Doing your best is important

She was a member of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team at the 1972 Olympics at Munich, and she had only one goal in mind and that was to win a gold medal.

She performed well, but when it was all over and the winners were announced, she was not among them. She was crushed.

Afterward, she joined her parents in the stands all set for a good cry. As she sat down, she could barely managed to say, “I did my best.” “Doing your best is more important than being the best,” her mother said.

She became the first American gymnast, male or female, to win a medal at the World Championship. She won the silver medal on the balance beam and then went on to star in the Broadway performance in “Peter Pan.”

Cathy Rigby was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1998.

~Impressions~

A young college student preparing for his first job interview was advised by his family to exaggerate his work experience. Friends told him to be serious, sophisticated and a lot of other things he was not.

When he arrived for the interview, a genial woman he assumed was a secretary escorted him to an office. They began chatting, and because she seemed so open and friendly, he decided he could find out about what the job involved by asking her questions.

The conversation went smoothly, and after an hour, fear and trepidation had been replaced by enthusiasm. He was about to ask some questions about the coming interview when the woman informed him that the job was his. The pleasant conversation had been the interview.

The young man learned a valuable lesson that day: be yourself.

~Resignation~

William Faulkner, who was considered by many to be the greatest American novelist, once served as postmaster at the University of Mississippi.

He gave his reason for quitting in the following letter to the Postmaster General in Washington: “As long as I live under the capitalist system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation.”

~Things I Have Learned~

Ø I have learned that if you spend your life always looking forward to something else, the present just slips away.

Ø I have learned that at age 25, you are finding yourself; at age 45, you know yourself and at age 65, you can be yourself.

Ø I have learned that the only thing you can be sure of improving is yourself.

Ø I have learned that the most endearing three little words I can say to my wife Frances, if she were still living, were, “Let’s eat out.”

Ø I have learned that when you begin to ask yourself if it is your fault, it usually is.

Ø I have learned that the older I get, the more I say, “I don’t know.” When I was younger, I thought that I knew it all.

Ø I have learned that people tend to rise to accomplishments they thought were beyond them, if you show them, by your confidence, that they can do it.

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