The song Stand By Me performed by many artists in different countries. From Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. Official web site: http://www.playingforchange…
The Playing For Change Foundation (PFCF) is dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources (including, but not limited to facilities, supplies, and educational programs) to musicians and their communities around the world. click here for more info
Taken from Change Your Thoughts
Success is a favorable or desirable outcome, the attainment of wealth or favor, as defined Webster’s Dictionary. Success is different for everyone, but it is definitely not an easy thing to accomplish, otherwise, everyone would do what it takes for success.
Success is a feeling and can be created and recreated again and again. Here are some tips to create success in your life:
Tip #1: Enjoy and celebrate each moment on the way to success. Success doesn’t have to be associated with wealth attainment. In fact, most people have achieved a level of success in some part of their lives, achieving a “desirable outcome.” Reminisce the feeling associated with your success achievement. You must have been very happy, inspired to achieve more, and desired to repeat your success. You may have thought that it wasn’t really that difficult to achieve success or maybe it was the hardest thing you did, enjoying in the feeling of accomplishment. As you reach for your next goal, focus on progress only, rewarding yourself every small step of the way. Each daily accomplishment is a small success story on the way to the bigger success story.
Tip #2: Keep the end in mind, always. If you have been striving for success in an area of your life, wealth or other, and are not reaching success, you might have lost sight of the end goal. You might have given up because it was too hard, too much work, or maybe you think that you don’t deserve your goal in the first place. Maybe someone convinced you that you can’t do what you set out to do and you folded and listened to them. You may think that you don’t know enough to be successful. If you focus on the end result as you defined success, you will keep striving for it and no one, not even you, will convince you otherwise.
Tip #3: Create, evaluate, and recreate. Life is about recreating yourself. If something doesn’t work, rather than fold, find a way to recreate. Troubleshoot or recreating is very similar. You create, evaluate and then refine. Keep up this pattern, with rewards for each step of the way on your path to success.
Tip #4: Success can be for anyone. Get out of your head that the successful are gifted or that they were handed their success on a silver platter. If that were the case, they really haven’t achieved success. Success takes work, perseverance, and determination. It doesn’t matter your education, height, knowledge or other factors. It can be for anyone that wants it bad enough.
Tip #5: Success is all about mindset. Know that you can, and you will achieve your goal. Visualize your goal, and you will be even closer. You will remain on the path and you will achieve your success. Be positive and remain on the path to success!
When you see “If Success was Easy, Everyone Would do it,” you may think that it’s too hard to achieve and you might just give up. Follow every tip given here, focus on your end result and you will enjoy success!
Photo: Courtesy Modernage Photo Services, NYC. © 2007 Barbara H. Hillary, all rights reserved.
Barbara Hillary (born June 12, 1931) was the first known African-American woman to reach the North Pole, which she did at the age of 75 in 2007.
After retiring as a nurse, Hillary became fascinated with arctic travel. She found new challenges learning snowmobiling and dog sledding in the United States and Canada. During this time she became aware that no African-American woman had reached the North Pole. On April 23, 2007, after overcoming many obstacles Hillary reached the North Pole.
Barbara is a graduate of the New School University and earned Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Professional Studies Degrees. As a Gerontology major, Hillary utilized her education to tailor staff development in nursing homes and related facilities to meet the current expectations of the aging population. This approach included a strong emphasis concerning sensitizing the staff to their own aging process, as deliverers of human services to the elderly. source wiki click for more info
by Brett Blumenthal – Sheer Balance, on Wed May 13, 2009 8:01am PDT
Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.
Maybe you are a positive person, but when you are around a certain individual, you feel negative. Or, maybe you have an idealistic view of the world and when you are with certain people, you are made to feel silly, unrealistic or delusional. Or, maybe you pride yourself in being completely independent and in control of your life, but when you are around a certain family member, you regress into a state of childhood.
Some of these situations, and yes, these people, can have a tremendously negative impact on our lives. And, although we are all human and have our ‘issues,’ some ‘issues’ are quite frankly, toxic. They are toxic to our happiness. They are toxic to our mental outlook. They are toxic to our self-esteem. And they are toxic to our lives. They can suck the life out of us and even shorten our lifespan.
Here are the worst of the toxic personalities out there and how to spot them:
1. Manipulative Mary: These individuals are experts at manipulation tactics. Is a matter of fact, you may not even realize you have been manipulated until it is too late. These individuals figure out what your ‘buttons’ are, and push them to get what they want.
· Why they are toxic: These people have a way of eating away at your belief system and self-esteem. They find ways to make you do things that you don’t necessarily want to do and before you know it, you lose your sense of identity, your personal priorities and your ability to see the reality of the situation. The world all of a sudden becomes centered around their needs and their priorities.
2. Narcissistic Nancy: These people have an extreme sense of self-importance and believe that the world revolves around them. They are often not as sly as the Manipulative Marys of the world, but instead, tend to be a bit overt about getting their needs met. You often want to say to them “It isn’t always about you.”
· Why they are toxic: They are solely focused on their needs, leaving your needs in the dust. You are left disappointed and unfulfilled. Further, they zap your energy by getting you to focus so much on them, that you have nothing left for yourself.
3. Debbie Downers: These people can’t appreciate the positive in life. If you tell them that it is a beautiful day, they will tell you about the impending dreary forecast. If you tell them you aced a mid-term, they’ll tell you about how difficult the final is going to be.
· Why they are toxic: They take the joy out of everything. Your rosy outlook on life continues to get squashed with negativity. Before you know it, their negativity consumes you and you start looking at things with gray colored glasses yourself.
4. Judgmental Jims: When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people’s unique perspectives refreshing, they find them ‘wrong’. If you like someone’s eclectic taste, they find it ‘disturbing’ or ‘bad’.
· Why they are toxic: Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.
5. Dream Killing Keiths: Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can’t do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.
· Why they are toxic: These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.
6. Insincere Illissas: You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a ‘there, there’ type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.
· Why they are toxic: People who aren’t sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won’t be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.
7. Disrespectful Dannys: These people will say or do things at the most inappropriate times and in the most inappropriate ways. In essence, they are more subtle, grown up bullies. Maybe this person is a friend who you confided in and uses your secret against you. Maybe it is a family member who puts their busy-body nose into your affairs when it is none of their business. Or maybe, it is a colleague who says demeaning things to you.
· Why they are toxic: These people have no sense of boundaries and don’t respect your feelings or, for that matter, your privacy. These people will cause you to feel frustrated and disrespected.
8. Never Enough Nellies: You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.
· Why they are toxic: You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.
All of these personalities have several things in common. 1) the more these people get away with their behavior, the more they will continue. 2) Unfortunately, most of these people don’t see that what they do is wrong and as a result, talking to them about it will fall on deaf ears, leaving you wondering if you are the crazy one. 3) Most of these people get worse with age, making their impact on you stronger with time.
Frankly, life is too short to spend your time dealing with toxicity. If you can, avoid spending mucho time with people who are indicative of these behaviors and you’ll feel a lot happier. Have you encountered these personalities? What have you done? Any personalities you would add?
I can’t say enough how important it is to support films like Pressure Cooker. See drag me to Hell next week, support a movie with a conscious this weekend
Unorthodox Culinary Arts teacher Mrs. Stephenson is a tyrant known throughout her Philly public high school for her hoarse rebukes of her students’ creations. She may be disarmingly blunt, but she cares about the final product. Last year, 11 of her seniors totaled $750,000 in scholarships to top culinary schools across the nation. Here, we follow three of Stephenson’s dedicated inner-city kids with circumstances stacked against them whose best hope for the future depends on the perfect results.
From Think Simple Now
Photo by Children At Risk Foundation
“A positive mental attitude is the starting point of all riches,
whether they be riches of a material nature or intangible riches.“
- Napoleon Hill
Okay, so there’s no myth that I am a positive person, or at least striving to be one. However, I am aware that I’m not positive all the time. I am continuously working to become conscientious of my choices, thoughts and reactions. I frequently get asked about positive thinking, and I wanted to first clear up some points of confusion.
Positive people are not living like Pollyanna in some dream world with no hold on reality. Positive people may have an attitude like Pollyanna, but they are not necessarily unrealistic. Positive person are very capable of understanding the reality of a cynic. They just change their mindset to see the reality from a different perspective.
With so many myths about positive mental attitude (PMA), it’s important to separate the truth from the fiction. Let’s explore some of these myths and dive into the truths behind them.
Have you ever heard a negative person say that they aren’t negative; they’re just being ‘realistic’? This myth keeps people locked in a negative reality of their own creation.
A person’s thoughts, whether positive or negative, do have an effect on their environment. If you think negatively, your mind will automatically seek out confirmation that the world is a terrible place. Seeing is believing, and your mind reinforces your belief that reality is negative. See how it’s a downward spiral of negativity? If you expect negative results, you are less likely to take risks and try new things. Negative thinking masks your impressions in fear.
Positive thinking works the same way. With a positive mental attitude, you’ll seek out positive choices and expect positive results. This helps you move past fear and try things that others may believe “can’t be done”. This typically end in positive results.
A person’s thinking helps determine their reality. Negative thinking is realistic for the negative thinker, but only because their thoughts make it true. Ironically, the positive thinking also sees reality, just in a different light. Both types of people see their own reality, and both consider it the reality.
Those who don’t believe in positive thinking imagine that positive thinkers expect that their desire will manifest itself if they simply think positively about it. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Everyone who accomplishes anything – whether it’s earning a million dollars or becoming an award-winning actor – accomplish it the same way: by taking action. Positive people have an edge because they believe the object of their desire is attainable. They come from a ‘can-do’ mindset. Their actions are not based on fear or scarcity, but based on possibilities. Thus, a positive attitude helps a person manifest their desires, not simply by dreaming about it, but by inspiring the person to take action.
“It’s the action behind the attraction that makes the dream come true.“
People who believe this myth see a problem and believe that positive thinking will only ignore the ugliness of their reality. The truth is positive thinking doesn’t ignore the problem; it helps you see the problem in a new light. In fact, you don’t even see ‘problems’ as problems. Think about it; regardless of how you react to an external situation, the situation will still be the same. If being upset doesn’t change the outcome of a past situation, wouldn’t it serve you, and your health, to see the positives?
A positive mental attitude creates a mindset of abundance, enthusiasm, and solutions. Instead of thinking about what can’t be done, a positive thinker will not be constrained by ‘can’ and ‘cannot.’ A positive thinker is free to think of new ways to solve problems because they are not limited by fear of failure. When we are in a state of abundance, we provide a fertile ground for possibilities and making dreams a reality. We are in a state of allowance, openly accepting the gifts of life to flow to us. When I realized this principle and shifted my thinking habits, miracles started popping up in my life.
A positive mental attitude can – and indeed does – change reality by allowing a person to act in an entirely different way, thus harvesting entirely different results.
“Successful men become successful only because
they acquire the habit of thinking in terms of success.“
- Napoleon Hill
It’s easy to believe that people with a positive mental attitude have perfect lives and never dealt with real world hardships. Maybe people wouldn’t be so positive if they’d endured a few difficult times in their lives. But the truth is that this is really just a justification for negative thinking.
I don’t know a positive person who hasn’t had real and serious trials in their lives. They’ve faced disappointment, death of loved ones, physical handicap, and pretty much the range of human experiences we all deal with. The difference is that these people didn’t let those experiences change their outlook. A positive mental attitude means that you are in control of your own thoughts and feelings.
“Responsibilities = our abilities to control our responses.”
- paraphrasing Steven Covey
Every person has sorrows and trials that test them to the core, but only some people have the courage to act positively and with grace. A positive mental attitude doesn’t mean a person has sidestepped a hard life. It simply means they choose to see and take part in the good things life has to offer, as opposed to only the negative.
In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl an extraordinary Holocaust survivor talks about finding happiness and purpose while in a Nazi concentration camp. In his book, he argues that “we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.“
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and freedom.“
- Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Okay, let’s admit it, some types of positive people are a little cheesy. We’re talking about the kind who spout platitudes and expect everything to be perfect no matter what. But truly positive people aren’t Tony Robbins infomercials. Positive people have real thoughts and have setbacks and discouragement just like everyone else, but they are also resilient and look for ways to stay positive. And that’s not cheesy, it’s just healthy thinking! And smart living!
Truly positive people do not expect perfection, but rather, they expect that every event is the best thing that could have happened in that moment. It is the only event that happened in that moment. Now that you’re considering the event, that moment has past. You cannot go back and change the moment, so you have to accept what happened was the best, and move on to the next moment.
Even in external circumstances that seem out of our control, we can always control is our internal response. In fact, it’s the only thing we have absolute control over.
Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, a dancer … Telling stories from her own education and from her time in space, she calls on educators to teach both the arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one — to create bold thinker
In 1992, Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman to go into space. She’s become a crusader for science education — and for a new vision of learning that combines arts and sciences,… Full bio and more links
In this vintage clip Malcolm holds his own, what amazes me is how he so comfortably responds to the barrage of questions without letting them get under his skin
the epitome of cool
