A man had lost his job. He had an interview for a new job, but traffic kept him from making the appointment. The lottery ticket he bought that day didn't even win. He was having a bad day.
After dinner, he went for a walk along the beach. As he strolled along, barefoot in the sand, with the sun setting in the West, his foot struck something. He reached down and picked it up. It was a small bag full of marbles. "Just my luck," he thought.
Then, he had an idea. He took a marble out of the bag and tossed it into the sea as he said, “This for that stupid job. I didn't like that job anyway.”
“That felt good,” he said as he took out the second marble. "This is for traffic. I hate traffic."
“That felt really good,” he said as he grabbed the next one.
This went on for the better part of an hour. In the beginning, the marbles went pretty fast. As he was getting to the bottom of the bag, he really had to think. But, over the course of that hour, he had let go of all of the things that had been holding him back. He had two marbles left. He took one of them in his hand and said, “Here is for all of the good choices I am going to make going forward in my life." He threw that marble as hard as he had ever thrown anything in his life. As he heard in plunk in the water, he decided to keep the last marble as a memory of this night. He had not felt so good in a long time. He had thrown all of his troubles into the sea and he was ready for a new beginning. He put the marble in his pocket and went home with a new bounce in his step.
At home, his wife noticed a difference in him right away. She asked, "What have you been up to?"
He smiled and took the marble out of his pocket and showed it to her. He was going to tell her how he threw all of his troubles into the sea and he was ready for a fresh start.
Before he could say a word, she said, “What a beautiful Pearl. Where did you get it?”
He looked at his hand. He was, in fact, holding an absolutely beautiful pearl. A pearl that would change their lives, forever. He sold the pearl and paid all of their debt and did get that new beginning. From time to time he thought about that walk along the beach. His old self would have been full of self pity for all the pearls he threw away. His new self knew that is was the best walk he had ever taken.
There three morals to this story:
The first moral is:
What looks like a bag of marbles may be a bag of pearls - These pearls are your friends and your family. Your clients and your referral partners. Your neighbors and anyone else you associate with. Are you shining these pearls and wearing them proudly. Or, are you throwing them away one by one?
The second moral is:
When you let go of your troubles good things will happen to you. So many people are focused on all of the negative situations around them and they never see the amazing world that is right in front of them.
And, finally, the most important moral of this story is:
When you bring home a pearl to mamma, she will be happy. And, when mamma is happy, nothing else matters.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Communication
Do you really want to reach out and catch your dreams?
Then, you must learn how to communicate. Good communication skills are the center of every successful
relationship. Bad communication skills are involved in every failure. Most of the problem with communicators is not that they do not know what to say. It is that they do not know how to say it. Something pops into their mind falls immediately out of their mouth.
Effective communication is the secret to getting what you want out of life. To be effective, the communication has to be honest, sincere and open. It has to be well thought out in advance. It has to be arranged with the receiver in mind. A wise man once told me the secret to successful communication. He was not a wise man when he told it to me. Actually, he was probably the opposite in my eyes at that time. You see, the wise man was my father. When I was a teenager, he did not know near as much as he knows now.
What he told me was this, “Tell people what they want to hear. This will make them listen to you. Then, while they are listening, tell them what they need to hear.” I asked him one day where he learned this profound bit of knowledge. He said he picked it up by watching politicians. They do it all the time.
Think about this the next time you are going to communicate. It does not matter if it is a one on one situation or if you are speaking to an audience. Take the time to learn and understand what you listeners want to hear. Next, think about what you want them to hear. Then, plan your communication so that it all of this information is included. Finally, follow up with them to ensure that what they think you said is actually, what you meant to communicate. Communicate effectively and you will be getting even closer to achieving your dreams.
Now, get off the bench and get into the game.
Coach Papa
Then, you must learn how to communicate. Good communication skills are the center of every successful
relationship. Bad communication skills are involved in every failure. Most of the problem with communicators is not that they do not know what to say. It is that they do not know how to say it. Something pops into their mind falls immediately out of their mouth.
Effective communication is the secret to getting what you want out of life. To be effective, the communication has to be honest, sincere and open. It has to be well thought out in advance. It has to be arranged with the receiver in mind. A wise man once told me the secret to successful communication. He was not a wise man when he told it to me. Actually, he was probably the opposite in my eyes at that time. You see, the wise man was my father. When I was a teenager, he did not know near as much as he knows now.
What he told me was this, “Tell people what they want to hear. This will make them listen to you. Then, while they are listening, tell them what they need to hear.” I asked him one day where he learned this profound bit of knowledge. He said he picked it up by watching politicians. They do it all the time.
Think about this the next time you are going to communicate. It does not matter if it is a one on one situation or if you are speaking to an audience. Take the time to learn and understand what you listeners want to hear. Next, think about what you want them to hear. Then, plan your communication so that it all of this information is included. Finally, follow up with them to ensure that what they think you said is actually, what you meant to communicate. Communicate effectively and you will be getting even closer to achieving your dreams.
Now, get off the bench and get into the game.
Coach Papa
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