https://youtu.be/Ul041CSNJto

This song plays during another of the classic scenes in “The Sandlot”.

Squints jumps into the deep end of the pool and pretends to drown in order to kiss the lifeguard that he has been obsessing over.

On the list of lessons you can learn from “The Sandlot”, this scene teaches us all to think we are worthy of the girl/guy of our dreams.

At some point we all have to believe that we are worthy of love. Worthy of the love and attention of that special someone that is out there just for us.

If you’ve already found that someone, tell them how lucky you are.

If you haven’t, recommit yourself today to doing the work to find him/her.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you want to read the whole list of 11, the article is here:

http://www.scarymommy.com/club-mid/11-epic-life-lessons-for-my-kids-from-the-sandlot/?utm_source=FB&u=pubexchange

If you want to see the hilarious scene with Squints and Wendy, here it is:

https://youtu.be/io4RWV681wQ

I ran across an article titled “11 Epic Life Lessons for My Kids from the ‘Sandlot’”, since “The Sandlot” is one of our favorite movies I thought I would share a few of them over the next few days.

Lesson 1 – Show up and try.

“Smalls” makes a decision to give it a shot.

He has a plastic mitt and no experience but gives it a shot anyway.

This is a great life lesson for all of us.

Just try something.

You don’t have to be great at everything. In fact, when you try something new you will stink at it.

Try anyway.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JR – My fake plants died because I didn’t pretend to water them. – Mitch Hedberg

MS – Not wrong to better self, but very wrong to believe self better. – DGH

EB – Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. – John Wayne

JW – Doing science.

JD -Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. – Arthur Koestler

Courage is one of those words that inspires images of soldiers on the battlefield, firefighters entering a burning building or some other extremely dangerous situation.

But more times than not, it manifests itself in the day to day.

In the daily decisions to choose right over wrong, the difficult over the easy, lover over hate.

We all face decisions each day that require courage.

To be truly courageous we must consistently step into the difficult situations of life with optimism and courage.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others. – Mark Twain

Wouldn’t it be a shame to go your whole life and not find out what you are good at?

It’s easy to fall into a rut of doing what we are “good enough” at doing. We put ourselves into a box based on not wanting to take a chance at being bad at something.

If you haven’t already found out what you can be great at, start looking.

Try something new.

Take a chance.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all." – Jawaharlal Nehru

Take some risk today!

Sign up for something.

Begin the process of finding a new hobby.

Investigate something you’ve always wanted to do.

Get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“A mother is a mother from the moment her baby is first placed in her arms until eternity. It didn’t matter if her child were 3, 13, or 30.” ― Sarah Strohmeyer

Yesterday was a great celebration of the miracle of motherhood.

It’s a miracle because the moment a baby is born, a woman becomes an entirely new person: a mom.

It speaks to the potential for change and for greatness within all of us.

We can change.

We can selflessly love.

We can become a better version of ourselves.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/HanwLunJau0

Come go with me.

What a great message we can share with the important people in our lives.

Inspiring others with our vision of a shared future is an important part of the process of creating the future we desire.

We all need the help others in order to reach our goals.

No one does it alone.

If you haven’t already, ask someone along for the ride.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JW – Oh yeah, it’s easy to win when you make the rules. – Mike Somers

JD – Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist. – David Ben-Gurion

MS – Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: Bind them about thy neck; Write them upon the tablet of thine heart. – Proverbs 3:3

EB* – Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Will Durant

Since Erik is out get educated this week at HTG, this quote seemed appropriate to use for him.

As we learn and grow in life, we tend to shed light on our ignorance.

The important the area of our life, the brighter the light.

It’s easy to fall into the traps of learning and growing only in shallow areas.

To watch TV and read books that deal with minor things.

To have conversations and mentors that talk about minor things.

We shy away from the more difficult and important lessons.

Make an effort today to prove yourself ignorant. Maybe even about something important.

Make it a great day.

Jake

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive! – Walter Scott

In my experience, most of us consider ourselves to be honest people. We generally don’t lie and when we hear a quote like this we think of others.

And I would agree. Most people I know are reliably honest in their dealings with others.

Most people I know also aren’t completely honest with themselves.

They deceive themselves into thinking they can’t do something.

They deceive themselves into thinking their dreams aren’t attainable.

They deceive themselves into thinking they aren’t great.

They deceive themselves into thinking they aren’t _______________________ (fill in the blank).

Being real and honest with yourself is important. But when you are, you also need to include all of the possibilities for the future.

Be honest with yourself today, tell yourself the truth about all of the greatness that lies inside of you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” – John Wooden

By nature, I’m a relatively conservative person. I also tend to look at making mistakes as a bad thing.

But quotes like this remind me that if I’m not making a few mistakes here and there, I’m not trying hard enough.

As kids, we grow up making all kinds of mistakes as we learn and grow.

Somewhere along the way though a lot of us get the idea that we shouldn’t be making mistakes any more. Somehow we set expectations for ourselves that don’t leave room for falling down a little.

In doing so, we sell ourselves short. We can only find our limits by testing them. We can only achieve what we were meant to achieve by stepping out into the great unknown, by taking a chance at being wrong.

Today, try something new. Maybe even try something that you are pretty sure is going to be a mistake.

Be smart about it, but take a chance. Change things up.

Make it a great day.

Jake