Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

The Daily Miracle

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

“You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse magically filled with twenty-four hours of the manufactured tissue of the universe of your life. No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. No one receives either more or less than you receive.”

In the lives of the great and strong, these Miracles happen every day. The weak and the unambitious just go along so, so—nothing disturbs their serenity. If only a Miracle could happen to them!

Wake up every morning this next week. Put life in your exercises. Look in the glass— shake your fist at yourself and say, “I’m going to do something big today.”

We all get the same 24 hours in each day, but some of us do much more with those hours than others.

The first step to getting more Miracles out of each day is having an awareness of time. When you pay attention to how you spend your time you are less likely to let the days slip past without accomplishing anything.

Start each day with the intention of finishing at least three tasks, and a plan to do so. Then do it.

Make miracles happen for you!

Get Somewhere

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

A farmer stood fascinated before a merry-go-round. He changed a dollar into twenty nickels. He took a ride and then paid another nickel for another ride, until he had spent all twenty nickels.

“Aunty, wasn’t that great fun?” he asked a spinster lady who was waiting for him.

“Maybe so,” was her reply. “You’ve spent your money going round and round, but where’ve you been?”

Draw your own lesson.

Do you confuse movement with progress? It’s easy to do. We spend our days running from place to place and feeling busy, but we may not be accomplishing anything of value.

Try this exercise this week:

As you go through each day, note what you are doing. At the end of the day, look over your list. Were you doing “busy work” or accomplishing tasks that will move your business forward?

Although it may be almost impossible to get rid of all busy work, look for ways to minimize the amount of time you spend on it.

When you identify busy work first ask, “Is this something that really needs to be done?” It may be that you can stop doing it without any negative results.

If the task needs to be done ask, “Is this something that I should be doing, or could someone else do it?” Delegate or outsource anything that is not the best use of your time.

Taking action on those two questions may free up several hours a week. So how will you use those hours?

Determine what activities are the most productive and profitable for you, and focus your efforts there.

One reason we fill our days with activities that do not lead us closer to our goals is that we may not have a clear vision of those goals. When you know where you are going, you are less likely to spend your time going around in circles.

Self Starters

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

Self starters are those that arouse action within themselves

“One must find the divine spark that initiates action,” says Dr. Holmes, a noted psychologist.

How do you think?

1. Ninety-five per cent of people think an aimless, desultory, gossipy flow of ideas.
2. Five per cent initiate, definitely direct, and definitely arrive at conclusions.

Thinking is the process of arriving at conclusions.

Pretty heavy stuff for a Monday morning! Only the 5% class will get it into their heads.

Memorize it.

Very true. I meet so many people who are drifting through their lives. They have no purpose or direction and act as though their lives are out of their control.

Well, their lives are out of their control because they have chosen not to take control. They do not want to make decisions, so they decide to do nothing. They may say they are unhappy with their present circumstances, but they do not want to take action. Instead, they remain mired in their comfortable, unhappy existence.

Are you content to drift aimlessly through your life, taking what is handed to you? Or will you live the life you really want? You have to earn it, you know.

Are you one of the 95% or the 5%? Only you can decide. Start now.

Look High – Go High

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

You start at the bottom;
You imagine yourself the man above you,
And soon you are there!
Then you look higher,
And higher you go.

The Sculptor looks at a block of marble,
He dreams of a beautiful statue.
The gardener looks at a swamp,
He dreams of a flower garden.

What’s ahead of you? Can’t you get a little action from these thoughts?

Instead of looking at where you have been, look to where you want to be.

Imagine yourself in the life you want to live, then aim yourself in that direction.

Stuck in a Rut?

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in-a-rut

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

One of the essentials to continued growth is the avoidance of Ruts. Ruts make for stupidity. Ruts tend to make a person uninteresting, dull and slow. Ruts can be avoided by a deliberate planning of one’s life, particularly for its free time. Spend your evenings deliberately, perhaps once a week, in doing something different. If you have not been familiar with music, deliberately cultivate a taste for it; if you know nothing about baseball, go with a fan; if you read a certain daily paper every day, change to another daily for a week—jolt your mental machinery a little. If you always spend your vacation at the same place, spend it differently. Go to the mountains and rough it. Have your own boy or girl or some other fellow’s kid in the party. If your reading is mainly novels, try biography. If you have set habits about your smoking, swear off at least one month during the year.

New ideas, new friends, new ways of doing things—all help to get you out of your Rut. Top persons like you don’t belong in any Ruts. What Rut are you going to try to get out of this week?

It is easy to do the same things over and over, until we are stuck in a rut of our own making.

Maybe you have heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

If you want your life to be better, start by doing something different. Mr. Danforth’s above suggestions are a good start. Whenever you find yourself stuck in a rut, make a choice to do something new. Turn off the television and take up a new hobby, talk to new people, join a club, do to an event, start volunteering…anything to get out of your rut.

You will find you have more creativity and more energy when you take on new challenges. You will also have more fun!