THIS WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER

If you sometimes get discouraged,
consider this fellow:

He dropped out of grade school.
Ran a country store. Went broke. Took 15 years to pay off his bills.
Took a wife. Unhappy marriage.
Ran for House. Lost twice.
Ran for Senate. Lost twice.
Delivered speech that became a classic. Audience indifferent.
Attacked daily by the press and despised by half the country.

Despite all this,
imagine how many people all over the world have been inspired
by this awkward, rumpled, brooding man
who signed his name simply,
A. Lincoln

Please call my office if we can be of service.

MESSAGES
from the Masters...

CREATING YOUR CHARACTER IS LIKE AN ARTIST CREATING A SCULPTURE

by Jim Rohn

Could creating your character be likened to an artist creating a sculpture? In my opinion, I believe that character is not something that just happens by itself, any more than a chisel can create a work of art without the hand of an artist guiding it. In both instances, a conscious decision for a specific outcome has been made. A conscious process is at work. Character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you make that gradually turn who you are, at any given moment, into who you want to be. If that decision-making process is not present, you will still be somebody. You will still be alive, but may have a personality rather than a character.

Character is not something you were born with and can't change like your fingerprint. In fact, because you weren't born with it, it is something that you must take responsibility for creating. I don't believe that adversity by itself builds character and I certainly don't think that success erodes it. Character is built by how you respond to what happens in your life. Whether it's winning every game or losing every game. Getting rich or dealing with hard times. You build character out of certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture within yourself. Just like you would plant and water a seed or gather wood and build a campfire. You've got to look for those things in your heart and in your gut. You've got to chisel away in order to find them. Just like chiseling away the rock in order to create the sculpture that has previously existed only in your imagination.

But do you want to know the really amazing thing about character? If you are sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want to be, you'll not only create those qualities, but you'll continually strengthen them. And you will recreate them in abundance even as you are drawing on them every day of your life. Just like the burning bush in the biblical book of Exodus, the bush burned but the flames did not consume it. Character sustains itself and nurtures itself even as it is being put to work, tested, and challenged. And once character is formed, it will serve as a solid, lasting foundation upon which to build the life you desire.

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QUOTES
from the Masters...

On Planning

"The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed."

-- Jim Rohn

"Don't just do something, sit there! Sit there long enough each morning to decide what is really important during the day ahead."

-- Richard Eyre

"Failing to plan means planning to fail. What are your goals?"

-- Brian Tracy

On Wisdom

"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late."

-- Felix Frankfurter

"To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future."

-- Plutarch

"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance."

-- Akhenaton