Start all over again…

July 7, 2025

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent July 12, 2013. Reposts of the advice posts from the blog of the late Pastor Jack Freed.

“There are two disappointments in life. One is not getting what you want. The other is getting it.” (Oscar Wilde) Disappointments? We all have them. A job loss, a broken relationship, a health issue… I like the advice in this old song, “When my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.” Life is a series of learning experiences, and there comes a time when we just have to move on. 😉 Jack

 It is interesting that Jack, like most of us I suspect, focused upon the disappointment of not getting what we want, not achieving a goal or winning at a pursuit. But, what about the disappointment of actually winning, of achieving what we have been striving for? How can that be disappointing? Start all over again…

After the initial feeling of euphoria or accomplishment following the achievement of a goal or getting wat we’ve been striving for so long, there comes the letdown (disappointment) of no longer having that goal to motivate us. Many athletes experience this once that have achieved their goals as competitors. What do you do after you’ve become the best in the world at your event or become the star of a professional team in your sport?  Start all over again…

It may be hard for us to imagine, but the accumulation of yet another million dollars to a person like Elon Musk, or Warren Buffet or Bill Gates brings very little satisfaction, if any. Star athletes also have a hard time sometimes moving on after achieving the athletic levels that they trained for all their lives. We are fascinated by how people react to having achieved the goals that were driving them. Start all over again…

We occasionally see the sad stories of people whom we thought “had it all and threw it away”. Some turned to alcohol or drugs when they no longer had the motivation of striving towards their goal. We have also witnessed people like Bill Gates refocusing their lives on bigger, more altruistic goals of philanthropy, like ending world hunger or maybe eradicating a terrible disease. Start all over again…

How we react to winning and achieving our goals in life is as important (if not more so) than how we react to failures. As with failure, in success we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again. We must move on to establish new goals. Start all over again…

I think that refocusing from achieving specific and tangible goals, such as having so many dollars in the bank or achieving a specific record in some event onto the less tangible goal of just being happy is a great start. That might involve being happier with what you already have than being unhappy about things that you don’t have. Start all over again…

If you become more focused upon and cognizant of things that make you happy you will soon see that money, possessions and power over others has little to do with your own happiness. I think that you will realize that you are happiest when you have helped to bring happiness to others, when you have made a positive difference in someone else’s life. Start all over again…

Maybe you should start each day with a little prayer, not asking for more things for yourself, but by being thankful for what you already have and by asking God for the ability and opportunities to help others. At the end of the day, if you can look back and see the times when you helped someone, it was a good day and I’ll bet that you are happy about it. Start all over again…

The good news is that you may get another chance tomorrow to start all over again.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Start over, but take a different path…

March 12, 2024

This graphic from my real estate company offers good advice, but perhaps not enough.

Certainly starting over does provide an opportunity to build something better, but only if you have learned from your past failures and take a different path this time.

There is an old saying that insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Sadly, too many people take that approach to life. Most don’t stop to analyze why they failed the other times that they tried. They convince themselves that if they just work harder along the same path that they took before they will succeed. Often, that approach leads only to a slightly different failure.

Thomas Edison was famous for telling people how many times he failed at some of his greatest inventions before he got them right. Edison learned from each failure and took a slightly different path on each try.

Starting over also allows one to modify their goal and define a new end point or expected result. That is important because failures allow you to examine those goals or your definition of success. It might also allow you to set more realistic and achievable short-term goals on the way towards a larger long-term goal. That way you can celebrate those short-term wins to keep yourself motivated for the long haul.

One roadblock to starting over that many people allow is to become fixated on the “sunk money” or “sunk time” that you have invested in your failed approach. You may think that “I’ve come too far to start over”. Give yourself a break. Congratulate yourself instead for being too smart to continue down that dead end path. And don’t waste any time looking for a scapegoat to blame. Own the bad choices that you made; learn from them and move on.

A good habit to adopt is to frequently stop and evaluate what you have done, what you are doing and what you think will come next. Are you making progress against your short and long-term goals? Is there anything that needs to be adjusted or perhaps even abandoned and a new direction taken? Regularly reviewing and evaluating where you are and what you think is next will keep you from going too far down rat-holes and wasting time and resources.

So, don’t be afraid to start over, just make sure that you take a different path this time. Persistence and perseverance are not good traits to have if you use them on the wrong path. Learn from your past mistakes and build something better this time.

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Posted by Norm Werner

What are you aiming to do better?

January 8, 2024

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 1/8/24 – reprised posts from the blog of the late Pastor Jack Freed.


“All I aim to do this year is better.” (PictureQuotes.com)  Are you into making resolutions? How’s it going? Recently a related quote was handed to me: “A year from now you’ll wish you had started today.” When we’re really serious about making changes in our life, it has to happen one day at a time. I’ve read that if you’re going to move a mountain, you begin by moving the first stone, even if it’s only a pebble. Basically, I aim to do better…starting today. 😉  Jack

Originally sent January 14, 2016.

I got the graphic below separately from today’s post from the Jack’s Winning Words blog, but it just seemed to be appropriate.

At this time of the year people and businesses are busy setting their goals for the coming year. Sometimes people call their goals resolutions. The one consistent factor in these plans/resolutions is a desire or need for change. Even a goal as nebulous as “doing better” begs the need for change.

In order to understand what needs to change or how you can do better, one needs to understand where they are starting from – what is the current situation that you would like to change? That understanding constitutes your starting point and the baseline from which you will measure the progress of the change.

Reflecting on what you’ve accomplished over the last year also allows you to think about what worked and what didn’t. It may require a reset of your goals or at least a reexamination of them to see if that is really still a goal worth pursuing.

One aspect of goals that is often misjudged is the timeline to accomplish them. Most of the time that is caused by a failure to breakdown ands understand the steps and sequence of events that must be accomplished on the journey to the end goal. Quite often with bigger or more ambitious goals there are a host of enabling things that must be accomplished before one can make progress on the main goal. Often these enabling steps involve education or training, which can take years in itself. So, perhaps one of the things that you’ll need to get better at is patience. Another is persistence.

In the business world there is a good advice about goal setting:

Goals must be achievable.

Goals must be measurable.

Goals must have a time constraint.

We should strive to make our resolutions for the year ahead adhere to those guidelines. Another good business practice to follow in our pursuit of our resolutions is that we must be held accountable. Someone else needs to know what your goal is and agree to provide you with an evaluation and feedback on your progress.  In business we call that someone your “accountability partner”.

So, as you begin another year with new resolutions (goals) for change and improvement, make sure that they are realistic (see list above). At the end of each day/week/month, take time to reflect back on how you spent your time and evaluate whether or not you actually accomplished and steps, no matter how small, towards your new goals for the year. Then renew your commitment to persistence and patience.

Move that first (or next) pebble today.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Keep renewing and improving…

August 28, 2023

From The Best of Jack’s Winning Words comes the post below that was originally penned by Jack on September 23, 2020. “Jack” was Pastor Jack Freed who  posted words of wisdom and encouragement five days a week for many years before passing away on Dece4mber 20, 2022. His son now reposts the best of Jack’s posts over the years.

“I’m not who I was yesterday.” (Alice in Wonderland) I’ve read that our body cells are continuing to die and be replaced, so that we are never who we were yesterday (a complete change in 7 years!). There’s a button you can wear: PBPGINFWMY.  It stands for: Please Be Patient God Is Not Finished With Me Yet. Every day is an opportunity to improve the self that we were yesterday. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to have a chance at improvement. 😉  Jack

While the physical aspects of our bodies renew themselves at the cellular level is interesting, it is the mental aspect of renewing and growing each day that Jack emphasized, and which gives us the continual opportunity to be a better person than we were yesterday.

Jack’s post mentioned that our bodies completely renew all of our cells every 7 years. The good news is that you don’t have to wait 7 years to renew and reinvent yourself mentally. You can do that by examining things that have become habits and discarding those that are injurious to your well-being and introducing new, good habits. Studies have shown that it takes an average of 2 weeks for a new behavior to become a habit.

The impact of stopping bad, old habits can be instantaneous, but some habits are harder to just quit than others – witness all of the stop smoking ads on TV. Here are a few things might help you make your desired changes in your life:

1, Break it down – There is a saying that “He bit off more than he could chew”. One of the most common mistakes is trying to do too much too fast. Making major changes in your life can be a big task, so break the change down into smaller, achievable steps. In the movie “What about Bob”, that was called taking “baby steps”. So take baby steps in the new direction that you want your life to go.

2. Be accountable – Of course you are accountable to yourself; however, many people find it helpful to have an “accountability partner”, someone that you meet with regularly and with whom you share your goals and to whom you report your progress. Ask that partner to hold you accountable for making progress towards those goals and to call BS when you try got make excuses.

3. Forgive yourself and move on – You will have failures and setbacks. Do not wallow in self-pity or give up just because you had a setback. In many cases, you may have to forgive yourself for having made a poor decision. Don’t beat yourself up. Forgive yourself and move on towards your goal. If nothing else, view your mistake as a learning experience.

4. Don’t do it alone – While you may have an accountability partner, they will not be expected to do it with you. Making small or even major changes in your life is a very personal thing. That does not mean that you must do it alone. Calling on God’s help is one of the most personal things you can do and one of the most rewarding. Get out of the loner mentality of “I’ve got this” and into mindset that “We’ve got this” with God and you will feel an immediate sense of empowerment. After all, the Bible says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

5. Be patient and persistent – Our short attention spans often turn to frustration when things don’t happen as fast as we’d like. Change takes time and you must give it time. Patience and persistence build character and wisdom, both of which are good things.

6. Celebrate your victories – No matter how small the steps that you take may be, take the time to celebrater and reward yourself for the small victories that those steps represent. Repeat to yourself the line from Alice in Wonderland – “I’m not who I was yesterday”, and that’s a good thing.

Jack mentioned a button that he saw somewhere – PBPGINFWMY.  It stands for: Please Be Patient God Is Not Finished With Me Yet. Maybe you should wear a button that instead says INFWMY – I’m Not Finished With Me Yet.

Keep renewing, keep changing, keep improving.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Turn them into memories…

August 21, 2023

“The goal is to die with memories, not dreams.”  (Tiny Buddha) 

Today’s saying comes from the Best of Jack’s Winning Words blog – a blog being carried on by the son of the late Pastor Jack Freed.

I thought this graphic also fit.

We all have dreams, hopes and aspirations. Some just remain dreams. Hopefully you act on many (if not all) of those dreams and they become fond memories later in life. The phrase, “We’ll always have Paris”  refers to a dream accomplished to visit the City of Lights in France. Most people end life with at least a few fond memories of dreams that they made come true even it they weren’t trips to Paris.

The graphic today makes the important point not to give up on those dreams. Rather, you should set them as goals. A funny thing happens when you convert a dream into a goal – you start planning and working to achieve it. The real becomes real and, if you are patient and persistent, it eventually becomes a memory. Along the way you will make other memories of the journey to accomplishing that dream.

Turn your dreams into memories that you will fondly look back upon. Some will always have Paris, but only you will always have your memories of your dreams that you made come true.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Keep having new dreams…

July 25, 2023

As they get older many people slow down and that’s quite natural. We may shift from tennis to Pickleball or find that we must now take a cart when playing a round of golf. We adjust to the decline that occurs in our bodies, even if we don’t “feel old” in our minds. That includes adjusting our dreams and goals to better align with our physical abilities. The important thing is to continue to have dreams and goals as we age. Sitting in a rocking chair on the porch is nice relaxation, but it is not (or should not be) a goal.

Many people, having reached retirement age turn the pursue of a hobby or pastime into a goal. For many, finally having the time to sit and read has been a goal for some time and now it is within reach. For some being able to devote more time to a sport like golf or Pickleball is the fulfillment of a dream. Finally getting the time to travel is a dream come true for many.

The point is that getting older is not a time to withdraw from life and just sit around waiting for the end. It is a time to have new dreams and goals; dreams and goals for which you finally have the time to pursue. Sometimes those dreams involve achieving person goals or maybe reliving an earlier success in life. Yuichiro Miura is the oldest person in the world to ever climb to the summit of Mount Everest at the age of 80. He first set the record in 2003 at the age of 70, but reclaimed the record – after other people had beaten it – when he was 80 years old in 2013. He was not too old to dream and have goals.

Admittedly, most of us will have slightly less ambitious dreams and goals than Mr. Miura had. It could involve things like going back to school to get that diploma or degree that you didn’t have time for earlier in life. Maybe it means taking up that hobby or pursuit that you abandoned years ago out of the necessity to earn a living. It could involve reestablishing contact with long lost friends. Things like learning a new language or learning to play an instrument are hard at any age but possible at all ages. If you have thoughts like, “I always want to see this”, or “I always wanted to do this” or maybe “I always wanted to be this”; then make “this” your goal.

You are not too old to have new dreams. You are old enough not to let the “coulda, woulda, shoulda’s” of life hold you prisoner.

Put yourself in the Nike frame of mind and “Just Do it”.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Don’t stop thinking; start doing…

May 16, 2023

Far too many people begin each week by imagining reasons why they can’t achieve their dreams – they make up excuses for not even trying.

Successful people begin their week by reassessing where they are and thinking about what the next steps may be to making progress towards their dream. They revisit their dream as a long-term goal and then dedicate themselves to the short-term tasks at hand which must be accomplished to make progress towards the dream.

At the end of the day or the week they look back and see progress being made. They are happy to have been able to accomplish whatever smaller tasks were needed to make progress towards the ultimate goal – the dream. Sometimes, just like when you take the wrong path through a maze; they must admit that they have been pursuing a dead-end path and must back up and start anew. It is in those times that the strength of your commitment to the dream is most important.

If you have a dream that you cannot stop thinking about, turn that dream into a goal and then spend some time thinking about the things that must be accomplished in order to achieve that big goal. Make those things the little goals that you can accomplish in a day or a week or a month and t out to achieve that little goal. Celebrate those little wins and keep moving forward.

Keep thinking about your dream and start doing…

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Posted by Norm Werner

Do you have a wish or a goal?

June 13, 2022

This graphic showed up in my in-box this morning just as I was starting to give some serious thought to the week ahead. It is easy to confuse wishes and goals, since both focus on some unrealized future event or accomplishment. The key is the existence of a plan to achieve that thing. If you don’t have a plan it is sort of like buying a Lotto ticket to secure your future – total happenstance, with terrible odds of success. A journey without any commitment to a final destination (the goal) is called “wandering”, and wandering aimlessly through life is not very satisfying.

If you have a goal, you should be able to identify where you are on the journey to achieving that goal and have a good idea what your next steps need to be. The reason that you are able to identify those things is that you have spent time breaking down the journey into logical, achievable steps or tasks that you know need to be accomplished – you have a plan. That is the difference between saying, “I wish I could find a new job” and “I’m going to find a new job”.

As you sit at the Monday morning breakfast table, take stock of the wishes and goals that might be swimming around in your head. Separate them out and focus upon the goals. Spend a little time on each goal to assess where you are on the journey to reach that goal and think about what steps you might be able to take this week to further that journey along. You rarely will have the time to multi-task at several goals at once (and still do your job at work), so prioritize which to work on as you find the time.

Look at the next step in your plan and break it down to smaller, more achievable steps if necessary. Take the time to congratulate yourself for getting this far on the journey and rededicate yourself to achieving some progress this week, no matter how small it may seem. I like this quote by Ernie J Zelinski –

 “Imagination allows you to think of the journey worth making. Motivation gets you started. But, it’s patience and perseverance that get you there.”

A lack of patience and perseverance are the greatest separators between success and failure to achieve one’s goals.

Sometimes it helps to also pause and remember that you ae not alone on this journey to your goal. God is always there with you. So, as you plan for this week’s steps towards those goals, make sure that you touch base with God and ask for his help. Don’t ask him to make things happen for you; that’s not how it works. Instead, pray for God to give you the strength and resolve to persevere and the patience to see things through.

Armed with a renewed commitment to your goals and with strengthened patience and perseverance you are ready for the week ahead.

Go for it!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Don’t turn resolutions into pressure…

December 27, 2021

It’s that time of the year when people think about New Year’s Resolutions – things that we think we want to do or accomplish during the coming year. It is a good idea to have goals – things to work towards achieving in the new year. Unfortunately, for many, those resolutions and goals almost immediately are turned into pressure. Pressure to achieve and reasons to beat oneself up over missed deadlines; deadlines which were self-imposed in the first place. Don’t go there.

Rather than set deadlines, perhaps you can establish review points where you assess the progress that has been made on your journey towards your goals. Then you can adjust both your approach to achieving those goals and maybe even to the goals themselves. Taking this approach can help you turn what could have been a session of disappointment or negativity into a positive time to congratulate yourself for any progress that you have made and rethink both your approach and your timetable. There is no need to add pressure to your life over your personal goals. Find ways to add rewards for yourself for what you have accomplished.

A good way to make resolutions without adding pressure is to define your resolution in terms of a journey towards a goal, rather than a hard goal. Instead of a resolution that says, “I will lose 40 pounds by June 1, 2022”, maybe you can resolve that, “I will change my personal eating and exercise habits such that I lose weight by this summer”. The first resolution provides no path to accomplishing that goal, while the second sacrifices a specific amount of weight loss, but, if accomplished, will lead to a much better overall result.

So, think about what you accomplished this year and what you would like to accomplish or things that you want to change in 2022 and put some thought into how to construct a resolution that defines a positive and supportive approach to achieve those things, rather than just setting hard goals that you will likely just turn into more pressure and disappointment in your life. It’s not a contest with winners and losers, it’s an exciting journey. Use your New Year’s Resolutions to define journeys that you want to take towards those goals and then step off onto those journeys.

Have a happy and pressure free New Year!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Reset your goals tonight.

February 20, 2021

This post isn’t about your business goals or your financial goals. Rather it is about the goals that hopefully you have for how you live your life. The post is inspired not by my usual source of inspiration, Pastor Freed and his blog, Jack’s Winning Words; but, rather by a little saying that I saw in a news post from Reddit –

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” – St. Jerome

It is not unusual as one unwinds at the end of a day to reflect on the events of the day and perhaps upon the decisions that one made during the day. It is probably a little less usual that one reflect on how they lived their life that day and whether what they did and how they did it reflected well on the goals that they have for themselves. That’s where the St. Jerome quote comes in.

Hopefully one is not satisfied with “good enough” and is always striving for better. Were you a better person today that yesterday and how can you get even better tomorrow? Are there still things that you can do, once you get better to make you the best person that you can be? Did you let pre-conceived notions or prejudices creep into your decision making today? How can you eliminate them for tomorrow so that you can make better decisions then? Did you fail to stop and help someone in need today and how can you plan your life better tomorrow so that you can take the time to help?

Just like the enemy of love is not hate, the enemy of making progress to get better and moving towards being your best that is common to both is indifference. If you become indifferent and accepting of things, rather then constantly trying to improve, you begin to accept good enough and that is just sad.

A key to making progress on being the best you that you can be is to understand that it is not all about you. A quote from Dr. Martin Luther King comes to mind – “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?'” In order to be the best you that you can be and the you that is most pleasing to God, you need to serve others. Dr King had a good quote about that, too, which maybe you can add to your prayers – “Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”

So, perhaps you can use your nightly moments of reflections and prayer to ask God to help you become better at seeing and reacting to the needs of others, helping where you can and not becoming complacent or indifferent to what you see around you in our society – prejudice, homophobia,  systemic racism and inequities in opportunity, wealth and healthcare.

As I wrote in a post a couple of days ago (see Don’t go over to the dark side), ask God for the insight and strength of character to be a part of the solution to the problems in our society that you see around you and not a part of the problem. The final Dr. King quote that I’ll throw in here deals with that – “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

Are you are one of those good silent people? You can be better. And, at your best, you can work to resolve those problems, first within yourself and then within society.

Reset your goals tonight and be the best you that you can be tomorrow.

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Posted by Norm Werner

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