I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.* – Stephen Covey
Sure, circumstances have an influence on what happens.
But such pales in comparison to the impact of your actions.
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And, not to second-guess Covey’s choice-of-words, while decisions are important, but you must act on those decisions. Ever hear the one about the five frogs on a log? There’s five frogs on a log. One decides to jump off. How many frogs are on the log? Five.
I just read yet another article on how retirement isn’t the panacea people think it is (at least for those financially prepared for retirement… ). People seem to have this idea that they will do everything they want when retire (i.e., all the things they said they couldn’t do while working) and live a life of…
That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet. – Emily Dickinson . . . as this precious moment. Make the most of each moment, whether that means doing something monumental, something tiny, or nothing at all. Each moment is precious as it stands out amongst them all. In a sense, there…
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled…
Which one is stronger? Either can overpower the other. This afternoon I didn’t feel like going to the gym. But I hadn’t been since Saturday and my commitment to going three-to-four days per week was in serious jeopardy of being violated. So I went to the gym and worked out. Commitment > Mood.
The problem isn’t that I (or any of us . . . ) have a hole in my soul (large, small or tiny), it’s that I’ve created, and nurtured, a belief that I have a hole in my soul (along with the idea that souls can have holes). And that, un-consciously or otherwise, I maintain…
“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” – Oscar Wilde Success is assembling certain components of thought and action in a certain order. “Failure” is what you get when you have the wrong components, or the wrong order, or both. Either way, you get results. Just keep tweaking until…