30 Day Trial Day 10 | Persistance...

Here is a story taken straight out of one my favorite books. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Shortly after Mr. darby received his degree from the "University of Hard Knocks," he witnessed something that proved to him that no does not necessarily mean NO.

One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old-fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of sharecropper farmers lived. Quietly the door was opened, and a small child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.

The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, "What do you want?"

Meekly, the child replied, "My mom says to send her fifty cents."

"I'll not do it," the uncle retorted. "Now you run on home." But she did not move.

The uncle went ahead with his work, not noticing that she did not leave. When he looked up again and saw her still standing there, he said, "I told you to go on home! Now go, or I'll take a switch to you." But she did not budge.

The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, and started toward the child.

Darby held his breath. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her voice, "MY MOM'S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!"

The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her.

The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered.

How committed are you to the goals, dreams, and aspirations that you hold for yourself? How committed are you to the vision you have? How about this challenge? It is around this time that I know I start to question whether I should continue through this process. It never fails. Around 10-15 days in I start to have the quitting thoughts. I start to look for the excuses that could pull me away. I start to allow other people and circumstances start to point me in another direction. Case in point, I could have worked out today but when my wife called and said let's get together for lunch. I used the excuse of, "I would be upset if you turned me down for exercise so I blew my workout off." I knew that she would understand because of how important her own workouts are to her. Plus she enjoys knowing that I am working out. ;)

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon not posting when I plenty of time to do it. I wasted time and soon I was leaving for home, then outside playing with my girls, then I tried to do bath time but my wife stopped me. Then I remembered reading the story I copied above and I thought about that little girl who would stop at nothing to acheive her goal. My goals are too important, my dreams are too important, my commitment is too important.

So here we are. Here are my tasks for today

Share Laughter
So most of today was spent in laughter as it is Friday and the guys and gals at work were completely out of control. One of my co-workers dropped off a gerbil in a karate gi at my desk. When you squeeze his hand he sings "Everybody was Kung-fu Fighting" and spins nunchucks that are attached to his hand. Everyone on my team got a kick out of it and one of the other team leads later snuck in and stole him from me. We also got into a discussion about curmudgeony old men while talking about the Skip Gates story. I mention that my grandfather would have had a much worse response than he did but it would have nothing to do with race. My granddad was very excitable. He would have just been mad to have been disturbed.

Look Forward
I did some dreaming today. When I wasn't laughing I started to think about some ideas that I have had in the last few weeks. I think that the time of perculating is getting close to being complete. They are popping up too frequently now. I am excited and scared at the same time.

Be Approachable
This is an easy one for me. I have worked hard at being open. I look forward to people coming up and talking to me. If I notice someone holding back I go out of my way to make them feel welcome. Just like my Dad, I have never met a stranger. If you see me out, come over and say hi.

As for my other goals, I am happy to say that I chased my daughters around and went for a wlk over to the park. I don't think this is the same as my normal laps in the pool but I am counting it at physical activity. ;) Ok maybe I'll give myself 1/2 a point.

For cash only I am still not acheiveing this one. TOday my family surprised me for lunch so we all went out for lunch and I used the debit card to pay for it. So no on that one.

What about you? Where are you today? I wonder why only a few of you posted yesterday. Maybe this message should have come yesterday. ;)

Go Go Go