Work Harder Than You Think You Should

One of the reasons why I'm not around here as often as I used to is because I'm really 'Making my Life Happen on Purpose.'

I created a social life that could keep me busy every day if I find the time, I have a job I like, but since it's not the job of my dreams I go to work with joy while I continue to study in order to pursue those dreams.


I prepare by taking courses, going to seminars, reading books, listening to CDs, watching videos and talking to experts.

I enjoy adding to my blog, read, workout when I'm not too lazy or tired; take care of my puppy, take long walks with her at the park at least twice daily, help my kids, visit my father weekly and try to help others when I can.

And the truth is that I still feel and know I should be doing more!

I just find that when you're motivated enough you can do a lot and not notice it.

Hugs, xoxo
Anita

Work Harder Than You Think You Should
By Gary Vurnum
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Can you honestly, in your heart-of-hearts, say that you deserve a pay rise every year?

It probably wouldn't surprise you to find that most people would say 'yes'…but if you were to ask their bosses they almost certainly would say 'no'. Why?

Well…in the workplace at least…we always tend to overestimate our contribution. I know…I used to. I spent about five years thinking that I was indispensable…until I had to suddenly take a couple of months off…and found out that I wasn't.

You KNOW if you are getting in a little late…or taking a long lunch break…or surfing the Internet instead of working. We all do it. But…it's how much you do it that has an impact on your future.

Laziness is a habit that is contagious. The more you do it…the easier it is to do it even more.

Action Point:
In what little ways might you be letting yourself down? Sure…you won't get any thanks for working your best or for turning up that little bit earlier, but in the minds of those in charge…you will set yourself apart from everyone else who doesn't do exactly that! Plus…it gets you into the habit of working at your best…which is an amazingly useful habit to have if you want to make more of yourself!
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Everyday is a Do Over...

Thank you Ken Grimwood ~ RIP
By @nit@

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy. ~ Og Mandino
Many years ago at my husband’s very wise suggestion I read a book from an author I knew nothing about. I hadn’t done a lot of reading for quite some time; I think I was just too busy raising kids, being a good wife and trying to be a good daughter on this “Sandwich Generation” as we’ve been called. http://www.sandwichgeneration.com/.

I had often wondered what would happen if only I could go back and do my life over again, what would I change in order to have a better outcome; but hard as I wanted to go back and relive it, I knew I just couldn’t do that, it was IMPOSSIBLE!!!

This book answered many questions for me, but the most important lesson I got from it was that even if I had been given that chance to go back and do it over, knowing then what I know now, there are no guarantees that the outcome would be a better one, different, no doubt, but better, who knows? Now I know what I should have known then, so I have to take responsibility for the choices I make to have a greater chance at the outcome I want to have.

I just know that right now I am living the best part of my life, I have a multitude of dreams, goals, a very clear vision of what I want to do, have, and most of all what I want to be! And it might take more than this lifetime to do it all, but at least I know I will never run out of things to strive for.

I now approach my life as an "Adventure", with the good and the bad, and that allows me to always hear the “Music in the Background”.
Start your lives TODAY! Start your lives EVERYDAY!

Thank you Ken Grimwood ~ RIP
@nit@

Replay
By Ken Grimwood

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"

Linear descriptions of Replay do not convey the book's rich philosophical and spiritual underlying themes. Critic Daniel D. Shade outlined the book's buried messages when he reviewed the novel in 2001:“Yet in spite of all the pain and anguish we go through as we follow Jeff through his search for an understanding of why he is replaying his life, the book has some important things to say to the reader. First, life is full of endless happenings that we have little control over. We should live our lives with our eyes set upon the horizon and never look back, controlling those things we can and giving no second thought to those events out of our hands. Second, given that we only have one life to live (Jeff is never sure he will replay again with each heart attack) we should live it to the fullest extent possible and with the least regret for our actions. Everybody makes mistakes; the point is not to dwell on them but to pick ourselves up and keep on going. Keep moving ahead. Third, choices must be made—we cannot avoid them. The only failure is to live a life without risks. In fact, I believe Jeff Winston would advise risking everything for those you love and for the life you want for them and with them. To not experience risk is to fail. And what does Replay have to say to a poor, old man like me who is still going though his mid-life crisis? Just this—that every year will be new. Every day a new chance to begin again. There can be no mid-life crisis when we are living each day to the fullest extent possible. From what Jeff Winston has taught me, I would define mid-life crisis as a period of selfishness when we turn inward and think only of ourselves. Jeff inspires us to look outward toward others and think less of ourselves.—————————————————————————————————
Kenneth Milton Grimwood (February 27, 1944 - June 6, 2003) was an American author of fantasy fiction combining themes of life-affirmation and hope with metaphysical concepts, themes found in his best-known novel, the highly popular Replay.
Born in Dothan, Alabama, later growing up in Pensacola, Florida, Grimwood took an interest in EC Comics and radio journalism while growing up in Pensacola. In the early to mid-1960s, he worked in news at WLAK in Lakeland, Florida. Heading north, he studied psychology at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he contributed short fiction to Bard's student publication, Observer in 1969.
Some of his early novels were written while he was the news director at KNX 10.70 Newsradio in Los Angeles, but the success of Replay enabled him to leave KNX for full-time writing. He wrote under both his own name and several pseudonyms. As Alan Cochran, he wrote Two Plus Two (Doubleday, 1980).
At age 59, Grimwood died of a heart attack in his home in Santa Barbara, California. At the time of his death, he was writing a sequel to Replay. His works are included in the Santa Barbara Authors and Publishers Special Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara.