- Write the way you talk. Naturally.
- Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
Month: May 2020
👊 Today’s Power Thought ~ Eyes Open, It’s Going to be a Great Day
The sky’s blue, the sun’s warm, the birds are singing, and the coffee is hot, all signs point to a great day.
Today’s Smile 😃
Joe: “I was in a liquor store and an employee asked me, “Do you need help?””
Pete: “What did you say?”
Joe: “I said, “Yes, but I’m going to get beer instead.”
🌾 Today’s Poem ~ The Trainers
The Trainers
Grantland Rice
My name is Trouble—I’m a busy bloke—
I am the test of Courage—and of Class—
I bind the coward to a bitter yoke,
I drive the craven from the crowning pass;
Weaklings I crush before they come to fame;
But as the red star guides across the night,
I train the stalwart for a better game;
I drive the brave into a harder fight.
My name is Hard Luck—the wrecker of rare dreams—
I follow all who seek the open fray;
I am the shadow where the far light gleams
For those who seek to know the open way;
Quitters I break before they reach the crest,
But where the red field echoes with the drums,
I build the fighter for the final test
And mold the brave for any drive that comes.
My name is Sorrow—I shall come to all
To block the surfeit of an endless joy;
Along the Sable Road I pay my call
Before the sweetness of success can cloy;
And weaker souls shall weep amid the throng
And fall before me, broken and dismayed;
But braver hearts shall know that I belong
And take me in, serene and unafraid.
My name’s Defeat—but through the bitter fight,
To those who know, I’m something more than friend;
For I can build beyond the wrath of might
And drive away all yellow from the blend;
For those who quit, I am the final blow,
But for the brave who seek their chance to learn,
I show the way, at last, beyond the foe,
To where the scarlet flames of triumph burn.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ A Useful Strategy
A Feel Good Strategy
In Mental Subtraction of Positive Events, you call to mind a certain positive event—the birth of a child, a career achievement, a special trip—and think of all the circumstances that made it possible. How could things have turned out differently? Just taking a moment to imagine this alternate reality creates a favorable comparison, where suddenly our life looks quite good.
Today’s Smile 😃
Joe: “I had a breakthrough while I was rock climbing with a friend.”
Pete: “Really, what was it?”
Joe: “I decided to cut ties with all the people weighing me down. My climbing partner didn’t appreciate it.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Be a Bit Creative
Join the Hyphen Crowd
Away to reinvigorate a lacklustre lexicon is to pull together words that have never been tethered before – a little like constructing an impromptu meal from random reached-for tins dragged to light from the fumbled darkness of a kitchen cupboard. (Chutney pasta anyone? Anyone?) Charlotte Brontë was a genius of such curiously compelling compounds. To her it is likely we owe the origin of ‘self-doubt’ and ‘Wild-West’ as well as that activity to which many of us have found ourselves suddenly engaging with obsessive vigour: ‘spring-clean’, which Brontë niftily neologised in a letter she wrote in April 1848.
🌞 Today’s Inspiration ~ Keep Doing What You Have to Do!
“There were a number of definitions of courage, but now I was seeing it in its simplest form: you do what has to be done day after day, and you never quit.
~ Eric Greitens
🌾 Today’s Poem ~ Laugh a Little Bit
Laugh a Little Bit
Edmund Vance Cooke
Here’s a motto, just your fit—
Laugh a little bit.
When you think you’re trouble hit,
Laugh a little bit.
Look misfortune in the face.
Brave the beldam’s rude grimace;
Ten to one ’twill yield its place,
If you have the wit and grit
Just to laugh a little bit.
Keep your face with sunshine lit,
Laugh a little bit.
All the shadows off will flit,
If you have the grit and wit
Just to laugh a little bit.
Cherish this as sacred writ—
Laugh a little bit.
Keep it with you, sample it,
Laugh a little bit.
Little ills will sure betide you,
Fortune may not sit beside you,
Men may mock and fame deride you,
But you’ll mind them not a whit
If you laugh a little bit.
👊 Today’s Power Thought ~ Times May Be Tough . . . But . . .
Times are tough, they’re the only times I’ve got. I’m going to do my best to make them good times.
