“experience, and most of those experiences are painful and costly. If you can learn from someone else’s pain and expense, you are a wise person, indeed. I would encourage you to read this book, cover-to-cover, but also keep it as a reference text using the sections and individual columns as a resource you can revisit as your life journey calls for specific wisdom. It is my hope that this is not a one-time encounter that you and I are having. My hope is, in the coming months and years as you travel toward your own personal”
―
Jim Stovall
“wife and two children on the spot of barren dirt that hours before had been his home and everything he owned, he spoke the words I will keep with me always. He said, “We have lost absolutely everything. We have nothing left other than the clothes on our backs.” Then, after a brief pause, he continued, “But I guess we are lucky since our whole family is safe and sound. We have everything important.” To have lost everything and still have everything seems contradictory, but it’s not. As I reflect on the lessons presented by the young father, I realize that we all spend a lot of time accumulating things that in the final”
―
Jim Stovall
“in their lives, becoming ever-more beaten down, will often be heard to say, “I knew that was going to happen.” On the other hand, the winners in every arena of life seem to continue to win time after time and expect it as their due. As we go about our daily”
―
Jim Stovall
“You can often outperform what other people think of you, but you will never outperform what you think of yourself.”
―
Jim Stovall
“that we would receive the overwhelming message that the vast majority of adults feel they have no talent in these areas. On the other hand, if we were to conduct the same poll among 4-year-olds, we would find that virtually all of them are convinced they can sing, and virtually all of them have confidence in their ability to dance. Most of the 4-year-olds have little or no real talent, but, instead, they are endowed with incredible confidence in their own potential. This confidence, or certainty of success, is something we were all born with but we later traded in for a strong dose of what we call realism. Shortly after we reach school age, we are taught lessons about the world that revolve around us, limiting our vision and becoming realistic.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Success lies in the balance between seeking and striving on one hand and being peaceful and content on the other.”
―
Jim Stovall
“The journey of life is a matter of traveling well rather than reaching a destination.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Every day is a gift because it can either be the first day of the rest of our life or be our last day here on earth.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Laughter is good medicine for the soul. Our world is desperately in need of more such medicine.”
―
Jim Stovall
“Struggles often serve to release the wisdom, patience, and strength we all possess but too seldom demonstrate.”
―
Jim Stovall
“great legacy starts with a great life, and every great life starts with a great plan.”
―
Jim Stovall
“If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones. When we come to understand this, we live our lives not avoiding problems, but welcoming them them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future.”
―
Jim Stovall
“A journey should never be judged by the destination or mode of transportation. It should be judged by the friends who accompany us on the trip.”
―
Jim Stovall
“missing, intangible, undefinable “something” that we only know exists because we don’t seem to have it. “Something to do” represents the investment of the most precious commodity that we all have—our time. We all have the same amount of hours and minutes each day. Success and happiness hang in the balance based upon how”
―
Jim Stovall
