Daily Quote: Something Wonderful
“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”
~Albert Schweitzer
Found in the book:
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Daily Quote: One Choice
“You’re always one choice away from changing your life.”
~Marcy Blochowiak
Whatever your situation in life, I’d like to offer a hope-filled thought: regardless of your circumstances, you hold the power to change your life … just by making one choice. Tomorrow is only limited by your imagination and your passion to make the choice of your new life a reality.
After reading One Choice, you’ll be inspired to explore the possibilities of creating a new, happier life. You may choose to go back to school, to leave an abusive relationship, to adopt a child, to start a business or a charity, to lose weight… to name a few.
I hope you enjoy this excerpt from One Choice about Gary Droz, someone who risked everything to fulfill his childhood dream. Remember, you’re always one choice away from changing your life.
Live Inspired,
After reading One Choice, you’ll be inspired to explore the possibilities of creating a new, happier life. You may choose to go back to school, to leave an abusive relationship, to adopt a child, to start a business or a charity, to lose weight… to name a few.
I hope you enjoy this excerpt from One Choice about Gary Droz, someone who risked everything to fulfill his childhood dream. Remember, you’re always one choice away from changing your life.
Live Inspired,
.P.S. Be sure to check out the special offer at the bottom of this post.
| Excerpted from One Choice by Mac Anderson | |
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Choose Your Career Passion
In the fifties, a male high school graduate had three well-worn paths before him: college, the military, and sales. Gary tested the first two, giving a year and a half to the books and two years to his country. But by the age of twenty, marriage and the birth of his first child veered his path toward the promising world of sales. This would prove to be a much longer path than the first two.
Despite his lack of college education, Gary secured an entry-level sales position and gradually moved upward. For more than 20 years, he provided for his family —something his father struggled to do — but with each year that passed his gaze probed deeper inward.
“I never really forgot about teaching, but it wasn’t until I realized that each time I was given more responsibility in my job, I ended up with less time at home. At one point, I was traveling from Monday to Thursday for four or five weeks in a row. I’d sometimes go over a month only seeing my wife and kids on the weekends. When I realized this, I knew something had to change.”
Deep down, Gary knew there was only one option. But how would he do it? He wasn’t young anymore and he hadn’t even finished college. Besides that, if he left P & G now after 17 years, he would have to forgo a profit-sharing and retirement package that would be over a million dollars when fully vested.
“I thought about the money and the risks. And then I thought about traveling a thousand miles a week and selling bar soap covers for another twenty years. I was only forty-four at the time, and the way I saw it, that meant I had at least twenty years to do something else with my life.”
Most 44-year-olds in Gary’s shoes would recall the past and let the weight of a twenty-three year career keep them put. Time investment always seems like a feasible excuse. But for what return? Gary considered this and had his answer.
“The money would have been nice, but it didn’t matter. I grew up very poor.” Gary learned early to appreciate the meaningful things in life like a job, a roof, and a warm meal, and his subsequent action was born from that wisdom. Meaning over money. Provision and passion before prosperity and position.
He and his wife sold everything in their home that wouldn’t fit into a medium-sized box and packed up the car. He had done some research about cities with good colleges where he could finish his bachelor’s degree in education. Someplace warm — that was the only prerequisite. A couple of weeks and several hundred miles later, they landed in Boca Raton, Florida.
A stack of bills followed his family to Boca Raton, so once they found a temporary place to live, Gary sought out a job. The position wasn’t important. He just needed something in the evening to keep them afloat while he finished school during the day. As far as he was concerned, he had already made the leap and now he was bound to land on the other side. Pride now a dead issue, Gary immediately took a job as a late night janitor at the Ambassador East Hotel and remained there for six months until he found a job much closer to his heart. At forty-five, he began counseling troubled men at the Del Ray Beach Crisis Center. This was the closest Gary had been to teaching, and he thrived. Gary would race through the remainder of his schooling in a year and a half and accept his first official teaching position at Santaluces High School at forty-seven-years-old.
Gary touched many students over the next fifteen years as a high school social studies teacher, but oddly enough that wouldn’t give you the entire picture. Sure, he was voted “Favorite Teacher” by the students many times — four years in a row at one point. But the truth is that the greatest testimony to Gary’s mid-life leap is what he’s doing today as a volunteer — teaching a homeless man to read.
The man is forty-four and jobless because he can only read at a second-grade level. But Gary hopes to change that. It’s why he’s here. No position. No paycheck. Just passion … and the opportunity to give his homeless friend a chance to survive on his own.
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From the book:
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Tags: one choice, walk the talk
Daily Quote- Working Hard
“The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.”
~Helen Gurley Brown
Every Employee’s Straight-Talk Guide to Job Success
Daily Quote: Don’t Avoid
“As we sail through life, don’t avoid rough waters,
sail on because calm waters won’t make a skillful sailor.”
~Unknown
Welcome The Rain: Choosing to See Beyond Life’s Storms
Daily Quote: We Become
“We become what we think about.”
~Earl Nightingale
Today’s quote is from the book:
Tags: earl nightingale, The Strangest Secret, walk the talk, we become what we think about
Daily Quote: Dance in the Rain
“When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon
the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tags: Daily Inspiration, Daily Motivation, daily quote, daily quotes, inspirational quotes, Inspired Living Center, learning to dance in the rain, quote, quotes, ralph waldo emerson, ralph waldo emerson quote
Put Oil in Your Lamp
“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”
~Mother Teresa
~Mother Teresa
Isn’t it amazing what happens when we choose to take care of ourselves properly? When we eat right, get enough sleep, take time to play, and invest in supportive relationships, we are able to shine. Today’s book shares stories of women who have let their lamps run on fumes and contrasts them with stories of women who have learned how to refuel. Please enjoy the story behind Oil for Your Lamp written by Lisa Hammond.
Live Inspired,
| Excerpted from Oil for Your Lamp: Women Taking Care of Themselves | |
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The Story Behind Oil for Your Lamp by Lisa Hammond
How often have we heard, or maybe even been the ones to say, that those who can do and those who can’t teach. Well, there was an element of truth to that in my case when it came to self care. I spent a great deal of time speaking and even writing on the subject, however in reality I wasn’t doing a very good job of it in my own life.
I was very good at supporting other women and encouraging them to make time for themselves and not doing the same for myself. I was speaking and conducting workshops all around the country and writing on the subject of balance, all the while I was becoming more and more depleted.
It became increasingly clear that I was not alone, the women I met and all of my friends and peers were all spread too thin. We had gone beyond burning the candle at both ends. Women were literally running on fumes.
The concept for Oil for Your Lamp was something I started working on years before I actually wrote the book. I would work on it for a while and then stop. Each time I would come back to it, the same thoughts would ultimately land it back on the shelf. Who am I to write a book about self care? I am working 80 hours a week, I don’t remember the last time I had two consecutive days off, sleep is a distant memory, I travel so much I just dialed 9 on my home phone. I would be a hypocrite.
So year after year, I thought about Oil for Your Lamp, and year after year, it waited. I kept thinking one year I will have balance. One year the timing will be right. My flawed logic was that I should wait to write the book until my lamp was all filled up. Well, I finally wised up when even my fumes started running out.
I ultimately realized putting oil in our lamps is a journey, not something I could just check off my list and be done. I knew if I waited for my lamp to be full the book would never be written and it was a story that needed to be shared. So I wrote Oil for Your Lamp from that honest perspective when my lamp was far from full. I reached out to others and shared how they filled their lamps and how I started to fill mine. We must learn together and support each other.
It has been such an honor and a joy to hear from other women about just how deeply this book has resonated with them. Not a week goes by that I don’t have someone reach out and let me know how they were touched by Oil for Your Lamp. It’s a great book club book!
Writing Oil for Your Lamp has been life changing for me as well. I made a firm commitment to myself to never again let my lamp get that low. I have kept those promises and made serious life changes in order to find balance and keep my lamp burning brighter.
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Today’s Inspiration Comes From:
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Daily Quote: Proactive
“The more proactive you are, the less reactive you’ll need to be!”
~Eric Harvey and Paul Sims
How to Resolve Tough Performance Problems Quickly…and Permanently
Daily Quote: Choose Hope
“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible”
~Christopher Reeve
Welcome The Rain: Choosing to See Beyond Life’s Storms
How The 100/0 Principle Works
Take a moment to think about the importance of meaningful relationships in your life. While Brian Tracy has said, “Eighty percent of life’s satisfaction comes from meaningful relationships,“ I would venture to say that number is a bit low. My most important relationships give my life meaning and it is through my interactions with others that I have discovered my greatest joys and most profound triumphs. Revealing the secret of great relationships is The 100/0 Principle by Al Ritter. This inspiring, life-changing book had me spellbound from page one. May today’s excerpt inspire you to make your meaningful relationships great.
| Excerpted from The 100/0 Principle: The Secret of Great Relationships | |
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How The 100/0 Principle Works
What is the most effective way to create and sustain great relationships with others? It’s The 100/0 Principle: You take full responsibility (the 100) for the relationship, expecting nothing (the 0) in return. Implementing The 100/0 Principle is not natural for most of us. It takes real commitment to the relationship and a good dose of self-discipline to think, act and give 100 percent. The 100/0 Principle applies to those people in your life where the relationships are too important to react automatically or judgmentally. Each of us must determine the relationships to which this principle should apply. For most of us, it applies to work associates, customers, suppliers, family and friends.
STEP 1: Determine what you can do to make the relationship work…then do it. Demonstrate respect and kindness to the other person, whether he/she deserves it or not. STEP 2: Do not expect anything in return. Zero, zip, nada. STEP 3: Do not allow anything the other person says or does (no matter how annoying!) to affect you. In other words, don’t take the bait. STEP 4: Be persistent with your graciousness and kindness. Often we give up too soon, especially when others don’t respond in kind. Remember to expect nothing in return.
Principle Paradox
This may strike you as strange, but here’s the paradox: When you take authentic responsibility for a relationship, more often than not the other person quickly chooses to take responsibility as well. Consequently, the 100/0 relationship quickly transforms into something approaching 100/100. When that occurs, true breakthroughs happen for the individuals involved, their teams, their organizations and their families.
The Secret of Great Relationships
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Tags: 100/0 principle, walk the talk
