You have two choices – which will you choose?

A good friend of mine sent me this story as one of those chain emails, but I believe this one has a very worthwhile message in it – here goes:

Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?’ The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. ‘I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’

Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball.

Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.’

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the  plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to first! Run to first!’ Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’ Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball … the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay’

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third! Shay, run to third!’ As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’  Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’.

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

A FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

Well, I happen to believe that every one of us can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the ‘natural order of things.’ So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.

Next time you are faced with 2 choices, do the decent thing.

May your day, be a Shay Day.

You are Powerful beyond Measure!

I’m sure you’ve heard of Tony Robbins – he’s probably one of the best known mindset coach / self-improvement experts around today (if nothing else you might remember him from the movie “Shallow Hal” – the guy who met Jack Black’s character in the lift and changed his thinking to realise that beauty was on the inside!)

It’s Tony’s 50th birthday, and to celebrate he’s sent out to his subscribers this powerful & inspiring video – it’s only a few minutes long but made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

There’s nothing to buy or sign up for, just stop what you’re doing for 4 minutes for a reminder of how good you are.

Enjoy, and leave a comment below, I’d love to know what you think!

The Parable of the Starfish

Years ago I heard a story which I only ever heard once but has always stayed with me.

At the time I thought it was a simple but powerful illustration of the difference that each one of us can make by just doing small good things for people.

With all the bad things we hear about on the news every day, it’s very easy to forget that there is good in the world. Mother Theresa summed it up:

“What we can do is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”

It’s very easy to think “What good can I really do?” but in actual fact you can do a lot.

Do just one small thing every day.

Just one kind word to someone.

Help one person in some small way.

Remember what you think may be small may be a big deal to them.

You can make a difference.

Here’s that story I promised you:-

“Parable of the starfish”, which is adapted from a book by Loren Eiseley…

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? There are thousands of them – you can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”

Inspiring Thoughts – Welcome to PlanetSelf.net

This site is founded on the belief that YOU are far better than you think you are, and you’re capable of much more than you believe yourself to be.

We believe that the dreams and aspirations that you either hold now or have held in the past are well within your reach, if only you would just focus on them again. Maybe you’ve put them to the side to simply get on with everyday life, maybe you’ve lost focus as you just don’t think that you could possibly achieve them, but we’d like to help you resurrect them, dust them down, and go for it.

You can do it.

One of my mentors, Mike Litman, has a saying that I’ve now adopted as a mantra – it goes like this:

You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get going.

Whatever it is that you’ve always wanted to do, JUST START IT. Don’t try and figure out how it’s going to end up. It may not be exactly the way you want it or imagine it to be, but you can develop.

As you progress you can change and adapt it, but as that wise old guy Confucius said:

“A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Take the first step – then you’ll figure out the second step. Just worry about the first one for now.

If you wish you can SIGN UP FREE to our e-mail list, and we’ll send you a regular e-mail over the coming weeks and months to help you achieve your goals.  These may have resources suggested – many of them will be free, as we always make a point of trying to over-deliver, and some will be particular programs we recommend will help you. And just for signing up you’ll have access to several free resources to get you going!

One word of warning, and this runs through every single communication from us, and here it is:-

YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION!

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. We have everything from programs to teach you how to make a part or full-time income learning to give Professional Massages (Click here for details) right up to programs to teach you how to set up a fully-fledged online business bringing in thousands of pounds each month in passive income (download our FREE E-book on Overcoming Information Overload & it’s all in there! (Click here for details))

If there’s anything specific that you don’t see but you’d like us to source for you (a course in dog training / how to make your own pottery / whatever), please let us know and we’ll do our best to find it for you from one of our suppliers. Consider us an online resource for whatever type of information you like.

But YOU have to take action, or nothing will change. I know we can help you with these regular communications, and I look forward to working with you on helping you improve yourself

If you have any questions, or you’d like me to deal with something specific, send me an e-mail with your comments – or post a blog entry here. I’d love to hear from you, and promise to answer every communication personally.

Aidan

Six-Pack-Secret