Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them. - Jim Rohn

Do You Deserve Grace or Mercy?

Grace and Mercy are related in the fact that we don't deserve or 

earn Grace or Mercy. Grace means to receive a blessing you 

DON'T deserve, and Mercy means avoiding a punishment you 

DO deserve. So they are actually on different sides of the same 

doctrinal coin.

People are only difficult to the extent that you and I have not...

There is no such thing as a difficult person. We are talking about behaviors, not the person. 


People are only difficult to the extent that you and I have not developed the skills needed to deal with behaviors they bring to the table. 


One of the skills in dealing with those we deem "difficult" is meeting people where they are, getting on the same level as the person. Attempting to understand where they are coming from can go a long way. 


Gather more information before you judge, perspective is everything. Learning the skill of validation is an important lesson to learn in dealing with difficult people. Validation is allowing the other person to have their opinion and their emotions about a situation. 


-from Steven Eastmond (therapist specializing in individual, couple and family counseling)

The greatest need of a human being.

This is one of the greatest insights in the field of human motivation - satisfied needs do not motivate. It's only the unsatisfied need that motivates. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival--to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.

Judge Not.

"There is really no way we can know the heart, the intentions, or the circumstances of someone who might say or do something we find reason to criticize. Thus the commandment: 'Judge not.'" 

—Thomas S. Monson

An Example of Perseverance From A 64-Year-Old Woman.

Diana Nyad finally conquered the 110-mile passage from Cuba to Florida that had bedeviled her for 35 years.

Sharks steered clear, currents were friendly, and storms took most of the 2013 Labor Day weekend off.

The 64-year-old endurance swimmer emerged dazed and sunburned from the surf on Smathers Beach in Key West, FL, just before 2pm on Monday after nearly 53 hours in the ocean, a two-day, two-night swim from her starting point in Havana. She had survived the treacherous Florida Straits, a notorious stretch of water brimming with sharks, jellyfish, squalls and an unpredictable Gulf Stream. And she became the first person to do so unaided by the protection of a shark cage.

It was her fifth attempt, coming after four years of grueling training, precision planning and single-minded determination. Her face scorched and puffy from so many hours in the salt water, she leaned on one of her friends and said from the beach: “I have three messages. One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team.”

Coming at an age when few people try to set endurance records, Ms. Nyad’s swim lit up Twitter and Facebook with postings about perseverance and grit. Ms. Nyad’s success was built on her failures — the first in 1978, when she was 28, and the most recent last year at age 62. After each attempt, she improvised, learning what to adjust, whom to consult and which new protective protocol to consider.

“Diana did her homework,” said Bonnie Stoll, Ms. Nyad’s friend and chief handler, shortly after Ms. Nyad completed her swim.

Two summers ago, she was felled midswim by a long asthma attack, her first ever. This year, she added a pulmonologist to her 35-member support team, Ms. Stoll said.

Box jellyfish, which are especially venomous, have been a constant source of danger; Ms. Nyad was stung so badly on previous swims she had to stop. To break that cycle, she found an expert on box jellyfish this year to help her contain the threat.

In the evenings, Ms. Nyad donned a special suit with long sleeves and pant legs to protect her. She slathered “sting stopper” gel to form a barrier to keep out the venom. On Saturday night, she also wore a special mask that covered her face. But the mask proved uncomfortable, cutting her mouth and tongue so badly, and impeding her breathing, that she discarded it after the first night.

The course was mostly clear of box jellyfish this time. When she finally encountered a cluster, it was on her approach to Key West. The shark divers swam ahead of Ms. Nyad to disperse the swarm.

In 2011, Ms. Nyad decided to use a team of shark divers who carried special zappers to ward off the predators. Trial and error also presented new options. She learned which wet suits were more forgiving on her skin in saltwater and which special drinks and nutrition gels best fueled her. (She ingested them, sometimes through a tube, while treading water.)

But there were two things Ms. Nyad could not control: the weather and the current. This time, both cooperated.

“I think that Mother Nature said, ‘You know what? Let her go,’ ” Ms. Stoll said.

Unlike past swims derailed by squalls that pushed her off course, only one storm hit this weekend. It came on Sunday night and lasted a little under 90 minutes, Ms. Stoll said. Ms. Nyad followed her protocol and swam through it, accompanied by shark divers.

Sharks, always a menace, were nowhere to be seen this time.

The favorable currents carried her along so swiftly that Ms. Nyad finished her swim a day earlier than expected, Ms. Stoll said. On average, Ms. Nyad swims about 1.6 miles an hour. With the current propelling her, she cruised at 5 m.p.h. during one stretch, Ms. Stoll said, adding, “Everything was in our favor.”

Through the years, others have tried to swim from Cuba to Key West and failed. In June, an Australian, Chloe McCardel, swam 11 hours and 14 miles before jellyfish stings forced her to stop.

In 2012, another Australian, Penny Palfrey, swam 79 miles until strong currents waylaid her. In 1978, Walter Poenisch, an Ohio man, said he made the swim using flippers and a snorkel, but he lacked independent documentation to verify it.

Susie Maroney did complete the swim in 1997, but she did so inside a shark cage that was being pulled by a boat, providing a draft that made swimming much easier. The first time Ms. Nyad attempted the swim, in 1978, she also used a shark cage. She did not use a shark cage this time.

Whenever Ms. Nyad scrambled, heartbroken and exhausted, onto a boat after a failed attempt, she vowed it would be her last. “It was a fairy tale,” she said after her second attempt, in August 2011, “but the fairy tale didn’t come true.”

After last summer, Ms. Stoll said she was convinced that the Florida Straits were unswimmable. “I thought it wasn’t humanly possible or she would have done it,” Ms. Stoll said. “I was glad to be wrong.”

...married for 60 years!

I heard of a couple who had been married for 60 years. They had rarely argued during that time, and their days together passed in happiness and contentment. They shared everything and had no secrets between them—except one. The wife had a box that she kept at the top of a sideboard, and she told her husband when they were married that he should never look inside.

As the decades passed, the moment came that her husband took the box down and asked if he could finally know what it contained. The wife consented, and he opened it to discover two doilies and $25,000. When he asked his wife what this meant, she responded, “When we were married, my mother told me that whenever I was angry with you or whenever you said or did something I didn't like, I should knit a small doily and then talk things through with you.”

The husband was moved to tears by this sweet story. He marveled that during 60 years of marriage he had only disturbed his wife enough for her to knit two doilies. Feeling extremely good about himself, he took his wife’s hand and said, “That explains the doilies, but what about the $25,000?”

His wife smiled sweetly and said, “That’s the money I got from selling all the doilies I've knitted over the years.”

Not only does this story teach an interesting way to deal with disagreements in marriage, but it also illustrates the foolishness of jumping to conclusions based on limited information.

There is an old saying...

We should each find the proper balance between work, recreation, and rest. There is an old saying: “Doing nothing is the hardest work of all, because one can never stop to rest.” Without work, rest and relaxation have no meaning.

As we think of the problems of others and provide service, our own problems seem less serious.

Throughout our lives all of us depend on others for help. When we were infants, our parents fed, clothed, and cared for us. Without this care we would have died. When we grew up, other people taught us skills and attitudes. Many of us have needed nursing care during illness or money in a financial crisis. Some of us ask God to bless suffering people and then do nothing for them. We must remember that God works through us.

“When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." -Mosiah 2:17

As we think of the problems of others and provide service, our own problems seem less serious.

Contrary to popular beliefs...

There's no reason to panic over China's economic slowdown. Contrary to popular beliefs, China is not the global engine of growth; it is merely the largest arithmetic component of global growth. What drives global growth is demand. China, with a large trade surplus, is not a net provider of demand to the world.

What matters to the world, in other words, is not how fast China grows but rather, how its trade with foreign partners evolves. If China rebalances in an orderly way, its imports of manufactured goods and services should rise faster than its exports. This will be good for the world.

Integrity.

When living in intergrity with your core values, 

your success and fulfilment are not subject  to votes, 

to others' opinions, or to chance.

Duty of Mothers and Fathers.

Charity loves her flowers!

"We cannot and we must not allow the school, community, television, or even Church organizations to establish our children's values. The Lord has placed this duty with mothers and fathers. It is one from which we cannot escape and one that cannot be delegated. Others may help, but parents remain accountable. Therefore, we must guard the sanctity of our homes, because that is where children develop their values, attitudes, and habits for everyday living." -M. Russell Ballard.

Imagine a world in which we would...

Consciously trying to acquire humility can be problematic. I remember once hearing that “if you think you have it, you don’t. We should try to develop humility and be sure we didn’t know when we got it, and then we would have it. But if we ever thought we had it, we wouldn’t."

Consider the climate that would exist within a marriage or family—or any organization, for that matter—if through genuine humility mistakes were freely admitted and forgiven, if we were not afraid to praise others for fear they might gain on us, and if all were able to listen as well as we now verbalize.

I think sometimes of what life would be like if we all possessed greater humility.

Imagine a world in which we would replace I as the dominant pronoun.

Think of the impact on the pursuit of knowledge if being learned without being arrogant were the norm.

One wonders how differently even recent world history might be written if its principal participants had yielded to the gentle nudgings of humility.

I like the English author John Ruskin’s memorable statement that “the first test of a truly great man is his humility.” He continued: “I do not mean, by humility, doubt of his own power. … [But really] great men … have a curious … feeling that … greatness is not in them, but through them. … And they see something Divine … in every other man … , and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.”

True humility will inevitably lead us to say to God, “Thy will be done.”