Why do we like quotes so much? A good reason for many of us is that you don’t have to read a book to get to the point. Quotes can be very short, straight to the point and thought provoking. Sometimes, there’s just so much wisdom and life experiences in one short sentence that you can almost sense and understand what the author has gone through to reach the point they are attempting to make! Here are some quotes that have thought provoking to me in my own leadership journey. Do you recognize any of these?

1. “I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.” —Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
2.  “A leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless … someone’s got to make a wakeup call.” —Warren Bennis
3.  “Although some people think that life is a battle, it is actually a game of giving and receiving.” —Florence Scovel Shinn
4.  “A boss creates fear, a leader, confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting.” —Russell H. Ewing, Author
5. “A frightened captain makes a frightened crew.” —Lister Sinclair, Playwright/Broadcaster
6.  “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” —Toni Morrison, Author
7. “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” —Warren Bennis
8. “A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually, and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.” —Rita Mae Brown, Mystery Author
9.  “A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops.” —Henry B. Adams, American Historian
10. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams
11.  “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear” —Ambrose Redmoon, American Philosopher
12. “Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.” —William Ellery Channing, Psychologist
13. “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” —Peter Drucker
14.  “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.” —Jim Rohn, Author/Motivator
15. “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
16. “Everyone lives by selling something.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
17.  “I have more fun, and enjoy more financial success, when I stop trying to get what I want and start helping other people get what they want.” —Spencer Johnson, Business Author
18. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” —George Bernard Shaw
19.  “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” —Benjamin Disraeli
20. “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near” —Jack Welch
21. “If you don’t think about the future, you won’t have one.” —Henry Ford
22. “Most people succeed because they are determined to. People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit.” —George Allen, Football Coach
23.  “It takes a tremendous act of courage to admit to yourself that you are not defective in any way whatsoever.” —Cheri Huber, Author/Zen Philosopher
24. “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” —William James
25. “It’s so hard when contemplated in advance and so easy when you do it.” —Robert Pirsig, Philosopher/Author
26. “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” —Tom Peters
27. “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” —Bernard Baruch
28.  “Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” —George Washington Carver
29. “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” —Helen Keller
30. “Nothing great was ever created without enthusiasm.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
31.  “One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.” —Dennis A. Peer, Management Consultant
32. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy Adams
33. “Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.” —Thomas J. Watson, Former CEO, IBM
34.  “People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those people who sit still and inquire, why wasn’t it done the other way?” —Oliver Wendell Holmes
35. “Question: How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Answer: Four; calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” —Abraham Lincoln
36. “Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.” —Lawrence D. Bell, Founder, Bell Aircraft
37. “Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” —St. Francis
38. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” —Theodore Roosevelt
39. “The best way out is always through.” —Robert Frost
40.  “The first law of success is concentration, to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right, nor to the left.” —William Matthews, Journalist
41. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” —Max DePree, Business Consultant/Author
42. “The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. Then you develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.” —Elaine Agather, CEO, JPMorgan Bank
43. “The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower
44. “The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.” —Robert J. McKain, Management Consultant
45. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” —Peter Drucker
46. “The first duty of a leader is optimism. How does your subordinate feel after meeting with you? Does he feel uplifted? If not, you are not a leader.” —Field Marshal Montgomery
47.  “Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
48. “Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” —James F. Bymes, Secretary of State
49. “What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour?” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
50. “When I’m getting ready to persuade a person, I spend one-third of the time thinking about myself, what I’m going to say, and two-thirds of the time thinking about him and what he is going to say.” —Abraham Lincoln
51. ”Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will be.” —Emile Coue, Psychologist
52. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.” –Zig Ziglar

Hope you enjoyed reading some of these quotes! If so, and you’d like to comment, please do so. If not, then let us know and why!

What are some of your favorite leadership, action and motivation quotes?

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I’ve been taking a little bit of time off from the writing to gather some of my thoughts. We all need that time to ourselves every now and again in order to recharge a bit. Recently, a friend of mine shared a poem she found online where the subject was assumptions and assuming things about people. I’m not sure who wrote it but I wanted to share this poem with you because I thought it was very well written and it could strike a chord with someone who reads it. It did for me. Whether I was the person assuming something about someone or I was the subject of someone’s assumption. Come on, we’ve all been guilty at some point or another of making an assumption about something or someone that turned out to be completely false. Anyone who say’s they’ve never assumed anything about someone else is either kidding around or simply lying. Either to you or to themselves because we’re simply all just human beings. Please enjoy the poem below and choose to make it a great day!

I laugh, they assume I never cry.

I am mostly ‘seen’ happy; they assume I am never sad.

I am calm; they assume I am cold.

There are a very few things that anger me, they assume nothing makes me angry.

Just because I am cheerful, I am not allowed to feel low.

Just because I am less often seen in a bad mood; they assume nothing can spoil it.

I don’t react to everything that happens around me; they assume I have no opinions whatsoever.

I cannot elicit everything I feel; they assume I lack clarity of thought.

I am not an egoist; they assume I don’t need to be respected.

I don’t talk about the things I do; they assume I have done nothing great.

Just because I work, they assume I am never tired of it.

In things I can do by myself, I don’t ask for help; they assume I never need any.

When I don’t say, “I can” and rather say, “I will”; they assume I am being overconfident.

When I say, “I can’t”, they ask, “why”, and assume I am shirking my responsibilities.

I am not harsh on anyone; they assume I am meek.

I don’t punish; they assume I can’t.

I forgive; they assume I forget.

I don’t brood over the past; they assume I am ‘blessed’ with memory loss.

I seem to take impulsive decisions, but my decisions are well thought; they assume I am too immature to ‘think’ and decide.

I am impromptu They assume I am prompted.

I dream during the day; they assume I am day dreaming.

When I am lost in my own world, they assume I have lost it!

I don’t like to give excuses for my failures; they assume I can’t ‘explain’.

I don’t like to explain my mistakes; they assume I have no regrets about things I should be sorry for.

When I say I am inexperienced; they assume I know nothing.

I don’t read people the way they do; they assume I am illiterate.

I look at all sides of the coin; they assume there are only two and conveniently forget the edges.

I like being given the space I need; they give it, then invade it; assuming they have a right to.

I like being the way I am; they assume I can’t be like them although I want to.

When I stand out in the crowd, they assume I am standing out of it.

When I come across people assuming things about me, I try not to lose heart and tell myself, they are doing the easiest thing they can do, which is ‘assuming’. Assuming is equivalent to not understanding. Those who fail to understand; either because they are unable to or because they don’t want to, are the ones who ‘assume’.

Tell me, as you were reading the above, did anything or anyone come to mind? Have you ever been the subject of either a negative or positive assumption?

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One of my favorite American authors is well known for not only the creation of two of the country’s best known fictional characters (Huckleberry “Huck” Finn and Tom Sawyer), but for his strong wit and whimsical wisdom that so embodied many of his words. Missouri born author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more widely known by the name Mark Twain, was a person with many hardships and joys in his life. Father, family man, world traveler, lecturer, humorist are just a few of the words used to describe him. Regardless of how one describes Mr. Clemens, he will be remembered in United States (and world) history as a very colorful person who has influenced many people with his writings and sayings. Below are some of those quotes and sayings credited to him. My expectations are that you may enjoy but a small portion of a person who made many people “think” a little bit more as well as helped people enjoy life a little more:

1. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
2. A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
3. A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
4. A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.
5. A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.
6. Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
7. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
8. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
9. All generalizations are false, including this one.
10. All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.
11. Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
12. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
13. Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.
14. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
15. Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.
16. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
17. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.
18. But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
19. Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.
20. By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.
21. ‘Classic.’ A book which people praise and don’t read.
22. Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.
23. Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
24. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
25. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
26. Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
27. Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
28. Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.
29. Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
30. Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.
31. Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
32. Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.
33. Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
34. Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
35. Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.
36. Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
37. George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.
38. Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
39. Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.
40. Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
41. God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.
42. Golf is a good walk spoiled.
43. Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
44. Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
45. Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
46. Honesty is the best policy — when there is money in it.
47. Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.
48. Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.
49. I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
50. I can live for two months on a good compliment.
51. I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
52. I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
53. I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell — you see, I have friends in both places.
54. I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough.
55. I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time.
56. I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.
57. I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.
58. I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.
59. I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.
60. Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.
61. If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.
62. If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.
63. If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.
64. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
65. It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
66. It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
67. It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress.
68. It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.
69. It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
70. It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
71. It is easier to stay out than get out.
72. It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.
73. It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.
74. It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
75. It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.
76. It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
77. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
78. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
79. Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.
80. Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
81. Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
82. Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.
83. Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
84. Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.
85. Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
86. Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
87. Man — a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.
88. Man is the only animal that blushes — or needs to.
89. Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
90. Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
91. My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
92. My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
93. Name the greatest of all inventors: Accident.
94. Necessity is the mother of taking chances.
95. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
96. No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.
97. Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.
98. Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
99. Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
100. One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
101. Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial “we.”
102. Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.
103. Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
104. Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
105. Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
106. Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.
107. Prosperity is the best protector of principle.
108. Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
109. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.
110. Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.
111. Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
112. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
113. The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.
114. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
115. The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
116. The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
117. The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.
118. The lack of money is the root of all evil.
119. The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.
120. The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.
121. The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
122. The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.
123. The Public is merely a multiplied “me.”
124. The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.
125. The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
126. The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
127. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
128. The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
129. The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.
130. The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.
131. There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.
132. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
133. There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one — keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.
134. There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.
135. There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
136. There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
137. Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others.
138. Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
139. To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
140. To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.
141. To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.
142. Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.
143. Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.
144. Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
145. Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
146. Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
147. We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.
148. We are all alike, on the inside.
149. We have the best government that money can buy.
150. What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.
151. What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.
152. What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.
153. What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
154. When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.
155. When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.
156. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.
157. When in doubt tell the truth.
158. When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.
159. When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
160. When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.
161. When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.
162. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
163. Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
164. Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
165. Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.
166. Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.
167. Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
168. Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.
169. Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
170. You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Have any comments? Share them below and be heard! Have a great day and enjoy life!!

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The Scottish writer and historian Thomas Carlyle once said, “Every man I meet is my superior in that I may learn from him.” This has always been a thought-provoking quote for me because every day I make it a point to keep an open mind and to learn as much as I can. Having been in so many roles and leadership positions throughout my life, I can’t help but be amazed at how much I’ve yet to learn and how much I’m still learning every single day. Do you ever find times when you realize you have a lot to learn?

Here are some maxims, messages and quotes that I’ve heard over the years that have helped me to grow as a leader, as a friend and as a person. They are not my sayings but words that I’ve come to appreciate and take to heart. Many of them are by that infamous author known only by the name “anonymous”. These have helped me to better understand and enjoy life, as well as enjoy the company of others more fully. My hope here is that you find some of these helpful to you:

1. Never complain about what you permit.
2. A miracle can happen as quickly as a tragedy can.
3. A person’s rewards in life are determined by the kinds of problems that person is willing to solve for others.
4. A person’s success is greatly determined by what they are willing to ignore.
5. A tired mind is very rarely able to make good decisions.
6. A person’s chosen focus is the world they have chosen for themselves.
7. A wise man’s question contains half the answer. – Solomon Ibn Gabirol
8. An uncommon dream always requires uncommon patience.
9. Anger is simply passion requiring an appropriate focus.
10. Anything permitted increases.
11. A person’s belief system is often chosen for comfort or for change.
12. Anything that keeps your attention has become your master.
13. Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble. –Frank Tyger
14. Changes in a person’s life will always be proportionate to a person’s knowledge.
15. A person is never promoted until they become overqualified for their present assignment.
16. Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. – James Allen
17. Conduct permitted is conduct taught.
18. Creativity is the search for options; Focus is the elimination of them.
19. A person will best remember something that they teach.
20. Debt is emptying your future to fill up your presence.
21. Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. – George Edward Woodberry
22. Distrust often destroys passion.
23. Every environment requires a code of conduct for entering or remaining in it.
24. Every miracle often begins with a conversation.
25. Every person falls, the great persons get back up.
26. A person’s future is often decided by what that person is willing to change.
27. Failure is not an event but merely an opinion.
28. Flattery is speaking good words for the wrong reason.
29. Giving is the only proof you have conquered greed.
30. Go to places where you are celebrated rather than to places where you are tolerated.
31. Greatness is not the absence of a flaw it’s the willingness to overcome it.
32. Information births confidence.
33. It’s always better to be prepared without an opportunity, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
34. Jealousy is believing that someone else received what you deserved.
35. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. — Helen Keller
36. Loss is often the first step towards change.
37. Memory is more enslaving than any injustice.
38. A person’s respect for time is often a prediction of that person’s financial future.
39. Mentors are truly important. Mentorship creates success without the waiting.
40. Money does not change you; it only magnifies what you already are.
41. Money is simply a reward for solving problems.
42. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
43. A person’s reaction to greatness reveals their humility.
44. Never complain about what is happening to you in the present if you are unwilling to walk towards your goals in the future.
45. Never discuss your problem with someone incapable of solving it.
46. Never give more time to a critic than you would give to a friend.
47. No one is ever as they first appear.
48. Nothing would ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. – Samuel Johnson
49. One of the quickest cures for ingratitude is loss.
50. One should never gaze at something that does not belong in their future.
51. Only a fool negotiates with a giver.
52. Our unwillingness to trust to right person will create more losses than the mistake of trusting the wrong person.
53. People do not drown by falling in the water, they drown by staying there.
54. People don’t always remember what you say; they always remember how they felt when you said it.
55. Procrastination is the thief of time. – E. Young
56. Silence cannot be misquoted.
57. Someone is not old until their regrets take the place of their dreams.
58. Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life.
59. Stop looking to where you’ve been and start looking towards where you can be.
60. Struggle is the proof that you have not been conquered.
61. Successful people do daily what unsuccessful people do occasionally.
62. The clearer a person’s goals, the greater their faith in achieving those goals.
63. The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give. – Walt Whitman
64. The kindest word is an unkind word unsaid.
65. The magnetism of one’s kindness will always outlast the memory of one’s genius.
66. The most dangerous person in one’s life is the person who feeds one’s doubts.
67. The only reason a person fails is broken focus.
68. The pain of one’s past will often decide one’s passion for the future.
69. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist… adjusts the sails. – William Arthur Ward
70. The problem a person solves determines the rewards they receive.
71. The problem closest to you is usually the door out of trouble.
72. The proof of mediocrity is the resentment of excellence.
73. The proof of respect is the investment of time.
74. The right thing at the wrong time becomes the wrong thing.
75. The road to someday leads to the town of nowhere –Tony Robbins.
76. The secret of a person’s future is always hidden in their daily routine.
77. The secret to knowing a person is to know that person’s memories.
78. The unthankful are often the same people who are always unhappy.
79. The way a person reacts, reveals their character.
80. The wise never discuss what they want others to forget.
81. There are two ways to increase wisdom: By making mistakes and by listening to mentors.
82. Time will always expose what interrogation will not.
83. We always have something in our hands that can create anything we want in the future.
84. We become what we think about – Earl Nightingale (from The Strangest Secret in the World)
85. What a person can tolerate, a person cannot change.
86. What a person does is what a person believes.
87. What a person respects, they often attract.
88. What one repeatedly hears, one eventually believes.
89. What you are able to walk away from you have mastered; what you are not able to walk away from has mastered you.
90. What you are will always outlast what people say you are.
91. What you do daily will determine what you become permanently.
92. What you focus on with your thoughts and feelings is often what you attract into your life.
93. What you say is not as important as what others remember.
94. When speaking with people, those who ask the questions determine the quality of the conversation.
95. When wrong people leave your life, wrong things stop happening.
96. When you want something you’ve never done, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.
97. When your heart decides a destination, your mind will design the map to reach it.
98. Where a person is matters as much as what a person is.
99. Where you are determines who sees you.
100. Winners are basically ex-losers who got mad.
101. You will only be remembered in life for two things: The problems you solve or the ones you create.
102. You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
103. Your focus decides your feelings.
104. Your future is decided by who you choose to believe.
105. Your self-portrait determines your self-conduct.
106. Your significance in life is not in how similar you are to someone else; it’s in how different you are.

  What are some sayings or quotes that have helped you in your life?

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Sleep. Now there’s a word that many people working today wish they had more of. If you’re one such person who wishes they had more time to sleep (I’m raising my hand here too), then know that you’re part of a growing group that believes they just have to deal with not getting enough sleep.  With the ever increasing complexity of people’s lives over the last few decades, it may appear that we are just doomed to putting up with feeling a little tired all the time. But how true is that? Do we really have to deal with not getting the amount of sleep that we need? Can we really learn to function on less sleep than we may actually need?  How much sleep is enough? Is how sleepy we feel a good judge of whether or not we are getting enough sleep?

You Can’t Handle the Truth!  (Jack Nicolson as Col. Jessup in “A Few Good Men”)

How do we know if we are getting the minimum amount of sleep in order to function? According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the following are signs that you are definitely not getting enough sleep:

• You have a hard time paying attention during meetings.
• You feel tired and lack energy during the day.
• You are unmotivated and have trouble “getting going.”
• You need to use an alarm clock to wake up on time in the morning.
• You are irritable, grumpy or lose your temper easily.
• You start to doze off when you are driving a car. (DANGEROUS!!!)

A poll conducted in 2005 by the National Sleep Foundation showed Americans averaged about 6.9 hours of sleep per night. This represents a drop of about two hours per night since the 19th century, one hour per night over the past 50 years, roughly 15 to 25 minutes per night since 2001. In another study done at the University of Pennsylvania, investigators found that subjects who slept four to six hours a night for fourteen consecutive nights showed significant deficits in cognitive performance equivalent to going without sleep for up to three days in a row.

How would you like to go to work (or lead a group, or attend a business and/or social function for that matter) on the equivalent of not having gone to sleep for two or three days!?!

So What Can We Do?

The world we live in is an exciting and wonderful place to be. The means of communication, travel, the sharing of ideas and images has never been as easy and readily available as it is today. Because of this, it’s also a very fast and complex world that demands more and more of our time and energy. In order to function well we all need to rest well.

Sleep hygiene is defined as “the controlling of all behavioral and environmental factors that precede sleep and may interfere with sleep.” It’s the practice of following guidelines in an attempt to ensure more restful, effective sleep which can promote daytime alertness and help treat or avoid certain kinds of sleep disorders. Trouble sleeping and daytime sleepiness can be indications of poor sleep hygiene (Wikipedia).

Below are some excellent tips (provided by AASM) for getting a better night’s rest:

1. Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy.
   If you are not sleepy at bedtime, then do something else. Read a book, listen to soft music or browse through a magazine. Find something relaxing, but not stimulating, to take your mind off of worries about sleep. This will relax your body and distract your mind.
2. If you are not asleep after 20 minutes, then get out of the bed.
   Find something else to do that will make you feel relaxed. If you can, do this in another room. Your bedroom should be where you go to sleep. It is not a place to go when you are bored. Once you feel sleepy again, go back to bed.
3. Begin rituals that help you relax each night before bed.
   This can include such things as a warm bath, light snack or a few minutes of reading.
4. Get up at the same time every morning.
   Do this even on weekends and holidays.
5. Get a full night’s sleep on a regular basis.
   Get enough sleep so that you feel well-rested nearly every day.
6. Avoid taking naps if you can.
   If you must take a nap, try to keep it short (less than one hour). Never take a nap after 3 p.m.
7. Keep a regular schedule.
   Regular times for meals, medications, chores, and other activities help keep the inner body clock running smoothly.
8. Don’t read, write, eat, watch TV, talk on the phone, or play cards in bed.           

9. Do not have any caffeine after lunch.           

10. Do not have a beer, a glass of wine, or any other alcohol within six hours of your bedtime.           

11. Do not have a cigarette or any other source of nicotine before bedtime.           

12. Do not go to bed hungry, but don’t eat a big meal near bedtime either.           

13. Avoid any tough exercise within six hours of your bedtime.
    You should exercise on a regular basis, but do it earlier in the day. (Talk to your doctor before you begin an exercise program.)
14. Avoid sleeping pills, or use them cautiously.
    Most doctors do not prescribe sleeping pills for periods of more than three weeks. Do not drink alcohol while taking sleeping pills.
15. Try to get rid of or deal with things that make you worry.
    If you are unable to do this, then find a time during the day to get all of your worries out of your system. Your bed is a place to rest, not a place to worry.
16. Make your bedroom quiet, dark, and a little bit cool.
    An easy way to remember this: it should remind you of a cave. While this may not sound romantic, it seems to work for bats. Bats are champion sleepers. They get about 16 hours of sleep each day. Maybe it’s because they sleep in dark, cool caves.

Have you ever gone through a day wishing that you had gotten more sleep?

What are some ways you relax at the end of the day (let’s keep it clean here. This is a family friendly blog )?

What are your thoughts on how much sleep we are or aren’t getting today?

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