Inspirational Thoughts

A little bit more

Today is an excellent day for small, incremental improvements. Whatever is working for you, find a way to improve it just a little. There's no need to make a huge, momentous change, just a small one, something you can do right now.

If you called just one additional potential customer each day, over the course of the next month you would talk to about 20 new people. If you learned just one more new word each day, in the next year you would increase your vocabulary by more than 300 words.

Small improvements can add up over time into big accomplishments. Look around you. Consider the work you do each day. Think about how you could do it just a little bit better.

In a marathon race, each stride taken by the winner is just a little bit longer and a little bit faster than each stride taken by the 100th place finisher. Yet over the course of the race, that small difference adds up in a big way.

Do just a little bit more today, and tomorrow too, and each day after that. Anyone can make just a small improvement, and that can make a big, big difference.

-- Ralph Marston

Imagine you have the opportunity to take a trip across the country. You can stop wherever you'd like, spend however long you want at any location, and have no set timetable. Are you going to focus solely on your destination and simply drive there? Or are you going to let go of the need to arrive anywhere at any particular time and enjoy the scenery, the people you meet along the way, and the places you linger in?

Every day you have the opportunity to go on a "cross-country" trip a once in a lifetime, twenty four hour adventure that'll never be repeated any other day. How do you wish to spend the time? By enjoying every minute and stopping to savor every unique opportunity, or by simply focusing on your goals and trying to achieve them?

Today, you can reach any destination or any goal you set for yourself. But how you do so will determine how enjoyable and memorable today will be. The runner who only looks down at the road will surely reach his/her destination, but won't have the same experience as the runner who looks at the road as well as notices the sights, sounds, and smells around her.

Today, make an effort to notice one person's face, one facet of nature, or one event on your journey to tomorrow.

Today's Goal:

Today, I'll take time to notice what's around me instead of just what's ahead of me.

Tim Connor, CSP Speaker Trainer Author

Exhilaration

Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it.

- Rex Harrison

Leadership

A leader knows what's best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it.

- Ken Adelma

Giving

He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.

- Lao-Tzu

A friend

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it, and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a person and draw it out: It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.

-Unknown

A schedule

The first 90% of a job takes the first 90% of the time. The remaining 10% of a job takes the other 90% of the time!

-Bill Blinn

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