“Who Says You Can’t Teach an Old Dog a New Trick or Two”

By Coca Cola CEO Brian Dyson

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.

Don’t forget that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

When I see a story like this written by one of the worlds leading CEO’s I have mixed emotions. First off there are always numerous opportunities to slap large corporations like Coca Cola. In fact I’ve witnessed first hand operating conditions at a number of Coca Cola’s 3rd world facilities. BUT I believe the article written here is an excellent example of how we as human beings find opportunities to redirect our thoughts to prevent ourselves from honestly seeing our self.

The words written here are the keys, that if we chose to use them, would lead each and everyone of us to the ideal dream life. But ya know for many of us it’s so much easier to trash one side of the coin so we don’t have to look at the other and make these type adjustments in our lives.

A man in a hot air balloon is lost. He sees a man on the ground and reduces height to speak to him.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”

“You’re in a hot air balloon hovering thirty feet above this field,” comes the reply.

“You must work in Information Technology,” says the balloonist.

“I do,” says the man, “How did you know?”

“Well,” says the balloonist, “Everything you told me is technically correct, but it’s no use to anyone.”

“You must be in business,” says the man.

“I am,” says the balloonist, “How did you know?”

“Well,” says the man, “You don’t know where you are, you don’t know where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault.”

~author unknown

If have found that everytime I want to blame or complain it is I that was in error.

The world has become an increasingly difficult place to live.  If we haven’t the skills to maintain control over our emotions our lives will spiral out of control, and we will be stuck in the rut of casting blame either inward or outward.

The evidence has been piling up throughout history, and now neuroscientists have proved it’s true: the brain’s wiring emphatically relies on emotion over intellect in decision-making.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-08-06-brain-study_x.htm

Most people believe that emotions are caused by events.  They are in fact caused by our interpretations of events, sometimes so fleeting and fast as to be beneath the level of consciousness.  Our pre-conscious, split-second thoughts give rise to automatic emotional reactions.  We then have a choice as to how we behave, what we say, and how we handle a situation.  The appropriateness of our actions and the effectiveness of our communications make up our emotional intelligence.  People who are highly developed emotionally become sensitive to pre-conscious thoughts, question their validity and appropriateness, and are able to directly influence their feelings, personal beliefs and behaviors.

The more aware we become of our emotions and associated reactions the better equipped we become at stemming and preventing situations that we may regret at some point later on in the future.

The good news is that we can learn to control our emotions. Like learning to play a guitar we must discipline our self to practice these skills, it does not come natural. We must program our mind to accept this new way of thinking, again it does not come natural and last we must overcome the barrage of information out there that says we have the right to release our emotions because it is healthy and it will make us feel better.  NOT ALWAYS!

“In navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties that steer us day to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy is in failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish.”
Daniel Goleman

Take a minute to think about it – have you ever felt good after losing control of your emotions. Have you ever been cut off in traffic and became angry? Did it make you feel good after releasing your instantaneous emotion of fear or anger? No matter how right you feel, the pain of losing control of self throws the whole body out of kilter. No one ever feels good after losing control of their emotions – it’s a fallacy.