Sayings For The 201st

I messed up.
I am so very sorry.
To all my loyal readers (all three of you), I am forever sorry.
You were expecting a great post for my 200th post. Sadly, I messed up. I miscounted and was not paying attention. I, instead of bringing you a very insightful and meaningful post, brought you football predictions. While, a great deal of you may have made some serious illegal cash from those, I ruined my 200th post.
So, instead, we will celebrate my 201st post!

Here we go!

In my long 27+ years on this planet, I have come across some interesting information in the form of "sayings," "mottos" and/or "inspirational quotes." I would like to share these with you... or at least the ones that I remember.
You have already heard my great one "If you're not having fun, you are doing something wrong." If you haven't read about this one yet, click here and then join us later.
I will start with the most recent one that I have read: "Do not let your life be like a shooting star. Which lights up the sky for only a brief moment. Let your life be like the sun. Which always burns brightly in the heavens. Bringing light and warmth to all those on Earth. Let your light shine."
That is taken from the most recent book that I just started called "The Rhythm of Life" by Matthew Kelly. So far, so good. But, let's look at the quote, shall we?
Once, I knew a girl who showed me how she wished on stars. We would lay under the sky (usually in my convertible) and each pick a star and make a wish on it. We usually shared our wishes. This was a fun little event. But, it would prove meaningless if these wishes did not become goals and the goals were not worked towards. Now, I don't remember any of these "wishes," but I'm pretty sure that most of them did not come true. Now, wishing on a shooting star is a near must for anyone who sees one. They are rare and some people have never seen one before. However, they are short bursts of light in the sky. By the time they are gone, so is the wish.
Instead root yourself in something more concrete. While there is no guarantee that the sun will come up tomorrow morning, there is a good chance that it will. It is a constant. Putting your faith in a constant, like The Son, is always a win-win situation.
Now, put your whole life in these terms. A few dozen people may see the same shooting star that you see tonight. A greater number of people will see the sun tomorrow morning. To have specks of greatness is ordinary. To have constant greatness is extrodinary. Imagine your life lived with the warmth of the sun to radiate to all those around you. What would that take? What would have to be in place for people that you don't even know to understand that?
I'm still trying. I will continue to.

"Life is short. If you don't stop once in a while and look around, you might miss it." This is what Ferris Bueller said on his day off. If you haven't seen this movie, you have a homework assignment. Go rent that movie ASAP and get back to me on how great it is. Not only because it is based in Chicago, but because Ferris is the Holden of our generation. (+5 bonus points if you got that reference.)
We live in a fast-paced world. Many people go through it without vacations. Having a perfect attendance at work is a great accomplishment, but is that what they will talk about at your funeral? Or will your kids talk about how you pulled them out of school, for no apparent reason, to go fishing one day or will your friends talk about how well traveled you were or how well read of a person you were?
Life is to be experienced and enjoyed. It is a gift from God that is not meant to be wasted. Don't get me wrong, a permanent vacation (that Aerosmith wishes we take) is never a good idea either. A healthy balance of the two should be achieved.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you make look back and realize that they were the big things." I mentioned this in a previous post, but I will bring it up again. Christa brought this quote to me. I feel that it goes along with the previous one, slightly. When you think about your favorite memory that you hold of your parents, siblings and/or friends - what is that memory of? Is it at an awards ceremony or is it laughing about something stupid in a car ride? Is it an inside joke that only the two of you share? Is it cooking Thanksgiving dinner together? Is it sharing a beer on the roof of a radio station? (Ok, maybe that's just me.)
It is the simple moments of true connection between two people that mean the most.

"Respect yourself. Others will follow." I came up with this one only about a week ago. I don't really know where it came from, but there it is. If you have self esteem. If you have pride in who you are. If you respect the person that is you, others will share that respect.
Ever notice someone walk into a crowded room and immediately everyone notices? This confidence is rooted in respect for him or her self. It is quite an admirable trait and one that we all can accomplish. If you don't respect who you are, how do you expect others to respect you? You are, obviously, your biggest selling point. Ask anyone who has been in sales. Most of the time, people purchase the seller, not what is being sold. Someone may have a mansion on a hill, a fleet of cars, a yacht and a bank vault filled to the brim like Scrooge McDuck, but without self-respect, they have nothing. They are still as poor as a beggar.
You and your character are the strongest elements of your being. Value them. Respect them.

"The Truth is permanent. Everything else falls by the wayside." - Dave Chappelle - Inside The Actor's Studio. I heard this from Dave Chappelle. Not a usual source for insightful wisdom, but yet, the star of "Half Baked" really struck me with this one. What a value this puts on truth. It is the only thing that will remain forever. The Truth. Once all else is gone, The Truth is the only thing that remains.
It reminds me of what my good friend, Gayle, from Effingham, once said "If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said." Once your life becomes clouded with lies, you lose out on meaningful connections with other people and you also lose out on your own idenity.

"Perfection can not be achieved by the human race. But, that doesn't mean that it can't be strived for." What is perfection? Nothing on this planet is perfect. Nothing. It is all of this planet. Everything that we have done and everything that we will do can be done better. Never has something been done perfectly by Man.
Does that mean we should give up? Nope. Getting as close to perfection as possible is what we should reach for. Whether that be on a great morning radio show or organizing sugar packets for the restaurant Nazi, perfection should be the goal. Our lives will be that much more complete and have a great sense of accomplishment.

"Your future is what you make it. So, make it a good one." Some of you may remember this one from Back to the Future part III. It is one of the last pieces of advice that Doc gives to Marty at the end. (Don't worry, I won't ruin the ending of the trilogy for you.) This saying puts the responsibility into our hands. Our future is what we make of it. We can make it a great one or a lousy one. While we can not control our surroundings, we can control how we react to them. It is up to us to decide if getting cut off in morning traffic will create an entire bad day or if we will brush it off and look for the good in the next moment of time. Tomorrow is not yet written, but we are the ones holding the pen.

"You can do anything you set your mind to." This is another piece of advice that Doc gave Marty all throughout the trilogy. (It is a really great set of movies. Again, rent them if you haven't seen them.) The human mind is capable of such great things. The statue of David. The invention of the light bulb. Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin. (Everyone remembers Eli from History class!) If we set a goal, we will come up with some way of accomplishing it. We may need assistance from others or a great deal of time, but with the mind that we were given, we can accomplish great things. This has already been proven. This saying kind of relates to another one of my favorites...

"Trust in God. Through Him all things are possible." God created the universe! If we have faith in Him, we can do great things. Even better - we can become great people. It also says "ALL things are possible." Not just some or even most, but ALL. There is an endless amount of possibilities before us with God on our side.

That's all that I can think of right now. I'm sure you have a few that you would like to add. I encourage you to do so by posting a comment on here. If I think of more, I will write another post for ya.
Until then, Have fun.