Today, Wednesday, I walked the usual route until I reached Wimborne Avenue. A few days ago, a young fox with a limp crossed the road to the same side as me as I walked up the slope towards Clarendon Way.

The fox sat down on the pavement and looked at me as I walked to within two yards of him. Perhaps he was expecting the food which some people in the neighbourhood feed to the foxes.

As I got closer, he hopped over the small wall into the nearest garden. He again sat down and just looked at me as I passed. He showed no fear but acted with some caution.

A great self-defence rule for humans as well as animals is to keep about two yards away from anyone who might harm you. If they do attack, you will give yourself a little time to react and escape or counter attack.

Today, I passed the spot where I had seen the fox and then passed a taxi parked on the same side of the road as me. It had some new advertising on its side.

It was a Flora advert. It said “Here’s A Tip – Try Walking” Alongside it was the typical Flora benefit expressed in the words “Flora Love Your Heart.”

What a great ad and what a thought provoking place to put it. I have always hated the thought of advertising but a lot of skill and artistry goes into it.

If what such an ad says is true, you could look on advertising as a noble and beneficial profession.

Today, Tuesday, I walked out in the rain with an umbrella but did not need it after about ten minutes.

I met up with S and T, her little white dog, opposite the entrance to the wood.

S mentioned the dead fox that I had drawn to her attention a few weeks ago. She had told her husband about the fox and he had rung up the Bromley environmental agency. They had removed the fox within hours.

Not all Bromley agencies are so fast. I have been asking for a replacement recycling box for nearly two months. Each week I ring up and am told that one will be delivered but still no sign of the box!

Any business which makes promises and then fails to deliver would not last long. I will phone again today and see what happens.

S had once lived near a busy road where they found many dead animals. She would send these to a student vet. The vet’s mother once rang S to beg her not to send any more dead animals!

She had opened her freezer and found in it a dead badger, fox and pheasant!

I later passed some workers who were putting finishing touches to a fine piece of paving work. I said ‘Good Morning’ and one of them replied.

When I said what a good job it was they looked puzzled. Maybe they are immigrants who can’t speak English too well. If they are, the country certainly could do with them as they seem to be excellent workers.

Today, Monday, the dead frog is still there outside my neighbours’ house – the neighbout who lives about 50 yards up the road from me.

I seem to have been spending several posts talking about this dead frog.

I am reminded of Brian Tracy’s suggestion that a powerful time management move is to ‘eat the frog’ first before you do anything else.

By this he means that we should deal with the most difficult task on our to do list first. The rest will seem easy.

I am not sure that I agree. Doing the difficult task first might put one off doing anything. If, on the other hand, you do a less difficult task first you can use the feeling of achievement to give you drive and momentum to move on to your other tasks.

Tracy also points out that you will save 50% of your time if you complete one task at a time. If you have to return to an unfinished task, you will waste time searching for the objects or documents necessary to finish the task.

This is probably true in most cases but obviously there will be occasions when you are missing something which depends on someone else and you can never be sure of finishing anything which depends on some one else!

I hope that my neighbours up the road will at least move the dead frog and give it a decent burial. That would be one task worth completing immediately.

I promise to say no more about this frog as you have probably become sick and tired of hearing about him.

It was drizzling today, Sunday, as I left my house. I checked to see whether the dead frog had been moved from where I left it. It had not.

There was a beautiful vase of flowers in a front window of the house but the owners had clearly not checked their garden or the pavement outside their house.

I walked along Kevington Drive and noticed two girls staring into a flooded hole in the pavement. Perhaps they were looking for frogs!

I met up with my friend J outside his house where the footsteps had been left in the wet cement. Apparently he had had to ask a workman to fill in the holes left by the footprints three times since every time they were filled in some one else came along and repeated the same act of vandalism.

The workman was reluctant to fill them in on the last occasion but J argued: “We can’t let them win.” His persistence paid off but the marks of the footprints can still be seen.

Today, Friday, I went for two walks. My second one at 11 p.m was in a light drizzle. It has been raining on and off for a few days now.

A large frog had emerged from its hiding places in the green grass and clumps of trees and suffered the penalty of being either trodden on or run over.

Its dead body was squashed on the pavement outside one of my neighbours houses which was some way up the road from mine. It had been there for at least two days.

Tonight I moved its body to the side of the pavement against a wall so that it would not be trodden on again.

Too many of us spend our lives being trodden on by our own fears or the fears and criticisms of others. We need to show ourselves and our great abilities more respect.

Frogs tend to come out into the open in the rain. They can even fall from the sky when there is a severe storm.

The citizens of Naphlion, a city in southern Greece in May 1981, awoke to find small green frogs falling from the sky. They weighed just a few ounces each and fell into trees and into the streets.

The Greek Meteorological Institute guessed that they were picked up by a strong wind. It must have been a very strong wind as this species of frog was native to North Africa!

In 1995, Nellie Straw of Sheffield, England, was driving through Scotland on holiday with her family when they encountered a severe storm. Along with the heavy rain hundreds of frogs suddenly pelted her car.

I knew the midges were numerous in Scotland and have been surrounded and harrassed by them but have never, fortunately, experienced a deluge of frogs. There is always someone worse off than you and me!

Today, Tuesday, I went out for a walk at about 11 p.m. This time there was no car with someone in it yelling at passerbys for a laugh.

I mentioned this type of yelling incident (which I described fully in last Sunday’s post) to my next door neighbour, A. He described how he had been walking along the road in Bermondsey when he was hit by a flurry of snowballs.

Instead of getting annoyed and shouting at the young lads responsible, he used his sense of humour. One of them apologised for hitting him with the snowballs and he replied:

“You’re only throwing the snowballs at me because you think I am too old to run after you fast enough to catch you!”

What a great comment. My neighbour knows how to defuse a potentially angry situation with wit and humour. He also showed understanding of how the boys’ minds worked.

Today, Sunday, I walked round the neighbourhood this morning and then again this evening at about 8 p.m. As I turned out of Clarendon Way I heard
the screeching of tires as a car with at least two of the local youth in it cornered at speed.

As the car drew level with me, I heard a loud yell from the driver which was clearly intended to startle me. I was startled but simply looked at the car. It drove off to the sound of laughter.

I felt like yelling back at them: “Come back you yellow b******* ” or words to that effect. I didn’t. It would have been a silly move. If they did not come back , they could have had another laugh at having successfully annoyed me.

If they had come back, I would have been outnumbered and fairly vulnerable without any weapons since they might well have had a baseball bat or two in their boot not mention a knife or gun.

There is enough trouble around without seeking it out. Being shouted at is no big deal. I have been tempted to do the same thing myself! Far better to stay cool. All the same, I still feel they needed teaching a lesson!

I expect someone else will give it to them sooner or later and I should even be grateful to them for giving me something to write about! Stay cool and keep out of trouble!

Today, Friday, I noticed some removal vans on my walk round the neighbourhood.

I was pleased to see they had a great logo on the side of the vans:
“Exccllence Through Effort.”

There were three vans there instead of one. Maybe they put in three times the effort to achieve excellence.

What is excellence? Achieving far more than the mediocre standard that most of us are content with.

I was staggered to see a program recently on ITV Channel 4 about ten Child Geniuses. One of them, who was only 11 years old, was reading and enjoying old Norse sagas, Dante’s Inferno, Morte D’Arthur and other great classics.

He had also co-authored a fantasy novel with his mother by the time he was eight. It has sold well.

I was amazed to see him cooking roast pigeons in the style of the medieval cooks. The whole family, except for his little sister, were shown thoroughly enjoying the meal.

As one who can only cook a few dishes and who microwaves the rest, I had to take my hat off to him for mastering the use of the spices which were so much loved by medieval cooks.

However, not all child geniuses make the most of their talents. Some are put off by the fact that others regard them as freaks and are jealous. Some burn themselves out and some are lazy or do not realize that they still need to make an effort to develop their genius.

One school of thought led by people like Tony Buzan believe that we all have the potential to be geniuses and another says that we have to be born geniuses. I’m with Tony Buzan although I can’t prove he is right.

There is only one way to find out for ourselves. Let’s double or triple our efforts to achieve excellence. May be we are geniuses and have not yet realized this truth about ourselves!

To read books by John Watson visit http://www.motivationtoday.com

Today, Sunday, I returned from my morning walk to the great news that England had beaten the Australians in the Triangular One Day Series. England can now leave Australia as Champions of this series. They have now beaten Australia in their last three encounters!

Again England took some amazing catches and batted and bowled well. It was great to see some of the Australian crowd leaving early! Had I known all this before my walk, I would have walked more powerfully and more energetically – see my previous post if you are wondering what I am talking about.

Nothing much happened on my walk except two cars went down Clarendon way at great speed adding to global warming. Maybe cars were not such a great idea after all. Maybe the Amish have been right all along.

Let’s get back to horses and horse drawn carriages! One benefit would be a lot more horse manure to improve the growth of our vegetable gardens and a lot more jobs for blacksmith’s etc.

It would be great to see people riding around on horses again. Fat chance!
Our world is now far too impatient. Everything has to be done at speed.

It is ironic that the ’speed’ of cars has caused traffic delays all over the place.
Yesterday I was stuck in one traffic queue after another on just a short journey from Eltham to Chislehurst. A horse ride might have been quicker. It would certainly have been healthier!

Today, Friday, I walked round the neighbourhood twice.

I could walk more cheerfully and strongly because of the pleasant thought that England had again beaten the Australian cricket team in the one day finals of the triangular series with New Zealand.

The English team fielded, batted and bowled brilliantly at times. The nightmare tour is turning into something far more pleasant.

Ian Fox, mentioned in my last post, has a drill to show the power of thoughts to affect our bodies. I tried it with my class last night and it worked.

Stick your right arm out to the side. Start thinking cheerful, positive thoughts. Ask someone to use one finger to push your arm down while you resist. You will find it easy to resist.

Now stick your arm out again and think miserable thoughts. Ask the same person to push your arm down. He will be able to do so easily. Your resistance will be much weaker.

This drill demonstrates clearly the power of the mind to influence the body.

Check out my website http://www.motivationtoday.com for ebooks and articles full of the positive kind of thoughts which can make you strong.