1.Born to Win
Each human being is born as something new,
something that never existed before.
Each is born with the capacity to win at life.
Each person has a unique way of seeing,
hearing, touching, tasting and thinking.
Each has his or her own unique potential capabilities and limitations.
Each can be a significant, thinking,
aware and creative being —
a productive person, a winner.
The word “winner” and “loser” have many meanings.
When we refer to a person as a winner,
we do not mean one who makes someone else lose.
To us,
a winner is one who responds authentically by being credible,
trustworthy, responsive, and genuine,
both as an individual and as a member of a society.
Winners do not dedicate their lives to a concept
of what they imagine they should be; rather,
they are themselves
and as such do not use their energy putting on a performance,
maintaining pretence, and manipulating others.
They are aware that there is a difference
between being loving and acting loving,
between being stupid and acting stupid,
between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable.
Winners do not need to hide behind a mask.
Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking
and to use their own knowledge.
They can separate facts from opinion
and don’t pretend to have all the answers.
They listen to others, evaluate what they say,
but come to their own conclusions.
Although winners can admire and respect other people,
they are not totally defined,
demolished, bound, or awed by them.
Winners do not play “helpless”,
nor do they play the blaming game.
Instead, they assume responsibility for their own lives.
They do not give others a false authority over them.
Winners are their own bosses and know it.
A winner’s timing is right.
Winners respond appropriately to the situation.
Their responses are related to the message sent
and preserve the significance,
worth, well-being, and dignity of the people involved.
Winners know that for everything
there is a season and for every activity a time.
Although winners can freely enjoy themselves,
they can also postpone enjoyment,
can discipline themselves in the present
to enhance their enjoyment in the future.
Winners are not afraid to go after what they want,
but they do so in appropriate ways.
Winners do not get their security by controlling others.
They do not set themselves up to lose.
A winner cares about the world and its peoples.
A winner is not isolated from the general problems of society,
but is concerned, compassionate,
and committed to improving the quality of life.
Even in the face of national and international adversity,
a winner’s self-image is not one of a powerless individual.
A winner works to make the world a better place.

2.Being a Whole
Once a circle missed a wedge.
The circle wanted to be whole,
so it went around looking for its missing piece.
But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly,
it admired the flowers along the way.
It chatted with worms.
It enjoyed the sunshine.
It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit.
So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching.
Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly.
It was so happy.
Now it could be whole, with nothing missing.
It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll.
Now that it was a perfect circle,
it could roll very fast,
too fast to notice the flowers，to talk to the worms.
When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly,
it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.
The lesson of the story, I suggested,
was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something.
The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man.
He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope,
to nourish his soul with the dream of something better.
He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him
and gives him something he has always wanted or never had.
There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations,
who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams
and not feel like a failure for doing so.
There is a wholeness about the man or woman
who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive,
she/he can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.
Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing.
Life is not a spelling bee,
where no matter how many words you’ve gotten right,
you’re disqualified if you make one mistake.
Life is more like a baseball season,
where even the best team loses one-third of its games
and even the worst team has its days of brilliance.
Our goal is to win more games than we lose.
When we accept that imperfection is part of being human,
and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it,
we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to.
That, I believe, is what God asks of us —
not “be perfect”, not “don’t even make a mistake”, but “be whole.”
If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive,
generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness,
and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all,
then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.

3.The Lesson of the Bamboo Trees
One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river
and sitting idly on the bank.
There I would enjoy the peace and quiet,
watch the water rush downstream
and listen to the chirps of birds
and the rustling of leaves in the trees.
I would also watch the bamboo trees bend under pressure from the wind
and watch them return gracefully to their original position
after the wind had died down.
When I think about the bamboo tree’s ability to bounce back
or return to its original position,
the word “resilience” comes to mind.
When used in reference to a person
this word means the ability to readily recover from shock,
depression or any other situation
that stretches the limits of a person’s emotions.
Have you ever felt like you are about to snap?
Have you ever felt like you are at your breaking point?
Thankfully, you have survived the experience to live to talk about it.
During the experience you probably felt a mix of emotions
that threatened your health.
You felt emotionally drained,
mentally exhausted
and you most likely endured unpleasant physical symptoms.
Life is a mixture of good times and bad times,
happy moments and unhappy moments.
The next time you are experiencing one of those bad times
or unhappy moments that take you close to your breaking point,
bend, but don’t break.
Try your best not to let the situation get the best of you.
A measure of hope will take you through the unpleasant ordeal.
With hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation,
things may not be as bad as they seem to be.
The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to deal with
if the end result is worth having.
If the going gets tough and you are at your breaking point,
show resilience.
Like the bamboo tree, bend, but don’t break!

4.Motes and Beams
It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous
than the offenses of others.
I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances
that have occasioned them
and so manage to excuse in ourselves
what we cannot excuse in others.
We turn our attention away from our own defects,
and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them,
find it easy to condone them.
For all I know we are right to do this;
they are part of us and we must accept the good
and bad in ourselves together.
But when we come to judge others,
it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them,
but by an image that we have formed of ourselves
from which we have left out everything
that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.
To take a trivial instance:
how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie;
but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred?
There is not much to choose between men.
They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness,
of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness.
Some have more strength of character,
or more opportunity, and so in one direction
or another give their instincts freer play,
but potentially they are the same.
For my part,
I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people,
but I know that if I set down every action in my life
and every thought that has crossed my mind,
the world would consider me a monster of depravity.
The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men
should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others.
It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows,
even the most eminent and respectable, with humor,
and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.

5.If I Rest, I Rust
The significant inscription found on an old key—
“if I rest, I rust”—
would be an excellent motto for those
who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness.
Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage
to serve as a reminder that,
if one allows his faculties to rest,
like the iron in the unused key,
they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately,
cannot do the work required of them.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept
by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use,
so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge,
the gate that guard the entrances to the professions,
to science, art, literature, agriculture—
every department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key
that opens the treasury of achievement.
If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry,
had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation,
he would never have become a famous geologist.
The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone,
would never have published a mathematical dictionary,
never have found the key to science of mathematics,
if he had given his spare moments to idleness,
had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson,
allowed the busy brain to go to sleep
while he tended sheep on the hillside
instead of calculating the position of the stars
by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquishes all—
not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor;
but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose.
Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,
so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

6.Excuses
Some people go through life standing at the excuse counter.
People say they’d like to do this or that, but…
then they offer all the excuses in the world
why they can’t do whatever “it” is.
No matter what the excuses are,
the only thing usually limiting them is their own self-perception.
If I’ve learned anything,
I’ve learned a person—any person—
can do just about anything they set their mind to do.
The only thing you need is a willingness to work for what you want,
patience to learn what you need to know,
and just a little bit of belief in yourself.
The most important of these is belief in yourself,
but you only need a seed.
Your faith in yourself will grow with you as you move forward.
If your self-perception is that
you can’t accomplish something
because you’re not smart enough,
then take the time to learn what you need to know
and your self-perception will change.
If your self-perception is that you can’t accomplish something
because you never finish anything you start,
then go finish something and change your self-perception.
If your self-perception is that you’re too lazy, too busy,
too unworthy, too unfocused, too depressed,
too dependent on others, too anything to accomplish great things,
then you’re right.
You are that because you believe that,
but you can change that!
Life is change, and the past doesn’t equal the future.
Your reality today is the result of your past beliefs and actions.
Change your beliefs and actions and you change your future.
If you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.
You are what you think.
Think about that the next time you need an excuse.

7.Feather in the Wind
A certain good woman
one day said something that hurt her best friend of many years.
She regretted immediately
and would have done anything to have taken the words back.
What she said hurt the friend so much
that this good woman was herself hurt for the pain she caused.
In an effort to undo what she had done,
she went to an older, wiser woman in the village,
explained her situation, and asked for advice.
Listening to her,
the older woman sensed the younger woman’s distress and knew she must help her.
She also knew she could never alleviate her pain,
but she could teach.
She knew the outcome would depend solely on the character of the younger woman.
She said, “Tonight, take your best feather pillows
and put a single feather on the doorstep of each house in town before the sun rises.”
The young woman hurried home to prepare for her chore,
even though the feather pillows were very dear to her.
All night long, she labored alone in the cold.
Finally the sky was getting light,
she placed the last feather on the steps of the last house.
Just as the sun rose, she returned to the older woman.
“Now,” said the wise woman,
“Go back and refill your pillows with the feather you have put on the steps.
Then everything will be as it was before.”
“You know that’s impossible!
The wind blew away each feather as fast as I placed them on the doorsteps!”
The young woman was surprised.
“That’s true,” said the older woman.
“Never forget. Each of your words is like a feather in the wind.
Once spoken, no amount of effort,
regardless how heartfelt or sincere, can never return them to your mouth.
Choose your words well and guard them most of all in the presence of those you love.”

8.Let Go Love
There was once a lonely girl who longed so much for love.
One day while she was walking in the woods she found two starving songbirds.
She took them home and put them in a small cage.
She cared them with love and the birds grew strong.
Every morning they greeted her with a wonderful song.
The girl felt great love for the birds.
One day the girl left the door to the cage open.
The larger and stronger of the two birds flew from the cage.
The girl was so frightened that he would fly away.
As he flew close, she grasped him wildly.
Her heart felt glad at her success in capturing him.
Suddenly she felt the bird go limp.
She opened her hand and stared in horror at the dead bird.
Her desperate love had killed him.
She noticed the other bird moving back and forth on the edge of the cage.
She could feel his great need for freedom.
He needed to soar into the clear, blue sky.
She lifted him from the cage and tossed him softly into the air.
The bird circled once, twice, three times.
The girl watched delightedly at the bird’s enjoyment.
Her heart was no longer concerned with her loss.
She wanted the bird to be happy.
Suddenly the bird flew closer and landed softly on her shoulder.
It sang the sweetest melody that she had ever heard.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold on it too tight;
the best way to keep love is to give it WINGS!

9.What will it be? Her legacy?
Lacy acceptance of the norm
What will it be? If our will is free?
Silent acceptance of the form
Vestiges and claws
Fight for a common cause
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?
What will, what will, will it be?

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