Balance of Life

Mary and Susan were friends for years. They grew up together and attended the same schools. They were now both in their 40's, and both had great careers. They both had a similar upbringing - same education, same family values, similar support and financial position. But there was one main difference. Mary never seemed to have enough time. She watched her lifelong friend Susan. She had similar responsibilities and interests. Susan had a career, she had three children, and she had her hobbies, one of which included golf. Over lunch, Susan was telling Mary about the golf game that she played last weekend.

"Susan, where do you find the time to play golf?" asked Mary. "I never seem to have the time, now with the children older and doing their own thing I thought I would have time to play golf like we did when we were in college."
Susan looked at Mary and laughed, "Mary, we both have the same hours in a day. You do have the time to play golf!"

With a sigh Mary replied, "That's easy for you to say. I never seem to have time. My work takes so much of my time. I am in the office at 7:30; I leave at 6:30 in the evening. By the time I get home and have dinner, it is 8:00! And, then I usually have a briefcase full of work. The weekends are full of more work. Just to keep up, I have to put in the hours. You know what it is like!"

"Of course, I know what it is like," Mary said. "But what would happen tomorrow if you got sick? Who would do the work?"

"Sick. Who has time to get sick! Exclaimed Mary. "But if I did get sick, someone else would do the work, I suppose."

"You know something, Mary, I used to be like you. I worked night and day and of course on weekends. When I got home I was exhausted but I would push myself and read my children a bedtime story. By the time I went to bed, I would be more than exhausted. The boss I had was very demanding. She was there early in the morning, late at night, and she always worked weekends. I felt I had to do the same - I needed the job to help support my family - just as you did. But then I had a change of bosses. The man I worked for was older and much wiser, I might add! Of course, I continued to work the hours I had been working. One day he came to my desk and passed me a card that had a quote on it which said, 'What I do today is important, because I will never have today again' - and then he left.
I sat there stunned. I suddenly thought of what was important to me. While my work was important, I realized my children were more important. I also realized that time for me was important. It was 4:30, the official closing time of the office. I straightened my desk, felt a twinge of guilt about leaving, but I forced myself to leave. I was home by 5:00.My children and husband were surprised. I had a wonderful evening. It was not a chore to read that bedtime story that evening."

Mary was looking at her friend thoughtfully and then questioned Susan about the work she had left on her desk.
Susan replied, "I never thought this possible, but I actually accomplished more the next day then I had in weeks. As I was leaving the next day I stopped at my new boss's office and thanked him for the quote. He told me a story about advice his dad had given him many years ago when he was working night and day. He referred to it as 'Balance of Life'. His dad told him to keep balance in his work, in his family life and in time for himself. He explained to me, while all aspects of our life are important, without a balance, you become addicted and like all addictions you lose-

- no balance with your family - you lose them

- no balance with your work - you lose your perspective and you actually lose focus on the important aspects of
Your job.

- No balance with yourself - you forget who you are and when you retire you have nothing! Or worse than that, if you lose your job through a company sale or downsizing you lose your identity.

He went on to tell me that who we are is NOT what we do to make a living. Who we are is a balance of our family, our work, ourselves! It truly was the best advice I ever received."

Mary took a drink of her tea and tearfully looked at her friend, "But I would never get my work done if I left at 4:30!"

Susan looked thoughtfully at her, "When you go to work on Monday, look at what you have on your desk. Make a list of everything you have to get done and beside that list write the impact of not doing it. Then focus only on the top three items that have the most impact. Do that every day for a week. At first, you will find it difficult to leave. But, after a while, you will find that you will have more energy, and you will be more focused in your work because you have BALANCE! There are times when we have to lose balance - a special project at work, or a family matter at home - but consciously focusing on balance keeps everything in check."

Mary smiled at her friend, "Thanks for talking with me. We have been friends for so long. Thank heavens I have balance with your friendship! You have convinced me. I will leave the work in my briefcase this weekend. On Monday, I will make the list first thing. Perhaps next weekend, I will have the time to go golfing with you!"
"Balance of Life" - important for us ALL!

Weakness

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish.
The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan. How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark.
The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!
Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired and dull? Basically in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active। If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy. Your challenges keep you energized. Don't create success and revel in it in a state of inertia. You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference. Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character" - Albert Einstein.

Our HEART

Once a Junior School teacher asked her students to bring some potatoes in a plastic bag to school. Each potato will be given a name of the person whom that child hates. Like this the number of potatoes will be equal to the number of persons they hate. On a decided day the children brought their potatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and some had even five potatoes. The teacher said they have to carry these potatoes with them everywhere they go for a week. As the days passed the children started to complain about the spoiled smell that started coming from these potatoes. Also some students who had many potatoes complained that it was very heavy to carry them all around. The children got rid of this assignment after a week when it got over.


The teacher asked, “How did you felt in this one week?” The children discussed their problems about the smell and weight. Then the teacher said, “This situation is very similar to what you carry in your heart when you don’t like some people. This hatred makes your heart unhealthy and you carry that hatred in your heart everywhere you go. If you can not bear the smell of spoiled potatoes for a week, imagine the impact of this hatred that you carry through out your life, on your heart?”



MORALE: OUR HEART IS A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN THAT NEEDS A REGULAR CLEANING OF UNWANTED WEEDS.

CHICKEN!!!

This story was shared by my work mate. I loved the story and wanted to share it with you all. The reason is simple, the story conveys a very strong message in a simple and humourous way.I am sure most of you would love the story too. Please read the story.
A man feared his wife wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approachher, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem. The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea about her hearing loss. Here's what you do,"said the Doctor, "stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response." That evening,the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He says to himself, "I'm about 40 feet away; let's see what happens." then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?" No response. Sothe husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife andrepeats, "Honey, what's for dinner?" Still no response. Next he movesinto the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks,Honey, what's for dinner?" Again he gets no response so; He walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. "Honey, what's for dinner?" Againthere is no response. So he walks right up behind her." Honey, what'sfor dinner?" ;;;;"James, for the FIFTH time I've said, CHICKEN!"
Moral of the story: The problem may not be with others as we alwaysthink! It could be very much within us..!!

Image Source: archives.upenn.edu

Words Count for success!!!

This Inspirational story that i am sharing with you was (Copied from some other website)narrated by our class advisor has worked out successfully for me, when we were stuck about kick starting the placement activities in the final year, because of the bad experience the previous year. A small back ground about our college, in those days our college lacked in placements and when we were in third year of our college, our immediate seniors took up the initiative to kick start the placement activity. Since it was the first time, the activity did not generate the desired result. Next year we had the responsibility to kick start the placement activity. As most students were not so keen in supporting placement activity and we had a failure last year we were not sure whether to take up the responsibility, it was when my class advisor narrated me this story to motivate me.

Once a reporter was interviewing a Managing director of a successful organization:

Reporter : Sir, can i know your secret of success?

MD : Two words

Reporter : Sir, can i know those two words?

MD : Right Decisions

Reporter : Sir, how to make right decisions?

MD : One Word

Reporter : Sir, can i know what is it?

MD : Experience

Reporter : Sir, How do you gain experience?

MD : Two words

Reporter : Sir, can i know what is it?

MD : Wrong Decisions