Attitude

ATTITUDE
by
Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes”

During college the above quote could be found on the bulletin board in the girls' locker room. I saw it before and after every practice and every game. And I read it every single time. It's probably one of the most important things I read during my four years of college and even more likely to be one of the few things I continue to recall frequently.

I've noticed over the past few years that my attitude seems to be "adjusting" and not always in a positive way. I'm not sure if it's because I'm older and my body aches. Or because I'm a workaholic and I'm too tired to socialize and talk through whatever is on my mind. Or if it's because I've become jaded by life, relationships, and the knowledge of life's condition.

It doesn't make sense really, because the truth is I'm better today than I was a yesterday. I'll be better tomorrow than I was today. And so it goes. With that said my life- My attitude- should continue to be more and more positive. I'm a better person because I've been blessed with one more day of life, love, and laughter. So if that is 10% of life, then the other 90% is what I do with it:

• 
  
  live life


• 
  
  love deeper


• 
  
  laugh harder

That's what I'm gonna do with it.

Phelps, Pools, and Puzzles

Last week, my mom, dad, sister (Kelly) and nephew came for a visit. They stayed Wednesday through Monday, giving my nephew more than enough time to practice his swimming strokes in the pool. Tyler's time was spent on the 3 P's -- Phelps, Pool, and Puzzles.



Several years ago during one of Tyler's visits, I introduced him to puzzles...and this has quickly become one of our past-times together. I really enjoy it, though we only made a small dent in the 1000 piece puzzle we began working on, but it'll get finished. He enjoys looking around at the puzzle pictures which serve as artwork in my garage. The theme is ALWAYS Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.



The evenings were spent watching Michael Phelps earn gold after gold, which (I think) modeled both good sportsmanship and determination in Tyler. He spent the next day at the pool perfecting his breast-stroke and underwater turns and working on his good-looking bronze tan.



He'll be 9 years old on Thursday! That absolutely blows my mind. Seems like yesterday I got the call of his birth and was so excited to have a little guy to spoil rotten. Spoiled? Yes! Rotten? Not a chance. I couldn't be prouder of this little man. He's a GREAT kid and a blast to have around. I can't wait til October when he comes back for his Fall visit! *Yeah, to grandma and papa for bring him!

I'm Here

Thanks for the response to my "simple question"? I'm back. I hadn't forgotten about the blog world. My reason for absence is simple --- I haven't had much internet access lately. That'll change soon once I get COMCAST out to the house, but until then, please be patient with me.

As for now (tonight) I'm hanging out in Memphis. I am speaking at a conference tomorrow and decided I'd use the offer of a free hotel stay as an opportunity for a one-day get-a-way. I arrived this afternoon around 1, ate some lunch, took a short walk around downtown and have been in the hotel room ever since. It's been nice. My temptation was to run around town and complete some errands, but then I thought "why? I can do that later." So, since about 3:30 this afternoon, its been me, my computer, and the olympics. Again ...I say, NICE.

My presentation isn't until tomorrow morning at 9:30am. I purposefully arranged it to be first thing in the morning so I'd (as my dad always said about family vacations) "get it over with". I should be done around 11 and should be at the Pottery Barn outlet by noon. YEAH!

I've fought the temptation to run across the street and check out the Redbirds baseball game, but figured, pjs, bed, and room service sounded much more appealing. Ahhh.... these are the days when single-hood seems so very pleasing to me.