Three Simple Words that Change Everything

How wonderful it would be if there were a simple formula for success. “Follow these steps and you will be successful in business, as a parent, as a student, in your vocation or in any endeavor you attempt.” Only if it were that easy.

I think of the man who was honored as “Businessperson of the Year.” At the presentation dinner, a newspaper reporter asked him, “To what do you owe your great success and prosperity?”

“Five things contributed to my success,” said the man. “First, I always treated people fairly. Second, I always offered a fair price. Third, I was always honest. Fourth, I was always generous to my employees. And fifth, my Aunt Edna died a few years back and left me two and a half million dollars.”

Certainly, the top four items on his list are well worth following - fairness, sound business principles, honesty and generosity. Each contributes toward success. And Aunt Edna’s infusion of money certainly helped. 

But there is one behavior that will almost always guarantee that we will succeed at most everything we do. And it is especially important if we want to build whole and happy lives.

Professor Richard Weaver, who taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, points us to that behavior. He sums it up in three simple words: “and then some.”

Most people do what is expected of them. But some do what is expected – and then some. They meet their obligations and responsibilities fairly – and then some. They are good friends to their friends – and then some. They build bridges; they mend fences - and then some. They can be counted on in an emergency – and then some. They are considerate and kind – and then some. They donate money, expertise and time - and then some.

There are many paths to getting what you want out of life and becoming the kind of person you want to be in life. But the surest way of succeeding is to remember those three words: and then some.

They are only three simple words, but they change everything.

-- Steve Goodier

Image: flickr.com/bernavazqueze

Who Sets Your Standards?

Image by Ariel da Silva Parreira

Who sets your standards for you?

A true story has it that one older man decided to jog around the local high school football field. As he huffed and puffed along, the team was in practice.

The players soon started running sprints up and down the field. The man told himself, "I'll just keep running until they quit." So he ran. And they ran. And he ran some more. And they kept running. And he kept running until he could finally run no more. He stopped in exhaustion. One of the players, equally exhausted, approached him and said, "Boy, I'm glad you finally stopped, Mister. Coach told us we had to keep running wind sprints as long as the old guy was jogging!"

He was watching them. They were watching him. He was letting them set his standard. They allowed him to set theirs.

My question is this: are you keeping pace with somebody else? Are you allowing other people to set your standards for you?

What about your standards, or principles, for moral behavior? Humorist Mark Twain said, “I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.” Do you decide for yourself what is right and wrong or do you find yourself going along with others?

And how about attitudinal standards? When confronted with negativity and cynicism, how do you respond? Do you choose your attitudes, or do you just react to circumstances?

What about your relationships? What do you expect to get out of relationships? Who sets the standard for how fulfilling, or even how important, a relationship will be to you?

In short, do you keep pace with those around you, or do you decide yourself just how you will live your life? The truth is...only you are qualified to set your standards.  Only you can determine how you should live and what you will finally expect from yourself.

Set your own standards. It beats jogging until your legs fall off.

– Steve Goodier

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Those Are My Principles

Comedian Groucho Marx quipped, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, well, I have others."

I have principles. And sometimes I follow them. Well, usually.

I also have opinions. I have opinions about politics, yard sales, health food and fortune cookies. (Actually, more about the fortunes than the cookies.) But they're opinions. I COULD be wrong about some of those things.

And I have opinions about four-year-olds. Like the one who came screaming out of the bathroom to tell his mother that he dropped his toothbrush in the toilet. He watched her fish it out and toss it into the garbage.

That is when something occurred to him, something about when a toothbrush ought to be discarded. He ran to the other bathroom and came out with his mother’s toothbrush. Holding it up, he announced, “We better throw this one out too then . . . it fell in the toilet a few days ago.”

That confirms at least one of my opinions about four-year-olds.

But it also points to something more than an opinion – a principle. In this case, the principle is about the importance of trying to do the right thing, even if you’re a few days late in doing it. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it well: "The time is always right to do what is right."

And one like it is this: doing the right thing, even in little things, is never a little thing. And that’s not just an opinion. It’s a principle that works.

-- Steve Goodier

Image: www.flickr.com/DouglasPorter