good thots

Sometimes the greatest respect is earned by the way you respond when your opponent has outplayed you."

~Dan Green
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Excerpt from:
Dreams are Whispers from the Soul
by Marcia Wieder

Bessie had been an amateur photographer for 25 years. Now at 70, she had a very clear dream.

"I want to be a world famous, professional photographer," she said and then emphasized, "The difference between an amateur and a professional is a professional gets paid."

"Fabulous," I exclaimed. "Is anything stopping you?"

She paused for a long time. "I'm sure I need credentials but don't want to go back to school at my age."

I listened between the words and felt what she wasn't saying.

"Bessie, what's really in your way?" I gently asked.

"Everyone is telling me I am too old," she slumped. "They're telling me to be realistic."

Outrageous, I thought. "Nonsense," I said. "What's a step you can take to show that you are more committed to your dream than to their doubt?"

She reflected for a moment and then suddenly her eyes lit up. "I know what to do. I have an application sitting on my desk for a photo contest sponsored by Kodak. Just entering would have me prove to myself that I am serious about this."

She took a stunning photograph of a man playing a sousaphone with golden tones of his reflecting his bright red band uniform. She proudly sent it off to the Kodak competition, now mind you, along with 500,000 other entries.

Bessie won first prize, which included a check for $10,000.00. "I ran out to get business cards printed," she bragged. "After all, now I really am a professional."

Her photograph toured around the world with the Journey into Imagination exhibit.

She got the whole dream.

"Bessie, what did you learn from this? What wisdom would you share?" I asked.

She looked me square in the eyes and said, "It's never too late to make a dream come true."

Until you get to the end of your life and look back on what you did or didn't accomplish how do you know if something is realistic? Most people compromise their dreams down to what they realistically believe they can accomplish before they explore the possibilities of where their dreams might take them.

Not Bessie...and not you!

"The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something."
-Carl Sandburg

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Only in the sacredness of inward silence does the soul truly meet the secret, hiding God.

-- Frederick William Robertson

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Preparing Your Dream from
Dream: See It and Seize It
by John Maxwell

If you are unsure of what your dream might be - either because you are afraid to dream or because you somehow lost your dream along the way - then start preparing yourself to receive your dreams by doing six things to put yourself in the best possible position to receive a dream.

Once you do these six things, focus on discovering your dream. As you do, keep in mind the words of my agent Matt Yates, who says, "A dream is what you desire if anything and everything is possible."

Mental Preparation: Read and study in areas of your greatest interest.

Experimental Preparation: Engage in activities in areas related to your interests.

Visual Preparation: Put up pictures of people and things that inspire you.

Hero Preparation: Read about and try to meet people you admire and who inspire you.

Physical Preparation: Get your body in optimal shape to pursue your dream.

Spiritual Preparation: Seek God's help for a bigger-than-self dream.

"God will help you be all you can be, but He will never help you be someone else."
-Joyce Meyer

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We all face challenges every day. Winners deal with these challenges in a positive way. Losers see them as problems."

~Barry Gottlieb

Completion is an attitude, not an event.

-- Alan Cohen

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An Excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale

George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.

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Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I found that the men and women who got to the top were those that did the jobs they had in hand with everything they had of energy, enthusiasm and hard work."

~Harry Truman

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."

~William James

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There is nothing on this earth to be prized more than true friendship."
~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Dear shamugam,
Today I want to share a very personal and private story with you. You know me as Mr. Positive! Well that name makes everyone think I am super human and never have a bad day or a negative thought…ha!

The truth is I am human like everyone else and not only have I had negative thoughts; I have bad days where I seem to forget all that I have learned about being positive.

In fact, recently it seemed my bad days where piling up one on top of each other into a very unpleasant and dark time. Without realizing what was happening I found that I had become depressed...(wild huh? I know).

I tried everything that I share with you here in my newsletters and nothing seemed to be working. Finally out of sheer desperation, I humbled myself and reached out to a fairly new friend of mine, Gary Coxe.

Being Mr. Positive this was very difficult for me but I knew I couldn’t/shouldn't continue struggle trying to do it all on my own. Especially when I know some really smart people who are committed to helping others.

His words were “David, don’t worry you’re going to get through this, if I have to I’m going to push you through it.” Wow! These words gave me hope and knowing Gary’s personal story I knew he had some tools to help me. Breathing deeply, I also felt his caring and sincerity beyond his words.

We set up a time to talk and he gave me a couple of exercises and several small action steps to get me moving again; we stayed in touch via email and within a week I was feeling much better. Now mind you I didn’t just listen or talk but I took his instructions to heart and acted on them.

Literally, its only one month later now and I can hardly believe the changes that have happened and how much different I feel. Sometimes we all need a little help. I know it’s not always easy to reach out but if you need help please be bold and take some small action to move forward.

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Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude...nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

~Thomas Jefferson

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If someone were to ask me to pick one word to best describe any success I've had in my life....I wouldn't hesitate; the word would be perseverance.

There have been a lot of potholes, detours and roadblocks along the way. I can only wish that I had BJ Gallagher's book to provide inspiration as I fought through my times of adversity. It is terrific!

The table of contents will give you a little "snapshot" of what it's all about:

Introduction

Persist no matter what.
Endure discomfort.
Request help.
Steadfastly hold on to your beliefs and values.
Envision triumph.
Very consistently keep at it.
Embrace adversity as your teacher.
Refuse to give up.
Enjoy and celebrate every tiny bit of progress!
Today, I'd like to share a chapter in The Best Way Out is Always Through. Enjoy!

An excerpt from
The Best Way Out is Always Through
by BJ Gallagher

Mary Kay Ash banged her head on the corporate glass ceiling one too many times. Working for several direct sales companies from the 1930's until the early 1960's, she achieved considerable success. She climbed the corporate ladder to become the sole woman on the board of directors of the World Gift Company - quite an accomplishment for a woman in the 1950's.

But life wasn't rosy at the top. Even though Mary Kay had the title and the track record, she was not taken seriously by her male peers. In board meetings, her opinions and suggestions were ignored, dismissed, or even ridiculed. Male board members minced no words in their judgment - pronouncing her guilty of "thinking like a woman."

Since the sales force was almost entirely female, Mary Kay thought that thinking like a woman was an asset. But her fellow board members disagreed. Finally, in frustration, she retired in 1963, intending to write a book to assist women in the male-dominated business.

Sitting at her kitchen table, she made two lists: one list was all the good things she had seen in the companies where she'd worked, and the other list was all the things she thought could be improved. As she re-read her lists, she realized that what she had in front of her was a marketing plan for her ideal company. In just four weeks, her "book" had become a business plan, and her retirement was over.

Both her accountant and her attorney did their best to discourage her, warning that she would be throwing her money away on this venture. But Mary Kay had heard enough male nay-saying in her corporate years - she ignored her advisors.

Her husband, unlike her accountant and attorney, was very supportive. With his help, Mary Kay developed the cosmetic products, designed packaging, wrote promotional materials and recruited and trained her female sales force.

Then the unthinkable happened; her husband of twenty-one years died of a heart attack. Another woman might have dropped her plans, or at least delayed them, but Mary Kay was a strong Texas woman. She stayed on track with the help of her twenty-year-old son, Richard Rogers and rolled out her new business in September of 1963.

Beginning with a storefront in Dallas and an investment of $5,000, Mary Kay Cosmetics earned close to $200,000 in its first year - quadrupling that amount in its second year. When Mary Kay took her company public in 1968, sales had climbed to more than $10 million.

Mary Kay's unusual corporate motto, "God first, family second, career third," was unconventional, to say the least. But she understood the need for women to have balance in their lives, and she was committed to providing unlimited opportunity for women's financial AND personal success.

Mary Kay authored three books, all of which became best-sellers. Her business model is taught at the Harvard Business School. She received many honors, including the Horatio Alger Award. Fortune magazine has named Mary Kay Cosmetics as one of the Ten Best Companies for Women, as well as one of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.

At the time of her death in 2001, Mary Kay Cosmetics had 800,000 independent beauty consultants in 37 countries, with total annual sales of over two billion dollars. Never underestimate the power of a woman with a mission!

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Seven Reasons to be Thankful

by Mitch Anthony

At this time of the year, it’s important to take an inventory of what we are thankful for. While it’s fine to be thankful for having a job, money in the bank, or a nice house to live in, it’s the following seven intangibles that can truly make a difference in our lives:

1. Happiness. The true key to happiness is appreciating what you have and not wanting what you don’t need. If you aren’t content with what you already have, what makes you think you will feel differently if circumstances change?

Don’t get me wrong: there is certainly nothing wrong with wanting more and rewarding yourself for a job well done. Where many of us go wrong, however, is in believing that having these things will automatically make us happy. In fact, these things often have the potential to make us unhappy. For example, a bigger house means more work, more maintenance, and more things that can go wrong––at a bigger price tag.

It’s important to realize that happiness is a state of mind and not a state of material ownership. Happiness is easy. Don’t complicate it. If you appreciate what you have, you are happy.

2. Fulfillment. Fulfillment is doing the things you love to do. It is expressing your working soul––engaging in work that energizes you. Fulfillment does not necessarily come from your career because the career you are in may not be the soul-felt expression of who you are. When you are expressing who you are with your work, you have shaken hands with fulfillment. Once you discover this relationship between who you are and what you do, it is awfully difficult to go back to work that engages the hands but not the heart.

However, given the current economy, a voluntary career change can be difficult. If you are feeling stuck in your professional life because you cannot afford to move on at this point, think of another way to fulfill yourself––a creative outlet or philanthropic pursuit. You may discover that those outlets lead to a change in your professional life by bringing you the fulfillment you desire.

3. Balance. When our lives are in balance, we enjoy life. How many people do you know who have worked hard for so long that they no longer know how to relax when they get the opportunity? How many people do you know who are so busy supporting their families that they never get to spend time with them? What do they achieve by neglecting the very people that motivate them to earn a good living? There is a fine balance to be achieved in attending to the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual sides of our beings. There is also a fine balance to be achieved in attending to the working, familial, and playful sides of our beings.

4. Satisfaction. If we are living thoughtful, introspective, examined lives, we will feel a sense of satisfaction. In my experiences of talking to people who feel a sense of dissatisfaction in their lives, I see a recurring pattern of lukewarm relationships and a lack of conviction about the impact and meaning of their daily work (see “Fulfillment” above). We need to begin looking for opportunities to satisfy our need for inner satisfaction at the place we are today––before we start believing that greener grass exists elsewhere. I had a conversation with a woman who told me she needed to get back to helping the homeless so she could feel satisfied that she was contributing to society in a meaningful way. She felt her life was too self-absorbed. I asked her what she did in her job that helped others. She thought about it and said that she gave seminars helping women discover financial independence. After she said that, she suddenly realized she was ignoring a great source of inner satisfaction right under her nose. Satisfaction often can be fulfilled by appreciating the things we do now––and by striving to do them better. Satisfaction revolves around the quality of our efforts and our relationships.

5. Choices. Whether our goals are anchored in work, family, leisure, or all the above, we feel a sense of security only when we know we will have the freedom to continue pursuing those goals. We may feel insecure about our jobs. We may fear we will not have enough money to pursue the lifestyle we want. Possessing adequate finances can unquestionably provide a great degree of security because it can give us a material guarantee of sorts that we will be able to do what we want with our lives. Life will always present us with opportunities to feel insecure because very little in this world is guaranteed. We may have the money to do what we want, but poor health can rob us of mobility and activity. We can make all sorts of plans for our future, but there is no guarantee that those plans will pan out. We can build on our sense of security by staying close to those who love us, practicing good physical habits, and putting away all we can toward our financial emancipation.

6. Significance. Viktor Frankl stated that a person’s chief motivation is the need for significance. We are motivated by a need to make a difference somehow in others’ lives––to feel we are making a contribution that is significant. Many of us erroneously believe that we can gain a sense of significance by the acquisition of power and control over others. We cannot. This inward sense of significance is satisfied by the best possible use of our most valuable resource: time. We all have only so many days on this earth, and those days are fleeting. Look how quickly the last decade has seemed to pass by. Parents get a magnified perspective on the fleeting nature of time as they watch their children sprout and exit while they feel almost the same as they did 18 years ago. Money has the power to feed this significance only when it is shared––emancipating us to share our time and skills. Charity and volunteerism can be crucial to a sense of significance in our lives. By working in jobs where we see little benefit, we will lack a sense of significance. We will feel we are wasting our time. Workaholics who miss all of their children’s meaningful activities will feel that they are abusing the short time they have. Significance is closely related to how we manage the time we have.

7. Achievement. Success relies heavily on moving toward or achieving personal goals. But the term success must be broadened beyond the material to have real meaning in our lives. Successful individuals have goals involving who they are (character), what they do (career), and what they possess (wealth)—and, more than likely, in that order of importance. How do individuals feel who are garnering riches but failing in the personal character department? Our reputation truly is worth its weight in gold. Financial success could be defined as having enough to meet our own needs and the needs of those we choose to help. This is a worthy financial goal. Career success could be defined as having the opportunity to pursue our career goals. We feel most successful when we are actively pursuing our heartfelt goals. As long as we are actively pursuing personal goals and making progress toward them, we will nourish our sense of success and confidence.

When we myopically focus on money or work or leisure at the expense of other areas of meaning in our lives, we deny ourselves the fulfillment that comes from the seven intangibles defining contentment. Remember, your life is not about making money…your money is about making a life.