Wednesday, May 14, 2014

But first, there's too many buts




The "BUT FIRST" Syndrome.
We all have it.

You decide to do the laundry.  So you start down the stairs with the laundry, but then you see the newspapers on the table.  OK, you'll do the laundry.........

BUT FIRST you decide to put the newspapers away.  On your way to put the newspapers away, you notice the mail on the table.  OK, you'll put the newspapers away........

BUT FIRST you'll pay that bill that needs to be paid.  You look for the checkbook.  Oops...  there's the baby's bottle from yesterday on the floor.  OK, you'll pay the bill........

BUT FIRST you need to put the bottle in the sink.  You head for the kitchen.  There's the remote for the TV. What's it doing in here?  OK, you'll put the bottle in the sink.....

BUT FIRST you need to put the remote away.  Head for the TV room.  Aaagh!!!  stepped on the cat!  Cat needs to be fed.  OK, you'll put the remote away...

BUT FIRST you need to feed the cat.  At the end of the day......  The laundry is not done; newspapers are still on the floor; baby's bottle is on the table; bills are still unpaid; checkbook is still lost; cat ate the remote control.......

And when you stop to figure out how come nothing got done all day, you are baffled because......you know you were busy ALL DAY!!

Ahhhhh ---- the "BUT FIRST" Syndrome

Monday, May 12, 2014

The toughest things

By
Bob Perks

There are lessons to be learned and people to teach them. I find that to be true in every part of my life.  It is important to note that sometimes we are the student and sometimes we are the teacher.  So, how do we know if we are learning or teaching?  It all depends on our attitude.

For me, I take the attitude of the student. I want to learn. I want to see the world, not as a gigantic classroom, but as a fun, exciting field trip without textbooks, instructions, or rules. This means I learn more from the mistakes I make than the accuracy of the steps I take in the right direction. In my life, the best lessons are learned the hard way. What comes easy to me, I forget.

So, here is a list of what would appear to be easy things that require more than we realize:

To love a dog is easy, but to be worthy of its love is tough...
Our pets love us unconditionally. Which means we hardly need to do anything to get that love. But ask yourself based on the time and attention you give, if you really deserve it? This applies to our relationship with people, too.

To teach a child is easy, but to live what we teach... I can remember the old phrase "Do as I say, not as I do!" What you do may be the true lesson your child is learning. Teach by example.

To watch a sunset is easy, but to see it as a new beginning... How many times have you said, "I can't wait until this day is over!" When it ends, do you simply brush it off? Linger in anger and stress over it? Adjust your attitude and see the day's end as a new chance to begin again?

To see what's wrong is easy, but to make it right... We can't right every wrong in the world, but just pointing out what's wrong won't make the world a better place. What the world needs are people who take action. If you don't have the ability to change it, find someone who does then help them. "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King Jr.

To fall down is easy, but to get up again and again... Sometimes life is unbearable. Failure is not how many times you fall, but the last time you chose not to get up again.

To give is easy, but to give when it calls for sacrifice... Even in these tough economic times there are things we can do to help others. It may call for belt tightening, or giving a little extra time to a cause, but sacrifice gives to both the giver and the receiver.

To lie is easy, but to tell the truth when you have lied... The greatest enemy in any relationship is the lie. Upon it grows mistrust. Revealing it brings about rebirth and a chance to grow even closer.

To be angry is easy, but to forgive... It is said that "forgiveness frees the forgiver." One can let go through forgiveness or be weighed down with the burden of remembering forever.

To criticize is easy, but to praise... I have found that there are more things to praise in life than to criticize. It has also helped me to find life more enjoyable. Praise is like oxygen to one who is suffocating under criticism.

To pray for help is easy, but to be thankful for the need... Prayer often times becomes a shopping list of needs rather than a thank you note. If you find yourself in a situation that needs some guidance, see it as an opportunity to learn and be grateful for it. That attitude will help you to see the the solution more clearly.

To try is easy, but to do... I can say "I'll try!" and make very little commitment to do it. But if I say "I'll do it!" my mind and body will respond differently to the challenge. "Do or do not. There is no try." Yoda

To begin is easy, but to finish...is tough. "Begin" is an idea. "Finish" becomes a reality. Most people say, "If I only had the money I would..."
You don't have a money problem, you have a idea problem. Any plan can begin on paper without costing anything but time and effort. Finish the project, evaluate it and work the plan. Or begin a new one based on what you've learned. Life is easier when you make tough choices !

"I believe in you!"

Friday, May 09, 2014

Letters from a self-made Merchant to his son

Below are a few extracts from the letters, written by John Graham, Head of the House of Graham & Company, to his son Pierrepont, a freshman at Harvard University 100 years ago. 
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Education is about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and that it’s about the only thing a fellow can have as much of as he’s willing to haul away. Everything else is screwed down tight and the screw-driver lost.
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Some men learn the value of money by not having any and starting out to pry a few dollars loose from the odd millions that are lying around; and some learn it by having fifty thousand or so left to them and starting out to spend it as if it were fifty thousand a year.
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The first thing that any education ought to give a man is character, and the second thing is education.
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It isn’t so much knowing a whole lot, as knowing a little and how to use it that counts.
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When Pierrepont—still at Harvard—submits his expense account to his father, he receives some more fatherly advice.
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The sooner you adjust your spending to what your earning capacity will be, the easier they will find it to live together.
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The only sure way that a man can get rich quick is to have it given to him or to inherit it. You are not going to get rich that way—at least, not until after you have proved your ability to hold a pretty important position with the firm; and, of course, there is just one place from which a man can start for that position with Graham & Co. It doesn’t make any difference whether he is the son of the old man or of the cellar boss—that place is the bottom. And the bottom in the office end of this business is a seat at the mailing-desk, with eight dollars every Saturday night.
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I can’t hand out any ready-made success to you. It would do you no good, and it would do the house harm.
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You know how I began—I was started off with a kick, but that proved a kick up, and in the end every one since has lifted me a little bit higher. I got two dollars a week, and slept under the counter, and you can bet I knew just how many pennies there were in each of those dollars, and how hard the floor was. That is what you have got to learn.
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But I always lay it down as a safe proposition that the fellow who has to break open the baby’s bank toward the last of the week for car-fare isn’t going to be any Russell Sage when it comes to trading with the old man’s money. He’d punch my bank account as full of holes as a carload of wild Texans would a fool stockman that they’d got in a corner.
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Now I know you’ll say that I don’t understand how it is; that you’ve got to do as the other fellows do; and that things have changed since I was a boy. There’s nothing in it. Adam invented all the different ways in which a young man can make a fool of himself, and the college yell at the end of them is just a frill that doesn’t change essentials. The boy who does anything just because the other fellows do it is apt to scratch a poor man’s back all his life.
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There are times when it’s safest to be lonesome. Use a little common-sense, caution and conscience. You can stock a store with those three commodities, when you get enough of them. But you’ve got to begin getting them young. They ain’t catching after you toughen up a bit.
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You needn’t write me if you feel yourself getting them. The symptoms will show in your expense account. Good-by; life’s too short to write letters and New York’s calling me on the wire.
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“The way you do anything, is the way you do everything.”

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Seasons of life


There's a season for beginnings,
When the world is fresh and new,
When we shape our dreams of all
The things we plan and hope to do.
A season for maturing
When we think and work and grow,
And a season for the harvesting of
All we've come to know.
And each successive season
Grows richer than the last,
As treasures of the present
Add to memories of the past.