Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

FDR Quote about Happiness

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Quote by Charles Darwin

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”—Charles Darwin

Do you have a Plan B?

I always like to have a backup plan, and more often than not, a backup plan for the backup plan. It has come in handy many times.  Especially when something happens like your backup drive fails (good thing I had 2 backups!), or when the horse you were planning on taking to a ride the next week dings up his leg.  It's always good to be prepared for when things go wrong.  I always like to think that if I prepare for the worst, it won't happen.  And then if it does, I'll be prepared.  My horse Rocky started out as Plan B.  He is currently my highest mileage horse.  Then when I got Chief, we called him Plan C.  He will soon (knocking on wood) surpass Rocky in mileage and become my highest mileage horse.  Not bad for two backup horses!  Anyway, I thought this was a pretty appropriate quote.....

“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.”—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist

Quotation on Patience

The greatest challenge to the development of patience is being able to wait for the tangible evidence that your efforts are paying off.  We have a fixed idea of what we want and what it will look like when it shows up.  We hold that idea so firmly that often we are unable to detect that the very thing we want has actually arrived.  If it does not look the way we thought it would, or if it does not feel the way we imagined it would, we are unable to detect its presence.   Iyanla Vanzant

Horse Quotation

Amazingly fast, incredibly strong, tirelessly proud, fantastically gentle, he is a huge dark beast that touches the hearts of all who meet him.

He has known joy and violence. Felt the warmth of children and the cruelty of abuse. He has nearly died saving lives and merely been killed by a drunken act. He has known the finery of grand estates and the filth of stinking slums. He has survived fire and flood, starvation and torment.

And nothing could break his spirit-or his great love.

This is HIS life.

He is called the horse.  - Anna Sewell

Quote of the day - take some chances!

It's possible to wreck your life by trying to play things too safe.  No one can be happy if they're excessively anxious about their home, their bank account, their job, or their health. When you get right down to it, all living involves risk. The people who try to play it safe not infrequently find themselves more vulnerable to trouble than those who are willing to take some chances.

Quotations on Persistence and Experience

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with great talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence, determination alone are omnipotent.  Calvin Coolidge

Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.

Quotation

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm!  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Equestrian Quotation

For true equestrian art there are no recipes and no tricks, regardless of what saddle we ride in. One has to learn that the greatest attention must be paid to the seemingly easiest things and that that is often the most difficult thing. One of the most important principles for a rider is always to put the horse first, in other words, to look out for his wellbeing in his stabling, care, and training. The moment the human starts working with the horse determines whether he will become a great athlete and artist who will be able to look back on a long, healthy life, or whether his path ends all too soon due to poor handling and incorrect work. With knowledge, time, discipline, and body control it is possible to bring the horse almost without training aids into a relaxed position by honest work. You don't have to reach the highest level, but you must always have the feeling that whatever you have accomplished was accomplished well and with honest work. Then you and your horse will always be content. Im Damensattel: Eine Reitlehre für die Frau, Olms Press - 1997;  translation: T. Ritter

Interest and Commitment

There’s a difference between interest and commitment.  When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient.  When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.  Kenneth Blanchard

Quotation

This is great if you're in Nevada or one of the states/cities that have legalized gambling - sort of appropriate when you think about it.  I won't take it too literally though, and go see what happens if I were to put a lot into a slot machine!  ha - I've got horses to put my $$ into, and I get a lot out (take that any way you want) ;)

Some people treat life like a slot machine, trying to put in as little as possible, and always hoping to hit the jackpot.  But I believe that people are wiser, happier, and have more inner peace when they think of life as a solid, intelligent investment from which they receive in terms of what they put in.   Roger Hull

Quotations

Many of us miss out on life’s big prizes.  The Pulitzer.  The Nobel.  Oscars.  Tonys.  Emmys.  But we’re all eligible for life’s small pleasures.  A kiss behind the ear.  A four-pound bass.  A full moon.  An empty parking space.  A crackling fire.  A great meal.  A glorious sunset.  Hot soup.  Don’t fret about copping life’s grand awards.  Enjoy its tiny delights.  There are plenty for all of us.

It's better to regret something you did than to regret something you didn't do and spend your whole life wondering if it would have made a difference.

Quote of the day

Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners.  E. Joseph Cossman

Quotation on Ideas

Great ideas often look identical to stupid ones right up until the moment they work.   Scott Adams

Horse Quotation

When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something.  When you're my age, you splatter.  ~Roy Rogers

Great Quotes from Great Leaders

Here is a video with a bunch of motivational quotes, titled "Great Quotes from Great Leaders". 

Quote of the day

My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle.  Henry Youngman

Quotation - Gratitude is an Attitude!

Deciding to be grateful for our situation, our experiences, our unique perspective, quickly changes our outlook on everything that did happen, on everything that is happening now, and on everyone we meet.  Accepting that we are in charge of whatever kind of day we will have forces us to accept responsibility for our joy, which can always be ours, or our unhappiness.  And being grateful feels so good.  Gratitude is an attitude, and I can feel it whenever I want. 

Quotation

Ten Spiritual Tonics, from Zaadz.

1. Stop worrying. Worry kills life.
2. Begin each day with a prayer. It will arm your soul.
3. Control appetite. Over-indulgence clogs body and mind.
4. Accept your limitations . . .
5. Don't envy. It wastes time and energy.
6. Have faith in people. Cynicism sours the disposition.
7. Find a hobby. It will relax your nerves.
8. Read a book a week to stimulate imagination and broaden your views.
9. Spend some time alone for the peace of solitude and silence.
10. Try to want what you have, instead of spending your strength trying to get what you want.

Quotation - Buddha

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.  Buddha (563 - 483 BC)

GO with the flow ;)

In our search for stability we can seek a life in which there is no change.  We become like a mollusk attached to the side of a rock, indifferent to the tides of change and the waves of new situations.  People who never change escape from risks, but they also miss all the energy and excitement of new life.  The river goes by unnoticed.  Stability is necessary to all of us, but the constant newness of the flow of life gives us an excitement and a beauty that are also absolutely necessary.  Go with the flow.

Edward J. Lavin

Quotation on Success

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.  Arnold J. Toynbee

Quotations on Success

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.  Arthur Ashe

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!  Og Mandino

Couple of Quotes about work

I know not everybody feels about their work the same way I do....

Instead of instilling fear, if a company offered a way for everyone in the business to dive within--to start expanding energy and intelligence--people would work overtime for free. They would be far more creative. And the company would just leap forward. This is the way it can be. It's not the way it is, but it could be that way so easily.  David Lynch

and

We believe that there is no greater power in the world than the force of a great idea. We believe that people are the lifeblood of every organization. We believe that the best companies are true meritocracies, where people rise and fall through their own contributions, not through game playing or politics. We believe that work isn't simply a paycheck; it is the ultimate expression of a fully realized self. We believe that a company's obligations extend far beyond its bottom line and its shareholders -- to a wider constituency that includes employees, customers, suppliers, and the community.  John Byrne

Quotation

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'    Ronald Reagan, 40th president of US  (1911 - 2004)

Quotation

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.  Ray Bradbury

Quotations

My will shall shape the future.  Whether I fail or succeed shall be no person’s doing but my own.  I am the force.  I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze.  My choice, my responsibility.  Win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.   Elaine Maxwell

We are all so bent and determined to get what we want, we miss the lessons that could be learned from life’s experiences.  Many of my AIDS patients discovered that the last year of their lives was by far their best.  Many have said they wouldn’t have traded the rich quality of that last year of life for a healthier body.  Sadly, it is only when tragedy strikes that most of us begin attending to the deeper aspects of life.  It is only then that we attempt to go beyond surface concerns—what we look like, how much money we make, and so forth—to discover what’s really important.  Elisasbeth Kuebler-Ross

Couple of Quotes

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like this one too:

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.  Tom Lehrer

Quote about luck

When ill luck besets us, to ease the tension we have only to remember that happiness is relative.  The next time you are tempted to grumble about what has happened to you, why not pause and be glad that it is no worse than it is?  Dale Carnegie

Quote about making mistakes....

Make sure that every time you make a mistake, it’s a new one. Making the same mistake several times shows that you haven’t learned what it can teach you. Making new mistakes proves that you’re trying something different. The best definition of a loser is someone who makes the same mistakes over and over again, never managing to learn anything in the process. Such a person is doomed.    lifehack.org

Quotation - kind of endurance related

This strikes me as a perfect endurance rider quotation:

Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing.

Just because it is so much 'work' to do this sport - but....it's all worth it!  In fact, we not only do it for nothing, we do it and pay $$ for it!  Don't that beat all!! ;)

One of my favorite quotes

Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.  Mike Ditka

Here is another good one.....I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.  Bill Cosby

Quotation

If you never quit when the going gets tough, you will never have anything to regret for the rest of your life.  Lance Armstrong

Quotation

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say.  Calvin Coolidge

Quote of the day

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."   Sir Winston Churchill

Happy Quotation

If you want to be happy, set yourself a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.  Happiness is within you.  It comes from doing some certain thing into which you can put all your thought and energy.  If you want to be happy, get enthusiastic about something. Dale Carnegie

Mark Twain Quotation

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Quote for the day

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy. 

Napoleon Hill

Quotation on Agreement

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
William Wrigley Jr., US chewing gum industrialist (1861 - 1932)

Horse Names & Quotation

Thanks for all of the name suggestions!  I'm getting to know the new 'little guy' and trying them all out to see what fits.  Keep sending them. 

Here is a quote for the day:

You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.  Lydia M. Child

Happy Quotation

Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy.  Well, that is doubtful.  So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don’t put off being happy until some future date.

Confucius say....

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Quotes

To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?  Katharine Graham

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.  John Wooden

Quotation about Goals

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."

  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator

Got any goals for this ride season?  I do!  First though, I've got a lot of stuff to get ready before the ride season gets fully underway.  There's maintenance to do on the truck and trailer.  The truck is already done, having just had an oil change and the tires rotated.  It also just got a new alternator and batteries.  Today the trailer goes up to Les Schwab to have the bearings packed, tires rotated and the brakes checked. 

Quote by George Washington

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

Serenity Quotation

The surface of the ocean changes constantly. Now it is smooth and quiet.  Again it becomes violent and tempestuous.  But in its depths, down under the storms that whip the surface into a fury, there is a zone of eternal calm which no storm ever reaches, no hurricane ever ruffles.  The surface of life is also in a state of constant flux, with good days and bad, victory and defeat.  To maintain, as the ocean does, a deep inner calm, while the storms of misfortune, reverses, fears and worries lash at the surface of life, is to discover the secret of serenity.   Wilferd A. Peterson

Enthusiasm & Hard Work Quote

I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who get to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.  Harry S. Truman

A couple of Quotes

Life holds no promises as to what will come your way.  You must search for your own ideals and work toward reaching them.  Life makes no guarantees as to what you’ll have.  It just gives you time to make choices and to take chances and to discover whatever secrets that might come your way.  If you are willing to take the opportunities you are given and utilize the abilities you have, you will constantly fill your life with special moments and unforgettable times.  Dena Dilaconi

To be healthy, wealthy, happy and successful in any and all areas of your life you need to be aware that you need to think healthy, wealthy, happy and successful thoughts twenty-four hours a day and cancel all negative, destructive, fearful and unhappy thoughts.  These two types of thought cannot coexist if you want to share in the abundance that surrounds us all.  Sidney Madwed

Harry S. Truman Quote

It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets credit.

Quote about luck

I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.  Oprah Winfrey