I know it’s not Thursday yet but I couldn’t resist sharing the following early. There are two fundamental human emotions – fear & love.  All other emotions are offshoots of these two.  During difficult and uncertain times, it is important to know which emotion drives your behavior, choices, and decisions.  Let’s start with fear.  Here are the basic causes of fear; the need for control, low self-esteem, ignorance, early conditioned environment, a lack of self-belief, a lack of certain skills or resources to handle uncertainty, emotional immaturity, high ego dominance, a lack of faith and trust in God, the fear of rejection and self-doubt.  Here are a few of the contributors to the emotion of love; service to others, compassion, guidance, respect, charity, understanding, concern, and self-sacrifice. I’ll leave you with a quick question – during these times of uncertainty and difficulty which actions are dominating your behavior?

During challenging times each of us can help others in a personal way. I have decided to offer everyone my latest book, "Life's Simple Truths", as a totally free downloaded pdf file. Keep in mind it's not a book but a 365 day journal that requires a few minutes of effort and contemplation each day. FYI - if you are not a spiritual person you won't like it or benefit from it so don't request it. If you want additional info about it just go to my website - www.timconnor.com. Again - no obligation, no continued promotion, I won't store your email address etc. etc. I just want to do my small part to help those who I can during these difficult times. To request it - just send me a message to; timspeaks4u@gmail.com with "free book" in the subject line and it will be sent to you the same day. Share it with others if you feel it might help them. Be safe everyone.

MY THURSDAY THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Do you live by the 100% rule? Do you even know what it is? Or, you could care less? It’s simple, really. I’ll apply it in just two life areas in this message. Do you take 100% full responsibility for every area of your life regardless of outcomes or consequences? Not sure? Have you ever blamed, or finger pointed at anybody else for any life circumstance or situation? Have you ever complained about anything? If yes to either you don’t pass the 100% rule. Come on Tim, if that’s the basics of the rule no one will ever pass no one is perfect. You might be surprised how many people take 100% responsibility for every area of their life. One more quick one if you are not sure how about your career or business have you ever not taken 100% responsibility for any mistake, failure or poor action or decision? Again if yes you failed. So, Tim, what’s your point with this message, we all screw up at something sooner or later. You are missing the point I’m not saying you have not passed if you fail at anything or if you have not succeeded. I’m just asking you if you have the maturity, courage to live by the 100% rule taking full responsibility for life outcomes either positive, or negative? A question which group do you think is more successful in life?

MY THURSDAY THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – Everything and everyone in your life is in your life as a teacher. Failure, success, adversity, customers, children, etc. are all teachers. They are here to teach us – not about them or it but about ourselves. For example, my kids were in my life to teach me what I needed to learn about me – patience, courage, tolerance not just for me to teach them. Failure wants me to learn faith. Success wants me to learn to avoid arrogance and ego. The list is endless. Guess what, if a teacher (person or circumstance) comes into our lives to teach us a lesson and we fail to learn it from them – life will keep sending us more teachers; more; relationships, failures, problems, and opportunities, etc. until we get it. Once we learn the current lessons life will then send us new teachers to teach us new stuff – but remember – it’s always about teaching us stuff about us and what we need to learn about ourselves on how to handle life, overcome weaknesses and grow. The teachers keep coming, the learning never ends, and we can either learn and grow or resist and stay stuck. What are some of the teachers in your life trying to teach you about you now? What is the current situation with the virus trying to teach you about you? A new lesson or a repeating one?

MY THURSDAY THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – I know it’s just Monday but I’m out of town speaking all week. Ever regretted not spending enough time with a spouse, child, employee or customer?  It’s a common issue.  And why? We say we are just too busy with work, travel, errands or a million other reasons but what’s the real reason we fail to spend adequate time with others that are important in our life?  Let me be clear - it’s not a time issue but one of intent.  A quick example.  Last week a friend didn’t respond to a text I sent them in the mid-morning asking a simple question that would require a simple yes or no response.  Noon the next day I got an answer.  Keep in mind I am not a control freak, impatient or lack an understanding that people have more important things to do other than responding to my emails, texts or phone calls.  The answer was yes. But I asked why it took 36 hours to respond.  “I am really busy.” How long does it take to type three letters into your phone and hit send?  The second response was “I needed to think about it before I answered.”  The question I asked was “Can we spend some time together this week?”  Folks, the issue is not the time it takes to be with someone, call them or answer them – it’s your intent. There is real or honest intent and then there is stated intent.  If people don’t do what they promised or said they would do their stated intent didn’t matter – they were just words – it was their real intent all along not to do what they said. It’s what I call “the set-up”.

MY THURSDAY THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK - I’ve discovered that when it comes to individual’s reactions to life circumstances, people, adversity, opportunities, etc. there are two types of people inside-out and outside-in. Let me explain with two examples. No one - You are on your way to an important appointment and you get a flat tire. An outside-in person starts blaming the road, the tire, the weather, the whatever. While in blame mode they also start whining, complaining and even screaming at whatever or whoever. An inside-out person just starts changing the tire. No two - A peer received a promotion that you felt you deserved. How do you think the outside-in person reacted? The inside-out person? Who do you think lives longer? Who do you think is more successful? Who do you think tends to be happier?  Which one do you think you are? If you asked some close friends or relatives which one would they say you are? Know any outside -in people? Like being around them? Listening to them? Know any inside-out people? Learned any valuable lessons from them? Look forward to spending more time with them? If you are an outside-in person - I’ll wager you don’t like or agree with this concept. If you are an inside-out person - I’ll wager you wish the article were a bit longer. Go figure.

MY THURSDAY THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – Endings and new beginnings. A new beginning – you were born and the final ending you die – and in between, there are hundreds of new beginnings and endings during your life; a new job, a new relationship, a new home and the loss of a loved one, saying goodbye to your favorite car and retirement and so many others.  The question I want to ask you is this – when a new beginning starts can you let go of the ending with clarity, ease and emotional maturity or when an ending happens can you start a new beginning with hope, optimism, faith and no regrets from the past? A common saying is that whenever a door closes a new one always opens but here’s the issue – just because it opens doesn’t mean you have to go through it.  And just because one closed doesn’t mean you have to accept it and move on, quit or give in. It often takes courage and so much more to let go of anything due to an ending and just as much to embrace a new beginning that is filled with uncertainty and unknowns.  But one thing life has taught me is every beginning sooner or later has an ending and every ending brings with it the potential for a new beginning – so I’ll leave you with the real question - can we deal with either with trust, belief, faith and hope, wisdom and confidence or do we stay stuck in blame, regret, anger, resentment or fear?