Life Tips

Brothers of Briar

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I can't take credit for these.  I have both of them hanging on my wall at work.

• You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
• You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
• You have to give more than you get in return right away.
• You have to care more about others than they care about you.
• You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.
• You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.
• You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.
• You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.
• You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.
• You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.
• You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.
• You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”
• You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.
• You have to try and fail and try again.
• You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.
• You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.
• You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.
• You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.
• You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.

You have to do the hard things. The things that no one else is doing. The things that scare you. The things that make you wonder how much longer you can hold on.
Those are the things that define you. Those are the things that make the difference between living a life of mediocrity or outrageous success.
The hard things are the easiest things to avoid. To excuse away. To pretend like they don’t apply to you.
The simple truth about how ordinary people accomplish outrageous feats of success is that they do the hard things that smarter, wealthier, more qualified people don’t have the courage — or desperation — to do.
Do the hard things. You might be surprised at how amazing you really are.

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Marine Corps
Leadership Principles and Traits
Marine Corps Leadership Principles
• Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
• Be technically and tactically proficient.
• Develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates.
• Make sound and timely decisions.
• Set the example.
• Know your Marines and look out for their welfare.
• Keep your Marines informed.
• Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
• Ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished.
• Train your Marines as a team.
• Employ your command in accordance with its capabilities.

Marine Corps Leadership Traits
• Dependability
The certainty of proper performance of duty.
• Bearing
Creating a favorable impression in carriage, appearance and personal conduct at all
times.
• Courage
The mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables a man to
proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness.
• Decisiveness
Ability to make decisions promptly and to announce them in clear, forceful manner.
• Endurance
The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress
and hardship.45
• Enthusiasm
The display of sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of duty.
• Initiative
Taking action in the absence of orders.
• Integrity
Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles; includes the qualities of
truthfulness and honesty.
• Judgment
The ability to weigh facts and possible solutions on which to base sound decisions.
• Justice
Giving reward and punishment according to merits of the case in question. Thee ability
to administer a system of rewards and punishments impartially and consistently.
• Knowledge
Understanding of a science or an art. The range of one’s information, including
professional knowledge and an understanding of your Marines.
• Tact
The ability to deal with others without creating offense.
• Unselfishness
Avoidance of providing for one’s own comfort and personal advancement at the
expense of others.
• Loyalty
The quality of faithfulness to country, the Corps, the unit, to one’s seniors,
subordinates and peers.
 
All these are mine, representing lessons learned in my time here on Planet Oith:
  • People are never going to get it together until they learn to leave each other alone.
  • Why steal and have something to hide? Why not earn and have something to show?
  • Political solution: the ultimate oxymoron
  • Never trust a man who is angered when you treat him the same way he treats you. That goes for women too.
  • Once you figure out that nothing is ever as easy at it seems — and you go ahead and do it anyway — you soon realize that nothing is ever as hard as it seems.
  • Respect for property is the foundation of civilization.
  • I always suffer the most when I'm focused on myself.
  • Hopelessness is futile.
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Be a good tipper.
Use your turn signal.
Done fast, done cheap, done right: Pick any two.
 
Here are a few I've found to be true.

1) If everyone around you is an A-hole, it's not them. (This works for just about everything. For example, if every other driver on the street is terrible, it's not them)

2) No one will screw you over like your family.

3) Stressing out and rushing rarely makes things go faster.

4) Not doing things right the first time usually forces you to do them right the 2nd time.

5) To go with the above. You can fix anything with Duc tape, you can fix nothing properly with Duc tape.
 
After ignoring all the advice given me when I was in the throws of raging testosterone of my 20's, the one thing that did sink in was given me by an engineering prof when I was in college: K.I.S.S. IT !! Keep It Simple Stupid  Has woeked for me all my life!! :twisted: :twisted:
 
I always try to keep my word, or don't give it at all. Also, I try to keep in mind what is important and not. And I've learned the long term is usually more important than the short term. Too bad I didn't learn that one ten years ago haha
 
Doing the right thing doesn't always come easy.
Hence, nothing good comes easy.

Also:

 
IF - By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you  
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;  
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  
   If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
   And treat those two impostors just the same;  
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
   And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,  
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
   Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  
   Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
   With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  
   And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
 
Very spooky that JP. When I saw this thread resurrected I immediately thought of the same poem. One of my favourites and one that I read to my son from to time. Superb.
 
When I got the keys to my first car and started dating, my dad told me one day that he needed to give me some advice.

He told me "Son, when you decide to get married, make sure you choose an ugly woman."

Why I asked?

He replied, "Because, chances are that no one will ever try to take her away from you, but if they do, you won't care."
 
* Unsolicited advice is a hidden worm fruit sellers will happily give at no charge. The more worms they give away, the more fruit they are proudly selling.

8)
 
Two bulls in a pen on a hill, an old one and young one.

Young bull: Hey, the farmer's left the gate open. Let's trot down the hill and do a couple of those cows.

Old bull: No. Let's walk down the hill and do 'em all

Some advice my father, a small business owner, dispensed:

Don't spend too much time watching your staff. Rather be conscious of the fact that they are watching you.
 
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