This landed in my inbox this morning and reminded me how blessed I am to have a home based business so every day is a Saturday for me. I wanted to share this beautiful story with you today.

3,900 Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday morning. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.” I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It’s too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital,” he continued; “Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I’m getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There’s nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

It was nice to meet you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

This is a story from the book “Charging the Human Battery.” You can get it at SimpleTruth.com

A couple of months ago I posted this on my old “The Enlightened Networker” blog. This morning I needed a little reminder of the difference between good and great. So I watched this movie again to encourage myself to give it that extra little push that makes all the difference in the world. I thought I’d share it again with you all. Maybe you need a little reminder too.

Did you know that…

• At 211 degrees, water is hot.
• At 212 degrees, it boils.
• And with boiling water comes steam.
• And steam can power a locomotive.
• The one extra degree makes all the difference.

Are you reaching your goals, your dreams, whatever you set out to accomplish in life? Maybe you need to push just a little harder. Remember in last year’s Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps won another Gold Medal by one hundredth of a second.

So many times in business as well as in life (or sports) it is that one extra degree that makes all the difference in the world.

“To get what we’ve never had we must do what we’ve never done.”

See you at the top!

21 Ways to inspire Change
By Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein

Read on, or just watch the 3 minute movie:

Change What Needs Changing, Not What’s Easy

SUCCESS

“Before we build a better mousetrap, we need to find out if there are any mice out there.” _Yogi Berra

RE-RECRUIT YOUR BEST PEOPLE

“You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” _Bob Nelson

FORGET FOR SUCCESS

“It’s easier for companies to come up with new ideas than to let go of old ones.” _Peter Drucker

FOCUS ON STRENGHTS -

“Focus on the critical few…not the insignificant many.”

REMOVE BARRIERS

“When you’re up to your rear end in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your purpose is draining the swamp.” _George Napper

It All Starts with BELIEF

“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in their leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” _Anonymous

SIMPLIFY YOUR MESSAGE

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple – that’s creativity.” _Charles Mingus

LET YOUR ACTIONS SPEAK

“You can’t teach culture. You have to live it. You have to experience it. You have to share it. And, most importantly…you have to show it.” _Brent Harris

CELEBRATE SUCCESS

“The greatest management principle in the world is ‘the things that get rewarded and appreciated get done.’” _Michael LeBouef

MEASURE RESULTS

“What gets measured gets improved.” _Peter Drucker

SET THE STAGE FOR INNOVATION

“The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.” _Linus Pauling

STAND WITH THEM NOT ABOVE THEM

“The measure of a truly great man is the courtesy with which he treats lesser men.” _Anonymous

REINFORCE, REINFORCE, REINFORCE

Because…”When patterns are broken new worlds emerge.”

Network marketing is not easy. Nobody said it ways. It’s a very tough industry but also very rewarding. You will be rewarded handsomely for your efforts and your income will be in direct proportion to the work you do. 19 out of 20 people who start a home-based business quit. So if you are the ONE out of the nineteen who doesn’t, congratulations, consider yourself a leader.

We all feel like quitting some time. Leaders are those who never do. Leaders keep going when the going gets tough and they encourage those who follow them.

I would like to share this little poem with you. Save it on your desktop and the next time you feel like quitting…READ IT!

**DON’T QUIT**

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
when the road you’re trudging seems up hill;
when the funds are low and debts are high;
and you want to smile, but have to sigh;
when care is pressing you down a bit,
rest if you must, but don’t quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;
the silver lining of the clouds of doubt;
and you never can tell how close you are;
it may be near when it seems far.

So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit.
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.

1. “Well done is better than well said.”
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)

2. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its’ pants on.”
Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)

3. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
Mother Teresa
(1910-1997)

4. “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
George Washington
(1732-1799)

5. “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)

6. “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, has strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
Walt Disney
(1901-1966)

7. “Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”
Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865)

8. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Vince Lombardi
(1913-1970)

9. “It is better to light the candle than to curse the darkness.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
(1884-1962)

10. “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
Dwight Eisenhower
(1890-1969)

11. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Nelson Mandela
(1918 – )

12. “We must become the change we wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)

13. “The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart.”
Helen Keller
(1880-1968)

14. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
Henry Ford
(1863-1947)

15. “Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.”
Ronald Reagan
(1911-2004)

Watch the Movie to see More Great Quotes fromGreat Leaders:

By Jack Canfield

1. An affirmation is a positive statement affirming your being in the state of having already accomplished the goal.
2. So many affirmations out there. Why not create your own? Start with the words “I am” and remember to use present tense.
3. Remember, affirmations CHANGE things. They Release the Brakes (and the breaks) and change your limiting beliefs.
4. Remember to state affirmations in the positive. Affirm what you WANT, not what you don’t want.
5. Affirmations program your subconscious mind.
6. Keep your affirmations brief and repeat it often! Carry it in your pocket. Post-it to your steering wheel. Send it to your own voice mail.
7. The Law of Attraction is INTENSIFIED by affirmations.
8. Include an action word for your affirmations (ending in ing).
9. Include at least one DYNAMIC emotion or feeling word in your affirmations.
10. Use affirmations to greatly accelerate your success.
11. Make affirmations for YOURSELF (not others).
12. Use affirmations to create the life you DREAM of.