Category: Motivation

Don't Quit

1/22/2014

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is odd with its twist and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
You never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst,
that you must not quit.

Author: C. W. Longenecker. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).

The Write Stuff

11/20/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A sky-diving instructor was asked, “How many successful jumps must a student make before he or she can become certified?”

He answered, “All of them!”

Sky diving, however, is the exception. Is your life built on a series of successes? Do you usually attempt something new and immediately succeed, then succeed again and again?

More likely, you may find that it is the other way around. Your successes are often built on smaller failures. You fell off the bike a few times before you learned to ride. And you produced a few culinary failures before you baked a successful layered cake or prepared a satisfactory omelet.

Tom Hopkins observed, “The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.” And Winston Churchill stated, “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” They both agreed that discouragement rather than failure, is the enemy of success. Those who can remain hopeful and focused, though they fail, are those who will eventually succeed.

In all, Emily Dickinson is said to have written more than nine hundred poems. Though only four were published in her lifetime and the first volume of her poetry was not published until four years after her death, Dickinson’s success is attributed to the fact that she did not allow discouragement to keep her from her poetry.

Where would we be today had Emily Dickinson lost her enthusiasm for writing? Because she kept her desire alive, we now remember her as one of the great poets of all time.

It’s good to remember that success may be just beyond the next failure, and you’ll get there, not because you’re destined to, but because you’re determined to.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).

The "Want To"!

6/19/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

I remember the night in Miami when our son, Ian, was just five years old. We were staying with relatives and it was his bedtime. When I looked at the living room floor, I knew we had a problem. Toys were all over the place.

"Ian," I said, "you need to pick up all those toys before you go to bed."

"Daddy," he said, "I'm too tired to pick up my toys."

My immediate inclination was to force him to clean up the room. Instead, I went into the bedroom, laid down, and said, "Ian, come here. Let’s play Humpty Dumpty."

He climbed up on my knees and I said, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." And he fell. Ian laughed and said, "Let's do it again." Well, after the third "fall," I said, "Okay, but first go pick up those toys."

Without thinking, he ran into the living room and in ninety seconds he

finished a job that could have taken half an hour. Then he jumped back on my knees and repeated, "Daddy, let’s do it again."

"Ian, I thought you were too tired to pick up those toys." He answered, "I was, Daddy, but I just wanted to do this!"

Good leadership is like this father, changing the “have to” to “want to.”

From a story by Neil Eskelin. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 3 (2005).

The Secret of Jimmy Yen

6/3/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A jury of distinguished scholars and scientists, including Albert Einstein and Orville Wright thought enough of Jimmy Yen to vote him one of the top ten Modern Revolutionaries of the Twentieth Century. Yet all he did was teach Chinese peasants to read.

What made that so amazing was that for four thousand years reading and writing in China was only done by the Scholars. "Everybody" knew, including the peasants themselves, that peasants were incapable of learning.

That thoroughly ingrained cultural belief was Jimmy Yen's first "impossible" barrier. The second barrier was the Chinese language itself, consisting of 40,000 characters, each character signifying a different word! The third barrier was the lack of technology and good roads. How could Jimmy Yen reach the 350 million peasants in China? Impossible odds, an impossibly huge goal-and yet he had almost attained it when he was forced (by Communism) to leave his country.

Did he give up? No. He learned from defeat and expanded his goal: Teach the rest of the Third World to read. Practical reading programs, like the ones he invented in China, started pumping out literate people like a gushing oil well in the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Columbia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ghana, India. People became literate. For the first time in their entire genetic history, they had access to the accumulated knowledge of the human race.

For those of us who take literacy for granted, I'd like you to consider for a moment how narrow your world would be if you'd never learned how to read and there was no access to radios or TVs. 180,000 Chinese peasants were hired by the Allied Forces in WW1 as laborers in the war effort. Most of them had no idea – not a clue – where England, Germany or France was, they didn't know what they were being hired to do, and didn't even know what a war was! Jimmy Yen was a savior to them.

What was the secret of Jimmy Yen's success? He found a real need, and found in himself a strong desire to answer that need. And he took some action: He tried to do something about it even though it seemed impossible. He worked long hours. And he started with what he had in front of him and gradually took on more and more, a little upon a little.

The English author Thomas Carlyle said, "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." And that's what Jimmy Yen did. He started out teaching a few peasants to read, with no desks, no pens, no money, no overhead projectors. He started from where he found himself and did what was clearly at hand.

And that's all you need to do. Start now. Start here. And do what lies clearly at hand.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 3 (2005).

Discouraged?

4/29/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

We like to cheer for the underdog in theory, but seldom like to actually be the underdog. Keeping the spirit up in spite of the odds is a major challenge in life. Here's a lesson from a story I read on the Internet.

As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-baseline, I asked one of the boys what the score was. "We're behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile.

"Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very discouraged."

"Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet."

One of the great life lessons I have gleaned from my sports addiction is not to give up. Until the third out in the bottom of the ninth, the game is not over. As long as there is time on the clock, the winner has not been declared. Where there is life, there is hope. I have also seen this in the lives of the many men and women, boys and girls that I have had the privilege of coming to know in my work as a chaplain. What a blessing!

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 3 (2005).

A Lesson in Heart

3/28/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A lesson in "heart" is my little, ten year old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot and wears a brace all the time. She came home one beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in "field day"- that's where they have lots of races and other competitive events. Because of her leg support, my mind raced as I tried to think of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down-but before I could get a word out, she said, "Daddy, I won two of the races!"

I couldn't believe it!

And then Sarah said, "I had an advantage." Ahh. I knew it. I thought she must have been given a head start ... some kind of physical advantage. But again, before I could say anything, she said, "Daddy, I didn't get a head start ... . My advantage was I had to try harder!"

Dr. Stan Frager

Hard to Stop

3/4/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

George Cafego was a splendid halfback during the early days of professional football. He played for the old Brooklyn Dodgers football team.

One day in a game against the New York Giants, Cafego brought the ball upfield practically by himself. Just before the half ended, he broke away over left tackle. First one man hit him, then another, but Cafego kept going. Another man hit him and twisted him around, but Cafego kept going.

Finally, about five Giants ganged up on him. Still he plowed goalward. At last he started down, just as the timer's gun exploded.

"My soul!" shouted a spectator. "They had to shoot him to stop him!"

As George Cafego could not be stopped, so nothing should hinder us from accomplishing the things that mean so much to us. Whether it is being a friend in trying times, or striving to excellence in our work, or aiming for quality in our own character, nothing should get in our way.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume II (2004).

Teamwork

2/14/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to read a map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn't injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.

"Warwick can get you out of that ditch," said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the haggardly mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, "Yep, old Warwick can do the job." The man figured he had nothing to lose. The two men and Warwick made their way back to the ditch.

The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins he shouted, "Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull Warwick!" And the mule pulled the car from the ditch with very little effort.

The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule and asked, "Why did you call out all of those other names before you called Warwick?"

The farmer grinned and said, "Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he's part of a team, he doesn't mind pulling."

Adapted from Some Folks Feel the Rain. . .Others Just Get Wet, James W. Moore. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume II (2004).

Life is Like a Cafeteria

2/12/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A friend's grandfather came to America from Eastern Europe. After being processed at Ellis Island, he went into a cafeteria in lower Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at an empty table and waited for someone to take his order. Of course nobody did. Finally, a woman with a tray full of food sat down opposite him and informed him how a cafeteria worked.

"Start out at that end," she said. "Just go along the line and pick out what you want. At the other end they'll tell you how much you have to pay."

"I soon learned that's how everything works in America," the grandfather told a friend. "Life's a cafeteria here. You can get anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price. You can even get success, but you'll never get it if you wait for someone to bring it to you. You have to get up and get it yourself."

Need I say more????

Authored by Brian Cavanaugh. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume II (2004).

Put the Glass Down

1/21/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A lecturer was giving a lecture to his student on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?"

The students' answers ranged from 20g to 500g.

"It does not matter on the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance. It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on, the burden becoming increasingly heavier. What you have to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again."

The same is true for emotional burdens we carry. We have to put down the burden periodically, so that we can be refreshed and are able to carry on. So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

There are times when I've been glad to get back to work, to let go of the things going on at home. It works both ways. Life is short, enjoy it!!

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume II (2004).