Below is an excerpt from a book titled “Life Begins When You Do.”

What a great way of looking at things.

Make it a great day.

Jake

An excerpt from

Life Begins When You Do

by Mary Anne Radmacher

Nearly everyone postpones one grand thing or a collection of mighty hopes and dreams.

Between the quote marks of our lives are phrases like these: "When things slow down…when I finish my degree…when I get certified…as I acquire a deeper knowledge base…when I have kids…when the kids are grown…when I get well…when I marry…when I divorce…when I retire…when I get that promotion, that raise, that job, that house, that whatever the fill-in-the blank is for your specific postponing of life…"

Your Life Begins When You Do.

You may think you are postponing the longing of your soul until life aligns itself with your vision, until elements conspire to be more favorable…but as it happens, life just lolls along at the same remarkable consistent and disinterested cadence. Life is impartial. YOUR personal, subjective life (dreams, satisfactions, contentment, achievements, vision, fullness, passion, aspirations) begins when you begin.

From my teens into adulthood, I said, "I want to be an artist." One day I changed the sentence to, "I am an artist." My view changed. Life began. I looked behind me and saw that I had been accidentally living as an artist. I had been laying down a path that was only now visible to eyes that had begun to see. Beginning my life as an artist made my heart’s longing and the small, tentative labors of my hands – visible and tangible. I began by opening the door and simply believing that I could live my dream. I began living that dream by seeing that I could.

Your purpose, that thing that among the many to-dos of your days, is what you must do. Embrace the truth of your purpose each minute of your precious life…for how very true it is that life begins when you do.

If you would dream it

BEGIN it.

If you have an idea

OPEN it.

If there is longing

ACKNOWLEDGE it.

If there is mission

COMMIT it.

If there is daring

DO it.

If there is love

SPEAK it.

If there is resource

USE it.

If there is abundance

SHARE it.

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also. – Harriet Ann Jacobs

Today is the first official day of spring.

Let’s take advantage of the spring. Let our souls revive.

Make it a point to do something this week to revive your soul.

Spend some time in solitude.

Create a piece of art.

Spend some time outside.

Go for a long run.

Read your favorite book.

Whatever it is for you, do it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Generosity is at its core a lifestyle, a lifestyle in which we share all that we have, are and ever will become as a demonstration of God’s love and a response to God’s grace. – Chris Willard

Great quote and a great reminder.

We can choose each day to live generously.

To lay down our lives through generous service and love to the those around us.

To become all that we were created to be by giving all that we were created to be.

Live generously today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I went in search of Irish quotes and proverbs.

This one in particular struck at the heart of what I believe to be one of the most endearing of the Irish idiosyncrasies, hospitality.

The Irish are well known for their hospitality and welcoming nature.

I have come to think this is part of what leads to their general cheeriness. Life is best lived through service and hospitality towards others.

When we put others first our best shines through.

Make it a great day filled with happy hospitality.

Jake

Here are some of the other great Irish sayings I found:

It’s easier to halve the potato when there’s love.

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song. May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all the year long.

Lose an hour in the morning and you’ll be looking for it all day.

If you buy what you don’t need you might have to sell what you do.

Better good manners than good looks.

You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

Pity him who makes an opinion a certainty.

https://youtu.be/0fQESUBMwGg

Heard that on the radio and it reminded me that spring break is right around the corner.

Jim Rohn says something like “make rest a necessity, not an objective”.

I think he means that rest and vacation are good things and part of keeping ourselves at our best.

But they are not the objective of life.

Life is not to be spent resting.

It’s to be spent growing and striving towards a life full of meaning and purpose.

Enjoy some rest this weekend.

Then get back at it on Monday.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Chapter 26 of "How to Stop Worrying" by Dale Carnegie is titled "Four Good Working Habits That Will Prevent Fatigue and Worry".

First up on this list is to: Clear your desk of all working papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.

To modernize this for today’s world, imagine things like email and tasks instead of working papers and imagine your desk and your desktop on your computer/laptop/tablet/phone as your desk.

This has two positive results.

First, there is something about having a clean and clear workspace.

Everything on our desks carries with it a little bit of mental weight. If your desk is covered, it carries a lot of mental weight.

Second, there is magic to being able to focus on the task at hand. Having only the information relevant to your most important task in front of you immediately makes you much more productive.

Take a look around today.

Is there a mess?

Is there clutter?

Is it overwhelming and demoralizing to look at your work area/inbox?

Spend a few minutes before you get started today clearing things up. Give yourself a fresh start.

Make it a great day.

Jake​

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity no matter how impressive their other talents"- Andrew Carnegie

Wow. Little harsh there, Mr. Carnegie.

Or maybe it just hit a little too close to home.

There is a consequence to not doing our best. Mediocrity. A wasting of our talents and gifts.

There is a reward for doing our best. Something better than mediocrity.

It’s a choice.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you have a bad minute, that’s ok. If you have a bad day, it’s because of your attitude. – Jeffrey Gitomer

I was listening to a Jeffrey Gitomer video on attitude yesterday and this little quote stood out.

For some reason we tend to hold on to negative feelings and attitudes for too long.

Many Mavideans have heard me say some version “It’s ok to be angry about this for tonight, but tomorrow we need to shake it off and move forward.”

Maybe my suggestion lasts longer that Mr. Gitomer’s, but the idea is the same.

Feel the emotion. Let yourself be upset when something is upsetting. Let yourself be frustrated when things are frustrating.

But hold on to it too long and you become an upset person. A frustrated person.

Our attitude is the place we bounce back to after something good or bad happens.

Hold on to a bad thing too long, maybe you bounce back a little lower.

Let go of that negative experience real quick and the bouncing back becomes much easier.

As you might have expected, I suspect the opposite is true for the positive side.

Something good happens, hold on to it.

Keep moving forward, but don’t let it go. Add the next one right on top of it. Keep them in your mind, piling them up so that the bad stuff seems small in comparison.

Imagine a giant pile of positives next to a single negative that you pick up and put in the trash.

Seems small and easy to do now. But that also makes it easy not to do.

The choice is yours and it is important. Don’t let yourself be lazy with it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

During yesterday’s sermon the pastor talked about looking in the rear view mirror vs looking through the windshield.

Life is meant to be lived moving forward.

Our rear view mirror represents looking at our past.

The windshield represents looking forward.

The rear view mirror is small and is meant for short glimpses that lead to adjustments.

The windshield is where most of our driving should occur. It’s large and represents all of the possibilities and choices ahead of us.

Sometimes we need to back up in order to move forward – requiring a concentrated review of the rearview mirror.

But it’s only meant to be used sparingly.

Which one do you spend the most time looking at?

Where does your focus lie?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Sometimes when I’m looking for a daily attitude email to send out, I look through the old ones and send one out.

I came across this toe tapper written by Meaghan and it made me smile….

When Jake asked me for a suggestion to use as this Friday morning’s toe tapper, I jokingly mentioned this song because it has been playing in my head lately. Little did I know I would get roped into sending this out. 😉

I hope some of you will enjoy it, regardless of its lack of toe tapping quality. The video is full of clips from the latest movie version of Charlotte’s Web, which is one of my all time favorite books about friendship and ordinary miracles. The song has been an inspiration to me to look for joy in the every day. When I am feeling down or having a bad day, all I have to do is look at the colors of fall against a bright blue sky, think about the uniqueness of each and every snowflake falling (a little too early last week, in my opinion), watch my little girl form something out of play-doh with her little fingers, or call a friend whom I love with all of my heart. Noticing the little miracles in my daily life keeps my focus on the good in the world, in others, and in myself.

https://youtu.be/rweU-FFE6Ww

If you remember to take a look, you too can find ordinary miracles as you go about your normal day. When you find those little bits of beauty, joy, and love in your life, you may also find a little "tap" in your toes (and your heart, since I am going with the sappy theme here). Then you can "open up and find a way to give some of your own."

Happy Friday, Toe Tappers!

Meaghan Davis