Okay Jeff, here they are:

"One man with courage makes a majority"...andrew jackson

Empowerment is all about letting go so that others can get going

Ken Blanchard

You  do not need to import greatness from another; you just need to act on your own.

     --  Alan Cohen

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget  how you make them feel.    

     -- Carol Buchner

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

     --  Samuel Johnson

It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.

     -- George Burns

One moment of true forgiveness can erase years of guilt, pain, or fear.

     -- Alan Cohen

There is more to life than watching other people live it.

     --  Source unknown.

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents."

Andrew Carnegie

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. 

     --  Albert Camus

To seek greatness outside yourself is turn your back on the treasure within.

     --  Alan Cohen

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. 

     -- Confucius

Keeping your commitment to your purpose does not depend on other people keeping theirs.

     -- Alan Cohen

If one person is happier because you have lived, it is all worth it.  And if you are that person, God is well pleased.

     --  Alan Cohen

"Live out of your imagination, not your history." -- Stephen Covey

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments." -- Napoleon Hill

"What is powerful is when what you say is just the tip of the iceberg of what you know." -- Jim Rohn

"To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed." -- Bernard Edmonds

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"People are like tea bags -- you have to put them in hot water before you

know how strong they are."

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail." -- Charles F. Kettering

"The pessimist may be right in the long run, but the optimist has a better time during the trip."
- Author Unknown

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to
surpass all others at whatever the cost, but the urge to serve others at
whatever the cost." - Arthur Ashe

If you don't place your foot on the rope, you'll never cross the chasm.

Liz Smith
Columnist

Who Dares Wins.

"Fear of failure or success is one and the same. Both are fear of exposure.  Not of our strengths, but of our weaknesses." -- Kevin W. McCarthy

"There never was a winner, who wasn't a beginner." -- Denis Waitley

"It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, 'What are we busy about'?" -- Henry David Thoreau

"The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch." -- Jim Rohn

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience." -- Henry Miller

There is nothing you can't do and nothing you have to do.

     -- Source unknown. 

"If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street." -- Ben Nicholas

"Chance favors those in motion." -- James H. Austin

Play the music, not the instrument.

     -- Source unknown.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

     -- Dr. Seuss

Success in business depends more on relationships than spreadsheets.

      -- Alan Cohen

Spirit is a more accurate measure of success than the ruler.

     --  Alan Cohen

”If someone were to pay you for every kind word you ever spoke
and collect for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?”
- Author Unknown

Before someone will accept your criticism, you need to acknowledge their strengths.

     -- David Rabner

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a

life’s experience.”

The great late Christopher Reeves said in his final days, “Either you

decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.”

The writer George Eliot said, “It’s never too late to be who you might

have been.”

The entertainer Danny Kaye once said, “Life is a great big canvas; throw

all the paint on it you can.”

The question is not, "What am I going to do to?"  The question is, "Who will I be when I do it?"

      -- Alan Cohen

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Make the most of yourself, for that is all

there is of you.”

Florence Shinn wrote, “The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our

thoughts, deeds, and words return to us sooner or later, with outstanding

accuracy.”

Character is the ability to follow through on a commitment after the initial enthusiasm has passed.

     -- Source unknown.

The quality of your life equals the ratio of appreciation to complaint.

     -- Alan Cohen

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

     --  Leonardo da Vinci

If you want peace, look for it where it is, not in conflict.

     -- Alan Cohen

Why wait for your ship to come in when you are already on it?

     -- Alan Cohen

Quit planning your dream and start living it.

     -- Alan Cohen

If I spent as much time doing the things I worry about getting done as I do worrying about doing them, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. 

     --  Beryl Pfizer

After all these years I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.

     -- Mark Twain

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." - Reggie Leach

You can be helping many people, but if you are not helping yourself, you have missed the one person you were born to heal.

     -- Alan Cohen

The only thing you cannot afford to postpone is joy.

     -- Source unknown

More Heart than Talent by Jeffery Combs

Why Heart Beats Talent Every Time

It is my belief that talent is one of the most overrated attributes when evaluating what is required to be successful. Although talent is very important when it comes to performing, it often times has little to do with how success is achieved and who becomes successful. The world is filled with talented people, yet why is it that so few people live and achieve their dreams?

What does it truly mean to have heart? Heart is the intangible; the invisible ingredient that is difficult to explain and measure to the average person. Heart is the magic, the juice, the stuff, fifth gear, the overdrive that great achievers in life tap into when challenges and obstacles appear. Heart is making a conscious choice to live an exceptional life rather than an average one. Average people (about 97% of society) let events shape their lives, while exceptional people are able to change their perceptions of challenging events and overcome them.

Heart has little to do with size, weight, color, creed, education, intelligence, I.Q., bloodline, where you grew up, or most of all, talent. Virtually everyone has raw, untapped talent. The problem is that most people never get out of their talent. Instead, they hide behind it, too afraid to take risks, to be vulnerable, and most of all, to risk not being perfect. Fear and procrastination (unwarranted perfection) becomes the opponent. Taking the risks to get out of your talent is where having heart begins.

Learning to live in the moment, the present, is also where heart begins. This means making your move before you are ready, challenging yourself and the beliefs that limit you, standing tall in the face of adversity, and taking on life's challenges without having to prove that you are good enough. Having heart means you possess a quality called courage, which there is always a market for and never goes out of fashion. Exceptional people tap into their courage when faced with adversity and step immediately into the solution, even when the solution takes them into unfamiliar territory. Average people typically choose to remain in the problem simply because it is familiar and they fear being vulnerable when facing the possibility of not performing perfectly in the solution.

When stepping out of what is perceived to be comfortable, it is often uncomfortable in the beginning. These early tests are where you really get to learn and grow from adversity and to gain insights and wisdom to the causes and effects that stop "want to be success seekers". When we are being tested is typically when we are about to learn our greatest lesson.

Heart can be looked at medically through microscopes and surgery, but cannot be measured by typical eyesight. Heart is about feelings and emotions rather than thinking and contemplating. This means being outside of yourself, your head, your ego, and being inside your heart and loving the process, the evolution of change. Having heart means being able to take any ball in life and saying, "Follow me! I don't know how we are going to get there, but we are. Just give me the ball." Heart is what separates the average from the exceptional.

Heart is what separates the average from the exceptional and I have learned in life that heart beats talent every time. Show me a man or woman with heart and I'll show you a way to overcome someone else's talent. We all have talent, talent on loan from God, more talent than humanly possible. That guy or that woman has so much talent it's unbelievable. Look how much talent he or she has. They are loaded with talent. These are all statements that refer to how much potential a man or a woman may have. We all have this; it's God-given. Unfortunately, not many people really get outside their talent, instead they hide behind it and they stay in it. They stay in their ego; afraid to reach their human potential; afraid to risk and be vulnerable; afraid to become the person they really deserve to be.

Now, "deserve" is a very interesting word and it is a word that keeps many people from becoming who they really could be. What the word deserve references in Latin is "de servire" which means day of service. When you have self-esteem issues or don't feel good enough, you send a telepathic mixed message in a business situation or in life that says things such as, "Please join me, but don't follow me because I can't lead you." Or "Please reject me, because I'm not lovable." Or "Don't go out on a date with me because I wouldn't want to be on a date with me either." Or "Please send me money, but don't send me money because I'm not comfortable with it. I have an emotional resistance and I want to keep it away because I don't deserve it. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks."

This is how many people stay in their talent, afraid to take a risk. Any kind of success is going to involve risks and average people resist taking risks because they believe that they have to stay comfortable. The average person's comfort zone is really a miserable zone and you have to get uncomfortable, you have to get out of the box, you have to be moving into the present to become the person you deserve to be. This is where you're going to have to take some risks. This doesn't mean you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge on a dare, but start to take a bigger calculated risk than you've typically been comfortable with. This is when you really begin to stretch and grow and become the person that you really are. Risk is really a perception. And sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one.

Changing isn't nearly as difficult as you perceive. You already are a brilliant person, you're a masterpiece in progress, and you have the ability to design your life rather than make a living. The people who stay in their talent stay in their safety zone. They're not excelling; they're being stuck, procrastinating, using money as an excuse, and using perfection as an excuse. When your excuse becomes believable to you and you become the excuse, constant reminders of how talented you are don't help much.

Stepping Outside Your Talent

Now, let's take a look at what it's like to get out of your talent and some of the feelings that we have when we truly take this step. Being outside of your talent is the hands-free zone; it's a state of flow; it's a relaxed state of consciousness; it's playing like a child.

People ask me all the time, "How do I get into flow?" A better question is, "Why do you ever get out of it once you're in it?" I ask people to smile and laugh. When you see anyone who is laughing, they are in a state of flow. They don't have to try to be in flow.

The average person spends too much time trying to achieve, rather than just being. If you're being, you're in the moment, you're in the now and that's where you can really tap into your heart consciousness. This is the highest level of consciousness where you really attract the people, situations and opportunities that you are seeking. When you are outside of your talent, you are who you really are. You're riding a bicycle with no hands. Success becomes you and it comes to you rather than you chasing it.

Being out of your talent is when you are present; then you unleash your full potential. You begin to transmit, telepathically, your thought waves through the universe from a position of peace. It means you love who you are so you can love what you're becoming and doing. What you do becomes a game rather than a job. You develop touch, finesse, you glide, people want to touch you, be with you, become you, you become what is called a people magnet. You vibrate from a level that says, "I'm very comfortable with who I am and who I'm becoming." You vibrate from a position that says, "I am the leader you are looking for."

The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're still alive.

     --  O.A. Battista   

Your thoughts do not create reality, but they do create your experience.

     -- Alan Cohen

Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

     -- Joel A. Barker