A great power

Your home library

How are you coming with your home library? Do you need some good ammunition on why it's so important to read? The last time I checked the statistics...I think they indicated that only four percent of the adults in this country have bought a book within the past year. That's dangerous. It's extremely important that we keep ourselves in the top five or six percent.

In one of the Monthly Letters from the Royal Bank of Canada it was pointed out that reading good books is not something to be indulged in as a luxury. It is a necessity for anyone who intends to give his life and work a touch of quality. The most real wealth is not what we put into our piggy banks but what we develop in our heads. Books instruct us without anger, threats and harsh discipline. They do not sneer at our ignorance or grumble at our mistakes. They ask only that we spend some time in the company of greatness so that we may absorb some of its attributes.
You do not read a book for the book's sake, but for your own.

You may read because in your high-pressure life, studded with problems and emergencies, you need periods of relief and yet recognize that peace of mind does not mean numbness of mind.

You may read because you never had an opportunity to go to college, and books give you a chance to get something you missed. You may read because your job is routine, and books give you a feeling of depth in life.

You may read because you did go to college.

You may read because you see social, economic and philosophical problems which need solution, and you believe that the best thinking of all past ages may be useful in your age, too.

You may read because you are tired of the shallowness of contemporary life, bored by the current conversational commonplaces, and wearied of shop talk and gossip about people.

Whatever your dominant personal reason, you will find that reading gives knowledge, creative power, satisfaction and relaxation. It cultivates your mind by calling its faculties into exercise.

Books are a source of pleasure - the purest and the most lasting. They enhance your sensation of the interestingness of life. Reading them is not a violent pleasure like the gross enjoyment of an uncultivated mind, but a subtle delight.

Reading dispels prejudices which hem our minds within narrow spaces. One of the things that will surprise you as you read good books from all over the world and from all times of man is that human nature is much the same today as it has been ever since writing began to tell us about it.

Some people act as if it were demeaning to their manhood to wish to be well-read but you can no more be a healthy person mentally without reading substantial books than you can be a vigorous person physically without eating solid food. Books should be chosen, not for their freedom from evil, but for their possession of good. Dr. Johnson said: "Whilst you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both.

Earl Nightingale


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The service you are rendering

"If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it."
~Roger Babson
1875-1967, Statistician and Columnist

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Pain is temporary

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
~Lance Armstrong

A Pot of Panatunies

A Pot of Panatunies

As many times before, my gardening rituals brought about some thoughts. The other day I learned a lesson; but not one of which I didn't already know. The lesson just became clearer because of my hands-on experience.

We have a large pot of panatunies growing in our back yard. You might ask, "What are panatunies?" When our daughter was about 3 years old she proclaimed the name of our petunias by combining the name pansies and petunias. We have used that name ever since to describe our petunias.

Just like roses, if you want more blooms to occur on your petunias, you need to snap off the dried up buds. I don't mind at all dead-heading petunias or roses; in fact it's rather relaxing. So here I was working with this big pot of petunias which are a beautiful deep purple. As I was standing on one side of the pot I picked all the dead ones I could see, and thought I was through. However as I began to move around the pot I began to see more and more of them. For awhile I thought I would never finish. I began to lift up the stems to discover more underneath.

The result I am always trying to bring about is to help maintain a nice looking pot of panatunies. This work always rewards me with new blooms. A few days of laziness had got me to this place and I was paying the price.

The thought that came to me is that if we procrastinate, we pay a price or even worse. We may have to do something over and over to keep the beauty of what we want to accomplish.

In other words, change your perception, your view. Heck, stand at a different spot if you have to. There are times (sometimes many) that you feel you're going around in circles picking off old dried blooms, but what you are really doing is clearing up old negative garbage and being persistent trying out new ideas.

If you want your life to look and feel great there are times that you may have to do something over and over while you're looking under your old beliefs and picking them off to bring forth new and vibrant ones.

Ideas with right action equal a great life, but if you don't feel you're there yet then go back to the pot of panatunies and start over again. You will then find your life enriched with new vibrant blooms.

© Tony Masiello 2008

Tony Masiello is an author, and intuitive consultant. He is the author of the e-book, Whispers from the Universe, which is a collection of writings that will help you, motivate you, inspire you and guide you along the inner path ofyour life. For more information or to contact Tony, go to his website: www.universalinsight.com


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Perception is Everything

Perception is Everything

The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for you.

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An excerpt from "The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success"

An excerpt from "The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success"
by Brian Tracy


The Law of Attraction


You are a living magnet; you invariably attract into your life the people, situations, and circumstances that are in harmony with your dominant thoughts.

This is one of the great laws that explains much of success and failure in one's business and personal life. It has been written about as far back as the ancient Egyptian mystery schools, 3,000 years before Christ. It is so powerful, pervasive, and all-encompassing that it affects everything you do or say, or even think or feel.

Learn The Law of Attraction -- In Action -- Listen to this LIVE Teleseminar with Brian Tracy!

Everything you have in your life, you have attracted to your self because of the way you think, because of the person you are. You can change your life because you can change the way you think. You can change the person you are.

You have heard it said, "Birds of a feather flock together." "Like attracts like." "Whatever you want, wants you." These are ways of expressing the Law of Attraction.

Your thoughts are extremely powerful. They are like a form of mental energy that travles at the speed of light. They are so fine that they can go through any barrier. This is why, for example, you can think about a person, sometimes at a great distance, and in the next moment, the phone will ring and that person will be on the line. Your thoughts have connected with that person the moment you thought of them.



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A Secret Story – Take the Positive Path

What is the answer to every difficult circumstance in life?

Take the positive path.

Choosing the positive path can be easy at some times in our life and more difficult at other times. When everything is going along well, when we are on a roll, choosing the positive path just flows through us as an easy, natural choice. When something negative comes along it can be far more challenging for us to choose the positive path. But choose it we must! No matter how challenging the negativity may be, there is simply no other way to bring our lives back into positivity.

If negative situations appear, you must use your will and refuse to lower yourself to negative thoughts, words, actions, and emotions. Use your will and decide that not only will you focus on the positive, but you will ramp up the positive in every thought, word, and action of your day.

It takes determination, strength, faith, and the power of your will to focus on the positive when intense negativity descends, but remember that the Universe and the law of attraction are with you. As you focus on the positive, focus more on the positive, think of the positive, speak of the positive, and take positive and good actions, the law of attraction will give your life wings. Suddenly you will look around you and you will find that the negativity has gone, and that your life has been filled with goodness and joy.

~The Secret Team

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One day at a time - is not enough

"One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

Ida Scott Taylor
1820-1915, Author


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satisfaction and happiness

"If we are basically positive in attitude, expecting and envisioning pleasure, satisfaction and happiness, we will attract and create people, situations, and events which conform to our positive expectations."

Shakti Gawain
Author of Creative Visualization

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Staying In Touch

Staying In Touch

My usual routine on a Sunday morning is to go for bicycle ride. Today I wanted to do something different so I stopped at the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. I rode only a mile to where their headstone is and cleaned it up a little and reflected. I have only one memory from each of my grandparents that stands out. I remember my grandfather walking me to the corner store one morning for bread. He let me carry the money we were going to spend, and I even got to hand it to the clerk.
My grandmother would often be found on the couch with her eyes closed as if she were sleeping. I asked one day why she always had her eyes closed, her response was that she was resting them. Nothing profound about either memory, but I am glad I have them.

As I continued around the cemetery I noticed small groups of people scattered throughout staring at the grave markers at their feet. I would imagine they too were reflecting.

One man bid me good morning as I rode by, so I stopped to wish him a good morning as well. He replied, 'yes it is a wonderful morning'. With that enthusiastic answer I felt an invitation to talk.

"Sir, I noticed you on the hill up the road, now you are down here. Can I ask you what you are doing?"

"Sure." He replied, as if he had something to tell me. "I come here every Sunday to visit my wife up on the hill, then I come down here to visit my life-long buddy. We were in three wars together you know."
We talked for about 30 minutes, then I asked him. "John, (we exchanged names) what advice would you have to give people as we all grow old?"

"Well, Larry, we don't always have control over our health, or even our wealth. But we have control of keeping in touch with our friends. So, I say stay in touch. Whether you're sick or poor, healthy or wealthy, you can always stay in touch."

My eyes began to swell with tears as I looked at this old man and knew he was right. We talked a little longer then wished each other a good day, we shook hands and left.

My early morning bicycle ride made an impression on me today. I hope you got something out of this as well.

~Larry D. Schultz
Feel free to contact Larry with your comments on today's story at: http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hyperman@oh.rr.com or visit his website for an uplifting message at: http://www.larrydschultz.com/

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Second Effort Concept

Second Effort Concept

Vince Lombardi, former football coach of the Green Bay Packers football team, described the Razor's Edge concept in football very well when he said, "most games are won or lost in the last two minutes of the first and second half." But what Lombardi is best remembered for - with respect to football's Razor's Edge - is the "Second Effort" concept, which he introduced for the edification of his players. In a nutshell, the "Second Effort" concept simply meant, that when a player was initially stopped by the opposing team, he would always surge forward a second time, with the added thrust of a "Second Effort."

Now, just consider the tremendous difference you could create in your own life if you were to adopt a similar mental attitude. For example, if you are a person who is working in sales and currently selling only three units a week, what would the consequences be for you if you were to decide to make one additional sale per week, through a conscientious application of the second effort concept. Well, on a weekly basis, it might not appear to be a major breakthrough. However, viewed over the time frame of an entire career, it would actually amount to well over two thousand extra sales. Moreover, from a monetary standpoint, it would mean you would actually receive an extra ten years' income, over the span of a forty-year career. Yes, that one sale would be the razor's edge difference, which could catapult you into "the big leagues" in your chosen career.
~Bob Proctor

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To give up enthusiasm

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
~Samuel Ullman
1840-1924, Educator, Writer and Poet

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The key to failure... Bill Cosby

200 M.P.H."I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
Actor and Comedian

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If it doesn't feel right...

"Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right."
Lawyer and Former Governor of New York

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Watch your thoughts; they lead to attitudes

Curing Victimitis

Watch your thoughts; they lead to attitudes.
Watch your attitudes; they lead to words.
Watch your words; they lead to actions.
Watch your actions; they lead to habits.
Watch your habits; they form your character.
Watch your character; it determines your destiny.

These words of unknown origin tell us that our silent and often subconscious choices shape our future. Every aspect of our lives, at home and at work, can be improved if we use our power to think, reflect, and make conscious choices about our thoughts, attitudes, words, actions, and habits.

Instead, many of us think of ourselves as victims. We complain about our circumstances and what others did to us. Whatever psychological comfort there is in feeling powerless and blameless when things aren't going right, in the end, victims lead unsatisfied lives.

We're most vulnerable to victimitis when we're under the influence of powerful emotions like fear, insecurity, anger, frustration, grief, or depression. These feelings are so powerful, we believe our state of mind is inevitable. Our only hope is they will go away on their own. Yet it's during times of emotional tumult that using our power to choose our thoughts and attitudes is most important. We can't make pain go away, but we can refuse to suffer.

Even when we don't like any of our choices, we do have some -- once we realize we can take control. It isn't easy, but what we do and how we choose to feel about ourselves has a profound impact on the quality of our lives. Victims may get sympathy for a while, but that isn't enough.

Taking personal responsibility for our happiness and success can be scary, but the payoff is enormous. Although we can't make our lives perfect, we can make them better -- usually a lot better.

Michael Josephson
www.charactercounts.org


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A great book is all you need...

"The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. A great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty."
~Theodore Parker
1810-1860, Minister

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Face your fears!!!

"When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation - it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams."

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Consciously or unconsciously we are rending a service...

"Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large."
~Mahatma Gandhi
1869-1948, Indian Political and Spiritual Leader

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