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Focus Is Such A Key To Success, Sam's Right! Quote Of The Week!

11/30/2014

“Wherever focus goes, energy flows” – Sam Crowley

I’ve been listening to a lot of Sam’s podcasts lately…. Check him out in iTunes – great information to get you thinking about life, how to improve yourself and your thinking along with thinking a little bigger in the area of chasing your dreams. Great stuff he’s got.

When he said this about wherever focus goes, energy flows; I had to play it again a couple of times to really let it sink in. It sure sank in. Got me thinking about a lot of times where whatever I was thinking about, school, things here at home, surgery thoughts, etc., that’s where whatever energy I had was indeed flowing.

So many times in my past and some recent times too; when I got down or a little depressed even – wow did not only my energy take a hit but I could feel it going towards the things that were getting me upset. That even showed me more that the energy that was being spent on those negative issues was being sucked away from doing anything positive.

Guess what? We get to control where our focus goes everyone! It’s something that takes work of course and most people struggle with that, including myself. The more I look at this, the more I want to work at improving this. How about you?

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Making Changes Can Be Difficult - Quote Of The Week

11/24/2014

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"Making changes can be difficult, but less difficult than repeating the same old story." – LoraneGordon

As we get ready to finish up our fall term at school, this got me thinking about how different things are now for our seniors compared to when our term started back in early September. Things have changed for everyone of them, that’s for sure. But how many of our seniors can say they had a say in all those changes that happened to them? Most of the time none of us can say that we had control over every single change that has happened to us over a period of time; that’s not how life works.

It is very important that we look at those things we do have control over and always look to control those things. So much of life is out of control, yet it affects us in different and sometimes may ways. It’s all about adjusting things in our life so that need to major on the majors. This long-term saying that still holds true today. There are important things in our lives that we need to focus on and that we have actual control over. There are many more minor things in life that we don’t need to focus on since they are not really that important.

When it comes time to make changes in our lives, they should be focused on those things that help us go where we want to go in life. Change can certainly be scary as most humans enjoy being in their comfort zone and not have to venture too far from that zone too often. If we look at the pain of change and when that pain is less than if we stay the same, then it becomes easier to change. If we keep repeating the same things that give us results that we don’t like; then it’s fur sure a time to change.

I’m wondering if any of our seniors are doing that as their high school years are quickly coming to an end. Are there changes that they have to make that will make things easier for them in the long run? Or are those changes too scary to even attempt? Our seniors are not the only ones that need to look at this – we all need to do this. The important thing to realize is the younger we start making necessary changes in our lives, the less difficult they will be.

I saw something else that fits with this – we will never be younger than we are today. The longer we wait, the harder those changes will be to make. I should know, I’ve put things off far too long in my life and I’m working on changing that right now. Our seniors are so far ahead of my pace. Good for them.

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Working On Ourselves Is Always Work That Is Worthwhile - Quote of the Week

11/16/2014

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“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I got to be honest; I never really appreciated Ralph Waldo Emerson until I was in my 30’s. I remember learning a little bit about him in high school of course, but never really saw the value of his work until many years later. Talk about someone that offers value with his work, I sure can see it now.

I am constantly telling my students, my own kids, anyone that I can; we only have one name – we have to make it a good one. This goes along with Ralph’s statement. We are the only ones that we can work on to make better. I mean we can certainly help others to improve and become better people that’s for sure. But as far as the idea on who do we have the most influence with? It’s ourselves for sure.

When it comes down to it, we really are the only ones that we can work on. Other people have influence over us for sure, and we can get help from others too. The mirror is the true spot for us to see the main project that we have to work on in our lives and that’s ourselves.

We also here it all the time – life is short. When you think about it, we don’t really have all the time in the world. That fact usually kicks in for most people after the age of 40 I think. It’s never too early to figure out the fact that we really don’t have all the time in the world. Part of life’s success puzzle is to figure this piece out. There are a few pieces to that puzzle to learn about, this is just one of them. The sooner we work on making ourselves the best we can be, the sooner the other pieces in our life success puzzle will become clear. I think that Is a future project that I’m going to work on – the pieces to our life success puzzle.

How are you going to work on improving yourself? What are some thoughts and ideas you might want to share with me and others on this? Let me know. Continued success for you and all you want to do.

On a side note, I’m still recovering from my back surgery. It’s going well, but it will be a long process that’s for sure. My patience is growing, which is one of the many positives from this experience.

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Life Is Indeed Full Of Many Things, Giving Thanks and Taking Nothing For Granted are just two of them.

11/9/2014

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"Life is Full of Give and Take. Give Thanks and Take Nothing for Granted." @2thank

This is my first full day home after my back surgery, and I wanted to spend my 30 minutes of allowed sitting time (per every 2 hours or so), getting a quick note out. I was looking at some Tweets and found this quote about giving thanks and taking nothing for granted. I caught myself thinking these thoughts as I sat in the hospital after my surgery. This is the time of year where we focus on giving thanks. I think it's also needed to focus on not taking things for granted too.

There were plenty of examples while I was in the hospital that I was very focused on these ideas. I heard a couple of stories about people there that stuck with me and it made me realize that my story and what I was going through was not that bad.

I've often said that it's too bad for us to think about thoughts like these when we are going through something bad or sad. How about you take a look at the quote up above again and spend a few moments of thinking about giving more thanks and work to take less for granted. I know I'll be doing that for sure. Short write up since I don't have a lot of time... but I'll be around for sure. Drop me a note and I will be getting to them at some point while I keep trying to get better.

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Take Some Time To Look Around In Our Lives... So Much To See... Quote Of The Week!

11/2/2014

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"Look back and be grateful, look ahead and be hopeful, look around and be helpful." - Unknown

Taking some time more often than usual to look around in our lives, is something that can be very beneficial and valuable for us to do. Just taking a few moments now and then to pause the craziness in our lives and look around at all the things that will be helpful to us.

This quote jumped out at me and I'm a firm believer that as long as we are looking, things that we need to see do make an appearance - then it's up to us to recognize that and grab a hold of it and use it. This unknown quote is something that did just that for me.

As I look ahead to having my back surgery this week, I must say it’s amazing to have so many thankful thoughts and feelings flooding over me. Looking at others that I met at a pre-surgery class that I went to last week, that they will be having the same surgery as I am and to see the different circumstances that they are going through compared to me. Amazingly grateful and feeling very blessed.

I am definitely hopeful as I look ahead to after the surgery is complete. I will have a very long recover period where I will not be in school and I’ve told my principal that I will still have my hand on things from home for some of the time I will be out. This has also led me to know how truly grateful I am that I have a job that I’m very passionate about. It has struck me as to how much I will miss my students, working with them, helping them, getting to know them, seeing them understand things, see positive changes they are making, etc. My coworkers are my friends as they are the ones that I spend a huge amount of time with – I will be missing them too.

The looking around to be helpful is something that I have prided myself on my entire teaching career. Now I’m the one that will need some help. It brings me to tears as I am writing this as I have my wife and my family. My wife will be taking some time away from her job to help me as I get back home after my hospital stay. My son and daughter will be home from college for a few weeks, they will be around to help me and my wife out. My mom too will be helping out along with other family members, friends and neighbors that have told us they will do whatever we need. This also ties into the thankful and grateful part. I cannot understand at times how lucky and blessed I am. Both for having a job that I care deeply about working with my students, but also all the fabulous people in my life that are there for me when I need them and are there other times for us to do things together and help each other at the different stages in our lives.

These quotes of the week always make sense (at least to me) to start a week off on a Monday with. This quote especially should be one that you should take a moment or two and let it sink in a little. (all of these that I find I feel the same too – but this one is a little extra special) Then let me and others know what does it mean to you – how can you use this to make some changes this week and beyond that will pay some huge dividends sooner or later in your life.

So if you are reading this in the next couple of days – have me in your thoughts would you please – say a prayer if you are inclined to do that, for I will appreciate all of them.

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Focus Is Such A Key To Success, Sam's Right! Quote Of The Week!

Making Changes Can Be Difficult - Quote Of The Week

Working On Ourselves Is Always Work That Is Worthwhile - Quote of the Week

Life Is Indeed Full Of Many Things, Giving Thanks and Taking Nothing For Granted are just two of them.

Take Some Time To Look Around In Our Lives... So Much To See... Quote Of The Week!

Coach John Daly

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