The Winning Way

Today is Wednesday July 7, 2010

Thought For The Day 

 ”Rate the task above the prize; will not the mind be raised? Fight thine own faults, not the faults of others; will not evil be mended?”
– Confucius

I Have Been Thinking

How many times do you ask yourself, “if only ____ would do what he is supposed to do, then my life would be so much easier?”  Or something along that order?  Forget it! The only person you have total control over is you.

Yesterday, we talked a little bit about responsibilities, taking responsibility for your own continuing education, and challenging our creative mind.  Can we really take responsibility for what someone else does or does not do?  I don’t think so.  We can encourage, we can teach, we can empower and we can embrace, but we cannot take responsibility. In the end the decision to do and how it is done rests entirely with the individual whether he is 2 or 92.

We have a power  that can even be considered a magical power when used correctly. That power is the power of choice.  Animals behave on instinct. They live in the elements, they do things because that is what they are tought for one  thing and that is to survive. The human species was given the power to choose. It is our greatest freedom and it is our greatest liability.  

We learn by the choices we make. Touch something hot and you very soon learn there is danger in doing that. The incorrect choice would be to never go near anything that is hot. The correct lesson is to learn how to “control” the source of the heat.  There is almost nothing that we cannot learn to control.

You learned a good many lessons from your parents and as a parent you work hard to teach your children the lessons they will need to make good choices in the future. You have learned a good many lessons from mentors and teachers. It is the wise person who will pass on what they know that works well onto others. It is also the wise person who will test out the theories presented to him exactly the way they are tought before trying to change them.  You choose to follow directions or not, then you absolutely must accept the consequences.  Why is it that you cannot promise or guarantee a product, or a set of instructions will get an exact result?  The whole reason is that the person reading or taking action on the product or set of instructions just might choose to interject even a slight change in the proceedure.  

Life doesn’t come with any guarantees. Your choice is always to do the best you can with what life has thrown at you.  Your choice should always include a possitive attitude toward the person or activity. What do you do when you have instructed another person in an activity? He comes back to you saying, “it didn’t work?”  When you know exactly the steps to take it is easy to question him, 1. What exactly did you do? 2. What exactly did you say? 3. What happend as a result of what you did do? Specific answers to the questions are the only answers that will lead to a solution. Your job as a teacher, mentor or facillitator is to get the specifics without being accusative or critical. When you can do this the right way responsibility is transferred and your student will in fact learn what you know.

Opportunity is never lost
It goes To Those Ready to Accept It!
Your Success is my Greatest Interest
CWinslow

 

Ice Breakers

 

Speeding Ticket

My son, a West Virginia state trooper, stopped a woman for
going 15 miles over the speed limit. After he handed her a
ticket, she asked him, “Don’t you give out warnings?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “They’re all up and down the road.
They say, ‘Speed Limit 55.’”

 

 Tip

 

Back up or forever shut up.  It is heart sickening to lose everything on a hard drive. It is not a matter of if it will happen but when it will happen. Believe me, it happens when you least expect it and at the most unopportune times.  There are back up systems available online as well as optical back up systems ranging in price from $9.95 for a flash drive to about $300.00 for a high tech many terribyte drive from TigerDirect.com .  Loss of data can mean loss of time, money or even your entire business.

Happy Designing