In a meeting with all seemingly agreeable perspectives, it can be challenging to share a dissenting opinion. It is then rewarding when you find others felt the same way- but were not ready not to speak up, but happy you did. Then it gets tougher, because now there is less control of where the conversation moves. It was easier and cleaner when everyone seemed to agree; but will there be as much discovery? Choose discovery, listen to all opinions, and be willing to change yours.
~ Amy
When faced with obstacles, it can be hard to see an opportunity and not just a barrier. Take the opportunity to push yourself and see what you are made of and how much you can achieve when you dig deep. Sometimes these great obstacles will become your greatest accomplishments.
~ Amy
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
~ Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
Do you see a barrier as a stop sign or a new challenge?
The only barriers that really exist are the ones we place on ourselves. Overcoming any obstacle takes work, but usually it is just the determination to move forward one brick at a time because you choose not to quit.
~ Amy
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
~ Velveteen Rabbit
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time and was one of the readings at our wedding. I love the ideal that to be “real” it takes much time and you have been worn out. The word “real” can mean so many different things when you take it out of the context of stuffed animals and into our daily lives.
~ Amy
“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
~ Norman Schwarzkopf
You can change a poor strategy and adjust course pretty quickly if needed. Poor character is not as easily adjusted. It took years of influence, thoughts, actions and habits to build that character.
~ Amy
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
“A man who’s late for meetings or for the bus won’t run his pass routes right. He’ll be sloppy”
~ Vince Lombardi
These are two of my favorite quotes because they remind me to be consistent and diligent. We all want to bask in the glory of success. But the success did not happen in a vacuum; it is the daily focus on the details that brings victory. Being on time, being prepared, being present everyday- these things bring the game day win.
~ Amy
A friend recently gave me the book, “Outliers”, mentioned above. I learned the biggest difference between success and failure is the determination to keep going. There is no such thing as an overnight success- you just do not hear about the years it took before success occurred. (just a note- WD40 stands for Water Displacement 40th formula, but you never would have heard of this product if the company stopped after 39 failed attempts.)
~ Amy
“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Often in business we see people take short cuts or justify their negative behavior. I think there are two ways to interpret this quote. One- you save time by not having to redo the work or continue to patch a problem, because you took the time to get it right the first time. Two- if integrity and ethics guide our decisions the justification will not be needed.
~Amy
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
~ Helen Keller
My grandfather taught me that “anything worth doing, is worth doing well”. I now take great pride in small things that maybe others don’t always see or care about; but I personally take satisfaction in knowing the attention to detail that I have given. That is my gift to him and his legacy to me.
~ Amy
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
~ Charles Darwin
At Retirement Connection we constantly adjust as the market changes. We add content to the guide, improve the comparison grids, update the website, add news and event postings, and now we also coordinate hospital resource fairs. Truly, we do the work so that you can do what matters. We are proud to help you make the difference you do in your community and hope you’ll continue to rely on us for support to help you achieve your goals. Thank you for all your suggestions the past 4 years.
