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FALL 2001 ISSUE | Monthly Messages From The DOC | Recommended Products! | The Og Mandino Room | The Rodney Dangerfield Room | Joel Verlin For President In 2004! | Joel Verlin ON TOUR! | Poems Of The Month | Favorite Passions! | Useful Sites! | Funny Bits By Joel | Allen "Mister America" Carter (Ewrestling) | SFC2 Orion Pirates Screenshots | Poems By Joel | People Of The Year... | Attack On America Remembrance - Warning Lots Of Pictures!
The Og Mandino Room
Reflections - A Top Ten List of Year-End Questions
In order to embrace the new, we must release the old. A
trapeze artist cannot swing from one bar to another without
letting go. An important part of preparing for the New Year
is to review the past year -- to release it -- and to learn
from it.
To go where we wish to go and be whom we wish to be, we need
to know where we are and who we are. An honest self-analysis
is always helpful to gain clarity. As we end the year, the
decade, the century and the millennium, it seems
particularly fitting to devote some time to reflecting on
the year past and where we find ourselves as the new
century dawns.
The following questions should stimulate your thinking for
this process. I hope that you take time out of your busy
schedule this holiday season to ponder where you are and
where you've been. Enter into discussions with people you
care about. Write out your thoughts and feelings. Do some
journaling. Consider writing a letter -- an end-of the-year-
epistle to yourself. It could be profound to write it and
valuable to read it in the years ahead.
Reflect upon what you did, how you felt, what you liked,
what you didn't and what you learned. Try to look at
yourself and your experience with as much objectivity as
you can-much like a biographer would.
Here are some suggestions to get you started in mulling
over the past year-perhaps the last decade. Feel free to
add your own.
1. What did I learn? (skills, knowledge, awareness', etc.)
2. What did I accomplish? A list of my wins and
achievements.
3. What would I have done differently? Why?
4. What did I complete or release? What still feels
incomplete to me?
5. What were the most significant events of the year past?
List the top three.
6. What did I do right? What do I feel especially good
about? What was my greatest contribution?
7. What were the fun things I did? What were the
not-so-fun?
8. What were my biggest challenges/roadblocks/difficulties?
9. How am I different this year than last?
10. For what am I particularly grateful?
Another Suggestion: Consider listing all the things in your
life of which you'd like to let go -- anything you no longer
want. Give thanks for what they've brought you in terms of
learning and usefulness and then burn the list. It's a
symbolic gesture to help you release the old and be open to
the new. The next step is to list what you DO want -
experiences, knowledge, material things, relationships,
healings, whatever.
In doing this, you'll be using the principle of vacuum --
releasing what you don't want and embracing what you do. On
New Year's Eve, my wife and I, along with several friends
and close family members will light a bonfire and burn our
lists as well as a few other articles that represent
something we no longer desire in our lives. For example, I
plan to burn an old (and too big) article of clothing to
symbolize a less-than impeccable wardrobe and garments that
belong to a heavier person than I am and will be.
I'm confident that anything you can do to make this
year-end more dramatic in terms of your own personal and
spiritual growth will be valuable.
Make it a great New Year by ending this one well.
- Michael Angier
© 1995-2001 Michael Angier & Success Networks International,
used with permission. Michael Angier is the founder and
president of Success Networks. Success Net's mission is to
inform, inspire and empower people to be their best -
personally and professionally. Download their free eBooklet,
KEYS TO PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS from
www.SuccessNet.org/keys.htm. Free subscriptions, memberships,
books and SuccessMark Cards are available at
www.SuccessNet.org.
I dreamed I had an interview with God.
“So you would like to interview me?” God asked
“If you have the time” I said.
God smiled
“My time is eternity”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”
“What surprises you most about humankind?...”
God answered...
“That they get bored with childhood.
They rush to grow up and then
long to be children again.”
“That they lose their health to make money
and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”
That they live as if they will never die,
and die as if they had never lived.”
God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for awhile
And then I asked...
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”
God replied with a smile
“To learn they cannot make anyone love them.
What they can do is let themselves be loved.”
“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”
“To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in persons we love,
and it takes many years to heal them.”
“To learn to forgive by
practicing forgiveness.”
“To learn that there are persons who love them dearly,
but simply do not know how to express or show
their feelings.”
“To learn that two people
can look at the same thing
and see it differently.”
“To learn that it is not always enough that they
be forgiven by others. But that they must
forgive themselves.”
“And to learn that I am here
always.”
Taken from http://www.reata.org/ --------> Go here to see these words in a powerful flash presentation !
The following is dedicated to my Mom Gail Verlin and moms everywhere...
POSITION: MOM
JOB DESCRIPTION: Long-term team players needed for challenging permanent
work in an often-chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent
communication and organizational skills and be willing to work various
hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24-hour
shifts "on call." Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments
in faraway cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier
duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES: This is for the rest of your life. Must be willing to
be hated at least temporarily, until someone needs $5 to go skating. Must
be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical
stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three
seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not
someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical
challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and
stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate
production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and
organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap,
plastic toys and battery-operated devices. Must always hope for the best
but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability
for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor
maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION: Virtually none. Your job is to
remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly
retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can
ultimately surpass you.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required, unfortunately. On-the-job training
offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION: You pay them, offering frequent raises and
bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the
assumption that college will help them become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this
reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could
only do more.
BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition
reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered, job
supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for
life if you play your cards right.
Pass this on to all the moms you know, in appreciation for everything they
do on a daily basis, and let them know they are appreciated.
Author Unknown; found circulating the WebIf at times you feel you want to cry and life seems such a trial,
Above the clouds there's a bright blue sky, so make your tears a smile.
As you travel on Life's way, with its many ups and downs,
Remember it's quite true to say, one smile is worth a dozen frowns.
Among the worlds expensive things, a smile is very cheap,
And when you give a smile away, you get one back to keep.
Happiness comes at times to all, but sadness comes unbidden,
And sometimes a few tears must fall among the laughter hidden.
So when friends have sadness on their face and troubles round them piled,
The world will seem a better place and all because you smiled!
REMEMBER THIS
Great is the power of might and mind, but only love can make us kind,
And all we are or hope to be is empty pride and vanity.
If love is not a part of all, the greatest man is very small.
-- Helen Steiner Rice
May you always have a smile on your face and laughter in your heart.
Love is more of what you do . . .
and less of what you say.