This post is part of my book Conspire To Inspire: Everything Is Awesome When You Are Part Of A Team

CTI Cover

Michael Paine @strangerarray

Copyright © 2015 Michael Paine

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

Re-selling through electronic outlets (like Amazon, Barnes and Nobles or E-bay) without permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

Please purchase only authorized editions and no not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials.

Your support of the author’s right is appreciated.

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this to my wife Sarah who has Conspired to Inspire with me. She has encouraged me to make the most of my life and to not be content with being mediocre. Thank you Sarah!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is basically a book of acknowledgments. All the people I write about have Conspired to Inspire the world. And will hopefully inspire you too!

INTRODUCTION

I quit!
Quit your job. Quit smoking. Quit drinking. Quit eating out. Quit complaining. Quit being boring. Quit whining. Quit your bellyaching. Quit daydreaming. Quit overeating. Quit delaying.

Whatever it is that you have been thinking about quit it! And right now! Don’t wait because it is good to get started. To get the ball rolling. To go for it. If you delay, you probably will never end up doing it. That is probably why you have not done it yet. You have put it off until tomorrow. Until the next week. Until the New Year. These soft deadlines always get pushed back because they are soft.

Be hard. Start now.

Why should you listen to me? You shouldn't.

You should listen to yourself.

What are you thinking that needs to be different in your life? Stop right now and come up with three things that you want to be different in your life.

Got them? Good.

You may have found that you were able to come up with way more than three things in your life that you would like to change.

For me I would like to eat better. I ate donuts for second breakfast. And yes I said second breakfast. And no I am not overweight. Donuts are not healthy. We all know that. But I ate them anyway. I want to get better at eating healthier. I want to get better at resting. I love to do things. Work things. Personal life things. I am always on the go and going and going and... So I want to be better at resting. To stop when I need to. I took a two hour nap the other day because I was ignoring my body's need for rest. But my body didn't care. It took the sleep it needed. And afterwards I felt great! The third thing I want to get better at is writing. I have been writing every day for about 50 days now. I know I am not the best but I hope if you follow my blog, StrangerArray.wordpress.com, that you will be able to notice it improving.

Now that I have shared mine: Share your three things that you want to get better at with me with a reply to this post or #steemitcommunity.

So what is stopping you?

For me I eat pretty good most all of the time so I like to indulge myself now and then. But mostly now. Overall I do not think it is a bad thing. I think I do it too often though. So to be better I think next time I want something bad for me, I will just skip it. You know eat something every other time. This sounds easy enough and so I will start today. Well... I will start next time I am tempted to pig out.

What is stopping me from resting more? Excitement. Love of life. An overextended schedule. But really it is that I don't concentrate my rest into big enough chunks of time to make me feel like I got to really refresh. I am great at taking short breaks here and there. Mostly too many breaks. I love to pop over to an online game and play a few rounds then switch back to whatever I am working on. It keeps me going. The trick for me is switching back to what I am supposed to be doing.

Being a better writer. If you are reading this than I think it is working. And I owe you a big Thank You! I really do appreciate it. I know that may sound lame to you. But that you have chosen to spend your time to stop doing everything else you were doing and to read what I have to say is awesome to me. The only way I can think to repay you is for me to get better and have better things to tell you in the future. Also drop me a message online and I will help you in any way that I can.
I know that is generic. But I am sincere.

What else?

The title to our short time together is Conspire To Inspire. And I hope to do just that.

Let us break that down real quick. And get all nerdy with it. What does it mean to conspire? A quick Google definition search yields in part “to be working together to bring about a particular result”. I understand that there are many negative connotations to the word conspire but we are going to overlook that. In fact we are going to take the word for our own purposes. Plus it sounds fun to be involved in a conspiracy. If that is your thing I highly recommend reading the book Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It has been described as: “The ultimate conspiracy theory thriller, which predates Dan Brown by many years. Three learned book editors decide to have some fun by inventing a history of the occult that predicts that the ancient society of Templars is plotting to take over the world. Gradually their spoof becomes chillingly real. Some readers hail Eco’s immensely erudite follow-up to The Name of the Rose as the thinking person’s Da Vinci Code”. It is an awesome story that blurs the lines between research, creativity and real life. The scenes are amazing, the story is dizzying, and it will leave you wondering about the world around you.

Anyways my point is that you can conspire alone but it is better together.

To help you join a super team of inspirationalist, I will introduce you to ten people that have impacted my life positively. My goal is to share with you who they are, when I first came to know about them, why I think they are inspirations, and how they have impacted my life. These people may be known to you already. They may not be. The point of this is not necessarily for you to adopt them as yours but to inspire you to build your own team.

Now the inspire part.

Again thanks to Google for this definition search: “fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative”. So how do you fill someone with urges or abilities? My hope is that I show you what I have done and then you are able to do something similar. I do want it to be something creative. I think that being creative helps people be better, happier, healthier and kinder. However, if what you decide to do isn't so creative, don't worry. Mostly I would like to know that you decided to make a positive change in your life. Whatever direction that takes you.

Let's Meet the Team

This is a group of super inspirationalist. They are in no particular order of importance. Some have had a much larger influence on me than others. Some have given me goals to work towards. I have not met any of them in person and am not endorsed by any of them. In fact most all of them don't even know I exist. And yet that does not bother me the least. They still have helped me be a better person.

CTI

Because you never know who you are going to meet...

@StrangerArray

The guide to Conspire To Inspire: Everything Is Awesome When You Are Part Of A Team

*Introduction to Conspire To Inspire
*1 Bob Goff
*2 Mel Robbins
*3 Dale Carnegie
*4 Simon Sinek
*5 James Altucher
*6 Claudia Azula
*7 Stefan Sagmeister
*8 Zig Ziglar
*9 Theodore Roosevelt
*10 You
*Parting Words