Valuing Yourself and Your Needs (As a Parent): This is about taking care of your OWN needs as a parent because when you consistently put yourself last to be taken care of and habitually continue to sacrifice your basic necessities to make everyone else happy…Essentially, what you’re teaching your children is that they’re here to be of service to others, then themselves. In other words, you’re teaching them to take advantage of you and use you as they please, which in turn communicates to them that they’re most likely to be used. To prevent this from happening, you need to set consistent limits that protect you from demands that could be overbearing and unfair. That way, you’re communicating that your basic needs are just as important as theirs. It’s true…often times parents that are constantly sacrificing themselves are idealized and praised by other parents. You know… the ones that have no hobbies, no friends and no avenue of enjoyment. Is this really desirable? Parents constantly stressed about the needs of others in the family are usually irritable, and unmotivated to try anything new, fun or exciting. How can parents do this long term with no outlet? Instead, us parents need to enjoy ourselves and focus on being re-energized. When you take good care of yourself, you provide the means to take better care of your children. Going out to dinner or cocktails, trips to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, date night with your spouse or even some alone time reading or going for a walk allows you to be a more productive, interested and patient parent.”

“Nobody works better under pressure. They just work faster.”

“Don't fight your thoughts. Allow them to come, but don’t cling to them. The small gaps between thoughts create the power in meditation.”

“When you set more goals, try more things, engage in more activities, and explore more opportunities, your probabilities of success increase dramatically.”

“Always give without remembering and always receive without forgetting.”

“Josh Billings wrote, “It’s not what a man knows that hurts him; it’s what he knows that isn’t true.”

“Get it 80 percent right and then correct it later.”

“Every minute spent in planning saves ten to twelve minutes in execution.”

“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and importance, although  difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.”

“The biggest mistake we could ever make in our lives is to think we work for anybody but ourselves.”

“To earn more, you must learn more.”

“A goal, however, is something distinctly different from a wish. It is clear, written, and specific. It can be quickly and easily described to another person. You can measure it, and you know when you have achieved it or not.”

“Always choose the future over the past. What do we do now?”

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from  scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who  have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve  our goals.”

“Your thoughts, vividly imagined and repeated, charged with emotion, become your reality.”