It's been a long time coming... but I needed to get back to my blog page. It got me thinking about how long since I've done a post and that I need to be more active in doing more. This is from an article that I gave my students to complete their Blog #7 assignment in my classes - "21 of The Most Inspirational Quotes. Find the article HERE. This thought - "It is always the simple that produces the marvelous", is one that I connected with this past weekend. So many simple things that I try and do with my wife, our kids and even our dog. We went out to dinner Friday night, the 4 of us - me and my wife and our two adult children. We normally don't do that too often any more due to so many different schedules, but for this time it sure was a nice treat being out with them. My wife and I also took our dog out for a walk Sunday - actually more of a run at our local middle school track. It was cold and windy, but watching him sprint back and forth across the football field a couple of times was a lot of fun. The simple things like that ALWAYS bring me a lot of peace, joy and a reminder as to what's really important. The second one that I connected with is about making our future now! I'm working on this so that some ideas and dreams that I have can become my reality sometime soon. Amazing to think about how much time I've let go by without going after these dreams and goals. But, instead of letting this thought get me down (which I've done for so many years), I'm working on starting to make them happen now. I don't care that I'm 52 years old, I still can make things happen in my life today. Doesn't matter my age. What matters is that I start and things will change for the better soon. The key for my students is to realize just because they are young and seem to have all the time in the world - which we all know isn't really true... we don't know how much time we have. The younger we are when we start going after dreams and goals - the more time we will have with living them into reality! :-) |
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“On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.” — Anonymous
This quote really jumped out to me last week as I was thinking about Les Brown’s message that we watched in my Leadership classes awhile back. He talked about a story of a guy’s last day and he had his family and some friends around his bed side, something we all hope to have on our last day for sure. Les also described that there were other figures around this guy’s bedside and he noticed that they all had angry and disappointed looks on their faces – especially in their eyes. He asked the one closest to him who are you? The figure answered that we are all the dreams and ideas that you never acted upon. You never even tried to do anything with us and now we are going to die with you. You were the only one that could have given us life and now that will never happen. Now I’ve heard Les tell this story many times watching his videos and to be honest, it always makes me tear up thinking about how I don’t want to be that guy. This year, same thing but it was different. The tears were still there and I’m not exactly sure why, but it is different than before. I guess I’m more in touch with the fact that many things are changing in my life. I’m older (51 when I write this), my parents & in-laws are older too of course and there are the health issues with them that are on my mind too. Now I know these things are natural in life. They do happen, heck they are supposed to happen. I look at my 2 kids and how they too (of course) are getting older. We are approaching another graduation here at Lake Shore High School, my 24th. So maybe that might be part of it too? Thinking about this a little bit more – I think back to those people that have been an important part of my life and I am really zeroing in on the fact that they have had a direct affect on me getting to where I am today. Some of them are no longer alive, some have moved away and I’ve lost touch with others still. One of my missions is to continue to try and make a difference with as many people as possible as a way to payback all the people throughout my lifetime that invested in me and helped me get to where I am today. But the fact remains that I have another strong force starting to push me. I DO NOT want to be like that guy that Les Brown is talking about. There are many things I’d like to do, many ideas, many goals and dreams that I’ve had for awhile – and I don’t want to not act on trying to make them happen. I’ve said this before in my life that it’s time to start getting into action. I’ve done it a little here and there of course. Now, it’s time to raise my standards BIG TIME! Wanting the person I know I can become be the same person when I finish my race that is something that will be great to make happen. What about you? How are you doing in going after your dreams and goals? Have you ever thought what it might be like to meet that person you could have become on your last day? The younger you are the more of a say you have in how your last day can be. It’s the same with me of course, but I just have less time than others. I tell you what though, it’s going to be something that I’m working on more and more. Raising your standards is not easy. Getting better is not easy. It’s all worth it though. “A person is not old until their regrets take the place of their dreams.” – Phil Reinhardt
As time goes by it sure does get easy to have regular life take over where we find ourselves just going through the motions and losing our direction as to where we wanted to go earlier in life. The hopes, plans, dreams and goals are still in our mind but have been replace with looking to survive and maybe advance a little bit in whatever career path we find ourselves on. For many, it’s a career that maybe they didn’t plan on at all that they find themselves in. For others, maybe it a career path that they have never left and still find themselves on it so many years later. There are plenty of regrets in my life for sure. I’ve tried recently to look at them as lessons learned instead of getting all hung up, sad and down about them not happening or more importantly, me not making them happen. The other thing that I have seemed to get connected with is to focus more in on dreams that I still want to accomplish. That’s what connected me with Phil’s quote when I saw it. There are days I feel that I’m getting older, mostly due to my recent surgeries last year. I got my right knee replaced along with having back surgery, where I have six screws permanently in by lower back holding things together so to speak. Arthritis has made sure it is helping to remind me about the time that has gone by in my life. The way I look at it, I sure don’t need to help this process get any worse by not going after my dreams and goals and start having regrets pile up and replace those things that I still want to do in my life. Age is something that slows us all down at times which can add to the fact that we don’t feel like doing more about going after our dreams and goals in life. This is why I promote to my own kids, my students and others to get started as early as they can on going after their dreams and goals, rather than after time goes by – and it does go by fast – we feel as if we can’t go after them since we are getting older and life is happening to us and we don’t have the time to do that. There have also been too many examples on why we can’t wait to go after our dreams and goals. Too many people that I have seen have died too soon in life due to a variety of circumstances. The tragedy in Paris just happened yesterday which shows even more the fragile state of life that some face more frequently than others. They key is time will always keep chugging along. It doesn’t wait for nobody. Like Tiger Woods has said, “Father time is undefeated.” As time goes on, it piles up victories of making us start piling up our defeats of regrets instead of victories of accomplishing our dreams and goals. I’m not sure about you, but I want to still have some victories that I can look back upon as being memorable, lasting for others, and the opposite of regrets. What about you? "Life’s too short to be bored and unfulfilled. Find your passion and use it to light up your life." — John C. Maxwell
Time and time again – there have been way too many examples about life being too short. John Maxwell is right, there is not any room for living a bored and unfulfilled life during the short time that we have. All too often most people don’t find their passions in life. Maybe even worse, they do find their passions but don’t do anything to go after them. Les Brown tells the story about a man on his death bed and all of a sudden there are all these figures standing around his bed. He asked one, what are you all doing here? The mystical figure said that they represented all the dreams and ideas that he never did anything about. That because of him not doing anything about making them real, they are going to die with him. All the people that could have had their lives changed due to his ideas and dreams, will never have it happen. Of course he felt horrible at that moment. I’ve always pictured that story with me – and it is indeed very scary and sad to me. I guess that is one thing I’m trying harder to avoid in my life. It’s one of my many issues that I try and get my students to think about as they go through high school and the fact that they are setting the table so to speak for the their journey through life. It’s become one of my many callings to bring this out so that students can start on this journey of going after a life of making a difference and one of fulfillment with their dreams and goals. The same goes for adults too as we need to figure out our lives, no matter what age we are. It’s a lot more difficult for adults to make changes, to step out of our comfort zones and to find the time and courage necessary to do those things. One thing for sure is that we need to do it as we don’t want to end up at the end our lives, looking at all those faces of our dreams and ideas looking back at us with tears in their eyes, wondering why we didn’t choose to make things happen. We also need to remember the faces staring at every day in our lives, our loved ones and friends. When we don’t go after our goals and dreams, we are making it much more difficult for them to go after theirs. It’s one of my many personal battles I need to take on because I know I have many people in my life that need me to step up and show them how to do things like this along with helping them to see the importance of the opportunities in their lives to make it happen for themselves. They too have others that they can influence and help, and so on and so on. A very familiar question should be asked by all of us. If not me, then who will step up and make a difference? Do you want to face all those figures at the end of your life?? "Nobody can take your dreams away from you. You can imagine anything you want." -- Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
We lost a great man this past week with the passing of Dr. Wayne Dyer and when I saw this quote it got me thinking as to what many of his messages were all about, especially this one. First of all I remember listening to a few Wayne Dyer audios along with a number of interviews that either he did or others interviewed him. One of the many things he would focus on was the above quote and the fact that it was very important to dream in the first place. He would promote the fact on how powerful our minds really are and that we just have to tap into some of that power in order to make substantial changes in our lives. With the world being as crazy as it, is the thought as come to me on how vitally important it is for us to indeed dream about things that are close to our heart and those things that are part of our core being and then of course start to do things about putting those things into action. As I sit here on a Saturday morning along with my cup of coffee of course and get back into somewhat of a normal schedule with school starting in a few days, this thought really has me intrigued about many things. Another quote I saw this morning before I started writing this was from Brian Tracy and it was about not playing for being safe and how dangerous that is, and that ties into for me, how it’s not doing any good for the world. By us dreaming, imagining and doing the action steps needed to make those things happen – then we are affecting not only ourselves but everyone around us that we know and even those that we don’t know. As I sit here contemplating that thought, I do get excited knowing that I have to, it’s more that I MUST get going on making my dreams and goals a reality. That thought alone has been with me for a large portion of my life so as they say, lesson repeated until lesson learned. With school starting again, what better way for this teacher and coach to get back to “school” where I need to make some changes, continue to make some things happen for me and my family along with others that are around me too. In fact part of it for me is to connect more with those people around me that mean something to me. My good friend Don, yes… coach Don that I coach with, just texted me about going out for breakfast. He like me, is an early riser which is a good thing. He is one of my good friends that I need to do more with, help him more with his dreams and goals (which we do indeed talk about), and along with this comes him helping me too. So as the calendar is now into September and there seems to be more of a “normal” schedule for most people with school starting and all, I wonder what are a few things that you can start working on that connects to your dreams and goals? The power of our minds that Dr. Dyer spent his life researching and sharing that information to help others, check some of his work out. Listen to him and read a few of his books and then look to do a few things that will help you with your dreams and goals. You will be benefiting not only yourself, but also you will make a difference for others too. What a great focus point to start off the school year with. Don’t you think? "You can make startling changes you can’t even conceive of right now, if you just give yourself half a chance." -- Jim Rohn
As I was looking through some quote ideas another one from the great Jim Rohn jumped out at me. I think so many times in our lives, if we give ourselves a chance to do great things, we will indeed do just that. You know, before we are able to do really do anything in life we have to tell ourselves to do it. Just getting up on time in the morning, making breakfast, filling the car up with gas, taking a shower, etc. Now with other things, it’s a lot more difficult than simply telling ourselves to do it. We have to convince ourselves for the really important and life changing things that we need to do. Those items such as going after your dreams and goals, stepping up to push yourself to get rid of bad habits and replace them with good ones, to reach out to help others that maybe not too many others are willing to help out, along with looking to make a difference with others throughout your lifetime. It’s about being continually inspired throughout life. We need to have those inspirational reminders just about on a daily basis I think. Those stories that we can relate to that helps us believe that we too can do great things. To get us to understand that we don’t have to settle. We simply need to give ourselves a chance, an opportunity to do them. Jim Rohn went onto say “The real value in setting goals is not in their achievement. The acquisition of the things you want is strictly secondary. The major reason for setting goals is to compel you to become the person it takes to achieve them.” When we look back on the great moments in our lives, they usually come from overcoming difficulties, maybe a long time in working hard and then something wonderful happens along with the fact that we can look back at all the great people that came into our lives along with the new things we learned during that time period. It’s also a time to see the people that aren’t in our lives anymore. Our journey throughout life takes us into different directions that others won’t follow us through. They have their own journeys to go on and even though it’s sad to lose friends, it’s necessary for us to become who we want to and need to become. Part of this equation is to figure it out sooner than later as some of our many journeys through life take time. The sooner we realize this, the more things we can go through to get us to become the person we want to be. Another key, maybe even a more important one is to realize that it’s never too late to start on any of these possible journeys. You know, I’ve been learning a lot lately and much of it is dealing with the person that I know I need to become in order for things to happen. Much of it are things that I’d rather not face, not talk about, and not have to go through. I know I need to go through them and face them in order for things to get better for me but more importantly for those that are around me. My wife and kids, my other family members, my students, my basketball players, fellow teachers, coaches, friends and neighbors along with the countless people that I haven’t even met yet. I’ve been playing small most of my life. That time has to end, and end now. What are some of the things you need to give yourself permission to do? Just give yourself a chance, something little, just one thing. Then just look for those little things each and every day that can help you. When you find them, please let me know and others too, since I know that we are all looking for those little things to help us in our journeys through life. “Father Time is undefeated” – Tiger Woods
As we come close to the end of 2014, time is usually what a lot of people think about this time of year. Most of us look back at the past year, sometimes with regret I’m sure, but also we look back at all the good things that happened too. We also tend to look ahead to what the new year, 2015 will bring to us. Resolutions, plans, and goals all come to mind – many will be forgotten in the first few weeks of the new year sad to say. I was watching an interview with Tiger Woods on TV last week when he said this statement about Father Time. It hit me on how right he is, so I quickly jotted it down as I don’t trust my memory anymore. He was speaking to coming back off one of his many surgeries and how it would affect his game. He is a year and a couple weeks away from turning 40 and he knows how Father Time has more baring on his career than ever before. I could also see it in his eyes that he was talking about life and not just his career. It’s true for all of us, and I do mean each and every one of us. It’s amazing to look at our family and how Father Time has affected them. From our youngest nephew who many in our family still sees as being 4 years old, when in reality he’s 8. We look at our parents, with the oldest turning 78 this past year and all the age-related issues that are starting to settle in for them. Those age related issues aren’t just for them as I found out this year with my two surgeries dealing with the affects of arthritis on my knee and back. That’s another thing that Father Time has given me. The time to sit and reflect a little more as I’m off work for awhile healing up from my back surgery in early November. It’s helped me to see many things more clearly and it’s given me the opportunity to make some adjustments with those reflections, and to make some changes for not only the year ahead, but for years and years ahead. The looking back for us on Father Time can offer lessons to learn from and to make changes for today and the future. The looking ahead for us on Father Time can offer hope, dreams and goals to work hard for and go after. What I’ve seen from having some extra time to reflect and think these past few weeks (and for a few weeks more) Father Time offers us a great gift, every day that we can make changes and do the things necessary in our lives to make things happen for us, our family and our friends. Today allows us to take a blend of the past and tomorrow and do the best we can with what we have, and that is today, right now is all we have to work with. So from reminders on the back end of our lives with our youngest nephew; to the reminder on the front end with our aging parents, it helps clarify what Father Time means to me and my wife along with others in our family from our own generation. It hopefully offers the chance for us to make any and all changes that we want to right now. For that is all we really have – the right now of our lives. Tiger is right – Father Time is undefeated. Time always wins. How can we win within the time that we have? |
AuthorI have been an educator for more than 32 years. It's about time I start sharing lessons that I have learned so that I can help others. I'm into Leadership, Teaching, Coaching Basketball, and being a Difference Maker. Coffee helps me do that :-) Archives
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