Fuel your fire !!! Inspirations in the day's cup !!! # 5

"Forget It -- Do Something Practical"

The 16-year-old schoolgirl dreamed of a profession studying wildlife in Africa, but the school's career counselor was "horrified" at this impractical idea. She thought taking pictures of people's pets would "make a nice little career."

But Jane's mother said, "If you really want something, you work hard enough, you take advantage of opportunities, you never give up and you will find a way."

Never giving up meant traveling to the other side of the earth. It meant enduring physical hardship in the mountains of Tanzania. And it meant surviving a raid in which rebels captured people who worked with her and held them for ransom. All survived, and so did Jane Goodall's dream.

Her research documented the complex social behavior of chimpanzees -- animals that greet one another with a kiss or a hug, and make and use tools. Dr. Jane Goodall became known worldwide, and she changed the way we think about these remarkable creatures, all by doing the impractical.

Courtesy : Internet

Fuel your fire !!! Inspirations in the day's cup !!! # 4

One life to live....Make the best of it ....

If You're Not Dead, You Can Get Better

Randy Kraus was paralyzed. His left side was useless. But his right hand was good enough to lift the barrel of a .38 to his temple.

Once, he'd been a police officer in Fresno, California, and owned a private-eye agency. Once, he'd been strong and able. Now, he felt he was nothing.

His trouble started with Parkinson's disease, but it didn't end there. In July 2002, the 60-year-old Kraus went into the hospital for an operation that implanted electrodes in his brain to control the shaking. But during the operation, he had a stroke. He was paralyzed. The cop, the tough guy, the man who loved golf, "could think, but couldn't move."

Transferred to a rehab hospital, Kraus wanted the therapists to give it to him straight. "You may never walk again," they told him. "Maybe you won't even be able to talk."

Once home, he found he couldn't lift a fork or take a drink by himself. Physical therapy was so painful and slow. What did he have to live for?

So now Kraus held the gun against his head. Feeling the cold metal on his skin, he began to consider not his pain, but the pain he would cause his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He didn't pull the trigger.

And his exercise physiologist, Andrew Garud, didn't pull any punches with him. You are where you are, he told him. The pace would be slow; the pain would be real. "But as long as you are alive, you have the ability to get better."

After three months of working with Garud, Kraus wanted to see if he could stand.

He could. Then he took three steps, sat down and cried like a baby.

One step, as they say, led to another. Next he managed a short walk along the edge of a boxing ring in the health club where they worked out. It was the hardest fight of Kraus's life.

People at the gym cheered him on. Garud kept saying he could do more. Now, Kraus can brush his teeth and shave himself, get around the house with a walker. Little triumphs only the paralyzed can fully understand.

Courtesy : Internet

No matter what turns out to be a hurdle in your life, if there is one person on earth who could bring it down to dust, brighten your day than ever before, it is YOU...

Believe in your self, live your life to your fullest and strive hard with a smile to become better than your best ...

Fuel your fire !!! Inspirations in the day's cup !!! # 3

"There's Gotta Be a Better Way"

!!!Picture perfect !!!

Joy Mangano was 33 and divorced, had three kids under age 7, and was barely keeping up payments on her small two-bedroom home by working extra weekend hours as a waitress.

"There were times when I would lie in bed and think, I don't know how I'm going to pay that bill," Mangano says.

But she had a knack for seeing the obvious. She knew firsthand how hard it was to mop the floor. "I was tired of bending down, putting my hands in dirty water, wringing out a mop," Mangano says. "So, I said, 'There's gotta be a better way.' "

How about a "self-wringing" mop? She designed a distinctive tool you could twist in two directions at once, and still keep your hands clean and dry. She set out to sell it, first a few at flea markets.

Then Mangano met with the media. But would couch potatoes buy a mop? The experts on shopping TV were less than certain. They gave it a try, and it failed. Mangano was sure it would sell if they'd let her do the on-camera demonstration. "Brave little me. I said, 'Get me on that stage, and I will sell this mop because it's a great item.' "

So QVC took a chance on her. "I got onstage and the phones went crazy. We sold every mop in minutes."

Today she's president of Ingenious Designs, a multimillion-dollar company, and one of the stars of HSN, the Home Shopping Network. Talking about her household inventions is "as natural for me as it is for a parent to talk about their child," Mangano says.

Today one of her favorite products is Huggable Hangers. The thin, space-saving implements are the most successful gadget ever sold on HSN, with 100 million hanging out there in closets across the country. Of course, you couldn't possibly sell hangers on TV.

Courtesy : Internet