A ship is safe in harbor...

but that's not what ships are built for.

~ by William Shedd

If

~ by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

You Are Perfect

Your eyes see things that no others will ever see, your ears hear things that only you can hear, and so it is that all that you are is rare and special and precious.

~ Mike Dooley, "Choose Them Wisely", 2009

What Should I Do with My Life?

~ by Po Bronson

I'd rather help than watch. I'd rather have a heart than a mind. I'd rather expose too much than too little. I'd rather say hello to strangers than be afraid of them. I would rather know all this about myself than have more money than I need. I'd rather have something to love than a way to impress you.

...

A calling is not something you know, it's something you grow into, through trials and mistakes. Work shouldn't just be fun. Work should be like life - sometimes fun, sometimes moving, and defined by meaningful events. Attack your fears, rather than shy away from them. Bring what you do in alignment with who you are. Freedom is the confidence that you can live within the means of something you're passionate about. Failure's hard, but success at the wrong thing can lock you in forever. Don't be seduced by artificial love. Be open to defining experiences. Don't mistake intensity for passion. You don't find your purpose above the neck, you find it below the neck, when you're transformed by what you have witnessed. You can get good at what you need to to serve what you believe in. Get your mind 80 percent of the way there, then go looking for the catalyst. Look backward as much as forward, inward as much as outward. Nothing helps like knowing you're not alone. There's a powerful transformative effect when you surround yourself with like-minded people. Create an environment where the truth is invited into your life. If you develop the character, the odds are pretty good you can succeed. Success is defined as when you're no longer held back by your heart, and your character blossoms, and the gifts you have to offer the world are apparent. Don't cling to a single scenario, allow yourself many paths to the same destination. Give it a lifetime to pay off. Things you work hardest for are the things you will most treasure.

I really should quit playing bejeweled blitz!

Started playing a week ago and was totally hooked! At first it was therapeutic, then competitive. Every game lasts just one minute, so it's really hard to step away and say that's enough.. one more minute of wasted time couldn't hurt that much, could it? Well, it could.. those minutes do add up!!

Today I finally got to the top of the current ladder, so I figured this is a really good time to stop. Someone's probably going to knock my score down pretty soon, but no matter.. I'm gonna stick this picture in my memory and pull myself out of a meaningless race. And never play again! Hurrah!! :)

A Time for Everything

~Ecclesiastes 3 NIV

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Nobody - Wonderbots

If you've never failed...

... you've never lived!



life = risk

'Day-tight Compartments' Strategy

On a great ocean liner, Sir Osier observed how such a marvelous machine crossed the Atlantic. The secret lies in pressing a special button - 'Presto'. Immediately, there was a clanging of machinery and various parts of the ship were immediately shut off from one another, into watertight compartments.

'At every level of your life, shut out the past - the dead yesterdays, shut off the future - the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe, safe for today!'

The bride can't stop laughing

A Guardian Angel Prayer for Friends

Guardian Angel, watch over those whose names you can read in my heart. Guard over them with every care and make their way easy and their labours fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, repentance if they fail.

~ from Catholic Online .

When you lose a sandal

From the Singapore Kindness Movement website:

The revered Indian Nationalist leader, Mahatma Gandhi, once stepped aboard a train and one of his sandals slipped off and landed on the tracks. As the train was moving, he was unable to retrieve it. So, he calmly took off his other sandal and threw it back along the track close to the first sandal.
When asked why he did it, Gandhi smiled and replied, "The poor man who finds the sandals on the track will now have a pair that he can wear.

The power of suggestive selling

From Adam Khoo's book, "Secrets of Building Multi-million Dollar Businesses":

Boosting Your Customer’s Average Dollar Purchase

One day, a young Indian guy moves to a big city and goes to a mega store looking for a job. The manager asks, "Do you have any sales experience?" The young man says, "Yes, I was a salesman in my home town."

Liking what he heard, the manager gave the young man a chance. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did, but let me give you a few sales tips. If a customer comes looking, say, for a can of paint, you might suggest that he also buy a roller paint brush, or paint thinner. Do you get the idea?," the manager asked.

"Yes indeed," the young man said. His first day on the job was tough but he got through it. After the store was closed, the manager came to check up on him.

The manager asks, “How many sales did you make today?

The young man says, "One"

The manager sighs, "Just one? Our sales people average 25 to 40 sales a day. How much was the sale for?"

The young man says, "$220,117.20."

The manager exclaims, "What? $220,117.20? What did you sell him?"

The young man replied, "First I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said down at the ocean, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department, and I sold him that twin engine Sunseeker Predator 68.

Then he said he didn't think his Subaru would pull it, so I Took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4- Wheel Drive Land Rover."

The manager says "You mean a guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and truck?!"

The young man said, "No, no, he came in here to buy a box of sanitary pads for his wife and I said, "Well, since your weekend's already screwed up, you might as well go fishing."