Independence Day

July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The Declaration of Independence.  Can you imagine, Kelvin, how the founding fathers of our 13 original colonies must have felt, as they prepared that document to deliver to the King of England.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

These words are all we typically hear of the declaration of independence.  After this passage, the volume usually lowers on the voices, the music gets louder and we're left to "remember" (or imagine) what the rest of the document says.  I've included a link here so you can go read what the rest of it says:  http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/  Even if you're not American it's worth reading in it's entirety... at least once.

A lot has changed in the past 236 years.  We don't talk like that now. The written words have not changed, but I think some of the definitions of what was written have changed --  via usage or convention or interpretation.  So the words are pronounced the same, but they don't necessarily mean the same things they did then.  In some cases that's good, and in others... not so much. But I'm not going to debate that here.

What I do say is that this document launched our nation, and I think it's wise to reflect on who we were and what we stood for as a nation in the beginning, because all of our greatness -- and any of our shame -- is an outgrowth of this document and the way we have interpreted or re-interpreted it over the past 236 years.

In any case, I am an American, and am intensely positively proud to be an American and to celebrate our Independence Day, today. And nowhere better in the world can you master your mindset to master your life, than here.
 

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Freedom Is Not Free

On September 13, 1971, I left mom's house (home), at the tender age of 17... and joined the Air Force.  I wasn't to truly understand how that made my mother feel until my baby boy, Michael, left my home on May 27, 2004 to join the Navy.  That felt very strange; painful at first, until I adjusted to it.  And although my middle child, Kelvin, Jr, joined the Army and left in January 2002 (just 3 months after 9-11), his mother and I were divorced and he didn't live with me, so I didn't get the full effect of how it felt to have your child leave you "for the military" until I faced it first hand with Michael.

In my family, my father served, 2 of his brothers served, and one retired. I've one cousin who served (and retired), I served and retired.  My two sons served -- baby boy for 7 years and Kelvin Jr is serving his 11th year.  We are fortunate and have not lost any of our family members in combat, but we're all touched by someone who did.

Memorial Day honors the men and women of the armed forces who lost their lives defending our freedom: our freedom to be, our freedom to do, our freedom to say.  Over the years, some of the freedoms that have been exercised, have even spoken harshly of the military which ensured that freedom, yet the men and women of the military defended those freedoms... just the same.

As we celebrate Memorial Day today, I encourage you to think of how different life might be had those men and women not given their lives, had those battles not been fought and won.  Look around the globe at the conditions in the countries that we have opposed and that have opposed us.  Now imagine living in those systems...and if you can't summons up some appreciation for the folks who fought against those systems.. then, there's a bigger problem at hand.

The phrase has become cliche, but the fact is the fact:  Freedom is NOT free, and I salute and honor the souls of those who paid the fee.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Happy Valentine's Day (from Vitamin K)

February 14, 2012 Mmmmm, Good morning, my friend...  Happy Valentine's Day!  Can you hear the birds singing... even in the snow-laden areas? And can't you feel that special energy in the air, even if you're tired? Can you feel the joy of a special person and how glad they are to have you, or at least know you?   Last year I said that with all the mess and confusion happening around the world, it's beautiful that there is still a day set aside each year, for love. Yet, with all the hub bub about "lovers" and diamond rings" and engagements and such... it creates an atmosphere where people who aren't in relationships might feel like they're not whole... like maybe there's something wrong with them -- or, rather, "us." I don't have the problem, but I usually know a few who do. But if we can remember, again, back to when we were kids in school... and we'd get that package of cards and those sweet little candies and we gave one to everybody in our class!  No shortage of love that day -- little cards, little heart shaped candies...and some occasional hugs?  Everybody got some love.  So, even if you're not in a relationship, here I am with my "everybody gets a little love today" card!  There are many special people in my life who give me joy, and each of them has a little piece of my heart (though some have a little bigger chunk than others.)  Hopefully you're life is the same way!  And not be out done, here's  a little chocolate:  no calories and NO migraines, but if you look at it long enough... You'll start to smell it.Mmmm. Yes?  My work here is done. So wishing you lots of people who give you joy, and get joy from you, and may you feel an abundance of love today, starting with your own self appreciation of the wonderful person you are.  And remember, THIS year...  I gave you chocolate. Have a ssssweet day. Kelvin

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A Cool Business Decision (IMHO)

Sometimes when you're out there "doing what you do" you never know what great things are waiting in the wings to support your journey.  And when you MAKE A DECISION to make something happen, it sparks some action in the universe and sometimes the MAP to the treasure chest just appears at your feet.

If you've been following me for a while then you know I've been fine-tuning my business model and I determined that 2012 is my year. I'm unifying all the facets of my business activities under one brand -- Intensely Positive -- because it identifies my mind set and my life choice, really, and many awesome things have presented themselves to help me on my adventure.

One such awesome event was being chosen by Jacqueline Edwards of Business Pipeline for a promotional interview to be posted on her website and exposed to her contacts and colleagues, that could help increase my visibility. She'd been looking at my activities via Twitter and thought her services would be of value so she approached me. Initially, I thought she was just being nice to me because I was a nice guy, so when she mentioned that there was a fee... I balked -- had an attack of that small business / small mind thing.

These days, whenever something comes into my life I query it to see how it fits, and why the opportunity came to me, and the words of my good friend and advisor Sophie L'hoste rang in my ears.  Two years ago Sophie said to me, "Kelvin, I notice that whenever an opportunity comes to you, you like to bargain for it. You want to have money but you never want to spend money; you like the free stuff.  If you look around your life -- your business life -- you'll see that you are attracting people who feel the same way you do.  They don't want to pay for your services; they want to bargain and get it for free."  Those words have been with me every day since she said them... and they've changed the way I look at things.  In the words of Wayne Dyer, "When you change the way you look at things; the things you look at change."

So I said yes to Jacqueline, sent her the (very reasonable) fee she requested and we scheduled the interview! Note that the interview was for a 5 minute spot on her new website.  I asked Jacqueline for the interview questions ahead of time, and she gently declined with, "I want  your listeners to have authentic answers, not something you rehearsed to perfection."  (Hmmm. Integrity; how about that.) I didn't like it, but I agreed.  I am a Toastmaster, after all (hee hee), so impromptu questions aren't a problem for me.  So the morning of the interview, she called -- precisely on time.  We had some initial hello chat (we'd been twitter followers for two years but had never taken it off 140), conducted the interview, then had some more chat, then off she went.  In two weeks (busy season for her) she posted the interview on Twitter.

I was initially shocked. She under-promised and over-delivered.  I expected a 5 minute interview posted on her site, but the teaser YouTube video really got me excited.  Then she spent time promoting that video and interview to her lists. Just looking at the work she put in to putting that presentation together, my first thought was, "Wow... this is worth way more than she charged me."  Major Win!  And there were other nice surprises I didn't expect.

So am I glad I did it?  Absolutely!  Was it worth it? Absolutely, because not only is it on her web site and promoted to her clients and contacts, but I have the option of putting them on my website as I wish.  Small business owners -- really small business owners -- don't usually have access to quality presentations.  We tend to do a lot ourselves FOR ourselves, and most of us aren't really talented enough to create the presentations we really need to represent us.  I believe that Jacqueline and Business Pipeline can give us that little extra "umph", that little push of exposure, that little boost to our public image, whether she's sending new traffic our way or whether the traffic we already get starts looking at us in a new way.  What's one new client worth in your business?

So check them out at their website, follow her on Twitter (@helpbusinesses), check out my video and interview (the interview link is right under the video), and decide for yourself.

To your success!  Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Tons of Self-Improvement Materials

We all look for self-improvement information from time to time, and I ran across -- okay, was invited -- to this one, and also invited to submit my gifts.  I contributed a 5 day Positivity Boost... sample of vitamin K and a free 1200x800 pixel inspirational computer wallpaper. 

There's a plethora of free information here, so I encourage you to take a look and see if anything piques your interest.  There's over 600 free items during this one-month promotion including:


* Affirmations For A Wealthy Mindset Audio - Elaine Lockard
* The All-Natural, No-Fail Weight-Loss System - Willie Crawford
* 10 Free Personal Development Reports - Steven Aitchison
* Sound Transformation Starter Kit - Iain Legg
* A Beginners Guide To Running - Paul Klein
* 3 FREE Hypnosis MP3s - Dan Bainbridge
* How to Make Your Mind a Money Magnet! - Dr. Robert Anthony
* The Law of Attraction Key - Kristen Howe
* Create Your Own Self Improvements Products - Keith Purkiss
* Brain Maximization Package - Alvin Huang
* And Much Much More!

It all starts here, so give it a look:
http://selfimprovementgifts6.com/go/1221

Have an awesome day!
Kelvin P Ringold, Sr

P.S. Download all the gifts immediately and check
back often because more are being added all the
time:
http://selfimprovementgifts6.com/go/1221