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Thought For The Day

One of the more difficult concepts to integrate into daily life is how important it is to manage your thoughts.

What you believe is not nearly as powerful as what you think. I know, you don't agree with that on the surface but let's take a look at the bottom line. Let's look at what you do and what precedes what you do. Yep, what you think.

Let's take a walk together. As we walk down the street or path or sidewalk lot's of things start rolling past the monitor between our ears. Maybe what happened last night, that could be a good thing or a bad thing and that will influence how you feel and if it's good you may start skipping. OK, you'd have to feel exceptionally good to skip but you get the idea. If you did something bad or hurtful then your steps might be heavy or slow and you might plod along the way.

Whatever mood prevails gets to pick the things you think about. So, if you're happy and skipping you might fancy yourself a ballet dancer, or a decathlete in competition for the Olympic gold metal. You will be focused, alert, positive and you will believe that your actions will be beautiful, winning and inspirational. And, guess what? They will be, in a relative sense.

If you watch Tiger Woods play golf and frankly, this is why so many people do, you can almost see his belief in his skill and his intent. So when he makes the sixty foot put to win the Masters, you find yourself captured in the moment because you believed it too.

This is a dangerous skill. It works no matter what you think.

I know you can't help what you think every moment of every day, we are human. But here is what you can do. You can believe that you own your thoughts and that they answer to you. So if they get out of line, you have a short meeting with them and explain that you prefer looking at the bright side and pulling for the good in life. It doesn't always work, but it does a lot of the time and as I practice I have noted that I don't have to stay in a bad place. I can think my way out of it the same way I thought myself into it.

Finally, look at it this way. You are going to think yourself into the next thing you do. Why not make it a force for good. It is for you

©Herb Ratliff, June 4, 2012, All Rights Reserved

A Bag of Chips

Crows must have a rich sense of humor. The familiar sound of crows making editorial comments about the people and events in their lives remind me of a certain kind of person who feels prevailed upon to verbalize every thought that passes through their brain. You know one or two, I am sure, we all do. Crows can be forgiven. At least we don't make terribly severe judgments about them, their heritage or the level of intelligence they possess. Well, maybe the level of their intelligence is just  what we do wonder about. I do. I tend to give them rather high marks in that category. 

I have read a bit about crows and ravens. Most ornithologists give them pretty high marks. And while it is interesting to read about their behavior nothing matches seeing them at work.

Several years ago I was visiting a client in Texas. Frankly, I don't even remember what city it was but it was near some very good golf courses. One of the courses was quite well known among the golfers of the world and so I thought it should be a good location for a bit of business review. The man I needed to talk with was the chairman of the board and somewhat difficult to corner during the business day, but he loved to chase the little white ball and for a few bucks and a ride across some of the most beautiful landscape in Texas he was mine for at least four hours. 

Now you have to be a bit careful about mixing business and pleasure. Business on the golf course is tricky. Generally what you do is just play golf until you are finished and then over lunch or dinner get into the business. That is really not the point here though because this is about Crows.

We had finished playing the front nine holes and stopped for a bit of food and some drinks at the little halfway house. We each got a couple of hot dogs, some chips, something to drink and headed for the tenth tee. That's just the way we do it. 

The walk from the golf cart to the Tee was a bit farther than what one normally expects but not far enough to call it a problem. We had, at that point, begun eating the various food items and left them in the cart when we went to the tee. I had honors and so I hit my tee shot and my guest stood and admired the length and accuracy of my drive. (It's my story, I get to have a good drive.) He took a couple of practice swings and walked toward the tee and then he noticed that a crow was sitting in the cart eating his potato chips. For some reason he reacted rather belligerently, yelling obscenities at the crow. We were far enough away that the crow was completely nonplussed at he enraged man screaming at him and continued to eat the chips. To my complete surprise the man dropped his club and started toward the golf cart. The crow did not budge. Then the man ran, waving his arms and yelling. This caught the attention of the crow and he picked up the chips and flew a few feet from the cart. My client continued after the crow. The crow hopped on. 

Finally, my friend got close enough to the crow and the crow dropped the bag of chips, emptied the bag and flew into a low branch of a tree and cackled at the man.

I was in stitches. My friend was not. Never have I seen such ire over a bag of chips. And that crow, my guess is he still tells that story to his kids and laughs to this day.

©Herb Ratliff, January 30, 2012, All Rights Reserved

Willingness to Share Your Bounty

I know you are the kind of person who is more than willing to share whatever bounty you have with those less fortunate than you. I really believe that most humans are that way at the very center of their soul. It just doesn't make any sense to be selfish. We are all likely to have a jelly side down day, month or year sometime, so it just makes sense to be thoughtful to those around us when it’s their turn.

One of the other really nice aspects of humans is their willingness to share by teaching others how to do things and it happens at all levels. Hang around a kitchen during the holidays and there will be ample instruction on how to fix: the turkey, the potatoes – sweet and white, rolls, cranberry sauce, even the green bean casserole. Go to a PTA meeting and there will be many who will offer suggestions about book selection, curriculum, teachers, class size and who should be the administrators and what they should do and even on occasion where they should go. Go play a round of golf and you can readily get instructions from almost everyone there at no charge and from people who actually cannot demonstrate by their own practice any of the suggestions they offer. It’s amazing.

People also are generous with their wealth. It seems sometimes like the people with the least wealth are the most willing to share but, the wealthy are very generous too. Now when it comes to time, the conditions change a bit. But, that’s another topic, isn't it?

People are very generous with advice too. I cannot tell you how freely my friends and relatives have been with advice for me. It is sometimes just overwhelming. Actually, I’m rather fond of something my mother told me when I was a young lad full of wisdom. She said, “Be careful about the advice you give, someday someone may take it.”

All of this is leading up to something I was thinking about last night. You knew that was coming, right? Anyway, here is what I was considering: If you were given an opportunity to tell someone about the world we live in what things they absolutely must do while here for a day. What would you say? Here are the parameters: You only have one 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper to write it on and they have no prior knowledge of this earth or anything in it. Fortunately, they speak and understand English.

I’d love to hear from you.