Here is your Tuesday STORY on: SELF DEVELOPMENT: The same way use of self development is found in both motivation and self esteem, and that is to plan using small and achievable goals. If you have an absence of goals, you have an absence of self development. To remind you we are not talking about huge goals but small achievable ones. QUOTE: “Look for more and more things in every day to appreciate. Then watch your life in the days and weeks ahead blossom before you.” (Eva). As with any goal planning, they needed to be routed using fundamental principles. Doing this ensures that you are creating positive actions. Today’s story examines the benefits of being routed with sound principles. FREEDOM TO SOAR One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicoloured creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing in the heady atmosphere above the earth. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check. Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, "Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!" They soared beautifully even as they fought the imposed restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. "Freedom at last" it seemed to say. "Freedom to fly with the wind." Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. "Freedom at last, " freedom to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction. How much like kites we sometimes are. The Lord gives us adversity and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and (pardon the pun) never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground. Let us each rise to the great heights our Heavenly Father has in store for us, recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve. (Lessons From Life, Chapter 12 - Free To Soar - Wayne B. Lynn) QUOTE: “In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia. (Unknown Author).