Have You "Happened" To Things

Have You “Happened” to Things?

Not much happens until we “happen” to things.  What a fresh way to see.

Wishes are good.

     Hopes are necessary.

          Dreams fill the mind.

But until we “happen” to a thing, not much will change its current state, move it off the dime, or ring any bells with anyone.

I wanted to become a recognized writer for years.  Not much happened until I sent in my first article in 1978 and it got accepted for publication.  I received a sizeable check ($22) for my efforts, and all of a sudden I was in the ranks of a paid professional writer.  What a grand day that was.

I “happened” to that publication because I took action. 

Taking action … that is the issue.

~When relationships need reconciling,

                    someone has to “happen” to that relationship.

~When buildings are built, someone “happens”

                    to make that possible.

~When love strikes, someone has to be the “happener”

                    with a reciprocating acceptance on the other end.

This quote fuels what we are thinking about today…

It had long since come to my attention

that people of accomplishment

rarely sat back and let things happen to them.

They went out and happened to things.”

~Leonardo da Vinci

Worth thinking about.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Encouragement

One Word at a Time

A Great Teacher

A Great Teacher

I've had all kinds of teachers during my lifetime.  Some have actually been paid to do the work.  Others have been friends, ministers, neighbors, and bosses.

In the movie The Emperor’s Club starring Kevin Kline, Mr. Hundert (his role), is given a plaque at the end of the movie.

“A great teacher has little external history to record.

His life goes over into other lives.

These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools.

They are more essential than its stones or beams.

And they will continue to be a kindling force,

And a revealing power in our lives.”

I love the line “…a revealing power in our lives.”

That is the epitome of what a teacher is all about. 

                        -Teachers reveal.

                    -Teachers plant seeds.

               -Teachers cultivate possibilities.

          -Teachers instill concepts.

     -Teachers help us sort out the mazes of life.

Here’s to those significant ‘teachers’ I’ve had in my life. 

 

Jim T

Jim V

Sara J

Howard L

Clifford F

Dr. A

Dr. Barbara M

Dr. Dan B

Lawrence O

Dr. Fred M

Wilbur B

To all ‘Teachers’: 

Your footprints are large on our backs.  Your influence goes with us every day.

We are wiser, more capable and better people for having had your influence on our lives.

To my Readers: 

You teach every moment of every day.  You lead by example, by words spoken, by the spirit in which you say those words, and a thousand other subtle acts and attitudes every day and in every interaction. 

May you become a revealing power in others’ lives.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Living a Productive Life

Living a Productive Life

Author Mary Jaksch recently emailed participants at a retreat as to the one thing they wanted from life.  She has put all seventy-one responses in an on-line article and you can read the entire article by clicking  What Do People Want

Today, we will focus on the responses given for living a productive life.

Here are their responses:

1. To master time-management

2. To develop self-discipline

3. To create good habits

4. To experience a paradigm shift that helps

    me view challenges differently, especially discipline and 

    motivation

5. To learn how to be in the zone

6. To be more productive and focused

Six words jump out at us from this list.

   Self-discipline

      Good habits

         Learn

            Master

               Focused

                  Motivation

Each key word on this list begins as an inside job, including “motivation”. 

We find it within ourselves to make the changes we desire in any area of life. 

Searching for what you want is a good thing.

Identifying what you want is even better.

Having the guts to make the necessary changes is the best step we can take in accomplishing these changes. 

May you and I do the work in order to experience the changes we seek.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

The Customer

The Customer

What is a customer?

Who is your customer?

Do you even know that you have customers?

If you live and breathe you have customers.  You have people with whom you interact on a regular basis.  Your customers are:  your spouse, your children, your boss, your neighbor, the grocery clerk down the street, and the person to whom you may be attempting to sell a product or service.

I found this little article so long ago that I no longer know its creator.  If I do find out, I pledge to give proper credit in future postings.

So, to all of us, in all kinds of relationships, here are thoughts on taking care of our customers.

Our Customer is the most important person around here … in person, by phone, fax, email, text message, video chat, social media, and any other avenue we use to communicate with others.

Our Customer can get along without us … but we cannot get along without him/her.

Our Customer is not interfering with our work … he is the reason for it.  Service to him is not a favor from us; his giving us a chance to serve is his favor from him.

Our Customer is not a number on a list … he is a person, entitled to likes and dislikes and human feelings, even as you and I are entitled.

Our Customer is not someone to try to out-smart or out-argue.  Winning the argument means losing the customer.

Our Customer is someone we ask to bring us his needs.  It is our responsibility to take care of him to our mutual gain.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Human Insight

One Word at a Time

What Is Important

What Is Important

The basics in human relationships can be summed up with the following thoughts from John C. Maxwell’s book Relationship 101.

The least important word:                   I

The most important word:                   We

The two most important words:           Thank You

The three most important words:        All is forgiven.

The four most important words:         What is your opinion?

The five most important words:          You did a good job.

The six most important words:            I want to understand you better.

Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, wrote this in Habit #5:  Seek first to understand, then to be understood. 

Ah, that is a critical one.  Perhaps it means this:
-We listen more than we speak

-We respect one another

-We see conversations as a two-way street.

I want to understand you better – a marvelous axiom for all of us – in all of life, and in all that is important.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Relationship Insight

One Word at a Time

Dare to Fail Greatly

Dare to Fail Greatly

Let me tell you eight mini stories.    

~Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded.

~R.H. Macy failed seven times before his store in NYC caught on.

~An expert said of Vince Lombardi:  “He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation.”  Lombardi would later write, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”

~Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.  He once observed, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life.  That is why I am a success.”

~Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. 

~When Lucille Ball began studying acting in 1927, she was told by the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School to try another profession.

~Comedian Jerry Seinfeld walked on stage for his first professional comedian stint, looked out at the audience, and froze.  He forgot every word he was supposed to utter.  He returned the following night and closed his set to wild applause.

~In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance.  He told Elvis, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son.  You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”

Robert F. Kennedy said:  Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly.”

Have you dared to be great lately?

Have you failed greatly lately?

If you have, remember this …

“It’s not the end of the world.

“It is not even the beginning of the end.

“It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

(Paraphrase on a Winston Churchill

comment during WWII.)

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope and Encouragement

One Word at a Time

A Could-Be Life

A Could-Be Life

It’s a wide open world.  Never in the history of mankind have there been so many opportunities before us.  We are smart people and we live in a technologically advanced world.  Information can be at our finger tips in nano-seconds. 

In spite of all of this, are we living a “could-be” life?  We have all this “stuff” and all these possibilities around us, and are we stepping up to the plate and doing anything about it all?

Walt Whitman once said, 

“You see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ 

but I see things that never were and I say ‘Why not.’

Are we living lives of “could be”?

  

If I were inclined, I could get a degree in nuclear physics, or astronomy, or any other field of my choosing. 

It’s not a matter of lack of choices.  It’s a matter of an abundance of choices. 

I marvel at the prolific output of some writers down through history.  Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels and hundreds of short stories, all without the aid of a computer or a typewriter. 

He lived a “could-be” life. 

What could we do?

What could we become, once we set our minds to a certain task or objective?

For many years I used excuses for reasons to not write.  I talked about writing, I said I was a writer, and I wanted to write, yet I didn't live up to my own potential. 

Today, I see what I can do and where I can plug into my talent bed.  I am living my “could-be” life.

The heart of what we are pursuing here is this.

~Are we ready to take action? 

~Are we developing a plan to make our lives what they could become?

~Are we stepping toward our destinies?

One day I stopped being a “could-be” writer and became a “writer.” 

No more sitting on the shelf.

No more day-dreaming of “some day I’ll …

What is your dream?

What is your passion?

What do you want to do more than anything else in the world?

Your “could-be” life is waiting.

Step toward your future.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time