Determination — Page 28

Monkeying Around

April 2, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Now, there’s Monkeying Around and then there’s MONKEYING AROUND!

The story goes that a group of Scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with a bunch of bananas at the top.

When a monkey would make his way to the top of the ladder to get a banana the rest of the monkeys would get splashed with cold water.

It didn’t take too long for the other four monkeys who weren’t climbing the ladder to beat up the one who attempted to climb for the bananas–even a dumb monkey doesn’t want to get splashed with cold water one time or over and over.

Soon, there were no monkeys attempting to climb the ladder, banana or no banana.

This is where it gets interesting.

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The “Z” in Xylophone

February 26, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Question.

Have you ever felt like the “Z” in Xylophone?

It’s not always a comfortable feeling is it? In fact, most of the time, we try severely hard to feel anything but the “Z” in Xylophone, don’t we?

We don’t like finger pointing, especially when they are pointed our way. Most really like to fly under any radar recognition, even if it means not getting properly identified.

In fact, if we’re really honest, we are doing so much to “FIT IN” we give little or absolutely no thought, to stand out!

Can we re-read THAT, in a slightly different way?

How is it that we spend a huge portion and much of what we define our Life as being, devising ways to FIT IN when we are born to stand out?

CAN WE RE-READ T H A T in a slightly different way?

We are born to be OUTSTANDING people and we are constantly looking for a crowd to slip inside of to be counted. . .at the cost of being COUNTED ON!

Have you ever felt like the “Z” in Xylophone?

Psssst: The next time you feel like that glorious “Z” in Xylophone–PLAY IT!

You are an important NOTE in the Symphony that composes this Universe. Without you, the concert may continue, but continually be incomplete.

STAND OUT!

Risk being OUTSTANDING!

Be the Glorious “Z” you were created to be, now, here, in this moment you’ve been placed.

Be of NOTE!

RE-S O U N D!

Ripple on. . . .

Make Toes, Tap.

Make Fingers, drum across table tops.

Make Hearts, Beat.

Make Mouths, Sing.

Z OUT before you Zzzzzzzzz away!

“

January 31, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Ok, I will unabashedly date myself and ask NOT for forgiveness.

I remember IT all…the Beatles hitting the USA and the Ed Sullivan Show and the Songs. . .my, my, my, all of the great music they wrote, shared and shaped a generation.

Now, before we go too far, I’m not a Beatle-maniac. Like them, Love them, but not adore or idolize them.

And as for all of the vast Trivia, no, by no means am I even remotely astute…but I know a little and actually am unaware of lots.

So, hearing this story this past week as we approach their 50th anniversary of the Sullivan show, was a little enlightening for me, and now, hopefully, you.

It has to do with VISION!

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YOU, Planter of Seeds

January 20, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Well, the countdown has begun, hasn’t it. The teams, the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, for the Super Bowl have now been decided for their ultimate showdown on Sunday, February 2.

Recently what’s been bigger than the game are the Commercials. Millions of dollars per second are charged for select spots.

What was your favorite last year or have they been that quickly forgotten and very soon replaced?

Paul Harvey’s GOD MADE A FARMER ranks up there for me, for not just last year, but many a recent Super Bowl. The Commercial advertises Ram trucks but maybe like me, they could have saved the millions for the real message we received, and still do from the Commercial.

YOU, we, are all Planter of Seeds, aren’t we?

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The Candle Maker’s Pledge

January 3, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Barely 50+ hours into the New Year. How’s it going?

Wait. . .Did you expect Resolutions Made = Resolutions Accomplished? It’ll take just a little bit more time, commitment and persistence.

Would it be alright if we took a Lesson from my book, The Candle Maker? For the next 28 days in the morning, afternoon and evening would you recite, out loud the Candle Maker’s Pledge?

Give this a try. You only need 95 seconds, three times a day; 4 minutes and five seconds total.

REPEAT:

With unlimited wick and wax, burnout is burnt out. . .so I will remain perpetual. I am not tired or tiring. I am potent and energizing. YES! I am extremely happy and joyous.

My face only know the contentment of a smile. My lips only know how to curve upwards. My nose only smells the fragrance of sweet success. My eyes only search out and expect to see good things.

I cannot be defeated today. I cannot be be let down or disappointed. It is utterly impossible for me to be all used up in this day no matter what happens to me or how often it happens. I am a cup that cannot be emptied, only over and ever flowing!

I intimately know the Candle Maker. I am privileged enough to be always where he stores wax and wick.

I can forever this day, burn profusely at both ends and especially in the middle of the candle without interruption or sputter because I am never without perpetual amounts of wax and wick.

Though others around me will tire and grow weary, I will only get stronger, brighter, more steady and intense as the day lightens into dusk, then a darkness for me to illuminate.

This day, I can neither be snuffed out or burnt up. I am already eternal. I will insure my immortality this day, and all others I am gifted to receive by glowing, guiding, and giving endlessly.

I will burn. YES! Give Light. YES! Provide warmth and all through the day and long into the darkening night. I will leave nothing that the day or night can offer. I have been supplied mightily. My wax and wick have no end. Because the source is so close, so all giving, and in so many locations, I am no match to any darkness this day or ever.

YES! My wax and wick are ceaseless and darkness knows me not!

Don’t Resolve. . .C O M M I T to the Candle Maker’s pledge for the next 28 days, 4 minutes a day.

You just may get a little bit brighter, warmer, illuminated and enlightened. . .and definitely not dimmer!

Resolve NOT to Resolve

January 1, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Well, do you or don’t you?

I don’t!

I’m not a list maker to begin with. . .my sticky notes never stay stuck, and if they do, it’s usually something I didn’t intend them to get stuck to and they end up getting lost, forgotten, well–you get the picture.

I adamantly Resolve N O T to Resolve!

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L I G H T: Is Always In Season

December 6, 2013 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

The Season of Lights. . .does it ever end?

Maybe the real question is: DO YOU LET IT?

Light is always in Season…no Season exists without it.

Let’s prove it. Do YOU a favor. For the next 30 days, three times a day, once in the morning, afternoon and then before bed, repeat the following from, The Candle Maker.

WHEN THE FLAME IS GONE, I AM NOT EXTINGUISHED. . .

I will never cease to be since I am being unceasingly created. I have not been a goal fulfilled. I am a Purpose constantly unfolding and on-going. My flame, flickered and small as it might become, is only promised and portrayed to become a part of an even greater illumination. When the Candle Maker began this good work, this momentous beam in me, it was under the conditions that he would be faithful to complete it. It matters, not how, why, where or when but THAT it’s completed in me! I AM NOW, at this very moment, a part of that Light that is in this World and which makes the one I am ever being melted.

My reward for blazing is only to burnish brighter and without end. I don’t have to wait for some darkened, engulfed ending. I Kindle forever. Once lit–always–eternally glowing. Today I will glow brightest.

This is the last Today I have to live and I will gleam radiantly in it, through it, and just for it. I am grateful for this day; for this darkness entrusted to me to light; for the warm glowing shimmer emanating deathlessly in me.

Nothing can take place on this last Today that will cause me to be extinguished.

My pulse will dance excitedly like a jubilant flame reaching out to the darkness. I will be the last brilliant gleam the long night can ever know, and assuredly, the very first ray the sunshine has to offer in the morning of that day which has no end.

If delegated, I will burn old with an eternally young, exuberant fire.

I will not be extinguished this day because out of all the possibilities,this is the one great impossibility: I know no real endings. . .just endless beginnings. . .starting NOW! Forever!

Hmmmmmm, just about a minute and a half, three times a day.

LIGHT: Is Always in Season. . .No Season exists without it!

Unless. . . .

What Gets You In The Barrel?

November 22, 2013 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

June 30, 1859…check that date! A little before any of us could ever read or write a Post, huh?

June 30, 1859 was the day that Charles Blondin tight-roped himself across Niagara Falls. He crossed it about five times, way before Nik Walenda did back on June 16, 2012 WITH A SAFETY TETHER!

Blondin said, “To cross the roaring waters became the ambition of my life.”

Now crossing the Falls, Safety Tether or not is a feat. Blondin made it seem simple..he just didn’t cross it, uhhh, NO! He owned it. He crossed it once, NORMAL. Once on a bike. Another time on stilts. He crossed it pushing a stove in a wheelbarrow and actually cooked an omelet and then, are you ready for this, he crossed it with a man on his shoulders! When asking the crowd who would take on such a dare, only one was heard to volunteer. Harry Colcord, Blondin’s manager took the ride.

Absolutely amazing.

If we were living and in the surrounding area, I have to believe we would have been there with each feat Mr. Blondin performed, if for no other reason just in the chance he would have fallen to his death as we “Ohhhhhh” and “Ahhhhhhed” with his each step and challenging feats.

Question:

As we would have stood on either side of the Falls, cheering, jeering and omelet, er, egging him on, would you have ever been tempted to get in the wheelbarrow and be pushed across by him?

Seriously what would have gotten you into the barrel? Fame? Money? Death Wish? Ambition? Notoriety? What would have made you go all Harry Colcord and accept the challenge, take the risk?

What makes you go ALL IN on anything? When’s the last time you went all in, on YOU?

Hmmmmmm…maybe the THAT’S the biggest question? Not, What gets you in the barrel, but WHAT KEEPS YOU IN?

No nets. No tether. No crowds. No promise of riches or fame.

Just You. . .and IT!

See you on THE OTHER SIDE!

I Believe / I Know

November 13, 2013 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

What’s the big deal? What’s the Difference?

I Believe! I Know!

Semantics?

There’s never a time I stand before an audience; never a time I walk into a patient’s room; never a time I walk into a facility; never a time when I’m one-on-one with a person and not with all of my heart believe that I’m the absolute BEST PERSON to be there! I believe it with all my might, strength, heart, my whole life–I Believe it!

Egotistical?

As much as I Believe it with my whole Being. . .I KNOW it’s not true. . . .

And that, that’s my greatest source of motivation every day, in every situation.

Unblinkingly, may IT ever be so!

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