What Matters In Life?

 

Some people understand life better. And some of these people are called “retarded”.

At the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win.

All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry.

The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back.

Then they all turned around and went back. Every one of them.

One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.”

Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, the cheering went on for several minutes.

People who were there are still telling the story. Why?

Because deep down we know this one thing:

What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course.

Burning Whales

I find this one very funny! 🙂

From Candles to Soap

In 1879, Procter and Gamble’s best seller was candles. But the company was in trouble. Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb, and it looked as if candles would become obsolete. Their fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since they were now sold only for special occasions. The outlook appeared to be bleak for Procter and Gamble. However, at this time, it seemed that destiny played a dramatic part in pulling the struggling company from the clutches of bankruptcy. A forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch.

The result?

A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

Why was soap that floats such a hot item at that time?

In Cincinnati, during that period, some people bathed in the Ohio River. Floating soap would never sink and consequently never got lost. So, Ivory soap became a best seller in Ohio and eventually across the country also.

Like Procter and Gamble, never give up when things go wrong or when seemingly insurmountable problems arise. Creativity put to work can change a problem and turn it into a gold mine.

Seize the Now!

 “Don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will look after itself.” 

We have only got “now” to work with. You can’t do anything yesterday and you can’t do anything Now tomorrow. 

Now is the only moment that exists. An eternal moment of Now is all there is.You can remember the past and dream the future but you can only be, exist, Here, Now. Make an irrevocable commitment to yourself to make Now the best moment of your life ever! Do not dwell in the past, or live in the future. Your only moment is Now. Dwell in Now.  You can think about tomorrow, but always in joyful generalities (my phraseJ) – it’s gonna be fun, it will all work out for the good, it is gonna be a great happy time, it will have all I need. One must not try to work out the negative details, in fact any details plan to be happy, plan to be prosperous, plan to have fun and it will all work out that way. Worrying is basically not allowed, it’s not making the best use of now.  Now we must be happy, at peace, relaxed, positive, having fun. Worrying sends out mixed messages: positive and negative. We must be clear about what we want, we must be clear about what we are what I am and be that now. Happy, joyful, fulfilled, healthy, wealthy, successful, wise and grateful  The Bible says you are what you think about – The Secret adds “Most” and “What you think about and what manifests is always a match.” 

Train yourself to have positive happy thoughts always, about everything, every circumstance, about everybody. 

Make the best use of Now and your life can only be wonderful. 

The paragraph in blue italics is an extract from A Happy Pockets full of Money by David Cameron   

The Rose Within

A man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and, before it blossomed, he examined it.

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?”

Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom … it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults.

Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies.

We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them.

One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

This is one of the characteristic of love … to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life … all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul.

Help others to realise they can overcome their faults. If we show them the “rose” within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over.

The Parable of the Rose was written by Umair … a college student in Saudi Arabia.

White Elephants

  

One of my pet hates in life are “White Elephants.”

I have always been very careful in my illustrious selling career to steer far away from selling white elephants. 

One of the most common and probably the one I have the most disdain for is the exercise bicycle. Now don’t get me wrong, I in fact ride such a stationary bicycle at least twice a week, but so often I see, these seldom if ever used contraptions or similar miracle sliming gizmos gathering  dust and taking up space in the corner of many a bedroom. Someone, often an over weight someone, bought it from some enthusiastic salesman or responded to larger than life telly-marketing advert. They enthusiastically used it for a week, maybe even two, found it harder work than they imagined and soon permanently abandoned it as a bad idea.

This has become one of my concerns with “The Secret,” its taking the world by storm. Peoples of all ages, all over the world, are watching it and getting enthused and excited, realizing that there is a way change there lives, but what is not said, well in fairness it is actually, but it’s not made very clear, is that like those fancy exercise machines getting into mental shape o be able to successfully benefit from “Th Law of Attraction” can be very hard work.  And the more you are out of shape the more effort and exhursion it takes. It is for this very reason that I give my workshops, just watching the DVD or reading “the Secret” is not enough. One needs deeper insights, guidance and plenty of encouragement to be able to change your thinking in such a way that it makes a respectable difference to ones life.

What I am really saying is; don’t be fooled, there is absolutely no doubt that the premise in The Secret i.e. “the Law of Attraction will give you anything you want” is true – it really does work, but our thinking is very often so far off-beam, that it takes an enormous amount of self-discipline to change.Many of us are in such a rut that it takes a monumental effort to change our thinking. It’s not easy to change bad habits, our negative self limiting thinking, but it necessary and imperative that we do change. One of the motivational series that I listen to is called; “Change your thinking, change your life” and if you put enough effort in you will!

I am halfway through my next article which is about “Habits”, look out for it, I believe it will help. The only way to stop getting what you are presently getting is by a concerted effort to change our negative thinking habits.  So don’t let this whole idea become  a dreaded white elephant, keep on exercising your thinking, train your mind to give you everything you want.

It well worth it!