Snippets: Effective Communication, 'The Family' and extract from 'The Psychology of Success.'

Each day, I receive many emails from all sorts of people. While I read them, I don't usually keep these emails. This time, however, I thought I'd pick out the ones that touched me the most.

Story 1 - Effective Communication

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'

The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.' What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.' Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

Story 2 - 'The Family' by Skye Thomas
I have often argued with my friends that while a child will certainly be important, he or she shoudl not be the most important thing in the world. The reply I often recieve is this: "Aneeta, you don't have children, you're not qualified to talk!" So, I end up keeping quiet. Therefore, I was very pleased to receive Skye Thomas's last newsletter in which she features an article called, 'The Family'. She put into words what I could not and she is a mother of three! This is what she said:

We all know people who say that the children should always come first - at any cost. I disagree. Children who are raised to be the center of the universe grow up to be adults who believe that they have a rightful place as the center of everyone else’s universe too. It is unfair to teach the children that they are more important then everyone else. They become self-esteem monsters and bullies. The real world will teach them a very difficult lesson. People will not like them no matter how special Mommy and Daddy think they are. It is better to teach children that everyone is equal in regards to needs, hopes and dreams, responsibilities, and other dynamics of getting along in the world. Mommy’s need for peace and quiet once in a while is every bit as important as little Billy’s need to jump and run and play. The key again is for the parents to find a balance between the opposing needs.

Story 3 - Excerpt from 'The Psychology of Success.'

Many years ago a Zen Master handed me a sealed envelope.
“Open it” he said “and tell me all of the things you can see.”
“I see there's a new, crisp one dollar bill inside” I replied.
“And...?”
“It's a piece of green paper. It's printed by the US Treasury and guaranteed by the United States of America to be worth one dollar.”
“John” he said with a smile, “You are missing the whole point. It's not the dollar or thing. That's obvious to everyone. It's the infinite possibilities, meaning what you can do with the dollar or thing, that's important to the would-be entrepreneur. For example, two men in the Florida Everglades. One man draws his friend's attention to the wildlife and says, “Look at all those alligators." And the friend replies, “Alligators? I only see Floating Handbags.”
Extracted from John Jude O'Callaghan's new e-book "The Psychology of Success." Get more info. mailto:johnjudeocallagan@verizon.net