Kathzoofus

"It is important that people know what you stand for. It's equally important that they know what you won't stand for." - Mary Waldrop

"There is an important difference between giving up and letting go." ~ Jessica Hatchigan (Found at Open Book )

"Being vulnerable doesn't have to be threatening. Just have the courage to be sincere, open and honest. This opens the door to deeper communication all around. It creates self-empowerment and the kind of connections with others we all want in life. Speaking from the heart frees us from the secrets that burden us. These secrets are what make us sick or fearful. Speaking truth helps you get clarity on your real heart directives." ~Sara Paddison

An excerpt from The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Collection of Aphorisms from the Works of Baltasar Gracian, translated by Martin Fischer : "Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality. All that is best is always scant, and rare, for mass in anything cheapens it. Even among men the giants have often been true pygmies. Some judge books by their thickness, as though they had been written to exercise the arms, instead of the mind. Bigness, alone, never gets beyond the mediocre, and it is the curse of the universal man, that in trying to be everything, he is nothing."

"Tough times never last, tough people do." ~Robert Schuller

For as long as I can remember I have struggled with fitness. It isn't that I am opposed to it. I have no great issues with working up a sweat. My struggle has been in finding fitness routines or programs that can keep my attention. Today I ran across an article on Personality Fitness . I read the descriptions for all and felt I best fit into the 1st and 5th fitness types: Fitness Personality No. 1: Action and Adventure Bored by routine workouts Spends as much time as possible outdoors Prefers the trail to the treadmill Usually competitive when it comes to sports Exercises for the adventure and/or social experience Fitness Personality No. 5: Easy Does It Avoids the gym Uncomfortable exercising in groups Prefers low-impact fitness routines May be working around old sports injuries or other health concerns (such as back pain, etc.) Exercises to build resilience, stability and self-confidence There were exercises listed that definitely appealed to me and some that I had never hear...

"Take a lesson from the mosquito. It never waits for an opening; it makes one." ~Kirk Kirkpatrick Well dang...who knew those pesky little bastards were something to aspire to be like? I have a couple of friends that are presently feeling trapped by their jobs. For various reasons they hate where they are and what they are doing. These are not people that recently had a change in their current situation that isn't sitting well with them. These are people that have hated their career situation for nearly 10 years. I do what I can to help them explore their opportunities, find out what else is out in the world of employment that would be a little more satisfying for them but I think the reality is that these are people that won't ever make an opening for themself. Listening to them talk you would think that they are expecting that one day they are going to have some AHA! moment where finally they realize what career of their dreams is. Like mysteriously their caree...

I just read an article on Beliefnet.com and thought I'd share a paragraph that had me nodding my head: "The Bible admonishes, "Judge not lest ye be judged." But in my experience, it's impossible not to judge. We all do it, all the time. And it hurts us far more than those we judge. It isolates us, makes us small, and bars us from our spiritual essence." Everyone, everyone, everyone is judgemental. Our brains are wired to judge the words and actions of other people. The trick is to not let judging others consume us. The article goes on to offer a very practical approach to letting go of judgemental feelings and there is related article called The Seven Steps to Forgive and Forget which is also very good. Read the articles and let me know what you think.

"Everyone has a talent; what is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." ~Erica Jong Without comparing yourself to anyone, think of things that you are good at. You don't have to be an award winning anything to have talent at it. What are things that you enjoy doing? Think of them now. It can be one thing or ten things, the number doesn't matter as much as being able to identify where your talent lies.

The following is a quote that I received from my daily MorningMantra today. It is from Anthony Robbins. I think my favorite part is about being an excellent example of being human. Part of that includes screwing up and I think that we tend to forget that mistakes are a part of life. Don't be too hard on yourself...or anyone else for that matter. We're all learning as we go. "Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human." ~Anthony Robbins

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person." ~Dr. David M. Burns From Morning Mantra .

Today in my email was my daily subscription to a daily hindu message from Beliefnet . It read: Meditation is needed Only when the mind is distracted By false imagining. Knowing this, I am here. Without joy or sorrow, Grasping at nothing, spurning nothing, O Master, I am here. -Ashtavakra Gita 12:3-4 From "The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita," by Thomas Byrom, 1990. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston. www.shambhala.com. I especially liked the first part - meditation is needed when we distract ourselves with false imaginings. It reminded me of Max Ehrmann's Desiderata . This passage in particular: Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. There are so many thing...

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, make me feel important. Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." Mary Kay Ash, Founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics

I just skimmed two articles on Beliefnet.com . I love that site. I thought that these might be of interest to some of you: Face your fear Does your job feed your soul? Enjoy!

1. Name a skill or characteristic you admire in other people that you wish you had. 2. Identify an example of a time that you saw that skill in action. 3. Share what you can do to fine-tune that skill for yourself.

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning." -Catherine Aird

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." ~Anais Nin Think of one thing that you can change your attitude about for the better.

I woke up this morning to the sound of nothing. Pure, uninteruppted silence. No cars, no snowmobiles, no barking dogs, no purring kittens, no wind through the trees. Just silence. I quietly rolled over and saw the bright sun fighting to get thru the shades. "It's going to be a sunny day", I thought to myself. I laid still for a bit completely in awe of the lack of noise when a quiet "Hoo! Hoo!" snuck my way from the woods. Then it was quiet again. A few minutes later another "Hoo! Hoo!" and eventually a little boy climbed up into my bed. "Shhhh...listen," I told him. "The owls are saying good morning." He curled up next too me quietly and together we waited. "Hoo! Hoo!" He slowly rolled over to face me, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm hungry." And there the silence ended. Replaced by the magical sounds of spoons on dishes and little voices filling the air. What...

What would it take for you to truly be happy?

We are ALL guilty of this. Each and every one of us can stand up, raise our hand and say "YUP. I've done that." The question is...for how LONG will we do it? Do what you ask? - TOLERATE - We tolerate different things in our lives at different times in our lives. Some are big, life changing things like tolerating a bad marriage. Others are less significant like tolerating a messy closet. But all of these tolerations - big and small - add up over time. They grow into these unmanageable beasts that we work hard to avoid. We become Masters of Distractions. We read books on how to get organized. We read books on how to deal with our crappy marriage. We spend hours talking to counselors and friends and neighbors looking for the right advice. Here is my advice: Put down the books. Stop the distractions. DO SOMETHING. Most things that we tolerate start out as these tiny little things - no big deal right? But we ignore them because there is so...