Try not to become a person of success. Rather become a person of value. —Albert Einstein
The marketplace and fashion entice us in countless ways to indulge our individual pleasures. Some say that success will be with the man who follows those seductive beckonings. Even sacrificing long hours by working two jobs to become a financial success or to achieve high career goals can be self-centered activity. It may be time and energy spent seeking power and glory at the cost of time with our family and friends - time for enjoying each other and growing. Sadly, external success leads to superficial pleasure but never to peace within ourselves.
However, when we pursue the values of honesty, humility, and service, we will find enduring self-respect and close friendships. This path provides a genuine experience of life's greatest rewards rather than the glitter of passing excitement.
Today, I will strive toward the greater values rather than superficial successes.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©
Fortitude
The possibility of rejection exists with almost everything we do, if we are free to choose. We might not like rejection, but we want the same freedom to reject others. As freely choosing people, we need to turn down ideas or proposals we don't like.
One thing we should never do, however, is rehearse rejections before they occur. If we do this, we may give up even before we have attempted what we hope to accomplish. In effect, we will be killing our hopes even before others have a chance to review them. This is always a ticket to failure.
Rejection is really a feedback mechanism that reports information we ought to have. It tells us either to change our approach or to seek acceptance elsewhere. It is not evidence that we're completely unacceptable.
Our problem with any single rejection may be that it causes us to recall all the rejections we ever had. We can learn to see any rejection as a normal event that can be beneficial if we accept it properly.
Action for the Day: I'll not let any fear or visualization of rejection keep me from actions I ought to take today. I am an acceptable person, and there is a place for what I have to offer.
Because of our kinship in suffering,
and because our common means of deliverance
are effective for ourselves only when carried to others,
our channels of contact have always been charged with
*the language of the heart.*
- The Language of the Heart, p. 242
Thought to Ponder . . .
An open heart is never a lonely one.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
C A R E = Comforting And Reassuring Each other.
Daily Motivation
No guarantees
Even when you can’t be certain of what it is, you can be sure that there’s a way forward. Even when there are no guarantees, there are plenty of reasons to be confident.
When the situation is far from perfect, that’s the perfect time to make progress. For when there is much to be desired, there is much that can be accomplished.
Adversity does not prevent or preclude achievement. On the contrary, it is when things are not right that there is the greatest motivation to make improvements.
Stop wishing or waiting for conditions to be perfect. Accept and embrace the situation for what it is, and get busy making positive use of it.
When things go wrong, that’s not the time to complain. It’s the time to innovate and commit to making valuable improvements.
When there’s much that must be done, that’s the very definition of opportunity. Make the effort to make things better, and you can make things great.
— Ralph Marston
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