What's Your 45?

This was written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short, enjoy it.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It's never too late to be happy. But its all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Keep your Priorities in Order!

Stress is a Choice An Empty Pickle Jar A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty pickle jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two glasses of chocolate milk from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. The Moral of the Story - The professor waited for the laughter to subside.... "Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things...your family, your children, your health, yourfriends, your favorite passions. Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full." "The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your home, your car." "The sand is everything else...The small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are critical to your happiness." "Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house or fix the disposal." "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities, the rest is just sand."

Sprint Crows about its Backhaul, made possible in part by the efforts of L&W's Steve Hill and Shane Dickson

Because of the efforts of L&W's Steve Hill and Shane Dickson, Sprint is telling the world about its backhaul network.  Steve and Shane are of course part of Alcatel Lucent's design team that is planning and helping deliver this network for Sprint.  

L&W has been a part of the Alcatel Lucent team for a couple years now and we are very proud of our team members and their contributions to both Alcatel's and Sprint's success.  Nice work guys!

Marc

Sprint: Ethernet backhaul gives us 20 times more bandwidth

By Sue Marek

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Sprint Nextel's (NYSE:S) upgrade of its backhaul network from T1s to Ethernet will create such better efficiency for the company that it will reduce the cost of delivering data, even as consumer demand for data skyrockets. In fact, making the switch to Ethernet backhaul will give Sprint 20 times the bandwidth capacity at a cell site location, said a Sprint executive. Speaking at the Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership conference earlier this week in Vail, Colo., Sprint Nextel's Vice President of Strategic ProgramsMarty Nevshemal said that one of the goals of the company's Network Vision network modernization plan is to lower the cost of delivering data. As an example, Nevshemal  said that the company might pay $1,500 per month for T1 backhaul at a tower site. That T1 might deliver 4.5 MB of backhaul capacity. When Sprint switches to Ethernet, Nevshemal said that for the same price of $1,500 per month, Sprint will get almost 20 times the backhaul bandwidth at that location. "Your unit cost for that part of the network--the backhaul--is 95 percent cheaper to put a bit of data through that backhaul. That is Network Vision," he said.    When asked whether Sprint can continue to offer its $79 per month unlimited data package, Nevshemal said that it's hard for the company to predict whether it will be able to offer unlimited data to customers indefinitely because it depends on how much data consumers will use--U.S. operators have seen data usage skyrocket as consumers rapidly upgrade to smartphones and those smartphones become more sophisticated in their capabilities. Sprint made headlines last month when an executive said that the company expects to offer unlimited data service for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) LTE-compatible iPhone 5 when it comes out this fall--that is, if the rumored iPhone 5 actually launches and if Sprint gets it. Interestingly, Nevshemal also said that the company will likely accelerate its launch of LTE markets in the fourth quarter. He said the carrier will have around 25 markets equipped with LTE by year-end. In mid-July, Sprint launched LTE in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and San Antonio. He said that Sprint will begin notifying customers of the impending LTE launch in a market about 30 days in advance of the service being commercially available.

Perseverance- A Secret to Success

Perseverance - to persist in pursuing something in spite of obstacles or opposition
-Webster’s Dictionary

A Secret of Success

We'd like to think that perseverance has everything to do with it. Yet in saying this, we still haven't helped you. If you were lucky enough to be part of a creative community where everyone around consistently succeeded in creating and sharing wonderful things in the world, then you would most likely gain the traits of those around you. This is why stimulus.com was created, to give you the advantage of being with a community that shares its secrets with you.

If someone told you that anything could be accomplished by just sticking with it, you'd probably agree, yet not feel any better about experiencing this success yourself. What we are going to teach you here, is a secret to perseverance.

Now people who are called "naturally talented" are merely people that gained an interest in a particular skill early in life. There is rarely anything genetically special about them. Its just that when someone learns how to do something at an early age, they tend to excel at that talent in comparison to others. Later in life when they compare their skills with others, they feel a confidence that few around them have.

When you create something, you are guaranteed to overcome obstacles. If you have a lot of experience in the area where you are creating things, then the obstacles are easy to overcome, and thus you are known to be "talented" at that skill. Again, there is nothing special about this. It is just the result of experience.


When we say "perseverance," we mean the ability to finish what you start. Take a look at the graph to the right, it illustrates the common experience of completing a complex project.

Notice that the difficulty constantly increases as the project continues. Just before the first level of success is accomplished, the difficulty level does two things:

Peaks
Levels Off

This brings us to the secret: You always know when you are about to succeed, because the difficulty level will peak to a nearly unbearable level, and then sustain. Typically people in creative environments look for this pattern over and over again. When they feel the difficulty leveling off, their second wind comes crashing in to fuel the fire of success. Sadly, most people interpret this sustained level of difficulty as an impossible barrier and a sign of when to quit, never knowing that they were only moments from their destiny.

How can this apply to your life?

Never quit, and when you think you just can't bare to continue, you are most likely about to accomplish success. Here are a few examples that always follow this rule:

Learning an instrument
Painting and illustrating
Writing stories and music
Building things

As with any skill, the more successes you have, the easier success comes, fewer obstacles get in your way. Even a large collection of finished failures can give you the confidence required to continue to succeed. Don't rely on others to support you. If this happens, it is a wonderful thing, however. Without your vision being successfully completed, the chances of someone understanding what you're attempting is minimal at best.

Good luck, and see you at the top.