Murphy Gold News – October, 2009 issue has been published.

October 13, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Murphy NC 28906, Murphy North Carolina

It’s October and fall is here in Murphy, NC.

The nights are getting cooler and the days are more comfortable. Before long, all the mountains will be covered by trees showing off their best fall colors.

New Businesses

I’d like to welcome three businesses to Murphy Gold this month:

(The complete list is in our Local Business Directory.)

Advertising – Direct Mail Print Advertising: The Green Sheets, owned by Audrey and Tom.

Auto Towing and Wrecker Service: Timco Transportation, owned by Tim Dockery.

Movie Theater: Henn Theatre, owned by Bill Grove.

New Special Offers

You’re invited to take advantage of these new special offers:

Advertising – Direct Mail Print Advertising

Audrey and Tom, owners and operators of The Green Sheets, are happy to offer merchants this special offer: 10% off your first advertisement!

Movie Theater

Bill Grove, owner and operator of the Henn Theatre, is pleased to offer you a Free upsize on any drink or popcorn (get a large for medium price, medium for small price).

We hope you’ll take advantage of these and all the other Murphy Gold Special Offers. You get more for your money by asking for these special offers when you purchase at a Murphy Gold Business. Just tell them you heard about them at Murphy Gold, or, if you prefer, print out the coupon and take it with you to the Murphy Gold business of your choice.

Get the rest of the news.

Go read Murphy Gold News, Issue 2, hot off the presses:

Murphy Gold News, Issue #002 — October, 2009 — More new businesses and special offers for you!

All the best,

Tags: buy local, coupons, Murphy Gold, News, newsletter, special offers

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-11

October 11, 2009 by JD · Comments Off
Filed under: Twitter

@BudgetMarketing Thanks for the retweet! I appreciate it. #
@Mitch_M Hi Mitch. Thanks for the retweet. I appreciate it. #
@Kim_M Good morning, Kimberly. Thank you for the retweet! #
I enjoyed a delicious lunch at ShoeBooties Cafe today and enjoyed talking with George and Muffy, the owners. #MurphyNC #
Thanking everyone who worked together to bring The Moving Wall Vietnam Veterans Memorial to our community. #MurphyNC #

Tags: tweets, Twitter

Think and Grow Rich test: Are you annoyed by petty disturbances?

October 10, 2009 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 19. Are you annoyed by petty disturbances?

In general, I am not.

In the past, when I lived in an apartment, I would have had to answer differently. I would become annoyed at all kinds of noises I could hear from the surrounding rooms.

Now that I’m living back in the country, about the only thing that annoys me is dogs barking when I’m trying to sleep.

I’ve consciously moved away from other things that used to annoy me. It’s made a big difference.

What about you?

Are you annoyed by petty disturbances?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you let others think for you?

October 10, 2009 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 18. Do you let other people do your thinking for you?

No, I don’t.

I’m tempted to leave it at that.

I don’t let anyone dictate how I think, what my opinions are, or anything similar.

I welcome feedback, opinions, new ideas, and so forth, but I always run them through my own opinions, biases, beliefs, and filters. Then, I make my own decisions, come to my own conclusions, and move on.

Right or wrong, through hard and easy times, I think for myself.

What about you?

Do you let other people do your thinking for you?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you avoid your troubles by being busy?

October 10, 2009 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 17. Do you avoid your troubles by being busy?

This is another question I can answer easily and definitively.

No, I don’t.

On the other hand, sometimes I avoid my troubles by not thinking about them, but that doesn’t equate to avoiding them by being busy.

Perhaps denial comes in many forms.

To get a little closer to what I think the question means, however, I avoid my troubles in several other ways. I’m sure we all do.

Even though I put them off for awhile, at some point they just have to be addressed, put on the to-do list, and eventually checked off as done. I don’t really know any other way to deal with them.

What about you?

Do you avoid your troubles by being busy?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

The Moving Wall is a moving experience

October 10, 2009 by JD · 4 Comments
Filed under: Murphy NC 28906, Murphy North Carolina, Musings

I’m going to preface this by saying that since I was a teenager in high school I was very opposed to the war in Vietnam. I still hold that view.

Even so, I’ve never been one of those people who took it out on the people who served in the military in Vietnam.

It has been a long time since I really thought about the Vietnam War and that all changed this week.

The Cherokee Scout ran a series of articles about local people who served in the war and I was moved enough by one of them that I called him and thanked him for what he did. We had a pleasant conversation for the next 20 minutes. I already respected him a lot, but, now, even more.

(I won’t mention any names. This was between him and me.)

I was never in the military, but I worried about the draft all through high school.

Unlike many of my friends, I was not drafted, but they were and quite a few of them went to Vietnam.

On Friday, October 9, 2009, I went to see The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC.

(I uploaded some photos of The Moving Wall in Murphy, NC on MurphyConnections.com.)

Every volunteer I saw was friendly and helpful.

After walking down the flag-bedecked path to the Wall, located right next to the River Walk, we arrived at the booth where all guests were asked to sign the register.

I think one of my cousins was killed in the war, but he was not a close cousin and I didn’t know his name. When one of the volunteers asked if I was looking for anyone in particular, I told him my cousin’s last name. He looked in the huge book and found a number of people with that same name, but none of them were from the Atlanta area. So, I wasn’t going to look for a particular name on the wall.

(After talking with my brother this afternoon, I realized I was thinking of the wrong branch of the family. He told me the name of our cousin who died in Vietnam. I’m going to try to get back to the Moving Wall before they leave and see if I can find his name.)

I spent a few minutes just standing there looking at it.

The Moving Wall is longer than I thought, but only half as long as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

I started walking down the Wall and looking at the names. At first, there are only a few names on each panel, but as you approach the center of the memorial, there are more and more names until the panels are full.

It affected me more than I thought it would. Even though I didn’t know anyone whose name was on that memorial, I had to stop along the way and read a few of the names and realize that these were real people who served and died in Vietnam.

Every now and then, someone would leave something stuck between two of the panels or something at the foot of the monument. There were photos of the people who had died, a few flowers, and even a pair of boots.

By the time I reached the end of The Moving Wall, I had tears in my eyes. I had to sit on one of the River Walk benches and let it all sink in.

At that moment, I had an entirely new way to look at the Vietnam War, and this time it was personalized by the names I read on that wall. Now, I understand the photos I’ve seen of people who visited the actual memorial in Washington.

I don’t know anyone on that wall, but others have friends, relatives, and people they served with memorialized there.

I felt a level of empathy for not just the names on the wall, but for the real people those names represent and for all the people who knew them.

It’s not just 58,000+ names, it’s hundreds of thousands of people who were personally affected by the war and the tragedy of so many lives cut short.

As I left, I stopped and thanked each volunteer I saw for helping to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

I realized that I was lucky and so were my friends. Of all the people I know who served in the Vietnam War, all of them came home alive. Some were radically changed and others were seriously wounded, but none of them died there.

Not everyone was that fortunate.

These words do not really represent how deeply I was moved by visiting the memorial, but they’re the best I can do.

I want to thank the Marine Corps League #1011, all the volunteers, and the sponsors, individuals, and businesses that contributed to bring The Moving Wall to Murphy.

If you haven’t visited, yet, you still have a couple more days.

All the best,

Tags: moving wall, vietnam veterans memorial, vietnam war

Think and Grow Rich test: Are you careless about your appearance?

October 7, 2009 by JD · 6 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 16. Are you careless about your personal appearance?

Anyone who looks at me knows the answer to this question.

Yes, I am.

I prefer to dress very casually and don’t spend much time getting haircuts and trimming my beard.

I don’t enjoy dressing up and I haven’t owned a suit for decades.

This has caused me problems in the past, but what isn’t obvious is that I do this for a purpose.

Part of it is based on my personal comfort and part is a reaction formation based on people I knew when I was younger and just getting started with computer consulting.

It was about that time that Dress for Success was published and I never liked that book or the attitude behind it.

I also met lots of other people who presented themselves as experts and dressed the part. The problem arose when I realized that well over half of them made a good first impression, but weren’t able to deliver the goods they promised when it got down to the technical issues and the skills they said they had.

At the time, when consulting, I normally wore a suit and I was driving a silver Lincoln Continental. Eventually, I traded in the suit and tie for jeans and sweatshirts and sold the Lincoln and went back to driving a pick up.

While I don’t present as good a first impression, I know that I have a lot of depth in several areas and I can deliver what I promise. My approach, these days, weeds out the people who are oriented to appearance and surface impressions.

People with more depth are able to see past the initial impression and these are the people I enjoy working with.

I’m sure most people will disagree with me on this, and that’s okay with me.

Here’s your chance…

What about you?

Are you careless about your personal appearance?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich test: Do you put up with negative influences?

October 7, 2009 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 15. Do you put up with negative influences?

This is another question that is easy to answer.

No, I don’t put up with negative influences.

When I was younger, I was more tolerant to these things, but I have practically no tolerance these days.

Along the way, I learned to avoid “psychic blackholes” and “psychic vampires” and I’m better off, as a result.

That isn’t even metaphysical. It just means that I’ve learned to avoid situations and people who drain me with negativity.

It’s much easier to keep a positive attitude when you surround yourself with positive people. Even though we all go through the down times, it’s much easier to improve when people are urging you upwards instead of dragging your downwards.

How about you?

Do you put up with negative influences?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich test: Who is the most inspiring person you know?

October 5, 2009 by JD · 1 Comment
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Site Build It, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 14. Who is the most inspiring person you know?

This is an interesting question, and I had to stop and think about it a few minutes before answering.

To answer this, I have to preface it by saying that I don’t personally know any of the people I’ve considered, but I do know them from their writings and some limited correspondence with a couple of them.

I thought hard about whether any of the people I know in “real life” would qualify for this, but, sadly, the answer is no.

So, I started thinking about authors who have influenced my life.

Certainly Napoleon Hill would count and he’d be in the top two or three.

I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from Zig Ziglar and Og Mandino.

I’ve read a variety of other books by authors who are very inspiring, but the more I think about it, the more one name rises to the top of the list.

For the last few years, the most inspiring person I know has to be Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell.

(Full disclosure: The links to Sitesell are affiliate links and I can earn a commission if you purchase from them. That’s how I earn my living. However, that’s not enough reason to choose Ken Evoy over the others I’ve considered. He just naturally rose to the top of the list the more I thought about the question.)

Ken has inspired me on numerous occasions and I look forward to his newsletters and his postings on the members-only forum that Sitesell hosts.

Ken was largely responsible for teaching me about affiliate marketing and that made a huge difference in my life over the last decade.

I’ve also watched him inspire many others along the way.

Ken is no Pollyanna, however. He won’t tell you everything is going to be great if he disagrees with your approach.

One of the main things I’ve learned from him and which I try to keep at the top of my mind, especially when I’m looking at new strategies for getting visitors to my websites, is his mantra of “Keep it real.”

That is a very grounding influence and has helped me avoid some things that look good at first glance, but don’t have the required reality when you look beyond the surface.

I recently wrote about a couple of Ken’s ebooks on my affiliate marketing blog: Getting back to the basics of affiliate marketing

I’m not the only person Ken has inspired.

Many thousands of websites have been built and hosted using Ken’s Site Build It service. Most of them were built by individuals and owners of very small businesses. They are learning how to be successful on the web by following the advice and the system that Ken founded. This is having a real, direct influence on their lives – for the better.

Did everyone who used Site Build It! succeed? Obviously, the answer is no. However, I believe they had a better chance at building an online business by following the SBI approach.

A good number of them are active on the Sitesell forums and I’ve watched Ken, over the years, offer helpful advice and inspirational support to a great number of them.

I have thought about other business, political, and religious leaders and I just don’t find them as inspiring as Ken Evoy has been to me personally.

I would have to include President Obama in the short list of inspiring people, but he hasn’t had as direct an influence on my life as some of the others.

Even after thinking about this for awhile, I’m sure I’ll kick myself when I remember others who have been inspirational after I publish this answer.

I’m sure you’ll have other choices and I look forward to hearing who they are.

What about you?

Who is the most inspiring person you know?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich test: Are you elated and depressed?

October 5, 2009 by JD · 2 Comments
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 13. Are you sometimes elated and sometimes depressed?

I am very rarely elated, but I edge into depression for a short time every few years or so. Not often, but I don’t like it when it happens.

On the entire elated/depressed continuum, if elation were 1 and depression were 10, then I’d generally rank about a 4 and I don’t think I ever rise above a 2 or drop below an 8.

Lately, though, I think I’ve been around a 6 or 7 on the scale and I’m looking forward to bringing it back up.

I’ve known people who swing wildly back and forth on this scale and I’m not one of them. I tend to hover, for the most part, in the middle.

What about you?

Are you sometimes elated and sometimes depressed?

All the best,

Tags: Napoleon Hill, self-assessment, test, Think and Grow Rich

« Previous Page — Next Page »