Motivation

"Yesterday is a cancelled check;
tomorrow is a promissory note;
today is the only clash you have--
so spend it wisely"
....Kay Lyons

Everyone, YOUNG OR OLD, SHOULD REMEMBER….

There are little eyes upon you
And they’re watching night and day

There are little ears that quickly
Take in every word you say;

There are little hands all eager
To do anything you do;

There’s a little boy who’s dreaming
Of the day he’ll be like you.

You’re the little fellow’s idol;
You’re the wisest of the wise,

In his little mind about you,
No suspicions ever rise;

He believes in you devoutly,
Holds that all you say and do,

He will say and do, in your way
When he’s a grown-up like you.

There’s a wide-eyed little fellow,
Who believes you’re always right,

And his ears are always open,
As he watches day and night;

You are setting an example
Every day in all you do,

For the little boy who’s waiting
To grow up to be like you.

....Anonymous

GOLDEN RULES FOR LIVING

1. If you open it, close it.

2. If you turn it on, turn it off.

3. If you unlock it, lock it.

4. If you break it, admit it.

5. If you can’t fix it, call in someone who can.

6. If you borrow it, return it.

7. If you value it, take care of it.

8. If you make a mess, clean it up.

9. If you move it, put it back.

10. If it belongs to someone else, get permission to use it.

11. If you don’t know how to operate it, leave it alone.

12. If it’s none of your business, don’t ask questions.

JUST ME

From the time I was little I knew I was great
`cause the people would tell me -"you`ll make it - just wait."
But they never did tell me how great I would be
if I ever played someone who was greater than me.

When I`m in my backyard -I`m king with the ball.
To swish all those baskets is no sweat at all.
But all of a sudden there`s a man in my face
who doesn`t seem to realize - I`m king of this place.

So the pressure gets to me - I rush with the ball.
My passes to teammates could fly through the wall.
My jumpers not falling - my dibbles not sure.
My hand is not steady - my eye is not pure.

The fault is my teammates - they don`t understand.
The fault is my coach`s - what a terrible plan.
The fault is the call by that blind referee
but the fault is not mine - I`m the greatest you see.

Then finally it hits me when I started to see
that the face in the mirror looks exactly like me.
It wasn`t my teammates who were dropping the ball
and it wasn`t my coach shooting bricks at the wall.

That face in the mirror that was always so great
had some room for improvement - instead of just hate.
So I stopped blaming others and I started to grow.
My play got much better and it started to show.

And all of my teammates didn`t seem quite so bad.
I learned to depend on the good friends I had.
Now I like myself better since I started to see -
I was lousy being great - I`m much better being me.

ALWAYS MAINTAIN A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Many years ago, a large American shoe manufacturer sent two sales reps out to different parts of the Australian outback to see if they could drum up some business among the aborigines. Some time later, the company received telegrams from both agents. The first one said, "No business here...natives don't wear shoes." The second one said, "Great opportunity here...natives don't wear shoes!"

ALWAYS BE YOUR BEST!

When you think it doesn’t matter
if you fail or pass the test.
Keep in mind the reason why
you should always be your best.

While the whole world may not notice
if you tried to give your all,
there is a person in you
to whom it matters if you fall.

That little voice inside you -
which directs your thoughts each day -
will make the final judgement
if you won or lost each day.

Never can you fail yourself
if you give it all you’ve got.
The world extends a hand to you
when you give life your best shot.

For all that really matters
when you're finished with your test,
is not the final score at all -
but did you do your best?

What Matters in Life....

Some people understand life better

And they call some of these people "retarded"...

At the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or
mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash.

At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish
to run the race to the finish and win.

All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled
over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry.

They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went
back every one of them. One girl with Down's Syndrome bent down and kissed
him and said,"This will make it better."

Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line.

Everyone in the stadium stood, the cheering went on for several minutes.

People who were there are still telling the story... Why? Because deep
down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning
for ourselves.

What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means
slowing down and changing our course.

Rules from Bill Gates

BILL GATES recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. His life rules for those just entering the work world:

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't
whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

The Wooden Bowl

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about father," said the son. "I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor." So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl! When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometime he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence.One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?"Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled....
cONTINUE TILL NEXT HEADING COMES........

On a positive note, I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.!

LOOK FORWARD TO THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP OTHERS:

LOOK FORWARD TO THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP OTHERS:

One night, at 11:30 PM, an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.

Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others. Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole. "

The Touchstone

When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.
The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the "Touchstone"!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.

He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold - throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it's asy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.

Think Positive

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.

The secret of life isn't what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.

Help other people to cope with their problems and your own will be easier to cope with.

Never use the word impossible seriously again. Toss it into the verbal wastebasket.

Self-trust is the first secret of success. So believe in and trust yourself.

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.

How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself - so always think positively.

Go at life with abandon; give it all you've got. And life will give all it has to you.

Give It a Second Thought

An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle's egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.

All its life, the changeling eagle, thinking it was a prairie chicken, did what the prairie chickens did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. It clucked and cackled. And it flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that's how prairie chickens were supposed to fly.

Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, it saw a magnificent bird far above in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

"What a beautiful bird!" said the changeling eagle to its neighbor. "What is it?"

"That's an eagle - the chief of the birds," the neighbor clucked. "But don't give it a second thought. You could never be like him."

So the changeling eagle never gave it a second thought and it died thinking it was a prairie chicken.

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind;
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet;
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them;
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true;
To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best;
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own;
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future;

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile;
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others;
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble;
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds;

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Believe in your dreams!

A winner is neither made nor finished in one try

This holds true except under one circumstance. That is as long as we don't give up or never try. I am reminded of situation after situation where persistence has won out. My friend, there is no rule that says we have to already be an expert before moving towards our dreams.

Life will show us the way towards achievement if we only allow ourselves to remain focussed on that which we want to see manifest in our lives.

Believe in the power of your dreams even if no one else does because when you make them a reality it won't matter who doubted you.

To Your Success, Josh Hinds

I think I can

If you think you are beaten you are; If you think you dare not, you don't; If you want to win but think you can't; It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose you're lost; For out of the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will; It's all in a state of mind.

Life's battles don't always go To the stronger and faster man, But sooner or later the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can.

Author Unknown