Friends – Old and New

By Diane Forrest

Several years ago when I was in Brownie Scouts we had a song that we would sing - it went like this:

Make new friends but keep the old,

One is Silver and the other Gold

We would sing it in rounds, like when you sing row, row, row, your boat...then the next group would start...and so on.  At the time I didn't understand the meaning of this song, but then again I was only about 10 years old.  As I have gotten a little bit older, I understand what the song means.

The old friends in your life know about your history, you have shared stories and experiences together, private jokes that no body else could understand.  They have been with you during good times and bad.  They are priceless and even more valuable than gold.

Making new friends is just as exciting.  You can have new adventures together, make new stories and try new things. And if you’re lucky, eventually they will turn into old friends.

Sometimes our lives lead us in directions that keep us away from our friends.  New jobs, expanding families, relocations can all play a part in helping to lose touch with those we care about.  Luckily, today's technology allows us to keep in touch with our friends.  Not only do we have computers, we also have cell phones that you can talk, text, and even see someone live.  Our computers allow us to email and participate in social media such as Facebook, where we can keep in touch by reading posts and looking at pictures.  You can also meet new people this way who share some of your interests.   I am a bit leery of meeting new people this way.  A long time friend of mine sent me a picture of a young girl around 15 or 16 years old.  He asked if he should become Facebook friends with her.  Since he is 69, I told him it might not be such a good idea.  He would probably end up in jail or something!

This week is National Old Friends New Friends week.  If there is an old friend out there that you have lost touch with, it is easy to reconnect with them, send them an email or try to locate their phone number.  Its also a time to meet someone new, maybe someone you see often while you are shopping, or even meeting a neighbor.   For more tips on how to celebrate this week check out this site: http://www.drjanyager.com/friendship/nationalnew-oldfriendsweek.htm

National Self-Improvement Month

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By Terry Orr

Self-Improvement - improvement of one's status, mind, abilities, etc. by one's own efforts.

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There is always something we would like to change about ourselves—job satisfaction, health, physical fitness level, intellectual development, eating habits, or relationships—The hardest part isn’t figuring out what to change…it’s making that change stick!  Most people fail to reach goals because of one of three reasons.

1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Environment is not conducive to change
3. We give up too soon

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Each morning while preparing for the day and cleaning up – I spend some time reviewing yesterday’s activities and how I handle things in general. If there are things needing work, I put those into my list of things to day and improve on.  I also smile and am thankful for another day.

We all know someone like this.
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You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself. ~ John Ruskin

On Google search on self-improvement books with 297 million hits – I have read many books on this topic over the past five decades – but nowhere near that many.  I have mentioned in the past articles that the one author who influenced my life was Dr. Stephen R. Covey who passed recently.

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Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

It was the sacred rule among the Pythagoreans that they should every evening thrice run over the actions and affairs of the day. ~ Dr. L. Watts

Never neglect an opportunity for improvement. ~ Sir William Jones

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself. ~ B. R. Haydon 

Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Everyone has naturally the power of excelling in some one thing. ~ Proverb

Perfection does not exist - you can always do better and you can always grow. ~ Les Brown

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~ Zig Ziglar

Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ Willam Faulkner

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Top 10 Tips for Self-Improvement

10. Get off to a Good Start.  Getting up early and eating breakfast! You will have much more energy throughout the day to follow the rest of these tips if you do!

9. Keep a Schedule.  It is a very good idea to write down the tasks you need to achieve in each day. As you complete them, tick them off. You should not, however, feel like you are bound to your list.

8.  Take a Break and have Fun.  If you spend too much time in front of the computer, at your desk, or doing whatever it is that your occupation requires, you should take a break.

7.  Be Generous.  Generosity has a tendency to come back. You can be generous with your smiles, your advice, and many other things. Always try to find a way to help others.

6.  Accept the things you can’t Change.  When something bad happens in our lives, we try to fix them or change them. But sometimes we can’t. Often this leads us to spend hours moping and falling in to depression.

5.  Learn a New Language.  Learning another language is one of the best ways to improve your grasp on English.

4.  Brake the Chain.  If you have a lot of patterns in your life, try breaking them – do something different every day.

3.  Face the Fear.  Every day you should do something you don’t want to do – or feel uncomfortable doing. This varies in degrees for everyone, but we all have little things we can start out with.

2.  Forget Goals.  I still have goal and things in life to be accomplish – but since retiring, they no longer drive my daily routine.

1. Don’t Procrastinate.  This is a hard one for most folks – something we need to work on (sometimes daily for me).

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Whatever area of your life that you are looking to improve – jot is down, think about how to do it and then “Make it Happen”.

Good Luck!!