Love Letter

My Dear Wife,

I appreciate your understanding heart. My work day often seems to press in from all sides. Demands, decisions and deadlines. Somebody is always pushing for something. Sometimes when I get back home, I just want a little peace and quietness, and some space. I need to decompress and transform back into the man I want to be, someone you recognise and you want to spend time with.

Be patient with me, my love. I know you have always given me that space, and I want you to know how much I value that kindness and selfless consideration. I'll do my utmost to do the same for you, for I know your days can be trying too. I will learn to be understanding, just like you, my darling.

Because I Love You,
Your Husband.

Nursery rhymes uncut

JACK AND JILL Went up the hill
To have a little fun.
Stupid Jill forgot the pill
And now they have a son.

HUMPTY DUMPTY sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings' horses, And all the kings' men.
Had scrambled eggs,For breakfast again.

Killing Flies

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Hunting flies," he responded.
"Oh, killing any?" she asked.
"Yep, 3 males, 2 females," he replied.
Intrigued, she asked, "How can you tell them apart?"
He responded, "Easy. 3 were on a beer can, 2 were on the phone."

Don't be Anxious: Something Worth Thinking About.

Today I lost a client. I felt lousy. Leading to this lousiness is a path littered with anxieties and worries. After thinking through all this, I would like to start by this quote:

“No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue... Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly dealt with; anxiety is, therefore, unnecessary. The task which cannot be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and becomes an impossibility…and there is only one way of dealing with an impossibility - namely to submit to it.” - Byways of Blessedness

Most people who read this quote probably think that I write them for others. The truth is, I write them for me. I need them as much or more than the folks I write for.

Yes, I was confronted with a difficulty that I allowed myself to be filled with a great deal of anxiety. It’s not a new difficulty or even a totally unexpected one. But I was faced with a decision that will have long-term ramifications. One of those kind of decisions that we’d rather not make - one of those decisions that makes you want to stay at home and not go out in the morning, not even pick up calls.

James Allen’s words are so incredibly penetrating on this subject because he’s basically saying that there’s no problem that we should be anxious about. We can either solve it or it’s impossible to solve. His words kind of reminds you of the Serenity Prayer, doesn’t it? “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference.”

Someone once said that “If money can fix it, it’s not a problem.” Problem is, I don’t have the money to fix it, so I’ve got a problem. Right? Wrong thinking. Because you should focus on getting the money to fix the problem, and not focusing on the "I don't have" mentality. Truth is, you’re only one idea away from obtaining whatever amount of money you might need. As Bob Proctor says, “you’re either living in the problem or you’re living in the solution.” So start living in the solution.

There’s also another great reason not to be anxious about the difficulty you’re facing today - it contains a lesson. And once you master it, you will be much more stronger and wiser. Emmet Fox wrote, “It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson.”

Yes, today I lose a client...but I am not about to lose the lesson. And that’s worth thinking about.

Wherever you are, Be There!

One of the major reasons why we fail to find happiness or to create a unique lifestyle is because we have not yet mastered the art of being. While we are home our thoughts are still absorbed with solving the challenges we faced at the office. And when we are at the office we find ourselves worrying about problems at home. We go through the day without really listening to what others are saying to us. We may be hearing the words, but we aren't absorbing the message. As we go through the day we find ourselves focusing on past experiences or future possibilities. We are so involved in yesterday and tomorrow that we never even notice that today is slipping by. We go through the day rather than getting something from the day. We are everywhere at any given moment in time except living in that moment in time.
Lifestyle is learning to be wherever you are. Here's what Jim Rohn said about lifestyle:

Lifestyle is developing a unique focus on the current moment, and drawing from it all of the substance and wealth of experience and emotions that it has to offer.
Lifestyle is taking time to watch a sunset.
Lifestyle is listening to silence.
Lifestyle is capturing each moment so that it becomes a new part of what we are and of what we are in the process of becoming.
Lifestyle is not something we do; it is something we experience and until we learn to be there, we will never master the art of living well.
- Jim Rohn

Courage is...

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

- Winston Churchill

About Sir Winston Churchill

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general,
the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

- Winston Churchill

Stuff from the Treasury of G K Chesterton

Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.

What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism

Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.

I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel.

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

All the exaggerations are right, if they exaggerate the right thing.

- G K Chesterton