"If you concentrate on the present, you eliminate what happened yesterday and any apprehension of what may happen tomorrow."

Denis Waitley
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Don't Take It Personally....in Advance!

"Pat" (not her real name; hence the clever quotation marks) :-), a wwi subscriber, is a consultant to hospitals. Her latest assignment was a large facility in the northeast. She was warned in advance by some of her fellow consultants at the firm where she's employed that "The people at _________ hospital are short and to the point, and can even be rude." So, she geared her mind to not take their attitude personally, do the best work she could, and just try and get along.

According to Pat, "They were somewhat like that from time to time but, since I had already set myself to not to let their behavior and attitude affect me, I was fine."

She continues, "I remained friendly despite everything going on around me. Though, really, it wasn't nearly the extent to what I was told it would be. When it was my last day there, they did not want me to leave. True, they weren't the friendliest and most outgoing people I'd ever met, but I can't say I experienced a whole lot of, what I'd call, rudeness. They were just very businesslike. So, the decision to not take their attitudes personally definitely paid off. I just stayed like me.

"It's not always easy to do that, though" Pat relates. "In my situation, I was warned in advance that these people were not easy to work with. I honestly think that the other people from my company who'd been there in the past went there with the wrong attitude or something. For example, as I was leaving I told everyone, 'Thank you for giving me the honor of working with you.' One person responded, 'You are the first person from your company who has ever thanked us!'"

According to Pat, she always does her best to not ever go into any kind of relationship allowing other's judgments to influence her. "But", as she says, "It's tempting. Sure, it's good to have a 'heads up', but I have found too many times that other people aren't always right about those they discuss."

I'm proud of the way Pat handled that. She certainly turned a potentially difficult situation into a positive one, and turned some potential enemies into present friends.

There are at least three lessons here we can learn:

#1 If you have reason to believe you are going to be met with attitudes less-than-civil, you can prepare for it in advance. You know it isn't you; it's them. And, as such, you need have no problem being offended or taking it personally.

* Good news. Even if you're not prepared for it, if it suddenly happens, you can just say to yourself, "IF I knew in they were going to be this way (in other words, it's not me - it's them), I would have set my mind to not take it personally. So, what's the difference if I knew it then or just find out now? It's still them - not me, and I still don't have to take it personally."

#2 Don't expect and accept that, just because you're told by others that certain people will behave a certain way, that they are going to fulfill that "prophecy." It might not even be "them" but the people who gave you the incorrect information.

#3 Best of both worlds: Expect the best (and by your attitude of positive expectation you'll usually receive the best) and be prepared for the worst, just in case. That way, you never have to be surprised, and you'll know there's nothing to take personally.

You might say, isn't that sort of like walking through life with "Rose-Colored Glasses."

Maybe, but so what? Sometimes Rose-Colored Glasses provide the most accurate view.

Keep the glasses on. They help us to see much better!

Bob Burg
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"The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something; whereas the strongest, by dispersing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything."

Thomas Carlyle
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Changing the past Do you ever wish that you could change the past? If you could change the past, you would be able to correct every mistake, avoid every accident, and never experience the pain of regret.

In fact, you can very easily change the past. You simply must do it before the past becomes the past.

This moment where you are right now will soon be in the past. So now is your golden opportunity to assure that it will be a past you'll be pleased to have.

With care and focus, with love, discipline and positive intention, you can do just that. You can change what will soon be the past into the best that it can be.

Imagine not having to wonder what would have happened if only you had been a little more careful, thoughtful or diligent. Imagine living your life with no regrets.

Imagine it, and know that right now is your chance to make it so. Use this moment to give yourself a past that won't need any changes at all.

Ralph Marston
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"It's the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles."

Claude M. Bristol

"A good heart is better than all the heads in the world."

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
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FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary.

Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard. Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen." "We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too."

The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "come in," a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered. "Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge new shopping mall over there and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

Would you have shown up for that prayer meeting? Some people say faith comes from miracles. But others know: MIRACLES COME FROM FAITH!

Author Unknown
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"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS

"Will" is what creates the energy and courage to create. "Want," by itself, just isn't enough. Being "willing", moves you beyond your limitations and into greatness. Birds fly, fish swim and humans create. This is our nature. At the end of the day, both optimists and pessimists are always right. Why wait when you can create? When you take your success for granted, you don't give yourself the chance to learn from the process and apply it in other areas of your life. Failure is simply a result that differs from the one we expected. You can have success now, or you can have it later. It's entirely up to you. Success is waiting, here and now. It doesn't care where you came from, what you're doing or what you did previously. It's available to anyone who wants it and is prepared to go out and take it.

"You can't always get what you want" makes a great song lyric, but it's a terrible motto for life. The more you practice creating success in one area, the easier it becomes to create success somewhere else. If you're attempting to create something perfect, I have three words of advice for you: Get over it! To be successful, you have to care about what you're doing. Creating success is all about fulfilling or manifesting the purpose for which you were born. When your mind is sharp, attentive and ready for use, you'll find that you can create anything you are willing to have. Our mind gives us the power to both create and destroy.

Quotes from "Elements of Success" by Nisandeh Neta,
Copyright © 2003
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"Character is much easier kept than recovered."

Thomas Paine