OCTOBER 2013
Congratulations to the people who earned promotions since our last newsletter. Junior Yellow Belt: Izzy Donica, Luke Huryk, Aryan Motyala Junior Orange Belt: Elizabeth Galladay
A martial artist knows his skills, weaknesses, values and priorities. He knows in advance what is worth fighting for and will never try and figure that out in the heat of a conflict. This knowledge must be gained through experience and participation. Knowing why you behave based on your values and thought is the basic step to self-knowledge.
Before you can be successful, you must identify what it is you want. Many people set goals to be financial successful but once they are there they realize that their family life is not a very good one. In goal setting, first identify your true values, and then do long range planning and work backwards to quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals. Know what you want, know what it is going to cost, and be willing to pay the price.
One thing that all humans want is to be happy. The ideal of happiness hasn’t changed that much in the last few thousand years, the key to happiness.
Being happy requires that you define your life in your own terms. Only you can do the things that will make you happy. Happiness is an inside job.
When happiness becomes a key element in your goal setting and your personal mission statement, life will become much easier. You will only feel happy when you are moving, step-by-step, toward the accomplishment of a clearly defined goal. In order to achieve goals, it is important to constantly evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses. You can never be happy until you know that what you are doing is making a difference in the world.
The Two Choices We Face by Jim Rohn
Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation.
And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can. All of us have the choice. To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less or to be nothing at all.
Like the tree, it would be a worthy challenge for us all to stretch upward and outward to the full measure of our capabilities. Why not do all that we can, every moment that we can, the best that we can, for as long as we can?
Our ultimate life objective should be to create as much as our talent and ability and desire will permit. To settle for doing less than we could do is to fail in this worthiest of undertakings. Results are the best measurement of human progress. Not conversation. Not explanation. Not justification. Results! And if our results are less than our potential suggests that they should be, then we must strive to become more today than we were the day before. The greatest rewards are always reserved for those who bring great value to themselves and the world around them as a result of whom and what they have become.
Someone once said to me that success isn’t everything and I think I know what he or she really meant. I believe they really meant that money isn’t everything, and I certainly agree with that. But I do believe that success IS everything.
SUCCESS
Each of us needs to succeed to survive. As we look at the seasons we should learn how to use them with the seed, the soil and the rain of opportunity to learn how to sustain our family and ourselves.
Once this is learned we must succeed to flourish in every part of life. A good question to ask mature people is: “If you could do better, should you?” Almost everybody would answer the question in the affirmative. If you could improve your health, shouldn’t you do that? If you can learn more, shouldn’t you do that? If you could earn more and share more, shouldn’t you do that? If you can improve your relationships and spirituality, shouldn’t you do that? And that is what success is all about.
| It is not just a destination that is set for everybody to try for. It is like Zig Ziglar said, “improving in every area of your life to see if you can’t say with satisfaction at the end of the day, week, month and year, ‘I have made excellent progress this year, for myself, for my family, for my business, my career and my health.’” I think that kind of success everybody recognizes is legitimate and something we should all strive for.
Interesting phrase in the Bible that says strive for perfection—not that we can ever reach it. But it is in the striving, to be a little bit better today than yesterday, in our speech, our language, our health, everything we can possibility think of. So yes, in my opinion, Success Is Everything
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THE TREE
I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one ton truck refused to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
‘Oh, that’s my trouble tree,’ he replied ‘I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, those troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.’ ‘Funny thing is,’ he smiled,’ when I come out in the morning to pick ’em up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance. We all need a Tree!
MAKE POSITIVE CHOICES
STRIVE FOR SUCCESS IN EVERY PART OF LIFE
| DO NOT LET TROUBLES OVER POWER YOU |
