good thots

"No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined."
~Harry E. Fosdick


The truth is simple. If it were complicated, everyone would understand it.

-- Source unknown

The more you recognize the immense good within you, the more you magnetize immense around you.

-- Alan Cohen


Walk to the edge.
Listen hard. Laugh. Play with abandon.
Practice wellness.
Continue to learn.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Lead or follow a leader.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life Begins When You Do
by Mary Anne Radmacher
Nearly everyone postpones one grand thing or a collection of mighty hopes and dreams.

Between the quote marks of our lives are phrases like these: "When things slow down...when I finish my degree...when I get certified...as I acquire a deeper knowledge base...when I have kids...when the kids are grown...when I get well...when I marry...when I divorce...when I retire...when I get that promotion, that raise, that job, that house, that whatever the fill-in-the blank is for your specific postponing of life..."

Your Life Begins When You Do.

You may think you are postponing the longing of your soul until life aligns itself with your vision, until elements conspire to be more favorable...but as it happens, life just lolls along at the same remarkable consistent and disinterested cadence. Life is impartial. YOUR personal, subjective life (dreams, satisfactions, contentment, achievements, vision, fullness, passion, aspirations) begins when you begin.

From my teens into adulthood, I said, "I want to be an artist." One day I changed the sentence to, "I am an artist." My view changed. Life began. I looked behind me and saw that I had been accidentally living as an artist. I had been laying down a path that was only now visible to eyes that had begun to see. Beginning my life as an artist made my heart's longing and the small, tentative labors of my hands - visible and tangible. I began by opening the door and simply believing that I could live my dream. I began living that dream by seeing that I could.

Your purpose, that thing that among the many to-dos of your days, is what you must do. Embrace the truth of your purpose each minute of your precious life...for how very true it is that life begins when you do.

If you would dream it
BEGIN it.

If you have an idea
OPEN it.

If there is longing
ACKNOWLEDGE it.

If there is mission
COMMIT it.

If there is daring
DO it.

If there is love
SPEAK it.

If there is resource
USE it.

If there is abundance
SHARE it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.

-- Charles Buxton

The first power that meets us at the threshold of the soul's domain is the power of imagination.

-- Dr. Franz Hartmann


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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, 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.

Now, it stands to reason that a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it, because that's what he's thinking about. And 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, fear 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 a 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 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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

n excerpt from
Oil for Your Lamp
by Lisa Hammond & BJ Gallagher
Virtually every woman we know has the same problem - she knows what's good for her, but she often doesn't do it. She knows she should eat less and exercise more, but still she doesn't make healthy choices. She knows she needs to spend her time and money more effectively, but good time and money management elude her. She finds herself always putting others first, while neglecting her own needs and wants. She doesn't get enough rest or sleep and her endless to-do list hangs overhead like the sword of Damocles. As our friend Brenda Knight laments frequently, "Why am I always riding in the back of my own bus?"

We don't do the things we know are good for us because we are so busy taking care of others that we neglect ourselves. The problem isn't lack of information - we have plenty of information about the importance of sleep, healthy foods, and exercise. The problem is how we prioritize our lives.

Psychologists tell us that some people are inner-directed and some are other-directed. That is, some people focus on their own internal guidance system for making choices about how to spend their time and energy. Their own self-interest ranks very high on their list of priorities. "What's best for me?" is a key guiding principle in determining where they focus their attention and how they make day-to-day decisions.

And some people are other-directed, which means that their primary focus is external, not internal. They are primarily concerned with relationships, especially people they care about. "How can I help others?" is a key question in how they spend their time and energy. Building and nurturing relationships with loved ones, family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers is the guiding principle in their lives.

Research indicates that, in general, men tend to be more inner-directed, while women tend to be more other-directed. There are exceptions, of course, but as a group, men are focused on themselves while women are focused on other people. Men like to build things while women like to build relationships.

This difference in psychological orientation goes a long way toward helping us understand why we women often do such a poor job of taking care of ourselves. We run around filling others' lamps with oil, but forget to fill our own lamps first. Then we wonder why we're often exhausted, frazzled, stressed-out, anxious and/or depressed!

Awareness is the first step toward solving a problem. So the first section of this book is devoted to helping us acknowledge the problem and understand the reasons for it. Chapter 1 looks at how girls are socialized, growing up to be women who put others first. Chapter 2 examines the values women have adopted in the past 50 years, beginning with the feminist movement - leading us to believe that we can have it all - all at once. And Chapter 3 explores the corresponding myth that we can DO it all.

But don't be discouraged. Help is on the way - in Section II, we'll get into solutions for the problem. We'll learn the value of doing nothing, how to play again, how to become more inner-directed, and most important, how to ask for help.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good things are not too good to be true. They are good enough to be true.

-- Alan Cohen

good thots

Aim for service and success will follow."

~Albert Schweitzer

"Great customer service has to come from the inside out. You cannot mandate it. You can't threaten, reward, or coerce people to care. You can only awaken the desire and then give them the permission and encouragement to make it come alive in their work."

~Barbara Glan

good thots

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

-- Goethe

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

~Hans Hofmann

"Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality."

~Ralph Marston
The less you believe you have to do, the more you achieve what you need to do.

-- Alan Cohen

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."

~Marcus Aurelius

"One of the most important keys to living a happy life is to clearly identify your core values. You must decide what matters most."

~Mac Anderso

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

-- George Bernard Shaw

The only question in life is whether or not you are going to answer a hearty 'Yes!' to your adventure."

~Joseph Campbell

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."

~Marcus Aurelius

"People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. It's that simple."

~Earl Nightingale

When I'm tempted to get alarmed," he confided, "I tell myself, 'Fred, you've got to wait to worry! Until you know differently, don't worry.' And I don't. Waiting to worry helps me develop the habit of not worrying and that helps me not be tempted to worry."

good thots

You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life."

~James G. Bilkey

"The ultimate goal of the world class thinker is to ascend to the highest level of awareness in the shortest amount of time. The more aware you become, the more successful, fulfilled and happy you will be."

~Steve Siebold

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

-- Goethe

good thots

You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life."

~Zig Ziglar

"Think of special ways you can appreciate others that will touch their lives in a personal way. These gifts are especially meaningful when they are given for no special reason except to show that you care about them, and you appreciate their presence in your life."

~Barbara Glanz

To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven.

-- Alan Cohen

TWICE AS MUCH IN HALF THE TIME
First, grab a pencil and paper. Think back to the time you started school, all the way back to kindergarten. One of the first things you learned was how to identify shapes. Next you learned to draw them. On that sheet of paper I want you to do something very simple. Draw one triangle. That was simple, wasn't it? Now, draw as many triangles as you can in twenty seconds. Stop. Count how many you were able to draw. Write down that number. Do you think there might be another way to complete this activity and draw more in less time?

Start at one side of the paper and draw connected W's all the way across the page. Now put a line across the top and the bottom. See how many you can draw in twenty seconds using this method. Wow, that creates a lot of triangles! In only a few seconds you have learned to do this activity more efficiently and effectively in a much shorter amount of time. A seemingly insignificant change can make a significant difference in what can be accomplished in a given amount of time. In fact, you most likely made up to four or five times as many triangles the second time around.

What if you could do four or five times your sales volume by making a simple change? Or what if you could get four or five times as much done each day by making a simple change? Would that work for you?

If so, always be on the lookout for "new" ways to do "old" things, and keep your mind open to using alternative methods and plans of action. This book is filled with simple things that can make a profound difference. Are you ready to learn some new ways to manage your life and your time even better?

Then let's get started!