Nice....

With a sad sigh of relief....

"Live strong" Lance Armstrong

I chose this quote today because Lance Armstrong has been in the news so much the last few days. Unless you've been living in a cave, you know he voluntarily gave up his fight to prove himself innocent of the alleged doping charges. He says it was time...enough was enough...he was simply exhausted from the lengthy battle. This painful decision not only included a lifetime ban of the sport of cycling but also stripped him of all seven yellow jerseys won from the Tour De France races.

There's been a lot of speculation about whether or not he was guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs or not and bowing out so suddenly has only increased the speculation. In the end, only Lance himself knows for sure and his choices are something he'll have to live with. It seems the idea of having one athlete in any sport who is a phenomenal player without the assistance of a needle is almost unheard of.

For myself, I can't imagine fighting this battle for so long and then giving up in the end but I have no idea how tiring it must have been for him. Several of his corporate sponsors are sticking by him so monetarily he'll be fine. I guess the bigger question is how will the act of being stripped of his titles affect him emotionally, especially if he truly is innocent?

Lance Armstrong has been a role model for thousands of people for many years, first as a cycling champion and then as a cancer survivor. To see a champion voluntarily handover his hard won trophies is almost to difficult to watch. And to think he's losing these titles even though he's supposedly passed every drug test he's ever taken makes it feel like a witch hunt. It's all clouded in so much mystery.

I suppose we'll never know the truth, never know if he fought for so long to cover up the lies or to defend the truth. But we can take his words, "Live Strong", and remember to live life to the fullest. Whether or not he cheated his way onto the winner's podium doesn't matter to us. Maybe cancer was his karmic revenge for lying or maybe surviving it was his karmic reward for telling the truth. In the end, it's his story to live. All we can do is try to learn from his choices, from the fevered pitch of his accusers, from his ultimate decision to end it all. He decided in the end to put his life and the lives of his family before the yellow jerseys. When you look at it from that angle, it seems like he made the best choice.

Monday morning hummms

I found two inspirational quotes that caught my eye this week and since one builds on the other, I decided to include both in my Motivational Monday post. Hope you enjoy (and are willing to comment on it too!)

“I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.” - Dudley Field Malone

I think this is such as interesting quote because what's the first thing we do whenever we have an idea to express or a dream to defend? We go in search of someone who will agree with us, right? It's human nature. Whether we are making a slight change in our life or preparing to do something radical, we seek out the approval of someone who will tell us we are doing the right thing--making the right move--heading in the right direction. Most people do this in every area of their life, often without realizing it. How many of you belong to the same religious organization you were raised in? Many of you vote the party line (in other words, always vote Republican or Democrat) because you basically agree with the philosophy of that particular party and don't bother to investigate the standings of each individual candidate.

You can find someone to agree with anything you say or do, no matter how crazy it may seem...all you have to do is look hard enough. There are plenty of extreme examples...Hitler, Jim Jones, Timothy McVey, Charles Manson. Equally as cultish although not as deadly are some of today's TV televangelists. All these people are driven by something bigger than most of us, whether it be mental illness or the voice of God (supposedly). But even in our day-to-day life, we seek like-minded people....birds of a feather. Whether it's because we crave the recognition or simply don't have enough faith in ourselves to strike out on our own without the encouragement of the masses, we search for the approval of others. Yet the approving masses aren't going to point out the flaws in our plans. They won't burst our bubbles or shed light on the hurdles in our journeys. Maybe that's why we do it. Maybe seeing the obstacles before encountering them is too much for us. Maybe we'd give up before we even tried. I know when I was adopting my oldest son, if the adoption agency would have told me that my journey would stretch into a 2 1/2 year nightmare and cost thousands more dollars than originally planned, I wouldn't have even started. In fact, I wouldn't have adopted either of my sons out of fear. So maybe in some instances, ignorance really is bliss. But most of the time, wouldn't we be better prepared for the hurdles if we knew they were lurking out there in the darkness?

The other quote I liked so much is....

"It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark"  Howard Ruff

Now there's a guy who encountered plenty of opposition. Everyone around him must have told him he was crazy. Surely they pointed out the wastefulness of spending all his time and effort building a huge boat on dry land. I'm sure every single obstacle was pointed out to him, over and over, yet he continued his mission. Now since it's a biblical story, it's obviously about the power of faith in God, but it doesn't have to be. It's really just a story about the power of following a dream, of having a vision and going after it, no matter what hurdles lie before you or how crazy it seems to the outside world.

I'm not suggesting you quit your job to spend your days building an ark but we all have goals, dreams and desires we could be working toward. You never hear of someone wishing they had less determination. We all have things we want to change in our lives, big and small. Why not start working toward change instead of dreaming about it?

Monday Monday Monday...

I'm off to the state fair with PaPa and the boys today so I don't really have time to inspire...plus I'm still tired from moving 3000sf of crap!  But....I think this really says it all.

Comments, thoughts, musings????

Are Mondays Really Only Once A Week????

According to Pablo Picasso....

Action is the foundational key to success.

I believe most everyone would agree with that statement. It's rare to hear of someone who lives their dream life that didn't have to invest years of blood, sweat and tears to get there. With the Olympics in full swing now, we've all been watching with great interest as the elite few compete for a prize they've been chasing their whole life. It's hard not to get swept up in the idea of being the best of the best. There always seems to be that little voice in the back of our heads that makes us think we could have done that too. And maybe we could have...we the right training and the perfect coach. What else do you need....except a bit of single-minded motivation? What else you need is the willingness to sacrifice...a lot.

You see, for every Olympic champion standing on the podeum, there are hundreds who didn't quite make the team... who had an off day during the qualifying heat. These people are Olympic champions minus a fraction of a second. All these men and women worked equally as hard, often training side-by-side. All these people deserve our admiration and praise, even though only the few with medals hanging around their necks will bask in the glory.

So now when that little voice suggests you could be an Olympic champion too, ask yourself if you would be willing to do the work for fourth place? Still requires the same amount of time and effort but with significantly less glory and endorsements. Doesn't taste quite as sweet, does it? But all these athletes started their journey with the same goal in mind, knowing that only a few would make it. Yet they willingly sacrificed their lives for this dream. And their families sacrified their lives for the dream of this child. They gave up school dances and sleepovers. They altered their sleep patterns for 3AM wakeup calls and 7PM bedtimes. In some cases the whole family packed up and moved across the country so this athletic child could train with the best and if that was impossible, the child moved alone to live with strangers. They let nothing stand in the way of pursuing their dreams...knowing that the chances of actually making the Olympics was slim....yet still they sacrificed their life...still they pushed forward with their eyes on the prize.

For those who didn't quite make it, I salute you. Your single-minded devotion deserves all our praise and admiration.

So what's the moral of this Monday's Motivation? Sometimes a dream just has to be pursued...no matter what the sacrifice. Even if you don't quite make it today, you'll be among champions for tomorrow's race.

So start running!!!

Thoughts, comments, musings??????

If at first you don't succeed....

I've been trying really hard to remember this...to live my life this way....it's hard, really really hard. Seems like such a simple idea..a positive one....a no-brainer, but it's hard. Mostly because we (or at least I) get in the rut of letting things go unsaid...reading between the lines instead of asking for clarification....such an easy rut to fall into and nearly impossible to get out of.

The funny thing is, if a complete stranger were telling us a story or explaining a situation and we didn't understand him or needed more details, we'd simply ask...because that shows interest and concern...doing this makes us a good listener....a kind hearted person....a giver...a caring individual...

So why don't we treat those close to us the same way? Isn't it the same act of kindness, no matter who we are focusing on? Why do our actions change so drastically, depending on who holds our attention? Why is it an act of kindness for a stranger but confrontation with a loved one?

Thoughts, comments, ideas??????

Write your own....

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. Over a hundred years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life's work, unfairly labeling him "The Merchant of Death" because of his invention--dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace. The inventor was Alfred Nobel who seven years later created The Nobel Peace Prize and the others that bear his name.

I wonder, what would my obituary say? I look back at my life, trying to imagine it in print. Sure there were moments of greatness worthy of praise and respect but there were probably many more regretful decisions made. It's easy to say I have no regrets, that I lived my life in the best way possible at any given moment and only with the assistance of hindsight do the mistakes become glaringly obvious. Saying these words, having this opinion is one thing...actually putting my life choices in print is a whole different ballgame. Try it. Simply take one moment worthy of praise or regret from your past. Think about that moment and then try to describe it in words. Suddenly seeing those words before you make them seem much more harsh or painful. It's not easy to describe a former decision in a concise, to-the-point manner and still give an accurate representation of the events. 

The obituary of Alfred Nobel is a perfect example. He was a great inventor of dynamite. His invention changed the building and mining industries forever. But the writer of his obit focused on the dangers of dynamite and the costly toll it's use demands from mankind. The same can be true of all of us. Something we did for all the right reasons can look selfish or harmful when described in writing. The question is...which is it...selfish or selfless? Does the act of printing our past bring to light all the flaws we've worked so hard to ignore?

Just for the heck of it, write your own obituary....see what the world sees when they think of you and your life. It's time to be recognized for your accomplishments and it's never too late to change course if you have your own form of dynamite in your past.