Perseverance

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

~Marie Curie

The Top

The person on top of the mountain did not fall there.

~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

Practice Shots

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in! He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

~Charles Kettering

Persistance

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to succcess when they gave up.

~Thomas A. Edison

More "Overnight" Success Stories

Dr. Seuss's first children's book was rejected by twenty-three publishers.  The twenty-fourth publisher sold siz million copies.

After having been rejected by both Hewlett-Packard and Atari, Apple Computers had first year sales of $2.5 million - a huge amount at that time.

Vince Lombardi didn't become a head coach in the NFL until he was forty Seven.

During their first year in business, the Coca-cola company sold only 400 Cokes.

In his first 3 years in the automobile business, Henry Ford went bankrupt twice.

Inventor Chester Carlson pounded the pavement and knocked on doors for years before he could find backers for his Xerox Photocopying Machine.

In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly returned the poems of a twenty-eight year old poet with the following note: "Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse." But Robert Frost persevered and became one of our nations most beloved poets.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

The lesson is to remember that we need to "keep on keeping on" to be successful.  We only fail when we give up.

The Pencil

There was a man who earned his living by making pencils and selling them in boxes to people. 

Just before he put each one into a box, the pencil maker took the pencil and spoke to it.

"There are 5 things you need to know before I send you out into the world"  he told each pencil.  "Always remember them so that you can become the best pencil you can be."

The pencil maker imparted his lessons so that the pencil understood and promised to remember. The pencil went into the box with purpose in its heart and into the world to make a difference.

These were the five things the pencil maker shared:

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone's hand.

Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become better.

Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside.

Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the conditions are, you must continue to write.

The lessons for us here are parallel:

1. We we can do great things when we follow the guidance we are given.
2. Not everything will be easy, but it will be worth it.
3. We all get second chances.
4. What we are inside-our values, thoughts, dreams- that is what really matters.
5. No matter how hard life seems, never give up. Use your life to make a difference.

Callahan's Attitude Control

In 1982 Steven Callahan was crossing the Atlantic alone in his sailboat when it struck something and sank. He was out of the shipping lanes and floating alone in an inflatable life raft. He didn’t have many supplies left and his chances at survival were dwindling.  But when three fishermen found him seventy-six days later (the longest anyone has survived a shipwreck on a life raft alone), he was alive – granted he was skinnier than he was when he started, but alive.


He kept himself going when all hope seemed lost, when there seemed no point in continuing the struggle. He was starved, dehydrated and thoroughly exhausted. Giving up would have seemed the only sane option. But he didn’t.  In his book, Adrift, this is what he wrote: "I tell myself I can handle it. Compared to what others have been through, I'm fortunate. I tell myself these things over and over, building up fortitude..."

Wow – talk about attitude control!

The lesson here is that no matter how bad our circumstances others have been through much worse. It may be hard to do, but if we stop and realize how lucky we are and what we do have, it keeps us sane-even in the midst of crisis. So whatever you're going through, tell yourself you can handle it. Tell it to yourself over and over; use positive affirmations about your situation. It will help you get through the rough spots with a little more strength and peace.He had only three pounds of food and eight pints of water, a solar still and a makeshift spear.  When his raft sprung a leak, he was able to keep it afloat and fix the leak, pumping up the raft continually for 33 more days until his rescue. During his two-plus months at sea, Callahan traveled approximately 1,800 miles and survived shark attacks.