Into 2021 We Go

Gregorian calendar says we are ending the year of 2020 tonight,
And overnight we enter 2021,
All with the same hope and excitement that a new year brings. 

The past year of 2020 challenged everyone in many different ways,

And it would be easy to dismiss,

A year deemed bad or maybe even a year to forget. 

We should not so easily turn our backs on this most challenging year,

Even as many endured so much,

Health, family or simply the impact of our isolation.

Each of us would have good reasons to curse the year,

One that was meant,

A year we thought, would be a turning point of greatness.

It was a year the futurists and prophets of positivity had said,

This year would bring,

But life determines how life itself is going to unfold.

I would rather look back on 2020 and view the challenges,

As growth, of changing perspective,

To view 2020 for the good things happened as well.

The year brought me off the road to spend more time with family,

To find new ways to connect,

To listen to people and to cherish more important things in life.

The year gave all of us celebrations, births, birthdays, accomplishment.

There was more of people talking, 

Sometimes angrily but talking is a way to start resolving differences.

We adapted and created ways to accomplish in spite of,

COVID isolation, social injustice, and pain,

Even as all of this occurred we moved forward, we did it together.

We did all of this working with each other, leaning on each other,

Trusting each other.

By sharing our human experience with each other to push through.

Now 2021, new year, new hopes, goals, dreams and opportunity,

Yet the year is but a number.

And we make of that number, the year, what we want of it.

Life will create what it does for us in the coming days and months.

There will be challenges just like in 2020,

But there will be opportunity, there will be joy, there will be success. 

As is customary, I wish the best for each of you in the new year.

I wish so much,

Health, happiness, love and peace to you, your families, your friends.

Most of all I wish for each of you to find greatness in yourself.  

To know you are great,

And to be happy in yourself with what you have and in what you do.

If you can find that, you can overcome anything.

Life really is great.

Let that be your wish, your goal, your success in 2021.

Stay inspired my friends! 

Confidence To Succeed

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

The life we live is not restrained by outside things but by the chains we place upon ourselves. An act of self-doubt and worry will do more to keep us from moving forward then most anything else. There are certainly outside influences which can place obstacles in front of us.

It is within each of us to have confidence to succeed.

The origin of the word is from the Latin word confidere (to trust, to have faith in). Hence the original meaning of confidence is literally "to have trust or have faith in an object or person".

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the things which you think you cannot do." To find confidence is to look inside and face those things which keep you from moving forward.

Learning about oneself is the first step in moving boldly forward. You need to understand you are a confident person.

From an article titled Building Self-Confidence, the following items can help you start to recognize yourself as a confident person.

Self-Confident: Doing what you believe is right, even if others criticize you for it.
Low Self-Confidence: Governing your behavior based on what other people think.

Self-Confident: Taking risks and going the extra mile to achieve better things.
Low Self-Confidence: Staying in your comfort zone, fearing failure, avoiding risks.

Self-Confident: Admitting your mistakes and vowing to learn from them.
Low Self-Confidence: Work to cover mistakes and trying to fix before others know.

Self-Confident: Waiting for others to congratulate you on your accomplishments.
Low Self-Confidence: Extolling your virtues as often to as many people possible.

Self-Confident: Accepting compliments graciously. “Thanks, I really worked hard on that prospectus. I’m pleased you recognize my efforts.”
Low Self-Confidence: Dismissing compliments offhandedly. “Oh that prospectus was nothing really, anyone could have done it.”

Additionally, here are some tips on how to gain confidence in your life.

1. Like yourself

The first step in becoming more confident is to accept and like yourself. You should make a list of all your positive traits and strengths on a piece of paper or in your diary. By doing this, you are reminding yourself that you too have praise-worthy qualities like others. You will like yourself and feel confident about yourself after this.

2. Attend Seminars

It is good if you attend seminars where professional speakers offer you tips and guidance on gaining confidence. During the speech, you can even pick up tips on public speaking from the speakers by watching their body language and the way they project themselves.

3. Motivate yourself

Whether it is for an interview or for a presentation, tell yourself that you can do it. Motivate yourself each day and soon you will find your confidence level growing. Another good way for motivation is that after work or study each day you should make a list of at least four things that you did well for that day.

4. Overcome fears

Some people always have a fear that they can never be successful in anything they do. Such insecurity will be a disadvantage and would cause you to lack confidence in yourself and in everything you do in your life. So in order for you to get rid of this fear you have to remind yourself that if you haven’t try something you can never say that you will fail in it. Be positive and try things without any fear or insecurity. For example at work your boss is asking you to head a team but you fear that you will make a mess out of it. Such a fear will prevent you from taking on that task at work. But if you were a confident person you wouldn’t think twice about failing and would gladly take on that task. This shows that a lack of confidence could also affect your career.

5. Accept Failures

If you are always crying over the mistakes that you made in your life, you will never get anywhere. Always remember that past mistakes and failures cannot be reversed and what’s done is done. Thus it is no use crying over spilt milk. A confident individual always looks past those failures in his life. After all, failures are juts part and parcel of becoming successful. If you failed once you should take that failure as a learning lesson.

While the information above is quite simplified, I suggest you read more to find what works best for you. Find a public library near you or search online for more information. Reading my article is not the end all to help you gain confidence, but maybe it will put you on a path to go boldly forward.

Stay inspired my friends!

Setting Your Foundation

"Setting a firm foundation better prepares us for success." - Dean Sweetman

January 1st, the first day of the year, is quickly fading into the past. That first day of the year is not really much different from the day before. But it is a day which most of us apply a significance to.

A way we as humans process time or events.

So if we view January 1st as a starting point for what we are going to do this year, then we need to start now. Even at this time well into the month of February. If we have not started, now is the time.

We must begin laying a foundation for what the year has to offer.

There will be opportunities which might come our way. There will be experiences encountered and success to achieve. We need the foundation built in order to take advantage of all that can occur in our favor.

When April showers come and May flowers of spring, will you be ready?

If January 1st is our day to start preparing, March 20 which is the Spring equinox, is our time to plant the seeds of change. Again, we must prepare ourselves early before the time to plant becomes too late.

Do not miss opportunity to plant seeds which will change your life.

Planning your foundation early and planting seeds to grow will prepare you for opportunity. The opportunity of rain and growth which sustains you through the long hot days of summer.

Without a strongly rooted vision, growth can not be sustained. Tall harvest of achievement will become a lost opportunity. That leaves us only with another long cold winter to think of what may have been.

Do not wait to begin setting your foundation for a great year.

Start today, start with change and start with belief that this year will be different.

Stay inspired my friends!

Key Ring Full Of Succss

“Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” - Mark Victor Hansen

"Keys to success", a term many use to describe a methodology to fulfilling your dreams or goals. Perform a search on the Internet using this phrase and you will find 255,000,000 entries. That is a lot of advice and wisdom to read through.

After reading all of the material, will you now have the 'keys' which make your life successful? Probably not in the way you imagined. The reality is that no one key exists but a ring full of keys and many different doors to unlock.

The good news is all of the 'knowledge' you will gain will improve your ability to achieve success. Notice I did not say knowledge will make you successful. Knowledge provides the ability to position yourself properly for success.

Knowledge will help you make good decisions.

The other areas of your life need to be in balance. Having improved knowledge will help you achieve this balanced life, positioned to take advantage of opportunity when it comes around. Think of it as the balanced spokes of a wheel which rolls more easily.

Another book, another key on your key ring you might say. Just think of it as more knowledge or "Google hit 255,000,001" on the Internet. The amount of reading might seem a daunting task. Do not wait, do not plan, do not despair, but simply start doing.

Start now because the time will never be just right.

There is a phrase many use which goes "Wow, that is going to take a long time to complete." The reality is sure it may take a long time, so don't wait, start now. Begin today, take a first step towards success. Once there, you will find you had the keys in your hand all of the time.

Stay inspired my friends!

The Journey There

“Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number 1.” - Arthur Ashe

Each of us has the ability to determine how successful we are.

A man with very little can consider himself successful if he is happy and content.

A man with much can feel himself a failure if he is unhappy with how he got there.

So much of what we consider success is dependent upon you. Be successful in how you feel about yourself. Know that getting to a point of success is more important then the actual achievement.

Be successful in the doing. The trip there is just as fun as arriving.

Stay inspired my friends!

Never Fear Striking Out

“Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” ― Babe Ruth

Guess what folks?

Only 14 days, 17 hours and some odd minutes and second until spring training starts.

Like clockwork the seasons come and go. Winter will cease and our hearts will grow.

There will always be opportunities to stand tall and take a swing at success. What you are up against may result in striking out many times that you do step up to the plate.

Historically, Ty Cobb leads all professional players with a batting average of .366.

Think about that. Over the course of his 24 years playing baseball, Ty Cobb struck out 63% of the time. Even Babe Ruth struck out nearly 66% of the time he came up to bat.

Then again, Babe Ruth hit a home run roughly once in every twelve at bats.

Success can never happen if you quit swinging for it.

Play Ball !!



Stay inspired my friends!

Which Key Is Yours

“Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number 1.” - Arthur Ashe

Each of us has the ability to determine how successful we are. A man with very little can consider himself successful if he is happy and content. A man with much can feel himself a failure if he is unhappy in how he got there.

So much of what is considered success is dependent upon you.

Be successful in how you feel about yourself. Know that getting to a point of success is more important then the actual achievement. Be successful in the doing. And stay inspired my friends.

Using an Escalator

"Assume that whatever situation you are facing at the moment is exactly the right situation you need to ultimately be successful. This situation has been sent to help you become better, to help you expand and grow." - Brian Tracy

There was a great commercial on television that was so good at amusing me, it failed to actually help me remember what was being sold or promoted. The advertisement showed a few people riding an escalator which stopped in mid-movement.

One person sullenly asks "what shall we do?"

Another yells for help.

While another cries out that her cell phone is dead.

The immediate problem they face has them frozen in fear of not knowing what to do. They are locked in indecision, unable to clearly think or make a choice.

As they stand there, a fourth person bravely ascends the stairs on his own power. Walking up each step, happily making his way to the top. The stranded people watch in amazement as this person moves past them, boldly and without hesitation.

This scene is sort of like watching someone rise and achieve success. We stand still wondering what we should do. Yet if you watch those achieving success, they keep moving despite any obstacles.

If an obstacle emerges, it may cause us to deviate from our chosen path.

We keep moving though, adjusting to the changing conditions.

We keep moving, we keep pushing forward not allowing obstacles to stop our movement.

Never let a failed escalator stop your climb to achievement. Keep moving. And stay inspired my friends.

Just Smile

“Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.” - Andre Maurois

“A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a.” - William Shakespeare

“The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.” - Sirach 30:22

“The days that make us happy make us wise.” - John Masefield

In an article published by the American Psychological Association entitled, The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?, finds that 'happy people show more frequent positive affect and specific adaptive characteristics.'

In other words, being happy and having a positive attitude will place you in a better frame of mind to accept new opportunity.

As you make change or movement in your life towards a more positive lifestyle, opportunity seems to just appear. Yet that opportunity was there all along. But with the wrong attitude you simply do not see the opportunity.

As you become happier, you see those opportunities more clearly. And as you take on those new opportunities, additional changes occur and success begins to unfold around you. Of course, success generates more happiness and good feelings within.

Your spirit will tend to rise dramatically. This rising spirit will fill and store inside to carry you through any of the downward cycles that can occur.

So can a smile actually cause success?

Maybe not immediately, but it can start a ripple effect in your life and on those around you. Smile once in a while, carry happiness with you more often and experience a change.

Stay inspired my friends!

Overcome Your Barriers

"Do not allow the problem to choke and destroy your vision." ~ Joseph Primm

Overcoming barriers to success in your life is about looking beyond those barriers. You need then build your life regardless of those same barriers and continue on with that life after the barrier is overcome. Life is going to place circumstances in front of you all along the way.

That is just the way life is.

It doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem to be justified when life hits you upside the head. None of those things are under your control, life is just happening. What you are in control of is you. You control how you react, how you respond, and how you deal with the barriers will determine the outcome.

Your vision belongs to you and no one else.

Once you give up, the barrier has won the battle for your life. The barrier will now own your vision and not you. The barrier will have choked the vision from you and determined your life for you. The barricade to success, the locks and chains that keep you from living a great life will all grasp a little tighter.

Do not allow these barriers to choke and destroy your vision.

Take hold of your vision and overcome the barriers standing in your way. Reach beyond your current situation and see what life holds for you. Own your vision and realize it.

If you think your barriers, your obstacles, your "lot in life" are too much to overcome? Then watch this video and remember to always stay inspired my friends.

Risk Failure

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." - Michael Jordan

With merely ten to twenty seconds left in overtime play, a spectacular header produces a goal and ties the game.

The result is renewed hope for a team on the brink of elimination. For the other the tie delays a chance to advance in a tournament. In both cases, each could have or could decide to quit and give up the fight.

Life can be cruel and life can be very rewarding. But we will never know the emotion or experience the joy if we never try. One could give up and walk away from it all, trying to avoid any failures. If we did, how could we ever then triumph in success when we accomplish the task at hand.

One goal, one tie, one loss, one setback does not define you. But not trying at all will define you and will isolate you from success.

Get out there and risk failure. Get out there and find success.

Stay inspired my friends!

Reaching the Moon

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, September 12, 1962

Trying to achieve great things in life is not easy to do. It takes faith in oneself, hard work and the ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. There are those who win the lottery or a huge inheritance, but the vast majority have to work long and hard for it.

People such as Chris Gardner, going from nothing to having all he may ever want. Or others such as the actor Jim Carrey, software giant Larry Ellison, media personality Oprah Winfrey or famed chef Gordon Ramsay.

Even the famous Rockefeller family had to start somewhere as did John D. Rockefeller whose full salary for his first three months' work was $50. This is a very modest $1000 a month in terms of salary in the year 2009.

When you read stories of where these and other successful people started, you begin to realize each started with only a dream of 'achieving the moon' in their lives. Each found their own version of the moon as they achieved the goals set.

You can get to your own moon by starting with a belief in yourself. Reach for your dream by placing one foot in front of the other in movement. Eventually you will find the earth leaving quickly behind you as the moon begins to draw closer.

Stay inspired my friends!

Fear of Hard Work

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." - Sam Ewing

Is hard work really necessary in order to get ahead in life?

Not if you are born into wealth and status that allows you to live a life unencumbered by a need for money. But even under those circumstances, it may require hard work to keep and maintain that wealth.

There are many people whom consider handouts to be a given right. They have a belief it is society's job to keep them well. It might be those that abuse the welfare system or those that steal in order to make (not earn) an easy dollar.

But a majority of people understand that it takes dedication and hard work to get ahead in life. It is also understood that hard work does not guarantee success. Yet we each go about working hard, striving for that little something we can individually call 'success'.

Never quit trying, never quit, never say never.

Reward will find you at some point. You simply need to keep moving towards it. Remember that "failure is not the worst thing in the world. The very worst is not to try."

Stay inspired my friends!

Never Too Old

"Age is a matter of feeling, not of years." - George William Curtis

There are times we tell ourselves that age is a limiting factor. We may tell ourselves that we are too young to accomplish things. Later in life we might say that we are beyond our time. Some will say that you can not teach an old dog new tricks.

If we feel that age has taken over and we are unable to keep up with the demands of being successful, than we have given in to old age.

The following video gives a glimpse into someone that is not "giving into" old age. She is a remarkable woman and.... I'll let the video explain.



Live life to its fullest and never let age get in the way of achieving what you want in life. Believe in yourself whether young or old. For while you live in the natural, there is still time to achieve great things.

Stay inspired my friends!

Detours in Life

“We make a lot of detours, but we're always heading for the same destination.”
― Paulo Coelho

Life is full of twists and turns that even the most knowledgeable person can not predict. The goals and visions that you set forth in your life will lead you down a path that is full of unknowns.

The journey of life will have its detours.

There will be detours encountered along the way and are a fact of life. It is how we respond to those detours, and obstacles that will determine our ability to succeed in life.

Many people will choose to allow an obstacle to cancel all plans. They will set up shop, staying where they are. Forever they will go about their new found business of life, wishing things were different.

Your life is much more than that.

Obstacles do not keep you from your goal. Take the detour and find your way, a different way to your vision or dream. Success will never be an easy path, it will take time and adjustment to achieve it. But you will achieve it if you keep trying.

Stay inspired my friends.

Willingness to Succeed

I have brought you to the ring, now see if you can dance.
I have brought you to the ring. Dance if ye can.
I have brought you to the Revel, Now dance if you can.
- Sir William Wallace

I have an acquaintance, a friend is how I like to describe him by the name of David Baker. He is an independent filmmaker, actor and motivator of others. Not only does he have a great passion for the film business but also in teaching others his craft.

Now I will admit we met each other through the social media tool called Twitter. It was a chance connection that caused us to learn of each other. I believe we have now known each other for four years and supported each others endeavors over that time. I do boldly call him a friend even though we have never stood in the same room.

One day our travel schedules will give us the opportunity to drink a Scotch together, in person. But until that happens, I will continue to support his efforts. I admire his commitment to success, doing what he has to do in the pursuit of his goals.

Never letting go of his pursuit, taking that road less traveled.

His drive for success reminds me of a quote by Albert E. N. Gray, that reads “The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.”

You see, each of us get to determine our own level of success by what we are willing to do. I'm not talking about the moral or ethical choices because I believe you should always take the high road on those two subjects. What I am talking about is the hard work that is required. The hard choices one must make to travel their chosen path.

It could mean taking a job sweeping a McDonald's car park in order to support yourself. It could mean giving up certain comforts such as a nice car or expensive living arrangements.

It means finding a pet donkey at the local park that you can talk to in order to unload your frustrations. It also means giving that donkey a carrot or two and letting go of those frustrations and moving on.

As the quote reads, it is in doing those things necessary that failures would rather not do. We build ourselves and what may seem like two steps back is actually going to push us ahead even further.

You brought yourself to this point...now see if you can dance.

There is no way I can predict David's success nor can I know what level of success you will have. I can only encourage and wish you great success. I feel David will achieve what he is moving towards as you will also. But it takes hard work, hard choices and sustained belief in yourself that will actually propel you to greatness.

Be willing to do what others will not. It is there you will find yourself on the path to success.

To learn more about David and to support his efforts, check out his current project.

Stay inspired my friends!

Measuring Your Success

"Success is not measured by money or fame but by how you feel about your own goals and accomplishments and the time and effort you put into them." - Willie Stargell

How are you feeling this week? Is failure or success your current mood as you work your way through the day?

Society would have us believe that our success is determined by the prestige of one's job, the amount of money you make or how much "stuff" you own.

Success isn't the new car with all of the latest gadgets. Success is not the 5-bedroom home with a large flat-screen television in every room. Success isn't being the most photographed person at a party.

Success is what you feel inside.

There are many people with all of those material things that define success in society, yet they do not feel successful. There are many people that have very little and they too feel unsuccessful.

It is within you that success is found.

This does not mean to cease moving your life towards being more successful. And the idea that having nothing is something you have to be content with. No, that is not what I am talking about.

What it means is to be content in yourself. If you are not content in self, your tendency will be to focus upon the discontentment. To be content frees up your energy and focus in order to achieve great things in your life.

Feel successful in your own self and watch as success becomes ever more present in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Check out this interview with Seth Godin by Jaime Tardy.

SETH GODIN INTERVIEW - HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS AND YOUR MINDSET

Hail Mary Hope

Photo by Travis Heying

"In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer." -Albert Careb

Most every one of us have suffered through periods of time when all of the world appears against us. There is nothing that goes correctly and there is nothing you can seem to do right. You could call these times as being in which you are facing difficulties, misfortune or more appropriately adversity.

It seems during those times we have reached a point in which there is no winning. In American football, this would be the time in which we need to execute a Hail Mary play in our life. It is a down to the wire, last ditch effort desperation move to rectify what is not working in our lives.

An example in sports happened to the University of Nebraska college football team. It has been a year where declining hope and increasing adversity have seemed to mount. There have been lower then expected performances. There have been mounting injuries to many different starting players. There have been attacks in the media on the head coach Bo Pelini, both unprovoked and self-inflicted.

In fact, it had not been a very good couple of weeks for Bo (relative to his own football team) and the Pelini family in general. Additionally, a previous week's unexpected loss to another team, football players on the Cornhusker team getting provoked on social media sites added to the pressures leading up to this game against Northwestern University.

Adversity was all over the players, the coaches and the University of Nebraska football program.

The football game was not going as many expected or had hoped is a better way of stating it. The teams had battled most of the game with injuries on both sides. Time was coming close to an end in the fourth quarter and Northwestern was down on the Nebraska seven yard line, within scoring distance, within victory.

The game was tied up at 21 points each and all Northwestern had to do was score. A goal line stand by the Nebraska defense kept seven points off the score board and Northwestern had to settle for a three-point field goal. With only one minute and twenty-one seconds left, Nebraska faced what most everyone felt was an insurmountable task.

In the middle of a season dogged by all of the adversity, Nebraska faced a fourth-and-15 from its own 24.

It appeared that the season was now going to free fall into the jagged rocks below?

But the Cornhuskers kept driving and the quarterback somehow found his running back on a short pass. The running back made, what will be overshadowed by "the pass and catch" a run to achieve a first down and keep the drive; to keep hope alive.

Now with only four seconds left, this third string senior quarterback throws a 49-yard "Hail Mary" pass into a pack of defenders and receivers at the goal line. The ball is tipped up and back into the end-zone.

That is where a freshman wide receiver is waiting, grabbing hope, and changing the course of events.

We do not always need a desperation throw to change the course of our lives. And sometimes we do need to make that "Hail Mary" pass in order to overcome adversity. We shall see how the University of Nebraska football team responds and uses this event to change their course. But they've given themselves more hope. They have given themselves proof that they have the ability to overcome hardship.

And what you do with your "Hail Mary" pass is up to you. Will you allow the strength of overcoming adversity propel you to even greater achievement? Will you catch that pass and score success?

You will because I know you can.

Just as I believe in my University of Nebraska Cornhusker football team, I believe in you. Stay inspired my friends.

Now take a few moments to watch as a "Hail Mary" pass breathes hope into life and helps wash some of the adversity away.

What Price

"For greed all nature is too little." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca

When is too much not enough in life?

In the 1987 movie Wall Street, the main bad guy Gordon Gekko pronounces "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit." Greed is about never being satisfied with what one has. It is always wanting and expecting more. It is an insatiable hunger.

When put that way, we see those same descriptors are the driving forces behind success, behind achieving your goals in life. So when we become selfish, to the exclusion and detriment of others, greed becomes a negative force in our life. And greed doesn't happen just when it comes to wealth. We can become greedy with relationships, work, in nearly any facet of our lives. When we become selfish in one area of our life to the exclusion of others, we have developed a level of greed.

There are unpleasant effects on our inner emotional lives when it comes to greed. Anxiety and restlessness will be felt when we focus solely on the craving for more or that one desire. What results is a false assurance that once we obtain that desire it will put us at ease or make us satisfied. But greed only creates that vicious circle in which "...all nature is too little."

What becomes of us when greed succeeds?

The cycle of never having enough can become destructive in your life and many times does. It leads to creating a second secret life in which you try to maintain a public appearance but that second life is feeding your greed. That second life gets nurtured more and more becoming a larger part of who you are. Eventually the second secret life can no longer be hidden. It is found out and all that you had will start to unravel in various forms.

We have seen and read it hundreds of times; the benevolent money manager has been skimming funds to feed his/her greed or any number of other greed fueled lives. Sex, money, sports, exercising, even religion can all develop into greed or addictive behaviors to the exclusion of everyone else in your life. Eventually it can fall in upon itself from the weight of selfishness.

So what price are you willing to pay for unlimited success? Will you find enough in your life once you have achieved success? Will you fall prey to the greed of success?

These are not easy questions to answer. And merely focusing on the negative light of greed, maybe you can focus on the positive force of generosity. Allow the light chase out the darkness of greed. When we focus more on being self-less, when we serve others, then success will fuel the non-greedy forces in your life.

A vessel filled will never contain all the world. But a vessel that continually pours into others will always have room for more. And that is your life; a vessel meant to pour into the lives of others.

Stay inspired my friends!

And for your amusement, here is an example of greed gone too far.

Courage to Journey

"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose." -Tom Krause

Amazingly we find out in life that there are no guarantees. We are suddenly shocked to find that a great relationship, great job, great car, great home, lots of money and excellent health are a given. The dreams we have for success and accomplishment sometimes do not happen.

What we do find out is that life is just life, happening all around us and only giving us opportunities to achieve our dreams. We also find out that life creates challenges to confront and confound our efforts.

Either way, we have to keep trying.

We need to have the courage to step out into that world every day and work towards our dreams. It means overcoming the hurdles placed in front of us; of combating those things which could keep us from achieving those dreams.

It also means never being satisfied with partial success. When we achieve a small amount of success, there is a tendency to "rest upon the laurels", which means to be satisfied with a small degree of success and refrain from any further effort.

We must also be aware of the hidden courage that exists within each of us. It is the courage one needs to pursue our dreams. We go forward with the unspoken knowledge that we may never achieve it.

It is this hidden courage that keeps us moving forward.

What you will find is that most of us do attain our dreams. The results may not look exactly as we first envisioned. Just know it is the journey that becomes the accomplishment. If you give yourself the courage to take that journey, then you will achieve great things.

Stay inspired my friends.