Meaningful Mondays

Years ago I was asked if I could in one sentence describe why family wealth rarely succeeds into future generations. I said I could do it in ONE word! Since that day, research has absolutely proven that ONE activity, when exercised, can make you even healthier, more productive, and happier in so many other ways.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams "You cannot give all the good the world needs- but the world needs all you can give."

"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." -- Mother Teresa "Share the things most important to you with those who are most important to you." -- LMB i. e. (Don't delegate the transfer of your values and wisdom to social media, Hollywood, or other influencers outside the family to do it for you)! As the scripture teaches, `Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'  - (Prov. 22:6.) "Peace in society depends upon peace in the family." -- Augustine "We must restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane values everywhere, in peace as well as in war." -- Kofi Annan "To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right." -- Confucius

"Anyone can be a Chief Problem Finder. Leaders are Chief Problem Solvers. Inspired leaders fix the problem before it emerges." - Randy Glenn Motivation is all about obtaining (the carrot or the stick). Inspiration is all about becoming. Motivation is temporary. Inspiration is eternal.

What are you grateful for right now, right here? "I believe that things turn out best for those that make the best of the way things turn out." - Coach John Wooden

As you consciously practice principles of gratitude, these acts of gratitude evolve into habits; as you nurture those habits, those habits evolve into traits that become your true character. Gratitude then becomes the light that unconsciously illuminates others, giving them the inspiration to do the same.

"By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answers to our own." - Dieter F. Uchtorf "You cannot give all the good the world needs. But the world needs all the good you can give." - Lee M Brower "Helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for that one person." - Anonymous

"No misfortune is so bad that whining won't make it worse." - Jeffrey R. Holland Change your language - change the world!

I have something I've wanted to tell you for some time.

My mom passed away Jan 4, 2015. But, she gave me the greatest advice just a few days ago. Hugs are the universal medicine! “I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words.” – Ann Hood

"A plowed garden can't determine what it will grow. It simply waits for the seeds to be planted, eager to nourish them and turn them into the gardener's desire." - Lee Brower The subconscious mind makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear, just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by courage or faith. - Napoleon Hill

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” - Norman Cousins “We lived for days on nothing but food and water.” - W.C. Fields “We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.” - Frank Tibolt

Kindness has ripples that influence for decades, even centuries.

Want to see good in the world? Then ask for it. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish-- and in effect save their lives.

Don't give up on an uncertain future. Focus on those things that you have control over. When you give up, you surrender your choice. Your story is the choices you make. The choices you make, make you! Yes and No lead in opposite directions and determine the "story" of your life. Ask this question mid-choice (in the moment) "What story do I want to tell."

To be offended is a choice we make. It is not a condition inflicted upon us by someone or something else. "Our choices determine our freedoms." - Lee Brower

"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstance of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives." - Russell M. Nelson "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." - Neale Donald Walsch "The enemy of thriving is arriving." - Lee M. Brower

What does your "future self" possess that you don't? - Dr. Benjamin Hardy Can "Pringling" be the way to victory over even our most pesky personal and business ambitions? Pringles = aggregating small but steady marginal gains. i.e. The more you are in motion, the more you tend to stay in motion.

"It's just the beginning" ... 85-year-old lifetime learner. "A man who carries a cat by its tail learns something HE CAN LEARN in no other way."  - Mark Twain "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty."  - Henry Ford "Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner anywhere."  - Chinese Proverb

"There are only two ways to influence human behavior. You can manipulate it, or you can inspire it."  - Simon Sinek In other words... "Arrows Out" is all about getting someone motivating you to do it. "Arrows In" is all about you being inspired to do it.