Now That's a Dog

I was wrestling with posting this or not. Is it relevant to my focus? I decided it was unusual in a positive way and so can have relevance to those of us who may not "fit the mold" but yet have a definite place in society and should embrace their difference rather than trying to run away from it.

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff And has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds. With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the Three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's Standard 200lb. Limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules Weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just grew".... And grew. And grew. And grew.

You Might Be A Redneck If..............(176-200 of 299)

First 25

176	After making love you ask your date to roll down the window.
177	The biggest fashion risk you take is which plaid you'll wear to the 4-H Fair.
178	You have flowers planted in a bathroom appliance in your front yard.
179	Someone in your family says "Cum'n heer an' lookit this afore I flush it."
180	Your wife weighs more then your refrigerator
181	If going to the bathroom in the middle of the night involves putting on shoes (if you have them) a jacket and grabbing a flashlight.
182	When you see a sign that says "Say No To Crack," it reminds you to pull your jeans up.
183	You go Christmas shopping for your mom, sister, and girlfriend, and you only need to buy one gift
184	You are still holding on to Confederate money because you think the South will rise again.
185	You consider pork and beans to be a gourmet food.
186	You participate in the "who can spit tobacco the farthest contest".
187	You roll you hair with soup cans and wash it once a year.
188	You consider a three piece suit to be: a pair of overalls, a plaid flannel shirt and thermal underwear.
189	There is a sheet hanging in your closet and a gun rack hanging in your truck.
190	You can change the oil in your truck without ducking your head.
191	You have 5 cars that are immobile and house that is!
192	You gene pool doesn't have a "deep end"
193	"Honey? Are the lights out? Is the door locked? Is the parking brake set?" is what you hear right before you and your wife/girl friend make love
194	You have to go down to the creek to take a bath.
195	You come home from the garbage dump with more than you went with.
196	Your `huntin dawg' cost more than the truck you drive him around in.
197	You'd rather catch bass than get some (if you can't guess...)
198	You have a Hefty bag for a Car/Truck convertible top.
199	Your belt buckle weighs more than three pounds.
200	You think that safe sex is a padded headboard on the waterbed.
	Thank you Jeff Foxworth Next 25

Are You Prepared For Success? (Installment #7)

(If this is your first time on this site, please begin with "Are You Prepared For Success [Introduction.])

This process (to be described later) has been designed to remove the dark glasses, to remove the negative attitudes and replace them with clear glasses; positive attitudes. This in its simplest and most basic form, is the purpose of this program.

Fortunately false truths can be eradicated by repeating to yourself positive, affirmative, messages to replace the negative, debilitating messages you may have been programmed with. You will be able to remove the "prior consent" that you unwittingly gave to others that made you feel negative about yourself. This is one of the goals.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you truly feel that these negative attitudes you have about yourself are true, and you feel you can back them up...not only with real life examples of how you have failed, but also listing others who hold low opinions of you...consider this:

The reason that you may have concrete examples of why you are a failure is that, due to early negative programming, again, probably as a child, you believe that you are a failure and unconsciously, you want to prove yourself right. Therefore, you, at a subconscious level, will do everything within your power not to succeed. You may, subconsciously, continuously sabotage yourself. You set yourself up for "Catastrophic Expectations:" You expect the worse to happen...so therefore, it will happen.

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

-Anthony Trollope

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

-Henry Ford

Now, take a look at the reverse. What do you think would result if you were to, without doubt, believe that you will succeed? Yes, you probably would indeed succeed. If negative beliefs, negative thinking and negative attitudes lead to failure, then it also follows that positive thinking, positive beliefs and positive attitudes will lead to success.

I will never quit, I know that I will succeed, therefore success is inevitable.

Doubt is a thief that often makes us fear to tread where we might have won.

-William Shakespeare

How, then, do you begin to achieve these attitudes? - Positive self-talk (also known as auto-suggestion) begins the process. Self-talk is the process of speaking to yourself. Yes, talking to yourself. In fact, as you follow the process you will be talking to yourself, out-loud, and enjoying it. Self-talk must be of a positive nature, consisting of self-affirming and self-motivating, messages...not the negative messages that may have been shaping your life up to now.

Most all of us have been involved with self-talk at some point in our lives. For many people it is an on-going process. You have probably experienced negative self-talk, without even realizing it. When ever you hear that little voice in your head saying "I can't," or "That's impossible," or "That's too hard," you are experiencing negative self-talk. You are reaffirming what you believe is an accurate assessment of your capabilities with confirming self-talk. However, this assessment has no basis in fact and will not apply to the person you will become. This assessment was based on prior programmed negative messages, as was referred to earlier. To repeat, these are negative messages that were previously told to you, probably at a time in your life when you were susceptible and/or trusting. Once these messages have been repeated enough times, and you believe them to be true, you invoke self-talk as a way of reinforcing them. This process may take place consciously or subconsciously. A partial list of these messages were previously detailed.

Self-talk is a very powerful tool and can make dramatic changes in your life. The objective is to use it in a targeted, guided and positive way.

Positive self-talk is at the heart of the process. You will be giving yourself pep-talks, motivating yourself, building up your spirits, changing your negative attitudes into positive ones, and reinforcing any existing positive attitudes that you may have. This will be accomplished in a rather unique, fun and powerful way.

By Mel Kaye

Copyright © MondayMorningPower, All rights Reserved

Go to Installment #8

You Might Be A Redneck If...........(151 - 175 of 299)

Redneck Palm Pilot

First 25

151	You consider pork and beans to be a gourmet food.
152	You participate in the "who can spit tobacco the farthest contest".
153	You roll you hair with soup cans and wash it once a year.
154	You consider a three piece suit to be: a pair of overalls, a plaid flannel shirt and thermal underwear.
155	There is a sheet hanging in your closet and a gun rack hanging in your truck.
156	You think the Mountain Men in deliverance were just "Misunderstood".
157	You've ever made change in the offering plate.
158	If the fifth grade is referred to as "your senior year,"
159	You consider a good tan to be the back of your neck and the left arm below the shirt sleeve...
160	You own at least 20 baseball hats.
161	You know of at least six different ways to bend the bill of a baseball hat.
162	You can change the oil in your truck without ducking your head.
163	When you run out of gas, you put gin in the gas tank!
164	Your biggest ambition in live is to "git thet big'ole coon. The one what hangs 'round over yonder, back'ah bubba's barn..."
165	Three quarters of the clothes you own have LOGOS on them.
166	When you leave your house, you are followed by federal agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and the only thing you worry about is if you can loose them or not.
167	You bought a VCR so you could tape wrestling while you are at work.
168	Your dad walks you to school because you are both in the same grade.
169	Your wife has a beer belly and you find it attractive.
170	Your house doesn't have curtains, but your truck does.
171	You have started a petition to change the National Anthem to "Georgia on My Mind".
172	You call your boss "Buddy", on a regular basis. You consider your license plate personalized because your dad made it in prison.
173	You have been fired from a construction job because of your appearance.
174	You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the house of Tattoos.
175	You need an estimate from your barber before you get a haircut.
	Thank you Jeff Foxworth Next 25

Motivational Quotes (2)

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened,
vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
-Helen Keller

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence,
is the quality that most frequently makes for success.
-Dale Carnegie

I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world
are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want.
-George Bernard Shaw

Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is.
-Zig Ziglar

Don't just learn the tricks of the trade.
Learn the trade.
-James Bennis

I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.
-Thomas Jefferson

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
-Plato

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
-Aldous Huxley, author

To exist is to change; to change is to mature, to mature is to create oneself endlessly.
-Henri Bergson, French philosopher

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on.
-Robert Frost, poet

If you have a job without any aggravations, you don't have a job.
-Malcolm S. Forbes

The facts are always less than what really happened.
-Nadine Gordimer, author

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.
-Mark Twain

Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
-George Washington Carver

The best way to destroy an enemy is by making them a friend.
-Abraham Lincoln

I cannot think of many occasions when a smile is out of place.
-Charles R. Swindoll, author

Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
-John D. Rockefeller

Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.
-Arthur Ashe

There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
-Sam Walton

A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience, and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.
-Adlai Stevenson

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
-John F. Kennedy

Every vital organization owes its birth and life to an exciting and daring idea.
-James Bryant Conant, American educator

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.
-Mark Twain

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
-Robert H. Goddard, pioneer of rocket research

I'm always busy, but always doing things I enjoy. I rarely occupy myself with things that bug me. I'm very fortunate in that not many of us are allowed to move around for kicks and get paid for it.
-Steve Allen - composer, singer, producer, conductor, songwriter and author

We must become the change we want to see.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
-Abraham Lincoln

Fortune favors the bold.
-Virgil

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
-William Jennings Bryan

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.
-Rudyard Kipling

Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna -- or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities and let the nice things come out.
-Barbara Walters

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
-Elbert Hubbard, U.S. publisher, author

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.
-Samuel Johnson,
British author and lexicographer

If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking.
-Gen. George S. Patton

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
-Helen Keller

People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
-Leonardo da Vinci

See Motivational Quote Index for more quotes.

Are You Prepared For Success? (Installment #6)

(If this is your first time on this site, please begin with "Are You Prepared For Success [Introduction.])

Take heart, It's not your fault! However, instead of blaming others, this process will enable you to take control of your life and effect the necessary changes.

It's only human nature, after hearing these messages from people you trust, over and over again, to believe and then repeat these messages, to yourself, over and over again, until they become a part of you; until you have internalized them so deeply into your being that they "become" you.

These messages become embedded in your sub-conscious mind. You may not feel negative about yourself consciously, however, you feel that there is something stopping you from achieving the success rightly deserve. This something is a collection, built up over time, of negative feelings about yourself and your abilities; caused by your internalization and ownership of these negative messages. These feelings are deep in your subconscious. There they cause feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and the inability to believe in yourself and your abilities.

You are where you are, and you are who you are because that is all you believe that you are capable of becoming.

I had, and most of you probably have, a deep, dark scary place inside of you that contains your darkest secrets and your most frightening fears; a place of demons and monsters; a place where you hide those prior actions and thoughts that you are ashamed of. This is the place where all of those negative messages, which contribute to your inadequacies, self condemnation, feelings of rage, envy and jealousy, all congregate and grow stronger every day. They will continue to grow stronger as long as you continue to validate them.

It is a place that you fear...will one day reveal itself to others...and you will be exposed as a fake, a phony, and a loser and then the "truth" will be known by the whole world. This is probably your deepest fear.

In the reflections of the soul

And the honesty of the heart

The truth will be seen

And the fear will depart.

This fear is not your truth. This is the false truth of your past; the false truth that others in your life have forced upon you, as in the following examples:

• People who possibly meant well, trying to protect you from their truths: that this is a "cold, cruel world."
• People who wanted to share their misery by inflicting their pain onto you.
• People who felt inadequate and who could only feel better by making you feel bad.

All of us who are worth anything, spend our manhood in un-learning the follies, or expiating the mistakes of our youth.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

I'm sure you can think of many more examples that are unique to your own life. List them. Again, this can be very cathartic.)

When you are immersed in your deep, dark scary place, it is difficult hard to understand that these truths that you perceive as yours, are not yours. So you continue to hide them in your dark place, scared that one day they will be revealed. When you are in this place, you most likely reject anything that is positive while only accepting things that are negative in nature, things that fit with your collection of negative messages. Thus, your deep, dark scary place grows ever stronger and even more scary. While holding onto this belief, consciously or subconsciously, it is impossible to break free from the hold that this place, with its negative messages and your greatest fears, has on you, and truly become free of them so you can attain the success you desire.

This process will give you an enjoyable way to break free from this death-grip of negativity.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

"The only way to truly fail is to give up." Let this statement sink in. When one gives up, it's usually because he/she does not believe that he/she is capable of succeeding. This belief is completely preventable, and fortunately, reversible. Both...the belief that one cannot succeed, and quitting...are usually caused by processing information through these very same false, negative, attitudes that you have built up over the years.

Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.

-Julius C. Hare & Augustus Hare

Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.

-Bill Marriott of the Marriott Hotels

Following is a metaphor that will help explain what my process is meant to do for you and how it can guide you to the place that you want to be:

“If you grew up wearing a pair of black tinted glasses everything that you look at would have that black tint. No matter how hard you try to see the true colors of objects, you will still see everything through that black tint. There is nothing that you can do to the object you are looking at to change how you see it. This is the same as growing up with negative attitudes; having negative messages implanted in your subconscious. Everything that you look at will be filtered through these negative attitudes (black tinted glasses). A person with positive attitudes will see a cup as half-full, you will see it as half-empty; where a person with positive attitudes will see an opportunity, you will see the risk; where a positive person will dig a little deeper for that little bit extra that is needed to win, you would give up and say "what's the use, I've already lost."

What one person approves, another scorns,

And thus his nature each discloses;

You find the rosebush full of thorns,

I find the thornbush full of roses.

-Arthur Guiterman

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that
we see too late the one that is open.

-Alexander Graham Bell

Now think of how it would be if you were able to remove these dark glasses, and put on a pair of clear glasses. Everything that you previously saw as dark, hopeless, depressing and negative would now have bright colors, true colors, be hopeful, happy and positive. The whole world would seem different, better, more exciting and a place of opportunity...not failure.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

-George Bernard Shaw

By Mel Kaye

Copyright © MondayMorningPower, All rights Reserved

Go to "Installment #7"

Therapeutic effects of laughter

Some of you may be wondering why I so often include cartoons and jokes in my blog about attitude.

In our striving to better ourselves, as well as the day-to-day activities, it is very easy to loose perspective. I find that laughter helps me reevaluate and refocus. I also believe that in order to "achieve" one must have fun.

The following comes right out of the pages of Wikipedia:

While it is normally only considered cliché that "laughter is the best medicine," specific medical theories attribute improved health, increased life expectancy, and overall improved well-being, to laughter.

A study demonstrated neuroendocrine and stress-related hormones decreased during episodes of laughter, which provides support for the claim that humor can relieve stress. Writer Norman Cousins wrote about his experience with laughter in helping him recover from a serious illness in 1979's Anatomy of an Illness As Perceived by the Patient. In 1989, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article, wherein the author wrote that "a humor therapy program can increase the quality of life for patients with chronic problems and that laughter has an immediate symptom-relieving effect for these patients, an effect that is potentiated when laughter is induced regularly over a period".

Some therapy movements like Re-evaluation Counseling believe that laughter is a type of "bodily discharge", along with crying, yawning and others, which requires encourgement and support as a means of healing.

Technorati Tags:
American+Medical+Association cartoons effects hormones humor jokes Laughing medical+theories Norman+Cousins stress therapeutic

You Might Be A Redneck If......(126 - 150 of 299)

	First 25
126	You think that the Styrofoam cooler is the greatest invention of all time.
127	You've ever been too drunk to fish.
128	You had to remove a toothpick for wedding pictures.
129	You've ever used a weed eater indoors.
130	You have a rag for a gas cap (on a car that does run).
131	You consider a family reunion a good place to pick up girls.
132	You have to go outside to get something out of the 'fridge.
133	Your richest relative invites you over to his new home to help him remove the wheels and skirt.
134	You've ever financed a tattoo.
135	Your idea of a 7 course meal is a bucket of KFC and a six-pack.
136	You go to a Tupperware party for a haircut.
137	You have spray painted your girlfriend's name on an overpass.
138	Your Junior/Senior Prom had a Daycare.
139	Your dog and your wallet are both on chains.
140	Your kids are going hungry tonight because you just had to have those Yosemite Sam mud flaps.
141	You owe the taxidermist more than your annual income.
142	You have lost at least one tooth opening a beer bottle.
143	Jack Daniels makes your list of "most admired people".
144	You won't stop at a rest area if you have an empty beer can in the car.
145	Your dog can't watch you eat without gagging.
146	You have a Hefty bag on the passenger side window of your car.
147	You have a very special baseball cap, just for formal occasions.
148	You have to scratch your sisters name out of the message: "for a good time call . .", because you feel guilty about putting it there...
149	Redman sends you a Christmas card.
150	You are still holding on to Confederate money because you think the South will rise again.
	Thank you Jeff Foxworthy Next 25

Are You Prepared For Success? (Installment #5)

(If this is your first time on this site, please begin with "Are You Prepared For Success [Introduction.])

The basic winning attitudes that must be attained before you can experience true success are:

1. You must believe in your ability to accomplish anything that you set your mind to.

2. You must know, in your soul, that you will never quit and you will never give up, because quitting is the only true failure.

3. You must have a positive attitude, an attitude that believes anything is possible.

4. Failure is not an alternative that you will allow into your mind. However, if you do stumble (not fail), as most successful people have, you will know why and learn from it - then move on to success!

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

-Thomas Edison

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.

-Napoleon Hill

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

The word impossible is not in my dictionary.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

Don't worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

These attitudes, plus other positive attitudes that you will develop and internalize, will enable you to: no longer be a passive bystander; watching life when you can be active...living life; dreaming of success when you can be achieving success. You will be able to recognize and eliminate all internal negativity, as well as external negativity. You will become success driven and success bound. (Success can be financial as well as non-financial and can occur in many areas of your life, simultaneously.) This program and its unique process can help you attain the basic attitudes that are essential for true success.

The curtain is lifting. We can have triumph, or tragedy, for we are the playwrights, the actors and the audience.

-John Macauley, Chairman

You may already have these positive mental attitudes and know that you can accomplish, and probably have accomplished, anything that you set your mind to. Then this process will act as a powerful reinforcement for you and an enjoyable reading, and/or listening, experience; an experience that will recharge your batteries daily, and will enable you to grow ever stronger and even more confident.

The man who wins may have been counted out many times, but he didn't hear the referee.

-H. E. Jansen

A critical fact to remember is that success for you is not what other people define as success, but what you define as success. To state it another way, "Your success should not be based on what others define as success, but what you define as success, based on what your desires are, measured against an ethical and moral value system." You do not have to define what success means to you at this time. As you progress through this program, the success you desire (the goals that you set and want to accomplish) will become apparent.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

-Abraham Lincoln

True success is first felt in the heart, before it is thought of in the mind.

• Why do some of us feel that "We can't" rather than "We can?"
• Why do some of us think "Why try?"
• Why do some of us feel like victims?
• Why do the success based books that are on the market only work on less than 1% of us?
• Why do some of us feel that success is just beyond our grasp?

The answer to these questions lay ahead.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

-Henry Emerson Fosdick

It is a well-known fact that you come, finally, to believe whatever you repeat to yourself, consciously or sub-consciously, whether the statement is true or false. As previously stated, this process usually starts in childhood, and will continue through adult life until we die. If these messages that you are repeating to yourself had all been positive, up-lifting and winning messages, you probably would not be taking this program. Now, for the rest of us, probably 95%+ of the population, these negative, self-esteem lowering, and dream-killing messages that we have been repeating to ourselves, at best…leave us confused, and at worst…makes us feel like hopeless losers, doomed to a life of disappointments and failure.

These negative messages usually start and continue, if you let them, with:

• "You'll never amount to anything!"
• "Can't you do anything right?"
• "You're as helpless as your father!"
• "You're as worthless as your mother"
• "You're too fat!"
• "You're too stupid!"
• "You'll never be able to do that!"
• "You're a loser and you'll always be a loser!"
• "You'll never succeed at anything!"
• "You live in a cold cruel world!"
• "Our type can never succeed!"
• "Why try; they will never accept us?"
• "I should never have had children!"

I'm sure that you can add many more negative messages to the above list; messages that are unique to you and your personal history. Try listing some of them. This process can be very cathartic.

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Don't look back in anger, look forward in hope.

-Zig Zigler

It probably took years and years of listening to, and then repeating to yourself, these negative messages - whether they came from your parents, your siblings, your friends, your teacher, your spouse or your boss - to have produced the negative attitudes that you may now hold. You may be a wonderful, kind and generous person, yet feel as if there is something missing in your life; not feeling successful. After hearing these negative messages, especially as a child, you can't help but believe them. As you continue to hear these messages, your subconscious mind changes the "you" in the messages to "I". So the message transforms from hearing "You can't do anything right!" to believing "I can't do anything right!" This internal process is subtle, insidious and ever so self-defeating.

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.

-Sally Kempton

By Mel Kaye

Copyright © MondayMorningPower, All rights Reserved

Go to Installment #6