Mike Myers and LearnKey released a great little video today over at the LearnKey blog titled "The 10 Commandments of the PC Tech". I think you'll like it so make sure you take a look. It's very funny and yet oh so true!
Archive for the ‘Inspirational’ Category
This mostly forgotten fable comes from the Aesop collection. The moral is so important: When we let things slip into our lives (bad habits, negative thinking, etc.), they often take over and leave us only the worse.
"It’s so cold out here," said a Camel to an Arab sitting in his tent one cold night in the desert. "May I not put my head inside?" The Arab assented and the Camel put his head in.
"Perhaps you will kindly allow me to put my neck in for it is shivering with cold." "Certainly," said the Arab, and the animal advanced until his long neck was in the warm tent.
"I’d be more comfortable if I could put my fore feet in," said the Camel, and the Arab moved to one side, for the tent was small.
"I might just as well come in entirely," said the Camel and he moved in. But the tent was too small for both, so the Arab had to go outside.
-Aesop
This week’s inspiration comes in the form of poetic writing rather than a literal poem. Taken as an excerpt from Orisen Swett Marden’s book, "Selling Things," this quote says much in just a few words:
Everything depends upon the attitude of mind with which you approach a difficulty. If you are cowed before you begin, if you start out with an admission of weakness, a tacit acknowledgement of your inability to meet the emergency that confronts you, you are foredoomed to failure. Your whole attitude lacks the magnetism that attracts success.
-Orisen Swett Marden, Selling Things, 1916
This week’s poem, by Helen Steiner Rice, reminds us that there is always the chance to start anew as long as we keep on breathing.
How often we wish for another chance
to make a fresh beginning.
A chance to blot out our mistakes
and change failure into winning.
It does not take a new day
to make a brand new start,
It only takes a deep desire
to try with all our heart.
To live a little better
and to always be forgiving
And to add a little sunshine
to the world in which we’re living.
So never give up in despair
and think that you are through,
For there’s always a tomorrow
and the hope of starting new.
This weeks’ poem speaks to the reality that it is better to focus on what we can do rather than what we can’t.
Don’t hunt after trouble, but look for success
You’ll find what you look for, don’t look for distress;
If you see your shadow, remember, I pray,
That the sun is still shining, but You’re in the way;Don’t grumble, don’t bluster, don’t dream and don’t shirk,
Don’t think of your worries, but think of your work.
The worries will vanish, the work will be done,
No man sees his shadow who faces the sun.-Source Unknown
This week’s poem comes from the book, "The Secret of Achievement" written by Orison Swett Marden and published in 1898. The poem reminded me of a Sunday School lesson I once taught. While teaching a group of teens how to look on the brighter side of life, one young man asked, "If there’s a way to fund something good in every situation, try this. What if I fall and slip on the ice outside of the church building today?" I thought for a moment and then replied, "Then the elder church members will know that the spot is slippery." This answer may not have been the answer he desired, but it is so very true of life.
If nothing else, maybe someone else can learn from our mistakes. 
Fail – yet rejoice; because no less
The failure which makes thy distress
May teach another full success.It may be that, in some great need,
Thy life’s poor fragments are decreed
To help build up a lofty deed.-A. A. Procter
Some One Can Do It
When some one says, "It can’t be done,"
And squirms ‘neath manhood’s toiling;
Complains about "No battles won"
His speech with whimpers boiling;
Some other man with steady tread
Success attains – how was it?
Pursues his course with aching head;
Plods on and works and does it!"It can’t be done!" He strikes his pate
And rails against his station,
While off’ring to the god of Fate
His daily weak oblation.
Yet other men whose lot in life
Was "down" from Fate’s worst stacking,
Go on with plucky gain through strife,
And win without a backing!When someone says, "It ain’t no use
I’ve had no hand that boosted;
My head’s been thrust within the noose;
Ill luck on me has roosted"
Some other man far lower down
On Fortune’s fateful ladder
Mounts on his way and wins the crowd
For ill luck none the sadder!When someone says, "It can’t be done,"
Believe it not one minute;
For near at hand one’s on the run
To see the prize and win it.
The baffled losers rub their eyes,
And idly cry "How was it?"
But while they yearn to grasp the prize
Their next-door neighbor does it!-David V. Bush
