MESSAGE #514 - ARE YOU A PLAYER OR ARE YOU A PRETENDER?

The important thing
is
to make
the important thing
the important thing.

Thanks to Darren Ventre for sending this video!

MESSAGE #513 - THE STUMBLING BLOCK

A quote from the great American cook, author,
and television personality – Julia Child (1912-2004) . . .

"The only real
stumbling block
is
fear of failure.

In cooking,
you've got to have a
'What the hell?' attitude!”

MESSAGE #512 - FOUR WORDS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

There was once a king who was going
to put to death many people, but before
doing so he offered a challenge.

If any of them could come up with
something which would make him
happy when he was sad, and sad when
he was happy, he would spare their lives.

All night the wise men meditated
on the matter.

In the morning, they brought the king
a ring.

The king said that he did not see how
the ring would serve to make him
happy when he was sad and sad
when he was happy.

The wise men pointed to the inscription.

When the king read it, he was so delighted
that he spared them all.

And the inscription?

“This too shall pass.”

Source:
Book: “Journey of Awakening”
Author: Ram Dass

MESSAGE #511 - THE CLIFF YOUNG STORY

The whole nation thought he was a crazy old man to undertake an almost impossible feat. Most feared that he would die trying. But this humble old man proved all the critics wrong.

Cliff Young, at 61 years of age, participated in 1983’s Sydney to Melbourne race. Considered to be the world’s toughest race, with the distance of 875 kilometers and took at least 6 to 7 days to finish, Cliff Young entered the race against world-class athletes. Read how he achieved the unthinkable and inspires the whole nation.

The Beginning

Every year, Australia hosts an 875-kilometer endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne - considered to be the world’s longest and toughest ultra-marathon. It’s a long, tough race that takes a week and normally participated by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. Backed by big names in sports like Nike, these athletes are mostly less than 30 years old men and women equipped with the most expensive sponsored training outfits and shoes.

In 1983, these top class runners were in for a surprise. On the day of the race, a guy named Cliff Young showed up. At first, no one cared about him since everybody thought he was there to watch the event. After all, he was 61 years old, showed up in overalls and galoshes over his work boots.

As Cliff walked up to the table to take his number, it became obvious to everybody he was going to run. He was going to join a group of 150 world-class athletes and run! During that time, these runners don’t even know another surprising fact - his only trainer was his 81-year-old mother.

Everybody thought that it was a crazy publicity stunt. But the press was curious, so as he took his number 64 and moved into the pack of runners in their special, expensive racing outfit, the camera focused on him and reporters started to ask:

“Who are you and what are you doing?”

“I’m Cliff Young. I’m from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne.”

They said, “You’re really going to run in this race?”

“Yeah,” Cliff nodded.

“Got any backers?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t run.”

“Yeah I can.” Cliff said. “See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up– until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler– whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d catch them. I believe I can run this race; it’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three.”

When the marathon started, the pros left Cliff behind in his galoshes. The crowds smiled because he didn’t even run correctly. Instead of running, he appeared to run leisurely, shuffling like an amateur.

Now, the 61-year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest with no teeth had started the ultra-tough race with world-class athletes. All over Australia, people who watched the live telecast kept on praying that someone would stop this crazy old man from running because everyone believed he’ll die even before even getting halfway across Sydney.

Turtle vs rabbits

Every professional athletes knew for certain that it took about 7 days to finish this race, and that in order to compete, you would need to run 18 hours and sleep 6 hours. The thing is, old Cliff Young did not know that!

When the morning news of the race was aired, people were in for another big surprise. Cliff was still in the race and had jogged all night down to a city called Mittagong.

Apparently, Cliff did not stop after the first day. Although he was still far behind the world-class athletes, he kept on running. He even had the time to wave to spectators who watched the event by the highways.

When he got to a town called Albury he was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. He said he would run through to the finish, and he did.

He kept running. Every night he got just a little bit closer to the leading pack. By the last night, he passed all of the world-class athletes. By the last day, he was way in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, without dying; he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and became a national hero! The nation fell in love with the 61-year-old potato farmer who came out of nowhere to defeat the world’s best long distance runners.

He finished the 875-kilometre race in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes. Not knowing that he was supposed to sleep during the race, he said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm.

When Cliff was awarded the first prize of $10,000, he said he did not know there was a prize and insisted that he had not entered for the money. He said, “There’re five other runners still out there doing it tougher than me,” and he gave them $2,000 each. He did not keep a single cent for himself. That act endeared him to all of Australia. Cliff was a humble, average man, who undertook an extraordinary feat and became a national sensation.

The Inspirational Run Continues
In the following year, Cliff Young entered the same race and came in 7th. During the race, his hip popped out of the joint socket, his knee played up and he endured shin splints. But those didn’t deter him from finishing the race. When he was announced as the winner for most courageous runner and presented with a Mitsubishi Colt, he said, “I didn’t do it near as tough as old Bob McIlwaine. Here, Bob, you have the car,” and gave the keys to him.

It was said that Cliff Young never kept a single prize. People gave him watches, because he never had one. He would thank them because he did not want to hurt their feelings, but will then give it away to the first child he saw. He did not understand why he would need a watch because, he said, he knew when it was daylight, when it was dark, and when he was hungry.

Cliff came to prominence again in 1997, aged 76, when he attempted to become the oldest man to run around Australia and raise money for homeless children. He managed to completed 6,520km of the 16,000km run before he had to pull out after his only permanent crew member became ill.

His love for running never diminished but in year 2000, after collapsing in his Gellibrand home a week after completing 921 kilometers of a 1600-kilometre race, his lose his strength for running. The mild stroke ended his heroic running days.

After the long illness, Cliff Young, the running legend passed away on November 2, 2003. He was 81.

The “Young-shuffle” has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it is considered more aerodynamic and expends less energy. At least 3 winners of the Sydney to Melbourne race have been known to use the ‘Young-shuffle’ to win the race.

Now, for Sydney to Melbourne race, almost nobody sleeps. To win that race, you have to run like Cliff Young did, you have to run all night as well as all day.



MESSAGE #510 - THIS DOES MAKE SENSE...

“You are not
what you think
you are;
but
what you think
you are.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
minister and author

MESSAGE #509 - DON'T BE PART OF NATO

NO
ACTION
TALK
ONLY

MESSAGE #508 - THE BATTLE OF THE SUPERSTARS

WHITNEY HOUSTON VERSUS CONNIE TALBOT

#1. Whitney...



#2. Connie...

MESSAGE #507 - ACTION CREATES ATTITUDE

“NOTHING
BUILDS
CONFIDENCE
LIKE
ACCOMPLISHMENT.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Scottish writer and historian

MESSAGE #506 - CONCENTRATION...

An Olympic table tennis player . . .

MESSAGE #505 - SEEN ON A WALL OF BORDERS BOOKS IN FREEHOLD, NJ . . .

“
Books are the
quietest and most constant
of friends;
they are the
most accessible and wisest
of counselors,
and the
most patient
of teachers.

”

Charles William Eliot (1834 – 1926)
President of Harvard University

MESSAGE #504 - MAYBE IT’S OK TO QUIT -- PART II

MESSAGE #503 - MAYBE IT’S OK TO QUIT – PART I

from The New York Times . . .

August 16, 2008
Shortcuts
Winners Never Quit? Well, Yes, They Do
By ALINA TUGEND

I’VE been thinking about quitting lately. No, not my job, nor my marriage nor the incredibly long Russian novel I need to read by September for my book group (check back with me on that later).

Rather, I’ve been thinking about the concept in general. Watching the superhuman feats of the Olympic athletes this week, I’ve admired the dedication and single-minded focus they exhibit. I think about how maybe if I had just worked harder -- much harder -- at gymnastics when I was young, I could have reached that lofty goal (conveniently forgetting how ill-suited I was to the sport because of my great fear of falling on my head).

Olympians embody one of the great clichés about quitting: “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” My athletic career, on the other hand, is summed up by the other platitude about quitting: “You’ve gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”

Throughout life, we pretty much get those two contradictory messages about quitting. In general, quitting is perceived as bad. A quitter is a loser or, even worse, a traitor -- someone who doesn’t hang in when the going gets tough, someone who lets her team down. Quit once, and it becomes a habit.

“Americans have been brainwashed by Vince Lombardi,” said Seth Godin, author of the book “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).” (Portfolio, 2007). Lombardi coined the “quitters never win” quote.

Winners do quit all the time, Mr. Godin says. “They just quit the right stuff at the right time.”

The trick, of course, is to know when it’s right to walk away and when it’s not. Gregory Miller, an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, has helped write a number of studies on quitting, or in the scientific parlance, “disengaging from goals.”

Professor Miller and his colleagues have followed college students, older people and the parents of children with cancer and found that, in many cases, moving from a difficult goal to another, more attainable, one can create a greater sense of well-being, both mentally and physically.

In the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, Professor Miller, along with Carsten Wrosch, associate professor of psychology at Concordia University, reported that they had followed 90 teenagers for one year. The study found those who could not renounce hard-to-attain goals showed increased levels of the inflammatory molecule C-reactive protein, which is linked to such health problems as heart disease, diabetes and early aging in adults.

The goals, chosen by the participants in the subject, tended to revolve around academic success or body image, Professor Miller said.

The difficulty lies in knowing when to abandon one goal and move on to something else.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Professor Miller said. “How do you draw the line between what’s attainable and what’s not?”

Professor Miller is not advocating forsaking your dreams, just shifting to those that may be more manageable. In particular, studies of older people found that they were happier if they found new goals to pursue once giving up on the old ones, in contrast with those who abandoned their previous aims without substituting anything new.

We have to realize, he said, that “this relentless pursuit of goals has a cost to it.”

Kathleen D. Vohs, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, has also studied the issue, largely in relation to people who regularly overspend and to chronic dieters. She said that people need internal resources to attain their goals, and “if you are a pursuing a goal that is constantly frustrating, you will be less successful in goal attainment in other areas of life.

“One of the most frustrating goals for people is weight loss or weight loss maintenance,” Professor Vohs said. So if a person concentrates on that goal, she may have fewer internal resources to deal with other challenging situations in life, like a demanding boss or an angry spouse.

The answer, Professor Vohs said, is perhaps “stepping back temporarily and saying, ‘I’m going to try to live a healthy life and not try so hard to lose weight.’ ”

Sometimes the desire not to quit surpasses all reason. Ori and Rom Brafman are brothers and the authors of the book “Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior” (Doubleday Business, 2008).

“There is a huge amount of social and psychological forces keeping people from quitting,” Ori Brafman said. He gave an example of an experiment by a Harvard professor who auctioned off a $20 bill. The catch was that while the winner got the $20, the bidder who came in second had to pay the amount of his bid, but got nothing in return.

The experiment was done repeatedly with a variety of participants, and most bidders dropped out at about $12, usually leaving two to fight it out, Mr. Brafman said.

“They didn’t want to be a sucker, paying $12 for nothing,” he said. The record? A bid of $204 for a $20 bill.

“Rather than thinking about winning, they’re playing not to lose,” he said.

This tendency to feel so invested in a situation -- or too embarrassed to admit that we might have chosen the wrong path -- permeates all aspects of our lives.

Perhaps even more difficult than letting ourselves abandon an idea or a project is giving our children permission to do so. As a parent, I know that it can be agonizing to decide when to allow your child to quit something, whether it be a musical instrument, a sports team or a summer camp.

The urge is often to tell him to stick with it because he’ll appreciate it when he’s older, or he made a commitment (and we spent the money), or because we fear that letting him give up this time means he will give up on anything when it gets a little tough.

And in this age of instant gratification, we don’t want to teach our children that just because something is difficult means it’s not worth pursuing. We want them know the joy of mastery, of accomplishing an arduous task.

But allowing your child to quit can be the right move if you understand the reasons behind it. Is it a social problem? A problem with the teacher or coach? A bad fit in general?

If the decision to quit seems to be the right one (and the problem is, there is never a guarantee), we need to learn the right way to do it, said Rom Brafman, who is also a psychologist.

“It is as important to teach someone how to quit as staying committed,” he said. “Lots of times people just stop showing up, and that’s wrong.” Rather, he suggested, say something like “ ‘I tried to work it out, and this not a good match for me.’ Do it in a responsible manner.”

The truth is, it sometimes shows more courage to leave than to stay.

“You’re going against the grain, and it’s hard to be the lone dissenter,” Rom Brafman said.

Mr. Godin advises that the worst time to quit is when you’re feeling the most pain. For example, he said, few drop out of a marathon in the beginning or near the finish line. The worst time is the middle. So plan for it, he says. Know that there will probably be the “dip,” and have your family there give you a boost.

This abhorrence of quitting is not necessarily true in all cultures. Professor Vohs says she sees it among Americans and Japanese, but less so in Europe.

“For Europeans, it’s more understandable to have to quit a goal because it’s healthier, because it’s wreaking havoc on other parts of your life,” she said.

Taking a fresh -- and more positive look -- at quitting is not necessarily a new idea. W. C. Fields coined this twist on an old cliché: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”

Thank you, Ed Smith!

MESSAGE #503 - CHOICES NOT SACRIFICES

We make choices.
I hate to say “sacrifices.”
When I speak to groups
I say,
“We don't make
sacrifices.
If we truly
love this sport and we
have these goals and
dreams
in the sport,
the classroom,
or in life,
they are not sacrifices.
They are
choices
that we make
to fulfill these
goals and dreams.”

Sacrifices
makes it
sound like
“Oh, poor me,
I have to do this
in order
to get to this,”
and
I don't really like that word.
It was just really
the choice
to take care of myself and
live a proper lifestyle.
In doing that,
I feel like a healthier person,
I feel focused in everything,
not just in my running.”

Deena Kastor,
Olympic marathon medalist

MESSAGE #502 - THE TRUTH.

WE MAKE
OUR OWN
TRAPS.

WE CONSTRUCT
OUR OWN
CAGE.

WE BUILD
OUR OWN
ROADBLOCKS.

Douglas Kennedy
writer

MESSAGE #501 - HOW MUHAMMAD ALI DID IT . . .

“

To be
a
great
champion
you must
believe
you
are
the
best.
If
you’re
not
pretend
you
are.

”

MESSAGE #500 - BOB DYLAN, MUHAMMAD ALI, JOAN BAEZ, AND YOU . . .

I know this song was written by Bob Dylan.

I’ve heard this song was inspired by Muhammad Ali.

I know the best cover of this song is by Joan Baez.

And I want to dedicate this song to YOU . . .

MESSAGE #499 - THE IMPORTANCE OF FORGETTING

"The problem
is never
how
to get
new,
innovative
thoughts
into your mind,
but how
to get
the
old
ones
out."

Dee Hock
Founder of VISA

"It’s important
to have a
great memory,
but it’s
even more important
to have a
great forgettery."

Rob Gilbert
Founder of Success Hotline
(973) 743-4690

MESSAGE #498 - THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL PREPOSITION

You’ve heard the old saying, “You only get out of something what you put into it.”

As a professor, I see the truth of this statement every day.

Every person on my class roster is “in” school. This means they’ve registered for courses and they’ve paid their tuition. But the sad fact is that even though all of them are “in” school, very few of them are “into” school. Most of them are “in” a major, but very few of them are “into” their major. Many of them are “in” clubs, student government, and sports, but very few of them are “into” these activities.

The difference between success and failure in school or in anything else is the difference between these two words:

IN VS. INTO

“In” means you show up physically.

“Into” means that you’re totally absorbed -- physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The following quote describes the “into” quality best . . .

Painters paint with their hands.

Artists paint with their hands and minds.

But masters paint with their hands and minds

through their hearts.

Just because you go to class does not necessarily mean that you’re a student.

Just because you can sing a song does not necessarily mean that you’re a singer.

Just because you sell something does not necessarily mean that you’re a salesperson.

Just because you’re IN a profession does not necessarily mean that you’re a professional.

Successful students, singers, salespeople and other professionals have developed the skill of being absorbed physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Being IN something doesn’t mean you’ll get anything OUT OF it.

The only way you’ll ever get anything OUT OF it is if you are totally INTO it.

Rob Gilbert, Ph.D.
(973) 743-4690

MESSAGE #497 - WHAT A GREAT PHOTOGRAPHER TELLS HER STUDENTS . . .

LEARN
NOT
TO
BE
CAREFUL.
Diane Arbus
photographer

MESSAGE # 496 - “SPECIAL”

S = M.T.E.
Special = More Than Expected
Rob Gilbert
(973) 743-4690

Excellence
Is not
expected effort,
it is
special effort.
Ed Tseng
peak performance expert

Don’t alibi on bad hops.
Anyone can field the good ones.
Joe McCarthy (1887-1978)
New York Yankee manager

If there is nothing
very special about your work,
no matter how hard you apply yourself,
you won’t get noticed,
and that increasingly means
you won’t get promoted
and paid much, either.
Michael Goldhaber
author

MESSAGE #495 - THE GOLD MEDAL FOR MOTIVATIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS GOES TO . . . HANK!

MESSAGE #494 - JACK DID IT! YOU CAN TOO!

ILLINOIS MAN PAYS $118,000 TO PUT ON HIS OWN SHOW AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL

BY EDGAR SANDOVAL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Zalcman for News

Organist Jack Moelmann shortly before his scheduled appearance at Radio City Music Hall.

How do you get to Radio City Music Hall? Practice - and $118,182.44.

Even if nobody shows up tonight to hear Jack Moelmann perform a medley of Broadway favorites on the concert hall's organ, he says, "It's money well-spent."

"I've been playing the organ since I was 8 years old," said the retired Air Force colonel as he stood beaming beside the poster announcing his 8 p.m. gig. "For 50 years, I've been wanting to do this. I've got no wife or kids. This is it for me."

Moelmann, 67, who hails from the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Ill., had plenty of practice under his belt. But that wasn't quite enough to get him into one of New York's most famous venues.

He said the idea of blowing his life savings to rent the same hall where Willie Nelson, Sarah Brightman and The Police have recently graced the stage didn't scare him.

He said his pals at the Theater Organ Society International encouraged him to go for it.

"We should all follow our dreams the way Jack follows his," said Moelmann's buddy, Nelson Page, 54, who will serve as the master of ceremonies. "For many, playing here is something they can only dream about."

Mikyl Cordova, a spokesman for Radio City, said it was the first time in history that an average Joe rented the hall to put on his own show.

Moelmann plans to play classics like the "Trolley Song" from the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" and some other favorites from "Mame" on the famous organ, which was installed in 1932.

As of yesterday, Moelmann's hometown pals had reserved 15 of the 6,000 seats in the hall for a show billed as "A Musical Showcase featuring Col. Jack Moelmann and Friends at the Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ."

So, New Yorkers, there's still plenty of seats available, and tickets are selling for $50 a pop.

Moelmann said he's not worried about going broke.

"I've still got some money," he said. "I'm not going to be begging on the streets."

And he plans to give it his all - for whoever shows up.

"I've played in many places over the years, but this is Mount Everest," he said.

NEW YORK POST

ORGANIST HAS A WURL

By DAN AQUILANTE, Post Music Critic

August 10, 2008 --

It was a pipe organ dream-come-true.

Last night, in front of an audience of nearly 1,000, Jack Moelmann stretched his 15 minutes of fame into a two-hour concert program, realizing his lifelong ambition to play the massive Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer in his Big Apple debut.

The 67-year-old retired Air Force colonel enjoyed a dose of celebrity over the past few weeks when he announced he'd pulled out all the stops and spent $118,000 of his own cash to rent Radio City for the gig.

Moelmann, who looks his years, is a little younger than the 1932 vintage instrument he played. You might ask why Moelmann lusted to noodle at this organ, but the answer is easy: It's the biggest, baddest beast of an organ in America. In fact, it's the largest theater pipe organ ever built by Wurlitzer.

When you're talking organs, size matters. In a program of show tunes, sing-along standards and even a classical piece - sorry rockers, no "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" - Moelmann and five organist pals managed to successfully showcase the mighty organ's power and range when played in the cavernous auditorium.

In a white dinner jacket, Moelmann was a little jittery on his opener "Trolley Song" from the Judy Garland film "Meet Me In St. Louis." He rushed the piece and missed a few notes. But as his set progressed, he showed himself as a skilled amateur.

This was a folksy show with an avuncular organ man. His showmanship is hoaky, but his love of the instrument and his desire to share that appreciation is genuine. Music needs more Jack Moelmanns - guys who do it for love, not money.

MESSAGE #493 - THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

A FEW SECONDS
PER MILE
DURING A MARATHON
IS THE
DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN
FINISHING
WITH
THE KENYANS
AND
FINISHING
WITH SOME GUY
NAMED KEN.
from an advertisement for Powerbar

Dedication: to triathlete ASHLEIGH KAST. Congratulations!

MESSAGE #492 - AN OLYMPIAN EFFORT

To win a gold medal, you need to . . .

#1. Have a goal.
#2. Be focused on reaching the goal.
#3. Have a specific time-based deadline.
#4. Be highly energized.
#5. Be unstoppably relentless.
#6. DON’T QUIT.
#7. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

For example . . .

MESSAGE #491 - SOMEONE TO CHEER FOR...

MESSAGE #490 - FUN, HAPPINESS, & BLISS

“The best climber
in the world is
the one who’s
having the most fun.”
ALEX LOWE
mountain climber

“Success is not a destination: It is a journey.
The happiest people I know are those who
are busy working toward specific objectives.
The most bored and miserable people I know
are those who are drifting along with no
worthwhile objectives in mind.”
ZIG ZIGLAR
professional speaker

“Follow your bliss.”
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
mythologist

MESSAGE #489 - ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Never
place
a period
where
God
has
placed
a comma.

Gracie Allen (1895-1964)
Comedian

Happy Birthday, Lisa Sargese!!!

MESSAGE #488 - DON'T MISS THIS FILM...

MESSAGE #487 - PRICELESS!

Ideas are a dime a dozen,
but people who carry them out
are priceless.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), the great science fiction author, was one of the most prolific writers ever.

Often, he would be approached by fans saying that they had a great idea for a story. The fan wanted to tell Asimov the story and hoped that Asimov would write it and publish it then they would be partners and split the profits!

Asimov always countered with his offer, “I have plenty of ideas already. What if I send you an idea. You write it and you send me half the money!”

No one ever took Asimov up on his offer.

And Asimov knew why . . .

Ideas are easy.
Writing is hard.

MESSAGE #486 - YOU’RE GOING TO FALL IN LOVE!

Three minutes from now, you’ll be in love with Jessica . . .

A BIG thank you to #29.

MESSAGE #485 - GREAT ADVICE FROM A GREAT NOVELIST . . .

GOOD
HABITS
ARE
WORTH
BEING
FANATICAL
ABOUT.
John Irving
writer