Escape Being Eaten

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?  ~Logan P. Smith 

It would be a bad day if you were eaten. There are a lot of things out that could eat you. The nice thing is that most of them will not eat you till you are already dead or you are walking in the woods and injured. Most things are afraid of man and do not consider us a source of food. At least that is something you can be grateful for.

As for finding enough to eat to keep yourself alive. That is not too hard either. There is plenty of food out there for you to eat.Most people just buy what they need to eat. If you care unlucky enough not to have a job, then you might find yourself asking other people for food. If you can't make that happen, then you will have to lower yourself to finding food on your own.

You can eat the weeds. The only problem with that is you must know which weeds to eat so you don't get sick and die. The other thing you can do is dig around in other people's or businesses trash and eat what has been discarded. That is kind of gross and there is a possibility the food is not safe to eat. The only other thing you can do is steal what you need to eat. Then you will be caught by the police and they will put you in jail where you will get three meals per day. Either way, you will survive.

What I like about this quote is it suggests that you should be content with what you have in life. Be grateful that you are alive and that you have food to keep you alive. Be grateful that you have lived as long as you have and know you will probably live longer than most people throughout history.

Do Something Today

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today." -Lou Holtz

We should always be striving to do our best. If we can, we should at least try to do better than we did previously. We should always be better than we were. That will only bring more value to our lives and the lives of those we touch.

I see a lot of people just moving through life. Some want to do better with what they have but they don't seem to have the drive. They can't find the will within themselves to do what they want to accomplish. They need something else. Usually that something else is the approval of others. They want to hear someone else say what they are doing is the right thing to do. What they are doing is an amazing thing.

What I have come to realize is if you want to accomplish something, you can only rely on yourself for the support. People are not always going to come behind you and tell you are doing a good job. In fact, a number of them are going to look at what you are doing and ask you why you are doing such a thing.

Take a moment to appreciate what you are doing. Tell yourself you are doing a good job and smile because you are doing something you love, something you want to do. Then keep doing what it is that you are doing and keep working hard to get it complete.

I like the checks and balances Holtz' quote suggests. You should look at what you what you are doing today and compare it to what you did yesterday. Strive to make something bigger and better today than what you did yesterday. If you can do that, then you will always accomplish your goals.

Let's Make a Point

"Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy" ~Sir Isaac Newton

How many times do we speak before we think, then in turn lose a good friend or at least lose their respect. This is something that happens on a regular basis. All you have to do is look around and watch the relationships between the people around you.

That Old Wife's Saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." is a good lesson to live by. I find that if I hold my tongue instead of  speaking what is on my mind at the time I was thinking it, I am better off. If I give my mind some time to think about what I want to say and how to say it with more than just my emotions running the thought, then what I have to say will be more constructive than destructive.

Usually when you want to say something negative, you are more interested in putting the other person down or causing them the same kind of pain you are feeling when you want to make the comment. If you can keep your mouth shut, you will be able to allow the emotions of the moment subside. You will be able to think about the comment you want to make. I think more often than not, you will find the comment unnecessary.

If you feel the point still needs to be made. If someone has wronged you in some sort of way, giving the moment the time it needs to calm itself may be what you need to keep it from turning into something that will tear the relationship apart.

Think about what you want to say. Try to find a way to make the solution benefit both yourself and the person you are angry with. If you can make them an active participant instead of an enemy, then you will be more likely to keep them as a friendly relationship.

Explain it to a Six Year Old

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself" ~Albert Einstein

This makes perfect sense. Have you ever sat down with a child and tried to explain something to them. You think you can explain it to anyone, but then you find that you can't find the words to make it understandable to someone who doesn't have an extended vocabulary.

I think this is how most self help gurus write their books. You should try this with something you know a lot about. Sit down and start writing. Split what you are trying to teach into sections. You want something that is separated into bite sized chunks. You want your six year old to be able to go away everyday with a small part of what you are teaching.

Now start writing each section as if you are trying to explain it to a child. Use small words. Don't try to expand on anything in exhaustive detail. Try to remember that the people you are trying to teach probably don't have any experience in what you know about. That means the parts you take for granted, they know nothing about.

When you are done, try your teaching on someone else. They don't have to be six years old. They just have to know very little about what you are teaching. When you do this, you will find out some of the things you left out. You will notice their face when you say something that does not make sense to them. Those are you ques to make changes to your teaching.

The interesting thing about putting together this teaching, you will learn so much more about what you are trying to teach. You will be surprised at what you have learned yourself.

Ignore Your Limits

"Know your limits, then ignore them" ~John Mason

Sometimes it is good to not know how far you can go. Then you will surprise yourself by how far you can go. Lets say that you are invited to run a marathon. You say yes knowing you have never run that kind of distance before. You get on the starting line and start running when you hear the signal. You will be pleasantly surprised how far you can run without stopping. Then you will be surprised that you are able to walk the rest without stopping. Then you will be able to tell everyone that you have completed a marathon. It may take you 6-8 hours to complete the marathon but that is OK. You did it, and that is all that matters.

Now that you have an idea of what it is like to run a marathon, you know what your limits are. You will know what it takes to get yourself to the next level. Now all you have to do is train yourself to get past those limits. You start running everyday. You start to rat better, making sure you eat things that will give your muscles the nutrients they need to take the punishment you intend to put on them.

Instead of waiting for someone to invite you to run that next marathon, you start searching for the next one you want to run. You make plans to be at that marathon, and you set goals to get you to the point to run that race. When the day comes you start running, and are amazed when you pass the 5 mile mark without feeling too much strain. You keep running till you can't run anymore. Then you walk the rest of the way. When you finish, you find you have shaved off two hours off you last marathon. Now you know what your new limits are and you can plan for the next one.

Love, Strength & Courage

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

I don't know why I like this quote. There is something truthful about the words. I wonder if it is the same for men as it is for women. I know when I think about it, women tend to give men their strength. If it wasn't for women, I don't think men would ever do anything. I think they would sit around and do as little as possible. When women (or anyone you might care for) comes into the picture, then men want to do things for her. The man wants to give her everything he possibly can. It takes courage to do that.

When that same person loves you back, that just makes you want to do more. It becomes a cycle. She loves you. That gives you the courage to do the things that will make you successful. Loving her in return makes you strong enough to continue to do the things that make him and her successful. The cycle continues as long as they continue to love each other.

So here is what I suggest that you do. Take the time to find someone who you can love. Allow that love to give you the strength you need to build your life. When she loves you back, that will give you the courage to continue to do the things you need to do to continue to grow your life together. It will take that courage to have kids and to be the parents you want to be.

Strength, Courage and Love. Those are a fantastic combination.

Not Just a Dream

"If you know it's going to happen there's no need to call it a dream." -Eric Pio

What is a dream? It is something that has not happened yet that you hope one day will happen. Is that really something you want in your life? I wonder if dreams are just cruel and unusual punishment. Most of the people I have met torture themselves with their own dreams. They think about something they know in their mind they will never have and let it eat them up inside.

What if you make your dreams a reality. That is the only way they will ever happen. You have to do something to make them come true. If you just sit there and dream, that is all they are going to be... Dreams.

If you think your dreams are possible, then go ahead and make them come true. The only person keeping you from achieving those dreams is you. You can make them happen and you will. Just take one step at a time to get it done.

If you think your Dreams are impossible, choose right now to make them possible. If they are a dream you are passionate about, then you can find a way to make them possible. There are plenty of stories out there where people who were born deaf are now able to hear. There are people who have lost both legs who are now able to walk. If you have a dream, just find a way to make those dreams come true.

If you believe it can and will happen, then it will. If you have the tiniest little doubt, then push that doubt away and believe. That is why it is called faith.

Your Opportunity Dressed in Overalls?

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -Thomas Edison.

Hindsight is 20/20. That is what they say. Have you ever looked back at a circumstance and realized that you should have done something that would have made you successful or at least gotten something that you have wanted for a long time? I know I have. Just look back at my Lotto Story. A lot of times we don't realize that we missed a good opportunity until it has long since past. I think that is what Edison is talking about in this quote.


We should be looking for those opportunities that are not quite so obvious. Most successful people out there are successful because they took advantage of an opportunity that was more about how to help someone else than it was about making money. If you want to hear about a number of these kinds of stories, you should find a copy of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. This book was written in the early part of the 20th century. Hill talks about a number of successful people of his time; people like Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford. It is probably one of the best books about success that I have ever read. 

I have a simple way for you to figure out what opportunities to look for, even the ones that are dressed in overalls. It will take about ten to fifteen minutes everyday to sit down and write a few sentences in a notebook. personally I like those little composition books the teenagers get for school. They are bound nicely and will put up with a little abuse. You can get them for a dollar at the dollar store or you can wait till right before school starts and buy about a dozen of them at once when they are on sale. I found them this year at walmart for 40 cents each.


Set you a timer for 15-20 minutes. I like taking 20 minutes because it usually takes me a few minutes to start writing ideas. If I can get them started, then more ideas will start gushing out after them. All you have to do is start writing. think about your day. What happened in the last 24 hours that might shed light on an opportunity that you could use to your benefit. I don't care how small the idea is. The whole point of this exercise is to get some ideas down on paper. 


If you can do this everyday, just sit down and write, you will find all kinds of interesting ideas will come to you. I don't care if you are writing the same ideas everyday. If you do, that means you mind is working on the ideas. That means your mind is working out a way to make your ideas successful. That is all you need to do. You need to make yourself aware of the opportunities. Then you will naturally start to work out a way to profit from those ideas. 


Go try it.

All You Need is a Spark

"A great flame follows a little spark." ~ Dante

There are a lot of these types of metaphors. What happens when you start a snowball rolling down a hill? You get a bigger and bigger snowball. What happens when a small leak breaks through a dam? If left unchecked, it will erode the hole in the dam till water is flowing through it with the power of a waterfall. What happens when one ant finds your picnic? Soon your food will be covered in the entire colony of ants.

What you have to learn from these metaphors is all it takes is an idea or even an small inspiration. All you have to do is feed it and it will grow into something great and amazing. The blog you are reading right now; it was an inspired thought. What would happen if I found some of life's great quotes and let my mind run away with them? Would I be able to write something that would benefit everyone? Would I be able to write something every weekday for an entire year? If I did, then this would turn into something great, something everyone would want to visit on a regular basis, something that would turn into a book or a calendar or who knows what else.

Take a few minutes and look at the things in your life. Don't just look at the normal things like your meals, and your job. Look at the friends around you and the projects you have started but laid aside because you lost interest or ran into some sort of roadblock. Ponder the new ideas or rekindle the old ideas. Envision how some of those ideas might blossom into something that could make money for you. Think about the things that have possibilities. Take those possibilities to the next level.

Meet with your friends... You know the ones. The ones who have ambition; the ones who know how to take an idea and run with it; the ones who will do their best to support you, to drive you to do more with what you have, to encourage you to take your ideas and make something amazing out of them. I think you will be surprised at what comes from those people and ideas.

How Your Destiny is Shaped

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." ~ Tony Robbins

Do you know how to make a decision?  Are you someone who continuously has to think about something over and over and over pounding his own brain trying to figure out what the outcome of each decision might be? Well I don't think that is any way to live.

I have found that if I sit there and think about a problem for hours before I make a decision, then not only do I become a tortured soul, but so does everyone else around me.

Have you ever sat at home with your loved one and tried to decide what you want to do for dinner. You all know you want to go out for dinner, but you can't decide where. You bounce ideas back and forth but neither of you want to make the final decision, sometime because you want the other person to be happy with the choice; sometime because you don't really have a preference. Whatever the case, you spend more time trying to figure out where you want to go than the actual time it takes to get there and eat.

I think the best thing to do it to lay out the best things about each decision down on the table, then make a gut choice. Just choose the one that feels right. If they both feel good, then it doesn't really matter which one you choose, just pick one randomly.

After you have made that choice, stay with it. Once you make the choice, it is too late to go back and change your mind. See that choice through. Whatever the case (unless you foresee something horrible happening) do not change you mind. Just move forward and enjoy the choice you made.

Do What You Know You Can Do

"Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do." ~ John Wooden

Sometimes there are just things you can't do. For the majority of us, we can't fly to the moon. That is something we can't do. Are we going to let that stop us from getting into orbit? Today it is possible to buy a ticket to get on a shuttle and spend a few days in space orbiting the Earth. The only thing it will cost you is money and a bit of astronaut training.

I think sometimes we have it set in our mind that we cannot do certain things. Maybe you think you can't speak in front of large groups of people. That is not true. It might take some practice and a lot of self focus, talking yourself into getting up in front of those people. Once you are up there, I think you will find that people will be willing to listen to you. If there are those in the audience who are not interested in what you have to say or actually try to make fun of you, that is OK. Those are not the people you are speaking to. You are speaking to the people who are going to get something out of what you have to say. If you don't get up there, then the people you are there to speak to will not get the benefits of learning about what you are going to speak about.

Most of the time the things you think you believe you can't do are just that beliefs. You can change those beliefs. All you have to do is sit down and start writing down that you can do these things. Think about it. When you write something, you make that thing concrete in your mind. If you can make that concrete in your mind then you will be better prepared to do the things that you once thought you could not do.

Go Ahead and Do It

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission." - Admiral Grace Hopper

This quote almost feels like bad advice. But upon second look, I don't think that it is. The admiral is telling you that if faced with a choice of making a decision to do something without permission, if it is a good idea, then you should go ahead and do it. It is better to take the chance of being wrong than to miss an opportunity when you can grasp it.

I think this quote is great advice for leaders. It is something that anyone in management is faced with on a regular basis. If you are left in charge, you will have to make decisions without the leadership of your superiors. That is why they gave you a management roll.

I work retail and I am in charge of a crew who stocks shelves. I often have to decide what to do with stock that comes in that we don't have space for in the normal spots. Sometimes this will lead me to make a special display for upcoming sales just to get the stock out of the stockroom. Now I make these decisions knowing that my boss may come in the next morning and tell me to take down what I have taken the time to put together. Sometimes I fins that my work is for nothing. But, other times the work is noticed and appreciated and it leaves my stockroom clean and empty, just the way it is supposed to be.

When the Admiral made this statement, I wonder how many of his decisions without permissions dealt with the life and death of his soldiers. I don't know if I could make those kinds of decisions. It takes a stronger man that me to put someone's life at risk to do a particular job. That is why he is a Military Admiral and I am a Retail Manager.

Look For Stars, Not Mud

Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud and one the stars. ~ Frederick Langbridge

This could be said in so many ways. You hand someone a glass with a bit of water in it. One person sees the glass as half empty. The other sees the glass as half full. We have all heard that one. I don't know who said it, but it is a good way to see the nature of a person.

Take a look at yourself first. How do you look at things? Do you think about what is happening to you? Are you seeing all the things people are doing to hurt you? Are you thing about all the negatives in you life? From my experience, thinking about the bad things in life just brings on more things that are bad.

What you want to do is try to turn your thinking around; take a complete 180 turn and start thinking about what is good in your life, or better yet, make the negative things in your life a positive. If your car had a flat tire, take a moment to breathe and realize that the universe is just trying to slow you down. If you move too fast, you might not be able to stop when you see the brick wall.

Look for the positive things in life so you can attract more positive things. Change your way of thinking. Happiness is a choice. You can choose to feel happy. It is easy. Just think to yourself, I refuse to feel negative and I think I am going to feel happy. Want to concrete that feeling. Then start laughing. Start laughing for no reason. Just laugh. You will find it makes you feel better. You will also find that people around you will wonder why you are laughing.

Want another way to feel good. Take a deep breath. Hold it.... Then let it out slowly. It feels good.

Don't Miss Your Sunrise

"Opportunities are like sunrises....If you wait too long, you miss them" ~Unknown

Have I ever told you my Lotto story? I don't tell it often because I don't really condone gambling. But I will still tell you about it. I was working for a grocery store back in the 90's. I was a photo lab tech when there was such a thing as photo labs. I guess you still see them around now and then. Most of them were put out of business because of the digital camera.

Every once in a while I would take part in the lotto pool conducted by a number of our stockers and baggers at the store. We would all put in two dollars and a bunch of lotto tickets would be bought for the group with the understanding that if we ever did win, the winnings would be split up evenly between all who were in the pool.

This one week the boys asked me if I wanted to be in that weeks pool. I made it a rule that if i didn't have the extra cash in my pocket, I would not play. So I told them I didn't have a spare dollar that week to play, but thank you for asking.

Needless to say when I came to work that weekend, I found out that the group of 8 people won $7 million dollars. That meant (after all the taxes and lawyer fees were taken out) they each got $20,000 each year for the next 20 years. Every time I think about that day I kick myself. It was a missed opportunity.

Now here is my disclaimer. I have not played the lotto but maybe twice in the past 5 years. I ran a work lotto pool for a while before that, but we never did win. I don't think anyone should play the lotto if they expect to win a lot of money. The odds are against you and it is a bad investment. But I do think if you just want to have some fun with friends, playing the lotto can be a fun game to play. Just don't spend money that should be spent on food, rent and other bills. If it's not extra money, then don't spend it.

If you do see an opportunity, a way to move up in your career that helps everyone around you, a car you have always wanted for a cheap price, a girl you've had a crush on who has just smiled at you. Take that leap and find a way to gamble on that opportunity. If something comes of it, then you will be happy. If it doesn't, then you will learn something from it.

Begin Your Life Today

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin. -Grace Hansen

I see so many people living for the future. It is important to plan for the future. I will admit to that, but I think a lot of people focus on the future so much that they forget about today.

The biggest example I can think of this thinking is with religion. People work so hard to make sure they are going to heaven, that they forget to think about what is happening right now. They forget to live. Sure planning for the afterlife is important and going to church is important, but you only get one life. You need to live it to the fullest. If you don't then what is the point in living? That is what God put us here to do, right?

I know people live in the past as well. They feel guilt or anger over what has happened to them or what other people have done to them. They let those emotions run their lives and they don't realize they are missing great opportunities in their lives today.

My best advice is to look at today. See the opportunities that are passing by you. Then move on those opportunities. It doesn't matter what has happened in your past, or what you are planning for in the future, if you take advantage of those opportunities, then great things will happen for you.

Making a Life

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ~Winston Churchill

I see people who live in one of these two ways. It is rare that I find someone who can do both effectively. They either live for the hard to earn dollar, or they live to help others around them. It is hard to focus on both of these at the same time. They tend to fight against each other.

Most people are worried about what they have to do to make money to keep a roof over their head and food in the mouths of their family. They don't usually have the time to think about other people. They don't take the time to stop to see what other people around them might need. They are only worried about themselves, which they have the perfectly reasonable right to do. They should think about their family first. That is their priority.

I have seen other people give away their lives to help those in need. I have seen people give away food and go hungry because some stranger looked like they needed it more than they felt they needed it. I have seen people use the majority of their paycheck to pay others people's light bill and never have any savings of their own. They have a heart of a giver, the heart to help those they feel are less fortunate than themselves. The problem is they never get anywhere in life because they give away everything.

I think there should be a happy median. In fact I think there should be a priority to how you deal with life. I think you should make as much money as you can, use that money to pay for your life, make yourself debt free and set yourself up so you don't have to worry about bills, then use whatever is left to help as many people as you can.

I am not saying you can't help other people along the way. You should have a giving heart, but I think you should think of yourself and your family before you go out and give away what you have earned to make your life easier.

Whose to say that we could not give other things other than money while we were getting our lives straightened out. We can always give of our time. We have 24 hours in every day. We should give some of those hours to helping other people freely and without expecting anything in return. Sure time is money, but time is all we have. Se can always make unlimited amounts of money. We can only give up to 24 hours each day. We might as well make that time count for something.