Character You have to work on the person you want to be . . . When people look at you, what do you want them to see? (Toya Holiday, basketball player) Good advice! Very little shocks anymore. Dress styles, exaggerated behavior, degraded language (both grammatically...
Change My desire to change became bigger than my fear of changing. (Britney, recovered drug addict) Change is a fearful obstacle to a lot of people. But, for people who recognize their need to change—whether it’s an addiction or another harmful habit, fear of the...
Failure It’s what you do after you fail that determines who you are. (Paraphrase from Sabaa Tahir, fiction writer) From the toddler’s fall in his first attempt to walk until the day he or she dies, there will be falls and failures. The toddler gets back up and...
Preparation It’s not the will to win that’s important, it’s the will to prepare to win. (Bobby Knight, winning basketball coach) Everybody wants to win. Do you know anyone who really wants to come in second? Maybe, but the yearning to win seems to be ingrained in us...
Kindness Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. (Plato) Plato’s observation of life way back in the 5th century B.C. is not much different from what we can observe in 21st century America. It’s not just the homeless and the jobless that are facing...
Moving Forward In order to reach your dream, the passion inside your heart must outpace the fear inside your head. (Kary Oberbrunner, author and speaker) Fear of failure often keeps us from moving forward to achieve the goals we’ve dreamed about. Perhaps it’s the...
Looking Ahead One thing with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us. (Michael Cibenco, teacher) We’re well into 2019, and maybe it’s time to evaluate what progress we’re making. How’s it going with you? Have...
Gratitude To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. (Johannes A. Gaertner, author) It’s easy to say “Thank You,” but gratitude should certainly extend to more than just the...
Work The price of success is hard work… (Vince Lombardi, successful football coach) He continued, “dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” We might wonder today if...
Responsibility No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up, and never give up. (Abraham Lincoln) The story is told of a mother who was trying to get her reluctant son to get up to go to school. He rebelled; he didn’t want to go to school, he said. The mother...
Serving Your business resumé is less important than your community service calendar. (Dan O’Deens, 3rd world social worker) Business-minded young people begin to worry about their resumés very early in their careers—often before they even finish their formal training....
Generosity There never was any heart truly great and generous that was not also tender and compassionate. (Robert Frost, 19th-20th century American poet) What is your motivation for being generous? Some very well-known, wealthy people give a lot of money to their...