Making an Impression vs. Being Impressed

By John C. Maxwell 

Admired for her beauty, Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill's mother) glided through the loftiest social circles in Great Britain. Once, on consecutive nights, Ms. Jerome dined with England's premier politicians: Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and his chief rival, William Gladstone. When questioned about her impressions of the two men, Ms. Jerome made the following observation: "When I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli I left feeling that I was the cleverest woman."

Reflection:

Though each of these men achieved impressive accomplishments for Britain, the definitive quality that separated them as leaders was their approach to people. What can you learn from this? Instead of living a life telling people how great you are and how much you know, you should rather be humble in your ways and seek the greatness in others. I can guarantee that you would rather be around a person who expresses genuine interest in you, rather than a person who continualy parades their brilliance. Many people pursue greatness and of course there is nothing wrong with that, but they go about it in the wrong way and make it all about them. It is always possible to see the good in others and it is your responsibility to encourage it, you just need to listen more, slow down and take peoples' interests to heart.

May you have an incredible week, and may you find the patience and sensitivity to bring out the greatness in others.

Darren Zwiers

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Towards Humility

Author Unknown

There was a young man who wanted to be humble. He went to an old wise man and said to him, "What must I do to acquire humility?" The old wise man thought for a minute and replied, "Go out and find someone who is beneath you. Give him something that you have or do something for him that needs to be done." The young man immediately left and came upon a homeless man on the street. He took the man to a restaurant and bought him a nice hot meal. After that, he returned to the wise man and told him what he had done. He then asked him, "Do I now have humility?" The wise old man replied, "Not yet!" The young man's face fell and after a while, he asked the wise man, "What else must I do to acquire humility?" The wise man said, "Go out and find someone else who is beneath you and do something nice for him." This upset the young man and he asked, "How many people do I have to help… 10 people?"

"No!"

"100 people?"

"No!"

The wise old man replied, "You will have obtained humility when you can no longer find anyone that you think is beneath you!"

Reflection:

In simple terms, humility is the absence of pride. It is important to never base your self-worth on how you compare yourself with others. Lack of humility will enhance your ego and instil a false sense of pride deep within you. A healthy and uplifting way to obtain humility is to keep focusing on yourself and how you, personally can improve and in turn improve the world around you through your own positive growth. You can't just wake up one day and have mastered humility, it is one of those traits that will keep on challenging you throughout your life. Truth be told, we are all far from perfect, but that doesn't mean we can't strive for perfection. If you work hard on the attribute of humility you can reach a high level of self mastery... never stop working on this.

May you have an enlightening week, where you are able to maintain pride about who you are, your achievements, your worth – but without arrogance.

Darren Zwiers

"On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom."  ― Michel de Montaigne

Who will you be tomorrow?

Story by Steve Goodier

One man sat at a stop light. The woman in front of him was going through papers on the seat of her car, and when the light changed to green she didn't go. A green light is not a suggestion, you know, it is more of a commandment. But she didn't notice. When the light turned red again, she still had not moved. The man in the car behind her now started screaming and beating on his steering wheel. A policeman tapped on his windshield. 'You can't arrest me for hollering in my car,' the man said. The cop asked for his license and registration, returned to his car, talked on the radio for a while, and finally handed the papers back. The driver protested, 'I knew you couldn't cite me for yelling in my own car!' The officer replied, 'I didn't want to cite you for shouting in your car. But I was directly behind you at the light. I saw you screaming and beating your steering wheel, and I said to myself, 'That man is out of control. He's going to hurt someone!' 'Then I noticed a bright yellow 'Love Is a Choice' license tag, and a 'Give Peace a Chance' bumper sticker, on your car and I was sure you must have stolen the car', as your behaviour did not reflect the bumper stickers.

Reflection:

Are you always the person you want to be? For a minute, forget what you want others to see you as and step out of your body and watch yourself behaving in all situations, good and bad. What do you think you would see? Would you be proud of your actions or shocked? A true test of character is to see how people act when they think no one is watching, We've seen people act really strange and out of character when they feel no one is watching, this has even happened with powerful, respectable leaders. People may act perfectly on record and when they think they off record they act in a completely different way, sometimes very badly. At the end of the day being true to yourself is where it all counts, because if you not true to yourself and act in accordance of who is watching or listening you are not going to be seen as a genuine, independent person. Knowing what you believe and truly walking your talk is the first and greatest step to Integrity. So the choice is yours… Be you, the most honest you that you can be!

May you have an awesome week and always find it in you to do what is right especially when nobodies looking.

Darren Zwiers

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken" - Oscar Wilde