Inspirational Words
The other day I got an e-mail message saying simply this: Rosa Parks sat in 1955. Martin Luther King walked in 1963. Barack Obama ran in 2008. That our children might fly.
The German Question
By George Friedman (STRATFOR)
* The Russian Resurgence
German Chancellor Angela Merkel went to St. Petersburg last week for meetings with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. The central question on the table was Germany’s position on NATO expansion, particularly with regard to Ukraine and Georgia. Merkel made it clear at a joint press conference that Germany would oppose NATO membership for both of these countries, and that it would even oppose placing the countries on the path to membership. Since NATO operates on the basis of consensus, any member nation can effectively block any candidate from NATO membership.
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HUSSEY'S 10 PLUS 1 GOLDEN RULE
I believe that everyone should have rules or principles that guide them – baseline that they come back to time and time again to keep them anchored. Below are mine:
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IN LIFE AND SET GOALS
2. BACK GOALS WITH DETERMINATION; BE PERSISTENCE – BOUNCE BACK
3. LOVE YOUR WORK…WORK YOUR LOVE…COMMIT YOURSELF.
4. COMMIT YOURSELF TO A LIFE OF LEARNING – READ OFTEN AND WIDELY
5. USE YOUR TIME WISELY…DON’T WASTE A MINUTE
6. SAY TO YOURSELF I AM A GENIUS; REGARD YOURSELF AS THE GREATEST
7. FOLLOW THOSE WHO ARE GOOD…ASSOCIATE ONLY WITH SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE.
8. TREAT EVERYONE WITH RESPECT; BUT WITHDRAW IT IF IT IS UNDESERVED
9. GUARD YOUR INTEGRITY AS A SACRED THING…BE TRUE TO YOURSELF
10. LIVE YOUR LIFE AS THOUGH YOU WOULD LIKE EVERYBODY TO FOLLOW YOU.
11. USE YOUR CREATIVITY…WORK HARD AND YOU WILL SUCCEED!
1 Step Back, 2 Steps Forward
— By Mike Kramer, Staff Writer
In tennis, losing one point isn’t the end of the world. It happens to the best of them. In fact, if you can consistently win a few more points that you lose, you may end up in the hall of fame. With healthy eating and exercising, as long as you’re consistently out-stepping your steps back, you’re ahead of the game. If you expect perfection (and many of us do), you’re setting yourself up for disappointment and guilt.
Guilt can be debilitating to your healthy habits. When you mess up (or even when things are messed up for you), it’s natural to feel guilty. At that point, you have a choice: to let that guilt plummet you into a cycle that could spit you out worse off than before, or to accept the step back and say “where do I go from here?”
Of course, consistent success is still something to strive for. You don’t want to roller-coaster up and down. That’s an “old” habit, remember? And the 1Step/2Step strategy doesn’t lessen the need to do your best. You should still work hard to keep those steps back from happening. But it helps to be prepared with a plan and a positive attitude for when they do happen.
Many times, this means a rededication, a refocusing, and a recommitment. You might want to look at your program and see why it’s allowing those landmines to stick around. Use it as a learning process. Ask how you can keep that misstep from happening again.
Take a walk in the woods to clear your head and regroup.
Have a personal “bounce back” motto that will re-energize you. Put it everywhere.
Take a break if you think you’re trying too hard.
Return to the basics. Are you making it too complicated and tough on yourself?
Plan ahead for irregularities in your schedule, call ahead to healthy restaurants, pack healthy snacks.
Stay aware of what you’re doing. One meal mess up can turn into a one day mess up, a one week mess up if you’re not careful.
Remind yourself of your success so far when you need a boost.
Unlike people who run 10 miles today because they should have run two yesterday, “2 Steps Forward” doesn’t necessarily mean doing a lot more to make up for a blunder. Just make a commitment to do things as right as possible as much as you can.
Truth
A quote to live by from the Bible:
Let us not live in words or speeches, but in truth and action.
1 John 3:18
We Will Never Quit
We Will Never Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road we are traveling seems all up hill,
When our funds are low and the debts are high,
And we want to smile but we have to sigh,
When care is pressing us down a bit,
Rest if we must, but we’ll never quit.
Life’s race is full of twists and turns,
As everyone of us finally learns.
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
We’ll never give up, though the pace seems slow;
We may succeed, if we give it a go.
Success is failure, turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
We can never tell how the race will end;
A victory may lie just around the next bend.
So we’ll stay the course when we are hardest hit;
It’s when things seem worse that we must not quit.