Like being the pilot of a large airplane, you have, at your command, massive unseen resources and your small actions result in big improvements -- keep taking those small actions!
Where there is movement, there is improvement.
Rise above the mediocrity.
There is no such thing as an insignificant improvement.
To change rules that are already in place takes time, energy, perseverance and a lot of hard work. You only have so many of these assets at your disposal, so choose with care the rules you want to change.
SETH said: The job of trying to make the world a better place seems impossible, for it appears that you have no power, and any small private beneficial action that you can take seems so puny in contrast to this generalized idea that you dismiss them sardonically, and so you do not try to use your power constructively. You do not begin with your own life, with your own job, or with your own associates. What difference can it make to the world if you are a better salesperson, or plumber, or office worker, or car salesman, for Christs sake? What can one person do? Yet that is precisely where first of all you must begin to exert yourself. There, on your jobs and in your associations, are the places where you intersect with the world. Your impulses directly effect the world in those relationshps. Many of you are convinced that you are not important and while [each of] you feels that way it will seem that your actions have no effect upon the world. You will purposefully keep your ideals generalized, thus saving yourself from the necessity of acting upon them in the one way open to you; by trusting yourself anad your impulses, and impressing those that you meet in daily life with the full validity that is your own.
My friend, saying that you don't have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying you don't have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving. Eventually it will catch up with you."
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.
Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.
How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world?
Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of very part of your life.
Everything is perfect in the universe -- even your desire to improve it.
The ''Inside-Out'' approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self -- with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Marriage is a relationship based in no small part on virtues. The most basic of these is responsibility, for marriage is an arrangement held together by mutual dependence and reciprocal obligations. But successful marriages are about more than fulfilling the conditions of a contract. In good marriages, men and women seek to improve themselves for the sake of their loved one. They offer and draw moral strength by sharing compassion, courage, honesty, self-discipline and a host of other virtues. Husband and wives complete themselves through each other, and the whole of the union becomes stronger and more wonderful than the sum of the two parts.
Junk is the ultimate merchandise. The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise, he degrades and simplifies the client.
It is July 15, 1903. Cockran is speaking to the Liberal Club in London, England, and "liberal" at the turn of the century means what "conservative" means today - freedom. Your free trade system makes the whole industrial life of the world one vast scheme of cooperation for your benefit. At this moment, in every quarter of the globe, forces are at work to supply your necessities and improve your condition. As I speak, men are tending flocks on Australian fields and shearing wool which will clothe you during the coming winter. On western lands, men are reaping grain to supply your daily bread. In mines deep underground, men are swinging pickaxes and shovels to wrest from the bosom of the Earth the ores essential to the efficiency of your industry. Under tropical skies, hands are gathering, from bending boughs, luscious fruits which in a few days will be offered for your consumption in the streets of London. Over shining rails, locomotives are drawing trains, on heaving surges, sailors are piloting barks, through arid deserts Arabs are guiding caravans, all charged with the fruits of industry to be placed here freely at your feet. You alone, among all the peoples of the Earth, encourage this gracious tribute and enjoy its full benefit, for here alone it is received freely, without imposition, restriction or tax, while everywhere else, barriers are raised against it by stupidity and folly.
If the world were extremely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.
The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionaries are philosophers and saints.
The Dead-Beat He dropped, - more sullenly than wearily, Lay stupid like a cod, heavy like meat, And none of us could kick him to his feet; -Just blinked at my revolver, blearily; -Didn't appear to know a war was on, Or see the blasted trench at which he stared. 'I'll do 'em in,' he whined, 'if this hand's spared, I'll murder them, I will.' A low voice said, 'It's Blighty, p'raps, he sees; his pluck's all gone, Dreaming of all the valiant, that aren't dead: Bold uncles, smiling ministerially; Maybe his brave young wife, getting her fun In some new home, improved materially. It's not these stiffs have crazed him; nor the Hun.' We sent him down at last, out of the way. Unwounded; - stout lad, too, before that strafe. Malingering? Stretcher-bearers winked, 'Not half!' Next day I heard the Doc.'s well-whiskied laugh: 'That scum you sent last night soon died. Hooray!'
Heat and animosity, contest and conflict may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.
Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves
If we could know Which of us, beloved, would be first to go, Who would be first to break the swelling tide, And step alone upon the other side- If we could know! If it were you, Should I walk softly, keeping death in view? Should I my love to you more oft express? Or should I grieve you, beloved, any less- If it were you! If it were I, Should I improve the moments slipping by! Should I more closely follow God's great plan, Be filled with sweeter charity to man- If it were I! If we could know! We cannot, beloved, end 'tis better so. I should forget, just as I do today, And walk along the same old stumbling way lf I could know. I would not know Which of us, beloved, will be the first to go, I only wish the space may not be long Between the parting and the greeting song; But when, or where, or how we're called to go - I would not know.
There's always room for improvement; It's the biggest room in the house.
Successful Problem Solving: 1. Identify the problem. 2. Gather data. 3. Test possible solutions. 4. Select best possible solution. 5. Put solution into action. 6. Monitor and improve on it.
