Battle Cry Of The Fool

The battle cry of the fool: "Don't tell me what to do!"
- Rod Appleby

This morning I glanced up and saw this quote on a calendar at Turning Point. So true, so true.

On Being and Doing

What is the essence of our being? I thought this series of philosophical quotes on the subject were deep:

“To be is to do” — Nietzche

“To do is to be” — Sartre

“Do be do be do” — Sinatra

Quote: Jack Handey on Criticism

Quote: Jack Handey on Criticism

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes."

Quotes: The Power of Initiative

I like to be inspired by quotes, so after yesterday's post, I went looking for some good quotes on the power of initiative. There's actually lots out there! Here are a few of my favorites:

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
— Conrad Hilton


"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire."
— T. Boone Pickens


"The right man is the one who seizes the moment."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


"A man who has to be convinced to act before he acts is not a man of action. You must act as you breathe."
— Georges Clemmanceau


"Their comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear."
— David Mahoney


"I would rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not."
— Lucille Ball


"If you don't make dust, you eat dust."
— Motto of Jack A. MacAllister


"Do not lie in a ditch, and say God help me; use the lawful tools He hath lent thee."
— English Proverb


"Luck comes to a man who puts himself in the way of it. You went where something might be found and you found something, simple as that."
— Louis L'Amour


"A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow."
— George Patton


"Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle."
— attributed to Abraham Lincoln


"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence, The only consequence is what we do."
— John Ruskin


"Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there."
— Will Rogers


"An idea is worthless unless you use it."
— John Maxwell


"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
— William Jennings Bryan


"No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye."
— Winston Churchill


"Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference."
— Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari


"You can't cross a sea by merely staring into the water."
— Rabindranath Tagore


"Anything worth doing is worth doing now!"
— Ralph Stayer


"If opportunity doesn't knock - build a door."
— Milton Berle


"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there."
— Edwin Louis Cole


"Let's make a dent in the universe."
— Steve Jobs


"The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
— Mark Twain


"Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone."
— Robert Allen


"If I had to sum up in a word what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act."
— Lee J. Iacocca


May Light increase!

Quote

"Surviving is important, but thriving is elegant." - Maya Angelou

I immediately liked this quote when I read it in my planner this morning. Too often when I look at my schedule I am in survival mode - desperately trying to get done all I need to. And in life, there are times when just surviving is an incredible accomplishment. I think of times like grieving, financial hardships, spiritually dry times, and illness. Surviving is sometimes the best one can hope for. Sadly, sometimes we can get stuck in survival mode and it becomes a way of life instead of a stage. We can't imagine ourselves anywhere else then in our current, desperate (or near desperate) circumstances. Hope leaves us. And even if we try and sound hopeful to others, in our hearts we have given up. Things will always be like this. I might as well just get used to it.

When one is just surviving, it takes a lot of courage to imagine what thriving would like. It takes even more courage to plan for thriving! In psychology it has been proven that long term depression is often exacerbated by an overall (or global) negative mindset. This mindset, rather then circumstances, can keep a person from exiting the depression and thriving in their life. Action is necessary to break out of the survival mode and takes steps toward thriving.

Why is action so necessary? Because action challenges negative mindsets and proves that many of the negative assumptions that a person has are false. As an example; lets say a person has an accident and is unable to leave their home for several months (getting obese and socially isolated). During their recovery, this individual could eventually develop a negative mindset that says they can only survive and that they will always be this way (obese, lonely, and homebound). Depression may set in so that they can't get back to normal even after physical recovery from the accident. A counselor might challenge them to try some sort of action; maybe going for a walk twice a week and saying hello to at least one person they meet. Once they try this small action, the action proves the myth is wrong (I can get excercise, I can talk to people), and the negative mindset loses some of its power. They have taken a step from unnecessary survival mode to thriving.

Everyone needs to go into survival mode sometimes - it's part of being human and very normal. Life happens. But if you live there, if you can't ever get out of it even though circumstances may not be really that bad, then I challenge you in a friendly way to imagine and plan for thriving. Take some sort of action to change things. Even if you can't think of some action, ask someone else for ideas (a friend, a pastor, a business person, a counselor, a doctor, etc.). As much as is possible, change your stars. Thriving is possible, you just can't see it . . . yet.

May Light increase!

The Student and the Professor

Student: What is science?
Professor: Looking for a black cat in a dark room.
Student: What is philosophy?
Professor: Looking for a black cat in a dark room and there is no cat.
Student: What is psychotherapy?
Professor: Looking for a black cat in a dark room where there is no cat . . . and finding it.

Quote

"A man never describes his own character so clearly as when he describes another." -Jean Paul Richter

Something about this quote made me stop dead in my tracks this morning. Think about it; how do you respond when you hear a person describing another in less then flattering terms? I know how I do. Even if part of me agrees with that person, I lose respect for the person for telling me. More so, I lose some of my trust for them (if they talk about others like this, what are they saying about me?). I think a big part of how we grade people when it comes to character and integrity is how they talk about others behind their back. I worry that many of us Christians are addicted to gossip (which we justify in so many interesting ways) and are unaware of the damage it does to relationships, churches, and ministry. Instead of doing the work of giving feedback to each other, we share our opinions with others. Speaking poorly about others behind their back doesn't just affect the teller and the subject but the hearer as well. My challenge for this week; speak the truth in love and maintain my integrity when I speak about others.

May Light increase!

Quote

"There is at least one thing more brutal than the truth, and that is the consequence of saying less then the truth." - Ti-Grace Atkinson.