If you are thinking “What do I have to do with problems of self control?”, let me ask: How many people here in the last week have procrastinated more than you wish you would? How many people have exercised in the last week
less than you wish you would? Have eaten more than you wish you would? Have had more unprotected sex than you wish you would?
How many of you guys have a lollipop moment, a moment where someone said something or did something that you feel fundamentally made your life better? All right. How many of you have told that person they did it? See, why not? We let people who have made our lives better walk around without knowing it. And every single one of you, every single one of you has been the catalyst for a lollipop moment. You have made someone’s life better by something that you said or that you did, and if you think you haven’t, think about all the hands that didn’t go back up when I asked that question. You’re just one of the people who hasn’t been told.
It can be frightening to think that we can matter that much to other people, because as long as we make leadership something bigger than us, as long as we keep leadership something beyond us, as long as we make it about changing the world, we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it every day from ourselves and from each other.
A children’s book which talks about the problem-solving strategies of animals, prepared based on interviews with scientists !
Step outside. Look. If squirrels can learn to cross roads by watching people, what can you learn by watching squirrels? All around you, creatures seek solutions.
The answers by today’s most prominent scientists, philosophers, and writers to the questions of children and here is the answer to the question “WHY DO WE FALL IN LOVE?”:
“.. The lion accompanied the hare to the well and looked in. The lion saw his own image reflected in the water, and beside him a plump hare. No sooner did he espy his enemy than he left the hare and sprang into the well. He fell into the pit which he had dug: his aggression recoiled on his own head. When he saw himself in the well, blinded by his aggression at that moment, the lion couldn’t differentiate himself from his enemy. He thought his image to be his enemy.
Many of the faults that you see in others are in fact your own reflected in them! In them you see all that you are – your own hypocrisy, iniquity, and insolence. It is really your own faults that you are criticizing, but you do not see them as clearly in yourself, or you would hate yourself with all your soul. Like the lion who sprang at his image in the water, you are only hurting yourself.”
Rumi – Masnavi I: 1304-9; 1319-24; 1328
“We have all heard that no two snowflakes are alike. Each snowflake takes the perfect form for the maximum efficiency and effectiveness for its journey. And while the universal force of gravity gives them a shared destination, the expansive space in the air gives each snowflake the opportunity to take their own path. They are on the same journey, but each takes a different path.
Along this gravity-driven journey, some snowflakes collide and damage each other, some collide and join together, some are influenced by wind… there are so many transitions and changes that take place along the journey of the snowflake. But, no matter what the transition, the snowflake always finds itself perfectly shaped for its journey.”
Steve Maraboli – Life, the Truth and Being Free
“You ruin your life by tolerating it. At the end of the day you should be excited to be alive. When you settle for anything less than what you innately desire, you destroy the possibility that lives inside of you, and in that way you cheat both yourself and the world of your potential. The next Michelangelo could be sitting behind a Macbook right now writing an invoice for paperclips, because it pays the bills, or because it is comfortable, or because he can tolerate it. Do not let this happen to you. Do not ruin your life this way. Life and work, and life and love, are not irrespective of each other. They are intrinsically linked. We have to strive to do extraordinary work, we have to strive to find extraordinary love. Only then will we tap into an extraordinarily blissful life.”
Bianca Sparacino
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