Lucky To Be Alive

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200 words, alive, bigger purpose, community, compassion, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, family, Fear, humanity, life, Life's like that, lifetime, living in the moment, love, miracle, mission, odds, Relationships, respect, responsibility

I love life because what more is there?

~Anthony Hopkins

Life is the most amazing miracle ever! You and I are pretty lucky just to be alive. The odds of our parents even meeting were 1 in 20,000. The odds that they would stay together long enough to have children were 1 in 2000.

And that’s just your parents, the odds are so much smaller when you consider all the other variables!

We could spend our entire lifetimes just marveling about how our heart pumps blood through our vessels, how our lungs take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, the way our body works to sustain and repair itself and keep us going without any conscious effort on our part.

If you think about it, it is really quite remarkable!

But life is so much more than that. Life is about learning how to love and respect ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbours, our beautiful planet, and all the abundant life that exists on its surface. Life provides us an opportunity to exercise compassion, practice sacrifice, overcome fear and grow in courage and humility.

I do not want to squander my time here. How about you?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

The Odds Infographic

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Admiring another…

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200 words, admiration, deep thoughts, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, family, memories, Relationships, respect, thinking

“When someone you greatly admire and respect appears to be thinking deep thoughts, they are probably thinking about lunch. ” ~ Unattributed

My uncle was recently visiting from Germany and I was telling him that my brother and I used to think that he was the coolest, smartest guy ever!

Seriously, he had the most perfect balance of easy-going, laid back confidence and hipster independent-thinking we had ever encountered in our young lives.

We greatly admired him and certainly wanted to emulate some of his attributes.

He is indeed an intelligent and well-educated man and can easily engage in conversations about most anything.

What’s not to be admired?

There’s nothing wrong with admiring the great qualities of others as long as you recognize that you bring value to the world as well.

You don’t have to be anything more than who you are to make positive contributions today and leave a lasting legacy for future generations.

The next time you find yourself wishing you thought deep thoughts like someone you admire and respect, consider the possibility that they are thinking about the groceries they need to pick up.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Who do you admire and why?

If we both always agree, is one of us not really necessary?

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200 words, common ground, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, differences, integrity, life, listen, love, open-minded, peace, perspective, point of view, respect, tolerance, understanding

Meet regularly with someone who holds vastly different views from you ~ unattributed

OK.

SO THIS ISN’T THE NORM for me, because let’s face it – life is much easier when people agree with me.

And depending on whom I’m speaking with and what the topic is, often I will keep my mouth shut, for fear of hurting the other person’s feelings.

But even I have to admit that there’s value in varying views.

So it’s something that I engage in when the opportunity presents itself.

It’s also something I seek, when I’m stuck in a rut.

And I always learn something from it!

I try to keep the following principles in mind when talking with others who have varying views:

1. Listen to the other person
2. Try to see their point of view
3. Give thoughtful answers to their questions
4. Respectfully share my perspective
5. Avoid personal attacks
6. Discuss new possibilities with an open mind
7. If we can’t achieve #6, agree to disagree

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Reaching common ground takes longer, but often it’s worth it. Can you think of a time when doing so produced better results?

And I’ll try to see them from yours

Making everyone happy – good luck with that

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approval, believe, build, courage, Diana Schwenk, integrity, kindness, love, passion, respect, sincerity, vision

“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time. ” ~ Robert F. Kennedy

I’m going to jump right in there and say that the other 4/5 are against some things some of the time.

We all like approval.

We all want to be recognized for our…

brilliance

innovation

hard work

kindness

sacrifices.

The problem comes when what we do is primarily motivated by our desire for acceptance.

If this is what drives us, we will be sorely disappointed.

If it’s true that we can’t make everyone happy – or worse yet – nobody at times…

and if our success is measured by getting everyone to agree…

we will be hard-pressed to move forward with anything.

We’ve all heard the story of the miller, his son and the donkey.

Onlookers insisted they ride it, carry it, and walk beside it.

Isn’t it better to do what you love and spend your energy building something you believe in?

Isn’t that what integrity is?

Being the same on the outside as on the inside?

People will be drawn to your passion.

People will be drawn by your sincerity.

Even if you don’t have support and approval from everybody…

you will have their respect.