I’m sure you’ve heard or read this one before, but it is always worth reading again.  I know, I could have grabbed a video of the speech – it is given perfectly by Al Pacino in the movie Any Given Sunday – however, then you can only hear one version instead of reading from different perspectives.  Enjoy…

I don’t know what to say really.
Three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional lives
all comes down to today.
Either
we heal
as a team
or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we’re finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen
believe me
and
we can stay here
and get the shit kicked out of us
or
we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you.
I’m too old.
I look around and I see these young faces
and I think
I mean
I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh….
I pissed away all my money
believe it or not.
I chased off
anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately,
I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you.
That’s, that’s part of life.
But,
you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or to early
you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in every break of the game
every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that’s going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.

I’ll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can’t make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy
who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

Just reading this again makes me want to get up and go kick some ass!  What gets you going?  What helps you get motivated to create your own luck?    If you don’t have something in your life worth applying this lesson to then you need to step back and take a look in the mirror.  Everyone should have something that no only gets them out of bed, but pushes them to go further than yesterday.

Excellent Example of choosing your attitude, forgetting the past, and moving on to victory. I was going to write something about this, but this guy beat me and it was Freshly Pressed…how do you compete with that?

For all you futbol fans, or perhaps those that love the USA, let’s talk about composure. I’m talking about the kind of composure that players keep when faced with adversity. Athletes that lose their pantalones when the calls don’t go their way, and the ones who don’t waiver at all. When team USA found themselves in a lose and leave situation after the wrong call heard round the world, they had two paths to take – get angry or get focused. Kudos C … Read More

via Live for the Run

By: Zach Machado

I am sure most WordPress.com users are aware, being Freshly Pressed and featured on the WordPress Home Page is a great honor and can instantly skyrocket a blog to fame.  I got curious about the impact on a blog and its author(s) from being Freshly Pressed so I started to ask some how it affected them.  As far as I can tell there is a lot of luck involved with being selected (11 out of millions of blogs are featured), but I have to figure quantity and quality of posts have something to do with being selected.  All in all, there is one thing I know…it seems to shock and humble most people honored.  Here are the responses I have received so far (I will continue to update as more come in):

melissahardytrevenna said:

To be honest, I didn’t know I was featured until I read your comment. I am a bit overwhelmed, but obviously pleased. I’m a writer with a couple of novels and a couple of collections of short stories published, but definitely NOT a household name, so having an audience that’s larger than my family and old high school buddies is pretty cool. We’ll see how it goes.

adam said:

Hi Zach,
I’m speechless!! I had no idea you had featured me on the home page, I had my mind so firmly focused on the England game lol.
I thought I’d finally tapped into the hot topic of the day and now I understand the boost in hits was due to the feature!

Thanks for that, it’s an honour, especially as I’ve only been blogging for a few months now.

Feelings and thoughts about the attention – Chuffed to bits!!
Will it change how I post? Good question…..probably not, I figured I’d write about me and what’s bugging me at that time, whether that’s political, environmental or in tonight’s case the footy!!

Zach, I’m thrilled you like my blog and I’d like to thank all of you guys at wordpress for giving us this free platform – it’s changed everything for me – when I started this I never realised how educational and therapeutic; this process it could be!

Respect and Peace!
@dam.

Abby said:

The immediate response has been a skyrocketing of views. I’ll let you know in a week if the numbers remain high or if it’s a One Hit Wonder. 

FYI – I let Adam know that I am not a WordPress representative and that I was sorry for any confusion.  I hope to continue this post with more entries as more blogs get Freshly Pressed and more authors tell me of their experience.  If you have been Freshly Pressed, or know of someone who has, please feel free to post the experience in the comments.  Or, if you have an update to an experience already shared, please update away!!  I am curious about:

• How did you find out about being Freshly Pressed?
• How many visitors did your blog average prior?
• Where did the numbers go on day 1 of Freshly Pressed?  After a week?  Month?
• Did it change the way you approach your blog?  Content?  Subject?  Style?
• Was everything a positive impact or were there some negatives?  Examples?
• Did it teach you anything?
• Has it been profitable?
• Anything else?

Congratulations to all of you Freshly Pressed club members, keep up the great writing!

It’s not fun getting hit by a soccer ball at 75 mph!!

How do I become an affiliate marketing machine?

By Zach Machado

Has your website started to generate a respectable amount of traffic?  Is the thought of making a little extra money through affiliate marketing becoming more tempting?  You are not alone, millions of others are already living the dream; no, not really, most are failing miserably.  Just remember success is not determined just because you have a high traffic count, there are several factors to consider before you sign up to be an affiliate.

Some of the variables to consider, and why:

• How is your blog hosted? Your host can/will dictate who and what you can affiliate with, if anything at all.
• What is your blog about? Content associated ads is a must; it makes it much easier to integrate marketing without offending your readers.  No readers, no clicks, no money, no point.
• How do you currently market your blog? Are you actively making an effort to promote your blog?  Are you a guest contributor on other high traffic blogs?  Do you make comments on high traffic blogs and websites?  Are you publishing your posts as articles across the web?  Do you partner with other websites to cross promote one another?
• Who is your audience? Do a little research on your most active subscribers, go to their blogs, websites, watch their tweets, etc.  Try and find a commonality amongst their interests and cater to them as much as possible without changing the identity of your blog.
• How big is your audience? Will it support an affiliate marketing campaign? Affiliate companies reserve the right to cease running ads with you if any one of many standards are not met, and that can include a minimum number of site visits and even a minimum amount of monthly clicks.
• Where do readers come from?  Knowing who your top referring sources are will help you increase traffic by targeting similar sources that do not know about you yet. Analytics are crucial to any business, and by becoming an affiliate marketer you are running a business.  I doubt there are any services out there not offering some form of analytics for your website free of charge.  If you feel you need a more robust analytical tool there are plenty to choose from; figure out what analytics you need and find a service capable of providing it.
• Are people clicking links on your site? If you have not tested this I highly recommend you do so you can get a feel for what your readers respond to.
• Will ads be autonomous or will they be integrated into your posts? How will you do it (directly as a product review, or seamless in the story)?  If you plan on mentioning a product or service in your posts and you want it to blend in and become a subliminal message for people to click-through so you get paid I suggest you practice.  Write some articles and have some friends critique them, the last thing you want to do is turn off the readers you have worked so hard to earn by “selling out”.
• Are you prepared to have ads in prominent positions on your site? It can be a little unsettling for some to see their website have advertisements on it, especially when they are prominently placed to maximize their effectiveness and in turn increase that commission check.  Nobody wants to be a “sell out”, but nobody wants to be broke either.
• What do you want to advertise? Products, services or both?  Again, make sure it fits with the look and feel of your website and is associated with the content being posted.

DO NOT become frustrated if there is not a stampede of clicks when you launch your affiliate marketing campaign.  There are several ways people fail in their bid to become an affiliate marketer, and usually there are simple solutions to prevent disaster.

DO NOT pick the first affiliate you find on a search page.  Do your research, make sure they are reputable and clearly explain the commission structure and how and when you get paid.  Find out if they have any complaints against them and you will save yourself from future headaches.  There are plenty of affiliates to choose from and combined they cover just about every salable item in the world.

DO NOT kick back and enjoy the show just because you are having success with your affiliate program, as quickly as it came it can also disappear.  This is not a “Set it and forget it” type of deal, you have to stay active on your site and keep posting fresh content.  Without fresh content readers will think you had a life changing moment and blogging was cut from your time budget.  If you are having trouble posting content on a regular basis then utilize any of the vast array of websites offering free articles to use as filler.

DO NOT forget to promote your site on other blogs, websites, your email signature, articles you publish, and people you talk to.  If you want to increase clicks on your site you need to get in front of as many people as you can as often as you can.

If you fee affiliate marketing is something you are ready to put energy into then it can be a decent extra channel of income.  Just remember to maintain your site’s identity, find an affiliate that fits your needs, and actively post fresh content at minimum of once a week.

Good luck out there!

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

- Abraham Lincoln

That line is from a post on Dawn's blog, This Woman's Work, and I so agree with it. Being a part of the blogging world has opened up so many ideas for me, made me friends with people I wouldn't otherwise know, and helped me write out my thoughts and feelings. My thoughts about adoption and adoption reform have especially evolved through reading other peoples' blogs. My journey through cancer was made easier when I was able to share it and get ama … Read More

via Just Enjoy Him

This may be the worst motivational speech I have ever seen, but it is also one of the most useful when it comes to educating on what not to do.  This person’s persistence borders on insanity and his speaking ability is lackluster at best.  Shockingly he (or an unhappy customer) released the comical act to the public for their enjoyment.  I hope he makes an effort to avoid anymore blows to his head.  Maybe someone can recommend a prop shop to him, it’s safer and with the quality of video he uses nobody would be the wiser.