VISION & GOALS
RELATED INDEX TOPICS: Perseverance, Pioneering, Redeem the Time, Shtick, Success/Failure, Take Action.
1. Agostino D'Antonio, a sculptor of Florence, Italy, wrought diligently but unsuccessfully on a large piece of marble. "I can do nothing with it," he finally said. Other sculptors, too, worked with the piece of marble, but they, too, gave up the task. The stone was discarded. It lay on a rubbish heap for forty years.
Out strolling one day, Michelangelo saw the stone & the latent possibilities in it. It was brought to his studio. He began to work on it. Ultimately, his vision & work were crowned with success. From that seemingly worthless stone was carved one of the World's masterpieces of sculpture--"David"!
2. Sir Humphry Davy was a distinguished chemist of the nineteenth century. When asked late in life what he considered to be his greatest discovery, he replied, "Michael Faraday."
Davy had found Faraday, the ignorant son of a blacksmith, taking notes at his lectures & longing to study science. As Davy began to teach young Faraday, he found a brilliant mind that promised to eclipse even his own achievements. He knew that no one discovery of his could possibly compare with the many discoveries Faraday would make.
3. Michelangelo lingered before a rough block of marble so long that his companion remonstrated. In reply, Michelangelo said, "There's an Angel in that block & I'm going to liberate him." Oh, what unbounding love would manifest itself in us towards the most loveable--the most vile--if only we saw what they might become, & in our enthusiasm for souls we cried out, "There's the image of Christ--marred, scarred, well-nigh obliterated--in that dear fellow, & I'm going to make that man conscious of it." (2Cor.3:18)
4. In one of the cathedrals of England there is a beautiful window through which the sunlight streams. It displays the facts & personalities of the Old & New Testament & the glorious truths & doctrines of the Christian revelation. This window was fabricated by the artist out of broken bits of glass which another artist had discarded.
5. Christ wants not nibblers at the possible, but grabbers of the impossible.
6. Make this your motto: Don't die until you are dead.
7. Always ask, "Isn't there some better way to do it?"
8. O'er uncharted sea
To their heart's desire
Do men of faith set sail,
While the beaten men
Walk with fearful hearts
Along life's beaten trail.
The men of faith will challenge
Both men & Satan's wrath,
But the beaten men will compromise
And walk the beaten path.
Beaten roads are for beaten men,
As they walk with measured tread,
With tuneless souls they move along
To dwell among the dead.
But men of faith climb unscaled walls,
And sail uncharted sea.
They dare to cross convention's bounds
To set the captives free.
--Thomas Wyatt
9. Ambition never gets anywhere until it forms a partnership with work.
10. Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability.
11. Refuse to be average.
12. It's better to aim at a good thing & miss it than to aim at a bad thing & hit it.
13. There's no sense aiming for a goal with no arrow in your bow.
14. The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high & we miss it, but that our aim is too low & we reach it.
15. Our aim should be service, not success.
16. It is not enough to make progress; we must make it in the right direction.
17. Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.
18. You must first be a believer if you would be an achiever.
19. I am ready to go anywhere--provided it be forward.--David Livingstone
20. The man who really wants to do something finds a way; the other man finds an excuse.
21. Don't envy anybody. Every person has something no other person has. Develop that one thing & make it outstanding.
22. Any man can see farther than he can reach, but this doesn't mean he should quit reaching.
23. Keep your head & your heart going in the right direction & you'll not have to worry about your feet.
24. There are four steps to accomplishment; Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.
25. Before proceeding with a difficult task, stop & pray. Then remember to start again.
26. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
27. Attempt great things for God. Expect great things from God.--William Carey
28. You can do better than you think. You can do better if you think. You can do better--don't you think?
29. The normal reaction to a new idea is to think of reasons why it can't be done.
30. If you can't think up a new idea, try finding a way to make better use of an old one.
31. Judge each day, not by the harvest, but by the seeds you plant.
32. To achieve all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible. To be as much as we can be, we must dream of being more.
33. Roberto Rossellini, late Italian filmmaker, on learning: "I have an immense treasure: My ignorance. For me it is a great joy to overcome it. If I can get others to profit from what I acquire, I have twice as much joy. As long as I go on discovering new things, life will be beautiful, but it will be too short for everything I want to learn."
34. If you would not be forgotten,
As soon as you are dead & rotten,
Either WRITE things worth READING,
Or DO things worth the WRITING.
35. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.
36. Murray Lehrer said that on a rainy night, as Broadway audiences were streaming out into the drizzle, a vendor was hawking umbrellas in front of Broadhurst Theater: "Come & get'm, only $3 each!" Shortly afterward Mr. Lehrer, having retrieved his car, drove past the vendor, who was shouting, "Come & get'm, only $5 each!" Mr. Lehrer leaned out his car window to ask about the $2 increase. The vendor explained, "It's raining harder now!" (Dad: Ha!)
37. The Christians who have turned the World upside down have been men & women with a vision in their hearts, & the Bible in their hands.
38. My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
39. Henry J. Ellsworth, commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, assured people that his resignation was really of no great concern, "Mankind," he declared, "has already achieved all of which it is capable. There would be no more inventions requiring patents."
The year was 1844--before the steamboat, the telegraph cable under the ocean, the electric light, the telephone, & a host of other inventions that came along during the next half century.
40. Perhaps it is a good thing that you haven't seen all your dreams come true. For if you got all you wished for immediately, you would be miserable. Alexander the Great conquered the world, but died of sheer boredom. To be forever reaching out, to remain unsatisfied, is the key to spiritual progress.
41. Would children knew every track up the mountains. Once on one of the long marches I was feeling tired. "I cannot go on," I said. "I'm too tired."
My father looked at me ... "See yourself at your destination," he said. "Extend your mind to seeing yourself there."
I didn't understand at the time, but now I do. Project the thought of success & half the battle is won.
42. It's not so much how busy you are--but WHY you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted.
43. On the pathway of life out where you are,
May hope fill your heart as you reach for a star,
And may you discover as each day goes by,
No dream is too lofty, no goal is too high,
If you'll trust in the Lord, take time to be still,
To hear His soft voice & yield to His Will!