Reflections on life. Collections of inspirational quotes. Rediscovering relationships and faith.
Posted in CHANGE, LIFE, OBSTACLES, Promise, PROMISE QUOTES, Resolution on Jan 3rd, 2010 No Comments »
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. – Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld
It’s January again. Each New Year is an exciting time. It symbolized transformation and starting new. It’s a time when we can let go of the old, shed our past and begin again. It is a time for new inspirations, new hopes, resolutions, changes.
Nevertheless, how many times have I told myself that I will make a positive change and be a better person each new year? I always get off track and lose sight of the life I meant to live. December rolls around and I wondered what happened. Where did I go wrong? My excitement became fear. My hopes, emptied.
While I can’t exactly travel back in time, there are certain ways I can “reboot” my life. I need to find my “reset button”. Pressing the reset button in my life everyday is a good alternative. I do not have to wait for December again to see how far or how much I have changed.
Why everyday? It is because each day I am faced with obstacles to move forward and be focused. Laziness, bad weather, hurt feelings, rude people, gripes and groans, traffic, sad or bad news, inflation, debts, unloving persons or situations and a lot of negative or “unwanted files” tend to get into my system. At the end of the day, I cannot hardly emit a “beep”. Instead, a message “invalid procedure” is displayed by my gesture and finally I shut down just like a computer.
However, with each gift of a new day, I should debug my life and re-install good moods, kind words, and loving actions and just like computers, I should pick a life restore point and start reconnecting with people, things and nature.
I may backslide from time to time but I won’t let it deter me. Life is an ever-changing process and nothing is final. Just like what Confucious said: “It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”
Each day is a chance to begin anew. Before I know it, I will be the person I always wanted to be.
Starting today, let us promise ourselves to press our “reset button” everyday. Let us promise ourselves not to wait for another day, another month or year. We should not wait until the beginning of the year to make resolutions.
Each new day is a new beginning. Instead of saying “one day”, let us say “starting today.” Start today with this promise:
Promise yourself
to dream more and hesitate less.
Promise yourself
to believe in yourself more
and judge yourself less by
the accomplishments of others.
Promise yourself
to accept life as it comes
and truly make each day special.Promise yourself
to become more independent
and more willing to change.Promise yourself
to fill your life
with special times,
and make your dreams come true. – Deanna Beisser
PROMISES Quotes
When a man takes an oath… he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then – he needn’t hope to find himself again. – Robert Bolt
Oaths are but words, and words but wind. –Samuel Butler
Better a broken promise than none at all.” –Mark Twain
Promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver. – Unknown
Most of us are pretty good at keeping promises to others and pretty bad at keeping promises to ourselves. –Lawrence LeShan
He who is the most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in the performance of it. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Better break your word than do worse in keeping it. –Thomas Fuller
He is poor indeed who can promise nothing. –Thomas Fuller
The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it. –Napoleon Bonaparte
Promise a lot and give even more. –Anthony J. D`Angelo
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future. –Hannah Arendt
God promises a safe landing but not a calm passage. –Bulgarian Proverb
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible. –Hannah Arendt
Vote for the man who promises least. He’ll be the least disappointing. –Bernard Baruch
God… doesn’t promise you happiness and that everything will go well. But he does promise you peace. – Patricia Heaton
Promise is most given when the least is said. –George Chapman
Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep. –Denis Waitley
A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain. –Arabian Proverb
One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes. –Friedrich Nietzsche
Promises are like the full moon, if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day. –German Proverb
You cannot live on other people’s promises, but if you promise others enough, you can live on your own. –Mark Caine
The man who promises everything is sure to fulfill nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition. –Carl Jung
Put up or shut up. –American Proverb
Posted in LIFE, OBSTACLES, OBSTACLES QUOTES, SURVIVAL on Dec 17th, 2008 No Comments »
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. – Christopher Reeve
Restlessness of mind, grumbling thoughts and monstrous fears begin to tickle a sense of frustration inside me. I am facing a brick wall! Frozen stiff, I let my mind wander back in time, searching for each particular moments in my life when I decided to change my journey or road trips. Scanning every event, all turns and curbs, an obstacle never failed to greet me along my path.
There and then, obstacle became my faithful companion. Initially, I started to complain of its insistence to follow my road and attention. Obstacle has a way of meddling with my time, with money, my health, my beliefs, my commitment and responsibilities, my relationships, my fears and goals etc. I cried at its presence, complaining of its persistent way to block and humiliate me.
Slowly in time, I discovered obstacle’s other side, a positive one. My attitude and paradigm towards it changed and its harsh ways taught me lessons in life :
Now, I remember that trace when I accepted obstacle as my teacher. I thought I have learned its lessons. I guess, my life’s lesson is not enough, for obstacle is nodding at me again. It is dancing time again with obstacle. I have to practice my rhythm in various life’s music. Let’s leap and skip with obstacle even with a tear in our eye.
Now, close your eyes and imagine: a huge boulder on your way. What will you do?
You have three options: run into the boulder repeatedly, complain about the boulder being in the way, or find a way around the boulder.
Will you accept the boulder for what it is: an obstacle? I suggest that you accept that you cannot go through it. Do not panic, and waste time and energy worrying about the obstacle. Instead, make your own path around the obstacle, either over the boulder, around the boulder, or under the boulder.
I am challenging you to to be a hero as how I quoted Christopher Reeve about obstacle.
Turn obstacles to your advantage, and move forward where others are afraid to go.
P.S.
The birth of Jesus is not a fable but a story of overcoming endless obstacles like fear, rejection, politics, humiliation, murder, poverty of the manger, etc to give us hope and faith that in spite of everything, LIFE is still beautiful!
Merry Christmas to each one of you!
OBSTACLE QUOTES
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” – John Quincy Adams
“The greatest obstacle to progress is prejudice.” – Bavee
The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: a man should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in his path.” – Bhagavad Gita
Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along too.” – Lawrence Bixby
The obstacles you face are… mental barriers which can be broken by adopting a more positive approach.” – Clarence Blasier
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
You are the only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life.” – Les Brown
“The world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it.” “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” –Hellen Keller
It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance, sweeps away all obstacles.” – Claude M. Bristol
The lover thinks more often of reaching his mistress than the husband of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escaping than the gaoler of shutting his door; and so, whatever the obstacles may be, the lover and the prisoner ought to succeed.” –Stendhal
A barrier is of ideas, not of things.” – Mark Caine
It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor to succeed in order to persevere.” – Charles The Bold
The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor…” – Robert Collier
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a Wilderness.” – Havelock Ellis
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles.” – Gunderson
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” – Bette Howland
In each age men of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. These men go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear, People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. See them aloft, see them in the distance; they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it., hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breath. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; there is a sad weariness. The bold ones continue. They are eyed by the eagles; the lightning plays about them: the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere.” – Victor Hugo
When man meets an obstacle he can’t destroy, he destroys himself.” – Ryszard Kapuscinski