17 Rules For A Better Way To Live

SEVENTEEN RULES FOR A BETTER WAY TO LIVE!

Rule One... for a Better Way to Live:

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you... with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.

Rule Two... for a Better Way to Live:

Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in your work that eventually you will become indispensable. Exercise your privilege to go the extra mile, and enjoy all the rewards you receive. You deserve them!

Rule Three... for a Better Way to Live:

Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.

Rule Four... for a Better Way to Live:

Always reward your long hours of labor and toil in the very best way, surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children. And even if you have failed at all else in the eyes of the world, if you have a loving family, you are a success.

Rule Five... for a Better Way to Live:

Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeat again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile!

Rule Six... for a Better Way to Live:

Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance.

Rule Seven... for a Better Way to Live:

Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never again. There is a better way.

Rule Eight... for a Better Way to Live:

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!

Rule Nine... for a Better Way to Live:

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find "tomorrow" on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, "If I had my life to live over again..."Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day!

Rule Ten... for a Better Way to Live:

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Rule Eleven... for a Better Way to Live:

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self- pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.

Rule Twelve... for a Better Way to Live:

Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.

Rule Thirteen... for a Better Way to Live:

Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self- starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

Rule Fourteen... for a Better Way to Live:

You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day -- not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal -- to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished.

Rule Fifteen... for a Better Way to Live:

Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.

Rule Sixteen... for a Better Way to Live:

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valley you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

Rule Seventeen... for a Better Way to Live:

Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

---

Copyright © Og Mandino, from his book, "A Better Way To Live"

One Hundred Goals?

One Hundred Goals?

YES! One Hundred Goals!

Was this speaker stark raving mad? One hundred goals? He thought I could come up with 100 goals for my life?

The speaker, Mark Victor Hansen, compiled the hugely successful Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books with Co-Author Jack Canfield. He challenged the assembled throng at the Women's Business Conference to brainstorm 100 life goals.

Further, he encouraged us to work with a partner with whom we would swap lists. Together we would encourage each other to develop our list. We would hold each other accountable. We would help each other eventually reach these 100 life goals.

Seeing that he was where he was, and I was where I was, I decided to take his advice! How many best sellers does Mark Victor Hansen have anyway? Exactly my point! He was a best selling writer, highly paid motivational speaker, darn good dresser too! And me? I was an employee of local government who read a lot of inspiring books. The kids in my Sunday School class were motivated by my speaking. That was certainly worth something.

My wardrobe? Usually bought on sale, or at the end of the season on clearance.

If Mark Victor Hansen got where he was by writing 100 goals? Then I figured it would not hurt to try! My co-worker and I buddied up to walk together through the process.

The next day I sat at my keyboard. At first I thought I would have difficulty in thinking up goals. Soon, though, I was on a roll. My goals were as diverse as "Have lunch with a friend one time weekly" to "Host a radio talk show" to "travel to Europe".

I approached my co-worker to share my list with her. I also wanted to do my part as her buddy. I knew I needed to encourage her to write her own 100 goals. She read through my list, saying "Great! Oh, and you wrote ‘Learn French twice!' ". With that, she went back to the tasks on her desk.

"Ummmmm..... how is your list coming, buddy?" I tried to sound as positive as I could on this one. Never sound accusatory towards your buddy, I thought

She looked out her window and replied, "My 100 goals are to get up tomorrow and the next 100 days!" She laughed at her humor. Me? I didn't understand.

Then again, her dream in 5 years is to still be working in local government. Perfectly respectable. Nothing at all wrong with that goal.

It is just not something that I could be particularly passionate about. Not something that I would be especially inspired by.

So where does that leave you, today?

Can you think of your 100 goals? Where would you like to be in 5 years? If you had a magic wand and your life could look like anything, what would I see when looking at you? What would it feel like to live that ideal life? What would others think of your life? Would you inspire people? Annoy people? Learn from people?

In other words, what do you really want to do with your life?

Start slow if you think you can not possibly think of 100 goals. Take out a piece of paper or open a new document on your word processor. Go for ten goals at first. No set order of preference, just let your mind go. Let the ideas and thoughts flow.

You may find you need to write more than ten goals as your ideas start moving less like a trickle and more like a deluge. If you run into a roadblock? Stop working. Walk away. Save the goals you have written. Promise yourself that you will come back later.

And then do exactly that! Come back later. Challenge yourself to finish your list of 100 goals.

Finally, find someone with whom to share your goals. A buddy to encourage you as you grow. Do you have anyone who would encourage this kind of challenge? If not, I invite you to join our discussion list entitled LivePassionately2day.

We have set up Goal Buddies in addition to discussing Goals and Goal Setting on a regular basis.

As for me, I am on my way to reaching more and more of my 100 goals. I no longer work in Local Government. I spend my hours caring for my precious babies (one goal was to have another baby, who is now 2!). I am also writing, speaking and am a webmaster. You can find me at a place called 5Passions. It is all about Living a Passion Filled Life.

I have not yet made reservations for a European Trip, nor have I hosted a Talk Radio program, but listen to your local station. You just never can be sure when that goal will also become a reality!

100 Goals. A method for uncovering what you really want. 100 Goals. A way to find out what is stored in your heart. 100 Goals. The beginning of your future.

By Julie Jordan Scott

Speech By Anna Quindlen

This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.

"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre at my job if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house.

Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this:

Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".

One Voice Can Make A Difference

One Voice Can Make a Difference

Author: Doug West

There's a song by Billy Gilham entitled "One Voice." The lyrics are powerful:

One voice, one simple word

Hearts know what to say

One dream can change the world

Keep believing

Till you find a way

The message is important when you think about its true meaning. One voice, truly focused, that will not rest until it achieves its desired goal can change the world. A single voice can make a difference, but the question then becomes: how best to use our voice?

When I look at the editorial page, I see people who express themselves. They write letters, they feel better, but no real change happens.

I'd like to share a personal story.

Every afternoon my mother enjoys watching Judge Judy. The television station that she watches is constantly being interrupted with a million commercials. If it isn't another commercial by a lawyer winning yet another million-dollar case for some frivolous reason, it's the "breaking news" stories that are never really breaking anyway.

Couldn't that story have waited for the actual news broadcast, which is always about 15 minutes away? They just seem to enjoy interrupting Judge Judy instead.

And then there are those awful weather reports. If a storm is stirring in Grand Rapids, interrupt Judge Judy. Raindrops on the west side, lets interrupt Sheindlin. Never mind that she is deliberating a case, or worse yet, that the verdict will be missed. If there are raindrops north of M59, that is news! Apparently no one took the time to complain about it -- that is until my mother sent the program director of WJBK an email and, lo and behold, the next morning she received a phone call!

After expressing her frustration, the program director politely explained that the station had no control over the number and amount of commercials. The network decided that. And the text flashing across the bottom of the screen? It was there for the hearing-impaired.

"What about weatherman Rich Luterman showing us the weather authorities, sky tracker, Doppler radar, satellite images of raindrops from 30,000 feet?" she asked cynically. The program director hesitated, unable to give her an answer. To quote Judge Judy, "It's outrageous! and 'Um' is not an answer!"

I have to admit my mother felt better after the phone call, but when I sat down with her and asked her what had changed, her answer was a thoughtful silence.

That's the problem. My mother used her voice, and expressed her opinion, so she's halfway there, but we need to be a voice for change.

Let's take a look at one of those far-reaching changes. In 1980, in Fair Oaks, Calif., Candy Lightner's 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver while walking down a street. On that day her mother promised herself that she would fight to make her daughter's senseless death count for something positive. That month Mothers Against Drunk Driving was formed.

How many lives has MADD saved? Countless. One woman's voice became a nationwide crusade against the leniency of the sentences being issued for this criminal act, and American law changed. Her moral objection against a court system that passed out trivial sentences against offenders changed the way we looked at drinking and driving.

In the years that followed, Ms. Lightner left MADD concerned that the organization she had created had lost its focus. "I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving, not alcohol usage." She said. "It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I ever wanted or envisioned."

Although the movement she began seems to have lost its direction, it still inevitably saves lives.

Change requires more than just a letter to the editorial page. It requires a more forceful voice and action.

Find your voice and your calling. Remember, your influence can make a difference. If you decide to write a letter to the editor's page, go further; get angry. Take a position that will draw in support, and in the words of the great Football Hall of Fame quarterback, Roger Staubach, when teaching his lessons of how to win in life:

"Persevere. Go all the way, because there's not much traffic on the extra mile."

What Will Matter?

What Will Matter

Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters

How To Stay Highly Motivated

How To Stay Highly Motivated

The degrees of success and happiness we achieve in life result overwhelmingly from the actions we take. But the actions which matter most are not those we do every now and then. It is our consistent actions (our habits) which more than anything else determine the direction and success of our lives. Thus, the first key to success is to adopt good habits.

However, the problem with the above bill of advice is that in the vast majority of cases our habits are not the result of conscious thought and logical decision making. Instead, our habits tend to be "reactions" to our experiences. If those experiences are disproportionately negative, they will tend to produce negative reactions and when this happens consistently, the mental foundation for the bad habit would have been laid.

Always remember that while all experiences count, the ones which count the most in shaping our habits are those which are most emotional and which occur most frequently, especially when we are young. But despite their obvious power and near control over our lives, we do not have to be slaves to our past experiences. Indeed, if those experiences have produced low self-esteem, self- defeating habits and other negative behaviors, we must not be slaves to them.

The most important tool to employ in order to take control of you habits (and as a result become the master of your destiny) is to be highly motivated. You must be driven. Your desire for success must be greater than your fear of failure. You must step outside your current comfort zone and take a chance. If you are not currently a highly motivated person, here are some steps you can take to become a more focused and motivated individual.

Establish Clear, Specific Goals!

- You life goals are the things which give purpose to your life. They are the reason you live. Your desire to achieve these goals will be your greatest motivator. Thus, you must organize you life around the achievement of those goals. Write them down and read (internalize) them at least twice a day.

Take An Action A Day!

- You must establish an action plan which requires that you do at least one thing each day which brings you closer to your goals. Never forget that it is action which turns goals and dreams into realities. Do something each day. Habit is nothing but repeated behavior. Just do it, do it, do it. And one day you will wake up and find yourself taking productive actions without even thinking about it. That is when you would have formed a habit.

Instill Emotion!

- Rational thought and logic can enable us to figure out what to do and how to do it, but it is only emotion that will make us do it. Human behavior is emotionally driven. The two chief emotions are desire and fear. Strong desire will make you take action. But fear can also prompt action. You act because you are afraid of the consequences if you fail to act. I recommend the use of self- hypnosis to instill strong, positive emotional desire. And self-hypnosis can be as simple as retreating to a quiet place twice a day and emotionally repeating positive affirmations.

Take Charge!

- Repeat this mantra, "If it is to be, it is up to me." There may be a host of reasons for current bad habits ranging from having been raised in a dysfunctional home to falling in with the wrong crowd, to just not having correct information. Regardless, if things are going to change for the better, it is up to you. No one else is responsible for bettering your life. If you find someone or group which helps, that's fine. But the chief responsibility is yours. Stop playing the "blame game" and take charge of your life.

By Robert N. Taylor

24 Interludes In Our Life

1. Don't go for looks, they can deceive. Don't go for wealth even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile.

2. There are moments in life when you really miss someone that you want to pick them up from your dreams and hug them. Hope you dream of that someone.

3. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want in life.

4. May you have...

Enough happiness to make you sweet

Enough trials to make you strong

Enough sorrow to keep you human

Enough hope to make you happy

And enough money to buy gifts.

5. When one door of happiness closes, another opens. But we often took so long at the closed door, that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.

6. The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch, swing with, never saying a word and then walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had.

7. It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

8. Always put yourself in other's shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably does hurt the person too.

9. A careless word may kindle a strife;

A cruel word may wreck a life

A timely word may level stress

A lovely word may heal and bless.

10. The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves and not to twist them with our own image, otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

11. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes along the way.

12. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we should know how to be grateful for that gift.

13. It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone and a day to love someone - but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

14. Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

15. Love is when you take away the feeling, the passion, the romance and find out you still care for that person.

16. A sad thing about life is that when you meet someone who means a lot to you only to find out in the end that it was never bound to be and you just have to let go.

17. Love starts with a smile, develops with a kiss and ends with a tear.

18. Love comes to those who still hope even though they've been disappointed, to those who still believe even though they've been betrayed, need to love those who still love, even though they've been hurt before.

19. It hurts to love someone, and not to be loved in return but what is most painful is to love someone and never finds the courage to let the person know how you feel.

20. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

21. Never say goodbye when you still want to try; Never give up when you still feel you can take it; Never say you don't love that person anymore when you can't let go.

22. Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back. Don't expect love in return, just wait for it to grow in their hearts but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.

23. There are things you love to hear but you would never hear it from the person whom you would like to hear it from, but don't be deaf to hear it from the person who says it with his heart.

24. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling Live your life to the fullest so that when you die, you're smiling and everyone around you is crying.

--- Author Unknown -

Value The Present

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

* To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

* To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

* To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. .

* To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

* To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.

* To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.

* To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time. And remember that time waits for no one.

--- Author Unknown ---

Too Many Days At One Time

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry. Two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone!!

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise, whether in splendor or behind a mask of clouds. But it will rise. Until it does we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.

This leaves only one day: today.

Any man can fight the battles of just one day. It is when you and I add the burdens of two awful eternities – yesterday and tomorrow, that we break down.

It is not necessarily the experience of today that disturbs one’s peace of mind. It is oftentime the bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.

Let us therefore live one day at a time.

The Difference Between A Day And A Year

Tom and Jerry joined a wholesale company together, just after graduation. Both worked very hard. After several years, the boss promoted Tom to Sales Executive but Jerry remained a sales rep.

One day, Jerry could not take it anymore, tendered his resignation and complained to the boss that he did not value hard working staff, but only promoted those who flattered him.

The boss knew that Jerry worked very hard over the years, but in order to help Jerry realise the difference between him and Tom, the boss asked Jerry to do the following. Go and find out if anyone is selling water melons in the market. Jerry returned and said yes. The boss asked how much per kg? Jerry went back to the market to ask and returned to inform the boss it was $12 per kg.

Boss told Jerry, I will ask Tom the same question.

Tom went out and on returning, reported to the boss: "Only one person selling water melons. $12 per kg, $100 for 10kg, he has inventory for 340 melons. On the table 58 melons, every melon weighs about 15 kg, bought from the South two days ago, they are fresh and red, good quality.

Jerry was very impressed and realised the difference between himself and Tom. He decided not to resign but to learn from Tom.

My dear friends, a more successful person is more observant, thinks more and understands in-depth. For the same matter, a more successful person sees several years ahead, while the other see only tomorrow. The difference between a year and a day is 365 times, how could you win?