Don’t try harder, instead… DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY

A fly's futile attempt to go through the window

I’m sitting is a quiet room at the Millcroft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. It’s just past noon, late July, and I’m listening to the desperate sounds of a life-or-death struggle going on just a few feet away.
There’s a small fly burning out the last of its short life’s energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the windowpane. The whirring wings tell the poignant story of the fly’s strategy: try harder.
But it’s not working.
The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass. Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching its goal through raw effort and determination.
This fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill.
Across the room, ten steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so easy.
Why doesn’t the fly try another approach, something dramatically different? How did it get so locked in on the idea that this particular route and determined effort, offer the most promise for success? What logic is there in continuing until death, to seek a breakthrough with ‘more of the same?’
No doubt this approach makes sense to the fly. Regrettably, it’s an idea that will kill.
‘Trying harder’ isn’t necessarily the solution to achieving more. It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want out of life. Sometimes, in fact, it’s a big part of the problem.

If you stake your hopes for a breakthrough on trying harder than ever, you may kill your chances for success.
– Price Pritchett, PhD

****************************

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

So what are you going to change, and when? What are you waiting for? Each new day is an opportunity for a new beginning.  But if you think you’re going to re-commit – knuckle down, raise the bar, lengthen your stride – whatever you want to call it, and if you think the results you’re looking for are simply a matter of commitment and hard work, you are sadly mistaken.

You can’t make significant changes just working harder. You’ve got to work smarter. You have got to commit to working different. Instead of committing to change something, commit to changing everything… to change itself. Don’t commit to a result, but commit to the process of ever-improving results.

” Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice;

   it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

Don’t try harder, instead…

DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY

The Horse that Fell Into a Hole

Life is Good

There once was a horse that was walking through the woods one dark night. The horse was upset about how his life had turned out, and having to walk home in the darkness made him even more so. He wondered if life was worth living.

All of a sudden, the horse fell into a deep dark hole.

The horse screamed, “Help! It is so dark down here, and I can’t get out.” No one answered.

The horse screamed again and again, “Please, someone help me!” “I have fallen down into a deep, dark pit, and I cannot get out.” Still no one answered.

The horse then started to panic. He thought, “I am never going to get out of the hole. I will die here!’

The horse started to fight against the darkness and depth of the pit. He kicked the sides as he jumped and screamed, “Help me!”

The dirt was flying everywhere. He kicked, jumped and screamed more and more.  And before the horse could realize what he was doing, he was staring at the top of the hole. He had dug himself out of the predicament he was in.

The horse smiled and trotted off home, realizing that life was so good after all.

“I asked God for all things, that I might enjoy life. God gave life that I might enjoy all things.” Unknown Author

INDISPENSABLE?

Do you think nobody can fill your shoes?

Sometimes when you are feeling important

Sometimes when your ego’s in bloom

Sometimes when you take it for granted

You are the best qualified in the room-

 

Sometimes, when you feel that your going

Would leave a hole too big to fill,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.

 

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in, up to the wrist,
Pull it out, and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.

 

The moral of this quaint example
Is – just do the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember –
There’s no indispensable man.

The Daffodil Principle

Start Your Ambitious Project Tomorrow

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come  see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.”I will come next Tuesday, ” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her. “I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.” “How far will we have to drive?”

“Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage!”

“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read, “Daffodil Garden.”

We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and

slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns — great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

There were five acres of flowers. “But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn. “It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one.”50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

There it was. The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.

I thought of this woman

whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun — one bulb at a time — to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.

Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward o

ur goals and desires one step at a time — often just one baby-step at a time — and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!” My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said.

It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”

.

DID GOD CREATE EVIL?

Satan in his playground

Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?
A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question: “Did God create everything that exists?” A student bravely replied, “Yes he did!”
“God created everything?” The professor asked. “Yes sir, he certainly did,” the student replied.
The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.”
The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?” “Of course,” replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?” “What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The other students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact, sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”
The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?” The professor responded, “Of course it does.”
The student replied, “Once again you are wrong, sir, darkness does not exist, either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wave lengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name – –

Albert Einstein….

YOU ARE SPECIAL: DO NOT DIMINISH YOURSELF

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.

In the room of 2,000, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”  Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you – but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air.
“Well,” he replied, “what if I do this?” He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?”
Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20”.
“Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt……….. by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.
“Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you.  The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by… WHO WE ARE.

You are SPECIAL…

D o n ‘t   e v e r  f o r g e t  i  t.

Spend some time re-learning the Alphabet!

Although things are not perfect
Because of trials or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
Do not begin to blame
Even when the times are hard
Fierce winds are bound to blow
God is forever able
Hold on to what you know
Imagine life without His love
Joy would cease to be
Keep thanking Him for all the things
Love imparts to thee
Move out of “Camp Complaining”
No weapon that is known
On earth can yield the power
Praise can do alone
Quit looking at the future
Redeem the time at hand
Start every day with worship
To “thank” is a command
Until we see Him coming
Victorious in the sky
We’ll run the race with gratitude
EXalting God most high
Yes, there will be good times & yet some
Zion waits in glory…where no one is ever sad!

Remember,
The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance
between your knees and the floor.The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.

I ASKED GOD FOR ALL THINGS

I asked God to take away my habit
God said, No
It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole
God said, No.
His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No.
Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn’t granted, it is learned

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No.
I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said, No
You must grow on your own! ,but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life God said, No.
I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.
God said…Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.
The choice is mine, but God will give me the necessary wisdom and strength.

PUSH

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Since the man was showing discouragement, the adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: “You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t moved.” Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
Satan said, “Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.” So that’s what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a Matter of Prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.
“Lord,” he said, “I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing? The Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
“Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have.
“True, you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock.”

**At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just a simple obedience and faith in Him. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.**

When everything seems to go wrong …. just P.U.S.H.!
When the job gets you down … just P.U.S.H.!
When people don’t react the way you think they should…. just P.U.S.H.
When your money is “gone” and the bills are due…. just P.U.S.H.!
When people just don’t understand you …. just… P.U.S.H.!

P= Pray
U= Until
S= Something
H= Happens