A Pig With A Pink Ribbon Is Still A Pig

It's what they are.  

You can wash a pig and spray him with perfume and he's still a pig. You can put a pink ribbon around it and dress it in a pretty pig dress. They look good. They smell good. They look transformed! But let them outside and they will happily run straight to the nearest mud puddle they can find. Why? It’s their NATURE.

 

People with character issues will always disappoint you. 

Never put them in a position of responsibility unless you can keep a close eye on them. People can change but they really have want to and it won’t happen all at once. It’s great to give people a second chance but you better keep your eye on them.

Don’t put them in a position where their weakness can drag them and you down. You may think they are grateful and appreciative. They may even tell you they are, but what they are thinking is that they got away with it. They are thinking you are someone they can control and manipulate with excuses.

 

Don’t try to analyze or reason with them like you would a person you can trust.

The reason is, they don’t think like you do. You can’t really understand how they think and they aren’t even trying to understand how you think. They have their own agenda. They don’t understand give and take. They aren’t interested in fairness. They aren’t capable of considering what’s best for you. They’ll always cut any corners they can to give themselves and advantage. Trying to reason with them is futile. They don’t need you, they need professional help. But guess what? They don’t want help. 

 

If you doubt that, think about this.

One of the characteristics of people with character issues is that they live in denial. They don't take responsibility. They don't feel like they need to change. They are looking for ways to get ahead without working, without earning it. They see things you have and decide they need to have them. Why not? You have plenty.

If you catch them in a lie they will, on the spot, come up with another plausible sounding lie to cover up the first. I’ve always been amazed at the ability of people like this to effortlessly spin another bigger lie or rationalization whenever they are challenged. It’s at moments like this you realize you are dealing with someone who is not like you…AT ALL. Not only can they make up one lie after another, they seem to have the ability to believe it as truth as soon as they say it.  

That’s why if you insist on keeping them around you must keep your eye on them.  
Don't let their weakness hurt you. Sure it's great to give people a chance, but why put them in a position where they likely to fail? It's not fair to them, it's not fair to you.

Pay attention to character. You can’t let yourself be lulled to sleep by appearances. They may make an effort to look, talk and act better. They may make a great effort to act like they have changed. But stay alert. Any change will take a long, long time and they will probably have many relapses along the way. They may look pretty on the outside, but it’s what’s inside, their character that controls their actions. 

If they are rotten inside, they’ll act rotten because they can’t help it, it’s their nature. A pig is a pig is a pig - whether it's wearing a pink ribbon or not.

How to handle Problems Like a Pro

The 90/10 Rule

Since nothing is perfect in life, it helps to have a philosophy about how to look at problems. You aren’t going to be able to get away from problems so why not get a philosophy that allows you to absorb them and keep moving, staying in a happy, balanced and positive frame of mind. Let’s analyze the issue.

 

Perspective - 90% goes well

If you think about things in life you'll find that nine times out of ten or 90 percent of the time most things turn out okay, but 10 percent of the time things go haywire. It’s important to realize you don’t have to fall apart when they do and you don’t have to let it ruin your day. 

 

The problem 10%

I’m sure you’ve had experiences like this. A particular situation goes bad, then for some reason it seems like everything you do to fix it just makes it worse. Nothing seems to help, everything you do makes it worse and it soon becomes obvious that there's going to be no way of fixing it. Life isn’t perfect. Not everything turns out well and some problems just seem to refuse to be fixed. Of course you should do everything you can to correct it but if you can't fix it, you can't fix it.

Breaking down the 10% - Half of it’s your fault

If you analyze the 10% you'll usually discover that about 5% or half of the time what goes wrong is your fault. You can’t escape the blame. You messed up, but on the other hand it’s only 1 out 20 that comes back on you. Apologize or do whatever else you can to make it better. Then move on. 

 

The other 5% is somebody else's fault.

It might be caused by some institution, some situation outside of your control or another person. That 5% is it's somebody else's fault but the result is the same, it’s still a problem that impacts you. They messed up, you get hurt. If you are expecting perfection, justice and fairness out of life you have a real opportunity to get really upset. It’s not fair! You’re outraged! So what. It doesn’t help the situation.

 

Your choice

It’s a matter of what is more profitable for you to focus on, the 90% that goes well or the 10% problems. 

It’s a simple choice.  If something's gone wrong and it's not going to turn out right, you can either make yourself miserable spending your life focusing on it or instead focus on the other 9 things that went well.

 

Consider air travel...

If you fly a lot, one time out of ten you're probably going to have a bad flight, it’s unavoidable. Nine times out of ten it will probably go smoothly but eventually you’ll get one that goes bad. There will be a delay, bad weather, mechanical problem, or something else. You’ll be late, sit on the runway or even have a cancelled flight. It’s infuriating, it ruins your plans and sets off a domino effect of other problems. So what are you going to do? You can rant and rave all you want but it won’t change anything except increase your stress levels. However, if you step back and look on it with perspective, you’ll realize this was only once out of 10 flights and just decide it’s basically a price you pay for flying and shrug the annoyance off. Of course, sometimes you can have problems with several bad flights in a row, but over the long haul it evens out. 

When problems come, remember the 90/10 Rule, it will save you a lot of stress!

7 Keys to Avoiding the Winner’s Trap

Mediocrity sneaks up on the unsuspecting winner by flooding them with new opportunities. 

The unaware winners get distracted just enough, just slightly, from doing the things that got them to the top. They lose what would seem to others an imperceptible amount of their intensity and focus. But the line between winning and losing is very fine. Before they realize it, they have lost their winning edge and they slump.

Here are 7 tips that can help you avoid the deadly trap:

1. Realize that your life has changed now. It will be more complicated from a time standpoint. Before you focused primarily on budgeting your MONEY. Now you will need to focus on budgeting your TIME. So limit distractions. Of course you want to enjoy your success but you can’t do it all. 

2. Make a definite choice to put a priority on preparation. Keep your work time a top priority so you have a chance to stay on top. That’s the goose that lays the golden egg! That’s what will keep you in a position to continuing enjoying things. Make sure NOTHING interferes with your ability to continue to WORK HARD.

3. Ramp up your planning. Eliminate the time wasters so you can absorb many of the new opportunities without disrupting your schedule. Everyone has fat in their schedule. Take charge of it like never before. Not every activity is critical. Work to find ways to get the most out of your schedule. Things that take an hour can probably get done in 30 or 45 minutes. Many of the things that you always did in the past can probably delegated to others. 

4. Get better at saying NO. Realize you can’t do it all. Life is all about choices. Think about what is really important and weed out the unimportant. Don’t just keep doing the same things because you have always done them. Move on so you can move up.

5. Be disciplined like never before. Realize the penalty for getting off track is losing your focus is that you will get beat and your victory will be short lived. Don’t allow yourself to get sloppy with your time. Your success has given you the chance to add a bunch of things you want to do to your already large number of things you HAVE to do to keep winning. Don’t apologize for being disciplined and organized and don’t let others tempt you into relaxing your commitment. They are not your friends. 

6. Work SMARTER. Use the lessons you learned on the way up to fine tune your training. By winning you learned for yourself what things worked best for you and what things were not as profitable. This way you can get even more results from the time you put in. You may have even moved up to be able to get access to other people—coaches who can give you inside information on life at the top. How to prepare, how to keep your edge, how to continue to improve and how to get things done in less time. 

7. Most Important - Raise your sights and get BIGGER GOALS. Don’t take a chance on losing your hunger. Give yourself a real solid reason to continue driving yourself hard. It’s great to win once but when you continue to win you put yourself much higher category. Realize that its as hard to KEEP winning as it is to win the first time. Accept the challenge to stay on top.

Choose to go after making winning an ALL the time thing and not just a ONE time thing. 

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Related: The Secret of the "Winner's Trap"—How Winners Lose Their Edge

Peace In Your Life - Have you Found It?

It’s a yes or no question.
Either you have or have not found peace.

Only you know and there is no way you can fool yourself forever. The sooner you get settled on what you are looking for in your life, the sooner you can begin to really live - at peace and energized.

It's been said there’s a God-shaped hole inside everyone.
You can try to fill it with many things to satisfy yourself and bring you happiness and peace. 

Some try MATERIAL THINGS
They race around collecting cars, houses, boats, clothes and that old faithful—good old cash. They keep a close eye on their stocks. They always know how the market is doing. They love showing their things off to others. You can tell from their conversation that they never stop thinking about what they just bought or are getting ready to buy.

Others go in the direction of RELATIONSHIPS
They put their focus on family and friends - the more the merrier! They have their entire lives built around doing things for and with their family and friends. They can even get self-righteous about it, telling others over and over that nothing is more important than family with the emphasis on how great their’s is.

Another approach is ACTIVITIES
They love going places, doing things - chasing their “bucket list.” The idea being that the more things they have done, the wider the variety, the more unique they are the greater the enjoyment and satisfaction they will have in life. It’s easy to feel like you have never been anywhere or done anything in your life when you talk to them. Anything you mention, they have been there or done that. Super Bowl, World Series, Hawaii, Europe, cruises, skydiving, bungee jumping…there’s no end.

Another widely popular approach is SELF-DEVELOPMENT.
People furiously chase physical fitness. They pursue education. They are always seeking new knowledge, new levels of personal achievement and new challenges. If you get one degree, then go get another. The idea behind this is that the more you develop yourself the more you will be at peace with yourself. Education is the answer to everything.

I’m not criticizing at all! All of these things are valid activities.
They all can add qualities to your life you would not have any other way. They all add value and enjoyment. They keep you active, stimulated and involved with other people in positive ways. In fact, if you have the interest and ability, these are all things you should do. They’ll expand your life and give you a lot enjoyment and satisfaction.

But many realize the satisfaction from these things is only temporary
If you have pursued  many of these and are still unsettled inside, still looking for real peace, maybe its time to look in another direction. Maybe it’s that God shaped vacuum that hasn’t been filled yet. 

There is another long standing choice.
It's one you should not ignore. Its one you need to evaluate for yourself because this is one area that’s too important to trust to other’s judgement. If you do you’ll understand why for over 2000 years millions of people from all over the world have found that their answer for peace has been found in the Prince of Peace. He’s the one who said…

I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. (John 14:27)

If you haven’t found peace yet, find out about the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you do you’ll learn why only he offers the “peace that passes all understanding."

Stuff From My InBox: Amazing Clouds

Below "Cloud Tsunami" by facebook user JR Hott, Panhadale Helicopters. [See full article]

Last Week's Favorite TWEET, QUOTE and VERSE!

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Is Attitude Always Everything?

And the chorus sings “Attitude is Everything!”

It is said so often that it has become a cliché…Attitude is everything!

But is it really? Yes and no. It’s not everything if you aren’t working.

Don’t kid yourself about your attitude. Just being a happy, positive person isn’t enough. Anyone can be pleasant when they don’t have anything to do or aren’t under any pressure.

A great attitude goes beyond that. 
It means you’re committed to a goal. It means you are willing to face challenges without hesitation. It means you can be counted on. People who have great attitudes are energized and focused. They work hard and they work long. They have a toughness and consistency about them that gives encouragement to those they work with. It shows up when things are going well and when they are going bad. It goes well beyond just being an easy-going, happy guy.

You can have a wonderful attitude but without wonderful activity it's not going to do you much good.