Four Qualities of Hardy People

1. Hardy people become powerful. They ask what action they can take to get them to their goal. They spend little time assigning blame. They waste no energy in accusation.

2. Hardy people control their attitude. They put the difficulty in perspective and ask what choices they have.

3. Hardy people meet challenges head on. Instead of looking at a challenge as a calamity, they describe a challenge as a chance to learn something they otherwise might never have known.

4. Hardy people are triumphant. Challenge is an invitation, not a summons. It is a chance to deepen wisdom and expand inventiveness. Each triumph is one move important step taken toward a goal.

Five Lessons about Communication

Powerful communication involves timing, silence, listening, actions, and carefully chosen words and emotions...

1. First Things First: Communication involves making internal choices. Timing can make all the difference when conveying your thoughts. Some things need to be said up front, and some things are better said later. Knowing the difference is crucial. If there is something important that you need to say to someone, say it now. There isn't always a second chance.

2. Silence is Powerful: Moments of silence can sometimes send the most powerful messages. Not every moment in a conversation needs to be filled with spoken words. Sometimes silence is more telling, effective, necessary, and appropriate.

3. Messages are Everywhere: Listen deeply, not only to what a person is saying. Listen to what they are not saying. Hear the messages between words, within emotions, and in the choices of words used. Often, these silent messages are not there by accident. Ask questions and confirm what you think you heard.

4. Actions Tell the Story: Actions are the greatest tellers of the truth. They need to be congruent with our words. This is a powerful lesson that is often overlooked. Powerful communication requires watching and doing as well as speaking and listening. Actions that back up words will build trust.

5. Turn to the Appropriate Emotional Page: Match your emotions to the needs of your communication partner. Children are especially sensitive to the emotions accompanying our words. In order to hear our messages, they need for us to be on the same page with their level of enthusiasm. Emotions and words chosen and measured carefully allow us to communicate with empathy while communicating with honesty.

commitment

"What you achieve is determined by your desire and level of commitment. Commit yourself 100% to your most cherished dreams. "

"Kind acts keep on giving. They begin a continuing chain of events that will not only effect others. They will always return - often in ways we might not anticipate."

"At any moment in time, you are moving toward or away from any goal you've set for yourself through your actions. If you don't like the direction you are headed, you can choose different actions right now that will keep you on the path to higher achievement."

Dreams

"Study as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow. " -MAHATHMA GANDHI
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a successunexpected in common hours."
"I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win. If you don't you won't." -Bruce Jenner

"If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year. Today should always be our most wonderful day." -Thomas Dreier (Author)

Turning Lives Around

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." ~ Leo F. Buscaglia (1924-1998)

"I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity... I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else, but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not--more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving." ~ Beverly Sills (1860-1954)

"When one begins to purposefully perform acts of kindness, the spirit changes, and soon doing good deeds becomes a focal point for our life; doing good begins to be the same as feeling good. The periods of emptiness when we search for the 'meaning of it all' begin to fill with acts of kindness." ~ Gary Ryan Blair

"Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house... let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." ~ Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Commitment

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison
"Commitment means coming through time after time, year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of. It is the daily triumph of integrity."
"In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood." -Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Attitude is Everything

"I studied everything but I never topped, but today toppers of the best Univesities are my employees." -Bill Gates