10,080 minutes Your Week Starts NOW

Did you know statistics show that the tone for your day is often determined in the first 5 minutes after waking up? Wow, this is almost ridiculous, that we can allow the first 5 minutes to set the rest of our mood for the day consisting of another 1435 minutes! I have been told over and over that I control my attitude, but not always my circumstances. My attitude and how I look at those circumstances is in my total control. Why would I allow those first 5 minutes to control me when I should be in control of how I react to my day, the mood and tone I set and how I treat other people! Too many of us rely on what happened in the past and our worry for the future to dictate how we are acting NOW! Lou Holtz lives by the phrase WIN!- " What's Important NOW!" From all the books I have read and all the speakers I have listened to, this is really a great concept to live by. They say yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that is why it is called a present! ALICE MORSE EARLE So do what you can NOW to take what God has given you to utilize your strengths, minimize your weaknesses and enjoy life's blessings no matter how small when you can, because things don't last forever. Start your week on a positive note and when those first 5 minutes happen where something is out of your control or negativity creeps in- remember to push it away or pick yourself up and keep going. There is NO way 5 minutes should dictate the next 1435 minutes of your day or the next 10075 minutes in your week! MAKE it a good one, don't wait for something good to happen.

Write it down-- DAILY

Deciding today that I must write down my dreams and say my affirmations to make them my goals daily, even if they are short and sweet, when I write something down it is no longer just in my head. It is out there for me to be accountable for. Today is the first day of the rest of my life and no matter how many times I have to remind myself that, I am going to keep trekking on toward my goal. The obstacles and distractions can sometimes be blessings in disguise. The frustrations and let downs are inevitable, so getting through and on to the "yes" or the end result is just a matter of how many “nos” am I willing to take on something to get to the "yes" or end result? That is up to me. There are two types of courage, first the courage to get started, second the courage not to quit! I must believe that my result is there, that I know that it can be accomplished before I see it. If I wait to believe until I see it, it may never come. People doubt their beliefs but believe their doubts, I must believe in myself only then will the world believe in me and my mission and vision. I will read my affirmations daily to remind myself why I do the things I do and proceed on to them with positive attitude and gusto. I will continue to focus on my outcome more than my detours and enjoy getting there.

Three Feet from Gold

I recently had the opportunity to listen to great coach Lou Holtz speak for about an hour. He is a simple man who lived his life with many challenges and the situations where he chose to excel are the ones he came out the most ahead. I took away from him that you will always have frustrations and obstacles in your life, you can't avoid them. You will always have ups and downs. It is your attitude and what you do in those situations that makes or breaks you, not the situation itself. Do you let it bring you down and stay down, or do you find the reasons to pop right back up and try again. You may lose a ton of times but you get back up and become a winner. You can excel in life when not a single person believes in you, you can't excel if you don't believe in yourself. I am currently reading this book that expands upon the ever popular Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill many years ago. It continues the teaching and principals and connects them to current days. Napoleon Hill once said " Live your life to the fullest, you may be three feet from gold." Half-way through this book there is a little blurb that says Sometimes you have to step back and look at your situation from a different angle to find a different solution. I think this can also apply to looking at your situation from a different angle to find the positive in the situation or the lesson that maybe you will learn to help you in the future, to turn it around. I have the opportunity to work with a lot of different people and situations in my day to day work that I sometimes wonder why certain people are brought into my life and why I have to waste time on others. I began to realize that by turning the situation into something positive I am able to allow the frustrating parts of my job fall far behind the reasons why I love my job. When you focus on what you love, what you are gaining and what makes you happy (even if they seem smaller than the obstacles or frustrations) it seems as if you are calmer, you have less stress and you actually can enjoy what you are doing. The frustrations, obstacles and doubts that I have sometimes overpower the reasons I do love and enjoy my job, it is then that the discouragement happens and I stop believing in how good I am at it, how much I care about others and why I chose to do it in the first place. These are all situations in which I choose to steer my negative energy into my work rather than boost up the positive energy. For a short period of time the complaining we do may make us feel better and when we can complain to someone else regarding our situation and get the empathy we are looking for it makes it better we think. If we can just spend more time focusing on what we are doing and why we are doing it we will see the end in mind. If we focus on what we don't like about something we are just wasting more time getting to that dream or goal that we have for ourselves, our family and our future. Remember life is a journey, you will have ups and downs, you will have obstacles and set backs, don't focus on them, learn from them, control your attitude toward everything, love one another, help people and always be true to yourself and others.

Judgment no More

Sometimes when we have thoughts racing through our heads as we are making observations around us, we immediately see a situation and make a judgment based on what we see. I did this yesterday in church of all places and thought to myself how I couldn't wait to get out of church and post something funny about this.

There was a little 2 year old boy eating a baggy of Honey Bunches of Oats- the kind with a million flakes, and almonds in it. I thought to myself now why would the parents give this kid something so messy to eat?  Throughout church I thought about how I could post something on social media and how I could make it where I felt empathy for the people, so that I didn't look like I was placing judgment or that I was better than them.  I conjured up in my head that maybe that was all they had in the cupboard to give him to snack on... but oh what a mess and why would you give that to your kid in church, by the time he was done the floor had a layer of dust on it, by the end of mass the overly pregnant mother had reached down and picked up every single crumb on that floor-something I judged that the parents wouldn't do (going back to my waitress days when most parents left the mess under the table for someone else to clean up for them). During the mass when the priest gave his sermon he spoke about a grandmother back in the 1950's  who was fined in court for getting caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed her grandchildren. I am sure others were quick to judge that she was a menace or troublemaker. When she went to court the judge declared that she did deserve the fine, for she had broken the law no matter the reason. He reached under his desk, pulled out a baseball cap stuck a $10 bill in it, passed it around to the courtroom declaring that every one of them in the community should be fined for allowing their fellow patron to have to steal to feed her grandchildren. The sweet old lady not only paid her fine but was able to take home $50 to feed her grandchildren. Back then $50 probably went further than a couple hundred dollars today.
As he tied together the readings regarding "doubting Thomas" and his sermon stories that Blessed are those who believe and have not seen, the last note was that you should never place judgment on anyone until you have walked in their shoes. Just because we see it doesn't mean it is that way, and just because we don't see something doesn't mean it is not there. So the next time you are quick to judge someone based on just what you physically see, remember, even if you can't help conjuring up judgment in your head, think before you speak.

Sharing a Special Day

Every year my birthday is a mix of sad celebration, celebration for my years as well as celebration that my grandfather went to enjoy Heaven. Fishing this past weekend with my family, I caught the first, biggest and most fish on the boat whic brought back memories of my Papa, his boat, his fishing stories, his tangled poles and our fishing bets.
You've given me a new perspective on a lot of things- there are things you've said to me I will always remember, and ways you've helped me I will never forget.
For all the patience you had fishing, for all the silly things you did, for making me laugh and rewarding me for my good grades. For lifting me up and showing your support in every thing I do. I know you would be proud of me this day.
I wrote this short story my freshman year of college regarding a "remembered person" assignment

Little Lessons of Life
The town my grandparents lived in was considerable larger than mine. However, I lived in a rural township on almost 2 acres, and they lived in a more urbanized neighborhood filled with small lots. There was no place for my grandfather to store his boat at their house, so with my parents permission he stored it in our pole barn. Having him come to work on his boat at our house was an added blessing, because I was able to spend more time with him. He would drive a half an hour to our house to work on his boat, getting it ready to take out on one of our fishing vacations.
As I stepped off the bus after school I saw his over sized blue-green car sitting in the driveway. The barn door was wide open exposing the beat up old excuse for a pontoon that he so desperately adored. I grabbed the mail from the box and proceeded across the yard, dodging the trees as I made my way to the barn.
His medium height, and stocky build was slavishly hovered over my dad's workbench, vigorously working on a small boat attachment. Even though he was diabetic and had been living with cancer for about seven years, he could always be found tinkering around and fixing things. He was  a stubborn man and being useful and keeping busy seemed to ease his pain and sorrows from the diseases that controlled his body. The clanging noise of the tools against the metal boat part filled the silence in the air. Unaware of my presence, he would yell out vulgar language in frustration at his work. I stood there examining him with admiration, despite his use of profanity.
His thinning white hair was soaked with his sweat. As he turned from his task to grab the grease-stained white towel to wipe his face, he must have caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of his glistening hazel eyes. His eyes always seemed to change color with his mood or even the clothes that he was wearing, just like mine.
With a look of sincerity, he called " how was your day at school? Come give Papa a hug." Despite his uninviting sweaty and grimy appearance, I always accepted his warm teddy bear hugs. As he enclosed his large protective arms around me, I could smell the sweat and grease from his body mixed with the fading clean smell of the herbal shampoo from his damp hair. His plump belly, along with his full white beard and his thinning white hair, his round glasses that protected his deep eyes and his chubby red cheeks reminded me of Santa Claus. Not the old fashioned "Dime Store Santa," but the authentic Santa from the movie, Miracle on Thirty-Forth Street. " My day was fine," I replied. I told him about the overly demanding substitute teacher I had for science that day.
"I am going to go in and make some lemonade. Do you want any?" I asked him with a faint smirk on my face, already aware that he would agree. :That would be wonderful," he said. " I think I will go in with you and take a break." " Take a break" always meant make a sandwich. He was know for his bologna sandwich with fried onions. I knew then that he would be done for the day, since the onions always made him sleepy. After his sandwich, he would be curled up on the couch, snoring in no time. When he woke up, he would talk to my mom for a while and then go home to return again the next day to do more work on his boat.
That summer his hard work and dedication to his boat paid off. The pontoons were painted with a silver glaze. The plywood floor was now covered with indoor/outdoor green plastic grass. A makeshift canopy, made out of a bright blue tarp, covered the top to protect us from the beating rays of the sun. As an added touch, a blue and white striped life preserver hung down each side of the boat. He was extremely proud of his finished product. We took it to the lake on our fishing trip, and it proved to be a success.
Once inside, while I made lemonade, he washed his large flawed hands and asked if we had peroxide to cleanse the bleeding cut on his finger. His hands reminded me of a cowboy's old leather glove; durable and multipurpose but worn and nicked from years of tinkering and fixing. I found the bottle and gave him a few cotton balls. He twisted the cap off of the bottle and proceeded to stick his whole index finger inside and shake the contents to cleanse his wound. "Papa!" I exclaimed in almost a scolding sort of way, "You are putting all your germs in the bottle." He looked at me with his eyebrows raised in his "papa's always right" way and told me that the peroxide would kill all the germs. Although I had to force myself to hold my tongue, I left it at that. I was twelve years old- old enough to know not to stick your bloody finger in a bottle of peroxide- but smart enough not to second guess him.
Papa and I always had a good time together. When we went fishing, we always had a contest to see who would catch the first fish. The person that did not catch the first fish had to pay the winner a quarter or sometimes fifty cents. If I caught the first fish, he would always pay up, but if he caught the first fish, he wouldn't take my money. He told me to save it. He loved me and wanted me to be happy. Camping with my grandmother and two cousins in his motor home proved an enjoyable adventure, too. We would all go for the weekend to a camping site and go swimming and fishing together. I didn't mind sharing my papa with the others. It did not matter who we were with, just as long as we were together and having fun. I would help him "fix" things when I could and run errands with him for his needed supplies. One of my favorite times as a kid was report card time. He would always give his grandchildren money for their A's. Throughout school, I rarely received anything lower than an A, so I got between ten and fifteen dollars to spend. He was proud of me and showed it by pampering me with money. He knew that by his pampering me, I would continue to do well in school. I have always had high expectations of myself, which I thank him for.
On my fourteenth birthday, I was sitting at home at the kitchen table doing my math homework, I said a silent prayer to that God would let my grandfather be at peace, He had been in the hospital off and on since Thanksgiving in a great deal of pain and it was now April first. Things were not looking so good for him. I thought he had suffered enough and it was time for him to go to a better place where pain was nonexistent. Not long after my prayer, the phone rang with news that my papa had left this trivial world to join a perfect world up above.
The immediate relief I felt was immeasurable. Then I began to feel that God was being unfair taking him away on my birthday; however now I feel special to share such a spiritual day with him. The day he died was not only my birthday, but the celebration of his birthday in Heaven.


I received this from my grandma (Bushie) on my sixteenth birthday-

When I was little he wrote me this poem that to this day fits me to a T-

DanielleHustle Bustle
Hurry Scurry
Never Linger
Never Tarry
Get it Done
On the Run
Hurry Up
Don't slow up
Busy Busy
Never Stop
Only to give a kiss
to Papa

Reading this poem brought tears to both mine and my grandmother's eyes. I was so touched that he verbalized his love for me in a poem. Not only had I inherited his knack for writing, but his busy habits and stubborn ways. I acquired his ability to deal with the obstacles life would occasionally throw my way. He was a strong man who overcame many obstacles in his own life. I learned when times were down, I needed to busy myself with other things to avoid the conflict of pain and stress. To this day, although sometimes difficult, I try to weigh all the negative situations by finding the good they have to offer. This, I believe, is what has kept me going and will enable me to succeed in the future. That ad the pleasurable memories of a fun-loving grandfather who was my hero and friend.
I received an A+ on this assignment- I know he would be proud.