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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Thanks for your Time

A young man learns what ' s most important in life from the guy next door.

It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, girls, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved clear across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son. He was working on his future, and nothing could stop him.

Over the phone, his mother told him, "Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday." Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.

"Jack, did you hear me?"

"Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It's been so long since I thought of him. I'm sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago," Jack said.

"Well, he didn ' t forget you. Every time I saw him he'd ask how you were doing. He'd reminisce about the many days you spent over ' his side of the fence 'as he put it," Mom told him.

"I loved that old house he lived in," Jack said.

"You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr. Belser stepped in to make
sure you had a man's influence in your life," she said

"He's the one who taught me carpentry," he said. "I wouldn't be in this business if it weren ' t for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important...Mom, I ' ll be there for the funeral," Jack said.

As busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser's funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.

The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped by to see the old house next door one more time.Standing in the doorway, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time The house was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture....Jack stopped suddenly.

"What's wrong, Jack?" his Mom asked.

"The box is gone," he said. "What box?" Mom asked.

"There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he ' d ever tell me was 'the thing I value most, ' " Jack said.

It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it, except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.

"Now I'll never know what was so valuable to him," Jack said. "I better get some sleep. I have an early flight home, Mom."

It had been about two weeks since Mr. Belser died. Returning home from work one day Jack discovered a note in his mailbox. "Signature required on a package. No one at home. Please stop by the main post office within the next three days," the note read.

Early the next day Jack retrieved the package. The small box was old and looked like it had been mailed a hundred years ago. The handwriting was difficult to read, but he return address caught his attention. "Mr.Harold Belser" it read. Jack took the box out to his car and ripped open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack's hands shook as he read the note inside.

"Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett. It ' s the thing I valued most in my life." A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, as tears filling his eyes, Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch. Running his fingers slowly over the finely etched casing, he unlatched the cover. Inside he found these words engraved:

"Jack, Thanks for your time! -Harold Belser."

"The thing he valued most was...my time"

Jack held the watch for a few minutes, then called his office and cleared his appointments for the next two days.

"Why?" Janet, his assistant asked.

"I need some time to spend with my son," he said.

"Oh, by the way, Janet, thanks for your time!"

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it.
HereAre 10 Ways to get a life and start living it.

1. Give yourself permission to claim your life. That's right ?
Permission. You're the only one who can decide you are in charge of
Your life. Even though it feels like you're not supposed to do so,
Turn off the internal editors, the old tape recordings, the "should's,
Have to's, and musts", and the rules that didn't come from you.

2. Define what living means to you. It's not as hard as it sounds.
Just picture yourself at the end of your life looking back. What words
Would you want to describe how you lived your life and who you are as
A person?

3. Stop living in the future. Every time you think "someday" or "when
I have time I will," stop. Ask yourself, "Why not now?" Think about
This sentence, "I always wanted to, but never did." Start doing the
Things you always planned to do. Choose your life every morning. Plan
One thing you will do that day to feel alive.

4. Surround yourself with people who enjoy living. They've obviously
Discovered how to have a life and live it. Why not hang with the pros?

5. Lay down your pain and your anger. Carrying them around makes
Living harder and less fun. It doesn't bring anything, and it steals a
Lot.

6. Let the losers win. Don't argue about things that you don't care
About. Unless there's some real threat, let the folks who have
Something to prove, prove what they need to. Why waste your living
Time trying to fix what's wrong with them?

7. Create energy. Jump to forgiveness and love, then figure things
Out. Most conclusions we jump to are not only wrong, they're negative.
Negative conclusions lead us to prepare a defense. Being on the
Defensive isn't living. It's hiding from life.

8. Learn the physical symptoms of when your head and heart become
Disconnected. We know when we're having a knee jerk reaction, when
We're feeling sorry for ourselves, and when we're being blind to
people's feelings. We can remember how it felt physically while we
Were behaving badly. Get to know those symptoms, and you can stop the
Behavior. Living life will feel a whole lot safer because you won't be
In danger of shooting yourself in the foot.

9. Take small risks that push your boundaries in every way. The joy of
Life is packed in learning that matches our skill set. When we stretch
Just a bit intellectually, physically, emotionally, we grow. Living is
Growing. Even your cells know that.

10. Value and protect the people and the places you care about. A job
Isn't a life. It's just a part of one. Let the people you care about
Come first, and let everyone know that you do. Re-read numbers 1 and 2.


We don't measure life in hours and minutes.
We measure life inMemories and moments.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Split Milk

This is a story about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?

He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!

When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"

Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.

His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!

This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment "doesn't work," we usually learn something valuable from it.
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