Thought of the day

[Randy]

Please feel free to share your favorites with us.

"Self-pity is an emotion reserved for quitters"

Randy

[Anne I Smith]

Randy said:

Tom:

You got it. "Thinking" about doing something and actually "doing" it are not the same. Make things happen! Plan your work and then work your plan.

My father-in law is a do-er. He often chastised my indecision early in my career by saying "Do something, even if it's wrong!"

Along those same lines, my dad used to tell me that "You only have to be right 51% of the time to be considered successful."

Mistakes happen. Learn from them. Do not suffer from "analysis paralysis". Do it! You can make it happen!

So the answer to the riddle is that there is no right answer. From the data provided you cannot tell how many birds, if any, flew south.

Keep pedaling. Don't unclip.

And don't be afrait to fall a few times.

Randy

[Anne I Smith]

Anne I Smith said:

Randy said:

Oh Randy, I have so very much to learn from you and all of your wisdom.

Tom:

You got it. "Thinking" about doing something and actually "doing" it are not the same. Make things happen! Plan your work and then work your plan.

My father-in law is a do-er. He often chastised my indecision early in my career by saying "Do something, even if it's wrong!"

Along those same lines, my dad used to tell me that "You only have to be right 51% of the time to be considered successful."

Mistakes happen. Learn from them. Do not suffer from "analysis paralysis". Do it! You can make it happen!

So the answer to the riddle is that there is no right answer. From the data provided you cannot tell how many birds, if any, flew south.

Keep pedaling. Don't unclip.

And don't be afrait to fall a few times.

Randy

[Lorrie Price]

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
Joan Didion


One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.
Aristotle.

Good Day everyone. We are having a blessed week.

[Randy]

Lorrie:

That is the best news I have heard all week! Hope Randal continues his streak of good days.

I love your quotes! Please send many more.

All the best,

Randy

[Randy]

A long one, but one of my favorites from Teddy Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

If you have visited my page, you have already seen this quote. It meant so much to me, it was hanging in my pits at the 2008 World 24-Hour MTB Solo Championships to help me keep going.

Dare greatly, and dare to be great!

[Randy]

Another:

"Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up"

Chinese proverb.

[Tom Gakes]

Hi Randy,

It's not about how many times you're wrong or right. It's about being right at the right moments. And it's not about percentages either. If you try more, you will be wrong more often. But if you don't try, you will never be right!

I don't think I made this up myself, but don't know who I got it from either. Maybe I did make it up myself.

Tom

Randy said:

Tom:

You got it. "Thinking" about doing something and actually "doing" it are not the same. Make things happen! Plan your work and then work your plan.

My father-in law is a do-er. He often chastised my indecision early in my career by saying "Do something, even if it's wrong!"

Along those same lines, my dad used to tell me that "You only have to be right 51% of the time to be considered successful."

Mistakes happen. Learn from them. Do not suffer from "analysis paralysis". Do it! You can make it happen!

So the answer to the riddle is that there is no right answer. From the data provided you cannot tell how many birds, if any, flew south.

Keep pedaling. Don't unclip.

And don't be afrait to fall a few times.

Randy

[Randy]

I like it, Tom! As a basketball coach, I used to tell my less aggressive players that "you miss 100% of the shots that you do not take." Kind of the same message as yours.

As always, thanks for the feedback!

Randy

Tom Gakes said:

Hi Randy,

It's not about how many times you're wrong or right. It's about being right at the right moments. And it's not about percentages either. If you try more, you will be wrong more often. But if you don't try, you will never be right!

I don't think I made this up myself, but don't know who I got it from either. Maybe I did make it up myself.

Tom

[Lorrie Price]

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.
Elenor Roosevelt

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hope Everyone Has A Great Weekend

[Tom Gakes]

Here's one I saw on an advertisement poster a couple of years ago.

If you want to get nowhere, follow the crowd.

I think it says you should do things your own way. If you do everything the way other people do it, you will never be better than them. If you do things your own way, you might find out it doesn't work. Too bad. You might just as well find out it does work (at least for you). Then you're a step ahead of the others!

Tom

[Randy]

Thanks Lorrie and Tom for the inspirational and thought-provoking quotes.

And to you all, particularly Randal and family, enjoy the weekend also!

Randy

[Randy]

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

I heard this quote for the first time on an NBC documentary about the Race Across America (RAAM). Narrator Jim Lampley opened the story with the Twain quote. The story captivated me so much that I set doing RAAM in the "solo" category as a personal goal. But first you have to qualify.

I have probably watched this documentary about RAAM over 50 times.

In 2005, I did one of the RAAM qualifying events, the Furnace Creek 508 (www.the508.com). This race starts in Santa Clarita (just north of Los Angeles), winds its way northeast through Townes Pass into Death Valley, through Baker, and finishes in Twentynine Palms CA. In total, about 35,000 feet of climbing over the 513 mile route through the Mojave Desert. Participants have 48 hours to complete the course. While I did not do well enough to qualify for RAAM, I finished the course in 37 hours (40 hours was my goal). I slept for only 15 minutes. It was a very spiritual event. I trained hard for that one.

This quote was shared with me recently. It came in an e-mail from Valerie W., a close personal friend who I had dinner with in GA this past week.

Thanks, Val.

Randy