The Speed of Achievement

Speed you ask, well then how fast is fast, well if you asked your granny and Michael Schumacher the same question they would give entirely different answers. The main reason for this is that your granny and Michael's brains have had different conditioning. If we ask an achiever and the non achiever the same question we would get a similar outcome based on conditioning.

Speed however is a scary phenomenon if you not an adrenalin junkie. A while back I came across a quotation that read as follows: "each day you should do something that scares you" ; interesting and therefore we could say that the speed is relative and as long as we are in control we are not really scaring ourselves or the adrenalin is not pumping.

This quote by Mario Andretti says it best of all “If you are in control, you are not going fast enough...” Andretti one of the most famous racing drivers of his generation, Andretti was one of only three drivers to win races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times. With his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to win IndyCar races in four different decades and the first to win automobile races of any kind in five.

Regardless of the high speeds he achieved he was clearly always in complete control of the car, the course and indeed himself.
However we need to consider our conditioning and change some of our associations, so that we can achieve and get the results of the champions we were designed to be.
Having the control worthy of the achiever we were intended to be

In life do we do the things that will take us to the limit; in our thinking, in our relationships, our work and even in our spiritual lives?

The More

The more you give the more you get the more you laugh the less you fret.
The more you do unselfishly the more you live abundantly.
The more of everything you share the more you'll always have to spare.
The more you love the more you'll find that life is good when friends are kind.
For only what we give away enriches us from day to day.

Who Am I? I Am A Champion

I will conquer what has not been conquered
Victory is my creed
I will believe what others have doubted
I train my mind and my body will follow
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

I will never surrender
Strength will be in my heart
I will look to my family and loved ones,
and those that have brought me into this world,
and I will draw strength from them
Never will I let them down
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

I will gladly go out into the field of battle
and I will move, groove, and do everything that I can do
and I will reach my field of battle by any means at my disposal
and when I get there I will arrive triumphantly
because no one can stop me
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

No one will deny me
No one will defy me
and no one will tell me who and what I am, and can be
because no one knows my heart
Belief will change my world
It has moved continents, countries, and put man on the moon
and it will carry me through this battle
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

Defeat, retreat are not in my words
I do not understand those definitions
I do not understand when things go wrong
I do not understand mistakes
But I do understand this,
I understand victory and I understand NEVER surrendering
No matter how bad things go,
my heart and my mind will carry
my body when my limbs are too weak
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

Today will be that day, not tomorrow not next week,
but right here, right now
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

History will remember me
I will not have to worry about him being kind
I will define myself, I will write my own praises
And no one can tell me what I can and cannot be
I will give everything I have got
WHO AM I? I AM A CHAMPION

Risk

The Greatest Gift

(Charles Macomb Flandrau)
The greatest gift ... is the realization that life does not consist either of wallowing in the past or of peering anxiously at the future; and it is appalling to contemplate the great number of often painful steps by which one arrives at a truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed.

It is good for one to appreciate that life is now.
Whatever it offers, little or much, life is now - this day - this hour.

Before

Life

Remember you are born to live.
Don't live because you are born.

Don't go the way life takes you ...
Take life the way you go!!

Great lives take life the way they go and Mother Teresa, who was a wonderful example of how we can live our lives said the following:

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is fortune, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

Connections

Your success depends on the quality of people you are connected to, and there are two types of people you'll come in contact with throughout your lifetime: 

1) those who add and multiply, making you more than you are; 

2) And those who subtract and divide, thereby devaluing you. 

Never allow people into your life without knowing their agenda.
Find out where they came from and why they want to be connected to you. 

When a person is in your life and your life is declining, they are not a God connection! 

A healthy connection will protect your self-worth even when you're experiencing a season of pain or struggling with a failure in your life. A true God connection will never abandon his assignment until you reach your full potential!

Do Unto Others

(Author Unknown)

One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night.
"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked.
The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town.
"All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night."
When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me, I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them.
So the couple agreed.
As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you."
The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.
Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit.
The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a pale reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.
"That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage."
"You must be joking," the young man said.
"I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.
The older man's name was William Waldorf-Aster, and that magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.

Murphy vs Maxwell

Murphy's law states: Everything takes longer than you expect and if anything can go wrong it will.

Maxwell's law states: Nothing is as hard as it looks, everything is more rewarding than you expect and when things go right they will be at the best possible moment.

When we expect the best in our lives it happens and when we expect the worst; well then we know what happens too - make the choice to expect the best from your day today.

Finders, Keepers ... or Givers?

(Author Unknown)
A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.

The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious:
Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

Simplicity

The baggage we carry through life can weigh and slow us down. Simplify your life by asking what experiences enrich your life and choose to keep them, clear your mind of the useless baggage by forgiving and forgetting. Remember any fool can complicate things, but it is the genius who simplifies life for himself and others.

Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means. Ralph Waldo Emerson said "to be simple is to be great".

So how can we be great and how can we simplify our lives?

Begin with simplifying the way you Communicate.

We are constantly being bombarded by a sea of information, we need to make quick decisions on the phone, answer emails and interact on social media. Listen and understand before answering, this will ensure that you only give the information required by the people concerned.

Keep things simple and get to the point quickly, if we are saying something we should pronounce our words properly and say things slower. People will only remember what they think is important in what you have said and not what you thought was important, so the best is to say a little and say it over and over again. The ability to connect with others starts with understanding that they too want to be heard, so we need to listen and understand them first so that they can listen to us. There is a saying that goes people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Remembering that most of the communication we have is non verbal the most important thing to do when communicating is to smile, yes when you talking to people but also when you speaking on the phone, writing and email, smiling raises your energy and it will raise the energy of what you say too. Louis Auchincloss puts it so well, "The only thing that keeps a man going is energy and what is energy but liking life?"

Routine will simplify your life too, it gives you discipline which simplifies thoughts in your mind. Sleep at the right time so that you have enough energy to get things done as planned.

And here are a few more thoughts:

Don't make your plans too complex, get to the essence of what you are trying to achieve.

Simplify your lifestyle by not buying on credit.
Eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are tired, live in the moment.
Be grateful for what you have - be content and love yourself!

Please let me have your ideas on how we can all simplify our lives, have a simply marvelous day.

Simple Communication

You need to get your information or idea over quickly and effectively so that you can get the results you are looking for. Here are some tips:

• Present the big idea right up front and then prove the idea with what follows.
• Pictures are worth a thousand words, incorporate them where you can.
• Make your message simple and concise so that it will be remembered.
• Humans evolved telling stories, so tell a short-short relevant story.
• Show confidence, be decisive - this makes you more credible and will make all the difference.
• People make decisions with emotions, appeal to their emotions first and their intellect second.

There is more I could of said but that would of only complicated things!

NOW Attitude

Focus on what’s happening, the “NOW” and let go of the past - success lies not in what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us. Our positive emotions, our good attitudes must be stronger than our negative ones, we must continually feed our positive attitude until it is stronger and wins over the negatives.

Our attitudes will always determine our outcomes and this reminds me of the “Paradoxical Commandments” by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease, and environmental destruction. 

Have faith anyway.

Too often we look at yesterday to model the success for today, but yesterday is already history - God wants us to focus on him and he will show us the new day, the day that no eye has seen before! 

God’s amazing day awaits us!

Friends

There are good ships and there are bad ships, but the best ships are friendships.

Friends are important and having good friends will multiply our joy, share our sorrows which divides our grief, they encourage us and bring out the best in us and share in our happiness when we've won.

Friends are to be cherished; yes they are sometimes blatantly honest cause they know us so well and that can hurt. We must remember that a true friend is there to encourage us to be better and that is a process that may hurt but we will grow. 

A true friend never gets in your way, unless you're on your way down. They walk in when others walk out and they are there for you when they'd rather be somewhere else.

Being a friend to others makes us the people we are, we need to befriend ourselves first so that we can be a friend. Eleanor Roosevelt sums if up so well "Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."

Your Heart's Desire

You're only truly free when you discover your mission, purpose and direction in life. This can be summed up in one phrase - "your heart's desire"

The average life consists of 20 years of your parents asking you where you going? 40 years of your spouse asking you where you going? And in the end your friends wondering where you are going? We are poor when we have no idea on how to answer these questions with some degree of certainty.

In life we will come across many good ideas, but the truly great ideas, the one's that capture and imagination and bring us joy just thinking about them; are the one's that truly capture our heart and are worth pursuing. In fact the pursuit and the work towards this will not turn us into workaholics but "workaphiles", lovers of work.

I have found that through the Mastermind Conversation Group concept, suggested by Napoleon Hill in his book "Think and Grow Rich" to be one of the most effective ways to help groups of people discover their purpose in life.

The choice to stop or pursue is the defining moment in your life. When that decision is made, nothing else matters, not the past, not the risks and circumstances - just the decision to pursue it matters.

We must desire something to be alive - when this desire is evident we will bring great joy to our parents, our spouses and our friends, as their is nothing as good as seeing someone else pursuing their purpose in life. They will no longer ask you where you going, they will simply say they love you!

Criticism

You don't achieve much without criticism - if you allow other people's words to stop you, they will.

We should remember this before we criticize others and when we think of criticizing someone it should always be done in love, if you going to say something, look for something positive to say as this is the way you change others - remember love changes everything and if you have nothing good to say it is better to say nothing.

But don't do nothing because you are afraid of criticism, or else you will die doing nothing.

Dennis Wholey said the following "Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian." 

Mother

Mother is the word God on the lips of a little child and the meaning in that little heart.

To all the Mothers near and far, I truly want to honor you today for being the true examples of love in this world - your love is never ending and it is the love that changes and continues to change this world.

It's a mothers love that makes a home complete - interestingly enough the three words that we appreciate the most are: mother, home and heaven. A little girl, was once asked where her home is and she replied, "where mommy is".

Thank you for always cheering us on through our lives, so that we can continue the legacy of love that you started in us - may you be totally spoilt and blessed today.

Perspectives

Sometimes when we look at our situation we could be disappointed, but one often has to stop & think and look at things from a different perspective, I love this story about little Jamie.

Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being in the play, though she feared that he would not be chosen..

On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, his eyes shining with pride & excitement. "Guess what, Mom". he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me forever. . . ."I've been chosen to clap and cheer".

Think Different

Outstanding people are always different from their peers, the best compliment you can be given is when others say to you that you are different - only those who are different are going to make a difference. I am not saying be weird, but be different and stand out!

John Mason put it so well "You're born an original, don't die a copy", believe me we are so conditioned by our surroundings, that if we do not choose to be different we will be nothing but copies.

Think different, be different and stand out.

I have always been moved by the 'Think Different' Apple computer poster advert and the original version had the following words:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

The Greatness Within

"Help others find the greatness within themselves and you will never miss the greatness within yourself."
Richard Simmonds


This was my first quote that I sent out on the 20th of January 2011, after I was encouraged to write my own quotes and not just use other peoples quotes, since then I have been writing, combining, modifying and simplifying the quotes I send out daily.
Thank you for sharing in this inspirational experience with me, I am never the message just the messenger and I am greatly humbled by that - may you grow into the person our God intended you to be.

Dreams

May your dreams always be greater than your memories. Be better today than you were yesterday, but not as great as you going to be tomorrow.

Change

There are three kinds of people: Those that will not change, those that can change and those that cause change. Your growth depends on your willingness to change.

The great Mahatma Ghandi said that we should "be the change we want to see in the world", and Norman Vincent Peale stated that when "we change our thoughts, we change our world".

There is a proverb that says "a change is as good as a rest", I find that an interesting statement as I always perceived change to be difficult. We need to simplify our thinking, find out what is really important to us, what we really need to change and that will bring us the rest we need.

Gratitude

Be thankful for what you already have; the more you are thankful for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to be thankful for.

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.