The Key to Success

I’ve always been a great believer in success through dedication and hard work versus relying on smartness to get ahead. My canine friends and I have observed humans for a very long time and have seen the results of dedicated individuals with passion who become high achievers.

 

Angela Duckworth from the University of Pennsylvania has proven that my dog instincts are always right. She has conducted research that focuses on a personality trait she calls "grit." She defines grit as "sticking with things over the very long term until you master them." Call it what you will. I believe in the old-fashioned word “dedication.”

Angela believes when it comes to high achievement; intelligence isn’t a critical success factor but grit is. One of her studies showed that smarter students had less grit. To sum up her findings, there are smart people that aren’t high achievers, and there are others who don’t score high on tests who achieve so much more.

 

I’m a dog. I have natural grrrrit. See my teeth, but I wouldn’t mind having some milk right about now to wash down these amazing hot dogs…. Hmmm, so good!

 

How much GRIT do you have? Take the Grit Scale Test:

http://bit.ly/1gKtj3H

With lovingkindness,

 

 

 

 

The Spiritual Entrepreneur

The word “entrepreneur” has a varied meaning and a range of connotations. Early definitions focused on the financial factor, creating wealth by selling goods for an amount greater than their cost of production. In this view, the entrepreneur’s sole objective was to make money. However, more recent definitions speak about not only making money, but putting soul and spirit back into your business to increase success. A Spiritual entrepreneur and/or leader embraces the notion of masterful work and constant improvement. The spiritual entrepreneur is less susceptible to the ego’s predisposition toward greed and is focused on creating good for all.

 

Today, the definition of entrepreneurship is moving away from a strict financial approach to business to one that highlights vision. There appears to be an increased longing for commercial endeavors that are characterized by a passion for serving, a concern for the environment, and community. The Entrepreneurship Center at Miami University of Ohio states: "Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying, developing, and bringing a vision to life. The vision may be an innovative idea, an opportunity, or simply a better way to do something.” The idea can fulfill the needs of consumers before they even realize they have a need, or it can make an old idea relevant today, like what has been done at hotdogueculture.com. So, go ahead and find your passion and purpose in life, and create a business around it! Success is no longer measured by profit but by the impact you have on your community.

 

Zen-like principles shape every aspect of your company culture and business, and what you value must be congruent with your practice. Spiritual principles provide the basis for goodness, which can lead to the success and sustainability of your enterprise. Having conviction and vision for something, something that matters is the spirit of the new entrepreneur. Do work that is good for the soul and the greater good of all, and don’t forget to nourish your spirit. It’s a dog-eat –dog world so get innovative and create something that will sustain us all!

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

 

Meditate on this!

Meditation can help us become more at ease with our bodies and minds, and it can help with anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia, illness, and much more. Contemplative practice is found in most religions, but meditation can be practiced apart from any religion or belief system. Meditation is simply training, training our attention to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings. We need to be able to see clearly before we can take action.

Budda wrote: “You could search the whole world over and never find anyone as deserving of your love as yourself.” What Budda understands is that we must love and nurture ourselves first. Loving ourselves (not narcissistic love) is the foundation for being able to love and care for one another. By looking inward, we can see our goodness and then we can see the goodness of others. We become more connected and compassionate when we are no longer a stranger to ourselves. Meditation can help us break bad habits and the negatives stories we tell ourselves - We must move from not being good enough to being enough!

 

Reflective practice teaches us to be open to the human experience. We must recognize our thoughts before we can understand them, and we ought to examine ideas in order to unblock patterns. With that in mind, we must trade in habitual responses for accurate assessments. What we notice or what we give our attention to is what flourishes, and this goes for ignoring stressful thoughts or situations. Meditation will help us become more peaceful and happier but not every single day….

 

Meditation can help us deal with setbacks and accept change. By practicing meditation, we can decrease fear, anger, regret and sadness while increasing well-being. Try meditating for five to twenty minutes a day. If you’re a dog like me, five minutes is sufficient or else deep sleep takes over. Meditation will make you happier! Try it!

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

Homeward Bond: The Incredible Journey

Welcome to, Frankly Speaking, a blog about food, culture and moving toward enlightenment. This blog launches the same day our website HotDogue Culture begins. Visit us at hotdogculture.com to learn more about our story.

 

So let me introduce myself. My name is Frank Russell, the mascot of HotDogue Culture, and the author of this blog, Frankly Speaking. I am a feisty Jack Russell with a need to feed my soul and fuel my body with great tasting food. I have some pet peeves which gets me into trouble, but other than that I feel pretty much at peace. I love a great story whether it comes from a Greek village or Hollywood, but stories can be calculating, especially the stories we tell ourselves. The stories, our minds tell us, can be dangerous to ourselves, as well as to our collective souls. With these stories, there’s always a problem that needs to be resolved, and in the brain, our false self is kept alive by our mind’s story or merely the sum of our thoughts. It’s no wonder that conflict is the essential ingredient of a well-told story.

 

I believe listening to ourselves is the art of living a full life but this listening must come from when we feel joy and not from our conditioned, ego, which is driven by thoughts that drive us insane. I too am guilty of being driven by my ego. Yes, dogs have egos too but they are more primal than humans! The ego seeks more of everything, and it’s never satisfied. It is a cycle of dissatisfaction. I know I have been there… right next to you programmed driven humans with primitive flight or fight responses. It always seems to be that our goals belong to someone else, and our achievements are never enough, so we are always seeking something more, better and higher! Once we get it… the cycle begins again… the cycle of dissatisfaction.

 

HotDogue Culture is a project that came from the art of learning to live and listen. It is an incredible journey inward manifested outward, and I share this tasty treat with the community. It’s a place to explore ideas, inspire conversation and feed our souls with compassion and awareness. We must learn to follow what makes us truly happy and not our ego driven thoughts. When we feel joy that is a sign that we are moving homeward and closer to our true passion. Our talents and our interests will help guide us to happiness. Just listen. It’s our destiny to be happy!

 

Live your life more fully, no bun intended and leave your unique dogue print on the world!

With lovingkindness,