August is...

So much more than the dog days of summer! Did you know that August is all of this!?!?:

• American Adventures Month
• American History Essay Contest
• National Catfish Month (Wow! Catfish get their own month!)
  
• Black Business Month
• Cataract Awareness Month
• Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
• Children's Vision and Learning Month
• Get Ready for Kindergarten Month
• Happiness Happens Month (This should be every month!)
  
• Harvest Month
• Motorsports Awareness Month
• National Immunization Awareness Month
• National Inventor's Month (I wonder who invented this holiday?)
  
• National Panini Month (Really??? Sandwiches get their own month?)
  
• National Water Quality Month
• National Win with Civility Month
• Neurosurgery Outreach Month
• Peach Month (I believe the Peach and the Catfish can coexist peacefully)
  
• Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month
• What Will Be Your Legacy Month

All worthy causes, I'm sure! But I want to focus on the last one, as I believe it's one of those great questions of life that we can never answer completely because we're constantly evolving.

leg·a·cy

/ˈlɛgəsi/ Show Spelled [leg-uh-see] noun, a gift of property, especially personal property, as money, by will; a bequest. Anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.

Interesting, huh? A legacy is a gift that you leave behind. This assumes that there is no payback or personal gain from the giving because you've moved on. How much time do we devote to contemplating and engaging in unconditional giving as opposed to our own personal gain? I think most of us will agree that it's not so much the value we create for ourselves, but how we leave our world changed and the value we've created in the lives of others that matters most.

Steven Covey points out in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that most of us major in minor things. We tend to get caught up in the minutiae of our moment to moment need to gain pleasure and avoid pain. How would our decision process change if we based our choices on a bigger picture of our lives? Dr. Covey answers this with one of his most elegantly poetic quotes:

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

There's a lot there to think about.

So Happy August! And what will be YOUR legacy?


All Things Possible,
Chris

Happy Birthday!!

Wow, who knew August 5th would be an auspicious day??!

First off, Happy Birthday to my business partner, Clint Morris, who is likely the first to celebrate of all the August 5th birthdays because the day comes earlier in Australia. If you want to wish him a happy birthday yourself, go to his website MOVIEHOLE.NET and click on EMAIL. Have a great day buddy!!

And to Ufuk and Tanya, have a wonderful Birthday and an ALL-THINGS-POSSIBLE year to come!!

Also, congratulations to my girlfriend Natasha and her hard working team over at PHINEAS & FERB on the release of their first feature length movie!! It will be premiering tonight (August 5) in celebration of Clint, Ufuk, and Tanya's birthday on Disney channel. Check your local listings or click here.

And finally, an huge Congrats to my friend and GOTJ2 producer Jordan Kerner on his smash success with his new movie THE SMURFS!



Have a Fantastic Friday!

All Things Possible!
Chris