The Cookie Thief

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It's amazing how mistaken our convictions sometimes are. We are normally so engrossed in our own perspective of life that we cannot see the real picture. The average person sees the world through their own eyes, that is, the version of reality we see is the one we choose, according to our expectation and view of the world. This poem may well serve as a reminder and wake up call to all of us, to see the world and others not as we want to, but as it truly is. Enjoy and be inspired.  

 

The Cookie Thief by Valerie Cox 

A woman was waiting at an airport one night
With several long hours before her flight
She hunted for a book in the airport shop
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

 
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see
That the man beside her as bold as could be
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene

 
She munched cookies and watched the clock
As this gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by
Thinking "If I wasn't so nice I'd blacken his eye"

 
With each cookie she took he took one too
And when only one was left she wondered what he'd do

 With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh

 He took the last cookie and broke it in half 

 

He offered her half as he ate the other
She snatched it from him and thought "Oh brother
This guy has some nerve and he's also rude
Why he didn't even show any gratitude"

 
She had never known when she had been so galled
And sighed with relief when her flight was called
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate

 
She boarded the plane and sank in her seat
Then sought her book which was almost complete
As she reached in her baggage she gasped with surprise
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes

 
"If mine are here" she moaned with despair
"Then the others were his and he tried to share"
"Too late to apologize she realized with grief"
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
  

7 Things To Give Up For Success

1. Unproductive Associations

As the old quote goes: "Show me your accomplice, and I will show you what you will accomplish." It is impossible too live alone in this world. You were created in such a way that you have to interact, share and continually blend with others. The tools for you to live your best life were not entirely given to you, thus the need to have relationships.
 
Your relationships are so interwoven with your future so much that you cannot afford to leave them to chance. Your overall character and position in life is bound to the people you spend your time with. Your associations are like an elevator, they either take you up, take you down, or get you stuck somewhere. More than any medium, the people with whom you associate with are your greatest source of information. They feed you with perceptions, ideas and realities that will shape your life, they are the mold from where you come. This is important to note. That being said, do not get stuck in a relationship that is poisonous because you want to be a nice person, life doesn't work that way. I will expound on this fact on point number 6 where I will explain about "People Pleasing." 

You don't want to spend time with people who drain your energy. People who make you exhausted after talking to them for just a moment or two. Yes, there are people like that, who are so good at drowning your sunshine and energy in gossip, worthless talk, and continual negativity, from such, run and never look back! You want to spend your time with people that challenge you to be better, appreciate you, inspire you, make you more thoughtful and of course people who make you happy. So much depends on the person you spend your time with that continual pruning should never be neglected. Laying off long time buddies may not be as simple as reading this, but the pain of living a mediocre life when you could have been great is significantly greater than taking the high road and ensuring that you have the right people on your team. Your future is more important, think about it. Regretting is painful, especially if you had everything in your power to avert failure. Be wise today, and value your time, never to spend it with people who neither value it, nor and add any value to you. 

2. Worthless Pursuits

No need to sugar-coat this one. You have things that you do, that not only make no sense, but are a total waste of time. The things that are deadliest to success are those that we do that hinder it and go unnoticed. The bulk of a person's success depends on a small portion of their actions. The 80/20 rule was researched and proven that 80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts. So what about the other 80% of your efforts? These, are worthless pursuits! These are the things you need to start doing less and less of. Your success hangs on your focusing only on productive work, all other duties can wait. Sit down and go through your work and figure what ticks and what doesn't. Write down those efforts that bring the most return, and go on to do them again and again. Time will never stop, opportunities will never wait and people who  waste their days on useless fights, worthless pursuits, and unproductive projects will lose both. Do what matters, the rest have their place elsewhere but never on your schedule. Your focus should never waver from these if you are to make something extraordinary out of your life.

3. Excuses.

Excuses are like a deadly virus. They are shackle you to the same place. Worse still, excuses are habitual. It is easy to blame stuff on someone else, find a 'good' reason to validate your actions or inaction. The reason this is one of the most widespread vices and hinderance to success is because Excuses do not leave a guilt hangover. They efficiently point the burden and responsibility to everything else except you. So, in resorting to excuses you not only find solace and comfort for acting in wrong ways or not acting at all, you also take away the power of responsibility that enables you to affect your environment and take charge of your life, and steer it to the achievement of your goals and dreams. Quit making excuses and take responsibility for your life. You cannot create the future you want if you do not take responsibility for it.

4. Fear.

Fear is the natural emotional response to danger. It is a critical element of life. It was placed in us as a safety trigger meant to preserve life and livelihood. It helps us protect ourselves from harm. But Fear also is believing in failure more that success, it is belittling yourself and the ambitions you have. Fear magnifies obstacles and challenges thus paralysing your hope and inspiration for success. 

Fear only responds to danger whether legitimate or imaginary. More often than not, our fear is based on non-factual threats. We let our lives be run by empty threats and false danger alarms. Myths have been propagated so much in people's lives so much that they voluntarily stoop low and barely scrap by in a defeatist attitude under the guise of fear. People often fear situations that are far from important, and hang back for no good reason.

The terrible thing about fear is that it has too often been mistaken for being attentive and cautious.  People have lost opportunities because Fear told them they could make a fool of themselves. Many are stuck in the fear of having an unpleasant ordeal recurring. The truth remains, facing our demons may be the best way to deal with them or get past them. People do not want confrontation, they prefer peace. They'd rather live a life without collision. Yet our fears follow us everywhere, we become bold enough to face them, deal with them and overcome.  As Eleanor Roosevelt once rightly said, "To be great, each day, do something that scares you."

5. Procrastination.

This is the most popular enemy of success. Procrastination is so widespread that on another day, it should have been the first point on this list. It is the continual postponing of action. "I'll do it tomorrow.", "Mmm...today is not a good day, it can wait." Action is the foundation of productivity and success, no intention ever produced anything, only action! Action delivers results and that's what creates success. You can never be great if you procrastinate. Procrastination postpones your success and greatness to an indefinite.

Apart from failure, procrastination creates Regret and Loss Of Time and Opportunity.

• Regret is an emotional load noone should should carry. It weighs you down and makes you downtrodden, incapable of bringing out the best you can deliver.

• Time never comes cheap, because it never comes back. Procrastination makes you lose a lot of it.  

• Opportunities lost may never be recovered. The worst mistake that people make is that they think they always have a second chance. That's far from the truth. Some opportunities present themselves once, having missed it through inaction, that's it forever!

Never postpone something if you can do it today. Always remember this quote: "What you want to do tomorrow do today, what you want to do today do now!" Cast away procrastination, act today and persist in pushing yourself to continual and productive action. 

6. People Pleasing.

This is one of those things that people unncessarily get entangled in and find hard to break free. People pleasing makes you go to the ends of the earth trying to please another person without this contributing of your big picture. Don't get it wrong, there's no problem in trying to soften the ground with someone who you are likely to benefit from. There's nothing wrong with being a pleasant person. It's an overemphasis on relationships, ties, creeds without any concrete benefit coming from it.

We have to draw the line on how far we go in our relationships personal, 

professional or spiritual. People pleasing is an attitude that has it's roots ground on personal insecurity and low self esteem. You feel that your worth is determined by what people think of you, that's wrong! People are there in your life to empower and compliment you not derail you. Don't scrap for approval from people. Truth be told, very few people will purely appreciate you. People pleasing has less to do with the people around you or their demands upon you. It is an irrational way of looking at how you connect to people. Be sober, don't cage yourself to people's whims, be nice but know where to draw the line. Your life doesn't revolve around other people's happiness as much as it's important, your own happiness and satisfaction is much more important. 

7. Faith Without Works.

We all have that one person we know who almost always has some exciting idea to share. They are experts at seeing opportunities and trends for business and articulate them so well that you'd think they have struck it big, only to bump into them after some time, this time, with another brilliant world-changing idea again. They always have a high sounding threats yet none is fulfilled.

Faith without works is to live below your capacity because of inaction. If we believe in something, you should take the step to achieve it. Og Mandino in his bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World puts it this way...

"My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible.All are of no value unless they are followed by action. I will act now. Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime. Never has there been a scroll, even such as the one I hold, which earned so much as a penny or produced a single word of acclamation. Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force. Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success."  

There is nothing in this world as common as talented people who are unsuccessful. Nothing in this world will work if you won't. Possibilities are turned into certainties by activity. The man of action will succeed. It is never enough to know how to be great. You have to BE great. It is useless to read books, blogs and all the other material that count for success if you do not apply them. An ounce of action will  always outweigh a ton of theory. The Chinese say, "the man who waits for roast duck to fly into his mouth shall wait a long time indeed." If you are to be anything, be a person of action. Be not a person of words only, but of action. Be not a person of strategies only, but of action. Faith alone without works is dead.  

To Your Success...

How to Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

 

Time is too expensive to dedicate it to unfruitful endeavour. However you use it, it never stops, it is the most finite and most important yet most elusive resource. If you lose a hundred dollars, you have not just lost a hundred dollars, but the time you had dedicated to earning that money is also lost. Now the hundred can still be gotten or recovered by doing some more work, but the time lost, is gone!   

It is therefore within everyone's interest to ensure whatever it is we do, bears fruit and time is well spent. This is easier said than done, so often, along the way we become lukewarm, neglect or even abandon our projects. Here are some simple ways to help you keep your eyes on the prize. That you may finish as strongly as you began.

Your Focus determines your output.

Focus is the narrowing down of your awareness so as to concentrate on a particular thing. Focus allows you to see your goal clearer and sharpens your efforts towards those things that count. It enhances your thoroughness and perspective in your approach and execution of your plans.

Clarity

You are likely to perform better in a duty where the expectations and instructions are clear. In your quest to achieve, it should be your first task to fully comprehend what it is you intend to accomplish. Your chances of making it are in direct proportion to how elaborate your intentions are. Unless you have this clarity and deliberate understanding your energy and enthusiasm may never be sufficiently aroused.

Clarity comes in two parts:

1. Clearly seeing your Destination.

You have to know where you are going for you to arrive, it's that simple. Your clarity of what you want to achieve enables you to create the right framework for doing so. Take for instance: John writes "I want to be rich." and Sandy writes "I want to have an investment vehicle of $5000 by 31 December 2016" Looking at it, they both seem to have goals, but John's is not as clear as Sandy's. Sandy knows the goal, its deadline and it's purpose. She already has the answer for "What? and Why?, and When?" and having it will be a lot easier to answer the How? and Who? If your wishes are fuzzy they may not give you sufficient internal power, that push that propels you towards accomplishment. Stephen Covey in his bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, cites that a major point that distinguishes achievers from wishers is the ability to Begin with the end in Mind. 

"The Prize has to stand out if you are to keep your eyes on it."  

2. Understanding the Demands of the Goal.

Well, I think this is obvious. Before you set out to do anything worthwhile, you have to know the demands of the task. How can you prepare for anything if you haven't immersed yourself with the expectations of your ideals? How shall you act and adjust yourself for success if you are not aware of what it takes to live out your goals? Confusion comes when you are halfway into your journey to your prize and you figure out what you carried is irrelevant, of no value, and ineffectual or just not enough to get you where you intend to reach. You want to start out something that you know you understand, so as to maintain your focus and increase your chances of success.

Concentration.

To concentrate is to centralise your efforts to a particular object or activity. It is easy to multitask right? I mean, after all even the gadgets we have created and gotten accustomed to can do so. We have now gotten used to working on a number of projects simultaneously,and whilst we are gratified by the fact that we are doing more, we are actually selling ourselves short. When you do not concentrate, you render yourself incapable of delivering your best possible work. It is good to keep abreast with the big picture lest you lose touch, but you need to blind your vision to all else except a few key result areas of your Goal at a time. That way, you are more productive, and effective.

Keeping your eyes on the prize has everything to do with attention. If you can't attend to your attention, you will easily be whisked away from your way. The amount of things that call for your attention at any given point in time has become astounding. There's always a laundry list of things to do, and all of them appear equally important. The best way to concentrate is to keep a priority list for each project and each day. That way, your efforts are not scattered but are confined to a particular point at a time as determined by your priority list.

Cohesion

By cohesion, I refer to the relation between your environment and your goal. Does your everyday environment inspire you to go for gold? If you are to keep yourself on the track of our goals, you need to ensure that your environment pushes you towards them. Your environment is what you see, hear and interact with each day. If this space is not optimised, it may well serve as a negative influence and push you away from your objectives or dampen your vigor for them.

It is therefore advisable to have cues that shackle your attention to the key task(s) of the time. Things that you see everyday,that stimulate you to action. That at every turn you have something that relates to your objectives of the season. This is a scientifically proven method, named, Auto-Suggestion. It is a way in which you continue to feed your mind with the same thought until it becomes subconscious, and you begin to act on it automatically, it's a simpler way to creating habits.

Here's a simple list of things you could do to optimise your environment to keep your focused on what matters most and ensure that those tasks and objectives that are higher up on your priority list are accomplished.

Your Gadgets

Put your main goal as a your desktop screensaver, with beautiful background of course so that it compels your attention ever so often. This can also work for your phone too.

Your Room/Office

You could write out a list of the Week's goals in your room, Study, Office on your desk. A photo collage can also work. This has really worked for me and over time my focus has been a lot better and I don't carry over tasks.

Your Music

The Music you listen to. Okay, I know this a very touchy subject. Well, the truth is quite apparent music affects your productivity. A music track always has a mood associated with it, and that mood will create the atmosphere around you. You don't want to have music that's depressing when you expect peak performance from yourself. You need to have music that inspires you or at least that tend to make you cheerful and bright. 

And of course, Your Books

I can never say this enough, books have a powerful bearing on someone's productivity. The books you read determine your perceptions and the general idea with which you process information. The kind of books you read have a strong bearing on your attitude and approach to life.

Never waste time on worthless pursuits, keep focused! Make sure, each our that goes by contributes to the achievement of your dreams. 

  Let's connect on Twitter @rmapamula
 

5 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once Every Year.

5 Books Everyone Should Read at least once a Year

 Books are probably the greatest invention of Man. Age after age, their influence on Society has never abated. They allow the sharing of ideas between people in totally different geographical locations, social classes and even generations. They are an excellent storage of Wisdom and Information. It is beyond argument that if anyone wants to get ahead they have to love books. I wrote on the benefits and importance of reading books as a habit here.

There are those books that are relevant to a particular situation or transition in your life, and are not necessarily relevant anywhere else. There are those, however, that seem to evergreen, and speak to everyone and every situation. The Wisdom they give is as good and new as today.  

For me, five books really stand out, whether you are an Entrepreneur, a Clergyman, Designer, Sportsman, Politician, whatever your vocation, this handful of books will most definitely find place in your life. They are not high-sounding, but have improved the lives of a great many people. I love them and recommend them highly.

1. The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo

Arguably one of the most enchanting personal success books out there now. It teaches principle from a captivating storyline. If you are doing a marathon read, it is a book that you could finish in a day or two, just 80 pages, or at most in a week depending on how much time you devote to reading. 

It really strikes a chord as it relates to a story that's very close to the script of life that everyone has. It is a story about achieving your highest dreams, becoming that which is within you to be. Taking us back to the medieval times Spain and Tunisia and Egypt and the travels of Santiago the young man in search of his destiny and treasure. 

It's a book that rekindles the flame of personal achievement in every heart. It makes your search your heart again, make you believe that that passion you carry has a place in reality. It was written in such a way that it raises your emotions and passion  to accomplish your deepest desires whilst entertaining you as you read as well. I would love to say a lot about this book but, I'd rather leave the book to work its magic on you. I guarantee it, this book will not fail to change your thought stream.

2. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

Ok, Ok, this is not a book on Sales for Salespeople or about Salespeople, its a book on Life. It's one of those old books that have really stood the test of time. It was first published in 1968, and has been on bestsellers charts since, selling over a thousand copies each month. It may be an "old" book bu it's wisdom is as new as and applicable as today. 

It has three distinct positives:
1. It first reads like a novel, an interesting and engaging one. So it sucks you in and stimulates your imagination as you follow the course of the story. Like the Alchemist, it's quite entertaining.

2. The main concepts are independent. The main course of the book are the 10 scrolls that Hafied the would be Greatest Salesman in the World was given to guide him in his journeys and quest for a meaningful and successful life. Each scroll gives you a distinct nugget that is not at all linked to any other. It then allows for a person looking to boost a particular area of their life seamlessly. For example if it's Time-Management and Procrastination you wish to improve, you would then jump to scroll number 7 "I Will Act Now!", my favourite chapter! 
 
3. Though written half a decade ago, it's language allows easy reading and comprehension. You want to read a book that you can easily follow without cracking your head to figure out what it is that the author was trying to say. Cpmrehension and Clarity are the hallmark of every good book.


 It is quite inspiring, straightforward and an easy read for anyone, even those with hectic or crammed schedules. A lot many people easily fall in love with it from the word go. 

3. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Another pleasurable read! This book really helped me in my personal finances. It has a soft but resolute feel to it. At first you are captured by the story, you are kept in a suspense until you meet Akard, The Richest Man in Babylon then from there, the action begins. It's a book based on the historical truths about the principles of wealth creation that made Babylon the richest City of its time. I really loved the intriguing letters archaeologists found in the Babylonian ruins of how trade was done.

If you want to learn personal finance in simple, uncluttered and understandable way this book could just be the answer you seek. It makes the idea of financial prosperity so clear without giving your the often intimidating jargon that we         

4. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

This is one of those masterpieces that have really found their way into the hearts of many men and women over the past century. Originally published in 1903 it became a runaway bestseller and even after James Allen wrote a dozen other books on the power of our thinking and personal achievement, As A Man Thinketh, has by far been the mot popular of his works. The Author, James Allen was pioneer of the wave of "The Power of Thought and Mind". No book unveils and presents this subject of the Mind and The Law of Attraction most clearly and with such subtle power than this one. No person I ever recommended it to was disappointed. It has a way of unearthing certain mysteries about our everyday life that you'd wonder at the simplicity in which such deep knowledge is presented.

This book has personally helped me, I can trace much success to this book. As you read it, you will surely come across many of those "aha" moments that make a book great. It explains how the thoughts we think have a bearing on our Life and Destiny. He explains that our Thoughts are the fountain of all our Action, and our Actions are the molder of our Character and Character being the fabric that determines our lifestyles and eventually, our Destiny. In short, this is a very enlightening book indeed.   

5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad  by Robert Kiyosaki

Lets face it. The most rampant societal problem we have is not crime or even terrorism, it is poverty. Poverty (and Wealth) is not just a function of money as many believe, its a function of knowledge. The fact that the book written by a not-even-known guy went on to top bestsellers charts, says a lot about it...it has substance. 

Rich Dad Poor Dad succeeded because of its unorthodox approach to the issue of personal finances. It somewhat rubbishes the commonly accepted idea "go to school, get good grades and have a great life." It explains that Financial Education is the single most important thing that our educational systems and societies have not addressed.  

Kiyosaki shows how his biological father (Poor Dad), a well educated man, with a good job struggled from paycheck to paycheck. On the other hand, his other Dad (his friend's Dad- Rich Dad) had a very average academic record but owned businesses and was quite successful financially. He learnt that financial success is never determined by the job one has, or by the level of academic excellence which one attains, but how much you know and understand about finance and how Money works and grows...all else is secondary. It challenges the bulk of the myths on money that we have held for a long time.


These books really answered a lot of questions and struggles that I had in my life. Now that I have come across them, I have significantly improved and am continuing as I go.  

Remember, 

"The person who does not read has no advantage over the person who can't read."