Stylee!!

Hi, remember your first pair of jeans?, I can, they were a pair of  ‘bell bottoms’ very fashionable at the time they were too!(showing my age). Then there was the ‘wranglers’ I just had to have to attend the form II social. I remember nagging Mum to distraction until she finally relented and the rest of the family went hungry for a week just so I got the wranglers (also the height of fashion). In my haste to step out in them I wore them to the dance without washing them first and spent the next two weeks trying to wash the blue dye out of my skin after the sweat from my legs made it run,haha.

Well, how times have changed over the years as Fletcher took posession of his first pair of ‘designer’ jeans last week. Sure they are hand me downs but G.A.P. no less and I am sure you will agree (see attached) he will be the total focus of all the chicks at new Mums coffee club next week!!!!

Other recent Jonesey stuff;

• The best way to eat date scones is straight out of the oven..it doesn’t get any better!
• Getting dressed in tha dark may be best for baby but not for daddy…no belt Tuesday!
• Started a new trend last week wearing an unironed shirt to work, think it will be big!
• We have a resident mouse and a dilema should he/she stay or go, watch this space!
• Mother nature flexed her muscles this weekend, a wild one out on the West Coast!

I hope you had a cool weekend in your favourite jeans somewhere sheltered having fun with friends and family. Have a fun week, cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons are on the mouse’s side after all how much damage can one mouse do?? I suspect their intentions may be dishonourable !!!!

“When you're that successful, things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can't really tell whether you have created the momentum or it's creating you.” Annie Lennox

Last week was amazing it started well and continued successfully at a frenetic pace. It seemed like everything I touched turned to gold or had a positive outcome. This came on the back of a number of weeks where a lot of effort appeared to be getting me nowhere…wow how quickly things can change!!

It is so cool when things start coming to fruition after putting in the hours and many hard yards toward making them happen.

It is so important to keep chipping away and not get despondent when it seems things might not be going your way, it is certainly worth it when you experience that magical word ‘yes’ !!

It is also important to ride the success wave once you are up on it and to use the momentum that this creates take you as far as you can go. I think the Annie Lennox quote above summarises that feeling perfectly.

So my ‘upbeat’ friends my challenge to you all is to hang in there because success is a case of doing just that.  Good luck  to you all no matter what your chosen field of endeavour…success surf is up, ride the wave !!!!

“Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.”  Pete Rose

Funny !!!

Hi,life can and should be a ‘funny’ thing. To that end the most important thing we all do is smile J

I have had open heart surgery,walked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stayed up all night in Vegas, marvelled at the Grand Canyon,played representative rugby,made millions of dollars worth of sales in my career and countless other stuff that has been a buzz but nothing can compare to seeing our new son smile for the first time ! It couldn’t have been scripted better with said smile arriving as we were both telling him how wonderful he was this morning….we looked at each other and both burst into tears !! Crikey man harden up !

The power of a simple smile can never be underestimated and is something we could all do a lot more of on a daily basis. Quite amazing how something so simple can change the course of yours and others day to day lives. I had a great example last week when I had to visit a retirement village and hospital to help them save the planet with our services!

When I signed in at reception I was told that several of the residents were excited because they had seen the Green Gorilla logo on my car and thought the circus was coming to entertain them!

I entered into the spirit of it giving my best gorilla imitation complete with sound and chest beating!

Lots of smiles and laughs and something that changed the course of what would have just been another day in the departure lounge for them otherwise. Moral of the story, have a M.A.D. attitude Make A Difference by simply smiling more often.

Something else that made me smile so much it hurt this weekend was the opportunity to take the Retro Suzuki 750 for a ‘freedom’ squirt down the road. Crikey,there is no better ‘release’ than the feeling of accelerating without restriction on the open highway with rider and bike leaning into the perfectly cambered corners as one!!! Oh yeah you the man Jonesey….lucky no cops bro!!!

I hope you are all in to the swing of making the most of the longer daylight saving days with friends and family. Have a great week, cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons have a special relationship with each other,sleep and eating!

“Start every day with a smile and get it over with.” WC Fields

Some people ride motorbikes, others go to the gym, some let their dogs take them for a walk, others let golf spoil a good walk, some even write poetry or books, and then there are some who travel and others who prefer to just vegetate and  relax.

I was reminded about this stuff recently by two powerful and entertaining speeches I had the good fortune to listen to(www.toastmasters.org.nz). They were about having a ‘release’ and a ‘bucket list’.

It made me think about what I do to cover both?, I am lucky as it is one and the same thing!!

For my sins I enter speech contests,I challenge myself to write witty entertaining, humourous presentations on everyday stuff because one of my bucket list items is to be the best I can be at doing just that !!!.

Why????? To make people laugh, smile and have a good time, plus I am a competitive old bugger !

Now as you know I have always loved the sound of my own voice and when you enter a competition you create yet another opportunity for you and others to do just that. I also know that like anything the more I do it the better I get and the more chance I then have of achieving my ultimate goal of being the best in NZ and ultimately representing NZ on the world stage!!!!!

There are also spin offs for career and family life as you become a better communicator and listener.

I had the good fortune to win a recent humourous speech contest and look forward to advancing to the next level and to making a lot more people smile and laugh along the way..especially me !!!!

“Don’t cry for a man who has left you,the next one may fall for your smile.” Mae West

80 not out !!!

Hi,welcome to the eve of Rocktober 1 ! Not to be outdone the Joneses will party hard to the last minute of September celebrating Dads 80^th birthday. What better way to do just that than at the world famous Sunday night buffet at the Brownsy Razza! Congratulations Dad your life membership of the good buggers club is assured and well deserved. I have a lifetime of memories to thank you for and look forward to as many more years as we are blessed to have with you to create some more.

Some favourite memories;

• Using a WWII air raid siren to support me at my First XV games….Crikey what a noise!!
• Buying me a DKW?as my first car and then painting it ‘lemon’ yellow ( quite appropriate)
• Painting an already unusual boat ‘air sea rescue orange’ just in case people didn’t notice!
• Converting an ex Helleabys small goods delivery truck into our family mobile caravan!
• Converting a 36 foot aluminium ex life boat off a cruise ship into our family launch !

Yes my Dad is delightfully different, he loves a challenge and turns anything anyone says cant be done into his next personal ‘project’. Some projects take longer than others but they all have two things in common; 1)They have the unique Jones look and feel. 2)They are all completed with love.

Thanks Dad if I am half as good at doing stuff as you are I will consider myself a big success!

Have a cool, fun introduction to your first week of October,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons are loving the daylight saving 2 x walks in a day program!!

“If you think you can or you think you cant , either way you are right.” Henry Ford

Henry himself would be proud of me if he were alive today!!

I have always liked Fords, I have had a few in my time and I even spent two years as the new Vehicle Sales Manager at John Andrew Ford one of NZs leading dealerships.

My company car is a Ford so it made sense that we would look to buy one of Henrys finest for our second car now that we have a new family member to ferry around!

That all seemed quite logical until the Ford Laser station wagon we purchased developed an intermittent problem that tested the patience of all involved over the last four months it has taken to sort it out.

The problem with an intermittent fault is it never recreates itself when you try to show someone or if you leave the car with someone else to check it out. The more you tell people about it the more you start to doubt there might be a problem or even think you may be imagining it all together.

We are lucky we were protected by the all encompassing Consumer Guarantees Act and that we were confident enough to insist that those concerned got the problem sorted. It took over four months but our patience and loyalty to the brand was rewarded and we are once again happy Ford owners.

Lessons; 1)Know your rights and pursue them if things go wrong.2)Stick to your guns. 3)Trust others to do the right thing and give them space to do so. 4) Be loyal to favourite brands. 5)Communicate confidently……….Good luck fellow motorists…..Go Ford !!!!

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy, any fool can complain and most fools do.” Henry Ford

Ponder this.....

Hi, I wouldn’t have known it was possible if I didn’t do it for my very own dumb self! In a hurry to transition seamlessly from baby showering to change to feed (triathlete) I had to get my own pants on with one hand. Sounds easy, (you try it some time) and yes the inevitable happened I ended up with both legs in the same opening! There was no time for a second attempt so in true kiwi bloke style I carried on….shorts were a bit tighter than normal but hey no big deal,right? Crikey you had one shot at it and failed, its not the end of the world , get over it, afterall….its not about me,right !

Other snippets;

• Got a cool rocking horse at Onehunga Traders last week.Cant wait to ride it!
• People smile at me and baby as they think it is cute to see a grandparent investing time.
• Daylight saving next week, Yeeee haaaaaa, clean that BBQ and get your motor running !!

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend doing something cool with family and friends.

Have a busy,productive and fun week ahead,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons loved the fan mail last week, YES, ‘Upbeat’ IS all about them!!

Ponder this…

 “So many things happen to us everyday, imagine if we stopped and thought a bit more about the what, why, who, and where for. Every single day contains messages,directions, information,opportunities and the key to many doors…..so whats the problem?”

The problem ladies and gentlemen is that we are either in such a hurry or in such a robotic state of remote control that we miss the majority of what happens to us and its significance on a daily basis.

So…..in order to start making more out of what happens to you why don’t you try to record those events as they happen. Write them in a notebook or on your smart phone/I Pad etc.Pretty soon you will find that you have a source of information from which you will be able to gain some advantage or offer advantage to others. Here are some recent examples from events that have happened to me;

• Funny stuff that has happpened to me became content for a humorous speech I was writing
• Emmissions Trading Scheme information I sourced became valuable to my customers.
• An organised meeting with a network group ended up in a page of new business leads.
• A scan of the weekend papers resulted in six strong new business leads for my customers
• Asking for referrals from existing customers last week uncovered three new prospects
• Research on a Safety and Health issue led to an invitation to MC an H&S conference.
• A family discussion led to thankfully re-establishing contact with a long lost Aunty.
• Another family discussion led to further parental investment in my sons OE (any dividend?)

Plus many more I missed because I wasn’t paying enough attention! All you have to do is start by noting one thing per day that could help you or someone else and it will become a winning habit.

That’s a minimum of five things a week or over twenty a month or nearly two fifty a year ,WOW!!!

It is such a simple change we are all capable of making without much effort, just taking the time.

“You have all the time there is, no one can give you any more”  Some know all !!!!

Dont get mad....get even

         

Edition 156  Monday 17th September 2012

Hi, Jones the gardener 1………ginger plant and banana trees 0. Yes spring has sprung and in scenes reminicent of the freeing to the wild of a caged Lion I attacked the garden and surrounds with uneducated gusto. All the best intentions and care was used however there were casualties as I lost more skin and sweat in an afternoon than during a whole senior/representative rugby career! Nice view now though and that noisey wayward branch that used to keep us awake in a nor wester wont be back again anytime soon.Crikey,I had some fun,slipping and sliding all over the show down our  bank. I cant wait to do it all over again once the ginger and bananas regroup for another assault!

They say your house is your castle and you should be able to do and wear what you want when you are at home.This can backfire though if you venture out without checking as I did recently. I found myself out in the street welcoming new neighbours with my trendy socks and jandals,ribbed beanie and my top on backwards (another trend I have started to protect Fletcher from the dreaded zip !) Needless to say the new arrivals wondered what they had struck with the strange chap at # 48.

Other snippets;

• Life is good, we love where we live!
• People smile at babies because A)they are cute B)they don’t have to change them!
• Fruiterers place stickers on fruit to annoy consumers, does anyone read them?eat them?
• Is there a brand of sticking plaster that is easy to remove whilst bleeding to death?
• Do not worry if you cant pass, at least you are “keeping up with the Joneses”

I hope you all had a fun weekend with family and friends.

Have a successful and rewarding week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons have tolerated the new arrival to a point but in an unprecedented move they have attached a photo of themselves, love Harry, Kate & Oscar x

“The only time you cant afford to fail is the last time you try.”Charles Kettering

I am fiercely competitive and as a result I hate losing, with a passion! It used to  take me a long time to come to grips with losing or failing. I used to dwell on losses for far too long and let them get way too far under my skin.The trick is to use the loss to make yourself better next time.

Last week I was unsuccessful with a large tender bid I have worked hard on for months. I thought we were looking good and was getting all the right signals from the customer however we missed out . I was gutted but on reflection I think it will be more positive than negative for our team. As part of my review I was keen to establish why we had failed to secure the work so I asked a lot of questions.

The outcome was that to have won this deal would have placed us at unacceptable risk throughout the project term . My conclusion was that we were better off longterm not having this work.

Sure I could have got emotional, sulked and been bitter but I have learned that it is far better to approach these outcomes objectively and to look for the opportunity that is in the ruins of any failure.

Lessons I have learned;

• You cant and you don’t win them all.
• Ask lots of questions about what you could do better next time, then use the info.
• Having a competitor win a big tender will keep them busy while you attack the market.
• No matter how much you want the work there has to be a $ in it for your company.
• Don’t dwell on a loss, pick yourself straight back up and move on to brighter things!

“Failures are like skinned knees…painful but superficial, they heal quickly.”Ross Perot

Run, run as fast as you can......

         

Edition 155  Monday 10th September 2012

Hi, many (many) years ago I remember listening to the kids stories on Radio 1ZB on Sunday mornings. In fact it wasn’t just any radio it was on a home made radio called a ‘crystal set’ that my Dad made for us (crikey that is showing my age !) Old favourites like ‘The Ginger Bread Man, Flick the Fire Engine and Sparky and the talking trains became legend in our minds.I am reminded of this every Sunday morning as I drive to the swimming pool because the same stories now play on BFM to another generation of kids who hang off every word of each story! I actually heard the sorry end of the ginger bread man this weekend as the wily fox ate him up after assisting him across the river! Poor ginger bread man,that will teach him for being smart to all the people he ran away from !!

It is so cool to remember what was so much fun as kids and that these simple stories with their morals and messages are still as loved by the kids today as they were by us generations ago. I am going to make sure Fletcher gets to listen to them as well however I wont be attempting to build a crystal set I will probably go for the Dick Smith version of the wireless when that time comes.

Week four has been and gone together with the associated additional grams of body weight and the extra mm in height. The sporting talent scouts are not beating the door down yet but there is more than a passing interest fueled we suspect by leaked growth stat information from regular midwife and Plunket visits. We are pleased to report that Father and Son even got through the All Black test without falling asleep this weekend !...all this and a visit from Nana and Poppa, wow,action packed!

I hope you all had the chance to spend quality time with your families and friends this weekend.

 Have a great week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons assisted to discover a personal best haul of 20 golf balls in the rough this weekend! They are now negotiating for a slice of the sales proceeds action!!!

“Laughing with or at yourself is the best way to start the day” C.B.Jones

I thought I was doing so well, but then it hit me, yes men……post natal depression is real!

Mr ‘Upbeat’ himself hit the wall last week and let normal stuff I would handle in my stride affect me badly. To the extent that I got offside with work colleagues and acted anything but ‘upbeat’

Yes this can and does happen to us all….I know because many of you have said to me on numerous occasions that it is impossible to be ‘upbeat’ all the time……and I have agreed (reluctantly).

Being positive and enthusiastic all the time does take discipline and effort, you do need to talk yourself up by focusing on positive stuff and laughing at the small stuff you might otherwise let bug you. Sometimes all it takes is to change the way we react to something to get back on track.

 I knew I had to claw my way back on to the positive side of the daily attitude menu…..so how did I do that?.....the trigger for me was to laugh at myself  instead of stressing over some silly stuff.

I eat muesli dry out of a small container each morning as I drive to work. I spilled the container in the car one morning all over me and the car.As hard as it was I laughed at myself for being a dick. I stop at a country café for a coffee each morning. The café has free range chooks outside and as I shook the muesli off myself and the car mats 4 hens and a rooster attacked the spillage and me in the carpark much to my and other customers amusement.This simple event and my reaction to it got my week back on track. A wake up call with a simple message,lighten up,relax and have fun.

“If being ‘upbeat’ was easy everyone would be doing it” Clumsy Chump Clinton

The centre of attention.....briefly

Edition 154  Monday 3^rd September 2012

Hi,September is my favourite time of year. Kicking off with Fathers Day and a birthday in quick succession is the perfect way to get the official first month of Spring rolling! I consider myself one of the lucky ones as my Dad is a spritely octonogerian and it is great to be able to still personally recognise and thank him for all his help and worldly advice over the years. I bet he never thought in all his wildest dreams that his eldest son would be giving him a new grandson for Fathers Day 2012!.Mum and Dad both also celebrate birthdays in September so it is a perfect month for our Jones family to celebrate and appreciate the importance of our parents and extended family while we can.

Some of that worldly advice received from my Father;

• Re anything; “Always try to fix it yourself before asking for help.”
• Re car breakdown; “It can only be one of two things, spark or petrol.”
• Re treasure;”One mans trash is anothers treasure, we will rebuild it!”
• Re hoarding treasure;”It will come in handy one day.”
• Re motorbikes;”Did I tell you about the Triumphs I owned, now those were the days!”
• Re money; You will appreciate it and look after it more if you work and save for it yourself.”
• Remember this stuff, you will be a Father yourself one day !

Thanks Dad, for these and much more, you are a life member of the good b*#@! Club !!!

I hope you were also able to take time out to remember your Fathers past or present this weekend.

 Have a great week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons love helping celebrate occasions, lots of guests, treats and hugs!  

“Take two people. Both are graduates of good universities. Both are hard working and ambitious. Flash forward 20 years and one is in a corner office commanding the attention and respect of hundreds. The other toils amid the legions of middle managers in a largely obscure position. Why did one ascend to great heights and the other plateau so early?”

• This is arguably the most successful sales letter of all time. The reason it is so successful is that in a mere 57 words it tells a powerful story  about success versus mediocrity.

• This is the start of the letter that goes on to say that the reason one person is more successful is because they……use the product or service of the persons company writing the sales letter !!

• Good story telling is an art and a means of communicating more effectively in any walk of life and not restricted to selling alone.

• Being able to tell a good story or recount an experience to others effectively can assist you to sell to them, mentor them, teach them, advise them or motivate them.

• A good story grabs peoples attention, builds their interest , creates a desire in them and concludes by calling them to action. All the great presentations involve telling a story in this manner .

• The extract above is taken from the latest Toastmasters magazine and is used as a selling tool in the publication to reinforce why Toastmasters is such a great program and how it will teach you to communicate more effectively by learning to tell great stories.
• Visit www.toastmasters.org.nz to find out where your closest club is, you wont regret it !

“Your voice is your second face” Gerard Bayer