"Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." That is a quote by Helen Keller. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Helen was a deaf and blind women born in 1880, who became the first deaf and blind person to earn a college degree. Her life story is truly amazing and should be read by everyone, in my opinion.
If anyone has the right to talk about hope, it was Helen. She was born in rural Alabama and at the age of 19 months contracted an illness that left her deaf, mute, and blind. At the age of seven, her parents brought her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she met Anne Sullivan, a visually impaired student who became Helen's teacher. After many months, she had a breakthrough with Helen that helped to change her life forever. If you are interested in the story, you can watch the film "The Miracle Worker" which tells Anne's story about working with Helen. Over time, Helen learned to sign, read braille, and even speak. In her later years, she became a prolific author and an activist for many causes. After learning to speak, she became a prolific lecturer as well. Imagine, through all of that adversity, she kept a sense of hope and optimism. Not only that, she put her education to good use trying to help people with similar disabilities, as well as for political causes she believed in. Note that Helen was a pacifist and opposed Woodrow Wilson's policies in domestically, in Europe and in Latin America.. About Woodrow Wilson she stated: ""Could it be that we don't want to think badly of Woodrow Wilson... We don't want complicated icons. "People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions, and conclusions are not always pleasant."" It is hard for me to imagine being blind and deaf and still being able to learn how to speak and write, let alone doing so as eloquently as Helen did. On top of that, she had the empathy to stand up for and fight for people with similar disabilities. On this day of thanks giving, I find I am thankful for people like Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan who use what God has given them to the best of their abilities. They prove that hope and optimism can go a long way towards helping people. In the end, Helen lived her beliefs and fought for them nonviolently, Isn't that something we can all aspire to?
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"Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down." This is a quote by America's Sweetheart, Mary Pickford. Mary was an actress during the heyday of film. In fact, she was awarded the second Academy Award ever back in 1929. She was more than just an actress though. She was a producer and a business woman as well. In fact, she was the co-founder of United Artists and she was also one of the original founding members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
Mary was never one for failures... and you shouldn't be either! Setbacks are NOT failures. They are setbacks. They can become failures, though, if you allow them to be. Set your mind to a task and get to work! Here is a personal example. When I first started karate, I was 43 years old and out of shape. In fact, I could barely do 10 push ups without having to stop. I stuck with it though, and practiced. Not just karate, either. At one point I did 100 push ups a day to get better at them and to increase the number I could do in one sitting. My record for a day is 1,250 push ups. Not bad for a 50-year-old guy! I have a knee injury now, but I try not to let that stop me. Remember, it's okay to fall down, just keep getting up. Since getting my knee injury I have worked on my kicks constantly. I can do multiple kicks without putting my foot back on the ground, and I have developed enough power to knock a 100-pound upright bag to the ground with my roundhouse kick. The flexibility of my kicks is also improving. I can kick to head level with nearly every type of kick now... including spinning back kicks and spinning hook kicks. Remember, as long as you keep on trying, you haven't failed. You may not have succeeded, but you haven't failed. The moment you give up, then you have failed. I kick a bag two to three times a week outside of class. If you include the work I do in class, then I kick the bag four or five times a week. While it may not be success, it certainly isn't failure! No matter what you want to do in life, you CAN do it. It can't be done without work, however. Everything in life has a cost. What are you willing to spend to get what you want? Remember, not all things are bought with gold. Most times, the payment is made with time and effort (kung fu). Most people think that kung fu is just a martial art. And it is a type of martial art. What it really means though is time and energy. Use your kung fu to achieve your goals. Just remember, for every goal there is a cost. Try to know the cost of your goal before you set out on your journey. If you consciously have an idea of what a goal will cost you before you set out, you are more likely to finish it. Remember, like anything else, success and failure are habits. Practice the success habit! "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success." That's a quote by Albert Schweitzer. Albert won a Nobel Peace Price back in 1952. He was both a theologian and a philosopher, which kind of sounds like an interesting combination.
There are lots of ways to define success. In fact, I think if you ask ten people to define success, you are likely to get ten very vague but different answers. My idea of success when I was younger was much different than my idea of success right now. When I was younger, I figured if I had lots of money, a pretty wife a big house and time to party, then I would be extremely successful. Obviously, I wasn't thinking very deeply about things back then! That was when I was in my teens by the way. Going back even further, my definition of success was tied to how well I was doing playing sports and how big I could get my baseball card collection! Nowadays, it is easy for me to see that my ideas of success were flawed. They were flawed because I was not looking past the moment. All of those things, were things I wanted at that moment. Nowhere was there a thought about what was best for my future. Nowadays, I define success by how much time I get to spend with my daughters, and what I can teach them to make their lives easier in the future. Helping them to successfully complete their goals both in the present and for their futures gives me an immeasurable amount of happiness. It helps me to define a part of what I believe it means to be successful. It is not my only definition of success though. I also define success by how much ability I have to accomplish tings that I like to do. My ability to take karate classes two times a week and to help teach two other classes is a sign of my own personal success. My ability to take my daughters different places to allow them to grow and see new things is also a sign of my own success. Almost none of the things that define success to me has to do with material things. My car and my truck are both just tools to me. They get me from point A to point B. My house, is a sort of store of my wealth and a place where I can safely raise my family. The antiques and nice furniture that I own are more vestiges left over from my earlier life, A lot has happened to me over my fifty years on earth. My wife has died in my arms, my father and grandmother have both passed away, and I have both started and lost businesses and jobs. Through all of that, I can still look out my window and at times say that I am happy... and mean it! I think Albert had it right. Happiness is the key to success. If you want to be successful, then you first need to find a way to be happy. You can make millions each year and still feel that you are missing something. Look at Robin Williams or Kurt Cobain. Happiness doesn't come from where you live or what type of car you drive. It comes from inside.After many years, I think I can say that I am finally at peace with myself. And that, after my children, is likely the greatest feeling of success that I have ever felt. |
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