JW* – "I have great faith in fools – self-confidence, my friends call it." – Edgar Allan Poe

EB* – "We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance." – Japanese Proverb

MS* – "The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded." – George Orwell

JD – "I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it." – Jack Handey

April Fool’s Day is here.

Hopefully you have some kind of funny prank set up.

Remind yourself to laugh a little today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/wa2nLEhUcZ0

Meaghan has been singing this one this week and so it has been stuck in my head.

Enjoy your Friday today.

Play an April Fool’s joke on someone.

Laugh and have fun.

Tell someone you love them.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. Mother Teresa

Imagining how she spent her life and then thinking of this quote shows how much we need love.

How can you show love to someone today?

Is there a relationship you are struggling with right now?

How could you step into that with love?

Find something small, and get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"There are some things you don’t have to know how it works—only that it works. While some people are studying the roots, others are picking the fruit. It just depends on which end of this you want to get in on." — Jim Rohn

Felt like this quote was aimed at me.

I have always been overly curious and a little too analytical at times.

Sometimes in life we just need to focus on what works. Understanding it all and getting into the details of it doesn’t really add value.

Things like love, service, character, humility, honor and other core values just work.

Understanding how they work helps a little, but focusing on growing them in ourselves is the better place to spend our efforts.

Is there something on your worry or “to figure out list” that you need to cross a line through?

Maybe it’s time to take a leap of faith into something you have seen work for others but you are being too cautious to get started.

Or maybe this is just a reminder to keep up the good work.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"The Shortcut to Contentment"

Comparison drops you at the dead-end of discontentment every single time. Whether you come out on top and feel guilty, or don’t measure up and feel short-changed, comparison always leaves you dissatisfied.

But there’s a secret to overcoming it: gratitude. The shortcut to contentment is thanking God, and it works no matter which side of comparison you’re on.

How? It’s an instant perspective adjustment. When comparison makes you feel short-changed, gratitude can shift your focus to all the blessings you do have. And when you’ve been blessed with a lot, thanking God puts you in the humble posture needed to use those gifts well.

Comparison is out to steal your contentment. But the habit of expressing gratitude is an easy way out of its trap. – Andy Stanley

Comparison is such a dangerous road to travel. Andy’s suggestion above is that the road is too narrow and isn’t worth the trip.

He suggests we skip it and instead take the road of gratitude.

We all have something to be thankful for.

In our darkest hour, there is a light shining somewhere.

Something to maybe add to Andy’s suggestion about being thankful. Tell someone.

Tell someone today that you are thankful for them, or even just tell them something you are thankful for.

Just tell someone.

Make it a great day.

Jake

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. – Saint Augustine

Easter was yesterday. Easter is the “big day” of the Christian faith. The day when Christians are reminded of the core focal point of their faith.

The Saint Augustine quote above reminded me of this core focal point. That God loved each of us enough to send his son to die on the cross.

Whether you are a Christian or not, there is also a life lesson in there. And this quote spells it out.

Love and serve others as if they were the only one.

Search today for an opportunity to serve someone else as if they were the only one.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/15pMHi9h8rI

This line stuck out when this came on my Pandora:

“I’m wide awake, so what’s the point of dreaming when your life is great?”

It reminded me of this quote:

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. – T. E. Lawrence

We all have the chance to act on our dreams and make them our reality.

Take some action towards a life long dream over the weekend.

Do something you have always wanted to do.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank

Great quote to start the day off.

Don’t let today going by without starting to improve the world.

If the whole world seems like a bit much, focus on improving someone else’s world.

Find someone today who’s day you can make a little brighter.

And do it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – The man who has no imagination has no wings. – Muhammad Ali

EB* – As the twig is bent the tree inclines. Virgil

MS* – Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. Leo Buscaglia

JW* – The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better. Thomas Carlyle

The quote about the bent twig was a great reminder for me.

Sometimes we let something little effect too much of our direction.

We let a relatively small, emotionally heated moment lead to a direction change.

We let a little bit of pain stop us from breaking through to the next level.

We let a little fear pull our whole life towards safety.

Take stock of the little things and put them in their place.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom. ~Umberto Eco

Today is my dad’s birthday so I went in search of a quote about being a father.

This is a such a great example of part of being a father. So many of us have random quotes or sayings we have picked up from our dad.

We all have the opportunity to influence others in a similar way.

How we interact with others when we “aren’t trying to teach them” creates “little scraps of wisdom”.

What are you showing to others?

What could you do today to set a better example?

Make it a great day.

Jake