Creativity

Looking to the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?

- Vincent Van Gogh

Perspective

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are

- Malcolm Forbes

Practice

I have always approached practice as a kind of proving ground, especially with rookies. They might have seen me on television, read about me...and might think they know what I'm all about...I want them to know it isn't gossip or rumours. I want them to know it all comes from hard work

- Michael Jordan

Measures

If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it

- Stanley Marion Garn, anthropologist (1922- )

The Greatest Challenge

Leadership is the great challenge of the 21st century in science, politics, education, and industry. But the greatest challenge in leadership is parenting. We need to do more than just get our enterprises ready for the challenges of the twenty-first century. We also need to get our children ready for the challenges of the 21st century.

- Jim Rohn

The Way Up

You can't fly a kite unless you go against the wind and have a weight to keep it from turning somersaults. The same with man. No man will succeed unless he is ready to face and overcome difficulties and is prepared to assume responsibilities.

- William J. H. Boetcker

The Best Teacher

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.

- Samuel Smiles

Failure

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

- Denis Waitley

Permission to Remain a Child

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives

- Albert Einstein

The Finest Hour

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline...I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious

- Vince Lombardi

The Hardest Decisions

Dwight D. Eisenhower once warned John F. Kennedy that "as President, the only decisions you'll be asked to make are the hard ones. That's because the people working under you will keep all the easy ones for themselves!" That is true in any organization. Difficult decisions defy gravity. They travel uphill until they reach the person at the top

- Carmen Mariano

Where Evil is Found

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A Gift Every Day

You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No none can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive

- Dr. Thomas Arnold Bennett

From Failure to Success

It is important to acknowledge a mistake instantly, correct it, and learn from it. That literally turns a failure into a success. Success is on the far side of failure

- T. J. Watson (1874 - 1956) Founder of IBM

'White Elephant' Gifts Distract Us from Serving God

Gordon MacDonald shares the following story:
In ancient days when the king of Siam had an enemy he wanted to torment and destroy, he would send that enemy a unique gift, a white elephant, a live, albino elephant. These animals were considered sacred in the culture of that day. So the recipient of that elephant had no choice but to intentionally care for the gift. This elephant would take an inordinate amount of the enemy's time, resources, energy, emotions, and finances. Over time the enemy would destroy himself because of the extremely burdensome process of caring for the gift.
Our spiritual enemy uses the same strategy on us …. Let's say you buy season tickets to [your favourite sports team], but because you still have a lot of games to go to, you no longer have time to serve in some area of ministry. Or let's say you buy a summer cottage, but now you miss most weekend worship services between the beginning of May and the end of September. Or let's say you buy a health club membership to get in shape. You used to get up early in the morning to read your Bible and pray, but now you don't have time because you're working out before you go to work. Or let's say you buy a spot for one of your kids on a traveling sports team, and now you're too busy to join our community impact ministry as we serve the poor.
Are there white elephants in your life? Are you spending money on things that take your time away from God? The money isn't the problem; the activities aren't necessarily the problem; the problem is a white elephant "gift" that has pulled you away from God-honouring pursuits.

adapted from Jim Nicodem, "The Gravity of Greed,"

'Fast Food Culture' Promotes Impatience

In 1960 McDonald's operated 200 restaurants. By 2012 they had 31,000 restaurants. In 2012 there were more than a quarter-million fast-food restaurants in America, and on any given day one in four Americans will eat at least one meal at a fast-food restaurant. For many people around the world fast-food symbolises speed, efficiency, and convenience.
Sanford DeVoe, a researcher at the University of Toronto, wanted to explore if our "fast-food culture" was changing our lives in ways beyond just our eating habits. So DeVoe and another colleague conducted a series of experiments in which researchers subliminally flashed corporate logos for McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger King, Subway, and Wendy's. A control group saw other images but no fast-food logos. When the two groups were asked to do an unrelated task, the fast-food group tried to complete it much faster than the non-fast-food group. In another experiment, flashes of fast-food images made students less able to sit back and enjoy music. A third experiment found that people exposed to fast-food logos showed a greater reluctance for saving.
Based on these experiments, DeVoe has concluded that fast food helps us save time, but even just thinking about fast food restaurants make us live with more speed and less patience. DeVoe said, "Fast food culture … doesn't just change the way we eat but it can also fundamentally alter the way we experience our time."
DeVoe claims that the impatience promoted by our fast-food culture and mindset "stops us from smelling the roses."

Frank Partnoy, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (Public Affairs, 2012), pp. 55-58;

Science Daily, "Exposure to Fast Food Can Make Us Impatient," (26 March 2010)

Mistakes

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future

- Plutarch

Wisdom and Folly

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance

- Akhenaton

A Life Philosophy

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment

- Oprah Winfrey

Americans Show Increased Belief in Miracles

A 2012 article about Americans' belief in miracles summarized the following statistics gathered from recent surveys:
* 55 percent of Americans are "certain" that miracles happen (a 20 percent increase from 1991)
* 80 percent believe that miracles "certainly" or "probably" occur.
* 42 percent of Americans with no religious affiliation believe in miracles (compared to 32 percent from 20 years ago). In other words, the strongest gains in openness to miracles were reported by those who attend services infrequently.
* 23 percent of respondents said they had witnessed a miraculous physical healing and 16 percent said they had received a miraculous healing.
* 75 percent of respondents said they had prayed to God to receive healing from an illness or injury; nearly 85 percent had prayed for someone else's healing.
The author of the article concluded that the increasing openness to miracles "is not being driven by any one generation, but seems to be more of a cultural shift …. There's still a profound interest in spiritual things …. [As Americans in general] we are not in this uniform march toward secularism."

David Briggs, "Belief in miracles climbs in the age of Oprah," Association of Religion Data Archives (27 October 2012)

Mistakes

To err is human, to blame it on someone else is more human.

Lance Armstrong's Slide into Self-Deception

In 2001, Lance Armstrong made an anti-doping commercial for Nike in which he strongly disavowed using illegal drugs. In the commercial, Armstrong boldly states, "This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my [butt] six hours a day. What are you on?"
In 2006, during sworn testimony in a dispute over his $5 million bonus, Armstrong said he wouldn't take drugs because he had too much to lose. "(The) faith of all the cancer survivors around the world. Everything I do off the bike would go away, too …. It's not about money for me …. It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years. So all of that would be erased." In October 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tours de France victories and permanently banned from cycling and any World Anti-Doping Agency sanctioned events. Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, claimed that Armstrong's USPS team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." Tygart also said, "The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage …." It was a doping program "organised by individuals who thought they were above the rules."

sources: YouTube, "Lance Armstrong Nike Commercial (2001)," last accessed 9 October 2014; Sports Illustrated, "USADA to ban Armstrong for life" (24 August 2012)

Happiness

One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness - simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain

- George Sand (1804 - 1876)

Epitaph

Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the words - 'I tried.' That's what this game of life is all about. Trying. There's the tryers, the criers, and the liars

- Mickey Rooney

Foundations

I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy

- Anthony Robbins

Never Empty

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, directions, missions, and callings

- Abraham Maslow

Seeking Wisdom

In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth - teaching others

- Ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher (c. 1022-1058)

An Unconfmrtable Balance

Life is part positive and part negative. Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of the bass, the crash of the cymbals and the minor keys.

- Jim Rohn

Committees

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. - Sir Barnett Cocks (c. 1907)
Committee - A group of men who keep minutes and waste hours. - Milton Berle
Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to be appointed to do the work. - Laurence J. Peter
You'll find no park or city any monument to a committee. - Victoria Pasternak

Politics

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake

- Mahatma Gandhi

Listen!

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand

- Karl Menninger