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Giving back to Life
Leo Buscaglia

Quality
Gail Pursell Elliott

Inspiring People
tom walsh

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What is essential, I think, is to live life in wonder.  All this magic that's around us, but we let it go by!  In Asia they say life is a great river, and it will flow, no matter what you do or don't do.  We can decide to flow with the river, and live in peace and joy and love, or we can decide to battle it, and live in agony and despair.  But the river doesn't care.  Life doesn't care.  In either case, all of our streams run into the same sea.  It's up to you.

What is essential is not only to take from life, but it is essential that you put something back into it.

We've forgotten our responsibility to give.  I have several charities to which I give but, because I send it to "other lands," I can't deduct from my income tax.  "You're crazy!"  How sad.  We've really forgotten how to give.  I give love because I love you, not because I expect you to love back.  If I give expecting something in return, I'm sure to be unhappy.  When you say good morning to someone, it's because you volitionally want to say it, not because you expect something back.  If you expect something back and they don't say it, then you're bummed out, "I knew I shouldn't have said good morning."

I go out sometimes--and really, we've reached this point--and say good morning and somebody turns to me and says, "Do I know you?"  And I say, "No, but wouldn't it be nice?"  Sometimes they say no.  That's their privilege.  But I did my thing.  I said hello.  They did their thing, saying hello back or not.

I had a girl come into my office this week who sat there for almost an hour talking about "me, me, me!"  This is a quote:  "I'm not sure what I want from life."  Finally, this good old nondirective counselor shouted out, "What the hell are you giving to Life!?  Every day you take something from the ground, you take from the air, you take from the beauty--what are you giving back?"  We never think about what we're putting back, do we?

While writing a book on counseling, I spent three months alone in northern California in a little cabin.  Every day I would go for long, long walks along the Smith River into the redwoods, and spend hours.  One day I got into a grove of giant redwoods and saw a sign against one of those enormous redwoods that some ranger had scribbled out explaining the life cycle of a redwood, probably without realizing how really beautiful it was.  It showed that when the redwood was this big, Buddha was born, when it was this tall, Jesus was born, when it was so big, Hannibal crossed the Alps, and on and on.

In the last paragraph he said, "Even when a tree dies and lies on the earth's surface, all is not over.  Decomposers begin their job of breaking the tree down slowly.  As the years go by the tree blends into the soil, returning all it took so that others may live."  Isn't that outrageous?  And immediately I thought this could be applied to human beings.  At least in the end we will have to give something!  That wonderful, continuous cycle.  Maybe Leo Rosten was right when he said that the purpose of life is simply to count, to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.  Maybe that's essential.
   

Gail Pursell Elliott

There have been many systems and approaches to quality over the years.  One thing that is essential to insure quality is a sense of significance and treating people with dignity and respect.

Think about the very word "quality."  We use this word to assign values to products and even to life experience. 

The success of a quality program or the development of a quality product is dependent upon people who feel that their contribution is needed and appreciated, and that what they do matters.  It has impact and value on a larger scale.

Being able to recognize that value and to acknowledge it sometimes requires a shift of focus.  We must become 'the observer' and then translate what we see into personal terms. 

For example, during a heavy ice and snowstorm, travel was not advised.  Yet in one community, people still put their trashcans out on the curb for the regular collection day.  And despite the storm, the truck showed up and they were emptied as always.  One customer ran out through the storm to meet the truck with a thermos of hot coffee and said, "Thank you for always being here no matter what.  If it weren't for people like you, willing to do this hard work, we would be up to our armpits in our own refuse."

On a very hot day in summer, a customer in another community put out a trash bag packed with ice and soft drinks next to the trashcans with a note that said, "Cold drinks to share. Thank you!"

One of the Ten Tips for Trust is to "look for something to appreciate, and then say it."  There are plenty of people "just doing their jobs" that we depend upon and take for granted, because the work is done consistently and well.  Many are ready and willing to complain when something is amiss or not up to expectations.  Appreciation may be less often expressed when expectations are met.

Sometimes when we express appreciation with a smile or a thank you, the person to whom we expressed it either doesn't notice or seems not to care.  We may believe that our expressions of appreciation or gratitude make no difference.  This may deter us from doing so in the future, either with that individual or with someone else.  When this happens, we are allowing someone else's response or lack of it to control what we do.

The truth is that the main difference that is made is within us.  When we notice and express appreciation for things usually taken for granted, we gain greater insight and awareness from the power of gratitude.  We may never know the impact of our positive expression.  But we can be sure that it does have an impact. 

Our thoughts, words, and actions are like pebbles tossed into the waters of the world. Whether our "pebbles" are of light or of darkness is a real choice that each of us makes.  Ripples from them fan out in all directions, including back toward us.

Have a great day and be good to yourself.  You deserve it!

Gail

© Gail Pursell Elliott All rights reserved.  Visit Gail at www.inoovations-training.com for plenty of inspirational and helpful material!

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Inspiring People

Do you want to be inspired?  Do you want to get the feeling of having the drive and motivation to accomplish more, to do better, to get more out of the life that you're living?  I know that I do.  I like to be inspired every day, for that inspiration helps me to learn and to grow and to get the most out of the life I'm living.  Fortunately, the inspiration isn't very far away at all.

If you're reading this, then you have access to the Internet.  And with that access, you have the ability to surf the World Wide Web and find all sorts of material.  Most of what you find is commercial, of course, but there are plenty of great stories online that can make your day brighter just by seeing them.

Yesterday, for example, I came upon a short video from CBS about a young man named Ben Underwood.  He's 14 years old, and he lost his eyes to cancer when he was still an infant.  Even with that supposed handicap, though, he thrives in life.  He's learned to navigate through his world using echolocation, the same process that bats and dolphins use to navigate.  And while he can't see, he is still able to live a full life and function extremely well, even beating people at video games and foosball.  If you'd like to see the clip about him, it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBm4KoWsrY. 

About a year ago I read a story about a man who became a quadruple amputee after an illness.  His name is Jeff Lewis, and he's a math teacher.  Less than a year after his amputations, he was back in the classroom.  He's turned his own "tragedy" into a form of motivation and inspiration.  You can read his story at http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-04-08-amputee-inspiration_N.htm.

There are plenty of movies with inspiring people in them, too.  Tuesdays with Morrie comes to mind, as do Harold and Maude, Pay It Forward, Radio, Gandhi, and many others.  I read at least a section of an inspiring book every day in the morning so that I can start my day right.  The inspiration stays with me and helps me to treat people in my life with a greater sense of love, dignity, and respect.

I remember a student who used to be in one of my classes.  Her work was very good, and she was always one of the people who participated the most and who asked some of the most brilliant questions I had ever heard.  It wasn't until I heard her story that I realized the obstacles that she was in the process of overcoming that I realized just how inspirational she was.  Her husband had just died, leaving her with three children, and she was working to support her family and going to school to improve her chances of providing her family with something more, as well as to improve herself and to learn all she could.

When I meet people like this, or when I read or see their stories, I'm humbled.  I don't believe that these stories minimize my own problems or anyone else's--after all, we all have trials to go through in life.  But they most certainly can help us to broaden our perspectives, to realize just how good we have things in life, even when it seems that everything is going wrong for us.  I'm going through some stressful times right now, for example, but I have my eyesight, which is an incredible blessing.  I'm trying to work through some obstacles, but I'm doing so with both of my hands and both of my feet at my disposal, and I'm very grateful for that.

Do you want inspiration?  Do you wish to feel inspired?  Then simply open your eyes and look around--there's inspiration to be found everywhere.  Let other human beings inspire you to do your best, to be your best, to live your best, and if you do that, then one day you yourself will be someone else's inspiration!