Day 16, Enthusiasm

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

   Having Enthusiasm in life is probably one of the hardest things, i think, for someone to do. Your probably not enthused to have gotten a bad grade on a test, or are too enthused to be going bald. When you are enthused, others will be too. You cant help but to get enthused when you are around others that are. For instance, take a look at school. When comparing classes you like, versus the classes you dislike, do you see a pattern in that the classes where the teacher is enthused and loves what he is teaching are the classes that you enjoy most? Who likes to be in classes with the monotone teacher that seems to just be saying words that go in one ear and out the other? Well, not very many people.
    So new goal, be more enthused about life, and hopefully you will start to see a difference in your perspective on things!

Day 15, Making Excuses

The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top

Unknown

    Have you ever found yourself making up some lame excuse to someone for some reason? Say your car breaks down, so your late for a meeting. When you get to your meeting, you immediately come up with a million and one excuses as to your car breaking down, that towing took forever, that you had paperwork to fill out, ect. I will say that i am pretty bad when it comes to this. If something doesn't go my way, I find myself with an immediate response/excuse as to why it happened. But, what should be happening is like i said before about choices, it was your choice for not taking good enough care of the car, or when the rattle started, to take it in immediately.
    From now on, i am going to try my hardest to stop making up excuses. I am going to take full responsibility of my life, and from now on, be in total control.

Day 12, The Power Of Choice

 It is only when you exercise your right to choose that you can also exercise your right to change.

Unknown

   As we go through life, the majority of how our life goes is not by chance. Yes, some of it is by chance, but almost all of it is by choice. Whether it be your choice, or someone else's choice that affected you, it was by choice none the less. I have decided, that where i am today, was my choice. My entire life, I have made choices so that i could be where I am. I am in college. How did i get here? By choosing to do good in high school, take tests, and make the leap of faith in getting a higher education. You can literally dissect every part of your life, and when looking in depth at it, it was by some choice at some time somewhere, that it is the way that it is.
    "Life is like a box of chocolates." But it is which one you choose to eat that determines if you like chocolates.
    When you find yourself saying "i have to," like i have to go to work, or i have to go to school, your really saying I choose to. I am choosing to go to school, to church, to sleep in, what ever it may be, you are making a choice. So from now on, I am going to look at what i am saying, and when i find myself saying things like, "i have to go to work," i am going to re-phrase it and say, "i am choosing to go to work, because work equals money, and money equals paying bills, and paying bills equals a happy jake."

Day 11, Specific Purpose

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; character fixes our destiny.

Tyron Edwards

   Everyone has a purpose in life. What is it? well it is different for everyone. What I imagine my life being like in 20 years is this:

     I am going to be a teacher. But not just a teacher, but an innovator. I am going to be changing the face of education. I will be find the ultimate way for all students to learn. Also, I will be a farmer. I will be changing the face of agriculture. I will be running for senate, and hopefully becoming the US secretary of agriculture.

   I guess you can say that i am a dreamer. But you have to start somewhere. But i WILL accomplish all of them. Life is about achieving the un-acheivable, doing the un-doable, becoming greater than the greatest.

Day 10, Inspiration from Benjamin Franklin

Early to bed and early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Benjamin Franklin

What is Success:

       1: Success is not limiting yourself.
       2: Success is turning frustration into opportunities.
       3: Success is doing what you feel is right in your heart despite public opinion.
       4: Success is work.
       5: Success is knowing when to move on.
       6: Success is spawned from the desire to help others.
       7: Success is not about being an only child or about getting attention from parents.
       8: Success is living usefully.
   
        These are what i call the 8 rules of and for success. They are in the book, and i think that if someone were to take heed to all of these, they would be the most successful person ever. I would go into detail, but i could go on and on about each of them for days, so i am just going to write a little synopsis of what i learned.
     You determine your life. If you want to be successful, you cannot rely on anyone else but yourself to get you there. Yes, you may have some in's, and you may have this or that, but in the end, it is solely up to you to make what you want out of life. It is up to you, YOU only, to determine what you are going to get out of life. What is success? Success isn't a monetary value, it isn't what or how much you own. Success is your idea of what you want out of life, and succeeding in achieving that. What do i want, well this goes back to a previous post that your welcome to read. My idea of success is to be happy, healthy, and living life to the fullest. So it is up to me to start now, go for my goals, ambitions, and life adventures, and not only try and achieve them, but persevere in my decisions and actions, and get more than i anticipated out of life.

Life is what you want it to be, so stop waiting for others, and live life to the fullest.

Day 9, Perseverance, Persistence, and Determination

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

~Dale Carnegie

     When thinking back on your life, what things have you given up on? What things did you put to the back burner because they were either too hard, or you gave up on them? I am pretty sure all of us have many of these things. I know I do at least. 

Persistence: the act of holding firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, goal, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.

Determination: the quality of mind which reaches definite conclusions; decision of character; resoluteness.

Perseverance: Persistent Determination

    Its funny that when you think of all of those terms, you don't realize that you only need to achieve one, perseverance. I have noticed in my life, that i like to start things, then i get bored, distracted, busy, and every other excuse in the book i can think of. See, right there!! I do it every day. I use excuse after excuse, making up anything to say that i had some sort of reason for my stopping. Yes, sometimes there are legitimate reasons for stopping, but for 95% of the time, its that i didn't persevere. Throughout my life, I have dreamed big. And when i mean big, i mean HUGE! I would like to thank my mother for that! She is probably one of the most, if not the most inspiring person i know. My entire life, i have been told, that if i work hard at something, and give it my all, then i will succeed. 

   I don't mean to brag, but i have a great family! I have had so many amazing influences in my life of perseverance. Whether it was my mom starting a new business quite often, my dad doing also, all of my random little business i started, and tons others, all of them have given me an outlook that if you really want something, you can achieve it. No matter what it takes, you give it not only 100%, but more like 250%, and you will succeed. In the book it talks about Walter P. Chrysler is a great historic example. He bought his first car in 1905, where immediately after he got it, he took it apart, and put it back together again, with rumors of him doing it multiple times. After that, he decided to start a car company. Anyone ever heard of Chrysler?? 

   The first step in this is determining what you are want, and how you are going to do it. So my goal is this, in ever thing that i decide i am going to do, i am going to write it down, read it daily, and do at least one thing each day to achieve it. No more procrastinating, no more excuses, no more doing a half decent job. From here on, it is 250% into everything that i am doing in my life.

Day 8, Using Humor Effectively

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

     Okay, so today is going to be a great day! Today i have a mid term in animal science, and what is the theme for today? Its Using Humor Effectively. So today has to be enjoyable because i am going to try my hardest to use the principles and rules of humor all day. My goal is to make at least 5 people laugh! Not just chuckle, but bust a gut. I love making people laugh and smile, thus why i do all my crazy voices all the time. My favorite voice by far is either my southern gay man,  herbert the pervert from family guy, or gollum from lord of the rings . So between those two, plus maybe 3 or 4 of my others, i am going to try my hardest to make some people smile, laugh, and brighten their day. On a stressful day like mid-term day, hopefully it will relieve a little of my stress too!