to get the refund she sought, or the item she had expected to be in her bag.

This, because of the balance she has created. That is, they know that she is just as quick to point out when she has been under-charged…

That is the way to live 🙂

On the flip side…Realize that, even the most serene of settings can become hell on earth, if bad decisions we have made (seen or unseen by others) are eating us up inside.

IMG_3529

View of Beaver Cove, Moosehead Lake, from the shore of the home we recently visited.

Why, oh why, would we want to smear such settings on this beautiful planet by running an internal dialog repeatedly covering what we know to have been wrong decisions and/or behaviors in our life?

It just isn’t worth it!

In closing, a much better set of mottos to offer society might be:

  • If it happens and nobody sees, I will! And, I must live with it.
  • Life is short. Good choices contribute to a good life.

All the best!

Jul 21 2015
1 Comment
For Fun!, Travel and Adventure

Proof of Leap

Cindy and I have returned from an awesome 9-days at Moosehead Lake, in Maine.

We shared the experience with 3 of the 4 boys, for a few days early in the week. During that time we rented a pontoon boat, which we affectionately referred to as: the garbage truck. We did so for 2 reasons: 1) The inside of the watercraft was well worn and dirty. 2) When going across the lake it was barge-like slow. So, garbage truck was quite fitting.

Just the same, we had a great time swimming, fishing and visiting one of the most beautiful spots on the planet: Pebble Beach, which provides an unbelievable view of Mt. Kineo (partial photo below). Since this spot is most easily reached by boat, there is typically few carbon units (I mean people) to contend with 🙂

After the boys left, Cindy and I had a couple days of solitude and viewing of wildlife. This included seeing more deer than squirrels on the property, a pileated woodpecker tearing at a tree (sounded like a sledgehammer), a bald eagle, ducks, a moose and, my personal favorite: loons. Cindy wanted to make sure I mentioned the crows. Not that they are rare: the ones we saw were HUGE. We agreed that they must eat well in this territory 🙂

Then, we had a chance to spend a quality 2-days with my parents, and their real, nice, FAST boat (a 19′ Bayliner).

Here is a shot of the 4 of us at Pebble Beach. Mt. Kineo, with 700′ cliffs rising straight-up from the lake, is in the background.

IMG_3581

Notice the beach. It is made-up entirely of small rocks that have been worn smooth by nature. Many of these “pebbles” are of skipping quality. We had an unfortunate incident here several years ago when one of our boys was playfully skipping rocks while Cindy was floating on an inner-tube. A rock caught her squarely in the mouth, splitting her lip open and breaking off a tooth. Being in the middle of God’s country, the nearest hospital was quite a distance away. After nearly 2 hours travel time (partly by water, partly by land) we got her all fixed-up (several stitches). Thankfully, after healing, there is no discernible scar!

Another interesting point about this crystal clear lake is that it has some very deep spots, the maximum of which (254′) is directly behind us in the above photo. In fact, after taking only a few steps into the water at Pebble Beach you are over your head!

Not only are there beautiful rock formations above water, there are some amazing sites to view below: while snorkeling. It is actually quite eery when viewing the gargantuan slabs of rock below the surface which literally descend out of site, beyond the reach of a snorkeler.

Earlier in the week I had been corresponding with the owners’ of the house we were staying in, about questions and providing updates on our time there. In one of his responses he made mention of a rope swing that I should try. I let him know that we had already tried the rope swing at Pebble Beach, to which he responded: “This rope swing dwarfs the one at Pebble Beach.”

OK then, I have GOT to give this a try.

In my commenting to this effect, the owner responded with: “No photo – It didn’t happen.”

He had laid down the challenge 😎

And now I’m thinking: this is probably much bigger than I imagine.

During the 2nd day of boating with my parents we decided to try and find the rope swing. First, you must realize that Moosehead Lake is MASSIVE (120 square miles). In fact, you must watch the weather because if the wind or a thunderstorm comes up it can be ocean-like dangerous.

Once we found the southern end of Deer Island, on which the rope swing was located, we began the search for the next challenge 😎

Within 15-20 minutes Cindy spotted it, with her eagle eyes. I had been using binoculars, to no avail.

As we approached the swing, the dwarfing comment became clear.

The rope (at least 25′ long) was tied very high in a pine tree. We wondered how they got it up there. But, really, who cares 🙂

My dad stopped the boat nearby…I did my customary backflip into the lake and swam for shore.

I grabbed the rope and began the climb up the cliff. It wasn’t too hard, but not easy, either. Someone had constructed a climbing rope to assist thrill-seekers up the first part of the rock cliff which was quite steep.

I had reached stage one. You see, there was another stage several feet further above: we’ll call that stage 2. I figured I’d do a test run from the lower segment of the cliff. I was NOT disappointed and decided I was ready for stage 2.

You cannot imagine what it “might” feel like to swing from the trees like Tarzan, until you have tried something like this. Once you make the leap and begin the swing, time seems to slow down as you fly through the air. Then, you must pick the spot, at the far end of the pendulum swing, to release, and begin your decent into the lake.

IMG_3624

AMAZING!!! (Click on the image to zoom in)

I emailed the above photo to the lake house owners, as “proof of leap”, shortly there-after.

During our next visit to Moosehead Lake, this will be one of our first stops with the boys. I’m sure we’ll spend hours in this one spot, trying to out-do each other 🙂

After the “leap of faith” challenge was conquered, we boated to Greenville, a small town at the southern-most end of the lake. Here we had ice cream and then returned to the lake house, completing our journey for the day.

In closing, we had an awesome time, at a place we will return to again and again (this being our 6th visit to the area).

All the best!

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