The Law of the Seed Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, but each apple has just ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds! We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more apple trees?" Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Not all seeds grow. In life, most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once." This might mean: You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job. You'll interview forty people to find one good employee. You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, or a business idea. And you might meet a hundred acquaintances just to find one special friend. When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. We learn how to deal with things that happen to us. Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them - and work with them. IN A NUTSHELL Successful people fail more often. But they plant more seeds. When Things Are Beyond your control, here's something that you must NOT DO so as to avoid misery in your life: You must not decide how you think the world SHOULD be. You must not make rules for how everyone SHOULD behave. Then, when the world doesn't obey your rules, you get angry! That's what miserable people do! On the other hand, let's say you expect that: Friends SHOULD return favours. People SHOULD appreciate you. Planes SHOULD arrive on time. Everyone SHOULD be honest. Your husband or best friend SHOULD remember your birthday. These expectations may sound reasonable. But often, these things won't happen! So you end up frustrated and disappointed. There's a better strategy. Demand less, and instead, have preferences! For things that are beyond your control, tell yourself: "I WOULD PREFER "A", BUT IF "B" HAPPENS, IT'S OK TOO!" This is really a change in mindset. It is a shift in attitude, and it gives you more peace of mind ... You prefer that people are polite ... but when they are rude, it doesn't ruin your day. You prefer sunshine ... but if it rains, it is ok too! To become happier, we either need to a) Change the world, or B) Change our thinking. It is easier to change our Thinking! IN A NUTSHELL It is not the problem that is the issue, but rather it is your attitude attending to the problem that is the problem. It's not what happens to you that determine your happiness. It's how you think about what happens to you!
The Emperor's Seed An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today, one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!" One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by; still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful-in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot. on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try." When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!" When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!" If you plant honesty, You will reap trust. If you plant goodness, You will reap friends. If you plant humility, You will reap greatness. If you plant perseverance, You will reap victory. If you plant consideration, You will reap harmony. If you plant hard work, You will reap success. If you plant forgiveness, You will reap reconciliation. If you plant openness, You will reap intimacy. If you plant patience, You will reap improvements. If you plant faith, You will reap miracles But If you plant dishonesty, You will reap distrust. If you plant selfishness, You will reap loneliness If you plant pride, You will reap destruction. If you plant envy, You will reap trouble. If you plant laziness, You will reap stagnation. If you plant bitterness, You will reap isolation. If you plant greed, You will reap loss. If you plant gossip, You will reap enemies. If you plant worries, You will reap wrinkles. If you plant sin, You will reap guilt. So be careful what you plant now, It will determine what you will reap tomorrow The seeds you now scatter, Will make life worse or better your life or the ones who will come after. Yes, someday, you will enjoy the fruits, Or you will pay for the choices you plant today.
One I personally liked. In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now, more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
another touching one ... BY HOW MUCH LOVE REMAINS I never had any question about what I wanted to do with my life. I would marry, major in advertising at the University of Minnesota, and then open my own ad agency. Right out of college, I tasted success. Soon my company was billing in the millions. I bought an airplane. a boat, a Mercedes, a limo. I entertained my clients at lavish dinners and events. There seemed to be no limit to my bank account. I married Karla. Everything was going according to plan. Then desktop publishing arrived on the business scene--and disaster struck. I watched many of my clients depart as they opened their own in-house agencies. Slowly I began to lose financial ground... I sold my Mercedes and my Fiat on the same painful day, and four months later I watched as someone drove my limo away. Soon I was forced to find a buyer for my four-seater airplane and then, at last, my boat. While the money flowed, Karla and I had collected so many things, some useful, others useless. Now my wife recommended that we sell many of these possessions at weekend garage sales to cover our living expenses. "We don't really need them anyway," she declared. It wasn't long until I was stripped of everything---except Karla. I'd figured soon she'd be disappearing too because most of my focus had been on money and not her. Then, just when I figured things couldn't get much worse, they did. In the next six months, most of my staff left, taking chunks of the business with them. My wife and daughter were rushed to an emergency room after a near-fatal accident. My father died of cancer. And finally our house was struck by lightning... I felt like a modern-day Job. I'll never forget that day I came home from my work feeling everything was at an end. I sat at the kitchen table, my face in my hands. All that remained was for Karla to leave. But unlike Job's wife who said, "Curse God and die!" Karla encouraged me. "Honey, I believe in you," she said. "And what's more, this is probably the best thing that has ever happened to us." I looked at her as if she had lost her mind. But that was the turning point. The years that followed proved she was right. Today, Karla and I viewed our past adversities as a valuable learning experience.---not a hard-luck story. All those losses drew us closer together and closer to God. I gave up my fantasy I could actually control the world. And with Karla's sweet help, I learned all over again how to enjoy simple pleasures in life---the smell of toothpaste on my child's breath at bedtime, the sight of a single flower in our garden, my wife's loving touch on my arm. I always thought that the "poorer" in "for richer or poorer" was something terrible a spouse promised to endure. But now I know the truth. Less is often more. And a husband's true riches are best measured by how much love remains when everything else is taken away. By Steve Gottry, Lightning Strikes Twice
