PLAY BALL!
With the start of the major league baseball season, a simple success formula recently heard comes to mind. It uses baseball words, but contains plenty of success wisdom.
Which do you think is more important, a home run or a single base hit? Most of us would choose a home run - even a "grand slam" home run. Most of us were also brought up to believe that someday our "ship would come in" - that all of our success or wealth or whatever would arrive at once, in one grand port call.
Funny thing is - more ball games are won with base hits than with home runs. Most ships arrive slowly in port - guided by tiny tugboats - and only after having navigated the wide oceans through a series of thousands of minor navigational corrections.
Yes! Big wins and successful journeys occur most often as the result of daily decisions - not life-altering, once-a-year, mega-decisions. Want to lose weight? It won't happen because you vow on January 1 to do it. It will be the result of your daily decision to walk, run, or work out. Want excellent health? Your daily, even moment-by-moment, decisions to ingest only healthy foods and avoid junk are the ones that will win the day.
The same holds true for your success in business. While a master plan at the beginning of the year is important, it's really the steps taken each day that produce the results. As you face each of the very small daily decisions, be careful to make only the right choices. By day's end they'll add up to valuable progress both on and off the field.
"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."
We all love a compliment. Your manager says to you, "I noticed that your last sale was handled very smoothly. Thanks for offering your customer such excellent service!" Your wife or husband tells you, "I'm so proud of the way you encourage our children!" Your grown child returns home for a visit and says, "Thanks for making it possible for me to get my degree!" Those are "feel good" times, aren't they?
If you live a more or less normal day-to-day sort of life, compliments are always welcome, but aren't absolutely critical to your sense of well-being. You don't have to get them to make it through the day. If you are fortunate enough to enjoy high self-esteem, why not consider becoming a "candle" to others?
There are many around us each day, both children and adults, who suffer from mild to extreme "compliment" deficiencies. They may have never been told that they are good, or attractive, or intelligent. As children, they may have never experienced the exhilaration of getting a base hit, or making an "A" on a test, or receiving an "Honorable Mention" in art class. As adults, they may have lost a job, a spouse, or their health. In short, many around us have never even had their "candle" lighted once.
You can become the greatest philanthropist of all time without giving away a dime. All it takes to make a life-changing difference in someone's life is to share the light from your candle. Each day, look for opportunities to encourage, compliment, or offer your knowledge to those who are "candle deprived." Think back to when you were a child. Was there some special person who took that time with you - someone you've never forgotten?
Sharing your candle by lighting many others can warm both hearts and souls. Make a difference - starting today!
Julie Beall
THE SKY IS FALLING . . . NOT!
"The glass is half-full." "The glass is half-empty." "Looks like a beautiful day!" "I think it's going to rain." "I'm happy." "I'm depressed." "I'm an optimist!" "How can you be an optimist with things the way they are?"
OK, we all know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist - right? In some of Steven Covey's material, he states that "no one knows enough to be a pessimist." Pessimism, more often than not, is generated by inner fears, most likely fears "of the unknown." Hence, "No one knows enough to be a pessimist."
Consider the child about to learn the art of riding a bike. "I know I'm going to fall," proclaims the child - just before taking a skinned knee. After a week of practice, is the child still fearful? Once bike riding becomes second nature, i.e. once the child "knows" enough about bike riding, the fear (a.k.a. pessimism) disappears.
Just as the child's pessimism ("I'm going to fall...") precedes the skinned knee, our other pessimistic thoughts may precede our worst fears. By substituting a positive thought for a negative one, therefore, is it not possible that the action that follows might also be positive?
Add to that positive thought an extra measure of learning and knowledge, and it's highly unlikely there will continue to be room for either the pessimism or the subsequent negative action. From one optimist to another, heed this advice: "Don't worry - be happy!"
Julie Beall
JUDGE NOT . . .
You know the type - there's a gossip in everyone's life. It may be a friend, an acquaintance, or a total stranger. Regardless, it is the person who shares with you any amount of information about another, either about what they have accomplished, or more often, what they have not.
Why does a gossip perform his or her service so readily? Self-aggrandizement is often the culprit. Knowing such valuable information about another as to be able to share it, reasons the gossip, reflects favorably on the provider of such knowledge. In fact, however, gossiping is nothing more than the act of judging others.
When a friend passes judgment on another, might it be that, in your absence, they also pass judgment on you? In most cases that is true. Thus, one measure of another's character might be the presence or absence of such a tendency.
Steven Covey (of "Seven Habits..." fame) offers a solution when he says, "If you do not judge others, they will not judge you." In other words, if you are of such character as to never discuss the merits or actions of others, unless they are favorable, it is highly likely that others will reciprocate in kind. If someone makes a negative comment about another, Covey suggests that your reply might be, "That's interesting. He has always spoken very highly of YOU."
This truth is best summarzied and vslidated in Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." It's easy to neutralize the gossip's sting by practicing such clear advice!
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
- Marcel Proust
ON MY HONOR . . . !
The Boy Scouts have long espoused the same set of principles. It goes like this: "A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent." How simple life could be if we all practiced just that short list. Each in itself denotes a wonderful trait. When put into action, all can make the world a better place.
So, what happens between the age of scouting and age 30, 50, or 75? How is it that we turn from being a friendly 12-year-old to a suspicious, stand-offish adult? How do we turn the corner from being obedient to our elders to challenging the authority of our employers or government? Why won't we open the door for someone who can't? Did simple courtesy die with our youth?
Perhaps experience has taught us that others are not always friendly, courteous and kind. "Turn-about is fair play," we may respond. Why should we be thrifty, taking care to save for our future, when everyone around us has "maxed out" their credit cards? Reverence for all we know to be of value seems to have become the victim of political correctness. Why should we be any different?
The greatness of our country was built on the solid rock of "principles." The soft, easy life of an affluent society may be our undoing. Our forefathers had it tough. Most of us living today had a cake-walk, comparatively speaking. Our forbearers had to live their principles - or face the defeat of poverty, ill-health, and despair.
Our children can bring us back if only we will take the time to teach them those simple principles. More than teaching, we might help them practice those principles in their daily lives until habit makes them permanent. Begin while they are still playing in the sandbox. They will grow soon enough into men and women who live principle-centered lives!
Julie Beall
I care about buyers and sellers who care about their homes. Serving Dayton & Cincinnati, Springboro, Certified Residental Specialist, Relocation Specialist, ABR,RN,BSN,CLHMS, Manager,
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