Category: Skills

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Time Travel Today

Time travel is awesome! I really like all the time travel movies. I especially like the back to the future movies with Marty McFly. Recently, there have been some Hallmark time travel movies on TV that caught my eye. What is it about time travel movies that intrigue me? I really don’t know, except that their just so interesting. I think it is trying to figure out the what ifs or the ,wait, how does that work? How can you go to a time before you were born? How could you go to a time in the future after you were already dead? These are hard to answer questions. They are impossible questions. In order to stop giving time to questions like this. We need to focus on what we can control. 

And So It Begins... GIF

I have found that time travel is possible. That is correct! I am claiming time travel is possible as long as we are talking about time travel in your mind. In your mind, you can be at three places: The present , the past, or the future. It is basically right out of the story A Christmas Carole where scrooge is visited by three ghosts. the ghost of Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas’ yet to come. Every time you have a thought, it is convening the past, the present, or the future. This means you have three times or places your mind can be. 

The Past

The thoughts of the past are your memories. When you are thinking about memories, you will be trying to recreate and bring to mind the images, events, locations, and people of the past. By going to memories of events, people, or places. You can probably remember things that happened and almost replay them in your mind. You could go to places that you are familiar with in the past and remember what it looked like, what it smelled like, or even how it made you feel. You can spend time thinking about what if I would have done this? or what if I would have said that? If you are fully in the past, it will be hard to be effective in the present here and now.

The Present

You can think about and focus on what you are currently doing. Some may call this presence of mind. The phrase is used a lot in sports by broadcasters who are talking about someone who made a decision so quick. Here’s the call brought to you by none other than Bill Walton. 

In the clip, Reggie Miller had the ability to steal the ball step behind the three point line and drain the three all in an instant. He was so present, he was able to make the exact, right decision at the right time.

Another example I like is the dad Saves! This is where the baby or kid almost falls and, out of nowhere, the dad saves the day. He has great presence of mind. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnYT4uQQu0c

The more we are present, the more we can deliver in times of stress or times of difficulty. Although you might be thinking of something else, you are alert enough to make a quick decision to handle the current situation. When you are acting in the present, your mind is in the current time. 

The Future

The final place we can be is in the future. In your mind, you can think about the years to come and what is to come.  This is a valuable tool, but can also be something that distracts you from the tasks at hand. 

The future mind is a place of vision. If you look out into the future and can see things that others can’t, you have better vision. 

Understanding that each action is part of the next link and also connected to the last is understanding the chain of events.

If each action, habit, or activity would be plaid out in the mind, you stop being a creature of habit but a creature of control on a course where you are going.  Being a person who can see and think in the future is a valuable skill. While it is a valuable thinking skill, it still has to remain in balance with thinking in the past and having a present thinking mind.

What time to think

Now is the time to think! Here is some things that could help you elevate your value!

  1. keep track of thinking – how much time do you spend thinking about today, the past, or the future. Figure out if you need to stop thinking or start thinking in the past, future or present.
  2. Understand that you can not change the past, but you can use the past to live in the present and change the future. 
  3. All of your activity that you did in the past, today, and in the future will run through the filter of your current thoughts.  Make sure your mind(or soil) is ready

Back To The Future GIF

Thanks for elevating value,

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The Grocery List

By Carlin Day:

You can elevate your value by thinking about your grocery list. Most people use one. My mother used one when I was a child. My wife uses a list as well and does a good job of buying what we need. You wright down all the things you would need or would like to get and then go to the store to get the things on your list. The grocery list can teach us two big lessons. The list can teach us that our thoughts are things. This list also teaches us that things happen by definite action.

Thoughts are Things

The first lesson about thoughts being things is one of my favorite. Did you know that your thoughts are things? Jesus talked about this in the Bible. He talked about the things we think about being real. In Matthew 5:28, Jesus said that if you have lustful thoughts, you have already committed adultery. The things we think about are real. They are happening within our minds and heart. A drawing is a great example of how the thought is a thing. The image always begins in the mind and ends on the paper. This is at least true of a drawing that was meant to look like something. When you make the grocery list, you are basing it off of real things and putting them down on paper from your mind. You are creating the exact desire of a real material object just like an artist forming the idea of his painting in his mind. The next step is bringing the idea to reality.

Definite Action

Once you have a grocery list complete, is it filled with confusing generalities? No! it is filled with exact items. They are so exact they may include the brand and size. One thing I have found is that you also need to clarify if it has gluten or doesn’t. Is it supposed to have low sugar? I always get confused on if is the right product because they are claiming they took everything out of it? Maybe we wanted the one with everything in it. Main idea is that the list is specific and definite. You now have to act with definite action to receive the items on the list. This would include going to the store or ordering it online. This step cannot be skipped. Somehow and someway the items must be gathered. After this is completed our list usually goes in the trash and a new list begins.

Here is how the grocery list can help you in your life. You may find that you are good at making a grocery list. If so, you can translate that skill to all the ways you can elevate your value. Think about the important areas of your life and see if you have a list for these things:

Health
Spiritual
Marriage
Work
Things to get done
People need to call
Business

If you are not making a list, what are you doing? If you have a shopping list, you have a list of the things you want. If you didn’t, you would end up buying things you don’t need or not buying the crucial item you need today!

The same is true will all these areas. If you have a list, you would be creating the thoughts that are things. If you acted on the list, you would be moving these things through definite actions and making them real and, I guess I could say, in your kitchen.

Thanks,

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Get a Flyer


By Carlin Day

In a new year, it is a great time to think about what you are going to do different than you did the year before. This can be from little things to big things.  Some things can be very hard to change and we all know this to be true.

This post is not about cutting something out. Cutting something from your life is about playing defense. This post is about offense. One way to improve your defense is to keep your defense off the field!! The defense is off the field because you are still on offense!

Here is a way to play better offense in 2020 – Make a flyer –

I was inspired with this idea from watching one of my favorite shows, American Pickers. By me saying American Pickers is one of my favorite shows, I feel like I need to let you know that I am not a hoarder. I enjoy the show and I have always been entertained by Mike and Frank and the interesting people they meet. I also learn a lot about history. One thing on the show that makes me laugh is their flyer.

They drive up to someone’s house and hand them a flyer. On this flyer it has a list of all the things they want and they give it to the person and have the person look it over. The types of people they visit usually have something on the list.

My first point about the flyer is that is seems like something they would not need. If you are into collecting you should know who Mike and Frank are and what they do. But the thing is, a lot of people don’t. A lot of people have no idea who they are.

The second thing about the flyer is that it gives the other person the feeling that if they help out Mike and Frank, they are going to get paid!!!

Could you use the flyer method in 2020?

Make sure the world knows: Whatever it is you are going after, you tell everyone about it. You also learn how to present it in a way that is interesting and exciting. If you know what you want you will be going to people who possess it.

Help the other person understand it would benefit them by helping you: Whatever it is you are trying to do, the other person should feel like if they help you, they are getting paid or receiving dividends from the things they can help you with.

If you did these things, you would always be on offense towards the thing you are trying to accomplish. If you made a flyer, what would you put on it that you want? How would you make the other person feel like helping you would benefit them?

The Flyer is a simple step to help you elevate value.

Have a great year,

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Thinksgiving

Thinksgiving – Elevating Value

Thinksgiving is after thanksgiving. It is when you can start to look at how you think and what you are thinking about for the next year.

Here is a list of basic thinking skills. They do not teach these skills in school. Look them over and see if you think they have value.

Intuition
The Will
Imagination
Memory
Perception

Intuition – Take inventory of your feelings when you are listening to others. If you will actively listen, you will be drawn in to another person’s thoughts and feelings. This will help you with Intuition and learning to think as others think without logical reasoning.

The Will – The will is the ability to fuel your activity. Activity is based in thought. Your thoughts fuel your activity.  A marathon is an example of the Will. One marathon will have many people who run, jog, or walk and most all finish the race.  They have the will. If you learn the will, you will do things that you may not be the best at, but you have the will to complete the task. This valuable skill is being able to have the thoughts that allow you to never quit.

Imagination – A person can look at the past and let it determine the future. I have been saying a phrase lately that gives a good look into the way a person is thinking. I say that we have to remember we will live in the future and we will not live in the past. This means that you cannot act in the past. You have no activity in the past, but today and the future are very different. You have the ability to change and grow and act in ways that are different than the past, and will most definitely have different results. You can imagine the past from reading about it or remembering it. You can also imagine the future and remember it daily.

Memory – Knowledge, understanding, wisdom, are all found in your memory. Conversation, business dealings, and personal relationships all have memory involved. When you think, each thought comes from the last. Your mind knows all the thoughts it has had. It also knows everything around the thoughts. It remembers the reasons, the motives, the feelings, and the location where you made the thought. You mind remembers the senses you had when you had the thoughts. Think about your memory and do whatever you can to increase your memory.

Perception – How you perceive things is your reality. How another perceives is their reality. Both have flaws and both have perfection.  Training your thoughts to perceive things as they are and not as you perceive is a skill. One of Stephen Covey’s seven habits is the ability to seek first to understand and then be understood.  If you can know the way you think could be incorrect, you should try to think with more understanding and perceive things more as they are and not as they appear.

If you can change the way you think, you can change the way you live. Live by elevating value.

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The Chains of Events

I recently was reading a story in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The short story was called the Red Headed League. Once Sherlock Holmes had figured out a mystery, He was asked how he was able to figure out the case. He said something to the effect of – The chain was long but, as always, every link was connected.  This line made me think. Did you know that everything we have done, and the thoughts we have had are connected to our previous actions?

Each day is connected to the last

Each thought is connected to a previous thought

Everything you learn builds on your current chain of knowledge

If your actions are making a chain that is dependent on your thoughts and actions, it will be important to make sure each action and thought is as strong as possible. Also, you will have to realize that all the chains in your life were put together by you, and that you did not make all the links simultaneously. They have to be made, and put together, one link at a time.

Maybe a guy says, “I have been doing good things and thinking good thoughts but my results do not reflect my actions” This could be true, because there are so many variables in life. The main thing to know when things are not working out, is to make sure you are doing the things necessary for you to have the best opportunity to accomplish your goals. This way, you can be proud of the chain you are building. Someday, the chain will be called upon to do a big job. Proverbs has something to say about this.

Proverbs 18:16

A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

Once you have went to the Bible for answers, the next place to look is fantasy football – lol

Pictured above is the current standings for my family’s fantasy football. My team, Prestige Worldwide, is currently in second. I would like to brag, but oddly enough, the last place team has scored more total points than the first place team. How can this be? If you would look at the entire chain of events, the last place team has scored a lot of points but the opponent just happens to score more in each individual game. The same thing happens in regular sports.

What does this tell us? The main thing about this example is that you have to know that what you have done is what you have done, and no matter what the actual results, you do not base your success or your value on the current standings. A person must see there value of what they actually are. 

What chains are you building that are worth keeping? What chains do you need to throw away and stop using?

Think about the chains in your life. You want to keep the ones that elevate the value of your life as well as the value of the people around you.  Some chains takes more links than other to finally be chains that are elevating value.

Thanks,

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email me at carlin@elevatingvalue.com

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Make sure you have a Goal

Imagine you are playing in a basketball game and the score is tied at halftime. You and your team make some adjustments and you are going to go out and execute better in the second half and win the game. Big problem, someone has taken down the rim from your goal. The other team still has their rim but you only have a backboard. What would happen? Would your team finish the game?

Life is not a game. It is very serious.  The basketball analogy is silly, but it can be very meaningful. Our time is designed to be used while we are alive. Just as playing a game of basketball with no rim will not work; neither will a life without meaningful goals. In order for activity to useful in any matter, it has to be used to accomplish something of value.

For most things we do, we use default goals that have been ingrained in us as children. Most people do not talk about these goals but without them, life would be very confusing.

Common Goals:

Eat 3 times a day
Go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning
Go to work in the morning and return at quitting time
Watch a television show from the start and expect to complete it
playing games(like basketball) where getting the most points makes you the winner

If you did not have these goals, it would be hard to live a balanced life. Imagine going to work and always wondering when you were going to get to go home. Imagine only going to work when you feel like it. What if you just watched five minutes of every television show?

Valuable Goals

What would it be like if you really did play a game of basketball with no rim? You’re just running around getting sweaty and shooting the ball at the backboard. You are being guarded for no reason. It is impossible to score an actual, tangible, visible goal.

Now that you understand you are actually quite good at setting goals, please understand that you can set more advanced goals towards meaningful activity. A more successful use of time is completing small medium and large goals on a consistent basis.

If you are working on valuable goals, they will require valuable activity. If your actions are valuable, you will be elevating value.

Carlin

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Value of Memory


By Carlin Day:

It pays to remember. If you can remember someone’s name or your friend’s birthday, they will appreciate that. If you would remember the books you have read, would you be more valuable? The idea of memory money is that people are paid for what they can remember.

One of the best ways to improve your memory is to work at it. 

The first step is to stop saying you are terrible with names. This statement conflicts with trying to get better at names. If you tell yourself you are terrible with names, you will be capping your ability to get better.

There are many ways of practicing memory. One of the ways to improve your memory is by using systems. Below is an example of learning using a memory palace. My 7 year old son Caden learned the presidents of the United States in one hour by building a memory palace.  We actually had a lot of fun as well. Here is a link to a short video of him going over the presidents.

If you read books, will it make you more valuable in the marketplace?  Yes

If you can remember the books you read, will it make you more valuable? Yes

Who is in control of your memory? You 

A great skill to focus on is memory.  One way a person can do this is by memorizing names. Here is a great quote.

“Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” 
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

Subscribe to my newsletter to work on elevating value
To comment, send me an email at carlin@elevatingvalue.com

Thanks,

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The Ladder to Success

Ladder

by: Carlin Day

Ladders are created to take you places higher than you can reach on your own. I recently came across a ladder that can improve listening skills. John Maxwell uses the following ladder to increase the listening skills of a leader.

L -Look at the speaker

A– Ask questions

D – Don’t interrupt

D – Don’t change the subject

E – Check your emotions

R – Responsive listening

Not everyone is a great listener. This includes me. I am trying to be a better listener. At my house, we have kids who are not the best listeners. They prove to me that the LADDER acronym can improve listening skills.

L – Looking

When my kids do not want to listen, they always look away

A- Ask questions

 If they are listening, they always ask questions. Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, What, etc.

D – Don’t Interrupt

My kids always interrupt. It is really hard for them to not interrupt. If they do not interrupt soon, another kid will interrupt and steal their chance

D- Don’t change the subject

It is hard for kids to not change the subject because they really want to tell me about the latest episode of puppy dog pals. Bingo and Rolly are always up to something.

E- check your emotions

If you are crying about something off subject, it needs to be checked. My kids have a hard time not crying about snacks or drinks!

R- Responsive listening 

My kids will show excitement if I am sharing some great news. Otherwise their response is usually negative because it is something they do not want to hear. It is much more fun to share news to kids who are excited. Example: (Hey guys, remember in Puppy Dog Pals when Bob lost his favorite shirt at the dry cleaners?)

The LADDER acronym will help anyone get better at the habit of listening. Lets all become better listeners. Listening is a skill and skills are necessary in Elevating value.

Important info from post:

Puppy Dog Pals is a show that my boys like

Great post sent to me by a friend about habits. check it out here:

The Guide to Making Good Daily Habits and Breaking Bad Ones

 

 

 

 

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A Taste for Potential

“It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us”

Isaac D’Israeli – 1834

This quote is an example of elevating value. If you had a chance to become better, you should. In the America that I live in, I find there are so many ways a person can improve. The old saying, you learn something every day really is true. If you make it intentional, you can say that you become more valuable every day

What is interesting is that Isaac D’Israeli spent his life in a constant work of increasing his value and sharing it with others. You can read about him here. I would say that he was close to reaching his potential. A human reaching their potential is one of the hardest things to achieve. All though it is hard to achieve personally, nature does it all the time. Animals and Plants grow to their potential. They do not have a choice.

Animals –

Animals grow and live as big as they can. A fish will grow to the size of the pond or tank and the food available.

Plants –

Plants live and grow as big as they can wherever they are. One plant will grow bigger than another because it has better soil, more water, or more sun. Another plant will not grow as big because it did not have the, soil, water, or sun it needed. The plant does not have a choice and it only grows to the opportunity it has.

Humans –

Humans will live and grow as big as they are capable and decide. Humans have a choice. Humans are limited in their current environment but have the ability to move. They have the ability to change. No one actually knows what a single persons potential is. By observation, it does seem that some people do not reach their potential

I believe the excellent lies before us all. Each and every day is a big day. A day not lived with intentionality could mean a reduction of future opportunity. Don’t develop a taste for mediocrity. Develop yourself and give value to others.

Start Today.

Elevatingvalue website gives away books through the value book giveaway.  This month, I am giving two copies of the classic book by Dale Carnegie – How to win Friends and Influence People.  In my opinion, this is one of the greatest books to help a person improve. With no money, no resources, no genius idea, a person can begin improving just by reading and applying the principals of a book.

You can check out the current giveaways here

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Attack of the Robots!

by Carlin Day

Robots and artificial intelligence are a part of today and I believe part of our future. If you could have a robot, what kind of a robot would you want? What would you want it to do? I have asked this question and got some interesting answers.

Things people want robots to do:

Their job
Clean
Self Destruct (someone who apparently hates robots)
Drive a car
cook food
mow the grass
from Twitter (violence) no one to my face has said violence!

Regardless of their different answers, everyone agrees on the way the robots would make decisions. People want their robot to make decisions based on what they have told it to do or, if it is a very advanced robot capable of making its own decisions, they want the robot to make the decision they would make.

Elevating Value
Compare yourself to a robot. If you were a robot, designed by a creator, what would you do? You would do what you were created to do. When you make a decision, how would the designer of the robot want you to think? The designer would want you to make decisions based on the same thinking as the designer.

The Point
People are not robots. We are not given a task and forced to do it. We have the choice and the opportunity to make our own decisions.

Today, I encourage you to ask the designer for a calling, a purpose, a worthy ideal. Day by day, try to think like the designer and do things the way the designer would want them to be done.


Here are some resources: https://elevatingvalue.com/login/bible-verses-about-the-mind/

Carlin,