Tom Walsh Quotes & Sayings

It's important to distinguish between needs and wants. Sometimes we spend so much time chasing after our wants that we neglect our true needs, and that's a course of action that over time is bound to harm us. Today it's important to determine what exactly our needs are, and then attend to them so that we can make sure that we're not going to burn out or hit a wall because we haven't taken care of ourselves. Wants are important, too, but it's obvious that in the long term, our needs should take priority. And when we identify a need, it's important that we don't brush it off without taking care of it, and today I'll have chances to at least work on making sure that some important needs of mine are met. — Tom Walsh

But no matter how life looks at the moment, if we trust that it looks this way for a reason that will help us and others in the future, we can deal with this moment with a much stronger sense of purpose and acceptance. — Tom Walsh

There's an elegance to simplicity. Keeping things simple allows us to enjoy things more fully, without raising our expectations to unrealistic levels. Very often the most important thing that we can do in our lives is to keep things simple, yet we tend to complicate our lives and situations - often with the best of intentions - adding stress and work and many more details to our lives. Keeping things simple can certainly be a liberating force in our lives, and it can also help us to see the beauty of simplicity, and to learn its value. — Tom Walsh

Hurry is a thief, pure and simple. And sometimes when we complain about the absence of certain things in our lives, we really aren't missing those things at all - rather, we just don't notice them when they're there because we fly right by them on our way to something else. — Tom Walsh

Our culture doesn't seem to value competence as much as it used to. Now we seem to want to do and get everything as quickly as possible, which often leads to mediocre work and products. It seems to be the exception to find people at stores and businesses who are actually able to help us thoroughly with whatever problems we may have. We accept poor service and poor workmanship as if we deserve it
and when we decide to make a stand about something, it usually has to do with price or rudeness, but not about competence. — Tom Walsh

If I'm to have a character that others admire, I need to focus on developing that character. I need to make decisions that are honorable and honest. I need to focus on others rather than myself. I need to be consistent in my dealings with other (while being careful to avoid what Emerson called "a foolish consistency"). I must obey the calls of my religious beliefs. And I must be true to myself, my God, and others. I should never seek the admiration of others, but if I develop an honest, loving, caring character, the admiration will come. — Tom Walsh

Am I corrupted if I believe that the people who think alike are more admirable and estimable than those who think for themselves? If no one thought differently, then where would our innovations come from? How would we ever advance beyond the status quo? Corruption isn't just moral or ethical in nature
rust is a form of corruption, one that eats away at its host like a parasite, constantly making it less than it was the day before. The belief that they should hold in greater esteem those who think alike is a form of rust, something that doesn't allow our young people to grow beyond the limitations already established by those who do think alike. — Tom Walsh

How we like to hold on! Sometimes we're unwilling to let things go just because we know them, and they feel "safe" to us, even if we're talking about something like behaviors that harm us, like defensiveness or addictions. We hesitate to let go because doing so will expose us to the unknown in our own lives, and we'll have to deal with life without this part of ourselves that we've grown so accustomed to. But if we're ever to move on to the next thing in life, if we're to grow and develop as people, we may have to let go of things that are holding us back - behaviors and beliefs and sometimes even people. There is no formula that can tell us what we should let go of and what we should hold on to. But if we listen to our hearts, we can know what still serves us well, and what is keeping us from moving on and becoming better people. — Tom Walsh

For today, i'll hold on to my dreams and respect them. — Tom Walsh

One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try. -Sophocles — Tom Walsh

We're making a choice every single time we put something into our mouths. And it's a much more important choice than most people make it out to be. Today, make the choices that are positive ones for your body - and if you stay in the habit of doing so, you'll find that you benefit greatly from those choices. — Tom Walsh

When we separate ourselves from the rest of the world, the world becomes a lonely and difficult place to live in. When we see ourselves as completely separate, we cannot call upon the power and strength that comes from unity, from being part of a greater whole. In today's world, we buy into the lie that if we do see ourselves as
or make ourselves into
a part of the greater whole, then we'll lose our identity and become nothing more than another face in the crowd, a lemming who does nothing but follow others and never creates his or her own life. Nothing, though, could be further from the truth. — Tom Walsh

Look at it this way - before any of this wood became parts of the shelves or the desk or the chair, all of it was in pieces - just pieces of wood. But the wood was full of potential. It could be shaped into anything that a carpenter wanted it to be shaped into, turning it into a beautiful finished product. Now, not all carpenters are equal in skill - you know that. If a piece of wood is shaped by a poor carpenter, the finished product will be lacking somehow, in some way.
But if that wood is shaped by a master carpenter, then that piece will fit into this world precisely as it's supposed to fit, whether it be a desktop or a cabinet shelf or a doorstop. And the way that I work wood is the way I try to work with people - with love and attention and caring - so that the wood and the people can reach their potential. And if someone lets you teach them, and is open to what you have to teach, then how can you go wrong? — Tom Walsh

Life is not about control or making things happen in the ways we think they should happen. In fact, it's rather arrogant for us to be on this planet that's been here for so long and expect to be able to control life on it. If we want to see changes, then our task is to set things in motion, not to micromanage and make them happen in the ways we think they should. If we have something that is possessing us, such as alcohol or our television sets or our cell phones, then it could be time to let it go and move on with our lives. If we're holding on to resentment and anger, we're simply raising our own stress levels and blood pressure, but we're not contributing anything positive to the situation
and it's time to let it go. — Tom Walsh

It seems that the more we learn about our work, the easier and the more interesting it becomes to us. Tasks that used to be tedious now make sense, and we see how they're related to other elements of our jobs. Plus, they're easier to take care of now, so they don't bother us nearly as much when we need to do them. When we know more about our work and its ramifications, we can see the connections between what we do and the effects that those things have on other people. — Tom Walsh

Our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are. — Tom Walsh

We lose our ability to live fully if we neglect or ignore our responsibility to the other people who share this planet with us. We simply cannot reach our full potential without the insights and observations that other people
our teachers
have to give us. We cannot feel whole until we are helping other people to reach for their potential and to grow as strong as they can grow. We do need down time, and we do need time to ourselves, but we very much need to acknowledge our ties to our fellow human beings and act as if those people meant more to us than our jobs or pets or cars do. They are much more important than anything material that we ever can get our hands on or strive for. — Tom Walsh

Just for today, i'll try to maintain a positive perspective, no matter what the situation ... — Tom Walsh

Sometimes we mistake patience for weakness, but the patient person often realizes that it's much more important for another person to discover his or her own gifts and shortcomings
the patient person doesn't feel a need to "fix" other people, and sometimes will let certain things slide until the other person recognizes the problems. Patient parents often let their kids make the same mistake two or three times because they know that a lesson learned oneself is almost always preferable to a lesson given to us by an authority figure like a parent. — Tom Walsh

It is well said that we're just borrowing this planet from our children - and what kind of condition are we going to return it in when we pass on? — Tom Walsh

The simple truth is that love is a part of who we are, not something that others "give" to us if we're worthy of it. We're taught that if we just find that right person, and that person "falls in love" with us, everything will be fine. We're not taught about recognizing the love that is a part of our spirits, the love that we radiate when we recognize the beauty and need in all the people that surround us. Love is ours to share, at all moments and in all situations, but for some reason we fear doing so. — Tom Walsh

Day Thirty-five just for today, i'll remember that kind words accomplish much more than harsh words. — Tom Walsh

Unfortunately, we don't have all that many good examples to follow. The people that our cultures label as "successful" are the ones who have become wealthy or famous or celebrities, but the truly successful people
those who have become happy and who are living happy, loving, giving lives
aren't often featured in our newspapers or newscasts. We see the politicians and the criminals and the athletes and the entertainment "stars," but we don't see the people who can truly inspire us to be happy by being just who we are. — Tom Walsh

It's easy to get lost in our own heads. It's easy to allow the thoughts and worries and plans and hopes to take on their own lives and control our minds in such a way that we lose sight of all that's around us in any given moment. It's difficult to allow those thoughts and problems to take a back seat in our lives in order to be completely aware of what's right here, right now. Perhaps there's a person who really could use you to take a couple of moments to pay attention to him or her; perhaps there's a cool autumn breeze that's going to calm your spirit with its amazing touch
but only if you actually notice it. — Tom Walsh

Resentment causes us to stay in the past, our minds focused on the wrongs that have been done to us. It really is time to let go of it just as we would let go of something that's too hot and that would burn us if we held on to it too long. If we hold on to resentment even slightly too long, we're risking great injury - emotional and spiritual - not just to ourselves, but to those we resent, too. So let's let it go. Just for today. — Tom Walsh

Education is a choice. We don't become educated by watching television, and we don't learn a whole lot having similar conversations with the same, safe people day after day. Our education comes from pushing up against boundaries, from taking risks that may seem at first to be overwhelming, and by persevering past the first disappointments or shortfalls until we reach a point at which actual learning takes place. Determination and perseverance are absolutely vital to developing a true education
rarely, if ever, do we learn the most valuable lessons in the first few steps of the journey. — Tom Walsh

Today, I am glad that I'm me - I'm glad that I was born who I am, that I've learned what I've learned, and that I've become who I am. I am happy and grateful for my life, and I shall not waste time comparing it with the lives of others, for I am I, and I am very glad of that fact! — Tom Walsh

Just for today, i'll allow many things to be out of my control ... This can be very difficult for many of us. When someone tells us about something bad going on, we tend to want to solve the problem, to exercise some level of control over it. If someone is misbehaving, we often feel obligated to make that person change his or her behavior. But many, many things in this life are not under our control, nor should they be - and we shouldn't try to exert our influence trying to control them. Sometimes we need to accept that this is someone else's problem, and that person is able to deal with it, or that this is an issue that's going to take some time to resolve, or that this really, truly is none of my business. There are plenty of things in life that go on quite well without our involvement, and when we try to push ourselves in, we can add stress to our own lives and complicate the situations. So today, I'm going to let some things go, for they aren't my affair. — Tom Walsh

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. Og Mandino — Tom Walsh

This need to be right has put a huge burden on me, one that I never deserved to have to carry. Part of it, I know, is cultural
in this age of information at a moment's notice, we've come to expect people to have answers
the right answers
at the drop of a hat. I feel very fortunate that over the last decade or so I've been able to leave the need to be right behind me and move on with my life with a more healthy perspective. I'm now willing not just to admit that I'm wrong, but also to stick my neck out with ideas or thoughts that may be wrong. The possibility of being wrong no longer threatens my emotional well-being; if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I learn from that. — Tom Walsh

Our culture values independence and isolation far too much, it seems to me
we have a hard time making ourselves part of things, of making ourselves responsible to others, and trusting others to be there for us. Sure, there's pain involved if we get hurt, but there's far more pain in isolation. I love community because God gave us other people to live with, not to pull away from, and I learn so much from others that I can't imagine my life without the learning I've gained from getting to know other people. — Tom Walsh

So it's important to remember that our job isn't to solve other people's problems for them, but to help them to discover the ways that are most effective and most practical for them to deal with their own problems. We can't wave a magic wand or open a self-help book to a certain page and say, "There
you're no longer an alcoholic," but we can listen to them and talk to them and help them to find ways to deal with the issues that are driving them to use alcohol. And when they're facing the hardest times in dealing with the problems, we can be there as someone to lean on when they need to lean. — Tom Walsh

The world never lacks beauty. We sometimes lack the awareness necessary to notice and appreciate it. — Tom Walsh

Thinking ahead often seems to be a lost art. Many people are so caught up in instant gratification that they never stop to think about the long-term effects of some of their actions. They also don't see the connections between today's actions and tomorrow's results - and this causes an awful lot of pain and frustration in life. Whatever I do today, I should be aware of the possible effects - negative and positive - that can show up in the future, near or far. Of course, we can't let the fear of what might happen in the future keep us from acting today. But we can make our lives much easier if we just remember the law of cause and effect, and realize that some of what we do today will be the cause of effects that won't show up until later. — Tom Walsh

The world is in sore need of good listeners. And in our own lives, it's amazing to recognize just how valuable listening can be for us. How many mistakes have you made because you didn't listen well? Personally, I've made many - and I've missed out on some wonderful opportunities because I was more interested in sharing what I had to say than I was in listening to what someone else had to say. — Tom Walsh

I started to discover the meaning of happiness when I started to discover
and practice
the art of acceptance. When I started to accept life for what it was and I started to accept whatever situation I was in as the way things were, I started to see that my happiness depended on my own attitude. When I started focusing on getting the most out of my life the way it was rather than trying to turn it into what I thought it should be, I started to realize that I was, indeed, becoming a much happier person. — Tom Walsh

Walker and Timothy sat quietly for a very long time. "Why do so many people make it so hard for anyone to help them or to love them?" Walker asked finally.
Timothy chuckled. "Ah, Walker - if I could explain all of humanity's foibles, I'd be a rich man indeed, at least as far as money goes. I believe people are like that because of fear. They fear being loved because they fear that if they're loved, they'll have to love back. And if they love back, they may get hurt. And many people aren't ready to put their hearts on the line like that. Mostly because they don't have anything to fall back on. It's quite a shame, really, because they hurt themselves by trying to avoid getting hurt. But we have to be willing to die many times if we're ever going to get on with this business of living. — Tom Walsh

Just for today, i'll do something nice for someone who's not expecting it. — Tom Walsh

We must trust that what we're doing has a purpose. We must realize that we're not here to make kids conform or perform, but that we're here to help them to develop their own unique skills and talents, not the ones we want them to have or the ones we think they should have. — Tom Walsh