Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

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Lift Yourself to a New Horizon

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

Are you stuck in the same old rut? Expand your horizon and break free of the routine that holds you back.

You can go dead on any level.

You can be satisfied with your horizon. Same people. Same scenes. Same old daily grind. Wake up, shave, eat, routine work, eat, more work, eat again, then to bed. Next day ditto. No vision.

Before Columbus discovered America Europe thought the horizon was the edge of a flat earth. Columbus saw beyond to a new horizon and a new world.

Bell with his telephone, Marconi with his wireless, the Wright brothers with their airplane, Pasteur with his anesthetic—all pushed back their horizons and discovered new worlds.

There are Horizon Lifters all around us. I wish you knew the story of Crystal Maret and Sarah Leezy, who have pushed back their horizons; of the Eagle Division which produced Ward Kilgore, Supreme Exalted Chow Potentate of the P. T. C., and Jimmy Albright, a former Demon who now is a District Salesman; of adventurers in our homes, schools and churches who just won’t be held down.

How high is your horizon? Try for one week to see – Something Beyond. – Lift your Horizon.

What is your vision? What would you do if failure was not an option?

This week, take a bold leap into a new world. Do what you say you would do if you “had the time.” Make the time, take the chance, and make your vision a reality.

Take Control of What You Can Control

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

Do you think that you can not change the things that are wrong in your life? Some things “just happen” but there are many factors within our control–if we are willing to take control.

The South has produced such a surplus crop of cotton above current needs that the price of the entire crop falls below what is generally believed to be the cost of production. Man’s acreage and Nature’s weather did it. Man could not control the weather but he could the acreage. Everlastingly, Agricultural Bureaus keep preaching diversified farming.

In like manner I keep on preaching diversified living to you Purina Leaders. I keep hammering away on the four-fold life represented by our trade mark, the Four-Square Checker. Unless somebody constantly hammers away at you, you may get a bit careless and become unbalanced. It is so easy to forget the weak side. When anything goes wrong there is something at the bottom of it. When the price of cotton tumbled the controllable factor was the acreage. When something goes wrong with your living there is a controllable cause.

Are you strong physically and alert mentally —but grouchy? Find the cause.

Are you a “hale-fellow-well-met” bristling with personality—but not getting results? Find the cause.

Look around you this week and see if you are living a diversified, balanced, four-fold life. If not, find the cause. Find the controllable error and when you find it put it under control.

Don’t let this slide in the waste basket without Thinking Hard.

In what areas of your business or your life would you like to achieve better results? What is holding you back?

Your first answer to the question of what is holding you back is probably something that you feel is out of your control. Although we all feel the effects of external forces, we may forget how many things are within our control.

Look for the factor you can control, and make a change.

Are You a Tenth Man?

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

“Every Tenth. Man Does the Thinking For the Other Nine. Are You a Tenth Man?”

The above was taken from a sermonette called “Think.”

Nine men carry out the plans and ideas of some other person.

What price am I willing to pay this week to become a Tenth Man? Among a hundred fellow workers, ten are going to poke their heads above the crowd. Am I one of the Ten? What Price Success!

Then there are some Second Mile Men around me. They travel the one duty mile and then go an extra mile which is not required of them. Who could hold back such men?

Tenth Men—who lead the Crowd.

Second Mile Men—who go all the way and then some.

Tenth Men and Second Mile Men think straight and then keep on thinking. Big Men think Big Things. Little men think little things. The difference between men is all in their thinking.

Have you a plan for Thinking Straight? If not, get one.

Natural leaders emerge in every group. These are the people who are willing to come up with a course of action and commit to it. Others sit passively by waiting for a consensus to form or for someone to tell them what to do.

When you are a part of a group, do you put your ideas forth with conviction? Are you a leader or a follower?

Put It to Work

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

He Conceived An Idea
And Having Conceived It
Put It To Work.

Did you ever create anything of your own? The world is full of imitators, but creators are few and far between.

The conception of an idea is a glorious thing. It is like the birth of a child or the dawn of a new day. Having conceived an idea, it is still more glorious to Put It To WORK.

Are your ideas good enough to earn dividends? .. never, never, never, unless Put To WORK.

Look around you for some great need for accomplishment. Then CREATE an idea to fill that need, and Put It To WORK.

As the Idea Lady I recognize that the greatest value in ideas is not having them it is using them. I can give my clients idea after idea, but if they do not put them to work, the ideas ultimately are not valuable.

Challenge yourself to create original ideas then implement them to put them to work.

Dare

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

“What I’ve dared I’ve willed;
And what I’ve willed, I’ll do !”
—Melville

“That’s good stuff,” is the trite comment we make when we read a thrilling message like this. But what does it mean to us unless it spurs us to action? Let’s be honest. Deep truths roll off our minds all too often with just the brief comment, “That’s good.”

During this week let’s put down some DARES.

I dare to plan today’s work.
I dare to complete some unfinished plans.
I dare to make bigger plans
I dare to exercise more, to read more.
I dare to cultivate Personality, and to lift my standards.

What do you dare?

Write down some definite dares.

And may that Will behind the Dare cause you to Do far more than you would have ever accomplished without the Dare.

I dare you to read this over once more.

As children, dares from our friends got us to try things we might not have otherwise done. This wasn’t always good. (Remember the “triple dog dare” in the movie, A Christmas Story?)

A dare, though, challenges us to get past fear and inertia and do something. So give yourself some positive dares and get out there and do the things you fear, the things you have been putting off, the things that will make you more successful.

Just don’t dare yourself to stick your tongue to a frozen flagpole. ;o)