An old Joni Mitchell song reminds us, “don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Stop what you’re doing right now, look around and take a quick 30-second gratitude break. Take this moment to appreciate all the things you’d really miss if they were gone.

I’m writing about gratitude today because in the past couple of weeks, I’ve experienced some, shall we say “inconveniences” that have made me very grateful for the smallest things in my life…and also some of the largest. I’m really grateful for working indoor plumbing after the two weeks we spent having the floor in our master bath jackhammered; having to turn hot water on and off (at the water heater) each time we wanted to use it until we could locate and fix a leak in the plumbing.

Recently, on the hottest July 17 on record in Las Vegas (officially 116 degrees!), our power went out at 4 in the afternoon and remained off until midnight. Not only were we without air conditioning, lights and all the appliances we’ve come to rely on, but because our well is powered with electricity we had no water either! It has been a month that has tested my patience in many ways. But it has also strengthened my gratitude muscles significantly.

Today, my hot and cold water are running. The air conditioning is humming along keeping it a very comfortable 80 degrees in our home, and I’m sitting here as usual at my computer writing this message. Am I thankful? You bet! Oh and one more thing. On a trip back from Utah recently, a large blue tarp that had blown off of someone else’s vehicle, blew directly into my car. Fortunately it wrapped itself around the front end of the car instead of my windshield…and I am definitely grateful for that.

Now, look around you again and take stock right this minute of all you can be grateful for. Your computer is obviously working, you’re able to read, you’re breathing, hopefully the air conditioning where you are is working. You have family and friends who love you, care about you and to whom you matter. I’m grateful that my husband knows how to get things fixed around our house, and that in the event of another power outage, we’ve always got the swimming pool!

There is no shortage of things to be thankful for right now. There is only the shortage of attention to all you really have to be grateful for. Join me in making this gratitude day. Stop several times today and complete this sentence: “Right now, I am grateful for….” It may not change any negative circumstances immediately into positive ones, but if it changes your mind, brings a smile to your face and allows you to pass that grateful attitude along to others, then it may yet change your world.

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Quote of the Week
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“Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.”
~~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Betty Mahalik has been coaching small business owners, independent professionals and leaders who want to achieve more but stress less, since 1996. Her background includes several years in the broadcasting and public relations fields prior to starting her own firm in 1987. She is an accomplished public speaker and corporate trainer specializing in communications, goal-setting and leveraging your strengths. Since 2001, she has written a weekly motivational message, free to subscribers, titled Monday Morning Coach.

To subscribe or learn more about Betty’s coaching and training services, visit http://www.dynamic-coaching.com

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General

Shooting abroad can be a serious hassle if you don’t prepare properly. But if you follow a few guidelines, traveling with a kit is far more likely to go smoothly. Prepare and be prepared. The tips below address the most frequent problems we see.

Carnets

The countries listed below require carnets if you’re traveling with location production equipment. A carnet is essentially proof that a bond is held in your home country on the equipment and it will not be released until the equipment is returned to your home country. It is meant to stop people from taking goods from a country where they are relatively cheap and selling them in a country where they cost far more because of duties, taxes or other reasons.

The easiest way to get a carnet is to phone a company that processes them and they will post the bond for a fee. If you don’t know a company that offers this service, ask for a recommendation from someone who does and who can vouch for speed, reliability and efficiency. The charge varies depending on how quickly you need the carnet and on which country you’re visiting. Typically the charge will include:

Administration fee charged by the company processing the carnet
Local Chamber of Commerce fee
Charge for posting the bond

The bond required varies from country to country and is a percentage of the stated value of the equipment. The charge for posting the bond depends on the declared value of the equipment. Different people take different approaches to the declared value. Some use the new value of the equipment. Some list the used value. Some use an artificially low value to save on the charge for the bond. I recommend you seek advice on what value to declare. The values declared on a carnet have no bearing on the insured value of the equipment.

Once you have a carnet, make sure you have it signed and stamped every time you enter and leave a country. If you fail to do this, you will have to present all the equipment on the carnet to a Customs inspector once you’re back in the UK - there is a fee for this - and you risk a fine. If you’ve hired the equipment, you’ll need to hire the identical equipment to show Customs and this could incur hire charges and arranging for the exact kit with the serial numbers listed on the carnet to show the Customs inspector can be a major hassle. This can so easily be avoided by ensuring the right forms are signed and stamped on every entry into and departure from a given country.

Also extremely important is returning the carnet documents to the issuer immediately. If you send them by post, send them registered and phone to make sure they have been received. I know of a couple of cases of carnets apparently being returned to the issuer and apparently not received. The result was a hefty fine and a lot of trouble trying to reassemble the equipment on the carnet for a Customs inspection so the bond would be released.

The bottom line is the bond is only released once the equipment has returned to your home country and the carnet has been returned to whoever processed it with all the paperwork correctly done. This is essential.

Countries Requiring Carnets
Below is a list of countries that require carnets for camera kits. The list excludes EU countries because if you’re traveling from the UK and staying within the EU a carnet is not necessary.

Algeria, Andorra, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, China, Croatia, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, China, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, Korea (Republic of), Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United States.

Countries That Do Not Require Carnets
If you’re traveling to a country or countries that do not require a carnet you should take a pro-forma equipment list. This is a list of all the equipment you are traveling with and should include the manufacturer and model number, the serial number, the country of manufacture and the value. Once again the value can be replacement value, used value or an artificially low value - at your discretion. This list should be on company letterhead. Take several copies of it with you, ideally with a company stamp on it.

In addition to the pro-forma, there is one other piece of paperwork you’ll need - an HM Customs and Excise C & E 1246 form. The heading on this form is “Returned Goods Relief: declarations to be made when using duplicate lists.” These can be downloaded from the HM Customs and Excise, now part of HM Revenue and Customs, web site www.hmce.gov.uk. On the home page, click onto Forms, leaflets and booklets. Once there, go to “Forms published in respect of matters formerly dealt with by HM Customs & Excise.” Follow the list down to C & E 1246 and print it out.

Complete the form and take it and several copies of the equipment list with you when you check in at the airport you’re leaving from in the UK. When you check in, let the airline attendant know you have a “Returned Good Relief” list and need to have Customs stamp it. Customs will generally only want to see the highest priced items such as the camera, which you should hand carry, and you will need to take these items through the boarding pass checkpoint and to the Customs counter on the other side to get this stamped. If Customs wants to see everything you may have to hire an airport porter to take the equipment around. The stamped form and list prove you left the UK with the listed equipment so that when you return to the UK you can show it to Customs and you won’t have any problem getting the equipment back into the UK.

Excess Baggage
Excess baggage charges can make a production manager shake violently and look like the terrified victim of a maniac in a horror film. They can be outrageous. For example, BA charges

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“Having the energy to pursue our passions will always come if that’s our wish. Most of who we are, what we do, and where we are going relates to our attitude. Being tired, bored, scared, or unhappy are decisions, nothing more. Coming to grips with this reality has the potential for changing every aspect of what remains of our lives.”

This quote came to me recently and I simply had to pass it on because it’s true. As I’ve studied personal development and success for more than 20 years, I’ve come to realize, (with apologies to Abe Lincoln), “most people are just about as successful as they make up their minds to be.”

Succumbing to the internal story of failure…I’m too tired, bored, scared, unhappy,…or I’m not (blank) enough…fill in the blank with whatever mythical ingredient you’ve decided you have too little of: looks, money, smarts, connections, blah, blah, blah. It really doesn’t matter. It’s all a story we’ve made up and through repetition come to believe. So why not make up a different story and in the process start to shape a different set of circumstances?

Jinny Ditzler, author of the amazing book, Best Year Yet, and the goal-setting process she’s worked with for more than two decades, calls this shifting from a limiting to an empowering paradigm. Laurie Beth Jones in her book, The Path: Creating Your Mission for Work and for Life (another of my favorites), describes it as the power of positive prophecy. Words do indeed have prophetic power…whether the prophecy predicts failure or success.

This week, examine what kind of paradigms or prophecies are shaping your mood, attitude, actions and behaviors. Listen when you talk to yourself. If you want a real eye-opener, jot down the things you say under your breath or in your head. You may be shocked at the kinds of limiting, judgemental, negative, critical stuff that pours almost constantly through your brain. You’d probably wash your child’s mouth out with soap for saying some of it!

We do tend to become like what we think about constantly and talk about, whether silently or aloud. I invite you this week to reinvent yourself by reprogramming your internal chatter. And even if it doesn’t result in an immediate turnaround of fortunes (what does?), I can predict you’ll start feeling much better about yourself, others will feel better about being around you, and it’s only a matter of time before your external circumstances start to match your predominant internal mantra.

The following story has circulated through email channels for several years, but it bears repeating one more time:

One evening a wise old Cherokee grandfather told his grandson about a battle that was going on inside himself.

He said, “my grandson, it is between 2 wolves. One is evil: Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego….

“The other is good: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith…”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins.?”

The grandfather simply replied, “The one I feed.”

Our attitudes are a matter of the decisions we make, one minute at a time…which wolf we decide to feed. Choose right now which attitude you’ll align with…success or failure…it’s up to you, starting now.

Betty Mahalik has been coaching small business owners, independent professionals and leaders who want to achieve more but stress less, since 1996. Her background includes several years in the broadcasting and public relations fields prior to starting her own firm in 1987. She is an accomplished public speaker and corporate trainer specializing in communications, goal-setting and leveraging your strengths. Since 2001, she has written a weekly motivational message, free to subscribers, titled Monday Morning Coach.

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