Monday, July 17, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Great Escape
Once you start stepping out in faith and walking in the Spirit, the devil will see to it that you have ample opportunity to fall flat on your spiritual face. He'll try to get you into some jams where there appears to be no way out.But take it from me as one who's been there, if you'll look to God and trust His wisdom instead of your own, He'll always show you a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). Not only that, but He'll do it in such a way that He'll get the glory and you'll have the last laugh on the devil.I remember one particular Wednesday night in Wichita Falls, Texas, where I was faced with just such a situation. I was preaching on the reality of the righteousness of God, and the anointing was really strong. Just as my message reached its climactic moment, a woman in the audience suddenly burst forth in tongues. I told her to stop three times, but she only continued to grow louder. By the time she hushed, the anointing had gone and the message was forgotten. So I looked at that woman sternly and began to correct her for being out of order.Then a man sitting next to her spoke up and said, "Brother Copeland, she is stone deaf. She can't hear a word you're saying."At that point, I had no idea what to do. Not only had my sermon been shattered, but the whole congregation was mad at me for getting onto that poor deaf woman. (I found out later the man next to her used her to disrupt services and run preachers out of town. When the service reached a high point, he'd punch her and tell her it was her turn to prophesy.)So I just stopped a moment and got quiet and waited for the Lord to tell me what to do. Sure enough, He told me. He said, "Call her up and lay hands on her and I'll open her ears."Talk about a turnaround! When God healed that woman's ears, He turned that disaster into one of the most powerfully anointed meetings I'd ever had. Everybody was blessed!Next time the devil tries to back you into a corner, get quiet. Ask God to show you the way of escape. He'll bring you out in victory every time.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Escaping
Escaping
i would live with you
on a boat by the sea
with no other human breath between us
and no end to memory
watching the day conceive
of a night without morning
no waking hours without you
and dreams without yearning
no cables through which
we convey our words
and the music of nature
which the city's never heard
the sun could warm our days
and candles would light our nights
and we could share the peace we longed for with no other soul in sight
where eyes could not misunderstand
or cheapen our emotions
and the sound of our laughter
could reach the end of the oceans
no tears we cry
would be lost on the ground
and the lovers in books of history
would envy the love we found
i would have no fear of the lines
the years leave on my face
as i fade away with you
in that timeless place
we could indulge in whispers
only the wind can hear
and listen to songs of seabirds
that fly from far and near
where no demons could reach us
and cloud our thoughts
and no material possessions
except the ones we brought
where sunsets are the only gold
that sparkles and gleams
and the tides are neverending
where time is a dream
i would live with you
on a boat by the sea
with no other human breath between us
and no end to memory
watching the day conceive
of a night without morning
no waking hours without you
and dreams without yearning
no cables through which
we convey our words
and the music of nature
which the city's never heard
the sun could warm our days
and candles would light our nights
and we could share the peace we longed for with no other soul in sight
where eyes could not misunderstand
or cheapen our emotions
and the sound of our laughter
could reach the end of the oceans
no tears we cry
would be lost on the ground
and the lovers in books of history
would envy the love we found
i would have no fear of the lines
the years leave on my face
as i fade away with you
in that timeless place
we could indulge in whispers
only the wind can hear
and listen to songs of seabirds
that fly from far and near
where no demons could reach us
and cloud our thoughts
and no material possessions
except the ones we brought
where sunsets are the only gold
that sparkles and gleams
and the tides are neverending
where time is a dream
Friday, April 21, 2006
Lessons of Failure
Lord, are you trying to tell me something?
For... Failure does not mean I'm a failure; It does mean I have not yet succeeded. Failure does not mean I have accomplished nothing; It does mean I have learned something. Failure does not mean I have been a fool; It does mean I had enough faith to experiment. Failure does not mean I have disgraced; It does mean I have dared to try. Failure does not mean I don't have it; It does mean I have something to do in a different way. Failure does not mean I am inferior; It does mean I am not perfect. Failure does not mean I have wasted my life; It does mean that I have an excuse to start over. Failure does not mean that I should give up; It does mean that I should try harder. Failure does not mean that I will never make it; It does mean that I need more practice. Failure does not mean that you have abandoned me; It does mean that you must have a better idea. -- Unknown
For... Failure does not mean I'm a failure; It does mean I have not yet succeeded. Failure does not mean I have accomplished nothing; It does mean I have learned something. Failure does not mean I have been a fool; It does mean I had enough faith to experiment. Failure does not mean I have disgraced; It does mean I have dared to try. Failure does not mean I don't have it; It does mean I have something to do in a different way. Failure does not mean I am inferior; It does mean I am not perfect. Failure does not mean I have wasted my life; It does mean that I have an excuse to start over. Failure does not mean that I should give up; It does mean that I should try harder. Failure does not mean that I will never make it; It does mean that I need more practice. Failure does not mean that you have abandoned me; It does mean that you must have a better idea. -- Unknown
Monday, April 10, 2006
God Has Been Good To Me
For 25 years, I watched him fight cancer of the face. First just a small speck that begin to grow larger. Year after year I watch him go to hospital to have a bit cut out each time. As the years went by, more and more of his face was cut away. When he returned with what is left of his face, he tried to smile. He never complained or was downhearted.
He was a skilful mechanic and carpenter. In fact, he was one of the best. Whenever he did a job, he stand back to see if there is anything left out that could be added to make it perfect. Then he would see some little place that the average person would pass up. He would then touch up this or that.
I suspect he said this to himself “My work will be my face and my life” I doubt if he often look in the mirror at that damaged face where the cancer eat into everyday. No matter how humble the pace he worked in, how small the job is or how crude the other workers seem, it never bother him at all. This was his work and it has to be done right. He never glance at the work of others; a shoddy work done by others was not his concern. Nevertheless, I suspect when the job was done, he had a sense of inner pride and joy when he saw how outstanding it was. But he never boasted about it.
As the years went by, he became weaker and weaker. His hands did not move with confidence and speed that so characterized him. He was unable to do many things. However no matter what the work or pay, he always had the insatiable desire to do a good job.
The help he got was not able to catch his vision. They thought he was cranky to try so hard to complete each and every detail. So he worked alone. He did not complain or bitterly rail at the others. He would just appear the next morning by himself with no explanation of the absence of his helpers.
During the latter day, he had only the shambles of a face. He would wrap it up in a red bandana handkerchief, leaving only his eyes showing.
When you met him on the streets, he would always give a cheery greeting. As time went on, it was more and more difficult to say he words. Often he would move his walking stick. This stick, too, was a thing of beauty, carved out by his skilful hands.
His life seemed to be filled with contentment and peace. I suspect that he thanked God for those hands and the fact that it was not marred in any way.
He would often be missed about his usual haunts for weeks or months. He would make his journey to the hospital for the surgeon to cut away more of his face. Then you would see him again, a bit more gruesome. There would be no complain, no telling of his operation and pain. He would just quietly go to work that was awaiting for him.
In all his time, I never knew him to come back with any complaints about the pain. You would think there was nothing the matter if you did not see his face. When the days of his labors seem to becoming to an end, his chief concern was that his tools might be in good hands. He sent for me one day and told me he wished someone would appreciate the tools and use them properly.
When I took a young man to see him about the tools, there came a look of contentment and satisfaction. His work was finished and he was ready to cash in.
A few days before he died he was walking in the yard. His face was nearly completely covered with bandages. Only his eyes were uncovered. As he hobbled about the yard, he said “I am going to keep young just as long as I can”
The day he died, I went to see him again. The odor was so offensive you could hardly stay there. What was left of his face was a mass of scars and there was really nothing to cut away. You could tell he was in great pain and had many sleepless nights. But still there were no words of complaints.
I shall never forget his last words. Ever afterwards they have made me ashamed whenever I feel inclined to complain. Still day after day, they are vivid in my mind.
The words are “God has been awfully good to me. I had never had any reason to complain”
He was a skilful mechanic and carpenter. In fact, he was one of the best. Whenever he did a job, he stand back to see if there is anything left out that could be added to make it perfect. Then he would see some little place that the average person would pass up. He would then touch up this or that.
I suspect he said this to himself “My work will be my face and my life” I doubt if he often look in the mirror at that damaged face where the cancer eat into everyday. No matter how humble the pace he worked in, how small the job is or how crude the other workers seem, it never bother him at all. This was his work and it has to be done right. He never glance at the work of others; a shoddy work done by others was not his concern. Nevertheless, I suspect when the job was done, he had a sense of inner pride and joy when he saw how outstanding it was. But he never boasted about it.
As the years went by, he became weaker and weaker. His hands did not move with confidence and speed that so characterized him. He was unable to do many things. However no matter what the work or pay, he always had the insatiable desire to do a good job.
The help he got was not able to catch his vision. They thought he was cranky to try so hard to complete each and every detail. So he worked alone. He did not complain or bitterly rail at the others. He would just appear the next morning by himself with no explanation of the absence of his helpers.
During the latter day, he had only the shambles of a face. He would wrap it up in a red bandana handkerchief, leaving only his eyes showing.
When you met him on the streets, he would always give a cheery greeting. As time went on, it was more and more difficult to say he words. Often he would move his walking stick. This stick, too, was a thing of beauty, carved out by his skilful hands.
His life seemed to be filled with contentment and peace. I suspect that he thanked God for those hands and the fact that it was not marred in any way.
He would often be missed about his usual haunts for weeks or months. He would make his journey to the hospital for the surgeon to cut away more of his face. Then you would see him again, a bit more gruesome. There would be no complain, no telling of his operation and pain. He would just quietly go to work that was awaiting for him.
In all his time, I never knew him to come back with any complaints about the pain. You would think there was nothing the matter if you did not see his face. When the days of his labors seem to becoming to an end, his chief concern was that his tools might be in good hands. He sent for me one day and told me he wished someone would appreciate the tools and use them properly.
When I took a young man to see him about the tools, there came a look of contentment and satisfaction. His work was finished and he was ready to cash in.
A few days before he died he was walking in the yard. His face was nearly completely covered with bandages. Only his eyes were uncovered. As he hobbled about the yard, he said “I am going to keep young just as long as I can”
The day he died, I went to see him again. The odor was so offensive you could hardly stay there. What was left of his face was a mass of scars and there was really nothing to cut away. You could tell he was in great pain and had many sleepless nights. But still there were no words of complaints.
I shall never forget his last words. Ever afterwards they have made me ashamed whenever I feel inclined to complain. Still day after day, they are vivid in my mind.
The words are “God has been awfully good to me. I had never had any reason to complain”
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Hold That Thought
Our thoughts are very slippery and unpredictable things. Some are like passing showers which leave little puddles when they're gone. Some stick to our minds like leeches that sap our peace of mind and joyful spirit. Some are fully-fledged; brilliant and bold in their stability, while others wander shapelessly like wil-o'-the-wisps in the night.
Most of the time, we don't give much thought to managing our thoughts.
Although our thoughts shape our attitudes, direct our actions, and ultimately chart our lives, most of us are asleep at the wheel. We allow them to come, go, dwell and drift as they please. But the key to happiness and peace of mind is learning which thoughts to hold and which ones to let go.
When you see an elderly person who has to recycle cardboard boxes or aluminium cans just to get by, imagine yourself in his or her predicament.
Allow yourself to feel their struggle and pain, and hold that thought.
Every time you start feeling sorry for yourself, remember that person's plight. Appreciate your good fortune.
When you see an image of a starving child, don't ignore it. Don't look away. Let it prick your heart and hold that thought. If you lose appetite for food because something is bothering you, remember that there are millions of people starving, but you are not one of them. You have an abundance of food to choose from. Be thankful and eat heartily.
When you catch a friend or loved one in a moment of unguarded tenderness, and it reminds you of why you love them, hold that thought. The next time you feel your friend or loved one has been inconsiderate or hurtful, let that thought soften your heart and will it towards forgiveness.
Seek out thoughts that help you become a happier and more loving person.
They don't all have to be pleasant ones; uncomfortable or jarring thoughts work just as effectively to jolt us back into consciousness, reason, love and hope. Let them grip you and make the emotional imprint on your heart.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Starting the Day Right
There are some days when I just don't feel like getting out of bed. Maybe I didn't sleep well the night before or there is something I dread doing ahead of me. For whatever reason, whenever I started my day with fear and worry, the rest of day was doomed to plod along in a sluggish, miserable manner.
The attitude with which we choose to begin our day determines the type of weather we'll spend the rest of the day in. We can either choose a ray of bright sunshine or a raindrop from a storm cloud. We all make that choice every day. Do we start with dread and fear or optimism and hope?
When we begin our day with dread and fear, we naturally invite negativity and a sense of emptiness into our lives. Minor inconveniences are blown into catastrophes, simple pleasures bring us no joy, and we inevitably focus on the negative in people and situations. As the day draws to a close, we wonder how we could have made it through yet another day like this.
But we could endeavour to start each day with an unburdened mind and heart.We could look to our day with enthusiasm and hope, and consciously decide to seek out the good in people and situations. We could choose to be grateful for the seemingly common and simple, and appreciate the little blessings each day brings.
Now, some might argue that that isn't reality ? that the world isn't that wonderful a place. Well, isn't it true that how things look depends on the lenses through which we choose to see them? We make our own reality in how we choose to perceive the world around us.
This doesn't mean that as long as we start our days with hope and optimism that things will magically go the way we want them to. Our attitude towards the world doesn't change the world. It simply helps us better manage changes in the world. Dread and fear stokes the flame of negativity and self-destruction. When we are knocked down, they make it harder for us to get up. Optimism and hope get us on our feet again.
As Mary Pickford once said, "If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."
The attitude with which we choose to begin our day determines the type of weather we'll spend the rest of the day in. We can either choose a ray of bright sunshine or a raindrop from a storm cloud. We all make that choice every day. Do we start with dread and fear or optimism and hope?
When we begin our day with dread and fear, we naturally invite negativity and a sense of emptiness into our lives. Minor inconveniences are blown into catastrophes, simple pleasures bring us no joy, and we inevitably focus on the negative in people and situations. As the day draws to a close, we wonder how we could have made it through yet another day like this.
But we could endeavour to start each day with an unburdened mind and heart.We could look to our day with enthusiasm and hope, and consciously decide to seek out the good in people and situations. We could choose to be grateful for the seemingly common and simple, and appreciate the little blessings each day brings.
Now, some might argue that that isn't reality ? that the world isn't that wonderful a place. Well, isn't it true that how things look depends on the lenses through which we choose to see them? We make our own reality in how we choose to perceive the world around us.
This doesn't mean that as long as we start our days with hope and optimism that things will magically go the way we want them to. Our attitude towards the world doesn't change the world. It simply helps us better manage changes in the world. Dread and fear stokes the flame of negativity and self-destruction. When we are knocked down, they make it harder for us to get up. Optimism and hope get us on our feet again.
As Mary Pickford once said, "If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Dealing With Adversity
Whenever you’re in an uncomfortable or challenging situation, you have only three options:
1. Wait for the situation to change
2. Change the situation
3. Change your response to the situation
Let’s look at the first option. Now, is the situation likely to change on its own? If not, then clearly this is not an option for you. Some situations, however, are short-term, and the answer may just be to wait them out. While you’re waiting for the situation to change though, you might want to think about whether you can go for the second option – change the situation.
The pitfall with this solution is that even if you leave your current situation and go to another, you still take you with you. Are you perhaps part of the problem? Are you habitually trapping yourself in certain difficult situations? If relationships aren’t working out for you, how much responsibility should you bear? And of course, most situations are simply out of our hands; there’s just nothing we can do to change it.
Which brings us to the third, and most effective and empowering option - change your response to the situation. Now the beauty of this option is that unlike the first two, this one’s always open to you. You are the focus. And oddly enough, when you focus on yourself, you have more influence on things outside you. In other words, when you choose to look at things differently, the things you’re looking at change (or at least appear different).
We live in a culture which tends to blame external factors for our woes – it’s God, it’s government, it’s our boss, our lazy co-worker, our parents, our society, even our climate. Anything it seems, except ourselves.
In order to stop blaming and start improving your life, you must change the meaning of the situation. Instead of seeing it as something that was “done to you,” you can choose to see it as a neutral event that isn’t personal, or even a positive experience that you can learn something from. Change your language to reinforce this change of meaning. Instead of asking, “Why did this have to happen to me?” ask yourself “What lesson can I take away from this?”
By changing the meaning you give the situation and changing the language you use, you’ll discover that you have the power to respond in any number of ways, not just the knee-jerk reactions you’ve made in the past. And you’ll be able to choose new responses to old problems, breaking habitual patterns that have been limiting your growth and progress.
1. Wait for the situation to change
2. Change the situation
3. Change your response to the situation
Let’s look at the first option. Now, is the situation likely to change on its own? If not, then clearly this is not an option for you. Some situations, however, are short-term, and the answer may just be to wait them out. While you’re waiting for the situation to change though, you might want to think about whether you can go for the second option – change the situation.
The pitfall with this solution is that even if you leave your current situation and go to another, you still take you with you. Are you perhaps part of the problem? Are you habitually trapping yourself in certain difficult situations? If relationships aren’t working out for you, how much responsibility should you bear? And of course, most situations are simply out of our hands; there’s just nothing we can do to change it.
Which brings us to the third, and most effective and empowering option - change your response to the situation. Now the beauty of this option is that unlike the first two, this one’s always open to you. You are the focus. And oddly enough, when you focus on yourself, you have more influence on things outside you. In other words, when you choose to look at things differently, the things you’re looking at change (or at least appear different).
We live in a culture which tends to blame external factors for our woes – it’s God, it’s government, it’s our boss, our lazy co-worker, our parents, our society, even our climate. Anything it seems, except ourselves.
In order to stop blaming and start improving your life, you must change the meaning of the situation. Instead of seeing it as something that was “done to you,” you can choose to see it as a neutral event that isn’t personal, or even a positive experience that you can learn something from. Change your language to reinforce this change of meaning. Instead of asking, “Why did this have to happen to me?” ask yourself “What lesson can I take away from this?”
By changing the meaning you give the situation and changing the language you use, you’ll discover that you have the power to respond in any number of ways, not just the knee-jerk reactions you’ve made in the past. And you’ll be able to choose new responses to old problems, breaking habitual patterns that have been limiting your growth and progress.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Read More - Be More
"You are the same today as you're going to be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read."
Hang around thinkers; you'll be a better thinker. Hang around givers; you'll be a better giver. Hang around workers; you'll be a better worker. Hang around a bunch of thumb sucking, complaining, griping boneheads; and you will be a better thumb sucking, complaining, griping bonehead.
Now. With that said... how many of you are under sixteen yet? Great. How do you like an idea that you might be driving a Cadillac when you're sixteen? I got it for you.
When my son was your age, he wasn't quite as excited as you.
I said, "Jerry, do you want to have a car when you're sixteen?" "Yes." "Do you want me to help you buy that car?"
"Yes sir, dad." "Alright, son, we're going to do it, but the free ride's over. No more allowance. I'm going to give you a way to make a lot of money.
Here is the deal. I am going to pick out books for you to read. There will be motivational books, history books, inspirational books; and every time I give you a book, you give me a book report.
Every time I get a book report, I'll put money in your car fund. Another book report; more money in the car fund. In two years if you read in style, you'll drive in style. But if you read like a bum, you're going to drive like a bum."
Overnight he developed a fantastic hunger for reading. Now the first book I had him read was Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Now the first day he came down and said, "Dad, dad, there's a whole chapter in here on smiling and shaking hands." And he shook my hand, shook my hand - first sign of life in fourteen years. Woohoo! And he smiled at me.
Then I had him read a book named Joshua in the Old Testament on discouragement. And we were going to Sunday school one week, and I said, "Jerry, how are you getting along with Joshua?" He says, "Dad, dad." He hit my leg.
Imagine that, he hit my leg. And he said, "Everybody ought to have to read that book." That was a sign he was beginning to think about somebody other than himself.
Well, he read 22 books. Did he buy a car? No. He kept the money, used my car and my gas. Now but wait a minute. Don't laugh. It was worth it. Then he went off to college, and I got one of the greatest experiences of my life.
And the last chapter of my book "Life is Tremendous" is about Jerry Jones (my son), and there is the reading contract to negotiate with your dad to get it in writing, so he can't change his mind.
So Jerry goes off to college and he writes me a "Dear Dad"
postcard everyday for four years. You know what I used to do when I would get some of the cards? I would put my head on my desk and cry. Do you know why? He was thinking thoughts that I never dreamed a young person could think.
Now he didn't have the full meaning of them, but he had read and he had the thoughts in his mind. So I would like to read you a couple cards from college to me.
"Dear Dad, It's tremendous to be able to know that when you are in a slump, just as a baseball player will break out in time, so will you break out of yours. Yes, time really cures things. Like you said, you don't lose any problems, you just get bigger and better ones, tremendous ones. Tremendously, too. Jerry"
"Dear Dad, Just started reading a hundred Great Lives.
Thanks for what you said in the front. The part that every great man never sought to be great. He just followed the vision he had and did what had to be done. Love, Jerry."
Happy Reading!
Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
Hang around thinkers; you'll be a better thinker. Hang around givers; you'll be a better giver. Hang around workers; you'll be a better worker. Hang around a bunch of thumb sucking, complaining, griping boneheads; and you will be a better thumb sucking, complaining, griping bonehead.
Now. With that said... how many of you are under sixteen yet? Great. How do you like an idea that you might be driving a Cadillac when you're sixteen? I got it for you.
When my son was your age, he wasn't quite as excited as you.
I said, "Jerry, do you want to have a car when you're sixteen?" "Yes." "Do you want me to help you buy that car?"
"Yes sir, dad." "Alright, son, we're going to do it, but the free ride's over. No more allowance. I'm going to give you a way to make a lot of money.
Here is the deal. I am going to pick out books for you to read. There will be motivational books, history books, inspirational books; and every time I give you a book, you give me a book report.
Every time I get a book report, I'll put money in your car fund. Another book report; more money in the car fund. In two years if you read in style, you'll drive in style. But if you read like a bum, you're going to drive like a bum."
Overnight he developed a fantastic hunger for reading. Now the first book I had him read was Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Now the first day he came down and said, "Dad, dad, there's a whole chapter in here on smiling and shaking hands." And he shook my hand, shook my hand - first sign of life in fourteen years. Woohoo! And he smiled at me.
Then I had him read a book named Joshua in the Old Testament on discouragement. And we were going to Sunday school one week, and I said, "Jerry, how are you getting along with Joshua?" He says, "Dad, dad." He hit my leg.
Imagine that, he hit my leg. And he said, "Everybody ought to have to read that book." That was a sign he was beginning to think about somebody other than himself.
Well, he read 22 books. Did he buy a car? No. He kept the money, used my car and my gas. Now but wait a minute. Don't laugh. It was worth it. Then he went off to college, and I got one of the greatest experiences of my life.
And the last chapter of my book "Life is Tremendous" is about Jerry Jones (my son), and there is the reading contract to negotiate with your dad to get it in writing, so he can't change his mind.
So Jerry goes off to college and he writes me a "Dear Dad"
postcard everyday for four years. You know what I used to do when I would get some of the cards? I would put my head on my desk and cry. Do you know why? He was thinking thoughts that I never dreamed a young person could think.
Now he didn't have the full meaning of them, but he had read and he had the thoughts in his mind. So I would like to read you a couple cards from college to me.
"Dear Dad, It's tremendous to be able to know that when you are in a slump, just as a baseball player will break out in time, so will you break out of yours. Yes, time really cures things. Like you said, you don't lose any problems, you just get bigger and better ones, tremendous ones. Tremendously, too. Jerry"
"Dear Dad, Just started reading a hundred Great Lives.
Thanks for what you said in the front. The part that every great man never sought to be great. He just followed the vision he had and did what had to be done. Love, Jerry."
Happy Reading!
Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
Friday, March 31, 2006
Take Hold Of Every Moment
Author Unknown
A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package.
"This," he said, "isn't any ordinary package."
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.
"She got this the first time we went to New York, 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on. Was saving it for a special occasion."
"Well, I guess this is it." He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house. His wife had just died.
He turned to me and said: "Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion."
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through.
I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it. I don't save my special perfume for special occasions; I use it whenever I want to.
The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.
I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.
I would regret it, because I would no longer see the friends I would meet, letters... letters that I wanted to write "One of these days".
I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brothers and sons, not times enough at least, how much I love them.
Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives.
And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package.
"This," he said, "isn't any ordinary package."
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.
"She got this the first time we went to New York, 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on. Was saving it for a special occasion."
"Well, I guess this is it." He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house. His wife had just died.
He turned to me and said: "Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion."
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through.
I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it. I don't save my special perfume for special occasions; I use it whenever I want to.
The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.
I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.
I would regret it, because I would no longer see the friends I would meet, letters... letters that I wanted to write "One of these days".
I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brothers and sons, not times enough at least, how much I love them.
Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives.
And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule.
The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying' - or - whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.
Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back: he should shake it off and step up! This he did, blow after blow.
"Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!
You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him.
All because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.
Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back: he should shake it off and step up! This he did, blow after blow.
"Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!
You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him.
All because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Whatever May Come, Whatever May Go
Sometimes, when we encounter problems, we allow them to grow so large and menacing that they block out everything else. Like an eclipse of the sun, we are caught in a darkness, that for a moment, threatens to shut out the light forever.
We all know that the moon is tiny compared to the enormity of the sun. It only appears to overshadow the sun because of its shorter distance from us.
In the same manner, our problems sometimes seem insurmountable and the solutions cannot be found. We allow the problem to become so close to us, that life seems pointless. We disregard and neglect the things which can still give us joy and meaning.
Sara Teasdale writes about her encounter with a wise old man, whose simple creed enabled him to keep the joy in his eyes through the ravages of the years.
I saw him sitting at his door,
Trembling as old men do;
His house was old; his barn was old,
And yet his eyes seemed new.
His eyes had seen three times my years
And kept a twinkle still,
Though they had looked at birth and death And three graves on a hill.
"I will sit down with you," I said,
"And you will make me wise;
Tell me how you have kept the joy
Still burning in your eyes."
Then like an old-time orator
Impressively he rose;
"I make the most of all that comes,
The least of all that goes."
The jingling rhythm of his words
Echoes as old songs do,
Yet this had kept his eyes alight
Till he was ninety-two
A short and simple tenet for us to keep in our minds, for the times when loss and disaster threaten to darken our hearts?
"Make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes."
We all know that the moon is tiny compared to the enormity of the sun. It only appears to overshadow the sun because of its shorter distance from us.
In the same manner, our problems sometimes seem insurmountable and the solutions cannot be found. We allow the problem to become so close to us, that life seems pointless. We disregard and neglect the things which can still give us joy and meaning.
Sara Teasdale writes about her encounter with a wise old man, whose simple creed enabled him to keep the joy in his eyes through the ravages of the years.
I saw him sitting at his door,
Trembling as old men do;
His house was old; his barn was old,
And yet his eyes seemed new.
His eyes had seen three times my years
And kept a twinkle still,
Though they had looked at birth and death And three graves on a hill.
"I will sit down with you," I said,
"And you will make me wise;
Tell me how you have kept the joy
Still burning in your eyes."
Then like an old-time orator
Impressively he rose;
"I make the most of all that comes,
The least of all that goes."
The jingling rhythm of his words
Echoes as old songs do,
Yet this had kept his eyes alight
Till he was ninety-two
A short and simple tenet for us to keep in our minds, for the times when loss and disaster threaten to darken our hearts?
"Make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes."
When You Really Hate Your Job
Absolute job satisfaction is possible, but not always easy to find.
Especially when the men are plenty and the jobs are few. Sometimes, we have no choice but to continue working solely for the paycheck. But what if you really, really hate your job and you don't have an option, at least for the short to medium term?
Here are some pointers to help you remain sane and focused while you wait for a better option.
First of all, stop thinking about how badly you want to run from your office tearing at your hair and screaming "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" If you're stuck, you're stuck. No amount of moping and groaning is going to change anything. Focus instead on what you can enjoy; what gives you even the slightest semblance of joy in your work.
Doing a job you detest can feel like you're serving time in prison, so think about developing your skills. In every job there is something to be learnt, so heighten your prospects for the next job. If the job is really that bad, there's no sense in wasting time going through the motions.
If you're in a job you really hate, there's no point in spending long hours putting in a spectacular performance. Keep things simple, efficient, slick and quick, so you'll have ample time away from work to build a new life or to devote to something you really enjoy.
What's really causing you frustration and stress at work? Is it bureaucracy? Dishonesty? Corporate greed? Hypocrisy? Or simply the monotony and seeming pointlessness of your job? Are these things perhaps mirrored in your personal life? Because sometimes we bring our personal problems to our work, thereby making all our waking hours traumatic. If you can resolve your internal conflicts, maybe your job won't seem so bad.
And constantly find things in your life and job to enjoy and appreciate.
Little things, like treating yourself and a colleague to a nice meal when you complete a particularly harrowing project, or reading an inspiring book. A humourous conversation with a colleague or associate, the view from the window, or that new lamp for your desk. Learning to appreciate simple things helps to distract from the drudgery of your job.
In the end, you might just become a happier, more efficient worker who's up for promotion! And because you've learnt to appreciate the aspects of your work previously hidden from you, you may find that your job is not so bad after all!
Especially when the men are plenty and the jobs are few. Sometimes, we have no choice but to continue working solely for the paycheck. But what if you really, really hate your job and you don't have an option, at least for the short to medium term?
Here are some pointers to help you remain sane and focused while you wait for a better option.
First of all, stop thinking about how badly you want to run from your office tearing at your hair and screaming "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" If you're stuck, you're stuck. No amount of moping and groaning is going to change anything. Focus instead on what you can enjoy; what gives you even the slightest semblance of joy in your work.
Doing a job you detest can feel like you're serving time in prison, so think about developing your skills. In every job there is something to be learnt, so heighten your prospects for the next job. If the job is really that bad, there's no sense in wasting time going through the motions.
If you're in a job you really hate, there's no point in spending long hours putting in a spectacular performance. Keep things simple, efficient, slick and quick, so you'll have ample time away from work to build a new life or to devote to something you really enjoy.
What's really causing you frustration and stress at work? Is it bureaucracy? Dishonesty? Corporate greed? Hypocrisy? Or simply the monotony and seeming pointlessness of your job? Are these things perhaps mirrored in your personal life? Because sometimes we bring our personal problems to our work, thereby making all our waking hours traumatic. If you can resolve your internal conflicts, maybe your job won't seem so bad.
And constantly find things in your life and job to enjoy and appreciate.
Little things, like treating yourself and a colleague to a nice meal when you complete a particularly harrowing project, or reading an inspiring book. A humourous conversation with a colleague or associate, the view from the window, or that new lamp for your desk. Learning to appreciate simple things helps to distract from the drudgery of your job.
In the end, you might just become a happier, more efficient worker who's up for promotion! And because you've learnt to appreciate the aspects of your work previously hidden from you, you may find that your job is not so bad after all!
Sandcastles
A little boy is on the beach. He is painstakingly building a sandcastle.
All afternoon he will work. Spooning out the moat. Packing the walls.
Bottle tops will be sentries. Popsicle sticks will be bridges.
A man is in his office. At his desk he shuffles papers into stacks and delegates assignments. He cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with his fingers. Numbers are juggled and contracts are signed and much to the delight of the man, a profit is made.
All his life he will work. Formulating the plans. Forecasting the future.
Annuities will be sentries. Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.
Two builders of castles. They have much in common. They shape granules into grandeurs. They see nothing and make something. They are diligent and determined. And for both the tide will rise and the end will come.
Yet that is where the similarities cease. For the boy sees the end while the man ignores it.
As the waves near, the wise child jumps to his feet and begins to clap.
There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret. He knew this would happen. He is not surprised. And when the great breaker crashes into his castle and his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles. He smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father's hand, and goes home.
The grownup, however, is not so wise. As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified. He hovers over the sandy monument to protect it. He blocks the waves from the walls he has made. Salt-water soaked and shivering he snarls at the incoming tide.
"It's my castle," he defies.
The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs...
So go ahead and build. But do it with a child's unburdened heart, not with a grown-up's pride, possessiveness and indignation. Enjoy the process while it lasts, don't lose sight of love and beauty along the way, and when the end comes, as it most certainly will, salute the process of Life and go home.
ADAPTED FROM A STORY BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR
All afternoon he will work. Spooning out the moat. Packing the walls.
Bottle tops will be sentries. Popsicle sticks will be bridges.
A man is in his office. At his desk he shuffles papers into stacks and delegates assignments. He cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with his fingers. Numbers are juggled and contracts are signed and much to the delight of the man, a profit is made.
All his life he will work. Formulating the plans. Forecasting the future.
Annuities will be sentries. Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.
Two builders of castles. They have much in common. They shape granules into grandeurs. They see nothing and make something. They are diligent and determined. And for both the tide will rise and the end will come.
Yet that is where the similarities cease. For the boy sees the end while the man ignores it.
As the waves near, the wise child jumps to his feet and begins to clap.
There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret. He knew this would happen. He is not surprised. And when the great breaker crashes into his castle and his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles. He smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father's hand, and goes home.
The grownup, however, is not so wise. As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified. He hovers over the sandy monument to protect it. He blocks the waves from the walls he has made. Salt-water soaked and shivering he snarls at the incoming tide.
"It's my castle," he defies.
The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs...
So go ahead and build. But do it with a child's unburdened heart, not with a grown-up's pride, possessiveness and indignation. Enjoy the process while it lasts, don't lose sight of love and beauty along the way, and when the end comes, as it most certainly will, salute the process of Life and go home.
ADAPTED FROM A STORY BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR
Oh Man! Funny stuff
Actual Signs That We Have Found
========================
A sign seen on a restroom dryer at O'Hare Field in Chicago: Do not activate with wet hands.
At a car dealership: The best way to get back on your feet? Miss a car payment.
At A Laundry Shop: How about we refund your money, send you a new one at no charge, close the store and have the manager shot. Would that be satisfactory?
At a Music Store: Out to lunch. Bach at 12:30. Offenbach sooner.
At a number of US military bases: Restricted to unauthorized personnel.
At a pizza shop: 7 days without pizza makes one weak.
At a Santa Fe gas station: We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container.
At a tire shop in Milwaukee: Invite us to your next blowout.
At a Towing Company: We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want tows.
At a Used Car Lot: Second Hand cars in first crash condition.
At an Auto Body Shop: May we have the next dents?
At an optometrist's office: If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.
At the electric company: We would be delighted if you send in your bill. However, if you don't, you will be.
At the entrance of the large machinery plant: Warning to young ladies: If you wear loose clothes, beware of the machinery. If you wear tight clothes, beware of the machinist.
Billboard on the side of the road: Keep your eyes on the road and stop reading these signs.
Car Lot: The best way to get on your feet....Miss a car payment.
Church sign: To remove worry wrinkles, get your faith lifted.
Door of a plastic surgeon’s office: Hello. May we pick your nose?
English Sign in German Cafe: Mothers, Please Wash Your Hands Before Eating.
Gym: Merry Fitness and a Happy New Rear!
In a Beauty Shop: Dye now!
In a cafeteria: Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat any place they want.
In a cleaner’s window: Anyone leaving their garments here for more than 30 days will be disposed of.
In a counselors office: Growing old is mandatory, growing wise is optional.
In a dentist office: Be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.
In a department store: Bargain Basement Upstairs.
In a dry cleaner's emporium: Drop your pants here.
In a dry cleaner's window: Anyone leaving their garments here for more than 30 days will be disposed of.
In a farmer’s field: The farmer allows walkers to cross the field for free, but be aware that the bull charges.
In a Florida maternity ward: No children allowed.
In a health food shop window: Closed due to illness.
In a hotel during a conference: For anyone who has children and doesn’t know it, there is day care on the first floor.
In a Laundromat: Automatic washing machines. Please remove all your clothes when the light goes out.
In a Los Angeles clothing store: Wonderful bargains for men with 16 and 17 necks.
In a Los Angeles dance hall: Good clean dancing every night but Sunday.
In a Maine restaurant: Open seven days a week and weekends.
In a New York medical building: Mental Health Prevention Center
In a New York restaurant: Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.
In a non-smoking area: If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action.
In a Pennsylvania cemetery: Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves.
In a Podiatrist's window: Time wounds all heels.
In a restaurant window: Don't stand there and be hungry, come in and get fed up.
In a safari park: Elephants please stay in your car
In a Tacoma, Washington men's clothing store: 15 men's wool suits - $100 - They won't last an hour!
In a Texas funeral parlor: Ask about our layaway plan.
In a toilet: Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.
In a veterinarian’s waiting room: Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!
In an office building washroom: Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.
In an office: After the tea break, staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board.
In an office: Would the person who took the step ladder yesterday kindly bring it back or further steps will be taken.
In downtown Boston: Callahan Tunnel - NO END
In front of a New Hampshire car wash: If you can't read this, it's time to wash your car.
In the front yard of a funeral home: Drive carefully. We’ll wait.
In the offices of a New Jersey loan company: Ask about our plans for owning your home.
In the vestry of a New England church: Will the last person to leave please see that the perpetual light is extinguished.
In the window of a Kentucky appliance store: Don't kill your wife. Let our washing machine do the dirty work.
In the window of an Oregon general store: Why go elsewhere to be cheated, when you can come here?
Inside a bowling alley: Please be quiet. We need to hear a pin drop.
Maternity Clothes Shop: We are open on Labor Day.
Message on a leaflet: If you cannot read, this leaflet will tell you how to get lessons.
Notice in a field: The farmer allows walkers to cross the field for free, but the bull charges.
On a butcher's window: Let me meat your needs.
On a church door: This is the gate of Heaven. Enter ye all by this door. (This door is kept locked because of the draft. Please use side entrance)
On a desk in a reception room: We shoot every 3rd salesman, and the 2nd one just left.
On a display of "I love you only" Valentine cards: Now available in multi-packs.
On a fence: Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive.
On a local plumbing company's trucks in NE Pennsylvania: Don’t sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.
On a Maine shop: Our motto is to give our customers the lowest possible prices and workmanship.
On a maternity room door: Push. Push. Push.
On a Music Teacher's door: Out Chopin.
On a New York convalescent home: For the sick and tired of the Episcopal Church
On a plumber's truck: We repair what your husband fixed.
On a repair shop door: We can repair anything. (Please knock hard — bell out of order.)
On a restaurant: Try our fish just for the halibut.
On a roller coaster: Watch your head.
On a Scientist's door: Gone Fission
On a taxidermist's window: We really know our stuff.
On a Tennessee highway: Take notice: when this sign is under water, this road is impassable.
On an electrician's truck: Let us remove your shorts.
On an established New Mexico dry cleaning store: Thirty-eight years on the same spot.
On an United Airlines emergency exit row instruction card: If you cannot read this card...
On another Butcher's window: Pleased to meat you.
On the door of a Computer Store: Out for a quick byte.
On the door of a Music Library: Bach in a min-u-et.
On the grounds of a private school in Connecticut: No trespassing without permission.
On the menu of a New Orleans restaurant: Blackened bluefish
On the wall of a Baltimore estate: Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. - Sisters of Mercy
Outside a country shop in West Virginia: We buy junk and sell antiques.
Outside a disco: Smarts is the most exclusive disco in town. Everyone welcome.
Outside a farm: Horse manure, pre-packed bags, $10. Or, do-it-yourself, $1.
Outside a Hotel: Help! We need inn-experienced people.
Outside a muffler shop: No appointment necessary. We heard you coming.
Outside a photographer’s studio: Out to lunch; if not back by five, out for dinner.
Outside a radiator repair shop: Best place in town to take a leak.
Outside a second-hand store: We exchange anything - bicycles, washing machines etc. Why not bring your wife along and get a wonderful bargain.
Pizza shop slogan: 7 days without pizza makes one Weak.
Plumber: We repair what your husband Fixed.
Quicksand warning: Quicksand. Any person passing this point will be drowned. By order of the District Council.
Seen during a conference: For anyone who has children and doesn't know it, there is a day care on the first floor.
Sign at the psychic's Hotline: Don't call us, we'll call you.
This was seen on a car being towed by a large motor home: I go where I'm towed to.
Trucks of a local plumbing company in NE Pennsylvania: Don't sleep with a drip call your plumber.
International Signs (Mis-Translations)
========================================
Acapulco hotel sign: The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
Athens Hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 daily.
Athens, Greece hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
Bangkok dry cleaners: Drop your trousers here for best results.
Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push botton for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
Copenhagen airline ticket office: WE take your bags and send them in all directions.
Czechoslovakian tourist agency: Take one of our horse-driven city tours--we guarantee no miscarriages.
Denmark: in a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions.
Finnish washroom faucet: To stop the drip, turn cock to right.
German/Austria: a sign in a hotel catering to skiers read Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
German/Germany: in a Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
Germany's Black forest sign: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service.
Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
Istanbul hotel corridor sign: Please to evacuate in hall especially which is accompanied by rude noises.
Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.
Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
Japanese information booklet about a hotel air conditioner: Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of war in your room, please control yourself.
Kyushi, Japan Detour sign: Stop: Drive Sideways.
Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
London department store: Bargain basement upstairs.
London office: After tea break staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board.
Majorcan shop entrance: English well talking.
Majorcan shop entrance: Here speeching American.
Moscow hotel lobby across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursday.
Moscow hotel room door: If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
Norwegian cocktail lounge: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking.
Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.
Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
Roman doctor's office: Specialist in women and other diseases.
Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
Sweden: in the window of a Swedish furrier: Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.
Swiss mountain inn: Special today -- no ice cream.
Thailand: an ad for donkey rides asked Would you like to ride on your own ass?.
Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
Tokyo hotel: Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read this notice.
Tokyo shop: Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in the long run.
Vienna hotel: In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
Vienna, Austria hotel: In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
Yugoslavia: a sign in a hotel read The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. Turn to her straightaway.
Yugoslavia: in the Europa Hotel, in Sarajevo, you will find this message on every door: Guests should announce the abandonment of theirs rooms before 12 o'clock, emptying the room at the latest until 14 o'clock, for the use of the room before 5 at the arrival or after the 16 o'clock at the departure, will be billed as one night more..
Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
========================
A sign seen on a restroom dryer at O'Hare Field in Chicago: Do not activate with wet hands.
At a car dealership: The best way to get back on your feet? Miss a car payment.
At A Laundry Shop: How about we refund your money, send you a new one at no charge, close the store and have the manager shot. Would that be satisfactory?
At a Music Store: Out to lunch. Bach at 12:30. Offenbach sooner.
At a number of US military bases: Restricted to unauthorized personnel.
At a pizza shop: 7 days without pizza makes one weak.
At a Santa Fe gas station: We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container.
At a tire shop in Milwaukee: Invite us to your next blowout.
At a Towing Company: We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want tows.
At a Used Car Lot: Second Hand cars in first crash condition.
At an Auto Body Shop: May we have the next dents?
At an optometrist's office: If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.
At the electric company: We would be delighted if you send in your bill. However, if you don't, you will be.
At the entrance of the large machinery plant: Warning to young ladies: If you wear loose clothes, beware of the machinery. If you wear tight clothes, beware of the machinist.
Billboard on the side of the road: Keep your eyes on the road and stop reading these signs.
Car Lot: The best way to get on your feet....Miss a car payment.
Church sign: To remove worry wrinkles, get your faith lifted.
Door of a plastic surgeon’s office: Hello. May we pick your nose?
English Sign in German Cafe: Mothers, Please Wash Your Hands Before Eating.
Gym: Merry Fitness and a Happy New Rear!
In a Beauty Shop: Dye now!
In a cafeteria: Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat any place they want.
In a cleaner’s window: Anyone leaving their garments here for more than 30 days will be disposed of.
In a counselors office: Growing old is mandatory, growing wise is optional.
In a dentist office: Be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.
In a department store: Bargain Basement Upstairs.
In a dry cleaner's emporium: Drop your pants here.
In a dry cleaner's window: Anyone leaving their garments here for more than 30 days will be disposed of.
In a farmer’s field: The farmer allows walkers to cross the field for free, but be aware that the bull charges.
In a Florida maternity ward: No children allowed.
In a health food shop window: Closed due to illness.
In a hotel during a conference: For anyone who has children and doesn’t know it, there is day care on the first floor.
In a Laundromat: Automatic washing machines. Please remove all your clothes when the light goes out.
In a Los Angeles clothing store: Wonderful bargains for men with 16 and 17 necks.
In a Los Angeles dance hall: Good clean dancing every night but Sunday.
In a Maine restaurant: Open seven days a week and weekends.
In a New York medical building: Mental Health Prevention Center
In a New York restaurant: Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.
In a non-smoking area: If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action.
In a Pennsylvania cemetery: Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves.
In a Podiatrist's window: Time wounds all heels.
In a restaurant window: Don't stand there and be hungry, come in and get fed up.
In a safari park: Elephants please stay in your car
In a Tacoma, Washington men's clothing store: 15 men's wool suits - $100 - They won't last an hour!
In a Texas funeral parlor: Ask about our layaway plan.
In a toilet: Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.
In a veterinarian’s waiting room: Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!
In an office building washroom: Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.
In an office: After the tea break, staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board.
In an office: Would the person who took the step ladder yesterday kindly bring it back or further steps will be taken.
In downtown Boston: Callahan Tunnel - NO END
In front of a New Hampshire car wash: If you can't read this, it's time to wash your car.
In the front yard of a funeral home: Drive carefully. We’ll wait.
In the offices of a New Jersey loan company: Ask about our plans for owning your home.
In the vestry of a New England church: Will the last person to leave please see that the perpetual light is extinguished.
In the window of a Kentucky appliance store: Don't kill your wife. Let our washing machine do the dirty work.
In the window of an Oregon general store: Why go elsewhere to be cheated, when you can come here?
Inside a bowling alley: Please be quiet. We need to hear a pin drop.
Maternity Clothes Shop: We are open on Labor Day.
Message on a leaflet: If you cannot read, this leaflet will tell you how to get lessons.
Notice in a field: The farmer allows walkers to cross the field for free, but the bull charges.
On a butcher's window: Let me meat your needs.
On a church door: This is the gate of Heaven. Enter ye all by this door. (This door is kept locked because of the draft. Please use side entrance)
On a desk in a reception room: We shoot every 3rd salesman, and the 2nd one just left.
On a display of "I love you only" Valentine cards: Now available in multi-packs.
On a fence: Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive.
On a local plumbing company's trucks in NE Pennsylvania: Don’t sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.
On a Maine shop: Our motto is to give our customers the lowest possible prices and workmanship.
On a maternity room door: Push. Push. Push.
On a Music Teacher's door: Out Chopin.
On a New York convalescent home: For the sick and tired of the Episcopal Church
On a plumber's truck: We repair what your husband fixed.
On a repair shop door: We can repair anything. (Please knock hard — bell out of order.)
On a restaurant: Try our fish just for the halibut.
On a roller coaster: Watch your head.
On a Scientist's door: Gone Fission
On a taxidermist's window: We really know our stuff.
On a Tennessee highway: Take notice: when this sign is under water, this road is impassable.
On an electrician's truck: Let us remove your shorts.
On an established New Mexico dry cleaning store: Thirty-eight years on the same spot.
On an United Airlines emergency exit row instruction card: If you cannot read this card...
On another Butcher's window: Pleased to meat you.
On the door of a Computer Store: Out for a quick byte.
On the door of a Music Library: Bach in a min-u-et.
On the grounds of a private school in Connecticut: No trespassing without permission.
On the menu of a New Orleans restaurant: Blackened bluefish
On the wall of a Baltimore estate: Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. - Sisters of Mercy
Outside a country shop in West Virginia: We buy junk and sell antiques.
Outside a disco: Smarts is the most exclusive disco in town. Everyone welcome.
Outside a farm: Horse manure, pre-packed bags, $10. Or, do-it-yourself, $1.
Outside a Hotel: Help! We need inn-experienced people.
Outside a muffler shop: No appointment necessary. We heard you coming.
Outside a photographer’s studio: Out to lunch; if not back by five, out for dinner.
Outside a radiator repair shop: Best place in town to take a leak.
Outside a second-hand store: We exchange anything - bicycles, washing machines etc. Why not bring your wife along and get a wonderful bargain.
Pizza shop slogan: 7 days without pizza makes one Weak.
Plumber: We repair what your husband Fixed.
Quicksand warning: Quicksand. Any person passing this point will be drowned. By order of the District Council.
Seen during a conference: For anyone who has children and doesn't know it, there is a day care on the first floor.
Sign at the psychic's Hotline: Don't call us, we'll call you.
This was seen on a car being towed by a large motor home: I go where I'm towed to.
Trucks of a local plumbing company in NE Pennsylvania: Don't sleep with a drip call your plumber.
International Signs (Mis-Translations)
========================================
Acapulco hotel sign: The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
Athens Hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 daily.
Athens, Greece hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
Bangkok dry cleaners: Drop your trousers here for best results.
Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push botton for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
Copenhagen airline ticket office: WE take your bags and send them in all directions.
Czechoslovakian tourist agency: Take one of our horse-driven city tours--we guarantee no miscarriages.
Denmark: in a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions.
Finnish washroom faucet: To stop the drip, turn cock to right.
German/Austria: a sign in a hotel catering to skiers read Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
German/Germany: in a Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
Germany's Black forest sign: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service.
Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
Istanbul hotel corridor sign: Please to evacuate in hall especially which is accompanied by rude noises.
Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.
Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
Japanese information booklet about a hotel air conditioner: Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of war in your room, please control yourself.
Kyushi, Japan Detour sign: Stop: Drive Sideways.
Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
London department store: Bargain basement upstairs.
London office: After tea break staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board.
Majorcan shop entrance: English well talking.
Majorcan shop entrance: Here speeching American.
Moscow hotel lobby across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursday.
Moscow hotel room door: If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
Norwegian cocktail lounge: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking.
Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.
Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
Roman doctor's office: Specialist in women and other diseases.
Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
Sweden: in the window of a Swedish furrier: Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.
Swiss mountain inn: Special today -- no ice cream.
Thailand: an ad for donkey rides asked Would you like to ride on your own ass?.
Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
Tokyo hotel: Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read this notice.
Tokyo shop: Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in the long run.
Vienna hotel: In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
Vienna, Austria hotel: In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
Yugoslavia: a sign in a hotel read The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. Turn to her straightaway.
Yugoslavia: in the Europa Hotel, in Sarajevo, you will find this message on every door: Guests should announce the abandonment of theirs rooms before 12 o'clock, emptying the room at the latest until 14 o'clock, for the use of the room before 5 at the arrival or after the 16 o'clock at the departure, will be billed as one night more..
Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
Leaving a Legacy - Principles to Live By
-----------------------
Column By Jim Rohn
-----------------------
You know me, I am a philosopher. I love principles. Yes, actions are great and I talk about them regularly, but the important stuff is what lies underneath--the principles.
Here are what I consider to be the principles that we must commit to if we are to leave the legacy we desire:
1. Life is best lived in service to others. This doesn't mean that we do not strive for the best for ourselves. It does mean that in all things we serve other people, including our family, co-workers and friends.
2. Consider others' interests as important as your own. Much of the world suffers simply because people consider only their own interests. People are looking out for number one, but the way to leave a legacy is to also look out for others.
3. Love your neighbor even if you don't like him. It is interesting that Jesus told us to love others. But he never tells us to like them. Liking people has to do with emotions. Loving people has to do with actions. And what you will find is that when you love them and do good by them, you will more often than not begin to like them.
4. Maintain integrity at all costs. There are very few things you take to the grave with you. The number one thing is your reputation and good name. When people remember you, you want them to think, "She was the most honest person I knew. What integrity." There are always going to be temptations to cut corners and break your integrity. Do not do it. Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the cost.
5. You must risk in order to gain. In just about every area of life you must risk in order to gain the reward. In love, you must risk rejection in order to ask that person out for the first time. In investing you must place your capital at risk in the market in order to receive the prize of a growing bank account. When we risk, we gain. And when we gain, we have more to leave for others.
6. You reap what you sow. In fact, you always reap more than you sow--you plant a seed and reap a bushel. What you give you get. What you put into the ground then grows out of the ground. If you give love you will receive love. If you give time, you will gain time. It is one of the truest laws of the universe. Decide what you want out of life and then begin to sow it.
7. Hard work is never a waste. No one will say, "It is too bad he was such a good, hard worker." But if you aren't they will surely say, "It's too bad he was so lazy - he could have been so much more!" Hard work will leave a grand legacy. Give it your all on your trip around the earth. You will do a lot of good and leave a terrific legacy.
8. Don't give up when you fail. Imagine what legacies would have never existed if someone had given up. How many thriving businesses would have been shut down if they quit at their first failure? Everyone fails. It is a fact of life. But those who succeed are those who do not give up when they fail. They keep going and build a successful life
- and a legacy.
9. Don't ever stop in your pursuit of a legacy. Many people have accomplished tremendous things later on in life. There is never a time to stop in your pursuit of a legacy.
Sometimes older people will say, "I am 65. I'll never change." That won't build a great life! No, there is always time to do more and achieve more, to help more and serve more, to teach more and to learn more. Keep going and growing that legacy!
These are core principles to live by if you want to become the kind of person who leaves a lasting legacy.
Until next time, let's do something remarkable!
Jim Rohn
Column By Jim Rohn
-----------------------
You know me, I am a philosopher. I love principles. Yes, actions are great and I talk about them regularly, but the important stuff is what lies underneath--the principles.
Here are what I consider to be the principles that we must commit to if we are to leave the legacy we desire:
1. Life is best lived in service to others. This doesn't mean that we do not strive for the best for ourselves. It does mean that in all things we serve other people, including our family, co-workers and friends.
2. Consider others' interests as important as your own. Much of the world suffers simply because people consider only their own interests. People are looking out for number one, but the way to leave a legacy is to also look out for others.
3. Love your neighbor even if you don't like him. It is interesting that Jesus told us to love others. But he never tells us to like them. Liking people has to do with emotions. Loving people has to do with actions. And what you will find is that when you love them and do good by them, you will more often than not begin to like them.
4. Maintain integrity at all costs. There are very few things you take to the grave with you. The number one thing is your reputation and good name. When people remember you, you want them to think, "She was the most honest person I knew. What integrity." There are always going to be temptations to cut corners and break your integrity. Do not do it. Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the cost.
5. You must risk in order to gain. In just about every area of life you must risk in order to gain the reward. In love, you must risk rejection in order to ask that person out for the first time. In investing you must place your capital at risk in the market in order to receive the prize of a growing bank account. When we risk, we gain. And when we gain, we have more to leave for others.
6. You reap what you sow. In fact, you always reap more than you sow--you plant a seed and reap a bushel. What you give you get. What you put into the ground then grows out of the ground. If you give love you will receive love. If you give time, you will gain time. It is one of the truest laws of the universe. Decide what you want out of life and then begin to sow it.
7. Hard work is never a waste. No one will say, "It is too bad he was such a good, hard worker." But if you aren't they will surely say, "It's too bad he was so lazy - he could have been so much more!" Hard work will leave a grand legacy. Give it your all on your trip around the earth. You will do a lot of good and leave a terrific legacy.
8. Don't give up when you fail. Imagine what legacies would have never existed if someone had given up. How many thriving businesses would have been shut down if they quit at their first failure? Everyone fails. It is a fact of life. But those who succeed are those who do not give up when they fail. They keep going and build a successful life
- and a legacy.
9. Don't ever stop in your pursuit of a legacy. Many people have accomplished tremendous things later on in life. There is never a time to stop in your pursuit of a legacy.
Sometimes older people will say, "I am 65. I'll never change." That won't build a great life! No, there is always time to do more and achieve more, to help more and serve more, to teach more and to learn more. Keep going and growing that legacy!
These are core principles to live by if you want to become the kind of person who leaves a lasting legacy.
Until next time, let's do something remarkable!
Jim Rohn
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Shortcuts In Life
There is a story about a man named Emmanuel Ninnger who in the 1880's paid for his weekly groceries with a twenty- dollar bill. The clerk counted out the change and Ninnger left the store.
The clerk then noticed smudges on her sweaty hands. She picked up the twenty and noticed smudges on it, too, which she then showed the store manager.
The manager called the police who identified the bills as being counterfeit. In fact, the officer said it was a masterful piece of counterfeiting. Detectives got a warrant for Ninnger's apartment, and in their investigation, discovered an easel near the window to which was clipped a twenty dollar bill.
Amazing as it sounds, what Ninnger did was painstakingly hand paint each twenty-dollar bill, one at a time. They were near perfect copies.
Continuing the search, in an attic workroom the police discovered three discarded portraits previously painted by Ninnger which when sold at auction fetched over $5000 a piece.
The ironic part of this story is that it took Emmanuel Ninnger about the same time to paint a $5000 portrait as it took to hand paint a twenty dollar bill.
Emmanuel Ninnger was quite a thief, and probably would not have been caught except for the grocery clerk with sweaty hands. But from whom did Ninnger steal most? From none other than Ninnger himself.
Trying to take shortcuts in life is only stealing from yourself. Are you utilizing your abilities to their fullest potential, or are you stealing from yourself?
The clerk then noticed smudges on her sweaty hands. She picked up the twenty and noticed smudges on it, too, which she then showed the store manager.
The manager called the police who identified the bills as being counterfeit. In fact, the officer said it was a masterful piece of counterfeiting. Detectives got a warrant for Ninnger's apartment, and in their investigation, discovered an easel near the window to which was clipped a twenty dollar bill.
Amazing as it sounds, what Ninnger did was painstakingly hand paint each twenty-dollar bill, one at a time. They were near perfect copies.
Continuing the search, in an attic workroom the police discovered three discarded portraits previously painted by Ninnger which when sold at auction fetched over $5000 a piece.
The ironic part of this story is that it took Emmanuel Ninnger about the same time to paint a $5000 portrait as it took to hand paint a twenty dollar bill.
Emmanuel Ninnger was quite a thief, and probably would not have been caught except for the grocery clerk with sweaty hands. But from whom did Ninnger steal most? From none other than Ninnger himself.
Trying to take shortcuts in life is only stealing from yourself. Are you utilizing your abilities to their fullest potential, or are you stealing from yourself?
Monday, March 20, 2006
Perfect Husband
Several men are in the locker room of a golf club. A cell phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands free speaker-function and begins to talk.
Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
MAN: "Hello"
WOMAN: "Honey, it's me. I can hardly hear you.........are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes"
WOMAN: "I'm at the mall now and found this beautiful leather coat.It's only $1,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure......go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new 2006models. I saw one I really liked"
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000"
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing .. The house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $950,000"
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and give them an offer of $900,000. They will probably take it. If not, we can go the extra 50 thousand. It's really a pretty good price."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths agape.
He smiles and asks: "Anyone know who this phone belongs to?!"
Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
MAN: "Hello"
WOMAN: "Honey, it's me. I can hardly hear you.........are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes"
WOMAN: "I'm at the mall now and found this beautiful leather coat.It's only $1,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure......go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new 2006models. I saw one I really liked"
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000"
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing .. The house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $950,000"
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and give them an offer of $900,000. They will probably take it. If not, we can go the extra 50 thousand. It's really a pretty good price."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths agape.
He smiles and asks: "Anyone know who this phone belongs to?!"
Vertical Frog Race
Once there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a vertical race. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd gathered around the tower to see the race and to ostensibly cheer on the contestants.
Honestly, no one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. There were whispers and mutterings like:
"Way too difficult!!"
"They’ll never make it to the top!”
"The tower is too high!"
“The frogs are too small and weak!”
And true enough, after an initial spurt of energy, the frogs began collapsing.
The crowd continued to yell:
"No one’s gonna make it!"
More and more of the tiny frogs fell prey to exhaustion and gave up.
But ONE continued climbing higher and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up!
Finally, to the disbelief and amazement of the crowd, that one frog reached the top!
The other frogs were stunned. More than just stunned… they were embarrassed and flummoxed. Turns out, none of them actually believed any one of them could make it to the top.
So how did that one little frog complete the feat with his sprightly webbed feet?
Well, turns out… the winner was deaf!
Honestly, no one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. There were whispers and mutterings like:
"Way too difficult!!"
"They’ll never make it to the top!”
"The tower is too high!"
“The frogs are too small and weak!”
And true enough, after an initial spurt of energy, the frogs began collapsing.
The crowd continued to yell:
"No one’s gonna make it!"
More and more of the tiny frogs fell prey to exhaustion and gave up.
But ONE continued climbing higher and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up!
Finally, to the disbelief and amazement of the crowd, that one frog reached the top!
The other frogs were stunned. More than just stunned… they were embarrassed and flummoxed. Turns out, none of them actually believed any one of them could make it to the top.
So how did that one little frog complete the feat with his sprightly webbed feet?
Well, turns out… the winner was deaf!
Friday, March 17, 2006
STOP THINKING "IF ONLY"
by Tom Hopkins
"If only I could get a better break."
"If only I had some money."
"If only I would've married the right person."
"If only I worked for the right company."
"If only I had the right parents."
Do you pull back from taking full personal responsibility for yourself? Many of us do. We think that a parent, a teacher, a friend, a boss, a spouse, the company we worked for, or some governmental program should shoulder our burden for turning our lives into what we want them to be.
This approach can't get the job done. Other people and organizations have too many pressing challenges and priorities of their own.
What does this mean? That you'll always be disappointed when you depend on others for the things you must do for yourself. It's so easy to justify the temptations of freeloading, to slide into being a follower, to fail to see the hidden price tag in the handout. Unless you take complete control of your life and assume full personal responsibility for yourself, who will?
No one will.
Every dollar you earn is worth ten given to you. Earned money creates the self-image of self-reliance; given money creates the self-image of other-dependence. This is why some families stay on welfare for generations. Hangers-on and free-loaders are the most frustrated people on earth because they have created their own frustrations. You can't be successful and happy until you earn the respect of the toughest, hardest to fool, and most important judge in the
world: yourself.
"If only I could get a better break."
"If only I had some money."
"If only I would've married the right person."
"If only I worked for the right company."
"If only I had the right parents."
Do you pull back from taking full personal responsibility for yourself? Many of us do. We think that a parent, a teacher, a friend, a boss, a spouse, the company we worked for, or some governmental program should shoulder our burden for turning our lives into what we want them to be.
This approach can't get the job done. Other people and organizations have too many pressing challenges and priorities of their own.
What does this mean? That you'll always be disappointed when you depend on others for the things you must do for yourself. It's so easy to justify the temptations of freeloading, to slide into being a follower, to fail to see the hidden price tag in the handout. Unless you take complete control of your life and assume full personal responsibility for yourself, who will?
No one will.
Every dollar you earn is worth ten given to you. Earned money creates the self-image of self-reliance; given money creates the self-image of other-dependence. This is why some families stay on welfare for generations. Hangers-on and free-loaders are the most frustrated people on earth because they have created their own frustrations. You can't be successful and happy until you earn the respect of the toughest, hardest to fool, and most important judge in the
world: yourself.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Success is An Attitude
We talk about success as though it’s an event or a thing. We refer to people wearing "the badges of success", and carrying around (or wearing or driving) the latest status symbol.
But success is not a thing; it’s a way of being in the world.
You can have all the riches in the world, and still feel like a failure if you aren't following your life's true purpose. This is a special kind of stress.
Or you might have nothing but the clothes you stand in and feel like the biggest success in the world... if you are following your heart. And that is a very special kind of 'bliss'.
Day after day you may struggle through your to-do list or Objectives Project Plan, cross off most of the big items, and maybe even feel like you have had a successful day.
But are you barking up the wrong tree? A successfully completed task doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t taking you nearer your true life goals by following your heart.
So what does it mean to follow the heart?
One way of looking at this is to ask yourself "Where do I get approval from? Is it from inside of me, or from others?"
"Where do I find satisfaction? Do I find it in things and other people, or in the silence I find inside myself?"
These are difficult questions. It may be that you cannot even think of a time when you experienced silence within. Could it be that you are busy chasing after things that make too much noise?
There is nothing deadly serious about looking for inner silence. In fact, it leads to more fun, not less. More delight, not more depression or burn-out. And it leads to more success. Because the strength you take from inner silence restores the ability to see what is truly valuable. Friendship, love, compassion and commitment to something bigger than oneself.
Imagine yourself on your death-bed, if that isn’t too depressing! What will you look back on as the successes in your life? When was the point at which you redefined success and failure, and realised that the only real yardstick is within you?
Success is not an event. Success is an attitude.
But success is not a thing; it’s a way of being in the world.
You can have all the riches in the world, and still feel like a failure if you aren't following your life's true purpose. This is a special kind of stress.
Or you might have nothing but the clothes you stand in and feel like the biggest success in the world... if you are following your heart. And that is a very special kind of 'bliss'.
Day after day you may struggle through your to-do list or Objectives Project Plan, cross off most of the big items, and maybe even feel like you have had a successful day.
But are you barking up the wrong tree? A successfully completed task doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t taking you nearer your true life goals by following your heart.
So what does it mean to follow the heart?
One way of looking at this is to ask yourself "Where do I get approval from? Is it from inside of me, or from others?"
"Where do I find satisfaction? Do I find it in things and other people, or in the silence I find inside myself?"
These are difficult questions. It may be that you cannot even think of a time when you experienced silence within. Could it be that you are busy chasing after things that make too much noise?
There is nothing deadly serious about looking for inner silence. In fact, it leads to more fun, not less. More delight, not more depression or burn-out. And it leads to more success. Because the strength you take from inner silence restores the ability to see what is truly valuable. Friendship, love, compassion and commitment to something bigger than oneself.
Imagine yourself on your death-bed, if that isn’t too depressing! What will you look back on as the successes in your life? When was the point at which you redefined success and failure, and realised that the only real yardstick is within you?
Success is not an event. Success is an attitude.
Monday, March 13, 2006
How Do You Measure Success?
How do I know when I am successful? Boy, talk about the grandaddy of open ended questions eh? Please bear with me though as I believe we would all do well to give it some serious thought.
Have you ever noticed how many folks choose to equate success with a monetary figure -- they place a dollar amount on it and assume that once that figure is attained they'll suddenly feel successful.
Unfortunately it's rarely as easy as saying that once we have x number of dollars in the bank we will somehow magically feel as though we've truly lived a life of worthwhile achievement.
With that said the question is how do we get past the point where we're only equating success with a sticker price?
Take your success personally ....
Years ago I heard success defined as, "having the freedom to be yourself" and I think that is about the best definition I have heard to date. It is the gauge I use in my own life to know whether I'm leading a successful life.
My feeling is that as long as I have the resources necessary to move through life fully able to pursue the goals and dreams that are important to me then I am a successful.
At first the above definition might appear to be a bit open ended, but it should get you really thinking if you give it some serious thought.
For starters it gives us the room to dream and really think about what it would take to live out our goals and dreams -- the things that we truly place personal value on -- not just those things that outside forces may deem as important.
Say for example you want to be the best parent you can be.
That doesn't take a lot of money does it? (unless you think to be a good parent you've got to have ample amounts of money to care for your kids).
You see, the point here is not what amount of money you have, or lack there of. In fact only you will be able to decide what is enough for you and your loved ones.
It is far easier to take our due credit for our past achievements when we're not holding ourselves up to someone else's standard. Competition isn't a bad thing, but when it's the only measuring stick we use it can end up working against us if we are not careful.
In my humble opinion success is best measured on a personal level. If we attempt to put a frame around what we see as being successful or not -- if we view others and say, they have this many material possessions so they must be successful we're missing out.
You see when we frame what constitutes living a successful life around those things that we personally see as valuable then we enjoy where we are now more. Life seems to offer up opportunities to us that we never seemed to notice before.
By the same token when we set out to do the best we can do inevitably great opportunity finds us because we are doing what truly makes us happy. We're in alignment and ready for the opportunities that life will put in our path.
Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying that acquiring wealth is not a result of achieving success. I'm simply saying that at best it is a result that comes from following your dreams. Working towards achieving those things that you deem to be most important. I'd also suggest that lack of financial rewards most definitely is not the only currency with which we should measure our level of success.
Keep this thought in mind: Success is a personal thing.
Define it according to what you value most and you are far more likely to achieve it as well as enjoy it once you have it.
-- Here's to your success, Josh Hinds
Have you ever noticed how many folks choose to equate success with a monetary figure -- they place a dollar amount on it and assume that once that figure is attained they'll suddenly feel successful.
Unfortunately it's rarely as easy as saying that once we have x number of dollars in the bank we will somehow magically feel as though we've truly lived a life of worthwhile achievement.
With that said the question is how do we get past the point where we're only equating success with a sticker price?
Take your success personally ....
Years ago I heard success defined as, "having the freedom to be yourself" and I think that is about the best definition I have heard to date. It is the gauge I use in my own life to know whether I'm leading a successful life.
My feeling is that as long as I have the resources necessary to move through life fully able to pursue the goals and dreams that are important to me then I am a successful.
At first the above definition might appear to be a bit open ended, but it should get you really thinking if you give it some serious thought.
For starters it gives us the room to dream and really think about what it would take to live out our goals and dreams -- the things that we truly place personal value on -- not just those things that outside forces may deem as important.
Say for example you want to be the best parent you can be.
That doesn't take a lot of money does it? (unless you think to be a good parent you've got to have ample amounts of money to care for your kids).
You see, the point here is not what amount of money you have, or lack there of. In fact only you will be able to decide what is enough for you and your loved ones.
It is far easier to take our due credit for our past achievements when we're not holding ourselves up to someone else's standard. Competition isn't a bad thing, but when it's the only measuring stick we use it can end up working against us if we are not careful.
In my humble opinion success is best measured on a personal level. If we attempt to put a frame around what we see as being successful or not -- if we view others and say, they have this many material possessions so they must be successful we're missing out.
You see when we frame what constitutes living a successful life around those things that we personally see as valuable then we enjoy where we are now more. Life seems to offer up opportunities to us that we never seemed to notice before.
By the same token when we set out to do the best we can do inevitably great opportunity finds us because we are doing what truly makes us happy. We're in alignment and ready for the opportunities that life will put in our path.
Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying that acquiring wealth is not a result of achieving success. I'm simply saying that at best it is a result that comes from following your dreams. Working towards achieving those things that you deem to be most important. I'd also suggest that lack of financial rewards most definitely is not the only currency with which we should measure our level of success.
Keep this thought in mind: Success is a personal thing.
Define it according to what you value most and you are far more likely to achieve it as well as enjoy it once you have it.
-- Here's to your success, Josh Hinds
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Why You Are Where You Are
Many years ago as a young, aspiring speaker, I heard an older speaker who was quite philosophical say that you are where you are because that's exactly where you want to be. I thought about his statement, decided it was the "wisdom of the ages" and verbalized it in my own presentations.
Over a period of time, a series of events took place that convinced me that his statement was not true in my case. I was broke, in debt and down in the dumps. I wanted to be prosperous and excited about my future.
It came through loud and clear that I was where I was and what I was because of the decisions and choices I had made in my life. I made those choices based on the information I had, much of which was erroneous.
The reality is, if I'm given the wrong directions to go from "point A" to "point B," I'm not going to reach "point B"
unless I change directions.
It's equally true that if I'm given the wrong directions on how to move from being broke and in debt to being successful and prosperous, I'm not going to end up at the place I want to be.
One important decision you can make even as you read these words is to think about what Thomas Sikking said: "You're not the product of a broken home, a devastated economy, a world in the upheaval of war, a minority group, a family of drunkards or a poverty-ridden neighborhood. You are the product of your own thinking processes and whatever you're thinking about today is the cornerstone of your tomorrow."
If someone else has abused you in the past, it's o.k. to give them credit for fouling up your past, but do not give them permission to ruin your present and your future.
Take control of your thoughts and your future. Determine that you will have a better tomorrow. Make specific plans to do so and I will see you at the top!
___________
Zig Ziglar offers a weekly newsletter filled with more of his inspiring stories as well as practical ideas to help you in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service, and related topics. You can subscribe to the Zig Ziglar Newsletter at http://www.zigziglar.com
Over a period of time, a series of events took place that convinced me that his statement was not true in my case. I was broke, in debt and down in the dumps. I wanted to be prosperous and excited about my future.
It came through loud and clear that I was where I was and what I was because of the decisions and choices I had made in my life. I made those choices based on the information I had, much of which was erroneous.
The reality is, if I'm given the wrong directions to go from "point A" to "point B," I'm not going to reach "point B"
unless I change directions.
It's equally true that if I'm given the wrong directions on how to move from being broke and in debt to being successful and prosperous, I'm not going to end up at the place I want to be.
One important decision you can make even as you read these words is to think about what Thomas Sikking said: "You're not the product of a broken home, a devastated economy, a world in the upheaval of war, a minority group, a family of drunkards or a poverty-ridden neighborhood. You are the product of your own thinking processes and whatever you're thinking about today is the cornerstone of your tomorrow."
If someone else has abused you in the past, it's o.k. to give them credit for fouling up your past, but do not give them permission to ruin your present and your future.
Take control of your thoughts and your future. Determine that you will have a better tomorrow. Make specific plans to do so and I will see you at the top!
___________
Zig Ziglar offers a weekly newsletter filled with more of his inspiring stories as well as practical ideas to help you in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service, and related topics. You can subscribe to the Zig Ziglar Newsletter at http://www.zigziglar.com
Friday, March 10, 2006
Stories - The 99 Club
Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.
One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy in his heart?
The King asked the servant, “Why are you so happy?”
The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much – just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.”
Later in the day, the King sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King’s woes and the servant’s story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.
The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.”
When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... so many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins.
He wondered, “What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!” He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
From that day, the servant’s life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked.
Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor’s help, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."
He continued, "The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they’re always yearning and striving for that extra 1 to round it out to 100!
We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That’s what joining The 99 Club is all about."
One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy in his heart?
The King asked the servant, “Why are you so happy?”
The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much – just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.”
Later in the day, the King sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King’s woes and the servant’s story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.
The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.”
When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... so many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins.
He wondered, “What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!” He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
From that day, the servant’s life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked.
Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor’s help, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."
He continued, "The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they’re always yearning and striving for that extra 1 to round it out to 100!
We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That’s what joining The 99 Club is all about."
Thursday, March 09, 2006
"Defining Yourself"
All of us spend far too much time, effort, and energy worrying about what other people think about us. We would spend far less time worrying about what other people think about us if we realized how seldom they do.
In the final analysis, the only opinion about us that matters is the opinion we hold of ourselves. This involves a level of self-evaluation and honesty that few people achieve.
One of the great writers of all time, William Shakespeare, wrote, "To thine own self be true." This is very simple but not very easy. In order for us to fully understand who we are, we first have to be clear on who we are not.
The great sculptor, Michael Angelo, when asked how he was able to take a block of granite and turn it into a beautiful woman, replied, "You simply find a block of granite and remove everything that is not a beautiful woman."
All of us have talents and abilities that, if fully exploited, would make us successful. Unfortunately, we too often perform outside of our level of talent and expertise.
One of the advantages I find in being blind is that there are so many things I cannot do. This leaves a handful of things I can do where I can focus my efforts and energy.
This narrow focus has brought me a high degree of success, happiness, and satisfaction. If you have all five senses, you will have to take on the added task of focusing your energy in certain areas while eliminating others where you could perform if you wanted to.
Remember, Michael Jordan was arguably the best basketball player that has ever played the game; but when he decided to play baseball, he was barely a mediocre Minor League player.
Playing in the Minor Leagues is great if that's all you can do. I would argue that each of us has Major League talent and ability if we will simply play the right game and not play the wrong ones.
Everyone you can think of who has ever achieved greatness has focused their talent in a narrow range. Anyone attempting to be great at everything is destined, at best, to be average at a lot of things and great at nothing.
Try observing yourself objectively as if you were evaluating an employee. Give yourself an annual review. Determine what you do well and where you perform at only an average level.
Begin to work on eliminating the average until you only deal with the things you do well. The more specialized you become as you focus on your greatness, the more you will succeed.
As you go through your day today, determine to undergo an honest self-evaluation. Move toward your area of greatness, and away from everything else.
Today's the day!
In the final analysis, the only opinion about us that matters is the opinion we hold of ourselves. This involves a level of self-evaluation and honesty that few people achieve.
One of the great writers of all time, William Shakespeare, wrote, "To thine own self be true." This is very simple but not very easy. In order for us to fully understand who we are, we first have to be clear on who we are not.
The great sculptor, Michael Angelo, when asked how he was able to take a block of granite and turn it into a beautiful woman, replied, "You simply find a block of granite and remove everything that is not a beautiful woman."
All of us have talents and abilities that, if fully exploited, would make us successful. Unfortunately, we too often perform outside of our level of talent and expertise.
One of the advantages I find in being blind is that there are so many things I cannot do. This leaves a handful of things I can do where I can focus my efforts and energy.
This narrow focus has brought me a high degree of success, happiness, and satisfaction. If you have all five senses, you will have to take on the added task of focusing your energy in certain areas while eliminating others where you could perform if you wanted to.
Remember, Michael Jordan was arguably the best basketball player that has ever played the game; but when he decided to play baseball, he was barely a mediocre Minor League player.
Playing in the Minor Leagues is great if that's all you can do. I would argue that each of us has Major League talent and ability if we will simply play the right game and not play the wrong ones.
Everyone you can think of who has ever achieved greatness has focused their talent in a narrow range. Anyone attempting to be great at everything is destined, at best, to be average at a lot of things and great at nothing.
Try observing yourself objectively as if you were evaluating an employee. Give yourself an annual review. Determine what you do well and where you perform at only an average level.
Begin to work on eliminating the average until you only deal with the things you do well. The more specialized you become as you focus on your greatness, the more you will succeed.
As you go through your day today, determine to undergo an honest self-evaluation. Move toward your area of greatness, and away from everything else.
Today's the day!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Quite Funny
Qantas
Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane but only a high
school diploma to fix one. Reassurance for those of us who fly
routinely in their jobs.
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe
sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The
mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form,
and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let
it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour.
Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas'
pilots marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by
maintenance engineers
By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an
accident.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this
aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute
descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.
P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief
search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
And the best one for last..................
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget
pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget
Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane but only a high
school diploma to fix one. Reassurance for those of us who fly
routinely in their jobs.
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe
sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The
mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form,
and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let
it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour.
Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas'
pilots marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by
maintenance engineers
By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an
accident.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this
aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute
descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.
P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief
search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
And the best one for last..................
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget
pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget
Monday, March 06, 2006
Master Your Thoughts
We’re all built with incredible propensity to imagine the worst. Let’s say you notice a strange spot on your chest. You begin to think "something is wrong." This quickly becomes “it’s a STD” or “it’s cancer”. In no time at all, you arrive at the idea that you’re going to die from this. Well, that settles it then, time to plan the funeral.
You see how we can catatrophize matters? And it’s not just in areas such as our well-being; it’s our children, our careers, our finances, our partner, or the superior we thought we offended. If we start catching ourselves imagining disastrous scenarios that are not grounded in facts, we’ll realize that our thoughts can go askew very easily. And they affect our emotional and mental well-being. Sometimes, they can even make us physically sick!
To reduce unnecessary angst, focus on the situation at hand. Nothing more. A spot is just a spot. Until you see a doctor or get more information, further thought is useless and can be dangerous.
The thing is, a thought is just a thought. Some thoughts may be more useful, but that makes them no more real.
The trouble begins when we buy into the thoughts. When we start believing that they have some inherent truth or reality.
A good way out of this trap is to imagine a continuum, a line between two extremes. At one end is the idea that "A Thought Is Reality." At this extreme, people believe that whatever pops into their head is real. In other words, "if I think it, it is real." The extreme is what we know as psychosis, that is, no matter what others or bare facts tell me, I simply choose to believe my thoughts.
At the other end of the continuum is the idea that "A Thought Is Just A Thought." If a thought begins to torment a person at this end of the spectrum, he or she is able to take a step back, remember that a thought is just a thought, and let it go. If it warrants some follow-up action, go ahead, but until then, don’t let your thoughts slip into the gunk of fear and imagination.
Thoughts really only have as much power as we give them. No more, no less.
Become aware of your thoughts. Master your thoughts and you master your world.
You see how we can catatrophize matters? And it’s not just in areas such as our well-being; it’s our children, our careers, our finances, our partner, or the superior we thought we offended. If we start catching ourselves imagining disastrous scenarios that are not grounded in facts, we’ll realize that our thoughts can go askew very easily. And they affect our emotional and mental well-being. Sometimes, they can even make us physically sick!
To reduce unnecessary angst, focus on the situation at hand. Nothing more. A spot is just a spot. Until you see a doctor or get more information, further thought is useless and can be dangerous.
The thing is, a thought is just a thought. Some thoughts may be more useful, but that makes them no more real.
The trouble begins when we buy into the thoughts. When we start believing that they have some inherent truth or reality.
A good way out of this trap is to imagine a continuum, a line between two extremes. At one end is the idea that "A Thought Is Reality." At this extreme, people believe that whatever pops into their head is real. In other words, "if I think it, it is real." The extreme is what we know as psychosis, that is, no matter what others or bare facts tell me, I simply choose to believe my thoughts.
At the other end of the continuum is the idea that "A Thought Is Just A Thought." If a thought begins to torment a person at this end of the spectrum, he or she is able to take a step back, remember that a thought is just a thought, and let it go. If it warrants some follow-up action, go ahead, but until then, don’t let your thoughts slip into the gunk of fear and imagination.
Thoughts really only have as much power as we give them. No more, no less.
Become aware of your thoughts. Master your thoughts and you master your world.
Friday, March 03, 2006
The Secret to Working and Living Well With People
Entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash once said "Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.'”
Mary certainly knew what she was talking about. That little secret to working well with people helped her grow Mary Kay Cosmetics into the largest direct seller of skin care and color cosmetics in the United States. Mary understood that in any relationship, whether it's a spouse, child, client, colleague, or casual acquaintance, the best way to make a lasting impression is to take the time to make others feel genuinely valued.
Here are some ways you can make others feel more important.
Greet everyone you meet with enthusiasm. Have you ever called someone on the telephone - or met them somewhere -- and they greeted you with such energy and enthusiasm that you felt they must truly adore you? A greeting of ardent and genuine enthusiasm sets the tone for your entire encounter. It's such a simple skill (the hardest part is remembering to do it) but if you CAN remember, it will enliven all of your relationships. This skill can be particularly life-changing when practiced with your children. A simple show of enthusiasm and appreciation when a child walks in the room can have a miraculous effect on the relationship.
Slow down. Take the time in conversation to really listen. While someone is talking, focus on taking in what he or she is saying in words, tone, and body language instead of thinking about what you are going to say next. Relax and listen before responding. As you practice this form of deep listening, work on identifying the other person's needs. Put your own needs aside during the conversation and focus on determining what they need today. Savour the connection you can make with another person, even in a casual conversation.
Work on remembering the details of past conversations and encounters. Ask about the things they confided to you. How did her business presentation go? How is his ailing father? It's often helpful to make little notes to remind you to ask about something or someone the next time you meet. This simple skill shows people that they are important to you.
Appreciate the small things that people do for you and never pass up an opportunity to say thank you. Find simple and small ways to show appreciation and caring to those you love.
When you make the people around you feel important, you create a climate of trust and mutual appreciation, which can change your life in ways large and small. Try it today.
Mary certainly knew what she was talking about. That little secret to working well with people helped her grow Mary Kay Cosmetics into the largest direct seller of skin care and color cosmetics in the United States. Mary understood that in any relationship, whether it's a spouse, child, client, colleague, or casual acquaintance, the best way to make a lasting impression is to take the time to make others feel genuinely valued.
Here are some ways you can make others feel more important.
Greet everyone you meet with enthusiasm. Have you ever called someone on the telephone - or met them somewhere -- and they greeted you with such energy and enthusiasm that you felt they must truly adore you? A greeting of ardent and genuine enthusiasm sets the tone for your entire encounter. It's such a simple skill (the hardest part is remembering to do it) but if you CAN remember, it will enliven all of your relationships. This skill can be particularly life-changing when practiced with your children. A simple show of enthusiasm and appreciation when a child walks in the room can have a miraculous effect on the relationship.
Slow down. Take the time in conversation to really listen. While someone is talking, focus on taking in what he or she is saying in words, tone, and body language instead of thinking about what you are going to say next. Relax and listen before responding. As you practice this form of deep listening, work on identifying the other person's needs. Put your own needs aside during the conversation and focus on determining what they need today. Savour the connection you can make with another person, even in a casual conversation.
Work on remembering the details of past conversations and encounters. Ask about the things they confided to you. How did her business presentation go? How is his ailing father? It's often helpful to make little notes to remind you to ask about something or someone the next time you meet. This simple skill shows people that they are important to you.
Appreciate the small things that people do for you and never pass up an opportunity to say thank you. Find simple and small ways to show appreciation and caring to those you love.
When you make the people around you feel important, you create a climate of trust and mutual appreciation, which can change your life in ways large and small. Try it today.
The Secret to Working and Living Well With People
Entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash once said "Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.'”
Mary certainly knew what she was talking about. That little secret to working well with people helped her grow Mary Kay Cosmetics into the largest direct seller of skin care and color cosmetics in the United States. Mary understood that in any relationship, whether it's a spouse, child, client, colleague, or casual acquaintance, the best way to make a lasting impression is to take the time to make others feel genuinely valued.
Here are some ways you can make others feel more important.
Greet everyone you meet with enthusiasm. Have you ever called someone on the telephone - or met them somewhere -- and they greeted you with such energy and enthusiasm that you felt they must truly adore you? A greeting of ardent and genuine enthusiasm sets the tone for your entire encounter. It's such a simple skill (the hardest part is remembering to do it) but if you CAN remember, it will enliven all of your relationships. This skill can be particularly life-changing when practiced with your children. A simple show of enthusiasm and appreciation when a child walks in the room can have a miraculous effect on the relationship.
Slow down. Take the time in conversation to really listen. While someone is talking, focus on taking in what he or she is saying in words, tone, and body language instead of thinking about what you are going to say next. Relax and listen before responding. As you practice this form of deep listening, work on identifying the other person's needs. Put your own needs aside during the conversation and focus on determining what they need today. Savour the connection you can make with another person, even in a casual conversation.
Work on remembering the details of past conversations and encounters. Ask about the things they confided to you. How did her business presentation go? How is his ailing father? It's often helpful to make little notes to remind you to ask about something or someone the next time you meet. This simple skill shows people that they are important to you.
Appreciate the small things that people do for you and never pass up an opportunity to say thank you. Find simple and small ways to show appreciation and caring to those you love.
When you make the people around you feel important, you create a climate of trust and mutual appreciation, which can change your life in ways large and small. Try it today.
Mary certainly knew what she was talking about. That little secret to working well with people helped her grow Mary Kay Cosmetics into the largest direct seller of skin care and color cosmetics in the United States. Mary understood that in any relationship, whether it's a spouse, child, client, colleague, or casual acquaintance, the best way to make a lasting impression is to take the time to make others feel genuinely valued.
Here are some ways you can make others feel more important.
Greet everyone you meet with enthusiasm. Have you ever called someone on the telephone - or met them somewhere -- and they greeted you with such energy and enthusiasm that you felt they must truly adore you? A greeting of ardent and genuine enthusiasm sets the tone for your entire encounter. It's such a simple skill (the hardest part is remembering to do it) but if you CAN remember, it will enliven all of your relationships. This skill can be particularly life-changing when practiced with your children. A simple show of enthusiasm and appreciation when a child walks in the room can have a miraculous effect on the relationship.
Slow down. Take the time in conversation to really listen. While someone is talking, focus on taking in what he or she is saying in words, tone, and body language instead of thinking about what you are going to say next. Relax and listen before responding. As you practice this form of deep listening, work on identifying the other person's needs. Put your own needs aside during the conversation and focus on determining what they need today. Savour the connection you can make with another person, even in a casual conversation.
Work on remembering the details of past conversations and encounters. Ask about the things they confided to you. How did her business presentation go? How is his ailing father? It's often helpful to make little notes to remind you to ask about something or someone the next time you meet. This simple skill shows people that they are important to you.
Appreciate the small things that people do for you and never pass up an opportunity to say thank you. Find simple and small ways to show appreciation and caring to those you love.
When you make the people around you feel important, you create a climate of trust and mutual appreciation, which can change your life in ways large and small. Try it today.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
How to Peel an Egg Quickly
Amazing. This works easily. I recommend this. Read on...
Removing the shell from a hard boiled egg can be a pain, but with this simple process it will take you less than three seconds every time.
Steps
Prepare a hard boiled egg and let it cool (see Related wikiHows).
Crack the shell at each end by firmly tapping the egg onto a hard surface such as a counter. Do one end, and then the other.
Place the side of the egg on a counter and roll forward for one revolution with your palm firmly down on the top of the egg.
Submerge the egg in a bowl of warm water and slip the entire shell off in less than a second.
Alternate Methods
Slide a spoon in between the egg and the shell, and pop it out. This works rather fast, but it is tricky. Be careful not to damage the egg during the process, and the egg has a tendency to fly all over the place sometimes.
Put salt in the water before boiling. The salt stops the egg from leaking out if the egg cracks while boiling and adds flavor.
Boil the egg; when done, quickly dump the boiling water. Refill the pot with very cold water from the tap; the egg will contract and the shell will peel off without ripping the egg white.
Put a tbsp of vinegar in the water to help with the peeling.
Tips
If you are making egg salad, let the peeled egg dry for ten seconds. If you don't, the thin covering of water will not mix properly with the mayonnaise.
Don't over-boil the egg. If you do, the shell will fracture into thousands of very small pieces and not peel easily at all. Worse, the interior of the shell may stick to the egg, and you end up peeling part of the egg away with the shell.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Attracting Success
Everyone wants success.
Some people spend their every waking moment pursuing it, to the detriment of everything else. At the other end of the spectrum are people who feel that success is impossible. They conclude that it is destined only for a select few. And the rest of us in between are content with whatever we have. We may desire greater success, but we believe somehow that we’re not “fated” or “destined” to achieve it.
However, these assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. When you strive for success with the wrong assumptions, you will never reach it. It’s like trying to reach a destination with the wrong map.
You can’t hurry success, catch it, or find it by chance. You can’t inherit it, gate-crash it, or take it from someone else. Success is something you must work hard and long to earn, for yourself. It has a price, sometimes a very high one. And most people aren’t really and truly ready to pay that price, to do what success demands.
To achieve success, first you must understand that success is a process. It requires time and patience. There are no short cuts. Anything else is just a temporary illusion. Success that will remain with you, and bring you joy rather than sorrow, requires a learning process, a time to grow out of old habits and into new ones, a time to learn what works and what doesn’t. So don’t be in a hurry.
In order to attain success, you will also need to acquire traits and skills that attract it. Define what success means to you. What traits or skills will you need to achieve this goal? Devise plans to acquire the needed traits and skills. Learn to do what you need to do, to get where you want to go. Find two or three people who have what you want. Write down the habits that have made them successful and resolve to copy them.
And once you’ve made up your mind to achieve success, you must be ready to travel the road to success, oftentimes alone. Author Les Brown once said that, “At some point in time, the pursuit of your goals becomes secondary and what you have become in the process is what is most important.” When infants reach for the toy that their parents have placed some distance away, it’s not the toy that’s the prize; it’s simply motivation for the child to learn something more important, something more lasting, and that is to learn to crawl, and of course, to finally walk and run! It’s to strengthen their muscles so they can reach for other goals in life.
Anyone can succeed, but not every one will. And success differs for each person. It’s your definition, and your decision.
Some people spend their every waking moment pursuing it, to the detriment of everything else. At the other end of the spectrum are people who feel that success is impossible. They conclude that it is destined only for a select few. And the rest of us in between are content with whatever we have. We may desire greater success, but we believe somehow that we’re not “fated” or “destined” to achieve it.
However, these assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. When you strive for success with the wrong assumptions, you will never reach it. It’s like trying to reach a destination with the wrong map.
You can’t hurry success, catch it, or find it by chance. You can’t inherit it, gate-crash it, or take it from someone else. Success is something you must work hard and long to earn, for yourself. It has a price, sometimes a very high one. And most people aren’t really and truly ready to pay that price, to do what success demands.
To achieve success, first you must understand that success is a process. It requires time and patience. There are no short cuts. Anything else is just a temporary illusion. Success that will remain with you, and bring you joy rather than sorrow, requires a learning process, a time to grow out of old habits and into new ones, a time to learn what works and what doesn’t. So don’t be in a hurry.
In order to attain success, you will also need to acquire traits and skills that attract it. Define what success means to you. What traits or skills will you need to achieve this goal? Devise plans to acquire the needed traits and skills. Learn to do what you need to do, to get where you want to go. Find two or three people who have what you want. Write down the habits that have made them successful and resolve to copy them.
And once you’ve made up your mind to achieve success, you must be ready to travel the road to success, oftentimes alone. Author Les Brown once said that, “At some point in time, the pursuit of your goals becomes secondary and what you have become in the process is what is most important.” When infants reach for the toy that their parents have placed some distance away, it’s not the toy that’s the prize; it’s simply motivation for the child to learn something more important, something more lasting, and that is to learn to crawl, and of course, to finally walk and run! It’s to strengthen their muscles so they can reach for other goals in life.
Anyone can succeed, but not every one will. And success differs for each person. It’s your definition, and your decision.
Choose Your Attitude
Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say: When someone would ask him how he was doing, He would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how they could look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. Yes, it is," Michael, said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. Your bottom line: "It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Michael said.
Soon after, I left the company to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live." Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Michael continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, "he's a dead man". I knew I needed to take action.
"What did you do?"
I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled...
"Gravity."
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."
You have two choices now: 1. Delete this. 2. Forward it to the people you care about.
I hope you will choose #2. I did.
ENJOY LIFE - IT'S THE ONLY ONE YOU GET !!!
He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how they could look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. Yes, it is," Michael, said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. Your bottom line: "It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Michael said.
Soon after, I left the company to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live." Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Michael continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, "he's a dead man". I knew I needed to take action.
"What did you do?"
I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled...
"Gravity."
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."
You have two choices now: 1. Delete this. 2. Forward it to the people you care about.
I hope you will choose #2. I did.
ENJOY LIFE - IT'S THE ONLY ONE YOU GET !!!
Friday, February 17, 2006
A burning question regarding: Toilet Seats
OK. Here's the question we have been wanting to ask or rather been sitting on it. Recently the WTO has been highlighted on the Straits Times. WTO is not World Trade Organisation but our own little known local organisation, World Toilet Organisation. It boast members from various countries. Perhaps they would like to address this issue...
Question : Do toilet seat covers provide any real protection for our bums? Want to know the answer? Read on...
Nope, but your seat doesn't really need protecting. All those paper covers do is mentally separate your backside from the countless bums that have occupied the same space. Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, let's listen to a few medical resources:
"To my knowledge, no one has ever acquired an STD on the toilet seat -- unless they were having sex on the toilet seat!" according to Dr. Abigail Salyers, president of the American Society for Microbiology, quoted on WebMD.
"It's OK to sit down. Most organisms that cause STDs will not survive for long on a toilet seat," notes Dr. Sherry Marts, scientific director of the Society for Women's Health Research, on the Swedish Medical Center's site.
As Columbia University's Health Promotion Program sums up: "Because toilet seats are not major culprits in spreading disease, paper or plastic seat covers offer little more than peace of mind." In fact, you have more to fear from bathroom door handles and faucets than from commodes.
And while we're on the topic, you might consider something to cover that phone receiver. A University of Arizona microbiology team tested a dozen office surfaces including the bathroom. The scientists found that phone receivers had 25,000 bacteria per square inch, while toilet seats had only 49 bacteria per square inch. Talk about calling in sick!
Question : Do toilet seat covers provide any real protection for our bums? Want to know the answer? Read on...
Nope, but your seat doesn't really need protecting. All those paper covers do is mentally separate your backside from the countless bums that have occupied the same space. Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, let's listen to a few medical resources:
"To my knowledge, no one has ever acquired an STD on the toilet seat -- unless they were having sex on the toilet seat!" according to Dr. Abigail Salyers, president of the American Society for Microbiology, quoted on WebMD.
"It's OK to sit down. Most organisms that cause STDs will not survive for long on a toilet seat," notes Dr. Sherry Marts, scientific director of the Society for Women's Health Research, on the Swedish Medical Center's site.
As Columbia University's Health Promotion Program sums up: "Because toilet seats are not major culprits in spreading disease, paper or plastic seat covers offer little more than peace of mind." In fact, you have more to fear from bathroom door handles and faucets than from commodes.
And while we're on the topic, you might consider something to cover that phone receiver. A University of Arizona microbiology team tested a dozen office surfaces including the bathroom. The scientists found that phone receivers had 25,000 bacteria per square inch, while toilet seats had only 49 bacteria per square inch. Talk about calling in sick!
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Interview excerpt with Brian Tracy on Time Management
AudioMotivation: Brian, can you tell me about the idea of eating the biggest frog first, what are you referring to and how does a person do this.
Brian Tracy: Well, when I started off as a young man, I didn't graduate from high school. I was laboring at jobs for many years, and then I finally got into sales and into business. And I began asking myself the question, why are some people more successful than others?
And the bottom line of it is that successful people do more important things and they do them more often and they get better and better at them.
So a couple of years ago, I was asked by a publisher to write about time management, and they wanted me to build it around a theme that was in my work, called Eat That Frog, and it says that the first thing that you do when you get up in the morning is eat a live frog and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that it is the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long, and you're still alive.
Frog is a metaphor for your biggest task. And what we have found is that the primary difference between success and failure comes down to very different things: successful people have the discipline to get out and get started on their most important task and stay with it until it is done.
An unsuccessful person doesn't have the discipline to do that. So therefore, they always have to be supervised and managed by the people who make them do it. And of course get paid that much less, because supervision costs money, whereas only about 2% of people in society who can plan their day pick their most important task, and works solely on that until it is finished.
And those people are the highest earners, the most successful, fastest promoted highest-paid. They are the ones that achieved everything they can possibly achieve. And there is where that comes from eating the biggest frog first.
If you can pick your biggest and most important task and do that until it is finished. So if you practice that over time you'll get better and better at it eventually, I would think.
Wolfgang Von Goethe once said everything is hard before it is easy. Good habits are very hard to develop but easy to live with and that bad habits are easy to develop but hard to live with and so developing the habit of doing your most important task is hard to do initially because the law of least resistance is one of the greatest enemies of success.
Success can also be a help, because you have a natural tendency to do what is fun and easy first rather than what is hard and difficult. And if you take your 80/20 rule. For example, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of what you do accounts for 20% of your results.
Peter Drucker says it is often the 90/10 rule. That 90% of your results come from 10% of what you do, and so if you have a list of 10 things to do one of those items may be worth five or 10 times as much in terms of its value and significance to your life and career as all the others put together.
And if you think about it, it takes the same amount of time sometimes to do each of the different items on your list but it is worth five to 10 times as much as the others.
And that is how people really succeed is they say what are the things I can do that are the most significant, that have the greatest positive impact without the greatest consequences. And they work on those items, and they do only those items until those are done, before they turn to something else.
__________
Excerpted from the AudioMotivation interview with Brian Tracy -- visit Josh Hinds' membership site at http://www.AudioMotivation.com where you'll find loads of insightful interviews like the one you just read.
Brian Tracy: Well, when I started off as a young man, I didn't graduate from high school. I was laboring at jobs for many years, and then I finally got into sales and into business. And I began asking myself the question, why are some people more successful than others?
And the bottom line of it is that successful people do more important things and they do them more often and they get better and better at them.
So a couple of years ago, I was asked by a publisher to write about time management, and they wanted me to build it around a theme that was in my work, called Eat That Frog, and it says that the first thing that you do when you get up in the morning is eat a live frog and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that it is the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long, and you're still alive.
Frog is a metaphor for your biggest task. And what we have found is that the primary difference between success and failure comes down to very different things: successful people have the discipline to get out and get started on their most important task and stay with it until it is done.
An unsuccessful person doesn't have the discipline to do that. So therefore, they always have to be supervised and managed by the people who make them do it. And of course get paid that much less, because supervision costs money, whereas only about 2% of people in society who can plan their day pick their most important task, and works solely on that until it is finished.
And those people are the highest earners, the most successful, fastest promoted highest-paid. They are the ones that achieved everything they can possibly achieve. And there is where that comes from eating the biggest frog first.
If you can pick your biggest and most important task and do that until it is finished. So if you practice that over time you'll get better and better at it eventually, I would think.
Wolfgang Von Goethe once said everything is hard before it is easy. Good habits are very hard to develop but easy to live with and that bad habits are easy to develop but hard to live with and so developing the habit of doing your most important task is hard to do initially because the law of least resistance is one of the greatest enemies of success.
Success can also be a help, because you have a natural tendency to do what is fun and easy first rather than what is hard and difficult. And if you take your 80/20 rule. For example, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of what you do accounts for 20% of your results.
Peter Drucker says it is often the 90/10 rule. That 90% of your results come from 10% of what you do, and so if you have a list of 10 things to do one of those items may be worth five or 10 times as much in terms of its value and significance to your life and career as all the others put together.
And if you think about it, it takes the same amount of time sometimes to do each of the different items on your list but it is worth five to 10 times as much as the others.
And that is how people really succeed is they say what are the things I can do that are the most significant, that have the greatest positive impact without the greatest consequences. And they work on those items, and they do only those items until those are done, before they turn to something else.
__________
Excerpted from the AudioMotivation interview with Brian Tracy -- visit Josh Hinds' membership site at http://www.AudioMotivation.com where you'll find loads of insightful interviews like the one you just read.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Sense of Urgency??
The following story illustrates dramatically the consequences of failing to develop a sense of urgency.
One day a man was sitting in his small boat on the Niagara River. The waters were calm, the breeze was gentle, and the sun shone brightly from a cloudless sky. Only moments before, the man had pushed his from the riverbank, and even now the shore was only a few feet away. Clearly, there was no cause for concern. As he baited his hook and cast his line into the water, his mind began to drift.
And so did his small boat. The movement was slow and imperceptible in the beginning, with the boat doing what any boat will do when left to drift along with the gentle current. But all drifts are leading toward an eventual destination, and left uncorrected will move toward that destination as though by some strange and unseen force.In his preoccupations of the moment, the man did not notice the increased movement of his boat. His thoughts were still on fishing as they had been all week in anticipation of this outing. There would be plenty of time for seriousness. For a little while at least, he would continue to relax and enjoy himself. He would ignore the challenges of life and use this hour to allow himself to drift.
Without warning, his thoughts were shaken from wherever they had wandered, back to the present. The sound seemed to come from nowhere, distant at first, but in the twinkling of an eye, it had intensified and was now almost deafening. His attention was seized not only by the sound, but by the movement, for his small boat was being propelled through waters that were no longer gentle and calming.
He looked around him and for the first time he noticed the river banks on either side had retreated as though on a journey of their own. He had no motor on his small boat and had journeyed forth with only a single paddle. There had been no apparent need for a motor or oars.
He struggled to comprehend what was happening, for it was as though he had moved from the calmness, the serenity, and the safety of one environment into the frenzied turbulence of circumstances beyond his ability to grasp or control.In an instant the reality of his circumstances registered clearly.
The thundering sound, the rising foam, the swirling mist, and the uncontrolled momentum of his boat created an instant picture of his horrid circumstances. He had cast himself and his small boat onto the Niagara River, and his drift had brought him to the threshold of the falls.His mind flashed a collage of thoughts and emotions. If only he had thought about the consequences of his drift. If only he had been better prepared and had thought to equip his boat with a motor, just in case. If only he had noticed sooner, or if only...
Only now did the man notice the crowd that had gathered along the far banks on either side, as the word quickly spread about the boat cascading down the river toward irreversible disaster. It was as though those who knew what was about to happen were wanting to help, but to make any attempt to rescue this hopeless creature would serve only to jeopardize their own safety. Some made futile efforts to toss ropes or to hold out tree branches, but most stood in stunned silence, witnesses to a tragedy that need not have happened.
In a fleeting moment he felt the impending doom of his own personal neglect. He was a victim of his own preoccupation -- of his careless inattention to detail in an environment that had the capacity to swallow up his existence, his opportunities and his abilities, and to put all of his dreams to an end in one brief moment.His one final thought was what he would do differently if only he had a second chance. His thoughts rushed through his mind with the same rapidity as the water passing over the edge of falls, tumbling to their final destination hundreds of feet below.
Had he been given the gift of a second chance he would have allowed himself to see the possible future disaster well in advance. He would have seen it clearly in his mind before the event took place in reality. He would have anticipated the certain consequences of neglect. In his mind’s eye, he would have seen the rising foam, heard the roar of the falls and sensed his accelerated drift so that he might have acted without delay to move quickly to the safety of the shore.
If he could have been plucked from the waters instead of being consumed by them, he would have placed new value upon his talent, his opportunities and his time. He would not have allowed frivolity to capture his attention nor would he have permitted his desire for rest and relaxation to take his focus off the greater need for intense labor and measurable progress.But unfortunately, he simply ran out of time.Examining Our Current DriftAnd so it is with our lives. We are all drifting in some direction even at this very moment. The only thing we can determine with any degree of accuracy is where our current drift may be taking us.
The big unknown is whether there are still enough ticks left on our personal clocks to changeFor some people, their past deeds have charted a course which threatens to imprison their future, and yet they do not take corrective and immediate action. They allow the drift of neglect to continue unabated. They permit their desire for entertainment to subdue their appetite for education.
Rather than searching, they become lost. They are inclined to think that their small mistakes or neglects or errors in judgment don’t really matter all that much. They have not yet learned that everything affects everything else, and that their actions of today are forming their consequences of tomorrow. Their careless acts and their wandering thoughts are swallowing up their most precious resource – time.
It is because they seemed to have so much time that they allowed the individual moments of opportunity to slip unnoticed into an accumulation of empty years.Our philosophy is moving us toward a specific future condition.
So is our current attitude, level of activity, and results. Our current lifestyle is either encouraging us to experience new depths of emotional experience or whispering to us to wait until we have it all.What we are and how we are must be examined not only in the light of our objectives, but also with a keen awareness of the ticking clock.
Maybe we only have a few years left. Maybe we only have a few months left. But wouldn’t it make more sense to be doing something constructive with the time that remains than to be passively waiting for time to take its inevitable toll?
One day a man was sitting in his small boat on the Niagara River. The waters were calm, the breeze was gentle, and the sun shone brightly from a cloudless sky. Only moments before, the man had pushed his from the riverbank, and even now the shore was only a few feet away. Clearly, there was no cause for concern. As he baited his hook and cast his line into the water, his mind began to drift.
And so did his small boat. The movement was slow and imperceptible in the beginning, with the boat doing what any boat will do when left to drift along with the gentle current. But all drifts are leading toward an eventual destination, and left uncorrected will move toward that destination as though by some strange and unseen force.In his preoccupations of the moment, the man did not notice the increased movement of his boat. His thoughts were still on fishing as they had been all week in anticipation of this outing. There would be plenty of time for seriousness. For a little while at least, he would continue to relax and enjoy himself. He would ignore the challenges of life and use this hour to allow himself to drift.
Without warning, his thoughts were shaken from wherever they had wandered, back to the present. The sound seemed to come from nowhere, distant at first, but in the twinkling of an eye, it had intensified and was now almost deafening. His attention was seized not only by the sound, but by the movement, for his small boat was being propelled through waters that were no longer gentle and calming.
He looked around him and for the first time he noticed the river banks on either side had retreated as though on a journey of their own. He had no motor on his small boat and had journeyed forth with only a single paddle. There had been no apparent need for a motor or oars.
He struggled to comprehend what was happening, for it was as though he had moved from the calmness, the serenity, and the safety of one environment into the frenzied turbulence of circumstances beyond his ability to grasp or control.In an instant the reality of his circumstances registered clearly.
The thundering sound, the rising foam, the swirling mist, and the uncontrolled momentum of his boat created an instant picture of his horrid circumstances. He had cast himself and his small boat onto the Niagara River, and his drift had brought him to the threshold of the falls.His mind flashed a collage of thoughts and emotions. If only he had thought about the consequences of his drift. If only he had been better prepared and had thought to equip his boat with a motor, just in case. If only he had noticed sooner, or if only...
Only now did the man notice the crowd that had gathered along the far banks on either side, as the word quickly spread about the boat cascading down the river toward irreversible disaster. It was as though those who knew what was about to happen were wanting to help, but to make any attempt to rescue this hopeless creature would serve only to jeopardize their own safety. Some made futile efforts to toss ropes or to hold out tree branches, but most stood in stunned silence, witnesses to a tragedy that need not have happened.
In a fleeting moment he felt the impending doom of his own personal neglect. He was a victim of his own preoccupation -- of his careless inattention to detail in an environment that had the capacity to swallow up his existence, his opportunities and his abilities, and to put all of his dreams to an end in one brief moment.His one final thought was what he would do differently if only he had a second chance. His thoughts rushed through his mind with the same rapidity as the water passing over the edge of falls, tumbling to their final destination hundreds of feet below.
Had he been given the gift of a second chance he would have allowed himself to see the possible future disaster well in advance. He would have seen it clearly in his mind before the event took place in reality. He would have anticipated the certain consequences of neglect. In his mind’s eye, he would have seen the rising foam, heard the roar of the falls and sensed his accelerated drift so that he might have acted without delay to move quickly to the safety of the shore.
If he could have been plucked from the waters instead of being consumed by them, he would have placed new value upon his talent, his opportunities and his time. He would not have allowed frivolity to capture his attention nor would he have permitted his desire for rest and relaxation to take his focus off the greater need for intense labor and measurable progress.But unfortunately, he simply ran out of time.Examining Our Current DriftAnd so it is with our lives. We are all drifting in some direction even at this very moment. The only thing we can determine with any degree of accuracy is where our current drift may be taking us.
The big unknown is whether there are still enough ticks left on our personal clocks to changeFor some people, their past deeds have charted a course which threatens to imprison their future, and yet they do not take corrective and immediate action. They allow the drift of neglect to continue unabated. They permit their desire for entertainment to subdue their appetite for education.
Rather than searching, they become lost. They are inclined to think that their small mistakes or neglects or errors in judgment don’t really matter all that much. They have not yet learned that everything affects everything else, and that their actions of today are forming their consequences of tomorrow. Their careless acts and their wandering thoughts are swallowing up their most precious resource – time.
It is because they seemed to have so much time that they allowed the individual moments of opportunity to slip unnoticed into an accumulation of empty years.Our philosophy is moving us toward a specific future condition.
So is our current attitude, level of activity, and results. Our current lifestyle is either encouraging us to experience new depths of emotional experience or whispering to us to wait until we have it all.What we are and how we are must be examined not only in the light of our objectives, but also with a keen awareness of the ticking clock.
Maybe we only have a few years left. Maybe we only have a few months left. But wouldn’t it make more sense to be doing something constructive with the time that remains than to be passively waiting for time to take its inevitable toll?
Friday, February 10, 2006
Bible Reading Plan for the whole year
Here is a Bible reading plan I intent to use. I found this on http://gtysg.org/website/html/devreadplan.html
January
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 John 1:1–18
o 2 Gen. 1–4
o 3 Gen. 5–8
o 4 Gen. 9–12
o 5 Gen. 13–16
o 6 Psalms 1–3
o 7 Gen. 17–19
o 8 Gen. 20–22
o 9 Job 1–4
o 10 Job 5–8
o 11 Job 9–12
o 12 Job 13–16
o 13 Psalms 4–7
o 14 Job 17–20
o 15 Job 21–24
o 16 Job 25–28
o 17 Job 29–32
o 18 Job 33–36
o 19 Job 37–39
o 20 Psalms 8–11
o 21 Job 40–42
o 22 Gen. 23–26
o 23 Gen. 27–30
o 24 Gen. 31–34
o 25 Gen. 35–38
o 26 Gen. 39–42
o 27 Psalms 12–14
o 28 Gen. 43–46
o 29 Gen. 47–50
o 30 Ex. 1–3
o 31 Ex. 4–6
February
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Ex. 7–9
o 2 Ex. 10–12
o 3 Psalms 15–17
o 4 Ex. 13–15
o 5 Ex. 16–18
o 6 Ex. 19–21
o 7 Ex. 22–24
o 8 Ex. 25–27
o 9 Ex. 28–30
o 10 Psalms 18–20
o 11 Ex. 31–33
o 12 Ex. 34–37
o 13 Ex. 38–40
o 14 Lev. 1–3
o 15 Lev. 4–6
o 16 Lev. 7–9
o 17 Psalms 21–23
o 18 Lev. 10–12
o 19 Lev. 13–15
o 20 Lev. 16–18
o 21 Lev. 19–21
o 22 Lev. 22–24
o 23 Lev. 25–27
o 24 Psalms 24–26
o 25 Num. 1–3
o 26 Num. 4–6
o 27 Num. 7–10
o 28 Num. 11–12
March
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Num. 13–15
o 2 Num. 16–18
o 3 Psalms 27–29
o 4 Num. 19–21
o 5 Num. 22–24
o 6 Num. 25–27
o 7 Num. 28–30
o 8 Num. 31–33
o 9 Num. 34–36
o 10 Psalms 30–32
o 11 Deut. 1–3
o 12 Deut. 4–6
o 13 Deut. 7–9
o 14 Deut. 10–12
o 15 Deut. 13–15
o 16 Deut. 16–18
o 17 Psalms 33–35
o 18 Deut. 19–21
o 19 Deut. 22–24
o 20 Deut. 25–27
o 21 Deut. 28–30
o 22 Deut. 31–34
o 23 Joshua 1–3
o 24 Psalms 36–38
o 25 Joshua 4–6
o 26 Joshua 7–9
o 27 Joshua 10–12
o 28 Joshua 13–15
o 29 Joshua 16–18
o 30 Joshua 19–21
o 31 Psalms 39–41
April
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Joshua 22–24
o 2 Judges 1–3
o 3 Judges 4–6
o 4 Judges 7–9
o 5 Judges 10–12
o 6 Judges 13–15
o 7 Psalms 42–44
o 8 Judges 16–18
o 9 Judges 19–21
o 10 Ruth 1–4
o 11 1 Sam. 1–3
o 12 1 Sam. 4–6
o 13 1 Sam. 7–9
o 14 Psalms 45–47
o 15 1 Sam. 10–13
o 16 1 Sam. 14–16
o 17 1 Sam. 17–19
o 18 1 Sam. 20–22
o 19 1 Sam. 23–25
o 20 1 Sam. 26–28
o 21 Psalms 48–50
o 22 1 Sam. 29–31
o 23 2 Sam. 1–3
o 24 2 Sam. 4–6
o 25 2 Sam. 7–9
o 26 2 Sam. 10–12
o 27 2 Sam. 13–15
o 28 Psalms 51–53
o 29 2 Sam. 16–18
o 30 2 Sam. 19–21
May
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 2 Sam. 22–24
o 2 1 Kings 1–4
o 3 Prov. 1–3
o 4 Prov. 4–6
o 5 Psalms 54–56
o 6 Prov. 7–9
o 7 Prov. 10–12
o 8 Prov. 13–15
o 9 Prov. 16–18
o 10 Prov. 19–21
o 11 Prov. 22–24
o 12 Psalms 57–59
o 13 Prov. 25–27
o 14 Prov. 28–31
o 15 S. of Sol. 1–4
o 16 S. of Sol. 5–8
o 17 1 Kings 5–7
o 18 1 Kings 8–11
o 19 Psalms 60–62
o 20 Eccl. 1–4
o 21 Eccl. 5–8
o 22 Eccl. 9–12
o 23 1 Kings 12–14
o 24 1 Kings 15–17
o 25 1 Kings 18–20
o 26 Psalms 63–65
o 27 1 Kings 21–22; 2 Kings 1
o 28 2 Kings 2–4
o 29 2 Kings 5–7
o 30 2 Kings 8–10
o 31 2 Kings 11:1–14:25
June
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Jonah
o 2 Psalms 66–68
o 3 2 Kings 14:26–29; Amos 1–3
o 4 Amos 4–6
o 5 Amos 7–9
o 6 2 Kings 15–17
o 7 2 Kings 18–21
o 8 2 Kings 22–25
o 9 Psalms 69–71
o 10 1 Chron. 1–3
o 11 1 Chron. 4–6
o 12 1 Chron. 7–9
o 13 1 Chron. 10–12
o 14 1 Chron. 13–16
o 15 1 Chron. 17–19
o 16 Psalms 72–74
o 17 1 Chron. 20–22
o 18 1 Chron. 23–25
o 19 1 Chron. 26–29
o 20 2 Chron. 1–3
o 21 2 Chron. 4–6
o 22 2 Chron. 7–9
o 23 Psalms 75–77
o 24 2 Chron. 10–12
o 25 2 Chron. 13–15
o 26 2 Chron. 16–18
o 27 2 Chron. 19–22
o 28 Joel 1–3; Obadiah
o 29 2 Chron. 23:1–26:8
o 30 Psalms 78–80
July
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Isaiah 1–3
o 2 Isaiah 4–6; 2 Chron. 26:9–23
o 3 2 Chron. 27–29
o 4 2 Chron. 30–32
o 5 Isaiah 7–9
o 6 Isaiah 10–12
o 7 Psalms 81–83
o 8 Isaiah 13–15
o 9 Isaiah 16–18
o 10 Isaiah 19–21
o 11 Isaiah 22–24
o 12 Isaiah 25–27
o 13 Isaiah 28–30
o 14 Psalms 84–86
o 15 Isaiah 31–33
o 16 Isaiah 34–36
o 17 Isaiah 37–39
o 18 Isaiah 40–42
o 19 Isaiah 43–45
o 20 Isaiah 46–48
o 21 Psalms 87–90
o 22 Isaiah 49–51
o 23 Isaiah 52–54
o 24 Isaiah 55–57
o 25 Isaiah 58–60
o 26 Isaiah 61–63
o 27 Isaiah 64–66
o 28 Psalms 91–93
o 29 Hosea 1–3
o 30 Hosea 4–6
o 31 Hosea 7–9
August
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Hosea 10–12
o 2 Hosea 13, 14; Micah 1
o 3 Micah 2–4
o 4 Psalms 94–96
o 5 Micah 5–7
o 6 Nahum 1–3
o 7 2 Chron. 33–34; Zeph. 1
o 8 Zeph. 2–3; 2 Chron. 35
o 9 Hab. 1–3
o 10 Jer. 1–3
o 11 Psalms 97–99
o 12 Jer. 4–6
o 13 Jer. 11, 12, 26
o 14 Jer. 7–9
o 15 Jer. 10, 14, 15
o 16 Jer. 16–18
o 17 Jer. 19, 20, 35
o 18 Psalms 100–102
o 19 Jer. 25, 36, 45
o 20 Jer. 46–49
o 21 Jer. 13, 22, 23
o 22 Jer. 24, 27, 28
o 23 Jer. 29, 50–51
o 24 Jer. 30–33
o 25 Psalms 103–105
o 26 Jer. 21, 34, 37
o 27 Jer. 38, 39, 52
o 28 Jer. 40–42
o 29 Jer. 43–44; Lam. 1
o 30 Lam. 2–5
o 31 2 Chron. 36:1–8; Daniel 1–3
September
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Psalms 106–108
o 2 Daniel 4–6
o 3 Daniel 7–9
o 4 Daniel 10–12
o 5 2 Chron. 36:9–21; Ezekiel 1–3
o 6 Ezekiel 4–6
o 7 Ezekiel 7–9
o 8 Psalms 109–111
o 9 Ezekiel 10–12
o 10 Ezekiel 13–16
o 11 Ezekiel 17–20
o 12 Ezekiel 21–24
o 13 Ezekiel 25–28
o 14 Ezekiel 29–32
o 15 Psalms 112–114
o 16 Ezekiel 33–36
o 17 Ezekiel 37–40
o 18 Ezekiel 41–44
o 19 Ezekiel 45–48
o 20 2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1–3
o 21 Ezra 4; Haggai 1–2
o 22 Psalms 115–117
o 23 Zech. 1–3
o 24 Zech. 4–6
o 25 Zech. 7–9
o 26 Zech. 10–12
o 27 Zech. 13, 14
o 28 Ezra 5–7
o 29 Psalms 118:1–119:16
o 30 Ezra 8–10
October
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Esther 1–3
o 2 Esther 4–6
o 3 Esther 7–10
o 4 Neh. 1–3
o 5 Neh. 4–6
o 6 Psalms 119:17–72
o 7 Neh. 7–9
o 8 Neh. 10–13
o 9 Malachi
o 10 Matthew 1–3
o 11 Matthew 4–7
o 12 Matthew 8–10
o 13 Psalms 119:73–120
o 14 Matthew 11–13
o 15 Matthew 14–16
o 16 Matthew 17–19
o 17 Matthew 20–22
o 18 Matthew 23–25
o 19 Matthew 26–28
o 20 Psalms 119:121–176
o 21 Mark 1–4
o 22 Mark 5–8
o 23 Mark 9–12
o 24 Mark 13–16
o 25 Luke 1–4
o 26 Luke 5–8
o 27 Psalms 120–122
o 28 Luke 9–12
o 29 Luke 13–16
o 30 Luke 17–20
o 31 Luke 21–24
November
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 John 1–3
o 2 John 4–6
o 3 Psalms 123–125
o 4 John 7–9
o 5 John 10–12
o 6 John 13–15
o 7 John 16–18
o 8 John 19–21
o 9 Acts 1–4
o 10 Psalms 126–128
o 11 Acts 5:1–8:3
o 12 Acts 8:4–11:18
o 13 Acts 11:19–14:28
o 14 James
o 15 Galatians
o 16 Acts 15–17:10
o 17 Psalms 129–131
o 18 Philippians
o 19 1 Thess.
o 20 2 Thess.; Acts 17:11; 18:11
o 21 1 Cor. 1–3
o 22 1 Cor. 4–7
o 23 1 Cor. 8:1–11:1
o 24 Psalms 131–134
o 25 1 Cor. 11:2–14:40
o 26 1 Cor. 15–16
o 27 2 Cor. 1–5
o 28 2 Cor. 6–9
o 29 2 Cor. 10–13
o 30 Acts 18:12–19:41; Eph. 1, 2
December
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Psalms 135–137
o 2 Eph. 3–6
o 3 Romans 1–3
o 4 Romans 4–6
o 5 Romans 7–9
o 6 Romans 10–12
o 7 Romans 13–16
o 8 Psalms 138–140
o 9 Acts 20–22
o 10 Acts 23–25
o 11 Acts 26–28
o 12 Colossians
o 13 Heb. 1–4
o 14 Heb. 5–8
o 15 Psalms 141–144
o 16 Heb. 9–11
o 17 Heb. 12–13; Titus
o 18 Philemon
o 19 1 Tim.; 2 Tim.
o 20 1 Peter
o 21 1 John
o 22 Psalms 145–147
o 23 2 Peter; 2, 3 John; Jude
o 24 Rev. 1–3
o 25 Rev. 4–7
o 26 Rev. 8–10
o 27 Rev. 11–13
o 28 Rev. 14–17
o 29 Psalms 148–150
o 30 Rev. 18–20
o 31 Rev. 21–22
January
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 John 1:1–18
o 2 Gen. 1–4
o 3 Gen. 5–8
o 4 Gen. 9–12
o 5 Gen. 13–16
o 6 Psalms 1–3
o 7 Gen. 17–19
o 8 Gen. 20–22
o 9 Job 1–4
o 10 Job 5–8
o 11 Job 9–12
o 12 Job 13–16
o 13 Psalms 4–7
o 14 Job 17–20
o 15 Job 21–24
o 16 Job 25–28
o 17 Job 29–32
o 18 Job 33–36
o 19 Job 37–39
o 20 Psalms 8–11
o 21 Job 40–42
o 22 Gen. 23–26
o 23 Gen. 27–30
o 24 Gen. 31–34
o 25 Gen. 35–38
o 26 Gen. 39–42
o 27 Psalms 12–14
o 28 Gen. 43–46
o 29 Gen. 47–50
o 30 Ex. 1–3
o 31 Ex. 4–6
February
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Ex. 7–9
o 2 Ex. 10–12
o 3 Psalms 15–17
o 4 Ex. 13–15
o 5 Ex. 16–18
o 6 Ex. 19–21
o 7 Ex. 22–24
o 8 Ex. 25–27
o 9 Ex. 28–30
o 10 Psalms 18–20
o 11 Ex. 31–33
o 12 Ex. 34–37
o 13 Ex. 38–40
o 14 Lev. 1–3
o 15 Lev. 4–6
o 16 Lev. 7–9
o 17 Psalms 21–23
o 18 Lev. 10–12
o 19 Lev. 13–15
o 20 Lev. 16–18
o 21 Lev. 19–21
o 22 Lev. 22–24
o 23 Lev. 25–27
o 24 Psalms 24–26
o 25 Num. 1–3
o 26 Num. 4–6
o 27 Num. 7–10
o 28 Num. 11–12
March
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Num. 13–15
o 2 Num. 16–18
o 3 Psalms 27–29
o 4 Num. 19–21
o 5 Num. 22–24
o 6 Num. 25–27
o 7 Num. 28–30
o 8 Num. 31–33
o 9 Num. 34–36
o 10 Psalms 30–32
o 11 Deut. 1–3
o 12 Deut. 4–6
o 13 Deut. 7–9
o 14 Deut. 10–12
o 15 Deut. 13–15
o 16 Deut. 16–18
o 17 Psalms 33–35
o 18 Deut. 19–21
o 19 Deut. 22–24
o 20 Deut. 25–27
o 21 Deut. 28–30
o 22 Deut. 31–34
o 23 Joshua 1–3
o 24 Psalms 36–38
o 25 Joshua 4–6
o 26 Joshua 7–9
o 27 Joshua 10–12
o 28 Joshua 13–15
o 29 Joshua 16–18
o 30 Joshua 19–21
o 31 Psalms 39–41
April
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Joshua 22–24
o 2 Judges 1–3
o 3 Judges 4–6
o 4 Judges 7–9
o 5 Judges 10–12
o 6 Judges 13–15
o 7 Psalms 42–44
o 8 Judges 16–18
o 9 Judges 19–21
o 10 Ruth 1–4
o 11 1 Sam. 1–3
o 12 1 Sam. 4–6
o 13 1 Sam. 7–9
o 14 Psalms 45–47
o 15 1 Sam. 10–13
o 16 1 Sam. 14–16
o 17 1 Sam. 17–19
o 18 1 Sam. 20–22
o 19 1 Sam. 23–25
o 20 1 Sam. 26–28
o 21 Psalms 48–50
o 22 1 Sam. 29–31
o 23 2 Sam. 1–3
o 24 2 Sam. 4–6
o 25 2 Sam. 7–9
o 26 2 Sam. 10–12
o 27 2 Sam. 13–15
o 28 Psalms 51–53
o 29 2 Sam. 16–18
o 30 2 Sam. 19–21
May
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 2 Sam. 22–24
o 2 1 Kings 1–4
o 3 Prov. 1–3
o 4 Prov. 4–6
o 5 Psalms 54–56
o 6 Prov. 7–9
o 7 Prov. 10–12
o 8 Prov. 13–15
o 9 Prov. 16–18
o 10 Prov. 19–21
o 11 Prov. 22–24
o 12 Psalms 57–59
o 13 Prov. 25–27
o 14 Prov. 28–31
o 15 S. of Sol. 1–4
o 16 S. of Sol. 5–8
o 17 1 Kings 5–7
o 18 1 Kings 8–11
o 19 Psalms 60–62
o 20 Eccl. 1–4
o 21 Eccl. 5–8
o 22 Eccl. 9–12
o 23 1 Kings 12–14
o 24 1 Kings 15–17
o 25 1 Kings 18–20
o 26 Psalms 63–65
o 27 1 Kings 21–22; 2 Kings 1
o 28 2 Kings 2–4
o 29 2 Kings 5–7
o 30 2 Kings 8–10
o 31 2 Kings 11:1–14:25
June
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Jonah
o 2 Psalms 66–68
o 3 2 Kings 14:26–29; Amos 1–3
o 4 Amos 4–6
o 5 Amos 7–9
o 6 2 Kings 15–17
o 7 2 Kings 18–21
o 8 2 Kings 22–25
o 9 Psalms 69–71
o 10 1 Chron. 1–3
o 11 1 Chron. 4–6
o 12 1 Chron. 7–9
o 13 1 Chron. 10–12
o 14 1 Chron. 13–16
o 15 1 Chron. 17–19
o 16 Psalms 72–74
o 17 1 Chron. 20–22
o 18 1 Chron. 23–25
o 19 1 Chron. 26–29
o 20 2 Chron. 1–3
o 21 2 Chron. 4–6
o 22 2 Chron. 7–9
o 23 Psalms 75–77
o 24 2 Chron. 10–12
o 25 2 Chron. 13–15
o 26 2 Chron. 16–18
o 27 2 Chron. 19–22
o 28 Joel 1–3; Obadiah
o 29 2 Chron. 23:1–26:8
o 30 Psalms 78–80
July
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Isaiah 1–3
o 2 Isaiah 4–6; 2 Chron. 26:9–23
o 3 2 Chron. 27–29
o 4 2 Chron. 30–32
o 5 Isaiah 7–9
o 6 Isaiah 10–12
o 7 Psalms 81–83
o 8 Isaiah 13–15
o 9 Isaiah 16–18
o 10 Isaiah 19–21
o 11 Isaiah 22–24
o 12 Isaiah 25–27
o 13 Isaiah 28–30
o 14 Psalms 84–86
o 15 Isaiah 31–33
o 16 Isaiah 34–36
o 17 Isaiah 37–39
o 18 Isaiah 40–42
o 19 Isaiah 43–45
o 20 Isaiah 46–48
o 21 Psalms 87–90
o 22 Isaiah 49–51
o 23 Isaiah 52–54
o 24 Isaiah 55–57
o 25 Isaiah 58–60
o 26 Isaiah 61–63
o 27 Isaiah 64–66
o 28 Psalms 91–93
o 29 Hosea 1–3
o 30 Hosea 4–6
o 31 Hosea 7–9
August
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Hosea 10–12
o 2 Hosea 13, 14; Micah 1
o 3 Micah 2–4
o 4 Psalms 94–96
o 5 Micah 5–7
o 6 Nahum 1–3
o 7 2 Chron. 33–34; Zeph. 1
o 8 Zeph. 2–3; 2 Chron. 35
o 9 Hab. 1–3
o 10 Jer. 1–3
o 11 Psalms 97–99
o 12 Jer. 4–6
o 13 Jer. 11, 12, 26
o 14 Jer. 7–9
o 15 Jer. 10, 14, 15
o 16 Jer. 16–18
o 17 Jer. 19, 20, 35
o 18 Psalms 100–102
o 19 Jer. 25, 36, 45
o 20 Jer. 46–49
o 21 Jer. 13, 22, 23
o 22 Jer. 24, 27, 28
o 23 Jer. 29, 50–51
o 24 Jer. 30–33
o 25 Psalms 103–105
o 26 Jer. 21, 34, 37
o 27 Jer. 38, 39, 52
o 28 Jer. 40–42
o 29 Jer. 43–44; Lam. 1
o 30 Lam. 2–5
o 31 2 Chron. 36:1–8; Daniel 1–3
September
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Psalms 106–108
o 2 Daniel 4–6
o 3 Daniel 7–9
o 4 Daniel 10–12
o 5 2 Chron. 36:9–21; Ezekiel 1–3
o 6 Ezekiel 4–6
o 7 Ezekiel 7–9
o 8 Psalms 109–111
o 9 Ezekiel 10–12
o 10 Ezekiel 13–16
o 11 Ezekiel 17–20
o 12 Ezekiel 21–24
o 13 Ezekiel 25–28
o 14 Ezekiel 29–32
o 15 Psalms 112–114
o 16 Ezekiel 33–36
o 17 Ezekiel 37–40
o 18 Ezekiel 41–44
o 19 Ezekiel 45–48
o 20 2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1–3
o 21 Ezra 4; Haggai 1–2
o 22 Psalms 115–117
o 23 Zech. 1–3
o 24 Zech. 4–6
o 25 Zech. 7–9
o 26 Zech. 10–12
o 27 Zech. 13, 14
o 28 Ezra 5–7
o 29 Psalms 118:1–119:16
o 30 Ezra 8–10
October
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Esther 1–3
o 2 Esther 4–6
o 3 Esther 7–10
o 4 Neh. 1–3
o 5 Neh. 4–6
o 6 Psalms 119:17–72
o 7 Neh. 7–9
o 8 Neh. 10–13
o 9 Malachi
o 10 Matthew 1–3
o 11 Matthew 4–7
o 12 Matthew 8–10
o 13 Psalms 119:73–120
o 14 Matthew 11–13
o 15 Matthew 14–16
o 16 Matthew 17–19
o 17 Matthew 20–22
o 18 Matthew 23–25
o 19 Matthew 26–28
o 20 Psalms 119:121–176
o 21 Mark 1–4
o 22 Mark 5–8
o 23 Mark 9–12
o 24 Mark 13–16
o 25 Luke 1–4
o 26 Luke 5–8
o 27 Psalms 120–122
o 28 Luke 9–12
o 29 Luke 13–16
o 30 Luke 17–20
o 31 Luke 21–24
November
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 John 1–3
o 2 John 4–6
o 3 Psalms 123–125
o 4 John 7–9
o 5 John 10–12
o 6 John 13–15
o 7 John 16–18
o 8 John 19–21
o 9 Acts 1–4
o 10 Psalms 126–128
o 11 Acts 5:1–8:3
o 12 Acts 8:4–11:18
o 13 Acts 11:19–14:28
o 14 James
o 15 Galatians
o 16 Acts 15–17:10
o 17 Psalms 129–131
o 18 Philippians
o 19 1 Thess.
o 20 2 Thess.; Acts 17:11; 18:11
o 21 1 Cor. 1–3
o 22 1 Cor. 4–7
o 23 1 Cor. 8:1–11:1
o 24 Psalms 131–134
o 25 1 Cor. 11:2–14:40
o 26 1 Cor. 15–16
o 27 2 Cor. 1–5
o 28 2 Cor. 6–9
o 29 2 Cor. 10–13
o 30 Acts 18:12–19:41; Eph. 1, 2
December
Day Book and Chapter
o 1 Psalms 135–137
o 2 Eph. 3–6
o 3 Romans 1–3
o 4 Romans 4–6
o 5 Romans 7–9
o 6 Romans 10–12
o 7 Romans 13–16
o 8 Psalms 138–140
o 9 Acts 20–22
o 10 Acts 23–25
o 11 Acts 26–28
o 12 Colossians
o 13 Heb. 1–4
o 14 Heb. 5–8
o 15 Psalms 141–144
o 16 Heb. 9–11
o 17 Heb. 12–13; Titus
o 18 Philemon
o 19 1 Tim.; 2 Tim.
o 20 1 Peter
o 21 1 John
o 22 Psalms 145–147
o 23 2 Peter; 2, 3 John; Jude
o 24 Rev. 1–3
o 25 Rev. 4–7
o 26 Rev. 8–10
o 27 Rev. 11–13
o 28 Rev. 14–17
o 29 Psalms 148–150
o 30 Rev. 18–20
o 31 Rev. 21–22
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