Quotes

The power and dance of resilience

November 27, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Jellyfish, originally uploaded by jcgr.

If we've learned nothing else in the last few years, it is this lesson:

Resilience, ultimately, wins the day.

Here are others' thoughts about resilience, persistence, and vision:

Those who admire the massive, rigid bone structures of dinosaurs should remember that jellyfish still enjoy their very secure ecological niche.
Beau Sheil

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Unknown

You must look into people as well as at them.
Lord Chesterfield

Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendall Holmes

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
Bruce Barton

Sell your cleverness, and purchase bewilderment.
Francesco

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
Thomas Edison

Filed Under: Images, Leadership, Musings, People watching, Quotes, Serendipity

The lift, the gift of laughter

November 9, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Need a bit of a break?

Find a way to add a laugh to your day…even if it's just a moment away.

Here's what a few others have to say about the value of laughter:

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

Wayne Dyer

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Victor Borge

You don't stop laughing because grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
Michael Pritchard

Humor helps us to think out of the box. The average child laughs about 400 times per day, the average adult laughs only 15 times per day. What happened to the other 385 laughs?
USA Today

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
ee cummings

Filed Under: People at Work, Quotes

Building the future…today

November 7, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

The future isn't tomorrow.

It starts today…with your next step.

On that note, here's what a few others have to say:

Luck is the residue of design.

Branch Rickey

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
Aristotle

Real generosity to the future consists in giving all to what is present.
Albert Camus

It is not enough to be industrious. What are you industrious about?
Sir Walter Scott

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.
Goethe

Filed Under: People at Work, Quotes

Positive provocation for the first Monday of a fresh month

November 2, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

A few ideas here to stir up up other ones as we enter the last two months of 2009 (and they will, of course, fly by):

Time is what we want most, but… what we use worst.
William Penn

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo DaVinci

It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.
Lucille Ball

Take the time to come home to yourself every day.
Robin Casarjean

Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen carefully.
Littlefoot's mother, Land Before Time

Learn to cultivate your own garden.
Voltaire

Filed Under: Musings, People watching, Quotes

Celebrate as you move through big challenges

October 29, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Big changes underway? Big milestones just ahead?

Good results coming in, in spite of challenges you had to pass?

Don't forget to include celebrations in your plans.

Here are a few thoughts about including celebrations as you move ahead:

Celebrate what you want to see more of.
Tom Peters

People often resist change for reasons that make good sense to them, even if those reasons don't correspond to organizational goals. So it is crucial to recognize, reward and celebrate accomplishments.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Never celebrate until you are really out of the woods. They might be behind the last tree.
Unknown

I will celebrate, but I know new goals and objectives will come and I am ready to take them.
Ronaldo

Filed Under: Business Results, Leadership, People at Work, Quotes

Facts don’t lie…unless you try to make the facts dance

October 25, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Facts don’t lie.

Unless you make facts dance, as Mark Twain suggests, below.

Here are a few thoughts on taking measurements, using them, and not leaving things up to chance:

There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.
Enrico Fermi

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.
George Bernard Shaw

First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure.
Mark Twain

Filed Under: Knowledge Management, Measurement, Quotes

Solutions

October 23, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Sometimes you find solutions to problems.

Sometimes you create them.

Here's a range of perspectives on making a new and better way:

You won't find a solution by saying there is no problem.

William Rotsler

You can simplify and simplify and simplify yet still find other incredible ways to simplify further.
Steve Wozniak

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.
Norman Vincent Peale

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Abraham Maslow

I now know that I learn by solving problems as they arise. Rarely do we learn significant lessons, or significantly improve, any other way.
Bob Parsons

Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.
Edward de Bono

I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it.
Frank A. Clark

Filed Under: Business Results, Knowledge Management, Quotes

Tributes

October 23, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

It is my brother's birthday today.

The years are slowly adding up since he's been gone.

He was a wise man who loved the great outdoors – all aspects of the great outdoors.

When asked what his religion was, Don always said that he went to the Church of the Blue Dome.

That's a feeling I know, myself. The glorious Church of the Blue Dome.

When I wonder how to honor him, the answer that always comes is to get outdoors, spend some time in nature, somehow, some way.

When you think of dear ones now gone, what's the most appropriate tribute that comes to mind to honor them?

And when you think of loved ones who are in your life now, what's most appropriate to honor them?

It's likely there's a different way to honor each and every one.

Today's quote from my desk calendar made me smile. It reinforces the Church of the Blue Dome thought:

It's glorious the things an empty self sees!

I walk the stream to its very source, sit and watch the clouds rise…

If by chance I meet an old woodsman, we talk and laugh – no rush to get home.

Wang-wei

Filed Under: Musings, Quotes

Thursday thought-provokers

October 15, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

A few thought-provoking quotes for the week's end:

Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present.
Peter Drucker

One's vision is not a roadmap but a compass.
Peter Block

Some people think you are strong when you hold on. Others think it is when you let go.
Sylvia Robinson

You can't jump a chasm in two bounds.
Chinese saying

There is no risk-less way to the future, we must choose which set of risks we wish to run.
Jay Ogilvy

It takes less energy to be free and flowing than locked up in stress. We learn by releasing and letting go, not by adding on.
William Bates

Evolution favors the survival of the wisest.
Jonas Salk

Learning is a matter of intensity, not elapsed time.
Tom Peters

Filed Under: Leadership, People at Work, Quotes

Problem-solving with a long-term view

October 4, 2009 By Jan Richards Leave a Comment

Problem-solving?

The process of problem-solving can be a problem itself, when viewed too close.

Here are thoughts on problem-solving, taking the long-term view:

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
John Foster Dulles

You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by
staying there.
Edwin Louis Cole

A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.
John Dewey

Filed Under: Process Management, Quotes