As Wise As An Owl

A wise old owl sat on an oak;
The more he saw, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren't we like that wise old bird?

-Edward H. Richards

Do The Impossible

There is no thrill in easy sailing
when skies are clear and blue;
There is no joy in merely doing things
that any man can do.
But there is some satisfaction
that is mighty sweet to take,
When you reach a destination
that you taught you would never make.

Do More...

Do more than exists - live.
Do more than hear - listen.
Do more than agree - cooperate.

Do more than talk - communicate.
Do more than grow - bloom.
Do more than spend - invest.

Do more than think - create.
Do more than work - excel.
Do more than share - give.

Do more than decide - discern.
Do more than consider - commit.
Do more than forgive - forget.

Do more than help - serve.
Do more than coexist - reconcile.
Do more than sing - worship.

Do more than think - plan.
Do more than dream - do.
Do more than see - perceive.

Do more than read - apply.
Do more than receive - reciprocate.
Do more than choose - focus.

Do more than wish - believe.
Do more than advise - help.
Do more than speak - impart.

Do more than encourage - inspire.
Do more than add - multiply.
Do more than change - improve.

Do more than reach - stretch.
Do more than ponder - pray.
Do more than just live - live for God.

Body Language

You tell what you are by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which you burdens bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf;
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.

Procrastination

When duty comes a knocking at your gate,
Welcome him in; for if you bid him wait,
He will depart only to come once more,
And bring seven other duties to your door.

-Edwin Markum

The Well-Liked Man

There is a man in the world,
Who never gets turned down,
Wherever he chances to stray;
He gets the glad hand in the populous town,
Or out where the farmers make hay;
He is greeted with pleasure on deserts of sand,
And deep in the isles of the woods;
Wherever he goes there is a welcoming hand -
He's the man who deliver the goods.

- Walt Whitman

Silence is golden

Much talking is a source of danger,
Through silence misfortune is avoided,
The talkative parrot in a cage is shut,
While birds that cannot talk fly freely.

The Rules of Work

Some people seem to be just great at their job. They glide effortlessly onwards and upwards through all the politics, the back stabbing, the system, the nonsense that goes on. They always seem to say and do the right thing. Everybody likes them. They get pay rises and promotion. They get on with the boss. And somehow, they do all these without breaking much of a sweat or seeming to put in excess effort.Is there something they do that we don’t? Is it a natural ability or something we could all learn? The answer is a most definite and resounding yes. They know the 'Rules of Work'. These rules are about how you are seen to be doing your job – brilliantly and efficiently. They are about how you appear to others – successful and confident.

The Rules of Work takes simple information about how people relate to each other in a completely artificial environment - the workplace – and uses it to promote your rise up the ladder of success. This is the book for you if you want to get on and up without becoming ruthless or unpleasant. This is the book for you if you want to be successful and still be able to live with yourself, and be regarded as a thoroughly
decent person by your colleagues and bosses.

Rule 1: Walk Your Talk

1. Get your work noticed
2. Never stand still
3. Volunteer carefully
4. Carve out a niche for yourself
5. Under promise and over deliver
6. Know something the other's don't
7. Be 100% commited
8. Enjoy what you are doing
9. Develop the right attitude
10. Never let anyone know how hard you work

Rule 2: Know That You're Being Judged At All Times

1. Dress well
2. Cultivate a smile
3. No limp fish - develop the perfect handshake
4. Exude confidence and energy
5. Develop a style that gets you noticed
6. Pay attention to personal grooming
7. Be attractive
8. Be cool
9. Speak well
10. Write well

Rule 3: Have A Plan

1. Know what you want long term
2. Know what you want short term
3. Study the promotion system
4. Develop a game plan
5. Set objectives
6. Know your role
7. Know yourself - strengths and weaknesses
8. Identify key times and events
9. Anticipate threats
10. Look for opportunities

Rule 4: If You Can't Say Anything Nice - Shut Up

1. Don't gossip
2. Don't bitch
3. Stand up for others
4. Compliment people sincerely
5. Be cheerful and positive
6. Ask questions
7. Use 'please' and 'thank you'
8. Don't swear
9. Be a good listener
10. Only speak sense

Rule 5: Look After Yourself

1. Know the ethics of your industry
2. Know the legalities of your industry
3. Set personal standards
4. Never lie
5. Never cover up for anyone else
6. Keep records
7. Know the difference between the truth and the whole truth
8. Cultivate your support/contacts/friends
9. Understand others' motives
10. Assume everyone else is playing by different rules

Rule 6: Blend In

1. Know the corporate culture
2. Speak the language
3. Dress up or down accordingly
4. Be adaptable in your dealings with different people
5. Know where to hang out, and when
6. Understand the social protocols
7. Know the rules about authority
8. Know the rules about the office hierarchy
9. Never disapprove of others
10. Understand the herd mentality

Rule 7: Act One Step Ahead

1. Dress one step ahead
2. Talk one step ahead
3. Act one step ahead
4. Think one step ahead
5. Address corporate issues and problems
6. Talk of 'we' rather than 'I'
7. Walk the walk
8. Spend more time with senior staff
9. Get people to assume you have already made the step
10. Prepare for the step after next

Rule 8: Cultivate Diplomacy

1. Ask questions in times of conflict
2. Don't take sides
3. Know when to keep your opinions to yourself
4. Be conciliatory
5. Never lose your temper
6. Never get personal
7. Know how to handle other people's anger
8. Stand your ground
9. Be objective about the situation
10. Put things in perspective

Rule 9: Know the system - and milk it

1. Know all the unspoken rules of office life
2. Know what to call everyone
3. Know when to stay late and when to go early
4. Know the theft or perks rule
5. Identify the people who count
6. Be on the right side of the people who count
7. Be well up on new management techniques
8. Know the undercurrents and hidden agendas
9. Know the favourites and cultivate them
10. Know the mission statement and understand it

Rule 10: Handle The Opposition

1. Identify the opposition
2. Study them closely
3. Don’t back-stab
4. Know the psychology of promotion
5. Don’t give too much away
6. Keep your ear to the ground
7. Make the opposition seem irreplaceable
8. Don’t damn the opposition with faint praise
9. Capitalize on the career enhancing moments
10. Cultivate the friendship and approval of your colleagues

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

- Author Unknown

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost, 1916

WINNERS VS LOSERS

The Winner is always part of the answer,
The Loser is always part of the problem.

The Winner always has a program,
The Loser always has an excuse.

The Winner says, "Let me do it for you",
The Loser says; "That is not my job."

The Winner sees an answer for every problem,
The Loser sees a problem for every answer.

The Winner says, "It may be difficult but it is possible",
The Loser says, "It may be possible but it is too difficult."

When a Winner makes a mistake, he says, "I was wrong",
When a Loser makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn't my fault."

A Winner makes commitments,
A Loser makes promises.

Winners say, "I must do something",
Losers say, "Something must be done."

Winners are a part of the team,
Losers are apart from the team.

Winners see the gain,
Losers see the pain.

Winners see the potential,
Losers see the past.

Winners choose what they say,
Losers say what they choose.

Winners follow the philosophy of empathy:
"Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you",
Losers follow the philosophy:
"Do it to others before they do it to you."

Winners make it happen,
Losers let it happen.

- Unknown Author

CRABBIT OLD WOMAN

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
Are you thinking, when you're looking at me-
A crabbit old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes,
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice,
"I do wish you'd try."
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.
Who, quite unresisting, lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding the long day is fill.
Is that what you're thinking,
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes,
Nurses, you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am, as I sit here so still,
As I move at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who loved one another.
A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet,
A bride soon at 20- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.

At 25 now I have young of my own,
Who need me to build a secure happy home;
A woman of 30, my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last;
At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn;
At 50 once more babies play around my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future, I shudder with dread,
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I've known;

I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel-
'Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart,
But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells,
I remember the joy, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years all too few- gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last-
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer-
See ME.

-When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in England, it appeared she had left nothing of value. The nurse, packing up her possessions, found this poem. The quality impressed the staff that copies were distributed to all the nurses in the hospital.

A FISHERMAN'S LIFE

The rich industrialist from the North was horrified to find the southern fisherman lying lazily behind his boat, smoking a pipe.

"Why aren't you out fishing?" said the industrialist.

"Because I have caught enough fish for the day," said the fisherman.

"Why don't you catch somemore?"

"What would I do with them?"

"You could earn more money," was the industrialist's reply. "With that you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. Then you would make enough to buy nylon nets. These would bring you more fish and more money. Soon you will have enough money to own two boats, maybe even a fleet of boats. Then you will be a rich man like me."

"What would I do then?" asked the fisherman.

"Then you could really enjoy life."

"What do you think I am doing right now?"

- Anthony De Mello
extracted from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

THE FUNNIEST LANGUAGE

We'll begin with a box and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole set of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole are teeth,
Why should not the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that and three may be those,
Yet hat in the plural wouldn't be hose,
And the plural of cat is not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say Methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,
So English, I fancy you will all agree,
Is the funniest language you ever did see.

- The Star, MOE

JUST FOR TODAY

1. Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln says is true, that "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals.
   
   
2. Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
   
   
3. Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.
   
   
4. Just for today I will try to strenghten my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
   
   
5. Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways; I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do just for exercise.
   
   
6. Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything and not try to regulate nor improve anyone.
   
   
7. Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
   
   
8. Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly. but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurrying and indecision.
   
   
9. Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.
   
   
10. Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe those I love, love me.
    

- Sibyl F. Partridge

SIX HONEST SERVING-MEN

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

-Rudyard Kipling

• Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English author and poet, born in India, and best known today for his children's books - such as The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

SALUTATION TO THE DAWN

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

-Kalidasa

• Kalidasa is a famous Indian poet and dramatist. The exact dates of Kalidasa's life are disputed. These range from the 1st century BCE to the 5th Century CE.

LIFE IS LIKE AN HOURGLASS...

I want you to think of your life as an hourglass. You know there are thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass; and they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the middle. Nothing you or I could do would make more than one grain of sand pass through this narrow neck without impairing the hourglass. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass. When we start in the morning, there are hundreds of tasks which we feel that we must accomplish that day, but if we do not take them one at a time and let them pass through the day slowly and evenly, as do the grains of sand passing through the narrow neck of the hourglass, then we are bound to break our own physical or mental structure.


Extracted from:
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie.

HOW TO SPUR PEOPLE ON TO SUCCESS

In the early nineteenth century, a young man in London aspired to be a writer. But everything seemed to be against him. He had never been able to attend school more than four years. His father had been flung in jail because he couldn't pay his debts, and this young man often knew the pangs of hunger. Finally, he got a job pasting labels on bottles in a rat-infested warehouse, and he slept at night in a dismal attic room with two other boys - guttersnipes from the slums of London. He had so little confident in his ability to write that he sneaked out and mailed his first manuscript in the dead of the night so nobody would laugh at him. Story after story was refused. Finally, the great day came when one was accepted. True, he wasn't paid a shilling for it, but one editor had praised him. One editor had given him recognition. He was so thrilled that he wandered aimlessly around the streets with tears rolling down his cheeks.

The praise, the recognition that he received through getting one story in print , changed his whole life, for if it hadn't been for that encouragement, he might have spent his entire life working in rat-infested factories. You may have heard of this boy. His name was Charles Dickens.

Extracted from:
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie.

• Charles Dickens was considered as English Language's greatest writer. His works include The Adventures of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
• Guttersnipe - person of the lowest class.