The Final Exam

     Anyone who has been a student remembers that to pass the course, you had to pass the infamous...Final Exam!  Just thinking back on all the final exams I had to study for, gives me shivers.  Many times as I was studying for the exam, I would day dream about how great it would be if I knew all the questions that were going to be on the exam ahead of time.  Just think how much less studying I would have to do!

     Knowing the questions before any final exam would certainly make life easier.  What we don't realize, is that there is a question that each one of us will be asked sometime during our lifetime.  It may be asked by someone else or it may be asked by ourselves.  The question is..."What have you done with your life?"  It's a question that will certainly make us stop and think and could be an extremely difficult question to answer.  The answer we provide, to others or to ourselves, will either bring feelings of peace and satisfaction or feelings of frustration and anxiety.  The former feelings will be felt if we have tried to do as much with our lives as we possibly could.  The latter feelings will be due to the realization that we have wasted our time and have not accomplished things that we knew we could, but were hesitant to try.

     The good news is...we already know the question, so we can prepare the answer we will give.  The bad news is...we are already taking the exam!  It's called life.  Fortunately, the exam lasts for years.  And each one of us will have a varying number of years to complete the exam.  Every day is an opportunity to contribute to our answer.  Eventually, however, we will be told, "The exam is over, put your pencils down."  Until then, how are you composing your answer to the question, "What have you done with your life?"

A Smile

We shall never know all the good a simple smile can do.

~ Mother Teresa ~

Our Possessions

We are not the sum of our possessions.

~ George H. W. Bush ~

Old Guys

Old guys can still do fun things.

~ George H. W. Bush ~

High Moral Principle

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle.

We as a people have such a purpose today.  It is to make kinder the face of the nation

and gentler the face of the world.

~ George H. W. Bush ~

R.I.P.

Keep Away

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition.

Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel

that you, too, can become great.

~ Mark Twain ~

Worse Than a Quitter

The one thing worse than a quitter

is a person who is afraid to begin.

People Who Complain

People who complain about the way the ball bounces

are usually the ones who dropped it.

Treasure the Love

Treasure the love you receive above all.

It will survive long after your good health has vanished.

~ Og Mandino ~

Change

Change is the end result

of all true learning.

~ Leo Buscaglia ~

Thanksgiving

I am grateful for what I am and have.

My thanksgiving is perpetual. 

~ Henry David Thoreau ~ 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it

is like wrapping a present and not giving it. 

~ William Arthur Ward ~

Count Your Blessings

When I started counting my blessings,

my whole life turned around.

~ Willie Nelson ~

Makes A Difference

Act as if what you do

makes a difference. It does. 

~ William James ~

Crayons

We could learn a lot from crayons:

some are sharp, some are pretty,

some are dull, some have weird names,

and all are different colors...but

they all exist very nicely in the same box.

Tolerance

Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny,

we must fill our hearts with tolerance.

~ Stan Lee ~

R.I.P.

Persistence And Determination

Nothing in the world can takethe place of persistence.  

Talent will not; nothing is more common 

than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

~ Calvin Coolidge ~

Getting Things Done

The way to get things done is not to mind

who gets the credit for doing them.

~ Benjamin Jowett ~

Veterans

The U.S. Military is us.  There is no truer representation

of a country than the people it sends into the field to fight for it.

The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles 

into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them,

because they're protecting us.

~ Tom Clancy ~

This Sunday, pause and thank those 

who have served our country in the military.

 

Your Attitude is Everything

     In the book, "Attitude, Your Internal Compass", by Denis Waitley and Boyd Matheson, they write the following about attitude.  It's a good reminder of just how important our day to day attitude can be:

     "Attitude is the way you view your life - your experiences, your environment, your opportunities, your problems, your choices and your responses.  Attitude is the direction in which you lean on all ideas and issues.  It's either failure-reinforcing or success-reinforcing.

     Losers see thunderstorms.  Winners look for rainbows.  Losers see the perils of icy streets.  Winners put on their ice skates.  Losers put down.  Winners lift up.  Losers let life happen to them.  Winners make life happen for themselves and others. Winning and losing is all about attitude.

     Attitudes begin as harmless thoughts.  Then, with practice, they become layered by habit into unbreakable cables to shackle or strengthen our lives.  We're scarcely aware they exist.  Like comfortable beds, they are easy to fall into but difficult to get out of, once settled in.  First we make our attitudes, then our attitudes make us.  Attitude is the servant of all the great individuals who have ever lived and, of course, the servant of all the failures as well.

     There is little difference between common people and those who are uncommonly successful.  The little difference is in their attitude.  The big difference is whether the attitude is positive or negative.

     Your attitude is either the lock on or key to the door of fulfillment.  How important is your attitude?  In truth, "Attitude is Everything."

     We are not responsible for what happens out there, what others do or think.  We are responsible only for how we choose to think and behave.  That's our attitude.  It is a precious, personal possession."
 
 

Never Too Late

It’s never too late to be what you might have been. 

~ George Eliot ~

Rulers of our Democracy

Let us never forget that government is ourselves

and not an alien power over us.

The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President

and senators and congressman and government officials,

but the voters of this country.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~

Vote

If someone says, "Democracy is a sham, those people don't speak for me...

the system's rigged", you say "Vote."  Someone says, "I was making

a statement by not voting" and then you say, "Well, I can't hear it."

~ Jesse Williams ~

Vote!

Value Yourself

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time.

Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

~ M. Scott Peck ~

The Human Body

God wisely designed the human body so that we can

neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily.

~ Thomas Carlyle ~