My father was a humorist and a motivator whose outlook on life was exuberant beyond description, yet he was also one of the most pragmatic, contrarian thinkers I have ever encountered. With his wit and wisdom, he had a way of putting my angst and complaining in check in just a few, well-chosen words. This Father’s Day, I pay tribute to the top ten Tremendousisms he shared with me over the years. To this day I can still hear him saying these!
On Finding the Right Man: Find something with pants on and pray!
On Quitting: You can’t quit; you ain’t done nothin’ yet!
On Self-Pity: Is what you’re going through any worse than what Jesus suffered?
On Disliking Your Boss: You can either work for yourself or you can work for someone else. As long as you work for someone else, this will always happen.
On Asking “Why Me?”: Things go wrong for you so that you can be a blessing to someone in the future when they are going through the same thing. This isn’t about you!
On Cold Calling: If you can knock on a door and make a sale, you can do anything in life.
On Keeping the Customer’s Interest: Put your head through the door, not your foot. That way you can keep on talking when they go to close the door on you.
On Making Decisions: Make it, Make it yours, die by it.
On Expectations: Expect everything to go wrong; that way, when things don’t, you are pleasantly surprised!
On What’s Important in Life: In all your life you’ll only make three truly important decisions: Who will you live your life with? What will you live your life doing? Who will you live your life for?
Father Knows Best: Top Ten Tremendous Tips
My father was a humorist and a motivator whose outlook on life was exuberant beyond description, yet he was also one of the most pragmatic, contrarian thinkers I have ever encountered. With his wit and wisdom, he had a way of putting my angst and complaining in check in just a few, well-chosen words. This Father’s Day, I pay tribute to the top ten Tremendousisms he shared with me over the years. To this day I can still hear him saying these!
On Finding the Right Man: Find something with pants on and pray!
On Quitting: You can’t quit; you ain’t done nothin’ yet!
On Self-Pity: Is what you’re going through any worse than what Jesus suffered?
On Disliking Your Boss: You can either work for yourself or you can work for someone else. As long as you work for someone else, this will always happen.
On Asking “Why Me?”: Things go wrong for you so that you can be a blessing to someone in the future when they are going through the same thing. This isn’t about you!
On Cold Calling: If you can knock on a door and make a sale, you can do anything in life.
On Keeping the Customer’s Interest: Put your head through the door, not your foot. That way you can keep on talking when they go to close the door on you.
On Making Decisions: Make it, Make it yours, die by it.
On Expectations: Expect everything to go wrong; that way, when things don’t, you are pleasantly surprised!
On What’s Important in Life: In all your life you’ll only make three truly important decisions: Who will you live your life with? What will you live your life doing? Who will you live your life for?
4 comments
jimwirshing
Sage advice, from a Tremendous man.
traceyjones
Thanks Jim, sage is a tremendous word for it:)
Mark Armstrong
He was a wise guy, and a wise man— tough to beat that combination!!
Hard to pick a favorite, but the one about quitting before you’ve begun made me laugh in recognition. So often we think we’ve paid our dues when we haven’t come close to any real sustained effort.
And I loved the one about troubles positioning a person to be a blessing to others in future, when they’re going thru the same thing. It doesn’t “solve” the problem of suffering, but it does say that every experience has something to teach us, which recalls the line from Romans about “all things working together for good.”
Thanks for sharing, Tracey!
traceyjones
You are most welcome Mark:-) Yes, when he’d do the you can’t quit thing I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. And his comment about suffering, which he was very familiar with, was rooted in his personal awareness that God does have His hand on every aspect of our lives and causes it to be one continuous triumph of pageant (if we don’t rip ourselves up:-)