On This Day...

On this day...

Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.
Speak your love.
Speak it again.
Listen.
Apologize if you were wrong.
Try to understand.
Gladden the heart of a child.
Mend a quarrel.
Search out a forgotten friend.
Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust.
Keep a promise.
Find the time.
Forego a grudge,
Forgive an enemy.
Examine your demands on others.
Think first of someone else.
Appreciate, be kind, be gentle.
Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence.
Express your gratitude.
Worship God.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- Dylan Thomas

Hope is...

Having Faith
believing
in enough
in the face of a child
the sigh after a kiss
sunrises
sunsets
another season, another reason
morning, afternoon and night
beginning, after an end
"hello" after "goodbye"
"yes" after "no"
"no" because there's something better
plans made and followed
dreams
a handshake
a smile
an up after down
birth
death and its promise
being "born again"
a reach down
a look up
a meeting
a vote
a phone call
email
a clock alarm and wake up
setting the alarm
setting a goal
the sound of your name
first Robin
coming in first
finishing a race in any place
doing your best
trying
quiet
noise
and you...especially, you!

-- Shared by Bob Perks

I THANK MY COMPETITORS

My competitors do more for me than my friends.

My friends are too polite to point out my weaknesses, but my competitors go to great expense to tell of them.

My competitors are efficient and diligent. They make me search for ways to improve my products and services.

My competitors would take my business away from me if they could.

This keeps me alert to hold what I have.

If I had no competitors, I would be lazy, incompetent, and complacent. I need the discipline they enforce upon me.

I thank my competitors. They have been good to me.

God Bless them all!

COMMUNICATION

When your instructions are followed incorrectly, do you blame others? Wait! Quite often, such errors are caused by a justified misinterpretation of your message. Here are three examples of how apparently simple instructions were misconstrued:

1. A merchant ordered 500 turkeys for the Thanksgiving season. A few weeks before the holiday, however, his sales dropped sharply. Afraid that he wouldn’t be able to sell all the turkeys, he phoned the distributor and instructed him to “Cut my order in half!” When his order arrived, guess what it contained? Five hundred turkeys, of course, each cut in half!

2. A new employee at a large company walked up to a paper shredder and stood before it looking confused. “Need some help?” the senior secretary asked. “Yes, how does this thing work?” “It’s simple,” she said as she took the thick report from her colleagues hand and fed it into the shredder. “See?” “I see,” he said, “but how many copies will it make?”

3. Upon approaching an airport for landing, just short of the touchdown, the pilot of a military planed determined that the runway was too short for his landing approach, so he’d better circle around and try again. He yelled to his engineer, Take off power!” The engineer reached up and turned off the engines. The plane continued downward and crashed at the end of the runway!

The pilot wanted the engineer to give him extra power for the takeoff.

SUGGESTION: Give clear instructions and ask clear questions, so you won’t be misinterpreted.

Life’s Contemplations - Goals

Life’s Contemplations

1. What one thing should I eliminate from my life because it holds me back from reaching my full potential?

2. Am I on the path of something absolutely marvelous or something absolutely mediocre?

3. What can I do to make better use of my time?

4. What impossible thing am I believing and planning for?

5. What good have I previously committed myself to that I have quit doing?

6. Of the people I respect most, what is it about them that earns my respect?

7. What gifts, talents, or strengths do I have?

8. What is one thing that I can do for someone who has no opportunity to repay me?

SOMETIMES YOU FIND THAT WHAT YOU LEARN ON THE PATH TO MEETING YOUR GOALS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE GOALS THEMSELVES

It Is Not Easy

Let’s be honest. Ethics is not for wimps. It’s not easy being a good person.

It’s not easy to be honest when it might be costly, to play fair when others cheat or to keep inconvenient promises.

It’s not easy to stand up for our beliefs and still respect differing viewpoints.

It’s not easy to control powerful impulses, to be accountable for our attitudes and actions, to tackle unpleasant tasks or to sacrifice the now for later.

It’s not easy to bear criticism and learn from it without getting angry, to take advice or to admit error.

It’s not easy to really feel genuine remorse and apologize sincerely, or to accept an apology graciously and truly forgive.

It’s not easy to stop feeling like a victim, to resist cynicism and to make the best of every situation.

It’s not easy to be consistently kind, to think of others first, to judge generously, to give the benefit of the doubt.

It’s not easy to be grateful or to give without concern for reward or gratitude.

It’s not easy to fail and still keep trying, to learn from failure, to risk failing again, to start over, to lose with grace or to be glad for the success of another.

It’s not easy to avoid excuses and rationalizations or to resist
temptations.

No, being a person of character is not easy.
That’s why it’s such a lofty goal and an admirable achievement.

— Michael Josephson

Goals, Who Needs Them? You Do

by Gary L. Parker

In his book Getting Things Done, Ed Bliss writes, "Good self-management involves finding ways to put pressure on yourself to perform."

We all need a swift kick once in a while. That's why thoughtful development of personal goals is so important. It's a way to put pressure on yourself to perform. Goals provide a motive for better performance.

Successful businesses create goals as a basis for strategic decisions. Without goals, every decision is a crossroads. It's the same for us. The more clearly we understand our destination, the more likely we'll take the right path.

4 Keys To Goal Setting

1. Be Specific. Develop a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. The stronger the vision, the greater the motivation to put forth 100% of your effort and talent.

2. Write It Down. It's been said a goal not written down is just a wish. Write goals where you'll see them often. You can't do what you can't remember. And you can't remember what you can't find. Write goals in your Planner Pad.

3. Make It Measurable. When we know our destination, we can measure progress. Set definite time targets. A goal is a result that must be achieved within a particular period of time.

4. Calculate The Cost. Everything we want to do has a cost. The cost may not be out of pocket. We pay in other ways. Worthwhile goals require your time and effort. Compare costs to benefits carefully. Are you willing to pay the price?
The more clearly we understand our goals, the more likely it is that we'll be willing to give the performance today, this week, this month to achieve our objectives.

Excuse me, Are you Jesus?'

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.'

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister....' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: 'Are you Jesus?' Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That's our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

Excellence Is?

Excellence is…
An inspiration
An attitude
A pursuit
A way of life.

Excellence is…
All of us working together,
Aspiring to the fullness
Of our potential
Always in relentless pursuit
Of a higher standard—
Determined to do
Everything we do
Somehow better
Than it ever
Has been done before.

Excellence is found…
In the caring
In the trying
In the doing.

It is our objective.
We seek it with dedication.

Your State of Mind

If you think you can, YOU CAN.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you think you can’t, but really can –
It’s almost a cinch you won’t

For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a person’s will,
It’s all in your STATE OF MIND.

Many a game is lost
Before ever a play is run,
And many a coward falls
Before their work’s begun.

Think big and your deeds will grow,
Think small and you’ll fall behind.
Think you can and you will
It’s all in your STATE OF MIND.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to learn to be sure of yourself
Before you can ever win a prize.

Life’s victories don’t always go
To the stronger or smarter woman or man.
But sooner or later the person who wins
IS THE PERSON
WHO THINKS THEY CAN!