The One-Minute Graduation Speech


“Shared By Carla”

 

I’ve given lots of commencement addresses and, despite the silly hat, it’s a head-swelling experience to tell a captive crowd how they should live their lives. The problem is, speakers are to graduations what turkeys are to Thanksgiving, except people are much more interested in a turkey on a platter than a turkey behind a podium. What we need is a good one-minute graduation speech. Here’s my platitude-stuffed effort:

“Okay, folks, you got your degrees. It’s a good time to set goals and devise a plan. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. You need a road map, but be prepared for unintended detours, confusing signs and closed roads. Don’t be afraid of change or unwilling to change. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, because that’s your life.

“Chances are, success and happiness are among your goals. But be careful, they’re not the same — all successful people aren’t happy and all happy people aren’t successful. If you have to choose, choose happiness.

“Take control of your life by taking control of your attitudes. Pain and disappointment are inevitable, but suffering is optional and tough times are always temporary.

“Live within your means, and when you mess up, fess up. When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
“Listen to both your heart and your head. Pursue your passions, but don’t confuse feelings with facts, fun with happiness or pleasure with fulfillment.

“Don’t sacrifice a thousand tomorrows for a few todays, and don’t settle for a little life. Live with purpose and for significance. Respect yourself and others, avoid self-righteousness and be kind rather than right.”

Remember, character counts.
By Michael Josephson

 
I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “7 Tips Empire Formula” course. If you see writing articles in your future 7 Tips Empire Formula Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/17yTCXb

Pounding In and Pulling Out Nails


“Shared By Carla”

 

When my daughter was confronted with the fact that she had really hurt another child with a mean comment, she cried and immediately wanted to apologize. That was a good thing, but I wanted her to know an apology can’t always make things better. So I told her the parable of Will, a nine-year-old whose father abandoned his mom two years earlier. Will was angry, and he often would lash out at others with hurtful words. He once told his mom, “I see why Dad left you!”

Unable to cope with his outbursts of cruelty, she sent Will to spend the summer with his grandparents. His grandfather’s strategy to help Will learn self-control was to make him go into the garage and pound a two-inch-long nail into a four-by-four board every time he said a mean and nasty thing. For a small boy, this was a major task, but he couldn’t return until the nail was all the way in. After about ten trips to the garage, Will began to be more cautious about his words. Eventually, he even apologized for all the bad things he’d said.

That’s when his grandmother came in. She made him bring in the board filled with nails and told him to pull them all out. This was even harder than pounding them in, but after a huge struggle, he did it.

His grandmother hugged him and said, “I appreciate your apology and, of course, I forgive you because I love you, but I want you to know an apology is like pulling out one of those nails. Look at the board. The holes are still there. The board will never be the same. I know your dad put a hole in you, but please don’t put holes in other people; you are better than that.”

*A fourth-grade teacher recently told me how she tells this story to her class in the beginning of the semester and uses it throughout the year. When she comes upon a child saying or doing a mean or unkind thing, she will say, “Did you put a nail in someone?” Then she’ll ask, “Did you take it out?”

She says her students always know what she’s talking about and recognize what they did was wrong, which isn’t always the case if she simply asks the child what happened (that usually results in a string of blaming everyone else).

She urges her students not to use the automatic “That’s all right” after an apology because usually what was done was not all right and the person saying it, rightfully, doesn’t feel it was all right. She tells her class to say “I accept your apology” or “I forgive you” instead.

The teacher also uses the story to help her kids understand difficult family matters outside of the classroom. She tells them some people will never take out the nails they’ve pounded into the children, but everyone has the power to pull them out themselves and get on with their life rather than let others rule them.

She told me, “The story is simple, but the message is powerful – especially when reinforced with: “You’re better than that!”

Remember, character counts.

By Michael Josephson

 
I learned a ton from Jeff Herring in his “3 Mistakes Template” course. If you see writing articles in your future 3 Mistakes Template Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/11XIM4Q

Time of Your Life

“Shared by Carla”

 

Do you reflect upon the years gone by
as you prepare for yet one more,
with promises and resolutions
that you have made before?

Do memories of people and places
once as sharp as any knife
now blend in bits and pieces
in a kaleidoscope of life?

Do you squander precious minutes
seeking reasons why you’re here, 
contemplating your life’s purpose
year after passing year?

Persuade yourself to understand,
it matters not the reason.
Your purpose is to seize the life
in every passing season!

Learn to see things differently.
Let your thoughts and actions change.
Allow your views of past and present
to slowly rearrange.

Let your spirit start anew;
become focused and aware
of the moments and the blessings
that surround you everywhere!

Do not permit past memories:
the where…the who…the how
to become more important
than the ones you’re making now.

Live life in person;
inhabit every day.
You may not like where you are now,
but you’re there anyway!

A lifetime is a puzzle,
every failure, each success
adds another jagged piece
to fit together with the rest.

To finish the picture
and view the masterpiece whole,
fill the time of your life
with your heart and your soul.

Acquaint yourself with your feelings
and heighten your senses.
Experience living.
Put down your defenses.

You don’t have to know why
you are you, and I’m me.
Believe it is what it is
and it’s how it should be.

You did not choose your date of birth,
nor do you know your last,
so live this gift that is your present,
before it becomes your past.

By Linda Ellis

For The Man Who Hated Christmas

Shared by Carla

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas–oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it–overspending… the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears.

It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids – all kids – and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.

For each Christmas, I followed the tradition–one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down the envelope.

Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.

By Nancy W. Gavin

The Pie Lady

“Shared by Carla”

Karen is a gifted pastry chef who, I believe, makes the most delicious baked goods on the planet.  Her creations include cakes, cookies, muffins, breads, and pastries.  However, her favorite things to make are pies.

A couple years ago Karen wanted to show her appreciation to someone she admired, so she decided to bake her a pie.  The lucky recipient was so pleased with the gift that Karen decided to take the giving a step further.  She resolved to bake a pie a day for a year (that’s 365 pies!), find a worthy person to give each to, and blog about it.  Thus, the Pie a Day Giveaway was born!  Her tag line was, ‘Expressing gratitude to friends, family and the Universe with a year of pies.’

So, for the next year, every single day, Karen found a person to appreciate, and baked him/her a pie.  She honored store clerks, non-profit agencies, service people of all kinds, strangers, friends and family. Anybody she came into contact with was a potential recipient.  The beneficiaries had no idea they were on her ‘pie list’ until she showed up at their door, pie in hand.

Karen was so committed to this appreciation project that even when she was on vacation in Mexico, or on a motorcycle trip to the Oregon Coast, she managed to find ingredients and a kitchen and bake a pie. She then found a deserving local person to share it with.  Her commitment and accountability to doing what she said she would regardless of the expense, inconvenience and organizational challenges was remarkable.

It seems to me that Karen’s Pie a Day Giveaway is a metaphor for what the holiday season is about.  She gave selflessly, with gratitude and appreciation, focusing on other people and how they would be positively affected by her actions.  She shared her talents with the gift of love, generosity and fun.  She carried the holiday spirit throughout the year.

For 12 months Karen showed this spirit with pies.  However, what’s more important is that Karen embodies that giving spirit all year long!  She is a loving, caring soul, who makes the world a beautiful, happy place wherever she goes.

So this month I’m reflecting on how I can live up to Karen’s example by being more loving, appreciative and generous, not only at Christmas, but all year long.

By Sandra Abell

Featuring Recent Posts WordPress Widget development by YD