You Have Everything (or can anyway)

"Wait. You might have glossed over that last paragraph-perhaps because it's so short but especially because it's so challenging.

What I'm saying is that one person can make a video that reaches fifty million viewers.

What I'm saying is that one person can invent a pricing model that turns an industry upside down.

What I'm saying is that one person-okay, what I really me is you-has everything. Everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself. The people around you realize this, and they are ready to follow if you're ready to lead"

- Seth Godin from the book Tribes: We Need You to Leads Us

Bounce Back From Mistakes

Image via Wikipedia

"We all make mistakes. I'm living proof of that. It's how we come back from the mistakes, that's what matters."

- Clark Kent on Smallville Season 7: Episode 8

Related articles

• Annette O'Toole to Return to Smallville (seattlepi.com)
• "'Smallville's' Clark Kent prepares to suit up" and related posts (marquee.blogs.cnn.com)

Life is Long

"Some people say, 

'Life is short,' 

that you could get hit by a bus at any moment 

and that you have to live each day like it's your last. 

Bullshit!

Life is long. 

You're probably not gonna get hit by a bus

and you're gonna have to live with the choices you make

for the next fifty years."

- I Think I Love My Wife

(transcribed from the motion picture)

Truth has a Distinct Cost

"There are moments in life so archetypally perfect, that there's only one right thing to say. But as humans, each with our own idiosyncrasies, we may not always respond the way the universe or say, our parents want or expect us to. It is at moments such as these that we realize that the truth has a distinct cost that can't be bargained down. And in these moments, we must choose whether to pay the price."

- Narrator on Everwood

Every Day's a Choice

"We've all got things in our past we ain't proud of, but every day's a choice... Are you gonna do more things that you're gonna regret? Or are you gonna do good?"

- Vibe from the Justice League Unlimited: Champions of Justice graphic novel

picture credit - Legends #1 by John Byrne

Always Do Right

"Always do right. This will gratify most people and astonish the rest."

- Mark Twain

Happy Monday Everyone!

Why It’s Called the Easy Way

“Honey, facing unpleasant consequences is tough, but it’s not the toughest thing. What’s tougher is turning down all the good things that can happen to you because you take the easy way out, … which is why it’s called the easy way.”

Will Girardi on Joan of Arcadia Season 1

Our Default Position is to Do it Wrong

“Have you ever said, “Mom, Dad, Teacher, Don’t you trust me?”

When an adult hears this they might want to say, “What do I have ‘Dumb’ written across my forehead. Of Course I don’t trust you. You’re a kid, and kids aren’t old enough to know … Of course I don’t trust you. I’m a teacher. Why do you think I’m here for you?”

That’s a bit much, but we should say,

“Yeah I trust you, but I’m here with you because you need some help. Your teacher needs some help too. Because if I don’t have people I’m accountable to, if I don’t have people that I can go to, who watch me, then my default position is to do it wrong, And it’s the same for you, so we are in this together.

“I trust you I really do, you are the best kid on the face of the earth. But if you do that, you are going to face consequences.”

Remember that there are always consequences.

“Our default position, all things being equal, is to do it wrong.”

“We gotta be one with each other. We have this default thing in us, that if there aren’t rules there and we don’t keep each other accountable, we’d do it wrong.”

“This is why I worry about you.”

- Adapted slightly from Steve Brown’s Keylife Broadcast on December 14, 2005.

Choose Good

“Human nature dictates that each of us will always choose the “good” or “right” as we perceive the “good” or the “right”. It is impossible to do otherwise.”
- McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 248

I don’t think that everyone always chooses to do the right thing. People make bad choices all the time. I know I have. And I always wonder what led me to make those seemingly bad decisions. Perhaps, it was simply, because at the time, I believed them to be the right choices.

I think that all we can do in this life is to evaluate or choices closely before we make the. This was we can be removed from time, just a little, so that we can understand just a little better, what exactly the right thing is to do.

I think that deep down inside we all know the difference between right and wrong.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Choosing One Path

"Choosing one path means abandoning others - if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none." – Brida by Paulo Coelho

There are so many paths out there. It is difficult to know which ones to follow. The important thing is making an informed choice and following through with it.

This quotation makes me think of the current milk advertisements I have seen on TV. They show teenage characters trying to make a choice. The inner dialogue shows that they are struggling with a decision. Part of them doesn’t want to do the right thing but the characters make the choice and act. We see them move but an after image of them does not move and fades away like a ghost.

Sometimes we need to leave things behind in order to grow. The commercial’s tag line at the end is, “Always grow…Grow all ways.” It’s a great message.

Happy Monday Everyone!

You Have the Power

“About the only power you have is the power to discriminate. Living in a culture like this, you have to make choices, and search out what has the most authentic content or substance.” - Crumb, R. & Peter Poplaski. The R. Crumb Handbook. MQ Publications Ltd: London, 2005 pg 60.

In this day and age, discrimination has become a bad word. It is so intricately linked with race that the word can barely be used in other contexts anymore. In fact, until I came upon this quotation in my reading, I had never really thought about how I make choices everyday.

This quote is inspiring. I don’t think people realize the power that they have. I’m often amazed at the drivel that we are fed on the radio, television, and cinema. I carefully choose the types of media that I let entertain me. I don’t simply accept whatever is shovelled my way. We don’t need to either.

When you really think about it, discrimination is a powerful too. We need to be able to distinguish between two like objects. This is what this quotation is really about. We always have a choice in everything and we need to explore our options, to make distinctions, and to make choices based good judgement.