Tuesday, November 12, 2013

What does it mean to lead a meaningful life? Amanda Trobaugh

     If you go through life making the right decisions and not regretting any of them, you have done the best you could have done. To me, a meaningful life is never regretting a decision you make in your life and being the most successful you can be while having the most fun you've ever had.

     The first step is accepting the fact that everybody makes mistakes, some people more than others. Those people have to have the ambition and courage to just accept it, move on with their lives, and fix the mistake. If the mistake is unfixable, you have to move on from it with a smile in your heart knowing you WILL find that chance to make it better the next time.
    
     Another part to having a meaningful life is being the most successful person you can be. When I say that I mean that you need to be successful in your own way. Most people have numerous definitions of successful life but do not follow their definition, follow yours. If you follow your own definition and you are successful and happy, then there is nothing else you need to do.

     When I think of someone with a meaningful life, I think of my dad. My dad has been through so many things in life that have broke him down but he has brought himself back up and is never better. My dad is the youngest child of five brothers and sisters. When my dad was a little kid and his brother was in his teens, his brother died in a drunk driving accident. When my dad was in his teens, both of his parents died, his father first dying of lung cancer and his mother second a year after dying in a car accident. Life was really hard for my dad but those were some of the little things my dad has been through in his life and there is so much more. Right now my dad is working his tail off, fighting a lot of things on the way and he has never been better. When I am going through tough times and I need someone to talk to or bring me back up, I look to my dad. My dad will forever be my role model and I know that nothing will ever change that.

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." -Bruce Lee

Monday, November 4, 2013

Riley McCain, significant life

significant life
 
I think a significant is a life where you enjoy where you are and who you are surrounded by. it is critical to live in a place that you like because if you don't like where you live that means that you are not happy. the people you are surrounded by is also a key part of having a meaningful life because in order to be happy you have to be around people you like. The last thing I think is part of having a meaningful life is to live life to the fullest. People need to go out of there comfort zone and do stuff that not everybody does

And in the end, its not the years in your life that count its the life in your years - Abraham Lincoln

When I think of somebody who has had a significant life I think of my great grandma. She has seen many things in her lifetime, she has seen the invention of automobiles to telephones to even running water. What those  huge inventions  were to what they are now is amazing, hybrid cars to cell phones and all of the technological advances. When I was two years old my great grandpa  past away from Parkinson's disease. After grandpa was gone grandma still was able to have a drivers license until she was 94, soon after she just started getting weak and in may she was moved to the nursing home. in September all of her children, grandchildren and great grand children all gathered together te celebrate her 95th birthday. Because of all of the things Great grandma has gone through in her life that is why I think she has had a significant life.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Significant Life Ethan


To lead a significant life you need to be awesome. Everyone is awesome in some way. People who make a truly significant impact on the people around them are able to bring out the best qualities in themselves and the people around them. Abraham Lincoln was awesome. He is one the greatest presidents of all time. He united a country torn in half upon an issue that would not be resolved for 100 years following his death. His ability to have a significant impact on the people around him is why he is so well known today.

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."-Abraham Lincoln

It is not hard to find awesome people living significant lives. They are trying to leave a significant legacy behind for people like myself and it is my responsibility to leave something just as awesome or better for those who come after me. Randy Travis sand it best "Its not what you take when you leave this world behind you its what you leave behind you when you go".

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Significant Life - Justine Fischer

Living a significant life means different things to different people. Living a significant life to me, means that you have made a difference in someone else's life. Making this difference was not for your personal benefit, it was simply for the benefit of the other person. I think today people sometimes get to caught up in "How is this going to help me?" that the gesture to help someone else simply becomes a way to make their life better or to make it look better. Living  a significant life is when you do something unique to help someone else. We all live different lives, but by making a difference in someone else's life is when you make your life significant. I have a story that portrays a significant life to me. So instead of a quote here is a story!

There once was a boy who lived by the beach and everyday he would go for a walk. On his walk along the beach, he noticed that the waves would wash a bunch of starfish onto the sand. The boy also noticed that if the starfish stayed on the sand, they would die, so he decided to throw as many as he could into the water during his walks. One day as he was throwing the star fish into the water, an old man was walking on the beach. The old man yelled "boy, what are you doing?" The boy ignored him and continued to throw the starfish into the water. The old man got closer and yelled again, "boy, what are you doing? You will never make a difference." The boy continued to ignore the old man. Now the old man grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him towards the long beach and said "look, there are hundreds, thousands of starfish. You will never be able to save them all. Just enjoy the day. You won't be able to make a difference to all the starfish." The boy looked deep into the old man's eyes, then bent down and picked up one last starfish and threw it as far as he could into the water. He said to the old man " I made a difference to that one!" 
- Unknown

When I think of someone who has lived a significant life my grandma comes to mind. From the time I was little I only knew of my grandma as the lady who asked me the same question 100 times. As I got to know the life she had lived I began to realize the significance of her life. To me it is pretty amazing to think that my grandma raised 16 children, and all of them grew up to now lead their own significant lives. What amazes me even more is that my grandma did not only raise her own 16 children, she also raised her brothers and sisters. When my grandma was in the 8th grade she had to quit school because her mother had died and she needed to help her one other sister  take care of their younger siblings. My grandma's life was not easy by any means, but it was definitely significant. My grandma may not know who I am or even know I exist, but if she were capable I know she would do anything for me or for anyone else in this world. 

Ty Dybdal Significant Life

Ty Dybdal
How to live a Significant Life
          To live a significant life, a person must have a good influence on people and have done great things in their life. Although everyone in their life makes mistakes, it is how you recover from your mistakes and start over without giving in and keep making mistakes. Sometimes it is the little things that make a difference in peoples life. You may not realize it but if you do somthing that means a lot to someone it could change their life totally. Maybe if you talk to someone that dosn't always get attention their life could be changed and it could help them in many different ways.

          Oskar Schindler had a very significant life. He started off kind of a bad person not really caring for the jews or what Hitler was doing to them. As he started to realize what he was doing to them he started to help them. Oskar did the simple things to help save the jews. He also spent a lot of his money to save the lives of many of the jews. In the end Oskar had saved the lives of many jews and will always be remembered for what he had done and poeple will never forget.

          "Don't wait for the calender to figure out when you should live life."
                                                                    -Gene Simmons

Joe-significant life

living a significant life means alot of different things to alot of different people. To some simply living is enough. These are the kind of people that value everything in life and are happy to simply have just the essentials of life. To other people a significant life can mean nothing less than money. But what I believe a significant life should mean is a life that you can be proud of to look back apon. A significant life means being honest with yourself and being happy with where you end up. I also believe living a significant life can mean changing the lives of others in a possitive way.

“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown

 To me my grandfather has lived a very significant life. He was raised in a houshold that did not have very much money at all. They farmed roughly 150 acres in Iowa. When my grandfather was 16 he broke his arm and was in the hospital. His dad had chest pain that afternoon and was also sent to the hospitol. His father passed away in the hospital bed next to my grandfather. My grandfather took over the small family farm and made himself a very successfull man. He had many struggles throughought his time farming but despite the economy crash in the early 1980s he never declaired bankrupcy which was very common during this time. Three neighbors withing 10 miles of him took their own lives because of the severity of the situation. He took the small family farm from 150 acres to nearly 3000 when he left the business. He is one of the most interesting men in the world to me. He is the first person I think of when I think of someone who has led a significant life.

A Significant Life. Sara Pinkelman


“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” Anna Mary Robertson Moses (Grandma Moses).

Life is what we make it, if we choose to make it meaningful and significant is our choice. Leading a significant life can be hard; we always think it means to live up to others expectations. What if we don’t do that, what if we live a significant life how we want to. We live in the moment; enjoy the progress that we gain in life and see the satisfaction in what we do. Having a significant life is to stand out and be remembered, not who we were but how we were in life.

I think of my grandpa a lot. He was a milk man back in the day. He was known around Cedar County and many people looked forward to seeing him. Yes he was delivering milk to them, but they loved talking to him and enjoyed his company. He had to work all day and almost all night; he didn’t do it for himself, he did it for others. He never gave up, he chose to live a significant life and I will always look up to him for that.

significant life

There is a lot that goes into leading a significant life but one thing that is important is learning to get along with people. Too many people go through life judging others and trying to get ahead. If we all work together and push each other to become better people than everyone can lead a significant life. Going through life trying to beat everyone else, will lead to loneliness and overall unhappiness in life.

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."
Theodore Roosevelt 


I think this quote has a lot to do with living a significant life because if everyone got along with each other or at least tried to then we could all be motivated to become better people.
Theodore Roosevelt a great job leading a significant life by working hard to make our country better and helping people see that we need to work together as a nation to create a much better living standard. I think that the internet has done a lot to demolish the way people deal out any sort of criticism. Either positive or negative.

Austin Arens Significant Life

To have a significant life to me is to be doing the stuff you want to and like to be doing and also to surround yourself with the people you want to be around. Also to help people out when they need help doing something or just simply talk to them. You will have to show some effort though because it will not always be easy there will be some bumps along the way but you just have to continue on and not give up in what you believe in.

"What ever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
Mahatma Gandhi

I think this quote fits a significant life because when you are doing something you might not think it is significant to do but you have to do it anyway because it probably is significant that you do it and finish it.

The person that i think has a significant life is my grandpa because he had polio when he was growing up and he did not give up and never stopped him from doing what he wanted to do. He had help from his mom and worked at walking and stuff and it help and now he can walk and do stuff that he could not do if he would have given up and quit. Know he is retired from his job and sits out in front of his garage every summer day and watches TV and waves to anyone who walks or drives by. He is a great and funny person to be around and i enjoy spending time with him.    

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Shelby~ Significant Life


To lead a significant life for me is to live life in the present, leave a mark on everyone you meet by being the best person you can be to them, to find something that you love and to keep on doing it, and when and if you have children, leave the same message to them so that future generations will be able to live a significant life too.

"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows." ~Pope Paul VI
The quote lets us know that are time will be up soon so we need to stop putting off things for tomorrow and live for today.

My grandma is a great example of living a significant life. She works so hard and makes every moment fun. She married the love of her life and had seven wonderful children. She keeps in touch and led those seven children to lead their lives significantly and that even passed onto her grandchildren (Me :]). She likes to put smile on everyone's faces and does a pretty good job at succeeding. She has always been my idol growing up and I love her very much.


Significant Life, Vinny Filiano

              To live a significant life, you have to surround yourself with family. People think its all about money and accessories, they think that leads to a significant life. If you have family, you have it all. Even in the darkest times, family overcomes it all. There are cases though where the family isn't there for you. For those I am sorry. For me, money buys things, but it can't buy love. My family is there for me through everything, the good times and the bad times. I think you can only live a significant life if you love your family and make the most of them, because you never know when their time is up.

"Family is not an important thing. It's everything."
-Michael J. Fox

              I chose this quote because it explains exactly how i feel about my family. A kid can have friends, but how long until those friends are gone off to college never to be heard of again? Family is forever, even when they pass away, they are still in our hearts. You can't erase the memories, and why would you want to. The key to a significant life is family.

Riley Haug's Meaningful Life

To me, a meaningful life means never missing an opportunity that you might regret later in your life. In the words of hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." To me that means that if you have the opportunity to do something, do it. Chances are you will regret not taking that opportunity at some point in your life. If you do accept this opportunity, you do run the risk of failing at this activity, but if you don't take the opportunity, then you will fail for sure.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt lead a very significant and meaningful life. He was the man who lead America out of the worst economic depression in the history of our country. He was also the man who kept America strong as a nation throughout the second World War. He was a man who was not afraid of a challenge, he proved that when he ran for President of a country that had been brought to its knees economically. He also did not back down when the Germans began invading other European countries, nor did he cower when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Instead, he rallied the nation and awakened the juggernaut that was the American industry. Although he died before the end of World War II, FDR was an amazing leader that pulled the United States back from the brink. If that is not a meaningful life, then I don't know what is.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzky

Significant life.

You can lead a significant life by being friendly and helping other people whenever the chance arises. You need to be a hard worker and be responsible but not a pain in the buns. You also need to go out and interact with other people. It is hard to lead a significant life while also not interacting with other people.

Ray Knutson led a significant life because he was always working hard at his job, but he always had a smile on his face and would joke around with the kids. He was out and about during the school days and would often tell us a joke if he had free time.

"He who is not a good servant, will not be a good master." Plato Ray was a janitor at school, and janitors are widely regarded as on the low end of the school's staff. However Ray was a very good janitor and everybody in the school all the way up to the administration knew Ray and knew he was a good person.


Jonah Significant Life

What does it mean to live a meaningful life? A meaningful life is a life lead with purpose. It is filled with purpose. In my opinion, part of making your life meaningful is to do as many unselfish things as possible. Go out of your way to help people out. It will pay off. People will recognize you as such a great human being. Another part of living a meaningful life is to go out and be productive with your time. Don't ever waste a minute of it doing nothing. That will get you nothing. Be useful with your time. You only have around 100 years to live, if that. It sounds like a long time but really it isn't. So go out and make the most of it. Have fun with your life, but respect your surroundings and the people around you.

One person i can honestly say that has led a meaningful life is my Grandpa Terry. He is the nicest guy in the world. I am not lying when I say that. He goes out of his way to help others constantly even if it is a hassle. He respects anyone who respects him. He runs the Dixon County Feedlot. It is a very large feedlot that holds around 35,000 head of cattle. Why am I telling you this? Because it is a large company with many employees. This means he is a very responsible guy considering he has over 40 employees he takes care of. He treats all of them with respect. He is the most honest and trustworthy guy I know. He is the one person I can say that lives a meaningful life.


I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life. -Corazon Aquino

Living a Significant Life

Trey Morten

Living a Significant Life

     Living a significant life is defined by having touched others lives during your own. If others can learn from the experiences that you've had in life, then you have lived significantly. Others can learn from your mistakes or they can follow in your footsteps of greatness. You have to live your life. Doing things that make you happy and being an important part of the world.
     Steve Jobs is one man who lived a significant life. Others told him that he could never make a living or be happy with starting a computer company. No one believed in him, but Steve pursued his dream. It made him a happy man.

        "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough"   -Joe Lewis

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Significant Life Pat

A significant life is a life that you do everything you thought you could do in life and don't hold anything back. A meaningful is a life where you have used all your talents available to you. a meaningful life is leaving something behind by teaching others and impacting others.

Mother Teresa has lived a significant by impacting the lives of millions of people in impoverished countries. she lived her whole life trying to help others.

“When i stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that i would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, I used everything you gave me.”
    -Ema Bombeck

Monday, September 23, 2013

leadership, dude.

A leader is a dealer in hope - Napoleon Bonaparte
I really like this quote because a soldier doesn't fight very well when they feel scared AND hopeless. So a leader really does have to give everyone hope so they aren't cowering in fear. Leaders will hype soldiers up to fight and help them find something to fight for.

Ethan Seiner-Leadership

"A man who wats to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd"-Max Lucado

When I think of a good leader I think of Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. During the depression President Roosevelt was not afraid to try anything to help his fellow americans out in one of the worst times in American History. His courage through the depression and through World War II showed that he was a man of great character, great morals, and great heart making him a great leader.

Justine Fischer- Leadership

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
-Proverbs 29:18

When I think of a leader, I think of someone who knows what needs to be done and can see the end. Not only do they see the end, but they also see all the hard work it takes to reach the end. Rosa Parks was a leader because she had a vision of a time when it did not matter to color of your skin. Parks lead the way by taking a stand on an issue that she supported, like all leaders do, even if it is not the most liked way. Parks was not in it for the glory, she was in it for the freedom!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Riley Haug Leadership

"A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon Bonaparte

When you think of leaders of the United States, what names come to mind? Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and of course George Washington. I think George Washington was a great leader. He helped found our country, not only with the sword, but with the pen as well. He led our country to war against the British crown, then set the precedent for many other leaders of our nation. In his time, Americans everywhere looked to him for advice and leadership.