Humility A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant. (Anonymous) There is a downside to accomplishment, isn’t there? After winning a contest of any kind, there are accolades that make you feel good, but they may also make...
Teamwork Showing your team they matter is the most important part of your job. (Sarah Goggin, chief people officer) Team leaders, at whatever level, are often so concerned about the task at hand, progress in the project, or personal advancement, that they may forget...
Smiling Don’t let the world change your smile, let your smile change the world. (Ravi Shankar, late Bengali musician) Does it seem to you that a lot of people are not smiling nowadays? They seem to be burdened by the threats of unemployment, disease, or protests in...
Support Support is only worth what it costs you to give it. (Source unknown) Journalist Shane Snow wrote something very similar, “A value isn't a value unless it costs you something." “Words are cheap,” and far too many times we promise or make commitments that we...
Conscience It is not as hard to know what is right to do as to do what you know is right. (Source unknown) As children grow, they begin to develop a sense of right and wrong. That’s what parents and teachers work for, lovingly correcting wrong and encouraging right....
Mercy Mercy shown is evidence of mercy received. (Source unknown) When you see someone who is gracious and kind to others, you are probably seeing a person who himself has been granted mercy and kindness. As someone else has written, “Our deeds of mercy are evidence...
Fair or Not? The sooner you learn that life is not fair, the better off you'll be... (Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State) Rice continues, “…because you'll spend less time railing against life's unfairness . . . and more time figuring out how. . . to deal...
Work In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. (Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet) Writing as a poet, Atwood uses picturesque language to make a point more clearly than a simple statement in prose might. Basically, she’s saying, you should always...
Aim High Not failure, but low aim, is crime. (James Russell Lowell, 19th century editor and diplomat) We may look at a business that has closed as a failure; someone must be blamed for not keeping the enterprise going. The lessons learned from the lack of success in...
Example Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand! (Quoted by Benjamin Franklin) A great reminder to teachers. The 3-step process is teaching or doing it alone, showing the learner how to do it, and working with him in doing...
Self-Control I think chocolate makes my clothes shrink! (Coffee mug adage) This is an example of a humorous attempt to avoid facing reality. We know that if we really want our “shrinking clothes” to fit, we need to do something about diet and exercise. Every day there...
Your Mind What goes into a mind comes out in a life. (Greg Groeschel, motivational speaker) What do they say in the computer world? GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. If bad data is entered, bad data will come out. In Mark 7:20 Jesus similarly remarks, “What comes out of...