Carrying the past forward....

A friend has been pondering what parts of her past to carry forward, and it got me to thinking about the subject myself. Here are a couple of responses I put to her that might interest you:

In a sense, everything that has happened to you becomes a part of who you are and how you have developed. I think the real question is what you make of what life has given you.

In response to her question of why people enter and leave our lives:

This is a question I have often pondered myself. I can't tell you how or why things happen. Some reasons do become clear later down the road. Some people help us develop characteristics, thoughts, or just show us something new. Others help us realize strengths or characteristics in us that may have not been realized. All I do know for sure is that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes that reason is veiled or at the least foggy. Every person you have met in your life has contributed in some way, no matter how minute, to who you are today.
As far as the doc goes, just be honest about how you feel. You cannot control anyone else, but at least you can try.

Fact Quote

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
- Bertrand Russell

Waiting

Waiting is never easy, especially when important matters can live or die by the answer for which you are waiting. Nevertheless, sometimes the wait cannot be changed, only endured.

Yet another quote...

"You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give."
- Sir Winston Churchill

Reaching the finish line...

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is for you.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everyone gets down and has bad days. However, we can't let our bad days or circumstances keep us from reaching our goals. We must press on regardless. Somewhere deep within each of us there lies untapped depths of strength and determination that we don't know we possess. If we can't make our selves muster up the gutsy determination required to get past the hard times, we need to do two things. The first thing we must do is examine our attitude. Are we creating a negative self-fulfilling prophecy? Are we sabotaging ourselves? Do we need to rethink our thinking process? If our attitude is not the culprit we must examine our goals. Are our goals written down in such a way to remind ourselves of what we are reaching for and why? Have our desires changed and thus changed our desire to reach the goal? Is the goal worth finishing?
Quitting is not an option...period! Whether we press on to finish or change the direction of our path, quitting is taking the easy way out. It starts a bad pattern that diminishes our belief in the good in ourselves, sets an example of accepting less than the best, and undermines what we think we are capable of in the future. We must, must, must expect more and believe we have it in ourselves to meet and exceed our goals! We must believe we are worth it! We must believe we can achieve whatever we set our minds to! We must find a way to succeed and to win in life! We must believe we are and can be more than we are at this moment! We must be little engines that can! We must say "I think I can! I think I can!" When we have made it to the top of the mountain we must celebrate our victory and leave a remembrance of what we can do when we set our minds to it! We must say "I knew I could! I knew I could!" We must remember what we are capable of so in the hard times we have a benchmark, a milestone, to point to! We must set new goals and go for bigger goals and conquer new territory! We must never be happy to reminisce on past successes! WE MUST PRESS ON! Over and over, bigger and better! We must fulfill our mission in the world and make the biggest, best impact we can make! WE CAN! WE ARE CAPABLE! WE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW UNTIL WE ARE GONE!

http://trevorcrookblog.com/2008/11/07/set-yourself-on-fire-for-success-16-powerful-quotes/

A "few" more quotes

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-Lao Tzu

"He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven"
-Hindu Saying

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Mahatma Gandhi

"Do, or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

"I know more ways not to do something than any man alive"
-Thomas Edison

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"
-Derek Bok

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood"
-Marie Curie

"Ninety percent of success is showing up"
-Woody Allen

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent"
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"We have as much time as we need"
-Melody Beattie

"The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present"
-Anonymous

"Your goal should be out of reach but not out of sight"
-Anita Defrantz

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right"
-Mary Kay Ash

"The key to change ... is to let go of fear"
-Rosanne Cash

"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you"
-Althea Gibson

"Find something you are passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it"
-Julia Child

"I want to do it because I want to do it"
-Amelia Earhart

"We dont know who we are until we see what we can do"
-Martha Grimes

"A word after a word is power"
-Margaret Atwood

"No one can figure out your worth but you"
-Pearl Bailey

"Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision"
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Nothing is too difficult - you only need to know how"
-Yiddish Proverb

"You really can change the world if you care enough"
-Marian Wright Edelman

"Find a need and fill it"
-Ruth Stafford Peale

"I dont want to be a passenger in my own life"
-Diane Ackerman

"Don't agonize. Organize"
-Florynce Kennedy

"Dont compromise yourself. You're all you've got"
-Janis Joplin

"Be a how thinker, not an if thinker"
-Anonymous

"If you risk nothing, then you risk everything"
-Geena Davis

"Life is a daring adventure or nothing"
-Hellen Keller

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity"
-Oprah Winfry

"I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse"
-Florence Nightingale

"The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs"
-Joan Didion

"This work is about transformation-from the person we are to the person we really are, in the end we can't be anyone else"
-Marion Rosen

"Fall seven times. Stand up eight"
-Japanese proverb

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there"
-Will Rogers

"You will never find time for anything. If you want time, then you must take it"
-Charles Buxton

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with my problems longer"
-Albert Einstein

"It is not knowledge but the act of learning which grants the greatest enjoyment"
-Gauss

"It is better to solve one problem five different ways than to solve five different problems"
-Poyla

"The import thing is to not stop questioning"
-Albert Einstein

"STARING is not a viable problem solving strategy"
-Margaret Kenny

"They know enough who know how to learn."
-Henry Adams

"Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price."
-Joan Didion

"People often say that this or that person has not found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something that one creates."
-Thomas Szasz

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."
-Benjamin Mays

"Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball."
-Billy Jean King

"An intellectual is a person whose mind watches itself."
-Albert Camus

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
-Shakespeare's Hamlet

"If today's students can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude."
-Jesse Jackson

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
-Dolly Parton

"Of all the traps and pitfalls of life, self-disesteem is the deadliest and the hardest to overcome, for it is a pit designed and dug by our own hands, summed up in the phrase, 'It's no use- I cant do it.'"
-Maxwell Maltz

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that's the Stuff Life is made of."
-Benjamin Franklin

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
-Helen Keller

"From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot in front of the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings."
-Helen Hayes

"Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind: it forces you to stretch your own."
-Charles Scribner Jr.

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject."
-Thomas Mann

"What one has to do usually can be done."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Memory is the art of attention."
-Samuel Johnson

"The reward of study is understanding."
-Babylonian Talmud

"When you can't solve the problem, manage it."
-Robert Schuller

"Learning without thought is labor lost…"
-Confucius

"People seldom hit what they do not aim at."
-Henry David Thoreau

"There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them."
-Phyllis Bottome

"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail."
-John Foster Dulles

The Little Engine That Could

Quotes:

"We are what we believe we are."
- C. S. Lewis

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."
- William Hazlitt, English Essayist (1778-1830)

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. "
- Henry Ford


Websites:

http://www.fff.org/freedom/1091c.asp

http://www.zimbio.com/Courage+Quotes/articles/2/YOu+Can+If+You+Think+You+Can

http://searchwarp.com/swa146551.htm

http://www.isshin-ryu.com/newsletters/2005/news-mar2005.htm

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?fd605807-0029-4ccd-83d0-fbd6e4af7754

http://melodylaila.com/thoughts/2008/01/03/inspiration-from-the-little-engine/


Poems:

You Can If You Think You Can!

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

Beware Of Your Gunless Friend!

The dangerous people are not the ones
Who hit you with clubs and rob you with guns!
The thief won't attack your character traits
Or belittle your abilities to your face!
It likely will be a well-meaning friend
Who merely crushes your will to win.

No, he doesn't rob you, at point of gun,
He simply says, "It can't be done."
When pointed to thousands who already are
He smiles and says, "They're superior!"
Personality-wise, and abilities, too,
They're way ahead of what others can do!"

It matters not that his words are untrue
For, you feel "others" must know you!
So, you're robbed of your hopes, your dreams to succeed.
Robbed of the material blessing received,
Robbed of your faith that says, "I can."
And robbed by an ignorant, gunless friend.

So, the deadliest of men is not he with a gun,
But the one who tells you "It can't be done!"
For that taken by burglars can be gotten again.
But, what can replace your will to win?

~ Author Unknown ~

If you Think You Can, You Can!

You can be a total winner even if you're a beginner,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
You can wear the gold medallion,
You can ride your own black stallion,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

It's not your talent or the gift at birth,
It's not your bank book that determines worth,
And it isn't in the color of your skin,
It's your attitude that lets you win,
You can upset Connors or Austin,
Or win the marathon at Boston,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

You can profit through inflation,
You can redirect this nation,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

It doesn't matter if you've won before,
It makes no difference what's the half time score,
It's never over until the final gun,
So keep on trying and you'll find you've won,
You grab your dream and then believe it,
Go out and work and you'll achieve it,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can!

~ Denis Waitley ~

Sources -
http://www.cybernation.com/victory/youcandoit/youcan.php

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2800.html

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford122817.html