Starting a good habit requires a whole lot of discipline, but stopping a bad one requires a whole new understanding. 

It begs us to approach our behavior from a more holistic sense. To explore all of the feelings and thoughts behind our actions. 

Kicking sugar, for example is an exceedingly difficult task. No matter how many diets and workouts and cleanses and new year’s resolutions we attempt, the world’s most addictive white powder always finds its way back into our bodies. 

Unless we learn to expand our understanding of, and relationship to, the habit of consuming it. 

In my experience, the physical act of eating sugar was merely one step on a larger unhealthy continuum. 

First, there was the sugar craving. Which wasn’t so much hunger as it was an avoidance of my feelings. Soothing myself with an external coping mechanism. A quick and cheap and easy way to escape from healthy emotional regulation. 

Then, there was the sugar acquisition. Which centered around the ritual. The score. That was the real high. The anticipation. As my favorite author once said, the best part about having an affair is going up the stairs. 

Next, there was the sugar consumption. Physically eating the stuff. Which activated my neurotransmitters, but also activated my codependent tendencies to please people and win their attention. Eating sugar not only created happiness for me, but created happiness for my family and friends too. 

Which lead to the most insidious step of all, the sugar internalization. Beating myself up for having a moment of weakness and giving into my unhealthy habit. Plus a nice sprinkling of body image shame for good measure. 

And finally, there was the sugar digestion. Headaches and stomach pains and the sudden desire to take a nap. Which, in itself, made me dislike myself even more. 

Whew. What a journey. Who knew one man’s relationship with sugar had so many layers of thoughts and feelings behind it? 

But what’s interesting is, once I took the time to parse out the psychology, once I understood the motivation behind my bad habit, I was finally able to break it. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What understanding about yourself will help you break your bad habits? 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!

Alan
was a man in his early sixties who had finally reached a state of genuine
peace, complete relaxation, profound calm and deep contentment in which he felt
unburdened by his life’s troubles for the first time in recent memory. 

Five
seconds later, medical technicians wrenched the man back into consciousness
with a pair of defibrillator pads, cutting short his soothing state of bliss. 

It’s the punchline of the human condition. 

How do you know if a person has
anxiety? Check his breathing. 

That’s become the norm. Forever on the razor’s
edge of experiencing genuine bliss. Never quite taking full pleasure in life’s
beauty. 

Because right as we approach the cusp of actually enjoying life, our
mind makes worries and shuts the door on joy. 

And so, we become shells of people
racing mindlessly from one activity to another, pulled further asunder by the
opposing forces of our desire. 

Maisel’s mindfulness meditation program helped me realize that joy
isn’t necessarily in remarkable short supply, sometimes it’s just small and
quiet. And because the absence of joy is uncentering, human beings have an
existential responsibility to pry that door back open. 

We have to remind
ourselves, he says, that joy is available to us, that we are on the side of
joy, and that joy is permitted, even in a fast paced, task driven, no nonsense
culture. 

In short, we have to trust the moment. 

To know that all the good
feelings inside of us don’t have to evaporate in a hurry. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How often do you announce to yourself that you’re on the lookout for joy?

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!

Creating a value inventory can be frustrating and uncomfortable exercise. 

Especially if you’re too humble to turn off your modesty filter. 

But if you’re willing to engage your imaginations, own your authentic power and honestly appraise that which your bring to the table, there’s no telling what you might accomplish. 

I have a friend who loves to ask his clients:

What can you do in five minutes that will change somebody’s life? 

It’s an extraordinary question for several reasons. 

For starters, it contains the verb do. This stimulates an action oriented, interpersonal, skill based response. It forces you to think about past experiences in which you expended emotional labor and had a profound impact on another person. 

The next element is the time constraint. By only giving yourself five minutes, it challenges you to concentrate your value into a practical, tight package. One that allows the person on the receiving end of your value to imagine the full scope of your power. 

And finally, there’s the element of changing somebody’s life, which is the kind of thought experiment the average person doesn’t give themselves permission to conduct. And so, it’s just grandiose and audacious enough to empower the belief in your own value, while envisions impact of the receipt of your that value. 

What can you do in five minutes that will change somebody’s life? 

I’ve had numerous moments like that in my own life, on both sides of the equation. People and friends and mentors and clients have made observations, given feedback, asked questions and imparted strategies that literally altered my trajectory forever. 

Conversely, I’ve also been able to sit down with people on a number of occasions and offer that same life changing gift to them. 

Both of these highly human experiences make you feel fully alive, full present to the possibilities of life. And the exciting part is, each one of us can take part. 

But only if we’re willing to accept and deploy the love that makes it possible. 

Hoff explained it best in his translation of the ancient eastern scripture:

No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value. 

If you want to gain a better sense of your highest abilities, ask and answer the question. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What can you do in five minutes that will change somebody’s life? 

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!

Quicksand is a combination of sand, silt, clay and water. 

But what’s interesting it, the material itself is harmless. Geologists figured out long ago that the density of quicksand is twice that of the human body. Sinking is scientifically impossible. 

And so, the real danger is freaking out and fighting to get free. Because each time you try to put your leg up, the suction pulls you back in even deeper. Your continued and panicked movement impairs body motion and creates exhaustion. 

And over time, harsher elements like the scorching desert sun, dehydration, hungry predators and extreme hypothermia show up to finish the job. 

Outdoors experts and adventure survivalists suggest that there is an effective process for getting yourself out of quicksand. But like most things in this life, it’s a slow and challenging process. 

Here’s what you do:

Calm down, toss your gear, redistribute your weight, lay on your back, try and relax, take your time, use sticks for buffering, take breaks when needed, and slowly crawl to solid safety before a cackle of hyenas come to feast on your rotting corpse. 

Of course, since most of us are unlikely to get trapped in quicksand in the course of our lives, we have to consider idea properties of quicksand from a symbolic perspective. 

And so, the universal human issues are the questions of getting stuck in our relationships, careers or even getting stuck one limited way of looking at the world. Being trapped by the limitations of our consciousness. Feeling like we’re getting nowhere quickly, despite our highest efforts of hammering away to change the situation. 

That’s the real quicksand. 

And if we’re not willing to be calm, light, balanced, slow and patient, we’ll never make it out alive. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you being gentle with yourself when you get stuck?

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!

Few things were more infuriating than when your older sibling would play the stop hitting yourself game with you as a child. 

He would use your own hand against you, playfully and annoyingly forcing you to hit yourself in the face while repeating the silly statement. 

And all you could do was take it. Because the sole purpose of the game was to elicit a reaction from you. If you cried or screamed or called for mom, you lost. 

What’s unfortunate is, that game never stops. Even into adulthood, most of us are still hitting ourselves in some form. It’s an all purpose defense against the pain of life. 

We judge ourselves too harshly when we fail or get rejected. We reflexively react with anger and scorn when we feel embarrassed. We roll our eyes at ourselves when we behave in ways that are inconsistent with our precious little identity. 

And the irony is, we secretly like how that feels. Beating ourselves up validates our high standards. It upholds the societal nobility of struggle and sacrifice. And as a result, we get so familiar with our habit of self punishment, that it starts to feel like a permanent part of who we are. 

This would be a perfect time for our older sibling to chime in. 

Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. 

The point is, all feelings of inadequacy are dependent on what standards we have set in our minds. If we’re doing something that creates guilt or shame or insecurity or hatred, perhaps it’s time to adopt more realistic and compassionate standards of mental health for ourselves. 

To navigate in a new way when we feel pain and turn our energy back out into the world, as opposed to isolating ourselves with toxic inner dialogues that ultimately lead to eating an entire box of cereal in one sitting. 

Remember, forgiveness means we stop punishing ourselves for what you think we’ve done wrong. 

It’s time to stop hitting ourselves.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What’s your preferred method of self punishment?
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!

You don’t actually learn anything in college, it just shows you can complete something. 

That’s far more significant and respected and attractive than the yawnable ability to solve equations and memorize dates and regurgitate an ocean of information about eighteenth century romantic poetry. 

After all, we live in a world that rewards finishing. Following through. Fully and faithfully realizing the execution of a difficult, expensive, exhausting and long term endeavor, however imperfect that journey might have been. 

And yet, most people don’t finish things. Their creative landscapes are littered with the false starts. Grandiose but abandoned projects that have since calcified into monuments of their momentary bursts of enthusiasm. 

Miller’s advice to young novelists comes to mind. Rule number six was:

Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers. 

Focus on finding the right foundation. Better to produce a small handful of solid ideas than to promise a hundred shaky ones. 

Also meaning, don’t get mired in the manure. If most people calculated the number of hours they spent avoiding the work in favor of disappearing down the rabbit hole of their own mental horseshit, they wouldn’t be able to look themselves in the mirror. 

There’s actually an obscure term in the dictionary for this very archetype. 

A finifugal is a person who hates endings and tries to avoid or prolong the final moment of a story, relationship or some other journey. 

Not that everything in this life has to be finished. Some projects are meant to be abandoned. Some journeys shouldn’t come to an end. 

But if we have any intention of changing the world and ratcheting up our species, we ought to err on the of completion. 

We ought to show people, especially ourselves, that we can complete something.  

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you abandoning projects that are too familiar in order to experience the initial high that came at the beginning?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!

Seventeen years ago, I started wearing a nametag twenty four seven, just to make people friendlier. 

And it worked. Better than I could have possibly imagined. Thanks to my curiosity experiment, I’ve been able to connect with tens of thousands of people around the world whom I otherwise never would met, many of whom have become lifelong friends. 

I even built a brand, a business and a career out it. 

That’s why friendly sticks. It costs nothing, but has the power to change everything. 

The challenge, though, is making sure we don’t go overboard. Because as a useful as nametags are, the people we meet don’t want to get that sticky adhesive goop all over their shirt. 

When I conduct corporate training seminars for hotels and hospitality professionals, we always run a module on the dangers of being too friendly. Both internally with coworkers, and externally with guests. 

And what I’ve learned after doing hundreds of these workshops is, every nametag has a border. What’s yours? 

To help define the limits of your friendliness, consider asking yourself and your team a few of these questions. 

Are you so friendly that you aren’t taken seriously?

Are you so friendly that it’s easy to say no to you? 

Are you so friendly that you lack healthy boundaries? 

Are you so friendly that you can’t enforce the rules?

Are you so friendly that people perceive you as needy? 

Are you so friendly that you unknowingly offend those you love? 

Are you so friendly that you have become overdrawn at the favor bank? 

Are you so friendly that strangers grow suspicious of your true intentions? 

Are you so friendly that others misinterpret your behavior as manipulative? 

Are you so friendly that you avoid the necessary conflict that leads to healthy growth? 

Are you so friendly that you inhibit people from taking responsibility? 

Are you so friendly that you fail to consider other people’s feelings? 

Remember, every nametag has a border. 

Find out where you draw the line, otherwise you’ll inadvertently give people permission to cross it. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Where are you being too friendly in your life?

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!

I thrive on ritual and routine and structure and
organization and decisiveness and commitment. 

That’s how my personality orients
itself to the external world. Through constants and practices that reinforce my
sense of control over myself and my environment. 

Even in the smallest degrees
and most innocuous moments, I will find a way to intentionally design and
manage the user interface of my daily existence, bringing a measure of
coherence back to my life. 

The challenge with this particular personality is,
it makes it hard for me to hear the voice of change. Because I have a strong
will that insulates me against external influence. My sense of individualistic
defiance is off the charts. 

Which means, every choice I make must be an
expression of my own identity. True change only happens when it’s my idea. 

I’m reminded of something a friend of mine once said:

I get tired of hearing that people never change. People only change, that’s all they do. Sure, there are patterns and
repeat offenders. There are routines and rituals. These are hard to break and
sometimes we don’t need to. But we are still creatures for the most part who
have a choice. These little choices add up and throw a bigger decision your
way. Keep going, or do something about it? 

Josh is right. Just because humans are
build without an easy way to change, doesn’t mean we can’t embrace it. Hell,
every single cell in our skeleton is replaced every seven years. There’s no
reason to lose hope about real change being possible. 

And so, whatever your
personality is, don’t limit how your growth can happen. Yes, it’s hard to
change what you feel so safe with. But even the most disturbing or unexpected
or minor experiences can lead us in the direction of positive change. Even the
smallest events or situations can be metabolized into breakthroughs in thinking
and action. 

We just have to be willing to take in all of the available healing
energy of the world around us. 

To be open to help that arrives in forms we’re
not crazy about. 

To search for as many diverse sources of support as we can,
walking as many paths that lead to change as we can. 

To commit to looking for
new and interesting ways to transform. 

And to trust that although the seeds of
change grow slowly, and although we rarely underestimate just how long change
takes, the waiting part is necessary and important. 

Your healers will come when
you need them. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What makes it hard for you to hear the voice of change?

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!

Rand’s iconic protagonist asked the question:

What greater wealth is there than to own your life and spend it growing? 

It’s a deeply empowering philosophy because it reminds us that we don’t have to apologize for growing. Even if we feel survivor’s guilt about those we’ve left behind, the harsh reality is, we can’t bring everyone with us on the journey. 

Each man is responsible for their own evolution, learning his own lessons his own way in his own time. 

And in fact, looking to people who have not gone on their own journey to support us when we start to grow is an exercise in futility. 

Like that childhood friend you’ve been drifting apart from for years. Every time you go home for the holidays and meet up for your annual beer to rehash cherished memories from twenty years ago, he starts to passive aggressively make you feel guilty for growing up and moving on with your life and not taking him with you. 

Apparently the beer isn’t the only thing that’s bitter around here. 

Of course, the resentment your friend harbors isn’t a reflection, it’s a projection. It says more about his station in life than yours. And since it’s not your job to take responsibility for other people’s feelings, all you can do is be proud of the choices you’ve made and the things you’ve done and the person you’ve become. 

Trusting that the other person will step into the uniqueness of their own journey when the time is best. 

Remember, nobody can walk the path for you, nor can you walk the path for them. 

Each man believes in the bright lights of freedom by his own accord. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Whenever you begin to experience the fullness that life has to offer, do you immediately feel as if you are betraying those who never had a chance?

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!

Technology has a tendency to inflate the composition process. 

Because when an artist starts with electronics, they can easily fool themselves into thinking that what they’re working on is better than it really is. 

When the songs are buttressed by effects and computers and pedals and samples, they can’t always tell if the core idea is legitimately good, or lavishly produced. 

Which doesn’t make the music any less enjoyable. I love singing in the car to top forty hits that are produced within an inch of their lives just as much as the next guy. But from a creative standpoint, we must be careful not to use fancy tools as pillars to hide behind. 

Otherwise it sucks the soul out of the process. 

Macleod’s bestselling book on creativity says it best:

Pillars do not help, they hinder. The more mighty the pillar, the more you end up relying on it psychologically, the more it gets in your way. Successful people, artists and non artists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They’re very good at doing without them. Even more importantly, once they’ve spotted a pillar, they’re very good at quickly getting rid of it. Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet. If you have it, I envy you. If you don’t, I pity you. 

And so, the questions we have to ask ourselves are, what creative pillars are we hiding behind? What obfuscations are we leaning on to compensate for our lack of quality, talent and originality? And how many external tools are we giving too much credence and superstition in our work? 

Good ideas executed will always have room to succeed. 

Keeping it simple is great advice for injecting work with soul, but starting with simple is perhaps more important for sustaining. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What technology are you hiding behind? 

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!