Lighting the Way

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” ― William Shakespeare

You probably arose this morning, made coffee and retrieved the paper out front. There was a bit of time in your morning to to have a small breakfast before heading off to work or one of several different appointments. It could even be a weekend morning and a trip to the store to pick up items, filling up with gas or possibly a meeting with friends for a meal.

Today is a chance for each of us shine a bit of light on other people.

We can be a light of goodness to pass on a smile, a good word or kindness to brighten their day. Being this type of person who passes along kindness does not require greatness or training.

It only requires allowing the light within you to reveal itself.


We have a light to share and many around us need a light to shine upon their darkness.

The darkness could be a troubling day at work, an issue with another person close to them or one of a thousand other issues. What they need is a nice word or a smile to make a change in their day.

All you have to do is allow your light to chase out the darkness in another person's life. It doesn't take much light to open that path for someone. Let your light be the path for someone.

And stay inspired my friends!

Choose a Path

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” - Lewis Carroll

Making a choice when you come to a crossroads is not an easy thing to do.

You look down each road and wonder which to take.

You stand there faced with only three real choices;
...choose a path.
...stand where you are forever.
...or go back to where you came from.

You already made a choice that placed you at this crossroads.

Choose any one of the roads and let change take place.

If you find the choice isn't right, you can always change.

That's the great thing, change can take place.

Stay inspired my friends!

Keep the Desire

"The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark." -Barbara Hall

Reading the quote above, it makes me wonder why people lose this desire and positive outlook on their future? Is it when they do get lost and have to turn back, they lose the confidence to keep trying? Or do they encounters others that are negative and get dragged down to a more negative view of life?

Don't let it happen - fight it - work at keeping the desire.

Keeping yourself in a positive frame of mind is difficult. You have to work at maintaining your excitement. You also have to help others and keep yourself among others with great attitudes. Life will have its share of disappointment.

The goal is to keep moving towards that success.

Keep believing, remain positive, stay in the company of others that lift -- the above ideal can be maintained. Always remember that it does not matter which road you take, but that you do take a road. Movement causes change, embrace it and life will be great.

Stay inspired my friends!

No More Rocks

"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." -Tennessee Williams

I have written before that there are people who will try to place their rocks into your wagon. They do this instead of building their own path. These rocks they 'serve up' to you are intended to bring you down to their pain or misery. They are emptying to unload their own troubles into your life.

Think of an encounter at the grocery store, a technical support line or any other number of daily connections. Is the other person really trying to help you? Or by their words and actions, are they handing you their rocks?

Through the years I have been able to listen to different folks from check out lanes to numerous customer assistance support phone calls. In nearly every case, you can tell by the tone of their voice or interest level how their day and sometimes life is going.

This is not a big new revelation I have come up with.

It is age old and most anyone, including yourself can sense these things. All of us deal in customer service in one form or another. We serve customers that are either really business customers, our boss, our community, or our family. Most every thing we do involves service to others in one form or another. In those moments, do you sometimes have other things on your mind.

Do you vaguely try to toss a few stones into some else's wagon?

I am sure there are people that can explain the psychological aspects of how and why people do this. My simplistic version is that people just like to unload their issues (rocks) on other people. In doing so, they hope it will make their life better. But I see it as these people attempting to drag you down to their attitude level.

Dragging you down to their level is much easier than trying to lift themselves.

Try it some time, listen to how the other person is talking. Is the tone of their language effecting your own attitude? Is it depressing, angering or just making you feel lousy? If so, STOP...remember the first rule? You control your own attitude. As Elbert Hubbard, an American philosopher and writer said, "The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it."

Also remember that you can impact the other persons life as well.

Your responses and how you react to another person transcends not only the encounter but the next encounter both people will have. Maybe not in a big impactful way but in small ripples that move out from this one exchange. It is these small ripples which have a big impact eventually.

Do not allow yourself to carry the rocks of another person. Help them unload the rocks to build a new path. No one needs to be carrying a bunch of rocks around if they do not want to. The road to where we want to be can be paved with those rocks instead of struggling to carry them through the dirt and mud.

Unload your wagon, not onto someone else but create a new path on which to travel. And as always, stay inspired my friends!

Stay Out of the Weeds

"Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement." - Florence Scovel Shinn

Out in the distance we have set in our mind a vision of what we want to accomplish in life. Some type of achievement or goal that weighs upon our hearts and minds. You can not necessarily see it with the natural eye, but you know it is out there.

So you set out on the path, fixated on what lay straight ahead of you.

The path is at first flat and spread wide in front of you.

Sure, you may encounter a few bumps and obstacles but you remain focused. The journey will and does become frustrating. The temptation arises in you to stray off the path in attempt to find an easy way around those obstacles. But doing so, you lose sight and end up out in the weeds, in a place where you never intended to be.

The path becomes lost, time is lost, experience lost, and vision of the goal is lost as you try to find your way back. You struggle even more to find your way back onto the path towards your dream.

Maybe those obstacles on your path are there for a reason.

Maybe they are there to let you learn and adjust your vision.

If the path were easy, everyone would be standing within reach at this very moment. Staying on the path is never easy and the terrain can become quite difficult. As you climb over and through, your vision will come into focus even more. The vision will become more focused as you overcome those things that stand in your way. The vision will still be there, firmly in front of you, waiting to be achieved.

Keep your vision in sight and stay upon your path. Overcome the obstacles and do not get lost in the weeds, far from the sight of your goals. Achieve what you seek.

Stay inspired my friends.

A Bridge To Cross

"I think I'm constantly in a state of adjustment." -Patti Smith

For twenty-one days, the church my wife and I attend are participating in a fast. Now you and many others will have differing opinions and ideas about how one should fast and for what reasons. I am no different in that, but I tend to believe it is meant to help us redirect our focus and allow us more time to reflect, pray or meditate.

I see it also as a time to rethink or readjust our own attitudes. You see for me, I want for you the same things I want for my life and that would be a great life and great success. It sounds simple but each of us have a vision for our own lives and now would be a good time to adopt a stronger belief in that vision.

As I write articles each day, I am writing words that are meant to keep you on your path to accomplishment. The articles are also meant to serve me for it helps keep me corrected, encouraged and believing in achieving even more in this life. The path spoken of is the one you journey on towards dreams.

Just remember that when I talk of change, you have to understand that change in itself is only the first step. Taking that first step means you are going to 'change' your life. From there, it is a matter of one foot in front of the other, leaving your baggage behind and willing to experience something new.

Life may seem to stay the same around you. It will remain the same where you live and work. That is unless you change your environment. The real work will be to change that environment and change the aspects of your life which are keeping you from achieving your dreams. It is a hard process and can be discouraging at times, but keep on your path, keep on believing.

So join me as begin our walk across the bridge to something new and greater. I'll take you as far as I can but much of the work will be yours to complete. Let's get started and take the first steps together.

And should we happen to approach the Bridge of Death on our path, be sure to know something about birds.



Stay inspired my friends.

Constructing Your Road

"The road to success is always under construction."

It seems that most of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouth. That being the case, the vast majority of people you encounter each day have had to work quite hard for what they have accomplished in life. True enough, there certainly seem to be those that only want to hitch a ride on the tailgate of your pickup called life.

In the larger majority though, people are on their journey to some level of success in life. There are those that have huge financial success in life. There are those that achieve great fame in life. There are also those that achieve personal greatness that goes unnoticed. But all people have had to endure the setbacks and circumstances that life has thrown on their path.

As it is said, "the road to success is always under construction" or more aptly put it seems "the road to success is always under repair." Whichever way you wish to look at it, you have the ability to create that path. You get to choose the road and with that choice you have to deal with its condition.

You might be asking yourself how it is you get to choose your own road. We tell ourselves that the road was already there and we were simply dropped into the middle of it. I do believe that we are products of our birth, our upbringing and the circumstances which surround all of that.

CassidyLeh Photos

The exciting thing is that we don't have to remain on that road. We grow up and become independent thinkers. The life as a child and young teenager or even young adult are influenced by those life events. But now we have the ability to shape our own lives and to choose the road we follow. We even get to create that road if we wish.

So how do we get on with shaping our own future?

Recently I read a Psychology Today article by Robert Steven Kaplan called Authoring Your Future. In this article he discusses that even though we are shaped and influenced by our life experiences; we also have the ability to influence our future life. Mr. Kaplan provides three critical questions to ask yourself;

1 - Can you accurately assess your strengths and weaknesses? "...we tend to have blind spots. We may not see ourselves accurately. Worse, we may not want to acknowledge and face our weaknesses."

2 - Do you know your passions? "Experience has shown that you will be far more likely to "shine" if you are doing something you enjoy."

3 - Develop a support group. "Do you have relationships with people who care enough about you to tell you the brutal truth."

You know, I would love to tell you that the road construction finally ends. It does in a way but as long as breath exists in your body, you can keep constructing new things for your life. The road you take will have its moments of detours and construction. But there will also be times when the road is newly paved and free of that construction.

Keep finding your own path, keep building the life you wish for, never be weary of the construction, rejoice in the journey.

Stay inspired my friends.

An Imperfect Path

"March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path." ~Khalil Gibran

It's a pretty straight forward path that we all wish we could walk down. Life without any issues. A smooth, well laid course of bricks to walk upon is the one we wish for. Yet we all know that the path we take will not be quite so easy. The journey itself can be rough.

The path will be built of many different rocks and pebbles. It will be built with the stones of experience and circumstance that come our way. Not all of the pieces will fit perfectly together. The many shapes and sizes will frustrate our ability to continue the walk.

Our path will never look perfect when we turn to look back. Yet looking back is only to see where we have come from. To see the hard work we have done building our path of rocks. And it will look beautiful in our eyes.

As we turn then to look towards our future, we know the work will be hard. We know that the path will not be perfect. But we do know that the path will be unique. It will be wonderful. The path will be ours.

Opposite Direction

"Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor." ~Brian Tracy

The morning commute to Heathrow Airport was supposed to be uneventful. I was getting up early, a walk to the train station and then settle in at the airport lounge. My goal was to get to the airport for my flight home to Atlanta.

As I entered the Swiss Cottage underground station, I began to realize this wasn't going to be uneventful. Yes, the picture shown at the link is the entrance I used everyday. The platform was filled with people heading towards work and the Jubilee Line was running slow this morning. The first train arrived and was packed to the point of people oozing out at the door seams.

A few got off, a few squeezed on, I didn't even attempt it because I was carrying luggage. A second train arrives and it is full, no where to get on. But I had a goal in mind and made a decision to head northbound to the Finchley station, grab the Metropolitan down to Baker Street and then the Hammersmith Line to the southwest.

The best laid plans went awry when even the Metropolitan was quite busy. No room on board for a lad with luggage. So I decided to take the Metropolitan even further north. I ended up at the Wembley Station; yes, the one next to Wembley Stadium from where I could see the tall arch rising over the stadium.

This particular station was a stop for the Jubilee line as well, so I awaited a train. It had plenty of room so I settled in knowing it would get crowded and knowing I had already lost 45 minutes going the wrong way towards my goal. But sometimes that is what one must do in pursuit of a goal.

The straight and short path is not always going to be available to you. Sometimes you are going to have to go in a different direction to get where you want to be. The path you WANT to take may not be the path you HAVE to take. But if you are patient and persevere, knowing full well what your goal is, then ANY path will finally get you to where you want to be.

For me, my goal was to get to the airport, relax, board my plane and return home to my wonderful wife Laura. After being gone for nearly two weeks, the goal couldn't be any greater then to reunite with her.

Understand what your goal is and find a path that will lead you to it. Even if the path appears headed in a different direction, knowing your goal, the path will lead you to it.

Don't Stop Believing

"The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When we finally make the decision to begin movement in our life, to finally begin that walk to our dreams; the walk can be a lonely one. The street may be empty and void of others. You hold the dream inside and no one else can see it. The wonderous vision that is yours setting you out on a journey is not always embraced by others.

Think of the movie "Wizard of Oz" in which Dorothy sets out on the yellow brick road.



Her journey begins with many people excited and cheering her on. But the journey is long and very soon she is by herself. You will find yourself alone after the excitement and pumped up enthusiasm wanes. It will become lonely and you will have to overcome the urge to stop.

Eventually, others will join you on this journey. The important thing is to never stop believing in your dreams. Keep moving forward. The following video is by a band from my youth. Somehow we start out young and bold. As age grabs hold of us, we allow it to slow us down and puts doubt inside.



Yes, we did tend to dress and let our hair grow out like that. But like any age, we were young and invincible. Running down the yellow brick road towards our destination. And then we seemed to have lost our way. We let our age and reason get in the way. We lost belief in our dreams and settled for what we had.

But we must never stop believing in those dreams or in what we want in life. We are never too old to give up the excitement of the journey. We are never too old to give up on our dreams. It all starts by putting one foot in front of the other.

The road may narrow and crack, it may be lonely for a while. But the road we take is still a journey to what we want in life. You can follow the road, make your own road or simply fly. Imagination and excitement will guide you to your destination. Just never stop believing.

Maze Of Opportunity

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Life can seem very much like a maze that has thousands of turns and dead ends. We find a promising path to take, only to find it ends abruptly at nothing. Other paths we take give us new adventure and experience while never getting us to the final destination.

All of these paths teach us more about our life and the world around us. If we pay attention close enough, we will not repeat some of the old paths that failed before. We begin to map out our life and what we did to get where we currently are.

Many people find it too difficult and reach a wall, only to stay there. Giving up is the only solution for their life. What they fail to understand is that each failed path is an opportunity to learn. It is in that learning where we build the chart that enables us to reach our goals.

Kierkegaard said, "Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards." We learn from our past with the vision of where we want to be. Without understanding the failed paths of our life, we are nearly doomed to constantly repeat them. The frustration will build until we either choose to give up or change our attitude.

Look forward to the life you want and learn from the path already taken. Keep searching and the correct path will eventually present itself.

Course Of Life

"Even though I focus on the priorities in life; God, Family and everything else, I drift. My humanity pulls me off course. Life will always have a way of doing this. Learn to recognize that you have drifted and then correct your course. Align yourself to what is important." -Dean Sweetman

It happens to all of us, we are cruising along the highway of our lives and we become distracted. We take a wrong turn or see something off to the right that looks interesting. The path we are taking goes off in a direction that pulls us from what we know is important for our own life.

Accept that each of us stray from our own path and that finding our way back is always possible. Learn from the experience and let it give you greater strength to keep on track.