Hard work beats talent - Will Smith

Will Smith tells us that he doesn't feel that he is talented but that he just out works everyone else.This video goes with the school assembly from http://www.assembly-ideas.co.uk/

Will Smith - Ultimate

Actor Will Smith provides some excellent motivational advice on achieving your goals in life.

Whether you apply Will's mentality towards bodybuilding, losing weight, your career, improving your job prospects or simpy leading a healthier lifestyle and bettering your family life at home, one thing is for certain. You will see a whole new world of opportunity open up before your very eyes.

Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Life's Six Rules speech, this compilation teaches you how to succeed not at one specific thing, but with life itself.

Enjoy today's motivational interviews with Will Smith.

Golf - a short movie every one must watch

"Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character." -Arnold Palmer

With the golf season in full swing and the Open Championship upon us, we would like to share this light-hearted movie about one of life's hardest games. Whether you're a golfer, golf fan or simply curious about how golfers think, I know that you're going to love this little break from the heat of summer.

Days are long, but the years are short

This short movie reminds us that no matter how long the days may feel, they pass faster than we can possibly imagine. It reminds us to live in the moment before it passes us by forever... by retchen RubinG

Dance like no one is watching

Is leadership overrated? Well, watch this video of followers for some poignant lessons of leadership ... and followership. May you lead and follow with excellence! 

Green beans and Ice Cream

Green Beans & Ice Cream by Bill Sims Jr.

It was suppertime, and there they were again: Green. Slimy. Stringy. My worst nightmare—yeah, it was green beans all right again. By the time I was a four-year-old kid, I had already sampled green beans and concluded they weren't for me. The strings might as well have been wood chips, the way they caught in my throat as I tried to get them down. Mom was my boss, and I was her newest employee. We had a real labor/management crisis going on. She begged, cajoled and pleaded. But I was determined not to eat those green beans. So I crossed my arms, frowned, and pouted, figuring she'd give up and forget about green beans, as she always had in the past. But this time, Mom had a secret weapon. Now, there was something else on the table besides that dreaded green scourge. "Billy Joe, if you eat your green beans you can have some..." You guessed it. "Ice cream!" This sheer stroke of maternal genius changed my behavior forever. In a flash, I saw those green beans, not as an oppressive burden, but as a first-class ticket to that lovely ice cream. Sure, Mom got what she wanted—a balanced diet for her four-year-old. And I got ice cream. Pretty cool. (Thanks, Mom. You are the best!) I'm not sure exactly when or how Mom pared back the ice cream, but somehow I came to terms with green beans and accepted them for what they are—pretty healthy and tasty by themselves (oh, Mom learned to buy stringless beans, and that didn't hurt either). Mom had learned how to change my behavior!

True story of an army dad

Incredible determination and heart

Family is Forever

No matter how big or small our families are, it is important to share quality time and make priceless memories with them.Let's try to remember that it's not so much about the feast, but more about the precious time we spend together with our families.

Your thought for the day

“Wayne Dyer [author of You'll see it when you Believe it] said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’”
~Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glanz, authors
The Simple Truths of Service

The Secret to living is giving

One of my favorite things to do is waking up early on Sunday morning, getting the Sunday paper, making a hot cup of coffee, and kicking back to read about what's going on in the world. It's my quiet time...my time to reflect and relax. One Sunday morning about halfway through my little ritual, I spotted a headline that caught my attention, "Graduating Student Credits His 'Angel'"...and I began to read. A young man who was graduating from college told the story about how Oral Lee Brown was his "Real Life Angel." In 1987, Brown, a real estate agent in Northern California, saw a young girl in her neighborhood begging for money.

When she went to the school the girl had claimed to attend, Brown couldn't find her, but that day she made a decision that would change the lives of many other children forever. She adopted an entire first-grade class in one of Oakland's lowest performing schools, and she pledged that she personally would pay for anyone who wanted to attend college. This would be a great story even if Oral Lee was independently wealthy; however, it is a much greater story considering she was a former cotton picker from Mississippi, making $45,000 a year and raising two children of her own. Brown lived up to her pledge. Since 1987, she's personally saved $10,000 a year while raising donations for her "adopted first-grade kids." And because of her tremendous act of unselfish love, children who could have been "swallowed by the streets" are now graduating from college to pursue their dreams. We all seek our purpose in life. Most of us wonder how we can make a positive difference during our brief time on this earth. But Oral Lee Brown discovered the simple secret...GIVING. Arthur Ashe said it best, "From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life."

What you see is what you get

Welcome to today’s coaching session from MyInspiration4Life.
Two caged men looked out of the same cell bars, one saw mud, the other stars.
The key to how your life is right now or how it will be tomorrow and in the future is your ability to understand the source of your attitude. And the source of your attitude is your belief system – the way you see yourself and the way you see the world you live in.

The Dash

Would you like to make a difference with your life? If so...how do you do it?
The secret to making a difference with your life is captured in this beautiful and unforgettable 3-minute movie.
The Dash movie launched Simple Truths into the limelight, and has been viewed over 30 million times.

http://www.thedashmovie.com/land.html

Learning to dance in the rain

It almost sounds too simple to feel important, but one word... gratitude, can change your attitude, and thus your life, forever.

Sarah Breathnach said it best... When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present... We experience heaven on earth.

Paid in full with a Glass of Milk

There are certain stories that just get stuck in your head...changing the way you look at life. In the next three minutes, you're about to experience one of those stories.

It'll illustrate, more than words can say, the #1 thing you can do to transform your entire life...and the lives of those around you.

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Entrepreneur's Choice: Is Your Kid Worth $100 Million?

Would you sell one of your kids for $100 million? Be honest.
Imagine your little Ben didn't burp or fart or throw up when your boss came over. Or think flushing the toilet was "mom's job." But sat quietly with other Benjamins in piles of crisp, neatly organized rows, ready to be enjoyed.
No talking back. No wanting to play at 6 am after drunken date night. No asking for homework help after your long day at work.
Food expenses, tuition and summer camp payments, babysitting fees. Gone. Gone. And gone.
It takes nine months and change to create a kid. It takes a lifetime, if you're lucky, to earn even a small fraction of $100 million. And most die trying, holding a bag full of regrets and a souped-up LinkedIn profile.
Surely few, if any, would say they'd accept this offer. An unscientific poll of several of my friends uncovered no takers.
One of my friends, James Altucher, commented:
"I would sell a leg or an arm or have a lobotomy. I would do anything to keep them free. I would be a slave on a ship. I would be thrown in prison. I would pray all day. I'd do anything, rather than have my kids taken away. I would be beaten to a pulp. I would take drugs. I would take cyanide. Nothing would take them from my side. My kids were given to me. It's been my honor since birth."
I first pondered this eery question after reading Rabbi Ephraim Shore poignantly recount what it was like to be diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood so horrid that his doctors encouraged him not to Google it.
Since no one would make this trade, he wrote, we must all value our kids much more than $100 million. Yet very few of us act that way.
Though silly in many ways, the question opens a window into our priorities. Our personal priorities. And our professional ones as well, as not spending enough time with our kids is often cited as the #1 parenting regret.
We work all day while our kids are at school.
We work at night while our kids play at home - next to us or in the next room - but without us.
We travel to "must-attend" meetings while our kids perform in recitals without us.
We take the dinner meeting while our kids eat without us at home.
We look at our phones when our kids want us to look at them.
We watch a meaningless game on TV instead of just playing a game with our kids, which would mean the world to them.
We get frustrated with our kids when we should be enjoying them.
We yell at them when they should be the ones yelling at us for being so selfish.
All the while, we secretly look forward to a day when our kids are in college, out of the house and off our payroll.
Do most of us really act as if each of our kids are worth $100 million to us? A collective $300 million if you have 3 kids like me?
If $100 million were wired into your account today, you would sit down and spend a tremendous amount of time caring for it and thinking about what to do.
You would ask questions like, what do I need to do to protect it? What should I do to make sure it grows well into the future? How can it help me live a happier, more enjoyable life?
So why is it that we don't ask the same questions about, or spend the same amount of time thinking about, our kids, who we all seem to value more than riches?
Why don't we spend more time working on how we can be better parents and not just better employees and managers? And, just as importantly, how we can enjoy our kids more and be happier at both work and home?
For me, at least, the hardest part of being a working parent is not the long road trips or long hours or frustrated clients. It's the internal struggle I fight between two equal and opposing forces - the time I invest creating shareholder value and the time I invest building family values.
Both are important. But at what cost does pursuing one bankrupt the other?
I spend more time at work than I do with the kids. And they spend more time at school than they do with me. And that's not changing anytime soon. The only way to come out ahead is to stop fighting the quantity game and start focusing on quality.
And that's what the question forces you to think about.
Living like your kids are worth more than $100 million forces you to invest your time with them wisely. Just like you look for quality investments for your money, you need to find quality ways to spend time at home.
As it turns out, Rabbi Shore was misdiagnosed. And like many of us who have faced our own death, he spent his time in the cancer ward taking stock of his life.
"My death sentence was withdrawn and my life was renewed," he writes.
And his main takeaway? "I’ll be spending more time with my kids and truly enjoying them."
Ultimately, the best present you can give your kids is your presence. Your full and undivided presence. And, just like earning $100 million, that's not always easy.
What decisions would you make differently if you truly valued your children more than $100 million?

Please follow me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lazerow so you are notified when I post.
(Photo credit: Yarkovoy / Shutterstock.com)

Posted by:Michael Lazerow

Pink Bat

Everywhere you look today there are problems. Turn on your TV or computer, pick up a magazine or paper, and what do you see? Problems.

Talk to your spouse, co-workers, family members or friends, and within minutes someone will bring up a problem...or two or three.

In an unforgettable way, Michael McMillan teaches us that many problems aren't problems at all—only opportunities for unseen solutions waiting to be formed!

100/0 Principle

The message in this short movie is so simple, yet so powerful. If you "get it," not only will it make you a better person, but quite possibly...it may change your person, business and social life forever.

So, sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy the movie.

The message in this short movie is so simple, yet so powerful. If you "get it," not only will it make you a better person, but quite possibly...it may change your person, business and social life forever.

So, sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy the movie.
 

How bad do you want it?

How Bad do you want it? Are you willing to seek out the best trainers? To work hard? Are you willing to endure the pain success requires? Are you willing to drag yourself up from the bottom to the top and do whatever it takes?

Is he asking for Change, or is he asking for CHANGE? Follow a man as he affects multiple peoples' lives with just one dollar, proving that it doesn't take much to be the change in someone's life. Written and directed by Sharon Wright. 

What's your motivation

Believe in your dreams

On the tonight show - Jackie Evancho

If ever there was an angel on earth...Jackie is that angel and I am so proud she's here in my lifetime!! Thank you, Jackie, for sharing with all of us your, far beyond, beautiful gift that God has given you. We are all truely blessed to witness such extraordinary beauty. God Bless You sweet little angel.

Praying for America

PRAYING FOR AMERICA

JULY 4, 2013

 

 The 237^th  birthday of America began with exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament by newly ordained hometown friend, Father Kenny Riello.

Father Kenny is such a blessing to the pro-life community and we are so grateful for his presence, especially in the sacrament of Confession.

Fifty plus people from all ethnic backgrounds and ages came to pray directly to Jesus for an America that is placed under God’s protection by obeying God’s Laws.

At 11:15 AM we began the Most Holy Rosary and there were about 100 people praying the Luminous Mysteries, the decades given by Blessed John Paul II to the Roman Catholic Church.

 

At 12 Noon, there were hundreds of people participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Our celebrants were Father Brendan Gormley and Father Kenny Riello (Father Nicholas Callahan was stuck in horrendous traffic but with us in prayer)

Father Brendan spoke of an America that is free and that freedom comes with choices and it is our Godly choices that truly set us free.

God is a loving and merciful God who can heal our America just as he healed the paralytic man in today’s Gospel:  Matthew 9:1-8

“When Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven”.

 

 

Special thanks to our lector:  Richard Bruno, founder of Our Lady of Guadalupe Rosarians.

  Just before the final blessing, Father Brendan went before the statue of Mary Help of Christians and prayed the 5^th Decade of the Glorious

 Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary- Mary is Crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth!

To Jesus through Mary we beg our America to be a country that respects and obeys the Laws of God.

Special thanks to Peggy Beirne , Monica Peterson-St. John and Maryann and Peter Partridge.

We in PRO-LIFE Rockland County are filled with thankful hearts.

Great Quotes from great leaders

There are great quotes, many of which I love. Then there is what I'll call timeless wisdom...great thoughts from great leaders who, throughout the ages, have inspired us, encouraged us, and of course, led us to do the right thing.

That's what this wonderful 3-minute movie is all about...timeless wisdom. So just sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy!

An amazing inspiration to all

No more words ...you are a great man you should be proud of yourself because we learned many lessons from your video

Stess is a choice

An excerpt from Stress is a Choice by David Zerfoss

Several years ago while listening to my pastor give a Sunday sermon, he spoke about how life is made up of a series of choices. It made me realize that my hectic professional and personal life was of my choosing. Therefore, a life of stress had become my choice. Many of us hurry through life going from one place to the next, focused on conquering the next mountain, making the next deal, running the next errand, and believing we will never have enough time to do all the things we need to get done. Yet, there is all the time in the world if we just realize that we are the creators of this life we choose to live. That's right. Life is a series of choices and being free from stress is one of those choices. Whether your business life is overly complicated or your personal life (or both), you have chosen this current system of chaos. The world is a tantalizing swirl of getting the next "fix," tempting us to fit more and more things, people and processes into our lives, personally and professionally. And because we are so busy being busy, it's easy to be lured into the fray, with our lengthy to-do lists. Yet, the greatest achievements have often come from the simplest of ideas and in the simplest forms. To experience a simplified life, we first have to learn to slow down long enough to see through all the clutter. We need to realize that we are powerful magnets that attracted this life to ourselves—no matter what—good or bad. My wish for you is that you commit to simplify and enroll others for support. Take out a blank sheet of paper and create the life you truly want to live—with less stress and complexity—one that is anchored by a clear sense of your unique and simple purpose.

In Honor on Nelson Mandela - Leave your prison behind

As of the time I'm writing this, former President Nelson Mandela remains in critical but stable condition.

Several people from South Africa have written me personally to share how so many hearts in their country are immensely torn. And sadly, now there's great discontent within many generations of the Mandela family over several matters that range from politics and business, to spiritual and ancestral.

It's not an easy time, and there are millions of people around the world praying for Nelson, his family, and the country of South Africa. He has been a true inspirational leader.

And in honor of his life and experiences I thought I'd share this touching story from former US President Bill Clinton that we can all benefit from:

"That was pretty smart of you to have your jailers come to the Inauguration and all of that, but let me ask you something." I said, "Didn't you really hate them for what they did?"

He said, "Oh, yeah, I hated them for a long time." He said, "I stayed alive on hate for 12 years. I broke rocks every day, and I stayed alive on hate." And he said, "They took a lot away from me. They took me away from my wife, and it subsequently destroyed my marriage. They took me away from seeing my children grow up. They abused me mentally and physically. And one day," he said, "I realized they could take it all except my mind and my heart."

He said, "Those things I would have to give to them, and I simply decided not to give them away."

And so – so I said to him, I said, "Well, what about when you were getting out of prison?" I said, "The day you got out of prison in 1990, it was Sunday morning, and I got my daughter up early in the morning, and I took her down to the kitchen, and I turned on the television, and she was just a little girl then, and I sat her up on the kitchen counter. And I said, 'Chelsea, I want you to watch this. This is one of the most important things you'll ever see in your life.' "

And I said, "I watched you walk down that dirt road to freedom." I said, "Now, when you were walking down there, and you realized how long you had been in their prison, didn't you hate them then? Didn't you feel some hatred?" He said, "Yes, I did a little bit." He said, "I felt that." And he said, "Frankly, I was kind of afraid, too, because I hadn't been free in so long."

But he said, "As I felt the anger rising up, I thought to myself, 'They have already had you for 27 years. And if you keep hating them, they'll have you again.' And I said, 'I want to be free. And so I let it go. I let it go."

Your Partner In Letting Go,
Chris Cade

God Bless America

The link below will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of "GOD BLESS AMERICA".  But before you watch, you should also know the story of the song.

 

The time was 1938. America was still in a terrible economic depression.  Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we'd have to go to war.  It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.

This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.

 

Kate was also large in size, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, "Ain't over till the fat lady sings".  Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.

Kate was also very patriotic.  It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring.  She had hope for America , and faith in her fellow Americans.  She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote "White Christmas")

and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country.

 

When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her.  He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 21 years before - way back in 1917.   He gave it to Kate Smith and she worked on it with her studio orchestra.  She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would

be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America .  Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.  Over the years, they have received over ten million dollars in royalties from this song.

This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience.  She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing.  After the first couple of verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, "You're In The Army Now."  At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper.  It is Ronald Reagan.

 

Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said when he and a million other guys first heard her sing "God Bless America " on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.

To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country.  Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt she realized just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry, and for many generations of Americans to follow. 

 

NOW HERE IS HOW "GOD BLESS AMERICA " SHOULD BE SUNG!

 

What I learned about LIFE

This is one of those things that changes your life perspective

No glass ceilings, just blue sky

If you need a "shot of inspiration" just watch this beautiful 3 minute movie that shares some of Marcy’s secrets to success. You’ll love the music, the beautiful photographs and, the ideas will speak to your heart.

Our deepest Fear...

Jaime Lozano, Luis Salgado (In The Heights, Women On The Verge Of A Breakdown) and latin jazz musician William Cepeda create music for Marianne Williamson's poem "Our Deepest Fear" for the R.Evolución Latina's Album "Dare To Go Beyond".

The piece was performed for the Broadway's Easter Bonnet at the Minskoff Theatre (Lion King's home.) Directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado.

Performed by R.Evolución Latina's kids from its Summer Camp, BombaYo group, Broadway performers and featuring Hollywood actor Corbin Bleu, Puertorrican Jazz master William Cepeda and Jaime Lozano at the piano. (Note: the piano on the recording is performed by Zachary Dietz.)