Saturday, April 21, 2012

ggrty

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled ...................

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. ~ Marcus Aurelius
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"Don't tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done." ~ James Ling

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Time is the coin of ur life. It's the only coin u have & only u can determine how it'll b spent B careful lest u let other pple spend it 4 u

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

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Material possessions will rust away, wear away, or depreciate, but your inner resources, character, must never depreciate.

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

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What constitutes a good life by Jim Rohn

The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living the good life. Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list. A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation. What would constitute a good life? I've got a short list.

1) Number one, productivity. You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. We must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity. What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it—to try your hand. Other people have tried their hand; here's what they did. You try your hand to see what you can do. So part of life is productivity.

2) Next are good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world. Don't deny yourself the time to develop this support system. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. A few years ago, I lost one of my dearest friends. He died at age 53—heart attack. David is gone, but he was one of my very special friends. I used to say of David that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly and if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a friend. Somebody who would come and get you. Now we've all got casual friends. And if you called them they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me and we'll have a party." So you've got to have both, real friends and casual friends.

3) Next on the list of a good life is your culture. Your language, your music, the ceremonies, the traditions, the dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. In fact it is the uniqueness of all of us that when blended together brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness and rightness to the world.

4) Next is your spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach. Don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature; it's what makes us who we are, different from dogs, cats, birds and mice. Spirituality.

5) Next, here's what my parents taught me. Don't miss anything. Don't miss the game. Don't miss the performance, don't miss the movie, don't miss the show, don't miss the dance. Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can. This has served me so well to this day. Just before my father died at age 93, if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church, he was somewhere every night.

Live a vital life. Here's one of the reasons why. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well it will show in your face, it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.

6) Next are your family and the inner circle. Invest in them and they'll invest in you. Inspire them and they'll inspire you. With your inner circle take care of the details. When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers. Little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho. So Papa would go there and have breakfast and I'd call him just to give him a special day. Now if I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but it only took five minutes, ten minutes. So I'd call Papa and they'd bring him the phone. I'd say, "Papa, I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear. “My son's calling me from Israel!” I'd say, "Papa, last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." Now everybody knows the story. It only took five or ten minutes, but what a special day for my father, age 93.

If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body, he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with the inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity. Here's the greatest value. The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest, one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love. Better to live in a tent on the beach with someone you love than to live in a mansion by yourself. One person caring for another, that's one of life's greatest expressions.

So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.

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Beyond cooperation by John Maxwell

When a group of soldiers found themselves locked away in a German prison camp during World War II, they easily could have waited out the end of the war there. Or, they might have made a few small attempts to free one or two people.

At one such camp, however, the goals were much bigger. These prisoners organized themselves around the collective goal of freeing 250 soldiers in one night. Their story became the basis for the 1963 movie The Great Escape.

Imagine the teamwork required to pull off such an ambitious goal. Groups of prisoners had to engineer and dig tunnels, build supports from wooden slats, dispose of dirt, create bellows to pump air into the tunnels, and light the tunnels. According to one list, the supplies included 4,000 bed slats, 1,370 battens, 1,699 blankets, 52 long tables, 1,219 knives, 30 shovels, 600 feet of rope and 1,000 feet of electric wire.

In addition to finding materials for the tunnels, each escapee would need civilian clothes, German papers, identity cards, maps, homemade compasses and emergency rations. Everyone had a job, from tailors to pickpockets to forgers. There were even teams that specialized in distracting the German soldiers.

"It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than 600 men—every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and every night for more than one year," John Sturges, who directed the movie account, once said. "Never has the human capacity been stretched to such incredible lengths or shown such determination and such courage."

To pull off such an elaborate mission, the soldiers moved beyond cooperation and into collaboration. You see, there's a difference between cooperation and collaboration. Cooperation is working together agreeably. Everybody sits down, and they're agreeable. Collaboration is working together aggressively; and there's a world of difference between those two.

There are four changes needed to become a collaborative type of a player:

1. Perception. You need to see teammates differently; you need to see them as collaborators, not as competitors.
2. Attitude. As a team player, you need to be supportive, not suspicious, of teammates, because if you trust others, you'll treat them differently—you'll treat them better.
3. Focus. A collaborative type of team player concentrates on the team, not himself or herself. Cavett Roberts said it right: "True progress in any field is a relay race and not a single event," so the focus is different.
4. Results. You begin to create victories through multiplication.

One is too small of a number to produce greatness. In fact, nothing can be accomplished in a great way without help. You have to learn to collaborate. You have to learn to come together. When you're developing a team that collaborates, it begins to be aggressive, not just agreeable. And it begins to accomplish a vision that mere cooperation never would allow.

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"It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding." -- Kahlil Gibran

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"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

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"Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions."~ John Randolph

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"To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can."~ Willis Whitney

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