personal growth

The Difference Our Sight can Make

“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.” ― Gene Roddenberry   Space, the final frontier…so many afternoons began with […]

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Want a Better World? Raise Your Voice!

“ Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes—goodwill among men and peace on earth.” ~ Albert Einstein It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to be Albert Einstein, to discover a theory that […]

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Working on Self-Improvement? Be a better listener!

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ~Stephen Covey Have you spent much time around small children?  It only takes one momentary slip of a ‘bad’ word or a story you’d rather not have repeated to your friends to discover that some of the best […]

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Life is better with less complaining

“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.” ― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture   They’ve raised the price again! What do they think, that we’re made of money? She’s […]

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Be a better…coach

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” Jim Valvano When the team loses, everyone looks to the coach, when kids make mistakes in life, people tend to look to their ‘coach’ (the parents), and when a company is failing everyone looks to the ‘coach’ (the leader). […]

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2016, The Year We Became Better!

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway Everywhere we turn, there seems to be a demand that we be better than everyone else.  If you want a promotion, be better than your co-workers, if you want first chair in the […]

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Have We Found Freedom?

None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.  ~Pearl S. Buck If you’ve walked everywhere all your life, you can’t appreciate the longing a person in a wheelchair must have to share in your freedom.  If you’ve been able to […]

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Appreciating their presence

This was originally posted in December 2014.  Thought it worth sharing for the holidays. “I wear the chain I forged in life….I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” ― Jacob Marley’s ghost; Charles Dickens, […]

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From Crisis to Success

If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. ~Vincent Van Gogh   It’s one of my favorite toys that only comes out of storage during December because it happens to be red and green.  A red base with green tree trunks […]

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Finishing Well

“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden Finally, the Christmas tree is decorated with small white lights and lots of ornaments that have followed us through many years of life.  The […]

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Thoughts to Encourage

Joy is the will which labors, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.~ William Butler Yeats

Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right. - Henry Ford

The best way out is always through. ~ Robert Frost

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~ Theodore N. Vail

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing helps like a good nap…

Birds are Beautiful

A Dog is Faithful…