Help From a Motivational Speaker

The first contact that I recall having with a motivational speaker was watching approximately a 30-minute infomercial on TV by a man named Tony Robbins....  I found him very inspiring to listen to.... [www.tonyrobbins.com]  Mr. Robbins was also selling a set of cassette tapes, at the time, in which he interviewed various experts....  I don't recall exactly what the name of this set was but the theme was relating to personal improvement.... At that time, I wasn't able to afford the tapes but I found a book of Robbins' at the library called, "Awaken the Giant Within."  I gained some insights from the book and soon after moved to a bigger city, with a bigger library.  I found the library had many cassette books prepared by Mr. Robbins and other motivational speakers and experts.... So, I started listening to them. I found the audio books to be more convenient than regular books.... And when I was dealing with my legal matters, these books were very encouraging to me--I needed encouragement!

The experts interviewed by Mr. Robbins had written their own books, more or less, called self-help books.... Self-help isn't a substitute for professional therapy, if a person needs it, but the self-help can also be a supplement to therapy....  Problems like abuse, addictions, sexual assault, eating disorders, and depression, etc. can benefit from professional help.... And it's good to research everything available in your area and then to make the best choice--or even to try different options, if possible. Myself, I've had a lot of counselling and I'll tell more about my issues in this blog....  But I wanted to recommend that the self-help books and professional motivational speakers can be very valuable resources.

American Thanksgiving

Would like to acknowledge that the American Thanksgiving Day is coming up next week--on Thursday--and I'd like to wish my American friends and family a happy holiday!  In Canada, we had our Thanksgiving earlier, in the month of October....  I sometimes like to celebrate both the Canadian and American days, actually, because I find the Canadian day too early and I'm not quite prepared....  And I appreciate the holiday, otherwise, and don't mind extending my time...!

"Thanks giving" for the fall harvest was part of the original celebration, I believe, if not the entire purpose...?  This year, I had a nice garden for the first time in a long while; and I was a little sad when the gardening season was ending....  But I realized there's a lot of fruits and vegetables which come from the fall harvest time, [in the stores and at the farms], and I decided to make a special use of them this year....  Have been baking and cooking, and enjoying the food!

In this area, the fruits we have are apples, pears, plums, nectarines, peaches, and grapes in the fall--but especially apples!  I live near an apple-growing area; and the others aren't too far away.... Then we have cabbages, squashes, turnips, and pumpkins, etc.  And pumpkin pie is a common tradition for Thanksgiving!

Nature Art--20

This shows part of the Thunder Bay harbour during daylight hours....  [A ship is in the background.] There's a wooden boardwalk along the water, as well as the pier.

Nature Art--19

Nature Art--18--Moonrise in the Harbour

When I lived in Thunder Bay, in northwestern Ontario, there was a nature area near my home. One evening, I went for a walk there a little after sunset and saw that a full moon was fairly high in the sky.  I thought it'd be nice to get a photo while the moon was lower on the horizon; and I went back an evening or two later with my camera.  I waited and waited until it got dark and there was still no moon.  Then, all of a sudden, I saw something that was the colour of fire on the skyline.... I continued to observe and saw that it was the moon coming up, at last....  And it was a bright, orange colour.  It was a very amazing sight to see.

The moon was over the harbour and there were also three ships in view.  (You can see the lights from the ships in the photos.)  If I'd had a different lens for my camera, the moon would've appeared bigger--as it really was.  But these photos show something of what I saw that evening....  [It was also close to this time of year when this incident happened.]  In the bottom photo, there are some geese swimming past.

Apparently, the moon takes a capricious path across the sky at night, and from night to night.  It's not regular like the sun is.--And we all know different phases of the moon are visible at different times.

Nature Art--17

Some more berries at Sturgeon Falls, after a frost.

What Does "Motivational" Mean?

My dictionary says the word "motive" means "moving to action...."  The words "motivation" and "motivational" are forms of the same word....

When a person has suffered a loss, a failure, or a setback, it's easy enough to feel discouraged and get stuck in that position.  The job of a motivational speaker or writer, as I see it, is to encourage people and help them to move forward....  And it's what I'm trying to do--even in some small way--in this blog....