Who's Responsible?

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Voltaire

Success

No one ever attains success by simply doing what is required of him.

Charles Kendall Adams

Temptation

No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good. There is a silly idea about that good people don't know what temptation means.

C.S. Lewis

He Gave

“For God so loved the world, that he gave… “ We are never more like him than when we do the same.

Not the Same Thing

Never mistake legibility for communication.

David Carson

The Making of a Fool

Nature seldom creates a fool – she merely supplies the raw material for a do-it-yourself job.

Speaking in Action

My life is my message.

Ghandi

Strength

My flesh and my heart may fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:26

Doing Instead of Talking

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Clarence Buddinton Kelland

Out on a Limb

Most people wait until everything is just right before they do anything. They refuse to go out on a limb because they don’t understand that the fruit is always out on the limb.

Zig Ziglar

The pivotal moment

Investors should back people rather than ideas. It is easier to launch and test an idea, and to pivot to another if it flops. Fail to twirl and (you) may become one of the living dead. An entrepreneur can (also) overdo it and become a “compulsive jumper, never picking a single direction long enough to find out if there’s anything there.”

Read more at The Economist

Good Timing

Most people know how to say nothing but few know when.

Someone Else

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Oscar Wilde

Education

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

Frank A. Clark

Lining Up to Purpose

The more aligned you are to your purpose, the more energy, the more remarkable qualities you bring to the moments of your life.
Roger Fransecky

The Triumph

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Henry Louis Mencken

The Size of a Man

A man is only as big as what makes him mad.

Direction

Love is the compass of life.

Measuring Character

The measure of a person’s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.

The Brain: Complex Beyond Belief

The human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth. And for the first time, researchers are getting a peek at what they do. Even though the brain’s synapses are less than a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter, scientists at Stanford have pieced together pictures of one to create a three-dimensional image (see the video below). The senior author of the paper explaining the study, Stephen Smith, says the brain's complexity is beyond anything they'd imagined, almost “beyond belief.” The brain has hundreds of trillions of synapses connecting some 200 billion nerve cells. To put it in perspective, if the synapses just in the cerebral cortex were stars, they would fill 1500 Milky Way galaxies. Details of the study are in the Journal Neuron.

Stephen Goforth

Love is..

Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.
C S Lewis

Love as God

Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. Its voice tends to sound as if it were the will of God Himself. It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which I sincerely done “for love’s sake” is thereby lawful and even meritorious. That erotic love and love of one’s country may tus attempt to “become gods” is generally recognized. But family affection may do the same. So, in a different way, may friendship.

CS Lewis
The Four Loves

A Prayer

Lord, protect me from your followers!

Lessons of History

The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.
Gerda Lerner

My Dog

Lord, make me the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

Love and Kindness

Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.
CS Lewis

Satisfied

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do and you've done it.
Margaret Thatcher

The Best Parts

The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life.
William Wordsworth

Moving Forward

Life moves forward, whether we go with it or not.

The Author

Life is God's novel. Let him write it.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

90% of Life

Life is 10% what happens to us.. and 90% how we react!

The Puzzle

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.

George Santayana

Soul Building

Life is just a chance to grow a soul.

A Powell Davies

Life is..

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Helen Keller

Fnding Life

Life can be found only in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh
(Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk)

The Gift of Pain

Life can be counted on to provide all the pain that any of us might need.

Sheldon Koff

Look Around

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

James Thurber

Learning & Wisdom

Learning makes a man proud. Wisdom makes him humble.

What You Are and Are Not

Learn to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Leading by Learning

Leadership is not a position. It’s a lifestyle. The moment you and I stop learning, we stop leading.

John Maxwell

Working the Zones

Leaders stretch people by taking people out of their comfort zone but never out of their gift zone.

John Maxwell

The Job of Leadership

A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.

Jack Welch

The Small and the Great

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain

The Business of Heaven

Joy is the serious business of heaven.

C.S.Lewis

A Know-it-All

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

John Wooden

Becoming

It’s not what you are doing but what you are becoming.

Strong, Rich, Learned, Integrity

It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

Frances Bacon

It's Just Not

It’s not rocket surgery.

A Happy Childhood

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.

Love Thy Neighbor

It's easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.

Eric Hoffer

When to Quit

It’s always too soon to quit.

V. Raymond Edman

Building on Rock

It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.

Madeleine L'Engle

Faith and Faithfulness

Researchers at Florida State University set up an experiment to explore prayer and fidelity. Their findings are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The conclusion: people worried about potentially cheating spouses may find praying together a better safeguard against adultery than constant vigilance. The researchers believe that the act of praying about romantic partners leads people to view their relationship as something sacred and not to be damaged.

Stephen Goforth

Becoming You

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

e.e. cummings

In Change There is Power

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

Alan Cohen

The Tension

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Carl Sagan

I Have Little

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little.

Author Sydney Smith

Needy Relationships

It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.

Anothony Storr

Unhappy Marriage

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Giving.. Pardoning.. Dying

It is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi

Meeting of the Minds

There's a scientific evidence that backs up the claim that we "click" with some people during a engaging conversation. Brain scans of a speaker and listener showed synchronizing during storytelling. So, there may be a neurological truth to the idea of being on the same wavelength. A special type of MRI device showed that speaking and listening used common rather than separate neural subsystems inside each brain. In fact, during a good conversation, people will unconsciously begin imitating each other, using similar sentence structures, speaking rates, and physical gestures and postures. Listeners can get so tuned in that they can even begin to anticipate what the speaker is about to say. Details are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Stephen Goforth

Running the Race

It is how far we get from the starting line that matters.

Living Rich

It is better to live rich, than to die rich.

Samuel Johnson

People Pleasing

It is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

William Boetcker

Using and Loving

It is a law of human life as certain as gravity: To live fully, we must learn to use things and love people.. not love things and use people.

Productivity

Is this trip really necessary?

Childhood Pain

Injustice is the most painful hurt in childhood.

Charles Dickens

At the Core

In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.

Albert Einstein

Slaves in a Consumer Society

In a consumer society, there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addictions and the prisoners of envy.

Ivan Illich

The Value of Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein

Convictions and Freedom

I’ll state my convictions clearly, then allow others the freedom to respond as they see fit.

Les Carter

Thin Ice

If you're going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!

Growing Your Business

If you want to grow your business, you have to grow yourself.

John Maxwell

One Call

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make. who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Stephen Levine

When Absolutes Conflict

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was asked which commandment was greatest (Matthew 26:36-40). For him to give an answer implies there is a hierarchy of commands (and he DID answer the question). Just as not all commandments are on equal footing, not all sin should be treated as equal.* A hierarchy of commands implies a hierarchy of sin.

Slapping you is wrong but killing you is worse and deserves more condemnation. Thus, hitting falls below murder on our list of “top sins”. We recognize this in our legal system by giving harsher sentences to some murders (planned) over others (spontaneous and unplanned).

This comes into play when absolutes conflict. What do we do our options are either, for instance, lying or murder? Some people will tell you to choice the “lesser of two evils”. But is choosing evil ever acceptable? Are there situations where we have no choice but to sin?

Let’s put it in more concrete terms.

Perhaps you’ve been presented this dilemma. Let’s say you are sitting in the library, minding your own business, reading a book. Suddenly, a panting, red-faced young man runs past you. He hides behind a bookcase. Before you have time to take in the scene, another man comes charging inside the library. He looks like he’s been running as well. This second man holds a knife in his hand. You recognized his face. He’s an escaped killer who’s apparently ready to take another life. He looks you in the eye and says, “Where is he? Where is John?”

What do you say?

You should always tell the truth, right? But if you do and point out the victim’s hiding place, you would be guilty of helping the lunatic commit murder.

Would you say, “I don’t know” or “He’s not here”? Either statement is a lie. How would you justify it?

If you say nothing, wouldn’t you be guilty of withholding the truth? Wouldn’t that be wrong as well? Your silence may convey to the madman that John was indeed close and he may start looking for his victim. Wouldn’t that make you accountable as well?

The question really is, when there are moral dilemmas, that is, two absolutes that conflict (in this case, the charge not to lie comes against the charge to not murder), are these dilemmas real? And if so, what is the proper action?

If we accept there are “graded absolutes” then the choice is not the “lesser evil” but the “greater good”.

When a small child hands us a crude crayon drawing, we are not obligated in the name of truth to call it “a poor excuse for art”. There are greater “rules” that apply here. Just like when your wife asks if she looks overweight in a new dress. The brute facts may say one thing but the love in your heart will speak a “greater truth” into the situation.

(*this is not to say that all sin is equal in its consequences for any evil will separate us from our creator).

Stephen Goforth

Sexual Repression

The media has contributed to the confusion in our culture between repression and suppression. "Poster after poster, film after film, novel after novel, (CS) Lewis notes, “associate the idea of sexual indulgence with the ideas of health, normality, youth, frankness, and good humour.” He claims this association gives a false impression and is a lie. “Like all powerful lies,” Lewis explains, “it is based on a truth.. that sex in itself.. is ‘normal’ and ‘healthy’.. the lie consists in the suggestion that any sexual act to which you are tempted at the moment is also healthy and normal.” Lewis adds that human sexuality, like gravity or any other aspect of our universe, cannot in itself be moral or immoral. Sexuality, like the rest of the universe, is given by God and therefore good. How people express their sexuality, on the other hand, can be moral or immoral.

Armand Nicholi
The Question of God

Shakespeare and the Incarnation

If Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing.. Shakespeare could, in principle, make himself appear as Author within the play, and write a dialogue between Hamlet and himself. The “Shakespeare” within the play would of course be at once Shakespeare and one of Shakespeare’s creatures. It would bear some analogy to Incarnation.

CS Lewis
Surprised by Joy

Power in Moral Events

Good deeds, even just thinking about helping others, have more willpower, more stamina and are sensitivity to discomfort, according to a new study out of Harvard. The same held true for people who perceived themselves as evil. Researchers call this the “moral transformation” effect because such deeds have the power to transform people from average to exceptional. They suggest helping others before being faced with temptation and that lending a helping hand may be a useful technique to regain control of your own life. Details are in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Stephen Goforth

Expanding & Shrinking

If you don't keep expanding your world it will shrivel on its own.

Stephen Goforth

Making Mistakes

If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them.

Legalism

If you do not oppose legalism, you will be consumed by it.
Chuck Swindoll

Getting What You've God

If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always gotten.

Dancing Skeletons

If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.

George Bernard Shaw

The Poem

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.

David Carradine

Laughter in Heaven

If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.

Martin Luther

Who to Ignore

If we want to welcome God into our lives, there is no one we can safely ignore.

God is Love

If we ignore it, the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God.

CS Lewis

Right & True

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Marcus Aurelius

Understanding & Suffering

If God wants people to suffer, he sends them too much understanding.

Yiddish Proverb

To The Beat of a Different Drum

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

Do it Now

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now. Let me not deter or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Stephen Grellett

Work & Fun

I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.

Thomas Edison

One Chance

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something.
Jimmy Carter

Unexpected Success

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

Gripped

I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself. something that people call God.
Carl Jung

What I Control

I can’t afford to let other people dictate my moods. The way I respond is up to me.

Les Carter

Quiet Moments

How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?
Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

The Light

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world!
William Shakespeare

Sit Down and Talk

Have a courageous conversation with yourself.
John Maxwell

The Goal of Life

Happiness is not the end of life: Character is.
Henry Ward Beecher

Great Teaching

The greatest teaching is not teaching what you know. The greatest teaching is teaching what you’re learning.
John Maxwell

Advice

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.
Agatha Christie

Thank You

God gave you the gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one of them to say, “thank you”?

Real Friends

Find people who are conduits through which you can better understand yourself and your experiences... as you play the same role for them. Here, on substantive ground, you explore life together.

Stephen Goforth

Unexpected Success

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

Expect, Plan, Prepare

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.

Denis Waitley

Another Twist

God always has another custard pie up his sleeve.

Lynn Redgrave in "Georgy Girl"

The Glory of Friendship

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when they discover that someone else believes in them and is willing to trust them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Highway of Life

Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.

Doc Brown, Back to the Future

True Renewal

Genuine beginnings depend upon inner realignment rather than on external shifts, for it is when we are aligned with deep longings that we become powerfully motivated.

William Bridges

Magnet Affects Moral Reasoning

Researchers at MIT say they’ve been able to affect people’s moral reasoning with magnets. The neuroscientists applied a magnetic field to the scalp of subjects near the the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ). It’s highly active when individuals are faced with determining right from wrong. The magnet appeared to make them more likely to make moral judgments based on end results rather than intentions. In one case, a woman put a spoon of white powder in her friend’s coffee, thinking it’s sugar when it’s really poison. The coffee drinker dies. When people heard this story with the magnet in place, they were less empathetic to the woman and more focused on the result of her action.

Stephen Goforth

Friendship's Value

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... it has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.

C.S. Lewis

The Song in Your Heart

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Donna Roberts

Rules of Life

Four rules of life: Show up, Pay attention, Tell the truth, Don't be attached to the results.

Angeles Arrien

The Detour

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

Denis Waitley

The Text & Commentary

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary.

Arthur Schopenhauer

How Many Friends

How many friends can you have? According to Dunbar’s number, the magic number is 150. Oxford University anthropologist Robin Dunbar says 150 is the most the brain can absorb. People within that circle had a personal relationship based on history and shared experience. He explains his reasoning in the book How Many Friends Does One Person Need? The first five are people you’d go to prison for. You wouldn’t do it for most of the next 10 but you would loan them $100. You’re less emotionally engaged with them. You might lend $20 to those in the next layer out, taking you to 50 people. The final 100 are folks you might do a favor for. Some researchers are using Dunbar’s number to determine how much storage is needed for mobile phone address books. Others are using it as a guide toward building the optimum organizational structure.

Stephen Goforth

Gone to His Head

Failure has gone to his head.

Wilson Mizner

A Delighted Pre-Occupation

There may be those who have first felt mere sexual appetite for a woman and then gone on at a later stage to “fall in love with her”. But I doubt if this is at all common. Very often what comes first (with true love) is simply a delighted pre-occupation with her in totality. A man in this state really hasn’t leisure to think of sex. He is too busy thinking of a person. The fact that she is a woman is far less important than the fact that she is herself.

CS Lewis
The Four Loves

How to Change

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

Soren Kierkegaard

Consider it Joy

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." James 1:2

What does this Bible verse tell you about our chances of running into trouble? James writes not “if” but “when” you face trials. They are inevitable. The words “many kinds” is rendered “various” in some translations. In the original, it’s the same word from which we get “polka dots”. He’s saying we are going to face trouble in all different shapes, sizes, colors and varieties. Life is dotted with trials. What does James say to do when our lives are filled with difficulties? Do we ignore our problems? No, we face our polka dot trials with outright joy because, as he goes on to tell us, "When you prove you believe, you become stronger."

Stephen Goforth

The Fault

The fault may not be so much that they hate life as that they do not hate the sinful part of themselves.
M. Scott Peck

Entitled

Do people consciously or unconsciously try to balance good and bad deeds? That’s the idea behind research at the University of Toronto. Students who chose green products were not as quick to behave nicely as those who didn’t make the environmental choice. Researchers say a decision that provides some degree of moral warmth make give the good-doer a mindset that they are entitled to a selfish act because they’ve already done their part. Details are in the journal Psychological Science.

Stephen Goforth

More Wonderful

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

Soren Kierkegaard

Use the Graveyard

Everyone should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
Henry Ward Beecher

Sweet Daydream

Want to increase your brain power? Spend more time daydreaming. That's the implication of a new brain scan study by New York University neuroscientists. They found if people were allowed to rest their minds after looking at pictures, they were better able to recall what they saw later. In other words, daydreaming improved recall. The researchers conclude that if you don’t give yourself a break, then you may be “hindering your brain’s ability to consolidate memories and experiences.” Their suggestion: Less multitasking and more opportunities for your brain to breath.

Stephen Goforth

Authentic Moves

Everyone needs a time to question, ponder and launch out without walls in order to make authentic moves.

The Game of Death

Reality TV has taken dark turns but none more sobering than the Game of Death. Documentary film makers in France tricked 80 people into believing they were contestants on a game show in which they administered electric shocks to contestants. Echoing the famed experiments of psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, were told to "electrocute" a fellow contestant - actually an actor - if he got answers wrong while the audience chanted “punishment.” All but 16 of the volunteers punished the contestant until he appeared to die.

Is this a demonstration of the power of television? An indication that most people will submit to the commands of an authority figure no matter how evil (as with the Nazi death camps) in a fit of blind obedience? Or an example that contestants on what appears to be a reality TV show are savvy enough to assume the producers won’t really let someone die. So, they “play along” in a make-believe world of performance for the camera?

Here's a video about the experiment.

Ignorance

Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.

Everyone

Everyone dies, but not everyone lives.
A. Sachs

Empowerment

Empower people by telling them their world is larger than they think.

Life Philosophies

The Socratic says.. be wise, know yourself.

Rome said.. be strong, discipline yourself.

Religion says.. be holy, conform yourself.

Epicureanism says.. be sensuous, enjoy yourself.

Education says.. be resourceful, expand yourself.

Materialism says.. be satisfied, please yourself.

Psychology says.. be confident, fulfill yourself.

Pride says.. be superior, promote yourself.

Asceticism says.. be inferior, suppress yourself.

Humanism says.. be capable, believe in yourself.

Legalism says.. be pious, limit yourself.

Jesus says.. be a servant, think of others.

Start Running

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a gazelle, or a lion.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Kikuyu proverb

Are Birds Smarter Than Mathematicians?”

Birds perform better on the Monty Hall dilemmal than humans, according to researchers at Whitman College. Their study is summarized in the Journal of Comparative Psychology in an article titled Are Birds Smarter Than Mathematicians?”

People do badly on the problem around the world. When it appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column published in Parade magazine, 92% of the 10,000 letters in response disagreed with her solution.

But in the experiments, pigeons quickly reached the best strategy for the Monty Hall problem.

The researchers speculate that birds are more likely use empirical probability to solve the Monty Hall problem. In empirical probability, one makes predictions after tracking outcomes over time. Humans, on the other hand, tend to go with classical probability in which one tries to figure out every possible outcome and make predictions without collecting data. Our way of tackling probability-based problems generally work pretty well for us but the Monty Hall dilemma being one notable exception. Our dependence on visual information to quickly make sense of the world can make us more vulnerable to visual illusions.

Stephen Goforth

Education Defined

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant

Life is What You Make It

Warren Buffet's son, Peter, was only given a single piece of property as his inheritance even though his dad is worth billions! But Buffet is self-made and went by the slogan that your kids should get “enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.” The property was worth $90k and the younger Buffet sold it. If he had used the money to purchase his dad's stock, it would now be worth a whopping $72 million. Yet Peter Buffet says he doesn't regret for a moment his decision to use the money to follow his dream in music. He's now an Emmy Award-winning musician, composer and producer and has written a new book titled Life is What You Make It.

Stephen Goforth

Life's Tapestry

Don't get lost in the fabric of your personal drama.

Being and Doing

Don’t be something, do something.

William Bridges

Coming Alive

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Inner Education

Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work but it's worth the effort.

Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

It's Worth it!

Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work but it's worth the effort.

Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

Stones Usage

The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.

The book of Excellence

Determination is often the first chapter in the book of excellence.

A Day Lost

A day in which you don’t create something that wasn’t there in the morning, is a day lost.

Buddy Ebson

Cruel Lies

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Creativity Defined

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Arthur Koestler

New Beginnings

A Christian is a person who has the possibility of innumerable new starts.

Francis Schaeffer

Unpredicatble

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next.

Franklin P Jones

What a Child Needs

A child seldom needs a good talking-to as much as a good listening-to.

Robert Brault

When Change Happens

Change happens when its almost too late.

Roger Fransecky

Change Means...

Change will mean losing and giving up but it will also mean gifts and surprises.

Roger Fransecky

Aggresive Enemies

By refusing to fight aggressive enemies, you can effectively infuriate and unbalance them.

Walls

Brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

Randy Pausch

The Color of Virtue

Blushing is the color of virtue.
Diogenes

Settling

The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.

Thomas Merton

Inbetween

Between yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s dreams are today’s opportunities.

Giving Without Losing

The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process.

Barbara Colorose

Dr's Orders

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Dr. Seuss

George's Advice

Be courteous to all, intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

George Washington

The Driver's Seat

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot.

Michael Althsuler

Suffering

The attempt to avoid legitimate suffering lies at the root of all emotional illness.

M Scott Peck

Vision

The artist looks not on what a stone has been or is, but on what he is going to bring out of it - the living figure.

E. Stanley Jones

Big Shoes

Aren't we all just little kids walking around in grown up shoes?

Limits

Argue for your limitations long enough, and, sure enough, they’re yours.

Richard Bach

Getting Stoned

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.

Albert Schweitzer

What it Takes

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

Dale Carnegie

The Foundation

All love that has not friendship for its base, Is like a mansion built upon the sand.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Birds of a Feather

Two students in an MIT ethics and law class created a program that predicts whether someone is gay based only on their friend connections on Facebook. Our inner circle in some way defines us. If all your friends are over 30, you’re probably not a teenager. If all your friends attend similar churches or belong to the same political party, then you probably belong to the same religion or share the same political views.

A professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, discovered accurate predictions could be make about political affiliation based on music and group membership. But he also found just using Facebook friendship connections could also provide reliable results.

While it’s nothing new to predict who might be a terrorist, depressed or taking drugs by looking at who they hang around, only recently has so much information become available to make so many of those connections for so many people.

If social networks reveal who we are, then someone's personal information can be inadvertently shared online without realizing it. It highlights the risks of living online. Especially when potentially everything you ever do on the Internet will live forever.

Stephen Goforth

A Lifetime Process

The active exercise of conformity with excellence or virtue must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring , nor does one fine day.

Aristotle

New Ways

When you’re in transition, you find yourself coming back in new ways to old activities.

William Bridges