ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.

THE STATE OF YOUR LIFE IS NOTHING MORE THAN  A REFLECTION OF YOUR STATE OF MIND

One of the most  important choices  you must make every day is the type of attitude you project to everyone around you. A positive, optimistic attitude will empower you and set the tone for great success and fulfilment. In my position as the Health Sciences coordinator I feel this is especially true at the beginning of each year as the new students all fresh faced and eager sit before me!

Things go wrong .....like the timetable and it has to change....how we react to that defines us.

Build a Depth of Character

The many good and bad choices you make throughout your life will determine the depth of character you get to develop. As you know, your  attitude and depth of character are the two building blocks of sustainable success. So when you invest time to build a meaningful character and you strive to project a positive attitude to the world, you empower yourself to consistently make  better choices and you project a persona to the world, which people want to associate with . It  is  far  easier to invest time around positive,energetic people than it is to be  drained  by negative, pessimistic people.

Choose to Change

Make the conscious decision to apply sufficient energy and effort to change yourself from who you currently are, into who you need or want to be. This process becomes possible for you, when you take responsibility for changing your life and you consistently take steps to project a positive attitude and develop the strength of character necessary for success. Remember that you attract success by the person you become.

As you invest into the development of your character, you will get to project a far more appealing face to the world and as such the people around you will begin to respond far more positively to you.

Your Character is always changing

Your character is not something that is stagnant and unchangeable; it is something that is shaped by the way you choose to respond to everything that happens to you throughout your life.

Choose to Strengthen or Weaken your Character

You get to choose to strengthen or weaken your character by how you choose to respond to everything in your environment.There are really only two choices, you can make: you choose to be a “winner” or you choose to be a "whiner"

“Winners” are positive, believe in the potential and are in an empowered state eager for success.

“ Whiners ” are  negative , always looking for someone else to blame, they have no self-confidence and are completely  dis-empowered.

What attitude do you choose?

Becoming a Winner

You become a Winner” by choosing to nurture positive qualities within yourself. Think of the analogy of gathering wood to build a huge bonfire. When building a bonfire,you need to search diligently for the right wood and then light a flame under the wood, until the wood catches fire and  burns properly. The same is true for building the character  and attitude of a “winner”. You must  diligently search every day for the fuel to feed your  character and attitude. Once you have gathered enough fuel, you must ignite the flame of your  passion under the fuel and commit to keep searching for and adding great fuel to the fire.

Just remember......

LIFE IS 10% WHAT HAPPENS TO ME AND 90% HOW I REACT TO IT

More articles on self development

Why Bother Knowing Life Purpose?

We bother about knowing our Life purpose because it is  important for us to have a plan for where we want to go.

If you understand your lifes purpose then it will give you a meaningful compass in which you have direction and guide in your life.

If you’re looking to move into a new path of your life, knowing your purpose in life can help you.

If you have a nagging feeling that there is something more in your life, then discovering life purpose can bring into a whole new level of passion and joy to your life.  Finding your life purpose can help you find out why you love those things that you love and also what you can do to accomplish or excel in the direction you want to go.

If you want to make changes in your life then its important to remember that your life purpose is not really about what you do but it revolves around who you are when you do it.

It is not about the doing...It is about the being.

It is the you that appears in everything you accomplish or do in life.

Finding your life purpose is not easy and it is a task that I challenge my students with each year.

We discuss clues that life gives us and no matter where we are in life now, our hobbies, our daily activities and our part-time jobs will all give us clues as to our life purpose.

If  you find this difficult to see the clues then you can start by asking questions about what you like to do.

Many people don’t have any idea about what they love to do. Without finding what you want to do you will never

find your life purpose.

Knowing what you love to do can serve as your steering wheel of your life. If you don’t know what you love to do,

you won’t have any direction to your life. But, if you have an idea on your passion, it will be much easier for you to

know your life purpose. Also, all your burdens and uncertainties in life will be removed.

why do students and also many others experience some difficulties finding out what they love to do?

It is quite simple really  ..  they have never really asked themselves about what they love to do.

Being honest is also a key to find out what you love to do.

One way to find out what we love to do is to

  List Down Our Skills-

Listing your skills or interests can also a great help. Through these, you can easily concentrate on what you love to do.

However, make sure to list down the true information about you. Skills and interests are

important because skills will help you identify your strengths.

Another idea is to find out What Do Other People Think You’re Good At?

I always ask the students to pick out 2 people in their team and write down three skills each of them have.

The most common things that the majority of people think about what you’re good at is positive.

Sometimes, it is also good to be criticized by other people.

The reason behind it is that you are not always strong and good at something. There will always times that you

might fail on the things you regularly do. You have to take accept that there is no perfect person. That is why it is

also good to experience failures as these can also give you understanding or knowledge about what you want to

achieve in your life.

Your strengths are what make you stronger. Though you also have weaknesses, your strengths can be the key to

get good comments or reactions from other people. If you always want to get positive feedbacks from other people,

do the things you love and work from your heart.

You can always fake your feelings, but your output or performance can tell something that will reflect on you.

So, if you don’t want to fail in searching for your life purpose, you should do the things you love.

Just the other day I was chatting to my youngest daughter Megan shortly after she had returned from seeing her boyfriend. As we were talking about her day out she happily informed me that she felt that her boyfriend’s dad liked her.

When I enquired as to why she thought that…..Megan then told me that the father had told his son that he thought Megan was very polite and had very good manners. I liked to hear that because it made me realize that even though my daughter could sometimes be challenging with her parents she still had her values in place and demonstrated respect towards other adults outside our home.

Seems like a silly thing to write about but sometimes when we get the basics right it is a great multiplier and makes people more willing to refer us to other people. An aspect that is essential in our workplace and life and friends in general.

All in all the conversation got me thinking about the small basic behaviors that have major repercussions as to how we are perceived by others.

So what are some basic principles in developing relationships and having people refer us .

SHOW UP ON TIME

When I started teaching a new class this last September I had a few students who arrived late into a few classes. On being questioned it was obvious that their reasons were not valid and it was only when I highlighted the message they were sending out to others that their behavior changed.

What they were demonstrating was a lack of respect towards me as their teacher and also towards their fellow students in the class. As they interrupted the class teaching on their late arrival they were in fact disrupting the learning of the other students and showing the other students that they were not important enough to warrant them making an effort to be at their seat before the class started.

By demonstrating some respect towards their teacher and fellow students it would make others more receptive towards these students and more willing to listen to what they have to say.

Always do what you say you will do

There is nothing worse than someone, who makes commitments to other people and then fails to deliver on them.. It astounds me how many people let other people down and worse than that do not feel they have done anything really wrong..

Let me give you an example. A group of students have to do a presentation in class. They have to prepare a powerpoint and hand out notes and they get marked on this work. In the group they allocate roles of who does what. On the day of the presentation one of the students has not completed her part of the presentation. In fact she has let the other students down and has not done what she said she was going to do. A classic scenario of where trust is lost just because the person did not do what they said they were going to do .

Say “Please and Thank You”

I know this must seem really obvious, but it astounds me to see how many young people now do not do this .Simply by showing respect for other people and saying thank you, where they become aware of how important they are to you then, you make yourself far more valuable to other people and obviously you then become far more referable too.

So  its really complicated then? …..to get on in life and to get people to respond to you  do the following .

BE ON TIME

ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO

SAY PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Simple ...isn,t it?

Its not often that I get upset about anything...... I guess that people would describe me as easy going and generally looking at the upside of life.

With all the problems I handle on a daily basis in my role at college its important that I keep a  stable perspective offering solutions and ideas on how the students can move forward  with what they are dealing with right now.

 Since returning from Spain in August and moving back into the college I have noticed the high incidence of home related problems among the students. So much so that when a good student in one class started to miss class I took the responsibility of enquiring what the problem was. The student informed me that her mother had very severe arthritis and on some days needed someone in the house to help her with mobility.

 As I coordinate the health and social care course and most of the students are going to move into either a medical or care related environment it is not unusual for them to be involved in or have had experience in a caring capacity so this situation that the student found herself in was not unusual.

As time moved on I noticed that the student missed a full week and once again the reason given was her mother being severely ill.

On one particular day this student arrived into my class with an orange form from the social services. She told me that since her mother was unable to work and also since she was spending a lot of time looking after her then she could get some kind of carer allowance to help with their financial situation.

 As the coordinator of the course could I please sign the form to say that she was a student on the course and also was a carer for her mother.

 Kathy being Kathy signed the form and thought no more about it.

 As the weeks unfolded the student disappeared from the class. We could not contact her by phone either mobile or home number and realized that she had dropped out of the course.

 Unfortunately for this student I have a good relationship with the students I teach and so they tell me things that perhaps they would not usually pass on to other adults.

It was then that two students in the class told me the truth.

 She did not live with her mother, her mother did not have arthritis and she bragged to them how she had got 1000 pounds out of social services and was using it to go off on holiday to Spain with her boyfriend.

So hence my title to this article “when compassion is kicked back in your face”

Of course I should not have been as trusting and should have checked up on everything she said and for that I get smacked over the knuckles. With the course and subject matter I teach I talk to the students about their values, beliefs and their personal development. I guess I got to this one too late.

As the week unfolds we will be reporting this to the social services as benefit fraud and hopefully they will get onto her case.

As for myself…..its not often something upsets me but this did. Not that she fooled me but just that she lied to me for weeks and played on my understanding nature to scheme on a way to illegally get some money for her and her boyfriend.

What she did not count on was the students telling me what had gone on. I guess it’s a classic case of a nail in the coffin of “losing faith in human nature” but its important that situations like this do not make us cynical and yet to be honest it left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I ask myself the question at 58 years old…..  should I not have learned by now that just because I place a high value on honesty, integrity and not sharing other people's business , telling the truth and keeping promises I've made, etc....  I seem to just expect that everyone else would naturally do the same.  

Of course, by now, after many years teaching I do know ...   that this is not the case,  That in fact, those of us who feel this way  seem to be in the minority when it comes to the high value we place on honor, trust and integrity.  Yet it is very important to me that  I continue to act in the way that feels right to me despite being totally disappointed in the way this student behaved.  

I am not going to dwell on this scenario that has happened.   I will keep reminding myself that just because I place a high value on certain things, doesn't mean that I have any right to expect that everyone else will do the same.

This is a difficult inner conflict with me as I believe that one aspect of the concept of honesty and Intregrity is that genuine Love and caring cannot exist if there is not first Trust. 

If I cannot feel a level of trust with the people whom I come into contact then no basis for a relationship is in place. If an elderly person in a care home cannot trust her carer then there is no moving forward.

This incident that happened is a lesson in itself on why Honesty and Integrity are so very important.... This should be the norm and not the exception.

This student has got her money for her holiday.

After two weeks the holiday is over.

Knowledge is great when we apply it to direct our behaviours and actions in our lives. If we do not apply the knowledge we gain then its there but has no real purpose. Applying the knowledge you gain is really your “power tool” for success in your life

Who you will be in the future and what you will become in the future will be determined by the knowledge you gain .This knowledge comes from the books and articles you read, the people who you associate with, the thoughts that filter through your mind and lastly the action you take based on the knowledge you have gained.

When we make a decision to acquire knowledge that we  take action on then we shall consistently grow and expand. When you commit to acquire the right knowledge and convert this into daily action, you will have discovered how to consistently grow and expand, into the type of person you need to be to attract the type of success you desire.

Let me give you an example. When we moved to Spain in 2010 my husband and I did not speak Spanish. We thought it would be easy to pick up but at our age in our 50s it was not the easiest to learn. Of course we did pick up words here and there but it was more difficult than we thought.

When we returned in 2012 I made a vow that I would take up Spanish classes so that when the kids finished school and we returned to Spain I would have a better understanding of the language. This is an example of acquiring new knowledge that I would put into action to make my life easier on our return to Spain a year or so down the line. In essence acquiring this new knowledge was affecting my future.

How do we acquire new knowledge?

Read for at least one hour a day. Listen to audio recordings when in the car and go to training sessions that are in line with what you want to learn.

If we want to earn more income then we need to learn more. There are no magic buttons and it has been shown  in many cases that your level of income correlates to your knowledge. Increasing our knowledge will also increase the quality of our lives. Becoming a continual learner will put a light into your life and have a positive effect on your life.

If we only learn something to increase our knowledge by only one percent a week then that is 67% in a year .

Small steps bring major changes and as your knowledge improves you will start to soar to new heights and move forward towards your dreams.

Never be afraid to identify the talents you lack. When I work with young adults and ask them to identify their talents and also areas where they need to work on most of them find this a very difficult task to do .

It is only when I highlight talents I have spotted in the group that the students start to learn how to identify their interpersonal skills they have at present and also the skills they need to acquire. When we can see the talents and skills in other people that are lacking in ourselves then aligning ourselves with those people will enable us to learn from them and increase our own skills

Make sure that you invest some of the time being mindlessly entertained into something of value. This gives you a huge advantage and will equip you for future success. Use your knowledge to equip you for the opportunities that will come your way.

Use your knowledge to direct your future and remember knowledge is never power unless you apply it to shape your life.

Own your NOW?

Why is it that sometimes it takes a defining moment or the prospect of death to make us realize what is important and teach us in an instant how important it is to live in the moment.

Let me put this  another way.

 Why is it that when we are in a situation where time all of a sudden could be running out we readjust our thinking and suddenly we can see clearly what is important in our lives?

After that statement I think I better explain!

11 years ago my husband and I made a decision to return to N. Ireland  after 25 years living in S. Africa. Our decision was based on the future prospect and safety for our children and was not an easy one to make. Although S. Africa was not my birth home it was my husband’s home country and he would be leaving his family behind.  We had a successful TV program at the time running on National TV and all in all business wise we were doing very well so it was difficult to walk away especially since we were moving to a country where we both did not have jobs to go to .

About 8 months before we left I had some unusual symptoms that I knew needed a Doctor to investigate and resulted in a brain scan at the local Hospital in Cape Town.

When the results of the scan came out right after the scan I was told to report to a neurosurgeon in the Hospital and was not allowed to leave the scanning department until I had spoken to the surgeon. The urgency of the situation dawned on me.

I had to take the scan in an envelope to another department and hand it into reception.  When I did this the sister in charge opened the envelope and told me I had a macro adenoma and had to stay to see the surgeon.

For those of you who need enlightened a macro adenoma is a tumour that is defined as macro rather than micro due to the circumference diameter. As the scan was on my brain I knew it was in my brain somewhere. My profession throughout the years has always been in the health field; either teaching or working in a medical company and so being privy to that information threw up all possible connotations in my mind of where the tumour was and its effect.

My husband sat with me outside the office of the neurosurgeon and we waited.

We waited for 50 minutes at least and those 50 minutes in time changed my life. In front of me in the waiting room was a notice board with health posters and other pieces of information. I tried to read them to get my mind off what the surgeon was going to tell me but I could not focus. All I could see where images of my two young girls float across the board. Then there was my husband beside me just as scared as me and all I could do was think of him as well.

How would he cope?

How would he manage to bring the kids up ?

Why me …its not fair I want to see my kids grow up and leave school and get married

How will this affect them … loosing a mother so young. My daughters at this stage were 5 and 6

In that 50 minutes,  my family were the only parts of my life that came into my head.  Not my business, not my life in S. Africa…not my friends …...nothing else.

I was scared that what the surgeon would tell me would cheat me out of my time with my young girls and my husband. I married at the age of 35 and had my first daughter at 40 so having children was something I had left until “later” and for me had been a major decision.

When we sat down in front of the surgeon I was amazed at how relaxed he was and in a way that gave me the feeling that maybe this was not as serious as I thought and lucky for me it was not.

The tumour was on my pituitary gland at the base of the brain and it was benign and not malignant.

When he told me this information it was like being given a second chance, the feeling was amazing and as we walked out of his office I felt like I was walking on air. My senses were so acute, I could smell all the smells I noticed everyone in the office and I felt I was the luckiest person alive.

It was an amazing feeling and the experience in that short space of time had changed me for the rest of my life. Of course since that I have had surgery to remove the tumour and there is a story attached to that as well but knowing that it was benign and operable and also slow growing was music to my ears.

That was about 11 years ago and today I consider myself lucky for the experience. Not that I wish this on anyone but the fact that I have been given a chance in my life to know what it feels like with the possibility of life running short. It has meant that I appreciate every day and I really do.

I do not yearn for the past wondering what could or should have been. Nor do I sit and stare into the future dreaming of things that could never be. When I find myself doing either of these I quickly pull myself back into the present reminding myself of how important it is to utilize and optimize my enjoyment on the NOW. After all who of us know how long the NOW will last.

Owning my NOW has become very important in my life. I know that our timeline only travels in  one direction when the day has gone it has gone. My mother who is now in her eighties will only get older with the days before just memories in her mind.

I think that where this really hits us straight on is when we hear on the media about the death of someone from our youth or we hear about them and are told their age. Just this morning on my way into college I listened to an interview with Julie Andrews as she has just released an album, and is approaching her 80^th Birthday!

I still saw her  as a young beautiful women running in the hills singing “The sound of music”  The picture of Julie Andrews as a young women was imprinted in my mind  and it brought back memories of when as young children we were all singing the songs and dreaming of being Julie Andrews with the handsome  Captain Von Trap.

Aaah……..its great to dream

Live in the NOW,   remember that the actions we take and the emotions we experience now will inevitably shape the unfolding of our future and will influence the happiness we fell now and the happiness we will feel in the future.

Our physical presence on this planet is short lived so we need to enjoy the moments while they are here. Give to people and it will bring meaning into your life.

Learn from your experiences form yesterday, learn from them and and move on.  look to the future with a sense of wonder and adventure.

Dare to live each moment of every day and meaning and fulfillment will come into your life.   Remember the NOW

Something I have concentrated on developing throughout my career and also my personal life is to really try and see opportunity in everything. Now let me take a step back here and say that sometimes it is just not as easy as it sounds but I do still try.

I have tried really hard to instill this quality in my own daughters as well as the students I teach. Life throws at us many challenges and it is important that we are able to recognize the value that a challenges will bring to us. In fact a challenge will offer us the opportunity for personal growth, a new experience and also a new learning experience.
Sometimes when we are faced with a challenge another idea could surface that previously would not have come to the fore had we not had to stretch our mind and get creative in finding solutions to what we have in front of us .

Of course it is important for us not to ignore reality but we can learn the benefit of keeping a positive mindset especially when dealing with negative people and events around us.

When I returned from Spain this August I was able to return to my previous job at the college as they had kept the job open for me for 3 years just in case I decided to come back. I was extremely grateful for this opportunity as I enjoy the age group and the subjects I teach at the college.

What I noticed in my first few weeks back was the number of negative people who seemed stuck in a rut and had not changed from that scenario in the 2 years I had been away .

They are not happy with their jobs and have been there many years so in effect have lost the challenge and spark in what they do. In seems that the job has become something they do towards getting a pension in a number of years time.

This negativity is a daily challenge for me as I know it is easy to get sucked in and dragged down to the point of agreeing with them and joining the negative clan who move around the college moaning about everything.

I decided early that rather than let the negativity affect me  the opportunity in what I was doing would be  transferring my knowledge and experience onto my blog and building up my blog as an avenue to move forward when my daughters have finished school 2 years down the line.

For that reason I love what I do and see in the college a great opportunity for me to develop on my own. When I am faced with negative people I take it as an example of what happens when we fail to embrace change and see opportunity in what we do .

In fact we should really thank the challenging people who cross our path for teaching us about ourselves and also allowing us the opportunity to learn the benefits of keeping a positive mindset.

In my position as coordinator of health and social care in the college I am faced with challenges every day coming from all directions. I have students coming to me with their problems and unable to see a way out. When I sit with them and we discuss the angles around the problem it is mostly the student who comes up with the solution.I am just the facilitator who tries to help them see that there are other ways to look at the situation in front of them and see a way forward.

When it comes to the end of their two year course the only difference between the student who achieves distinctions and the student who manages to pass is the ability to take on a challenge and not see it as a set back. All of us are faced with challenges throughout our lives and it is our decision on how we approach them as an opportunity to learn or we use them as a reason not to try.

As tonight brings us into 2013 we must remember that what ever way our life unfolds will depend on how we respond to the challenges and roadblocks which come our way and they will be there I can assure you.

Rise up and face them head on, recognize the value in what they offer you and have a wonderful year ahead !

Just last week in college I reflected on an incident that occurred as regards a computer room .

The college where I work is in a relatively new building less than 5 years old . Since moving into the building the class and course numbers have grown and so there is a lot of pressure for rooms and especially computer rooms.

This scarcity has led to a kind of “Rabbit Burrow “mentality where people are very protective over the room or space they have managed to acquire. It was an aspect of working in the college that I noticed very quickly on my return from Spain in September this year

On this particular day I had an Anatomy class for a 3 hour stint and made a decision to teach the first half and have the students type up their work the second half.As there were various classes out on trips I had been informed by my senior colleague that a certain computer room would be free for the day.

When we arrived at the room at 1.15 there was a member of staff there who also was not usually booked into that room and also who had been there since 9.00 am in the morning. Seeing as it was now 1.15 I explained that we would like the room for 1 hour to complete the students work. I presumed that since the lecturer had also taken advantage of this free computer room but had already been there for 4 hours with one class then there would not be a problem.

I was wrong.

I was informed by this lecturer that the students were settled and working and she did not want to move them and intended staying there until 3.00 that afternoon.

At this stage I had to step back, take a deep breath and reflect on where this person was in their life right now and where they were headed.

This also happened in front of 25 students waiting outside the door and so I knew they would be watching my reaction.

We moved off to another non computer room and I proceeded to start a lesson on personal development and the ways in which we attract success in our lives.

Just how many of us need to make that crucial shift and stop selfishly looking around our world for ways to make things better for ourselves and instead look around our environment and discover ways in which we can help others to get what they want.

As the late and great Zig Ziglar said “The more people you help to get what they want, the more people will help you to get what you want”

I believe that when you turn your focus away from yourself towards others or a cause bigger than yourself, you open your mind up to possibility. This shift helps you to invite meaning and fulfilment into your experience and allows you to live according to your highest and most joyful purpose.

Would I have given up the computer room?

Absolutely!

I have learnt a long time ago that by extending myself towards the spirit of giving, I am able to shift the stress and attention off myself and look around my world with a calm and easy set of eyes.

.I know that I am never looked at as a person who is looking to profit at any cost, even at the expense of others and I also know that when we become like this then people mirror our behaviour and we are supported in return.

We remove our ego from the situation and instead of it being all about me it is about us.

People see you genuinely offering service without any expectation of receiving anything in return. The only reward you should ever expect for your giving, is the good feeling, giving itself brings to you.

This good feeling, which comes from giving freely of yourself, is far better than the discomfort and distress, which comes from focusing exclusively on yourself, always selfishly looking around your world, for “what’s in it for me”.

When we foster and nurture kindness towards others, everything in my world changes for the better. As my mind is focused on compassion, exactly that is what I receive from others in return and this allows me to live in a far friendlier world.

Remember that you attract success by the person you become and that you also live in a world, which is a reflection of who you are.

So if you want any level of success in your life and you want to live in a wonderful world with meaning and fulfilment, you can never get what you want, you can only get what you are.

I think the students got the message!

In this last couple of weeks I have become a victim of  the exact behaviours I  caution against  and just tonight I surfaced for Air and wondered where the heck I had been!

Let me explain.

I just cannot keep count of the number of times I have talked to  students  and young adults to be careful and not get  wrapped up in “the doing” just to survive the day where we create the illusion of motion to fill our days .

In those days we lose our inspired action where we have meaning and focus and that fire that drives us which comes from within.

 Our energy comes from our WHY.

 Instead we plod our way through work and lose the ability to remain task focused and mission driven, where we make prioritised action daily to move us towards our dreams.

Inspiration is a drive, which comes from within. It is essential that we are  absolutely clear about what success looks like and also  know exactly what we  want from our lives.

We need to know our WHY

The WHY is our internal stimulus that drives us and gets us out of bed each morning ready to take action we need to take to succeed?

These last few weeks I lost the WHY.

Why we had come back to the UK when we wanted to stay in Spain.

The reason WHY is unique to everyone and their own personal circumstances. For us it was a decision made to allow our daughter to complete their A levels in subjects of their choice. It was a two year decision after which we would once again leave the UK and return to Spain.

The price we were paying now had a promise in the future and it was this promise that was the drive to propel us forward to take the daily action to succeed even when we did not feel like it.

My daily action was to work on my health blog and add more information on teenagers but I had lost my way over the last 2 weeks. The success habits of posting every few days had floundered among a maze of “doing things” and  only today did I realise I had lost my focus.

Today I am back on track with a renewed energy to keep my dreams alive with passion and inspiration.

There is no place for Regret!

Always remember your WHY

I love Quotes!

 Yes I do and I use them all the time with my classes.

I find that quotes are a wonderful way to start  a topic in personal development as they usually get the creative thinking started and  open up the discussions in the classroom.

 Lets take for example the subject of discipline. This is a skill that we talk about as being essential towards achieving the grades and the goals we have set in our course. An earlier article I wrote talked about the small steps of discipline we need to do on a daily basis to move us towards these goals.

To start this topic I could use the following quote

 "We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons."

- Jim Rohn

We can use this analogy with past exams. Was there any subject that you just failed and if you had just disciplined yourself to do that little bit of work you may have just passed.

Lets look at this from another angle …our diet.

In class last week we were talking about our diets and I was listening to  many of the class tell me about the amount of salt they take with each meal. They sit down at the table and shake salt all over their food before they even taste it. Now unless all of us have been living under a rock we should know the problems with too much salt…heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke etc and  in the supermarkets the processed food that is available already has a high level of salt  in them to increase storage life and make them taste better.

 When we discussed this issue I was assured by the students that it would just not be possible to reduce the salt they put on their food as it would just not taste the same.

Well not initially I informed them….  but it only takes a few weeks for your taste buds to adjust ( teacher has an answer for everything)

So lets look at me. (for a change)

  I have been taking sweeteners in my coffee for some time, I do not know when or why I started but I do know that it is something I should not do. So last week I stopped.

Did my coffee taste the same?.......No…..but I kept having my normal daily coffee and I persevered with the no sweeteners.

  Viola ……today 10 days later I did not even notice the taste….just a nice cup of coffee.

 So back to the salt.

 Just like the quote says we can go through the temporary pain of discipline in adjusting our tastebuds to a new taste of less salt or we can not discipline ourselves to make that change and  take the risk of possible effects on our health  later and regret we never made the changes.

The choice is ours …..simple

 Remember: 

 If you are like me and enjoy quotes then I have found  a  book  of "300 top quotes" and placed it on my site  here.

 …enjoy!