Courage and fear

March 18th,2010    by Diego

We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what you've read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two o'clock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won't need to live in fear of it.

Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes. Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.

Let me tell you about five of the other enemies we face from within. The first enemy that you've got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a tragic disease this is! "Ho-hum, let it slide. I'll just drift along." Here's one problem with drifting: you can't drift your way to the top of the mountain.

The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to this enemy.

The third enemy inside is doubt. Sure, there's room for healthy skepticism. You can't believe everything. But you also can't let doubt take over. Many people doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt the possibilities nad doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves. I'm telling you, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. It will empty both your bank account and
your heart. Doubt is an enemy. Go after it. Get rid of it.

The fourth enemy within is worry. We've all got to worry some. Just don't let conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the curb in New York City and a taxi is coming, you've got to worry. But you can't let worry loose like a mad dog that drives you into a small corner. Here's what you've got to do with your worries: drive them into a small corner. Whatever is out to get you, you've got to get it. Whatever is pushing on you, you've got to push back.

The fifth interior enemy is overcaution. It is the timid approach to life. Timidity is not a virtue; it's an illness. If you let it go, it'll conquer you. Timid people don't get promoted. They don't advance and grow and become powerful in the marketplace. You've got to avoid overcaution.

Do battle with the enemy. Do battle with your fears. Build your courage to fight what's holding you back, what's keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want and the person you want to become.

The Cobbler and the Banker

March 15th,2010    by Diego

A cobbler passed his time in singing from morning till night;it was wonderful to see,wonderful to hear him; he was more contented in shoes,than was any of the seven sages.his neighbor,on the contrary,who was rolling in wealth, sung but little and slept less. he was a banker; when by chance he fell into a doze at day-break, the cobbler awoke him with his song. The banker complained sadly that providence had not made sleep a saleable commodity, like edibles or drinkables.having at length sent for the songster, he said to him,“how much a year do you earn,master gregory?” “how much a year,sir?”said the merry cobbler laughing,“i have reckon in that way, living as i do from one day to another;somehow i manage to reach the end of the year; each day brings its meal.” “well then!how much a day do you earn,my friend?” “sometimes more,sometimes less;but the worst of it is, -and,without that our earnings would be very tolerable,-a number of days occur in the year on which we are forbidden to work;and the curate, moreover, is constantly adding some new saint to the list.”

The banker,laughing at his simplicity, said,“in the future i shall place you above want.take this hundred crowns, preserve them carefully, and make use of them in time of need.” The cobbler fancied he beheld all the wealth which the earth had produced in the past century for the use of mankind.returning home,he buried his money and his happiness at the same time,no more singin;he lost his voice, the moment he acquired that which is the source of so much grief.sleep quitted his dwelling; and cares,suspicions,and false alarms took its place,all day, his eye wandered in the direction of his treasure; and at night, if some stray cat made a noise, the cat was robbing him. At length the poor man ran to the house of his rich neighbor; “give me back.” said he, “sleep and my voice,and take your hundred crowns.”

Late At Night,Do U Turn Off your Cell Phone?

March 12th,2010    by Diego

Today,my friend asked me a question. At night, do u turn off your cell phone? If u don't , whom do u leave it on for?

I usually do not turn off my cell phone. Why? I have no idea. After reading an article, I seemed to understand  a little bit; for that little bit of caring. I am now sharing this story with u.

The girl would turn her cell phone off and put it by her photo on the desk every night before going to bed. This habit had been with her ever since she bought the phone.

The girl had a very close boyfriend. When they couldn't meet they would either call or send sms to each other. They both liked this type of communication.

One night, the boy really missed the girl. When he called her, however, the girl's cell phone was off because she was already sleep. The next day, the boy asked the girl to leave her cell phone on at night because when he needed to find her and could not, he would be worried.

From that day forth, the girl began a new habit. Her cell phone was never shou off at night. Because she was afraid that she might not be able to hear the phone ring in her sleep, she tried to stay very alert. As days passed, she became thinner and thinner. Slowly, a gap began to form between them.

The girl wanted to revive their relationship. One night, she called the boy. However, what she got was a sweet female voice:" Sorry, the subscriber u dialed is power off."

The girl knew that her love had just been turned off.

After a long time, the girl had a new love. No matter how well they got along, the girl refused to get married. In the girl's heart, she always remembered that boy's words and the night when that phone was power off.

The girl still kept the habit of leaving her cell phone on all through the night, but not expecting that it would ring.

One night, the girl got ill. In a moment of fluster, instead of calling her parents, she dialed the new boyfriend's cell phone. The boy was already asleep but his cell phone was still on.

Later, the girl asked the boy:" Why don't u turn your cell phone off at night?"

The boy answered:" I'm afraid that if u need anything at night and aren't able to find me, u'll worry."

The girl finally married the boy..

Late at night, do u turn off your cell phone??

Philosophy of Life

March 8th,2010    by Diego

In the matter of courage we all have our limits.
There never was a hero who did not have his bounds.
I suppose it may be said of Nelson and all the others whose courage has been advertised that there came times in their lives when their bravery knew it had come to its limit.

Love deeply and ardently, even if there is pain,
but this is the way to make your life complete.

Remember the three "respects".
Respect yourself, respect others,
stand on dignity and pay attention to your behavior,

Live a noble and honest life.
Reviewing past times in your old age will help you to enjoy your life again

If you earn much money,
the best way to spend it is on charitable deeds while you are alive

The Road To Happiness

March 6th,2010    by Diego

It is a commonplace among moralists that you cannot get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it unwisely. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money, and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often succeed. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it by means of drink, you are forgetting the hang-over. Epicurus pursued it by living only in congenial society and eating only dry bread, supplemented by a little cheese on feast days. His method proved successful in his case, but he was a valetudinarian, and most people would need something more vigorous. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, unless supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate as a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness.

There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who, nevertheless, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on impulse, and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured, and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism.

If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy, you will see that they all have certain things in common. The most important of these things is an activity which at most gradually builds up something that you are glad to see coming into existence. Women who take an instinctive pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of bringing up a family. Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them. But there are many humbler forms of the same kind of pleasure. Many men who spend their working life in the city devote their weekends to voluntary and unremunerated toil in their gardens, and when the spring comes, they experience all the joys of having created beauty.

The whole subject of happiness has, in my opinion, been treated too solemnly. It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion. Perhaps those who have been rendered unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recovery, just as you may need a tonic when you have been ill. But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory. It is the simple things that really matter. If a man delights in his wife and children, has success in work, and finds pleasure in the alternation of day and night, spring and autumn, he will be happy whatever his philosophy may be. If, on the other hand, he finds his wife fateful, his children's noise unendurable, and the office a nightmare; if in the daytime he longs for night, and at night sighs for the light of day, then what he needs is not a new philosophy but a new regimen----a different diet, or more exercise, or what not.

Man is an animal, and his happiness depends on his physiology more than he likes to think. This is a humble conclusion, but I cannot make myself disbelieve it. Unhappy businessmen, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six miles every day than by any conceivable change of philosophy.

The white ribbons in the apple tree

March 1st,2010    by Diego

One of the great prison wardens of the West, Kenyon J. Scudder, often told this story of a modern-day miracle: A friend of his happened to be sitting in a railroad-coach next to a young man who was obviously depressed.

Finally the man revealed that he was a convict returning from a distant prison. His imprisonment had brought shame on his family, and they had neither visited him nor written often. He hoped, however, that this was only because they were too poor to travel, too uneducated to write. He hoped, despite the evidence, that they had forgiven him.

To make it easy for them, however, he had written them to put up a signal for him when the train passed their little farm on the outskirts of town. If his family had forgiven him, they were to put up a white ribbon in the big apple tree near the tracks. If they didn't want him back, they were to do nothing, and he would stay on the train, go West, probably become a hobo.

As the train neared his home town, his suspense became so great he couldn't bear to look out the window. His companion changed places with him and said he would watch for the apple tree.

In a minute, he put his hand on the young convict's arm. "There it is," he whispered, his eyes bright with sudden tears. "It's all right. The whole tree is white with ribbons." In that instant all the bitterness that had poisoned a life was dispelled.

"I felt as if I had witnessed a miracle," the other man said, "Perhaps I had." There is always something miraculous about the way forgiveness reconciles the irreconcilable.