Dr. Robert H. Schuller is one of the most widely known churchmen in America. He is the founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. He has written more than twenty books and I have found his writing very inspirational. “Tough times never last but tough people do” is an excellent, upbeat book, one which inspires and motivates the reader to a more creative lifestyle...It reflects Dr. Schuller’s buoyant spirit as Dr. Norman Vincent Peale says.
This could easily be a pocket book, the kind of book you can carry with you in a backpack or a purse when you need a small dose of motivation that can help you keep going.
What I liked the most in this book was the new perspective about thinking brought by Robert. He gives us “possibility thinking”, the kind of brainstorming which explores further what ideas you have in your mind. Possibility thinking focuses not on the management of time, money, energy, or persons, but on the management of ideas. I have often found myself ruminating over what I do not have yet that I entered a state of frustration , desperation and anxiety, not allowing my brain to function at a 100% capacity.
Nobody is a total failure if he dares to try to do something worthwhile
Robert shows us how to take control of this ruminating part of our mind and trust a higher force above it all. The most important thing is action. Getting stuck and doing nothing anything is worse than just getting started, even if it is a baby step, even if is imperfect, even if it does not give you the results you want immediately.
Better do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly
I also admired the life stories shared by Robert. I love a good life story because when you know that the story is real, that someone was really going through that in their life, you feel inspired. Robert’s daughter had a motorcycle accident and she had to have one of her legs amputated. Reading about their attitude toward this, reading about her, was really uplifting because the way they reframed mentally this hardship shows how attitude is what makes the difference between looking at your life as it is a miracle versus looking at your life like it is a mess. We all have problems, even the richest person has problems.
What Robert teaches us is to put the problem into the right perspective, stating some basic ideas which will help you reframe your issues:
• Every problem has a limited life span
• Every problem holds positive possibilities
• Every problem will change you
• You can choose what your problem will do to you
• There is a negative and a positive reaction to every problem
Everything we have around us, from paper to cars, came from an idea. Someone thought about it and somehow has found a way to implement it. Maybe one of the most useful things to take from this book is to never reject an idea just because you can’t think of a way to have it done immediately.
Don’t reject an idea just because you don’t have the necessary power. Make the commitment to do what’s great, then solve the problems. Make the commitment to do what’s great, then solve the problems. A supersuccessful person has very few resources, except the capacity to take an idea and marshal stronger and smarter people around him to pull it off.
This is not a typical motivational book because it doesn’t states that everything depends on you. In some cases it might be better to let go and let God. Faith is of paramount importance in tackling life’s challenges. Faith in God, faith in a superior force above you, faith in the Universe. No matter what religion you have, if you have a strong belief that someone above is watching over you, then you will manage to pass through any storm.
Prayer is the umbilical cord that allows you –with your embryonic ideas- to draw nourishment from a source that you, like an unborn infant, can neither see nor fully know or comprehend – God our heavenly Father! Prayer is the power that pulls everything together successfully.
The book ends with a beginning for every reader: an alphabet for action. Robert reframes the alphabet and gives us vital keywords which can become new tools for a new life.
Plan your future because you have to live in it. That means that you must be mature enough to change your mind. Show me a person who never changes their mind, and I’ll show you a very immature, childish, stubborn person
Affirm that you can do it
Belive you can achieve your heart’s highest goal
Commit yourself to a dream
Dare to try, to love, to make a commitment, to take a risk
Educate yourself
Find the talent, the possibilities, the time, the money, the way
Give
Hope is holding on, praying expectantly. It’s never giving up, it’s never quitting.
Imagine
Junk the junk food out of your mind
Knock out depression, knock out discouragement, knock out all kinds of forecasts of gloom and doom
Laugh. If you keep your sense of humor and laugh, then you’ll be able to love. I really don’t think it’s possible to love until you laugh first. People who try to love before they laugh take themselves too seriously
Make it happen
Negociate. You have to be able to negociate, to compromise. You can’t have your way all the time.
Overlook and overcome
Persevere, don’t give up
Quit complaining because life isn’t as nice as you want it. Look at what you have left, never at what you’ve lost
Reorganize. When you fail, you will need to reorganize. And when you succeed you will need to reorganize
Share. God can do tremendous things though the person who doesn’t care who gets the credit and is willing to share the credit, share the power, and share the glory
Trade off. You will have to decide what you will give up in order to keep what you’ve got.
Unlock some human values you never experienced
Visualize the dream before you. Don’t ever lose the vision.When you lose the vision, you’re dead. Where there are no dreams, people perish.
Work
X-ray. If you’re pursuing a job, if you’re on your way toward a goal, if you’ve got a dream, and you’ve gotten this far, then it’s high time you stopped once more and x-rayed your deepest motives. If dollars become an end in themselves, then you’re in trouble. You need to ask youself first “What do I really want to accomplish?”. Then ask yourself “If I continue the way I am, will I get to where I really want to go?”. Then you ask a third question: “ If I get there, will I be happy? And will that fulfill me at my deepest level? That’s what you call x-ray.
