Joseph Smith Jr., Religion
Religion is a powerful part of my life and I would be remiss if I didn’t add this quote that strengthens my faith in Jesus Christ. I firmly believe that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary to overcome some of the more difficult challenges in life. I reflect on how my faith has helped me to grow and change for the better.
Reading about the ministry of Jesus Christ and studying material that enhances my knowledge of His good works and character allow me to use His good example as a mirror and measuring stick to evaluate my life against. There is no perfect answer, in this world about religion for each person. We are all different and have different needs and expectations from religion. I hope you have a strong faith in Jesus, or Allah, or Budda … a faith that builds you up and makes you stronger.
iron wil
Gordon B. Hinckley, Where You Serve
Gordon Hinckley is a man whose life has been a model for me. While I mostly knew of him, by studying his biography and reading other material that he wrote, this quote truly is a reflection of the way he lived.
In my own life, I have tried to implement this thought, to put every effort into doing a good job no matter what the job. It isn’t always easy to do so and often it is worth the effort. Unfortunately depending on my work environment, the effort was only worth it to me or my team. Those around us in the organization didn’t appreciate the time, effort, and energy (of thought and research) to complete the job. Serve with honor.
iron wil
David O. McKay, What You Think
I don’t remember where I came across this quote, I do remember that it caught me by surprise and really make me think about what I spend time thinking about. I made me evaluate and then focus on what I wanted to think about. I used it as a catalyst for personal change. Causing me to lift my thoughts and then my actions. While I am not a Dali Lama, the master of a martial art, nor the master of a violin; I am the master of myself. I command my actions and behaviors and I control my anger.
I still work at controlling my thoughts because I know that they will become my actions. That my actions will become my behavior and that my behavior will become my character. Then my character will determine my destiny. And as a Christian, I would like to return home to my God.
iron wil
Confucius, Our Greatest Glory
I found this quote when I was struggling with my personal life and this quote helped me to realize that to overcome those challenges; I would have to get back up and try again. This is a common theme throughout Self-Help literature, Sports movies, and even Star Wars.
The proof is in the pudding as the saying goes. Triumph comes as we work hard to make personal improvements and rise from the falls; be they personal, professional, religious, karate, or baseball. Eventually our Everest’s are surmounted and we can see the fruits or our labors. A skill is finally developed, a new song mastered, or a new brush stroke understood.
Whatever, challenges and problems we face in this life working to solve and overcome them is part of the human condition. Lift your head high, put in the effort, and make something of your life. Remember that “the life you envisioned may not be the one you are called to live”. I know that my own life has not gone they way I would have chosen. However, I am happily married to a wonderful woman and we have 3 handsome young men that can turn a bad day in to joy and happiness. My life would not be the wonder and joy that it is without them.
iron wil
Samuel Johnson, Curiosity
Over the past several days, I have been thinking about how to express this quote and what I needed to say to convey my thoughts and feelings about ‘Curiosity’. From an early age, I learned that knowledge is power and can be used in various ways to the benefit or breakdown a persons social standing and relationships. Like many I tried both sides of the fence; I eventually learned that I enjoyed sharing what I know with the right group or selected individuals and that I didn’t like to share with those who just wanted to be my friend or team member because of the information that I possessed. May of you are now thinking of those classroom work groups where one person [the one who finished the homework] sat around while the rest of the group copied the work sheet.
Over time and with the right people, I learned to share and enjoy the feedback and experiences that came along with discussing and thinking with like minded individuals. The concept captured in this quote can be expressed simply – Curiosity = desire to learn. Then to think and evolve oneself through introspection. To seek knowledge and experience to expand your own personal understanding of the universe and world around you. The most difficult aspect is to be open enough to change your views of the world and universe around you when you learn a new truth. Another genius put it this way “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”.
iron wil
New Thinkers to Learn From
Today (2011.08.12), I was listening to Triangulation from TWiT.tv and working on my next quote post when I saw that David Grossman posted a little Follow Friday love on Twitter. I was first surprised and then grateful that he recognized me as someone to follow. You can find more information about David and his company The Grossman Group.
The reason that I posted this comment is 2 fold. 1st, David always has something interesting to share when he posts on Twitter and 2nd, Triangulation is a NetCast of interviews with different leaders, such as:
- Dr. Miguel Nicolelis
- Kevin Kelly
- Gordon Bell
- Chris Anderson
- John “Capn Crunch” Draper
- Cory Doctorow
- Bob Heil
- Stephen Wolfram
- Jeri Ellsworth
- Michael Geist
- Warren Spector
I hope that you find interesting and useful information from both of these sources.
iron wil
John Dillinger, Never Crawl
When I was in my early teens, life was not what I thought it should be. I expect that for many teens this is probably the case; of course I am now 36 years old and have grown up a little. We were living in Maryland on Fort Meade, yes my dad was Army and he was somewhere near 10 years of service. He had just won a court case that allowed him to stay in the Army even though he had Adult on-set Diabetes or Type II Diabetes. I attended all of 7th Grade at MacArthur Middle School and most of 8th Grade. The school was close enough to walk to and that was kinda nice.
When my family first moved to Maryland we lived with friends that my dad had made while working and waiting for the final outcome of his hearings or trial ( I am not sure really what it was). This good family let us move into their home and we lived there for most of the summer … I think. It may have been much less … the amount of time really doesn’t matter much. At this time our family was going through a major test and the outcome was uncertain.
My mother, Mary, and Paul, the friend we had lived with, noticed that I was walking around with my chin down, literally on my chest. Mary approached me with love and concern while Paul decided that I needed to pick my head up and face my challenges and fears. I don’t know if Paul ever knew how much his belief that a person should hold their head high … and his method of motivation really forced me to physically change my behavior. It also help me change my attitude; however, it was not an overnight change.
Sometime after this I found a quote from John Dillinger… it could have come out of the Real Crime books that I started ready at this time in my life. I just don’t remember where I found it. I know that these words coming from a man like him could mean anything. I first took them to mean, fight anyone who would try to make me do something I didn’t want to do. This ended up helping me gain greater belief in myself and caused me to start believing in myself and my abilities. I know you are thinking what skills and abilities does a 12 year old have? That is a good question, next time you are in the presence of one, why don’t you ask them.
Over the many years since then, I have seen the meaning of John’s quote changed to be less outward and more about changing myself to be the man I wanted to become. I still have this quote framed and in my medicine cabinet so that I can see it every morning.
iron wil
About Personal Growth
I am currently reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and I came across these paragraphs tonight.
“There is one further point about the virtues that ought to be noticed. There is a difference between doing some particular just or temperate action and being a just or temperate man. Someone who is not a good tennis player may now and then make a good shot. What you mean by a good player is the man whose eye and muscles and nerves have been so trained by making innumerable good shots that they can now be relied on. They have a certain tone or quality which is there even when he is not playing, just as a mathematician’s mind has a certain habit and outlook which is there even when he is not doing mathematics. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a ‘virtue’.
This distinction is important for the following reason. If we thought only of the particular actions we might encourage three wrong ideas.
(1) We might think that, provided you did the right thing, it did not matter how or why you did it–whether you did it willingly or unwillingly, sulkily or cheerfully, through fear of public opinion or for its own sake. But the truth is that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue,’ and it is this quality or character that really matters. (If the bad tennis player hits very hard, not because he sees that a very hard stroke is required, but because he has lost his temper, his stroke might possibly, by luck, help him to win that particular game; but it will not be helping him to become a reliable player.)
(2) We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.
(3) We might think that the ‘virtues’ were necessary only for this present life–that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here. The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a ‘Heaven’ for them–that is, could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us.”
My point, simply put, is this. We better ourselves, families, communities, and nations by making the changes to improve ourselves. Now, this is not an easy thing to do & it requires years of work to make great improvements.
I have a temper and since the age of 12, I have been working on it. I still blow up, but the frequency of how often I get angry keeps decreasing. I am not perfect, please, don’t think that I am. My wife and family could tell you all about my flaws . . . yet my focus is that each person can change. It has to be over a lifetime.
I once heard a quote that I loved immediately, “beautiful old people are a work or art”.
iron wil
originally published on IronWil.net
Getting Started
This is a new project to combine my favorite quotes and clothing. I love to keep, read, and re-read quotes to build, inspire, and help me focus on my goals.
I don’t know when Quotes started to matter to me. I do remember the first Quote, it is “Never let them make you crawl“, from John Dillinger. Yes, that John Dillinger.
I have to tell you something about myself … during my early teen years I was a pretty troubled young man, I don’t really know what brought it on, I just know that I was fighting a very severe case of depression. It started around 12 or 13 and my parents and one of their friends became very concerned. My beloved mother did everything she could; talking, praying, and generally checking in on me. Our friend decided to take a very military approach …. Needless to say the lesson I learned was that I needed to make up my mind how I wanted my life to turn out. With the combined influence of these 3 wonderful adults, I learned that I needed to get a picture of myself and work towards that image. John’s quote drove home the point that I didn’t need to bow down to others ideas or projections of what or who they thought I was. This quote became a light in a dark place and over time it became my beacon and then sun. Over time, I became more confident and stronger in my belief in who I am and wanted to be.
From this point I started to collect different quotes that spoke to my inner self. “Play … so that you may be serious.“, Anacharsis; “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it!”, Jonathan Winters; “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”, Albert Einstein … for example. I have collected about 100 quotes so far and continue to add more as I find they connect with me.
When my wife and I married, I had 3″x5″ cards sticky tacked to my bedroom wall. I took them down and moved furniture and more to make room for my wife. She took 7 of them and made 4″x6″ framed signs for me to hang in my office. I started to post them on IronWil.net. Then last December I decided that I needed to put them where I could see them again.
Hence QuoteMyT.
ironwil