You can do anything you set your mind to do. No mountain is too high to climb. No subject is too difficult to learn. Effort and attitude make all the difference.
Change Your Attitude and Change Your Life
The tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions reflects one the very best qualities of human nature – the ability to reflect on and assess our lives in terms of the
COMMENTARY: Tis the Season to be Jolly — Even While Shopping
People are not at their best in crowds. It’s as if every survival-of-the-fittest primordial instinct comes out to obliterate thousands of years of civilization. Pre-and post-holiday shopping, and the inevitable lines, test our character. My wife’s a professional shopper. She has strategies on where to park and how to find the fastest moving line (which I’ve discovered is not always …
COMMENTARY: Pounding In and Pulling Out Nails – Dealing With Hurtful Words
When one of my daughters was confronted with the fact that she had really hurt another child with a mean comment, she cried and immediately wanted to apologize. That was a good thing,
COMMENTARY: What I Believe
Here’s a portion of my personal list of beliefs that you may want to pass on: I believe I’m a work-in-progress, and there will always be a gap between who I am and who I want to be. I believe every day brings opportunities to learn and do something meaningful. I believe the true test of my character is whether …
COMMENTARY: The Power in Me
When my daughter Samara was 8, she wrote a poem as a song for some friends who were thinking of starting a band. When she showed it to her mom she said, “Don’t show it to Daddy because he will want to read it on the radio.” She was right. I did want to share it, but she asked me …
COMMENTARY: The Intimidating Power of Integrity
A teacher once wrote telling me that a parent with a great deal of clout at her school asked her to change attendance records to make her child’s record look better. The teacher said she thought long and hard about the request but eventually refused, knowing it would make the parent angry. I commended her moral courage. I wish it …
COMMENTARY: Every Good Decision Starts With a Stop
Most of us are regularly confronted with choices that can have serious and lasting impact on our lives. What’s more, most really bad decisions — the ones that mess up our lives — are made impulsively or without sufficient reflection. Thus, the wisdom of the oldest advice in the world: “Think ahead.” The maxim telling us to count to three …
COMMENTARY: Bologna Sandwiches
When Jason, a construction worker, took a sandwich out of his lunch bag, he looked at it and threw it on the ground yelling, “Bologna again! I hate Bologna.” A co-worker said, “If you hate bologna so much, just ask your wife to make you something else.” Jason replied, “That’s the problem. My wife didn’t make the sandwich. I did.”
COMMENTARY: Give and Receive as if It’s the Thought That Counts
According to legend, a desert wanderer discovered a spring of cool, crystal-clear water. It tasted so good, he filled a leather container with the precious liquid so he could bring it to the king. After a long journey, he presented his gift to the king, who drank it with great pleasure and lavishly thanked the wanderer, who went away with …
COMMENTARY: Great Pitcher or Great Hitter? It’s a Matter of Perspective
Does attitude really mean that much? Can you really change the way you experience the world by changing your perspective? Consider this story:
COMMENTARY: The Beginning of Positive Thinking
I am a strong believer in the power of positive thinking, which is the title of a best-selling book published in 1952 by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, a controversial preacher and pastor who popularized the idea that if you can change your attitude, you can change your life. He urged people to consciously train themselves to be optimistic and enthusiastic, …
COMMENTARY: Will, Fern, and the Power of Encouragement
Two frogs named Will and Fern fell into a deep pit together. At first, they thought it would be easy to jump out. But after lots of failed attempts they cried for help and a crowd of animals gathered around the pit. Everyone agreed it was hopeless so they urged Will and Fern to accept their fate. The harder the …
COMMENTARY: Can Prolonging Life Be a Mistake? Who Are You to Judge?
Revised 8/8/15 I once heard a story about an emergency medical technician I’ll call Jake who was summoned to help an unconscious woman. When he arrived, she had no pulse. From her color and dilated eyes, he could tell she’d suffered serious brain damage. Still, he did his job exceptionally well, trying over and over to restart her heart. She …
Ethics are about the Ought
Ethics are about the ought, not the is. Ethics are not about the way things are, but about the way they should be.
Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude
Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude People with positive attitudes make better employees, better friends, and better mates.
COMMENTARY: Controlling the Weather
While teachers can have a lifelong effect on the way students think, psychologist Haim Ginott has focused on a more immediate aspect of impact: the creation of a positive or negative physical and emotional environment that can determine the quality of a child’s life. “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion,” he said. “I am the decisive element in the classroom. …
COMMENTARY 977.1: Fleas and Revolutionaries
Positivity is a powerful change agent. For one thing, people who go through life with the positive perspective that the glass is half full are much happier and more productive than those who see it as half empty. It has nothing to do with how much water is really in the glass. What matters is how we think about how …
COMMENTARY 973.3: Gifts From the Heart Are Gifts of the Heart
According to legend, a young man roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher. After a four-day journey, he presented the water to the old man, who took a deep drink, smiled …
COMMENTARY: Making a Difference – Being Nice & Talking to People
What can be more meaningful and fulfilling than making a positive difference in this world by making a difference in the lives we touch? It is the essence of living a life that matter. As the following story illustrates it is so much easier than it we might think and its something we all can do every day of the …
You Can’t Go Anywhere with a Bad Attitude
Poster. A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t get anywhere you want to go until you change it. – Michael Josephson
OBSERVATION: When bad things happen to you don’t make things worse.
In the natural order of the world, bad things happen randomly. They happen to good people and bad people. When bad things happen to you don’t make things worse by starting to see yourself as a victim, or someone who doesn’t deserve better, or a bad person who deserves what you got. None of these things are true! What happens …
OBSERVATION: “Some people brighten a room when they enter it; others when they leave. Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?”
Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? Attitudes have a sort of gravity — cheerful people tend to bring out good thoughts and good feelings in people; they bring warmth and light with them. They light candles of enthusiasm. Sad, morose and cynical people do the opposite. They bring out the negative feelings in us; they chill and darken the …
COMMENTARY: We Are What We Think 746.4
In the early 1900s, a little-known philosopher named James Allen wrote a powerful essay called “As a Man Thinketh” in which he argued that we are what we think, that a person’s character is the sum of his thoughts. He declared that the power to control our thoughts (whether we use that power or not) is the ability to mold …