Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Ego

Oh, the ego, such a fragile delicate little thing you are.  According to the dictionary the definition for the ego is

1. The “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought. 2. Psychoanalysis. The part of the psychic apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the social and physical environment. 3. egotism; conceit; self-importance: Her ego becomes more unbearable each day. 4. self-esteem or self-image; feelings: Your criticism wounded his ego.

"With the disappearance of God the Ego moves forward to become the sole divinity." ~Dorothee Sölle~

"The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem." Dean Acheson

"Conceit causes more conversation than wit."La Rochefoucauld

"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. “Frank Leahy

"Our ego is our silent partner...too often with a controlling interest." Cullen Hightower

"Many could forgo heavy meals, a full wardrobe, a fine house, etcetera. It is the ego they cannot forgo." Mohandas Gandhi

"Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do." Bruce Crampton

"All works are being done by the energy and power of nature, but due to delusion of ego people assume themselves to be the doer." Bhagavad Gita

"Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction." Aesop

“The ego is a deep desire to dominate. The ego is a deep desire that says, "I am special, higher, bigger, greater than you." Osho

“Hell is for all extraordinary people. They may be in politics, in art, literature -- wherever they are, hell is for all geniuses, for all extraordinary people, all egoists. Ego is the hell, it gives you suffering -- because unnecessarily you start conflicting with everything. You are never at ease, unease becomes your style of life; with the ego you will always be at unease. Ego is a discomfort; it is a nail in the shoe, it continuously pinches, but you want to be extraordinary.” Osho

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.Colin Powell

“Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent.Sigmund Freud
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dreams

To most people I’m just a dreamer.  Because I’m an extreme optimist and like to see the best in everything I’m a dreamer.  I believe that life is intended to be lived to the fullest and every moment should be relished.  Each experience offers a lesson or an opportunity.  I don’t believe my creator placed me here with all these goals, desires, dreams, wishes, and ideas to live life ordinarily.  I’m not talking living a luxurious or lavish life (although I wouldn’t mind thatJ) I’m talking about living a life that each morning is greeted with joy and enthusiasm instead of dread and fear.  There’s elation of anticipation when I think about what life will bring me each day.  This is my idea of living my dreams. 
 “All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.”  ~Elias Canetti
“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.”  ~Marsha Norman
“Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions.”  ~Edgar Cayce
Pay attention to your dreams - God's angels often speak directly to our hearts when we are asleep.  ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994
“Some colors exist in dreams that are not present in the waking spectrum.”  ~Terri Guillemets
“The best reason for having dreams is that in dreams no reasons are necessary.”  ~Ashleigh Brilliant
“Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.”  GAO XINGJIAN, Dialogue and Rebuttal

“If we couldn't dream, our lives wouldn't mean anything anymore.” GEORGE KAISER, The Raft of the Medusa

“Dreams are the seedlings of reality.” NAPOLEON HILL

“There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.” ANNE ENRIGHT, The Gathering

“People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.” JOHN STEINBECK

“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.” ORISON SWETT MARDEN

“You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” MICHAEL PHELPS

“The blackest murder is the killing of the Soul's aspirations!” EDWIN LEIBFREED

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

“Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy.” ~Sigmund Freud


















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Monday, July 30, 2012

Anger

Anger is an emotion just like happiness, embarrassment, fear, and sadness.  Anger becomes dangerous when it becomes the foundation of your actions.  Anger is powerful and should be treated with respect.  How often have we seen perfectly sane and rational people make life altering decisions because of anger?  Anger is usually released when some sort of boundary has been crossed.  It tells us we’ve been hurt or violated and did not want to be.  It is how you react to anger which determines whether or not you control anger or it controls you!  Enjoy some quotes related to anger. 
“If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?”  ~Sydney J. Harris
“Life is too short to hold a grudge, also too long.”  ~Robert Brault
“Anger is one letter short of danger.”  ~Author Unknown
“People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”  ~Will Rogers
“Anger ventilated often hurries toward forgiveness; and concealed often hardens into revenge.”  ~Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
If you kick a stone in anger, you'll hurt your own foot.  ~Korean Proverb
Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger.  ~Chinese Proverb
“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”  ~Albert Einstein
“Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.”  ~Lyman Abbott
“If you get upset when the toast burns, what are you going to do when your house burns down?”  ~Author Unknown
“Two things a man should never be angry at: What he can help, and what he cannot help.”  ~Thomas Fuller
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” Mark Twain

“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.” Marcus Aurelius

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase." Epictetus
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Friday, July 27, 2012

The Art of Perfection

Many are plagued with the idea that perfection is achievable.  I don’t believe it is.  Excellence is a definite, but not perfection.  Below are some quotes on the throws of perfection.
“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”  ~John Henry Newman
“To escape criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” ~Elbert Hubbard
Sometimes... when you hold out for everything, you walk away with nothing.  ~From the television show Ally McBeal
“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”  ~Confucius, Analects
“When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.”  ~George Fisher
“Unless I accept my faults I will most certainly doubt my virtues.”  ~Hugh Prather
“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”  ~Salvador Dali
“When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick.”  ~Bill Lemley
“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”
Donald Miller
“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.”
Michael J. Fox

“Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.”
Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses

“The maxim, "Nothing prevails but perfection," may be spelled PARALYSIS.”
Winston Churchill

“Perfection' is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe.... If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do.”
David Burns
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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Living in the past

One thing I’ve found is that a lot of people dwell in their past.  Know that each day is a new day and a new chance to do, be and see better!  Don’t focus on yesterday unless you want a mindset of woulda, shoulda, and coulda. Constantly practicing this thought pattern robs you of can, did, and done!  Enjoy some quotes on change and the past!
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past are certain to miss the future." John F. Kennedy
“One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us.”  ~Michael Cibenko
 “I have memories - but only a fool stores his past in the future.”  ~David Gerrold
“We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today.  I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great.  If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.”  ~Art Buchwald
 “If you are still talking about what you did yesterday, you haven't done much today.” ~Author Unknown
“Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.”  ~Edna Ferber
“Opportunities fly by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.”  ~Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, 1889
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Creative thinking

Creativity is something we all have.  It isn't just the ability to sing, create art or write. It's the act of thinking outside of the standard.  It's the ability to see things differently and to share those thoughts or ideas with the masses.  Gone are the days of teaching students what to think and memorizing multiple tables and diagrams.  The most successful academic programs are teaching students how to think.  How to use the mind to think outside of the box.  To probe new ideas, new understandings, and new methods.

When people think methodically they tend to think the same ideas with only slight altered changes.  When you think creatively you dream, you fantasize, you are able to think on another level.  Creative thinking has given us some of the greatest achievements and advancements we've seen.  If Henry Ford had asked the masses what they would like to see improved with the horse and buggy, they would've told him a faster horse.  Because he was thinking creatively he was able to envision something bigger and better.


"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." H. L. Mencken

"Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination." Barbara Harrison

"Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun" Albert Einstein

"Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart." Mencius

"Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted." George Kneller

"Without the playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable." Carl Jung


"Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future." James Bertrand

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Monday, July 9, 2012

Debt is dumb!

The title sounds harsh but it's a reality.  Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt.  The average US household has $6,600 in credit card debt ($15,799 for households actively using credit).  This number may seem small but coupled with mortgage, automobile and student loan debt this number sky rockets. You may be unaffected by those numbers until life happens and a job is lost, or maybe interests rates increase.   More often than not small shifts in a families income can quickly explode the overextended household budget.  I can go on and on about the woes of debt, but that's not my purpose today.  Below are a few sites to help you get on track and control your debt.

Man Vs. Debt (This website offers some realistic views on paying down your debt)
Dave Ramsey (The same advice your grandmother would give you.)
Suze Orman (Host of national debt talk show)

"The man who never has money enough to pay his debts has too much of something else." - James Basford

"Running into debt isn't so bad, it's running into creditors that hurts." - Unknown

"Never spend your money before you have it." - Thomas Jefferson

"No man's credit is as good as his money." E. W. Howe

"You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt." Daniel Hannan

"Debt is dumb; Cash is king." Dave Ramsey

"It takes as much imagination to create debt as to create income." Leonard Orr


Follow me on twitter for tons of debt quotes!


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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Perserverance

Today is the start of a new week.  Today can also be the start of first step on your new journey in life.  The one thing that stops a lot of people is their inability to persevere.  Remember that nothing worth having will come easy, and their are a lot of obstacles on the road to Purpose and Destiny.  I hope that the quotes below give you the courage to propel you towards your destiny!



“Entrepreneurship is like living a few years of your life like most people won't so that you can live the rest of your life like most people can't” - Anonymous

“Often it's the deepest pain which empowers you to grow into your highest self.” Karen Salmansohn

“If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you.” Anonymous

“You were given this life because you were strong enough to live it.” Unknown

“Nothing lasts forever. So everything is a phase. Some phases are just longer than others.” Marcus Flutie

“Life always offers you a second chance. It's called tomorrow.” - Unknown

“There is no telling how many miles you will have to run when chasing a dream.” Unknown

“When a train goes to a tunnel and it gets dark you, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” - Unknown

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition....Giving up is what makes it permanent.” - Unknown

“If you're tired of starting over stop giving up.” - Anonymous

“We are all making mistakes.” Georgia Perry
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Saturday, July 7, 2012

“There are over 7 billion people in on Earth…and you’re going to let one person ruin you day?”-unknown

How often have we awakened believing we could conquer the world, we could do anything, and the sky was the limit?  Then you cross paths with the one individual whose sole purpose on Earth is the ruin your day with their negative thoughts and actions.  Well, in reality this is an extreme look at thing, but we too often allow our interactions with some individuals to alter our mood.  When you come in contact with someone whose behavior may alter yours “choose” not to allow it to affect you.  That individual’s attitude is theirs and belongs to them.  Don’t allow it to infect you.  Although, if they are giving off positive energy embrace itJ.  Always remember the schoolyard tease, “I am rubber you are glue, whatever you say bounces of me and sticks to you!”

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Friday, July 6, 2012

"Expect anything from anyone; the devil was once an angel." Drake
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