Mark your compass now....

Everyday each
individual is faced with a decision--a decision that is the only choice we
truly have power over--that is, the attitude in which we face each day.
 Good and evil are not easily separated. Positive and negative thoughts
rain on our attitude and set in place the foundation of how we look at the
day. We find that our attitude is tested and directed every day, not
necessarily by any given situation, good or bad but the reactions to it. This,
the rudder of reaction, will either turn our ship of thoughts outward to the
open sea or inward towards the reef of negativity. Thus we start each
day by making a choice to set the mind-set sail to catch the positive or
negative trade winds.

 

Never confuse activity with
productivity. It is the quality of work done--not the
quantity. Always set a deadline for each activity and a goal to finish all
tasks early. Advance this goal as you get more proficient in time
management. Remember to do peak period scheduling. Organize your work
load and life so that you are working when you are the best equipped
physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

 Here’s
a thought for you today:

 

It is one
of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely help
another without helping themself.

         
Unknown

 

Caribbean music is like none other.
The culture of Caribbean folk can easily be found with there music. I have to
mention that it may come in different varieties like Soca, Calypso, and Reggae
just to name a few. The music themselves often tell stories of life, or old
folk tales. Some tell the complexities of living on an island that may be
bombarded by technology and the new wave of the Internet. Songs about change
from old to new. Here is a small fact, that most of these Caribbean islands
keep there image by holding on to its past. So there is always a topic when
something new pops up. Some of these stories are also about Caribbean people
that did many great things in these islands. Many people would say that Reggae
music is the most popular, but explore some of the other generas and you might
be surprised with what you may find.  Between the steel pan drums and
up-tempo bands, trumpets blasting take some time two listen to some of the
colorful stories being told.  They may tell you a whole lot more about the
people and what actually mite be happening as sort of a musical editorial. A
strong message can be told in different ways, even in a way that might make you
lauph. The truth does not always have to hurt, and with the growth and
distribution of Caribbean music the people have bin able to pass their ideas
along with their history for generations to hear.  

 

BOY SCOUTS REGATTA

 This is an annual fund raising event for the Boy Scouts of
America which is usually organized by the Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity, Inc.  Entry fees, sale of
food & drinks, and donations all go towards the scouts.  Teams are usually split up into groups based
on the age of the participants, adults, youth and kids.  Each team has six members, five racers and
one alternate.  Each team must have a
female team member.  Each segment of the
race is called a heat, in which participants must traverse a triangular
obstacle course in their kayaks.  The
obstacle course is marked off on shore to ensure that when participants are
coming to shore that there is a clear path to the finish line and that the
judges can a clear view of racers coming. 
There is usually more that one heat per age group.  Also, the winner of each heat would then go
on to compete against the winners of the others heats in the finals.

 This is usually an all day event, which is filled with fun
and excitement the whole family will enjoy. 
There is music playing and lots of food- hotdogs, hamburgers, veggie
burgers, chips, you name it; and a variety of drinks and there is always water
to quench that unquenchable thirst.  The
event is usually held at one of our local hotels so there is lots to while
you’re there.  DON’T
FORGET TO BRING YOUR SUNSCREEN.

 

The weather is absolutely wonderful this time of year as the summer begins to heat things up a bit! The Real Estate market is also showings new signs of life after a couple of years of being more or less stagnant in St. Croix. Now is a good time to either buy OR sell with historically low interest rates as well as some new inventory... shoot me an email for more details!

THE SUNDIAL

    The shadow by my finger cast,
    Divides the future from the past.
    Behind its unreturning line,
    The vanished hour, no longer thine.

    Before it lies the unknown hour
    In darkness and beyond thine power.
    One hour alone is in thine hands,
    The now on which the shadow stands.

                            Wellesley College Sundial


THE WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE

Who are not afraid of risk.
Whose handshake is an iron clad contract.
Who are as honest in small matters as they are in large ones.
Who do not have a price at which they can be bought.
Whose ambitions are big enough to include others.
Who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity.
Who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning and ruthlessness are the keys to success.
Who have opinions instead of prejudices.
Who still have friends they made twenty years ago.
Who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion and do not believe in "consensus."
Who are occasionally wrong and always willing to admit it.
    Unknown


When you're down - get excited about something, anything.  Enthusiasms kick the imagination into high gear.

Behind 99 out of 100 assertions that a thing cannot be done is someone saying I don't want to do it.
    Will St. John

YOU LEARN

After a while you learn the subtle differences between holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn't mean security.  And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman or a man not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build all your roads on today, because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you ask too much.

So learn to plant your own soul and decorate your own spirit instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure, that you really are strong and you really do have worth.  And you learn with every goodbye, you learn....
    
Unknown


I will say this about being an optimist - even when things don’t turn out well, you is certain they will get better.
    Frank Hughes


All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
    Unknown


 

Inch by inch, anything's a cinch.
    Robert Shuller

A SIXTY-SECOND COMMERCIAL TO ME

    You're great! You are a unique, new kind of person that the world has never before seen and will never see the likes of again.  You were born to be successful.  You were born to bless others lives.  You were born to be great.  Because you've got what it takes to be great.
        You're enthusiastic.
        You're optimistic.
        You're organized.
        You're a hard worker.
        You're happy.
        You're master of yourself.
        You're a child of God.
        You're a leader.
        You're a big thinker.
    
And blessed as you are with all of these talents, there isn't a thing in the world that you can't do.  With God as your partner you will never fail.
   
Robert G. Allen

Too much of a good thing is wonderful.
    Mae West

Ultimately, we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.
   
Marilyn Ferguson


Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
   
Mark Twain

ALL IN THE STATE OF MIND

If you think you're beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you'd like to win, but you think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't
If you think you'll lose you're lost.
For out in the world you find
Success begins with a fellows will,
It's all in the state of mind.

For many a race is lost
'Ore ever a step is run;
And many a coward fails
Over the work he didn't begin.
Think big and your deeds will grow:
Think small, and you will fall behind:
Think you can and you will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are:
You've got to think high to rise
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go away
To the stronger or the faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.

    Unknown

IF

IF...you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.  If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting, too;  If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good not talk too wise;  If you can dream and not make dreams your master, if you can think, and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same;  If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;  If you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch-and -toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss:  If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone...And, son, hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them:  "Hold on!"  If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, if neither foe nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much;  If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty-second's worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that's in it!  And, which is more, you'll be a man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling

You can't bitch your way to productivity.
Will St. John

Men give some credit for genius.  All the genius I have lies in this:  When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly.  Day and night it is before me.  I explore it in all its bearing.  My mind becomes pervaded with it.  Then the effort which I make, people are pleased to call the fruit of genius.  It is the fruit of labor and thought.
    Alexander Hamilton


The more you do of what you've done, the more you'll have of what you've got.
Anon

THINK ON THESE THINGS

You can't control the length of your life, but you can control its width and depth.

You can't control the contour of your countenance, but you can control its expression.

You can't control the other person's opportunities, but you can grasp your own.

You can't control the weather, but you can control the moral atmosphere which surrounds you.

You can't control the distance that your head shall be above the ground, but you can control the height of the contents in your head.

You can't control the other person's annoying faults, but you can see to it that you do not develop and harbor provoking propensities.

You can't control hard times or rainy days, but you can bank money now to boost you through.

Why worry about things you can't control?  Get busy controlling the things that depend on you.
Unknown

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Unknown

A CREATIVE MATURE PERSON IS

 

FLEXIBLE.  A person who is able to tolerate frustration
and uncertainty...who's not defensive about the past, overwhelmed by the
present, or fearful of the future.

 

OPEN-MINDED.  A person who's receptive to what's going on
and is willing to learn from others...who can see merit in challenges to
traditional ways of doing things.

 

INDEPENDENT.  A person who is able to make decisions...who
is not unduly influenced by others.

 

SENSITIVE.  A person with keen empathy...who strives to be
aware of other people's thoughts, feelings and needs.

 

PERSISTENT.  A person who concentrates on goals...who has
intense motivation to accomplish objectives, even in the face of obstacles.

 

REALISTIC.  A person who is comfortable with the
contradictions of the real world...who rejects oversimplification, but is not
overwhelmed by complexity.

 

FORESEEING.  A person who has a long term perspective that
allows for living with current uncertainty.

 

EXPRESSIVE.  A person with a healthy, spontaneous, zest
for living...who is able to "let loose" and communicate real feelings
when the situation is appropriate.

 

CURIOUS.  A person who likes to explore new ideas, by
asking questions and analyzing data...who is always on the lookout for new
solutions to problems.

 

SELF-ACCEPTING.  A person with a strong self-image...who is
constantly striving to become as much as he or she can be.

          Larry
Wilson

 

 

RISKS

        To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
        To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
        To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
        To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk their loss.
        To love is to risk not being loved in return.
        To live is to risk dying.
        To hope is to risk despair.
        To try is to risk failure.

But our risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in this life is to risk nothing.  The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.  He may avoid suffering and sorrow but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love...live.  Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he has forfeited freedom.  Only a person who risks is truly free.

Unknown


The present moment is never intolerable.  It is always what is coming in five minutes or five days that make people despair.  The law of life is to live in the present, and this applies to both time and place.  Keep your attention to the present moment, and in the place where your body is now.  Do a fair day's work, and then stop.  Overwork is not productive in the long run.
    
Emmet Fox

You know a person has reached the pinnacle of success when he shows as much happiness over an honor bestowed on someone he helped as he would if he had received it himself.

Unknown

The worst bankruptcy is the person who has lost enthusiasm.

Will St. John

 

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

Albert Einstein

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt


EXCELLENCE.... The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

Vincent Lombardi

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do.

Dennis Waitly

Avoid making the wrong mistakes.

Yogi Berra


PRESS ON - Nothing is the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge

Whatever you are willing to put up with and accept is probably what you will have.
Will St. John


A person is as young as his dreams - or as old as his doubts.
Earl Nightingale


QUALITY..... Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
Unknown

There is brutality and there is honesty.  There is no such thing as brutal honesty.
Unknown


The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.
 Harold Taylor


Mental picture, self image - there are rules and laws for the success of any venture or adventure.  It's called imagination.
Will St. John

Soon after the completion of Disney World some said, "Isn't it too bad Walt Disney didn't live to see this."  I replied "He did see it - that's why it's here."
Mike Vance

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.
Unknown

 

If you don't believe in yourself that will probably make it unanimous.
Jack McKewen

In the race for quality there is no finish line.
David Kearns


Only a fool learns by his own mistakes, a wise man learns by the mistakes of others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

In time like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.
Paul Harvey

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
William Safire

Treat a child as though he already is the person he's capable of becoming.
Haim Ginott

Your attitude is the most used tool in life's tool box what you do with it is up to you...