BE THE LAST MAN/WOMAN STANDING!

PERSISTENCE BEATS ALL ELSE

A young man approaches a sage and asks him for the way to happiness and success. Without a word, the sage points to the East. The young man happily runs off hoping to get to success without struggle. A few minutes later, he comes back panting and exhausted having run for his life from a pack of hyenas. He impatiently implores the sage to tell him the way to happiness. The sage points again to the same direction. The young man walks towards the shown direction albeit cautiously. Again, he comes back panting and bruised. At this time, he shouts angrily at the sage to at least speak and say what he means or show that he understood the question. The sage speaks at last and says that success and fulfillment were to be found just after the place the hyenas roamed.

Water finds its way down to the sea after hitting persistently over stones, going around boulders, getting drunk by people and animals, heated and evaporated but never gives up. The same philosophy is well applied by the ants.

Whether we shall be successful or not is marked by our willingness to face the hyenas that stand in the way to our success. This world is filled by people who never tried because they allowed fear instead of faith to rule them. The non-achievers, and they are quite a number, are those who gave up at sight of the first hyena. They therefore settle for a life of complaining how bad the hyenas are and how they can’t be beaten. But they never tried to fight them and if they did, not long enough, with courage, prayer and determination.

“To finish first, you must first finish!” Wonderful words from Champion racer Rick Mears. The book of proverbs 22:29 says; “You see a man diligent (persistent) in his work? He will stand in the presence of Kings; he will not stand in the presence of obscure men.”

Keep going even if others tell you to stop. Believe in your dreams after thoroughly examining them. Keep going. Pope Benedict XVI defined Holiness as not in never sinning, (failing) but in rising up every time we sin (fail). Beautiful words. The words of Hamilton Holt are wonderful; “Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Half effort does not produce half results. It produces no results. Work, continuous work and hard work is the only way to accomplish results that last.” No one finds life worth living. One must make it worth living with persistent prayers and smart, hard work.

Persistence is bitter but sweet in its results. Only those who are willing to eat of this bitterness will savor the sweetness of the results. Victor always belongs to the last man standing in a war. Success and fulfillment begins where most people give up. If only we could have the courage to hang on, one minute longer, it would make all the difference. Persistent people have this attitude: they never lose the game, they just run out of time.

If you want to have the success of the 5% of the population, you must be willing to do what only 5% of the population is willing to do. The question is, will you?

BEYOND THE IMPOSSIBLE

A Story of Two Pebbles

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

1)       If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.

2)       If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.

3)       But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1.       The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2.       The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.

3.       The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers.

What would you recommend to the Girl to do?

Well, here is what she did ....

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Most complex problems do have a solution. Think and believe that it is possible and it will be.

DON'T WORK HARD...... "WORK SMART"

TRANSFORMING FEARS AND ADVERSITY INTO OPPORTUNITIES

Stepping Stones not Stop Signs

Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark, yet he overcame that obstacle in a big way and invented the light bulb. It is said that one can ran away from the stones thrown at him or collect them and make for himself a house or a fence. It is all in the attitude we take. Charles Caleb Colton stated beautifully:

“Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace and the brightest thunderbolt is the one elicited from the darkest storm.”

John Mason adds that the door of opportunity swings on the hinges of adversity. The highway to success is full of potholes of failure. It is not a smooth road because each success story is particular to each person and therefore, it is a way not travelled before. Each successful person had to beat his own path, drive through the highway and leaving fears behind. The obstacles of life are intended to make us better not bitter. They are a call to strengthen and not to quit. If you like things easy, you will have lots of difficulties because such a life doesn’t exist but if you like challenges, you are on your way to the top. The most successful people are the ones who tackled the biggest challenges, solved the biggest problems or overcame the hugest of obstacles.

Bottom line, you are the captain of the ship of your life. Have the attitude of Louisa May Alcott when she said; “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.” Beautiful.

See problems as exams. An opportunity to showcase your best self. “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” A Chinese proverb that says it all. Jesus encourages us when He says that: “Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows but cheer up, for I have overcome the world.” People of faith know that we are pilgrims in this world. Joyful pilgrims who know that the biggest problems in life have been conquered and that we don’t need to fight alone for God, a brother, not a policeman or an old man up in the skies, is right on our side.

Problems help us to discover ourselves, our genius and help us shine even the more. The main thrust is for us to change our attitude. Obstacles are not stop signs but stepping stones to a life of super abundance.

Marin Luther King Jr. sums up these ideas very smartly:

“The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

PASSION AND FAITH ARE ABOVE TALENT AND LUCK

THE POWER OF ENTHUSIASM

The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek words "en" and "theos" which means "Full of God." Being enthusiastic means to be full of God, to have great passion and faith for something in this case, passion to fulfill God's plan for your life or what is commonly referred to as one's goals and dreams. 

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about" Charles Kingsley

Start counting your blessings and not your losses and then concluding that your are cursed and not blessed people. Blessed people are not stressed. They count their blessings and know that their blessings count however small.

"Think excitement, talk excitement, act out excitement and you will become an excited person. Life takes on a new zest, with deeper interests and greater meaning. You can talk, think and act your self into enthusiasm or dulness and into monotony or into unhappiness. By the same process, you can build up inspiration, excitement and a surging depth of joy" Norman Vincent Peale

The most successful and fulfilled people had passion for something in life and with great faith, they followed their goal and got it. Winston Churchill said, "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Nobody has ever risen to great heights without great joy and zeal. John Mason quotes Papyrus who said that, "No one keeps up his enthusiasm automatically." It has to be fed with novelty of action, new aspirations, goals and vision. It is your fault if your enthusiasm is gone. Feed it constantly with prayer and reading of inspirational works.

It is easy to admire the successful and say that they are successful because they belong to a better society, come from a better family or simply that they were talented and lucky. However, success is real, massive effort. Nothing gets accomplished without hope or confidence. It is not our position but our disposition that makes us happy. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Depression, gloom, pessimism, despair and discouragement stop more people from going on with life than all illnesses combined.

Better light the candle than curse the darkness. "Whatever your hands finds to do, do it with all your might." Ecclesiastes 9:10. Beautiful words.