Curious about Facts: What Kind of Influence Do They Have on Our Lives, Thoughts, and Businesses. How Do You Use Them?

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” - Abraham Lincoln, American President

“There are no facts, only interpretations.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

I picked facts for this week’s blog theme for several reasons. With the Internet today we have so many facts and/or information at our fingertips, it is almost impossible to avoid overwhelm and overload. Because of this, a good number of marketers warn us to avoid the facts when writing sales letter copy. And yet, others say to always include the facts, because they give buyers the rationale for buying after they have emotionally decided they want the product.

Then, there is the question about truth and the facts. I found 14 pages of quotations and quite a few brought up the question about truthful facts – even though many were of the age before the Internet. There were also quotations about the influence from facts upon education, creativity, and imagination.

The British writer Arthur Conan Doyle stated, “Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” My father always stressed the importance of leaving room for useful information, rather than memorizing a bunch of facts that you could look up in the library, a phone book, a dictionary, and/or a cookbook. Fortunately, I attended a college that believed the same way.

Now, onto some of the interesting facts quotations:

• “My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.” - Thomas Huxley, English scientist
• “General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves.” –
  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet
• “The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.” - Mortimer Adler, American philosopher
• “When you seek advice, do not withhold any facts from the person whose advice you seek.” - Abu Bakr, Saudi Arabian statesman
• “Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.” - Henry B. Adams, American historian
• “When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.” - Al Gore, American Vice President
• “Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts.” - Henri Poincare, French mathematician

And a few more:

• “One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.” - Sam Levenson, American author
• “We don't focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts.” - William Glasser, American psychologist
• “As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.” – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist
• “Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get ‘em, get ‘em right, or they will get you wrong.” - Thomas Fuller, English clergyman
• “Facts can be turned into art if one is artful enough.” - Paul Simon, American musician
• “The truth is more important than the facts.” - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect
• “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” - Aldous Huxley, British novelist
• “You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on.” - Harry S. Truman, American President

Tell me. Do you thirst for facts? When writing an article, do you spend time researching for facts? How many facts do you share with others? I would love to hear from you.

Curious about Number and Numbers: Number Affects Us in a Plethora of Ways. How and What Numbers Are Important to You?

Definition of Number: That which admits of being counted or reckoned; a unit, or an aggregate of units; a numerable aggregate or collection of individuals; an assemblage made up of distinct things expressible by figures. A collection of many individuals; quantity, regarded as made up of an aggregate of separate things. To give or apply a number or numbers to; to assign the place of in a series by order of number; to designate the place of by a number or numeral; as, to number the houses in a street, or the apartments in a building. To amount; to equal in number; to contain; to consist of.

“Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” – Albert Einstein, German physicist

Numbers have always held an important place in my life. Early on – actually in kindergarten – my parents let me know that I would be majoring in mathematics. I had been tested and had shown that I had natural ability for numbers. And yes, I did major in math and admit that I always enjoyed it.

I picked number for this week’s theme, because I realized the plethora of areas where number affects my outcomes, strategies, and plans in my life, careers, and businesses. Let me share a few:

1. My Portfolio Career – having a number of different careers at the same time.
2. Presentations – an effective speech is one with a dominant theme broken into three areas that address that theme.
3. Writing – we are urged to share numbers in our headlines - Three Secrets, or Seven Steps, I even have a Special Report that pinpoints 125 Ways to Develop STYLE.
4. Selling on the Internet – prices that end with a 7 do better than those that end with a 5. $9.97 is more popular than $9.95.
5. Storytelling – three is the magic number for most stories – three characters, three parts, three challenges. Seven is also a number that pops up, but not as often as three.
6. Social Networking on the Internet – many question how important it is to have a large number of friends on Facebook, Followers on Twitter, and Contact Connections on LinkedIn. I have been working on all three. The marketer that got me started feels that the more, the better for credibility and visibility.
7. Group Fitness Classes – I love the reaction when I tell people that I teach 12 classes every week. And most of those classes are filled with between 15 and 35 participants.

Yes, as you can see, numbers do play a big part in my life. Now, I want to share some of the variety I found in the numerous quotations:

• “A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything else to do.” - W. H. Auden, English poet
• “In America everything's about who's number one today.” - Bruce Springsteen, American musician
• “There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist
• “I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.” - Abigail Adams, American First Lady
• “I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.” - Tom Hopkins, American businessman
• “For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.” - Louis L'Amour, American author
• “Number is different from quantity.” - Gregory Bateson, British scientist

And, several more:

• “It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.” - Napoleon Hill, American writer
• “It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.” – Vince Lombardi, American coach
• “When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.” – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American author
• “It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.” – Aristotle, Greek philosopher
• “In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number.” - Steven Wright, American comedian
• “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” –
  Henry David Thoreau, American author
• “The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet

How about you? How important are numbers and number to you. I would love to hear from you.

Curious about Exercise: How Important? How Often? How Hard? How Long? What Kind?

Definition of Exercise: Exertion for the sake of training or improvement whether physical, intellectual, or moral; practice to acquire skill, knowledge, virtue, perfectness, grace, etc. That which is done for the sake of exercising, practicing, training, or promoting skill, health, mental, improvement, moral discipline, etc.

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.” - Thomas Jefferson, American President

You may have guessed by now that exercise is one of my top, favorite subjects. Because I teach 12 group fitness classes a week, I am always bringing at least one book on health, nutrition, and exercise home from the library every trip. These are mainly books on CDs that I listen to in the car.

This week’s book is Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy - Until You're 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge M.D., and Gail Sheehy. You can find out more about it at http://www.youngernextyear.com/

The focus of the book is health for those of us 50 and older - both women and men. Toward the very beginning we learn “Harry’s (the doctor) number one rule: exercise six days a week!” The information is excellent and up-to-date. Chris and Harry explain – in detail – the important hows and whys. One part that I especially appreciate is all about starting (slowly), working at one’s own pace, and finding our different fitness levels.

Of course, I was not surprised to find a plethora of good and meaningful quotations about exercise, so let’s share:

• “In terms of fitness and battling through cancer, exercise helps you stay strong physically and mentally.” - Grete Waitz, Norwegian athlete
• “In times of life crisis, whether wild fires or smoldering stress, the first thing I do is go back to basics... am I eating right, am I getting enough sleep, am I getting some physical and mental exercise everyday.” - Edward Albert, American actor
• “In youth, we get plenty of exercise through games and running around, but as middle life approaches, we settle down, literally and figuratively.” - Gene Tunney, American athlete
• “Never hurry. Take plenty of exercise. Always be cheerful. Take all the sleep you need. You may expect to be well.” - James Freeman Clarke, American clergyman
• “Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. Exercise is nothing short of a miracle.” – Cher, American actress
• “True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united.” - Wilhelm von Humboldt, German educator

And a few more:

• “If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach.” - Bruce Jenner, American athlete
• “Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.” - W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright
• “I really believe the only way to stay healthy is to eat properly, get your rest and exercise. If you don't exercise and do the other two, I still don't think it's going to help you that much.” - Mike Ditka, American coach
• “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” – Hippocrates, Greek scientist
• “Turn resolutely to work, to recreation, or in any case to physical exercise till you are so tired you can't help going to sleep, and when you wake up you won't want to worry.” - B. C. Forbes, Scottish journalist
• “Exercise is really important to me - it's therapeutic. So if I'm ever feeling tense or stressed or like I'm about to have a meltdown, I'll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.” - Michelle Obama, American First Lady

So, listen to the wise words of the experts. And let me know what your favorite form of exercise is.

Curious about Drive: A Book about Motivation. What Drives Us and Our Work, Life, and Day-to-Day Activity?

Definition of Drive: To urge, impel, or hurry forward; to force; to constrain; to urge, press, or bring to a point or state; as, to drive a person by necessity, by persuasion, by force of circumstances, by argument, and the like. To press forward; to aim, or tend, to a point; to make an effort; to strive. Driven.

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” - Denis Waitley, American writer and motivator

What motivates you? What do you think motivates others?

I chose drive for this week’s blog, because I am reading a fabulous book by one of my favorite authors, Daniel Pink. From the front flap, “Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money – the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, his provocative and persuasive new book.”

“Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does – and how that affects every aspect of life.”

I suggest that you visit http://www.danpink.com/ to find out more about him and the book. Also, take the time to watch and listen to his TED presentation.

Of course, I looked up the experts’ quotations that include the word drive, and there were lots. Unfortunately, however, the majority focused on driving a car or being “driven crazy.” I did find some interesting ones that I am including here:

• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., American leader
• “Basic philosophy, spirit and drive of an organization have far more to do with its relative achievements than do technological or economic resources, organizational structure, innovation and timing.” - Marvin Bower, American businessman
• “Too many people feel that where you start out dictates where you should end up. I was on welfare and just shy of 19 when my first daughter was born, but I was encouraged to take advantage of my ability and drive and remained in school.” - Gwen Moore, American politician
• “A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.” - Nancy Lopez, American athlete
• “Shame is such an intense emotion. It just can drive you.” - Kyra Sedgwick, American actress
• “Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.” –
  Helen Dunmore, British poet
• “Reason is a passion; an instinct, a drive.” - Bette Howland, American writer and critic

And a few more that I found interesting:

• “If I drive myself to the brink of my ability, then I don't get stale or bored.” - Dean Koontz, American author
• “There's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy.” - Johnny Depp, American actor
• “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” - Thomas Hardy, English novelist
• “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.” - Roger Bannister, British athlete
• “The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.” – Lucian Freud, British artist
• “I've said it before, but it's absolutely true: My mother gave me my drive, but my father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future.” - Liza Minelli, American actress

So, what gives you the drive and the motivation to succeed? I would love to hear from you, and also those of you who have read Daniel Pink’s books. He is amazing!