How often do we not ….

Accept fate, and move on.
Don’t yield to the seductive pull of self-pity.
Acting like a victim threatens your future.
Unknown

First Thing Every Morning

Turn Your Life Around One Day at a Time by Lewis Timberlake with Elinor Griffith

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400—with no balance carried from day to day—what would you do? How would you spend your money? Well, you do have such a bank…time. Every morning, time credits you with 86,400 seconds to use for whatever purpose you choose. Every night it rules off as “lost” whatever you have failed to use toward good purposes. It carries over no balances and allows no overdrafts. You can’t hoard it, save it, store it, loan it, or invest it. You can only use it. Here’s a story that drives the point home. Arthur Berry was described by Time as “the slickest second-story man in the East,” truly one of the most famous jewel thieves of all times. In his years of crime, he committed as many as 150 burglaries and stole jewels valued between $5 and $10 million. He seldom robbed from anyone not listed in the Social Register and often did his work in a tuxedo. On an occasion or two, when caught in the act of a crime by a victim, he charmed his way out of being reported to the police. Like most people who engage in a life of crime, he was eventually caught, convicted and served 25 years in prison for his crimes. Following his release, he worked as a counterman in a roadside restaurant on the East Coast for $50 a week. A newspaper reporter found him and interviewed him about his life. After telling about the thrilling episodes of his life he came to the conclusion of the interview saying, “I am not good at morals. But early in my life I was intelligent and clever, and I got along well with people. I think I could have made something of my life, but I didn’t. So when you write the story of my life, when you tell people about all the burglaries, don’t leave out the biggest one of all…Don’t just tell them I robbed Jesse Livermore, the Wall Street baron or the cousin of the king of England.

September 6 – Fight Procrastination Day

Today is Fight Procrastination Day? Today is a day to get things done, a call to action. To many people, procrastination is a way of life. The more difficult the action or decision, the easier it is to join the league of procrastinators. Today is a day to fight procrastination. Make a decision. Take action. Do it now. Do it today. It may be hard to do, but, you will be glad you did! 

Did You Know (July 20th)

Is National Ice Cream Day? When you get the urge for a snack on a hot, humid summer night, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? That’s right… Ice Cream! Therefore, it’s only fitting that ice cream be given its own special day. On this day, enjoy an ice cream cone, a sundae, or a milk shake. Set the diet aside and splurge a little… have one of each! 

A Determined Soul …

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.     Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

Directing Anger …

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.”    William Ward

In this day and age, with all the pressures and responsibilities of daily life, it is very easy to take our pent up anger and emotions out on people and not the problems that led up to that emotion.

How many problems will you solve today by redirecting your focus?

National Pecan Pie Day …

Did you know…

… that July 12 is National Pecan Pie Day? If you like nuts, and you like pie, and you like sweets, then today is your day! Celebrate National Pecan Pie Day by baking and eating pecan pie. Make an extra pie, and give it to a friend. Or, bring a pecan pie to work to share with co-workers. If you don’t have time to bake today, go to the store or a restaurant. However you do it, just eat some pecan pie!

4th of July Celebration

Enjoy this special holiday …

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

– Elmer Davis – 

Declare Email Bankruptcy and Get a Fresh Start

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by email that you wanted to just delete your email account and start over? If so, you are not alone.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto.com/DNY59
Last week, I tweeted a link to one of my most popular blog posts ever, “Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email.” Almost immediately, I received two email messages.

The first person said, “I really want to catch-up on email, but I have over twenty-one hundred unread messages in my inbox. Every time I think about trying to catch up, I want to cry. I don’t know where to begin!”
The second person expressed a similar sentiment. She confessed to having more than three thousand unread messages.
My advice was simple: declare email bankruptcy and start over. It’s not worth staying stuck in this state. It’s time for something radical.
You know it’s time for email bankruptcy when:
• You have more than five hundred unread email messages in your inbox.
• Your colleagues are complaining about your lack of responsiveness.
• You have had someone say more than once in the last week, “Did you get the email I sent to you? I haven’t heard back from you.”
• You feel anxious or overwhelmed whenever you think about email.
Does this describe you? If so, here are seven steps to declaring email bankruptcy:
1. Admit the truth. You are too far behind to catch up. Despite your periodic vows to the contrary, you are falling further and further behind. It’s time to do something major to get back on track. Say to yourself, I am declaring email bankruptcy.
2. Open your email program. Once you do this, immediately go offline. You need to “turn off the faucet, so you can drain the tub.” Email bankruptcy won’t take long—perhaps thirty minutes—but you can’t do it if you are constantly being pinged with new messages.
3. Sort your messages by name. Usually you can do this by clicking on the “From” field. Now scan down through the list until you come to messages from your boss, colleagues, or key customers.
Pick the two most recent messages from each and reply to those. But limit yourself to ten messages total. You don’t want to get stuck. If this takes more than fifteen minutes, immediately go to the next step.
4. Create a new “Processed Mail” folder. This is the only email folder you will ever need. I explain why in “Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email.” For now, trust me. Create the folder under your primary inbox. If you are, using Gmail, just use the Archive folder.
5. Move all your messages into this folder. Begin by selecting all your messages (usually ⌘-A on the Mac or Ctrl-A on the PC). Mark them “Read” and drag them into your new Processed Mail folder or Archive.
Now look at your Inbox folder and take in the view. This is what an empty inbox looks like. By now, you should be feeling a twinge of hope.
6. Don’t worry about your unread messages. If a message is important, someone will ask you about it. If it wasn’t, you won’t.
You don’t need to explain that you have declared email bankruptcy. You don’t need to fib or make excuses. Simply say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see that message. Would you mind re-sending it to me?”
7. Commit to the “inbox zero” strategy. Your goal is to have your email inbox completely empty by the end of each day. To do this, you will need to learn four new email skills. Again, I explain these in detail in “Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email.”
Read this article and print it out for reference. Now turn your email back on and begin to practice what you have learned. The more you do it, the faster you will get. On average, I can process one hundred messages in thirty minutes.
Finally, like financial bankruptcy, you can’t declare email bankruptcy very often. It is an emergency procedure for dire circumstances.
The goal is not to evade your responsibilities but to wipe the slate clean, so that you can stay on top of your responsibilities going forward.

The 10 Rules for Being Human …

If Life is a Game…These are the Rules

The 10 Rules for Being Human

Have you ever thought…“I wish life came with an instruction manual”? That’s why the 10 Rules for Being Human are so important. They answer the fundamental question…What is the purpose of life? So sit back and enjoy the 10 Rules for Being Human from a little book that sold over 4 million copies! http://bit.ly/1tRhMUY