Do Your Best

“A Problem Is A Chance For You To Do Your Best” –  Duke Ellington
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Long ago, a band of minstrels lived in a faraway land. They traveled town to town, singing and playing their music in hopes of making a living. But they had not been doing well financially. Times were hard and the common people had little money to spend on concerts, even though their fee was small.

The group met one evening to discuss their plight. ” I see no reason for opening tonight , ” one said. “It’s snowing, and no one will come out on a night like this.”

Another said, ” I agree. Last night we performed for just a handful. Even fewer will come tonight.”

The leader of the troupe responded, “ I know you are discouraged. I am too. But we have a responsibility to those who might come. We will go on, and we will do the best job of which we are capable. It is not the fault of those who come that others do not. They should not be punished with less than our best.”

Heartened by this words, the minstrels gave their best performance ever. After the show, the old man called his troupe to him again. In his hand was a note, given to him by one of the audience members just before the doors closed behind him. Slowly the man read, “Thank you for a beautiful.” It was signed simply, “Your king.”

Everything you do is performed before your king – the the king of kings. Are all of your words and deeds worthy of his audience?

Plan B

Climb Mountains Not So The World Can See You, But So You Can See The World.

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In the 1984 Olympics, heavyweight boxer Henry Tillmanplanned out a very careful strategy. He decided he would fight defensively, simply warding off his opponent’s blows until he saw an opening for a strike of his own. Minutes into the fight, it became obvious to Tilliman that his opponent had planned the same strategy! After the bell sounded, ending the first round, Tillman stepped back, dropped his hands, and mentally shifted gears. He recognized that his initial game plan might not work, but he had come prepared with a second plan. He switched to a take the offensive mode of fighting, won the match, and ultimately won a gold medal.

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Figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi also had a “plan B”for her Olympic bid, Originally, she had planned to perform her most difficult jump – three revolutions in the air and a graceful single – skate landing know as the triple salchow. A slight stumble in the early portion of her routine led her to make a change. She cut the triple salchow to a double, regained her balance, caught up with her music, and then went on to perform another triple jump – the lutz.2

No matter how much we rehearse or plan, things don’t always go as we desireTrue champions are those who are prepared to adapt if necessary and switch to what works.

Work As If For Yourself And God

  You are only what you are when no one is looking.

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Joe Smith was a loyal carpenter who worked almost two decades for a successful contractor. The contractor called him into his office one day and said, Joe, I’ m putting you in charge of the next house we build. I want you to order all the materials and oversee the job from the ground up.”

Joe accepted the assignment with great enthusiasm. He studied the blueprints and checked every measurement and specification. Suddenly, he had a thought. If I’m really in charge, why couldn’t I cut a few corners, use less expensive materials, and put the extra money in my pocket? Who will know? Once the house is painted, it will look great.

So Joe set about his scheme. He ordered second – grade lumber and inexpensive concrete, put in cheap wiring, and cut corner he could. When the home was finished, the contractor came to see it.

“What a fine job you’ve done!” he said.” You’ve been such a faithful carpenter tome all these years that I’ve decided to show you my gratitude by giving you a gift – this house.”

Build well today. You will have to live with the character and reputation you construct.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” ― John Wooden

Keep At It.

Do What You Feel In Your Heart To Be Right For You‘ll Be Criticized Anyway.- Eleanor Roosevelt

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The way to get to the top

is to get off your bottom. 

One day in the full of 1894, Guglielmo retreated to his room on the third floor of – parent’s home. He had just spent his entire summer vacation reading books and filling notebooks with squiggly diagrams. Now the time had come to work.

He rose early every morning. He worked all day and long into the night, to the point that his mother became alarmed. He had never been a robust person, but now he was appallingly thin. His face was drawn, and his eyes were often glazed over with fatigue.

Finally the day came he announced his instrument were ready. He invited the family to his room, and pushing a button, he succeeded in ringing a bell on the first floor! While his mother was amazed, his father was not. He saw no use in being able to send a signal so short a distance. So Guglielmo labored on. Little by little, he made changes in his invention so that he could send a signal from one hi to the next and then beyond the hill. Eventually his invention was perfected, partly by inspiration, but mostly by perseverance.

Guglielmo Marconi eventually was hailed as the inventor of wireless telegraphy – the forerunner of the radio. He not only received a Nobel Prize in physics for his efforts, but also a seat in the Italian senate and many honorary degrees and titles.

You can accomplish anything you set your heart on by combining your vision with hard work. 

Do the Common things Well

THE  SECRET  OF  SUCCESS  IS  TO  DO  THE  COMMON THINGS  UNCOMMONLY  WELL

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Do you see those who are skillful in their work?

 They will serve kings, they will not serve

 Common people

Helping the deaf to communicate was Alexander Graham Bell’s motivation for his life work perhaps because his mother and wife were both deaf.” If I can make a deaf – mute talk, “Bell said, “I can make metal.” For five frustrating and impoverished years, he experimental with a variety of materials in an effort to make a metal disk, that, vibrating is response to sound, could reproduce those sounds and send them over an electrified wire.

During a visit to Washington, DC, he called on Joseph Henry, a scientist who was a pioneer in research related to electricity. He presented his ideas to him and asked his advice: should he let someone else perfect the telephone, or should he do it himself? Henry encouraged him to do it himself, to which bell complained that he lacked the necessary knowledge of electricity. Henry’s brief solution was.” Get it”.

So Bell studied electricity. A year later when he obtained a patent for the telephone, the officials in the patent office credited him with knowing more about electricity than all other Inventors of his combined.

 Hard work. Study. Hope Persistence. These are all “common things”. They are the keys, however, to doing uncommonly well.

Shoot for the Moon

 

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A young man who was confused about his future and was in a quandary as to which direction to take with his life sat in a park watching squirrels scamper among the trees. Suddenly, a squirrel jumped from one high tree to another. It appeared to be aiming for a limb so far out of reach that the leap looked like suicide. As the young man had anticipated, the squirrel missed its mark, but it landed, safe and unconcerned, on a branch several feet lower. Then it climbed to its goal, and all was well.

An old man sitting on the other end of the bench remarked,” Funny. I’ve seen hundreds of ‘em jump like that, especially when there are dogs all around and they can’t come down to the ground. A lot of ‘em miss, but I’ve never seen any hurt in trying.” Then he chuckled and added,”! guess they’ve got to risk it if they don’t want to spend their whole lives in one tree.”

The young man thought. A squirrel takes a chance. Do I have less nerve than a squirrel? He made up his mind in that moment to take the risk he had been thinking about. Sure enough, he landed safely, in a position higher than he had even dared to imagine.

What dream are you aiming for? Does it seem out of reach? Take a leap of faith. God will always catch you if you fall.

Practice Believing Impossible Things

“SEE The Invisible, BELIEVE The Incredible, ACHIEVE The Impossible.”Joel Brown

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In Lewis Carroll’s famous book Through the Looking Glass, he presents a conversation between Alice and the queen:

“I can’t believe that! said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone,” Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen.” When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I ‘ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

One of the things we must recognize is that most of the inventions and major achievements of the past century have been rooted in what was once considered to be impossible.

Can a person fly? Can a machine process information faster than someone can write? Can a human walk on the moon? Can a person’s voice and picture be sent around the world without that person moving an inch? Can you become the person you truly would LIKE to be? It’s not impossible!

Finish What You Start.

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“If The People really Set Their Minds 
On Anything, 
It Is Impossible To Prevent Their getting 
What They Want.”- Henry Ford

Henry Ford was once asked,” How can I become a successful person?”

Ford replied,” If you start something, finish it!”

Ford learned this lesson early in his career. When he began work on his first automobile, he worked many long but exciting hours in a little brick building behind his home. Such enthusiasm overtook him that he found it hard to take time out to eat or sleep. Before he had completed his first car, however, he became acutely aware that he could build an even better car.

He was so sure of the need for improvements that the thrill and enthusiasm for his car began to lessen. Why spend all that time finishing a car that he already knew was inferior? Still, something inside him forced him to continue – to focus his total energy on the first car and finish what he had started – before he allowed himself to fantasize about a second car.

As it turned out, Ford said he learned even more about to improve the second car by finishing every detail of his original car. If he had given in to the temptation to quit building the first car, he may never have made any car at all.

Many people strive to be perfectionists, but the completionists usually accomplished more in life.

Finished last’ will always be better than ‘Did not finish’, which always trumps ‘Did not start.’

 

See Beyond The Obstacles

“The Secret Of Change Is To Focus All Of Your Energy, Not On Fighting The Old, But On Building The New.”- Socrates

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Napoleon saw Italy but not the Alps. He had an objective, and he knew where he was going. The Alps were simply something to be crossed en route.

Washington saw the Hessians massed at Trenton. He didn’t see the Delaware choked with ice. A frozen river was simply a challenge to be overcome on the way to a victory.

Young people intent on improving their lives and earning college degrees will hold a strong image of “graduation day” in their minds. The exams, long nights of study, and jobs that must be done to pay for tuition and room and board are simply the price that is paid in exchange for a great reward.

A mother about to give birth has her mind and heart wrapped around the baby sh will soon hold in her arms. The agony of childbirth is simply something that must be endured to experience the joy of new life.

Many people have a tendency to focus on the obstacles that loom in front of them. But the truly successful will focus on the objectives – the goals, the reasons, the dreams – that lie beyond the obstacles.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

Don’t Neglect The Details

 Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.

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Noel Borja of Malaybalay, Bukidnon, Philippines would have been the youngest Philippine multimillionaire on record. Alas, it was not to be.

Borja had thirty days in which to appear before his grandfather’s executor so that he might receive the $116 million that his grandfather left him as his sole heir. Unfortunately, the letter from the executor ended up in the dead-mail section of the Bureau of Post, and the deadline expired. Borja never appeared.

Why didn’t Borja receive the notice? He had moved from a boarding house in Manila without leaving a forwarding address. His own negligence left him without a solid basis on which to appeal.

The opposite of diligence is not necessarily laziness, but often negligence. We should be certain to take care of routine tasks, follow normal procedures, and fill out necessary forms.

Borja lost more than money because of his lack of diligence. A new standard of living, a new opportunity for giving and a new outlook on life where all within his grasp

DILIGENCE WILL ALWAYS BRING AN ABUNDANT REWARD