After rereading Combinations by Ed Gerety this past week I ended up totally energized and motivated. One thing that I have been noticing so much more is the negativity all around. It is something that, I think is a plague on the Internet (among other places). I don’t know if it is a way of trying to appear smarter or something, but I see so many people putting things down for no reason.

However, the ones that don’t, those people who stay positive they are the ones that I want to surround myself with. I noticed so much negativity yesterday as I stayed on twitter through the Superbowl. Tweets of that ad sucked, that movie is going to suck and on and on. Such quick rushes to judgment, to be the first to get in that negative jab. There is just so much of it that it all becomes noise after a while. What I should have done is weed out those negatives as I watched the twitter feed and thin out the people I am following to those who motivate instead of stagnate.

The last combination of Ed’s book Combinations is Believe. I was going to post this yesterday but spent the day making food for the game.

Ed tells of a story of kids challenging themselves in a retreat where they go rock climbing. I went rock climbing the first couple of weekends of my Freshman year of college. I am not a fan of heights and had such a fear of falling that I clung to the rock and refused to lean back and let my partner help me and lower me back down. I hung back on the rock and climbed back down eyes shut tightly and always looking up. I didn’t trust or beleive in the people around me or in myself. I had missed the point. However out of one failure there was learning and growth.

A few years later I had the opportunity to go to an indoor Rock Climbing gym with a group of people, this time I let myself beleive in myself and trust in the people with me. Leaning back letting go of the security in front of me was scary as hell but exhilarating at the same time. So often we need to just let go and believe in the strength within us in order to achieve great things.

One of my heroes has always been Walt Disney and I see that he was one of Ed’s too because Ed included my favorite Disney Quote. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Disney didn’t just utter those words, he lived them. A man who had many failures, bankrupt multiple times and many many ventures. However, he never stopped believing in himself and he never stopped trying. It is a good thing that he did beleive in himself because his legacy has given joy to so many around the world.

The power of bloggers in action.

A couple of years ago I worked on my High School Reunion. I had planned the 10 year and was pretty much burnt out from the work involved. I didn’t want to do the 15 year reunion. However, one of my classmates convinced me to help. She recruited me because she needed help to make this reunion also one where my classmates could come together to help raise money for the family of another one of my classmates. We worked very hard getting donated items for a silent auction and we raised over $1600.00 to help with cancer treatments.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the family online and saw that they were selected as part of Oprah’s Big Give. They were given a day to remember in New York, a new truck and some financial help. It was what happened after that is sad. After all of this their town pretty much turned against them. Here was a guy fighting a very aggressive Cancer, worrying as a father does about what he can do to help his family when he physically cannot work. He and his family did not need that negativity in their lives.

I was contacted by a woman who runs a campground, she had befriended the family and wanted to do something special for them. Somehow she found my posts and asked me for help. She was going to host the family for a weekend and wanted to give them something special to motivate them and let them know that people did care and were praying for them to persevere and continue to hope and beleive.

I remembered my High School retreat called Echo. During Echo the retreat participants receive palanka. Palanka was notes, small gifts and general good wishes People wrote some of the most amazing and revealing things to others to help them have a great inspirational weekend. So I wanted to gather palanka for the family. But gather it from whom?

The power of bloggers (finally to my point)

I contacted many bloggers and put out the call to everyone I could find to help me by sending me a photo of inspiration plus inspirational quotes. I even set up a Spark on SocialSpark to get people to help. What I wanted was positive energy only. The theme was Hold on to Hope. I wanted the family to have the most positive experience possible while watching the video during their camping weekend. I had an amazing response by some incredible bloggers and through this I was introduced to Endure.Online.

Chad from Endure.Online made a contribution of a photo from when he launched Endure.Online. Chad was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006 and he is now clear. He has a pretty amazing philosophy to Above All Endure, what an amazing belief in himself and his purpose driven life. To have that belief in oneself and drive to overcome his disease, that was the exact energy that I wanted to harness in the video for the family.

So many people came together to help me with this video. I see so much negativity online but am always energized to see the positive side as well. Without believing in the good you miss it amidst the negative. So when you find it, cultivate it and shine a light on it.

Action Plan

Find an inspirational story about someone who overcame the odds, someone who had deep belief in themselves and blog about it. Share that inspirational story with your readers. Spread a little positivity today.

Remember If you Believe it, You can Achieve it!