You may delay, but time will not. – Benjamin Franklin
We all know this.
Time is on its own relentless march.
This quote is simply another reminder of that fact.
Is there something you are delaying?
Something you should be getting started on, but haven’t yet?
Get started.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi
Meaghan has this hanging in the office at home where I was working yesterday.
I had the thought, “What if I could really keep this thought in my heart? What if I could actually make this my priority each day?”
It’s easier to spend the day thinking about yourself.
Our own needs and desires are so close and powerful, they are hard to ignore.
This prayer reminds me that true peace, joy, love and happiness happens when I can retrain myself to focus instead on others.
Our opportunities for greatness lie in our ability to serve and love others.
I believe this more and more every day.
I fail at this every day as well, but I’m getting better.
My challenge for you today is to read this prayer out loud to yourself. Then to move on to your day with as much of a focus on others as you can muster. Then try to do better tomorrow.
Make it a great day.
Jake
"Being an obituary writer means I think a lot about loss, but more about love." – Heather Lende, “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name”
Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of 911.
FaceBox was full of meaningful stories, prayers and moments as we all remembered this horrific event.
One thought about that day that has stuck with over the last few years is the stories about love.
The stories of love lost are tragic and heartbreaking.
I’m not sure we will ever really understand why it happened to them and not us. I don’t we will ever get the answers we all so desperately want about how and why.
But I think we do get the answer to what now.
Now we hold our loved ones closer.
Now we fight to protect as many possible.
Now we do our best with our chance at life to honor those who didn’t get the chance.
Now we love our neighbor as our self.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Shut up and dance with me.
This song reminded me that sometimes you need to tell your brain to shut up.
Sometimes you need to quit overthinking things and just have some fun.
Find some time this weekend to have fun.
Make it a great day.
Jake
“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.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
I have been listening to the audiobook “Daring Greatly” by Brene Brown.
She uses this quote as a centerpiece to her idea that daring greatly by being vulnerable is the key to living a wholehearted life.
What pops into your head when you read this quote?
A conversation you need to have with someone?
A bad habit that needs to be kicked to the curb?
A new habit that needs your focus?
Find a way to dare greatly today.
Make it a great day.
Jake
MS* – “If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?” ― Jerry Seinfeld
EB* – “I came from a real tough neighborhood. Once a guy pulled a knife on me. I knew he wasn’t a professional, the knife had butter on it.” ― Rodney Dangerfield
JW* – “A word to the wise ain’t necessary, it’s the stupid ones who need advice.”― Bill Cosby
JD – “This is my depressed stance. When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better. If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.” – Charles M. Schulz
Since I forgot to get quotes from everyone yesterday, I thought I would find a few funny ones to send out and hopefully brighten everyone’s day a little.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor, and so thy labor sweeten thy rest. – Francis Quarles
Jim Rohn says “make rest a necessity, not an objective.”
These quotes remind me of another theme around Labor Day – working hard enough to need rest.
Rest and replenishment are needed only when they are coupled with work and effort.
When we apply maximum effort towards our goals and aspirations, rest will be a necessity to recharging and refueling for the next day.
Go all out today. Make rest a necessity.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Two short phrases were stuck in my head as I thought about Labor Day – “labor of love” and “labor as if you were doing it for the Lord”.
Both were a reminder about how our attitude towards something can really make the difference.
It’s easy to see work and labor as negatives.
It’s easy to do our work as if it didn’t matter and was merely something we had to do.
But it can be more than that.
We can labor as if we were doing it for the Lord.
We can labor out of love.
As we all get back to work today, let’s do our best to work with a different attitude. Let’s work for and towards something higher and more noble.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Psychedelic man.
September is here already. Time flies when you are having fun.
Time to pull out those goals and plans you wrote down early this year and reevaluate again.
See you where you are on track and where you need an adjustment.
And then make the commitment to push through for the end of the year.
Make it a great day.
Jake
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not date that things are difficult – Seneca
When I read this quote I thought of walking across a balance beam.
If we stop and rebalance every inch, it is a difficult and arduous process.
If we commit and walk steadily across it is easier.
When we aren’t willing to risk and proceed too cautiously, we sometimes make things harder than they need to be.
Commit and push through.
Make it a great day.
Jake
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