Valuable Contemplations
by Joan Marques
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Published on this site: December 2003 - See
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"The most rewarding purpose one can have is a purpose that
will benefit at least one other soul." Therefore: make sure
that your purposes will not deliberately be harmful to any person
in particular. Moreover: try to formulate them in such a way that
as many others as possible can benefit from them.
Regardless of your religious convictions, culture, status, or descend:
Always try to make a gesture toward the ones you meet. Live. And
let live. For You Can't Take It With You…
When confronted with a problem: don't get paranoid, but analyze
the gist of it, and tackle it systematically. Problems are the forebears
of change, and change is inevitable.
Success is the one thing you work for after having defined it yourself.
Obtaining it will depend on your own input, the choices you make,
and the degree to which you want to stretch yourself.
Don't ever take anything for granted, no matter how safe
and secure it may seem. The day that you will have to reapply
your flexibility and adaptation to change may be nearer than
you think!
Fear is definitely the most important reason why people cease to
undertake certain actions. Yet, fear should be seen in its right
proportions and its legitimate occurrence. Sometimes people will
discourage you to execute a marvelous plan not out of fear but out
of jealousy or conflicting personal agendas! It's up to you to see
these possible reasons in their right perspective and — more
importantly — to prevent them from dispiriting you.
Life is a bag full of surprises, presented to each of us, every
day again. Some surprises taste sweet, but most of them have a bitter
foretaste. It is up to us, then, to adapt our taste buds to these
new challenges, and unleash our positive imagination and our sense
of humor on them, so that we will be able to detect the sweetness
that is hidden behind the initial gall.
We all perceive life through glasses that were colored by our education,
ethnicity, culture, gender, age, personal convictions, political
ideologies, religion, and wealth. Our colored glasses determine
how we choose to perceive the things that happen to us, faultlessly
guiding us toward the option that is least detrimental to our self-perception
and our self-esteem.
We should always attempt to determine when to measure with different
standards and when to measure with only one. People are equal: they
therefore deserve equal treatment and equal chances. However: the
way to approach an individual, a work environment, or a potential
market necessitates different approaches. It is a generally known
fact that characters, organizational cultures, and country customs
vary. So, look before you leap.
Life happens at a continuously increasing speed, as we grow older.
Perceived from a bright angle it means that at our old age we should
never be bored, because the given fact of our decelerated motions
and minds combined with the amount of life we will then have behind
us, will make a day as short as a minute.
Contentment should be considered the highest achievement in life:
it is the break that the soul needs to reenergize for future encounters
with turbulence. It's the deep breath that we take when we are in
full nature, and we feel that our lungs need fresh air. It's the
essence of life, and the decisive factor between giving up and persevering.
It's the rebirth of hope. Yes: Contentment is the reward we get
when we decide to choose for ourselves…above all.
Failure is just an opinion. In the first place in the eyes of the
one who experiences it. It hurts. It makes you feel unworthy. It
makes you wonder about yourself. But it also creates the possibility
for you to get to know yourself better…if you allow that.
Beware of forgetfulness once you've realized your dreams! There
are so many things that are actually obvious, but still remain unpracticed,
or are ceased to be done, because people get in some kind of daze
when they acquire certain positions. The good intentions end when
the dreams come true...
Everybody has flaws. Even the so-called great ones were not without
shortcomings: Lincoln wasn't, Martin Luther King wasn't, and JFK
wasn't. Yet, these great ones still deserve to be respected, as
they were put on earth to serve a purpose: They were the instruments
to realize the predestined course of history. If they had never
lived, someone else would have played their role. It's as simple
as that.
Choosing is not always easy. Every choice you make has an equal
chance to turn out right or wrong: it all depends on your actions
AFTER you made the choice. And much of those actions depend on your
personality and the value of the underlying subject to you. This
may explain why some people refrain from making choices. Some chances
are not worth being taken: some sacrifices are not worth being made:
some prices are not worth being paid. Peace of mind may lay in…not
making a choice at all…
Living is the one requirement for all of us without which nothing
else is possible. If you want to be a good leader for yourself and
others, you should realize that the art of living lies in a good
balance in everything you do: enough hard work, enough exercise,
enough fun, and enough rest. You just perform better when you are
in balance. Remember: you exude what you are, whether you are aware
of it or not.
Listen. Listen with your ears. Listen with your eyes. Listen with
your mind. Listen with your heart. Listen to the spoken words. Listen
to the unspoken ones too. Bring all these ways of listening in one
harmonious entirety, and you are the exemplification of a leader.
Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate
in Organizational Leadership, and a university instructor
in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may
visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com
Joan's manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a
six part series to get you over the bumps in life and onto
success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html
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