MOTIVATION
“Quality of Life Series”
2/24/04 10/27/05
LEADER: What motivates you?
(Give opportunity to answer)
· Success?
· Money?
· Failure?
· Challenge?
· Necessity?
· Love?
· Fear?
LEADER READ: QUOTE#1
http://www.motivateus.com/rememb.htm
" For anything worth having one must
pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice - no
paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service."
John Burroughs 4/1/1837 – 3/29/1921
Nature Writer known for simple values, simple means, simple ends
LEADER: Let’s find out what motivates you.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Catholic School”
America Online:McKinleyIB, Nov. 6, 1997
A ten-year-old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school.
After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door.
For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime.
This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card.
The boy walked in with his report card—unopened—laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red “A” under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, thrilled at his remarkable progress.
“Was it the nuns that did it?”, the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, “No.”
“Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?”
“No.”
“The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?”
“Nope,” said the son. “on that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the ‘plus sign,’ I just knew they meant business!”
Have you heard about the “gator aid” that was given to enlisted men in a Florida training camp during World War II? The daily training for those GIs included a run through an obstacle course. On the final stretch of the endurance test, they had to grab a rope and swing across a broad, shallow pool.
Under the blazing southern sun the water looked so inviting to the men that most of them soon developed a habit of making it only halfway across the pond—that is, until an enterprising lieutenant made it the new home for a large alligator. From that day on, the recruits left the ground 15 feet from the water’s edge and fell sprawling in the dust on the other side.
LEADER: What was the motivation? FEAR
Contributed by Terri Spaccarotelli, Reader’s Digest, June, 1992, p. 145
At the busy dental office where I work, one patient was always late. Once when I called to confirm an appointment, he said, “I’ll be about 15 minutes late. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“No,” I told him. “We just won’t have time to give you an anesthetic.”
He arrived early.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Isaiah 41:13
13 "For
I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Father Was Blind” Bits and Pieces, Vol. F, #41
When Lou Little was coaching Football at Georgetown, he had a player who was definitely third rate but had so much spirit he was an inspiration to the team. He rarely saw action except in the last few minutes of a game that was already decided. One day news came that the boy’s father had died. The youngster came to Little and said: “Coach, I want to ask something of you that means an awful lot to me. I want to start the game against Fordham. I think that’s what my father would have liked most.”
Little hesitated a moment, then said: “Okay, son, you’ll start, but you’ll only be in there for a play or two. You aren’t quite good enough and you know it.” The boy started the game and played so well Little never took him out. His play inspired the team to victory. Back in the locker room Coach Little embraced the young man and said: “Son, you were terrific. You never played that way before . . . what got into you?”
The boy answered: “Remember how my father and I used to walk around arm-in-arm? There was something about him very few people knew—he was totally blind. This afternoon was the first time my father ever saw me play.”
Daily Walk, July 8, 1993
Knute Rockne called George Gipp the greatest football player Notre Dame ever produced. At the height of his college career, however, Gipp was struck with a serious infection that took his life. On his deathbed he told his coach, “Rock, someday when things look real tough for Notre Dame, ask the boys to go out there and win one for the Gipper.”
Eight years later, Knute recounted the deathbed story for a lackluster team about to face the powerful Army football team of 1928. The Fighting Irish played beyond themselves that day. In the second half, Notre Dame halfback Jack Chevigny took the ball near the goal line and, having nowhere to go, catapulted over the Army line into the end zone. Jack then leaped to his feet shouting, “That one was for the Gipper!” Notre Dame went on to beat Army 12-6.
LEADER: What was the motivation? LOVE/RESPECT
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2
“The whole worth of a kind deed lies in the love that inspires it.” - The Talmud
HAVE SOMEONE READ: I Corinthians 13:13
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Bits and Pieces, November 1991
Motivational speaker Bill Gove tells a story about Harry, who ran a small appliance store in Phoenix, Arizona. Harry was used to price-shopping by young couples. They would ask detailed questions about features, prices, and model numbers, and one of them always took notes. Harry knew that as soon as they left the store they were going to head for one of the discount appliance dealers to make comparisons. Nevertheless, Harry would patiently answer all their questions, even though it took more than a half hour at times. But when the couple would announce that they were going to look around at some other places, Harry had a standard spiel to deliver. “I know that you’re looking for the best deal you can find,” he would say. “I understand that, because I do the same thing myself. I know you’ll probably go down to Discount Dan’s to compare prices. I know I would. But after you’ve done that, I want you to think of one thing. When you buy from Discount Dan’s, you get an appliance—a good one, I know, because he sells the same appliances we do. But when you buy here, you get one thing you don’t get at Dan’s. You get me. I come with the deal. I stand behind what I sell. I want you to be happy with what you buy. I’ve been here 30 years. I learned the business from my Dad, and I hope to be able to give the business over to my daughter and son-in-law in a few years. So you know one thing for sure—when you buy an appliance from me, you get me with the deal. That means I’ll do everything I can to be sure you never regret doing business with me. That’s a guarantee.” Harry would then wish the couple well and give them a quart of ice cream in appreciation of their stopping at his store.
This is how Bill Gove finishes the story: “Now,” he says, “how far do you think that couple is going to get, with Harry’s speech ringing in their ears and a quart of ice cream on their hands in Phoenix, when it’s 110 degrees in the shade?”
LEADER: Motivation?
SERVICE/CUSTOMER - SATISFACTION/SALES
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Contact Lens” Ohio Motorist (AAA)
The teenager lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was nowhere to be found. Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand. “I really looked hard for that, Mom,” said the youth. “How’d you manage to find it?” “We weren’t looking for the same thing,” she replied. “You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3
Bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #4
“Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work”. - Robert Orben
LEADER: What is the motivation here? MONEY
Bits and Pieces, May, 1991, p. 2
When the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it. “This,” said Schwab, as he took the contract and tore it up. That contract had paid Schwab $1,300,000 the year before. “I didn’t care what salary they paid me,” Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer.
“I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I cancelled that contract without a moment’s hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ:
No one can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and [mamona, Gr for Ara mammon; i.e.
wealth, etc, personified as an object of worship] wealth.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Early Bird” The Joy of Trivia
When you see the early bird out there on the lawn, head cocked to one side as he catches the worm, don’t think he’s listening for it. He’s looking for it. With eyes at the sides instead of facing ahead as do ours, he is able to see in the worm’s hole by cocking his head. Besides, worms make very little noise, something like smacking your lips together. The average robin requires about seventy worms a day, so he has to get up early.
Columnist Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
LEADER: Motivation? TO MEET YOUR NEEDS
HAVE
SOMEONE READ:
And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “ Attitude Is Everything” Dynamic Preaching 7/1990
Harry Emerson Fosdick once told how as a child, his mother sent him to pick a quart of raspberries. Reluctantly he dragged himself to the berrypatch. His afternoon was ruined for sure. Then a thought hit him. He would surprise his mother and pick two quarts of raspberries instead of one. Rather than drudgery his work now became a challenge. He enjoyed picking those raspberries so much that fifty years later that incident was still fresh in his mind. The job hadn’t changed. His attitude had, though, and attitude is everything.
The great industrialist Charles Schwab was quite disappointed when the workers in his steel mill were not meeting their production quota. He asked the foreman what was wrong. “I don’t know,” he replied, “I’ve pushed them and threatened to fire them, but nothing works. They seem to have no incentive to produce.” Later, just before the night shift came on, Schwab went back to the plant and asked the supervisor how many heats his crew had processed that day. He was informed it was only six. Schwab took a piece of chalk and wrote a large figure “6” on the floor and walked away. When the other workers came in, they asked what it meant.
“The big boss was here today,” the manager said. “He asked how many heats were made and then chalked the number on the floor.” The next morning the night shift rubbed out the “6” and replaced it with a big “7.” When the day workers returned and saw the higher figure, one man exclaimed, “We can do better than that!” His fellow employees caught his enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they chalked on the floor an enormous “10.” It was a 66 percent increase in just 24 hours and all because of Schwab’s challenge.
Dale Carnegie comments, “If you want to win ...spirited men to your way of thinking...throw down a challenge.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #5 Bits & Pieces, April 28, 1994, p. 24
“I have never found,” said Harvey C. Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, “that pay and pay alone would neither bring together or hold good people. I think it was the game itself.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Mercedes Benz “ Bits and Pieces, April 1990, p. 2
In 1886, Karl Benz drove his first automobile through the streets of Munich, Germany. He named his car the Mercedes Benz, after his daughter, Mercedes. The machine angered the citizens, because it was noisy and scared the children and horses. Pressured by the citizens, the local officials immediately established a speed limit for “horseless carriages” of 3.5 miles an hour in the city limits and 7 miles an hour outside. Benz knew he could never develop a market for his car and compete against horses if he had to creep along at those speeds, so he invited the mayor of the town for a ride. The mayor accepted. Benz then arranged for a milkman to park his horse and wagon on a certain street and, as Benz and the mayor drove by, to whip up his old horse and pass them—and as he did so to give the German equivalent of the Bronx cheer. The plan worked. The mayor was furious and demanded that Benz overtake the milk wagon. Benz apologized but said that because of the ridiculous speed law he was not permitted to go any faster. Very soon after that the law was changed.
LEADER: What is the motivation here?
A CHALLENGE/COMPETITION
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Adventurers” Today In The Word, August, 1989, p. 33
The following ad once appeared in a London newspaper: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful.” The ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer. Amazingly, the ad drew thousands of respondents, eager to sacrifice everything for the prospect of meaningful adventure.
MSC Health Action News, April, 1993 Bits and Pieces, November 1991
http://www.bible.org/illus/m/m-67.htm#TopOfPage
In a recent Michigan State University study, 97% of the faculty members and staff who bet $40 that they could stay with a six-month exercise program were successful. Only 19% of a non-betting group stayed with their six-month program, however. TIP: Consider incentives when you want to change behavior.
http://www.bible.org/illus/m/m-67.htm#TopOfPage
To get employees to work on time, a Michigan company provides 45 parking spaces for 50 cars.
LEADER: Consider Incentives When You Want To Change Behavior
Dr. Ernest Mellor, in Homemade, Nov. 1984
Recently my wife and I sat charmed at an outdoor performance by young Suzuki violin students. After the concert, an instructor spoke briefly on how children as young as two, three and four years old are taught to play violin. The first thing the children learn, he said, is a proper stance. And the second thing the children learn—even before they pick up the violin—is how to take a bow. “If the children just play the violin and stop, people may forget to show their appreciation,” the instructor said. “But when the children bow, the audience invariably applauds. And applause is the best motivator we’ve found to make children feel good about performing and want to do it well.”
LEADER: “Applause is the Best Motivator” CONTINUED:
Adults love applause too. Being affirmed makes us feel wonderful. If you want to rekindle or keep the flame of love glowing in your marriage through the years, try showing and expressing your appreciation for your mate. Put some applause in your marriage and watch love grow.
(LEADERS NOTE: or in your work place)
George Allen and Mickey Herskowitz, Strategies for Winning, 1990
When I started out in life, all I wanted was to be a football player,” says Jack Kemp, who ended up in the pros for 13 years.
Today Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Kemp recalls the encouragement he received from Payton Jordan, his coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles: The coach called me into his office and said, “Of all the people on this team, I really think you have it. I want you to work just as if you were a pro-football player.”
When I left that office, I would have run through a brick wall for Coach Jordan. Several years later, at a reunion, I found out that the coach had told all my teammates that same thing. I was furious! For only a minute. Then I realized that Coach Jordan had made every one of us a little bit better, had helped us to struggle a little bit harder, to reach our potential.
LEADER: Motivation? ENCOURAGEMENT
Bits & Pieces, January 7, 1993, p. 19
Arthur Brisbane, the newspaper editor, was heard telling his best cartoonist, Windsor McKay, that he was the second greatest cartoonist in the world.
A reporter standing nearby, his curiosity aroused, asked Brisbane who was first.
“I don’t know,” said Brisbane. “But it keeps McKay on his toes.”
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Lifestyle Worth More Than Profit”
Citation: Mark Moody, "In Search of Renewal," Strategic Adult Ministry Journal (Issue 139)
http://www.preachingtoday.com/index.taf?_UserReference=6F28D4451F9055E64033F837&_function=illustration&_op=show_pf&IID=13435&sr=1
At the great market in Mexico City, an old native named Pota-lamo had twenty strings of onions hanging for sale.
An American tourist asked him, "How much for a string of onions?"
"Ten cents," said Pota-lamo.
"How much for two strings?"
"Twenty cents."
"How much for all twenty strings?" asked the American.
"I would not sell you my twenty strings," replied Pota-lamo.
"Why not? Aren't you here to sell your onions?"
"No," replied the old merchant. "I am here to live my life. I love this marketplace. I love the crowds and the red serapes. I love the sunlight and the wavering palmettos. I love to have friends come by and say buenos dias and talk about the babies and the crops. That is my life. For that I sit here all day and sell my twenty strings of onions. But if I sell all my onions to one customer, then my day is ended. I have lost the life I love—and that I will not do."
Quoted in “Cell Church”, Winter, 1996, p. 16
· Significant contributions. People get excited when they can be involved in a purpose or cause that has lasting impact. They must see that their efforts and time are making a difference in the lives of others.
· Goal Participation. People support what they create. They must have ownership! Nothing creates better ownership than giving input into common goals.
· Positive Dissatisfaction. People will not shift paradigms (and then values) until they get angry! Dissatisfied people are highly motivated; they see the need for immediate change. The key is giving the individual a vision for how they can make a positive impact. Dissatisfaction breeds apathy when change does not follow quickly.
· Recognition. Give people credit for their personal achievements and show appreciation for contributions. This will give them a boost of energy. Recognition is a great way of “living out a life of thanksgiving.” Insincere flattery is not the same as recognition, and the recipient typically sees it as manipulation.
· Clear Expectations. People are motivated when they know as much information as possible in accomplishing a new task. When I passed out a job description detailing the specific responsibilities of a cell leader, one young man said, “I have been waiting my whole Christian life for someone to show me how I could effectively live this out.”
Grace Evangelical Society Affirmation of Belief (brochure), Grace Evangelical Society, Irving, TX.
The believer is assured of salvation from hell and is eternally secure, since that salvation is based solely upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is inconsistent with the Gospel and with Scripture to seek to gain or keep eternal salvation by godly living.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: John 10:28-29
28 and
I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch
them out of My hand.
29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and
no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 8:38,39
38 For
I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Grace Evangelical Society Affirmation of Belief (brochure), Grace Evangelical Society, Irving, TX.
The Scripture, however, does present several motivations for obedience in the Christian life.
· One powerful motivation for living the Christian life is gratitude to God for saving us by His grace
HAVE
SOMEONE READ: Romans 12 Dedicated Service
1 Therefore
I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which
is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not
to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to
have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members
do not have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members one of another.
6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to
us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the
proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with
liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what
is good.
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to
one another in honor;
11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord;
12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to
prayer,
13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in
mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in
the sight of all men.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all
men.
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the
wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the
Lord.
20 "(BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM,
AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING
COALS ON HIS HEAD."
21 Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 2
2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who
practice such things
HAVE
SOMEONE READ: Corinthians 5:14-15
14 For
the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died;
15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live
for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Galations 2:20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 3:17
"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
LEADER READ: “Approval of Jesus” EXCERPT from Today’s Word
http://www.crusade.org/word/word669.html
Whatever we do whether by lip or
life, creed or conduct, we do it with a given norm in mind.
The "name of the Lord Jesus" means under the authority and approval of Jesus.
Everything we do must fall under the motivation of the approval of Jesus.
This will clarify any doubt of selfishness in our service to him. The approval
of Jesus gives dignity and purpose to all that we do for him.
Principle:
Jesus is the norm by which we measure the direction of our lives. Everything we say and do are to be put under the Lordship of Christ.
Application:
If God were to give you a report card on the motives that compel your deeds, what grade would God give you? Living for the name of the Lord Jesus clarifies our motives.
LEADER: So…when are you going to get motivated?
HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Procrastination”
Bits & Pieces, June 22, 1995, pp. 6-7.
In his book Being the Best (Thomas Nelson Publishers), Denise Waitley has some interesting observations about procrastination.
“When you stop to think about it,” he says, “there is no such thing as a future decision. You face only present decisions that will affect what will happen in the future. Procrastinators wait for just the right moment to decide. If you wait for the perfect moment, you become a security seeker who is running in place, going through the motions, and getting deeper in a rut.
“If I wait for every objection to be overcome, I will attempt nothing. My personal motto is, Stop Stewing and Start Doing. I can’t be depressed and active at the same time. I like changing the word motivation slightly to reflect a personal commitment to take charge of today and make it the best day I can—motive plus action equals motive-action.
“Everybody is looking for new ways to get motivated. Companies and corporations pay sizable fees to consultants who try to make their personnel more productive and fire up their salespeople. A motivated person thinks, I’m going to try it. But motivation must turn into motive-action, or nothing will happen.’ “That is the quandary of the unknown poet who wrote:
I spent a fortune On a
trampoline,
A stationary bike And a rowing machine
Complete with gadgets To read my pulse,
And gadgets to prove My progress results.
And others to show the miles I’ve charted—
But they left off the gadget to get me started!
Whatever your goal… …..“The gadget that can get you started is motive-action. “Try it and see!”
LEADER READ: Can You Walk the Walk?
Part of Devotional Series: Christianity Made Simple By Joyce C. Lock
http://netministries.org/see/devotion.exe/dd01743
Can You Walk The Walk, Talk The Talk, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is? We’ve all heard phrases that challenged us to greatness. But instead of being challenged, what a difference it could make if we challenged ourselves ... if every day we awoke to hopeful expectations; searching for another mountain to climb and obstacle to pass while actually looking forward to the ruff spots (knowing they’ll only help us grow stronger), to be “all that we can be” and then to be totally contented there, to be determined to make a difference and be the difference, to reach out to our fellow man, and to look forward to every breath of life God has given. We’d soon discover that our entire world had suddenly changed and, when we’d look around to see how such a miracle had happened, we’d find the miracle took place inside.
LEADER: Let’s get motivated!
COMMENTS:
PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES:
CUT AND DISTRIBUTE FOR READING:
“Catholic School”
A ten-year-old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school.
After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door.
For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime.
This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card.
The boy walked in with his report card—unopened—laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red “A” under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, thrilled at his remarkable progress.
“Was it the nuns that did it?”, the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, “No.”
“Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?”
“No.”
“The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?”
“Nope,” said the son. “on that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the ‘plus sign,’ I just knew they meant business!”
“Father Was Blind” When Lou Little was coaching Football at Georgetown, he had a player who was definitely third rate but had so much spirit he was an inspiration to the team. He rarely saw action except in the last few minutes of a game that was already decided. One day news came that the boy’s father had died. The youngster came to Little and said: “Coach, I want to ask something of you that means an awful lot to me. I want to start the game against Fordham. I think that’s what my father would have liked most.”
Little hesitated a moment, then said: “Okay, son, you’ll start, but you’ll only be in there for a play or two. You aren’t quite good enough and you know it.” The boy started the game and played so well Little never took him out. His play inspired the team to victory. Back in the locker room Coach Little embraced the young man and said: “Son, you were terrific. You never played that way before . . . what got into you?”
The boy answered: “Remember how my father and I used to walk around arm-in-arm? There was something about him very few people knew—he was totally blind. This afternoon was the first time my father ever saw me play.”
Have you heard about the “gator aid” that was given to enlisted men in a Florida training camp during World War II? The daily training for those GIs included a run through an obstacle course. On the final stretch of the endurance test, they had to grab a rope and swing across a broad, shallow pool.
Under the blazing southern sun the water looked so inviting to the men that most of them soon developed a habit of making it only halfway across the pond—that is, until an enterprising lieutenant made it the new home for a large alligator. From that day on, the recruits left the ground 15 feet from the water’s edge and fell sprawling in the dust on the other side.
At the busy dental office where I work, one patient was always late. Once when I called to confirm an appointment, he said, “I’ll be about 15 minutes late. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“No,” I told him. “We just won’t have time to give you an anesthetic.”
He arrived early.
Isaiah 41:13
Knute Rockne called George Gipp the greatest football player Notre Dame ever produced. At the height of his college career, however, Gipp was struck with a serious infection that took his life. On his deathbed he told his coach, “Rock, someday when things look real tough for Notre Dame, ask the boys to go out there and win one for the Gipper.”
Eight years later, Knute recounted the deathbed story for a lackluster team about to face the powerful Army football team of 1928. The Fighting Irish played beyond themselves that day. In the second half, Notre Dame halfback Jack Chevigny took the ball near the goal line and, having nowhere to go, catapulted over the Army line into the end zone. Jack then leaped to his feet shouting, “That one was for the Gipper!” Notre Dame went on to beat Army 12-6.
QUOTE #2
I Corinthians 13:13
This is how Bill Gove finishes the story: “Now,” he says, “how far do you think that couple is going to get, with Harry’s speech ringing in their ears and a quart of ice cream on their hands in Phoenix, when it’s 110 degrees in the shade?”
The teenager lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was nowhere to be found. Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand. “I really looked hard for that, Mom,” said the youth. “How’d you manage to find it?” “We weren’t looking for the same thing,” she replied. “You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150.”
QUOTE #3
Bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”
QUOTE #4
“Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work”. - Robert Orben
When the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it. “This,” said Schwab, as he took the contract and tore it up. That contract had paid Schwab $1,300,000 the year before. “I didn’t care what salary they paid me,” Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer.
“I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I cancelled that contract without a moment’s hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.”
When you see the early bird out there on the lawn, head cocked to one side as he catches the worm, don’t think he’s listening for it. He’s looking for it. With eyes at the sides instead of facing ahead as do ours, he is able to see in the worm’s hole by cocking his head. Besides, worms make very little noise, something like smacking your lips together. The average robin requires about seventy worms a day, so he has to get up early.
Columnist Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick once told how as a child, his mother sent him to pick a quart of raspberries. Reluctantly he dragged himself to the berrypatch. His afternoon was ruined for sure. Then a thought hit him. He would surprise his mother and pick two quarts of raspberries instead of one. Rather than drudgery his work now became a challenge. He enjoyed picking those raspberries so much that fifty years later that incident was still fresh in his mind. The job hadn’t changed. His attitude had, though, and attitude is everything.
The great industrialist Charles Schwab was quite disappointed when the workers in his steel mill were not meeting their production quota. He asked the foreman what was wrong. “I don’t know,” he replied, “I’ve pushed them and threatened to fire them, but nothing works. They seem to have no incentive to produce.” Later, just before the night shift came on, Schwab went back to the plant and asked the supervisor how many heats his crew had processed that day. He was informed it was only six. Schwab took a piece of chalk and wrote a large figure “6” on the floor and walked away. When the other workers came in, they asked what it meant.
“The big boss was here today,” the manager said. “He asked how many heats were made and then chalked the number on the floor.” The next morning the night shift rubbed out the “6” and replaced it with a big “7.” When the day workers returned and saw the higher figure, one man exclaimed, “We can do better than that!” His fellow employees caught his enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they chalked on the floor an enormous “10.” It was a 66 percent increase in just 24 hours and all because of Schwab’s challenge.
Dale Carnegie comments, “If you want to win ...spirited men to your way of thinking...throw down a challenge.”
“I have never found,” said Harvey C. Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, “that pay and pay alone would neither bring together or hold good people. I think it was the game itself.”
In 1886, Karl Benz drove his first automobile through the streets of Munich, Germany. He named his car the Mercedes Benz, after his daughter, Mercedes. The machine angered the citizens, because it was noisy and scared the children and horses. Pressured by the citizens, the local officials immediately established a speed limit for “horseless carriages” of 3.5 miles an hour in the city limits and 7 miles an hour outside. Benz knew he could never develop a market for his car and compete against horses if he had to creep along at those speeds, so he invited the mayor of the town for a ride. The mayor accepted. Benz then arranged for a milkman to park his horse and wagon on a certain street and, as Benz and the mayor drove by, to whip up his old horse and pass them—and as he did so to give the German equivalent of the Bronx cheer. The plan worked. The mayor was furious and demanded that Benz overtake the milk wagon. Benz apologized but said that because of the ridiculous speed law he was not permitted to go any faster. Very soon after that the law was changed.
The following ad once appeared in a London newspaper: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful.” The ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer. Amazingly, the ad drew thousands of respondents, eager to sacrifice everything for the prospect of meaningful adventure.
In a recent Michigan State University study, 97% of the faculty members and staff who bet $40 that they could stay with a six-month exercise program were successful. Only 19% of a non-betting group stayed with their six-month program, however. TIP: Consider incentives when you want to change behavior.
“Too Few Parking Spaces”
To get employees to work on time, a Michigan company provides 45 parking spaces for 50 cars.
Recently my wife and I sat charmed at an outdoor performance by young Suzuki violin students. After the concert, an instructor spoke briefly on how children as young as two, three and four years old are taught to play violin. The first thing the children learn, he said, is a proper stance. And the second thing the children learn—even before they pick up the violin—is how to take a bow. “If the children just play the violin and stop, people may forget to show their appreciation,” the instructor said. “But when the children bow, the audience invariably applauds. And applause is the best motivator we’ve found to make children feel good about performing and want to do it well.”
When I started out in life, all I wanted was to be a football player,” says Jack Kemp, who ended up in the pros for 13 years.
Today Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Kemp recalls the encouragement he received from Payton Jordan, his coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles: The coach called me into his office and said, “Of all the people on this team, I really think you have it. I want you to work just as if you were a pro-football player.”
When I left that office, I would have run through a brick wall for Coach Jordan. Several years later, at a reunion, I found out that the coach had told all my teammates that same thing. I was furious! For only a minute. Then I realized that Coach Jordan had made every one of us a little bit better, had helped us to struggle a little bit harder, to reach our potential.
Arthur Brisbane, the newspaper editor, was heard telling his best cartoonist, Windsor McKay, that he was the second greatest cartoonist in the world.
A reporter standing nearby, his curiosity aroused, asked Brisbane who was first.
“I don’t know,” said Brisbane. “But it keeps McKay on his toes.”
“Lifestyle Worth More Than Profit”
At the great market in Mexico City, an old native named Pota-lamo had twenty strings of onions hanging for sale.
An American tourist asked him, "How much for a string of onions?"
"Ten cents," said Pota-lamo.
"How much for two strings?"
"Twenty cents."
"How much for all twenty strings?" asked the American.
"I would not sell you my twenty strings," replied Pota-lamo.
"Why not? Aren't you here to sell your onions?"
"No," replied the old merchant. "I am here to live my life. I love this marketplace. I love the crowds and the red serapes. I love the sunlight and the wavering palmettos. I love to have friends come by and say buenos dias and talk about the babies and the crops. That is my life. For that I sit here all day and sell my twenty strings of onions. But if I sell all my onions to one customer, then my day is ended. I have lost the life I love—and that I will not do."
John 10:28-29
Romans 8:38,39
Romans 12
Corinthians 5:14-15
Galatians 2:20
Colossians 3:17
“Procrastination”
In his book Being the Best (Thomas Nelson Publishers), Denise Waitley has some interesting observations about procrastination.
“When you stop to think about it,” he says, “there is no such thing as a future decision. You face only present decisions that will affect what will happen in the future. Procrastinators wait for just the right moment to decide. If you wait for the perfect moment, you become a security seeker who is running in place, going through the motions, and getting deeper in a rut.
“If I wait for every objection to be overcome, I will attempt nothing. My personal motto is, Stop Stewing and Start Doing. I can’t be depressed and active at the same time. I like changing the word motivation slightly to reflect a personal commitment to take charge of today and make it the best day I can—motive plus action equals motive-action.
“Everybody is looking for new ways to get motivated. Companies and corporations pay sizable fees to consultants who try to make their personnel more productive and fire up their salespeople. A motivated person thinks, I’m going to try it. But motivation must turn into motive-action, or nothing will happen.’ “That is the quandary of the unknown poet who wrote:
I spent a fortune On a
trampoline, A stationary bike And a rowing machine
Complete with gadgets To read my pulse, And gadgets to prove My progress
results.
And others to show the miles I’ve charted—But they left off the gadget to get me
started!
Whatever your goal… …..“The gadget that can get you started is motive-action. “Try it and see!”