Happy Bunny Day!

It's all possible

I've had this as my personal mantra for some time, but circumstances and events in my life had let me forget about it. I had several things lately that have put this back in the forefront of my mind. It is all possible. It may not be possible right this moment, but by keeping my goals in mind, not giving up when there are setbacks, accepting the encouragement from my friends and family and a keeping a focused determination to achieve my goals I know I can do it.

I don't have any rose colored glasses on (smashed them to bits a while ago) and realize that my goals will not just drop in my lap. I have my goals laid out in front of me. It's all possible. I am a persistent and some may say stubborn (but in a good way, right?). These goals are range from public to very private goals. But all of my goals are linked in someway. I know people that need to tell everyone their goals, either they feel the need for people to know or that they need others to know to help hold them accountable for achieving those goals. I am a bit of a mix of telling people and not telling people.

I don't feel I have the need to tell people my goals as a way to make sure I achieve them. I used to be that way. But reflection has shown me that it doesn't really work. I will gladly accept encouragement and love receiving it. But that is not what will keep me going. If I really need someone else to push to achieve a goal I set for myself, why would I create the goal for myself. My goals come from me, so the motivation and drive must also come from me. Selfish? Maybe. But that is me now. I must be able to rely on me. I can lean on others to help me through, but the fire must be in me first to fuel the drive to make me achieve my goals.

What are your goals? Do you have goals? I can't imagine not having goals. Even after I achieve mine, there are always more stars to reach for, more conquests, more life to live.

I have my goals written down (old school style, in a notebook). I look at them daily and remind myself why they are are important to me. I love the feeling of making that line through it. Done! WooHoo! Onward to bigger and better things. It is all possible. I can think it, so it can be done.

I will stumble, I will fail, I will struggle. I know that, but that will never be a reason to give up. Each stumble, failure and struggle is a learning experience and something that makes me stronger and more focused.

Truth Be Told

Is it me, or does it seem that the truth has become an archaic idea to people today? There are two trends that I find really troublesome. One is just plain annoying and the other is alarming. Maybe, it's because I am still jaded by the recent mid-term election that had some of the worst negative ads ever or maybe I am just become more attuned to it.

The first assault on truth is the out right lie. These are easy to spot and to refute. They are created to just put a complete untruth out there with the objective to make the subject of the untruth have to refute the lie and defend themselves. Proving the statement is a lie can be easy sometimes, but can also be very difficult. The difficult ones are lies that are based on what someone "said". This is the they said/I said scenario. I have been in this position recently. The good thing about this is that the person making up the lies is eventually found out and then everything they have been saying in the past becomes suspect.

The second assault, is the use of a truth in a lie. It has become very easy to take a part of some truth and turn it into a lie. This adds a bit of credibility to the lie, making it harder to refute. Many example are taking a statement or action out of context. Someone may they didn't like a specific dish they had a restaurant. This can be turned around that the person hates the restaurant. This is a pretty benign example, but you can definitely see how much bigger, more damaging lies can be created (see many of the attack ads from the last election as an example).

Finally, a rant on something that just scares and baffles me at the same time. I call it Lying Just To Lie (LJTL). Ok, I made up that acronym. Anyway, this is when people lie for no reason (although there are very few good reasons to lie). Lying has become so common place for people like this, that it rolls off their tongues without a thought. There's no shame in it for them. No feeling of guilt or remorse. That is what scares me.

I had instilled in me by my Grandmother, one of the most honest people I have even known, that you just don't lie. You tell the truth because it is right. No other reason was necessary. When she caught any of her grandchildren lying, you could tell it hurt her. And that in turn, hurt us back.
Let me make my last remarks and then I will step down from my soap box. No matter what faith, nationality, race, age, etc. you are, truth transcends all of that. To be truthful is really human nature.

Thursday Morning Quote - April 15, 2010

"Every day I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well." - Mary Cholmondeley

Stuff won’t make you happy, experiences will

Two weeks ago, one of my favorite web sites unclutterer.com had a great post (click here) detailing something that I have believed in for a long time now: "Over one’s lifetime, it is his or her experiences that are more valuable than any product ever owned or purchased." A great site and excellent article.

Monday Morning Quote - April 12th, 2010

"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will be powerless to vex your mind." - Leonardo da Vinci

A Call for Honesty

I am so tired of fabricating stories, libel, perjury and all the other hundreds of way to describe lying. Lets just call it what it is - lying. The opposite of truth. That all important character trait that my grandmother tried to instill in me as a child.

I am making a call for honesty. Try it, you may find that it's a whole lot easier than you thought. My grandmother was a very wise woman. She would tell me "You need to tell the truth because you can never remember the lies. And then you will just create more lies." When you lie, you create a false reality; one that that never happened. Then when reality does conflict with this false reality there are two options (1) admit it and say "I lied" or (2) create another lie to cover the first.

Now both are bad, but the second is so much more destructive and dangerous. This is because the liar has now begun to bury him or herself deeper in to lie and it becomes harder and harder say "I lied" and pull themselves out. The further they go, the more likely they are to hurt other people to maintain this string of lies. It's also dangerous because the liar had now begun to build up an alternate reality and their grasp on the real reality becomes skewed.

I have seen this first hand and it is not pleasant. I have seen friends get pulled into lies and when they later find out they were lied to and used to perpetrate the lie, they end up hurt and angry.

So this is a call to just end lying. Telling the truth may hurt at first, but it's nothing compared to the pain you or others will feel when you lie. So do the right thing first.

Thursday Morning Quote - April 8, 2010

"There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else." - Peyton Conway March

What adults can learn from kids

Every parent should watch this very powerful and inspiring 8 minutes speech by Child prodigy Adora Svitak. You might think about your child a little differently.

Monday Morning Quote - April 5th, 2010

"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time." - Malcolm X