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Showing posts from 2014

Lightning strikes the same place twice rarely but more likely if you're holding up a metal rod in a field in the rain

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Lightning strikes over downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Normally we don't want something to happen again. Unless it's something good. So it's not the fact something happens again that is important, it is what that thing is. It's less likely we will make the same mistake twice if we do thing differently the second time around. And we will likely not achieve the same outcome if we do things differently So why do we do the opposite? How many times you've find yourself trying to make that thing work again by doing something different. Or doing the same thing, believing that things will work out differently this time around. How important is consistency and why do we apply it inconsistently? Insanity is both Doing the same thing expecting the same outcome AND Doing it differently and expecting thes This form of saying is what I call the tangent. It's taking a well known saying or common sense notion and adding an exclusion at the end tha

To err is human, to forgive and forget is immortal

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Everybody makes mistakes. It is simply part of being who we are. Anybody who claims to have never made one, is lying. Big or small, a mistake was made somewhere. It's everywhere. Tward369 via photopin cc Some people simply eliminate the category altogether. 'There are no mistakes. Just setbacks / inconveniences / obstacles. All you can do is work around / move on / ignore them.' They work under the assumption that 'if nothing goes wrong, nothing is wrong'. Not admitting mistakes means not having to fix them. And that is the real objective. People attach a stigma to mistakes because of fear. Fear of prosecution. Fear of retribution. Fear of responsibility. This focus on the 'fear' delays and hinders efforts to fix the problem. Time is wasted on persecution and tossing blame between parties. Lost time that may be crucial to fixing the problem and recovering from it. The best way to move forward and focus on the remedy is forgiveness. It removes the b

The least heard are those that should be listened to the most.

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"I listened with fixed attention" Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Essentially similar to this quote and the one before that ..

If you are looking for the truth about yourself, look behind. It's where every talks about it.

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Listen, Understand, Act (Photo credit: highersights ) This is a play on the notion that people talk frankly about you behind your back. Although not necessarily true, because people can still spread lies about you, people feel the need to not hurt your feelings by telling the truth about you to your face. Different people react differently to finding out the truth. Few people accept them outright. Most leans towards outright rejection.I think we should listen to what people are talking about us. Make people feel comfortable about talking about you, to you. We can then filter out what is the real truth and what are speculation and wrong opinions and lies. The least you will get out of being able to listen to the truth is knowing how other people really

The link between Effort and Success is a bit of Faith

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Is Health wealth or will wealth pay for health   (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013 ) I've often wondered about success. How do some people succeed? Why do others fail? I look at the relationship between effort and success. Everyone used to tell me that you have to work hard to succeed. Later they told me to work smart and not work hard. Now everybody says that to be successful, you have to be passionate about what you do. Wait a minutes, isn't that just working hard but loving it? I look at people who are successful but didn't really do much to get there.I also see honest people working hard and barely making ends meet. Is success not supposed to be fair? I'd like to think that success is not a destination but a state of being. It is different for every people. Being successful it just a measurement but depends on what are you measuring for? I don't know what it all means.But I do see one thing. To be successful, you need faith. It could be faith in yourself or f

Ride on positivity that move you forward or let time push you along in life

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Peace Education (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Time is relentless for those who try to stand against it. Time waits for no man. Neither does time wait for tides. Sometimes we get lost in life. We seem to wander around without direction. Or caught up in routines that keep us busy and occupied but never rewarding. We feel as if we are going around in circles. In truth, we don't have time to do that. Because time moves us on whether we want to or not. And we have no control over time. Only what we do with it. Time is both a highway and a resource. Use time to move us long towards meaningful goals as we experience meaningful connections and events. There should be a James Taylor song some where here.

To avoid Confusion, do not ask Question. Also prevents Knowledge growth.

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A warning sticker on a tractor attachment. Apparently, it isn't obvious. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Questions can be the root of knowledge when it is paired with an understandable answer. It is valid form of communicating knowledge. Confusion reign with answers that are complicated and convoluted. Those really doesn't answer the question. I was asked by a friend, "If you came with a warning label, what would it say." This is my response. It's a take on the usual warning phrase forms that is on all sorts of labels and bottles. 

Failure is a good intention wrapped in bad decisions

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(Photo credit: Nomadic Lass ) While the road to hell is paved with good intentions , failures have only one or a few good intentions at it's juicy center. It all probably started with a good intention and goal.  The first step was a great idea.  Along the way,  decisions had to be made. But the focus was too much on reaching that goal.  So much so that the intention is soon forgotten and all that matters is reaching that goal, at all costs. The intention is forgotten and the effort loses it's anchor.

The half-way point between despair and joy is contentment.

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Horizon (Photo credit: Nevalenx ) Life is a cycle.  There are days when we are on top of the world. There are days when we are low and in the dumps. The secret to surviving the ride up and the ride down is to take time to stop in-between. Be content of what you have even as your are getting more of it. Abundance doesn't need to be yours alone. Sharing can be rewarding.  And be thankful for what you had as the world crumbles around you. It'll give you time to find those that truly matter. They'll be there to cushion your fall and rise with you when things look up. Remember, life is a cycle. This sort of in the same vein as this.

If life sucks, let it suck my fears and frustrations

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The way we use adversity is strictly our own choice (Photo credit: symphony of love ) I always wondered what that really phrase meant,  "life sucks".  Where did it come from? Why did that person first said it. If life is literally sucking, I'd like it to be of some use. It might as well suck out the things I fear and doubt. It should suck away things that stop me from trying again and be accepting of the eventual outcome. Despite all the sucking, life still goes on. So if it sucks, let it be for the better.

Success is the temporary state between Problems

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Sunset at Lake Success (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Updated 12th January 2015 Especially when we are down, we tend to feel like success is far away, fleeting and not permanent. You could not be more right. Success is impermanent. After success will come problems. It may not be failure. But it will need you to be more successful. Success is fleeting if we are not careful. Like a beautiful sunset, it is fleeting. Although there are a million (now 10 million more) pictures of sunsets, these sunsets were short but memorable. Success should be like that. Draw inspiration from it. Think of the good things it brought. And always remember how long it lasted.