TheOptimist blog

The Procrastination Killer

The following was taken from the book "The Laws of Success" by Napoleon Hill. If you repeat this phrase 12 times a day, outloud, each morning it will sink in. I swear that your mind will turn back to this statement when you are not using your time wisely and haunt you!

"Today I will do everything that should be done, when it should be done, and as it should be done. I will perform the most difficult task first because this will destroy the habit of procrastination, and develop the habit of action in it's place!"

I truly believe that if you actually do the things that you know you should you can't help but succeed.

The 'Reallionaire'

I just read an article about the 'Reallionaire'. His name is Farrah Gray. He is from the projects of South Side Chicago and he earned his first million by the time he was 14 years old. Here is the link to the full article:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=2247424&page=1

This is a great story and it goes to show what can be accomplished by someone that is able to "think big" and is motivated enough to go through with it.

Maybe 20/20 will want to do an article about 'The Optimist' when I make my millions...

Man attempts to set the record for most expensive domain name.

A website has been set up by a man that is attempting to sell the domain name for $12,000,001 and set a worlds record for most expensive domain name. Here is a link:

I admit that when I first saw this website, I thought that this would never work...Then I realized that I just wanted to doubt someone for their idea (which is quite original and smart), just because I didn't think of it! It is a very OPTIMISTIC idea and I thought that I would support him. Please take a moment to visit his website.

This idea is very reminiscent of themilliondollarhomepage.com which a different person created last year and earned a million dollars. If you haven't ever seen the page, take a look at it. It was a great idea too!

Strongest Dad in the World -This is an incredibly inspiring story

Check out this video if you haven't seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

Here's the story to go along with it...

Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] 

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them
to swimsuit shoots. 

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. 

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick,
26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only
pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed
him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled
him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the
same day. 

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him
on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him
across the U.S. on a bike. 

And what has Rick done for his father? Not
much--except save his life. 

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years
ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord
during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to
control his limbs. 

``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick
says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick
was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.'' 

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way
Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick
was 11 they took him to the engineering department at
Tufts University and asked if there was anything to
help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was
told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' 

``Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick
laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. 

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control
the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his
head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First
words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school
classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school
organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out,
``Dad, I want to do that.'' 

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker''
who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to
push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it
was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore
for two weeks.'' 

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed,
``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled
anymore!'' 

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became
obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he
could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and
Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. 

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The
Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't
quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick
and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway,
then they found a way to get into the race officially:
In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made
the qualifying time for Boston the following year. 

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a
triathlon?'' 

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't
ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his
110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. 

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four
grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a
buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an
old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you
think? 

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No
way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome
feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile
as they run, swim and ride together. 

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished
their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of
more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two
hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the
world record, which, in case you don't keep track of
these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not
pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. 

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the
Father of the Century.'' 

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two
years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race.
Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95%
clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,''
one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15
years ago.'' 

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. 

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care)
and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the
military and living in Holland, Mass., always find
ways to be together. They give speeches around the
country and compete in some backbreaking race every
weekend, including this Father's Day. 

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the
thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can
never buy. 

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my
dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Staying positive

I consider myself a very ambitious person. I have goals and a strong desire to achieve them, however I sometimes lose my motivation.

One way that I keep my energy and motivation up is by reading the "Law of Success". If you haven't read this book, I would recommend that you pick it up. Even if you just read the book for 15 minutes a day, it is good way to stay positive and focused in your life. It is by Napoleon Hill, who also wrote "Think and Grow Rich", which is also a great book for motivation. You can find out more about Napoleon Hill by reading the Wikipedia entry about him.

One point that Napoleon Hill makes quite frequently is that you must surround yourself with like-minded people. If you are motivated and have big goals but those around you do not, you are likely to find others will try to bring you down. Many times when others don't see a possibility of their own success they will attack your dreams. Giving up is much easier than striving towards success, however you must not give into detractors.

There are many other great books to help you stay motivated and optimistic, and perhaps you have found some that work good for you. The point is to keep moving and never give up.