Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the character that Mark Harmon portrays on NCIS. Of all of the NCIS characters, I have been told that my perspective on life is very similar to his and I take that as a compliment. It was from this character that I got the idea for writing down my “rules for life”, because if you don’t have rules to live by you can easily lose your way. There have been several different versions of the rules that have come out over the course of the show, but they are all pretty good rules to follow if you are an NCIS Agent or just a person in the world.
Gibbs Rules On NCIS-
Rule #1 –Never let suspects stay together.
Rule #1: Never screw over your partner.
Rule #2:Always wear gloves at a crime scene.
Rule #3:Don’t believe what you’re told. Double check.
Rule #3: Never be unreachable.
Rule #4: The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself.
Second best? Tell one other person – if you must.
There is no third best.
Rule #5 is ‘You Don’t Waste Good’ …You’re Good
Rule #6: Never apologize — Its a sign of weakness.
Rule #7: Always be specific when you lie.
Rule #8: Never take anything for granted
Rule #9: Never go anywhere without a knife.
Rule #10: Never get personally involved on a case
Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away.
Rule #12: Never date a coworker.
Rule #13: Never, ever involve a lawyer.
Rule #15: Always work as a team.
Rule #18: It’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.
Rule #22: Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation.
Rule #23: Never mess with a Marine’s coffee if you want to live.
Rule #27: Two ways to follow: — First way they never notice you, — second way they only notice you.
Rule #35 — “Always Watch The Watchers
Rule #38: Your case, your lead.
Rule #39: There is no such thing as coincidence.
Rule #40: If it seems someone is out to get you, they are.
Rule #44: First things first. Hide the women and children.
Rule #51:Sometimes — You’re Wrong!
And remember. . .
“A slap to the face
is an insult — to the
back of the head
is a wake-up call.”
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”
Norman Vincent Peale
What is Confidence?
In everyone’s life, no matter who you are or what you do, the feeling of confidence you have about yourself and your abilities will directly lead to the amount of success you enjoy throughout your life. Confidence alone is not enough to lead you to the top but it can supply the power to get you there.
It is strange to think that such a force exists, that can be controlled simply by how one feels about themselves and their own abilities. If you look at who you are and what you can do from a positive point of view. If you are focusing on what you can do, you will feel confident and therefore experience more success. If on the other hand, you focus on what you can’t do or don’t have, your confidence can be shaken and you will find it hard to achieve success, much less enjoy your accomplishments in life. That is the unique characteristic of your confidence, that it is 100% created in your own mind.
How Do You Build Confidence
Why then do so many people lack confidence in themselves. It may be because they don’t have enough experience in what they are doing, that a lack of confidence will creep in to you thought process. It may be a failure in the past that was painful creeps into their mind and they think “I failed before, it might happen again.” It is also true that the actions of others, which are totally out of our control can work to erode and diminish someone’s confidence. You can’t control what other people think about you, or what they say about you, or how they treat you for the most part. These interactions with others can have an effect on your self-esteem and your confidence.
To be happy you have to develop a confidence in your abilities and in yourself. You can’t let learning experiences in the past ruin your abilities for the future. You also have to develop the ability to constructively absorb the actions of other people without allowing them to diminish your self-esteem or make you question your own abilities and talents. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? If you don’t think you are a good person deserving of good things, who will? There is nothing so dependent on one’s own ability to look at themselves positively than the feeling of confidence. Often times I consider my actions in the past and recognize that there were literally thousands of opportunities to help build someone’s self-esteem and confidence that I did not take advantage of. Including opportunities to build my own. Fortunately, life provides a never ending cycle of opportunity to right these kinds of wrongs. Your decisions today can be the one’s that can help build the self esteem and confidence in yourself in others, if you decide that is what you want to do. Nobody controls how you feel about yourself, but yourself.
What is confidence:
1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliabilityof a person or thing: We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.
2. belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.
3. certitude; assurance: He described the situation with such confidence that the audience believed him completely.
There is nothing quite as relaxing as playing 18 holes on a warm summer day with people you like hanging out with. Usually most people who play golf are pretty decent people because the game is too hard for people with bad attitudes. In fact I have never met someone on the golf course that I didn’t see some redeeming quality in.
Golf is a game that you play against yourself. You keep your own score, so if you cheat then you are just cheating yourself. Most of the game is really played between your ears. If you can focus on the moment usually you do pretty well. Now I know that sounds easy, but it is difficult after you just hit a beautiful drive to not think about the potential birdie or par that is coming. You can almost see yourself putting it down on your scorecard. Then……BAM!! A duff, a shank and a three putt and all of those dreams disappear and you are now putting down a six.
That’s the way that golf goes. It really is a game that can represent many aspects of life. When you start your round, I always have a feeling of endless possibility. This could be the day that I break 80! This could be the best round I ever shoot. I try to feel that way at the beginning of every day and even though I rarely do find that goal that I am seeking. I do usually feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to play.
The only drawback to golf is that is can take up so much time. Four to five hours gets harder and harder to find.
Great quotes involving golf
Eighteen holes of match or medal play will teach you more about your foe than will 18 years of dealing with him across a desk. ~Grantland Rice
Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five. ~John Updike
It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place this world is when one is playing golf. ~Robert Lynd
Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad. ~A.A. Milne
Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious. ~P.G. Wodehouse, A Mixed Threesome, 1922
I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game: it’s called an eraser. ~Arnold Palmer
Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears. ~Bobby Jones
I’m about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That’s the distance my left ear is from my right. ~Ben Crenshaw
Golf is like a love affair. If you don’t take it seriously, it’s no fun; if you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart. ~Arthur Daley
Golf is a fascinating game. It has taken me nearly forty years to discover that I can’t play it. ~Ted Ray, Golf – My Slice of Life, 1972
The number of shots taken by an opponent who is out of sight is equal to the square root of the sum of the number of curses heard plus the number of swishes. ~Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Golf, 1975
If there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out. ~Paul Gallico
Golf is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic. ~Author Unknown
It’s easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister’s fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification. ~Bruce McCall
Forget your opponents; always play against par. ~Sam Snead
If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is. ~Horace G. Hutchinson
They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. ~Gardner Dickinson
I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies. ~Will Rogers
If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they’d starve to death. ~Sam Snead
Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness. ~William Wordsworth
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive. ~Arnold Palmer
The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can’t see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller
Fifty years ago, 100 white men chasing one black man across a field was called the Ku Klux Klan. Today it’s called the PGA Tour. ~Author uncertain, attributed to Alex Hay
A game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood. ~Author Unknown, plagiarized from the Samuel Johnson
“It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the priveleges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood,” which wasnot written about golf (Thanks, Frank Lynch)
Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: taking long walks and hitting things with a stick. ~P.J. O’Rourke
The sport of choice for the urban poor is basketball. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is bowling. The sport of choice for front-line workers is football. The sport of choice for supervisors is baseball. The sport of choice for middle management is tennis. The sport of choice for corporate officers is golf. Conclusion: The higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become. ~Author Unknown
If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt. ~Dean Martin
Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent’s. ~Grantland Rice
Golf is a good walk spoiled. ~Mark Twain
I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles. ~G.K. Chesterton
They throw their clubs backwards, and that’s wrong. You should always throw a club ahead of you so that you don’t have to walk any extra distance to get it. ~Tommy Bolt, about the tempers of modern players
If you break 100, watch your golf. If you break 80, watch your business. ~Joey Adams
Man blames fate for other accidents but feels personally responsible for a hole in one. ~Martha Beckman
When I die, bury me on the golf course so my husband will visit. ~Author Unknown
I’m not saying my golf game went bad, but if I grew tomatoes, they’d come up sliced. ~Attributed to both Miller Barber and Lee Trevino
Duffers who consistently shank their balls are urged to buy and study Shanks – No Thanks by R.K. Hoffman, or in extreme cases, M.S. Howard’s excellent Tennis for Beginners. ~Henry Beard, Golfing, 1985
Golf is life. If you can’t take golf, you can’t take life. ~Author Unknown
In baseball you hit your home run over the right-field fence, the left-field fence, the center-field fence. Nobody cares. In golf everything has got to be right over second base. ~Ken Harrelson
If I can hit a curveball, why can’t I hit a ball that is standing still on a course? ~Larry Nelson
Golf balls are attracted to water as unerringly as the eye of a middle-aged man to a female bosom. ~Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Golf, 1967
If your opponent is playing several shots in vain attempts to extricate himself from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes. It would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by applying his niblick to your head. ~Harry Vardon
A passion, an obsession, a romance, a nice acquaintanceship with trees, sand, and water. ~Bob Ryan
Drugs are very much a part of professional sports today, but when you think about it, golf is the only sport where the players aren’t penalized for being on grass. ~Bob Hope
I’d play every day if I could. It’s cheaper than a shrink and there are no telephones on my golf cart. ~Brent Musburger
The phrase, “thank you”, is one that we often times either forget to use enough or even more often forget how much it can mean to someone else. Often times I think that we don’t properly thank someone when what they did was seemingly so insignificant to them that thanking them might make them uncomfortable. Recently I met someone, who had never met me, and had no pre-conceived notions about me whatsoever. We proceeded to have a quick ten-fifteen minute conversation in which I learned more about her and she more about me than I would have thought possible. I mention this because that person, I am sure never realized what kind of impact they had on me. I have never met anyone who had such a unique ability to make everyone around her feel better about themselves. So I say “Thank you” to her, we may never meet again, but the impact on me has made me want to be more positively impactful on the people I meet. I have made it a mission that when I meet people to try to make them feel like I felt that day. I am so grateful for this encounter.
So if you have someone in your life, that makes you feel special, and you really appreciate them, let them know! Tell them “thank you” and be grateful for all that they add to your life. They may not be there forever. Feel free to leave your “thank you comments” at the bottom.
Please enjoy these words of thanks by Joanna Fuchs.
Thank You for Being You
Thank you for your kindness.
Thank you for being the person you are:
kind and thoughtful,
sensitive and considerate,
a generous and thoughtful giver.
You are unselfish always,
putting others before yourself,
making me feel special and important.
It is a privilege and a pleasure to know you.
I have often found inspiration in these simple words. Originally I was introduced to them by my grandfather, and whenever I feel like quitting or feeling sorry for myself, I can read these words and somehow find the inspiration to keep on moving forward. It seems sometimes that life is an overwhelming experience, with many pitfalls and unpleasant experiences, but there is so much good out there and so many really great things to experience. Never let the world get you down. Don’t you EVER quit!
Here is the original poem in it’s entirety:
The Don’t Quit Poem
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
– Author unknown
Here is an INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO to go along with The Don’t Quit Poem, I thought your might like. Peace be with you.
It is with a little bit of embarrassment that I admit that I love the television series, Psych. Truly I just love to watch Psych! It is a show designed, I think for people who are younger than me but I started watching it on Netflix and thanks to Psych episodes online, I quickly went through the first four seasons of the show and am an avid “Pshych-O”.
This show is totally unrealistic, and if you accept that going in you will be o.k. Shawn Spencer is the main character and he is a psychic detective. What is that you ask? Well he is a detective who uses his “psychic abilities” to solve crimes. He often is called into the Santa Barbara Police Department to help them solve crimes as well. Spencer works with his childhood friend Burton Guster, who is a full time pharmaceuticals salesman and part-time Psychic associate. These two characters have the funniest lines and most memorable banter between them. I literally laughed my butt off watching this show. Really I did. I was connected to my butt one minute and then, BAM, my butt fell off. From their constant references from foods to 80’s pop culture, there is something for everyone. They also have featured many interesting guest stars over the first five seasons. From wrestling’s John Cena to Cary Elwes, (the Princess Bride), they never fail to deliver an interesting story, and make you laugh in the process.
The laughter is definitely the number one reason I like this show. Even though I am quite sure that I feel my I.Q. drop every time I watch, I think that the boys and Juliet are worth it. Pineapple anyone?
Shawn: Come on, dude. I honestly didn’t know he was gonna be pulling a corpse outta the ground.
Gus: That’s alright, Shawn. I honestly didn’t know I was gonna be putting my foot in your ass. Life’s full of surprises.
Shawn: This is just another knock off of the other knock off of the original knock off of that other show.
Shawn [while they’re in front of the fence, after he said that usually the ‘electrified’ sign is fake]: Come on, touch it.
Gus: I’m not touching an electrified fence, Shawn!
Guard *smiling creepily*: How about I touch it?
Shawn: I don’t think I like the way that sounds.
“Or maybe you’re referring to my license to kill. Revoked. Trouble at the Kazakhstan border. I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you, which I can’t do because my license to kill has been revoked.”
Hello I’m psychic detective Shawn Spencer and this is my partner………
“Strict punctuality is perhaps the cheapest virtue which can give force to an otherwise utterly insignificant character.”~ John F. Boyes
Be On Time
In my experience throughout life, the first rule of anything that you do is to always be on time. I know it seems like common sense but I am constantly surprised by how many people fail to follow this simple practice.
“You may delay, but time will not.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
It doesn’t take any special talent or skill and really anyone can do it. It portrays your interest and responsibility to other people about anything that you are trying to do.
“I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.” ~ Lord Nelson.
The fact is if something is really important to you, you will make sure that you get wherever you need to be on time. Personally, I am the kind of person that if you are not 15 minutes early, you are late.
“I give it as my deliberate and solemn conviction that the individual who is habitually tardy in meeting an appointment, will never be respected or successful in life.” ~ Rev. W. Fisk
Effective Time Management
During my coaching career, I always made this rule number one in any introductory meeting. It helped set the tone that what we were doing was an important activity and anything worth doing is worth doing right. I hope that anyone who ever participated on any of those teams were able to take this life lesson and apply it to all aspects of their lives.
“Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.”~ Horace Mann
I hope you enjoyed this post and found the time management quotes inspirational.
As far back as I can remember I have really not liked tomatoes. I just think it tastes bad and particularly the texture isn’t something I have ever liked. No tomato in my sandwich I will have a BL with no T thank you very much. But here is the problem. I really like many tomato products, ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, I can even eat tomatoes if they have been cooked. But fresh tomatoes out of the garden, no thank you, you can keep them.
I think the fact, that growing up, the only good thing that I can think of about tomatoes is that they made really good ammunition when it came to playing games outside which required the trowing of something at someone else. We often played these games because…………we weren’t all that smart. We used crab apples and sometimes even rocks, (like I said, not very bright), but tomatoes were the best object for these games. I remember one particular time getting pelted with them and being covered in a slick reddish goo, and thinking “Wow, this sucks, and so do tomatoes.” And I feel that way to this very day!
So there it is. If you are going to get me a sandwich, or order me a salad, please…………………………… be a friend-o and leave out the tomato!
A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which make it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose warriors outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them . Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, “you see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice we win or we perish! They won.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a Burning Desire To Win, essential to success.
I don’t think it has to be quite this drastic, but the idea that you have to step out of your comfort zone and take a few risks to meet success head on, is clear. Nobody climbed a mountain sitting on their duff at home. Nobody every accomplished much by doing nothing. You need a plan for what you want to accomplish, a goal to set out for and the desire to get it no matter what the cost and you are in business. Dream big and achieve your goals, my friend.
After a conversation I had today I wanted to put a list of some of my favorite movies based on Stephen King Novels out there to scare, inspire or entertain your kids who probably weren’t alive when they first came out! Fun Making the list!
Salem’s Lot
Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead. Vampires in Maine what could be scarier than that?
Stand by Me
This film is a fantastic coming of age story about a group of four strange mismatched friends from junior high who try to track down a missing boy, presumed dead, by following some train tracks. Meanwhile they learn about each other and themselves, and end up all changing forever because of that several day journey. This is a very touching film with some sadness, and shows that Stephen King is not “just a horror writer.” This movie is based on the King novella “The Body.”
The Green Mile
Some may argue that this is the best movie, and they may have a point, but the fact that there are enough great movies based on Stephen King works that a film this good (rated on the top 250 movies ever on IMDB) could arguably not be in the top five just shows that there are some gems out there. Not only is Tom Hanks great in this film, but this touching movie (a not heavily hidden allegory of the Jesus story) follows the film and is a fantastic watch that generally follows the books very carefully.
It
This three hour and change movie is a two part movie, with Pennywise the Clown perhaps one of the most disturbing horror villains in movie history. I personally point to him (and watching this movie at the age of ten) as explaining my life long fear/hatred of clowns. This movie is often judged as the first half being excellent and the second half mediocre, in part because of a changed ending. In fairness, the book’s ending would be next to impossible to fully convert into a movie format, but all in all, this movie is still a great view, and the first half is excellent. You might want to skip this one if you have a phobia of clowns.
Shawshank Redemption
This movie is one of only three from the IMDB website that has a rating of over 9.0 (out of 10), and is rated as the second best movie of all time on that website, and for very good reason. This amazing movie is based on the equally amazing novella about a banker who is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and is sent to a sadistic prison where the guards and warden are both corrupt. The acting is incredible, the storyline is amazing, and everything about this movie works. Not only is this the best movie ever adapted from a Stephen King work, but many cinema fans agree that it was one of the better movies ever made.
Pet Cemetary-
This work was also one of Stephen King’s finest horror novels. There is a haunted pet cemetery, spelled cutely with an ‘S,’ where everything buried comes back from the dead, but comes back twisted and evil. This is a great film where the tragic loss of a child proves too much temptation, and what comes back is terrifying and evil beyond belief. The ending of this film is absolutely fantastic, and one of the best endings of a King movie.
Misery-
This was one of the best horror novels written by Stephen King, and the best movie based on a horror work. Annie Wilkes, the number one fan, is the worst nightmare of every celebrity, or every individual who has ever been stalked. An author gets in an accident, but is “rescued” by an obsessive fan, who ends up killing anyone who snoops around and creates the word “hobbling.” Anyone who saw the movie just winced at the mention of that word. Kathy Bates is exceptional as Annie Wilkes, and one of the most convincing movie psychopaths of all time.
Children of the Corn-
Children of the Corn was based on a short story by Stephen King (and all six of the terrible sequels were based on movie studios trying to stretch it for a cheap buck). “Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman!” This classic line and scene helps define the movie, where a child prophet has convinced every child to murder all the adults in town, as they worship “He who walks behind the rows.” Talk about the wrong town to break down in! This is a very solid horror flick, with some really genuinely creepy moments.
And remember. . .
Even 4-star generals vulnerable to email snoops
