Coach Carter

Last night Kathy and I watched the movie, “Coach Carter. We have seen it several times before.  It is a really an inspiring movie, based on the true story of Coach Ken Carter, in Richmond California.

There is a great quote near the end of the movie.  The quote is from a poem by Marianne Williamson.

Even though the quote in the movie was very inspiring, there were some lines that the movie script left out from the original poem.  So, below, first, the quote from the movie, and then, the actual poem from Marianne Williamson.

From the movie, Coach Carter:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

From the poem, Our Greatest Fear, by Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Those are some pretty powerful words – perhaps some good food to chew on over the weekend.  If you have a comment, please type itin below; we’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Have a great weekend!

Mike Verdicchio

By the way, if you want to buy the movie, click the link below; it will take you to Amazon where you can get the best price.

Coach Carter (Widescreen Edition)

Coach Carter (Full Screen Edition)

Obstacle Illusions

It’s Another Podcast!

After the day I had yesterday, I thought maybe I ought to do a podcast about obstacles.  My latest Pep Letter article is titled, “Obstacle Illusions,” so the topic is pretty fresh in my mind.

Actually,  I applied the information I share in that article to handle the obstacles I was faced with.  They weren’t big obstacles, but even if they were, the principles still work.  Discover in this short podcast (9:20) what to do when you’re faced with an obstacle, big or small.

[If you cannot see the player below, just click the title above]

Leave A Comment!
What do you have to say?  We’d love to hear what you think.  Please type your comment below.

Related Posts:
Stop making Excuses
How To Overcome Obstacles
Against All Odds
What Kind Of Day?
This Is My Story

Look for more podcasts as well as more videos coming soon to Confidence And Joy!

What If?

In this short two minute video I talk about the phrase, “What if?”  And many times that phrase is followed by another popular phrase.  Can you guess what that phrase is?

At the end of the video, I offer my own, “What if?”

Enjoy the video.

What if you have a comment about this video?  I hope so; we’d love to hear what’s on your mind!

Opposite Thoughts

You’ve probably heard the question, “What are you thinking about?”  But have you ever wondered how many thoughts you actually think?  Scientific research varies on estimtes from 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day.  But, there is something that you cannot think about!

In this article I am going to show you just how magnificent the human mind is by asking you to do something with your mind that you cannot do. I’ve tried it and I can’t do it.  In fact there is no one on the planet that can do it.

I’ll explain more in a few minutes.

What you focus on in your mind will always set the course for your life, whether it is positive or negative, success or failure, victory or defeat.  Amazingly, few people know and understand this and even fewer believe it.  Believe it or don’t believe it; the battle will always take place in the mind.

Thoughts Are Seeds

I like to think of thoughts as seeds.  Seeds have a planting and germinating process. If they are planted and nourished, they will grow and produce. This is true with weed seeds too.

Just because a negative thought comes into your mind doesn’t mean you need to harbor that thought and entertain it.  You can simply dismiss it, like pulling a weed out. Or, you can choose to keep it and let it settle in.

Now, consider opposites.  How do you get rid of darkness?  Simply by introducing light.  Light and darkness are opposites. The same is true with cold and heat.  Hot and cold are opposites, just as light and darkness are opposites.   One replaces or neutralizes the other.

Try This Experiment

Now when it comes to our thinking and our thoughts, we just cannot think two opposite thoughts at the same time.  Have you ever tried?  If not, here’s an experiment you can do right now.

tall-buildingPicture a building in your mind.  Make this building a very, very tall building and, at the same time, make this building a very short building.  You can’t do it!

You cannot picture the same building as a very tall building and a very short building at the same time.  That’s because tall and short are opposites.

Want to try another?

Picture a car at a racetrack going one-hundred and fifty miles an hour and at the same time see the car going twenty miles and hour.  You cannot picture it because fast and slow are opposites.42-15599538

You cannot hold two opposite thoughts in your mind at the same time. One will simply overwrite the other.  That is how the Creator designed our brains to work.

This Gives Us A Great Advantage!

The thoughts that you hold in your mind are the thoughts that you are planting and nourishing, and they will grow.  The question is, “What kind of crop do you want to harvest?”

Get busy planting and nourishing the seeds that you want to harvest. If a farmer wants to harvest wheat and corn, does he just sit around all day and do nothing, and then hope that maybe someday he could harvest some wheat and corn?  No.  He plants seeds and nourishes them.

972948What kind of seeds does he plant?  Wheat and corn, of course!  It’s so simple and so very obvious in so many categories of life.  And, it works just as accurately and precisely in our minds.

You must decide what you truly desire, and then start planting and nourishing the seed. When those destructive, negative, defeating thoughts pop in, drive them out, by replacing them with what you do desire.

It’s Your Choice

Your thoughts will truly bring to you courage or discouragement; success or failure; confidence or fear.  It is always in your own power to choose which thoughts you will hold in your mind. Changing your thinking is absolutely required if you want to change your circumstances.

God gave us all free will.  You can choose to think whatever thoughts you want to think.  But remember, you are and you will be a product of the thoughts that you have planted and nourished.  The Bible says, “As he thinks in his heart so is he.”

Mike Verdicchio
2009

Related Posts:
It Changed My Life
Are Weeds Growing In Your Head?
Stop Looking Back

Do you have a comment?  We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.  If you do, please type it in below.

What Are You Talking About?

We all talk to ourselves, all day long, about lots of things.  But does it make any difference what we are saying to ourselves about ourselves?

In this short video, (3:19) discover the effects of your own self talk. You just might want to change the message!

Enjoy the video.

Leave A Comment! We’d love to hear from you.

A Very Krafty Review

Craft Kits From KraftyKid.Com

As I mentioned in the last review, in these economic times, we are all trying to save some money wherever we can. The holidays are coming up soon and something fun and inexpensive that you can do with your kids is to make things?  And, oh boy, what a relief;  it’s a break from all the electronic technology!

A Christian Business

I looked at KraftyKid.com web site and saw that they are a Christian business. They do Craft Kits for kids of all ages – delivered monthly to your mailbox! No more time wasted planning your craft activities!

Here’s what I found on their web site:

Our Mission:
Our mission is to help families spend more time together engaging in craft activities that are fun, educational, and easy. We do this by providing affordable arts and craft kits directly to your door with easy to read instructions.

Fun and Easy Crafts, LLC. (dba KraftyKid.com) Our Mission:
Our mission is to help families spend more time together engaging in craft activities that are fun, educational, and easy. We do this by providing affordable arts and craft kits directly to your door with easy to read instructions.

Each kit come prepackaged with clear and easy to read instructions, precut pieces, and embellishments. The appropriate age for these product is 3 years (with parent supervision) and up. Many of our kits, as well as our free craft idea section, are suitable for all ages.

Secure and Safe Payments:
All payments are secure through our payment processing agent.  We are hacker safe and members of the Better Business Bureau so you can rest assure that your payment will be kept in strict confidence. You can also order via mail by printing our craft kits order form and mailing it to our location.

Click the banner below to get to KraftyKid.com and check it out.  You will probably find something you like, as they really have a large selection of craft kits.  Then enjoy spending some time with your kids.

Born Again American

It’s Another Video!

A friend of mine sent me the link to this video, and I think it’s pretty cool.  16 performers and two choruses in 14 locations around the USA.  I thought the video was very well produced and carries a very positive message. Watch it and if you have any comments, please type them in below.

How This Video Came About

The video is the product of Declare Yourself.  The founder,  Norman Lear (TV producer and philanthropist), was talking with Academy Award-winning songwriter Keith Carradine one night, and the Born Again American video was born.  There is more information, including the lyrics to the song on their web site.

Enjoy the video.

[If you cannot see the player below, then just click the title above]

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God Is Not In Charge

It’s Another Podcast!

The title of this new podcast is the same title of an article I published last week.  I realize the title could be shocking to some people.  But I think the information is very helpful, so I decided to do a podcast as well.

As you listen to this and think about it logically, it makes a lot of sense.  Not only that, but it removes the wrongly placed blame for things that people have laid at God’s feet.

Discover in this short podcast (8:42) who is really in charge of your life.

[If you cannot see the player below, just click the title above]

Related Posts:
He Is Willing.  Are You?
Do You Rely On Luck Or Fate?
Make Something Happen
This Is My Story

Leave A Comment!
We’d love to hear what you think.  Please type your comments below.

Look for more podcasts as well as more videos coming soon to Confidence And Joy!

Stop Making Excuses!

One of the dictionary definitions of an excuse is, “An explanation offered as a reason for release from an obligation or promise.  Some explanations are regarded as “good excuses,” while others are looked upon as “poor excuses.”  Either way, they both give explanations or reasons why.

“I forgot” is perhaps the most popular and even thought by some to be the worst excuse of all time.  Next in line comes, “I changed my mind.”

On the other hand, if you were snowed in for two days due to a blizzard, that would rank pretty high as a “good excuse” for not making it in to work, right?

What About Other Excuses?

But what about excuses people have concerning their goals and their dreams?   What about places you’d like to go in life, things you want to do, things you’d like to accomplish, but somewhere along the line you came up with some good explanations of why you can’t have those things? Are they really “good excuses?”

Suppose you had dreams and aspirations of running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or even jumping out of a plane?  Those are really exciting goals and dreams, but what if you were blind?  Being blind would be a pretty “good excuse,” wouldn’t it?

Have you ever heard of Erik Weihenmayer?  He went blind at age 13.  Erik has run in marathons, jumped out of planes, and climbed mountains, including Mt. Everest!  Here’s quote from Erik:

“When I went blind, it was tough to even find the bathroom.  Now that I’ve climbed Mount Everest, well, I guess I’ve come a long way.”

mt-everest

On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind man in history to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak – Mount Everest. And on September 5, 2002, when he stood on top of Mt. Kosciusko in Australia, Erik had completed his 7-year goal to climb The Seven Summits – the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

I read that only 100 mountaineers have ever accomplished that feat. Erik did it at the age 33, one of the youngest climbers to accomplish that feat!   You can read Erik’s book, called, Touch the Top of the World.

What About Your Dreams And Goals?

So, are your dreams, goals and desires too big?  I don’t think so.

There’s a promise in the Bible that God will give you the desires of your heart.  What are your desires?  God will give them to you!  Now, that doesn’t mean that you will just wake up some morning at the top of Mt. Everest, and wonder how you got there!

road-rainbowBut, in pursuing your desires and goals, God can help you. He can show you, lead you, direct you, and give you the desires of your heart.

So don’t be afraid to have big goals, and big dreams!  Ask God for help and direction and then start pursuing!

Is there someone you can talk to?  Do you need further education or training?  Are there places you need to go to see and learn?

In other words, start taking whatever action you can right now, today!  And continue to pursue after it day after day, refusing to quit.

It Really Is Your Choice

You can choose to consistently pursue after you goals or you can choose to just sit back and go through all the “good excuses” of why those goals just won’t happen for you.

It’s been said many times that the greatest reward is not in reaching your goal, but who you become along the way in reaching your goal.  Erik now gets to talk to thousands of people about what it’s like to work and reach your goals.

I read that when he was climbing Mt. Everest, that just minutes from being on the top of the world, Erik started to cry – but those tears were freezing on his face, so he had to stop crying for a few more minutes until he was indeed standing on the top of the world!

Your dreams and your desires are important because they are yours!  God wants to help you and give you the desires of your heart.

Stop making excuses and start pursuing your dreams!

Mike Verdicchio

Related Posts:
There Just Has To Be A Solution!
Fantasy
Stop Looking Back

Erik’s book:
Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to Climb Farther than the Eye Can See: My Story

DVD Movie:
Farther Than The Eye Can See

Who Wants To be A Millionaire?

It’s Another Podcast!

In these days of economic uncertainty there is no lack of “get rich quick” schemes.  Those feeling desperate can many times buy into those kinds of offers.

In this short podcast, (about 3 minutes) I talk about one I heard recently about how you can become a millionaire!  And it is so easy! You gotta hear this!

Enjoy the podcast.

[If you cannot see the player below, just click the title above]

Related Posts:
Lottery Winners Are Broke
How Much Money Is Out There?
How Do You Define Prosperity?

Leave A Comment
We’d love to hear what you think.  Type your comment below.

Look for more podcasts as well as more videos coming soon to Confidence And Joy!