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What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Friends

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“Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.”
—Peter Ustinov

I like people.

I mean as a general principle.

Oh, sure. There are some folks that I really would rather not be around. But mostly I like hanging out with other people.

In my book there is nothing better than hanging out with a couple people either over a good meal, or perhaps in a big cushy chair with some coffee and shooting the breeze. It doesn’t much matter to me whether we are solving the world’s problems – politics, religion, famine, disaster, war, WordPress vs. TypePad – or just simply making small talk, either way I’m for a good round of jawing most times.

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So when it comes down to it, I’m all about friends.

Friend Defined

Who is a friend? I mean there are friends and there are Friends, if you know what I mean. [Read more…]

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Being Organized

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“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
—A.A. Milne

I am not a tidy person. My Gorgeous wife sometimes refers to me as a “messy”

Really what she means is that I don’t continuously reorganize stuff like she does. I have a tendency to put things down and then not pick them up again until I need to use them.

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Of course that time may never come.

Hence the clutter that I tend to accumulate along with labels like “messy”.

The good news was I could pretty much find anything I set down because it was located right where I left it. I could reach down through the various strata on my desk right into the exact level where the piece of paper I needed and retrieve it in a moment. It was arguably faster than if I had to go find a perfectly labeled file in a drawer.

At least it used to be.

Now I live with an organizer. Rarely do I find things where I left them. They get put away, moved, organized, or even {gasp} thrown out!

Before you get all on my wife’s case, things are much tidier than when I lived on my own. I’m no longer embarrassed by clutter when folks come to visit. It is definitely a good trade.

A Dichotomy

There is, however a weird, almost schizophrenic, part of me that tends to be highly organized at work.

I’ve had to be over the years because of the things I’ve done and the positions I’ve held.

Very strange that I’ve never seemed to bring that quality home with me.

Even as a kid I was a “messy”. When I was a teenager my mom gave me a little poster with that A.A. Milne quote on it. Of course I didn’t realize that’s who said it even though I was quite familiar with his stories.

Yet I did OK in school.

It’s like there’s two Chrises (What is the correct plural form of a name like Chris? Chris’s? Chrises? Chrisssses?)

Where was I. Oh, yes. Two of me. Anyway the whole thing seems strange, that I can be very organized in one environment and very much less than organized in another.

But the cool thing is that I am constantly making exciting discoveries at home!

And that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Questions

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“What if this were not a hypothetical question?”

I love to ask questions.

When I was a tyke I like to drove my folks bug-nuts with the “Why, Mommy? Why, Daddy? Why? Why? Why?” questions that never much seemed to end.

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Even now as I approach my fourth decade I still tend to get conversations rolling by asking questions that I may or may not think I’ve got an answer for. I’m not in the teaching profession but I love seeing the light bulb go off when someone I’m talking with “gets it.”

I have a Brazilian friend who said there is a Portuguese phrase for that light bulb moment. It escapes me right now but I remember the English translation: “nickel down”. He told me it came from the old vending machines they used to have South of the Equator. You didn’t get whatever you were trying to buy from the machine until the nickel dropped down.

My mom’s a high school biology teacher still, so maybe I come by it genetically. I don’t know.

Thinking Excercise

One big reason questions are so wonderful is that they force us to think. And thinking can keep us young.

Not only that, but thinking through questions and problems and scenarios can help prepare us for times of crisis.

I remember we were living in Florida when hurricane Floyd was forming up in the Atlantic. Because I was in marine operations in the shipping business I keep close tabs on the storm systems out there. Looking at the satellite photos of that storm I called Gorgeous and told her to start packing up. Because if the storm didn’t change tracks we were going to be heading out.

And that was 5 days before the storm hit the coast. Got a framed picture of Floyd taken three days after that phone call hanging on my office wall right now.

Hurricane Floyd 14 September 1999Fortunately for us packing up and heading out was fairly simple and straight forward. Why? Because we’d asked ourselves a question prior to that day.

What would we do if “the Big One” was headed our way?

For us, living right near the Florida coast surrounded by tidal marsh (our subdivision at the time was called “Marsh Lakes” 🙄 ) the question was not hypothetical. The danger was real. In 18 years of living in the Southeast I’ve run from about a half a dozen storms. I’ve also ridden out a couple doozies onboard ships. I’ve seen their destructive power up close and personal.

Therefore we treated the question much more seriously than a hypothetical exercise. We actually invested the effort it took to come up with a workable plan. And because of the way we treated the question, facing the reality was not nearly as big a deal when the time came as it was for many other folks.

How You Respond Makes a Difference

How do you respond when you see a question?

Many people just gloss over it with a little, “Hmmph.” And then they go about their business.

Other folks don’t even notice that a question was asked.

If you fall into one of those categories you may very well one day end up like a friend of ours. She grew up in that coastal Florida town, lived there all her life, and never even thought about “the Big One.”

When it eventually came she was in a tight spot. She was seriously stressed out to say the least.

Fortunately we were on top of our game well enough that while I sorted out the ships I had to get out of the way of the storm at work Gorgeous went over and adapted our plan to their situation. It worked out that our friend got some help from us to get her and her infant baby out of harms way. And her cat. And her dog. And her Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.

We brought the whole zoo (plus our own cat) along with us to higher ground.

The Choice is Yours

So the next time someone asks you a challenging or difficult question you have a choice.

You can blow it off and hope you never face that situation in reality. Or, if you do, that a good friend will come a long and bail you out if you ever get in that jam.

Or you can think about it as if it really wasn’t a hypothetical question and work out how you’d respond for real. Then if you ever find yourself in that situation you will be way ahead of the game. And folks will appreciate how well you respond when things around you start falling apart. Trust me.

But that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Ideas

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“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.” –Howard Aiken

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The other day Liz posted about having dreams and how challenging it can sometimes be turning those dreams into reality.

About that same time Chris Brogan tossed out a phrase over at Twitter that caught my attention.

Lots of visionaries and not enough princes of execution

So which is it?

Do we need more dreamers or more doers?

Honestly I think we need more of both.

Too many of us are sitting on the couch, eating Klondike Bars, and watching American Idol. We’d rather complain about how unfair Simon is than allow ourselves to think about possibilities and potentialities.

And God forbid we ever get off our butts and actually start making something happen!

Now don’t get me wrong. Most of you know I’m a huge fan of Klondike Bars. (Mmmmm…)

Dreaming Can Be Scary Stuff

But the point is this. For far too many of us the idea of dreaming about what could be in the future is too frightening. We let the what ifs overwhelm us without even giving our dream a chance to take root, much less produce any fruit.

What if I fail and am disappointed?

Or worse yet, what if I succeed beyond my capabilities, can’t manage it and then in the end fail in a spectacularly public way?

Would you just take a moment and listen to the junky thoughts you let run through your mind?! If you heard someone else say that sort of stuff out loud you’d be all over them like a baseball manager on a umpire’s bad call.

Then There’s the Doing

In our instant gratification, microwave, atm, cell phone society far too many off us have developed an amazingly unhealthy aversion to a little effort.

We’ll drive around the Wal-Mart parking lot for 10 minutes trying to find a parking place up front instead of just parking out a little and walking a few extra steps. Even though deep down we know we’d get in the store faster if we did.

One of the biggest reasons so many of us are unwilling or unable to dream any more is because we think we’ve tried it and it didn’t work out. So we’ve given up.

But the reality is all we did was wish. And that’s not the same thing as dreaming.

A wish is something we think we’d like to have or see but don’t really think will ever happen. To many of us do that and think we are dreaming.

Dreaming is seeing something that isn’t there yet as though it was real already. When we seriously get to dreaming, there will come a moment when action is required to turn that dream into reality. With a wish we never have to worry about that step because we won’t get to it.

Turning our dreams into reality will require us to put down the Klondikes, turn off Idol, and do something.

Change is the Rub

Here’s the thing about that quote up there at the top. Watching our dreams become reality will require change.

And change? Fohr-ghet-ta-bow-tiht!

If your dream, your big idea, is truly different that what has gone before you won’t have to worry about anyone stealing it. The overwhelming majority of folks out there are so unwilling to change, even when they know the change will be a huge benefit to them.

Don’t believe me? Try to convince a smoker to quit.

Your dream, if it is truly unique to you, is relatively safe. Use appropriate caution and protect yourself wisely. But don’t worry too much.

Most folks aren’t going to be willing to make the changes necessary to steal your dream.

But that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Wanting

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“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” –Abraham Lincoln

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Oh, how true it is!

How often do we find ourselves in that same situation? Or, if you are too uncomfortable to admit it yourself, how often have you seen someone else there?

I’m not sure what I’ve got. But I want something different.

I suspect a massive percentage of our problems in this world can be traced back to that simple state of discontentment. [Read more…]

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Research

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“Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.” –Wernher von Braun

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You may remember the name Wernher von Braun. He was a true rocket scientist. One of the first.

He headed up the rocket program for Nazi Germany in World War II and when the war was ending surrendered to US troops and was moved to the States to continue working on his rockets.

I remember him as the mythical hero of the main character in the movie October Sky. You know. The one that the main character met in his moment of triumph and didn’t even recognize.

I can relate to that moment.

Anyway. There is no question that von Braun was a brilliant man. Even if I’m not.

Phraseology Power

Words are powerful.

How we phrase things can make all the difference.

I sometimes tell people “I’m deadline motivated.” My wife says that’s a polite way to say that I’m a procrastinator.

If you had a choice, which one would you share with folks?

Now I see there is a polite way to describe all the time I’m on the internet. I used to think I was just cruising the web, surfing the internet. Mostly just poking around. My wife is often tempted to say I’m wasting time.

Now, in those moments when the subject comes up, I can honestly say, “No honey. I’m doing some basic research.”

Talk about a better say to say it! Perfect.

Research in Action

During my research time (I gotta start practicing this one now) putting this post together I found that Homer Hickam, the guy that wrote the book that the movie October sky is based on, has a web site.

I think that’s cool because Gorgeous and I listened to one of his other books on tape during our road trip over the holidays. We really enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it enough that the author’s name stuck with me. And that’s saying something.

You can even check out Homer Hickam’s blog.

Well its sort of bloggish. A little bit.

I guess blogs are starting to become cool, even if folks don’t quite get it completely yet. But that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.