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Displaying blog entries 191-200 of 256

Morning Coffee

Monday, October 26, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"He is not fit for riches, who is afraid to use them."
~ Thomas Fuller


WHERE DO YOU INVEST?

Several business books suggest three ways to become financially independent. It is said that these three methods of building wealth create "multiple streams of income" - a never-ending financial source that continues to grow. So - what are the three "magic beans" that, when planted, yield wealth?

They are: 1) investing in real estate, 2) investing in the stock market, and 3) running your own business. To achieve excellence in any of the three, you must have extensive knowledge, be willing to take risks, and have a passion for achievement.

First comes knowledge. Who do you think might have the best grasp on the ins and outs of real estate - a doctor or someone in the real estate business? An understanding of contracts, real estate law, pricing and values, marketing, financing and math would all be vital, wouldn't they?

Risk-taking does not come easily for most of us. Unless we put our money at risk, however, we cannot expect a favorable return. If you don't believe that, just take a look at what your checking or savings account is paying right now!

Finally, we must have a passion for achievement. That means a burning desire, not a lukewarm, milquetoast attitude. Anything less will leave us in the dust of others who display that desire.

Wealth, a.k.a. financial independence, does not arrive on our doorstep in the form of a visit from Publishers Clearinghouse. Nor does the lottery or an inheritance often pay us a visit. We are able to achieve wealth only by choice. It comes slowly at first, and then builds to a crescendo beyond our wildest imaginings.

It's the "at first" that will govern the final result. So, then, it's your choice - real estate, stocks, your own business, or all three!

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Morning Coffee

Monday, October 19, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"When you come to the edge of all the light you have known, and are about to step out into darkness,
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen - there will be something to stand on,
or you will be taught how to fly."

- "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach


LEARNING TO FLY!

In the 1930's and 1940's, there were numerous women's magazines. Ladies' Home Journal and Good Housekeeping were two of them. They showed women in the role of the day - housekeeping. They suggested the number of times per week the home should be dusted, scrubbed, organized, and otherwise kept spotless. They suggested ways to look good when the "man of the house" arrived home from a tough day at the office. In short, those magazines and their publishers set up an impossible regimen of expectations for their readers.

Many of us know women who have spent much of their lives trying to live up to the model housewife role prescribed by those magazines. The trouble is, many of them have (or had) dreams of their own, like wanting to write, or to travel, or to participate in the freedoms only men then enjoyed.

Today, any of us can achieve our dreams. All too often, however, we are still denied our destiny by the expectations set by others. We are bombarded by radio, TV, CD, DVD, and WWW messages that insist we follow their example, their guidelines, or their models. We allow our dreams to wither and die - waiting in line for their turn to blossom - never receiving the water of encouragement needed to grow and bloom.

What about your dreams? Need some encouragement to help you "think outside the box?" Begin by spending time with others who have already achieved their dreams. Leave your nay-sayer acquaintances behind. Read inspiring biographies. Pick up a copy of "Think & Grow Rich" or "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." If you haven't yet learned to "fly," pick up "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" or "Illusions" by Richard Bach.

As Jonathan says in the book, "Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly!"

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Morning Coffee

Monday, October 12, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"The man who dies rich, dies disgraced."
- Andrew Carnegie


THE MEANING OF POVERTY!

A colleague passed this delightful story along:

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how much poverty exists in the world. They spent several days and nights on the farm of a very poor family.

Upon their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?" The son's answer? "It was great, Dad!" "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father. The son continued, "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon."

His son added, "We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who work for us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, and they have friends to protect them."

With this the boy's father was speechless. Then his son finally said, "Thanks Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don't have. What is one person's worthless object is another's prize possession. It is all based on one's perspective. It makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for the bounty we have, instead of worrying about wanting more. Take joy in all you have, especially your friends.

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Morning Coffee

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves."
~ Katherine Mansfield


PLAY THE FAMILY GAME!

Feel like you're losing touch with your children? Wish you understood your spouse better? Want to enjoy closer family ties without the background noise of X-Box games or loud music? Does everyone seem to scatter the moment their last bite of food is swallowed? Introduce them to "the family game!"

It's a fun way to bring your family together at the dinner table and keep them there - without complaints. Furthermore, you'll soon have them willingly sharing their dreams, disappointments, likes & dislikes, interests, successes, and innermost thoughts. Finally, you will have created a new family tradition your children will delight in passing on to their own families.

Introduce your version of the family game at the end of a dinnertime meal when everyone is present. Don't make a big production of it, just ask everyone to remain at the table. Tell them you've heard of a fun game and would like to play it with them. Explain that each person at the table gets one turn (and only one turn). You begin by asking a question that everyone, including yourself, has to answer. For instance, your question might be, "What's the most embarrassing moment you've ever had?" Go around the table and let each family member contribute.

Once everyone answers, let the person at your left ask the next question. It might be, "What's the worst birthday present you've ever received?" or maybe, "If you could go back in the past and live in a different time, when would it be and why?" You'll be amazed at the sharing your family will suddenly experience.

Once the "family game" becomes a regular part of meals, add this twist: Before being seated, tell family members that they may sit in any seat at the table except their normal seat. The catch is that they must also "act" like the person normally seated in the chair they choose. This can produce hilarious results.

If your family seems fragmented and scattered, play "the family game." It's a natural for bringing joy, depth, communication and understanding back to your loved ones

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Monday Morning Coffee on Mt. Hood

Monday, September 28, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are
By thought was wrought and built. If a man's mind
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes
The wheel the ox behind . . .

. . . If one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows him
As his own shadow - sure."
~ James Allen


GO TO THE GARDEN!

The human mind is like a garden. It directly reflects the care and attention given to it. Consider two gardens side-by-side, in the same soil.

The first is bursting with color, gives off the most delicate of fragrances, is free of weeds, and forest green. New buds continually replace each other, and it's a delightful place to spend a sunny day.

Just a few feet away, you encounter a musty patch of stunted leaves, few blooms, parched soil, and insect infestation. The few plants remaining beg for a kind word and attention of any kind. They look sad from their days of inattention.

Why is there such a disparity between the two gardens? The first has a gardener, while the second has been totally ignored. And just as an untended garden will fail to prosper, so will an untended mind.

Imagine how easy it is for the mind to wither and atrophy when attention is not paid to its simplest needs. The mind can be so creative, unless it is fed passive TV drivel hour after hour. The mind can be so enthusiastic, unless powered by a body nourished by fast food, chips, sugar-filled cereal, and caffeine-packed soft drinks.

Just as a vibrant garden inspires, a well-tended mind can bring forth the best in others. It deserves our attention. It should be watered and fertilized with foods filled with the proper nutrients. It can be expanded greatly through the stimulation of education. It can remain viable only through the practice and application of solid principles.

When the care given is incongruous with the results desired, the garden is a disaster. When the mind's actions do not match its stated objectives, chaos is the result. Our minds have the potential to bloom more abundantly than any garden. They deserve our utmost attention.

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Mt. Hood Morning Coffee for Inspiration

Monday, September 21, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured
and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."
~ James Buckham


YOU'RE NOT DONE YET!

Ever noticed how great leaders often come from humble beginnings? From the devastating depths of silence and inability to speak, Helen Keller inspired the world once she had overcome great adversity.

Diagnosed with amyontrophic lateral sclerosis and standing before a full-house crowd in Yankee Stadium on July 4th 1939, Lou Gehrig proclaimed, "I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth! I might have been given a bad break, but I 've got an awful lot to live for." He spent the last two years of his life as Parole Commissioner for New York City, hoping to make a difference in the lives of young people in trouble.

Today, we use more contemporary quotes to explain the same concept. We say, "No pain - no gain!" or, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." No matter how we verbalize it, it is true that through adversity comes strength.

Think back to the toughest times you've faced during your life. Chances are you'll have to agree that you grew and became a better person for the experience. As for temptations, they are more easily given in to than conquered. Nevertheless, the value system to which you subscribe today probably evolved from temptations overcome.

As Richard Bach put it in his wonderful book "Illusions," "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." Whether it be a physical or moral challenge you face, suffer if you must, but look also for its gift. And remember another Richard Bach quote, "Here is a test to find out whether your mission here on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't."

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Monday Morning Coffee

Monday, September 14, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy.
Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler
and stronger than it was before."
~ James Buckham


YOU'RE NOT DONE YET!

Ever noticed how great leaders often come from humble beginnings? From the devastating depths of silence and inability to speak, Helen Keller inspired the world once she had overcome great adversity.

Diagnosed with amyontrophic lateral sclerosis and standing before a full-house crowd in Yankee Stadium on July 4th 1939, Lou Gehrig proclaimed, "I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth! I might have been given a bad break, but I 've got an awful lot to live for." He spent the last two years of his life as Parole Commissioner for New York City, hoping to make a difference in the lives of young people in trouble.

Today, we use more contemporary quotes to explain the same concept. We say, "No pain - no gain!" or, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." No matter how we verbalize it, it is true that through adversity comes strength.

Think back to the toughest times you've faced during your life. Chances are you'll have to agree that you grew and became a better person for the experience. As for temptations, they are more easily given in to than conquered. Nevertheless, the value system to which you subscribe today probably evolved from temptations overcome.

As Richard Bach put it in his wonderful book "Illusions," "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." Whether it be a physical or moral challenge you face, suffer if you must, but look also for its gift. And remember another Richard Bach quote, "Here is a test to find out whether your mission here on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't."

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Morning Coffee

Monday, September 7, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next."
~ Abraham Lincoln


TEACH VALUES 101!

What do children and government have in common? That depends on which classroom you visit. If you have children and are actively involved in their lives, you are likely to encounter a classroom filled with intelligent, interested, involved and respectful children.

Unfortunately, many teachers today will tell you that's not what they are seeing. In some 1st & 2nd grade settings, children fall asleep because they spent the night in the family car while mom or dad sold drugs. Others are antagonistic and disrespectful, traits also learned from other family members. Still others are raised in a "no rules" family, where parents simply abdicate their parental responsibilities.

Many parents still take their responsibilities seriously. In fact, there appears to be a resurgence of young parents who teach their children the values of honesty, integrity, and service to others. It's about time. If you're one of them, I applaud your commitment to making the world a better place.

There has also been a dearth of honesty, respect and morality over the past 30 years or so. Children brought up during that time often experienced the negative effects of a no rules society. Today those same individuals are beginning to lead companies and be elected to office, yet we are surprised that company CEO's and elected officials could ever lie and mislead as they have been exposed to do recently.

As the children of today's classrooms are disposed to believe and behave, so will they as the adults of tomorrow's generation. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, you can make a difference for the next generation of leaders. Take time to encourage, nurture, and teach the children in your family. Sometimes, a single comment or gesture can give a child the impetus to become great.

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Morning Coffee

Monday, August 31, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"Time is clay. Make something."
~ Unknown


TIME'S A'WASTING!

To paraphrase a favorite tune, "If I could save time in a bottle..." I could have saved literally millions of minutes so far. Of course most of us think in terms of a 24-hour clock that gives us another chance to save each time we wake up. We think of time beginning anew with the start of each day. Not so. Time is actually a continuum, a straight line.

If you were born in 1952, you could have saved 27,856,800 minutes by now. Born in 1968? You'd have a bottle full of 19,447,200 minutes. No matter when you were born, it's easy to calculate just how many minutes you could have saved by now. The real question, of course, is how many minutes are left. Bet you didn't want to hear that.

Not to worry. It's what you do with what you've got that counts. So why not begin looking at time as clay - as something you roll in your hands and form into anything you like. Remember making little cars, or a house, or a little clay doll when you were little? Back then, no one told you what to make - you just let your imagination guide you.

As you got older, you were told what you could do, when you could do it, and how much time you had to get it done. You quit playing with the clay, and didn't have the time to let your imagination guide you. More than likely you fell into a routine (a.k.a. a rut), one possibly designed by someone else's imagination.

Why not take some of the time you have to rediscover the joy your own imagination can bring? Think back to those wonderful days of clay - and make something!

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Morning Coffee

Monday, August 24, 2009
by Liz Warren
Monday Morning Coffee

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:

"To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it -
but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes


STUCK IN PORT?

Imagine the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 going unanswered . . . Many of our ships found at anchor by attacking planes went down, never to leave the harbor again. Imagine the economy floundering with interest rates at 12%, and learning that the head of "the fed" has taken a six-month, non-working vacation to Tahiti. Imagine how you would have felt on September 12, 2001 if our president had appeared on TV to tell us how sorry he was about the attacks without announcing action to protect us in the future.

We expect our nation's leaders to act in times of crisis, don't we? But - what do we expect of ourselves when a family crisis arises, our sales flounder, or we notice the numbers on our scale beginning to creep upward to uncomfortable levels? Do we set sail, or lie at anchor hoping "someone" will do "something?"

Babe Ruth sailed against the wind more often than with it. He is remembered for his home runs - 714 of them - yet he struck out 1,330 times in his career. Best of all, he set sail and got out of the harbor (took his bat to the plate) 8,399 times. Had he stayed safely in the dugout, he could have avoided all those strikeouts.

So - what about you? Having difficulty setting sail lately? Perhaps it's time to give your engine a little maintenance, or take out a needle and thread to repair torn sails. You may also want to pull out your map to redefine the direction you'll be taking in coming months.

If you've been spending too much time at the "Captain's Table" and not enough time on the bridge with the wheel in your hand, perhaps some planning now will send you full speed ahead out of the harbor and with some exotic port of call in sight. Bon Voyage!

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Displaying blog entries 191-200 of 256

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