Test Your Might

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, May 29, 2016

Test Your Might

By Glennel Hardy

 

I took a few moments today and reflected back on times that it seemed like I was down for the count.  It’s those moments of time in which it appears that everything that is not supposed to be happening, all comes in and hits you all at once.  When we do come face to face with these moments, it’s very hard to find meaning, on what it’s meant to teach us.

The one story I do recall was when I was riding my bike as a child, and I fell and scraped myself pretty bad.  I was lying flat on the ground, and thought to myself I would never ride a bike again. Not only is there pain while you’re scraped and bruised, but the thought of it happening once again terrifies us.

We have to rise up once again, and in order to rise you have to dust yourself off, and come at it with a different approach.  This analogy is very similar with our day to day life.  If we fall we change the elements, and we try again and again until we’re successful. If we fall it does not mean that we are weak or incapable, it means we’re closer to finding the right elements in order to make it work.

 

 

The Long Road Back

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, May 22, 2016 

The Long Road Back 

By Glennel Hardy

 

There is nothing more discouraging then when you are headed in a certain direction, and you realize that you have to turn around and go back.  I have experienced several failed attempts journeying down long roads, before realizing I was traveling down the wrong path.  Life itself has many open roads, where we have to constantly face decision points on where to go next. Experience not only provides wisdom for us, but it allows us the opportunity to go rogue, and to take on something new, where others dare to venture.

It takes courage to journey back from where we once began, but it takes extraordinary measures to venture on a new open road. Never become weary of the journey that lies ahead of you, be eager to discover something within you, that you never knew existed.

Switching Tracks

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, May 15, 2016

Switching Tracks

By Glennel Hardy

 

On occasion we can set our mind to accomplish those things that we envision within ourselves.  At times though we find, that as we journey towards the goal, we are forced to switch tracks, and have to set a new course. There is an obstacle that is placed before us, that prevents us to proceed down the original track.

When we come across an obstacle, there is generally a side track which will allow us a way around the obstacle, and we discover a new way to reach our destination.  The best things in life are those that come along with obstacles, which in return allows us a new way to discover an opportunity to succeed. An obstacle’s duty is not to make it easy, but to make us become wiser and to take us from average to extraordinary.

 

Love It or Lose It

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, May 08, 2016 

Love It or Lose It

By Glennel Hardy

 

This past week I had the opportunity to reflect back on the people that have come and gone, and those that really inspired me. We have one opportunity to get it right, and that which we lose we can never recover the loss. Only at times when we lose something or someone, do we reflect back on the moments that were shared, while we still had it.

It’s imperative to “love” that thing or that someone today, for everything that we are given is only on loan, but we can sure “love it” while it’s here.  Today is the opportunity to “love” life like there is no tomorrow.  Love who you have, and love what you have.

 

 

Envision the End Result

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, May 01, 2016

Envision the End Result

By Glennel Hardy

 

This past week I had the amazing opportunity to do some light hiking in the Smoky Mountains.  Hiking has always and continue to be a challenge for me, but the opportunity of the view at the very end drives me. It’s safe to say that we have been in a point in our lives, that the challenge was rigorous, but once we completed it the end result was extraordinary.

As I do in hiking I challenge myself to focus on the end result in most things that I do. It’s very tempting to succumb to our obstacles, but it takes a strategic vision to focus on the beauty of reaching the result we want. This is an everyday challenge for me, and we should always find something to aim for, something to accomplish and complete.

Keep your eye on what the end result may be, in order to overcome the obstacles that we face as we continue to move forward.  If there are no obstacles, it takes the fun out of capturing what we would desire to achieve.

The Moment

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, April 24, 2016 

The Moment

By Glennel Hardy

 

We’re given certain opportunities in our lifetime to stumble across something that we may never have the opportunity to ever witness again.  This at times can be our moment of greatness where we have a window of opportunity, to shine and make the impact we were destined to make. The moment that you realize that everything has aligned in place, and the best move we can make, is to move forward.

When your moment comes around seize it and cherish it, because after all it’s just a portion of time in our lives.

The Turning Point

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Turning Point 

By Glennel Hardy

 

Throughout our lives everything runs through multiple cycles. Some things will last us a lifetime, while others will end unexpectedly.

We’re called to do certain things, which makes us unique from those that are around us. The thing that you may enjoy doing today, may soon end preparing you for something new.

Growth has spurts. You start small and you grow large, generally above your expectations.

We may get disappointed when things come to an end, but for every end there is a new beginning.

When you come to the edge, take a leap of faith, jump into the unknown and don’t fear it.

Awesome Starts Now

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, April 10, 2016 

Awesome Starts Now 

By Glennel Hardy

 

If you ever approached anyone and asked “How is your day going?” and their reply was “awesome”, more than likely it was a series of events that led up to that point.  Awesome starts the moment we wake up, and get out of bed and what we open our mind to, as the day progresses. Awesome can be another window of opportunity waiting to be seized that we never knew existed.

What is awesome to you, or how big does awesome have to be in order for you take notice of it?  Awesome surrounds us but can easily be missed, as we journey through life. Awesome starts now, you’re surrounded by awesome, and therefore life of what it has to offer us is awesome, if we just seize the moment.

Awesome starts right now.

Keep Climbing

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, April 03, 2016 

Keep Climbing 

By Glennel Hardy

It has taken me a while to get to this point in life where I am now beginning to work on my lifetime goals. I have no regrets that I did not start them sooner, as I believe that timing is everything.  This past week I started  construction on my new website, which was a vision that existed in my head, but had never come to life.  I am going through a stage in life, where I am venturing past familiar territory, exploring new music, and tapping into unrealized creativity.

In order for us to keep climbing we have to step beyond what makes us feel safe, and walk into what scares the heck out of us. Launching a new website, and exposing my creativity scares the heck out of me, you open yourself up to conversation, and you introduce yourself to a brand new audience.

In order to experience something different than what we may have today, let’s get scared together, and go after it.

 

It Takes Only One Person

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, March 27, 2016 

It Takes Only One Person 

By Glennel Hardy

 

When I was in my early twenties I attended church one Sunday with my mom, it was a church where we both never attended. I can recall this Sunday so well, because as we listened to one of the  member’s teach Sunday school, she pointed at me and said we need a young person like you to teach us. I had very little experience in speaking in front of a congregation, but the sincerity in her eyes, exemplified she wanted me up there.

Obediently the next Sunday, I went up there and gave it my best shot, and the class listened to me attentively.  Among my class I had from adolescents, to senior citizens.  I survived my first Sunday, and begin teaching every Sunday thereafter until I moved from Chicago. Quite a few members of my original class have since passed away.  As I look back today, I am reminded of the opportunity I had to reach out to them and make an impact.

It taken only person to believe that I had the potential and capability of becoming something that I thought I could never be.  Most of us can contribute our success to one person that truly believed in us, and with their faith in us it taken us to new horizons. That is why it is so important to continue to be the person that we are today, even if it’s just one person that may believe in us.

It only takes one person to see something in us, and when they tell us what they see, that is when we must seize the opportunity to act on it.

A Work of Art

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, March 20, 2016

A Work of Art

By Glennel Hardy

 

I absolutely love visiting the art museum and wandering from gallery to gallery observing the pieces of art on the wall.  As you view certain pieces of work you imagine what the artist may have been considering when he composed the piece. As you move further through the gallery you notice that each piece of art is unique, and may represent a certain period of time.

We ourselves is truly a work of art.  We represent a time and place, a moment where our masterpiece comes to existence. Like an artist we start with a few strokes of a paint brush, and then throughout life we add color, we create images, and our life becomes vivid. Every color, every shade, and every image within our piece makes up who we are today.

We are a masterpiece. We are unique and one of a kind, and cannot be copied. We may look back at times when things were rough, but they were a part of the masterpiece.  We will persevere, as our masterpiece continues.

A true artist never puts the paint brush down.

 

Breaking Down the Equation

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, March 13, 2016 

Breaking Down the Equation

By Glennel Hardy

 

I have no true appreciation of college math but when it came time to pass the course in order to graduate, I sought tutoring to help me get through it.  Breaking a problem down to its lowest point, in order to find the simplest solution totally intimidated me.  I had to find a way to embrace a situation that intimidated me and fall in love with it.

We typically would do our best to avoid anything that intimidate us, but what if the one thing that we fear the most, is the key to our success.  With certainty if I did not pass statistics, I would not have graduated, fear had met me face to face.  I had come to the point of either fearing statistics, or not walking across the stage with my degree.  The vision of obtaining my degree overruled the fear of statistics.

The purpose of the intimidator is to test your ability to go after what is meant for you to have, success does not come easy, and the one that intimidates delivers the test.  As we do in math, we have to write the complete equation out, and cancel out that which does not belong, and what you do to one side, you must do to the other side, and always remember everything matters in the equation.

Photo Courtesy of Evan Curtis

The Cost of Time

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, March 06, 2016

The Cost of Time

By Glennel Hardy

 

It is said to not have regrets as we progress through life, and no matter what keep our eyes on the ball, and continue moving forward.  As I look back over the past twenty years, there was a moment in time, which I didn’t appreciate life as well as I appreciate it today. In fact twenty years ago my vision was limited, and I would have never imagined, attempting to accomplish what I am working on today.

Time is a scarce resource.   We are not certain if we have enough, how much more of it we do have, and if we are using it to the best of its potential. Since we are not sure of how much of it is left, it becomes invaluable, we are not able to put a price on it, a salary cannot even sufficiently come to a term of agreement with it.

Time is now. We have to believe tomorrow is a gift, and is not expected. If we were to start making changes in our lives today, under the impression that tomorrow is a gift, the way we look at life will change dramatically.  We cannot be mistaken that we are rich with time, because as with all resources our quantity is limited.

Running on Empty

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Optimism Thought of the Week 

For Sunday, February 28, 2016 

Running on Empty 

By Glennel Hardy

 

We have a fear of losing everything that we have today in our lives.  In the back of our mind we could be saying that things are going pretty well, and that everything seems to be in sync. Are we ever prepared to lose everything, and hit the reset button to start over again?  I moved from Chicago to Phoenix, Arizona when things were going pretty well, and I landed a new job that had taken me out of my comfort zone.  In a little over a year, I was laid off, the retirement savings I once had was wiped out, and I lost everything in that moment.

When we lose everything the hardest move for us to make is to be prepared to hit the reset button and start over.  To lose everything is ground zero, rock bottom, and at your lowest point. When we lose everything we make room for a new beginning, we learn lessons from the past, and we start fresh. When we lose everything it leaves a vacancy, in which we get to choose how we are going to fill up the empty space.

Looking back over the years, losing everything was the best thing that ever happened to me.  My life was unbalanced, and overdue changes needed to occur in my life. It’s not the end of the chapter when we lose everything, losing everything is where the new chapter begins.

 

 

 

Making A Deposit

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, February 21, 2016

 

Making a Deposit

 

By Glennel Hardy

 

I spend most of my time strategically visualizing or dreaming of things that I would like to see come to existence.  At times I love to visualize even those things that others may see as impossible, and dare myself to go after it. The one thing I enjoy doing the most is mentoring. I mentor because it’s a way of making a deposit, and observing someone grow to an exceptional member of society.  I myself never had a mentor growing up, but have been blessed to have a few in my adult life.

We can challenge ourselves to make a deposit in someone’s life today.  Each one of us possess something that is so unique that it will be exceptionally beneficial to someone else, only if we choose to make a deposit. After all where would we be today, if someone would not have made a deposit in our lives?

Who are we to say, that what we have is small to offer, for what we have today, can be more than the person beside us?  We all have something to bring to the table, everything is a big deal, and there is nothing small, when it comes to making a deposit in someone’s life

Everyday Connect

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Optimism Thought of the Week

For Sunday, February 14, 2016

 

Everyday Connections

 

By Glennel Hardy

 

Our “everyday connections” with people that we meet should never be taken for granted. Of the billions of people on earth each one of us serve a particular purpose.

Some of us may serve multiple purposes based on the unique talents or gifts that we have been given in order to help others around us.

Our “everyday connections” are those individuals, that you may not know by name, but now it’s time to find out who they are, it may be someone you briskly walk pass because you are in a hurry, but tomorrow, slow down, and have that conversation with them.

The “everyday connections” you see today, you may not see them in the big picture in your life today, but they may play a major role in your life tomorrow. – Glennel Hardy

Away From the Weeds

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Optimism Thought of the Week

 

For Sunday, February 07, 2016

 

Away From the Weeds

 

By Glennel L. Hardy

Chief Creative Editor

 

My grandmother was an extraordinary gardener who taught me how to garden at a very young age.  I can recall grabbing the garden tools, and chipping away at the dirt and pulling weeds, and roots out of the ground.  My grandma taught me the importance of pulling the entire root of the weeds, so that the weeds would not return. After we removed the weeds by hand, and cultivated the soil, we planted the seed for the tulips to take bloom.

If we use the analogy of the roots of the weeds and the tulips, the roots of the weeds would only have a negative impact on the growth of the tulips.  The roots of the weeds would grab hold of the roots of the tulips, and only attempt to interrupt its growth.  In this life we have plenty of weeds, which will attempt to halt our growth.

It’s very important now to cultivate our land, and surround ourselves with the environment in which we want to eventually become. It’s much more difficult to grow amongst the weeds, than to grow in harmony in an environment that embraces, what we are ready to bring forth.

 

To Rise Once Again

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Optimism Thought of the Week

 

For Sunday, January 31, 2016

 

To Rise Once Again

 

By Glennel L. Hardy

Chief Creative Editor

 

As a child I fell off my bike several times before I eventually mastered the art of staying above ground. The first time I fell my leg was heavily scarred, and I never wanted to ride my bike again.  When you fall for the first time it hurts, and we generally find it very difficult to rise up.

The next few times I continued to fall, but each time I had fallen, I begin to take a different lesson from it and begin to progress.  I envisioned going very far and fast, and being able to make it from my house to the mailbox down the street. Once I had the vision that I was riding without falling, it gave me the courage to keep rising after each fall.

We constantly get scarred and each time we do, it hits us with a heavy blow, but its part of the growth process. Every one of us can get knocked down at any moment, but not everyone can find the strength to rise again. We have to see ourselves much bigger than the fall we experienced, we have to see ourselves rising up to the occasion.

If we don’t have the vision of rising, we will never realize the powerful lesson that the fall is attempting to teach us.

When Nothing Happens

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Optimism Thought of the Week

 

For Sunday, January 24, 2016

 

When Nothing Happens

 

By Glennel L. Hardy

Chief Creative Editor

 

We may have experienced a time in our life where it appears to be a drought, nothing may be growing, and it appears we are at a standstill.  We may feel that we are motionless, but in fact we are constantly moving towards something that we may not see. To look at it in a different perspective when it appears that nothing is happening, we would not be able to see what is working behind the scenes.

In the grand scheme of things we are blinded by that which is our present, and it causes us to come to the conclusion that our future is bleak. If you can remember the job that you always wanted but never got, the person that you thought was the right one but wasn’t, these events led to the person that you are today.  The person that you are today represents a series of unexplainable, and both fortunate and unfortunate events.  The events could cause you either to become resilient or bring you down in defeat.

When nothing is happening, there is usually construction taking place in the background that you cannot see. We are programmed to believe that we must see to believe something is happening, but it’s more than likely what we can’t see, is the driving force to our next chapter in life.

 

Running in the Darkness

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Optimism Thought of the Week

 

For Sunday, January 17, 2016 

Running in the Darkness

 

By Glennel L. Hardy

Chief Creative Editor

 

When we think of those that run in the dark, we may think of those horror movies from the late 90’s where the victim is running and not sure where he/she may be headed.  My story starts late one night in Chicago walking home from work.  I would take my usual route which took me approximately 25 minutes each way. This one particular night someone drove along side of me, and got out of his car and asked for directions.  The next moment I can recall being sprayed in the eye with mace.

At that moment I knew it was time to flee, but I had one major problem I could not see where I was headed.  Each time I would attempt to open my eyes, they would burn and I would immediately have to close them again. I was only one block away from home, and I had to pass under a railroad viaduct to get back safely. I recall running as fast as I my feet could carry me, and it felt as though I was flying in the air. I managed to run into my neighbor’s house for safety, and dodge those that were attempting to rob me.  I survived, and they lost track of me.

This brings me to the point of what each and every one would face when it comes to making our life choices.  At times we have to run in the darkness, and have faith that where we are headed is a safe landing for us.  I have found much success running towards the darkness, then running from it.

Fear has to be hit head on, and once you hit it, fear knows not to come near you again.  Each time we tremble because of the darkness or fear, fear will never leave us.  Hit fear where it hurts.