The featured contributor for the week of September 21st, 2009 is Randy Lemmon:
randy lemmon is a media personality; he hosts the gardenline radio program on 740 ktrh in houston, texas, and is the author of the book gulf coast gardening.
Here are Randy's "Five Rules For Life":
1.) Stop and smell the roses now and then.
I didn't pick this because I'm the garden guy, although appropriate you have to admit. Cliché-ish? Yes! But really, if you don't pause occasionally to appreciate a sincerely beautiful thing now and then, how many other things in life are you missing? I'll give you a simple one to try this week - stop and watch a sunset! (well, when the weather clears!)
2.) Learn something new everyday.
In my job, I have to (I want to...) learn something new every day, or else the idea of doling out the same advice week-in and week-out scares - and bores - me too. I love to read, I love to learn, and I love to teach. I shout it out every time I'm taught something new "Well, You Learn Something New Every Day!"...and I mean it!
3.) Learn to say "I'm Sorry!"
Learn to admit you're wrong while you're at it. "I'm Sorry!", "I'm wrong!", "I never saw it that way!"...these may be some of the hardest things for stubborn people to say or admit. What does Dr. Phil call 'em? Right Fighters? Even if you're "right", when you can step away from it and apologize, or admit you were wrong (even if you're not), you will not believe how liberating and stress-relieving it can be. Apologizing and/or admitting you're wrong can save relationships of all kinds, marriages, and jobs.
4.) Your attitude determines your altitude.
My wife lives this statement to the fullest, because in her business she can't ever show anyone she's having a bad day. No one understands this rule of life better, which also means if she's having a bad day, she'll fake it until she makes it. As a really good sales person taught me years ago, your attitude is what people pick up on first. Just as laughing, yawning, and crying are infectious, attitude can be too. I've learned how to live this maxim from my wife - so much so that it affects my radio show; rarely will you ever catch me with a bad attitude to start the show (unless, of course there is no coffee at 6 a.m. on a Saturday)!
5.) Make your children and marriage top priority.
Remember all those cheesy motivational posters in the middle of the Sky Mall magazines on airplanes? There was one that always stayed with me every time I traveled. It had an adorable little 5-6 year old boy, hands tucked in back of his pockets and looking out over a pond, and it said:
"Priorities...a hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the size of the house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."
I read it a bazillion times before I had kids, and was inexplicably drawn to it; now I know why! I have two kids and I want to teach them well.
Randy currently resides in Houston, Texas.
Check back next weekend for a new Featured "Five Rules" of the Week.
And check out the new compilation post - "Five Rules For Life" - editor's choice.
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