We all live by a certain set of rules and habits that we wish everyone around us will adopt. 

But we should never get our hopes up. As satisfying as it is to influence people to live by the lights of our worldview, we should never become enamored with our own ways of doing things. 

Otherwise we’ll drive ourselves crazy trying to understand why everyone around us doesn’t share our preferences and opinions. That only sets up a toxic cycle of resentment towards people who don’t change and become just like us. 

Imagine trying to alter the course of a river. That endeavor would require a tremendous investment of time, energy and resources, with little possibility of significant change. Even if we did have access to dynamite or the ability to create an earthquake or the manpower to cause a flood, still, the damage wouldn’t be worth the effort. 

That’s the way it works with our relationships. The smartest, kindest and most sustainable path is to give people the dignity of self definition. To stand at the edge of ourselves and salute them, without the compulsive desire to change and fix and improve them, and without the fear that they are going to change and fix and improve us. 

We let people’s water pursue its own path. 

Of course, this approach requires considerable maturity, patience and surrender. But in the end, vocalized or not, people will thank us for giving them the gift of allowing them to live their own lives. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Whom are you trying to mold into who you are? 
LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Forgive them, for they know not what they do. 

This widely quoted scripture is called the word of forgiveness, which is theologically interpreted as the prayer for those who carried out the famous biblical crucifixion. 

Jesus was asking forgiveness for those who put him to death. 

But of course, the plea was for also for all of humanity. 

And so, putting religion aside, it’s an important lesson in interpersonal compassion. The prayer is an invitation to transcend the confines of our limited and isolated egos, respect people’s mysteries and love their processes as if they were our own. 

After all, if somebody’s behavior seems bizarre and confusing and alarming to us, imagine how strange it must feel to them. 

People don’t always know why they do what they do. Things just happen. 

And yet, isn’t that the definition of an open heart? The capacity to receive another person into our life, free of our defenses? 

The vulnerability to trust the information they provide, even if it’s not complete or clear? 

Dickenson once coined a beautiful phrase for this very process:

Allowing the soul to stand ajar. 

Meaning, even if the world tries to condition the openness out of us, we’re ready to accept new ideas and perspectives. 

Remember, there’s nothing stronger than a person with an open heart. It’s the aperture through which love can enter. 

It’s the maturity to realize the other person is a mystery to you, but also to themselves. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you forgiving and adventurous enough to commit to an uncertain outcome?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Carlin once said that when it came to attracting the right romantic partner, a good sense of humor always showed a mature way of being in the world, as opposed to some humorless person who may just explode and kill you and your children. 

Absurd, but true. 

He who laughs, lasts. 

That was one of the first traits I noticed in my wife. She had a laugh that made the whole world come alive. The kind of laugh that made other people laugh. The kind of laugh that made you want to tell jokes forever. 

And ever since we met, I stopped laughing small. Because life’s too short. If there’s something that I find funny, I’m going to laugh. Loudly. Regardless of the situation. I don’t care if laughing at something that’s provocative or controversial or morbid in front of other people means that I’m somehow complicit. Funny is funny. 

What’s more, it’s impossible to be at the mercy of something you’re willing to laugh at. Laughing is what allows you to disengage for a moment, take the power back into your own hands and stand up for joy. 

It’s the salve you put on the wound until you can get to a doctor. 

Besides, I don’t trust people who struggle to find humor in the world. Everything is a joke, if we think about it long and hard enough. We have to learn to laugh at the madness. 

Otherwise the insanity of the world will bring us so far down that we’ll never make it back up. 

Remember, suppressing humor is a formal declaration that joy is a crime. 

It’s a war against the soul. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

When are you unable to laugh at the world? 
LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

We should never feel guilty for having our own life. 

Each of us is entitled to have our own needs met, from privacy to dietary to physical to psychological. It’s part of the universal declaration of human rights. 

The problem is, we still guilt ourselves into thinking that other people might die if we abide by our needs instead of theirs. 

And so, we people please to make everyone else happy. We compromise our value system the name of rules that aren’t really rules. 

But the joke’s on us. Because forgoing our own boundaries on doesn’t make us heroic, it compromises our connection to ourselves. It disempowers us. 

I used to have an bad habit of eating foods that made me sick. Not because I enjoyed the taste, but because I enjoyed the looks on other people’s faces when I ate them. 

The food was my ticket to winning their attention, approval and love. 

A fourth piece of pumpkin pie? Well, if you insist. 

But after a few too many trips to the toilet in the middle of the night, eventually, my body and soul just couldn’t take it anymore. The cycle had to stop. 

Because I knew that I didn’t have to do all that for people to love me. And nobody was going to abandon me simply because I made the choice to respect my own dietary needs. What a relief. 

Proving, that the better the boundary, the more painful it is to set. But there is always a way to maintain our power in a situation. 

We have to plant that voice inside ourselves, otherwise nobody else will. We have to be aware of the fact that there is a choice to be made, and we have to make it with confidence, competence and clarity. 

Trusting that the world won’t end when people realize we’ve said yes to ourselves. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Where will you find the power to meet your needs?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Gibran famously wrote that each time we experience sorrow, our capacity for joy increases. The deeper that sorrow carves into our being, the more joy we can contain. 

And so, when life gives us the gift of a low, we ought to feel happy that something can even make us feel that sad. Because means that we’re alive and breathing and real. 

That oscillation of dark and light is what it means to be human. 

Shahar’s research on happiness reminds us of the danger in being relentless optimistic regardless of objective reality. That happiness does not require a constant experience of ecstasy. And that rejecting painful, negative emotions because there is no room for them in our idealized vision of a happy life can actually diminish happiness. 

Truly happy people, in fact, were not somehow immune from feeling sadness, fear and anxiety. They still experienced failures and setbacks in life. 

But when it came time to calculate the ultimate currency of life, their income of positive experiences outweighed their expense of negative ones.

I’m reminded of the greatest broadway play in history. Mormon missionaries sang:

When you’re feeling certain feelings that just don’t seem right, treat those pesky feelings like a reading light, turn it off, like a light switch, just go click. 

Isn’t it remarkable just how much energy we invest trying to keep ourselves from feeling sad? 

Perhaps true balance is feeling all of life’s feelings. 

Even if they feel like sad facsimiles of happiness crapped out by an uncaring world. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you trying to be happy, or trying to be happy all the time? 
LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Everyone has a unique set of things that they obsesses over, live for and geek out on. 

And if we’re lucky enough to learn about this thing that sets someone on fire, our job is to respond with gas, not water. 

Because giving people the space they need to lock into their element, even if only for a brief moment, is a way of saying yes to their joys. It’s an act of love. 

What’s more, by letting people have their joys, we make them happy, which also makes us happy. It’s a circular transaction. We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. 

Dementia care specialists who work at hospitals, senior communities and assisted living facilities are masters of this principle. In fact, there’s an industry term used to describe this kind of care. 

Join the journey. 

Meaning, the caregiver’s responsibility is to encourage the patient experiencing dementia to take whatever path they choose. 

Not to correct them if they misremember a memory from their past, but to support them in exploring their unique path fully. 

Not to steer them down a reality that they no longer see or understand, but to love and care for the person they’ve become. 

It’s what allows healthcare providers to deliver personalized care that enables their patients to live with meaning and enjoyment. 

They love people for who they are, in this moment. 

Whose journey do you need to join? Whose joy do you need to say yes to? 

Because in that divine moment when another person’s bliss is right around the corner, even it doesn’t fully make sense to you, it’s worth letting them have. 

Who are you to take that moment away from them? Who are you to rob them of that joy? 

Join their journey. Meet people where they are. 

And walk the path together. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

Are you genuinely committed to honoring other people’s realities?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!