That's Not My Job

That's Not My Job This is a story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.   My Message We all know the famous story of Peter Pan who refused to grow up and avoided the burdens of being accountable. This is a great fantasy to some; Imagine a life with no responsibility, no burdens and not being accountable for anything? Let's be honest now, it wouldn't be all peaches and cream. We can all agree that responsibility sometimes requires us to do things that are unpleasant or even frightening. It pushes us to go beyond our means, to prepare and set goals, and exercise extreme discipline to reach our aspirations. But the benefits of accepting responsibility far outweigh the short-lived advantages of refusing to do so. No-one makes their life better by avoiding responsibility. Responsibility is about our ability to respond to circumstances and to choose the attitudes, actions, and reactions that shape our lives around it. It's a slice of leadership that puts us in the driver's seat. Responsible people not only depend on themselves, but show others that they can be depended on. This breeds trust, and trust creates many more opportunities with additional responsibilities that bring success. If you want more control over your life with the pleasures and power of independence, all you have to do is stand up and be responsible. May you have an incredible week, where you can stand up to doing what is right and showing others that it's easy to do so too. Darren Zwiers The Quote: - You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln - The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill

The House With The Golden Windows

The House With The Golden Windows The little girl lived in a small, very simple, poor house on a hill and as she grew she would play in the small garden and as she grew she was able to see over the garden fence and across the valley to a wonderful house high on the hill – and this house had golden windows, so golden and shining that the little girl would dream of how magic it would be to grow up and live in a house with golden windows instead of an ordinary house like hers. And although she loved her parents and her family, she yearned to live in such a golden house and dreamed all day about how wonderful and exciting it must feel to live there. When she got to an age where she gained enough skill and sensibility to go outside her garden fence, she asked her mother is she could go for a bike ride outside the gate and down the lane. After pleading with her, her mother finally allowed her to go, insisting that she kept close to the house and didn’t wander too far. The day was beautiful and the little girl knew exactly where she was heading! Down the lane and across the valley, she rode her bike until she got to the gate of the golden house across on the other hill. As she dismounted her bike and lent it against the gate post, she focused on the path that lead to the house and then on the house itself…and was so disappointed as she realized all the windows were plain and rather dirty, reflecting nothing other than the sad neglect of the house that stood derelict. So sad she didn’t go any further and turned, heart broken as she remounted her bike … As she glanced up she saw a sight to amaze her… there across the way on her side of the valley was a little house and its windows glistened golden… as the sun shone on her little home. She realized that she had been living in her golden house and all the love and care she found there was what made her home the ‘golden house’. Everything she dreamed was right there in front of her nose!   My Message How amazing is it that we all already possess all that we need to be happy… isn't that awesome news! We just forget sometimes, when we get so wrapped up in what we want that we forget to give ourselves what we need, both for our minds and bodies. We get so caught up in wanting things we desire that we forget about the things we already have, and this slowly pulls us away from being grateful for all our current possessions. We don’t need to have it all. We don’t need to do it all. We don’t need to be it all. We just need to have the courage to do what we can, to obtain what we can and be completely happy with that. Never stop seeing the beauty of the things we already possess and be grateful for it. This is a practise which makes life so much more enriching. Everyday this week swap a thing you want with a moment of gratitude for what you have. Have an awesome week. Darren Zwiers The Quote: “Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.” -Doris Mortman

Actions Speak

Actions Speak There once was a boy who loved eating sweets. He always asked for sweets from his father. His father was a poor man. He could not always afford sweets for his son. But the little boy did not understand this, and demanded sweets all the time. The boy’s father thought hard about how to stop the child asking for so many sweets. There was a very holy man living nearby at that time. The boy’s father had an idea. He decided to take the boy to the great man who might be able to persuade the child to stop asking for sweets all the time. The boy and his father went along to the great man. The father said to him,"could you ask my son to stop asking for sweets which I cannot afford?” The great man was in difficulty, because he liked sweets himself. How could he ask the boy to give up asking for sweets? The holy man told the father to bring his son back after one month. During that month, the holy man gave up eating sweets, and when the boy and his father returned after a month, the holy man said to the boy “My dear child, will you stop asking for sweets which your father cannot afford to give you?” From then on, the boy stopped asking for sweets. The boy’s father asked the holy man, “Why did you not ask my son to give up asking for sweets when we came to you a month ago?” The man replied, “How could I ask a boy to give up sweets when I loved sweets myself. In the last month I gave up eating sweets.” A person’s example is much more powerful than just his words. When we ask someone to do something, we must do it ourselves also. We should not ask others to do what we do not do ourselves.   My Message The lesson in this story is very straight forward... Always make sure that your actions and your words are the same. No one likes a hypocrite and in a world where we need more leaders than ever before this is the most important lesson to remember. If your words are inspiring and strong but your actions are weak, no one will ever take you for real. It is proven that the most influential and successful leaders that have lived made tremendous effort in making their actions and words the same, exactly equal. There will also be times when people may not necessarily hear your words, but they are certainly going to observe your actions. This is commonly seen with children observing their parents. Don’t ever underestimate the power of your actions, when they speak louder than your words you are doing more than just inspiring, you are displaying truth and honesty. This is because Your true values and your true beliefs are expressed only through your actions. It is not about what you say or what you want to do, rather it's the actions that you take, every day! Have an awesome week. Darren Zwiers The Quote: "Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."  ~ Peter Marshall

Break The Chains

Break The Chains As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were. Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? My Message As we progress through life we should never forget that failure is all part of learning; you should never give up on the struggles in your life. If you have failed once, it doesn’t mean you can never do it again. If what you aim to achieve vibrates truth within you, then you should never stop trying to reach that goal. Look at yourself, you’re smart, you’re talented, you’ve a got a gift, and you’re capable of doing anything you set your heart to, don't let failure stop you. In essence failure is actually feedback. It's not telling you to quite its indicating that you need to do what you are doing a little differently, apply a new method with a more positive outlook. You learn by failure, by understanding what does not work, and by continuing to adjust your strategies until you find out what does work. Look at a young child he/she learns to walk by falling, nothing changes as we get older. We keep learning to walk by falling... this is nature. Embrace failure, because if we are failing, we are learning; and if we are learning, we are growing. And growing is really what life is all about. Have an awesome week where you have the stregnth to transform failure into success. Darren Zwiers The Quote: "I never failed. I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work" -Thomas Edison (after discovering the light bulb)

Its Only An Angle Of Perspective

Its Only An Angle Of Perspective

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a famous British shoe manufacturer to Africa. Their task was to investigate and report back on market potential as they were looking to grow their business globally. Upon returning to England the first salesman reported back, "There is no potential in Africa - nobody wears shoes." The second salesman reported back, "There is massive potential in Africa - nobody wears shoes." 

My Message

This is probably one of the shortest stories I've used and I am sure some of you have heard it before, but the idea is so simple as it provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two very different ways - negatively or positively. We are all blessed with the gift of 'choice' and in life we are always guaranteed to have two; to identify a situation's opportunities and benefits or its problems and disadvantages. This is the same choice for everything we do in life. It's what separates the positive outgoing people from the negative dull ones. It is this positive choice and attitude that allows you to succeed in all that you do in life with complete joy and satisfaction, because success isn't just measured in wealth and getting things done. Success is also measured by the amount of happiness you experienced whilst progressing through life's choices. Remember this story well and never forget that both salesman used exactly the same words, yet the optimistic one saw the situation in a very positive way.

Have an awesome week where your focus lies only in the benefits and opportunities of your tasks ahead.
Darren Zwiers

The Quote:

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

Dissolving Worries

Dissolving Worries

Once a young man came to a revered teacher, who was seated under a tree near a beautiful lake, and asked for the solution for his unhappiness. After some minutes of conversation the old master kindly instructed the visitor to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink a few mouthfuls. “How does it taste?” the teacher asked. “Awful,” said the apprentice after he had spat out the revolting liquid a few paces away. The teacher chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the youngster swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man told him, “Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked him again, “How does it taste?” “Good!” he replied. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master. “No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside the troubled youth, took his hands, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the level of ‘pain we taste’ depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.

My Message

Once you broaden your outlook, and once you stop looking only at yourself and your own miseries and see life as a whole and the many things without which you would not be what you are today – your friends, family, hobbies, nature around you, then you could become the lake and the things that bring you down will dissolve like the salt. Many people seem to prefer to grumble and complain about their lives, society and how tough things are getting. I think it is always important to be able to rise above the drama of your own situation and see the big picture of life and to always figure out smarter ways to move forward. Yes, life has it's many bits of sorrows, struggles, pains and sufferings, but If you look at it with a magnifier then you wont learn much from it..Look at it with trust and confidence, always have the greater picture in mind and all will dissolve like the salt in the lake.

May you have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

The Quote:

"Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday".  Author Unknown

The Rose Within

The Rose Within A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.   My Message So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a beautiful rose. The good qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our shortcomings. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realise our potential. Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else has to show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them. This is one of the characteristics of love... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life... all the while recognising the nobility in their soul. Always help others to realise they can overcome their faults. If we show them the “rose” within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over. May you have an awesome week! Darren Zwiers The Quote: "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." — Ziggy