[BOOKS] - ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY GR BENSON

14/10/2013

1. ”As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy” – Abraham Lincoln.
2. Lincoln discovered that marriage is “a field of battle and not a bed of roses” a battle in which we are forced to suspect that he did not play his full part.
3. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better, as it appears to me.
4. Lincoln’s judgement – If slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong.
5. Lincoln said “By God, body’s, let’s get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I will hit it hard.
6. Great advantage in having one’s choice restricted by circumstances to good books.

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[BOOKS] - THE GREATNESS GUIDE 2 BY ROBIN SHARMA

14/10/2013

1. What you resist will persist. But what you befriend, you will transcend.
2. Success will come from simplicity.
3. Be so good they can’t ignore you.
4. Your life will expand or contract in direct relationship to your willingness to walk directly towards the things that you fear. Do your fears and you will shine.  Run away from them and you shrink from greatness.
5. So amazing what happens when you encounter a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable/ insecure/ scared and yet, instead of heading for the metaphorical exit door, you stay strong and do the thing you know you should do. First, you realize that the fear was mostly a hallucination. And second, you get some kind of unexpected reward for your bravery, because on the other side of every fear door lie gorgeous gifts, including personal growth, confidence and wisdom.
6. Leadership is not about your position; it’s a way of being leading without title, to be precise. Leadership is about holding yourself to world class standards, taking personal responsibility; being excellent within the sphere of your influence, building beautiful relationships and elevating others by your example.
7. The way you do the little things says a lot about the way you will do the big things.
8. The little things truly are the big ones.
9. Listening is a master skill for personal and professional excellence. Leaders listen.
10. Greatness in so many ways is determined by whether you persist through failure or let it consume you.
11. You can curse the darkness, or you can light a candle and show up as a leader. Life is all about how you exercise the choices available to you. And your daily choices stack up to craft your destiny. Day by day, work by week, month by month, year by year.
12. Every so called mistake is actually a rich source of learning. An opportunity to build more awareness and understanding and gain precious experience.
13. It’s better to die standing than live your whole life on your knees.
14. What you value in your life increases in value. What you think about and focus on grows. What you appreciate begins to appreciate.
15. Leadership occurs in moments of challenge, not during moments of ease.
16. Ideation without execution is mere delusion.
17. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, powe r and magic.
18. Nothing happens until you move.
19. Human beings are the only creatures in the world that can step out of themselves and reflect on their thoughts and actions. Monkeys can’t do this, Dog can’t, Cats can’t; only we can.
20. The lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul.
21. If you don’t try, you will never know.
22. The humblest is the greatest.
23. What we resist really does persist.
24. Every conflict carries within it a chance for you to learn a powerful lesson and to grow as a human being.
25. Better awareness drives better choices, and better choices create better results.
26. You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.
27. Leadership is about a lot more than trying to look good in the eyes of others. Its about standing for a cause.
28. It’s your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
29. People who are outstanding always get found out. The cliché is true. The cream always rises to the top.
30. Life does not give you what you want but just might send you what you need.
31. The actions you take each day create the results of your life.
32. You will never go any higher than your thinking.
33. It does not matter what other people think of you. All that matters is what you think of you.
34. At the end of each day, what matters most is whether you were true to yourself.
35. The best among us don’t take themselves too seriously.
36. The only way to truly get power is to give it away.
37. Real power comes when you spread your passion, offer people a reason to climb your strategic mountain tops, treat them with rare respect and give them permission to shine, grow and lead without title.
38. Good things happen to people who do good things.
39. No matter what life sends us, we are responsible for the way we respond.
40. You will only be as good as the chances you take.
41. When you know better, you can do better.
42. We really will become our associations.
43. The highest moments of our lives are the moments shared with those we love.
44. Money is not the most important form of wealth.
45. Success is all about a masterful consistently around fundamentals.
46. Leadership is all about believing in others and yourself when no one else does.
47. Develop, honor and inspire people and they will fly.
48. The finest things in life take patience, focus and sacrifice. To get to world class, you need to work at it daily, relentlessly, passionately.
49. The more painful the event, the more profound the lesson.
50. Wisdom only comes the hard way.
51. Your team will never be greater than you are(even if you are not the team leader). You set the standard to which you all can rise.
52. Everything begins with you.
53. Successful people don’t make excuses. They create results.
54. Leadership has so much to do with relationships.
55. The quality of your inner world eventually is reflected in the quality of your outer world. Your external life can never grow bigger than your internal one.
56. A person who dreams pristine dreams and who is impeccably honest, good, and ethical and stands for what’s best will soon act in alignment with those values. And those actions cannot help but drive extraordinary results.
57. Making mistakes is part of getting to success.
58. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the most of it without knowing what’s going to happen next.
59. Self-faith is a hallmark of greatness.
60. Do your best and let life do the rest.
61. With better awareness, you will make better choices. And as you make better choices, you are certain to experience better results.
62. You will never know if you don’t even try.
63. Nothing happens until you ask.
64. Become so good at your craft that your organization cannot run without you.
65. Sleep begets sleep.
66. There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.
67. It is not possible to discover new oceans unless one is willing to lose sight of the shore.
68. Give support to get it. Give praise to receive it. Give your best to attract it. Give more respect to experience it. And give more love to become beloved.
69. Help others reach world class. And they will joyfully help you get to your cherished ideals.
70. Every great executive is strikingly disciplined, as is every great company.
71. The best thing in life requires sacrifice and devotion. Each of us, to get to our own unique forms of personal and professional greatness, must pay the price. And the more we pay, the more we will receive.
72. Give your best, and the best will come to you.
73. Each day we have the opportunity to make choices. And the way we choose shapes our destiny.
74. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult.
75. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
76. Everyone who is causing you stress, struggle and challenge in your life just might be an angel of sorts. They just might be the very messengers carrying the lessons you most need to learn to get to your next level of greatness.
77. When people feel respected, they feel better about themselves. And people, who feel good, do well.
78. Life’s most painful experiences are the very circumstances that introduce us to our best.
79. We learn more from the times that test us than we do from times of success.
80. Success is all about being in the process of joyfully creating a life that reflects your highest values, your deepest beliefs and your greatest dreams.
81. 20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did.
82. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude to a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.

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