By George Journal

 Happiness is a choice not a response.

Success is … more attitude than aptitude. 

Count your age by friends, count your life by smiles.

Seek joy in what you give not in what you get.

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Talk less – say more.

It’s better to be trusted than liked; so, under-promise and over-perform.

Failing to prepare, we prepare to fail.

Failure is the path of least persistence.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

If you don’t care where you’re going any road will get you there.

To succeed do the best you can, where you are, with what you have.

 Well done! is better than, Well said!

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.

The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.

For every person who climbs the ladder of success there are a dozen waiting for the elevator.

An ego trip won’t get you anywhere.

If you want your dreams to come true, don’t oversleep.

Happiness is the place between too little and too much.

A turtle makes progress when it sticks its neck out.

A natural tendency is to want to be understood rather than understand.

If you don’t lie down no one can walk on you.

People don’t fail, they give up.

The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime.

Smile, it takes only 13 muscles – a frown takes 64.

You can’t direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails. 

Modern-day maxims certainly do not have the “weightiness” of those traditional aphorisms from ancient Greece and the Enlightenment Period, but there still is an element of truth twisted into these short, pithy sayings.  Last Fall, By George Journal editors provided three posts with 200 or so modern statements of principle and advice. Here is a link to those three postings.

Modern-Day Maxim (1)  

Modern-Day Maxim (2)

Modern-Day Maxim (3)

1. If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy or both–you must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. – Ray Bradbury
2. Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it –and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way. – Tara Moss
3. Be daring, take on anything. Don’t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind. – Joyce Carol Oates
4. The artist must raise everything to a higher level: he is like a pump; inside him is a great pipe reaching down into the bowels of things, the deepest layers. He sucks up what was pooled beneath the surface and brings it forth into the sunlight in giant sprays. – Gustave Flaubert
5. Know the story before you fall in love with your first sentence. If you don’t know the story before you begin the story, what kind of a storyteller are you? Just an ordinary kind, just a mediocre kind – making it up as you go along, like a common liar. – John Irving
6. I get annoyed when a self-indulgent writer just shows off what he knows but doesn’t really tell a story. To me storytelling is first a craft. Then if you’re lucky, it becomes an art form. But first, it’s got to be a craft. You’ve got to have a beginning, middle and end. – Robert Ludlum
7. Most writers write too much. Some writers write way too much, gauged by the quality of their accumulated oeuvre. I’ve never thought of myself as a man driven to write. I simply choose to do it, often when I can’t be persuaded to do anything else; or when a dank feeling of uselessness comes over me, and I’m at a loss and have some time on my hands, such as when the World Series is over. – Richard Ford
8. Every writer is a thief, though some of us are more clever than others at disguising our robberies. The reason writers are such slow readers is that we are ceaselessly searching for things we can steal and then pass off as our own: a natty bit of syntax, a seamless transition, a metaphor that jumps to its target like an arrow shot from an aluminum crossbow. – Joseph Epstein
9. Occasionally, something sticks. And then I follow that. The only image I can think of is a man walking around with an iron rod in his hand during a lightning storm. – Arthur Miller
10. Here are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can’t think of what to do with the long winter evenings. – Quentin Crisp

Have you notice we repeatedly use common figures of speech that are obvious redundancies?  Here are a few we’ve recorded at work in the last few weeks. 

• an added bonus
• all inclusive
• basic fundamentals
• a brief moment
• it’s boiling hot
• let’s circle around
• classic tradition
• close proximity
• duplicate copy
• end result
• false illusion
• they’re immortalized forever
• live audience
• mental thought
• my personal opinion
• new discovery
• original founder
• it’s a temporary reprieve
• true fact
• unique, one-in-a-lifetime opportunity

These humourous zingers are to be said with attitude:  

• Everyone’s entitled to be stupid but you are abusing the privilege.
• I can only please one person per day so today is not your day and tomorrow doesn’t look good either.
• Why do people with closed minds always open their mouths?
• The tongue weighs practically nothing….but few people can hold it.
• Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
• Don’t bother to wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty but the pig likes it.
• Obviously, the closest thing you will ever come to a brainstorm is a light drizzle.
• If you need space then join NASA, baby.
• Did you fall out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on your way down?
• You just lost the chance you never had.
• Hey, your village just called and they’re missing their idiot.

This particular piece is one of 16 Bulletin Board Wisdom pin-ups that we provide on our company website. The office humour has been produced to inject some levity into the day. The one-pagers are free to print off, pin up, and distributed as appropriate to your co-workers. 

Enjoy Things we can learn from a dog…  

• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• Run, romp and play daily.
• Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
• Be loyal.
• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• When it’s in your best interest, always practice obedience.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Take naps and always stretch before rising.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
• When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and hang your head and pout. Run right back into the fray and make friends.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree.

You will find more classic material that will be perfect for your coffee room bulletin board. The Bulletin Board Wisdom Collection includes: 

• 10 pieces of advice to live by in the New World Order
• 10 truths to build your work ethic
• 15 thoughts for your personal reflection
• On Crisis and Chaos
• Musings on communications
• Things we can learn from a dog
• Wisdom on aging
• Business parables for success
• Inspirational posters for the “cubicle existence”
• Quotes on the use of quotes
• The top ten quotes of all time
• Daily Affirmations
• Monkey Policy
• Voicemail Directions
• Daftisms
• 20 Rules of Fine Writing 

Here’s more Albert Einstein in the By George Journal:

10 Life Lessons

The empowering wisdom of Albert Einstein

Last week, CG&A COMMUNICATIONS circulated “The Latest”, our corporate e-newsletter. It is best described as “an ear-marked e-mail filled with “those-items-you-would-have-liked-to-see” (if you had the time, and weren’t washed away with in-coming messages).”

The Latest: A By George Delivery   

The e-newsletter featured “the good stuff” from our By George Journal – some of the more interesting posts from the first months of 2012. Here’s what you will find: 

• Rejuvenate yourself – thoughts and questions to a more productive day
• A helpful repost, “Tips for starting your week”
• 10 simple truths smart people will forget
• The Arena: a Lens onto Life - a poem about hockey and youth and parents (most viewed BGJ page of the last three months)
• Chris George’s 3 Simple Rules for Writers
• Albert Einstein: 10 Life Lessons – and more
• The #1 Love Song (ever)
• The Remarkable Video-Game Industry
• BGJ’s inspirational posts
• BGJ’s motivational posts
• A new release:  Note cards capture the beauty of nature
• Our announcement of the revamped company website: By George! Take a look now!
• Everything you ever wanted to know about the classic Buffalo-style chicken wing 

The e-newsletter also updates you on our volunteer efforts related to anaphylaxis advocacy, and provides information on our growing e-bookshelf and our company’s social media services.  

If you have missed it, this weekend have a read of The Latest: A By George Delivery.

Yesterday more than 400 people from across the Niagara Region attended the Niagara Economic Summit. The summit’s stated objective was to bring people together to focus on developing a blueprint to build a stronger economy in Niagara.

Though Niagara-based, the summit’s dialogue would have been instructive for almost all Canadian centres facing the challenges of a transforming economy, of globalization, and carrying the yoke of cumbersome, pervasive local government. 

Here are a few memorable thoughts from the meeting’s proceedings:

• Dr. Jack Livingstone, President of Brock University, quoted our Governor General David Johnston: “Think Big. Start Small. Scale Up.” (This quote is properly attributed to Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart.)
• They’ll be no home-runs. We’ll succeed with a whole bunch of singles and doubles; base-by-base. (There was a litany of sports analogies!)
• Paul Knafeic, of Community Benchmarks, reported Niagara’s population base is “very dynamic.” In four years, we’ve had 39,000 people leave the area and 42,000 people move into Niagara.
• Knafeic also reported that the Niagara Region is creating jobs. Though the Region has lost large-scale manufacturing jobs and some prominent companies have moved, Niagara has still experienced a net increase of almost 3% job growth. 
• Government does not generate wealth, nor can it grow the economy; it’s role is to provide a favourable regulatory framework for economic growth.
• Here’s a recurring question, “How do we begin to address the problem of accountability from our local business leaders and our politicians?”
• General Rick Hillier motivational and inspirational comments on what it takes to be a leader cut to the core: 1) robustness/toughness, 2) optimism, 3) ruthlessness – and a great sense of humour to keep everything in perspective and to relieve your inner tensions.
• General Hillier also forwarded: “A big part of a leader’s job is to inspire people and to draw inspiration from them.” / “Actions talk. Your values, words and actions must all line up.” / “Avoid the trappings of the Office and the Title. Be yourself.” / “We all have the potential to be a leader.”

Business Insider magazine recently published a list of the “top 100 motivational quotes.” By George Journal has taken the liberty of presenting the “top 10” from that list.

1. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking. – William B. Sprague
2. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
3. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan
4. Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent. – Marilyn vos Savant
5. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. – John Wooden
6. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. – Napoleon Hill
7. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
8. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. – Mahatma Gandhi
9. There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. – Dr. Denis Waitley
10. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain 

To view the full 100 quotes in the Business Insider list, here is the article.