“Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.”
~Homer

Perhaps you should be dangerous…

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”
~Thomas E. Lawrence

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
~Carl Jung

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
   Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
   Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
   And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
   In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
   Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
   We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck’d brother,
   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
   With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing
   Learn to labour and to wait.

~Henry W. Longfellow

Sometimes, we spend so much time looking under rocks, digging up ground and sorting through vague clues to find our treasure that we forget to look upward.

It may be that our treasure isn’t hidden away buried somewhere, but instead right out in the open.

We only have to look and see.

Remember,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

     Be strong!
We are not here to play—to dream, to drift.
We have hard work to do and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle—face it; ’tis God’s gift.

     Be strong!
Say not the days are evil. Who’s to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce—O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.

     Be strong!
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong.
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not—fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.

~ Maltbie D. Babcock, D.D.

Last night, I reached the point where I had over 1400 followers on Twitter. Now, I know some of you are Twitter-doubters that don’t fully appreciate the potential of Twitter, so I did a little experiment.

I tweeted a request for motivational and/or inspiring tips, quotes, etc. And, it had to fit in a single tweet (140 characters or less). I re-tweeted a couple times, just to be sure to hit people that may not have seen it earlier. Since not everyone is on at the same time, sometimes it may be necessary to retweet your important tweets to make sure people see them. I bet most people just look through the tweets that appear on their page, and don’t jump from page to page looking at everyone’s updates.

I received about a 2% response, which isn’t bad. Could be better, but I only ran the offer for 18 hours. I’d bet I’d get a better response if I let it run for 24-48 hours. But, still, that’s 34 responses. How often do I get 34 comments on a blog post? How often do you get 34 comments on a blog post? (”You” meaning everyone but Speedcat who can get 100+ comments just by contorting his face with Photoshop.)

Anyway, maybe now you can understand the true power of Twitter. Obi-Wan didn’t tell you the full truth, did he?

So, now on to some motivational and inspiring quotes and tips and ideas. I said I would pick the best and post them, but they’re all good so I’m posting them all! Here they are, in approximate order of entry:

1. “To love is far greater than to seek love.”
   Submitted by @ShamaHyder, After the Launch
2. “Doing for others comes full circle. You benefit in the end.”
   Submitted by @jhofheins, Service - The Action Form of Love
3. It may not initially be thought provoking, but to me it is extremely important: “Have fun.” If it is not fun, reevaluate.
   Submitted by @cookingwcaitlin, Cooking with Caitlin
4. “If you really want to do something you will find a way; if you don’t, you will find an excuse.”
   Submitted by @alanunderkofler, Follow Up Success
5. “You only get out what you put in, so put the effort in!”
   Submitted by @justcreative, Just Creative Design
6. “Racing is life, anything that comes before or after is just waiting.” - Steve McQueen
   Submitted by @rumblestrip, Raoul Duke Media
7. “I try to spread good words like a contagious disease. Maybe one of these days the whole world will catch the epidemic of kindness.” - Trudy
   Submitted by @EsteDiaVA, Este Dia Virtual Assistant
8. “Failure is only failure if you haven’t learned from it and moved forward on your path to success.”
   Submitted by @danim24, TeamDanielleMiller.com
9. “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!”
   Submitted by @IDoThings, I Do Things So You Don’t Have To
10. “Your life is an accurate reflection of your thoughts. If you don’t like your life, change your thoughts and your life will change.”
    Submitted by @TheSCICoach, J. Sewell Perkins
11. “Changed lives birth changed lives. Therefore, love Jesus most. He changes lives…”
    Submitted by @michaelharrison, Michael Harrison’s e-devotion
12. “The less you bet, the more you lose when you win.”
    Submitted by @ellimm, Unbridled Traveler
13. “Every day is a brand new day with no mistakes in it!” - Anne of Green Gables
    Submitted by @dorana, a Dorana Design - Original Jewelry & Custom Paper Art
14. “Today is the tomorrow you dreamed about yesterday! start LIVING your dreams TODAY!”
    Submitted by @dorana, Dorana
15. “Success begins with a belief. It is achieved through action.”
    Submitted by @michaelkwan, Beyond the Rhetoric
16. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” - George Elliot
    Submitted by @debohobo, Debo Hobo dot Com
17. “Make friends with the facts.”
    Submitted by @JennaWoodul, LiveWorld, Inc.
18. “Chase and choke the one thing that scares the hell out of you; after that, all else is cake.”
    Submitted by @BellaGina, Bella Online
19. “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart, to give yourself to it.”perseverance and endurance.” - Buddha
    Submitted by @EsteDiaVA, Este Dia Virtual Assistant
20. “Words, once they are written, have a life of their own.” - Carol Burnett
    Submitted by @EsteDiaVA, Este Dia Virtual Assistant
21. “Give what you have. To someone else it may be better than you dare to think.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    Submitted by @hookedonhouses, Hooked on Houses
22. “Enthusiasm is contagious!! Get your clients psyched about what you can do for them!”
    Submitted by @grippiesgirl, GRiPPiES
23. “I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.” - Thomas Edison
    Submitted by @DeskCoder, Desk Coder
24. “To succeed in biz, think big & take daily small actions. Easier to walk a mile once a day, then run a marathon once ever.”
    Submitted by @CanDoCanBe, CanDoCanBe
25. “Embrace failure, respect it, learn from it, move on from it.”
    Submitted by @caseyfern, Perfectly Shaped World
26. “I motivate myself with my new web design mags - when I finish a big to-do, I allow a couple of hours to enjoy with Smarties.”
    Submitted by @bluewavemedia, BlueWave Media
27. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” - Ernest Hemingway
    Submitted by @Figliuolo, thoughtLEADERS, LLC Blog
28. “Another: motivate myself with a fun-day—do anything I want, billard and beer, movie, etc., if finish to-do list.”
    Submitted by @bluewavemedia, BlueWave Media
29. “Always assume a positive outcome. Face all situations as-if it is going to go well. You set the tone for your outcome.”
    Submitted by @CoachM, Meloni Coaching Solutions
30. “What I said, never changed anyone. What they understood, did.” - Unknown
    Submitted by @Greeneyezz, Greeneyezz Reflections
31. “The most important things in life, aren’t things.” - Anthony J. D’Angelo
    Submitted by @Greeneyezz, Greeneyezz Reflections
32. “Comfort can be deteriorating—bring death to creativity; destroy potential—comfortable people achieve little.”
    Submitted by @TakeRoot, Take Root and Write
33. “A year from now you will wish you had started today.”
    Submitted by @TakeRoot, Take Root and Write
34. “I always watch the words I say to keep them soft & sweet, cause I dont know from day to day, which ones I will have to eat.”
    Submitted by @juliemackenzie, Travel WAHM

There are a lot of good quotes and tips listed, so what I’m going to ask you to do is going to be a challenge for you! In the comments, tell me which ONE of the above is your favorite. No fence-straddling for you. Pick one and one only.

Late Entries:

1. “If you’re not writing, you’re not thinking.”
   Submitted by @brew7vwp, Seven Valleys Writing Project
2. “Ideas live inside us like we inhabit our bodies”
   Submitted by @brew7vwp, Seven Valleys Writing Project
3. “Just Write”
   Submitted by @brew7vwp, Seven Valleys Writing Project

This week, I’ve talked about motivation and happiness. And optimism. Another way to achieve those is to be fit!

Exercise does more than just help you lose weight. It can help you feel better in general too. And, when you’re feeling better physically, that makes it all the more easy to feel better mentally as well. A fit body makes for a happy mind!

You don’t need to run a marathon every week to reap the benefits of exercise. Just get yourself moving! Just a half hour a day could do wonders! It gets the blood flowing and maybe it refreshes some of those brain cells or something. Does blood just stagnate in parts of the body when you don’t move them? I don’t think so, but sometimes it feels that way, doesn’t it? Use it or lose it, as they say.

Anyway, over on Weight Loss Assistance Center dot Com, I’ve got a couple articles on fitness that might help get you moving! You don’t have to be trying to lose weight to benefit either!

“The Importance of Diet and Exercise”

“Fitness Rewards”

Anyway, check them out. Read fast though! The sooner you can get away from the computer, the sooner you can get your body moving!

Unless, of course, your computer is setup by your treadmill so you can walk and surf at the same time.

Yesterday, I talked about keeping a positive attitude. Keeping a positive attitude and possessing a sense of optimism can not only help you through your work day, but also help you be a happier person!

Since this all pertains to attitude, this is perhaps the simplest (yet, also the hardest) step to attaining a sense of happiness. All you need to do is change your mind! Be determined to be a happier person. Brush aside the negative thoughts.

Of course, that is often easier said than done. The pressures at work may make it hard to maintain your positive attitude, especially if it’s not something you’ve worked at–I mean, really worked at–maintaining.

Just realize that you do not always have control over what life throws your way. You do not always have control over what projects are going to be thrown in your lap in the morning.

But, you do have control over your thoughts. You have control over your attitude and, yes, you can resist letting others control your own mood! Whose mind is it anyway?

If you find you can’t maintain a positive attitude for long, don’t get discouraged. Practice! For some people, a positive attitude is something that may come naturally. Or, it may seem to come naturally when it was cultivated during their childhood. In any case, like anything else, some people are naturals and some are not, but practice can compensate! If a positive attitude doesn’t come naturally to you, then you just need to spend more time practicing it!

Start out slow, if you like. The important thing is persistence and determination. Try maintaining a positive attitude for just five minutes a day. Once you’ve managed that on a routine basis, work on extending it to ten minutes a day. Then fifteen minutes. Keep at it until your positive attitude becomes second nature to you.

Aside from real depression or other issues that may require professional aid or medications, there’s no reason that you cannot be a happier person, at work and at play!

Happy is as happy does! So, be happy, and have a great day!

Some Mondays, er, most Mondays, you need some motivation to get your morning going and shake those Monday blues.

Well, let’s start with this vintage 80s link. Watch it and come back. I’ll wait…

Okay, now that you’re psyched and ready to work, how will you keep that motivation lasting the rest of the day?

Keep Up the Positive Attitude!

Don’t let anything get you back down. You can’t control what happens around you, but you can control your thoughts and your attitude!

Look Outside!

If you have a window, take frequent looks outside! If it’s sunny, it can’t help but boost your spirits. If it’s raining, well, think of all those positive ions that’ll be floating around after a nice thunderstorm. Don’t have a window? Get a cheery desktop picture for your computer!

Smell the Flowers!

Put a vase with fresh flowers on your desk. Buy a flowering plant. Don’t have a green thumb? Buy a quality artificial plant and spray it with a flowery scent!

These are just a few of the ways to beat the Monday blues and blahs! If all else fails, listen to some pumped up music!

Rather than double-posting, I’m just going to steer you over to the Weight Loss Assistance Center dot Com.

Today, I have an article over there entitled, “Take It Easy and Enjoy Life!”

It’s not something you have to be trying to lose weight in order to appreciate. It has some tips that are important for all of us.

Sometimes, we just need to take a break from our worries, and live as though we were in the carefree days of childhood again. That doesn’t mean that we neglect our responsibilities; only that we take time for ourselves and actually live our lives rather than just worrying about one thing after another.

So, pop on over there, and have a read! Here’s the link again so you don’t have to move your cursor all the way back to the top of this short post: “Take It Easy and Enjoy Life!“

Apparently, none of my readers have any motivation, since this little drawing was a complete bust. And, I was worried about having less than five entrants. I suppose I should have been worried about having none!

I’ll have to try to be more motivational in the future. Light some fires or something.

I was searching the blogosphere last night, looking for other motivational blogs. What I found was a lot of (apparently) unmotivated motivators. The majority of the blogs I looked at hadn’t been updated in over six months. Kind of hard to keep other people motivated if you can’t find the motivation to keep your blog updated!

On the one hand, most blogs fail. Most people tend to give up on blogging after a while. You would tend to think that motivational blogs might have a better fate, after all, experts on motivation should be able to keep themselves motivated, no? But, they are people nonetheless, and even the best of us can lose sight of things, or move on to other things.

At any rate, while external sources of motivation can be helpful (and sometimes much needed!), you have to have your own internal motivation. Otherwise, what happens when your motivator becomes unmotivated? If you don’t have your own self motivation–your own intrinsic motivation–then you’re dependent upon others for it! Motivation is not something you want to outsource!

You could buy some motivational posters and hang them around your home or office if you suffer from a lack of internal motivation, but depending on pictures and inspiring quotes is not the best form of encouragement. Mind you, that’s not to say that it’s not good. Posters and quotes and so on can provide a lot of support, especially those times when you’re feeling down.

But, still you don’t want to depend upon extrinsic motivation. You want something a little closer to your heart, like your dreams and your goals.

So, the question is, what motivates you? What is your dream, and what have you done toward achieving that dream?

Okay, three questions, though your motivation and your dream may be the same thing, or not. So, we’ll call it two and a half questions. And, let’s put those in bold so they stand out:

1. What motivates you?
2. What is your dream (if different)?
3. What have you done toward achieving that dream?

Don’t answer here! Nope, blog it! Answer these questions in a post on your own blog, and link to this post. Also, leave a comment on this post when you have done that.

Why Write about Your Motivation?

Well, how about money for a motivating factor?

How much? I’ll get to that in a minute. First, the rules.

1. You must answer the aforementioned three questions in a post on your own blog.
2. You must link to this blog post in your blog post.
3. You must leave a comment on this blog post telling me when you’ve done that and including a link to your blog post.
4. If you have multiple blogs, you may post once on each one, but you’ll probably want to write something different on each one.
5. Each entry (as described above) will count as two entries.
6. If you were referred to this drawing by another blog, make sure you mention that blog’s name in your comment.
7. Each referral counts as one entry, but only if the entrant mentions your blog, because I’m not going to go into having to track them all.
8. Friday, March 7th, 2008 will be the last day for this. Then, I will count all the entries and draw a winner on the weekend of March 8-9.
9. Void where prohibited. You must be able to accept a PayPal payment. So, if you’re in a country not served by PayPal, sorry. Any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the winner. And, I reserve the right to retroactively apply any legal stuff I should have included but didn’t know I should have.
10. Drawing is null and void if there are fewer than five entrants. (Note that’s “entrants,” not “entries.” That means that five or more different people must enter.)

The Prize.

How much is the prize? Well, first of all, I will have a follow-up post in which I will link to all the entries. So, at minimum, you’re getting a linkback. That’ll hold true even if there are fewer than five entrants.

• If there are five or more entrants, the prize will be $5.00 (five dollars).
• If there are ten or more entrants, the prize will be $10.00 (ten dollars).
• If there are twenty-five or more entrants, the prize will be $25.00 (twenty-five dollars).
• If there are fifty or more entrants, the prize will be $50.00 (fifty dollars).
• $50.00 (fifty dollars) will be the maximum prize.

Note: All amounts are in U.S. dollars.

There you go. I am giving you a good motivation to not only enter but to also encourage your own readers to enter as well. The more entrants, the more you can win!

As far as money winners go, there can be only one! Only one person will win the money. But, everyone is a winner in a sense, because everyone will get a linkback!

So, everyone…

Believe. Act. Achieve!