NEW WAYS TO SOLVE CHALLENGES

We are creatures of habit and think that there is only few ways of solving challenges we face. Sometimes it just takes some creativity. Look at the following and maybe the next time you face a Goliath think bigger than the box.  A principal of a school was alerted by the caretaker to a persistent problem in the girls’ toilets. Some of the them were leaving lipstick kisses on the mirrors. The caretaker had left notices on the toilet walls asking for the practice to cease, but to no avail; every evening the caretaker would wipe away the kisses and the next day lots more kisses would be planted on the mirror.

It had become a bit of a game. The principal usually took a creative approach to solving problems and so the next day she asked a few girl representatives from each class to meet with her in the toilet.

"Thank you for coming," said greeted the girls. She continued further by saying, "You will see there are several lipstick kisses in the mirrors."

Some of the girls grinned at each other.

"As you will understand, modern lipstick is cleverly designed to stay on the lips, and so the lipstick is not easy at all to clean from the mirrors. We have therefore had to develop a special cleaning regime, and my hope is that when you see the effort involved you will help spread the word that we'd all be better off if those responsible for the kisses use tissue paper instead of the mirrors in future.."

At this point the caretaker stepped forward with a sponge squeegee, which he took into one of the toilet cubicles, dipped into the toilet bowl, and then used to clean one of the lipstick-covered mirrors.

The caretaker smiled. The girls departed. And there were no more lipstick kisses on the mirrors.

Picture resource: torok.com

GO ON AND LAUGH!!!

 

A clergyman, a doctor and a business consultant were playing golf together one day and were waiting for a particularly slow group ahead. The business consultant exclaimed, "What's with these people? We've been waiting over half and hour! It's a complete disgrace." The doctor agreed, "They're hopeless, I've never seen such a rabble on a golf course."

 

The clergyman spotted the approaching green keeper and asked him what was going on, "What's happening with that group ahead of us? They're surely too slow and useless to be playing, aren't they?" The green keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind (visually impaired) fire-fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The three golfers fell silent for a moment.

 

The clergyman said, "Oh dear, that's so sad. I shall say some special prayers for them tonight." The doctor added, rather meekly, "That's a good thought. I'll get in touch with an ophthalmic surgeon friend of mine to see if there's anything that can be done for them." After pondering the situation for a few seconds, the business consultant turned to the green keeper and asked, "Why can't they play at night? Picture resource: thestar.com

MY BIG FAT BIG DREAM - PART 2

What is the one thing you aspire to be? Rigged up with a computer, Rick is now allowed to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head. This enabled him to finally communicate with the world. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick’s life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway. Then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

And what did this accomplish ? Watch the space for part three. 

Picture resource:  beliefnet.com

CAPE TOWN IS CALLING YOUR NAME!!!

SEPTEMBER IS WORLD TOURISM MONTH. The World Travel & Tourism Council has urged governments to recognize the vast economic and social contribution of travel and tourism, particularly as a driver of sustainable economic growth and revival.

At the same time, the sector is a world leader in contributing to the global economy by creating jobs, generating wealth, and improving the quality of life of its citizens.

Travel and tourism acts as a universal bridge connecting people, cultures and communities all over the world.

We live in one of the World’s most beautiful cities, yet we don’t discover what she has to offer. As we come to the end of celebrating Tourism Month, I call on the inhabitants of this City, Cape Town to take the challenge and get to know her.

 Take an inexpensive trip with a train; add to sustainable and responsible tourism. A R30 Hop on Hop Off ticket will ensure you get to know several places in one day. Travelling this rugged coast, watching whales play in the bay and breathing in that fresh air from a coach is and amazing feeling and experience.

You don’t need a holiday, you need Cape Town.

Picture resource:capetowndailyphoto.com

 

GO ON AND LAUGH!!!!

·         A teacher asked student, what is the full form of Maths?
The student answered, 'Mentally Affected Teachers Harassing Students'

·         The maths teacher asked Little Billy "If you have R20 and I ask you for R10 as a
loan, how many pounds would you still have?".
"Twenty" came the reply.
"How so?" enquired the teacher.
"Just because you ask me to loan you £10, it doesn't mean I am going to".

·         Husband asks: Do u know the meaning of wife?
'Without Information Fighting Every time'.
Wife on hearing replies,
It also means 'With Idiot For Ever'.

·         Doctor: You are on a diet. So eat a single egg and half a cup of milk.
Patient: Before or after lunch doctor?

·         Judge: The last time I saw you in the court, I told you that I never ever wanted you to come here again.
Accused: That’s what I told the police your honor, but they didn’t listen to me.

Picture resource: neusramblings.blogspot.com

 

MY BIG FAT BIG DREAM

What is the big fat BIG dream I have? I think it would have to be, to be the best father I can be . I was inspired by Dick Hoyt.  

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much, except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

The doctors told them that their son would be vegetable the rest of his life, they told them to place him in an institution.

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There’s nothing going on in his brain."
"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

For part two of this amazing story, watch the space.

Picture resource: flatoutbuddy.comflatoutbuddy.com

WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED

This was a very interesting story and I thought that if I was challenged by it you would too. The writer describes his visit to a zoo. He looked at a penguin on a rock and thought to himself: “You are such a poor creature… your wings are too small, you can not fly and worst of all: The creator didn’t even give you knees…” His mind was made up that this creature was a poor design!

As he walked down a little stair way he looked through a glass pane into the pool. Suddenly the penguin jumped into the water and now he was flying… Wow he thought to himself. The penguin was in his element.

Later I he did some research and discovered the following:

Penguins are ten times more streamlined than a Porsche!

With the equivalent amount energy of one liter fuel they can swim 2500km.

Penguins are excellent swimmer and hunter and they enjoy being in the water.

They are more advanced than anything built by humans.

The thought rang through him, “did I really think that this was a poor design? “

Like the little penguin needs water to be in his element we all need an environment where we can develop our strengths. This story is in a way a metaphor.

Let’s begin to search for our element. We might just be surprised.

Picture resource: nationalgeographic.com

 

CONVENTIONAL IS A GOOD FALLBACK POSITION ISN'T IT

 

Conventionalism would have to depend on the kind of person and how they see themselves.

Naturally many people want to know they are safe, secure and in charge of their life but then again you do get others who are willing to take risks, set goals and try achieving what they really want out of life. This is where I admire entrepreneurs. They are true risk takers.   

For some of us change is hard so hard, in fact, that most of us avoid it at all costs.

But by avoiding change, we create even bigger problems, such as lost opportunities, broken relationships, or sometimes a wasted life. Millions of people who need to change are drifting along with no real purpose, no joy, feeling as if they're traveling a dead end street.

Each time I needed to make a change, I was afraid because I didn't know what was coming. Like most people, I like predictability. I thrive on sureness. Change means stepping into the unknown and losing your comfortable routine, and that's frightening.

I also knew that to a large degree, I had to give up control. That's scary right there, taking the hands of the wheel. When you're not in control, you lose your sense of invulnerability. You quickly realize you're not as powerful as you thought. That bravery you put so much pride in seems to evaporate when you realize you're not the one in charge any more.

One of the reasons so many celebrities keep going in and out of rehab is that they leave out the critical element to lasting change: God. Change is too hard when you try to do it without Him.

 I am a work in progress.

Picture resource: starfishdance.tumblr.com 

GO ON AND LAUGH!!!!

This is a story about a couple who had been happily married for
years. The only friction in their marriage was the husband's habit of farting loudly every morning when he awoke.

The noise would wake his wife and the smell would make her eyes water and make her gasp for air.

Every morning she would plead with him to stop ripping them off because it was making her sick. He told her he couldn't stop
and that it was perfectly natural. She told him to see a
doctor. She was concerned that one day he would blow his guts out.

The years went by and he continued to rip them out! Then one Thanksgiving morning as she was preparing the turkey for dinner and he was upstairs sound asleep, she looked at the bowl where she had put the turkey innards and neck, gizzard, liver and all the spare parts and a malicious thought came to her.

She took the bowl and went upstairs where her husband was sound asleep and, gently pulling back the bed covers, she pulled
back the elastic waistband of his underpants and emptied the bowl of turkey guts into his shorts.

Some time later she heard her husband waken with his usual trumpeting which was followed by a blood curdling scream and
the sound of frantic footsteps as he ran into the bathroom.

The wife could hardly control herself as she rolled on the floor
laughing, tears in her eyes! After years of torture she reckoned she had got him back pretty good.

About twenty minutes later, her husband came downstairs in his
bloodstained underpants with a look of horror on his face.

She bit her lip as she asked him what was the matter. He said, "Honey, you were right. All these years you have warned me
and I didn't listen to you.

"What do you mean?" asked his wife.

"Well, you always told me that one day I would end up farting my guts out, and today it finally happened. But by the grace of God, some Vaseline, and these two fingers, I think I got most of them back in.

Picture resource: internetfamo.us

"NOTHING IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN AN IDEA, WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE ONE IDEA"(ALAIN)

As creative beings, I believe that God has placed that ability within us to have a fountain of ideas. The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings. An idea arises in a reflex, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection.

Alain stated that, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea”. By this he means it is safer to have more than just one idea, otherwise one is forced to only try that idea. What happens if that idea isn't successful? Then what?

I look around me and I am astonished at the ideas of people and their believe to make things happen. One such person is Alexander Graham Bell. Imagine that he did not have these creative ideas and preserved like he did. We would not have had phones. Imagine that.

Many people's ideas around the world have made life a better place for all

Picture resource: wired.com

 

YOU CANNOT CHASE TWO RABBITS AT THE SAME TIME

All of us have goals. Goals like losing weight, earning more money, finding a life partner, setting up our business, achieving performance targets, being fitter, building better relationships, and so on. Some people seem to have no problem achieving their goals. Some, on the other hand, don’t seem to be able to make any progress. We loose our focus along the way.
At the end of the day, we get stuck and need to do the following:

Stop procrastinating. You keep putting things off. You talk about how you want to do something but you don’t act on it. You procrastinate on taking action because the situation is not painful enough for you yet. However, the times when it does become painful enough are often the times when it’s too late to do anything. Either you start taking action, or you forever lay in peace. Find someone that you are close to. Share this with them and be accountable.

Calculate: Achieving a goal is about getting from point A to B. From point A, you create an action plan that gets you to point B. Sounds foolproof, except the action plan isn’t  100% valid. That’s because you’re setting the plan from point A. You haven’t even been to point B, so how do you even know if it’ll get you to B? We underestimate what it takes to achieve goals. What should you do then? Review your progress constantly.

When we loose the vision we perish.

Picture resource: kamukamo.com

You wont achieve it this way.

HAVE YOU FIGURED TEH SECOND HEAD FAKE?

Randolph (Randy) Frederick Pausch, was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, Randy learned that he had pancreatic cancer and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: "3 to 6 months of good health left".

He gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a New York Times best-seller. Randy died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.

In his presentations, he spoke of working hard, achieving your own dreams, overcoming obstacles, seizing every moment… and at the end of his speech asked the following:

Did you figure out the head fake? It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, God will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.

The lesson in this for me is that I need to be connected to the source of who created me Trying to live my life the way I see it, will not get me to where I need to be.

Here is one such person, Nelson Mandela

Picture resource: article.wn.com

 

 

GO ON AND LAUGH !!!

A married couple went to the hospital to have their baby delivered.

Upon their arrival, the doctor said he had invented a new machine that would transfer a portion of the mother’s pain to the baby's father. He asked if they were willing to try it out they were both very much in favor of it.

The doctor set the pain transfer to 10%, for starters, explaining that even 10% was probably more pain the father had ever experienced before. However, as the labor progressed, the husband felt fine and asked the doctor to go ahead and "kick it up a notch."

The doctor then adjusted the machine to 20% pain transfer. The husband still feeling fine. The doctor checked the husband’s blood pressure and was amazed at how well he was doing at this point; they decided to try for 50%. The husband continued to feel quite well.

Since the pain transfer was obviously helping out the wife considerably, the husband encouraged the doctor to transfer ALL the pain to him.

The wife delivered a healthy baby boy with virtually no pain. She and her husband were ecstatic. When they got home, the mail man was dead on the porch.

Picture resource: mansanity.com

 

I AM ....

Who am I ? This is a defining moment for me. I am a husband, a father, a friend and a colleague.  But who am I ? Really me ?  

This question asked so often suggests that there is actually a plausible answer. Almost as if our beings were a fixed thing. People who ask this sort of question are typically struggling with their identity and are searching for a core sense of themselves.

The irony is that the more you seek to identify who you are, the more fragile you are likely to feel about yourself. There may be an inverse correlation between the question being asked and the ease with which you experience your life. The emphasis shouldn't be on discovering who you are (what is buried beneath) but on facilitating the emergence of what you'd like to experience.

If I am honest now, I am struggling to find me. I know I hear you saying seriously.

On all fronts of my life I need loads of works to do. I do not want to be defined by others or society, I am on a journey and when I reach my destination and I will, I want to let my footprints go deep.  

I want to be remembered not forgotten. There is greatness in me and I want to die knowing that I have emptied myself of all that I was suppose to give.  

Picture resource: wafatariq.wordpress.com

MY APPROACH !

We have become so indoctrinated with this way of thinking by our education and our organizations that it is more or less the only way we approach anything. And this is ?

 

But what is a very smart approach in a knowable or predictable future is not smart at all when things can't be predicted. And that fact is at the heart of the frustrations most of us feel. Things simply aren't as predictable as they once were.

 

In a world where you can no longer plan or predict your way to success, what is the best way to achieve your goals? It's a daunting question.

 

You need a different approach.

 

There is a proven method for navigating in an uncertain world, an approach that will

complement the kind of reasoning we have all been taught. It will help you deal with high levels of uncertainty no matter what kind of situation you face.

 

It spelt GRACE. I am learning to accept that I am loved, not by man but THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.

 

Picture resource: jesuschrist.com

 

 

FRUSTRATED ???????

Most of us prepared hard for the future we expected, and yet things aren't working out as we had planned. That's true if you have been laid off, are a recent graduate who feels underemployed, or are a manager facing constant upheavals at work, even if you are the boss, because you are wrestling with disruptive technologies and new competitors who seemingly come out of nowhere to upend your industry.

 All of this is extremely confusing and unsettling. This is not how we were told it was going to be. Growing up we were led to believe that the future was predictable enough, and if we studied hard we could obtain the work we wanted in an environment we understood, and we would live happy and successful lives.

 It hasn't exactly worked out that way (even for those of us who are happy). Many of us, maybe most, are not making progress on achieving the things we want.

 We think the reason is pretty simple. The way we were taught to think and act works well in a predictable future, but not so much in the world as it is now.

 Are you frustrated?  So what would you advise ?

 

Picture resource: studiomacro.blogspot.com

 

 

 

GO ON AND LAUGH!!!!!!

You would not listen and left me no choice

Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
Winston Churchill

In the moment and enjoying it.


Picture resource/s: funny-pics-fun.com







 

FAMOUS ? WAS IT WORTH IT ?

 It's on the all of social media, television, newspapers and even posters. “The man who saved the life of an 80 year old woman and gave his" 

The weather was perfect; people were out in their swimsuits, getting all of the sun. She was with her son who came to visit her from the States. She was dying and they wanted to spend as much of it together. 

Oblivious of the wave, it hit her and took her in. He watched what was happening; unselfishly he went in to save her. They say they saw the struggle, then she came safe to the shore, but the hero was no-where to be seen. 

What happened? His son was calling at the crowd asking where his dad was. Rescue team was sent out to scan the area. They looked but no body was found. 

It made headlines from South Africa to the world. 

Was it in vain? 

Picture Resource: voiceofchoices.com