Dr. Larry Pittman Goddard Blog

Larry Pittman Goddard   Here are the other 49 suggestions to change your life; there are so many articles and books about this current trend...I"m working with a professional and she sure has given me some tough goals--it's all about changing anything negative in your life and distance immediately anyone who brings you down.... It's not simple; but gosh, why not improve our lives while we still have life.. Defeat. Boredom. Lack of meaning in your life. All these symptoms, and many others, of course, are a sign that you need to start fresh. To run again. To leave the old behind and embrace the new. To ignite a new spark that will light a new life, with a deeper meaning, broader experience and much more fulfillment than you had so far. A rebirth. I started fresh for many times in my life, and, hopefully, I’ll start fresh again. Because, like it or not, change is the only permanent thing in this Universe. Here are 50 proven (...

Do All the Recipes Include “Love”? Lille Hattie Walters Goddard buried her husband after his short but painful pancreatic cancer battle.  He was 57; she was 50 years old.  She had worked hard her entire life but never had a paying job.  That’s if you don’t count baking fried pies for the church.  The preacher at her funeral 32 years later mentioned her fundraising pies for the Assembly of God church in San Angelo.  Her husband, Arnold Goddard, had been a determined, driven man with a variety of  jobs that included building water windmills over all over West Texas, running a gas station in Blanket, Texas, and eventually keep grounds at an oil pipeline company in Midland. When he was buried, Lille, had no experience, was fifty years old and was scared beyond measure. She assessed her talents and found that one thing at which she was extremely good:  preparing meals.  She applied and accepted a job at Midland ISD at the June Young Elementary Schoo...

 By Larry Pittman Goddard I forgot to ask my Dad why he loved bluebirds.  He died, I prefer to say he ‘graduated’, about ten years ago and I would trade all my tomorrows to just have one today with Dad. And I would ask him what he loved about blue birds. Now before we get very far down this road, let’s be certain on this point. I am not talking about Blue Jays—those screeching awfully mean birds, big and bullying. We are discussing the pretty little couples where the male is neon- glow-in-the-dark blue and the female, although not as colorful, is a dedicated spouse and mother. Dad built birdhouses.  Lots of them.  With a Ph.D. in mathematics, the founder of the first computer science department in Texas and the first master’s degree in computer science in the United States, he was a pioneer in computer education.  His students have changed the world; Ross Perot hired all his graduates…all of them (He preferred to hire those graduates who had...

A Gracious Plenty:  Quirky Ideas, Thoughts and Ideas By Dr. Larry Pittman Goddard There’s No Crying at Farmer’s Market! "That's the kindest old man I've ever met." I heard the tween-ager tell her Mom as I left the Farmer's Market this morning. A live band was playing, "Your Cheating Heart" and the lead singer seemed more at home in a honky-tonk bar than a tent-covered locally-grown produce market. Less than two minutes earlier, the young girl and her mother stood across their booth table full of onions, tomatoes and squash; the other side was a loud, mean customer who was hollering, "I gave her a TWENTY!!" I'd call the bellowing creature "a cow" but that's not fair to Holsteins--Udderly Disgusting Bovine screaming at the 12-ish year old girl, who was nervously twisting her elastics in the orthodontic work and pulling at the maroon t shirt with FFA (Future Farmers of America) printed on the front. The farmet...

A Gracious Plenty: Quirky Ideas, Thoughts and Ideas By Dr. Larry Pittman Goddard, CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) Writing Grants for Charitable Organizations?  Easy as Writing to Santa Claus…Not Even Close! We have always been fundraisers. In fact, the first grant we wrote was that letter to Santa Claus. So, anyone who claims that they cannot raise funds, then they need to think again. Here’s a few ideas to help complement the fundraising program you have in place at your education foundation: Telephone the donor as soon as possible. You open the mail and there’s a check from a donor. Pick up the telephone—yep, don’t go to email or Facebook or Twitter—but the old timey device on your desk. Call them. Thank them…briefly…no need to jabber all afternoon. But, just say, even on their machine, “Thank you for this kind gift—we will send you an official acknowdgement and receipt on good paper soon, but we wanted yo...

Graduation Speech Universities Center of Dallas (Texas A&M University-Commerce) Tonight is a life moment you will always remember.  We don’t remember days of our lives, we remember moments of our lives.  You accomplishment is celebrated tonight in a one of the world’s oldest rituals—a public notification of attainment of an educational goal. And, you are one of few who reach this level of education in our society.  Statistics show that only about 1/3 of the American population receive a college degree and the percentages for graduate degrees is smaller than you could ever imagine.  You see, while taking college courses, you are surrounded by those doing the same and it is easy to believe ‘everyone is doing this.’ But they are not.  For this, we commend you. From now on, you will continually have a reoccurring dream.  You will dream that it is right before graduation and there is a class that you have not attended and you are trying to find the...