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With Determination Anyone Can Be Extraordinary

Your talent is God's gift to you.
What you do with it is your gift back to God.

         


 
 


 
 
How to Curb Your Appetite

by Charly Mann

Eat two full sized carrots or five broccoli crowns before each meal and you’ll reduce your appetite and consume 10 to 20% fewer calories a day.

Bring a bag of veggies with you to work or on a long trip to curb your cravings. Yellow squash, snap peas, broccoli, carrots, and celery are great in your veggie bag.


 

         


 
 


 
 
God's Precious Gifts – My Butterfly and Me

Original art - Butterfly Dreams - by Kathryn Mann 

Yesterday a butterfly
Came floating gently through the sky.
He soared up through the atmosphere
Then drifted close enough to hear.

I said, "I'd love to fly with you
And sail around the way you do.
It looks like it would be such fun
To fly up toward the summer sun.

But I have not your graceful charm.
I haven't wings, just these two arms.
I've been designed to walk around.
My human feet must touch the ground." 

Then magically he spoke to me
and told me what his wish would be.

He said, "What I'd love most to do
Is walk upon God's Earth with you,
To squish its mud between my toes
Or touch my finger to my nose.

I'd love just once to walk around
With human feet to touch the ground,
But I have not two legs that swing,
I haven't arms, just these two wings."

And so we went our separate ways
In wonder and surprise.
For we'd both seen God's precious gifts
Through someone else's eyes.
         


 
 


 
 
The True Genius of Barack Obama and America

Barack Obama Portrait by Kathryn Mann
Original art by Kathryn Mann

"The true genius of America is a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles. We can say and write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. We can have an idea and start our own businesses without paying a bribe. In America, anything is possible.

For a young man of mixed race, without firm anchor in any community, without even a father’s steadying hand, the essential American ideal—that our destinies are not written before we are born, that in America we can travel as far as our energy and talents will take us—has defined my life. With a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, I know that stories like mine can happen only in the United States of America."

-- Barack Obama

         


 
 


 
 
Vincent Van Gogh - Tormented Genius

by Charly Mann

Vincent Van Gogh was one of the unhappiest people to ever walk this earth, but was also one of the greatest painters who ever lived. If you are lucky enough to view a quality assortment of his paintings at the Orsay Museum in Paris, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, or the Metropolitan in New York, you will behold the pinnacle of human expression in art. His paintings come to life with vibrant colors and deep textured brush strokes that mirror the soul of this brilliant and tortured man.

 


Van Gogh showed signs of depression and mental illness from a very early age. As a child his family recalled him as being uncommunicative, and usually walking around in a daze with his head hung low. People who knew the family remarked that Vincent seemed to be unliked by and a stranger to the rest of his family. They also described him as aloof and acting more like an old man than a young child.


As a young man he failed miserably at several careers, including teaching, art sales, and the ministry. He also fell deeply in love with two women who had no interest in him. He dressed in ragged and unwashed clothing, and was taunted by children who called him “a queer freak” for his odd behavior and wardrobe. By the time he was 26 he lived alone and isolated himself from his family and neighbors.


When Van Gogh took up painting at the age of 27 he did little else, except to occasionally have relationships with prostitutes. At the age of 33, in 1886, Van Gogh left Holland and went to Paris for two years where he became acquainted and highly influenced by several of the most celebrated impressionist painters of the time, including Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Gauguin, who actually was a friend to Vincent for a time.


From 1888 to 1890, Van Gogh lived in Arles in the south of France, where he developed the style of painting he is renowned for. He used vibrant pulsating colors to capture the mood of a scene, rather than trying to capture it realistically. He painted very rapidly, averaging a picture a day, laying out his paint on his canvas very thickly so that all of his brush strokes were visible. The vibrancy of his colors and his thick strokes gave his paintings great expressiveness and a three dimensional sculptural texture.


All of his best known work was produced during the last two years of his life. This was also a period where he suffered severe bouts of mental illness, cut off his ear because of a fight he had with Gaugin, and eventualy commited suicide by shooting himself in 1890 at the age of 37.


Today, Van Gogh is probably the most well known painter in the world and his paintings are the most valuable. In his lifetime, he sold but one painting for $80.00. Recently three of his paintings sold for $40, $54, and $82 million.


 

         


 
 


 
 
Marilyn Monroe Pop Art

Marilyn Monroe Pop Art by Kathryn Mann 
Article and original art by Kathryn Mann

"I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else."
Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles. Her mother was mentally unstable and placed her in a foster home and eventually an orphanage. Marilyn never knew who her father was.

She began modeling in 1944, and within a year was one of the most photographed women in America. She signed a movie contract in 1946, but did not begin to play leading roles until 1952. Her first big movie was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953.

Marilyn was dependent on prescribed drugs for most of her adult life, and was notorious for being late and not knowing her lines when she made movies. Nevertheless her genius is seen in her two best films, Some Like It Hot in 1958 and The Misfits in 1961. As Some Like It Hot director Billy Wilder said, "Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did."

Marilyn had several unhappy marriages that all ended in divorce. She died alone, probably from an accidental overdose of prescribed barbiturates, on August 5, 1962. 

         


 
 



Uplifting Visions
a guide to happiness, good health, and success
Charly Mann in a Hawaiian shirt
by Charly Mann

From the age of seven I have been enchanted with the idea of living happily ever after, and have made it a life quest to find that answer. I have spoken to hundreds of people – usually older and wiser than me, and read countless books and articles on the subject. In my website Uplifting Visions I share what I consider the best insights I have learned about achieving happiness in life.



There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

The great breakthrough in one's life comes when you realize that you can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal you set for yourself. This means there are no limits on what you can be.

-- William Robert Mann

 

 

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

-- Galileo Galilei

 

 

We're not meant to fit in. We're meant to stand out.

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

 

If you love life, life will love you back.

-- Arthur Rubinstein

 

 

Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself.

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

 

Making a living is not the same as making a life.

-- Fred Castrovinci

 

 

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you.

-- John Wooden

 

 

Ideas that matter; information that inspires

 

 

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod, my shadow does that much better.

-- Plutarch

 

 

If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.

-- Mitsugi Saotome

 

 

Judge yourself by your actions and not your intentions.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.

-- Jim Rohn

 

 

Call it Nature, Fate, or Fortune; all are names of God.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Remember to work hard. Look to the future with enthusiasm and hope. Accept responsibility, not only asking for your own rights, but also accepting responsibility for yourself, for other people, for nature and for future generations.

-- Madison Mann

 

 

Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it�s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.

-- Anthony Robbins

 

 

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Ethical existence is the highest manifestation of spirituality.

-- Albert Schweitzer

 

 

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that's the important half, for without discipline you wouldn't know what to do with luck.

-- Carl Zuckmeyer

 

 

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

-- The Dalai Lama

 

 

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

-- Confucius

 

 

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.

-- Sophia Lyon Fahs

 

 

Adults are obsolete children.

-- Dr. Seuss

 

 

You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life.

-- James Bilkey

 

 

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.

-- Anais Nin

 

 

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

-- Franklin P. Jones

 

 

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances.

-- Julia Sorel

 

 

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.

-- Washington Irving

 

 

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

-- Carl Sandberg

 

 

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

-- Confucius

 

 

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

We can't measure out goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, or by what we resist, and who we exclude; but we should measure our goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

-- from the movie Chocolat

 

 

Random information for a more fulfilling life

 

 

Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own. It is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.

-- Shakti Gawain

 

 

The difference between adults and children is that adults don't ask questions.

-- Kathryn Mann

 

 

No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.

-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

 

 

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Why is there something rather than nothing? We do not know. We will never know. Why? To what purpose? We do not know whether there is a purpose. But if it is true that nothing is born of nothing, the very existence of something - the world, the universe - would seem to imply that there has always been something: that being is eternal, uncreated, perhaps creator, and this is what some people call God.

-- Andre Comte-Sponville

 

 

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

The shortest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time.

-- Richard Cech

 

 

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

-- Epicurus

 

 

A life, if well lived, is long enough.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.

-- Carl Sandberg

 

 

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.

-- Solomon Ibn Gabriol

 

 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

-- Alan K. Simpson

 

 

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

-- Leon J. Suenesl

 

 

It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of humankind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.

-- Leo Buscaglia

 

 

When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no "I'll start tomorrow." Tomorrow is disease.

-- V.L. Allineare

 

 

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.

-- Edmund Burke

 

 

Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.

-- Donald Trump

 

 

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

-- Olando Battista

 

 

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

 

Overcome your fears and you can reach your potential.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

-- Immanual Kant

 

 

Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.

-- William Menninger

 

 

Only Ideas have long and lasting consequences, and ideas come mainly from books not television, movies, or video games.

-- Kathryn Mann

 

 

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

-- Honore de Balzac

 

 

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.

-- Vernon Howard

 

 

It's not how much money you make that's important - it's how much money you keep and how long you keep it.

-- Robert Kiyosaki

 

 

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

-- Walter Lippman

 

 

The only way to change your life is to change your mind.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway to the human spirit.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

If you are going through hell, keep going.

-- Winston Churchill

 

 

I have six great friends that taught me all I knew; their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

-- Rudyard Kipling

 

 

Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.

-- Doris Lessing "The Golden Notebook"

 

 

If you cannot accept fear of failure, you will never be successful.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

-- Buddha

 

 

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.

-- Edwin Way Teale

 

 

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

-- Abraham Lincoln

 

 

A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help.

-- Mohandas Gandhi

 

 

Nothing is as weak as a relationship that has not been tested under fire.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

-- Will Rogers

 

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

-- Plato

 

 

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

-- Logan Pearsall Smith

 

 

Money can contribute significantly to happiness if spent wisely.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Universal truths, insights and information for a better life

 

 

Money often costs too much.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

Passion is the genesis of genius.

-- Anthony Robbins

 

 

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

-- Proverbs 17:28

 

 

A community that cares about you

 

 

Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who treat you spitefully. When a man hits you on the cheek, offer him the other cheek too; when a man takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks you; when a man takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others as you would like them to treat you. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Again, if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do as much. And if you lend only where you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to each other to be repaid in full. But you must love your enemies and do good; and lend without expecting any return; and you will have a rich reward: you will be sons of the Most High, because he himself is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.

-- Jesus -Luke 6:27-36

 

 

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

-- Samuel Smiles

 

 

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

-- Socrates

 

 

If a problem cannot be solved, then you need to find the best way to manage it.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

The greatest wealth is health.

-- Virgil

 

 

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

-- Sophocles

 

 

You may think that you are the product of events that are largely beyond your control, but you do control the moment. The present is the time you take control of what your future will be.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

-- Andre Gide

 

 

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

-- Sidney J. Harris

 

 

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

-- John Quincy Adams

 

 

Self-pity is our worst enemy.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

-- Pliny the Younger

 

 

Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

An intellectual is a person who is always seeking knowledge and has the ability to change his mind when he learns new information.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.

-- Doug Horton

 

 

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

-- Bertrand Russell