1. It's important to have roots.
2. In today's complex world, it
pays to branch out.
3. If you really believe in something, don't
be afraid to go out on a limb.
4. Be flexible so you don't break
when a harsh wind blows.
5. Sometimes you have to shed your old bark in order to grow.
6. If you want to maintain accurate records, keep a log.
7. It's okay to be a late bloomer.
8. Avoid people who would like to cut you down.
9. As you approach the autumn of your life, you will show your true colors.
You could be brilliant!
1) THE GIFT OF LISTENING...
But you must REALLY listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your
response. Just listening.
2) THE GIFT OF AFFECTION...
Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds.
Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.
3) THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER...
Clip cartoons. Share articles and funny stories. Your gift will say, "I
love to laugh with you."
4) THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE...
It can be a simple "Thanks for the help" note or a full sonnet. A brief,
handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime, and may even change a
life.
5) THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT...
A simple and sincere, "You look great in red," "You did a
super job or "That was a wonderful meal" can make someone's day.
6) THE GIFT OF A FAVOR...
Every day, go out of your way to do something kind.
7) THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE...
There are times when we want nothing better than to be left alone. Be
sensitive to those times and give the gift of solitude to others.
8) THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION...
The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word to someone, really it's not that hard to say, Hello or Thank You.
Let's play a game.
Suppose you were given a pen, a beautiful golden writing pen.
But there is one catch to this pen, it's sealed shut, so that you can't find
out how much ink it has.
It might run dry after you write the first few words, or it could have enough
ink to create a masterpiece.
You can't really know for certain.
You just have to take a chance on how long the ink will last.
Then again, there's no rule that says you have to write anything.
Instead of using the pen, instead of taking a chance, you could put it in a
drawer.
Hide it someplace where it will never write a word - never leave a
mark.
But if you decide to use the pen, what would you do with it?
Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word?
Would you plan so much that you never got to writing?
Or would you plunge right in, letting a torrent of words spill from your pen,
taking you wherever your thoughts might lead?
Would you write cautiously and carefully, as if the pen might run dry at any
moment?
Or would you write as if the ink would last forever?
Would you write to please yourself, or would you write for the pleasure of
others?
Would your words be brilliantly bold, or lifeless and plain?
And of what would you write?
Of love, hate, despair, hope, or nothing at all.
There's a lot to think about in this game, isn't there?
Now, let's play another game.
Suppose you were given a life...
A man came home from work late
again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the
door.
"Daddy, may I ask you a question?" "Yeah, sure, what is
it?" replied the man. "Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"
"That's none of your
business. What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.
"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an
hour", pleaded the little boy. "If you must know, I make $20.00 an
hour." Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he
said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"
The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much
money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other
nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room. You don't need any more toys! Go play with the ones you
already have. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't
have time for this."
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down
and started to get even madder about the little boy's
questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money.
After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may
have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really
needed to buy with that $10.00 and he really didn't
ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. His son was laying on
the bed. "Are you asleep son?" he asked. "No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy. "I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you
earlier," said the man. "It's
been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "OH, thank you daddy" he
yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up
bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry
again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the
man. "Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father
grumbled. "Because I didn't
have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have
$20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"
A
well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the
room of 200, he asked, who would like this $20 bill? Hands started going up.
He said, I am going to give this to one of you, but first, let me do this. He
proceeded to crumple the bill up.
He then asked, who still wants it? Still the hands were up in the air.
Well, he replied what if I do this? He dropped it on the ground, and started
to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
Now, who still wants it? Still hands went into the air.
My friends, he said, you all have learned a very valuable lesson. No matter
what I did to the money, you still wanted it, because, it did not decrease in
value. It was still worth 20 dollars.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by
the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel that we are worthless, but, no matter what has happened or what will
happen, you will never lose your value, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely
creased, you are still priceless to those who love you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do, or whom we know, but by who
we are.
A while back I was reading about
an expert on subject of time management. One day this expert was speaking to
a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration
I'm sure those students will never
forget. After I share it with you, you'll
never forget it either.
As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he
said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon,
wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he
produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a
time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks
would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class
said, "Yes."
Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a
bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing
pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big
rocks.
Then he smiled and asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By
this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them
answered.
"Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out
a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the
spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the
question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted.
Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and
began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up
at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how
full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more
things into it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that's
not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."
The title of this letter is The "Big Rocks" of Life. What are the
big rocks in your life? A project that YOU want to accomplish? Time with your
loved ones? Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or
mentoring others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you'll never get them in at all.
So, tonight or in the morning when you are reflecting on this short story,
ask yourself this question: What are the "big rocks" in my life or
business? Then, put those in your jar first.
My grandparents were married for over half a century and played their own
special game from the time they had met each other. The goal of their game
was to write the word "shmily" in a
surprise place for the other to find.
They took turns leaving "shmily" around
the house and as soon as one of them discovered it, it was their turn to hide
it once more. They dragged "shmily" with
their fingers through the sugar and flour containers, to await whoever was
preparing the next meal. They smeared it in the dew on the windows
overlooking the patio, where my grandma always fed us warm, homemade pudding
with blue food coloring. "Shmily" was
written in the steam left on the mirror after a hot shower, where it would
reappear bath after bath.
At one point, my grandmother even unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper, to
leave "shmily" on the very last sheet.
There was no end to the places "shmily"
would pop up. Little notes with "shmily"
scribbled hurriedly were found on dashboards and car seats, or taped to
steering
wheels. The notes were stuffed inside shoes and left under pillows. "Shmily" was written in the dust upon the mantel and
traced in the ashes of the fireplace.
This mysterious word was as much a part of my grandparents' house as the furniture. It took me a long time
before I was able to fully appreciate my grandparents'
game. Skepticism had kept me from believing in true love - one that is pure
and enduring. However, I never doubted my grandparents'
relationship. They had love down pat. It was more than their flirtatious
little games; it was a way of life. Their relationship was based on devotion
and passionate affection: quick kisses as they bumped into each other in
their tiny kitchen, finishing each other's
sentences, sharing the daily crossword puzzle and word jumble. My grandma
whispered to me about how cute my grandpa was, how handsome and old he had
grown to be. She claimed that she really knew "how to pick 'em." Before every
meal they bowed their heads and gave thanks, marveling at their blessings: a
wonderful family, good fortune and each other.
However, there was a dark cloud in my grandparents'
lives: my grandmother had breast cancer. The disease had first appeared ten
years earlier. As always, Grandpa was with her every step of the way. He
comforted her in their yellow room, painted that way so she could always be
surrounded by sunshine, even when she was too sick to go outside. Now the
cancer was again attacking her body.
With the help of a cane and my grandfather's
steady hand, they went to church every morning. My grandmother grew steadily
weaker until, finally, she could not leave the
house anymore. For a while, Grandpa would go to church alone, praying to God
to watch over his wife. Then one day, what we all dreaded finally happened.
Grandma was gone.
"Shmily" was scrawled in yellow on the
pink ribbons of my grandmother's
funeral bouquet. As the crowd thinned and the last mourners turned to leave,
my aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members came forward and gathered
around Grandma one last time.
Grandpa stepped up to my grandmother's
casket, and, taking a shaky breath, he began to sing to her. Through his
tears and grief, the song came, a deep and throaty lullaby. Shaking with my
own sorrow, I will never forget that moment. For I knew that, although I
couldn't begin to fathom the depth
of their love, I had been privileged to witness its unmatched beauty.
S-H-M-I-L-Y: See How Much I Love You.
Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for letting me see.
. Cool Runnings ~One Dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty
Below Zero.
.
The Legend of Bagger
Vance~"Inside
each and every one of us is one true, authentic swing. Something we was born
with, somethin' that's ours and ours alone. Somethin' that can't be taught to you or learned. Somethin' that got to be remembered. Over time the world
can rob us of that swing. It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas. Some folk even forget what they swing was
like."
. The Pursuit of Happyness~”You got a dream, you gotta
protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna
tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.”
·The road
to success is always under construction.
·If you
think you can or if you think you can't,
you're right!
·Find
something you love to do and you'll
never have to work a day in your life
·The
desire to do something good doesn't
get it done
·Some
things have to be believed to be seen
·Ability
may get you to the top, but only character will keep you there
·Courtesy
is the shortest distance between two people
·Criticism
is something we can avoid easily-by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being
nothing
·Not to
decide is to decide not to
·You can't teach anything that will compare with example
·Failure
is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently
·There is no
failure except in no longer trying
·Setbacks
pave the way for comebacks
·A bit of
fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses
·Happiness
is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling
·He who hesitates
is not only lost but several miles past the last exit
·Never get
so busy making a living that you forget to make a life
·Success
is when preparation & opportunity meet
·It is
better to be prepared for an opportunity & not have one than to have an
opportunity & not be prepared
·When you
buy a quality product at a high price, you wince only once
·It isn't enough to ask intelligent questions; you have
to listen intelligently to the answers
·To handle
yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart
·Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That is where
the fruit is
·There are
no shortcuts to any place worth going
·No one
ever created a great thing suddenly
·Tough
times don't last, tough people do
·No other
success can compensate for failure in the home
·"To
laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the
affection of children; to leave the world a better place; to know even one
life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded." Ralph
Waldo Emerson
·It is not
the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;
because there is not effort without error and shortcomings;
but who does actually strive to do the deed;
who knows the great enthusiasm,
the great devotion,
who spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement
and who at the worst, if he fails,
at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.
--Theodore Roosevelt,
"Man in the Arena" Speech
(April 23, 1910)
The following table calculates the actual
hourly cost of time for people at various income levels.The value of each of your hours -even each
of your minutes - is something to bear in mind when you plan or review all
your time management issues.If you
then look at your time as an "opportunity to invest" at your
day-end congratulate yourself for good "investments"; and, also
pinpoint ways in which your time "invested" may not be yielding the
results that reflect the "investment" as a wise choice.
You may also be "investing" the
time of persons who report to you, and other people whose time you
consume.Consider those costs and
returns as well in your overall considerations about time spent.
