James Dee Graves - Attorney, Consultant, Speaker

10/03/2021

Who spends their birthday like this??

03/11/2021

07/02/2019

On our last day in Puebla, we went to a local restaurant near the town square. After we had finished eating, this gentleman sat near the window. He reminded me of a picture I had in my head, but I could not recall from where. This morning I thought of it. He was the image I had in my head when I read “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” by Ernest Hemingway.

In the story he is called “nothing” ..”nada.” But, to me he was never nada.

03/29/2019

Caleb had his award and was sitting next to me, but was looking disappointed. I asked what was wrong and he said he had been talking to Noah, and Noah asked him who he thought would get the Terrific Kid award, then Noah said “I know it’s not going to be me.” And, I said, “So you feel bad for Noah?” And Caleb said, “yeah...” Then they called Noah’s name and Caleb’s face lit up and he said, “Hey! Noah got it!” Then he ran over and gave him a high-five. ♥️♥️♥️

03/03/2019

Ran on an cold overcast day yesterday along and around crossing highways. Still saw a lot of beauty.

03/03/2019

As I was running yesterday, all the cars on the street started to pull to the side of the road. I didn’t hear any sirens. So, I knew that there must be a funeral procession. And I thought, this really is the only time everyone will move out of your way to let you get to where you are going.

So, often we get frustrated or give up on pursuing our dreams because of the people and obstacles that stand in our way. But, this is just a part of the journey. And, truthfully it is these people and obstacles that make our success worthwhile. They add flavor to our story. So, we should never, never let them steal our drive to succeed; never abandon our dreams. We must press forward. Never give up, never give in.

Les Brown, a motivational speaker, paints an interesting picture:

Imagine if you will being on your death bed. And standing around your bed are the ghosts of the ideas, the dreams, the abilities, the talents given to you by life.

And that you, for whatever reason, you never acted on those ideas, you never pursued that dream, you never used those talents, we never saw your leadership, you never used your voice, you never wrote that book.

And there they are standing around your bed looking at you with large angry eyes saying we came to you, and only you could have given us life! Now we must die with you forever.

The question is, “if you die today what ideas, what dreams, what abilities, what talents, what gifts, would die with you?”

03/02/2019

Most of us go through life with our brakes on. Holding back; not sharing all of ourselves. Most of us go to our Graves still holding on.
The Real Les Brown
-quote *****on

02/25/2019

Gary Vaynerchuk nuggets of wisdom at the IFA 2019 Convention.

*****on

02/24/2019

Fail again. Fail Better. .
*****on

02/24/2019

Win your 7 y/o championship game then go to a Thunder game like a boss.😆

02/22/2019

- It is nearly impossible to break a bad habit. You must replace the bad habit with a good habit. Every habit has three components: first, the trigger the thing that causes you to want to behave. Second, the behavior itself, The thing you call your bad habit, I.e. hitting the snooze alarm, playing on your phone, eating too much, pouring yourself a drink. Third, is the reward. This is the happy sensation you get after engaging in your habit.

Therefore, in order to break the bad habit, you must identify your trigger. Then, once you have recognized it, follow it with a good behavior, working out, reading a good book, going for a run, writing in a journal. This way you still feel the reward and your brain is no longer hungry for it. This is the way to overcome the bad habit.

But, the thing to remember is that all habits are hard programmed into our brain. This is good, because it means we can do things like drive a car or play a sport without having to relearn the process every single time. But, it also means it is incredibly easy to fall back into bad habits. So, we must be hypervigilant and, when we fail, which we will, we must not give up. Because the good habits are hard programmed as well. .