MESSAGE #634 - BARRY MANILOW!!!

What’s Barry Manilow doing on this blog?

Barry hid one of the ultimate secrets of
peak performance in one of his hits.

Listen closely to this live version of
“I Write the Songs.”

“I Write the Songs” is not some egomaniacal
rant about his greatness.

Over and over again, you’ll hear . . .
“I am music and I write the songs.”

If you want to do something great . . .

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DO IT!

It will not be done BY you.
It will done THROUGH you.

Barry gets it.

Here he is . . .

MESSAGE #633 - WALKING THE TALK

I’d rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day.

I’d rather once you walk with me
Than merely show the way.

The eye’s a better pupil
And more willing than the ear.

Fine counsel is confusing
But the example’s always clear.

I soon can learn to do it
If you let me see it done.

I can see your hands in action
But your tongue too fast may run.

And the lectures you deliver
May be very fine and true.

But I’d rather get my lesson
By observing what you do.

For a person must understand you
And the high advice you give.

But there’s no misunderstanding
How you act and how you live.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

MESSAGE #632 - ARE YOU CURIOUS OR COMMITTED?

“Until one is committed,

there is hesitancy,

the chance to draw back,

always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts

of initiative (and creation)

there is one elementary truth,

the ignorance of which kills

countless ideas and splendid plans:

that the moment

one definitely commits oneself,

then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur

to help one that would never

otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events

issues from the decision,

raising in one’s favor all manner

of unforeseen incidents and meetings

and material assistance,

which no man could have dreamed

would have come his way.

I have learned a deep respect

for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do,

or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius,

power and magic in it.’”

SOURCE

Book: “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition”

Author: W.H. Murray (1913-1996)

MESSAGE #631 - THE FIRST RULE OF PARTYING

“Always do sober
what you said
you’d do drunk.
That will teach
you to keep
your mouth shut.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Writer

MESSAGE #630 - MY HERO

Truly amazing...

MESSAGE #629 - A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

“Every failure will

teach you a lesson

that you need to learn

if you will keep

your eyes and ears

open and be willing

to be taught.

Every adversity is usually

a blessing in disguise.

Without reverses and

temporary defeat,

you would never know

the sort of metal

of which

you are made.”

Author unknown

MESSAGE #628 - DON’T THINK BIG – THINK BIGGER!

Found on a cup from Chipotle Mexican Grill . . .

“If your

life’s work

can be

accomplished

in your lifetime,

you’re not

thinking

big enough.”

Wes Jackson

Founder

The Land Institute

Book Recommendation:

“The Magic of Thinking Big”

Author:

David Schwartz

MESSAGE #627 - NOT ENERGIZED? WATCH THIS...

Bob Hope (on the left) and
James Cagney (on the right)
from the 1955 movie
“The Seven Little Foys”...

PERSONAL NOTE: I wonder if James Hester is watching this?

MESSAGE #626 - LIFE IS...

Life is a challenge . . . meet it.
Life is a gift . . . accept it.
Life is an adventure . . . dare it.
Life is sorrow . . . overcome it.
Life is a tragedy . . . face it.
Life is a duty . . . perform it.
Life is a game . . . play it.
Life is a mystery . . . solve it.
Life is a song . . . sing it.
Life is an opportunity . . . take it.
Life is a journey . . . complete it.
Life is a promise . . . fulfill it.
Life is struggle . . . fight through it.
Life is a goal . . . reach it.
Life is a puzzle . . . solve it.

MESSAGE #625 - “THIS WORLD YOU CAN CHANGE IT”

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA...

THE LYRICS . . .

In an old city bar
That is never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that have been

In the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in

And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The music was low
And the night
Christmas Eve

And here was the danger
That even with strangers
Inside of this night
It's easier to believe

Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar
Had seen there before

And he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice
To that corner streetlight

Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl the child said
Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The bartender turned
And said, “Not that I care
But how would you know this?”
The child said, “I've noticed
If one could be home
They'd be already there.”

Then the bartender came out from behind the bar
And in all of his life he was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all the cash from the register drawer

Then he followed the child to the girl across the street
And we watched from the bar as they started to speak
Then he called for a cab and he said J.F.K.
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his hand
That the cash was all gone
From the light that she had wished upon

If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask

Then he looked for the child
But the child wasn't there
Just the wind and the snow
Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside
Somehow different I think
For the rest of the night
No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say
That some neighborhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hid

But they weren't there
So they couldn't see
By an old neon star
On that, night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
And in case you should wonder
In case you should care

Why we on our own
Never went home
On that night of all nights
We were already there

Then all at once inside that night
He saw it all so clear
The answer that he sought so long
Had always been so near

It's every gift that someone gives
Expecting nothing back
It's every kindness that we do
Each simple little act