"Fisherman and Frying pan..."

Two men went fishing. One was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back.

The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing the man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?" he asked.

The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."

Sometimes, we, like that fisherman, throwback the big plans, big dreams, big jobs, big opportunities that we get because our faith is too small to hold the big dream or big opportunity.

We laugh at that fisherman who didn't figure out that all he needed was a bigger frying pan, yet how ready are we to increase the size of our faith?

Whether it's a problem or a possibility, it will never come to you if you can’t handle it. That means we can confidently walk into anything that comes our way.


REMEMBER:

No problem is unsolvable, no adversary is insuperable, and no peak is unconquerable. All limitations are in our faith. Don't be frightened by obstacles for you are destined to overcome them.

Attitude

Jerry is a manager of a restaurant in San Francisco. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?".

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today.

I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

I always choose to be in a good mood.

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it.

I always choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life.

I always choose the positive side of life.".

"But it's not always that easy," I protested.

"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations.

You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It's your choice how you live your life."

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: he left the back door of his restaurant open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination.

The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied,"If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: could choose to live or could choose to die.

I chose to live.

"Weren't you scared" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great.They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the ex-pressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry.

"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes', I replied.

The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived. Thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.

The only thing that is truly yours (that no one can control or take from
you) is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

"Perseverance the Way to Glory..."!!!

Years ago a hardworking man took his family from New York State to Australia to take advantage of a work opportunity there. This man had a handsome young son who wanted to join the circus as a trapeze artist or an actor. This young fellow, biding his time until a circus job or even one as a stagehand came along, worked at the local shipyards that bordered on the worst section of town. Walking home from work one evening, this young man was attacked by five thugs who wanted to rob him. Instead of just giving up his money, the young fellow resisted. However they bested him easily and proceeded to beat him to a pulp. They mashed his face with their boots, and kicked and beat his body brutally with clubs, leaving him for dead. When the police happened to find him lying on the road they assumed he was dead and called for the Morgue Wagon. On the way to the morgue, a policeman heard him gasp for air, and they immediately took him to the emergency unit at the hospital. When he was placed on a gurney a nurse remarked to her horror, that this young man no longer had a face. Each eye socket was smashed, his skull, legs, and arms fractured, his nose literally hanging from his face, all his teeth were gone, and his jaw was almost completely torn from his skull. Although his life was spared, he spent over a year in the hospital. When he finally left, his body may have healed but his face was disgusting to look at. He was no longer the handsome youth that everyone admired. When the young man started to look for work again, he was turned down by everyone just on account of the way he looked. One potential employer suggested to him that he join the freak show at the circus as The Man Who Had No Face. And he did this for a while. He was still rejected by everyone and no one wanted to be seen in his company. He had thoughts of suicide. This went on for five years.

One day he passed a church and sought some solace there. Entering the church he encountered a priest who had seen him sobbing while kneeling in a pew. The priest took pity on him and took him to the rectory where they talked at length. The priest was impressed with him to such a degree that he said that he would do everything possible for him that could be done to restore his dignity and life, if the young man would promise to be the best human being he could be, and trust in God's mercy. The priest, through his personal contacts, was able to secure the services of the best plastic surgeon in Australia. There would be no cost to the young man, as the doctor was the priest's best friend. The doctor too was so impressed by the young man, whose outlook now on life, even though he had experienced the worst was filled with good humor and love. The surgery was a miraculous success. All the best dental work was also done for him. He then went on to make a successful career in the field of his choice.


The young man was and is . . . . . . . . . . Mel Gibson. His life was the inspiration for his production of the movie "The Man Without A Face."


Oftentimes, we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles that we almost give up. Lives of successful people tell us that where others would have given up, they persisted in the face of adversity...only to emerge successful.


Many a feat has been achieved by sheer perseverance and the 'never-say-die' spirit'.


To encounter obstacles is but natural, to overcome them is human. If obstacles had not been overcome, the human race would have still remained in the confines of wild jungles.


Don't be frightened by obstacles for you are destined to overcome them.

"Jesse Owens - Symbol of Determination"!!!

Only a tiny plaque on a small brick monument here commemorates 99-year-old Ferry Field as hallowed ground, the site of the finest hour in athletics, thanks to the legendary Jesse Owens.

Wednesday, the 25th May 2005 marks the 70th anniversary of Owens setting three world records and matching another within a span of 45 minutes, shrugging off back pain from a fall to produce the sport's greatest one-day effort at age 21.

Owens matched the 100-yard world record of 9.4 seconds at 3:15 in the afternoon, then just 15 minutes later took one leap and set a world long jump record of 26-feet-8 1/4-inches (8.13m) that would stand for a quarter century.

- The Hindu dated 25th May 2005.

Born the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave in rural Alabama, Owens picked cotton as a child labourer.

At age nine, the Owens family moved to Cleveland, where Owens equalled the 100-yard world record in high school.

Owens attended Ohio State University but in the midst of the "Great Depression" and with the American civil rights movement 30 years away, Owens was forced to eat at "blacks only" restaurants and sleep in segregated hotels.

"I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," Owens recalled to biographers. "I had to go to the back door."

Owens, a sophomore, slipped on water and injured his tailbone in a fall two weeks before the 1935 Big Ten Conference Athletics Championship here at the University of Michigan, Ohio State's archrival.

Owens endured a 200-mile ride in the "rumble seat" of a car over the Midwest backroads and was doubtful for the meet but decided to compete. He then participated in the Berlin Olympics.

Hitler came to the games but refused to greet this black athlete from the United States. What Hitler did not know was that Jesse Owens was a skilled athlete who had prepared himself, but more importantly, he was armed with an unshakeable determination and Great Faith.

The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin. The Nazi athletes were cheered while Jessie Owens and the other American athletes were booed. Jesse did not worry about the boos or the snub by Hitler. He was determined about his goal. His determination was so high that he never lost his faith after a "foot fault" three times. His determination was mixed with his Faith and on his final attempt he jumped and WON! and made history.

Hitler's sense of Nordic superiority was so outraged by the dark Jesse Owens outpacing and out leaping the best blonde giants, that he would not shake hands with the great Negro star. Next morning, the German Press, obeying the dictates of Goebbels, made fun of `coloured barbarians'. The wheel, however, came full circle. On September 3, 1951 in that same Olympic Stadium, miraculously salvaged from the effects of war, 75,000 Germans rose to applaud Owens, who played in a specially-arranged basketball match. `Hitler would not shake your hand. I give you both hands', said the Mayor of West Berlin to Owens. The true value and significance of sport was brought out even more forcefully in Owens's reply. He dismissed the Nazis' studied insolence and said he remembered the good things that happened in the stadium, the fighting spirit and sportsmanship shown by German athletes, especially by Lutz Long of Germany (whom Owens defeated in the long jump). `Hitler stood right up there in the box. But I believe the real spirit of Germany, a great nation, was exemplified down here on the field by athletes like Long. It is the spirit underlying words like these that promote friendly rivalry and international cooperation'.'' - The Hindu Dated 3rd September 2001

Jesse Owens exhibited so much determination and confidence that he changed the destiny and rewrote history.

When you become so determined You will make it happen because you have no other choice.

“Improving Work/Life Balance..."!!!

Most people don't know how to balance work in relationship to other areas of their life, often described as work/life balance. Hectic work schedules, increased responsibility, new technology, and the need to read and respond to growing quantities of email and voicemail are just some of the things that place huge demands on your work life. This pressure may cause you to feel as if your work is a prison that you can never escape as more and more keep coming to you. Many of us work in environments that have management's hands-on involvement. Work comes from a lot of different sources and you might be supporting many different people. You're pulled in various directions without knowing why or understanding how to cope with expectations from multiple people. It's a lot to handle and makes a work/life balance seem unattainable.

Whether you've been promoted or are just trying to cope with the relentless pressures of the modern work environment, learning new ways to handle it all will help you achieve that important balance. The place to start is with yourself and the way you think about the demands on you.

Below are four ideas for bringing your work and life into balance by changing your attitudes about what you can, and should, accomplish at work: -

# Do Not Please Everyone

The underlying goal of many executives is to please everyone in an effort to be perceived as doing a good job. This desire, along with over-compensation, causes you to be ineffective in work/life balance and managing your time effectively. People who are really good at pleasing everyone don't say no to anything being given to them. They don't want to be critical or to challenge a paradigm that is being presented by either a boss or superior. What happens is that they become stuck in a place where they say yes to everything without giving consideration to what is most important or what is the best use of their time.

If you try to please everyone, the one person who doesn't get pleased is you! You can't be placed second while someone else at work is always placed first. Instead, take care of yourself first and foremost.


# Be True to Yourself

One cannot significantly impact a business if he/she does not have a solid understanding of that business. This involves having a good grasp of what your organization does (e.g. the key success indicators, pricing and marketing strategies, who your customers and competitors are, what differentiates your product from those of your competitors, etc.) as well as having a keen understanding of the company's key financial data. This knowledge allows HR professionals to give advice and make decisions from a Knowledge base that views the business in the proper context.


# Set High Boundaries

In order to set high boundaries, you need to know what you are willing to say "Yes" to and what you are willing to say "No" to in the areas of work/life balance. For example, have you set boundaries that you will never work through lunch, not work past a certain time, not get to the office before a certain time, and take time for lunch every day? Do you know what your boundaries are so that when you get a huge project, you won't allow your boundaries to evaporate because of the demands of the project? Setting boundaries will help you have a work/life balance that provides you enjoyment, peace, and fulfillment in all aspects of your life.

When you feel a great amount of stress and burden from the demands of your work, it's almost impossible to make time for what you most need or want in your life. This is why having and setting boundaries is so vitally important. If you keep your boundaries strong, they will protect you and take care of you no matter how difficult, troubling, or challenging your work can become.


# Set Realistic and Lower Expectations with Yourself

Set realistic expectations with yourself that allow for under promising. What is under promising? It's allowing yourself to do less than you think you can do. If you think it will take 1.5 hours to do something, give yourself two. Do the following: -

Step 1. Give yourself increased time frames to get things done.
Step 2. Increase the amount of gentleness and compassion you have for how much you need to get things done.
Step 3. Decrease your expectations of yourself so you have more room to fail and more room to succeed.

You'll be less inclined to beat yourself up when you have under promising expectations. Most people say they under promise, but do exactly the opposite by giving themselves very high expectations.
For example, if they think they have an hour to get something done, they give themselves 40 minutes. This puts extra pressure on them.


Practice these four suggestions and you'll soon see a decrease in your stress level and an increase in the quality of your work/life.