The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Lynzi]

"A stumble....
may keep you from falling." Thomas Fuller




Sorry..my ticker should read an 8 pd loss.
I haven't "stumbled" that much!

[Marcelle]

Success is never final and failure never fatal. It's courage that counts.



George F. Tiltonood


Great thought George!!

[Marcelle]

LOOK UP AND PADDLE HARD

When I was 4 year old, I had a tricycle. I rode on it with all the gusto in the heart of a kid. I was happy, but I didn't like the paddling aspect of riding. It was "hard work" and tedious, so most times, I was pushed. I always needed help. Most times I begged for it. The cycle of dependency continued.a light push on a slope. Oh my! The downward roll was a thrill. A sure one. How I loved it. Now another problem, I always needed a slope. That means I was always returning to one spot.static movement.

Later on in life, I was too big to be on a tricycle. Learning how to ride a bicycle was the next thing to do.the next phase, so in a way I have graduated from the tricycle cadre. With all amount of youthful ecstasy and exuberance, I decided to learn how to use a bicycle. The only place I could get a bicycle to use was in my mum's village, where we go for holidays, once in about two years with my father's permission. The next holiday, I was on my way to the village and next on the agenda was learning itself. One of my buddies decided to help me out. He was a good rider. So we started the lessons. After the first trial he told me " Don't look at the ground, if not you'll be scared and that will lead to loss of concentration. Look up and paddle hard" That advise to me was foolishness in a three-piece suit. The truth of the matter was that I wanted to learn riding in my own way. " How can I look up? I have to look down to see how I'm paddling" I fired back. Moreover, I thought to myself, that advice is from the village guy, I'm the one from town and I sure do have my way of doing things. With every thought and action of mine I fought that principle of riding. Th e end result was that, I left the village after the holidays and didn't learn how to ride. This was way back 1988.

Every time in class, when my mates talked about bicycles and their riding experience, I just excuse myself with the fact that "I didn't always have a bicycle when I was much younger. I'm quite old now". Even when they offered to teach me the how of it, I declined. I was immobilized by my past failures. I never wanted to be laughed at. Every break period, I watch others "fly" on their bikes. All I did was wish how I could be like them but to take the step to be like them, I never ventured. I wish I could.I should have.all a bash of wishful thinking.


Then in 1995, I had private lessons in one of my teacher's house. The family had a bike and I watched the kids, young and old, strut their stuff on the bike. Some how I got into a private conversation with one of them and she told me she learned how to ride the previous year. Then it dawn on me that I wasn't late on learning. I know that you are not born with riding skills you acquire it! I had no more excuses. Quickly, I confided in my buddy, Aniefiok Enoh, about my inadequacy. One evening we secured the bike for a private lesson and went out together. After my initial trials he noticed I had a problem. He stared at me eyeball-to-eyeball and said, "Believe you can do it and you'll do it. Don't look at the ground. Look up and paddle hard". That hit me like a thunderbolt.


I've heard that before or does Aniefiok stay in my mother's village? No! He was only relaying a universal principle. I did as he said and that evening, I learned how to ride. That evening I got something I wouldn't trade for anything. It was the thrill of fulfillment. A delicious gladness and the unmistaken joy that swept my soul. A boyish grin that pushed my cheek upward was all over me and that grin I tell you could swallow a banana sideways. That day, I realized I didn't need to be Jackie Chan, in order to ride a bicycle!


I also learned from that experience that you don't wish success into being. You work at it. You look out for the underlying principle behind an operation, work with it and with God on your side, success is scheduled. This is no magic. It's real. In order to get something that you don't have, you have to do something you have never done before. Get out of your comfort zone, stretch, strain, train, and aim. Before you know it, you are in. The Coliseum wasn't an accident, Faith Tabernacle, Ota was not wished into existence, Microsoft Corporation wasn't a mistake. Men worked on their dreams, they persisted, they brought forth and you are seeing it.

So let's come down to level ground. What's that dream of yours? That vision, that hope. Is it starting that business or proposing to that lady, going back to school? Then pick up the courage, cage the fear and do it. If it's hard, then do it hard. Enjoy the abundant life. Share in the thrill of fulfillment. This phenomenon is inexplicable but let me try to describe it.it's flying without wings, it's waking up to see that your dream was real, it's walking on air with the stars beneath you.

I will see you on the mountaintop where I'm heading. To get there forget not this "Don't look at the ground, LOOK UP AND PADDLE HARD".





About the author:

Gabriel Omin

[martha]

WOW!!!!!!!!! I really enjoyed that!!!!! THANKS--Martha

[Guest]

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.



Charles "Tremendous" Jones

Motivational Speaker and Author

[Marcelle]

Do it right

It usually takes longer to do it right. And yet when you do it right it lasts much longer too.

It usually takes more effort to do it right. And yet when you do it right the effort is never wasted.

Often, you have to go against the crowd if you are to do it right. And yet, in time, the world will come to appreciate and value what you have done.

You will probably have to make short-term sacrifices in order to do it right. Yet the long-term, continuing benefits you receive are well worth the cost.

People who would rather take shortcuts will resent you for doing it right. Yet they will come to understand your wisdom when their own shortsightedness fails them.

It takes initiative and courage to do it right. And in return you attain a level of achievement that cannot be reached any other way.

-- Ralph Marston

[Marcelle]

Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.



Charlotte Bronte

[Marcelle]

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.



Alfred Lord Tennyson

[Marcelle]

If the things we believe in are different than the things we do,

there can be no true happiness.



Dana Telford

[Guest]

26 Quick Tips for Living an Inspired Life
(© 1991 Carol James)


Here are 26 quick tips for living an inspired life.

Ask for what you want.

Be who you say you are.

Care about others.

Dare to live your dreams.

Ease through the day.

Find the best fit.

Give to another.

Hug a friend.

Inspire someone to greatness.

Jump over a boundary.

Kick a bad habit.

Leap across a fear.

Mention something uplifting.

Never say never.

Open your mind and heart.

Pursue your innermost passions.

Quit complaining.

Restore your smile.

Set your sights high.

Trust yourself.

Use all the day.

Value everything.

Wait until it feels right.

Xpress yourself.

Yank weeds from your mental garden.

Zoom into the now.

[Marcelle]

The guest was me...

[martha]

Hi--

REALLY liked the 26 tips ..just sent it to the hubby on the tugboat--now he can hand out copies to all the guys..Thanks--Martha

[Marcelle]

I'm glad you liked it!

[dlr2424]

Ditto for me..........I loved it.................

Donna....dlr2424

[Marcelle]

If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot.



Italian Proverb


HOW TRUE!