The Good Light's Inspiration Thread

[Tovor]

Alright peeps. I was thinking about making this thread when I was employed, because quite often I used to use the cafe computers to log on here for some cheer and good spirits when in a down mood I was. Now that I am unemployed and even downer than before, this thread is all the more important. But not just to me, but to all of us when in low spirits we are.

No, no, no; this thread isn't for people who are sad to come into and cry in. It's for people to post inspiration, motivational, perhaps enlightening, and otherwise positive messages to boost the spirits and confidence of anyone who reads the thread.

Do you get uplifting messages in your email everyday by subscription to a particular website? I do, and I've used some of those messages when I spoke to potential students at my now former job, to inspire them to stop procrastinating going back to college; and to inspire them to start their new lives with confidence. Or do you have motivational sayings or ideas of your own you'd like to post?

Oh, and if you're wondering the meaning of the thread title, in Hebrew "tov-or" means "the good light". It's rather ironic the meaning of my user name, when I myself am a rather dark, often negative person. However, even in the ever-present darkness, my darkness, there is a light striving to break through the gloom and shine outward, and that is also depicted in my postings via my deep thoughts, my random philosophies, and my comical observations and ramblings. That is the tov from within.

I am a conundrum unto myself, for I question whether I am a negative man with an outgoing positive outlook; or am I positive man with a withdrawn negative outlook? Is the glass half full or half empty? The chicken or the egg? WTF...or FTW?

But despite the mystery, I want to bring a good light to anyone feeling dark and down, and I need your help to do it. That's what this thread is for.

[Tovor]

The Falsehood of Failure, and the Truth About Winning
by Ron LP, aka Tovor

To use an analogy of the statement, “once an alcoholic always an alcoholic”, I say that in life, “once a winner, always a winner.” Not that the two are related, but just as the alcoholic has the potential to fall off the wagon and drink again, even when doing well in life, so too does the one-time winner, even when going through trying times when all seems lost, have the potential, on the perceived wagon trail to failure, to “fall off the wagon” and win again. Even the concept of failure itself is not real but a deception. It is a deception of perception because an interruption on the course to winning need not be a barricade, or even an obstacle, but merely a speed bump.

Once a winner, always a winner. Even if “losing”, the potential to win is still there deep inside. And with the potential already there, there is hope. It is not a wall, just a speed bump.

When I was a photo-department manager at Eckerds, I had an unbeatable streak of winning sales contests. Other managers referred to me as the one who kept winning. Each time a new contest began, prior to its beginning, I always told my store manager that I was going to win. I never said, “I am going to try to win,” and I did not try to win. Ever. I always said, “I’m going to win this contest.” I knew I was going to win. Other managers knew they would not beat me. They tried, oh they tried, but they never beat me. Not because I tried harder, for like I said, I never tried, but because I decided in my heart beforehand that I was the winner. I pushed to win, but I didn’t try to win. I just won.

In the film The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker faced a great obstacle. He told Yoda, “I’ll try.” But his determination to try was his failure. Yoda told him, “Try not. Do, or do not, there is no try.”

I never tried to win the sales contests; I just won them. I set it in my mind before the contest began that I was the winner. So I won even before the race began. I was not a winner because I had won; I won because I was a winner.

I am going through some trials recently and it feels like I am on the shaky wagon on the wagon trail to failure. But once a winner always a winner, even when the deceptive cloud of defeat seems dark. Winning a race is not what makes you a winner. Being a winner is what wins the race.


So when things aren’t going as they should,
It is time to fall of the wagon…and win again.

[Sargoth]

Until you navigate away from the comfortable sight of shore, you will never know the terror of being forever lost at sea...

[Tovor]

:lol: That's classic. Thanks Krog. :victory:

[Zedekk]

I was told there was inspiration floating around unchecked, so I came to squash it!

No but seriously folks where are the Natalie Portman pictures?

[Tovor]

Monday, June 4, 2007


YOU CAN LIVE YOUR DREAMS


The beginning of your success lies in your imagination.
Visualize all the things you want in your life.
Then make your mental blue print and begin to build.

You can make your dreams work and produce for you.
You can make every thought, every fact,
that comes into your mind pay you a dividend.

Your imagination will show you
how to turn your possibilities into reality.
The will to succeed springs from the knowledge that you can succeed.

Think of things not as they are, but as they might be.
Don't merely dream, create.
You owe it to yourself to live your dreams.

THE DAILY GURU

************************************************** *****
©2006 by Max Steingart
Reproduce freely but maintain © notice

[Tovor]

SUCCESS IS A DOOR YOU WALK THROUGH


You must move toward success,
it doesn't come to you.
The golden opportunity you're seeking lies within you.
It's not in your surroundings.
It's not in luck or chance, or the help of others.
It's in you alone.

Opportunities are all around you.
You can develop them if you apply persistence to your possibilities.
If the door of opportunity appears closed,
just keep knocking on it, and keep knocking on it until it opens.

Be an opener of doors.


THE DAILY GURU


************************************************
©2006 by Max Steingart
Reproduce freely but maintain © notice

[Tovor]

"Change isn't always good or bad, but always inevitable."
--former district manager of mine

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we for what we could become."
--Charles DuBois

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
--John F. Kennedy

"I do not believe in weaknesses…I believe in opportunities for growth. What some may consider weakness I consider pathways to growth and improvement…a pathway of growth and evolution I myself am always leading in even my strongest areas."
--Tovor

"Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there."
--John Kotter

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."
--Abraham H. Maslow

"To learn is to change. Education is a process that changes the learner."
--unknown

"If we don't change, we don't grow, If we don't grow, we are not really living."
--Gail Sheehy



"When you're through changing, you're through."
--Bruce Barton

[Tovor]

From the Daily Guru, on 10/23/06:

Do You Believe IN Yourself?

"We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves."
-- Orison Swett Marden

What do you believe ABOUT yourself?

If you are experiencing a lack of something in your life, chances are that you hold a belief in your subconscious that says you aren't worthy of having that quality. Write in your journal the answer to these questions for yourself:

- Where are you not good enough, not worthy enough?
- How willing are you to receive?

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
-- E.E. Cummings

************************************************** ***********************
These quotes are supplied courtesy of Higher Awareness. They offer inspiring, thought-provoking self development programs to help you clearly understand how life and natural laws work, whilst enhancing intuition and creating the future you desire.
Click Here For More Information: http://www.thedailyguru.com/higherawareness.htm (http://www.thedailyguru.com/higherawareness.htm)(Bold emphasis added by me.)
================================================== ==


From the daily Tovor:
This is an ongoing theme that I have been posting about in my journal. Like I wrote on my profile info page, I am a negative person dealing with a lot of negativity in my life and my thoughts. But despite the negativity, there are occassional brief spurts of positive thoughts, wants, and beliefs that come into my clouded mind like a ray of hope--or intent--shining through the settling smoke of emotional defeat. Many say, regarding defeat, that you are defeated only when you accept defeat, or are unwilling to rise above it to fight harder. Within myself, while one part of me feels defeated and want to (continue to) surrender, there is another part of me that really wants to rise above it all and seek those things which mean much to me.

Yes, while one side of me is too tired, drained, and unconfident/insecure to try to wash the dirty laundry pile of my life, and would prefer to raise the white flag of surrender...the other side, though weaker in comparison, doesn't want to raise that white flag due to how dirty it is; dirty from being among the dirty laundry pile of my life that I've been too tired and weak to wash. Maybe that's my poetic justification for not giving up completely. There is a side of me that feels, ironically, that I can't surrender with a dirty white (dingy gray, actually) flag of surrender, not until I can at least wash the linens to produce a clean flag of surrender...

...because, perhaps subconsciously I know, once I have finally managed to wash that laundry pile and white surrender flag, there will be the victory of a clean laundry pile which would negate any reasoning for surrendering at all.

Does that mean that I've already won, by refusing to raise the dirty white flag? Perhaps yes, from a certain perspective, but more accurately no, not yet at least. There is still the chance that I would raise the dirty flag regardless. But there is still the chance as well, that I might find enough laundry detergent to wash the entire pile...and a book of matches to burn the flag to ashes.

I need to take the problems analogous to that dirty laundry pile and Shout it out, seek a Fresh Start, find the Method to Surf the rough waters and turn the Tide, pound with my Arm & Hammer rather than Gentle Care and Wisk the obstacles away, Win the battle, Lift Off the weight of regrets, feel Joy and all-temperture-Cheer in All areas of my life, Bounce back from negativity and be a Dynamo of inspiration in a new Era of positive thought, live in a Good Home of satisfaction, Spray & Wash the stains of discontent, find the Oasis of comfort, Gain the Simple Pleasures everyone wants, and eventually, finally, find that special someone to Snuggle with. And despite life giving me lemons, a little bit of lemony scent wouldn't be so bad, would it?



Heh. And people say I have a dirty mind. Hey, not everyone has clean sheets you know. =p

[Tovor]

"How do you label yourself? How do you label others? Be aware that any label is limiting. Labels stick us in a box where there’s no room to move. Today, experience how it feels to let go of the labels to rest in ‘I am.’ Feel the freedom, the spaciousness, the infinite potential of simply being."
--The Daily Guru

"Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace."
--William James

"You are what you repeatedly do. First you make your habits, and then your habits make you. You become a slave to your constantly repeated acts. What at first you choose, at last compels. Your habits are either the best of servants or the worst of masters. Your thoughts lead you on to a purpose, your purposes go forth in action. Your actions form your habits. Your habits determine your character, and your character fixes your destiny. Once in motion, a pattern stays in motion."
--The Daily Guru

"Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you."
--Og Mandino

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."
--Henri Bergson

"Your self image prescribes the limits for your accomplishments."
--The Daily Guru

"Your mind sets your limits. Everything is possible when you believe it's possible. What you envision you can do, you can do. What your mind can conceive and believe, your mind can achieve. Success is actually a state of mind. Start thinking of yourself as a success. Know in your heart that you can do the job you've set out to do. Believe in yourself. If you think you can, you can."
--The Daily Guru

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn."
--Gloria Steinem

"Unlearn what you have learned."
--Jedi Master Yoda

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
--Lao Tzu

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."
--Charles DuBois

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
--John F. Kennedy

"Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution."
-- Dr. David Schwartz

"Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.”
-- Napoleon Hill

"Visualize what you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Your mind is your mental workshop. You can build anything you want in it. The beginning of your success is in your imagination. Make your mental blueprint and then begin construction. See things as you would have them be instead of as they are. Use your imagination to perceive your new reality even when it's not fully materialized. Remember, you must first clearly see a thing in your mind before you can do it or have it. Your imagination will show you how to turn possibility into reality. First think, then organize your thoughts into plans. Then transform your thoughts into reality by taking some positive action. See the things you want as already yours. Think of them as yours, as belonging to you, as already in your possession. Picture yourself as having already achieved your goal. Dreams and ideas can cross continents and oceans. They go anywhere you can go. What you see is what you get."
--The Daily Guru

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
--Albert Einstein

"Your imagination is your preview to life’s coming attractions."
--Albert Einstein

"Change is created by those whose imaginations are bigger than their circumstances"
--Anonymous

“There is only one admirable form of imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen.”
--Sean O’Faolain

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
--Carl Sagan

"Nowhere...it is a place that becomes reality only in the mind, but yet with paths to everywhere leading in all directions."
--Tov

"If you were to create an ideal future for yourself, what would it be like? All things that now exist in form were once simply ideas in consciousness. We each hold the power to manifest different circumstances for our lives. If we wish to manifest a new reality for ourselves, we need to consistently focus our imagination on the ideals we seek to realize. Remember to explore your ideal in terms of qualities, not people or things. What qualities do you most want in life? Freedom? Respect? Playfulness? Abundance? Whatever qualities you seek, imagine experiencing them now and be open to new ways to discover those qualities appearing in your life."
--The Daily Guru

"Do you know the key to creativity? It rhymes with weed. It produces the oak tree. We often eat it or grind it up for flour. It can mean cause or origination. You guessed it. It is SEED. Our minds love to associate one thing to another. But as we get stuck in very fixed patterns of thinking, we think of fewer and fewer connections. We are ruled by habits, associations and automatic responses. So we must stimulate our thinking with lots of different seeds to chart new paths in our brains."
--The Daily Guru

"Don't make your thoughts your prisons. You're more important than any of your problems. What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you. Courage gives you the power to face your difficulties. It comes from the reserves of your mind that are more powerful than your outside circumstances. Your obstacles will look large or small to you according to whether you are large or small. Courage gives you the capacity to confront what can be imagined. It gives you the ability to rise above your present reality. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. When you recognize that you're bigger than your problems, you'll gain the courage necessary to overcome anything."
--The Daily Guru

“The stars aren’t as high up as you think they are. So reach up and grab them, and the world will be yours.”
--Tov


Are you ready? The ball is in your court, the next move is yours.

[Justin]

SO how'd you get yourself fired? Send a PM if it's real embarrassing.

[Tovor]

SO how'd you get yourself fired? Send a PM if it's real embarrassing.
I was fired for having sex with the cleaning lady in my cubicle after work hours.

[kopernikuz]

Tov, a buddy of mine in high school once told me:

"The world is your oyster... even if you don't find a pearl, at least you can have lunch" - Clyde Williams

I've never forgotten it...

[Tovor]

Tov, a buddy of mine in high school once told me:

"The world is your oyster... even if you don't find a pearl, at least you can have lunch" - Clyde Williams

I've never forgotten it...
Nice. I like it.

[Justin]

I was fired for having sex with the cleaning lady in my cubicle after work hours.
Yeah right!

[Zedekk]

^ Sounds like someone's jealous

[Tovor]

^ I agree.
I wouldn't have been fired though, if she hadnm't made such a big deal to the boss about it. I tried to give her a sweater as a gift, but she made a stink because it had a small red dot on it.

[Tovor]

"The man who does things makes mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing nothing."
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

:scratchchin:

[Tovor]

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there
all the time."
Anna Freud (1896 - 1982)
Austrian psychoanalyst


The quote above reminded me of a message I wrote a while back, to a friend going through difficult times, about finding the strength and courage within him to face overwhelming difficulties. I repost that message here, editted to generically apply to everyone facing hardships and struggles. Because quite simply, it literally does apply to everyone.


Strength and courage. They are just words. Not so easy to apply and make real. But you need to strive toward those ends and build them up inside you. If you need strength and courage in order to build up your strength and courage, then so be it. Again, they are just words and not so easy to feel them within you. But think of strength and courage as the Force. It guides your actions, but it also obeys your commands. Just as the Jedi has to believe in the Force in order to increase its power within him, you have to believe in your own strength and courage in order to feel it and build it up inside you; to increase their power within you.

When I was 14 and was nearly killed, and my father later died, people asked my mother how she was able to hold it together, remain strong, and be a support toward me and my dad without falling to pieces, and she told them that she had no idea where her inner strength came from. She said she did what she had to do because there was no alternative, and somehow the strength and courage that she didn't know she had was there inside her, controlling her actions, but also obeying her commands. When I was her caretaker during the 2 years of her battle against cancer, people asked me how I held it together and I didn't really know because to be honest I felt like I was going to fall to pieces at any time. But somehow I did not fall apart, because somehow, someway, I found the strength and courage within me. It controlled my actions, but it also obeyed my commands.

Maybe you've heard the story of the 90 pound woman who's child was pinned under a large heavy object, an object much larger and heavier than the mother, and somehow she was able to lift the object up in order to free her child. Somehow, despite the enormous weight of the object, she somehow found the strength and courage to overpower an overwhelming weight and overcome it. She did it because she had no alternative. Her strength and courage controlled her actions, but they also obeyed her command.

Strength and courage. Again, they are just words. Or are they? Descriptive words are only that, words, until we make them real, in and around us. Believe in them, and make them real. Let the concept of those words control your actions and obey your commands. I can't tell you how to have them. I can't tell you exactly how to find them. I can only tell you that Luke Skywalker always had the Force within him but he only became powerful with the Force when he believed in it and made it real and grow.

You can't find strength and courage on a map or in a box. But like the example of the Force, they are already within you. You have them inside you, unfocused but awaiting your command. You have to do, try not, but do, believe in them within you to strengthen them to make them strengthen you.

All fanboy geek babble aside, you have the strength and courage within you already, but in your pain and confusion you don't see or feel them. But do what you have to do, because you have no alternative, to focus on them, build them up, and use them to strengthen yourself and those around you.

Strength and courage are merely words. But so are the words fear and confusion. Focus on the first two, and find them you will. They are really not just within you but all around you, waiting to be touched and felt. Between you, me, the rock, the tree, the X-wing...well, you get the idea.

[Zedekk]

^ :bye:

[Tovor]

From The Daily Guru:
Friday 15, June 2007

Honesty

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What level of honesty are you living now?

How honest are you with strangers, institutions and businesses, acquaintances, friends, family, spouse?

How honest are you with yourself?

"Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."
-- Walter Anderson

[Zedekk]

hmmm... brutal honesty and hurtful truths, I think I've found a new torture method.

[Blizzard]

^People are always torturing me with those.

[Tovor]

More quotes on change:


"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
--Charles Darwin

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order."
--Alfred North Whitehead



"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows."
--Epictetus

"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
--Eric Hoffer

"We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it."
--Felix Adler



"I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better."
--George C. Lichtenberg

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."
--Henri Bergson

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
--John F. Kennedy



"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
--Pablo Picasso

"It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear...It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to."
--Marilyn Ferguson




"Change is inevitable, except from vending machines."
--Unknown

[Zedekk]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There is nothing new under the sun.

[Javen]

policies are many;principles are few. policies will change;principles never do.

[Tovor]

Saturday 16, June 2007

Self-deception

"The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self."

-- Phillip James Bailey

Are you hiding in some way from your own inner light?

I wouldn't dream of stealing things but I do steal from my own potential. I can be a master at rationalizing, at justifying why it's not the right time to do something challenging. My arguments seem valid but deep down, I know they're excuses.

"The longer the excuse, the less likely it's the truth."

-- Robert Half

"When we know deep down that we're acting with integrity despite impulses to do otherwise, we feel gates of higher energy and inspiration open inside of us."

-- Dan Millman


************************************************** ***********************
These quotes are supplied courtesy of Higher Awareness. They offer inspiring, thought-provoking self development programs to help you clearly understand how life and natural laws work, whilst enhancing intuition and creating the future you desire.
Click Here For More Information:-

http://www.thedailyguru.com/higherawareness.htm (http://www.thedailyguru.com/higherawareness.htm)

[Tovor]

Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
~ Thomas Edison ~

[Saranac]

Candy is made from sunshine and farts




--Family Guy

[Tovor]

We're definately due for some inspiration. Anybody got any? :scratchchin:

[Tovor]

Man, I hate being the last poster in a thread.

[Tovor]

^ Dammit, I did it again!

[Tovor]

Crap!!!

[Zedekk]

^ Ha HA!

[Tovor]

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."
-- Dale Carnegie


"Make it happen..."
--Mariah Carey


"Make it so..."
--Jean Luc Picard


.

[Tovor]

A Streetlight Flickering on a Cold, Dark Night
by Tov

There's a streetlight flickering on a cold, dark night
A battle for survival between the dark and the bright
The dark is driven back by the reminder of the light
But then the dark overwhelms; it's an endless fight

Too few good days behind, too many dark days ahead
With each sunrise a little more of me dies
Too often it's too hard to even get out of bed
I'm getting thinner on cheaper dinners
Too many meals of butter on week-old bread
My brakes are slipping on a steep incline
My confidence is weak; it’s like I don’t have a spine
I had many dreams I had to leave far behind
If I still had the fire, in the darkness I'd shine

There's a streetlight flickering on a cold, dark night
A battle for survival between the dark and the bright
The dark is driven back by the reminder of the light
But then the dark overwhelms; it's an endless fight

All that I’ve worked to gain was denied me with a shove
All I have left to offer are just the dreams I still love
They’re all I have left; I don’t know if it’s enough
To push aside the gray and bring out blue sky above

But yet…
The flickering light grows stronger still
Even amid the dark it has its own will
Even before the coming of another day
Even in the night, it finds a way
The willpower survives and returns to stay
The light comes back for good and drives the dark away

For all the things I aspire to be,
For all those things, it's up to me
My dreams light the way they're my inspireshine
I see the light, and the world is mine
It's a struggle to achieve but I don't fear the fight
I’ll let the cold dark waters yet still excite
I’ll tackle the scary seas with sails unfurled
I won't fear to face change, and conquer my world

There's a streetlight flickering on a cold, dark night
A battle for survival between the dark and the bright
The dark is driven back by the will of the light
It’s still within me, determined to win the fight

It’s a battle you don’t just decide to try to win
It’s a victory of the heart and it’s already within
I’ll still pursue the dream; it will always be mine
I’ve drawn on the light within, my inspireshine

There's a streetlight flickering on a cold, dark night
A battle for survival between the dark and the bright
The dark is driven back by the will of the light
It’s always within me; always set to win the fight

[Javen]

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lies an invincible summer."

[Tovor]

Fascinating.

[Zedekk]

"tell ya what, doll, I'll blow smoke up yer a** all night long and you can sit there pretending it's the light of God and be all inspired. How about it, sounds like a win, win to me."

[Tovor]

An interesting proposition, but still no substitute for the unique quality of Inspireshine.



Yes, that was a shameless plug for Inspireshine.



The above, in explaining that the prior praise of Inspireshine was really a shameless plug for Inspireshine, was also subliminally a shameless plug for Inspireshine.


^ That too was a shameless plug for Inspireshine.

------^ As was that as well, a shameless plug for Inspireshine.


Inspireshine.

^ As well as that.



http://www.galacticsenate.com/showthread.php?t=16908
^ And that.



And that > http://www.myspace.com/inspireshine



http://inspireshine.livejournal.com/profile < and that.



And that v
http://www.galacticsenate.com/showpost.php?p=901631&postcount=42

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[Kommandant Felix]

Were you trying to tell us something? It seems as if you want us to do something, but I can quite put my finger on it...oh well.

[Tovor]

Two Fit Men and a Fatso
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I have been out of shape for several years, and just recently I motivated myself to start taking better care of myself. I have let myself sink too far out of shape, and recently my diabetes has been seriously out of control. I will explain this in my next blog, which I have been working on trying to finish, but for now suffice it to say that I had a rude awakening and I recently how badly I needed to get back into shape, and fast. I began walking almost 3 miles a night every night, three weeks ago, which is stellar considering my bad leg that I’ve limped on for the last 27 years, and last Thursday I got a two week trial at LA Fitness, pending a final decision to either join there or look at other gyms. Tonight I did a mile on the Step Master and four miles on the stationary bike, followed by leg extensions and one hundred calf raises to build up my leg strength in my bad leg. As I sat on the seat and glanced at myself in the mirror, looking out of shape under my basketball belly, I though about how shlumpy and bad I looked, and how good I mean to make myself look and feel from this point on. Then on the way home I pondered a concept, a fictional exchange that could take place in either that or any of many gyms across the country. And the fictional story goes like this:


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Two men are in a gym working out. They are each in solid shape with cut, bulging muscles. From the looks of them, they have been working out for a good many years. The two men, Paul and Tom, take a breather between sets on the bench press and stand talking.
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Paul noticed a man at the other end of the gym and rolled his eyes disdainfully. The man he had spotted was new to the gym. Grossly overweight and layered in flab, he was a model of unfit bagginess.
“Look at that fat slob over there,” Paul told Tom. “He’s disgusting. He should be ashamed to look like that.”
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“Everybody has to start somewhere,” Tom reminded the other man. “We both know that it’s not easy to be as fit as we are.”
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Paul looked back at the grossly out of shape newcomer. “It would make me sick to look like that. That’s exactly the reason why I work out so hard, so that I don’t look like a piece of trash and be embarrassed about myself.”
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Just then, the overweight man walked over to the two men, surprising them by the suddenness of his approach. To the two fit men he said,
“I watched you earlier while you worked out, and I must say, your commitment and stamina are impressive. I’ve been trying very hard to motivate myself to get in shape, and you’re an inspiration to me to work hard to make it happen. I’m not going to stop now, until I lose this weight and build up the strength and muscle tone that you guys have worked so hard to achieve.”

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As the newly motivated man walked away, Tom turned back to Paul and said, “And that’s exactly the reason why I work out so hard.”



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<o:p>To see this message as originally posted in my blog, with accompanying pics, click here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=217102342&blogID=396660813&Mytoken=6E23BF2C-6F7E-4956-98227256091730D87448016</o:p>
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[Zedekk]

yay Tov! Good Luck and Good Karma to your healthy endeavor.

[Tovor]

Thank ya, Zed! I did 4 miles on the bike a few days ago, then I did 6 miles 2 nights ago, and over 7 miles last night. I'm feeling very inspured in the gym, to get in shape, real shape, fast.

[Trilogist]

Have you guys heard about Randy Pausch? He was a professor at Carnegie Mellons and when he found out he had terminal cancer, he set out on a motivational lecture called the Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. He's a very good motivational speaker, and as a professor, I believe he continues to teach us to this day.

From the Youtube description: Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture (http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture). YouTube - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

It's definitely one of the lengthier videos, but I guarantee you won't regret it. I can't think of many better ways to spend 1 hour of your life. This is a must-see.