Accomplishment/Success;Advice/Feedback/Criticism;Affirmation; Animals/Pets; Appreciative Inquiry; Art; Attitude; Authenticity; Authority Behaviour   ACCOMPLISHMENT/SUCCESS Don’t aim at success —the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue... as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself. ~Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. ~Peter Drucker The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. ~Unknown Success is never final. ~ Winston Churchill Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. ~Saint Augustine Great things are done by people who think great thoughts and then go out into the world to make their dreams come true. ~ Ernest Holmes If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average. ~M.H. Alderson The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces. ~Unknown I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings. ~Margaret Mead There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are each made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. ~George Adams One is never more on trial than in the moment of excessive good fortune. ~Lew Wallace You can get anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. ~Zig Ziglar If it is to be, it is up to me. ~Unknown We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility. ~Albert Einstein Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him. ~Henry David Thoreau So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Include the success of others in your dreams for your own success. ~Unknown The only certain measure of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you. ~Og Mandino We all have the extraordinary coded within us ... waiting to be released. ~Jean Houston Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other. ~Erma Bombeck Every man is the architect of his own fortune. ~Appius Claudius I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone. ~Bill Cosby No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you. ~Althea Gibson How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. ~George Washington Carver Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality. ~Henry Ward Beecher To Have Succeeded To laugh often and love much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics, and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give one’s self; To leave the world a little better, whether by a health child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived... This is to have succeeded. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Designing a Successful Future Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, and meetings and material assistance which one could never have dreamed would come his or her way. Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. ~Goethe To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. ~Anatole France The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will. ~Vince Lombardi I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the tiny pushes of each honest worker. ~Helen Keller We are what we think; as we desire so do we become! By our thoughts, desires, and habits, we either ascend to the full divine dignity of our nature, or we descend to suffer and learn. ~J.Todd Ferrier (1855-1943) top of page ADVICE/FEEDBACK/CRITICISM To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn't know what to do or that he can't do it on his own. ~John Gray Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish growth without destroying the roots ~Unknown He only profits from praise who values criticism. ~Heinrich Heine If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it . . . write it in the sand near the water's edge. ~Napoleon Hill I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. ~Harry S Truman Advice would always be more acceptable if it didn't conflict with our plans. ~New England proverb Blame not before you have examined; Interrupt not in the midst of speech; Answer not before you have heard; Understand first, and then enlighten. ~Unknown Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry. ~Spanish Proverb Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon - and the deeper it sinks into - the mind. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge AFFIRMATION The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. Benjamin Disraeli Affirmations are strong, positive, assertive statements that you suggest to yourself, about your self, that you believe. These are based on three P's, Personal, Positive and Present tense. ~unknown Verbalization is speaking your affirmation aloud. You increase the impact of your affirmation by 80% by saying it out loud.. Key is to charge affirmations, with emotion and feelings. ~unknown top of page ANIMALS/PETS Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to. ~Alfred A. Montapert APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but seeing with new eyes. ~Marcel Proust Judging by what I have learned about men and women, I am convinced that far more idealistic aspiration exists than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are much less numerous than the underground streams, so the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what men and women carry in their hearts, unreleased or scarcely released. Mankind is waiting and longing for those who can accomplish the task of untying what is knotted and bringing the underground waters to the surface. ~Albert Schweitzer We have to encourage the future we want rather than trying to avoid the future we fear. ~Bill Joy, founder and former chief scientist, Sun Microsystems If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. ~Kierkegaard Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~Albert Einstein We have inherited the past; we can create the future. ~Unknown The sense of wonder, that is our sixth sense. ~D.H. Lawrence Why is uninhibited wonder something we generally restrict to children? If doing good inquiry is at the heart of OD, why then so little talk of things like awe, curiosity, veneration, surprise, delight, amazement, and wonder -- in short, everything that serves to infuse what OD has traditionally referred to as the spirit of inquiry. ~David Cooperrider We have reached the end of problem solving as a mode of inquiry capable of inspiring, mobilizing and sustaining human system change, and the future of OD belongs to methods that affirm, compel and accelerate anticipatory learning involving larger and larger levels of collectivity. ~David Cooperrider The arduous task of intervention will give way to the speed of imagination and innovation; and instead of negation, criticism, and spiralling diagnosis, there will be discovery, dream and design....And the metaphor speaking best to our primary task and role -- the child as the agent of inquiry -- is one where wonder, learning, and the dialogical imagination will be modus operandi. ~David Cooperrider The most inspiring stories, the most passion-filled data, the most textured and well-illustrated example, the most daring images of possibility -- were/are conducted by the children...The inter-generational dynamic of the dialogue made the data collection stage soar. ~David Cooperrider One is reminded of Margaret Mead's hypothesis that the best societal learning has always occurred when three generations come together in contexts of discovery and valuing -- the child, the elder, and the middle adult. ~David Cooperrider Where appreciation is alive and generations are re-connected through inquiry, hope grows. ~David Cooperrider Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. ~Charles Caleb Colton I have found that it does not help, in the long run, to begin my inquiries from the standpoint of the world as a problem to be solved. I am more effective, quite simply, as long as I can retain the spirit of inquiry of the everlasting beginner. ~David Cooperrider We often spend so much time coping with problems along our path that we only have a dim or even inaccurate view of what's really important to us. ~Peter Senge The problem-solving approach directs attention to the worst of what is, constantly examining what is wrong with the organization. The assumption is that if the problems are fixed, then the desired future will automatically unfold. ~David Cooperrider In problem solving it is assumed that something is broken, fragmented, not whole, and that it needs to be fixed. Thus the function of problem solving is to integrate, stabilize, and help raise to its full potential the workings of the status quo. ~David Cooperrider By definition, a problem implies that one already has knowledge of what should be; thus one's research is guided by an instrumental purpose tied to what is already known. In this sense, problem solving tends to be inherently conservative; as a form of research it tends to produce and reproduce a universe of knowledge that remains sealed. ~David Cooperrider Referring to James Mageria of Vision Africa, He has stated that Africa does not need to be fixed. It needs constant re-affirmation. ~Sarone Ole Sena Light tomorrow with today. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning The most important resource we have for generating constructive change in Africa is our cooperative imagination and mind, and our capacity to unleash the imagination and mind of communities, churches, governments and individuals. ~Sarone Ole Sena The appreciative paradigm, for many, is culturally at odds with the popular negativism and professional vocabularies of deficit that permeate society. ~David Cooperrider Appreciative inquiry can get you such better results than seeking out and solving problems. That's an interesting concept for me -- and I imagine for most of you -- because telephone companies are among the best problem solvers in the world. We trouble shoot everything. We concentrate enormous resources on correcting problems that have relatively minor impact on our overall service performance...when used continually and over a long period of time, this approach can lead to a negative culture. If you combine a negative culture with all the challenges we face today, it would be easy to convince ourselves that we have too many problems to overcome -- to slip into a paralyzing sense of hopelessness. And yet if we flip the coin, we have so much to be excited about...We can if we just turn ourselves around and start looking at our jobs -- and ourselves -- differently; if we kill negative talk and celebrate our successes...In the long run, what is more likely to be more useful: Demoralizing a successful workforce by concentrating on their failures, or helping them over their lasts few hurdles by building a bridge with their successes? ~Thomas White, President, GTE Telephone Operations Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door. ~Benjamin Jowett On social constructionism: The primary emphasis is on multiplicity. If you reduce the languages of the culture to a single mode, if all perspectives are reduced to one, then you truncate the options for action. Constructionism is concerned with the minority view because it is a minority view — the deviant, the unusual — one which offers something new as a cultural resource. ~Kenneth J. Gergen We are members of a great body...We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole. ~Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.) Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be: brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. (Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.) We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.~ Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Speech, 1994. Quoting Marianne Williamson. This quote has been circulating around the country as the words of Nelson Mandela. It was actually written by Ms. Williamson and can be found in her book A Return to Love (Harper-Collins, 1993) Jim Lord top of page ART Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes. ~Kahlil Gibran Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. ~Andre Gide Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto His glory. ~H.W.Longfellow Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~Henry Ward Beecher Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. ~Amy Lowell ATTITUDE (see also Perspective) we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails ~Indian Proverb Where we've gotten mixed up is that we believe actions follow belief. But experience creates belief. ~Rev Cecil Williams God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ~Reinhold Niebuhr The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. ~Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. ~Abraham Lincoln Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is...The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds. ~Dan Millman, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior Suffering, I was beginning to think, was essential to a good life, and as inextricable from such a life as bliss. It's a great enhancer. It might last a minute, or a month, but eventually it subsides, and when it does, something else takes its place, and maybe that thing is a greater space. For happiness. Each time I encountered suffering, I believe that I grew, and further defined my capacities--not just my physical ones, but my interior ones as well, for contentment, friendship, or any other human experience. ~Lance Armstrong The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind! ~William James Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese proverb When you live in reaction, you give your power away. Then you get to experience what you gave your power to. ~N. Smith Calmness is always Godlike. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. ~Dalai Lama What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. ~Richard Bach What we make in common is more important than what we have in common. ~Unknown The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. ~Shirley Maclaine If it is to be, it is up to me. ~Unknown The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances. ~Martha Washington Speak only that which you choose to have come into manifestation now and continuously. ~Robert Tennyson Stevenson Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. ~Auguste Rodin “Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.” ~Katherine Mansfield Blessing or Bane Long ago, near China's northern borders, lived a man well versed in the practices of Taoism. The man had one son, and while he was not particularly wealthy, he did possess a prize horse. One day, for no reason at all, his prize horse jumped a fence and was lost. All his friends and neighbours commiserated with him. “Such misfortune,” they declared. “Perhaps,” was all the man would say. After a few weeks, his animal came back, bringing with him a herd of 20 fine horses. Everyone congratulated him. “What great fortune,” they cried. "Perhaps,” said the man. Some time later, the man’s son was attempting to break one of the new horses when it suddenly threw him. The son broke his leg in three places. Again his friends and neighbours bemoaned his bad luck. “Such misfortune,” they claimed. “Perhaps,” was all the man said. Not long after this, the northern tribes began invading the border regions where the man and his family lived. Consequently, the army came door-to-door conscripting all able-bodied young men to take up arms against the invaders. All the young men in the man’s village were taken — except his own son, who was deemed too crippled to fight. ~Unknown Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there. ~Norman Vincent Peale A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing in nothing. ~Maya Angelou That which happens in life is not as important as how you accept it. ~Unknown Work like you don't need money, Love Like you've never been hurt, And dance like no one's watching. ~Unknown We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. ~Kahlil Gibran If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. ~Marcus Aurelius No life is so hard that you can't make it easier by the way you take it. ~Ellen Glasgow A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is. ~Seneca We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them. ~Epictetus, The Enchiridion What does not destroy me, makes me stronger. ~Friedrich Nietzsche Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. ~Frank Outlaw In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. ~Anne Frank If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves. ~Thomas Alva Edison I keep my mind focussed on peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then, I can't be distracted by doubt, anxiety or fear. ~Edith Armstrong I make it my business to have a great day every day. ~Wylma Gawne-Bloder A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist. ~Eleanor Roosevelt Most people think of things that are and ask, why? I think of things that never where and ask, why not? ~George Bernard Shaw The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition and not our circumstances. ~Martha Washington Everything can be taken from us but one thing -- the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance. ~Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning Being broke is a temporary situation. Being poor is a state of mind. ~ Mike Todd ...Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. ~Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~Albert Einstein I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. ~Groucho Marx top of page AUTHENTICITY Being “Real” “What is Real?” asked the Rabbit one day..., “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick - out - handle?” “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you...” “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.” “Does it happen all at once,...” he asked, “or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. ~From The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjory Williams This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Though canst not then be false to any man. ~William Shakespeare, from Hamlet There are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle. ~Ralph Waldo Trine The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. ~Plato Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about. ~W. H. Auden No one man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one. ~Hawthorne Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn. ~Charlie Parker Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, "This is the real me," and when you have found that attitude, follow it. ~William James  AUTHORITY What is not fully appreciated by managers and professionals in the middle of organizations is that no one has real control. ~Unknown BEHAVIOUR No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant. ~Friederich Nietzsche Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell the truth. ~Oscar Wilde Lots of people know a good thing the minute the other fellow sees it first. ~ J.E. Hedges It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. ~Rollo May Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few. ~Benjamin Franklin Never explain. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. ~Elbert Hubbard The road to hell is paved with good intentions. ~Karl Marx Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. ~George Santayana top of page

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