First Word

Chapter 2 Caffeine Lovers “ Random events often come like the raisins in a cereal box – in groups, streaks and clusters. And although fortune is fair in potentialities, it’s not fair in outcomes .” ~ Leonard Mlodinnow               Douglas Basco stood out in front of the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company in the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz. He had his Walkman headset snugly around his head with REM’s “Stand” playing into his ears. He was a plump, 22-year-old with a small potbelly hanging over his ragged Levi’s, Hang-Ten, black T-shirt, and ratty, old checkered Vans. Dougie, as most people called him, was a total stoner. He never held a job a day in his life. He liked to play Nintendo with his stoner friends, sell just enough weed to pay the bills, and mostly did nothing but skateboard down Pacific Avenue. He loved irritating the stupid tourists who frequented the Santa Cruz Beach and Board...

Coming soon Habits and Attitudes by Dr. Lance Casazza. The book releases in the fall.  Here are my five daily habits. These are the things that help keep me on track and successfully running my company 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). HABITS Ø   Eat homemade healthy foods and avoid processed foods (basically anything in the middle of the supermarket). When you eat homemade vs. store-bought food or restaurant dishes, you know exactly how many calories and how much sugar and salt went into your meals. When you go to a restaurant you have absolutely no idea what that food contains. In a country where diabetes is becoming a national epidemic, it’s best to avoid carbs and sugar, and restaurants load their dishes with carbs and sugar. Ø   Meditate and visualize success every day. First thing when I wake up, I meditate, say my mantras, and visualize a great day. Leaders like Steve Jobs advocated meditation. I find that it puts my head in the...

Here are 10 things I've learned about life: Trust is earned; it is not just given Actions tell the truth, words can lie Integrity and honesty are easy Always check things out and don't stick your head in the sand Faith will get you through everything We only get a few great friends in this life, so treat them right God is our only judge Love is easier than hate Forgiveness heals all Always act with kindness

I have been working on a self-help book soon to be released by my company 3L Publishing titled Step Aside and Get Out of Your Own Way by Syndee Hendricks . I've also been working on a new program of meditation and hypnotherapy, which ask me sometime about. Hypnotherapy should never be discounted. I have several success stories about it. The sub-conscious mind is amazing. Anyway ... back to Syndee's book. She discusses drama queens and kings in the book. I would have to say that as I've gotten older, more grounded and rational, and aware I've been able to discern these personality types much better. I don't like or invite needless drama into my life. And the more I don't invite it, the less it comes to me. How is that you ask? Drama people cannot knock through what I'll call the "grounded" wall of cool observation. When you learn to ground and stay grounded you are far less prone to provide the necessary response or "fodder" the drama ...

You can't teach creativity. You can stimulate creativity, but you can't teach it. You can inspire it. Some people are either super creative and some people are super scientific or math oriented. Did you realize though both disciplines can be creative. Thinking out of the box is creative. It's also inspired. What inspires an artist or scientist though is not definable. How do you inspire? I think inspiration or motivation can come from example. You can be inspired by someone else who leads the way. I find inspiration in other artists' and authors' works. I am fortunate to read other authors' works all day long. But a really great story -- whether a story, movie or narrative -- can be inspirational. Anything that makes you think or question life in general can motivate you to be creative and put the ideas through your own lens. I always say surround yourself with the very best people. People around you can inspire you on a daily basis. They can influence you. ...

In business and life it's really important to set and maintain boundaries. The key (and this is important) you can't fold on your boundaries and move them. I've had it explained to me like this, with children they need consistency (they crave it). Consistency shows them the lines. When you show them the line and give them consequences for walking over it, they come to understand that line has meaning (consequences) that are negative. Without boundaries adults have the same problem. If you set a boundary and move it, adults don't know where they stand: what you say has no meaning. When you have a situation, especially one that involves, for example, substance abuse, and you let the abuser continually walk over your boundaries, they will keep right on doing and never hit rock bottom. If you have a worker than fails on his or her job, but she gets to keep her or his job anyway, nothing stops the behavior. Even if it's the two warning principle: do it once and I warn yo...

I had this week that could be described as H-E-double toothpicks LOL ... I used to say that as a kid because you weren't supposed to say hell lest you go to the hot place yourself. And I'm sharing this because it's really only appropriate to laugh at one's self. Not that I didn't have my "cup runneth" over this week (I absolutely drowned in the run-over part), I realized things would be a "work in progress" (love my clichés) before it all got solved. So, I walked into my walk-in closet to pick out what to wear. After standing there in pure distractions for way too long, I just broke down. I bawled in the closet of all places. This makes me think of the overwrought housewife who screams infamously, "Calgon take me away." Here is the deal my many readers, you know what? Sometimes crying in the closet is all a girl can do. It's called stress management. "Release the hounds..."

Sometimes you just got to throw your hands up, shrug and say, "I don't know!" Life doesn't always serve up answers to questions in one swift reply. Sometimes I wish it would! Much is unknown as our life unfolds. We want to see the road ahead. We wish to know our futures. We go to psychics for hope of answers (some of us do). Sometimes we get answers we don't want to hear. Sometimes we get answers that make no sense. And sometimes we get no answer at all. To achieve true peace in life you have to let go. You have to be willing to surrender to your higher power, and when the time comes to make a choice, let your inner voice guide you. Is this easy? No! We all think we can control life, but we can really only control ourselves. We can only control how we chose to respond. We can empower ourselves. We can make good decisions. We can let the questions stand without answers. It is easy for me to write this information. It is harder for me to live it. I would imagine...

I have always been one to follow my instincts -- your gut tells the truth even when your mind resists. Gut-reactions are the ones that speak the initial truth. It is only our minds that cloud the issue and drum up questions or my all-time favorite, "Why?" A client of mine was talking to me about the book Blink b y Malcolm Gladwell, and he said its theory is that we size up stuff pretty much in a "blink" of the eye. I agree. Our senses tell us everything we need to know quickly. It is only our minds that interfere in the obvious. Some people might even say it's psychic, and I'm willing to go along with that assessment too -- part gut, part observation, part psychic. You have two self-empowerment tools you probably didn't realize were at your disposal: your gut and your ability to trust your gut. Problem is (as this applies to women especially with men who are "players" or don't have pure intentions) many people will have that gut-reaction ...

I mentioned this on Facebook. I start each day in meditation. I recite mantras. Two days in a row I was meditating and fell back to sleep. All this means to me is that I am successfully clearing my mind. I've recently been in a bit of a down cycle. You know when things start to just not excite you anymore? My personal relationships have shifted. People have come and gone. I've lost two very close people to me (for different reasons) who had to transition their lives elsewhere. One of the people I pushed the shift out of personal necessity to move on. I thought at the time I would just deal with the losses in one full swoop. Both individuals were very close to me so you can imagine the gaping holes I am feeling. Anyway here I am facing loss and business things started going haywire. Banking problems, client payment problems ... and I started thinking, "Is this outer chaos a reflection of the inner chaos I am feeling?" I had been meditating anyway so I ratcheted up my...

I remember I sat down once with a psychic (I know many of you don't believe in the metaphysical, and that's okay), and I was discussing a particularly difficult situation. He told me "flow the love." And then he told me to just try consistently flowing love on people and see what would happen. He told how he was extra "loving" and positive with the workers at Taco Bell. So, he made a pact with himself that he would go in there every day, and he would see what his positive, thoughtful and loving attitude would produce. He told me by the end of the "experiment" he had the Taco Bell workers calling him by his first name and shoving free food at him. Now his story was much more embellished than my little synopsis, but his point: flow love and people can't resist it; you will get love in return . So in my ongoing desire to expand and try new things, I decided to do nothing but flow love in my personal life and business. I wanted to see if it wou...

Most people are familiar with the word Reiki but I still meet a lot of people who don't really know what it is. Simply put, it's manipulating energy. Okay, okay, I see that you are looking at me with "huh?" still written on your face. Let me try to explain a little further. Energy cannot be destroyed or created, it can only be moved, manipulated and transformed. According to Reiki.org “Reiki is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.” We drain our life energy when we only give and give and give and do not take care of ourselves. Without personal practices in place to replenish ourselves we become energetically depleted. Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction...