Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
A Fishy Coaching Story About Happiness: The Mexican Fisherman
An American businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied only a little while.
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked the Mexican how he spent the rest of his time.
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.
“You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then, senor?” asked the Mexican.
The American laughed, and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You’ll become very rich, you
would make millions!”
“Millions, senor?” replied the Mexican. “Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
Tags: Coaching, Happiness, Inspiration, Stories, The Mexican Fisherman
True Lasting Happiness – A Sufi Parable
A Sufi Master once saw a dog chewing the dry bone of a buffalo. The bone has jagged edges and sharply cut the tongue, gums and mouth of the dog. Blood flowed and the dog licked and chewed even harder. The blood and flesh it was tasting were its own but the dog believed they were from the bone. The dog did not ever bother to question whether or not this was true.
The dog vigorously continued to chew this bone with its sharp canine holding it with its hefty forelegs, even though it hurts itself more the longer it does so. The bone was dry. The marrow had gone. There was no flesh around. The bone possessed nothing but a rotten smell. But its impact on the dog was tempting. It was not ready to leave the bone and was clinging on to it hard.
Pondered our world and its mendacity, its temporality, its tribulation, and its temptations. Is the world not like a bone to the dog?
Man bears and nurtures first. Then he snatches, tears, levels, and captures. He thinks of getting luxuries, comforts, and enjoyment. A dry bone to a dog!
And what do you think would happen if another dog entered the story and demanded the bone from the first dog? Would it give the bone knowing that it was bare and dry or would it fight for it?
The peace, joy and happiness we seek are already inside us all this while. We were born into this world with them. but we keep hunting for them outside…
The worldly things we pine for so desperately and accumulate so avariciously wound us in the same manner the bone cuts the dog, but we believe the pleasure we derive is from those material objects and cling to them more ferociously, fighting with whoever crosses our path.
Blood drip from our wounds and stain our path of life. Still we continue with apparent relish, striving for more money and the next toy to buy.
The happiness we seek is already here, within us. We only need to recognise, experience and appreciate it, instead of trying to substitute the feeling of true happiness with that which we derive from our incessant acquisition as fueled by the media and our current culture of excessive consumption!
True lasting happiness comes with letting go of our desires and wants, appreciating whatever is already here within us.
Tags: Happiness, Inspiration, Stories
Share Your SPARKS™ – An Inspired Poem
I’m born with a Pair of Invisible Wings &
I live in the Valley of Potential
within Mountains of Possibilities.
all around me is a world of abundant Possibilities.
I’m you & you’re me… come fly with me!
Beyond Coincidences there are Synchronicities
Beyond Synchronicities there are Possibilities
Beyond Possibilities™ there is Your Potential
You only need to Ask,
Be, Do & Give
Your Best.
Ask more,
Be, Do, Give more,
& you’ll Have more.
What Else is Possible?
Share Your SPARKS™
You are invited to Share Your SPARKS™
Tags: Art, Inspiration, Persistence, Poetry, Resilience, Spirit Guide, What Else is Possible?, Your SPARKS
Follow Your Heart & You’ll Experience Magic…
Source: Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton in Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks
Tags: Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton, Five Wishes, Follow Your Heart, Gay Hendricks
If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
Tags: Poems, Rudyard Kipling
Inspired by EE Cummings
Carry my tears with you (carry it in
your heart) never be without it (anywhere
you go i go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no tears (for you are my tears, my sweat) i want
no words (for beautiful no words can describe you, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always wept
and whatever a sun will always dry is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which feed on my tears & grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars in your eyes
i carry your tears (i carry it in my eyes,
so that your eyes may always be without them)
Tags: EE Cummings, Poems
The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Canadian Teacher, Writer
Tags: Inspiration, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Poems, The Invitation
