Monthly Archives: December 2011

The Measure of Your Success

Leave a reply

Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends and coworkers, and even strangers along the way.
— Barbara Bush

The greatest achievements are those that benefit others.
— Denis Waitley

The secret of success is to find a need and fill it, to find a hurt and heal it, to find somebody with a problem and offer to help solve it.
— Robert Schuller

He climbs highest who helps another up.
— Zig Ziglar

To excel is to reach your highest dream. But you must also help others, where and when you can, to reach theirs. Personal gain is empty if you do not feel you have positively touched another’s life.
— Barbara Walters

The Adversity Advantage

Leave a reply

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
— Walt Disney

A worldly loss often turns into spiritual gain.
— Hazrat Khan

Difficult times have helped me understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.
— Isak Dinesen

Adversity is the diamond dust heaven polishes its jewels with.
— Robert Leighton

If those tough times hadn’t happened, who’s to say I’d be playing in the NFL. It really helped my determination, drive and character. Everybody has overcome something in their lives. It’s all about how you take those challenges and use them for the better.
— Michael Lehan

The Power of Enthusiasm

Leave a reply

Those folks who succeed simply remain enthusiastic longer than those who fail.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm is the breath of genius.
— Earl of Beaconsfield

Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.
— Jean de la Fontaine

Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.
— John Wesley

Keep excited – it’s more fun working toward something than just waiting around for nothing in particular to happen.
— Jack Nicklaus

Today Is the Day

Leave a reply

I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait.
— Og Mandino

Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
— Reginna Brett

Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.
— Cuthbert Collingwood

Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life, we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do.
— Laura Ingalls Wilder

I will forget the happenings of the day that is gone, where they were good or bad, and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of my life.
— Og Mandino

Duty

Leave a reply

Treading the hard path of duty will be noticed and will lead to high places.
— Abraham Lincoln

The path of duty lies in the thing nearby, but people seek it in things far off.
— Chinese proverb

Duty does not have to be dull. Love can make it beautiful and fill it with life.
— Thomas Merton

There is happiness to be found in the most disagreeable duty when you realize you’re getting it out of the way.
— Ella Wilcox

More will sometimes be demanded of you than is reasonable. Bear it meekly, and exhaust your time and strength in performing your duties, rather than in vindicating your rights.
— Horace Mann

Faith Required

Leave a reply

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

The one thing that will guarantee the successful conclusion of a doubtful undertaking is faith that you can do it.
— William James

As long as we wait until we can do God’s work, we will remain in a holding pattern, because God’s work requires faith in Him, not faith in our abilities.
— David Young

Never wait for a miracle. Go after your dream. Do your part to the very best of your ability, and ask God to make up the difference. He won’t act until we step out in faith.
— John Maxwell

God’s blessings don’t necessarily come through the kindness of others. In fact, it is often in spite of a lack of others’ kindness that God is able to perform the most mighty deeds. The miracle begins when we remove the training wheels of dependency on others.
— T.D. Jakes

Christmas

Leave a reply

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.
— Eric Sevareid

Remember that having fun is just as important an aspect of the holidays as getting the presents wrapped.
— Sonja Friedman

When all the tinsel has been laid away,
The tree is stripped, the fevered rush is past –
You still have trees, a hill, a child at play,
And love, and prayer, and fadeless things that last.
— Anna Mezquida

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.
— Andy Rooney

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home.
— Charles Dickens