Tricking myself into feeling that

Security, security, security

It won’t free me, complete me, make me whole

Phase me, amaze me, save my soul

Cue the lights
Start the dramatic score

Glue my knuckles tight

Zoom in on my lungs

No chicken count
Banner waving that

Security, security, security

It won’t free me, complete me, make me whole

Phase me, amaze me, save my soul

Cue the lights
Start the dramatic score

Glue my knuckles tight

Zoom in on my lungs

What if I knew that nothing

Was missing for me right now?

What if I knew that nothing

Was missing for me right now?

What if I knew that nothing

Was missing for me right now?

This is it, this is as good as it gets

This is it, the best day of my life

This is it, this is as good as it gets

This is it, the best day of my life

This is it, this is as good as it gets

This is it, the best day of my life

 

Watch the whole movie here.

* * * *

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!

The scariest part about asking for help is, we risk sharing something that most people don’t want to share. 

That we’re struggling. 

That’s why asking for help makes us feel exposed. Because we’re opening up our deepest desires to the world’s scrutiny, rejection, disappointment and, worst of all, indifference. 

But as terrifying as it is to swallow our pride, extend our arm, lay down our mask and surrender into the gut churning surge of vulnerability, it’s always worth it. 

Because once we push through to the other side, something extraordinary happens. 

People are delighted to hear from us. They’re honored that we asked for their help. They’re inspired by our level of clarity and courage about what we really want. And in most cases, they’re happy to help in whatever way that they can.

It’s like my college professor used to say:

Friends want you to call on them. They want you to darken their doorstep in the middle of the night with your heart in your hands. Nothing would bring them more satisfaction than the opportunity to be there for you. It’s in the job description. That’s what friends do. If they didn’t want to help, they wouldn’t be your friend. 

Perhaps you’re looking for new career opportunities. You might begin by reaching out to let people know the kind of value you’ve provided for clients in the past with the hope that it might be useful to someone they know. 

In this situation, however, it’s not quite enough to simply ask friends and colleagues who they know that they would recommend you contact. It’s also critical to have the empathy to ask them what role they would be willing to play in connecting you, have the graciousness to follow up in a way that shows you appreciate their efforts, show the forethought to anticipate their potential level of involvement, and have the astuteness take measures to minimize any inconvenience and awkwardness during the conversation.  

Instead of creating the mental impression that they can’t help us, we believe that we’re a welcome presence. Instead assuming it’s an imposition on the person we’re asking, we believe that we possess tremendous value that we’d be remiss not to offer. 

And instead of thinking that our receiving is going to deprive somebody else, we believe that their generosity will be commensurately rewarded. 

Remember, before you ask, the answer is always no. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How many people did you ask for help today? 
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!

My favorite movies are the films where
not much happens except for life itself. 

They simply chronicle the way ordinary
time unfolds for people. The characters gently drift down a stream of
consciousness with no particular direction in mind, without the mechanics of a
plot, a dramatic three act structure, a formal narrative arc, an action packed
car chase or a predictably grandiose slow clap crescendo that wraps everything
up in tidy cinematic bow before the credits roll. 

These movies feel
spontaneous. They flow with a nice naturalness. Like documentaries with
invisible cameras and no professionally trained actors. 

That’s why they
resonate so deeply with people. Because they mirror real, authentic life. They
honor man’s search for exquisite ordinariness. 

Which is especially refreshing
in culture where every thirty second advertisement chews up the scenery and
brutalizes its viewers with an onslaught of contrived melodramatic choreography
to sell another bullshit product they don’t need. 

Look, there’s no doubt that
story are the tools that help human beings structure and interpret reality,
make sense of life and bring order to a world that is confusing and scary. The
human brain is psychological primed for narrative. 

But if we spend too much
time disappearing down the rabbit hole of our own mythology, we lose sight of
the fact that in great movie of life, not that much happens. And when it does,
there’s no award winning audio engineer standing by to cue the orchestra. 

Our
job, then, is to be open to the whole journey. To stay in step with the natural
rhythm of things. To gentle with ourselves when we get stuck. To trust that the
waiting part of change is necessary. 

Beattie said it best in her book about the
journey to the heart:

The desert cactus that blooms briefly once a year doesn’t
consider all the moments it is not in bloom wasted. It knows that the rest of
the year is beautiful and important too. 

Closure is an illusion. Life a collage
of disparate images pinned together less by narrative force than by states of
individual feeling.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Will you wait for life to reward you with a standing ovation, or accept its few quiet moments of truth?

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!

Productivity researchers warn us that our inability to execute is a result of external distractions. 

Mounting emails, buzzing phones, loudmouth coworkers, unscheduled meetings, internet browsing, chaotic environments, cigarette breaks, unexpected visits, pointless meetings, noisy neighbors and gossipy water cooler conversations. 

But while these various demands on our attention can certainly sidetracking, scapegoating them for our inability to ship does a disservice to our growth. 

Because it exports responsibility. It allows us take out our blame throwers and pass the buck to something simple and concrete and visible, like that annoying barking dog. That’s why we couldn’t do the work. 

When the reality is, the real reason we didn’t execute is because we weren’t strong enough to push away our inner distractions. We weren’t sensitive to the clamorous pulls of our mental, emotional and psychological obstacles, such as permission and guilt and fear and anger and stress and unworthiness and hopelessness and notenoughness and, my personal favorite, the compulsive need to control the universe. 

Catching up on email is not a distraction, slaying the dragon that says you’re a worthless piece of shit, is. 

Going to pointless meetings doesn’t derail your productivity, the crippling feelings of anxiety that you’re never going to get hired again, does.

Watching insipid videos on the internet doesn’t keep your from doing the work, rebalancing your fragile ego above the precipice of apathy and hopelessness, does. 

These are the kinds of inner distractions that we should focus on. 

Because if we can master them, there’s not a barking dog on this earth that can stand in our way. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What are the inner obstacles that are preventing you from being effective? 
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!

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What’s your relationship to the horizon that eludes your grasp?
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!

There’s a headline from a satire magazine that legitimately changed the way I think. The words were just so brutally honest, so perfectly hysterical and so terrifyingly close to home, that they couldn’t help but have a profound impact on my philosophy of life. 

Man pathetically waiting for that one email that changes everything. 

It was the story of my life. Spending a disproportionate amount of time hoping that pain of idleness will disappear. Waiting around with my heart in my hand, hoping for that one person, that one event, that one opportunity, that will change the trajectory of my career and plummet my into the future and into the life that I desire and deserve. Then and only then, will I finally be able to start living life again. 

Of course, I know it’s only a mirage I kiss. Because every time I get there, there disappears. The infinite horizon never fails to eludes my grasp. 

When will I learn to stop tricking myself into thinking my security comes from outside myself? When will I stop waiting for that one moment in time that will change everything? When will I accept that life’s many seasons are rarely fair but always trustworthy? 

Only time will tell. 

Carmon’s widely cited study on the behavioral economics of waiting in lines comes to mind. His research found the citizens of our country spend over thirty billion hours waiting in line each year. And the reason it’s so bloody torturous is the drudgery of unoccupied time, the uncertainty and anxiety of waiting and the nagging sensation that our lives are slipping away before our very eyes. 

What a perfect metaphor for the absurdity of the human condition. 

Because life is the line.

And in fact, every time I catch myself begging the rose of life to unfold faster, here’s what I tell myself.

This is it, this is life, this is as good as it gets, this is the best day of my life. 

It’s equal parts comforting, ridiculous and acquiescent. 

And it helps me get through the day. 

Linklater was right when he said, the ride does not require an explanation, only occupants. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What’s your relationship to the horizon that eludes your grasp?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!

According to the researchers at the international canine cognition center, dogs can learn up to one thousand words, which is roughly the vocabulary of a human toddler. 

What’s interesting is, out of all the words dogs know, there’s one in particular that evokes the strongest response. Treat. 

Ask anyone who grew up with a dog, and they’ll confirm that the word treat is a secret code for objects and events that are highly prized. When dogs hear it, they respond with an outburst of pure delight. The dog jumps around and wiggles and squeals with joy in anticipation of the treat he’s about to receive. 

Of course, this reflex is hot wired into the canine brain. The delicious treat causes them to express the conditioned and predictable reaction. And so, it’s not only an activation of saliva, but a activation of playfulness. Pavlov would be proud. 

My pit bull actually used to do her own little treat shuffle. Upon hearing the sound of the word or the shaking of the jar, she would go apeshit. The god would bolt into the living room and start performing twisting backflips. It was astounding. We should have entered her in one of those agility competitions. 

But that’s an incredible thing about dogs. They point out the human inability to enjoy life. They make us think, wow, I wish I liked anything as much as my dog liked treats.

And so, it’s a reminder for each of us to reassess our relationship with joy. Because the word treat literally means an act of hospitality given an expression of friendly regard. Anything that causes pleasure, enjoyment, delight, surprise and celebration. 

A treat doesn’t have to be a chalky biscuit that promotes a shiny coat, healthy teeth, cleaner breath and strong bones. Only a small, concrete way of being kind to ourselves, underscored by the belief that we deserve care and attention and love and reward. 

Are you blocking out time to nurture yourself with fun and frivolity? Are you allowing yourself a weekly budget for that which delights you? 

If not, if the voice of resistance keeps standing up to say that you’re too busy and too broke to take care of yourself, understand this. 

Your problem isn’t a lack of time and money for yourself, it’s a lack of intimacy with yourself. 

Remember, mentally congratulating ourselves isn’t enough. We have to take the time to deliberately, tangibly and specifically reward our own efforts. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

When was the last time you gave a treat to yourself?

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!

Saying no can be hard, but hearing no can be even harder.

That’s the two way street of healthy relationships. To quote the old playground
adage; 

If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out. 

And so, for every time we
courageously stand up for ourselves and declare our values, we must also be
equally respectful when people announce theirs. Because growing defensive and
becoming angry and pretending the word no
doesn’t exist and instinctively pulling down a curtain of denial and bulldozing
our way through the brick wall of other people’s boundaries, that’s not
persistence, that’s petulance. 

It may  be
highly effective when selling used cars, but in our personal relationships,
it’s just throwing stones from a glass house. 

When I first started my career as
a writer, my editor gave me a useful mantra for responding to critical readers.
He told me to tell them:

I respect your
opinion of my work. 

After all, we can’t get mad at people for disliking
something we made. It’s their perfect right. We would expect the same respect
to be extending towards us. And we have to learn to idle our motor even when we
feel like grinding our gears. To practice staying calm when people set
boundaries with us. 

Not to receive their act of integrity as a personal affront
to our existence, but to lovingly say to people, thank you for telling me about
your boundary, and I’ll do my best to respect it. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you more skilled at saying no to people than you are at hearing no from them?

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!

Foolish enough 

To put my whole heart on show

And reveal my feelings to the crowd below

Foolish enough

To set myself on fire just to keep you warm

There are not enough pockets in this uniform

One joy point for me

Find the love that you can never leave

Foolish enough

Mankind has always crucified

And she burned the depth of the spirit survived

Open the door

Break out of the gravity pull

Cry snake but only see rope

With a kiss that I felt in my toes

Watch the whole movie here.

* * * *

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!

Boundaries are limits that promote integrity and manifest our values. 

And so, the boundary setting process is more than saying what doesn’t feel good, it’s also saying what we need, want, enjoy and like. 

That’s why boundaries are worth every bit of time and energy and thought required to set and enforce them. Because they express our acceptance of ourselves as people who have real needs. And that’s not an insignificant thing. 

Especially in a world where so many of us have spent years mastering the art of giving away our energy, not knowing that it’s okay to take care of ourselves. 

But not unlike the scientific laws of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Including setting boundaries. The limits we proudly and proactively set are undoubtedly going to affect on other people. 

Beattie’s influential research on setting healthy boundaries in relationships reminds us that once we put a stake in the ground, we should prepare to feel the after burn. We should anticipate the guilt of saying what people don’t want to hear. And we should leave room for others to have emotions about our limitations.

Because certain people will become very angry when they realize our boundary is real. After all, it means they can’t use us anymore. And so, they will throw everything they have at us to restore the imbalance of power in the relationship. 

They might even attempt to guilt us into changing our minds. 

But the best thing we can do is announce to ourselves, I’m ready to let people feel awkward, and I don’t have to apologize for taking care of myself. 

That’s power. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Which resentment is holding you back from loving yourself?

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!

In the harsh light of hindsight, it’s tempting to curse and kick and berate ourselves for being so naïve. 

What the hell was I thinking? How could I have been so spectacularly blind? 

Of course, these kinds of questions only imprison us in our embittered histories. 

When the reality is, the past is not a problem to be solved, it’s a book to be read. A series of lessons to advance us to higher levels of loving and living. 

And so, the real questions are, can we forgive our past broken self and be proud of the current one? Can we clear the emotional wreckage of feelings about the past and use those experiences as tools to help ourselves and others to be more accepting of each other? 

That’s a more loving, kind, forgiving, compassionate and accepting way to live.

There’s no need to burden ourselves with an unwelcome inheritance we carry from sins past. It’s a colossal waste of time to throw our line over the wall of history and see what we can catch. 

Instead, let us forgive our past broken selves and be proud of the current ones.  

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you prepared to wake up and laugh how it used to be, or do you continue to prosecute yourself for crimes past?
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!