Promise Yourself

Promise Yourself :

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds. To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Christian D. Larson

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.  Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.”

Kent M. Keith

Choosing Your Successor

A successful businessman was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.

Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do
something different. He called all the young executives in his company
together.

He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO . I have
decided to choose one of you. “The young executives were Shocked, but the
boss continued. “I am going to give each one of you a SEED today – one
very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here
one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I
will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the
next CEO.”

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a
seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a
pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and
watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other
executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning
to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks,
five weeks went by, still nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn’t have a plant and
he felt like a failure.

Six months went by — still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed
his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim
didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil – He so wanted the seed
to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought
their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot.
But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his
stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he
knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other
executives. They were beautiful – in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty
pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.
Jim just tried to hide in the back.

“My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,” said the
CEO . “Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO !”

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty
pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was
terrified.. He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have
me fired!”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed, Jim
told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then
announced to the young executives, “Behold your next Chief Executive
Officer! His name is “Jim!”

Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his seed.

“How could he be the new CEO ?” the others said.

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was not possible
for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you
found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I
gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot
with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief
Executive Officer!”

Crossing a River

Wa-al that reminds me of a party of Methodist parsons that was travelling in Illinois when I was a boy, and had a branch to cross that was pretty bad — ugly to cross, ye know, because the waters was up. And they got considerin’ and discussin’ how they should git across it, and they talked about it for two hours, and one on ’em thought they had ought to cross one way when they got there, and another another way, and they got quarrellin’ about it, till at last an old brother put in, and he says, says he, ‘Brethren, this here talk ain’t no use. I never cross a river until I come to it.’

Abraham Lincoln

The Ten Commandments of Human Relations

1. Speak to people.   There is nothing so nice as a cheerful word or greeting
2. Smile at people.   It takes 72 muscles to frown and only 14 muscles to smile.
3. Call people by name.   The sweetest music to anyone’s ear is the sound of their own name.
4. Be friendly and helpful.  If you want to have a friend, be a friend.
5. Be cordial.  Speak and act as if everything you do is a genuine pleasure.
6. Be genuinely interested in people.   You can like almost everybody if you try.
7. Be generous with praise and cautious with criticism.
8. Be considerate with feelings of others.   There are usually three sides to a controversy; yours, the other persons and the right side.
9. Be alert to give service.   What counts most in life is what we do for others.
10. Add to this a good sense of humor, a big dose of patience and a dash of humility, and you will be rewarded many fold.

 

The Miller, His Son and the Ass

A miller and his son were taking their ass to sell at market, when they passed a group of girls, who laughed at how foolish the miller was to have an ass and yet be walking. So the miller put his son on the ass. Further down the road they passed some old people who scolded the miller for allowing his young son to ride, when he should be riding himself. So the miller removed his son and mounted the ass himself. Further along the road, they passed some travellers who said that if he wanted to sell the ass the two of them should carry him or he’d be exhausted and worthless. So the miller and his son bound the ass’s legs to a pole and carried him. When they approached the town the people laughed at the sight of them, so loud that the noise frightened the ass, who kicked out and fell off a bridge into the river and drowned. The embarrassed miller and son went home with nothing, save the lesson that you will achieve nothing by trying to please everyone.

Aesop

The Crow and the Pitcher

A thirsty crow found a pitcher containing some water, albeit too little and low to reach. As it seemed she would die within sight of the remedy, the crow struck upon an idea to drop pebbles into the pitcher. The water level rose and the crow was able to drink.

Imperturbability- Tale of Two Artists

I think Charles Allen said it first.  When faced with problems which threaten to steal your peace of mind, learn the meaning of the word imperturbability.  I heard of two artists who were asked to illustrate peace. Each was assigned the task of depicting a peaceful scene on canvas.

The first artist drew a beautiful picture of a countryside on a warm, spring day. A soft sun illumines green grass. A picturesque farmhouse and grazing cattle are bathed in its warmth. A farmer walks contentedly behind strong plow horses making his field ready for spring planting. The picture is one of beauty and quiet tranquility.

The other artist took a different approach. He drew a majestic, rugged cliff. Gnarled trees, twisted by years of violent winds, jut from the craggy mountainside. Dark clouds hang low and fierce while jagged streaks of lightening slash across an angry sky. The picture is one of violence, chaos and rage.

But as one looks closely, something else becomes visible. There in one of the crevices of the rocky mountain, tucked back just out of reach of the wind and rain — a nest with two small birds. Apparently unconcerned about the impending storm, they appear calm, cozy and peaceful as they patiently wait for the turbulence to pass.

And isn’t that the way it so often is? We may want to be surrounded by peace, but storms rage. Problems and pressures without threaten to steal peace of mind within.

 

 

 

The answer is imperturbability: inner peace which doesn’t leave when circumstances change. It’s a peace which is greater than the problems of life, built on assurance that the tempest will finally pass, we will survive the storm, we may grow stronger because of it and, in the meantime, we will not endure it alone.

 

 

 

Imperturbability — it’s the result of a peace which passes understanding.  For serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.

Two Men Who Were Blind

A blind (visually impaired) man had been waiting a while at a busy road for someone to offer to guide him across, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Excuse me,” said the tapper, “I’m blind – would you mind guiding me across the road?”

The first blind man took the arm of the second blind man, and they both crossed the road.

Apparently this is a true story. The first blind man was the jazz pianist George Shearing. He is quoted as saying after the event, “I took him across and it was the biggest thrill of my life.”

There are times when we think we cannot do something and so do not stretch or take a risk. Being forced to stretch and take a risk can often help us to reduce our dependencies (on others, or our own personal safety mechanisms), and to discover new excitement and capabilities.