"Start Where You Stand" by Berton Braley

Start where you stand and never mind the past; 

The past won't help you in beginning new, 

If you have left it all behind at last 

Why that's enough, you're done with it, you're through;

This is another chapter in the book, 

This is another race that you have planned, 

Don't give the vanished days a backwards look, 

Start where you stand.

The world won't care about your old defeats 

If you can start anew and win success; 

The future is your time, and time is fleet 

And there is much of work and strain and stress;

Forget the buried woes and dead despairs, 

Here is a brand-new trial right at hand, 

The future is for him who does and dares, 

Start where you stand.

Old failures will not hald, old triumphs aid, 

To-day's the thing, tomorrow will soon be; 

Get in the fight, and face it unafraid, 

And leave the past to ancient history.

What has been has been; yesterday is dead 

And by it, you are neither blessed or banned; 

Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead, 

Start where you stand.

You Can Be Whatever You Want To Be!

There is inside you
All of the potential
To be whatever you want to be; 
All of the energy
To do whatever you want to do. 
Imagine yourself as you would like to be, 
Doing what you want to do, 
And each day, take one step
Towards your dream. 
And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue, 
Hold on to your dream. 
One morning you will awake to find
That you are the person you dreamed of, 
Doing what you wanted to do, 
Simply because you had the courage
To believe in your potential
And to hold on to your dream.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will, 
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, 
When 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. 
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.

By

Michael J. Bird