Survival and Postiveness Quotes I mentioned I'd find

I said I'd get hold of some quotes. So whilst it's all in the making, these are the ones which come to mind first. I hope this helps.

John Wiseman, in his 2004 SAS Survival Guide book, notes the Essentials For Survival stating:

Survival is the art of staying alive. Mental attitude is as important as physical endurance and knowledge. You must know how to take everything possible from nature and use to the full, how to attract attention to yourself so that rescuers may find you, how to make your way across unknown territory back to civilisation if there is no hope of rescue, navigating without map or compass. You must know how to maintain a healthy physical condition, or if sick or wounded heal yourself and others. You must be able to maintain your morale and that of others who share your situation.
Any equipment you have must be considered a bonus. Lack of equipment should not mean that you are unequipped, for you will carry skill and experience with you, but those skills and experience must not be allowed to get rusty and you must extend your knowledge all the time.

In other places, in the Foreword and comments of a core text in my first year at university, I found this:

"Geography is indispensable to survival. All animals, including American students who consistently fail their geography tests, must be competent applied geographers. How else do they get around find food and mate, avoid dangerous places" Yi-Fu Tuan 2002 (Daniels, 2002).

And just through sifting the quote logs on the Internet, this quote caught my eye for the exacting a dry humourous take on the reality that life can take:

"I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was, 'The man goes on top and the woman underneath.' For three years my husband and I slept in bunk beds" (Joan Rivers).

And in the National Geographical Magazine on the lives of the new modern Russia, this was one of many which struck me:

A special suicide feature of several Russian avenues and highways is a middle lane that runs in both directions...reserved for blue light vehicles...such a light is a desirable item for New Russians in a rush...the going rate $50,000. It is not unusual to see two motorcades speeding towards each other in a Russian version of chicken.

In other places, the old sayings of "practice makes perfect" holds true. Taught to be neat and tidy in my work, hopefully I'm not a square box with exacting lines, but to be organised, efficient and positive. Repetition is key, not in the sense of endurance although true it is an endurance and stamina test, but strengthening the will power I've found to require a certain level of parrot fashion learning.

I once new a man who stated he worked nine hours a day towards his exams, no one would believe me until you met him though. I could only imagine doing six before my brains fell apart. He was not mechanical or robotic (nicknamed terminator for his exacting abilities to be absolutely perfect, no untruth could get past him, ridiculous amounts of detailed knowledge) trained highly for his job, he knew exactly what to do, proficient in his and its cause.

After time, through practice, like sitting doing maths at school we arduously push our way through the endless questions to finally crack the theory and make it practical for everyday life.

Finally from me: Keep up the positives and they will keep you up. For Blues Begone notes that the little voice in your head can easily say negative things and therefore in order to stop being negative you must say to yourself positive things, turning the No's in to yeses. It's by no means easy (pundits beware) but to dig yourself out of a hole requires a lot of energy and by saying positives you can make the light brighter there is after all something which holds true to the USA's President Obama line 'Yes We Can'. Inspiration from others and inspiration from yourself increases your own interest and willingness to progress out of a spiral of decline. At the end of the day the future will be bright. Just like the Orange Mobile adverts: The Future's Bright, the Future's Orange. No that does not mean ginger haired Scotsman are about to take over the world, but the mobile network is promoting a promising start for the future. Otherwise, you end up at the bottom of the heap, and only feeling worse. And I can quite easily understand what it feels like to be the size of an ant, unwanted, no destination set, just endlessly wondering what is going to happen next, unable to comprehend the next step, the thought bubbles struck down and removed before forming properly, the control over the mind removed and left behind, staring out to sea not knowing whats going on around you, not forming the required responses. This is not helped by being indecisive either, but that's for another time.