Our Gifts

God has given us two incredible things: absolutely awesome ability and freedom of choice.  The tragedy is that, for the most part, many of us have refused them both.

~Frank Donnelly

Rules for Business Success

Face reality as it is...not as it was, or as you wish it to be.
Be candid with everyone.
Don't manage, lead.
Change before you have to.
If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.

~Jack Welch

How to Catch a Monkey

In India, people have caught monkeys by setting out a small box with a tasty nut inside of it. There is an opening in the box just large enough for the monkey to thrust his hand in to the box but too small for him to withdraw it while his hand is clenched around the nut. 

Once the monkey has reached into the box and grabbed the nut it wants so badly, it is faced with a choice.  It must either let go and regain his freedom, or hold on and stay trapped.  Most  monkeys hold on to the nut and this makes it easy for people to catch them.

The lesson here is to ask yourself what you are holding onto that, in reality, has you stuck.  Is there something in your life that you hold so tightly thinking you are getting a treat, but if you let go, you would gain your freedom?

I Can Choose...

There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life - whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.

 

~Elizabeth Gilbert

Choices

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

~William James

Caterpillars

There was a fascinating experiment conducted by French entemologist, Dr. Jean-Henri Fabre.  He took a group of processionary caterpillars and placed them on the rim of a  large flower pot. These caterpillars were placed nose to tail and they followed each other around and around. It was impossible to determine which was the leader and which were followers.

In the center of the flower pot Dr. Fabre place an abundant supply of food.  But the caterpillars paraded around the rim of the flower pot for seven days and nights simply following one another until one-by-one they died of exhaustion and starvation.  Even though the there was plenty of food just inches away, none of them could or would alter the path they were on to survive.

The lesson is that it often takes a visionary, with the courage to step outside the well-worn path, to survive in challenging times.

A Life With Options

I had a life with options but frequently lived as if I had none. The sad result of my not having exercised my choices is that my memory of myself is not of the woman I believe I am.

~Liv Ullmann

New Year's Resolutions

By now many of us have made New Year's Resolutions.  Our intentions are good, but time has a way of slipping by.  Before we realize it, the year is gone, along with our resolutions and our good intentions.

During the next twelve months, you have 8760 hours at your disposal.  If you work an average of forty hours a week and sleep about eight hours a day, that will take up about 5000 hours, leaving you with 3760 hours.  That's quite a bit of time.  What will you do with your time this year?

The lesson - it's up to us to choose how we spend our time and what we make of this coming year. Make a decision right now how you want to invest  your hours this year, and what kind of return you want on that investment.

Up or Down

When you are surrounded by people who are sad, unhappy, or negative, you have two choices in life.  You can let them pull you down into the muck and mire of misery, or you can use enthusiasm, a positive attitude, a smile, and love to pull them up.  Up or down...it's up to you.