"Of all the attitudes we can aquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing." - Zig Ziglar

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget about everything except what you're going to do now - and do it." - William Durant

"Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can." - Anonymous

"It ain't bragging if you can do it." - Dizzy Dean

"Your Merry Christmas may depend on what others do for you ... but your Happy New Year depends on what you do for others." - Anonymous

"Envy someone and it pulls you down. Admire them and it builds you up. Which makes more sense?" - Elvis Presley

"You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it." - Obvious

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." - Doug Larson

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you'll help them to become what they are capable of becoming." - Goethe

"When was the last time your possibilities gave you goose bumps?" - Ben Feldman

"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living, the other helps you make a life." - Sandra Carey

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." - William James

"What's exciting about using our mind is that we can short circuit all the excuses thrown up by our fears." - Mark Victor Hansen

"You get whatever you expect to get. The only question is, "What do you want?"" - Mark Victor Hansen

"Praise does wonders for our sense of hearing." - Arnold Glasgow

"Now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been..." - Rilke

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish." - Ovid

"Self-trust is the first secret of success." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish." - Ovid

Got this from my good friend Coach Stoney over at Transformation.com

Excellent thoughts and quotes to reflect on. Enjoy!

"It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom." - William Dean Howells

"There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice." - John Calvin

"There are years that ask questions, and years that answer." - Zora Neale Hurston

"Love generously, praise loudly, live fully." - Elias Porter

"Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, it's not the end." - Anonymous

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." - Mother Teresa

"Not what we give, But what we share, For the gift without the giver, Is bare." - James Russell Lowell

"Definition of status seeking: Buying things you can't afford, that you don't need, to impress people you don't like." - Anonymous

"Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it." - M. Scott Peck

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

"Joy is not in things, it is in us." - Benjamin Franklin

"Scatter Joy!" - Emerson

"What weighs nothing and yet is powerful enough to start a war? A belief." - Anonymous

"What You Believe Is What You Achieve." - Mark Victor Hansen

"Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?" - Martin Luther King Jr.

"May your life be crowded with unexpected joys." - H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"You don't just luck into things...You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities." - Barbara Bush

"A snowflake is one of the most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!" - Anonymous

"The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up on something that you forget to be afraid." - Lady Bird Johnson

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." - Anonymous

"No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet." - C. S. Lewis

"Success is Deciding from the Start what End Result You Want and Creating the Circumstances to Realize that Result." - Mark Victor Hansen

"One person with a belief is equal to the force of 99 who have only interests." - John Stuart Mill

"Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter." - Bono

"Every gift, though it be small, is in reality great if given with affection." - Pindar

"Money is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master." - P.T. Barnum

"I know that I'm never as good or bad as any single performance." - Charles Barkley

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

"You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin to Pooh

"The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become." - Jim Rohn

"Without the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." - Roy L. Smith

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." - Oscar Wilde

"It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not." - Denis Waitley

"Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank." - Ben Irwin

"Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it." - Dalai Lama

"Do all things with love." - Og Mandino

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

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right." - Henry Ford

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Sally Berger

"The thing about creativity is, people are going to laugh at it. Get over it." - Twyla Tharp

"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you." - Althea Gibson

"Why can't life's problems hit us when we're seventeen and know everything?" - A. C. Jolly

"Conscience is God's presence in man." - Emanuel Swedenborg

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away." - Elvis Presley

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George S. Patton

"Tomorrow hopes that we have learned something from yesterday." - John Wayne

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on the way." - Carl Sandburg

"When you reach for the stars, you may not get one, but you won't come up with a hand full of mud, either." - Leo Burnett

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day." - Jim Rohn

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it." - Robin Williams

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was." - Richard Evans

"A wise man hears one word and understands two. There are two sides to every story." -Yiddish Proverb

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." - Booker T. Washington

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." - Will Rogers

Facing Challenges - Transforming to hope

Here are my final thoughts on the idea of Facing Challenges. Thanks to everyone who has followed along. I hope that it has been of some value and benefit to you in any way. Here goes...

Challenges show up in our lives to help us. There are a lot of negative things that we can think about challenges but what are some of the positive things that challenges can do for us? Here are four ways that our challenges can help us:
1. They help us grow.
2. They produce and form the character of who we are.
3. They strengthen our beliefs and faith.
4. They are used to help us to strengthen, support, and encourage others.

Challenges are the secret weapon that can bring hope into our lives.
We can look at any challenge that shows up and move through it towards hope for what we already have or things to come. So what are the steps for how to transform your life challenges to hope?
I see that they can be broken down into the following three stages:

1. Allowing our Challenges to drive our Perseverance
When we face our challenges and respond in an appropriate way, we can produce perseverance.

2. Allowing Perseverance to shape our Character
When we have perseverance that drives us to understand the true meaning and lessons from a challenge in our live it shapes our character.

3. Allowing our Character to produce Hope
When our character is shaped and grows through the lessons of our challenges, it strengthens our beliefs and faith which produces hope.

When someone tells you: "There is always hope, don't give up.", what is your response?
Do you hear these words and believe them to be true? or do you think they are just for someone else?
Most of us believe these words are for someone else. We even will say them to someone else who is going through a challenging time in
their life. We need to have faith that no matter what our challenges are that we face in our lives, there is hope that they will help us to persevere and grow in character.

In conclusion, when our belief and faith is demonstrated by our actions, life works. So Hold on, don't give up, persevere through every moment of life to the end! Remember, on the other side of our life challenges there is always hope.

Have a fantastic week ahead!
God Bless,

"I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude." - Benjamin Disraeli

"Speak little, listen much." - St. Ignatius of Loyola

"Yesterday's thoughts have created your present. Today's thoughts are creating your future." - James Newman

"Gratitude is the mother of all the virtues." - G. K. Chesterton

"Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there." - Robb Sagendorph

"Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday." - Dale Carnegie

"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." - Napoleon Hill

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -J. F. Kennedy

"Our duty as people is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation." - Pierre Chardin

"The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before." - Samuel Johnson

"As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled." - Victor Hugo

"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred." - Thomas Jefferson

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

"The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you." - John E. Southard

"One rare and exceptional deed is worth far more than a thousand commonplace ones." - St. Ignatius of Loyola

"I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a possibilitist." - Max Lerner

"You can be as you choose to be. It's an act of discipline sometimes, but it can be done." - Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard

"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." - Thomas Jefferson

"Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful." - Annette Funicello

"'Twas her thinking of others that made you think of her." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke

"Start Moving Toward Prosperity Today, Whether You're Ready or Not." - Mark Victor Hansen

"As We Act Right, Our Right Results Are Guaranteed." - Mark Victor Hansen

"The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love." - William Wordsworth

"Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." - Motto of the Special Olympics

"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - William Churchhill

"1 cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, & they r more beautiful if they r few."- Anne Lindbergh

"Holding anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." - The Buddha

"If you will stand firm and grow as you ought, esteem yourself as a pilgrim and stranger upon the earth." - Thomas a Kempis

"There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its length: a quiet conscience." --Euripides

"The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose." - Hadia Bejar

"I dream for a living." - Steven Spielberg

"When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent you are clear." - Janet Attwood

"Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe." - Mark Victor Hansen

"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself"-Anna Quindlen

"I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous." - Ani DiFranco

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." - Pamela Vault Starr

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies." - Nelson Mandela

"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit." - R. E. Shay

"If I had my life to live over...I'd dare to make more mistakes next time." - Nadine Stair

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them." - Ann Landers

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed." - Storm Jameson

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration." - James Allen

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends. Take time today with yourself & your family to share what you are thankful for. Cheers!

"The best things in life aren't things." - Art Buchwald

"Take a deep breath, count to ten, and tackle each task one step at a time." - Linda Shalaway

"Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may grow." - Louise Driscoll

"Every exit is an entry somewhere" - Tom Stoppard

"You can complain because roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." - Ziggy

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." - Kahlil Gibran

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to start where he was." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big." - Donald Trump

"Your outer circumstances are but a reflection of your inner thoughts." - Various authors

"What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork." - Pearl Bailey

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped." - African Proverb

"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." -Oscar Wilde

"Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy

"Pray for a good harvest, but keep on plowing." - Nancy Otto

"When everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much." - Walter Lippmann

"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." - William James

"The only people to get even with are those who have helped you." - Anonymous

"Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."-Dale Carnegie

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"That best portion of a good man's life? His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." - William Wordsworth

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances." - Thomas Jefferson

"When you complain, people don't want to talk to you or listen to you." - Mark Victor Hansen

"A pleasure is not full grown until it is remembered." - C.S. Lewis

"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can." - Danny Kaye

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

"On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean." - Aldous Huxley

"Never believe that a few caring people cannot change the world. For, indeed, they are the only ones who ever have." - Margaret Mead

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We're all crew." - Marshall McLuhan

"The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose." - John McEnroe

"Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too." - Voltaire

"In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action." - Dag Hammarskjold

"A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails." - Pioneer Girls Leaders' Handbook

"You have two hands. One to help yourself, the second to help others." - Unknown

"I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells." - Dr. Seuss

"Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye." - H. Jackson Browne, Jr.

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." - Yogi Berra

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." - Carol Burnett

"When solving problem, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow

"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - it is a habit." - Aristotle

"Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. But it's the same world. How come?" - Dr. Wayne Dyer

20 Keys To A Happy Life

Got this from my good friend Coach Stoney over at transformation.com Enjoy!

1. Compliment 3 people every day!
2. Watch a sunrise
3. Be the first to say “hello”
4. Treat everyone as you want to be treated.
5. Live beneath your means.
6. Forget the Joneses.
7. Never give up on anybody ~ miracles happen!
8. Remember someone’s name.
9. Be kinder than you have to be.
10. Wish not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
11. Be tough-minded, but tender hearted.
12. Don’t forget that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
13. Keep your promises.
14. Leave everything better than you found it.
15. Show cheerfulness even when you don’t feel it.
16. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to.
17. Remember that overnight success usually takes 15 years.
18. When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first that you say brighten everyone’s day.
19. Don’t rain on other people’s parades
20. Don’t waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them!
Bonus Key: Always Smile!

I have started a facebook group to share great things like this with my friends.
Come by and check it out if you have not already. http://bit.ly/3W3Ec

"Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping." - Julius Charles Hare

"The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Age is all imagination. Ignore years and they'll ignore you." - Ella Wheeler-Wilcox

"Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead." - Anonymous

"All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin." - Lord Byron

"Whenever you fall, pick something up." - Oswald Avery

"Character building begins in our infancy, and continues until death." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread." - Mother Teresa

"Our life is all waiting for us tomorrow, and we have the opportunity to grasp it and reach for it and live with hope." - Robert Schuller

"Dance like no 1 is watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like no 1 is listening, Live like it's heaven on earth." William Purkey

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread." - Mother Teresa

"If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp." - Latin Proverb

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - Confucius

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work." - Daniel H. Burnham

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back." - Abraham Lincoln

"Good manners will often take people where neither money nor education will take them." - Fanny Jackson Coppin

"Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?" - Zig Ziglar

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle

"Ability will take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." - John Wooden

"If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either." - Dick Cavett

"A diamond is a chunk of coal that dealt with the pressure." - Unknown

"Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time." - Mark Twain