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13 June 2006 |
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More
good things in life are lost
by indifference than ever were
lost
by active hostility.
Robert
Gordon Menzies
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Everyone journeys
through character as well as through time. The person one
becomes depends on the person one has been.
Dick Francis
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| You
can tell more about people by what they say about others than you
can by what others say about them.
Leo Aikman
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Every
generation is convinced there has been a deplorable breakdown of
manners.
Byron
Dobell
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Brief
Time of Splendor
Gail Pursell Elliott
"And
so I stand
Facing sunrise at the water's edge
Vision in one hand, in the other what seems real
I clap them over my head and they become one."
from
the poem "Destiny" ©2001 Gail Pursell Elliott
For
years, motivational gurus have promoted the concept of positive
self-talk, having a positive attitude, and how it makes a difference
in our perspective, productivity, and quality of life. Rarely
are we told how to go about doing this on a regular basis. There
are all kinds of techniques and exercises that can work, but they have
to be personalized and meaningful to each of us. We have to
believe it or at least behave as if we do.
One of the houses we lived in when I was growing up had a bay window
in the dining room with a window seat. That part of the house
faced east. One of the things I really enjoyed doing was to get
up very early, before the sun came up, get a glass of juice and curl
up in a corner of the window seat and watch the sky change.
Between darkness and dawn there was a brief time of splendor. Dark
silhouettes of tree branches with incredible colors behind them.
Peach, sapphire, crimson streaks, dark indigo overhead and to the
north, then as the sunrise itself approached they would all fade into
daylight. This surrealistic light show didn't last too long, but
it was enough to get my day off to a positive start.
Even though it was forgotten during the course of the day and its
activities, the quiet beauty, peacefulness, and anticipation of that
short time reached out to me to return to it each morning.
Not all of us have the chance to sit and watch the sunrise. And
for some of us it isn't meaningful. What is important is to find
something that is meaningful, personal, and uplifting to start our
day.
Whatever we do, our minds are most impressionable when we first
awaken. What we do with that brief time between sleep and being
fully awake, between darkness and daylight, sets the tone for our
entire day and how we approach it. It can be a brief time of
splendor in which we reconnect with our true selves. Then it
becomes easier to view each day as a new opportunity filled with
limitless possibilities for great things.
Have a Great Day and be good to yourself. You deserve it!
© Gail Pursell Elliott
Speaker,
Author, Educator, Human Resources and Training Consultant, Gail Pursell Elliott
is president and founder of Innovations "Training With A Can-Do
Attitude"TM - Promoting Dignity and Respect, No Exceptions, in companies
and communities nationwide. To receive Food For
Thought messages via email join the website mailing list at www.innovations-training.com
For permission to reprint in a newsletter or publication,
contact Gail at info@innovations-training.com
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The
Game Can Wait
Tim Autrey
| One
of my favorite TV commercials from years past showed a young
lad about to dig into a giant stack of steaming pancakes.
His buddies, anxious to start playing ball, are banging on
the door. "C’mon!" they’re shouting,
"Let’s go! Hurry up!" Fork in hand, the young
man eyes those golden cakes dripping with his favorite
syrup, and calls back to his friends, "Hey... slow
down. The game can wait. Life’s short."
So much
life to live...so little time.
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In a world
gone mad with "do more," "do it faster," and
"do it with less," isn’t it awesome to take a brief
time out to savor something special? When was the last time
you did? You know, the last time you took just a moment or
two to really capture a simple pleasure? Like that perfect
bite of chocolate cake, the first golden rays of a gorgeous spring
morning, or an Eskimo kiss with your four-year old? How
about the luscious scent of fresh lavender blossoms, the few
minutes of melodic bliss in Pachelbel’s Canon, the swirling
magic of a steamy bubbling Jacuzzi, or settling your head back
onto your fluffed-up feather pillow at the end of another glorious
day?
Throughout our
lives, each of us has fashioned our own special moments,
sensations, specific experiences -- little slices of heaven that
intimately caress our senses and sate our emotions. Mine are
different than yours. . . and yours are different than anyone
else’s. They don’t have to make sense. . . and yet they
make the most sense of all. The tragedy is that with the
world speeding onward, we don’t often enough give ourselves
permission to indulge.
The whirlwind
continues to spiral. Greater demands. Faster and
faster. Never before have we been in such a hurry.
Never before have we missed so much. You deserve more -- a
lot more. So go ahead -- give yourself permission. Take pause to
enjoy (really enjoy) something, whatever it might be for
you. ‘Cause the truth about it is: life is short. . . and
the game really can wait.
This piece is
part of the Creattitude series, published by The Tim
Autrey Group, Ltd.
Tim Autrey is a
messenger. . . with a message for today. He writes and he
speaks with a passion that calls us back to the important pieces
of life. Please send comments to mailto:timautrey@timautrey.com,
or visit Tim’s web site http://www.timautrey.com
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Are
you looking for inspirational and motivational reading material?
There are many great books out there that are made to lift you up
and inspire you, and when this ad from Amazon works right, it
shows
you quite a few of the newest and most popular choices! When
it
isn't working right, it gives you a generic Amazon.com ad. . . .
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Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week. |
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The
Incredible Impact of a Smile!
Jeff Keller
I
was recently interviewed on an early morning radio show that aired
in Providence, Rhode Island. The host of the program, Dan Maddux,
related a story about a man he encountered who had a scowl on his
face.
Dan asked the gentleman how he was feeling.
"I'm fine," replied the man.
"Then why don't you tell that to your face!," said Dan.
Rarely do we give much thought to how often we smile. Even those
of us who are fairly positive may walk around with a frown on our
face more often than we'd like to think.
How about you -- do you frequently smile? You'll notice that when
you smile, you feel better physiologically. Go ahead and smile
right now. I'll bet you got a warm feeling inside your body and
your spirits were lifted, just by smiling. Isn't it incredible
that you can get that much of an impact from a smile?
This month, pay constant attention to your facial expression.
Whenever you think about it, just practice smiling! If you're on
line in a store, smile. When you pass co-workers in the hall,
smile. When you're sitting by yourself, or talking on the phone --
you guessed it, smile! It will lift your mood and get you focused
in a positive direction. And, it will cost you nothing.
There are a lot more benefits that come from smiling. You'll find
that you interact better with other people. First of all, when you
smile, other people tend to smile right back. They mirror your
facial expression. In addition, people will look forward to
speaking with you, and they'll be more inclined to assist you when
you have a smile on your face.
Of course, you must be sincere when you smile. You don't have to
show off every one of your teeth or look goofy. Just a natural
smile.
If you develop the habit of smiling often, you're going to feel a
lot better, be more optimistic and gain the cooperation of others.
It's well worth the effort.
Jeff Keller is a motivational speaker and writer
who founded Attitude is Everything, Inc. Visit Jeff's
website at http://www.attitudeiseverything.com
. He'd love to have you visit!
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Your
Priorities Are Showing!
By Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach
Everybody's
heard the phrase, "get
your priorities straight".
But what does that mean?
Often I've found, it means that whoever is saying it
doesn't think you have HIS priorities at the top of your list.
As a child, whenever my dad would say that in a stern voice
to me, I often noticed that it was his goal that he thought I was
ignoring, and not necessarily my own.
The term 'creating priorities' goes by a lot of other names as
well. Some people
call it focus; author Stephen Covey calls it being principal
centered; a marketing campaign says "just do it".
What it means is that you choose what's important to you,
and you direct your
time, energy, money, space, opportunity, etc. towards it.
You protect it. You
invest in it. You
simplify your life so that you are not distracted by things that
do not CONTRIBUTE to your priorities.
In
a magazine article I read recently, it noted that many of us are
in overwhelm with the choices available to us.
As an example, there are 597 shades of red lipstick!
If you try to examine each and every option available to
you, you'll spend all your time just trying to wade through them.
It's important to realize that things that are not directly
contributing to your priorities are contaminating them.
Establishing a filter to quickly decide if it meets the
criteria of your priorities is vitally important.
Stephen
Covey mentions how we tend to respond to urgent, but not
necessarily important things, in our lives.
That is because we don't stop long enough to decide what's
important, decide what we want to spend our time on, and most
importantly decide what we DON'T want to spend our time on.
Instead we just respond to the next ringing phone, the next
problem, the next color of lipstick that gets our attention.
Distractions don't just take away your time, energy, and money;
they actively contaminate your priorities. You must protect your
priorities even at the risk of sounding selfish.
When you let go of your priorities to respond to someone
else's agenda, you are not only putting yourself at the bottom of
your own priority list, you are also responding to THEIR priority.
People
often come to me and say, "One of my priorities is to be
happy, or to be successful, or to have peace of mind".
Happiness is a feeling, or maybe something we experience.
The same can be said of success, or peace of mind.
To have the life you want you must be able to describe it
in more concrete terms. To
define your priorities so that you can ACT on them, you must be
able to break it down in specific measurable goals.
What is it you really really want in your life that would
"make you happy"? How
do you measure happiness?
How will you know when you're successful?
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The
modern media has given us the idea that if we are really really
busy now, one day out of the blue, our great simplified life will
fall out of the sky. That
is totally and completely backwards!
We can't have it all.
We never could, and never will.
You must choose. If
you create the simplicity now, and direct your energy into your
priorities, THEN success will follow.
You must pick your priorities and nurture them so that they
grow.
Creating
priorities doesn't mean that you have to choose between family and
career. Not at all.
That's about balance (a whole different show!)
Creating priorities does mean that you do have to choose
the way you allocate your time.
Each of us is given the same 24 hours each day.
Successful or happy people spend theirs in a way that takes
them towards their goals. The
key to success here is to examine how you spend your time in
relation to what you say your priorities are.
"Don't schedule your time around your priorities,
schedule your priorities around your time."
You do
not HAVE to spend many many hours preparing food, cleaning the
house, maintaining the landscape, running errands, watching TV, or
playing computer games. You
may choose to do that, but then you are making choices that do not
reflect what you SAY are your choices about your priorities.
If you
choose to spend a large amount of time on things that are low on
your list of priorities, then a reallocation of time is the only
way that you will ever achieve your most important goals.
If you don't do that, then that too is a choice…a choice
that probably reflects where your true priorities are.
Creating
priorities is where the real "YOU" comes into play.
This is a very individual step, and one that requires that
you reach into your heart and tell the truth about what you really
want out of life. It's
time to stop listening to what your mother wanted, or what your
friends talked you into in college.
What's important to you?
How do you want to live your life?
No matter
what your priorities are -financial security, healthy
relationships, or having more free time - creating and following
your priorities can achieve them all.
Successful people have known this for years.
Now it's YOUR turn to use their secrets to your advantage.
"Though
no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start
from now and make a brand new ending." -- Carl Bard
Kathy Gates is a
Professional Life Coach in Scottsdale, AZ, who believes that
"Life Rewards Action." She can help you set
priorities and goals, take action, make changes, and reshape your
life. If you would like more information, please email
kathy@reallifecoach.com,
or call 480.998.5843 today!
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