The Final Exam

A professor stood before his class of 20 senior organic biology students, about to hand out the final exam. "I want to say that it's been a pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you've all worked extremely hard and many of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no one gets their GP messed up because they might have been celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like to opt out of the final exam today will receive a "B" for the course." There was much rejoicing amongst the class as students got up, passed by the professor to thank him and sign out on his offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Any one else? This is your last chance." One final student rose up and took the offer. The professor closed the door and took attendance of those students remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in yourself." he said. "You all have A's."

My Reflection:

I love this story because it reminds us of how quick we are to sell ourselves short when we have what it takes to become great individuals. It’s also frightening to see how so many of us will settle with second best just because its easy or requires less effort. We should always live our lives with champions attitude. If you want to truly believe in yourself and become a successful person then you are going to have to face your self-doubts and be ready to take care of it… This isn’t a simple task but a first step will be to adopt a positive attitude. Eg. if you start wondering, “What if I fail?” you can respond by saying, “Then I’ll just try again.” or Instead of telling yourself, “I could never do X,” say, “I can’t do X yet. But I’m working on it.” This simple mindset will transform a negative situation into an opportunity for personal growth and in turn will give yourself a fighting chance to reach high levels of personal satisfaction.

Never forget that you are always more capable and worthy than you give yourself credit for, so what are you waiting for… Go for gold!

May you have an awesome week.
Darren Zwiers

“Don't be afraid to be amazing.”- Andy Offutt Irwin

Be Like Water

By Bruce Lee

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

My Reflection:

Water doesn’t stop at obstacles, it works its way around them. Flowing water always finds the path of least resistance and follows it without effort or hesitation. If there is the slightest gap or weakness, water will find its way through and keep flowing. We can apply this principle to our own lives… when faced with obstacles in your life be like water, find ways around it, don’t be rigid and focused on one aspect. Be open to new ideas and work your way around it. Sadly when we sometimes face life’s hurdles, we fight back or completely walk away quitting far too early. If an object is dropped into the water it doesn’t fight back, it just moves out of the way and swallows it up. So to, you should adopt the formless energy of water and swallow up life’s challenges with little resistance.

Have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." - Bruce Lee

Double-sided Solution

(Author Unkown)

A father was reading a magazine and his little daughter every now and then distracted him. To keep her busy, he tore one page on which was printed the map of the world. He tore it into pieces and asked her to go to her room and put them together to make the map again. He was sure she would take the whole day to get it done. But the little one came back within minutes with perfect map. When he asked how she could do it so quickly, she said, “Oh…. Dad, there is a man’s face on the other side of the paper….. I made the face perfect to get the map right." She ran outside to play leaving the father surprised.

Reflection

When I read this story the first thing that came to mind was a tapestry. Have you ever seen the back of a tapestry? It’s messy, dull and looks like a total mess, but when you turn it around its a display of carefully chosen and well arranged materials. This is the same with the challenges we face in our lives. At first we see it as a complex, unachievable mess, but there is always another, ‘better’ side to the experience we are in. It’s just a matter of perspective. The happiest and most successful people I know, see challenge as an agent for growth. These individuals are reflective, they are creative and always see the other side of the problem. Remember the saying “every coin has two sides”, well so do the obstacles we face everyday, it's just up to you to choose the more fitting and opportune side. It's the joy of conquering these obstacles that makes life so meaningful and accomplished. A good start to identify the other side of a problem is time, use time as your advantage. Quit banging your head against the same brick wall over and over. Take time to think things through and find creative solutions. It's scary to see how rushed we all are, the more complex a problem, the more time you will need. Don’t dwell, but don’t rush… find that balance and problem solving will become enjoyable!

May you have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful" - Joshua J. Marine.  

"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings" - John F. Kennedy.

Think Simple

(Author Unkown)

One of Japan’s biggest cosmetics company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount to do so. But when a workman was posed with the same problem, did not get into complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Reflection

It is true that we all face problems of various sizes in our lives. For the most part, we are able to quickly solve them without much trouble at all, yet other cases can be far more difficult and when it comes to solving them, we tend to talk too much about the problem and allow less time solving it. There’s a famous quote that says “we are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet”. We get so entangled in our problems that we forget to stop, remove ourselves from the situation and look at it with an ‘outsiders’ perspective. The good news is that every complex problem has a simple solution. There’s no need to always have to ‘tackle’ them. A huge obstacle for people is the way they view their problems: if you think that problems are completely threatening, or that having them is a sign of weakness or failure, and you see yourself as a bad problem solver, you won’t solve the problem at all! If you can be optimistic and look for the benefits and opportunities inherent within the problem, you are more likely to solve it effectively and efficiently. I believe that if you can apply this positive mindset to the obstacles in your life, you and the people around you be will be able to focus on what is really important, rather than dwelling on something that is out of your control. Rather apply all your energy and attention on creating a solution with long-lasting effects, than beating yourself up about something that is just there to challenge you.

May you have an awesome week, where problems become simple steps to higher levels of achievment.

Darren Zwiers

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them” - Albert Einstein.