Excellence

"The secret of joy is contained in one word--excellence.
To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. "

- Pearl S. Buck, author

Things to reflect:

In what parts of my life do I exhibit excellence?
How does that excellence impact my life?
Do i enjoy my excellence or treat it as a bane?

Giving gift

"The manner in which it is given is worth more than the gift."
-Pierre Corneille, French playwright

Things to reflect:

In what spirit do I give gifts?
How can I make the gifts I give - both large and small - more valuable to the receiver today?
What do i do after accepting a gift?

Forgiveness

"When you forgive, you in no way change the past -- but you sure do change the future." Bernard Meltzer, lawyer and professor

Things to reflect:

Who do I need to forgive?
When will I do it?
Forgive and forget?

Realizing our goals!

"Real-izing our goals, allows us realize our goals." -

Kevin Eikenberry, author and speaker

Things to ponder

How real are my goals in my mind?

How can I make them more clear, vivid, and real?

Road to happiness

"The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it, put your whole soul into it -- every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have."
- John D. Rockefeller III, philanthropist

Things to reflect:

How closely have I followed this road?
What do i do at an intersection?
What interests me?
What do I do well?

Choice

The minute you choose to do what you really want to do it's a different kind of life.
- Buckminster Fuller, Inventor and Philosopher

Things to reflect:

What do I really want to do?
Am I doing what I choose?
If not, what is keeping me from it?

Focus

When every physical and mental resource is focused - one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.

- Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author

Things to reflect:

How focused am I typically?
For what types of things am I usually most focused?
How can I use this thought today?
What diffuse my focus?

Gratitude

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

- William Arthur Ward, author and editor

Things to reflect

What gratitude do I feel today?
How will I share it?

Take your gratitude and share it with others today.
Tell people.
Thank people.
And your gratitude will grow.

For others

"Doing things for others always pays dividends."
- Claude M. Bristol, author

Things to reflect:

What can I do for someone else today?
How can I be more other-focused?
Do I do something for other just for dividends or out of good will?

Peace

"A primary method for gaining a mind full of peace is to practice emptying the mind."
- Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author

Things to reflect:

What is filling my mind?
How do i get rid of those filling up my mind?

Focus

"If you're laser beam focused on your "to do" list at the expense of seeing what is happening around you, you may be able to check items off the list and not meet your desired outcome."
- Jim Canterucci, author of Personal Brilliance

Things to reflect:
How focused am I?
Am I focused in the right ways?
Am i able to scatter my resources?

Planting

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint, and you reap a bushel. Always the law works to give you back more than you give."

- Anthony Norvell, author

Things to reflect:

What am I planting?
Am I planting enough?
Am I planting what I hope to harvest?

Planting

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint, and you reap a bushel.
Always the law works to give you back more than you give."
- Anthony Norvell, author Questions to Ponder What am I planting? Am I planting enough? Am I planting what I hope to harvest?

Planting

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint, and you reap a bushel.
Always the law works to give you back more than you give."
- Anthony Norvell, author Questions to Ponder What am I planting? Am I planting enough? Am I planting what I hope to harvest?

Planting

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint, and you reap a bushel.
Always the law works to give you back more than you give."
- Anthony Norvell, author Questions to Ponder What am I planting? Am I planting enough? Am I planting what I hope to harvest?

Planting

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint, and you reap a bushel.
Always the law works to give you back more than you give."
- Anthony Norvell, author Questions to Ponder What am I planting? Am I planting enough? Am I planting what I hope to harvest?

Small Steps‏

"Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while there is a giant step, but most of the time we are taking small, seemingly insignificant steps on the stairway of life."
- Ralph Ransom, author

Things to reflect:
What steps have I taken recently?
What steps will I take this week?
How will I remind myself that each step is valuable, even if progress seems insignificant?
A baby learns to walk by taking small steps, can i ?

Smile

"He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger."
- Japanese proverb

Things to reflect:

How often do I smile?

What would happen if I smiled the next time I was angry?

How would that change my further reactions?

How would it change the reactions of others?

Ain't it easy to smile?

Help ?

"Once you begin to believe there is help 'out there,' you will know it to be true."
- Saint Bartholomew

Things to reflect:

Do I believe?
Where do I see help?
When do I offer help to others?

Living Our Values‏

"How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to know what really matters most."

- Stephen Covey, author and speaker

Things to reflect:

What is deeply important to me?

Can i endure any other things in order to maintain that deeply important matter?

Enthusiasm‏

"All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
- Charles Kingsley, author

Things to reflect:

What am I enthusiastic about?

How enthusiastic am I?

What other means can i obtain happiness?

Who Am I?

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be."
- Abraham Maslow, psychologist

Things to reflect

What can I be?

Am I expressing who I am through what I do each day?

Am I right with myself?

Goals

"The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable.
Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them."

- Denis Waitley, author and speaker

Things to reflect

What are my goals?

Are they clear?

When do i put them down in writing?

Handing defeat

"When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound. Rebuild those plans and set sail once more toward your coveted goal."

- Napoleon Hill, author

Things to reflect

How do I deal with defeat?

What has been my most recent defeat?

Review a recent failure or defeat.

Take time today to assess the causes of the missteps.

Rebuild your plan, based on your new knowledge and experience.

Lifelong learning

"Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life."

- Henry Doherty, American engineer and investor

Things to reflect:

What did I learn yesterday?
What will I learn today?
What do I want to learn more about?
What do I do to unlearn and relearn?

Leading to happiness

"The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate,your mind from worry.
Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine.Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised."

- Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author

Things to ponder:

Which of these things will I try this week?

How soon will I start?

How can I enjoy giving?

Your energy level

"The average person puts only 25% of his energy into his work.
The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%."

- Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist and philanthropist

Things to reflect:

How much of my energy do I put into my work?

How much more am I willing to invest?

What would be the outcome of that investment?

Do i neglect to channel some of my energy on my family?

Your view

"You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of those people as yourself and your friends."

-- Robert Anton Wilson, author

Questions to Ponder

How my thoughts changed if this were my perspective?

How would my actions change if this were my perspective?

How can I change others perspective as well?

Our abilities

"It's hard to be rational or wise about developing our lives without taking conscious steps to discover our natural abilities -- and as early as possible."
- Denis Waitley, speaker and author

Things to reflect

What are my natural abilities?

How successfully do I leverage them in my life?

Am I able to get someone to point out my abilities?

Change

"Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent."

- Nolan Ryan, Hall of Fame Baseball player

Things to reflect:

How adaptable am I?

Why am i resisting changes in my normal days?

How effectively do I understand and manage change in my life?

Gathering small things

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
-- Vincent Van Gogh, artist

Things to reflect:

What small things am I stringing together?
Is doing many small things easier than a single big thing?
What is the small thing I can (and will) do today?

One's ability

"The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do."
- Orison Swett Marden, author

Things to reflect:

What do I long to do?

Am i really incapable to do what I long to do?

What can I do to enhance my ability?

Desire

"The first principle of success is desire - knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of the seed."
- Robert Collier, author

Things to reflect:

What do I desire?

Have I planted the right seeds?

Aspiration

t takes a certain level of aspiration before one can take advantage of opportunities that are clearly offered.

- Michael Harrington, writer

Things to reflect:

Am I finding opportunities regularly?
What does aspiration look like in my life?
What do I aspire to and how does that aspiration relate to the opportunities I find?

Opportunity

There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love.
There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
- Wayne Dyer

Things to reflect:

Am I doing what I love?
If not, what steps can I take today to help me find opportunities to do so?
Can I worth to take the steps?

We should meet

山水有相逢。
The mountain and the river will meet again.
-A Malaysian Chinese saying

Meaning of quote: The river, thought keeps running, it will eventually meet the mountain later again. To remind one not to burn bridges.


Things to ponder:

How have I been treating other people
What can i do to maintain a good clean relationship

The rose garden

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

- Dale Carnegie, Author

Things to reflect:

Where is my magical rose garden?
Does it really exist?
Have I noticed the roses around me today?
What can I do to focus on today, instead of 'waiting to live'?

Luck

I've found that luck is quite predictable.
If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.
- Brian Tracy, Speaker and author

Things to reflect:

How lucky have I been lately?
How will my "luck" be affected if I take more chances, be more active, show up more?
What chance can I take today?
Would superstitious helps me to get luck?

Attachment

The cow is not mine, I do not feel sad when it was lost.
There is no attachment of desire to the cow.
The cow is mine, I feel sad when it was lost.
There is attachment of desire to the cow.
Unhappiness arises from attachment to our desire,
lose the attachment, discover happiness

Extract from a discipline of Buddha.

Things to reflect:

-How attached am I to my desire?
- How can I detach my desire to discover happiness?

Complainting and whining

My days of whining and complaining about others have come to an end.
Nothing is easier than fault finding.
All it will do is discolor my personality so that none will want to associate with me.
That was my old life.No more.
- Og Mandino, Author

Things to reflect:

How much blaming and whining do I do?
How can I reduce this habit today?
What do I know if my friends kept whining?

Overcoming obstacle

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."
- Jean-Baptiste Moliere, French playwright

Things to reflect:

What are the biggest obstacles I have overcome in my life?
How are the obstacles hindering me?
Who or what were the biggest aids to me in overcoming the obstacle?
How did it feel upon my success?

Transmute negativite into positive

View a negative experience in your life like you'd look at a photo negative.
A single negative can create an unlimited number of positive prints.

- Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder of Sales Power Magazine

Things to reflect:

What can i learn from my negative experience?
How will I view my next negative experience?
Do i get knock down by negative experience?
How can I create positive prints from my negative?

Happy today!

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself:
I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.
I can choose which it shall be.Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.
- Groucho Marx, Entertainer

Things to reflect:

What do I say to myself when I wake up?
Are they thoughts that will contribute to a great day?
How am I going to remove the negativity?

Ancient chinese vow

不求同年同月同日生，但愿同年同月同日死。
"Although we are not born on the same year, same month and same day, we wish that we could die together on the same year, same month and same day.

- Vow of brotherhood made by Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu in Romance in the Three Kingdom

Things to ponder:

Do I have friends that I am willingly to dead for?
Whom can I really trust?

Short of time?

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
- Jean de La Bruysre, 17th century French essayist

Things to reflect

What is shortness of time to me?
How have I managed my time lately?
What are my biggest opportunities to improve my management of time?
Who can i delegate to gain more time?

Success

I can give you a six word formula for success 'Think things through - then follow through.'

- Eddie Rickenbacker, pilot

Things to reflect:

Do I take the time to think things through?
How am I at following through?
In what phase of my life would this advice be most helpful today?
How often do i follow through first before thinking?

Kindness

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
- Mark Twain

Things to reflect:

Where have I seen and heard kindness recently?
How kind have I been to those around me lately?
How do I know?
When is the last time I perform a kind act?

Make a move!

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Things to reflect:

Why do i fail to do anything and regret later?
What decisions do I expect to face today?
What is the right thing to do?
When should I do nothing?

Yes or No

You can never get more by saying 'no.' You can hold a current position by saying no, but you can only move forward by saying 'yes'.

- Marshal Sylver, motivational speaker

Things to reflect:

What events in life might have gone differently if I had said yes rather than no?
Which do I use more, "yes" or "no"?
When is a better time to use "yes" or "no"?

Opposition

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

- Alexander Hamilton, U.S. Statesman

Things to reflect:

Why do I oppose things?
Do I examine my reasons for opposition?
Are my reasons sound?
Do I oppose as a resistance to changes?

An unimportant day

There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.
Alexander Woollcott, drama critic, author

Things to reflect:

What can I do to remind myself of each day's importance?

What things make my days important?

Why do I think the day is wasted?

When is the most unimportant part of my day? And why so?

Security

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

- Helen Keller, American Blind/Deaf Author & Lecturer

Lets reflect on:

How do I view security?

How important is security in the decisions I make?

Why do i need security to begin with?

In any of those cases, is my view hampering me, or leading me to poor decisions

Over-cautious

He that is over-cautious will accomplish little.

- Johann Friedrich Von Schiller, German Historian

Let's reflect on:

• When in my life have I been over-cautious and what have been the results?
• What can I risk today?
• Where do i draw the line between cautious and over-cautious?
• Why am I over-cautious?
• Who can help me by giving me feedback in my cautiousness