Gratitude for the Many Teachers I Learn From, including a new favorite - Peter Crone, The Mind Architect
- Gina
- Dec 29, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 30, 2024
Hi everyone! It's been a while since I sat down to write. I hope to do more of it this coming year!
I have always been a huge fan of collecting and dispersing inspirational quotations, proverbs, aphorisms, maxims, adages and platitudes. My appreciation for short inspirational ideas began when I found a paper note tablet as a teenager that had a quote at the top that spoke to me and allowed me some comic relief in the face of a life that was rarely funny at that time. I had to buy it. "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." Mark Twain
I still think about that quote nearly every morning when I wake up.
My first job after Junior College at Green River College was at a waterbed store as a furniture salesperson. I learned so much from my sales manager and mentor there, Geoffrey A. Morris, including the power of affirmations and positive thinking. I will never forget the sales meeting where he threw a pencil down on the floor and told us to "try to pick it up". We were all scolded as soon as we touched the pencil because we were supposed to "try". After everyone in the circle failed at "trying" to pick up the pencil, Geoff picked it up and looked at all of us and said "Do or do not, there is no try".
I think of those wise words from Master Yoda (Star Wars) daily. They were the first words written on the kitchen wall in the little rental home I shared with my 2 kids for 11 years.
Geoff also introduced me to the Greatest Salesman in the World, a little gem of a book by Og Mandino. He had me make my own notebook of positive affirmations and quotes from words in the book and challenged me to read them over and over until they became a part of me. Some of the ones that still reside in my soul after all these years:
"Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough."
"I will greet this day with love in my heart and I will succeed."
"I am not on this earth by chance. I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not shrink to a grain of sand."
"Action cures fear."
I am so grateful for the many words of Og Mandino. They have inspired me and reminded me that success doesn't have to come at the expense of others. Being a salesman is a way to live a prosperous and abundant life and also a way to bring love and light into this world.
When I was at college, my roommate and I decided to decorate our dormitory door in the Duncan Dunn all girls dormitory at Washington State University with notes and quotes. I still have some of those scribbled on WSU letterhead notes. The ones I remember from 40 years ago are: " I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the vulnerability of the other". Rainier Maria Rilke
"Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost" Kahlil Gibran
Love Poem by Kahlil Gibran
After graduating from WSU in 1987 and moving to San Francisco, California, I got a job in the finance industry at Prudential Bache and I subscribed to my first professional magazine , FORBES. My favorite reading in every edition was the page of one-liners by successful humans at the end of the publication. I saved many of those pages for years to remind myself that I can be or do or have anything in this life if I can just stay in charge of my emotions and my thoughts.
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart
"Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I reach to it." Charles Swindoll
"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." Henry Ford
"When what we are is what we want to be, that's happiness." Malcolm Forbes
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." B.C. Forbes
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt
I think I looked for quotes to help me understand life so I could create my own personal life guidebook. I didn't have much healthy parenting or direction growing up as the child of an alcoholic in a dysfunctional family where every day was about hanging on to your sanity by your fingernails. I often felt different, inferior, damaged, confused and alone. As a typical ACOA, I felt like everyone else in the world was given the rules or the playbook and I had not a clue what I should do with the life I was given. The memorized platitudes I could reach for when I didn't know what to do offered me comfort,, hope and inspiration.
Since I really didn't have any idea what a normal, healthy parent looked like, I turned to quotations to give me hope and inspiration and loving words to guide my children.
So many maxims became instrumental in my parenting "plan" when I had my kids. I always wanted to give my children the tools to be able to self-motivate, self-regulate and self-inspire. I didn't always have the right words or the right thoughts, but I knew where to find them!
K and J were both were raised with lots of unconditional love and acceptance from me, along with the help of words and songs from Walt Disney ("It's kind of fun to do the impossible") and Mr. Rogers ("There are 3 things you must be in this life. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind the third is to be kind") to name a few of my "mentors". They also heard a lot of Al-anon platitudes ("Acceptance brings peace, resistance brings pain", "We're only as sick as our secrets", "Have an attitude of gratitude", God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference").
25 Disney Movie Life Lessons
Mr. Rogers Greatest Relationship Building Advice Ever
They were also exposed to lots of NIKE inspirational quotes to get them pumped for school and sports. I found just the right words on the internet when I wanted to help them develop internal tools to stay positive and strong during hard practices and classes, committed and energized during challenging tests and competitions, and relieved and resilient in the face of tough losses or imperfect results.
Thank you NIKE, Walt, Fred, Barney, The Wiggles, Blues Clues for all your positive and loving words and songs of connection and inspiration! Both kids turned out to be awesome, happy, kind, loving and well-adjusted adults. They couldn't have done it without you!
As repetitive and overused as many aphorisms and platitudes are, I appreciate the truth and wisdom of many of those "short, pithy sentences". I'm so glad to have quick and handy phrases to pull out of the air when I need to just come up with something to connect on the go with someone in need of connection. "Pride comes before a fall", "Actions speak louder than words", "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", "Never give up", "You've got this", "Just keep swimming", "You only live once".
Some of my truly favorite and oft repeated adages and quotes come from President Theodore Roosevelt,
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are".
"Believe you can and you're halfway there".
"Nobody care how much you know, until they know how much you care".
And I especially love this one that reminds me to get out there and go after what I want:
I just came across Peter Crone, The Mind Architect, a few weeks ago on the Ed Mylett MAXOUT Podcast and just love his philosophy and ideas about freeing our minds. He also speaks on caring for our bodies and souls and each other and I really appreciate everything he is talking about right now.
I especially loved hearing that he also enjoys using quotes and statements to inspire others and motivate and inspire himself! Please check out his work in a few of these YouTube videos. His work can help heal all of us and heal the world.
Peter Crone in Podcasts:
For a quick preview, here are some of his most repeated quotes:
“If people could understand the disservice it is to make another human being wrong in any capacity… that alone opens up an entirely new world for people of compassion, love, acceptance, and for ourselves of relief, because I don’t need for people to be a certain way for me to be okay.” Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
“True happiness is the absence of the pursuit of happiness.” Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
“What happened, happened and couldn’t have happened in any other way… because it didn’t.” Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
“Life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you’re not free.”
Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
“Rather than hoping and waiting for this aspirational future where we think we’re going to be happy, what about if you could just consider the possibility of being happy today?”
Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
“You’re extraordinary. Be responsible for that.” Peter Crone - The Mind Architect
Thank you to Peter Crone for sharing his thoughts and ideas and quotes with the world! I am going to be sharing quotes, video links and ideas from some of my other favorite philosophers, doctors, trainers and healers this coming year. I hope you enjoy whatever learning you experience and have a beautiful 2025!
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