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Showing posts with label Articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Articles. Show all posts
Monday, September 7, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Who Packed Your Parachute...by Tom Mathews
This was forwarded to me and I wanted to share with everyone that stops and enjoys my blog.
Here is an excerpt from Aim for the Heart ...
I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell.
After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of every day life.
Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I guess it worked!" Charlie stood to shake the man's hand, and assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today."
Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know.
Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.'
As a leader, how many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people in our organization who are "packing our parachutes?"
Here is an excerpt from Aim for the Heart ...
I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell.
After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of every day life.
Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I guess it worked!" Charlie stood to shake the man's hand, and assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today."
Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know.
Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.'
As a leader, how many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people in our organization who are "packing our parachutes?"
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Simple Truths of Appreciation by Barbara Glanz
By Barbara Glanz
One of the deepest principles of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. You never know when a few kind words can change a life forever.
In her book, The Simple Truths of Appreciation, Barbara Glanz tells a story about the power of appreciation.
Excerpt from The Simple Truths of Appreciation by Barbara Glanz
When I speak about appreciation, I use this quote by Albert Schweitzer:
"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light."
Then I ask my audiences to please shut their eyes and think about someone, who at some time in their lives, has rekindled their inner light. I leave the room in silence for several minutes, and it is always a profound experience as they remember the joy they received from being appreciated by someone when they needed it the most.
Afterwards I ask them to write down the name of the person they thought of and to commit to their own act of appreciation by letting that person know in the next 72 hours that he or she was thought of. I suggest a phone call, a note, or even a little prayer if they are no longer living.
After one moving session, a gentleman came up to talk with me and thanked me for creating a new awareness in him. He said he thought of his eighth grade literature teacher because she was everyone's favorite teacher, and had really made a difference in all of their lives. He planned to track his teacher down, and when he finally found her, he wrote to her.
The following week he received this letter:
Dear John,
You will never know how much your letter meant to me. I am 83 years old, and I am living all alone in one room. My friends are all gone. My family's gone. I taught 50 years and yours is the first "thank you" letter I have ever gotten from a student. Sometimes I wonder what I did with my life. I will read and reread your letter until the day I die.
He just sobbed on the phone. He said, "She is always the one we talk about at every reunion. She was everyone's favorite teacher - we loved her!" But no one had ever told her...until she received his letter.
One of the deepest principles of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. You never know when a few kind words can change a life forever.
In her book, The Simple Truths of Appreciation, Barbara Glanz tells a story about the power of appreciation.
Excerpt from The Simple Truths of Appreciation by Barbara Glanz
When I speak about appreciation, I use this quote by Albert Schweitzer:
"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light."
Then I ask my audiences to please shut their eyes and think about someone, who at some time in their lives, has rekindled their inner light. I leave the room in silence for several minutes, and it is always a profound experience as they remember the joy they received from being appreciated by someone when they needed it the most.
Afterwards I ask them to write down the name of the person they thought of and to commit to their own act of appreciation by letting that person know in the next 72 hours that he or she was thought of. I suggest a phone call, a note, or even a little prayer if they are no longer living.
After one moving session, a gentleman came up to talk with me and thanked me for creating a new awareness in him. He said he thought of his eighth grade literature teacher because she was everyone's favorite teacher, and had really made a difference in all of their lives. He planned to track his teacher down, and when he finally found her, he wrote to her.
The following week he received this letter:
Dear John,
You will never know how much your letter meant to me. I am 83 years old, and I am living all alone in one room. My friends are all gone. My family's gone. I taught 50 years and yours is the first "thank you" letter I have ever gotten from a student. Sometimes I wonder what I did with my life. I will read and reread your letter until the day I die.
He just sobbed on the phone. He said, "She is always the one we talk about at every reunion. She was everyone's favorite teacher - we loved her!" But no one had ever told her...until she received his letter.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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