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A Healthy Dose of Dissatisfaction By Bob Cox I recently found myself becoming increasingly annoyed as I listened to someone rant on about the ineptness of the health care system and the shortage of care they felt entitled to. While I realized that this person had endured a tremendous amount of chronic pain and a number of intrusive physical disabilities, I was shocked by their absence of gratitude for the health care professionals, friends and family members who went above and beyond to ease their pain when they needed it most. It took me a few days to realize that my negative emotions had once again been misdirected towards someone else. After a brief glance into the metaphorical mirror, the answer became embarrassingly obvious. Over the past few months, I’ve been wasting far too much valuable time dwelling on something I wanted and didn’t have while missing the obvious and beautiful blessings I’m surrounded by every day. While I won’t bore you with a long and itemized list of things I’m grateful for, I will acknowledge the abun-
dance of so many good things in my life that I take for granted more than I’d like to admit. I have a wife that I adore, family and friends that I cherish, work that is immensely satisfying and a place that I enjoy coming home to every day. So, why do I find myself stumbling back into the depressing pit of chronic dissatisfaction? Could that actually be for my own good, an opportunity for deeper self reflection and personal growth? Yes, as long as my dissatisfaction is not excessive, imbalanced and constantly disrupts my sense of peace and well being. For these reasons, I do believe that a small but healthy dose of dissatisfaction can be the catalyst for a great new adventure. After all, if you were 100% satisfied with everything in your life, what motivation would you have to experience something new, fresh and invigorating? You certainly wouldn’t feel the need to grow and evolve. Imagine being a caterpillar that is 100% content with life on the ground. You have no awareness of the amazing transformation that’s about to take place until a good friend flies in for a visit. Your buddy looks amazingly different, adorned with majestic wings and a slender new physique. No, he hasn’t been climbing the stairmaster at the local gym every day. He does go on to share his remarkable experience... One day I stopped eating and crawled up the tallest tree I could find. Then I hung upside down from a twig and spun myself into a silky cocoon. Within this protective casing, I radically transformed my body from a caterpillar into a butterfly. Needless to say, I won’t be crawling around in the dirt anymore, hoping to avoid being squished! Upon hearing this amazing revelation, would you still be good with crawling on the ground? Probably not. You might fool yourself into thinking you’re good with the way things are as a caterpillar, especially if you’re immobilized by the fear of heights, confined spaces or the great unknown. If that were to happen to you, guess what? It’s your turn to gaze into that metaphorical mirror. And when you do, don’t be frightened if a butterfly is looking back at you. Bob Cox is the founder and publisher of Go For It Magazine. He can be reached by phone at (916) 266-3115. His email address is coxrobert@comcast.net. Go For It Magazine is owned and operated in Rancho Cordova, CA. Copyright © 2017.
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Exploring the Secrets of Taekwondo By Bob Cox Q: Why did you choose to learn taeThe year Chief Master Willie Rankins bekwondo? gan his martial arts career, McDonalds had A: I got my first taste of taekwondo watchjust rolled out the Big Mac, gasoline was 34 ing martial arts shows on television like The cents a gallon, Hey Jude was a number one hit Green Hornet and Kung Fu. Any show that insong for 9 straight weeks and the Viet Cong volved kicking and punching, I was glued to launched the Tet Offensive. While all those it. At that time, I didn’t know the difference events happened the year after he graduated between karate, kung fu or taekwondo. I just from high school in 1967, Rankins enlisted in saw a bunch of people kicking and punching the U.S. Air Force and would serve his country and it looked cool! for the next six years in Taiwan as the war in Chief Master Willie Rankins Southeast Asia dragged on. Q: Aside from the kicking and punching, During his years in the military, Rankins has invested half a century was there anything else about martial arts immersed himself into a daily regimen of prac- practicing martial arts and that appealed to you? ticing his primary passion: martial arts train- is the owner of Robinson’s A: Yes, I was taken with the ceremonies, esing. Karate and judo were the only self defense Taekwondo in Rancho Cordova. pecially the bowing and the show of respect. styles available to foreigners at the time, so There is visible order that a person can see and if that’s where Rankins got his initial training. A short time you apply yourself, you can achieve higher and higher ranks. thereafter, he met Grand Master Clinton Robinson, who I also like the meditative and spiritual side of martial arts. had just won the Taiwan National Taekwondo Championship. The two bonded over their love of martial arts and Q: Is there anything else that has made martial arts appealing to you? shared a grand vision of opening their own martial arts stuA: Yes, the fact that you know how to do something dio once they returned to America. that very few people know how to do, that’s pretty cool. It’s They follow through with their vision and now, nearlike a big secret and everybody wants to know that secret. ly 50 years later, there are eleven Robinson’s Taekwondo But, the only way you can receive that secret is to train. All franchises in the greater Sacramento area. I sat down with credible martial arts have secrets, but they’re not given to Chief Master Rankins, the owner of Robinson’s Taekwondo new students. in Rancho Cordova recently to learn a few secrets about his long and exciting taekwondo journey. Q: Why do martial art instructors conceal these secrets to new students? A: To prevent their students from abusing their new skills and power. Sharing the secrets too early on how to do certain things in martial arts with a new student is like giving a bully a loaded gun. Our secrets are passed down to students that are loyal, disciplined and persevere. Q: What are the differences among the most common martial arts like karate, kung fu and taekwondo? A: All three include kicking, punching and jumping, so the difference is where the martial arts place their emphasis. Taekwondo puts its emphasis on the lower body, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not effective with using the upper body. Karate typically puts a lot of emphasis on the upper body but they also kick. Kung fu puts a lot of emphasis on circular motion and redirecting but it has linear movements too. Q: What are the greatest gifts and benefits you’ve received from taekwondo? A: When I came into martial arts, I was a young guy, fresh out of high school, very healthy, energetic and athletic. At this age, I’m more comfortable with my feet on the ground and being able to move with ease. I also concentrate more on the internal and spiritual parts of taekwondo for my personal health, especially breathing exercises and flexibility training. Q: Is martial arts just for young people? A: No, we have members in the taekwondo community that are over 75 years old and they still perform as if they were 25-30 years old. It’s really amazing, but taekwondo is part of their lifestyle. The body has to move in order to 6 GO FOR IT
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stay healthy. So that’s what taekwondo offers. I’ll absolutely never stop because the benefits are too great. Q: When I was younger, I confused confidence with arrogance, but they are quite different, right? A: Yes, night and day. Typically, people who lack confidence project arrogance. The structure of martial arts allows you to build confidence within yourself by building a strong mental attitude as well as a strong physical presence. It allows you to build that confidence from the inside out. Most people that practice martial arts are very confident and relaxed. Q: What brings you the greatest joy when you’re teaching a new student? A: Oh, success and helping a student develop confidence over time through training. I get positive feedback from my student’s parents all the time. One student named David started in my Dragon’s Program, which is for kids under age six. He started with me and stayed with me all the way through school. He later went to college and graduated from M.I.T. Parents have periodically come back to tell me how grateful they are that taekwondo played a major role in the children’s success by giving them the discipline and confidence that started right here. Q: Is there one secret that’s helped you teach your students to excel in the classroom and in life? A: Over the years, I’ve learned not to take second place in students training. Sometimes, students try to do too many things at the same time and they’re not becoming very good at anything. Taekwondo requires focus and practicing taekwondo will give you the focus you need to excel in life. Q: What other organizations are you associated with besides Robinson’s Taekwondo? A: I sit on the board of the United World Taekwondo Association (UWTA) and am an international instructor. The UWTA is a kukkiwon trusted organization and is the approved authority for progress, rank and curriculum worldwide for taekwondo. All athletes must have kukkiwon certification to participate in the Olympics. Editor’s notes: Robinson’s Taekwondo of Rancho Cordova has been part of the community since April 1983. For more information, call (916) 638-5411, check out their website at www.robinsonstkd.com or visit their facility at 11015 Olson Dr. in Rancho Cordova.
Chief Master Rankins (center) in 1978. November 2017
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Khaki’s: Unique Clothing for Women Who Dare to Look Beautiful By Bob Cox While I’m not suggestThe next time you ing that we’ve become a spend an evening watchnation of unsightly slobs, ing an old movie, chances I will say that enhancing are good that you’ll notice one’s wardrobe doesn’t a few significant differences have to mean the demise in the way people looked of the comfortable clothing and dressed back in the we all enjoy. Cathi Hayter, day. The vast majority of the owner of Khaki’s, a repeople from the first half of tail store that carries comthe previous century were fortable, casual and classy not only amazingly thin but lines of unique clothing for also extremely well dressed. women, has also observed Over the past several the precipitous decline in decades, we’ve taken the the way people of all ages fashion of casual comfort are dressing. Here’s how and dropped it down the our conversation went. rabbit hole of sloppiness. Just when the fashion bar Q: What are the bigseems to have sunk to a Khaki’s offers unique, fashionable and comfortable clothing for women in a gest changes you’ve seen new low, we find a clever warm and friendly environment. in style since you’ve been way to lower the dress code in the business? a little more. Casual Friday seems to have devolved into A: I think it’s sad that people don’t dress up anymore. frumpy Friday. What’s next, slovenly Saturday? I used to sell dressy dresses for Christmas and New Years but people don’t even dress up for parties anymore. Also, when I go to the theatre, people don’t dress up anymore, not at all. To me, that’s part of the fun! Q: Do you do anything special or unique in your personal life to make a fashion statement? A: Yes, I have two good friends and we go out once a year to a really nice restaurant, dress to the nines and people are blown away. Then on Halloween, we all wear witch outfits and go out to a nice restaurant. There are six of us and we go beyond with our costumes and they’re not just cheesy little costumes. We plan it all year. Q: How did you get involved in the clothing business?
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A: Before we were married, my husband worked in a ski store and they asked me if I wanted to go to work there. I took the job and I just loved it! It’s what I should’ve done all my life. I like to be around people a lot and that’s what I liked most about it. I worked into a full time position and got involved in buying. After that, I was offered a job at Sierra Outfitters as a buyer and was there quite a few years. Q: Did that background help prepare you to own your own clothing boutique? A: Yes. The people that started Khaki’s in Modesto wanted to open a store here as well. Because I knew them from the ski business, they offered me the job as the buyer and manager of Khaki’s. When they decided to retire, I bought it from them. Khaki’s has been around for 20 years and I’ve owned it for 11 years. Q: Why did they name the store Khaki’s? A: Khaki’s means casual. They just wanted it to be one word and easy to remember, but it can be confusing as men often come in here wanting to know if we have khaki’s. Q: What makes Khaki’s different for other clothing boutiques? A: I really try to find items that are unique so you won’t see yourself coming and going. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can still look hip without looking ridiculous by trying too hard to look young!
A: The couch is comfortable and its fun. I just don’t think it looks homey when there are just racks everywhere. Plus the men like it when they’re with their wives. I also have my book club meetings here and other book clubs meet here as well. Q: What advice would you give people to live life to the fullest? A: Don’t stop doing things. Stay busy and active. And you have to have really cute clothes! For me, cute clothes make me feel really good. I know for some people it’s not a really big deal, but I think when you care about how you dress and how you look, you will care more about everything. Q: What’s been the greatest challenge you’ve faced and what action did you take to resolve it? A: I lost my husband of 35 years when I was 60. I needed to make enough money to make a living, so that’s when I decided to buy the store. I realized that it saved me to keep busy with this business. At the same time, I also learned how to dance the tango. I used to go out three nights a week for tango lessons and I went to tango festivals. I met new people and stayed very active, which saved me from wallowing in grief. Editor’s notes: For more information about Khaki’s, visit their store at 2600 Fair Oaks Bl., #105 in Sacramento or call (916) 481-2204.
Q: What have been the biggest changes in your industry? A: Almost everything used to be made here in America, but now they’re very hard to find. Also, there was no internet and very few catalog sales. Q: What are some advantages to shopping here versus going online? A: Customer service and individual attention. You can try it on right here, which means you don’t have to wait to get it in the mail and then send it back when it doesn’t fit. You save time and all that wasteful packaging, which leads to more pollution. Also, I’m very honest with giving feedback. It’s probably cost me some sales but I will not lie to make a sale. Q: What do your customers love most about Khaki’s? A: People have told me they like that we carry lines that are unique. They also like the personal service. Q: Is there a certain style that’s a hot trend? A: Well, leggings seem like they will never seem to go out of style and everybody likes them because they’re really comfortable. Girls that wear leggings usually need longer tops. Q: You have a couch in the middle of your shop, which I love. What was your thinking behind this? November 2017
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4 Secrets of Insanely Successful People By Aaron Orendorff Everybody loves a good secret. In fact, the juicier, the better. Why? Because we all love being insiders. We love the feeling of exclusivity, of knowing something that’s just ours and no one else’s. But in business, secrets do more than just stroke our egos. We love having the upper hand. We love having the “unfair advantage,” to borrow entrepreneur Jason Cohen’s term. So when someone like Dr. Ivan Misner, founder and chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization boasting 5.4 million referrals and more than $6.5 billion in resulting revenue, asks, “Do you want to know the secret to success?” you listen. What’s “the secret”? Well, there isn’t just one. But think about this: “Success is the uncommon application of common knowledge.” In other words, when it comes to success, what matters isn’t so much learning something new but putting into practice what we already know. Here are four not-so-secret secrets of insanely successful people:
1. They have a vision.
According to Warren Bennis’s classic On Becoming a Leader, leadership is “the capacity to translate vision into reality.” This means that success starts with answering a fundamental question: What do I really want? Whether you call the answer to that question your mission statement, core values, brand identity or just your goals doesn’t really matter. Because “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Here’s how Bennis unpacks the idea: The leader has a clear idea of what he or she wants to do—professionally and personally—and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. The key word is “clear.” And clarity means writing it down. In fact, as SUCCESS.com’s infographic on the habits of the world’s wealthiest people points out, two of the most statistically significant factors that set the richest people apart from everyone else are that 81 percent of them maintain a to-do list and 80 percent focus on accomplishing a specific goal. 10 GO FOR IT
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2. They are honest.
Successful people tell the truth. This sounds so obvious that you might think it doesn’t even need to be said. But in a climate where the pressure to look good, perform well, eke out profits and win by any means necessary is constantly increasing, honesty is becoming a scarce commodity. And yet, honesty pays. According to research in Robert B. Cialdini’s: Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, when companies “explained failures in their annual reports, those that pointed to internal and controllable factors had higher stock prices one year later than those that pointed to external and uncontrollable factors.” In other words, taking responsibility for our mistakes and admitting when we’re wrong isn’t just relationally smart—it’s financially savvy. Another study, conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, found companies that “rated highly in the area of open communication” and encouraged honest feedback among their staff delivered a “10-year total shareholder return that was 270 percent more than other companies.” And what’s true for companies is just as true for us. As Bennis wrote, “Leaders never lie to themselves, especially about themselves…. You are your own raw material.”
3. They show gratitude.
Without gratitude, you aren’t being mindful or totally thankful of the good things in life—and your perspective is probably skewed to the negative as a result. You might even have less motivation to go after more good things, if you aren’t grateful of the ones you already have. We tend to think of gratitude as a spontaneous emo-
tion, something that just happens to us in moments of triumph or success. In reality, though, gratitude is something we develop. And just like all the other not-so-secret secrets on this list, it is something we choose, something we make a wide-eyed, premeditated, self-determined decision to experience. How? By actively looking for reasons to be grateful and second, by simply saying, “Thank you.” When we look for reasons to be grateful—when we make that our intentional focus—we find them. On top of that, when we call attention to those reasons, we cultivate gratitude not only within ourselves but within our relationships and organizations.
4. They are adaptive.
Success isn’t about avoiding failure. It’s about learning from failure. Take Thomas Edison’s famous quote about inventing the light bulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The key is to cultivate what Eric Ries in The Lean Startup calls “validated learning.”“Validated learning is not an afterthe-fact realization or a good story designed to hide failure,” he says. “It is the principal antidote to the lethal problem of achieving failure: successfully executing a plan that leads nowhere.”
For Ries, this antidote comes down to one skill: the ability to adapt. “What differentiates the success stories from the failures are that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly.” All this means is that instead of hiding from failure, insanely successful people anticipate and integrate failure into their lives in ways that transform it from an end into a means. We all love a good secret. But the truth is, when it comes to success, there’s no such thing. So start small, but start today. Pick one of these four “secrets” and put it to work.
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Grateful for Community The news reports have been filled with stories of communities decimated by recent natural disasters. I know many individuals and businesses that have been impacted AND others that have sent donations and/or volunteered to help those communities. Amid all the stories, there is a common thread... one of human compassion and kindness. So, in spite of the tragedy that has fallen on so many, I am grateful for the reminder that humanity, at its core, is kind, compassionate, generous, and hopeful. After Las Vegas, Paris, and so many other incidents of violence, it is good to know that as a community, whether local or global, people rally together. I am also grateful to be part of the Rancho Cordova community where I find examples of people helping people ALL the time. Hope you will come out and rally with others in November. Details at BobsPocket.com. * Visit BobsPocket.com for links to these organizations, Bob’s bio, past blogs, and more!
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E-Z Does It!
Kristy Skondras and Annette Arent, Owners of E-Z Living Cleaning Q: What are some common things people don’t know about E-Z Living Cleaning? A: That we do window cleaning and carpet cleaning. Also, there’s a manager on every crew that cleans on every job. Our employees are always being supervised. A lot of companies just send one or two girls and you get what you get. Q: How do you earn the trust of customer’s that have had bad experiences with other house cleaning services? A: A lot of our customers were previously burned one way or another by other house cleaning companies and so they usually want to be in the home while we’re there and that’s understandable. But after six months or a year they feel comfortable enough with us to leave us alone. Q: What else do you do to offer outstanding service? A: We send in a crew of four, so they work quickly and efficiently. The manager is in charge of everything, including the key, the alarm, supervising the crew and checking everything before she goes. Q: What’s the typical feedback you get from your customers? A: That we do a really good job and that we’re honest and trustworthy. We’re on time, dependable and we show up when they need us. Q: How do you live up to your slogan “We don’t cut corners, we clean them”? A: Every crew has a manager and some crews have an assistant manager to insure premium quality work and we thoroughly train every employee on how to clean efficiently and effectively. We also always use our own superior quality cleaning supplies on every house we clean. November2017 2017 GO GO FOR FOR IT IT 15 November
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