Conflict Resolution: Choose your Battles
By · CommentsA man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Napoleon Bonaparte
Where there are expectations, there is Conflict. That is a given. We encounter this in our personal relationships, in the workplace and out there in the world. We have expectations that our rights and interests will be respected, and when we perceive that they are not, we enter into full blown conflict. Unless we learn to manage it well and learn the well known techniques of resolution that we can apply to any situation.
In a marriage , or in a family situation where people traditionally are “expected to love” each other, one hopes that there may be emotional reasons for wanting to resolve conflict.
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The Quest for Knowledge
By · CommentsKnowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough. We must do.- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My father, who is a doctor, came by his education against great odds. His mother was a young widow without any significant education and worked hard to make ends meet and to give her little boy the best chance at life, the gift of education. He often burned the candle at both ends , working in the fields by his mothers side during the day, walking ten miles to get to school, and then staying up late at night to study by candlelight and kerosene lamps.
He delighted in the pursuit of knowledge, was grateful for the opportunity to learn and dedicated himself to a focused application of everything he learned . It is little wonder then that he was the best student in his class. He found favour with teachers, Medical School professors and Accomplished doctors who stepped forward to ensure that he continued to get every chance to progress, and he often speaks of them with fervent gratitude and affection.
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The Extra Mile
By · CommentsThere are no traffic jams in the extra mile – Author Unknown
Your success in any venture you may undertake depends not on a mediocre “just meets commitments” type of action. It is common knowledge that the person who goes above and beyond – regardless of personal glory, reward or remuneration of any kind, is the one who is also most likely to succeed.
Ordinary people, and if you are reading this, I sincerely hope that you are not one of that number, will only give out enough effort to do a job- no more and no less. They usually get left behind in the race mired as they are in the peer pressure that will keep them safe in mediocre company. I suggest that it is an indication of low self worth – where they believe so little in themselves that they are afraid of giving of their best, in case it may not be good enough.
The crazy ones are so charged with their own sense of worth and the value of their contribution and the difference it may make to their friends, their family, their workplace, their community or to the world at large, that they willingly go the extra mile, no matter what the outcome may be.
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Hold on to Your Dreams!
By · CommentsHold on to your dreams!
All men dream but not equally!
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds,
Wake in the day to find that it was mere vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men.
For they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) -Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Hold on to your dreams!
When I was a young girl, I chanced upon a book of Greek mythology which started a lifelong yearning to go to Greece. While the other children played in the yard, I day dreamed of mythical monsters, gods and goddesses and fantastic adventures in this fairytale land. Once I discovered that Greece was indeed a real country that it was possible to visit, there was no stopping me. I declared passionately to everyone who would listen that I was on my way to Greece.
I got teased about it mercilessly at school and the light hearted banter from my friends at University also did not deter me from my determination to get there. By now I had learned about the philosophers, the architecture, the history, the cuisine, the sundrenched islands and my imagination had taken me to newer heights of longing. I could never see the word Greece without smiling.
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The Vice of Entitlement
By · CommentsDon’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. – Mark Twain
Now, I know that many of us are affected by the Global Economic meltdown and that most of us naturally feel helpless when things happen beyond our control, that are not of our own volition or choosing and not directly caused by our own actions. Under such circumstances it is easy to feel as weak as a rag doll flapping in the wind.
I have met people, who immediately lean upon the support of others, – their relatives, their friends, the government and whichever passing stranger may offer a hand. They feel “entitled” to support from other people or from outside resources without understanding a basic fact of life. The world , however kind, does not revolve around them. People may stop and listen to your troubles for a while, lend a helping hand for a space of time, but that none but the extremely helpless deserve any more attention beyond that. Read More→
