“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.”
Mark Twain
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Life
Archived Posts from this Category
July 3, 2010
Did Mark Twain inspire the author of Benjamin Button?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, WisdomLeave a Comment
July 2, 2010
Life is like a hot bath!
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life leadership, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: hot bath, hot tub, Life, stay, Time, wrinkles |Leave a Comment
“Life is like a hot bath. It feels good while you’re in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you get.”
Robbert Oustin
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July 1, 2010
Do you sometimes feel under attack?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Procrastination, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, WisdomLeave a Comment
“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.”
Ashleigh Brilliant
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June 30, 2010
Is your life about to begin?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life leadership, Now, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, WisdomLeave a Comment
“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
Alfred D’Souza.
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June 29, 2010
The coin of your life
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: bank, bank account, coin, Life, minute, minutes, Time, today, withdrawal |Leave a Comment
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.”
Carl Sandburg
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Our time is like a bank account; every day we each have 1440 minutes that we can withdraw and we choose to invest as we want, the only difference with a financial bank account is that we cannot make a deposit, only withdrawals.
What will you do with your withdrawal today?
June 25, 2010
It’s Normal to Have Mood Swings!
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Now, Serenity, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: boring, entertaining, joy, lazy, mood, news, project, Time |Leave a Comment
“Time cools; time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.”
Thomas Mann
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Good news, bad news, good mood, bad mood, joy, disappointments, new and exciting projects, boring routine, sunny day, rainy day, entertainment, lazy sunday afternoon…
This is what life is made of and each one of us must make the best of it.
One of the best lines I have ever read is from Anthony Di Mello who said: I AM NOT my depression.
He meant that we all have bad days but we can choose to watch our bad mood as a spectator would watch a movie, we don’t have to identify with it, we can simply become the observer of our mood.
Remember that it is not what happens to us but how we react to what happens to us that matters.
Do you spend too much time worrying about your mood swings?
Do you accept that you can have a bad day and just witness yourself having a bad day?
June 23, 2010
What Do We All Receive Equally Every Day?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Awareness, Complaining, Consequence, Control, Courage, Kvetching, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Now, Procrastination, Results, Serenity, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: Helen, Keller, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson |[2] Comments
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”
— Jackson Brown Jr., writer
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June 18, 2010
Making the most of the time we have.
Posted by stephenlafond under 1, 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Choices, Clarity, Decision, Illusion, Important question, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Now, Procrastination, Results, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: like, money, old, spare, Time |[3] Comments
“Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.”
Josh Billings
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When I was 5 years old, I couldn’t care less about time.
When I was 15 years old, it seemed to me that everything was always taking too long to happen.
When I was 25 years old, it seemed like I was always so busy and running out of time.
When I was 35 years old, with a wife and children, a business to run, and bills to pay, I really had less and less time.
Now at almost 45 years old, I know that we never have enough time to do everything but we always have time to do the most important.
The more pressure we have with time, the more productive we seem to become.
Are you making the most of the time you have?
June 15, 2010
Instant or delayed gratification?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Choices, Illusion, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Serenity, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: gratification, Life, medical, moment, money, Olympic, present, sacrifice, Time |Leave a Comment
“There are very few men – and they are the exceptions – who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment”.
Carl Von Clausewitz 1780-1831
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One of the most difficult things to practice in our lives is to delay gratification and to take a long term perspective with our projects. Our consumer society doesn’t help us when it encourages us to BUY NOW and PAY LATER. Many times, we buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people who don’t care. We should always try to make the difference between an expense and an investment. We should try to avoid instant gratification. It’s a big challenge because it goes against every major trend in our society.
It applies to other areas in our lives as well;
The Olympic athlete has to make a lot of sacrifices to reach his/her goal. The medical student has to concentrate on his/her classes in order to get the diploma. The investor has to learn patience if he or she wants to earn dividends.
It is difficult because we should enjoy every day like if it is the last and at the same time invest our efforts and our resources for the future. The challenge for us is to find the balance between these two concepts.
Do you have the right balance between your daily activities and your long term projects?
June 9, 2010
The generosity of Mother Teresa
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Serenity, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: compliment, kind, Life, Time, worker |1 Comment
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
— Mother Teresa, charity worker
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When we give a sincere compliment, it costs us nothing, but it enriches the person who receives it. It usually doesn’t take much of our time, but it has a long lasting effect on the recipient.
Why don’t we take time to give more compliments?
May 22, 2010
Can’t sleep?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life leadership, Now, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time | Tags: bed, Fran Lebowitz, kid, Life, living, night, sleep, sleepless, Time |1 Comment
“Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep”
Fran Lebowitz ( 1950- )
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I still feel like a kid most of the time. I really don’t like going to sleep at night. I can’t wait to get up early in the morning.
By the time I’m ready to go to bed, I’m so exausted that I fall asleep right away. In between I try to live life to the fullest.
Do you have a hard time sleeping sometimes?
If you do, I reccommend that you do something very enjoyable until you’re so tired, that you will need to rest very quickly.
May 20, 2010
How to make your life easier?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life leadership, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time | Tags: 36525, 36525 days, Henry david Thoreau, important, invest, Life, simplicity, simplify, Thoreau, Time |1 Comment
Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify,simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
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How much time do you spend taking care of things that are not important?
How much time do you invest in things that are important?
Do you take time to get rid of what’s not essential?
May 19, 2010
Afraid of living fully?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Life expectancy, Life leadership, Now, WisdomLeave a Comment
“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live”
Dorothy Thompson, journalist
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May 14, 2010
Did you ever play with ants?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Life, Results, Time, Wasting time | Tags: ant, ants, Life, philosophy, Time |1 Comment
The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn
Did you ever hear about a simple but powerful concept: the Ant Philosophy. I think everybody should study ants.
Ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over. They’ll climb under. They’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy—to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.
Never give up, look ahead and do all you can.
How many times do we start a project without finishing it?
I declare myself; GUILTY. (too many times…)
Have a great week end!
May 3, 2010
Do you like to be tormented?
Posted by stephenlafond under Complaining, Important question, Life, Serenity, Time, Wisdom | Tags: Life, realism, reality, torment |1 Comment
“To revolt against reality will only torment you.”
Author unknown
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If you have any doubts about this quote, just keep trying and I’ll promise you will be disappointed.
Remember the beginning of the post on serenity.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change
And the courage to change the things that I can.”
Another way to say the same thing is
“Accept things as they really are and not as you want them to be”
This is the way to face realism.
Do you still like to be tormented?
Isn’t it a waste of your time and energy to rebel against things over which you have very little control?
May 2, 2010
Change! Change! Change !
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Choices, Complaining, Consequence, Courage, Decision, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Procrastination, Results, Time, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: attitude, change, complain |1 Comment
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
— Maya Angelou, poet
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Good luck with this one. Have a nice day.
May 1, 2010
Seneca & Benjamin Franklin
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Choices, Decision, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Procrastination, Results, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: Benjamin Franklin, Life, Time, waste, wasting time |1 Comment
“It is not that we have a short life to live but we waste a lot of it”
Seneca
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Sometimes we waste our time because we don’t have much control over what is happening to us. In this case, there’s not much we can do about it.
At other times we waste our time because we lack a definite purpose in our lives.
This we can do something about. We must take the time to ask ourselves the important questions, the ones that concern only us.
It may look like a waste of time at first, but in the long run, it will save us time.
Benjamin Franklin used to ask himself these important questions every night before he went to sleep.
What did I do wrong today?
What did I do right ?
What can I improve tomorrow?
Apparently, he did this for most of his life.
If you want to learn more about this, I recommend that you read his autobiography. It will make you realize that even if he had lived more than 250 years ago, he was facing similar challenges like the ones we have to deal with today.
Great weekend to all of you!
April 30, 2010
Is there a cure for birth and death?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Death, Here, Life, Life leadership, Procrastination | Tags: birth, Death, Life, Procrastination, Time |[2] Comments
There is no cure for birth and death , save to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana
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Did you ask to be born?
Will you ask to die?
I doubt it.
In between, we have to make the best of life with the talent we posess and the time that is given to us.
It is so simple. I wonder why some of us make it so complicated.
Do you know why?
Are you one of those who have a tendency to complicate things?
April 29, 2010
Under which influence are you living ?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Choices, Clarity, Decision, Here, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Results, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: disillusion, influence, Life, Time |[2] Comments
Some of us live under the influence of alcohol.
The influence is good as long as we are under the influence. The next morning, the influence can be quite different.
Some of us live under the influence of shopping, and the influence is good until as we receive the credit card monthly statement…
Some of us live under the influence of gambling, and the influence is good until as we realize that the house always wins against most of us.
Some of us live under the influence of buying expensive toys to impress others who don’t care at all. This influence is gone when we realize that we become a slave of this habit.
Some of us are under the influence of a new religion, and the influence seems to disappear when that special God of ours doesn’t answer our requests.
Some of us indulge in sexual escapism, and the influence is gone when the temporary thrill is over.
Some of us will study philosophy and believe that they have found the Way, only to wake up later and realize that their particular philosophy can fail them.
Some of us will swear by the world of reason and science, only to discover the actual limitations of our understanding. At least at this point of our evolution.
Some of us will invest in the joy of parenthood only to realize later that our kids will be entitled to their own lives.
Some of us will want to earn a lot of money until they realize that money can’t buy love.
And while most of us live under one kind of influence or another, Time goes by.
Under what kind of influence are you living ?
Is this the kind of influence that you enjoy?
It’s up to you!
April 24, 2010
Julius Caesar on worrying
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Courage, Fear, Important question, Life, Procrastination, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: Life, Time, worry, worrying |[3] Comments
“As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.”
Julius Caesar
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Why do we worry so much?
What do we get out of it?
What’s in it for us?
It is true that we worry more about the unseen and the unknown.
Many people who have written or spoken about worry have told the statistics story. The earliest source that we could find of the story and most probable author was Thomas S. Kepler. He wrote about a woman who realized fears were ruining her life. She began to keep track of what was worrying her and she found:
40% of the things she worried about were about things that would never happen.
30% of the things she worried about were about things that had already happened, water under the bridge.
12% of the things she worried about were about others’ opinion. When she thought about it, she realized that criticisms are often made by those that are jealous or insecure; therefore unjust criticism is a disguised compliment.
10% of the things she worried about were needless health worries, which made her health worse as she worried.
8% of the things she worried about were “legitimate,” since life has some real problems to meet.
If you consider the above as probable statistics, it would seem that only 8% of the things that you worry about are worth the worry. Next time you are worried about something, perform a check to see if the worry is in a category other then the 8% category and if it is, perhaps logic will help free you from the worry.
Will This Matter a Year from Now?
How much quality time do I spend worrying?
April 23, 2010
Why wait?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Illusion, Life, Now, Procrastination, Serenity, Time, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: Life, Time |[2] Comments
Do you ever find yourself saying:
When I’m older, I’ll do this…
Or when it’s time or when I have a chance…
When I finish school, I’ll be able to…
When I have more money…
When I get married, I’ll be …
When the house is paid, we’ll go …
When the kids leave the house, we’ll move…
When I retire, I’ll have more time to…
When I’m dying… Oh no not already… AHHHHHHH…
We should learn to enjoy the road while we are travelling, because if we put all our hopes on the destination, we could be disappointed.
Most of the time, the anticipation is more exciting than the actual outcome.
For years, I wanted to be older, but NOT ANYMORE.
What about you?
April 22, 2010
Is there a life after death ?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Choices, Courage, Death, Life, Life leadership, Now, Procrastination, Time, Wasting time | Tags: afterlife, Death, Life, sense, Thoreau, Time |[5] Comments
The real question for me is : Is there a life BEFORE death ?
When they asked Henry David Thoreau his opinion on the afterlife, he answered to them: One Life at the time.
Sometimes , it seems to me that some of the people who worry the most about the afterlife are often the ones who don’t know what to do with this one.
Why should we worry about the unknown, why should we worry about something over which we seem to have very little control?
I hear many people talking about faith and yet, at the same time worrying constantly, how can they worry and have faith at the same time? Isn’t worrying the opposite of faith?
Do you spend too much of your time worrying about things over which you have no control?
Does this make any sense to you?
April 20, 2010
Are You Afraid of Dying ?
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Courage, Death, Fear, Important question, Life, Time, Wasting time | Tags: dare, Death, disease, Life, Procrastination, Time |[7] Comments
Most people I know prefer to avoid the subject of their own mortality. I know , it’s not the most exciting subject, but I think it’s a mistake not to look at death straight in the face for what it really is. Why? Because if we would dare to look at death , most of us would change a lot of things that we are currently procrastinating about.
We have seen this happen many times: when someone gets diagnosed with an incurable disease, when they learn how much time they have left to live , they change a lot of things in their life.
Some of the people who went through this extreme experience said that it was the most intense, fulfilling genuine experience they ever had.
My question to you is: Why wait until you have no time left before making significant changes in your life?
April 10, 2010
Unimportant Things
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Choices, Consequence, Control, Courage, Decision, Important question, Life, Life leadership, Results, Serenity, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time | Tags: 36525, 36525 days, important, improvement, Life, things, Time, unimportant |1 Comment
“No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may become the step that will lead us to better things.”
Channing Pollock
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This is encouraging and inspiring ! Why ? Because there is always room for improvement
Don’t you think so?
April 9, 2010
Stay hungry , stay foolish
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Aware, Awareness, Courage, Death, Decision, Fear, Here, Important question, Life, Life expectancy, Time, Time magagement, Wasting time, Wisdom | Tags: 36525, 36525 days, foolish, hungry, startup coach, stay, steve jobs |1 Comment
I really enjoyed this clip and I’m sharing it with you.
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April 7, 2010
The fear of failure
Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Death, Failure, Fear, Life, Risk, Success | Tags: 36525, 36525 days, Death, Failure, Fear, fearless, Life, reward, Success, Time |[4] Comments
One of the things that stands between us and our quality of life, is the underlying fear of death. From the moment we don’t fear death anymore, we don’t fear life either. When we get rid of the fear of dying, we get rid of a lot of others fears with it.
The moment that we become almost fearless, we can enjoy life to its fullest because of our willingness to take risks.
Isn’t it ironic that people who are ready to take on more risk are often the ones who are reaping the rewards? And even when they don’t get the big prize, they are having fun enjoying what they love the most, and that in itself is the reward; the satisfaction of a job well done.
My hope is that some young people understand this concept as early as possible. So much time and frustration could be avoided.
Yes but what if I fail? Try again.
And what if I fail again? Try again , and again, and again.
And what if my friends laugh at me? Ask yourself ; what risk are my so-called friends taking?
Did you take the time to identify YOUR fears of failure?
What are you ready to lose in order to gain something bigger or better?
36525 days to live 