Quotes to make you think, part 2

A few months back I posted some quotes to make you think. Here's my second installment in that series. There are quite a few good quotes in here that hopefully will help you as you grow and continue on in life.

"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." – Norman Schwarzkopf, US Army general

"To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you." – Tony Dorsett, football player

"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere." – Lee Iacocca, former chairman, Chrysler Corporation

"My first order of business is to figure out the order of my business." - Gio

"We spend our lives being proactive to what we have to react to." - Gio

"A genius is a talented person who does his homework." – Thomas Edison, inventor

"The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge."
– Arnold Palmer, golfer

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
– John Wooden, basketball coach

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams, 6th US president

"Most battles are won before they are ever fought."
– George Patton, US Army general

"If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
– John Wooden, basketball coach

"The road to success is always under construction."
– Lily Tomlin, actress

"Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can’t, you are not leading well." – Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric chief executive

"In order to be a leader, a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible." – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

"One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks." – Malcolm S. Forbes, publisher

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."
– Peter F. Drucker, business strategist

"You just don’t luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities." – Barbara Bush, first lady

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." – Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha

"Intense concentration hour after hour can bring out resources in people they didn’t know they had." – Edwin Land, inventor, entrepreneur

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
– Mark Twain, writer

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." – E. M. Forster, writer

"Whenever you fall, pick up something." – Oswald Avery, scientist

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself."
– Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, activist

"The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you’re down the path of inactivity." – Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola CEO

"What gets measured gets done." – Peter Drucker, educator

"You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do." – Henry Ford, automaker

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson, president

"The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds."
– Tyron Edwards, theologian

"A leader is most successful when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves."
– Lao-Tzu, philosopher

"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."
– Lee Iacocca, Chrysler chairman

"Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement. It is one of the ways in which a person defines himself, measures his worth – and his humanity." – Peter Drucker, author

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to."
– George Allen, U.S. senator

"When one door closes another door opens; but we do often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
– Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." – David Brinkley, newsman

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." – Steve Jobs, Apple Computer co-founder and chief executive

"A sale isn't a thing, it's a process. It isn't standing still, it's moving. It isn't one long job, it's a series of smaller jobs." - Anonymous

- Gio

Depression

Depression is a crazy thing.

It makes you do weird things like wander through a store looking for things you don't want or need, muttering to yourself that you don't need them. Yet, you continue on in search of that elusive thing that you just know is there, not knowing what it is the whole time. Oh, it doesn't stop at one store, it continues on and on and on. Sometime you end up leaving with hundreds of dollars in things you don't need, other times you leave empty handed. Either way, you always leave with this empty feeling inside.

It drives you to work 80 hours a week for months on end, only to eventually crash one day. It causes you to quit everything you've worked hard for. It causes you to sabotage any chance you may have at success. It makes the smallest of matters appear more important than world peace. It clouds your judgment in dealing with the people who can make your life better. It causes you to argue with your boss, not a vocal argument per se, but a silent, quiet one in which there is no clear winner. Mind you, this is the person at the end of the year who will be in charge of writing up your annual review and taking care of you.

Depression is treating those closest to you in the worst possible ways at the most inopportune times. It is doing things, that you look back years later and go, "Whoa I did what?", and knowing deep down in your soul that you'd do them again given the chance. If only you could create that chance, searching for that feeling again. What is it you're looking for?

Depression is doing things you shouldn't in search of things you don't need. It is fixating on a multitude of things at one time, the hot neighbor down the street, your new hobby, the internet (oh do we crazies love this thing), work, the kids, slouching around on the couch. Did I fail to mention the mood swings? One day you're up and the whole world is fine, the next you don't want to leave the house. You want to sit all day in a comfortable chair eating potato chips and watching TV, not one channel mind you but one after the other after the other, not really watching anything, but capturing everything in your mind.

Depression is like a 300lb. gorilla sitting on your chest poking his long finger on your forehead and breathing his foul breath onto your face.

In spite of it, we all must go on. I've been taking my meds, trying to maintain a positive mental outlook, exercising (which has only proven to get me sick from all of the germs....work out good for a week, be sick for a week..repeat), keeping my work life and private life separate. Yet, there are days, weeks, months when it just creeps up on you, sort of like a big black cloud hanging over your head on an otherwise sunny day. Maybe it's just my luck of the genetic draw, maybe it's my personality, whatever it is living with depression is many things.

Don't worry about me, I'll be back strong as I always seem to bounce back on my feet. This latest round of feeling down, defeated, wounded is one of a long series of episodes in my life. This is by no means the worst, or no means the best. I've somehow managed to start my climb back out of the deep dark hole in a good place, with a semi-promotion. Funny how that works.

Reflecting back on the past year, which has been mentally tough for me, I can't help but wonder when my trip down the dark deep hole that is depression will finally consume me. When will it finally end up with me losing my job, my family, everything that I've worked so hard for. Depression makes me wonder these things, and laugh at them as depression also makes me feel invincible.

If you think you may be suffering from depression, or are just having a hard time getting through life. I ask, please get some help. It took me many years to realize what I was battling, what I was up against, what I was dealing with. It took me somehow finding that little shred of inner courage to reach out for help. Please, do the same.

Gio