The idea for this month's newsletter came from an unlikely encounter: I recently had lunch with a new friend named Rick Rockwell. You may remember him as the bachelor from the first-ever reality TV show, "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?"

During our meeting, Rick described some of the knowledge he gained from doing the show, along with a few of past his experiences in business, ethics, and of course, primetime romance. The stories were fantastic, the drama was riveting, and as Rick detailed his adventures with great humor, what impressed me most was what he wasn't saying.

You see, at no time did he dwell on the misfortune of not finding the love of his life or the way the media portrayed him. Instead, he said something along the lines of, "You know, Greg,! short and simply put, our circumstances, good or bad, are a direct result of our own actions, and ultimately, the only thing in which we are in true control of is our own (Attitude) towards them."

To which I agreed and responded, "You're absolutely right. We're are all dealt obstacles as well as good fortune in our lives-that's simply a part of life itself. Yet it's how we handle the obstacles that shows the world our true character as a person."

Rick and I sat there, just reflecting on the impact of that message for a bit until the idea of this newsletter popped into my head. I said, "You know, Rick, when it's all said and done, the bottom line is . . .

"We are exactly where we choose to be."

Now, this is where I put the question to you, the reader: Isn't that true for all of us? Isn't that true for all those around us?

I'm sure you know people (or perhaps even yourself at times) who blame the world for their setbacks and failures, then simply! credit "luck" for those who succeed around them. Yet, when we really examine our own lives, we see that we are exactly where we choose to be at any given moment.

>We are a product of our own environment because we are the ones creating the environment we are in.