Archive for the ‘Self-Improvement’ Category
Unpredictable moods create chaos
October 25th, 2010
When Mr. Utterson thought of his old friend Harry Jekyll, he pictured a smooth, jovial face that radiated kindness. But when he looked into the pale face and displeasing smile of the mysterious Edward Hyde, he saw “a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness.” As he warned Jekyll, “if ever I read Satan’s signature on a face, it is on that of your new friend.”
But as anyone who’s read Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella
We may never have kept company with physicians who experimented on themselves with strange potions, but we’ve probably all known at least one person who seemed to have dramatically different personalities depending on the cycle of the moon or which way the wind was blowing. And with all the stresses we’re under these days, it’s just possible we sometimes give off a little Jekyll-and-Hyde vibe ourselves.
Quotes on seizing the day
October 15th, 2010
It’s a fall Saturday and in the United States that means a day of college football
. I’m a devotee of American football, both the college game and the NFL
. This weekend, both my teams are coming off losses—and it hasn’t been a terrific week for me, either. So I can’t help wondering how all of us are going to meet the challenge of regrouping.
I tend to spend a lot of time rehashing my mistakes and contemplating how I could have done things differently. But top-flight athletes understand that what’s done is done. In order to reach the pinnacle of the amateur or professional ranks, they must be able to walk away from their failures … to live in the moment.
How to help friends cope
September 7th, 2010
It’s said that during his lifetime, singer Frank Sinatra
Some of his most popular performances were the private ones he gave for friends and acquaintances who’d been admitted to the hospital. The more serious the illness, the more diligent he was about dropping by and singing a tune to make the patients—and anyone else who could hear—feel a little better.
Few of us are blessed with Sinatra’s extraordinary vocal stylings, but he set a good example of the best way to help people who need to be comforted: Give of whatever talents you have.
TAGS: comfort, friendship, help, inspiration, motivation, Self-Improvement, success, suffering, support | 
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When life’s not fair
August 24th, 2010
My niece is about to enter the second grade, but as Robert Fulghum
famously noted, she learned everything she needs to know in kindergarten. She learned to share and to play fair. And she expects the universe to support her idea of fairness. So when she lost her plastic duck-topped coffee-stirrer—a souvenir from the previous day’s parade of ducks
at the Peabody Hotel
—she declared: “That’s not fair!” as though the universe would magically make it reappear.
“What’s not fair?” I asked.
“They took it!” she said of the restaurant staff that had thrown away her prize.
“You left it on the table, and they picked it up with the rest of the trash. Why isn’t that fair?”
Because!
TAGS: fair, inspiration, motivation, problem solving, realistic, Self-Improvement, success, vent |
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Is your life off-balance?
August 12th, 2010
As a small child, I was so afraid of heights I was scared to go up on a teeter-totter. So I only got on with children much smaller than I was. That way I could control the experience, keeping myself in the middle and bottom ranges and sending the other kids soaring to the top. Naturally, they were thrilled with the view from on high. The view from the bottom wasn’t so great, but at least it didn’t come with a panic attack.
The other day, I realized I’m back on the teeter-totter, sitting at the bottom and hating the sucky view. Only this time, I don’t have the same level of control. That’s because the teeter-totter is my life, and I’ve somehow seesawed out of balance
Leave a positive impression
August 5th, 2010
My parents didn’t get off to a great start.
He was a technician working in a shop that sold and repaired radios and televisions, and she came in to buy a small radio for her boyfriend. Because the boyfriend was in the military, she had to give his full name for the shipping label. Part of the young man’s given name was … Elsie. My dad had an aunt named Elsie. He was very amused. Mom, not so much.
They met again when my dad came into the fountain where my mom worked a second job as a soda jerk. The first meeting had been somewhat out of character for both of them. Typically, he was more reserved and she had a better sense of humor. Things began to go more smoothly after their second encounter … for everyone but Elsie.
The human obsession
July 23rd, 2010
Bet I know what you’ve been thinking about today.
Mmm hmm. And bet I know what you dreamed about last night.
Decadent fantasies … involving chocolate sauce … and whipped cream …
Huh? Oh, that’s all. Just decadent fantasies of chocolate sauce and whipped cream. People around the world may be talking sex with Sue Johanson
Being willing to change
July 3rd, 2010
Most of us would like to make … adjustments. We want to lose weight, get healthier, spend more time with our families, grow in our faith, explore new talents, give back to the community. But somehow we’re too busy, have too many responsibilities, are too set in our ways. Hey, it’s tough to change.
Bet Jeffrey Henderson felt that way, too.
The young African American grew up in what was then called South Central—a Los Angeles community synonymous with poverty, crime, drugs, and gangs. At the age when average middle-American kids were transitioning from JV to varsity sports, he was selling crack on street corners. And by 19, he was earning $35,000 a week.
3 ways to bring goals into focus
May 29th, 2010
“The whole world is set on fire.”
That’s one of the more memorable quotes from the 1992 film version of The Last of the Mohicans
How to avoid risky conversations
May 12th, 2010
Imagine you’re traveling in a foreign country and a man you’ve just met comes stumbling toward you through a crowded marketplace, collapsing into your arms with a dagger plunged into his back. Just before he dies, he whispers to you that a head of state is about to be assassinated.
Fans of film director Alfred Hitchcock will recognize that as the plot to the 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much
These days most of us can identify.
