Tuesday, November 29, 2011

2011-49 - Take responsibility...

Who or what controls your life? The achievers in this world believe that whatever happens to them, they are responsible for it.

If you don’t believe that you are responsible for your own life, then you are under the control of circumstances. You are just an object in someone else’s world. That is not the way to success.

When you are in control of your life, you succeed at getting where you want to go. And being in control means taking responsibility. Whatever your circumstances are at this point in your life, you created them. Now this may sound cruel and cold, to say that you are to blame for all your troubles. However, it is the best first step toward improving your life. Sure, you can spend a lot of time trying to assign blame to others. What would that get you? Nothing!

You take control when you rise above the petty name-calling and blame-assigning. You take control when you take responsibility for where you are and where you are going.

You become what you think about the most. If you constantly think about your problems, trying to figure out who to blame for them, then that is what you’ll get more of -- problems. When you focus on your goals, and constantly think about where you want to go and how you are going to get there, then you will begin to move in that direction, almost as if by magic.

~ Ralph Marston

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The price of greatness is responsibility.

~Winston Churchill
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

2011-48 - Filling a sieve with water…


A Teacher had given a discourse on creative thinking. Afterwards his disciples approached him and asked him to set them a problem that required them to think creatively. The sage gave them a sieve and asked them to fill it with water at the sea, nearby. They were gone for a long time. Finally he went down to the beach to see what they were doing, and found them seated morosely around the sieve.
They scrambled to their feet when they saw him.
“You’ve set us an impossible task, sir,” said the oldest of the disciples. “It’s just not possible to fill a sieve with water.”
“Are you sure?” asked the Teacher, picking up the sieve.
He waded into the water and threw the sieve far out into the sea. It sank.
“There!” said the Teacher. “It’s full of water now.”
~ Author Unknown

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“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.”

~ Katherine Mansfield

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

2011-47 - Just get started…

What is the best way to get something done? Just get started and do it! But getting started seems to be the hardest part.

Getting out of bed in the morning is difficult for most people. Once you’re out, though, you can generally make it through the day without having to crawl back under the covers. Momentum is a powerful force. That’s what makes it so hard to get up. The trick is to get momentum working on your side. And the best way to do that is. . . Just get started on what you need to do.

Once you get started, it will usually be much easier to continue. Your momentum helps to carry you through. So get started on whatever you need to do, even if it means just doing something minor. In fact, it helps to split your work into small, manageable sections. That way you don’t have the feeling of being overwhelmed. Set little goals -- “I’ll get the first two pages of the report written this morning.” And continue to attack your work, piece by piece.

It has been said many times that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Once you take that first step, you’ve done everything you need to do to get where you’re going. It’s just a matter of taking another step, and another and another, until you are where you want to be. That first step gives you the momentum, and the confidence, to complete your task.

~ Ralph Marston
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Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

~ Tony Robbins
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

2011-46 - Never stop growing...

When you think you know it all, then you deny yourself the opportunity to learn anything new. When you decide that you’ve seen it all, you cut yourself off from new and enlightening experiences.
Every day is an opportunity to grow. Always take advantage of that opportunity, for it is a big part of what makes you alive.
No matter how much you’ve already accomplished, you can still receive great benefit from new challenges. No matter what your level of learning and experience, you can always raise that level even higher.
When you think you have all the answers, get busy and find some more questions. View each new discovery as a starting point, and not as a final destination.
The joy of life is in the journey. The fulfillment of life is in the growing.
Keep that growing going, and never let it stop.

~ Ralph Marston

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“The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.”

~ Thales
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

2011-45 - Most challenging...

The more excuses you come up with to avoid doing it, the more important it is to get it done. After all, if it didn’t really matter, you wouldn’t bother with all the excuses.
Whatever you feel yourself resisting, is what you must find a way to do. Because when you can get past the resistance, what you’ll be able to create is great and fulfilling value.
It is much, much easier to give in to the excuses. But then all you’ll be left with is regret.
It is much more difficult to do those great and wonderful things you know you’re capable of doing. Yet from that difficulty comes the golden experience of the life you know you are meant to live.
Go ahead and feel the fear, feel the doubt, feel the frustration and discomfort and apprehension. Then, take all that energy and lovingly, joyfully, enthusiastically turn it around.
Step confidently forward in precisely the direction that is most challenging to you. Because in that same direction, you’ll also find what is most rewarding to you.
Choose to forego what is easy right now. And deliver yourself into the realm of what is truly great and fulfilling.

~ Ralph Marston
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“The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
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