One More Degree To 212

#FridayFavorite

"It takes only one person with one match to light one candle to fill an entire room with hope." - Joseph Primm

There is a success principle called "212" or sometimes "211 to 212". It is a simple concept to grasp and has to do with the boiling temperature point of water. As we all learned in school, water reaches a boiling point at 212 degrees Farenheit.

The point at which water begins to change form.

One degree less and the water is just very hot. Nothing more than that. Certainly not at a point in which water is transformed. The change from a liquid to a vapor is 212 degrees. A boiling point creates the ability to sterilize, ward off bacteria and other very good fundamental things occur.

It is a point where everything can change.

Stop short at 211 degrees and nothing happens.

Go one more degree in life, that is the principle of 212. To go one extra step, to go where change will happen in your life. The significance is in that one degree.

One degree, one more step, one more person.

That one degree is you.

You can make the difference between nothing and something. You can make the difference that changes everything. You can be that one degree.

Stay inspired my friends!

First Step Taken

"La distance n'y fait rien; il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute."
- Madame Marie Anne du Deffand

Translated: The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that costs.

Our first steps in life vary by age, events and circumstances. When we are first learning to move forward, there will always be a first step required.

It is one step that sets us upon a journey.

Look to the Bible story from the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve are banished from the garden. Genesis 3:21-22; The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

They were banished from the garden, to work the ground outside from which they had been taken. Life was never the same for either of them or for the world. Adam and Eve now had to take those first steps from the garden. Once outside, they had to do something, a journey for the ages; a journey for all of our existence.

It began with first steps taken for those yet to come.

A child is born and generally will begin to walk anywhere from nine to twelve months of age. At that age, think of holding oneself up near a coffee table, looking across a huge room to a toy siting on a small table. The distance is great for such a small child but a first step towards the toy is needed.

With each tentative step, the distance becomes shorter.

A teen reaching graduation in high school, begins looking to a future away from home. It might be college, work or other options but each is planned with a mind for leaving home. Those decisions go through their mind with an uncertain future painted with so much possibility.

With a hug or goodbye, the future embraces them.

Each thing we do begins with that first step taken. Our journey in life, a dream turned into a goal or a vision of things possible require the first step. With never knowing our outcome, we step forward and begin movement towards something.

Away from the old and towards the new light...that first step.

Stay inspired my friends.

Opportunity Steps Up

"No great man ever complains of want of opportunity." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The following story is from an unknown author but illustrates how problems can be turned into opportunities. We each face obstacles in our lives which can be turned around with focus and persistence. The idea of being 'stubborn as an old mule' will get you results from time to time.

Once upon a time a farmer owned an old mule who tripped and fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule braying and was unable to figure out how to bring up the old animal. It grieved him that he could not pull the animal out. He'd been a good worker around the farm.

Although the farmer sympathized with the mule, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened. He had them help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and quietly put him out of his misery.

At first, the old mule was puzzled, but as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, he had a thought: he ought to shake off the dirt and step up. And he did just that.

"Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up." Even though he took painful blows of dirt and fought panic, he just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!

It wasn't long before the old mule stepped up and over the lip of that well. What could have buried him actually blessed him...all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

Change the circumstances and change your world. And stay inspired my friends!

Step Taken

“To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” -Denis Waitley

Each of us have small amounts of self-doubt or even large problems with believing in ourselves at various times in our lives. It can be a very debilitating way to live. Your successes or failures in life are mostly dependent upon you as opposed to those things being handed to you.

Even if you are handed success, you can either succeed or fail once given it. Others can have all of the belief and faith in your abilities, but you need to have belief in yourself for success to actually happen.

If you find yourself at a point of just sitting on the edge of your bed, wondering what to do next, may you need to have a talk with yourself. Ask yourself if you are being negative or positive about your life. If negative, a starting point for change has just been found. It isn't easy, it takes time and work to turn your inner ship of negative thinking. But with practice and continued inner talking, you will change those habits.

You will also need to become what is termed a 'chooser and decider'.

You make the choice to have a great day. Don't let someone else be the determination of your attitude. The person that cuts you off in traffic, only you can decide if that circumstance is going to make your day a good one or a bad one. There are many examples just like this. What you have to do is decide to be in charge of your own attitude.

It all begins with these steps we take in life. A small step forward here and a small step forward there; pretty soon you will be on the path to a great life.

NOTE: The picture is of one of my grandchildren. It reminds me that there will always be one first step taken, and that each of us can take this step at any point in our life. Whether 100 minutes or a 100 years old, change happens when we put one foot out to take a step.

Stay inspired my friends in each step you take.

The Open Door

“You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door.” Robert Collier

A new week begins filled with work, challenges and recurring things to do. It is also a chance, an opening to new possibilities. Every day opens a new door for you that you can step through.

Take the moment and step through to what is possible.

Stay inspired this week my friends!

Release Your Fear

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." -Bill Cosby

My thoughts are simply, "step out of your fears today, to better position yourself for connection with others when you cross paths." Do not be afraid of placing yourself out there to experience change. To meet someone and later tell yourself, "if only I had...." will serve to keep you from achieving a better place in life. Release your fear of change today and look forward to your next encounter at the cross roads.

Stay inspired my friends.

Five Steps

"You just have to keep on doing what you do. It's the lesson I get from my husband; he just says, Keep going. Start by starting." -Meryl Streep

In a previous article titled In-Between Bits, I wrote about how nice it would be to start towards a goal and than immediately cross the finish. There would be so much we could accomplish if we could do away with all of the "in-between bits" of life.

If we are unable to skip all of that, maybe there is an easy way to get to where we want to be. So I started searching for ways to get me faster from the START of something to the FINISH of it. I wanted to know what the shortest distance was between having a goal and achieving it.

Somehow I stumbled upon the realization that there are only "five steps" to accomplish anything. There were of course three-step programs, seven-step plans, ten-step courses, and even one-step curriculums to get you there faster.

By far it seemed that the shortest route would take five steps though. There are five steps to fighting stress, five steps to accomplishing my goals, and five steps safer health care. Lucky for me, there are five step programs to better fitness, or to building my network of business contacts.

I found five steps to choosing child care and my grown adult children would be bemused to wonder why I'm looking for child care, (just doing research). There are only five steps to painless inventory management. I can only imagine what pain must be felt when trying to manage inventory.

To help me write better, there are five steps to writing argument essays, which will convince you I am correct in what this blog article is saying. Or I could take five easy steps and solve Europe's debt crisis.

There are only five steps to configuring privacy on Google Plus, great putting in golf, marketing my website, or to giving quality interviews. And if it were to happen by some strange medical oddity, I can be ready in five steps to have a healthy pregnancy

What is it about the number five? What is so significant about this one number?

The number five in religion is referred to as the Five Holy Wounds or Five Sacred Wounds that are believed to be the five piercing wounds that was suffered during the crucifixion of Jesus.

In ancient Greece, philosophers such as Aristotle believed the universe was made up of five elements: water, earth, air, fire, and ether. In radio communication, the term "five by five" is used to indicate perfect signal strength and clarity.

If you look at the keyboard (non touch screen users), nearly all devices with a numeric keypad (telephones, computers, etc.), the five key has a raised dot or raised bar to make typing easier. Knowing where that key is you can easily find the other numbers surrounding it.

I dug even deeper and found that a large majority of mammals, amphibians and reptiles have 5 fingers and/or toes on each extremity. Heck, we as humans have five appendages from the torso: two arms, two legs, and a head.

There are five oceans in the world, the Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, Pacific, and Antartic. We have five senses: Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, and Taste. And there are five basic tastes: Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, and Savory.

Maybe not perfectly and possibly with an accent, but I can say five in different languages such as Spanish (Cinco), French (Cinq), Italian (Cinque), German (Fünf), and Dutch (Vijf).

Confucius even said, "To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness."

After all of my research though there was an important and overriding thing I learned. Regardless of how many steps we believe are needed to accomplish something in life, there is one that is the most important. That one and most important step is your first one.

So whether you are looking to start a five-step, ten-step or even do the two-step (random two-step dance video), begin your journey with that first step.

First Steps

"The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult." -Madame Marie du Deffand

My wife and I received a very exciting email from our daughter in Los Angeles over the weekend. It was more exciting than our week long trip in France. It was seeing our grand-daughter crawl for the first time, captured on video.

This is the first of many that all of us will and have taken in life. Once we begin to crawl, we move that much closer to our first of many steps. That is how it begins, learning to crawl and wanting to get to another place in our life.

As we grow older we tend to forget those first steps. The first time we tasted ice cream, the first time we fell in love with our spouse, the feeling of seeing a child born. These moments seem to get lost in our growing older, in taking so many steps getting to where we thought we wanted to be.

We get so wrapped up in our own selfishness that we look down and find our path has diverged from those around us. And in that moment we have to make a decision to find our way back to the first time we tasted ice cream, the first time we fell in love with our spouse, and the feeling of seeing a child born.

It starts by deciding to crawl until we can find our feet again. The first step occurs and another and another. You will find things lining back up again in your life. If there was anger and hurt in your life, it will dissolve with each passing foot step. The selfishness will evaporate and greater things will begin to happen in your life.

Start crawling if that is what it takes. Soon enough those first steps will take place and when able, start running. Run to the important things in life, not from them.

Counting Steps

"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin." ~Robert Collier

For those that know me, I have a little quirk that some think is problematic. Others find it amusing and find ways to cajole me. I have never found it to be a problem and the humor cast upon me is neither bothersome or hurtful, so on I go.

The quirk is that I count things. I count stairs, steps, ceiling tiles, and other things. To me it fits in perfectly with my compulsion to have have things in order. You could call it my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that is defined as a Counter and Arranger. People such as I are supposedly obsessed with order and symmetry.

I don't have any superstitions about colors and such, but mostly in making sure that I get the counts correct. I have even been described in the same vein as a television character called Monk. That urge to straighten and line up everything does get a few comments from time to time.

But what I really look at is the counting of things. The number of steps from where I park at work to the entry door, (26). The number of steps up from my living room to the upper floor, (10). And many other ones that I do repeat and have to ensure that I count correctly each time.

Of course I do this in my mind and it isn't problematic...honestly.

The interesting part isn't the total count. It isn't that there are ten steps here or twenty-six there. It is the first step that counts. That you move forward and begin at the number one. One step leads to a second step, a third, fourth, and so on.

Without that first step, we will never make progress on our journey of life. And isn't that how one should 'Live the Journey' after all? The cliches' and quotes abound about how a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

But it really is that first step followed by many more that will lead to a great life. So keep moving forward and I will keep counting.

One, two, three, ...

Journey Home

Phil Richards - Long Journey Home

"When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time." ~Orison Swett Marden

When we start out on a path towards something new and exciting in our life, it appears a thousand miles long. We even wonder if we are on the right path at all. The questions cloud our mind and cause us to second guess our ability to even proceed.

It is a cruel trick we play on ourselves that is called self doubt. Self doubt is the "ball and chain" attached to our life that prevents us from proceeding with the journey. It slows us and attempts to hold us in one place, never to find what is at our journey's end.

You can rid yourself of this self doubt and continue your travel. But the path may create indecision when a crossroads appears before you. Now you have to make a decision to go left or go right. Do I take the well worn path or the road less taken? Indecision will try to stall you and keep you from moving forward. But you can overcome it by simply choosing and taking on your decision with excitement of the unknown.

We all learn eventually that our journey of life is pretty much an unknown. It is how we choose to travel along the path that will dictate if it is an enjoyable or miserable one. And our paths are so different from each other, we have to love our own path and not covet the other.

When we finally settle into our journey of life, the excitement of where it will end up is replaced by excitement of the journey itself. At that point, we come to realize that the journey is really a journey home. Whether 999 miles remain to be traveled or only a single mile, enjoy every step along the way. Know full well that home awaits you.

Begin to enjoy the travel, step by step, mile by mile to the journey's end.

Keep Moving Forward

“To me, if life boils down to one thing, it's movement. To live is to keep moving.” -Jerry Seinfeld

As you start on your path to greater things; as the pressure builds and the nay-sayers get in the way, keep moving forward. One step in front of the other, keep moving.

The first step is difficult but each one can be met with resistance. Keep your focus on what you can achieve, the goal or dream you have for yourself.

Begin To Step

I want to encourage each of you to change your attitude. I want for you a great attitude, a great life and great success in your dreams. Throughout this new year, I will write often and encourage often.

You can read these words that are meant to keep you on your path. The path you take should be one towards your dreams. But remember that when we talk about change, you have to understand that change in itself is only the first step. Accepting the first step means you are going to 'change' your life.

Life though remains the same around you. It remains the same where you live and work. The real work will be to change your environment, 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.

So join me as begin our walk across the bridge. I'll take you as far as I can but much of the work is yours. Let's get started and take the first steps together.