Ray’s Daily
December 10, 2021
Plant your garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
Jose Luis Borges
After all the life we want is up to us. It is the things we do that determines how how good our life becomes. I know that in my case happiness comes from the quality of my day to day efforts.
Today I offer you the following abridged ways to a more rewarding existence.
Rules for a better way to live
Rule One . . . – Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you … with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.
Rule Two . . . for a better way to live – Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do.
Rule Three . . . – Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don’t look back at it too long. Mistakes are life’s way of teaching you. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth.
Rule Four . . . – Always reward your long hours of labour and toil in the very best way, surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children.
Rule Five . . . – Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Never consider yourself defeated again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life’s blueprint. Smile!
Rule Six . . . -Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress.
Rule Seven . . . – While life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success.
Rule Eight . . . – Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!
Rule Nine . . . – Live this day as if it will be your last. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. All you have. Make it the best day of your year.
Rule Ten . . . – Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
Rule Eleven . . . – Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.
Rule Twelve . . . – Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.
Rule Thirteen . . . – Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self- starter. Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.
Rule Fourteen . . . – You will achieve a grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day — not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow.
Rule Fifteen . . . – Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it.
Rule Sixteen . . . – Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valley you must traverse. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.
Rule Seventeen . . . – Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug.
Written by Og Mandino
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Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each is to succeed.
Corita Kent
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A friend of mine was lecturing in Latin America. He was going to use a translator, but to identify with his audience, he wanted to begin his talk by saying in Spanish, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.”
He arrived at the auditorium a little early and realized he did not know the Spanish words for ladies and gentlemen. Being rather resourceful, he went to the part of the building where the restrooms were, looked at the signs on the two doors and memorized those two words.
When the audience arrived and he was introduced, he stood up and said in Spanish, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.”
The audience was shocked. He didn’t know whether he had offended them or perhaps, they hadn’t heard him or understood him. So, he decided to repeat it. Again in Spanish, he said, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.”
One person in the audience began to snicker. Pretty soon the entire audience was laughing. Finally, someone told him that he had said, “Good evening, bathrooms and broom closets!”
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The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you’re not in shape for it, it’s too far to walk back.
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I learned a lesson in marketing from a man who bought an old boat, a trailer and a motor from me.
“Thanks,” he said as he loaded them up. “I’m planning to resell them.”
Good luck, I thought. I had been trying to get rid of them for months. But when I ran into him a few weeks later, he’d sold everything.
“How did you manage that”? I marveled.
“I took out an ad: ‘Heavy-duty boat trailer with free boat.’ When the buyer came to get it, I asked if he had a motor. He said no. I told him I happened to have one in my garage. Bought that, too!”
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“It’s the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn’t know — and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything.”
Joyce Cary
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What Not To Say To A Cop
1. I can’t reach my license unless you hold my beer.
2. Sorry, I didn’t realize my radar detector wasn’t on.
3. Aren’t you the guy from the Village People?
4. Hey, you must have been going 125 mph just to keep up with me!
5. I thought you had to be in good physical condition to be a cop.
6. Bad cop! No donut!
7. You’re gonna check the trunk, aren’t you?
8. I was going to be a cop, really, but I decided to finish high school instead.
9. I pay your salary.
10. That’s terrific, the last guy only gave me a warning also.
11. Is that a 9mm? It’s nothing compared to this .44 magnum!
12. What do you mean, have I been drinking? You’re a trained specialist?
13. Do you know why you pulled me over? Good, at least one of us does.
14. That gut doesn’t inspire too much confidence; bet I can outrun you.
15. Didn’t I see you get your butt kicked on Cops?
16. Is it true people become cops because they’re too dumb to work at McDonald’s?
17. I was trying to keep up with traffic.
18. Yes, I know there are no other cars around–That’s how far they are ahead of me.
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The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.
Unknown
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A woman went into a bank to get a check cashed, but she didn’t have an account with them. When the teller asked for some identification, the woman showed her several charge cards, her social security card and a current library card.
The teller told her they needed a driver’s license, but the woman said she didn’t have one.
“Don’t you have anything with your picture on it?” the teller asked, politely.
“Oh, sure,” she said, as she flipped to a family photo in her wallet.
Pointing to the people in the picture she says proudly,
“See right here….that’ s me in the back row.”
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Nobody can be just like me. Even I have trouble.
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A minister in a little church had been having trouble with the collections.
One Sunday he announced, “Now, before we pass the collection plate, I would like to request that the person who stole the chickens from Farmer Condill’s henhouse please refrain from giving any money to the Lord. The Lord doesn’t want money from a thief!”
The collection plate was passed around, and for the first time in months everybody gave.
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You choose the life you live. If you don’t like it, it’s on you to change it because no one else is going to do it for you.
Kim Kiyosaki
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Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than twenty years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@comcast.net. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are hundreds of readers from around the world.
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