K The Ken Bradbury Foundation

← Speeches & Workshops

June 2008

DCFS CATCH THE ENERGY AND RELEASE YOUR POTENTIAL

Communicating: David. .basketti Beginning a speech: Bummy Teen Prostitution..selling yourself. I’ll stay animated… Lincoln Museum

I’m not a professional speaker.. I’m a teacher, .. Taught 35 years in public schools and now teach a few college courses.

To release your POTENTIAL, as your workshop title says, you need to release something else first.

Me: speak on weight loss.

If I’ve learned one thing  We can’t do our best.... fulfill our purpose, until we learn to get rid of what’s holding us back. Success is not so much a process of “putting stuff in” as “taking stuff off”.... especially for adults... We’ve spent more time loading it on.

Me: Speech on weight loss… Like Madonna teaching Sunday School

LET ME TALK TO YOU ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT... MENTAL WEIGHT... THE THINGS THAT HOLD US BACK.... In other words, how to remove some of the stress from your job. (I thought about asking you to name the one thing, that if removed from your job, would make it less stressful..but afraid you’d name somebody in this room.)

First, a warning…people are watching you.

My teachers: Piano…Mildred, finger Trumpet: Jimmy Zimmerman You’re being watched every moment.

Our head football coach..former student. Biggest shock of his life. First year..tough guy..chewed kids out… Then the day when he divided the frosh up among the seniors..same attitude. Weight reduction…releasing the stress…. This is a smorgasbord … take what you like and leave the rest.

  1. Thou Shalt Not Rehash the Negative

Our teacher’s lounge For once, don’t get if off your chest Teacher I know..kids drive her crazy.. ..meet her in IGA...guess what she talks about...

Corrie Ten Boom “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorry, It empties today of its strength.” To lose weight, skip your morning calisthenics. Every morning I do calisthenics...

  1. Realize that no matter what happens to you today, YOU are still the one who determines how the day will go. Mom: Alcatraz … boats in harbor My last senior class who had been the terror of our school ever since Jr High. I saw the list and it looked like a prison break. I never dreamed they’d make it this far alive. And when class begins, I was still the main determining factor of how that class goes.
  1. If life’s bumming you out, chances are you aren’t giving enough of yourself. This is the opposite of what the self-help books preach.

Self-centeredness : depression. Becky...funeral... Carl Menninger JHS girl: CFS

A. Sweitzer: “The only ones among you who will be truly happy as those who will have sought and found out how to serve.” If life is bumming you out because you’re asked to give so much, give more.

  1. Collect Interesting and enthusiastic people Ed A: constant validation….

Collect interesting and enthusiastic people. Marie...salt and pepper shakers.

Friendships don’t have to simply be things that happen...They can be created... Not alphabetical.

Nuture friends who encourage you. Who take joy in your joy. Even if you must go outside your own faculty.

Tony Compello “Five years from now you’ll be pretty much the same as you are now except for two things: The books you’ve read and the people you’ve met.

And the best way to do this is to become an encourager yourself. My schedule… Taught classes at LLCC all week, tomorrow I travel to Franklin, Illinois to judge a speech contest at 7:30 in the morning, 2 p.m. Camden, Illinois, to give a piano concert, Sunday: 10 a.m. do the sermon at the Mt. Sterling Presbyterian church, 5 p.m. another concert in Jacksonville…And Monday I’m speaking all day in the Pittsfield School System. Do I need help? No..I need somebody to say, “Ken, you can do all this.” What do I need? Encouragers! People who tell me how we CAN get a job accomplished, not those who tell me why it won’t work.

architect Johnstone: (Charlie Rose show) 90 years old. Hottest place in hell for whiners and complainers ..... “If life were 100 times longer, there would still excuse for every getting bored by it.” Cultivate friends who are not bored by life.

  1. Don’t get so busy with the important things in your life that you forget the important things in your life. James Dobson..monopoly Dad...hay ...rain....
  1. Choose carefully whom you try to please. Quest...Inner-Outer Self

HINEY THE MULE

  1. Lighten up.... Jim Kern...MRS. BROWN Matt…baritone

Lighten UP: PHYSICAL CHECKUP... Illinois Power

LIGHTEN UP.... ....go barefoot more often ....turn off the TV some night and pull taffy. ...eat nothing but ice cream for a whole day. ...wear underwear backwards...will break into uncontrollable giggles for no reason every time you think about it. ....walk up to biggest grouch you know and say “I just want you to know that I feel great!” It’ll throw them off all day. ...do some serious coloring ...start teaching to succeed instead of fearing failure... ...break the dress code occasionally. Your own, not the schools. .....McDonnald’s “Have a nice Day” Why? … plan an all-out attack on the person who irritates you most..bother them with affection, with attention, with love.. cause some real trouble in their life. (Kidnapping kids at camp)

3 things in life are real...WHEN YOU’RE BORN, WHEN YOU DIE WHEN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. in everything else...LIGHTEN UP.

  1. Don’t take yourself too seriously.. chances are, no one else does.

Chillochothe...”probably dead” Church lady...music at her funeral. Jeff W...Free Spirit..Robbed and tied. Travel LIghter...Your anxieties? Look in your purse or pocket or billfold...ME: comb. Roger Ebert.

  1. Start living in the present. I’ve taught thousands of kids over the years, including summer workshops in self-esteem. I’ve talked to audiences of adults in tough situations: Caterpillar management and labor during their strike. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about success and what it means. I’ve known hugely successful people. ONE CONCLUSION: Success in life boils down to one thing... love. Success boils down to loving what you do and loving the people around you. The ability to live in the present. Some of you during my speech have been thinking about how long...., tomorrow, this weekend. When you drive home from school today, enjoy the moment you’re in.

Show at New Salem one night.. turn out the lights and look at the moon. As Americans, our live is so filled with “things” that we seldom leave time to enjoy where we are and what we’re doing.

  1. If you have faith, use it. It’s not against the law for you to use whatever faith you have. Please....please, drop the chains of stress and worry that you hang around your neck. No one in your entire community makes a greater impact on our future. Keep it up. Please. Please.

Encourage each other. There are enough forces working against us…let’s not be one of them.

Before you can “catch the energy,” you need to lose some weight, and that weight is called the stress you put on yourself or allow to fall upon your shoulders. Make a Weight Watchers resolution…Do something about it!

Have a great year…it really is your choice.

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