If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z, where X is work, Y is play, Z is keep your mouth shut. – Albert Einstein
Christian Book Reviews, Self Improvement, Positivity
If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z, where X is work, Y is play, Z is keep your mouth shut. – Albert Einstein
by Joi 2 Comments
Just thinking about this post is giving me a killer craving for a bowl of Wendy’s chili. But, I’ll try to press on through the conversation my stomach’s having with my brain.
Dave Thomas was a fascinating man with a fascinating story. Unfortunately, he, like many people, had a difficult childhood. He was adopted and raised by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and never knew or met either of his birth parents. Sadly his mother, Auleva, died when Dave Thomas was only five. Rex Thomas moved the family often and re-married 3 times.
At the age of 12, Dave had to quit school and take his first job – working full time in a restaurant.
He worked his way up from a busboy in the family restaurant to a manager in four different failing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Kentucky Fried Chicken’s colorful founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, became young Dave Thomas’s mentor, teaching him the ropes of the restaurant business – running and promoting the restaurant, and possibly a little about letting your personality shine through beautifully.
The hero of our story was a fast learner. And how! He turned the 4 failing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants around and was given a stake in those businesses. The profits? They made him a millionaire by the time he was 35 and provided him with the capital needed for opening his first Wendy’s in 1969.
If there are things you don’t like in the world you grew up in, make your own life different. – Dave Thomas
There are a few things that we can take away from this story and apply to our own lives.
If that’s not a self help lesson in itself, I’m not sure what is.
The only question that remains is, “Do I want iced tea or a Frosty with my chili?”
To learn more about Dave Thomas, you might want to read his wonderful book, Well Done! – The Common Guy’s Guide to Everyday Success. I don’t know about you, but I just LOVE success stories that involve super nice, happy, quality people.
~ Joi
“Our bodies are our gardens,to which our wills are gardeners.” – Shakespeare, 1564-1616
I dearly love irony – I guess that’s why God allows me to see so much of it. He knows it floats my boat. I’m not sure I completely appreciate this morning’s irony, however. It smarted.
Here I was, in the midst of my morning ritual, sitting at my desk with my sleeping cat, Alexa, sprawled out between me and the computer (having to dodge the occasional paw or furry tail that hangs over the edge and hovers above the keyboard). As always, we have the blinds lifted, affording us the gorgeous a.m. showing of birds and squirrels at the feeders. Peaceful morning. I felt the need for a Shakespeare quote for today’s Quote of the Day, so I had one of my many Shakespeare books out, looking for one that moved me. A multi-tasker (moms have to be, out of necessity), I was also sorting through my e-mail at the same time.
I had moved joyfully to coffee cup number 2 and was contemplating one of the iced brownies with walnuts I’d recently made.
So, the stage was set for irony: Within the span of 2 minutes – I decided on two things: I found the quote I wanted (the one above… yes, men, there’s a quote above! Good Lord…) and I decided that I had a date with the biggest brownie on the platter, with the most icing. Yeah, baby! Some plans are set in cement and some are set in chocolate.
Oh, but wait… there’s an e-mail from a favorite fashion site. What? Heidi Klum has new pictures? She’s one of my favorite models… let me see the pics, THEN I’ll have that brownie.
I never made it to the brownies.
The picture is at the top of the post. Guys, you’re welcome. Girls, I’m sorry.
Lady Heidi has many children. She recently had one, in fact. What’s fair about that? “Our bodies are our gardens,to which our wills are gardeners.” Heidi Klum’s will is one heckuva gardener.
I hear you treadmill. I hear you.
by Joi 10 Comments
A few pages into 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, I thought “This is going to be one cool little book.” Halfway through (on about page 189 out of nearly 300 pages), I thought, “This is proving to be one cool little book.”
After finishing the book, I thought, “This little book was even cooler than I thought it was going to be.”
The author, Richard Wiseman, has a writing style that keeps you on your toes and rewards you richly for the effort. 59 Seconds is a “thinking man or woman’s” self help guide. Armed with research and fascinating facts, Richard Wiseman lays out the truth:
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (Borzoi Books) is filled with self improvement tips and self growth advice. The thing I love the most is that each one is backed up with research and explained in detail – with each “Why?” answered beautifully.
The tips and techniques used in 59 Seconds are incredibly simple and fast (hence the 59 Seconds title). However, that wouldn’t mean beans if they weren’t powerful and effective. They are both.
An example of one of the many exercises taught in this book is the writing exercise. The reader is encouraged to write a list of 3 things that he or she is grateful for. The exercise is simplistically brilliant because it gets your mind thinking in an affirmative direction. Even if you’re in the darkest of moods, once you begin thinking of things you’re thankful for, your mind will soon realize that “narrowing it down to 3” is nearly impossible. Positive, uplifting thoughts and faces will fill your mind and your mood will be lifted to a new height. The truly remarkable thing is that this mood will last for days! When it begins to dip again, make another list.
Simple and brilliant.
There are many outstanding tips for improving your health, weight, and body image as well. Tips that are, again, backed up with wonderful research and common sense. A particularly fascinating section was devoted to a study that highlighted the benefits of knowing how much energy your body was using throughout the day – or how many calories we burn doing various activities. A chart is even included that details how many calories are burned per minute while doing daily activities. The chart includes room for the reader to write in how many minutes they spend, on average, doing this activity and how many calories they’re burning.
The bottom line? None of us are burning anywhere near as many calories as we need to be or even as many as we probably think we are.
This part of the book, like the others, serves as a wonderful self help tool because it shows us…
I’ll close with the following passage from the book because I always love for my reviews of books that I love to give you something other than just a recommendation for a great book. I want you to be able to carry something away from the post – hopefully as you head off to Amazon to purchase the wonderful book! This book is so full of great tips and golden nuggets that I just have to include two. These are two of the many, many, many “59 Seconds” tips…. 59 Seconds to THINK a little and CHANGE a lot.
About the Author:
Richard Wiseman is based at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom and has gained an international reputation for research into offbeat areas of psychology, including deception, humor, and luck. He is the author of The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and numerous other books. A passionate advocate for science, Wiseman is well-known for his media appearances, high-profile talks, live demonstrations, and mass-participation studies. Wiseman also regularly acts as a creative consultant for print, broadcast, and new media.
Buy 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot on Amazon today. This one’s a must have, must read.
by Joi 2 Comments
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