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22 April 2024
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Simple and Profound
Thoughts
(from Simple
and Profound) |
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Every child is
an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once
one grows up. -Pablo Picasso |
Only the weak are cruel.
Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
-Leo Buscaglia |
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Let
advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their
product
that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to
advertise it. -Will Rogers |
Perfectionism is
so widespread in this culture that we actually have had to
invent another word for love. "Unconditional
love," we say. Yet, all love is unconditional.
Anything else is just approval. -Rachel Naomi Remen |
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The
Scroll Marked V
Og Mandino
I will
live this day as if it is my last.
And
what shall I do with this last precious day which remains
in my keeping? First, I will seal up its container
of life so that not one drop spills itself upon the
sand. I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday's
misfortunes, yesterday's defeats, yesterday's aches of the
heart, for why should I throw good after bad?
Can sand flow
upward in the hour glass? Will the sun rise where it sets
and set where it rises? Can I relive the errors of
yesterday and right them? Can I call back yesterday's
wounds and make them whole? Can I become younger than
yesterday? Can I take back the evil that was spoken, the
blows that were struck, the pain that was caused?
No. Yesterday is buried forever and I will think of it no
more.
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
And what then
shall I do? Forgetting yesterday neither will I think of
tomorrow. Why should I throw now after maybe? Can
tomorrow's sand flow through the glass before today's?
Will the sun rise twice this morning? Can I perform
tomorrow's deeds while standing in today's path?
Can I place
tomorrow's gold in today's purse? Can tomorrow's child be
born today? Can tomorrow's death cast its shadow backward
and darken today's joy? Should I concern myself over
events which I may never witness?
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Should I torment myself
with problems that may never come to pass? No!
Tomorrow lies buried with yesterday, and I will think of it no
more.
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
This day is all I
have and these hours are now my eternity. I greet this
sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from
death. I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless
gift of a new day. So too, I will beat upon my heart with
gratitude as I consider all who greeted yesterday's sunrise who
are no longer with the living today. I am indeed a
fortunate man and today's hours are but a bonus,
undeserved. Why have I been allowed to live this extra day
when others, far better than I, have departed? Is it that
they have accomplished their purpose while mine is yet to be
achieved? Is this another opportunity for me to become the
man I know I can be? Is there a purpose in nature?
Is this my day to excel?
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
I have not but one
life and life is naught but a measurement of time. When I
waste one I destroy the other. If I waste today I destroy
the last page of my life. Therefore, each hour of this day
will I cherish for it can never return. It cannot be
banked today to be withdrawn on the morrow, for who can trap the
wind? Each minute of this day will I grasp with both hands
and fondle with love for its value is beyond price. What
dying man can purchase another breath though he willingly give
all his gold? What price dare I place on the hours
ahead? I will make them priceless!
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
I will avoid with
fury the killers of time. Procrastination I will destroy
with action; doubt I will bury under faith; fear I will
dismember with confidence. Where there are idle mouths I
will listen not; where there are idle hands I will linger not;
where there are idle bodies I will visit not. Henceforth I
know that to court idleness is to steal food, clothing, and
warmth from those I love. I am not a thief. I am a
man of love and today is my last chance to prove my love and my
greatness.
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
The duties of
today I shall fulfill today. Today I shall fondle my
children while they are young; tomorrow they will be gone, and
so will I. Today I shall embrace my woman with sweet
kisses; tomorrow she will be gone, and so shall I. Today I
shall lift up a friend in need; tomorrow he will no longer cry
for help, nor will I hear his cries. Today I shall give
myself in sacrifice and work; tomorrow I will have nothing to
give, and there will be none to receive.
I will live this
day as if it is my last.
And if it is my
last, it will be my greatest monument. This day I will
make the best day of my life. This day I will drink every
minute to its full. I will savor its taste and give
thanks. I will make every hour count and each minute I
will trade only for something of value. I will labor
harder than ever before and push my muscles until they cry for
relief, and then I will continue. I will make more calls
than ever before. I will sell more goods than ever
before. I will earn more gold than ever before. Each
minute of today will be more fruitful than hours of
yesterday. My last must be my best.
I will live this
day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall to
my knees and give thanks.
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Thoughts
on Successful People
Chris
Widener
I was
hired to do some training for a sales team from one of
the largest companies in America. There were 16 people
on this team. That year their sales (for the 16 of them)
were close to 250 million - that's right, a quarter of a
billion - dollars! Needless to say, it was an excellent
and fascinating time. I decided to learn a little bit
myself, so I watched them closely to see what kind of
people they were and to see what common denominators
they shared. Below is what I found. I think you will
find the elements applicable to your own life.
The first thing I noticed about this successful sales
team was that they had a sense of humor! They simply
weren't a terribly serious bunch of people. Instead,
they saw that life was to be enjoyed and that means they
were able to laugh a little bit. Sure, there were
varying levels in this but they all had a sense of
humor. They were able to laugh at circumstances, and
they were able to laugh at themselves. It was quite
refreshing and a core element of their success, I'm
sure.
The
second thing I found out about this group was that they
did not achieve their success through pedigree, but
through hard work. They didn't come from families that
gave them a free pass into the upper echelon of the
corporate world and they didn't get a head start from
upper crust universities. What got them to where they
are now? Hard work! That's right, another example that
if you put your mind to it, work hard and get in the
right situation, you can achieve great things! These
folks work long hours and are disciplined in the work
they do. And it is paying off.
The third
thing I noticed about this team is that they are
learners. They were always engaged in the learning
process. During my sessions they were engaged and
listening. You could see their minds processing the
information. They were asking questions and applying the
material to their work and their lives. They wanted to
improve in any way that they could. It was also
interesting to watch them in their team meetings led by
their sales manager. They were very interactive and were
learning from one another. None of them was above
learning from a peer.
What
did I see in these successful people? The same things
that can make you a success as you apply the principles
to your own life: A sense of humor, hard work, and a
desire to learn at every turn.
* * * *
Reproduced with permission from the Chris Widener Ezine.
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Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
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are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
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life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
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each week. |
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If
instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a
loving
thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as
the angels give.
George
MacDonald
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Failure
It truly is a shame that so many people "learn" so early
in life that failure is a negative thing. After all, failure
is one of the most important elements of our lives, for it's
through failure that we do our best learning of all. A lack
of success teaches us what doesn't work and allows us to focus on
other strategies that may prove more successful. Yet we
demonize failure, and we treat it as a terrible part of life--we
even allow it to contribute to our self-perception and
self-esteem, two places where failure doesn't even belong.
We can not and should not define ourselves ourselves by something
that we tried and didn't succeed at, especially if we've learned
from the failure.
Personally, I'm very grateful for the failures in my life, for
they've shown me some very important aspects of myself that I
hadn't known about before. In fact, I often put myself in
situations in which failure is probably, first to see if I can
avoid that failure, and second because I want to learn how to deal
with failure if it does come to pass. It's only when I enter
situations with a true respect for the possibility of failure that
I can put my all into them without having the illusion that my all
isn't necessary.
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It is a common
mistake to think of failure as the enemy of success.
Failure is a
teacher--a harsh one, but the best. Pull your failures
to pieces
looking for the reason. Put your failure to work for you.
Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
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As much as we
may hate to admit it, failure very well could be
what Thomas Watson calls the best teacher in our
lives. Let's face it--as much as we like to
succeed, we don't learn a whole lot from our
successes, because we usually have a very good idea
how to proceed before we succeed. When we
undertake a task that's truly daunting, though, we
face a greater possibility of failure, and we pay
much closer attention to all that we do. If
I'm setting up a stereo out of a box, there's very
little chance of failure, for all the wires are
color-coded or they have connections of unique
shapes. If I'm building something of my own
that I've never built before, though, it's important
that I pay close attention to every step so that I
maximize my potential for success, and minimize my
potential for failure.
So many of what we call failures, though, have to do
with other people. Do we fail if we lost a
basketball game because the other team played
better? Do we fail as a salesman if that
couple that were just in decided not to buy my
product after all? Other people make decisions
in life, and their decisions usually don't have
anything to do with us. Someone may decide not
to buy a car from us not because we failed at
selling it to them, but because their financial
situation doesn't allow them to afford it right
now. I may lose a tennis match not because I
failed to defeat my opponent, but because my
opponent is better than me, or because he or she
simply had an awesome match.
In either case, defining our lack of success as
"failure" is inaccurate--those were just
the ways that things turned out. If the
customer is having money problems, do I truly want
to sell him or her something that could add to those
problems? And when I lose a match, I really
look forward to the next one to see how and if I
improve.
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Failure is a reality; we all fail at times and
it’s painful when we do.
But it’s better to fail while striving for something
wonderful,
challenging, adventurous and uncertain than to say, “I
don’t want
to try, because I may not succeed completely.”
Jimmy Carter
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The most tragic
part of failure that I witness, though, is when
people allow the fear of failure to keep them from
even trying something important. I see this
very often in the schools where I teach--students
who don't even start to do the work because they're
afraid they're going to do it poorly and thus
fail. These are students who are fully capable
of doing the work at a "C" level, at
least, but who end up failing not because of their
efforts, but because they don't allow themselves
even to try to do the work.
In this situation, "failures" of the past
have led to criticism and/or ridicule, and the
person has had a hard time dealing with the ways
that other people have treated him or her. So
they just close themselves off to possibility and
never even try something that may turn out to be
actually easy, or at least something that they
definitely can accomplish. Almost everyone on
this planet, for example, can write a simple
five-paragraph essay with the right training and
practice, yet I've seen many, many students not even
try to do so because of their fear of failure.
And when they do that, they keep themselves from
finding the small successes in life, the ones that
build upon each other to make a pattern of success
that will help them eventually to eliminate or
greatly lessen their fear of failure.
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You
need the ability to fail. I'm amazed at the number of
organizations that set up an environment where they do not
permit their people to be wrong. You cannot innovate
unless you are willing to accept some mistakes.
Charles
Knight
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"Failure"
is not a dirty word. In fact, it may be one
aspect of our lives that's absolutely necessary if
we're ever to live fully, meet our potential, and
learn the lessons that we're supposed to learn in
life. Of course, there are exceptions to this
rule, mostly dealing with people who fail because
they simply don't care about what they're doing, but
when we redefine failure as a positive in our lives,
we can actually learn from it and allow it to help
us to grow and become better people because of our
failures than we would have been had we succeeded.
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more
thoughts and ideas on failure
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One of
the most
lasting pleasures
you can experience
is
the feeling that
comes over
you
when you genuinely
forgive
an enemy--
whether he or
she
knows it or not.
O.A.
Battista
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Oh,
my dear friends, you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run
on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day; you who are
keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up
your mind that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them;
you who are passing people sullenly on the street, not speaking to
them out of some silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you
with shame and remorse if you heard that one of these people were
dead tomorrow morning; you who are letting your neighbor starve,
till you hear that they are dying of starvation; or letting your
friend's heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which
you mean to give him or her some day--if you only could know and see
and feel, all of a sudden, that "time is short," how it
would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the
thing which you might never have another chance to do.
Phillips
Brooks
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Living
life fully doesn't mean having
it all, going everywhere,
doing everything, and being
all things to all people. Many
of us are beginning to
see that too much is too much.
Elaine
St. James
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