Saturday, December 22, 2007

Bill Gates 9 Rules for Life

These rules were first told to a high school assembly and reported in "Anchor Watch", Sept.2005

There is so much truth in here, every student, perhaps every person should read and heed these.

1) Life is not fair---get used to it.

2) The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

3) You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

4) If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

5) Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping---they called it opportunity.

6) If you mess up, it's not your parents fault; so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

7) Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they will give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

8) Television is not real life. in real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

9) Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

So there you have it...i think I'll vote for #7 as my fav.
What about you?

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Don't Burst Your Bubble

One thing I have been learning about dreams, or a vision if you will, is that you don't really get to own the dream. A dream is like a gift from the God, or the creator. The dream is not really yours, but His. You don't really own it, you just manage it on the creators behalf.

Something strange happens when we think we own a dream. When we are deluded into thinking this is my dream, then we are responsible to "make it happen", to "push it through". As we struggle and strive to make "our" dream a reality it is easy to make mistakes of timing, mistakes in judgement, compromise...fear of failure can easily turn into paralysis of thought.After all, this is my dream and if I don't accomplish this it won't get done. Many great dreams crash on the rocks of self determinism.

However, if we were to view our dream as a God given gift, something that God wants to accomplish in our world and we are simply "managers"of that dream, it is then possible for us to adopt a whole new attitude toward our dream.

A God given dream is God's way of influencing our world through us. God has the dream, God has the plan, God has the strategy. It is up to us to learn to listen, learn to "actively "wait, pursuing opportunities but with out fear, or frantic thoughts, trusting peacefully, that the same God who gave the dream to you, will fulfill the dream through you.

There is a fine line between managing a dream and owning a dream. It's much like holding a bubble in your outstretched hand. The second you close your fingers around the bubble it breaks. Dreams must be kept in an open hand, with fingers loose and a relaxed arm. Tension destroys, tightness stifles, a closed fist fights, an open hand receives.

At times Ifind myself wanting to close my hand around my fragile precious dream and then I am reminded of the words of the creator found in His instruction book to dream catchers..."He who began a good work in you will complete it". His dream, His problem. My role is to listen and to obey. Easier said than done.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

The Agony of an Aborted Dream

Your dream, much like an unborn child, needs to be nurtured and developed. There is a tension that exists when a woman finds out she is pregnant and when she feels safe enough to tell the world that she is pregnant. That same tention exists when you know you have the beginnings of a really big dream. When is it safe enough to declare to the world, " I have a dream, this idea will change the world, here is the solution, I know what to do, this is it?"

On many an occasion I have spewed forth my newly formed dream into the world arround me, only to find its fragile undeveloped concepts easily discarded by people with no faith, no immagination, or no consideration for my insecurities. Some have treated my precious creation as spit, to be wiped uncermoniously from the face their minds. Most , did not recognise, that contained in my microscopic idea was a giant of a concept, and much like stepping on an ant, my creation was crushed and trampled on with out remorse or a second thought.

I have learned that there are only a few people in my life that I can trust with the "breaking news" of a hot idea. These are people with an intimate knowlege of who I am, who have proven they can treat my most precious dreams, and thereby treat me, with encouragement, gentleness, and wonder. They are the people in my life who have learned not to laugh out loud when the impossible is proposed. They have learned that dreams need gestation time.That ridicule is the poison of the abortionist. That everything great was once and embryo and that some of my dreams do come true. They have learned that dreams are living entities and the laws of life and death apply as much to an idea as they do to a fetus.

I am learning one of the greatest laws of the universe, and that is the law of timing. I still experience the excitement when I have been impregnated by a dream, but in the early days I am content to experience it growing in my mind, to sense its development, to spend time alone with it.Because one day this living, growing life altering dream will be birthed for all the world to see. I will never again have the opportunity to be alone with my dream, and watch in wonder as God unfolds its marvels one step at a time, for once my dream is born it is no longer mine but the worlds.