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| Joachim De Posada |
By Joachim De Posada
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Reach out,
uplift and help someone else and you will help yourself
Years ago,
a gentleman named Kevin Hall used to work for Franklin Quest, a company that
later acquired Covey Leadership Centers and became Franklin Covey. I was a
consultant to them for about ten years and still hold stock in the
company. Working there, I got to know Stephen Covey who recently passed
away, Kevin, many great speakers and
even some famous personalities such as Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and many
others. In Puerto Rico the operation was
in charge of my dear friend Walter Santaliz and Tomas Morell who has recently
retired and lives close to Orlando, Florida.
Those were
good old days because we travelled to many countries teaching seminars about subjects very dear to my heart
such as leadership principles, techniques, goal setting, time management, and
of course the famous seven habits of highly effective people.
Kevin used
to tell a story that I just remembered when I sat with a group of speakers a
few weeks ago about a trip he took to Vienna, Austria years ago.
He went
into a store and the middle aged owner welcomed him with great energy and
wonderful enthusiasm. He had an Indian
name, none of us remembered it, and introduced himself.
The
gentleman then noticed a pin that Kevin wore of two hands clasped and commented
on it. Kevin took it off and gave it to him so that he could take a closer
look.
The shop
owner asked what the two hands clasped together meant. He told him that it
symbolized people’s responsibility to reach out, uplift one another, and
lighten one another’s burdens. He then
rotated the hands and said that the hands looked equally positioned to help
someone or to be helped.
Kevin
mentioned that Emerson once said the symbolism of the two hands represented one
of the marvelous compensations that life offers, because you can’t honestly try
to help another human being without helping yourself.
The owner
of the store gave him a big smile and said that people often receive what they
desire for others.
Both of
those interpretations are rather profound.
People
helping each other and having thoughts about others and receiving what they
wish for someone else.
So, in
essence, if you have negative thoughts about other people, those thoughts will
invade your being and you will attract what you are wishing someone else to
yourself, becoming the victim of your
own thoughts. Interesting!
I know of
so many people that are constantly complaining and wishing someone else all the
harm and evil in the world and when you look at those people you realize how
unhappy they are, how unfulfilled they seem to be. They can’t let go of the past. They carry that
hate within them and it eats their inner self.
I believe
that constantly having bad or negative thoughts will come back to haunt you.
The
character ethic is the real foundation of success, and it teaches that there
are basic principles of effective or happy living and that people can only
experience true success and long lasting happiness when they learn to integrate
these principles into their basic character. In other words, the principles
become part of the person; they are one and the same. You see the person and
you immediately have a positive thought. If you are with someone you might say
“John looks so good” or “he is such a great guy”, or” Mary is such a nice lady,
she is always helping someone out”.
It is very
important for our wellbeing to help ourselves and flush out those constant
negative thoughts from our minds.
A sincere
and constant effort has to be made to do this because it isn’t easy. It might be a good exercise to do what I used
to assign my students in my psychology class when I taught the course years
ago.
I would
tell them that during the weekend and until Tuesday when they had to return to
class, they had to keep a diary and I wanted them to write down every negative
thought that came to their minds. It didn’t matter if it was a negative thought
about another person, about a loved one, about the world, their boss, and their
companies or even against themselves. Anything negative had to be written down.
In order to
insure compliance, I told them that the assignment was equivalent to a quiz and
that it would count towards the final grade in the class.
When they
came back on Tuesday most of them had pages of negative thoughts written down.
They simply couldn’t believe that their minds were so cluttered with
unproductive negative thoughts.
In fact
this exercise was so powerful and it made such an impact on some of those
students that several times I have ran into my students in airports,
restaurants or even in a shopping center and they have told me that the
exercise had totally changed their lives.
So, maybe
it is time for you to keep track of your thoughts for a day or two and see how
you are using that powerful brain of yours that if properly used could bring
you everything you want in life or if not used correctly can bring you all the
unhappiness and negativity that life can offer.
The good
thing is that we do have a choice.
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