June 2009 From Kevin Knebl

Can you believe that we’re in June already? Halfway through 2009. Where has the first half of the year gone? Time sure is flying. The weather is gorgeous, the tourists are coming into town and the flowers are blooming. Summer in Colorado is beautiful. Did you know that more people visit Colorado in the summer than in the winter? I know, I found that hard to believe also. I hope that it’s wonderful where you are and that your year is shaping up well.

TWO BOOKS TO PUT ON YOUR MUST READ LIST

The 29% Solution – 52 Weekly Networking Success Strategies- Ivan Misner

Ivan Misner is known as one of the world’s most successful networkers. He founded Business Network International in 1985 and the BNI organization is the largest networking group in the world with thousands of chapters on every continent. BNI has facilitated billions of dollars of business over the years and Dr. Misner is one of the world’s leading experts on business networking.

In this book, Ivan starts with a networking self-assessment quiz that enables you to see how effective your current networking efforts are. He then lays out weekly plans that explain 52 strategies that anyone can incorporate into their networking, marketing and business plans. These strategies fall into different categories such as “Create Your Future”, “Expand Your Network”, “Go the Extra Mile”, and “Get Value for Your Time”. Each chapter ends with a call to put what you’ve learned into action in terms of a simple assignment that will yield immediate results.

Many people have never had any networking training and there are almost as many thoughts as to what networking is as there are people. Misner’s book dispels some of the myths about networking while being a great handbook for the new networker or the seasoned influential networker who has a full Rolodex of mutually beneficial relationships. His tips are short, to the point and real-world proven. No high-sounding theories here….just strategies that work. www.29percentsolution.com

Callings – Finding and Following an Authentic Life- Gregg Levoy

Oftentimes, after one of my talks or trainings people tell me that they feel that they are looking to take a different path in their lives in regards to their work or their style of living. Over time I have read a number of great books on how to determine what one’s life work or purpose might be and this book is one of the best that I’ve read. Gregg is almost poetic in his writing and his style carries you along smoothly through this wonderful book.

A calling may be to do something (change careers, go back to school, have a child) or to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving). While honoring a calling’s essential mystery, this book also guides readers to ask an answer the fundamental questions that arise from any calling: How do we recognize it? How do we distinguish the true call from the siren song? How do we handle our resistance to a call? What happens when we say yes? What happens when we say no?

Here are some quotes from Callings:
Society and nature…tend to produce guarded creatures. The upshot is that we often end up trading our authenticity for what we perceive as survival, terrified to swap security for our heart’s deep desires, which is the imperative of all callings and one of the dominant fears in responding to them.
Callings keep surfacing until we deal with them.
Generally, people won’t pursue their callings until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so, but it’s appalling how high a threshold people have for this quality of pain.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life,” Campbell explained in The Power of Myth. “I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive…of the rapture of being alive.”
Conflict to paradox to revelation: this is the divine progression.
. Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, wrote that “repression of the life-force” is the most common reason he sees people in therapy.
Through art we can also reactivate the mind of the child within us, which knows what it knows with great simplicity and accuracy. The last time many of us made art was when we were children. In most of us, an artist died young and an adult survived. “Man as artist is far more ancient than man as worker.”
We end up going to our shadows one way or another. Either we take them on willingly and attempt to work them into something useful, or at least manageable, or we splatter them onto others-“projecting,” as psychologists call it. For instance, if we’re frustrated with ourselves for not following a call, we often become frustrated with others who aren’t following theirs, or envious of those who are.
We often decline the invitation of our callings because we fell inadequate to the task, but the opposite is also true: We’re afraid of our own power. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,” says author Marianne Williamson. “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. But our playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

GREAT MOVIE

UP- Disney/Pixar

This new movie from Disney/Pixar is their first foray into 3-D and it’s a fantastic film. Karin, Anja, Tristan and I went on opening day and we loved it. It’s the story of Carl Fredricksen, a 78 year old balloon salesman, who finally fulfills his life long dream of going to South America. The folks at Pixar know how to weave a great tale and the fact that they can have your eyes tearing up after a wordless four minute vignette within the first 10 minutes speaks to how well they have honed their craft.

Carl’s overly optimistic stowaway is an 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. This makes Carl and Russell just about the most unlikely adventure pairing in a long time. They have an incredible adventure and the film deviates from the standard kid’s movie scenario and normal outcome toward the end.

WHAT COLOR IS HER DRESS?

THE ANIMAL ODD COUPLE

EAGLE’S NEST WITH BABIES WEBCAM

AMERICA’S FUNNIEST CATS

AMAZING SYNCHRONIZED DANCING BY DEAF DANCERS

INCREDIBLE MOTHER

RAY ROMANO’S FIRST LETTERMAN PERFORMANCE

HAIRCUT 100

SOME GREAT QUOTES

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.” Rabindranath Tagore

“Life’s gift to us is our unique vantage point, and our gift to life is expressing from it.” Alan Cohen

“You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic.” Doris Egan

“The miracle is this- the more we share, the more we have.” Leonard Nimoy

“Success will never be a big step in the future. Success is a small step taken just now.” Jonathan Martensson

“Today is the yesterday you worried about tomorrow.” Unknown

“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” Kahlil Gibran

“Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.” H.L. Mencken

“A person hears only what they understand.” Goethe

“Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.” Teilhard de Chardin

“The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.” Gaston Bachelard

“Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.” P.J. O’Rourke

If you think that this newsletter will be of interest to someone that you know, please feel free to forward it on. If you have any thoughts or opinions on any of these recommendations or have recommendations of your own, please let me know-you never know where the conversation may go from there.

If you are interested in online and offline networking, Social Media, LinkedIn training or personal development, please visit my website at www.kevinknebl.com for upcoming talks, trainings, webinars and information about booking me for an event. I speak and train full-time and am always eager to deliver talks and trainings that provide immediate, measurable impact to your employees, company or organization. As always, if you’d like to reach me, the easiest and fastest way is either by email at kevin@kevinknebl.com or mobile phone at               719-650-7659         719-650-7659.