What money won't buy
You can get what money can buy without character, so long as you have the money, which is less likely if you don't have good character. You can't get any of what money won't buy without good character. People want to be around, cooperate with, and trust in people with…
What you are NOT responsible for
You are not responsible for what your parents did, where they were from, where you were born, or what happened in your childhood or what other people have done. You are responsible for your adulthood - and that's now. Take firm charge of you, and make something happen.
"I'm glad I did"
When the future arrives and becomes today for us, we will say "I wish I had...", or "I'm glad I did". The future is coming. The question is "how is it going to be for you?" That depends on what you do now.
"Active pursuit" energizes us
When we are doing what is most important to us, chasing the goals that are meaningful to us, we are energized and time falls away. We don't feel like it's work, and our best selves come out to make progress. Have you felt that way? When? Do you feel that…
Clarity – then time management
To manage your actions within time well, first, you have to prioritize. There are so many things we could be doing at any one time, we have to choose. How would we know if we managed our time well? You have to get clarity on what is most important. What…
You can't manage time
You can't manage time - it keeps going at the same speed. You can't get more of it, buy more of it, or make it slow down. All you can do is manage yourself and your own actions in the context of time. Would you say you manage yourself well?
Responsibilities and Benefits
Clarence Thomas is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The following is an excerpt from a speech he gave at Hillsdale College on May 14, 2016. "I knew no one who was surprised at President Kennedy's famous exhortation in his 1961 Inaugural Address: 'Ask not…
Regrets
Most of the things we regret are things we didn't do. This is confirmed by listening to people who are at the end of their life. What will you regret not doing?
Are people stopping you?
Are there people stopping you from becoming all you can or who you want to be? First, ask are they really stopping you or are you letting them because you care what they think or want their approval? Is it you after all? There may be people who are trying…
What money won't buy
You can get what money can buy without character, so long as you have the money, which is less likely if you don’t have good character.
You can’t get any of what money won’t buy without good character.
People want to be around, cooperate with, and trust in people with good character.
Is that you?
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Yesterday ended last night
Today is the beginning again.
Thank you, Larry! These thoughts of yours, first thing in the morning, often speak directly to challenges that I/we are facing and provide some guidance. I really appreciate them!
Yeajjj
a new day where I can practice expressing my thoughts and insights, another day where I can learn from my surrounding, another day when I can learn to ask for help, another day when I can learn to see the sunny side of every challenge, obstacle and person I meet.
Another day where I am smiling because after all I AM ALIVE AND AWAKE
Larry,
I have grown to love the sunrise and quiet mornings, watching the birds and squirrels as I have my coffee.
Your thoughts in my email inbox at the beginning of the day are much appreciated and inspiring. Thank you!
Yes!
Grateful.
I look forward to your thaughts for the day. But I very much enjoyed your daily bike race updates. I forwarded them to my grandchild who loves motorcycles but doesn’t like to read. Hoping your account of the adventure would spark him into reading. It worked!
Thank you
Well said!!!Seems simple but it’s often forgotten. Thanks for the reminder…
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
What you are NOT responsible for
You are not responsible for what your parents did, where they were from, where you were born, or what happened in your childhood or what other people have done.
You are responsible for your adulthood – and that’s now.
Take firm charge of you, and make something happen.
Good morning Larry!
Can’t blame my parents for my life today. They only did what they knew. I can only be aware of what not to do and what was the little golden nuggets.
I am responsible for myself! And no matter what I have been told no one owes me a thing!
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
"I'm glad I did"
When the future arrives and becomes today for us, we will say “I wish I had…”, or “I’m glad I did”.
The future is coming. The question is “how is it going to be for you?”
That depends on what you do now.
Thanks for the shout
What I do now is live each day to the fullest and put my head on the pillow knowing I made the best of the day I was given and pray for a tomorrow.
Have a great day!
I grew up listening to a bad mantra:
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Not for me.
I do it. Everyday.
This is a mixed bag for me. Things I take off the list of things I will not work on today sometimes wrap around and come back to me as something I wish I had done at some point in the future.
I guess the secret is to have a lot of confidence in your decision making regarding those tasks that do make it onto the “Get Done Now” list.
I am glad I did.
I do have to acknowledge my feelings which helps me create more balance and take the next steps.
Without people being willing to push my limits I would be lost. It takes courage and stamina to be able to help someone.
Thank you
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
"Active pursuit" energizes us
When we are doing what is most important to us, chasing the goals that are meaningful to us, we are energized and time falls away. We don’t feel like it’s work, and our best selves come out to make progress.
Have you felt that way? When?
Do you feel that way now?
Oh yeah!
Right on!
I always feel like it’s silly to say I’m working. I never think of it as anything more than simply doing what I love to do.
I recently allowed myself to get overwhelmed with all the important high value projects that needed to be completed. I felt like I could not do anything. I was locked up! Then I stopped doing everything for 2 days. Disconnected from the day to day and just relaxed, cleared my mind & then focused on what would make the most impact. It became clear that some other high value important projects would have to be postponed to a latter date. Then my sanity returned!
Hi Larry! Yes I feel that way now. Matter of fact I have always felt this way with my job here at MidAmerica! I have never had a job before that the time flys! Daily, weekly, monthly! It seems as though my adventure just started here when in reality I am celebrating 13 years here this year! That is just crazy to even say out loud to me!
Ahhh,
the 6 month chase brought out a side of me that I was repressing because as a child my mom made fun of me after she found and read my journals.
The stress at times got unbearable and I had no other way of channeling my energy so I learned to burn the pages the instant I finished writing. Burned them because tearing them to pieces was not safe enough. The pieces could still be put together allowing to read the puzzle. It happened before and the repercussions were terrible.
This was during Communism in Romania.
I tell myself that her harsh mentoring methods were to keep our family safe. As an adult I know better. I know she went through a rough time herself and us children depended on our mothers strength to cope each day.
I didn’t want to be made fun of so I stopped writing my thoughts down.
Interestingly she loved my drawings and paintings so I transitioned to that kind of self expression instead of writing.
At nights I also offered to rub her shoulders and back because I noticed it made her feel extremely happy and relaxed. She loved my little hands that radiated warmth and healing and served as an acceptable replacement to substitute for the lack of my dads loving caring touch. A dad who was a very hard worker but had a serious alcohol problem for many years.
Why am I sharing this with the world?
Because one man has the courage to make me think by asking a daily question.
The same man had the stamina to say “not yet, but keep going”, igniting a desire to fight back against oppression and allow my thoughts to freely flow.
Him and I are very different but in the same time very alike and in many ways connected. Not in your earthly physical way but in a more meaningful and more profound way. He is real and so am I. The man’s faith is bigger than his heart.
In total, I saw him the 3 times I choose to sit in the audience while I listened to his meaningful message he was sharing with the world.
His message will surprise you, will shock you to the bone, and you will probably end up saying it is too unbelievable and sweep it under your rug. You just keep doing that until one day you will understand that everything they talk about is real and the truth will bring down many walls and its acceptance will require tremendous change.
I reread some of the things I wrote and I am surprised, impressed, and even a midget proud.
The little girl who only passed English because of another little girls mercy who allowed her to copy homework and helped during testing, the little girl who came to America because a shy introverted boy decided she was pretty and kind enough to make a good wife.
Did I really wrote that?
A girl who 14 years ago didn’t even speak English. A girl who already knew about a couple different forms of physical and psychological abuse but had no idea what culture shock was.
Deep down I am disappointed and sad because I am starting a new job this coming Monday.
I should be happy, I tell myself.
I am happy because I am alive and because I found a job.
But thinking about going back to work already makes me feel sluggish. Finding a job was never a problem. I always had at least one full time job where I did my best to keep the team alive.
Even though the new job will pay good money and I will have a lot of freedom to apply my creative problem solving skills to every day tasks, I will also have to touch a lot of papers, reorganize drawers and cabinets, I will have to make phone calls, create lists, determine and stay on top of a sales strategy, hire people, keep the books accurate and cash flow going, a lot of necessary cool stuff which will use up my energy and the time that I spent this past 6 months traveling, meeting new people, and writing about my encounters, the stories I heard and the impressions I was left with.
I am starting to realize that I do enjoy writing, connecting, listening and helping others.
I never thought I could write so openly about the LGBT community, the miracles of life, about the voice that inspired me to strive …
… and now I understand why they do not have a position for me at the organization I was chasing for 6 months …
It is not because I am not capable to fit well in any chosen position or department.
It is because one person saw the spark and he knew better so he followed his own inner voice.
Respect, Gratitude, and Love is what I have to offer as a Thank You to the man who dedicated himself and his life to inspire and encourage the world, you and I.
Hi Larry… I want to thank you for your positive word every day. It helps me to stay on track with my goals.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Clarity – then time management
To manage your actions within time well, first, you have to prioritize. There are so many things we could be doing at any one time, we have to choose. How would we know if we managed our time well?
You have to get clarity on what is most important. What are your most important goals? What are the things that will have the deepest, most significant impact on your life? What are the next steps to getting there?
Once you have clarity on that, then plan your most important activities into your day and week, making them a priority over less important, less meaningful things.
To spend time on this is to NOT spend it on that. Time management is about excluding/ignoring/eliminating many things, so you can focus on the vital one thing at a time.
When you have spent your day on the most important thing, you have spent your time well.
I am tired of pretending that sitting together in front of the tv is family time. How is watching someone else considered spending time “with” my loved ones?
We sit on the couch, each in his own world, spending our precious life watching how others live.
I am tired of that.
I want to talk, touch and play.
The kids love it and I love their smiles and embrace. I guess I am still a big kid at heart.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
You can't manage time
You can’t manage time – it keeps going at the same speed. You can’t get more of it, buy more of it, or make it slow down.
All you can do is manage yourself and your own actions in the context of time.
Would you say you manage yourself well?
Because I unexpectedly have the day off from my project, I’m going to use this day to get caught up so that by the weekend I will give myself a full days off from work. I’d have liked to do nothing today but know I’ll be much more satisfied being doubly productive.
There is always room for improvement.
I am working on not getting worked up over things I can not change right this moment. Getting angry over debates, tv shows, and bus schedules seems like a big waste of my time and energy.
I will focus on doing the things that are good for me, things that make me happy and proud of myself.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Responsibilities and Benefits
Clarence Thomas is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The following is an excerpt from a speech he gave at Hillsdale College on May 14, 2016.
“I knew no one who was surprised at President Kennedy’s famous exhortation in his 1961 Inaugural Address: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’ That sentiment was as common as saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing the National Anthem. Today there is much more focus on our rights and what we are owed, and much less on our obligations and duties – unless, of course, it is about our duty to submit to some new proposed policy.
My grandfather often reminded us that if we didn’t work we didn’t eat, and that if we didn’t plant, we couldn’t harvest. There is always a relationship between responsibilities and benefits. In agrarian societies, that is more obvious. As society becomes more complex and specialized, it is more difficult to discern. But it is equally true. If you continue to run up charges on your credit card, at some point you reach your credit limit. If you continue to make withdrawals from your savings account, you eventually deplete your funds.
Likewise, if we continue to consume the benefits of a free society without replenishing or nourishing that society, we will eventually deplete that as well. If we are content to let others do the work of replenishing and defending liberty while we consume the benefits, we will someday run out of other people’s willingness to sacrifice – or even out of courageous people willing to make the sacrifice.”
An absolute truth. Politician are attempting to give our country away for votes. (Power)
My grandfather used to tell me “ learn more, earn more “ but we must be willing to do the work ! They grew up during the “ Great Depression”
I love the message of personal responsibility. It was true when we were kids…and true now as well.
I love this post.
If my Mom was able to survive during summer breaks in a makeshift trailer home parked in front of an empty lot, with us (3 girls), while my carpenter dad was working on building a home from all the pennies (Romanian currency-LEI) my mom saved up, others can make it too.
It did take about 10 years and a lot of weeding in the garden before we were able to call it a home but working hard does produce results, including blisters, pride and self confidence.
It is up to us to make sure our Children learn these values and hopefully pass on to their Children. It is becoming more difficult in this world for them to get it anywhere else.
Thanks for the post. Great reminder for us all in our responsibilties.
Well said, Larry.
Well said Larry! The Clarance Thomas quote is worthy of being shared. Freedom, wealth, prosperity, good will, responsible charity, and even peace is augmented in a society where personal responsibility is foundational. A society of entitlement minded, irresponsible people becomes weak, dependent, and unhappy. It doesn’t take long to deplete the wealth, destroy the opportunity for prosperity, and then surrender our personal freedoms once we as a society are brain washed by the media into walking down the road of irresponsibility and begin embracing our so called “rights & entitlements”. A “right” that depends on others giving up their rights is not a right at all. “Rights” that depend on the government to plunder your neighbor and take the fruits of his labor and planning are not rights at all! Redistribution of wealth by government is not only legalized thievery it is horribly inefficient and wasteful!
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Regrets
Most of the things we regret are things we didn’t do. This is confirmed by listening to people who are at the end of their life.
What will you regret not doing?
I do not have regrets.
I did what felt right and what I could to my best capabilities at any given moment. I fought for myself and I fought for my dreams and that knowledge in its own makes me feel fulfilled.
I followed my inner voice.
Larry asked a question and I love that he makes me think. What will I regret not doing?
If I do everything I want to do today I should not have any regrets tomorrow.
If I wake up tomorrow thinking about something I forgot, or something I messed up, or something I said that wasn’t right, or something I didn’t do that will be a task I will correct tomorrow.
But today, I am the mistress of my fate.
I will regret if I do not go to get a hair cut to look more put together during tomorrows job interview. Also, I will regret not sharing a line that stuck with me from a book I read: ‘God lives where they allow him to enter’.
In my own awkward way I show my love and affection to the man I love and the people I care about. Am I perfect? Far from it. But, I love to be part of this community and for the opportunity to grow and become a better version of myself every single new day.
If today is my last day I will leave in peace because I know I followed my inner voice.
I think introspection is a good thing. Not long ago I made a list of “regrets”, and as I pondered each one, I realized that many life lessons were learned in this process, and identified how I became stronger and more resilient because of them. Life will always be full of ups and downs. Celebrate the “ups” and learn from the “downs”.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Are people stopping you?
Are there people stopping you from becoming all you can or who you want to be?
First, ask are they really stopping you or are you letting them because you care what they think or want their approval? Is it you after all?
There may be people who are trying to stop you from being your best self and achieving your dreams. They may be afraid to lose you, afraid you’ll make them look bad, not understand your choices, or just envious.
You must be strong enough to stand up to them, or strong enough to ignore them.
Achieving your dreams takes guts – to go after it, and to leave what must be left behind.
I think if I’m being honest, sometimes I am the one standing in my own way and stopping from reaching for dreams because here, it can be crippling if I start thinking about failing. Working on getting out of my own way.
you are so right
Most people do what they are told to do. They follow their leaders instructions. It is not wise or fair to that innocent soul to condemn them. Digging to the root of the problem creates a wall with one person posing in the front. The shepherd of the sheep.
Both my families blessed me with the title of “black sheep”. Can you guess why?
A black sheep will always stick out even when it does its best to blend with the crowd. Embracing the title is a struggle most of the time because someone has to budge and allow the other to pass.
Since I am a fragile sensitive girl I try to pick my battles wisely. Seeing others jump or fold is painful, especially when there is no real reason for mass destruction.
Thanks for the shout out!
I agree with Sharon…I am more likely get in my own way.
I find that I that I get what I give people. I am an optimist and tend to avoid pessimists. The result of this filter is that the people in my personal life are supportive and want the best for me…lucky me!
Professionally, the culture at CT Basement Systems is also one with optimism. The team is amazing. Jason and I have been interviewing together and I look for this quality, among other qualities during the interview.
A positive attitude is as contagious as is a negative attitude.
Thanks Larry. Great message for today that really hits home.
Thank you for giving us a glimpse of Lisa. She’s a great photographer and we love having her on our team.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
Join the over 20,000 people who receive Larry's Daily Inspiring Messages
Larry values privacy and will never sell your information.
It is the things that you can get that money can’t buy that are truly of the highest value.
I will be completely transparent. In order to make and save money you have to be very minimalistic, in a way very stingy, and in a way very tough. I constantly have to fight off the people who are trying to sell me something I do not want to buy or talk me into buying something I do not need, I can not afford, and I have no room for. I need to be rootless in order to survive with a clear mind between all the sellers who are out there to tire me out and “get my money”.