Ten Things You Will Never Regret:
1. Showing kindness to an aged person.
2. Destroying a letter written in anger.
3. Offering an apology that will save a friendship.
4. Stopping a scandal that was ruining a reputation.
5. Helping a boy or girl find themselves.
6. Taking time to show consideration to parents, friends,
brothers and sisters.
7. Refraining from gossip when others around you delight in it.
8. Refusing to do a thing which is wrong, although others do it.
9. Living according to your convictions.
10. Accepting the judgment of God on any question.
-- Pulpit Helps, May, 1991
A teacher was sitting at her desk grading papers when her first grade
class came back from lunch. One of her students informed her, "Robert
has to go to the principal's office."
"I wonder why?" the teacher mused.
"Because he's a following person," the child replied.
"A what?" the teacher asked.
"It came over the loudspeaker: 'The following persons are to go to the
office.'"
Some people are "leading people" and some are "following people." And
actually, we are each followers and leaders at various times. But if
you are ever in a leadership position, this advice from college
football coaching legend "Bear" Bryant about how to get the best from
those you're leading can be useful.
"I'm just a plow hand in Arkansas," Bear said, "but I have learned how
to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down
others, until finally they've got one heartbeat together, a team.
There are just three things I'd ever say: 'If anything goes bad, I did
it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real
good, then you did it.' That's all it takes to get people to win
football games for you."
I suspect that's all it takes to get people to be effective in any
situation. For leaders are only as good as those who follow them, and
followers are at their best when leaders are quick to give credit for
successes.
British classical scholar Benjamin Jowett put it like this: "The way
to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them."
That's especially good to know when you're a "leading person."
-- from Touching Moments by Steve Goodier
www.lifesupportsystem.com
A funny story has it that a police officer was investigating an
accident. Referring to a woman lying unconscious in the street, he
asked, "Who was driving the car?"
"I was," a man replied.
"How did you happen to hit her?" the officer inquired.
"I didn't!" he said. "As I approached the intersection, I saw that she
was trying to cross the street. So I stopped for her and she fainted."
I'm not saying that courtesy is rare, but in some cities it's said
that there are only two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
Maybe it's that "common courtesy" is not as common as it might be.
A wonderful story comes from 19th Century England. According to the
account, Queen Victoria was once at a diplomatic reception in London.
The guest of honor was an African chieftain. All went well during the
meal until, at the end, finger bowls were served. The guest of honor
had never seen a British finger bowl, and no one had thought to brief
him beforehand about its purpose. So he took the bowl in his two
hands, lifted it to his mouth, and drank its contents down!
For an instant there was breathless silence among the British
privileged guests, and then they began to whisper to one another. All
that stopped, however, when Queen Victoria silently took her finger
bowl in her two hands, lifted it, and drank its contents! A moment
later, 500 surprised British ladies and gentlemen simultaneously drank
the contents of their own finger bowls.
It was the queen's uncommon courtesy that guarded her guest from
certain embarrassment.
"Knowledge, ability, experience are of little avail in reaching high
success if courtesy be lacking," says George D. Powers. "Courtesy is
the one passport that will be accepted without question in every land,
in every office, in every home, in every heart in the world. For
nothing commends itself so well as kindness; and courtesy is
kindness."
-- From A LIFE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE by Steve Goodier
www.lifesupportsystem.com
Be understanding to your enemies.
Be loyal to your friends.
Be strong enough to face the world each day.
Be weak enough to know you cannot do everything alone.
Be generous to those who need your help.
Be frugal with what you need yourself.
Be wise enough to know that you do not know everything.
Be foolish enough to believe in miracles.
Be willing to share your joys.
Be willing to share the sorrows of others.
Be a leader when you see a path others have missed.
Be a follower when you are shrouded by the mists of uncertainty.
Be the first to congratulate an opponent who succeeds.
Be the last to criticize a colleague who fails.
Be sure where your next step will fall, so that you will not tumble.
Be sure of your final destination, in case you are going the wrong way.
Be loving to those who love you.
Be loving to those who do not love you, and they may change.
Above all, be yourself.
-- Author Unknown