Timeless Words from Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

PLAYING THE MASTER GAME.... of life

I just came across this very powerful passage from The Master Game, a book written in the 1950’s by Robert S. de Ropp. To really embrace this extraodinarily powerful message, read it out loud !!

Seek, above all, for a game worth playing. Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found the game, play it with intensity - play as if your life and sanity depend on it. (They do depend on it.) Follow the example of the French existentialists and flourish a banner bearing the word “engagement”.

Though nothing means anything and all roads are marked “no exit”, yet move as if your movements had some purpose. If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one. For it must be clear, even to the most clouded intelligence, that any game is better than no game.

But although it is safe to play the Master Game, this has not served to make it popular. It still remains the most demanding and difficult of games and in our society, there are few who play. Contemporary man, hypnotized by the glitter of his own gadgets, has little contact with his inner world, concerns himself with outer, not inner space. But the Master Game is played entirely in the inner world, a vast and complex territory about which men know very little. The aim of the game is true awakening, full development of the powers latent in man.

The game can be played only by people whose observations of themselves and others have led them to a certain conclusion, namely, that man’s ordinary state of consciousness, his so-called waking state, is not the highest level of consciousness of which he is capable. In fact, this state is so far from real awakening that it could appropriately be called a form of somnambulism, a condition of “waking sleep”.

Once a person has reached this conclusion, he is no longer able to sleep comfortably. A new appetite develops within him, the hunger for real awakening, for full consciousness. He realized that he sees, hears, and knows only a tiny fraction of what he could see, hear and know, that he lives in the poorest, shabbiest of rooms in his inner dwelling, and that he could enter other rooms, beautiful and filled with treasures, the windows of which look out on eternity and infinity.

The solitary player lives today in a culture that is more or less totally opposed to the aims he has set himself, that does not recognize the existence of the Master Game, and regards players of this game as queer or slightly mad. The player thus confronts great oppositions from the culture in which he lives and must strive with forces, which tend to bring his game to a halt before it has even started. Only by finding a teacher and becoming part of the group of pupils that that teacher has collected about him can the player find encouragement and support. Otherwise he simply forgets his aim, or wanders off down some side road and loses himself.

Here it is sufficient to say that the Master Game can never be made easy to play. It demands all that a man has, all his feelings, all his thoughts, all his resources—physical and spiritual. If he tries to play it in a half-hearted way or tries to get results by unlawful means, he runs the risk of destroying his own potential. For this reason it is better not to embark on the game at all than to play it half-heartedly.

Life Guiding Principles

These were billed as 'Secrets to Success', but I view them more as a guide for everyday life. They seem to re-iterate what I am trying to do in my life, so I've shared them here to inspire you as well ....

1. Pursue life with purpose.
2. Dream big dreams. Achieve them with realistic short-term goals.
3. Every moment counts so focus like a laser beam not a light bulb.
4. Take action now. You can't score if you don't aim and shoot.
5. Develop good habits. Exercise for a strong mind and body.
6. Have the courage to try - and the courage to try again.
7. Cultivate an attitude of success and success will follow.
8. Laugh long and loud. Laughter is brain food and soul food.
9. Live life with passion and bursting desire.
10. Immerse yourself in inspiration to keep your fire burning.

Cathy Freeman's Story

"I'm just a little black girl who can run fast....."

From humble aboriginal beginnings in small-town Australia to winning the 400 m gold medal in front of her family at the Sydney Olympics, Cathy Freeman is a real inspiration.

While in grade school, Cathy started running track and won races from the very start. She also figured out (as kids do!) that winning races made adults happy and got her out of school classes. So when asked by a councilor what she wanted to do when she ‘grew up’ Cathy said she wanted to win an Olympic gold medal.

Now, many young athletes will say the same thing, but of course, not many achieve their stated goal. Some don’t have the talent, some lose their determination, and some follow other paths. But Cathy didn’t. She had the talent, she had the courage and she had the determination to make it happen – and she did, against many odds.

To start, funding was a perpetual battle. Cathy had to travel great distances (with the associated costs), just to compete as a teen. Getting coaching for any kid was difficult, and meant moving to the ‘big city’. Being aboriginal was a bit more of a challenge. But she rose to the challenge, moved to the city, changed schools, got some better coaching. And thrived on running and her Olympic dream.

An exchange trip to the USA in 1988 and subsequently meeting both Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith-Joyner was a catalyst for Cathy. On her return to Australia and after just 6 months of good coaching, Cathy won a Commonwealth Games gold medal as part of Australia’s 4 x 100 m team. She was on her way to stardom….

In the background, but providing great moral support to their daughter/sister/cousin was Cathy’s incredibly strong mother, supportive step-father, a whole clan of Freeman’s and a sister who eventually passed away from cerebral palsy (CP). It was the passing of Cathy’s sister Anne-Marie, who couldn’t walk or speak due to CP, that fueled part of her running. Cathy’s wins were often attributed to Anne-Marie.

Cathy broke through many barriers during her track career. Not just in her running times on the track, but in her overall achievements. In 1990, Cathy won the Young Australian of the Year award – not an award generally provided to an aboriginal women. In 1992, at age 19, Cathy was the first Australian aboriginal to compete at an Olympic Games (in Barcelona). In 1994, you may remember when Cathy caused an international kerfuffle. She hoisted both the Aboriginal flag and the Australian flag above her head after winning the 400 m Commonwealth Games gold medal in Victoria, BC Canada. And in 1996, she was back at the Olympics, just missing a gold medal to her long-time French rival Marie-Jose Perec – a legend in her own right.

The speed of Cathy’s ascent through the pressure-cooker world of international track and field was nothing short of phenomenal. Her confidence that she could win was one of her greatest strengths, as well as her dedication and determination in reaching her goals. But this all came at a cost, as Cathy’s life off the track was not always easy.

Along the way, Cathy met and almost-married her first sweetheart, who not only coached her, but organized her business dealings as well. This arrangement worked well from their meeting in 1989 through the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 but subsequently broke down. Through the late 1990’s Cathy met and married an American business-man who was involved with Nike, but this relationship eventually ended as well, after her husbands bout with cancer, travel throughout Europe and living back and forth between Australia and the USA.

In 1998, Cathy Freeman broke another barrier. An aboriginal was the world’s fastest 400 m female runner. This foreshadowed what was to come, for in 1999, Cathy Freeman won the 400 m World Championships for a second time and had an Olympic medal in her sights. After putting in all the hard yards and battling through turmoil in her personal and professional relationships, 2000 was Cathy’s year to shine.

In 2000, Cathy became ‘Australia’s’ Cathy Freeman. She carried the flag for Australia’s Olympic Team, lit the Olympic cauldron and, yes, won the gold medal that she had said she would as a teenager, all those years ago. Cathy’s win in her special Nike track suit in front of her family and home crowd in Sydney, Australia, was nothing short of spectacular. For just a moment, Cathy brought Australia, as a country, together. And her win illustrated that the colour of one’s skin or racial background is irrelevant on the world’s stage. Quite an achievement for ‘a little black girl who can run fast…’ And what aninspiration to the rest of us.

You really can achieve your dream, if you dare to dream it and have the courage to pursue it.

Be inspired and love what you do

What is the definition of ‘inspiration’? This is a difficult question, as inspiration will always mean different things to different people. Everyone is inspired in unique ways.

So, although the dictionary definition of inspiration may be
'stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity'
ultimately it is up to each of us to determine what inspires us. After all, being inspired is a state of mind. However you will probably agree that you are inspired when

•you have a zest for life
•you make choices that are best for you
•you are living the life you desire

Most successful women admit that they were not blessed with any special talents or abilities that others missed out on. And they admit that being inspired isn’t dependent upon some huge advantage that others don’t have. We all have the ability to be inspired. So the key to inspiration is to determine what inspires us, acknowledge our skills and talents and put them to good use. The hand we are dealt at birth and through life isn’t nearly as important as what we do with it!

Here’s a little blurb that was sent to me recently right along these lines.

If you want to be rich, successful, and great, and you want it all with minimal effort, then your primary focus must be on doing something that meets any one of the following criteria:

* You love doing it.
* It races your blood.
* It challenges your creativity.
* It is absorbing, passion inspiring, and joyful.
* It is so compelling that you would do it even if there were no
money involved.

It's so simple. When you experience any one of the above, it means you are in love with what you do. Once you are in love with what you do, success then unfolds in the following way:

If you love what you are doing, it ceases being work.

The more you love what you are doing, the more you spontaneously
commit to it.

The greater your commitment, the deeper the knowledge you gain.

The deeper the knowledge, the more powerful the knowledge.

The more powerful your knowledge, the easier it is to achieve success, because deep, powerful
knowledge is the key to inspired thinking and finding intelligent
solutions to problems.

And with that deeper knowledge you quickly recognize opportunities
and pounce on the best ones.

But it all starts with loving what you do.

I wish you great inspiration in all that you do.