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Friday, April 30, 2010

Calm Mind

A disciple and his teacher were walking through the forest. The disciple was disturbed by the fact that his mind was in constant unrest.

He asked his teacher: "Why most people's minds are restless, and only a few possess a calm mind? What can one do to still the mind?"

The teacher looked at the disciple, smiled and said:
"I will tell you a story. An elephant was standing and picking leaves from a tree. A small fly came, flying and buzzing near his ear. The elephant waved it away with his long ears. Then the fly came again, and the elephant waved it away once more".

This was repeated several times. Then the elephant asked the fly:
"Why are you so restless and noisy? Why can't you stay for a while in one place?"

The fly answered: "I am attracted to whatever I see, hear or smell. My five senses pull me constantly in all directions and I cannot resist them. What is your secret? How can you stay so calm and still?"

The elephant stopped eating and said:
"My five senses do not rule my attention. Whatever I do, I get immersed in it. Now that I am eating, I am completely immersed in eating. In this way I can enjoy my food and chew it better. I rule and control my attention, and not the other way around."

The disciple's eyes opened wide and a smile rose on his face.
"I understand! If my five senses are in control of my mind and attention, then my mind is in constant unrest. If I am in charge of my five senses and attention, then my mind becomes calm".

"Yes, that's right", answered the teacher, " The mind is restless and goes wherever the attention is. Control your attention, and you control your mind".

What Will You Be Doing 7 Years From Now?

I graduated from Brazosport High School in Freeport, Texas in May 1972. Not dressed in white (honors), but I graduated.

That summer like the previous summer, I worked as a longshoreman loading corn, flour and corn sacks weighing 50 to 140 lbs. and 900 lbs. caustic soda drums on freight ships bound to other countries at nearby Brazos Harbor and Dow Chemical A2 Dock.

This was one of the better paying jobs in the area. It was grueling, hard, heavy work, but I loved it at the time. My father had been doing this job most of his life since it paid well.

Fall came around and I had already decided that I did not want to make my living as a longshoreman. Work was inconsistent and when it was there it only went to the ones with the most seniority, unless there was too much. There was very little opportunity for a better job when you got older.

I had always heard that a college education would get you a better job and decided to find out. So I went to nearby Brazosport College and set up an appointment with a counselor.

I got to his office at the appointed time and he asked me what work or profession interested me the most. I had taken Auto Mechanics I & II during my junior and senior years in high school and asked him if Brazosport College had an auto mechanics program.

He said "no." I asked him if they had anything similar to it. He said that the Machine Tools Technology program was very similar and described the program to me.

I was very interested and asked him how long it would take if I went full time. He said "4 years." I said I couldn't go full time since I am working (whenever work was available).

I asked how long would it take if I go part time? He said "7 years." I was shocked. I said, "Man, I'll be old then, I'll be 25 years old. I don't thing so."

He asked me, "what did you say you did for a living right now?"

I told him again that I worked as a longshoreman throwing bags and manhandling drums. Then he bent over his desk and looked me square in the eye and asked me the most significant words I will never forget in my life:

"IF YOU DON'T TAKE ANY CLASSES. WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING 7 YEARS FROM NOW?"

These words hit me like a ton of bricks! I sheepishly told him that I would be doing the same thing. I signed up for the classes right then and there.

These prophetic words have inspired many of my relatives and friends. The sun will rise and fall 365 days a year. What you choose to do in between will determine many things in your life.

This story alone has inspired relatives and friends to realize an age-old truth: Time will go on regardless and it waits on nobody.

Years later, I told a co-worker this story. He got inspired enough that he went on and got 3 different degrees in computers in less than 7 years! He said afterwards, "7 years ago I would've been saying to myself, 'If only I had the opportunity.'"

TIME WILL PASS REGARDLESS!

Augie Mendoza

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Pounding In and Pulling Out Nails

Pounding In and Pulling Out Nails

When I confronted my daughter after she hurt another child with a mean comment, she cried and immediately wanted to apologize. That was a good thing, but I wanted her to know an apology can't always make things better.

I told her the parable of Will, a 9-year-old whose father abandoned his mom two years earlier. Will was angry, and he often lashed out at others with hurtful words. He once told his mom, "I see why Dad left you!"

Unable to cope with his cruel outbursts, she sent him to his grandparents for the summer. His grandfather's strategy to help Will learn self-control was to make him go into the garage and pound a two-inch-long nail into a four-by-four board every time he said a mean thing.

For a small boy, this was a major task, and he couldn't return until the nail was all the way in. After about ten trips to the garage, Will began to be more cautious about his words. Eventually, he even apologized for all the bad things he'd said.

That's when his grandmother stepped in. She told him to bring in the board filled with nails and instructed him to pull them all out. This was even harder than pounding them in, but after a huge struggle, he did it.

His grandmother hugged him and said, "I appreciate your apology, and of course I forgive you because I love you, but I want you to know an apology is like pulling out one of these nails. Look at the board. The holes are still there. The board will never be the same. Your dad put a hole in you, Will, but please don't put holes in other people. You're better than that."

Michael Josephson
www.charactercounts.org

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Catching Fish In A Jar

Catching Fish In A Jar

When I was between eleven and twelve years old I decided one bright sunny day that it would be fun to go fishing. I didn't have any fishing gear and I had never done much fishing other than to play on the stream banks while my father fished. I also didn't want to "hurt" the fish I just wanted to catch them and then let them go.

I looked around the house for what I could use and I found a washed out old mayonnaise jar. You know the old style jars with the big open "mouth". I walked to a nearby pond and put the jar down in the soft dust-like mud of the water's edge with the open "mouth" of the jar facing toward the center. I then stirred the waters a little and made them cloudy so that the fish would have trouble seeing me. Then I waited hovering over the jar. Gradually, cautiously a small fish would swim up to the clear jar to investigate the disturbance and when it swam into the jar I dropped my hand into the water and over the jar mouth. I caught a fish, then another.

I just let them all go and returned my jar to the cupboard. Then I decided to use wire "box trap" to go fishing and rigged a string to the door. This way I could drop the trap in the water and not have to "hover over" it like I did with the jar. I sat very relaxed on the bank of the pond and sure enough I caught a fair sized bluegill. I took it home in a water filled plastic waste basket to show my dad and afterward returned it to the pond.

When I told people about how I had caught the fish they just paused and laughed nervously. You see unlike these people, I didn't know that you couldn't catch fish in a jar. If I would have asked them they would have scoffed and said, "You can't catch fish in a jar or a box trap!" No one in my life had ever dreamed of telling me that so my belief system did not contain these words or the impact that they would have had on my "day of fishing". Only a free minded kid could come up with an idea of using a jar or a box trap to catch fish! No one had told me that this was impossible so I just used what I was familiar with and what I had available and I succeeded.

Maybe today finds you facing a situation that seems impossible. You have a desire but no visible way of bringing it into being. You may need to find that "kid" inside you who thinks "outside the box" and the normal ways of achieving things and let him or her catch that fish in a jar! See your situation from a different angle. Start looking at the resources that you already have and the things that you are already familiar with. A fresh perspective and a childlike sense of wonder may surprise you and there's no telling what you will come up with!

Jami Sell

Catching Fish In A Jar is an excerpt from author Jami Sell's new book Thought And Belief: How To Unlock Your Potential And Fulfill Your Destiny! © 2010 All Rights Reserved. It is available at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and in fine bookstores everywhere. Click here to: Preview Book!

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzewfwkk/thoughtandbelief/id6.html

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

External Motivation

A company wanted to set up a pension plan for its employees. 100% participation of the employees were required to install the plan. The plan was in the best interest of all the employees and made sense to everyone. Except Samuel, everyone signed up. Samuel's supervisor and other co-workers had tried to persuade him without success. Samuel not signing was the only obstacle for the implementation of the plan.

The owner of the company called Samuel in his office and said "Samuel, here is the pen and these are the papers for you to sign to enroll in the pension plan. If you don't enroll, you are fired this minute." Samuel signed the papers right away.

The owner asked Samuel, why he hadn't signed earlier. Samuel replied "No one explained the plan quite clearly as you did."

External motivation comes from outside such as fame, fear, social approval and money. Fear of getting spanked by parents and fear of getting fired at work are some examples of external motivation.

Breaking Free: Letting Go of the Nuts that Hold Us Back

Monkey hunters in India employ various techniques to capture monkeys. One method involves using a box fastened to a tree or a hole created within the tree itself. This box or hole is designed with an opening at the top, specifically large enough for a monkey to slip its hand into. Inside the box, a selection of nuts is strategically placed. When a curious monkey reaches into the box and grasps the nuts, its hand automatically clenches into a fist due to the tight space.

At this point, a predicament arises for the monkey. Although the opening was sufficient for the hand to enter, it proves too small for the clenched fist to withdraw. The monkey faces a decision: it can either maintain its grip on the tempting nuts and face capture or relinquish its hold and gain freedom. Surprisingly, the monkey consistently chooses to cling onto the nuts, ultimately leading to its capture.

In a thought-provoking analogy, many of us humans exhibit similar behavior to these monkeys. We find ourselves entangled in circumstances where we stubbornly cling to certain "nuts" that hinder our progress in life. These nuts, you are more familiar with than anyone else, act as obstacles preventing you from moving forward. By identifying these obstacles and releasing your grip on them, you can break free and achieve lasting freedom.

Often, we justify our inability to overcome these obstacles by uttering phrases such as "I cannot do this because..." The words that follow "because" represent the nuts we are desperately clinging to, holding us back from reaching our true potential.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Secret to success

A young man asked Socrates

"What is the secret to success."

Socrates told the young man:

"Meet me near the river tomorrow morning."

They met. Socrates asked the young man:

"Walk with him toward the river."

When the water got up to their neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socratespulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. Socrates asked,

'What did you want the most when you werethere?"

The boy replied,

"Air."

Socrates said, "That is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it." There is no other secret.

A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results.