Finishing II Finishing well isn’t something you do at the end of your life—it is what you determine to do every day of your life. (Neil Cole, author) Most of us don’t like to think about discipline. It implies too much about rules, hard work, and punishment. If we...
Finishing I Most people are starters and stoppers, not finishers. (Christine Caine, Australian author) Caine’s statement probably strikes a sense of guilt in many of us. How many projects have we started with enthusiasm but given up before they were finished? How...
Mistakes Learn from the mistakes of others; you may not live long enough to make them all yourself. (Jim Tressel, college president) It may sound rather trite, but we all know that we make lots of mistakes, and the longer we live, the more we will likely make. So,...
Time Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. (John Lennon, late British musician) Sometimes we’re so busy planning for or anticipating the future that we pay too little attention to what’s happening around us right now. At other times, we’re in a...
Justice Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns. (Plato, Greek philosopher) The term “social justice” is bandied around so much today. But, do we really know what it should mean? Although Plato’s comment is probably not...
Choices Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose. (Wayne Dyer, self-help author) Dyer says, “With everything that has happened to you, you can feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift.”...
Winning Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. (Winston Churchill, World War II British prime minister) Every athlete or team that has won a championship can attest to Churchill’s statement. A year after a championship...
Facts/Truth Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. (John Adams, 2nd U.S. president) A lot of people today would do well to hear and understand...
Be Careful Prevention is better than recovery. (Stonestreet and Kunkle, authors) Author Josh McDowell illustrated the principle this way, “I’d rather put a fence at the top of the cliff than an ambulance at the bottom.” Seat belts, bike helmets, warning lights, and...
Tenacity The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, the one comes from a strong will the other comes from a strong won't. (Henry Ward Beecher, 19th century social reformer) Perseverance is an admirable quality. We respect people who stay with a tough...
Image I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. (Margaret Chase Smith, late U.S. senator) We are often not able to control our environment or circumstances. “Things happen,” as they say, and we must deal with them the best we can. As...
Silence Silence and smile are two powerful tools. Smile is the way to “solve” many problems and silence is the way to “avoid” many problems. (Betsy Shuttleworth, exercise guru) Did you know that "smiles" is the longest word in the dictionary? There's a mile between...