So, it’s 1:26 AM, just got back from a long day at a company conference.  We had a lot of great speakers and it was good to meet many of the people who I’ve only had an online relationship with until now.

I need to be awake again at 6AM, but for some reason my brain won’t stop spinning and I just wanted to write down a few things for you here.

I’ve been focusing and thinking a lot about gratitude and what has taken me to where I am, and what my real focus(es) are.

If you look at my mission statement, you’ll see the word adventure.  To me life is ultimately all about happiness, and adventure is a unique word that fits into happiness and can be synonymous in a way that helps me see and more clearly define my purpose.

If there is any one thing that has made a difference in my happiness lately, it has been actually two things, and these will be reoccurring themes…

1-    The 80/20 rule
2-    Gratitude

I have been trying to keep a gratitude journal and it makes a huge difference on your attitude.

There are a few things I wanted to tell people I am grateful for…

1.    My parents and family.  I have no idea where I would be without a dad who asked his 12 year old son why the heck he wanted a job when I was looking to get a paper route.  It set me on a course of entrepenuership that has changed me forever.  There is so much more to this, I could talk about my parents, family and closest friends for a long long time.

2.    An opportunity to make a difference, matter to people and live a life that I love.  I get so much joy and satisfaction and just plain goodness from what I get to do every day.  I get to be challenged, intrigued, and I get to matter to people

3.    Amazing business partners.  Nothing is possible without people.  Further more nothing really matters without people.  If it weren’t for people being willing to join forces, see my vision and go for it there would be no way I could ever even imagine working on what I am doing now.  All of my best business partners have been tearchers and mentors and coaches to me as well as friends.  They have been students and mentees to me as well, and that is what has made the partnership.

4.    Authors and gurus and experts who have given me the knowledge to succeed.  It has made such a huge difference in my life.  I think what it would be like if I had never read “rich dad poor dad” or the “4 hour work week” or “happier.”
5.    God.  Honestly this is the master gratitude statement.  There is no reason for me to hide this or not talk about it publicly.  I was re inspired by a speaker at our conference today, who shared 8 factors that made it possible for him to build a copany worth over $600 million dollars.  At the end, the 8th was Faith in God.  I am a very religious and spiritual person and have a lot of belief in these things.  There is no reason for me to be shy about it, it is who I am.  Honestly all good things in my life have come from God, and I can trace so much of the good to decisions that were made by me or other people in my life not because of logic or facts, but because of feelings, and because of the commandments of God and because of faith.  These decisions, as small as they have seemed, made a lasting impact and were small degrees of directional change that made huge differences.  So for me, there is no being shy or quite about it, all good things in my life have come from God and I believe in Him and his power.

Well there you have it.  It is now 1:39 am.  Time to sleep.  I have two amazing days ahead of me at this conference, there will be a lot of good to share.

AJ