Tag Archives: Combinations

Reading Combinations by Ed Gerety

Ed Gerety

I have a book called Combinations, it is by Ed Gerety. Ed is a pretty spectacular guy and he made an impression upon me many years ago that is so deep that I am always drawn to find out what is going on with him. That draw to get back in touch with Ed came up months ago when I was cleaning my desk at work and I came across my copy of Combinations.

I had been in student leadership all through high school and college and then after college. It was during college that a friend of mine asked me to help out with a HOBY Community Leadership Workshops (CLeW) Event. I had been a part of HOBY in high school and said sure. I was to be a group leader for the day and that was a pretty amazing day. That was the day I first heard of Ed Gerety and his message of Gratitude, Attitude, Goal, Respect, Kindness and Believe first resonated with me.

Reconnecting with Ed

Through the years I was able to be in a position where I could suggest a speaker for a student leadership program. I immediately thought of Ed and his message. We were able to get Ed to come to Sacred Heart University for our STAR II Program. STAR stood for Students Taking Active Roles. STAR II was for student leaders who had already gone through STAR. I loved working on that program. This was back in 1997. After that I hadn’t heard much about Ed and I think it was in 2002 or 2003 I did a web search for him and found he had written the book Combinations. I saw that Ed was doing well and becoming more well known and successful. I ordered a copy from Ed and put a message in the notes section and asked him to please sign the book. He signed it “Andrew, Wishing you continued success! Never give up (and he drew a star) Your friend Ed Gerety.

Rediscovering Combinations

So that is the history and once again I went along with my life and it wasn’t until a few months ago that Ed came back into my mind. I looked him up again and found that Ed was now blogging (and on twitter) in addition to his many speaking engagements. Ed also was offering Combinations for $4 a copy. He has a great post about how our lives are lived in 4s sometimes. This prompted me to buy 4 copies of the book to give to my High School. The reason is that I beleive my High School was what helped to prepare me to become a Student Leader to take on more leadership roles in my life. So this coming Monday I will be giving these four (signed) copies of Combinations to the High School President and my former English teacher, Chris Servant, another person who motivated me in my life.

Sharing my thoughts on Combinations

So, I am reading Combinations a little each day and will talk about what I’ve read. I read about Combination 1, Gratitude. There are a few key factors to gratitude. Being present in the moment is one of those factors in gratitude because if you are not dwelling on the past or pining for the future you can enjoy the moment that you are in right now.

I find this as one of the toughest things for me because I’m usually stuck between looking back or looking ahead. What if I had done this differently, if so maybe I’d be happy? Or I can’t wait for this event or that event, then I will be happy. However, that is not going to make me happy because once I get to that moment ahead I will look ahead to the next one or back at the one I was in.

So, being present in the moment and grateful for what you have right now is a very important way have gratitude. I remember a tape I had from Zig Ziglar about a woman who said that she hated her job and Zig and the woman came up with 30 things that she liked about her job. That transformed the woman’s frame of mind to one of gratitude.

Showing Gratitude as Bloggers

So what does a book on student leadership mean to bloggers? It means a lot because each of the core principles of the book, Combinations, is as important to Student Leaders, Bloggers, Parents all the way up to our leaders in government. You might be a blogger who is struggling to find a voice and you see other bloggers who have tons of followers and are making tons of money so you figure to yourself that if you had a ton of followers and a ton of money then your blog would be successful. On some level you would be successful but are you grateful to the people who take the time to read your blog. Do you respond to their comments? Do you visit their blogs and read what they are writing? To you mention their posts when they have written something really inspiring?

Cultivating your gratitude.

Try this today, read through your last four posts including the comments. Did you respond to what your readers have said? If not do so in the comments or maybe in a new post. Did you read the blogs of those people who came to comment? If not pick a few and check them out, find a blog post or two read them. If you like them then thank your reader by linking to those posts, tell all of your readers about the post you read. That is how you can show gratitude as a blogger. Do that and success will come to you because people don’t care what you know till they know that you care.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the next combination, attitude.

BenSpark’s 2009 Commitments

Last night I posted that there was a stack of items next to my desk. It is a big stack. And since then I added to it.

BenSpark's 2009 Life Changing Commitments
Photo-A-Day #1363

In the coming year I have committed myself to taking care of a few things. These are in no particular order as far as importance.

I Commit to Having more contests on my blogs.

XShot 2.0. is on top of the stack. I received it as a contest prize or by mistake I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Apparently I was supposed to receive something else but the labels got mixed up. Well, since I have an XShot 2.0 already I think I’m going to give this one away. I have XShot as one of my affiliates and I have been using the XShot longer than any other blogger I know of, plus I introduced many of them to the device (i.e. Ted Murphy). Yet, I’ve only been able to get one person to buy one from my blog. Maybe I will give this one away to the blogger who has the best idea on how I can sell more XShots through this blog. Leave a comment with your best idea and I’ll choose the one I like most. That person gets the XShot. So it is purely subjective as to who wins, so, amaze me. That is the top of the stack.

I Commit to Learning Chinese

The things on the stack are two books are on the Chinese Language, Learning Chinese Characters and Learning Chinese The Easy Way. I am committing myself to 15 Minutes A Day to learn Chinese in 2009. I’ll be documenting that journey on my new blog 15minaday.com. If anyone does know Chinese could you please let me know if the header is correct, I don’t know a thing about the language yet.

I Commit to Getting my Diabetes Under Control

I have Type II diabetes. It sucks. I have made many changes to my diet to help control the disease and I am on a medication for it as well as for the neuropathy in my feet. Foot pain I thought was Plantar Fasciitis was actually neuropathy that went undiagnosed for a long time. It sucks, I can’t go barefoot at all because of the pain (I suck it up in the shower). I have three books that I am reading to help get me on better track with my diabetes. The first book is called Conquering Diabetes by Anne L. Peters, M.D. The next book The World’s Fittest You by Joe Decker. I bought this a couple of years ago and haven’t cracked the spine. Another diabetes book I received from my sister. It is called The 7 Step Diabetes Fitness Plan.

I Commit to Being More Charitable, and Support Those People Who Inspire Me.

The next four books are copies of Combinations by Ed Gerety. Ed Gerety is probably the one guy online that I get inspired by more than by Ted Murphy. That is primarily because I’ve known Ed longer and he is a motivational speaker. I purchased four of Ed’s books to give to my high school. The book is on student leadership but it certainly can be adapted to being a blogger. Ed was offering those books for $4.00 each, a complete steal. The offer was supposed to end by December 19th but it still looks like they are available at $4.00. I suggest you check it out as well as Ed Gerety’s Dream Big Blog. Ted, if you are reading this post all the way down to here look into getting Ed to speak at IZEAFest 2009 to get the crowd excited, motivated and ready to dream big.

I Commit to Becoming a Better Photographer

I’m inspired by my friend Andrea because she knows so much about how to use her camera in all situations. I point and shoot at what I like, I sometimes venture beyond auto but not often enough. The next book is the Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide (not sure what makes it digital as it is a book but whatever). I was going to use 15 minutes a day blog to talk about digital photography but that was a bit of a cop out since I know a thing or two about it, but not enough. I bought this book so I could get better and more technical with my photography. I know what to shoot but what is the best way to shoot it.

I also have a very old book from Kodak called How to Take Good Pictures. I also have Digital Photography for Dummies and The Kid’s Guide to Digital Photography. Each of these books will also be part of my commitment to learning more about photography and how to improve. The bottom of my stack is filled with Photography Magazines, Popular Photography, PCPhoto, Rangefinder, AfterCapture. I must commit myself to reading them when they arrive from now on. I find that when I read them later I often miss things that have already gone past that I could have been part of. I’ll look through each magazine and write at least one blog post a week on what I learned.

I’m also following a number of photographers that inspire me. I don’t always read their articles because there is just so much. So I will try and pick an article a day to learn from and blog about. I’ll start with learning something from these 10 Hot Photography Tips and Tutorials from 2008 from Digital Photography School. I want to learn as much as I can because I will be saving to go on a Nikon Mentor Series trip in 2010.

I Commit to Finding Opportunities for Creativity

I bought The Imagineering Workout in Disney World and want to read a bit of it each day to inspire myself to be more creative. Along with that is a book I won at IZEAFest, the CSS Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt. I can’t believe I didn’t get him to sign it at IZEAFest 2008. I’ve got to think of things like that. So, what will a book on coding do to make me more creative? Well, it will allow me to code better blogs that are more dynamic and eye pleasing as well as functional.

I Commit to Stopping the Drowning Spiral of Personal Debt

Leaning on the stack are two books. One I’ve been meaning to read for years but it was pretty dense, that is Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I’d just like to read it and see the theories. The other is a book that my friend Meghan (Happy Birthday Meghan) let me borrow, it is called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. While I buy into most of his principles I do have to agree with John Chow that you should never live on cash.

Will I accomplish all of these goals? Better subscribe to this blog to find out.