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[VIGOROUSJONESY]

" At times we have to remind ourselves that we are not always in control of our own life's destiny. However, putting forth the extra effort into the things we desire or want can sometimes reward us. On the other side of the coin: Just because we put forth the effort into something does not necessarily guarantee us anything. We are just vessels in life. We may prepare and organize our chartered course but there will always be certain elements that cause our direction to change. The current may flow against us, our bows may break, a storm may even delay our departure or we may just end up at a different destination then we planned. When one door opens…another closes. Where there is an ending, there is a beginning. What is meant to be is meant to be.. We just have to just keep on opening doors and accept that life is forever changing and to make the best of things before us at this time. Remember that taking a risk is a part of life and not taking one is considered failure, no matter what the outcome and if something good comes your way, embrace it."
--- Copyright © 2008 Cecilia Bailey

" When you talk about your troubles, your ailments, your diseases, your hurts, you give longer life to what makes you unhappy. Talking about your grievances merely adds to those grievances. Give recognition only to what you desire. Think and talk only about the good things that add to your enjoyment of your work and life. If you don't talk about your grievances, you'll be delighted to find them disappearing quickly."
--- Thomas Dreier

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

" At the beginning of the day, it's funny how you can set your mind to inspire, help, or share wisdom with others. Throughout the day you try your best to do it. But, at the end, you feel like the only one who got inspired, helped, and wiser is you. Wrong! Put away that false thought, I tell you. You have most certainly achieve your goal. Inspiring inspired you. Helping helped you. Sharing wisdom made you wiser."
--- Copyright © 2009 Thierry Lemieux Campeau

[chrisd1163]

deep

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Excerpt from
"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910
Theodore Roosevelt

"INTENSITY IS KEY if they're lookin at you so what **** em, yell louder, there wasting there time We came to lift not to watch."
~~~Unknown~~~

"Never be afraid to try something new remember amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic."
~~~Unknown~~~

[DEEPER KEMICAL]

tom hank's best movie, imo

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

A warrior-hunter knows that his death is waiting, and the very act he is performing now may well be his last battle on earth. He calls it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A warrior-hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice advantage a warrior-hunter has over his fellow men. A warrior-hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It's only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself. It's pleasurable that way. It dulls the edge of his fright.

~ Carlos Castaneda Quote from Journey to Ixtlan

Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry.

~ Carlos Castaneda Quote from Journey to Ixtlan

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

Breaking the Habit of Negative Thinking

One behavioral symptom of stress is negative thinking or self-talk, which usually contains self-defeating or self-diminishing statements. For example, "I just know I'm going to fail." or "Things just never work out right for me." or "I always get the short end of the stick."

I've noticed that negative self-chatter is pervasive with many people. One example comes from a conversation I had a while back with a desperate woman who somehow found my phone number. Negativity and depressive beliefs dripped from her lips. No matter what I said, she insisted that she had nothing to be happy about and that her heart had closed. I tried to help her see that as long as she looked only at what was wrong with herself and her life, she would continue to find more things wrong, and that she could not get to happiness from where she now stood. But she kept interrupting me to share more problems.

Amazingly, this woman also told me how happy and successful she used to be, but she had lost it all. It was clear to me that she had allowed the conditions and circumstances of her life to determine her level of happiness. As long as things went well, she was happy. But as soon as circumstances changed, she lost her happiness. Yet try as I might, I couldn't help her break through her wall of self-defeating talk.

After thirty minutes of trying to help her remember something - anything - that would bring her a feeling of hope or happiness, I began feeling hopeless myself when I was suddenly inspired to say, "This may be a little thing, but when you hear a bird sing, does it bring you joy?"

Her response was immediate: "That's not a small thing to me. I love to hear birds sing."

"And hearing the laughter of a child playing?" I countered. I could almost hear the rush of relief (mine or hers?) that broke forth as she shifted her perception.

For the first time in our conversation she stopped insisting that she had nothing to be happy about. In her silence I could tell that my message had finally penetrated her resistance. I've found that negative thinking derives from beliefs about ourselves that were formulated long ago - about who we think we are and what we're capable of doing.

In our early years, many of us had parents who didn't know how to be loving, nurturing or supportive, so we learned from them how to criticize and judge ourselves. As a result, we often treat ourselves exactly as we were treated as children, scolding ourselves for being afraid or for making a mistake and often taking on a distorted view of how things are without ever questioning its validity.

But the past is ancient history, gone, dead and buried (at least if you allow it to be), and now it's time to treat yourself exactly as you've always wanted to be treated. When you catch yourself beating yourself up, remind yourself to be gentle and loving. After all, if you aren't that way with yourself, how do you expect others to be that way with you?

--- Carol James ---

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word is enough to change the course of our lives. If we don't, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference. Do you know that at this very moment you are surrounded by eternity? And do you know you can use that eternity, if you so desire? Do you know that you can extend yourself forever in any direction and use it to take the totality of yourself forever in any direction? Do you know that one moment can be eternity? If you had enough personal power, my words alone would serve as a means to round up the totality of yourself and get to the crucial part of it out of the boundaries in which it is contained.
~~~Carlos Castaneda~~~

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

ATTITUDE DETERMINES ATTITUDE
Author Unknown


I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do
before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities
to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose
what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy
or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don't have more money or I
can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my
purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or
I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn't give
me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that
they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or
I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly
embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or
I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today.. I can complain because I have to go to
school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with
rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to
do housework or I can feel honored because the
Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped.
And here I am,the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose
what kind of day I will have!

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

Contact: Suzanne Wu
swu@press.uchicago.edu
773-834-0386
University of Chicago Press Journals
Negativity is contagious, study finds

Though we may not care to admit it, what other people think about something can affect what we think about it. This is how critics become influential and why our parents’ opinions about our life choices continue to matter, long after we’ve moved out. But what kind of opinions have the most effect" An important new study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that negative opinions cause the greatest attitude shifts, not just from good to bad, but also from bad to worse.

“Consumer attitudes toward products and services are frequently influenced by others around them. Social networks, such as those found on Myspace and Facebook suggest that these influences will continue to be significant drivers of individual consumer attitudes as society becomes more inter-connected,” explain Adam Duhachek, Shuoyang Zhang, and Shanker Krishnan (all of Indiana University). “Our research seeks to understand the conditions where group influence is strongest.”

Consumers were presented with information about a new product and allowed to independently form their evaluations. As would be normally expected with many products, some of these evaluations were positive and others negative. The researchers then revealed to participants whether their peers evaluated the product negatively or positively. They found that the opinions of others exert especially strong influence on individual attitudes when these opinions are negative. Additionally, consumers that privately held positive attitudes toward the product were more susceptible to influence from group opinion than those who initially held negative opinions.

Furthermore, the researchers also found that those with negative opinions of the product were likely to become even more negative if asked to participate in a group discussion: “When consumers expect to interact with other consumers through these forums, learning the views of these other consumers may reinforce and even polarize their opinions, making them more negative,” the researchers reveal.

“This research has several interesting implications. First, given the strong influence of negative information, marketers may need to expend extra resources to counter-act the effects of negative word of mouth in online chatrooms, blogs and in offline media. Conversely, companies could damage the reputations of competitors by disseminating negative information online,” the researchers explain. “Consumers should be aware that these social influence biases exist and are capable of significantly impacting their perceptions.”

[VIGOROUSJONESY]

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Magic Johnson, NBA Star

"Pain is temporary, pride is forever" - Unknown

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher & Writer

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion." - Muhammad Ali, Boxer

"Try and fail is the manner of losers; try and learn is the way of the strong." - Unknown

"Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret!" - Unknown

"Only the weak attempts to accomplish what he knows he can already achieve." - Stella Juarez Author

"Failure will not overcome me so long as my will to succeed is stronger" - Micheal S. Kirby

"If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don't nurse your bruises. Get up and light-heartedly, courageously, good temperedly get ready for the next encounter. This is the only way to take life - this is also 'playing' the game!" - Emily Post

"The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope" - Norman Cousins Author

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger" - Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher, Poet, and Classical Philologist

"Fall down seven times, get up eight" -Chinese proverb

"There is nothing we cannot live down, rise above, and overcome." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Success must be felt within before it can be seen on the outside." - Unknown

"There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don't allow yourself to become one of them." - Ralph Marston, Author and Publisher of The Daily Motivator

"You have to do what others won't to achieve what others don't." - Unknown

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher & Writer

"Pain is only weakness leaving the body" - Unknown

"Good luck is the result of hard work and preparation" - Unknown

"Strength is the product of struggle" - Unknown

"The race goes not only to the swift nor the contest to the strong, but that's the way to bet your money" - Unknown

"How am I to know what I can achieve if I quit?" -Jason Bishop, About Bodybuilding Reader

"Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you" - Ovid

"The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground" - Unknown

"It's about mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter" -Unknown

"Tough times don't last. Tough people do." - Unknown

"We must train from the inside out. Using our strengths to attack and nullify any weaknesses. It's not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist." Vince McConnell

"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something. You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent." -Arnold Schwarzenegger

"There are only two options regarding commitment, You're either in or your out. There's no such thing as life in between." - Anonymous

Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated." -Anonymous

"It's never too late to become what you might have been". -George Elliot

"Belief triggers the power to do" -David Schwartz

"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." - Marilyn vos Savant, Columnist

"It's about mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter" -Unknown

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it." - Lena Horne, Singer

"The act of taking the first step is what separates the winners from the losers. - Brian Tracy, Motivational speaker

"Your body hears everything your mind says." - Naomi Judd, Singer/Songwriter

"The man who has no imagination has no wings. " - Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion, Peace Ambassador

"You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." -Wayne Gretzky, Professional Hockey Player

"The harder you work, the luckier you get." -Gary Player, Golfer

"Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do" - John Wooden, UCLA Basketball Coach

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning form failure. - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

"I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big." - Donald Trump, Entrepreneur

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage." - Anais Nin

"Quitters never win and winners never quit " - anonymous

"To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift" Steve Prefontaine, runner

"Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes."- Chinese Proverb

"Things do not change. We change." - Henry David Thoreau, Author/Philosopher

" So you want to grow , first you have to learn " Chi Town bb.com moderator