Three Things for You My Love

Three Things
These are the three things I'll always have for you when your days aren't goingthe way there're supposed to...

Wishes

I truly wish I could make things easier for you.I wish I knew all the right words to say and all theright things to do.

Hopes

I hope everything will be fine soon.Ana I really hope you understand, deep withinyour heart, that i will always be here whenever you need a helping hand.

And Dreams...

I dream of a time that will come along soon...when the sun will shine so brightly that any cloudsthat have been in your life will disappear, and when your days will be filled with the kindof smiles and warmththat you always bring to everyone else.

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Hang in There and Remember:
Happiness Will Come Your Way and Everything's Going to be Okay
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Cultivating Your Self-Esteem

Your self-esteem is probably the most important part of your personality. It precedes and predicts your performance in almost everything you do.

It is the energy source or the reactor core of your personality, and how much self-esteem you have determines your levels of vitality, enthusiasm and personal magnetism.

People with high self-esteem are more positive, more likable and more effective in every part of their lives.

Everything that you do or say or think will affect your self-esteem. Your job, therefore, is to keep your self-esteem high and positive on a continuing basis.

Probably the best definition of self-esteem is this: the level to which you respect and value yourself as an important, worthwhile person. People with high self-esteem feel terrific about themselves and their lives. When you feel really good about yourself, you tend to be the very best person you can possibly be.

Your level of self-esteem is really your level of “mental fitness.” It’s a measure of how healthy, hardy, and resilient you are in dealing with the inevitable ups and downs of daily life. Your self-esteem determines how much peace of mind and inner contentment you experience. It is also closely linked to your health and levels of energy.

People with high self-esteem are seldom sick and seem to have an inexhaustible flow of energy and enthusiasm that progressively moves them toward their goals.

How much you like and respect yourself also determines the quality of your relationships with people. The more you like and enjoy yourself, the more you will like and enjoy others, and the more they will like you. In fact, when your self-esteem is hurt in any way, the very first thing that is affected is the way you get along with people.

To perform at your best and to feel terrific about yourself, you should be in a perpetual state of self-esteem building and maintenance. Just as you take responsibility for your level of physical fitness, you need to take complete responsibility for the content and quality of your mind.

I have developed a simple formula that contains all the critical elements of self-esteem building, and you can use it on a regular basis to assure maximum performance.

This formula is comprised of six basic elements. They are: goals, standards, success experiences, comparison with others, recognition, and rewards. Let’s take them one at a time.

How much you like and respect yourself is directly affected by your goals. The very act of setting big, challenging goals for yourself and making written plans of action to achieve them actually raises your self-esteem, which causes you to feel much better about yourself.

Self-esteem is a condition you experience when you are moving step-by-step toward the accomplishment of something that is important to you. For that reason, it’s really important to have clear goals for each part of your life and to continually work toward achieving those goals. Each progressive step causes your self-esteem to go up and makes you feel more positive and effective in everything else you do.

The second element in self-esteem building is having clear standards and values to which you are committed. Men and women with high self-esteem are very clear about what they believe in. The higher your values and ideals are, and the more committed you are to living your life consistent with those values and ideals, the more you will like and respect yourself, and the higher your self-esteem will be.

Lasting self-esteem comes only when your goals and your values are congruent—that is, when they fit into each other like a hand into a glove. Much of the stress that people experience comes from believing one thing and trying to do another. But when your goals and values are in harmony with each other, you feel a wonderful surge of energy and well-being, and that’s when you start to make real progress.

Many people tell me that they are unhappy with their job because they can’t seem to achieve success no matter how hard they try. I always ask them if they are doing what they really care about and believe in. In many cases, people realize that they are not happy with their job because it is the wrong kind of work for them. Once they change jobs and start doing something that they really enjoy, something that is more consistent with their innermost convictions, they start to make real progress and get a lot of satisfaction out of their work.

The third element in self-esteem building involves having success experiences. Once you have set your goals and standards, it is important that you make them measurable so that you can keep score of your small and large successes along the way.

The very act of setting up a goal, breaking it down into smaller parts, and then completing those parts makes you feel like a winner and causes your self-esteem to go up. But remember that you can’t hit a target you can’t see. You can’t feel like a winner unless you clearly lay out the standards by which you are going to measure your success and then achieve those standards.

Let’s say that you set a goal to sell a certain amount or earn a certain amount of income in a given year. If you break that down into monthly and weekly goals, and then you achieve the first of those goals, you will feel great about yourself. Each time you reach another milestone, your self-esteem and ability to perform will increase, and you will feel encouraged and enthusiastic about the next challenge.

The fourth element of self-esteem is comparison with others. Leon Festinger of Harvard University concluded that in determining how well we are doing, we do not compare ourselves with abstract standards, but, rather, we compare ourselves with people we know.

To feel like a winner, you must know for sure that you are doing as well as or better than someone else. The more you know about how well the others in your field are doing, and the more favorably you compare with them, the more you will feel like a winner, and the higher your self-esteem will be.

Successful people continually compare themselves with other successful people. They think about them and read about them and study their performances, and then they work to surpass them one step at a time. Eventually, successful people reach the point where they compete only with themselves and with their past accomplishments. But this comes after they have moved to the top and left many of their competitors behind.

The next element for self-esteem is recognition of your accomplishments by people whom you respect. To feel really great about yourself, you need the recognition of people you look up to and admire, such as your boss, your coworkers, your spouse and people in your social circle. Whenever you are recognized and praised for any accomplishment by someone whose opinion you hold in high regard, your self-esteem goes up, along with your eagerness and enthusiasm to do even better on the job.

The final element of self-esteem involves rewards that are consistent with your accomplishments. You may work in a field where you receive financial bonuses, status symbols—larger offices, bigger cars—or even plaques and trophies for superior achievement. All of those symbols can have an incredible impact on raising your self-esteem and causing you to feel terrific about yourself.

If, however, your existing situation does not offer the tangible or intangible rewards that are necessary for you to build and maintain your self-esteem, you must create rewards for yourself. One of the smartest things you can do is to design a system for giving yourself rewards for both small and large accomplishments as you move progressively toward your goals. For example, people who do telephone prospecting will often treat themselves to a cup of coffee after every 10 calls.

After 25 calls, they will reward themselves with a walk around the building or the block. After 50 calls, they will go out to lunch. Each of those rewards serves as an incentive that motivates them to repeat the performance. The end result is success, enthusiasm, and high self-esteem.

Whether or not your current environment provides the six elements of self-esteem building—goals, standards, success experiences, comparison with others, recognition, and rewards—you need to establish your own structure and take full responsibility for building yourself up on a regular basis.

Of course, it is possible to like yourself in the abstract, to think of yourself as a valuable and worthwhile person, but this tends to be a very shaky form of self-esteem that is easily knocked down by a negative experience or a temporary disappointment.

The only real way for you to absolutely know that you are a valuable and worthwhile person is for you to make the effort, overcome the obstacles and pay the price to bring these elements into your life. When you have that foundation, you will experience a form of mental fitness and unshakable optimism that will sustain you through failure and propel you to success.

Her Words Hurt Me And I Wanted To Quit - Don't Let It Happen To You

It wasn't long ago I warned you to stay away from distraction. Now you're going to know what I mean...

Standing ovation! Yeah! My head often puffed up like a balloon full of oxygen. It's not a good thing. You see, a standing ovation is the ultimate reward the audience gives us.

It's kind of ironic since I have always had a hard time receiving compliments and accolades. Something in me tends to doubt the person giving me the accolade is genuine. Some of you might know what I'm talking about. Well, this evening was different...

I really believed it. I was on Cloud Nine. (Hopefully I'm using this term right. Carla always gets on my case about using expressions properly. Sometimes I'm not sure if it's nine clouds or cloud nine or nine lives... Heck, this is not my first language.)

Members of the audience filed in to shake my hand. I didn't have a book to sell. But I sold lots of cassette tapes (that tells you how long ago it was...now all I sell are cds.) And I heard some of the nicest comments ever. I mean, my head was exploding with air--oxygen that is.

It was indeed a great day! And it wasn't because my pockets were full of $20 bills. It was because I watched the emotional intensity on some of the faces. I felt in my gut that they were at the right place at the right time to hear the right message.

I then grabbed my stuff along with the feedback forms and headed to my car. Well, I needed a little more oxygen inside my head. And so, I decided to quickly thumb through the feedback forms to read more about how good I was.

Well, one comment popped out of the pile that stuck me like a sharp needle. It punctured a hole in my head and immediately let all the air out. I went from being on Cloud Nine to being in a dark basement of despair.

"You're full of yourself. You don't belong on any platform. Your speech sucked," one woman wrote. Then she went on to explain how I offended her. My friend, the word "sucked" is what did it for me. Who ever said men don't cry must be crazy. I did.

I seriously considered quitting the speaking business. That entire evening and for many days after, one song kept playing in my head. Can you guess what that song was? That's right! "You sucked. You sucked. You sucked."

Now my audience was about 400 people. All of a sudden I felt like it was an audience of one person. I forgot about the other 399. I also forgot about all of the nice words I heard. It felt like no one mattered except that woman. What I didn't know at the time was that 2% of any audience will not like you for whatever reason.

Also, 2% of the people you know will not like you for whatever reason. But what do we do? We continue to go through life focusing on that two percent. And that becomes a major source of distraction that throws us off course.

Has someone ever said something that punctured your self-esteem? Maybe it was your husband or wife or a friend or a family member. Maybe it's some issue you are dealing with at work.

Do you want to give up and walk away? Don't do it. Don't let anyone cause you to abandon your dream or quit. Do it because you want to. Do it because you feel it's time to move on. But certainly don't let anyone chase you away.

And keep this in mind: Sooner or later, you will be vindicated. Just be cool. Show kindness in return for their meanness. And believe that you are worth so much more than their unkind words.

What others think about you is their reality. But what you think about yourself is your reality. Refuse to be defined by what others say or think.

No more tears. Instead, disappear for a quick moment and find the nearest mirror. That's right: mirror, mirror, mirror. See the power house that you are and say to the person in the mirror, "I know you don't believe what you just heard."

Your existence cannot be defined by any word. I know it hurts when losers say mean things about us. Petty gossipers can ruin your day or life if you allow it to happen. Don't let it happen. Today, thousands are thankful I didn't let the phrase "you sucked" make me quit. Hey, if I had, you wouldn't be reading this right now.

Be strong! Stay strong! Don't let them bring you down!

Love What You Have By James Allan

We live in a disposable society.

We buy things, use them and then throw them away.

Our landfills continue to grow, despite no one wanting garbage in their own backyard.

Meanwhile, debt is also growing. People continue to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need.

People need to come back to reality. They need to focus on growth in their bank accounts, not on growth in the landfills and growth in their debt.

So what’s the solution?

How can people grow their savings, while shrinking their garbage and depleting their debt?

Love is the answer.

We need to learn to appreciate what we already have. We need to love what we have.

If you love what you have, you don’t feel the need for more. If you love what you have, you can easily say no when you’re bombarded with 3000 marketing messages to buy each day (as estimated by Doug Hall at www.doughall.com). If you love what you have, you’re not going to throw something out once it gets a little used.

People who love what they have are happy. They see the beauty in what they’ve got. When they buy new stuff, they are very selective – because it has to be something they can love. People who love what they have perform proper maintenance, and ensure they get the most out of their purchases.

If you’re looking for ways to reduce the money you spend this year, spend some time admiring what you already have. Love your possessions. Maintain them so they last longer.

Disposable items are always more costly in the long run. Loving what you have costs nothing, but can save you lots of money. It can also save you time. You won’t need to run out and get something new just because you have money in your pocket. Why would you want something new? Save time and money by loving what you already own!

Is it any wonder that the average ‘millionaire next door’ has a car that’s eight years old? People that are rich love what they have. They know the value of quality, and they know the value of getting the most out of their purchases.

Do you spend time dreaming of a new car, or loving the car you’ve got? Do you spend time dreaming of new furniture, a new house or new clothes? Or do you spend some quality time loving the furniture, house and clothes you’ve already been blessed with?

What’s going to save you money and make you happier? Loving what you have, or dreaming of what you don’t have?

Save your money, your time and your environment this year: love what you have

Success: A Worthy Destination

By Earl Nightingale


The stories of people achieving unusual success despite all manner of handicaps never fail to capture our attention. They're inspirational to be sure. But they're much more than that if we study them closely.
The boy whose legs were terribly burned and who was told he'd be lucky to ever walk again becomes a champion track star. The woman blind and deaf from infancy becomes one of the most inspirational figures of the century. And the poor children who rise to fame and fortune have nearly become commonplace.
In this age of unprecedented immigration, we see examples of people who start off in this world with virtually nothing and within a surprisingly short time have become wonderfully successful.
What sets these people apart, people with vast handicaps such as not knowing the language, not knowing the right people, not having any money? What drives the boy with the burned legs who becomes the champion runner or a Helen Keller, blind and deaf who becomes one of the most inspirational figures of our time? The answer, if fully understood, will bring you and me anything and everything we truly want, and it's deceptively simple. Perhaps it's too simple.
The people we've talked about here and the thousands currently doing the same thing all over the world are in possession of something the average person doesn't have. They have goals. They have a burning desire to succeed despite all obstacles and handicaps. They know exactly what they want; they think about it every day of their lives. It gets them up in the morning, and it keeps them giving their very best all day long. It's the last thing they think about before dropping off to sleep at night. They have a vision of exactly what they want to do, and that vision carries them over every obstacle.
This vision, this dream, this goal, invisible to all the world except the person holding it, is responsible for perhaps every great advance and achievement of humankind. It's the underlying motive for just about everything we see about us. Everything worthwhile achieved by men and women is a dream come true, a goal reached. It's been said that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
It's the fine building where before there was an empty lot or an old eyesore. It's the bridge spanning the bay. It's landing on the moon. And it's that little convenience store in Midtown Manhattan. It's the lovely home on a tree-shaded street and the young person accepting the diploma. It's a low golf handicap and a position reached in the world of business. It's a certain income attained or amount of money invested. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
We become what we think about. And when we're possessed by an exciting goal, we reach it. That's why it's been said, "Be choosy, therefore, of what you set your heart upon. For if you want it strongly enough, you'll get it."
Americans can have anything they want. The trouble is they don't know what they want. Oh, they want little things. They want a new car; they get it. They want a new refrigerator; they get it. They want a new home and they get it. The system never fails for them, but they don't seem to understand that it is a system. Nor that if it'll work for a refrigerator or a new car, it will work for anything else they want very much, just as well.
Goals are the very basis of any success. It is in fact the definition of success. The best definition of success I've ever found goes like this, "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal." Or in some cases the pursuit of a worthy "ideal." It's a beautiful definition of success. It means that anyone who's on course toward the fulfillment of a goal is successful.
Now, success doesn't lie in the achievement of a goal, although that's what the world considers success; it lies in the journey toward the goal. We're successful as long as we're working toward something we want to bring about in our lives. That's when the human being is at his or her best. That's what Cervantes meant when he wrote, "The road is better than the inn." We're at our best when we're climbing, thinking, planning, working. When we're on the road toward something we want to bring about.
With our definition, success being the progressive realization of a worthy goal, we cover all the bases. The young person working to finish school is as successful as any person on earth. The person working toward a particular position with his or her company is just as successful.
If you have a goal that you find worthy of you as a person, a goal that fills you with joy at the thought of it, believe me, you'll reach it. But as you draw near and see that the goal will soon be achieved, begin to think ahead to the next goal you're going to set. It often happens that a writer halfway through a book will hit upon the idea for his next one and begin making notes or ideas for a title even while he's finishing work on the one in progress. That's the way it should be.
It's estimated that about 5% of the population achieves unusual success. For the rest, average seems to be good enough. Most seem to just drift along, taking circumstances as they come, and perhaps hoping from time to time that things will get better.
I like to compare human beings with ships, as Carlyle used to do. It's estimated that about 95 percent can be compared to ships without rudders, subject to every shift of wind and tide. They're helplessly adrift, and while they fondly hope that they will one day drift into some rich and bustling port, for every narrow harbor entrance, there are 1,000 miles of rocky coastline.
The chances of their drifting into port are 1,000 to 1 against them. Our state lottery is a tax on such people. So are the slot machines in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Someone wins from time to time to be sure, but the odds are still there ... stacked steeply against them.
But the 5 percent who have taken the time and exercised the discipline to climb into the driver's seat of their lives, who've decided upon a challenging goal to reach and have fully committed themselves to reaching it, sail straight and far across the deep oceans of life, reaching one port after another and accomplishing more in just a few years than the rest accomplish in a lifetime.
If you should visit a ship in port and ask the captain for his next port of call, he'll tell you in a single sentence. Even though the captain cannot see his port, his destination for fully 99% of the voyage, he knows it's there. And then, barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely catastrophe, he'll reach it. If someone asks you for your next port of call, your goal, could you tell him?
Is your goal clean and concise in your mind? Do you have it written down? It's a good idea. We need reminding, reinforcement. If you can get a picture of your goal and stick it to your bathroom mirror, it's an excellent idea to do so. Thousands of successful people carry their goals written on a card in their wallets or purses.
When you ask people what they're working for, chances are they'll answer in vague generalities. They might say, "Oh, good health or happiness or lots of money." That's not good enough. Good health should be a universal goal. We all want that, and do our best to achieve and maintain it. Happiness is a byproduct of something else. And lots of money is much too vague. It might work, but I think it's better to choose a particular sum of money. The better, the clearer our goal is defined, the more real it becomes to us, and before long, the more attainable. Happiness comes from the direction in which we're moving.
Children are happier on Christmas morning before opening their presents than they are Christmas afternoon. No matter how wonderful their presents may be, it's after Christmas. They'll enjoy their gifts, to be sure, but we often find them querulous and irritable Christmas afternoon. We're happier on our way out to dinner than we are on the way home. We're happier going on vacation than we are coming home from it. And we're happier moving toward our goals than even after they've been accomplished, believe it or not.
Life plays no favorites. Yet of one thing you may be sure, you will become what you think about. If your thinking is circular and chaotic, your life will reflect that chaos. But if your thinking is orderly and clear, if you have a goal that's important for you to reach, then reach it you will.
One goal at a time. That's important. That's where most people unwittingly make their mistake. They don't concentrate on a single goal long enough to reach it before they're off on another track, then another, with the result that they achieve nothing. Nothing but confusion and excuses.
By thinking every morning, every night, and as many times during the day as you can about this exciting single goal you've established for yourself, you actually begin moving toward it and bringing it toward you. When you concentrate your thinking, it's like taking a river that's twisting and turning and meandering all over the countryside and putting it into a straight, smooth channel. Now it has power, direction, economy, speed.
So decide upon your goal. Insist upon it. Demand it! Look at your goal card every morning and night and as many times during the day as you conveniently can. By so doing, you will insinuate your goal into your subconscious mind. You'll see yourself as having already attained your goal, and do that every day without fail, and it will become a habit before you realize it. A habit that will take you from one success to another all the years of your life. For that is the secret of success, the door to everything you will ever have or be.
You are now and you most certainly will become ... what you think about.

Creating Your Mission Statement A Movie and More

The opening scenes of "Jerry Maguire" are forever imprinted in my minds eye. As the audience, we are shown a brief synopsis of Jerry's life as a high powered Sports Agent who manages the careers of a multitude of big money athletes. He is at a convention of some kind with all of his fellow Sports Agents. We enter a dream sequence. Jerry is jarred awake while dreaming with an epiphany of sorts as he raises this question in an internal dialogue. "Who had I become? A shark in a suit? I hated myself. I hated my place in this world. " Like a man possessed, he rose out of his bed and sat down at the laptop he had set up in his hotel room. Jerry continued to speak inside his head, "One page became twenty five, I became my father's son again." He continued, saying he remembered the wise words of his mentor who said "The key to this business is personal relationships." Feverishly, Jerry crafted his Personal Manifesto. "I had lost the ability to B.S.," he wrote, "It (the Mission Statement) was the me I had always wanted to be." He entitled his declaration "The Things We Think and Do Not Say." He took his work to a 24 hour copy store so that he could distribute his wisdom to the other Sports Agents. The long haired clerk at the store looked into his eyes and said, surferesque, "That's how you become great, man!" Jerry put a copy in each mailbox of his peers and blissfully went to sleep. Temporarily, anyway. We soon learn that for Jerry, proclaiming what he believed through his Mission Statement was indeed a risky business. He called the hotel desk clerk when he once again awoke with a start to see if the copies of his Mission Statement been picked up by his peers. To his horror, it was reported that many copies of his work had been distributed. Jerry soon found his life seriously altered by what he believed. He quickly lost his high powered job and found himself living out his Mission Statement, but it was far from comfortable. Sure, his mentor had said "The key to this business is personal relationships" but did his only client have to be so obnoxious, arrogant, loud and forever adding insult to injury, by continually spouting the now trademark "Show me the money!" phrase over and over and over? We live alongside Jerry for two hours, cheering him through personal financial ruin, romance, marriage, separation, reunion, and finally the rebuilding of his career. But it is a career on HIS terms, in HIS way, following HIS manifesto and HIS alone! Do all Mission statements need to be written at times of such personal awakening a la Jerry Maguire? Not at all! Mission statements can be mulled over, rewritten, revised, reduced and reiterated. They can be written alone, which would be a Personal Mission statement, or they can be written collaboratively with a team work approach. A Mission Statement can be written for a family or Organization. They can be one sentence, they can be pages upon pages upon pages. There is no set formula in a format for Mission Statements, however the basics are the same regardless of structure or length. Well, for Jerry Maguire its one thing, but for me? Why Write a Mission Statement? Why should I take time out from my busy schedule trying to get my venture up and running to write a Mission Statement? The answer to this is simple. Some people may choose to travel to an unknown destination without a roadmap, but most will get to their destination more quickly if a map is carefully drawn out prior to putting the key into ignition putting the foot on the gas. Carefully crafting your Mission Statement could be paramount in mapping out your future. Think for a moment. * Why did you start your endeavor?* What were you hoping to do that had not been done before? * Simply stated, what is the purpose for your project? * How will you do things differently? Jerry Maguire had multiple reasons for striking out as he did, for being a Sports Agent in a different way. What are your reasons? Why is your heart calling out to you to step out and see this project to fruition? Secondly, your Mission Statement can bring focus to your exact priorities. You may believe in your mind what your priorities are but when you actually sit down with a pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard you may be surprised with what you discover. Hit a roadblock in creating your Mission Statement? Maybe you are saying to yourself, I have NO IDEA know what either my purpose or priorities are at this point! Do not be discouraged! I have found that the easiest thing to do at this point is to take a deep breath, relax and brainstorm for ten or fifteen minute. Take out a blank sheet of paper or bring up a blank document on your computer. Ask yourself the questions that were brought up about your purpose for starting this project. What were you personally looking for, yearning for, hoping for? Where are the Passions within you for this particular project? Chances are you would not start something you did not enjoy a lot, because your success would be highly unlikely in that case! So don't even consciously think! Don't worry about making sense: just let the words flow. One word, phrase or sentence at a time. This will help unblock your mind as well as remind you what your project is all about. If you had fallen out of love with your project, this will be a great tool to re-ignite the Passion that you once had for it! Discovering your purpose should then remind you of your priorities. Your Purpose uncovers the why, while the priorities uncover which of your smaller tasks comes first. Look at each task in small, manageable chunks, breaking each one down as far as you need to and date when each task should be completed. Creating my website makes a perfect example! First, I set a date for "completion" (although it will always be a work in progress). Actually, this is the date when I want all components to be functioning efficiently: all the Passion Pages with an active article Ezines for each Passion, Bulletin Boards in place and with dialogue taking place, the Passion Surveys being easily accessible and regularly utilized by the Guests at my Site. So, in addition to prioritizing, I had to map out my plan. A few months prior to completion, I had quite a few of these aspects in place. One of the first tasks I chose to complete was crafting a brief Mission Statement which would be a herald atop all my main pages. I knew the next step would be building the skeleton of the site, deciding what format to use and that sort of thing. This was a big challenge since I am not a technical person. For practice, I built a personal website, with the assistance of a dear friend who knows a lot more about computers than I do! With my 5Passions page, there was a lot of teamwork in its creation, including requesting people from other sites to come visit mine and give me constructive criticism. With my friend and "partner in building my site" I found some free bulletin boards, as well as finding a list host to use for my ezine, both for free. I mapped out a very "do-able" schedule for the creation of my e-zines. So on a rigorous yet not overwhelming schedule, all the pieces were crafted into place. Finally, you want your Mission Statement to be an evolving document that can take your project from here into perpetuity. Once you have written it, it can be revisited and revised as need be. Sections can be added and deleted over time. Most importantly, you want your overall Mission Statement to have that feeling of "YES! This is My (Our)Mission!" It should evoke a sense of Joy, a sense of the good old fashioned marching orders we were given by our childhood coaches. So what's stopping you? Get out your favorite writing tool and start crafting your Mission Statement. Jerry found love and a new life when he wrote his! What are you going to find? I think you will find something near and dear to your heart. Chances are, you will find You!

By Julie Jordan Scott

The Important Things in Life

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become.

You never know who these people may be - a roommate, a neighbor, a professor, a friend, a lover, or even a complete stranger - but when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment they will affect your life in some profound way.

Sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower, or heart.

Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness, and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved straight flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet who affect your life, and the success and downfalls you experience, help to create who you are and who you become. Even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are sometimes the most important ones.

If someone loves you, give love back to them in whatever way you can, not only because they love you, but because in a way, they are teaching you to love and how to open your heart and eyes to things.

If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that you have never talked to before, and listen to what they have to say.

Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you.

You can make anything you wish of your life. Create your own life and then go out and live it with absolutely no regrets.

And if you love someone tell them, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.

Digging a Hole

Two brothers once decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were working, a couple of other boys stopped by to watch.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the visitors. "We're going to dig a hole all the way through the earth!", one of the brothers volunteered excitedly.
The other boys began to laugh, telling the brothers that digging a hole all the way through the earth was impossible. After a long silence, one of the diggers picked up a jar full of spiders and worms and insects and interesting stones. He removed the lid and showed the wonderful contents to the scoffing visitors. Then he said confidently, "Even if we don't dig all the way through the earth, look what we found along the way!"

Their goal was far too ambitious, but it did cause them to dig. And that is what a goal is for - to cause us to move in the direction we have chosen, in other words, to set us to digging!

But not every goal will be fully achieved. Not every job will end successfully. Not every relationship will endure. Not every hope will come to pass. Not every love will last. Not every endeavor will be completed. Not every dream will be realized. But when you fall short of your aim, perhaps you can say, "Yes, but look at what I found along the way! Look at the wonderful things which have come into my life because I tried to do something!"

It is in the digging that life is lived. And it is the joy in the journey, in the end, that truly matters!

How To Get More Work Done In A Day by Zig Ziglar

How do you achieve employment security in a world where there is no employment security? I start with a question: Do you consider yourself to be honest and at least reasonably intelligent? Okay. As an honest, intelligent person, do you, as a general rule, get about twice as much work done on the day before you go on vacation as you normally get done?

Now I am going to ask you a long question, so stay with me all the way through. If we can figure out why and learn how and repeat it every day without working any longer or any harder, does it make sense that we will be more valuable to ourselves, our company, our family and our community? The answer is "Yes."

I want to make it crystal clear that I am communicating with you about you-I'm not referring to anybody else, but to you about you. You have undoubtedly already confessed that you are honest and intelligent.

Now on the night before the day before vacation, do you get your laptop or a sheet of paper out and plan, "Now tomorrow I've got to do this and this...." We've coined a very clever name for that--we call that goal setting. So, you set your goals. Then you get them organized in the order of their importance.

Let me encourage you to make one slight change there. Get the disagreeable and difficult things out of the way first. Free your mind so you can concentrate on what else you have got to do. You get it organized. You accept responsibility. You make the commitments. You know that some people are about as committed as a Kamikaze pilot on his thirty-ninth mission-they just aren't serious about it.

Now commitment is important whether it is to get your education, make one more call, keep the marriage together or whatever. Commitment is important because when you hit the wall-not IF, but WHEN you hit the wall--if you have made a commitment your first thought is, "How do I solve the problem?" If you haven't made the commitment your first thought is, "How do I get out of this deal?" And we find literally what we are looking for.

When you make that commitment, things happen. It shows that you really care about the other people on the job. It demonstrates that you are dependable. Even though you're leaving town, you're not going to leave an unfinished task for others to do. Your integrity comes through.

Have you ever participated in organized team sports? Did you ever go home one night and say to your parents something like, "Mom, Dad, you won't believe the game plan the coach has worked out. Man alive, it is incredible. We're going to kill those suckers tomorrow. You can count on it." You were optimistic simply because you had a plan of action, and likewise you are optimistic that tomorrow you are going to be able to get all of the things done that need to be done before you can go on that vacation.

Now some of us are born optimistic, and some are born pessimistic. For your information, the 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary does not have the word pessimist in it. It has the word optimist. Now I am a natural born optimist. I really am. I would take my last two dollars and buy a money belt with it. That's the way I'm put together. But the good news is if you are a natural born pessimist, you definitely, emphatically, positively can change. You are a pessimist by choice because you are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are; you can change where you are, by changing what goes into your mind.

Anyway, on the day before you go on vacation you not only get to work on time, you are a little early and you immediately get started. You don't stand around and say, "Well, I wonder what I ought to do now." You can't wait to get after it. You want to do the right thing so you get started in a big hurry. You are enthusiastic about it. You are highly motivated. You decisively move from one task to another.

Now I am going to camp on this one for just a moment. Have you noticed that as a general rule people who have nothing to do want to do it with you? It's true, isn't it? Now, on this day before vacation, when you finish one task you move with purpose to another one. And people just will not block you for that two-minute gossip session or four-minute or five-minute or six-minute chat.

I am absolutely convinced and have no doubt about it that the listener has more to do with gossiping than the speaker does, because if you don't listen nobody is going to gossip to you. They just won't. When you move with purpose, people will step aside and let you go. I will absolutely guarantee that you will save a minimum of an hour a day in two-, three, five-minute spurts of time.

An hour a day is five hours per week is 250 hours per year. That is six weeks of your life that you've wasted and six weeks of combined time that you have wasted with people who have been gossiping with you. What could you do with six extra weeks every year?

Focus on the issue at hand. Discipline yourself to stay with it until you finish. Sybil Stanton gave me the best definition of discipline I have ever read in her book, The Twenty Five Hour Woman. "Discipline isn't on your back needling you with imperatives. It is at your side encouraging you with incentives."

Treat every day like it's the day before vacation and you will get more work done!

Motivational Speaker: Zig Ziglar

A talented author and speaker, Zig Ziglar has an appeal that transcends barriers of age, culture and occupation. Since 1970, he has traveled over five million miles across the world delivering powerful life improvement messages, cultivating the energy of change.

He has shared the platform with such distinguished Americans as Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Paul Harvey, Dr. Robert Schuller, plus numerous U.S. congressmen and governors.

A well-known authority on complete and balanced success, Zig Ziglar has been recognized three times in the Congressional Record of the United States - for his work with youth in the drug war, and for his dedication to America and the free enterprise system.

Zig Ziglar's corporation is built upon the same philosophy he expounds to his audiences - hard work, common sense, fairness, commitment and integrity. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Ziglar Training Systems offers public seminars, customized educational programs, workshops and keynote speakers - all focused on personal and professional development. Profoundly affecting the lives of people, Zig Ziglar has a client list that includes thousands of small and mid-sized businesses, Fortune 500 Companies, U.S. Government agencies, churches, schools and non-profit associations.

In addition, Mr. Ziglar offers numerous celebrated books, tapes and videos on personal growth, leadership, sales, faith, family and success, including , Goals Video, How To Be A Winner, How To Stay Motivated, The New Courtship After Marriage, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, Sell Your Way To The Top, A View From The TOP, You Are A Natural Champion. Nine titles have been on the best seller lists; his books and tapes have been translated into over thirty-two languages and dialects.

"I believe that persistent effort, supported by a character-based foundation, will enable you to get more of the things money will buy and all of the things money won't buy." - Zig Ziglar

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

ou may have heard, it’s the custom for the kings to let warriors stand on the left, the side of the heart, and courage. On the right they put the chancellor, and various secretaries, because the practice of bookkeeping and writing usually belongs to the right hand. In the center, the sufis, because in meditation they become mirrors.
The king can look at their faces
and see his original state.

Give the beautiful ones mirrors,
and let them fall in love with themselves.

That way they polish their souls
and kindle remembering others.

A close childhood friend once came to visit Joseph.
They had shared the secrets that children tell each other when they’re lying on their pillow at night before they go to sleep. These two were completely truthful with each other.

The friend asked, “What was it like when you realized your brothers were jealous and what they planned to do?”

I felt like a lion with a chain around its neck.
Not degraded by the chain, and not complaining, but just waiting for my power to be recognized.”

“How about down in the well, and in prison?
How was it then?”

“Like the moon when it’s getting
smaller, yet knowing the fullness to come.
Like a seed pearl ground in the mortar for medicine, that knows it will now be the light in a human eye.

Like a wheat grain that breaks open in the ground, then grows, then gets harvested, then crushed in the mill for flour, then baked, then crushed again between teeth to become a person’s deepest understanding.
Lost in love, like the songs the planters sing the night after they sow the seed.”

There is no end to any of this.

Back to some thing else the good man
and Joseph talked about.

“Ah my friend, what have you
brought me? You know a traveler should not arrive empty-handed at the door of a friend like me.
That’s going to the grinding stone without your wheat.


God will ask at the resurrection, ‘Did you bring Me A present? Did you forget? Did you think You wouldn’t see me?”

Joseph kept teasing,
“Lets have it. I want my gift!”

The guest began, “You can’t imagine how I’ve looked for something for you. Nothing seemed appropriate.
You don’t take gold down into a goldmine, or a drop of water to the Sea of Oman!
Everything I thought of was like bringing cumin seed to Kirmanshah where cumin comes from.

You have all seeds in your barn. You even have my love

and my soul, so I can’t even bring those.

I’ve brought you a mirror. Look at your yourself, and remember me.”

He took the mirror out from his robe
where he was hiding it.
What is the mirror of being?
Non-being. Always bring a mirror of non-existence as a gift. Any other present is foolish.

Let the poor man look deep into generosity.
Let bread see a hungry man.
Let kindling behold a spark from the flint.

An empty mirror and your worst destructive habits, when they are held up to each other, that’s when the real making begins.
That’s what art and crafting are.
A tailor needs a torn garment to practice his expertise.
The trunks of trees must be cut and cut again so they can be used for fine carpentry.

Your doctor must have a broken leg to doctor.
Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested.
Whoever sees clearly what’s diseased in himself begins to gallops on they way.

There is nothing worse
than thinking you are well enough.
More than anything, self-complacency
blocks the workmanship.

Put your vileness up to a mirror and weep.
Get that self-satisfaction flowing out of you!
Satan thought, “I am better than Adam,”
and that ‘better than’ is still strongly in us.

Your stream water may look clean,
but there’s unstirred matter on the bottom.
Your sheikh can dig a side channel
that will drain that waste off.

Trust your wound to a teacher’s surgery.
Flies collect on a wound. They cover it, those flies of your self-protecting feelings, our love for what you think is yours.

Let a teacher wave away the flies
and put a plaster on the wound.

Don’t turn your head. Keep looking
at the bandaged place. That’s where
the light enters you.
And don’t believe for a moment
that you’re healing yourself.

-Jalaluddin Rumi-

MY LITTLE MIRACLE by Melinda C

I had just turned 19 when I was told I could not have children. I was devastated. Ever since I was a small child, I had prayed for a beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed baby girl. I used to pray to God that before He decided to come back for His children, He would allow me to have a baby girl.

I was in a serious relationship at the time that I thought would last forever. He told me that he would love nothing more than to have a child to care for and love. I prayed that the doctors were wrong and that maybe if I prayed hard enough, God would prove them wrong.

Every night I would pray, "God, please let me be a mother. Let me have the honor of caring for one of Your children." Just three months later, I found out I was pregnant. I had a very hard pregnancy. High blood pressure kept the doctors on alert. I found out I had Strep B, which could be fatal to the baby. I was scared. I didn't want to lose her. Every day I prayed that she would be OK.

At only 33 weeks, she attempted to be born. "No," I prayed. "Not this early. Please. Just one more week at least. She needs to gain more weight." I was immediately hospitalized and put on total bed rest. I was given nothing to eat or drink for three days. On the fourth day, the doctors finally said I could eat and drink, that my body was doing what it was supposed to in preventing the birth.

Just a couple of days later, when I had reached 34 weeks, the doctors decided it was safe enough for me to have her. I was induced, and at 4:57 pm on September 18, 1998, I had the most beautiful blonde haired, blue-eyed baby girl. I named her Jessie-Mae Marie. She is now two-years-old and the best thing to ever happen to me. A real gift from God.

No, her father and I are no longer together. He decided being a father was not for him. I am not sad about that. I am sad for him. He is missing out on her growing up and will probably always regret it.

So, if any of you are told there is no chance for you to have children, remember this. God still works miracles. He worked a big one in my life and I will always be grateful for that.

THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD

My husband had gone to Singapore on an office assignment for a year and after a couple of months my daughter, Nichelle (aged 2 years) and I joined him. We were staying as tenants with an elderly lady who was very loving and helpful and treated us like her own family. My daughter loving called her Patti meaning Grandma.

She grew to love my daughter Nichelle very much as she was very talkative and always kept her entertained. Things didn't work out for us there and we returned to India. Nichelle is four now and I have a 6 month old baby girl Samara but we still keep in touch with Patti. Life now has become very hectic since I've resumed office after my maternity leave.

Last week my husband had gone over to my mum's place to pick up Nichelle from her grandma's where she was spending the weekend. I just put Samara to bed and was getting things ready for the week ahead, when the phone rang and I rushed to pick it up. It was Patti from Singapore. She was not too well and informed me that her blood platelet count was falling. She wanted to talk to my husband who is in the pharma line.

On his return home I informed him of her call and he contacted her. She was thrilled to hear Nichelle's voice.

After the conversation, reassurance and goodbyes, my husband disconnected and I said to him, " You always wanted to be a doctor, well here is someone who thinks you are."

"Yes", he said, "this was my unfulfilled dream."
"Maybe one day one of our girls will be doctors" I said.

"A doctor, not me mummy " Nichelle's replied as she was listening to the conversation although busy with her painting.

"Maybe a teacher like Miss Zubeda Ali your class teacher" whom she is very fond of.

"No, not that too, " said Nichelle.

"Or a computer artist ,"chipped in her dad.

"No, you will never guess what I want to be" said Nichelle with a smile on her face.

"What baby," I asked her, "Tell mummy and daddy."

" I just want to be a mother when I grow up, just like you, mummy."

I went up to her and hugged my little girl and she smiled. This was something we least expected to hear.

"Mummy I will cook, clean, give my baby a bath, tell stories, sing songs and do all the things you do for us. "

This week I have been thinking about my little girl's dream to be a mother someday. For the first time I realized the influence I had in the lives of my children and motherhood took on a new meaning for me.

At times I admit, I would get frustrated, and want to give up , just feel like relaxing, with sleepless nights, crying babies, illness, my baby's first days at school, teaching her the difference between right and wrong, household jobs that seem never-ending, rushing to office and making it on time.

At times I felt I could not cope but now everything seems achievable and worthwhile. Yes, I'm thankful to God, my husband and children for the joys of motherhood and also helping me realize more fully the great sacrifices my parents made for me every step of the way, to help me be a better mother today.

To every mother, yours is a vital and important role in shaping the young lives God has entrusted in your care. My 4 year old girl made me realize this.

COMFORT ZONE

I used to have a comfort zone where I knew I wouldn't fail.
The same four walls and busywork where really more like jail.
I longed so much to do the things I'd never done before,
But stayed inside my comfort zone and paced the same old floor.

I said it didn't matter that I wasn't doing much.
I said I didn't care for things like commission checks and such.
I claimed to be so busy with the things inside my zone,
But deep inside I longed for something special of my own.

I couldn't let my life go by just watching others win.
I held my breath; I stepped outside and let the change begin.
I took a step and with new strength I'd never felt before,
I kissed my comfort zone good-bye and closed and locked the door.

If you're in comfort zone, afraid to venture out,
Remember that all winners were at one time filled with doubt.
A step or two and words of praise can make your dreams come true.
Reach for your future with a smile;
Success is there for you!