Run Your Own Race

“There are treasures in darkness

Riches hidden in secret places,

Diamonds lie buried under the

Burden of earth”

Success is the achievement of purpose. When you have achieved God given purpose you have succeeded no matter popular opinion dictates. Even the Lord Jesus Christ in flesh would have been considered a failure by some. He built no house, had no wife nor offspring and his life was cut short at thirty three. Now, posterity attest to it that success is not in the abundance of possessions nor in longevity, for no man who lived or will yet live, can be as successful as that man from Galilee. Paul the Apostle was meant to suffer for Jesus and be his witness before Kings. To the natural mind, it was a downhill slide from an illustrious legal career to a seedy jail in downtown Rome. But the creator, the one who designed Paul saw success for he had proclaimed before hand “I will show him what he must suffer for my sake:”

Find out why you are on earth. What stirs your emotions, love, anger, hatred? Do you hate racism?- so did Martin Luther King Jr. Do you see poverty everywhere? God may use you to bless thousands. Do you love making people laugh? You may lift the spirits of a hopeless multitude. Never underestimate your nascent talents. Things you excel at naturally and enjoy doing are clues to your purpose. Most of us work and make money from jobs we hate. That’s how Monday morning got to be notorious and “thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) so popular”. God intends that we should enjoy the work we do and prosper thereby. He makes provision for his vision. He will provide for us as long as we stick to our purpose. There are too many pastors who should be farmers, too many business people who should be teachers. It does not matter how common or stage your abilities are. It is amusing that some people enjoy fighting and others pay to watch them breaking each others bones! Often we say “enjoy your work” our disposition, temperament, build and design are dues to our destiny. Saul’s legal training was to prepare Apostle Paul to stand and present Jesus in a rational, logical manner to kings and leaders. His position in society lent credibility to his determination. His unassuming form ensured all the glory went to God. His celibacy ensured no family ties distracted him from his mission-He was an itinerant missionary. You are designed the way you are to fulfill your destiny. Contact the power source-God. Receive the power to be his child and enter into your destiny.

Success Takes Desire

There is a huge difference in having an interest in achieving a goal and having a burning desire to achieve a goal. How intense does the desire have to be? It has to be enough to pull you through any obstacles or challenges that can possibly come up.

I’m sure you’ve heard the analogy of how you must want your goal as badly as you want to breathe. If someone held your head under water, you’ll do whatever it takes to be able to breathe. Procrastination is no longer an issue. Motivation is no longer a problem. The desire has become so intense that you will give it all you’ve got to take that breath of air.

Obviously, you don’t need a do or die level of desire to achieve most goals but if you’ve failed to achieve goals due to laziness and lack of action, then your desire just wasn’t strong enough. Now even if you have an intense, burning desire, you may still have moments where your level of desire is weakened.

During these moments, there are many things you can do and here are 2 that could help.

The first is to choose a goal that you can actually be excited about and keep focusing on how life will like when you finally achieve that goal. Choose a goal that is big enough where if you succeeded in obtaining it, your life will never be the same again. The more you want that goal, the less time you will spend trying to motivate yourself to take action.

The second approach is to remind yourself how life would be if you failed to achieve that goal. Think about the pain it would cause you. Think about having to go through another moment of feeling like a complete failure. Basically, think about the consequences of not giving the goal everything you’ve got.

People are motivated in different ways so choose the one that will work best for you. You can also use both approaches as well. When things are going as planned, you can keep that momentum going by visualizing how it will feel at the moment of success. When things aren’t going so great and you feel like giving up, visualize the disappointment you’ll have if you just quit now.

The opposite works as well. For some people, when things go the way they want, they tend to slow down and relax a bit too much so if you do this, you can use the second approach to keep your momentum up. If you’re the type that when things go bad, thinking about failure just makes things worse, use the first approach to pick yourself back up.

The final thing I want to say about this reminder of success is that your level of desire will most likely fluctuate as you get feedback/results from the actions you take towards obtaining your goal. Keeping that desire strong isn’t always an easy thing to do.

There may be times where you will question why you’re putting yourself through all of this. You may wonder if your goal is really worth it. Having a burning desire for a goal doesn’t mean you’re pumped up and excited every time you think about your goal. When you truly have a burning desire for a goal, all it means is that even when it would be so much easier to quit, when taking another step in the direction of your goal is tough, when you just don’t feel like taking action, you keep moving forward anyway because the thought of failing to achieve that goal would be unbearable.

This is why it’s critical that you choose a goal that you have enough desire for where even when things aren’t going so well, you still want to keep pressing on.

When your desire for a goal is weak to begin with, your chances of riding through the tough times will be slim. Think back at the goals that you failed to achieve, how badly did you really want those goals? An easy way to judge your level of desire is by looking at the actions you took or lack of actions.

If someone held your head under water, I’m sure you wouldn’t procrastinate on trying to breathe. You wouldn’t hesitate to spring into action. You wouldn’t just half ass it. You’d go full force. You wouldn’t second guess your ability to grasp that breath of air, your desire is too strong; and you certainly wouldn’t give up trying until you’ve literally given it everything you’ve got.

Attack your goal with just half of this level of desire and you’ll see just how unstoppable you can really be.

“It is during our failures that we discover our true desire for success.” – Kevin Ngo

Success Takes Focus

You can have a strong desire and really want to achieve your goal but as I’m sure you’ve experienced, life has its way of knocking us off course. Things come up, distractions occur, the next thing you know, you look at your goals and wonder what the heck happened.

Success takes a lot of focus. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of setting a goal and being really excited about achieving it only to have a few weeks or months to go by and realize the goal has dropped down on your list of priorities.

People often get easily side tracked. Circumstances and situations can nudge you off course. This doesn’t just happen all at once. Often times, you get off track just little by little until one day, you realize you’re completely off track. Keeping your mind focused on your goal can be a constant battle because everything around you is trying to get your attention. Since most people can only focus on so many things at once, it will be your job to keep your goal up high on your priorities list.

So what can you do to keep your focus, to keep your eyes on the prize? There are several things you can try. You can write down your goal and read it each morning and night. You can visualize achieving your goals daily. You can make sure that your daily to-do list includes doing something that will take you closer to your goal. You can buy some motivational posters and stick them on your walls. You can find a friend who has a similar goal and work to keep each other on track.

One of my favorite methods of keeping focused on a goal is to constantly ask myself, “Is what I’m doing right now bringing me closer to my goal or further away?” Once you answer that question, you’ll know what to do.

The common theme in all of these ways to keep your focus is to constantly keep your goal on your mind. Making an effort to stay focused on your goal is a lot easier if it’s a major goal that you have an intense desire to achieve.

Now because staying focused on one major goal is hard enough, you may want to consider sticking to just one goal. If you look back at the goals you’ve tried to achieve and realized you haven’t achieved any of your major goals, it may be time to just focus on a single goal. This way, all of your energy and focus can be put towards obtaining that one goal which will dramatically increase your chances of getting it. It’s a lot better to just achieve 1 major goal then to work on a dozen and achieve none of them.

The final thing I want to say about this reminder of success is that you’re going to have days where you do nothing to get closer to your goals. You’re going to have periods of time where your focus and priorities are elsewhere. When this happens, many people will beat themselves up mentally and quit all together.

Remember that you’re human and because of this, you’ll make some errors in judgment. You’ll get side tracked here and there. Instead of beating yourself up, just be aware that certain things can take your focus away from your goals. Once you’re aware of these things, you can actively reduce the amount of time they take your focus off of your goals.

Distractions are like gravity, it’s constant. It’s going to cause us all to fall every now and then. The important thing is that we bounce back up every time we fall. Get your focus back on your goal when you start to realize it’s drifting somewhere else. The quicker you do it, the better.

I’d like to know what you do to keep your focus on your goal. Please share them in the comments section.

Dealing with Overwhelming Workload

The hardest part about dealing with an overwhelming workload is trying to stop your mind from running in circles at 100 miles per hour. When you have a ton of work to do and so little time to do it, the pressure can cause you an incredible amount of stress. Here are some tips to help you complete your task without having to go insane.

Stop

The first thing you want to do is stop. That’s right, just stop. When you get to that point of feeling overwhelmed, it just means that you are looking at the whole picture all at once and feel like everything must be done at the same time. When this happens, you need to calm your mind by just being still for a couple of minutes and taking a deep breath.

Prioritize

The next thing you want to do is to make a plan and prioritize the things you need to do in order of importance. When you know that at a certain time, you should be doing a certain task, and only that task, you will feel more at ease because you are only focused on one thing at a time. By writing down and prioritizing your tasks, you allow yourself to look at the big picture in tiny sections at a time.

Take Controlled Action

Once you know what you have to do, get to work but instead of doing it in a rushed fashion, do it at a steady pace that you can handle. When you work too hard on the first few tasks, you risk the chance of being burnt out and not have enough energy to do the later tasks at a high level of quality.

Take a Breather

Every 60-75 minutes or so, you should take a quick 5-10 minute breather. During this time, free your mind. Don’t think of the work you still have ahead of you. Now if a certain task will take 2 hours and the following task will require you to switch gears, then just finish out the 2 hours to save time from having to restart the momentum after the break. If it’ll take longer than 2 hours, then just break it up into 60-75 minute sessions.

By doing these things, you will be able to control the situation. The only reason you will feel overwhelmed with the huge stack of work in front of you is because you are focusing on way too many things at once. The stress will eventually affect your work and your speed will slow down. By planning everything out and working at a steady pace, you will get more work done without burning out.

Love Life. Do Good. Live Well.

Just Do It

Finding the motivation to do something you don’t feel like doing at the moment, even though you know you should, is a challenge that many people face. I’m sure you’ve had the experience where even though you didn’t feel like taking action, you did so anyway and after you were done, you felt energized or even proud of yourself. People who get themselves to work out despite feeling lazy often experience this.

When you’re in the middle of the debate of whether or not to take action, ask yourself if there was ever a time where you chose taking action over procrastinating and regretted it. Probably very few. Now ask yourself if you’ve ever felt guilt or regret by not taking action. You’ll probably find that there were plenty of times.

This should help you come to the conclusion that when the ‘to do or not to do’ debate arises, you’re almost always better off to just do what you got to do. Remember that although choosing inaction won’t really affect your life all that much in the short term, it will make a huge difference over the long run.

Perspectives

 Perspectives.   One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, How was the trip? Very good, Dad! Did you see how poor people can be? the father asked. Yeah! And what did you learn? The son answered, I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon. When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless. His son added, Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are! Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've got everything! You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!.... get to know more of me click here

Sometimes And Always

Sometimes And Always.    Sometimes occasionally goes by the rules but mostly does his own thing. He is more worried about being everyone's friend than doing his school work. He gets into trouble a lot but managed to charm his way through it. His parents have gone to school a lot to have parent teacher conferences. Always is a boy who always goes by the book, never breaks the rules and is never in trouble. He always pleased his family and friends and never let them down. He is usually stressed out and gets headaches and stomach aches from stress. Always became very ill one day and had to be rushed to the hospital. The doctors were baffled at what could be wrong with him. Many tests were run and in the end they were inconclusive. He was released and went home only to be stressed some more about missing school and possibly letting everyone down if he received a grade less than an A. Now sometimes was doing poorly in school and he knew it. He decided that he would just do what he could to get by, he thought, 'Why should I stress out look what happened to Always. Well Always was having the same thoughts, 'Why should I stress and make myself sick, sometimes gets by ok and at that time he started missing school and just barely got passing grades. Their parents decided to sit the boys down and talk to them and tell them that they just need to do their best and that is all that can be asked of them. They do not need to stress and get ill but also do not slack off and get failing grades. Their parents just wanted them to know that whatever they did they would be proud of them as long as they did their best. Finally, Sometimes spoke up and said, You mean even if we don't do well all the time that you will still love us and be proud of us? The parents answered the question, yes we will love you , ALWAYS !!!! The moral is, do your best at whatever you do that is all that can be expected of you and you will turn out just fine your parents will love you no matter what.

Stronger Than I Am

Stronger Than I Am    Things around here haven't changed much. It's still pretty much the same stuff Day after day. The only thing that keeps me going Seems to be our baby girl I'm trying to raise. She's my life, my morning angel. Always seems to find the rainbow After the rain. Lately, she's so busy growing I don't even think she knows you've gone away. She finally learned to say good-bye And she's sleeping through the night. She don't wake up crying. And she's walking on her own. She don't need no one holding to her hand. And I hate to admit, she's stronger than I am. She ain't cracking under pressure. First one step and then another She goes along. And if she falls and skins her knee, She cries a while then smiles at me And just goes on. So many things that she can teach me. Full of life and so completely innocent. She stills says she loves her daddy Goes on just like nothing happened. Forgives and forgets. She's just like her old man, She's stronger than I am...    

The Boy And A Starfish

The Boy And A Starfish. One day an old man was walking along the beach in the early morning and noticed the tide had washed thousands of starfish up on the shore. Up ahead in the distance he spotted a boy who appeared to be gathering up the starfish and one by one tossing them back into the ocean. He approached the boy and asked him why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time. The boy replied, "If these starfish are left out here like this they will bake in the sun, and by this afternoon they will all be dead.The old man gazed out as far as he could see and responded, But, there must be hundreds of miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can't possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing a few back going to make anyway? The boy then held up the starfish he had in his hand and replied ;It's sure going to make a lot of difference to this one!

A story for Passover

A good Passover story should always involve cakes. Austrian baker Manfred Klaschka is the subject of this year’s story. He was in the news because of his most recent catalogue of cake designs; Klaschka is a pastry specialist.

Of course, Austrian pastries are famous the world over. Now, pastry baker Manfred Klaschka’s most recent catalogue of such tasty delights was in the news this week because it included cakes decorated with swastikas – as well as one with a baby raising its right arm in a Nazi salute.

Herr Klaschka insists he is not a Nazi. After the news story broke, he even met with a Holocaust awareness group, and apologized for what he had done, and he then baked a cake to say he was sorry – a cake with Jewish and Christian symbols. The point of the story – the bit I found interesting – is Herr Klaschka’s explanation for what he did.

"I see it was a mistake, anyone who knows me knows what kind of person I am. I am no Nazi", said Klaschka, who had earlier said he was just a pastry maker fulfilling his customers’ wishes. Fulfilling his customers’ wishes? There is a market in Austria in 2011 for cakes with babies raising their arms in Nazi salutes, cakes with swastikas on them? There are parties where people serve such cakes? Maybe birthday parties for babies?

Of course there are such people, and there are such parties, and because of that, there is a market – there is consumer demand – for swastika cakes. Which is why Herr Klaschka was happy to bake them. And not only in Austria.

You may remember the case of the Campbell family from New Jersey.

When Kurt Waldheim was exposed as a war criminal his popularity rose. The neo-Nazi Freedom Party headed by the late Jorg Haider, won 27% of the vote in the 2000 elections and became part of the coalition government – the first time since 1945 that Nazis had sat in a European government.

But this never happened in New Jersey – which is why I want to talk about the Campbell family. The Campbell family in New Jersey made the news back in 2008 when they tried to get a birthday cake made for their son — they have a son and two daughters — at the local Shop Rite in Holland Township.The store refused their request.

And the reason was that Mr. Campbell wanted the cake to read "Happy birthday Adolf Hitler". Because, you see, his son’s name was Adolf Hitler Campell. One of the daughters is named is named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell. Well, you get the point.

When I read about the Austrian baker Manfred Klaschka, I thought – here was a marketing opportunity for him. He would have happily baked a cake for the Campbell family. So what does all this have to do with Passover?

This week, when we are forbidden to eat Sachertore or Linzer tort or even the delightfully named Punschkrapfen, we might want to pause and think about something we say every year at the Passover seder: 'In every generation it is the duty of man to consider himself as if he had come forth from Egypt'.

Because in this generation, as in all others, there are those who order custom-made swastika cakes. There are those who name their children after Adolf Hitler. And there are others who fire anti-tank missiles at school busses with Jewish children in them. Because there are those who are building nuclear weapons, having told the world that their intention is to wipe the Jewish state off the face of the earth. Because people like that make Pharaoh look like a nice guy. Because getting out of the house of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt, was not the end of the story for the Jewish people, but was the beginning.

It is a story of a never-ending struggle for freedom, for dignity, for respect, for human rights, that has universal resonance and meaning — for all people, everywhere, always.

Two frogs in the milk

This is the story of two frogs. One frog was fat and the other skinny. One day, while searching for food, they inadvertently jumped into a vat of milk. They couldn't get out, as the sides were too slippery, so they were just swimming around.

The fat frog said to the skinny frog, "Brother frog, there's no use paddling any longer. We're just going to drown, so we might as well give up." The skinny frog replied, "Hold on brother, keep paddling. Somebody will get us out." And they continued paddling for hours.

After a while, the fat frog said, "Brother frog, there's no use. I'm becoming very tired now. I'm just going to stop paddling and drown. It's Sunday and nobody's working. We're doomed. There's no possible way out of here." But the skinny frog said, "Keep trying. Keep paddling. Something will happen, keep paddling." Another couple of hours passed.

The fat frog said, "I can't go on any longer. There's no sense in doing it because we're going to drown anyway. What's the use?" And the fat frog stopped. He gave up. And he drowned in the milk. But the skinny frog kept on paddling.

Ten minutes later, the skinny frog felt something solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk into butter and he hopped out of the vat.

Every bucket counts

Once day, having learned that the King of Fez was hunting lions in the neighbourhood, they decided to invite him and his court, and killed a number of sheep in his honour. The sovereign had dinner and went to bed. Wishing to show their generosity, they placed a huge goatskin bottle before his door and agreed to fill it up with milk for the royal breakfast.

The villagers all had to milk their goats and then each of them had to tip his bucket into the container. Given its great size, each of them said to himself that he might just as well dilute his milk with a good quantity of water without anyone noticing.

To the extent that, in the morning, such a thin liquid was poured out for the king and his court that it had no taste than the taste of meanness and greed.

Your influence on the universe

I read the first chapter of "A Brief History Of Time" when Dad was still alive, and I got incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how, compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn't even matter if I existed at all.

When Dad was tucking me in that night and we were talking about the book, I asked if he could think of a solution to that problem. "What problem?" "The problem of how relatively insignificant we are."

He said, "Well, what would happen if a plane dropped you in the middle of the Sahara Desert and you picked up a single grain of sand with tweezers and moved it one millimetre?" I said, "I'd probably die of dehydration." He said, "I just mean right then, when you moved that single grain of sand. What would that mean?"

I said, "I dunno, what?" He said. "Think about it." I thought about it. "I guess I would have moved a grain of sand." "Which would mean?" "Which would mean I moved a grain of sand?" "Which would mean you changed the Sahara."

"So?" "So?" So the Sahara is a vast desert. And it has existed for million of years. And you changed it!" "That's true!" I said, sitting up. "I changed the Sahara!"

"Which means?" he said. "What? Tell me." "Well, I'm not talking about painting the Mona Lisa or curing cancer. I'm just talking about moving that one grain of sand one millimetre."

"Yeah?" "If you hadn't done it, human history would have been one way ..." "Uh-huh?" "But, you did do it, so ...?"

I stood on the bed, pointed my fingers at the fake stars, and screamed: "I changed the universe!" "You did."

Believe In Your Heart

Believe In Your Heart    Believe in your heart that something wonderful is about to happen. Love your life. Believe in your own powers, and your own potential, and in your own innate goodness. Wake every morning with the awe of just being alive. Discover each day the magnificent, awesome beauty in the world. Explore and embrace life in yourself and in everyone you see each day. Reach within to find your own specialness. Amaze yourself and rouse those around you to the potential of each new day. Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect; this is the essence of your humanity. Let those who love you help you. Trust enough to be able to take. Look with hope to the horizon of today, for today is all we truly have. Live this day well. Let a little sun out as well as in. Create your own rainbows. Be open to all your possibilities; all possibilities and Miracles. Always believe in Miracles. 

Answered Prayers

Answered Prayers.    A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island. The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren. After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing. Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing. Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife would leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered. As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?" My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them, the first man answered. His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything. You are mistaken! the voice rebuked him. He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings. Tell me, the first man asked the voice, What did he pray for that I should owe him anything? He prayed that all your prayers be answered. For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us.

A Life Worth Saving

A Life Worth Saving.    A man risked his life by swimming through the treacherous riptide to save a youngster being swept out to sea. After the child recovered from the harrowing experience, he said to the man, "Thank you for saving my life. The man looked into the little boy's eyes and said, "That's okay, kid. Just make sure your life was worth saving.

A Butterfly A man found a cocoon for a butterfly

A Butterfly A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly. 

An Obstacle In Your Path

 An Obstacle In Your Path .    In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse laying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.