Learning by Doing

A PRIEST AND A DRIVER

A priest dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. Saint Peter addresses him, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven?" The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, from New York “ Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Now it's the priest's turn. He stands erect and booms out, "I am the Right Reverend Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last forty-three years." Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the priest, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven ." "Just a minute," says the priest. "That man was a taxi driver. Why does he get a silken robe and golden staff?" "Results," shrugged Saint Peter. "While you preached, people slept. When he drove, people prayed."

Moral of the story: It's Performance and Not the Position that Counts.

The Easier Way

Once there was a lark singing in the forest. The lark stopped him and asked, "What do you have in the box and where are you going?" The farmer replied that he had worms and that he was going to the market to trade them for some feathers.

The lark said, "I have many feathers. I will pluck one and give it to you and that will save me looking for worms."

The farmer gave the worms to the lark and the lark plucked a feather and gave it in return.

The next day the same thing happened and the day after and on and on until a day came that the lark had no more feathers.

Now it couldn't fly and hunt for worms. It started looking ugly and stopped singing and very soon it died.

What is the moral of the story?

The moral is quite clear what the lark thought was an easy way to get food turned out to be the tougher way after all. Isn't the same thing true in our lives?

Many times we look for the easier way, which really ends up being the tougher way..

WASDE RAHO te UJJAD JAO !!

Once, during the course of his travels, Guru Nanak arrived at a village where the people were a quarrelsome lot. He blessed them and asked them to prosper and live in that village forever. In the next village, where the people were peace-loving, Guru Nanak blessed them too but asked them to abandon the village and disperse. Mardana, his close disciple, puzzled by the guru’s strange blessings, asked him why he blessed the first village with prosperity though its people were unworthy of it and asked the good people of the second village to disperse. Guru Nanak smiled and answered: “The quarrelsome will only spread unrest and friction wherever they go. So I asked them to remain where they were. But it is better for the peace-loving to disperse and take their good qualities with them so that all those who know them can learn the art of peaceful coexistence.”

Positive Attitude

Thomas Edison was 67 years of age when his lab caught fire and everything was in flames. He was laughing aloud and his son thought he had a nervous breakdown because his lifelong work was destroyed. Then Edison told his son “ Charles, there is a great value in disaster; thank God, all are mistakes are burnt and we can start afresh.” Within a week, he invented the phonograph successfully. This is the winner’s attitude.

THE ROPE .........

The night fell heavy in the heights of the mountains and the man could not
see anything. All was black. Zero visibility, and the moon and the stars were
covered by the clouds.
As he was climbing only a few feet away from the top of the mountain, he
slipped and fell in to the air, falling at great speed. He could only see black
spots as he went down, and the terrible sensation of being sucked by gravity.
He kept falling. and in the moments of great fear, it came to his mind all the
good and bad episodes of his life. He was thinking now about how close
death was getting, when all of a sudden he felt the rope tied to his waist pull
him very hard. His body was hanging in the air !
Only the rope was holding him and in that moment of stillness he had no
other choice other to scream:
"Help me God".
All of a sudden a deep voice coming from the sky answered :
"What do you want me to do?"
"Save me God".
“ Do you really think I can save you?"
"Of course I believe You can."
"Then cut the rope tied to your waist."…….
There was a moment of stunned silence and the man decided to hold on to
the rope with all his strength.
The rescue team tells that the next day a climber was found dead and frozen.
his body hanging from a rope. His hands holding tight to it

………………………….
………………………….
………………………….

.................................

................................
Only 1 foot away from the ground !!

Do you believe enough to let go of the Rope ?

How to Stay Positive...when the boss isn’t

A very good article telling the importance of staying positive.....

“Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it.”

How to Stay Positive...when the boss isn’t
I speak to a lot of organizations on the importance of positive leadership and the benefits of building a positive culture that fuels performance. Yet, the most common question I receive after my talk is: “Jon, this makes so much sense but my boss isn’t that kind of leader/manager. So how do I stay positive when my boss isn’t?” It’s a question I know well. I remember when I worked in business development during the dot.com boom and bust. I had a very negative boss and one day I made a few decisions that changed everything. The Energy Bus wasn’t even a thought in my mind yet, but looking back I was already putting the principles into action.
Here are few suggestions that I hope will help you, your team and maybe even your boss.
1. Make Your Bus Great - You may not be the leader of your organization. You may not be driving the "big bus." But you can decide to make your bus great. Every day just focus on being the best you can be and bring out the best in others, tuning out everything else. Tune out the negativity. Tune out the comments. Tune out anything you can’t control. You can’t drive anyone else’s bus. Just drive your bus and make it a great ride.
2. Your Positive Energy Must be Greater than All of the Negativity - In the book Power vs Force, author David Hawkins, MD shares research that 80 percent of the population vibrates to a negative frequency. The fact is negativity is all around us. It’s not just your boss . It’s everywhere. You must remember that your positive energy must be greater than all the negativity. As country wisdom suggests, “Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it.” Instead stay above the fray. Positive energy is much more powerful than negative energy. If you stay positive, the negativity can’t touch you.
3. Live it, Breathe it, Share it - Walt Whitman said we convince by our presence. If you truly focus on being positive and sharing it in an authentic and sincere way then you will do a lot of convincing. Your boss will sense something different in you and they will change the way they behave towards you. They may even ask what’s changed in your life.
4. Invite Your Boss on Your Bus - Give your boss The Energy Bus or another book on positive leadership. I’ve received countless emails from leaders who received The Energy Bus from their employees and it changed the way they lead. Best of all, the leader then invited the rest of the company on the bus. So don’t think you can’t change your situation or organization. You can. I’m convinced that very few people want to be negative. Most people are negative because of stress, busyness, and fear. Most people just need a wake-up call to break out of their rut. Decide to be a beacon of light that shines on others. You’ll be amazed at what happens.
5. If Your Boss Doesn’t Change, You Can - If all else fails then you have a choice. You can decide to stay positive and outlast your boss knowing that truth shines through and eventually a negative boss won’t last - ultimately their team will fall apart, results will suffer and they will be asked off the bus. Or you can decide to change your job. A lot of people do this and that’s why the best cultures that focus on positive leadership attract the best employees. Whatever you do, however, don’t allow a negative boss or colleague to get you down. With 80% of the population being negative, we need positive powerful people like you to offset the negativity.