“
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.
”
”
Robert Fulghum (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things)
“
It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
”
”
Alan Bennett (The Uncommon Reader)
“
I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.
”
”
Warren Buffett
“
[B]riefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.
”
”
Alan Bennett (The Uncommon Reader)
“
Teamwork is the secret that make common people achieve uncommon result.
”
”
Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
“
My Creed
I do not choose to be a common man,
It is my right to be uncommon … if I can,
I seek opportunity … not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen.
Humbled and dulled by having the
State look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk;
To dream and to build.
To fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life
To the guaranteed existence;
The thrill of fulfillment
To the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a handout
I will never cower before any master
Nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect.
Proud and unafraid;
To think and act for myself,
To enjoy the benefit of my creations
And to face the world boldly and say:
This, with God’s help, I have done
All this is what it means
To be an Entrepreneur.
”
”
Dean Alfange
“
Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.
”
”
Philip Dormer Stanhope
“
Be a light unto the world, and hurt it not. Seek to build not destroy. Bring My people home.
How?
By your shining example. Seek only Godliness. Speak only in truthfulness. Act only in love.
Live the Law of Love now and forever more. Give everything require nothing.
Avoid the mundane.
Do not accept the unacceptable.
Teach all who seek to learn of Me.
Make every moment of your life an outpouring of love.
Use every moment to think the highest thought, say the highest word, do the highest deed. In this, glorify your Holy Self, and thus too, glorify Me.
Bring peace to the Earth by bringing peace to all those whose lives you touch. Be peace. Feel and express in every moment your Divine Connection with the All, and with every person, place, and thing.
Embrace every circumstance, own every fault, share every joy, contemplate every mystery, walk in every man’s shoes, forgive every offense (including your own), heal every heart, honor every person’s truth, adore every person’s God, protect every person’s rights, preserve every person’s dignity, promote every person’s interests, provide every person’s needs, presume every person’s holiness, present every person’s greatest gifts, produce every person’s blessing, pronounce every person’s future secure in the assured love of God.
Be a living, breathing example of the Highest Truth that resides within you. Speak humbly of yourself, lest someone mistake your Highest Truth for boast. Speak softly, lest someone think you are merely calling for attention. Speak gently, that all might know of Love. Speak openly, lest someone think you have something to hide. Speak candidly, so you cannot be mistaken. Speak often, so that your word may truly go forth. Speak respectfully, that no one be dishonored. Speak lovingly, that every syllable may heal. Speak of Me with every utterance. Make of your life a gift. Remember always, you are the gift!
Be a gift to everyone who enters your life, and to everyone whose life you enter. Be careful not to enter another’s life if you cannot be a gift. (You can always be a gift, because you always are the gift—yet sometimes you don’t let yourself know that.) When someone enters your life unexpectedly, look for the gift that person has come to receive from you…I HAVE SENT YOU NOTHING BUT ANGELS.
”
”
Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 2)
“
One often has to do what they have to do in order to do what they want to do; however if you only do what you want to do then you will never do what you have to do!
”
”
C. Moorer (From Failure to Promise: An Uncommon Path to Professoriate)
“
With no need for a beginning, nor any reason to end, the music continues. And so, no matter who you are, where you came from, what sins you have committed or hurt you have endured... when you are alone and there is no universe left to remember you.
You can always, always rewrite your song
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice.
”
”
Minna Thomas Antrim
“
It's okay to wander.
”
”
Tony Dungy (Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance)
“
The point at which things happen is a decision. In stead of focusing on yourself, focus on how you can help someone else.
”
”
Germany Kent
“
Data that comes subliminally and is acted upon will look like luck or inspiration.
”
”
Peter Redgrove (The Black Goddess and the Unseen Real: Our Uncommon Senses and Their Common Sense)
“
The world's natural calamities and disasters-its tornados and hurricanes, volcanoes and floods-its physical turmoil-are not created by us specifically.
What is created by us is the degree to which these events touch our life
”
”
Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1)
“
Well, if you feel that strongly about your truth, then there is no reason to worry about your existence, is there?
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
Life is a school. Have fun! Enjoy! But don't forget to learn!
”
”
C.J. Heigelmann (An Uncommon Folk Rhapsody: A Multicultural American Civil War Romance and Suspense Novel)
“
There can never be enough written about heroic acts and heroic people, we all need the inspiration they give us.
”
”
Carey V. Azzara (Uncommon Heroes and Cars: Twenty-one Inspired Stories)
“
Juggling and balancing effectively required that we make clear, legacy-driven choices about what we're trying to keep in the air and how we sequence our movements down the beam. Because the ultimate grade in life is not based on how far and fast we've walked the beam or how many things we’ve juggled—it’s based on how much we've enjoyed the exercise.
”
”
Eric C. Sinoway (Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work)
“
If you keep the same routine as yesterday, it makes sense that your tomorrow is going to be a lot like your yesterday.
”
”
Joe Dispenza (Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon)
“
When we read of the great Biblical leaders, we see that it was not uncommon for God to ask them to wait, not just a day or two, but for years, until God was ready for them to act.
”
”
Gloria Gaither (SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL: THE STORIES BEHIND A HALF-CENTURY OF THE SONGS OF BILL AND GLORIA GAITHER)
“
Jesus never asked a question because HE needed to know the answer.
”
”
Christopher Bozung (Uncommon Questions from an Extraordinary Savior)
“
When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
”
”
George Washington Carver
“
You're a survivor Harper. That's nothing to feel guilty about.” Heath's words drifted back to her. He was right. She should stop feeling guilty and do something this time about the murder she witnessed.
”
”
Elizabeth Goddard (Always Look Twice (Uncommon Justice, #2))
“
I do not choose to be a common man.
It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done.
”
”
Dean Alfange
“
Uncommon success is found on the spiritual plane; you can't get there through common convention or following others. Hard work is not enough; many work slavishly-hard for little reward. Intelligence is insufficient; how many educated and brilliant people there are who fail utterly and completely. Goodness is not enough; how many meek and good souls are tilled into the earth like manure by demigods to fertilize their golden crops. There is something more — it is the unseen essential, and everyone has access to it.
”
”
Bryant McGill (Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life)
“
By morning, Adelaide was beginning to understand why she'd never completely understood how God worked. Given that He had made the bewildering, maddening, incomprehensible species that was man from His own image, it stood to reason that the Creator would be a complicated mass of logic never meant to be understood by the female mind. That, or the fall of man in the Garden of Eden had taken them even further off the path than she'd ever realized
”
”
Kristi Ann Hunter (An Uncommon Courtship (Hawthorne House, #3))
“
The child's heart beat: but she was growing in the wrong place inside her extraordinary mother, south of safe...she and her mother were rushed to the hospital, where her mother was operated on by a brisk cheerful diminutive surgeon who told me after the surgery that my wife had been perhaps an hour from death from the pressure of the child growing outside the womb, the mother from the child growing, and the child from growing awry; and so my wife did not die, but our mysterious child did...Not uncommon, an ectopic pregnancy, said the surgeon...Sometimes, continued the surgeon, sometimes people who lose children before they are born continue to imagine the child who has died, and talk about her or him, it's such an utterly human thing to do, it helps deal with the pain, it's healthy within reason, and yes, people say to their other children that they actually do, in a sense, have a sister or brother, or did have a sister or brother, and she or he is elsewhere, has gone ahead, whatever the language of your belief or faith tradition. You could do that. People do that, yes. I have patients who do that, yes...
One summer morning, as I wandered by a river, I remembered an Irish word I learned long ago, and now whenever I think of the daughter I have to wait to meet, I find that word in my mouth: dunnog, little dark one, the shyest and quietest and tiniest of sparrows, the one you never see but sometimes you sense, a flash in the corner of your eye, a sweet sharp note already fading by the time it catches your ear.
”
”
Brian Doyle (The Wet Engine: Exploring Mad Wild Miracle of Heart)
“
To a casual passerby, his appearance would not have inspired much confidence. His overcoat was patched in spots and frayed at the cuffs, he wore an old tweed suit that was missing a button, his white shirt was stained with ink and tobacco, and his tie--this was perhaps the strangest of all--was knotted not once, but twice, as if he'd forgotten whether he'd tied it and, rather than glancing down to check, had simply tied it again for good measure. His white hair poked out from beneath his hat, and his eyebrows rose from his forehead like great snowy horns, curling over a pair of bent and patched tortoiseshell glasses. All in all, he looked like someone who'd gotten dressed in the midst of a whirlwind and, thinking he still looked too presentable, had thrown himself down a flight of stairs.
It was when you looked in his eyes that everything changed.
Reflecting no light save their own, they shone brightly in the snow-muffled night, and there was in them a look of such uncommon energy and kindness and understanding that you forgot entirely about the tobacco and ink stains on his shirt and the patches on his glasses and that his tie was knotted twice over. You looked in them and knew that you were in the presence of true wisdom.
”
”
John Stephens (The Emerald Atlas (The Books of Beginning, #1))
“
I shall make you feel all the joy, the terror in loving who you are.
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
Life could not be avoided. Death comes for everyone. But that did not mean one could not be healed. That did not mean one could not be saved.
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
. . .if love wasn’t knowing and appreciating all the little things about a person, what was it?
- Lord Trent Hawthorne
”
”
Kristi Ann Hunter (An Uncommon Courtship (Hawthorne House, #3))
“
The body is an outstanding source of strength; the mind an incredible source of intelligence; the heart an uncommon source of might; and the soul a remarkable source of power.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
One, two, three, Im gon be crazy and free.
”
”
Nick
“
The only way to cull the uncommon man from the common is with his clothes off.
”
”
Paula Wall (The Rock Orchard)
“
To be fearless you must fear less
”
”
TemitOpe Ibrahim
“
Sometimes wisdom dictates that you take a few steps backwards to be able to go much further
”
”
TemitOpe Ibrahim
“
You are the song I keep in starless light, a beauty known beyond uncommon sight, within your mantle of colours and riotous grace, I seek the fire-storm, our winters place.
”
”
Ian William L.
“
Your beliefs are your boundaries, you must break them often.
”
”
Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
“
The world bows to the ones who believe in the power of their dreams.
”
”
Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
“
Asked where his inspiration came from, he said fiercely: ‘It doesn’t come, Your Majesty. You have to go out and fetch it.
”
”
Alan Bennett (The Uncommon Reader)
“
Our forefathers were not only brave. I believe they were right. I believe that what they meant was that every man born had equal right to grow from scratch by way of his own power unhindered to the highest expression of himself possible to him. This of course not antagonistic by sympathetic to the growth of all men as brothers. Free emulation not imitation of the "bravest and the best" is to be expected of him. Uncommon he may and will and should become as inspiration to his fellows, not a reflection upon them, not to be resented but accepted--and in this lies the only condition of the common man's survival. So only is he intrinsic to democracy.
Persistently holding quality above quantity only as he attempts to live a superior life of his own, and to whatsoever degree in whatever case he finds it; this is his virtue in a democracy such as ours was designed to be.
Only this sense of proportion affords tranquility of spirit, in itself beauty, in either character of action. Nature is never other than serene even in a thunderstorm. The assumption of the "firm countenance, lips compressed" in denial or resentment is not known to her as it is known to civilization. Such negation by human countenance may be moral (civilization is inclined to morality) but even so not nature. Again exuberance is repose but never excess.
”
”
Frank Lloyd Wright (A Testament)
“
To succeed we need committment, discipline, dedication, and determination. And if you can amalgamate all of the above qualities with your passion and energy then no one can stop you from achieving the uncommon!
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
His (Samuel Coleridge) dark senses were constantly in play, the frustration of them bringing illness. Weather and organic nature combined in a synaesthetic multi-media event, and this was the ground of all perception before it was divded up in daily living: the Primary Imagination giving way to the Secondary. Poetry was forever seeking a conscious return to this state, which existed all the time, whether he knew it or not.
”
”
Peter Redgrove (The Black Goddess and the Unseen Real: Our Uncommon Senses and Their Common Sense)
“
When her parents had company over, it wasn’t uncommon to see guests stopping to check out the koi ponds, exotic flowers and rare species of trees that offered plenty of cool shade. This backyard could easily rival the best botanical garden in town.
”
”
Kelsey MacBride (Free to Love (Inspiration Point, #1))
“
Inflection points come in all forms: positive, negative, easy, hard, obvious, and subtle. The way you respond—whether you grab hold of an inflection point and leverage it for all it’s worth or just let it carry you along—is as important as the event itself.
”
”
Eric C. Sinoway (Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work)
“
Perhaps life is rare, either because the precise conditions necessary for it to occur are uncommon or because the chances of it arising are so vanishingly improbable that the Universe just hasn’t been around for long enough. Some scientists argue that the Earth may be a rather exceptional planet after all, with its large, stabilising moon and uncommonly well-behaved sun. We may even lie in a peculiarly habitable part of the galaxy, central enough to benefit from the chemical enrichment of previous generations of stars but safely distant from the harsh radiation of the galactic core. In this case we might not be the only life forms in the Universe, but we could be among the first.
”
”
Ian Whates (Paradox: Stories Inspired by the Fermi Paradox)
“
tapping into include inspiration, excitement, enthusiasm, fascination, awe, wonder, appreciation, kindness, abundance, compassion, empowerment, nobility, honor, invincibility, uncompromising will, strength, and freedom—not to mention divinity itself, being moved by the spirit, trusting in the unknown or in the mystic or the healer within you.
”
”
Joe Dispenza (Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon)
“
Our defeats teach us much more than our victories ever would!” ― Avijeet Das
_________________________________________
#chasedreams #nevergi
To succeed we need committment, discipline, dedication, and determination. And if you can amalgamate all of the above qualities with your passion and energy then no one can stop you from achieving the uncommon!
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
At times he actually did perform marvels of surgery for the soldiers; but his chief delights were of a less public and philanthropic kind, requiring many explanations of sounds which seemed peculiar even amidst that babel of the damned. Among these sounds were frequent revolver-shots - surely not uncommon on a battlefield, but distinctly uncommon in a hospital.
”
”
H.P. Lovecraft (Herbert West—Reanimator)
“
awakening’ drinkers to their optimum creative moments…to be intoxicated is to be inspired.”10 It is not uncommon for ancient Chinese poets to have entire series of poems under the rubric, “Written While Drunk,” including this one from the Zhang Yue (667 to 730): Once drunk, my delight knows no limits— Even better than before I’m drunk. My movements, my expressions, all turn into dance, And every word out of my mouth turns into a poem!11
”
”
Edward Slingerland (Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization)
“
In general, people find it easier to accept flattery or false praise than genuine admiration and love, because a build-up does not threaten their negative beliefs about themselves. It is not uncommon for people to dismiss a genuine compliment from someone who really admires them and appreciates their personal qualities. they feel awkward and uncomfortable because this experience causes anxiety, self-consciousness, and guilt about standing out.
”
”
Robert W. Firestone
“
MUSHAKABVU, I may be in a tough spot, but I am more worried about you. I have never experienced anything close to a sense of kinship with any of my clients, let alone those I have never met. However, the world you sent me to investigate has inspired a selfless concern that is uncommon between strangers. I hope you are just a curious, distant observer in the affairs I have been probing ... But something tells me this hope was frustrated long before our acquaintance.
”
”
Taona Dumisani Chiveneko (The Hangman's Replacement: Sprout of Disruption)
“
Life is about living, and for that, we need to be here, now—100% in it—not immersed in anxiety, negative self-talk, fantasy, or lost in endless thought. Life happens here, not there. When we are here, now, we become connected. Embodied in the fullness of our beings, we create space, let go of what does not matter, and get clarity and alignment. We do less multitasking, more discernment—less busyness, more presence. Here, now, we feel what we feel, cut the bullshit, deal with whatever arises, and live.
”
”
Aline Ra (Bullshit-Free Mindfulness: An Uncommon Guide for Joy in Everyday Life)
“
Intrigued, Hofmann decided a few days later to conduct an experiment on himself—not an uncommon practice at the time. Proceeding with what he thought was extreme caution, he ingested 0.25 milligrams—a milligram is one-thousandth of a gram—of LSD dissolved in a glass of water. This would represent a minuscule dose of any other drug, but LSD, it turns out, is one of the most potent psychoactive compounds ever discovered, active at doses measured in micrograms—that is, one thousandth of a milligram. This surprising fact would soon inspire scientists to look for, and eventually find, the brain receptors and the endogenous chemical—serotonin—that activates them like a key in a lock, as a way to explain how such a small number of molecules could have such a profound effect on the mind. In this and other ways, Hofmann’s discovery helped to launch modern brain science in the 1950s.
”
”
Michael Pollan (How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence)
“
Right when Marston and Peter must have been meeting with Gaines and Mayer to talk about what Wonder Woman ought to look like, a new superhero made his debut. Captain America.19 He quickly became Timely Comics’ most popular character. Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) (illustration credit 23.7) Marston wanted his comic book’s “under-meaning,” about “a great movement now under way—the growth in the power of women,” to be embodied in the way Wonder Woman carried herself, how she dressed, and what powers she wielded. She had to be strong, and she had to be independent. Everyone agreed about the bracelets (inspired by Olive Byrne’s): it helped Gaines with his public relations problem that she could stop bullets with them; that was good for the gun problem. Also, this new superhero had to be uncommonly beautiful; she’d wear a tiara, like the crown awarded at the Miss America pageant. Marston wanted her to be opposed to war, but she had to be willing to fight for democracy. In fact, she had to be superpatriotic. Captain America wore an American flag: blue tights, red gloves, red boots, and, on his torso, red and white stripes and a white star. Like Captain America—because of Captain America—Wonder Woman would have to wear red, white, and blue, too. But, ideally, she’d also wear very little. To sell magazines, Gaines wanted his superwoman to be as naked as he could get away with.
”
”
Jill Lepore (The Secret History of Wonder Woman)
“
It is a painful irony that silent movies were driven out of existence just as they were reaching a kind of glorious summit of creativity and imagination, so that some of the best silent movies were also some of the last ones. Of no film was that more true than Wings, which opened on August 12 at the Criterion Theatre in New York, with a dedication to Charles Lindbergh. The film was the conception of John Monk Saunders, a bright young man from Minnesota who was also a Rhodes scholar, a gifted writer, a handsome philanderer, and a drinker, not necessarily in that order. In the early 1920s, Saunders met and became friends with the film producer Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s wife, Bessie. Saunders was an uncommonly charming fellow, and he persuaded Lasky to buy a half-finished novel he had written about aerial combat in the First World War. Fired with excitement, Lasky gave Saunders a record $39,000 for the idea and put him to work on a script. Had Lasky known that Saunders was sleeping with his wife, he might not have been quite so generous. Lasky’s choice for director was unexpected but inspired. William Wellman was thirty years old and had no experience of making big movies—and at $2 million Wings was the biggest movie Paramount had ever undertaken. At a time when top-rank directors like Ernst Lubitsch were paid $175,000 a picture, Wellman was given a salary of $250 a week. But he had one advantage over every other director in Hollywood: he was a World War I flying ace and intimately understood the beauty and enchantment of flight as well as the fearful mayhem of aerial combat. No other filmmaker has ever used technical proficiency to better advantage. Wellman had had a busy life already. Born into a well-to-do family in Brookline, Massachusetts, he had been a high school dropout, a professional ice hockey player, a volunteer in the French Foreign Legion, and a member of the celebrated Lafayette Escadrille flying squad. Both France and the United States had decorated him for gallantry. After the war he became friends with Douglas Fairbanks, who got him a job at the Goldwyn studios as an actor. Wellman hated acting and switched to directing. He became what was known as a contract director, churning out low-budget westerns and other B movies. Always temperamental, he was frequently fired from jobs, once for slapping an actress. He was a startling choice to be put in charge of such a challenging epic. To the astonishment of everyone, he now made one of the most intelligent, moving, and thrilling pictures ever made. Nothing was faked. Whatever the pilot saw in real life the audiences saw on the screen. When clouds or exploding dirigibles were seen outside airplane windows they were real objects filmed in real time. Wellman mounted cameras inside the cockpits looking out, so that the audiences had the sensation of sitting at the pilots’ shoulders, and outside the cockpit looking in, allowing close-up views of the pilots’ reactions. Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers, the two male stars of the picture, had to be their own cameramen, activating cameras with a remote-control button.
”
”
Bill Bryson (One Summer: America, 1927)
“
Appreciation is the hunger of desired efforts, an uncommon gift that all cannot give, compensation of brilliant work, the reason for smile and advancement, cause of peaceful sleep, gratitude of the great.
”
”
Anand Patwa
“
Your brother's actions remind me of you, Rae. You're the hero of basket cases and underdogs. You don't wield a gun, Your weapon is the mighty pen, or these days, laptop. How about word? That's it. You use the written word as a weapon.~Liam
”
”
Elizabeth Goddard (Don't Keep Silent (Uncommon Justice, #3))
“
But here, all around the music, someone's teacher wrote:
Relax. Keep your fingers open and light.
Someone's teacher wrote:
Think of sunshine. You don't need to rush. Just follow the notes. Trust yourself. Good job!!
And there, someone's teacher had drawn happy faces.
And there, someone's teacher had pasted stars.
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
Staying focused on the future and taking action in the present is the key to achieve mastery.
”
”
Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
“
Rather, it is a warning to avoid turning inspiration into fetish and tradition into dogma; it is an admonition to never reduce the spiritual realm to the narrow borders of your own perceptions, prejudices, and ideals.
”
”
Rolf Potts (Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel)
“
As a grown man comfortable with his own vulnerability, he inspired his students to enter an uncommon domain, a place where fear, sadness, and rage were worthwhile experiences rather than things to smile through or tuck away.
”
”
Emily Habeck (Shark Heart)
“
Here’s the trick to significantly improving your SaaS email marketing skills—you have to become a student of it. This means you should: Start collecting great email copy, CTAs, and designs. Understand the objective behind each and every email that businesses send. Try to understand the rationale behind copy, link, and design decisions. There are great websites like Really Good Emails11, Good Email Copy12, and Good Sales Emails.com13 that you can use for your research. These sites categorize email copy and designs by types. As well as this, you should sign up to receive emails from some of the leading SaaS brands. Those include, among others: Drift MailChimp Pipedrive Shopify SurveyMonkey Trello Wistia Zapier You should also sign up to competing products and mailing lists from companies in your sector. I personally signed up to thousands of products and newsletters. It’s great for benchmarking and research. At the time of writing, I’ve already passively collected more than 60,000 emails. Obviously, don’t sign up to your competitors’ products with a business email address! I have a special email address I use for this. This account allows me to get data, understand what other organizations are doing, and find good copy ideas. For example, here’s what a search for ‘Typeform’ gives me: Figure 18.1 – Inbox Inspiration It’s not uncommon for me to sign up several times to the same product or newsletter. This allows me to see what they have learned and to track the evolution of their email marketing program. At LANDR, we created a shared document to keep track of subject lines, offers, and copy we wanted to test. Our copywriter was even going through his junk mail folder to find ideas and inspiration. There are tests we ran that were inspired by copy found in his spam folder. Some of them turned out to be really successful too—so keep your eyes open for inspiration. You can use Evernote, Paper, or any other platform to collaborate on idea generation. Alternatively, you can subscribe to paid services like Mailcharts14 or Mailody15. These services will help you track and understand your competitors’ email programs. Build processes to find and access copy and design ideas. It will help you create better emails, faster. In the next chapter we’ll get started creating our first email sequences.
”
”
Étienne Garbugli (The SaaS Email Marketing Playbook: Convert Leads, Increase Customer Retention, and Close More Recurring Revenue With Email)
“
A lot of us first aspired to far-ranging travel and exotic adventure early in our teens; these ambitions are, in fact, adolescent in nature, which I find an inspiring idea….Thus, when we allow ourselves to imagine as we once did, we know, with a sudden jarring clarity, that if we don’t go right now, we’re never going to do it. And we’ll be haunted by our unrealized dreams and know that we have sinned against ourselves gravely. —TIM CAHILL, “EXOTIC PLACES MADE ME DO IT
”
”
Rolf Potts (Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel)
“
This means that you might not need a pharmacy or an exogenous substance to heal you—you have the power from within to up-regulate the genes that make IgA within a few days. Something as simple as moving into an elevated state of joy, love, inspiration, or gratitude for five to ten minutes a day can produce significant epigenetic changes in your health and body.
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Joe Dispenza (Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon)
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the simple likelihood of drawing a connection between a dream and a waking experience dwindles with temporal distance from the dream. At this point, it is hard to say if there is any kind of probability curve defining some temporal sweet spot when you are likeliest to identify a waking experience relating to a prior dream. This is one of the many, many open questions that we need armies of precognitive dreamworkers with fat dream journals to help figure out. While the bulk of my precognitive hits occur within about three days of a dream, it is not uncommon to find hits up to a couple weeks after a dream, as well as at yearly intervals (we will discuss calendrical resonances in more detail later). Dunne recommended returning to your dreams up to two days afterward and thereafter discarding dream records. He lived before word processors, and since no one would have the time to check all their dreams on an indefinite daily basis, he felt you had to set limits to make your search most effective. In our day of computer files, it is easy to keep permanent, detailed dream records—they no longer take up space—as well as to search them electronically and potentially perform other kinds of analyses if you are really hardcore. But it remains the case that nobody has the time to compare their entire dream journal, which may grow a bit each day, to their entire life, every day. You can see how that could begin to consume one’s life! You have to make compromises. Revisiting your dream records from the previous three days for a minute or two each evening is minimally sufficient. EMINENT COMPANY In taking the J. W. Dunne challenge, you will be in some brilliant and eminent company. Some of the most influential writers of the mid-twentieth century, including T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien, were powerfully inspired by Dunne’s book, and some undertook his experiment. Most fans of Tolkien’s fantasy epics The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings don’t realize that the timeless worldview of his Elven races was based largely on the serial-universe cosmology developed by Dunne on the basis of his dream experiences.4 So far, no dream diary has emerged among Tolkien’s papers that would prove he carried out Dunne’s experiment systematically, but his friend C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, probably did. Lewis hints as much in a posthumously published novel called The Dark Tower, which is partly devoted to Dunne’s ideas.
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Eric Wargo (Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future (A Sacred Planet Book))
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People aren't replaceable, if they were, God wouldn't waste His omnipotent endowing human beings with purpose, ability, ingenuity, intellect, fingerprints, DNA and uniqueness. You might replace their proportionate value to you but you cannot replace their overall value to humanity and universe. - Dr Lloyd Magangeni
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Dr Lloyd Magangeni (The Uncommon Strategist)
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As a writer, I think it is my duty to be as responsible as I can with (my)perspective, insights, experiences, & values. Being raised in a black & white- "good & bad" societal mentality has frustrated me. My common mentors (societal, religious, govt., authoritative', etc.) presented a skewed ‘role-model’ to me; colouring the world/‘s of myself, and other people, with their own personal expectations of how society should be. It’s not really trusting people to grow into who they are as a person. Going back to my original verve for writing has meant working (tirelessly) to (try to) remove habitual things; finite statements, assumptions, misinformation, misunderstanding, as well as cyclical (fear-based) conditioning. I want to be responsible. And this has meant that I had to work hard to shake loose from the past. Sometimes it meant screaming "How dare you teach me fear & ignorance!" into my pillow- as I work at ripping the (imposed) bars away from my craft. I am still working at it, and, as hard as it has been- it’s been worth it.
I value the integrity of writing (as a creative craft) so very much. I always admired those writers who stood out from the traditional. The writers who challenged the conventional. Those [writers] who dared to present a balanced perspective- no matter how uncommon... To me, they were the best teachers. They inspired unchained learning, wisdom, and developmental skills... Those things which I see as gifting readers with bountiful landscapes into their [readers] own souls.
This is what it means, for me, to be a writer. That does not mean it is what it has to mean for others. Each of us get our own unique voices, styles, expressions, dreams, and creativity. I also want to be understood- clearly, truly, and genuinely- as a human, and as a writer. And I want to foster my imagination, creativity, and passion; building a world that I love- knowing that other people may also enjoy it, and some may not.
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Cheri Bauer
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Accepting complete responsibility is the unsung character trait of those who find uncommon success, and failure to accept responsibility is a common trait of those who end up with a mediocre life.
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Mensah Oteh
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Diamonds are valuable because they are uncommon; sand is worthless because it is common; be yourself and you will be a diamond.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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No circumstance is uncommon to a man.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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Moral elevation" describes the feeling of being uplifted by an act of uncommon goodness. Elevation brings out what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." Even in the face of atrocity, elevation leads us to look at our similarities instead of our differences. We see the potential for good in others and gain hope that we can survive and rebuild. We become inspired to express compassion and battle injustice. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
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Sheryl Sandberg (Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy)
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Though it is not uncommon to see large creative teams at work, it is nearly always in the implementation phase of the project; the inspiration phase, by contrast, requires a small, focused group whose job is to establish the overall framework.
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Tim Brown (Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation)
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To succeed we need commitment, discipline, dedication, and determination. And if you can amalgamate all of the above qualities with your passion and energy then no one can stop you from achieving the uncommon!
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Avijeet Das
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Carson’s mode of self-awareness doesn’t apologize for its emotion. She simply acknowledges that, whenever we feel, we do so in a way that anticipates the gaze of others—as well as anticipates the empathy or lack of empathy we’ll encounter there. I feel some version of this happening when she writes: When Law left I felt so bad I thought I would die. This is not uncommon.
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Joe Fassler (Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process)
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To be happy: the simple pursue pleasure, the common pursue riches, the uncommon pursue knowledge, and the exceptional pursue wisdom.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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From that day on, I resolved to bring as many hidden problems as possible to light, a process that would require what might seem like an uncommon commitment to self-assessment.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration)
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Howard [Stevenson] smiled impishly, as if he'd lured me into a trap on the chessboard—a trap he now sprung. “Ah, yes, all his social activities, his community engagement, his golf… On the surface, sure, his life looks well-rounded—three dimensional, if you will. But I’d be willing to bet a platterful of roast beef sandwiches that his life was in fact, ‘pseudo three-D’...[A]ll of if was—whether he knew it or not—part of his strategy for pursuing financial success, not distinct elements of a well-rounded life. An extension of one dimension that appears to be multifaceted—three dimensional—but really isn’t, Pseudo three-D.
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Eric C. Sinoway (Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work)
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He continued with a laugh, "And for highly motivated people, there are few more frustrating situations than realizing that the goals you've set will require a shift in the basic laws of time and space.
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Eric C. Sinoway (Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work)
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The truth is that our material possessions, rather than helping us understand our limits and our place in the world, regularly distort out perspective. Put a Coach purse or the key to a BMW M series or the latest Nokia gadget in our hands and it's not uncommon for humility, respect for other people, and appreciation of our environment to drain from out brains.
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Dave Bruno (The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul)
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the complexity and meaning of the Los Angeles revival still challenges historians. Its themes of eschatological expectancy and evangelistic power (Parham’s legacy) mapped the path taken by white Pentecostals in their aggressive efforts to preach the gospel “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8, KJV).27 African-American Pentecostals, on the other hand, have drawn attention to the reconciliation of the races and the outpouring of power on the downtrodden at Azusa, evidenced by the uncommon interracial makeup of the services, catalyzed by the fruit of the Spirit (Seymour’s legacy).28 Both are vital parts of the story. Even though the burden for evangelism inspired global outreach, Pentecostals have much to learn from the message of reconciliation that also highlighted the revival.29
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Stanley M. Horton (Systematic Theology: Revised Edition)
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In 1995, when Steve Jobs was trying to convince us that we should go public, one of his key arguments was that we would eventually make a film that failed at the box office, and we needed to be prepared, financially, for that day. Going public would give us the capital to fund our own projects and, thus, to have more say about where we were headed, but it would also give us a buffer that could sustain us through failure. Steve’s feeling was that Pixar’s survival could not depend solely on the performance of each and every movie. The underlying logic of his reasoning shook me: We were going to screw up, it was inevitable. And we didn’t know when or how. We had to prepare, then, for an unknown problem—a hidden problem. From that day on, I resolved to bring as many hidden problems as possible to light, a process that would require what might seem like an uncommon commitment to self-assessment.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
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Organizations that create a climate such as that described in this chapter will naturally experience an acceleration of their OODA loops. So the question becomes how to install it. Boyd suggested, in his briefing “Organic Design for Command and Control,” that it will grow naturally if the senior management sets the proper conditions. He defines the two essential elements necessary for running any human organization along maneuver conflict—rapid OODA loop—lines as: • Leadership—implies the art of inspiring people to enthusiastically take action towards uncommon goals. It must interact with the system to shape the character or nature of that system in order to realize what is to be done. • Appreciation—refers to the recognition of worth or value, clear perception, understanding, comprehension, discernment, etc. It must not interact nor interfere with the system, but must discern (not shape) the character / nature of what is being done or about to be done.
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Chet Richards (Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business)
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Information transforms and command the keys to uncommon destiny in life.
ight information, whether social spiritual or physical remains the hub of every outstanding accomplishment on earth today.
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Prince Akwarandu
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if u dont sow right u will not reap right.God attaches resources to a purpose
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Ikechukwu Joseph (Fruitfulness and Uncommon Breakthroughs: Insight for Fruitful Living)
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You need a Community to Parent your child. If you are the only one doing the "Parenting" trust me, you have a long way to go. Your child needs SOME skills you DON'T HAVE. If you had THOSE SKILLS, they still would need others YOU STILL WOULDN'T HAVE. My point? You ain't perfect! If you are the only one doing the parenting you are just starting. And I bet You, YOU WILL BE SO SLOW at it and their would be certain areas you can't touch. You need PARTNERS. Partners of your CHOOSING! Partners to help you reach your goal of PARENTING your child. Your pastor or imam for CERTAIN spiritual goals. Your FRIEND (who has been there, done that) for INSPIRING your child through an EXAM. Your Child's TEACHER for CERTAIN Learning objectives. A Mentor to TEACH your child (un)COMMON SENSE. A coach to SHOW your child the Way. Your Child's FRIENDS to teach him SOCIAL SKILLS. YOUR dad, to teach your child HISTORY of your FAMILY. YOUR GRANDMA to TEACH him Service to Elders. And so on like that... Small, small deliberate goals...for which you need a COMMUNITY of your CHOOSING. The key is to be DELIBERATE and PLAN ahead while sourcing for your PARENTING PARTNERS. It's your GOAL, not theirs. It's their STYLE not YOURS. It's their TIME not YOURS. AND YES, Its your CHILD, not theirs! It takes more than love to parent a child.
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Asuni LadyZeal
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You will meet chaos and confusion on your path to clarity. Own this truth!
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Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
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Unshakable faith and unbreakable commitment are the virtues of a champion.
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Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
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Comfort is the biggest enemy of a champion
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Sharat Sharma (The ONE Invisible Code: An Uncommon Formula To Breakthrough Mediocrity And Rise To The Next Level)
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I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life. -Warren Buffett (1930 -)
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M. Prefontaine (The Big Book of Quotes: Funny, Inspirational and Motivational Quotes on Life, Love and Much Else (Quotes For Every Occasion 1))
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We can change political party and replace with another, we can change political leaders and replace them with others, our major crisis as citizens of a country lie not in parties or individual leaders but in decisive and purposeful Economic policies." -Dr Lloyd Magangeni
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Dr Lloyd Magangeni (The Uncommon Strategist)
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Outliers are not necessarily uncommon; they are simply not always visible.
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Shree Shambav (Life Changing Journey - 365 Inspirational Quotes - Series - I)
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Next, using any song that inspires you (like the one you used for the meditation in Chapter 5), do that meditation to pull the mind out of the body. Take all the energy stored in your body as survival emotions and liberate it into elevated emotions, using a level of intensity that is greater than the body as the mind.
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Joe Dispenza (Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon)
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So, a little desperate and surprisingly inspired, I bought a cap. Not just any cap. I picked one with a bright-gold visor, a gold button at the top, a crown of navy blue, an American flag on the left temple, and—on the forehead emblem—a spread-winged eagle over a rising sun and a red-and-green tractor-trailer and the white letters “America— Spirit of Freedom.” On the back, over my cerebellum, was a starred banner in blue, white, red, green, and gold that said “Carnesville, GA Petro.” I put on that hat and disappeared. The glances died like flies. I could sit anywhere, from Carnesville to Tacoma. In Candler, North Carolina, while Ainsworth was outside fuelling the truck, I sat inside in my freedom hat saying “Biscuits and gravy” to a waitress. She went “Oooooo wheeeee” and I thought my cover wasn’t working, but a trucker passing her had slipped his hand between the cheeks of her buttocks, and she did not stop writing.
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John McPhee (Uncommon Carriers)
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God is not Good, God is not Great, God is God.
~ Dr Lloyd Magangeni
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Dr Lloyd Magangeni (The Uncommon Strategist)
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Do you know what lives in the present moment? Joy. It’s not in the past, not in the future, not in endless "have to, should do, must do", and not in daydreaming. Joy is here, now.
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Aline Ra (Bullshit-Free Mindfulness: An Uncommon Guide for Joy in Everyday Life)
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Organization and cleanliness bring spaciousness. When there is space, inspiration and new possibilities can come in. As we organize our physical environment, we also bring a certain organization to our heads, creating spaciousness within us.
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Aline Ra (Bullshit-Free Mindfulness: An Uncommon Guide for Joy in Everyday Life)
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In the world of short-term missions, it is not uncommon to hear, 'Why do you bother? You cannot change the world! No matter what you do, it is not going to change the world these kids live in!' For many people, all it takes to move forward is to hear, 'It is impossible.' I might be one of those.
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Heidi Haagenson (Lessons Learned in Jamaica Short-Term Missions in the Children's Homes of Jamaica)