Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Excellent Quote

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

--Thomas Edison,
inventor and businessman

posted by The Office Grapevine at 2:26 PM 0 comments  

Monday, April 24, 2006

In Your Own Back Yard!

FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING APRIL 24, 2006

Each weekly edition of GHOST STORIES is a short read beginning with a quote that inspires the ideas expressed in the column. Feel free to share our stories with friends and colleagues!

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."
~ Anonymous

TIME TO FERTILIZE!

You see them out there now, all the folks in the neighborhood fertilizing their lawns for the spring growing season. It's like a competition, to see whose yard will win the prize for "greenest." But are they really trying to be the best, or just trying to be better than the guy over the fence?

Well, forget about fences, because the grass grows greenest where it is quite simply tended the best. You can't blame the fence for poor lawn quality on this side. You and you alone are responsible for discovering the gardening secret that will yield the pleasure and satisfaction you seek at home.

Perhaps you might learn such secrets by building a better relationship with your neighbor, sharing and comparing cultivation routines. They say that good fences make good neighbors, but it should always be about what's on this side, not that one. "He who leaves his house in search of happiness pursues a shadow."

If you're not happy with what you've already got, you're not going to find it "out there." You may learn a lot when you cross the fence and experience the world, but you can only learn satisfaction at home. Once you've got that, fences won't matter anymore.

Why? Because now you've carefully cultivated your own green grass, for your own feeling of satisfaction and not for a sense of competition. Now you can carry your watering can over the fence, and tend the grass wherever you may be. Happy gardening!

posted by The Office Grapevine at 9:00 PM 0 comments  

Monday, April 17, 2006

Patience, I just practiced this today, it works!!!!

FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING APRIL 17, 2006

Each weekly edition of GHOST STORIES is a short read beginning with a quote that inspires the ideas expressed in the column. Feel free to share our stories with friends and colleagues!

WELCOME TO THE VAULTS!
On the third Monday of each month, we present a "golden great" from the vaults! Readers who've joined our list in more recent times will enjoy these "tales from the crypt," while those who have long been with us can revisit some old favorites!

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"Infinite patience produces immediate results."
~ Unknown

TIRED OF WAITING?

Have you ever wanted something special to happen in your life, or desired to attract a person or outcome into your life? Maybe you laid specific plans which should have produced the desired results. Maybe you prayed that the results would occur. Perhaps you focused on the desired outcome with great intensity over an extended period of time.

What was your response when nothing happened, when there occurred not the slightest apparent movement towards your desired objective? If you became impatient or frustrated, chances are good that you were too attached to the outcome. Perhaps, while you were waiting, you were also skeptical, or allowed friends and associates to dampen your belief that the desired outcome would occur.

Today's quotation at first glance appears to be at odds with itself. After all, there's a great chasm between "infinite" and "immediate." Yet, when you exercise infinite patience, the desired results often appear immediately, or so it seems. Patience means not being so attached to the outcome that you sit waiting minute-by-minute for the results. When you take action to achieve or strongly believe in your objective, it cannot NOT occur.

When you are detached from the outcome, you do not sit idly by waiting for the result. You continue doing other things, moving towards other outcomes. As you do, the results you sought earlier come to you of their own accord and at the appropriate time. You cannot rush them, and they often come disguised as other outcomes.

The next time you desire a specific objective, keep it to yourself. Avoid putting it out on the line for all to see and criticize. Exercise infinite patience, and know that what you desire is already on its way to you. Then, recognize its arrival with gratitude!

(Originally published May 21, 2001)

posted by The Office Grapevine at 1:34 PM 0 comments  

Yes, Grey can be distinguished

Both men and women blend grey hair to enhance their images. To maintain grey hair, retouch the grey re-growth every 3 to 6 weeks using a color 1 or 2 shades LIGHTER than your natural hair color. Remember that an entire head of grey hair is more polished than grey roots, so if you are blending…maintain it!
~courtesy of Image Studios

posted by The Office Grapevine at 7:54 AM 0 comments  

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Nothing But Trouble!

FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING APRIL 10, 2006

Each weekly edition of GHOST STORIES is a short read beginning with a quote that inspires the ideas expressed in the column. Feel free to share our stories with friends and colleagues!

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"The man who most vividly realizes a difficulty is the man most likely to overcome it."
~ Joseph Farrell

BE A HERO!


Are you one of those people that other people always come to with their problems? It’s easy to become frustrated when your day is interrupted by a crisis you didn’t know existed until now. There are a couple of "attitude adjustments" that might help you cope when you don’t feel like rescuing someone again.

First, be aware of why you are the one being approached for help. In all likelihood, you’re a savior because you’re good at it! People don’t ask for help from those in whom they have no trust. So start out by realizing that you have a talent, one that others recognize, appreciate, and want to exploit!

Second, be aware that solving dilemmas is what makes you valuable and gives you a sense of worth. There’s nothing better than being necessary to give your ego a little boost! When someone approaches you with the crisis-du-jour, don’t shoot the messenger. This is your opportunity to shine up your armor!

Done properly, you shouldn’t have to drop everything to solve the problem immediately. You can gently accept the challenge by saying, “I’ll be able to devote time to this problem and focus on a solution once I’ve given this current project a little more treatment.” That should make a reasonable person quite happy, without your having to resent a lack of time to perform. Establishing some ground rules right away will prevent others from taking advantage of you and your capabilities.

Above all, patience and cooperation are virtues, on both sides of the table. Ben Ames Williams observed that “life is the acceptance of responsibilities or their evasion; it is a business of meeting obligations or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered, and by the manner of his choosing you may fairly measure him.” Choose to help, on your terms and in your own time.

posted by The Office Grapevine at 12:50 PM 0 comments  

Monday, April 03, 2006

Turn, turn, turn

FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING APRIL 3, 2006

Each weekly edition of GHOST STORIES is a short read beginning with a quote that inspires the ideas expressed in the column. Feel free to share our stories with friends and colleagues!

INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."
~ Henri Bergson

"All things change; nothing perishes."
~ Ovid

SPRING FORWARD!

Living in a climate that offers a change of seasons presents several opportunities throughout the year to consider how life changes and how it remains the same. Hearing the first frog calls of spring feels at once reassuring, and also just a little unsettling.

It’s consoling to know that the spring will always follow the winter, that autumn will always follow summer, and so on. But of course, the pattern also points to the fact that another winter has got behind us, and while we enjoy the offerings of spring, that winter season is now gone forever, and there is one less winter in the seasons of our lives.

But the flowers and birds of spring also remind us of the futility of dwelling on seasons gone by. “Be here now,” they tell us, “because the party’s just starting!” The vestiges of the past year haven’t really disappeared, they’ve only morphed into something different and new (again). And the memories don’t vanish; they persist, unchanged, for as long as our minds can hold them.

It’s a basic law of physics that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, so “turn yourself in,” and allow yourself to be subject to the rules of nature. Everything that you can be, you already are. You just have to make the change, like the butterfly from the chrysalis. Then summer will be here before you know it!

posted by The Office Grapevine at 8:21 AM 0 comments