I have been getting these little lessons, on topics of character, at work and think they are excellent. These are from Steven R. Covey's book, "Everyday Greatness" We plan to post them here in hopes you will enjoy them and get as much from them as we do and we hope you appreciate them too. First topic:
Adaptability
"As soon as there is life, there is danger." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Though some individuals allow adversity to bend or break their spirits, others quickly adapt to their surroundings and surmount the opposition. The ability to adapt and make the best of difficult situations is a sure test of Everyday Greatness.
Adversity always insists that we respond to a series of questions: Will we adapt, do what we've got to do, and move forward, or will we allow the opposition to win out? Will we be transmitters or transformers? Will we find opportunity and silver amongst the clouds, or will we find storms in every sunset? When I (Stephen Covey) think of possible answers to these questions, I am reminded of my sister who, during the last months of her life and her battle with cancer, grasped the opportunity to use her illness as a training ground to teach her children how to cope and how to smile in the face of opposition. She used her cancer to teach them how to act upon life right to the end. In death, she left a legacy of Everyday Greatness that will always be embedded not only in the minds and hearts of her children, but in all of us who were fortunate to know her. Opposition is the stage upon which so many acts of Everyday Greatness are performed.
Rising Above When encountering opposition, successful people find ways to rise above and make the best of circumstances.
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." -- Helen Keller
"Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records." -- William Arthur Ward
"In many instances we can't control what happens to us, but we can control our reactions to what happens to us. We can stay down for the count and be carried out of the ring, or we can pull ourselves back to our feet." -- Ann Landers
Adversity often brings out the true spirit and character within people and leads them to make the noblest of choices.
"Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not." -- Henry Fielding
"May there be enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset." -- Rebecca Gregory
"Birds sing after a storm. Why shouldn't we?" -- Rose Kennedy
"Whenever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems." -- Nelson Rockefeller
"One early spring day I met an old farmer. It had been a rainy spring, and I commented about how good it must be for the crops to have so much rain early in the season. He replied, 'No, if the weather is too easy on the crops now, the plants may only grow roots on the surface. If that happens, then a storm could easily destroy the crops. However, if things are not so easy in the beginning, then the plants will have to grow the strong and deep roots they need to get at the water and nourishment down below. If a storm or drought comes, they are more likely to survive.' Now I look at rough times as an opportunity to put down some roots to help me weather future storms that may come my way." -- Jerry Stemkoski
Problem Solving When problems arise, we do well if we act quickly to drain their momentum and move forward ourselves.
"I never varied from the managerial rule that the worst possible thing we could do would be to lie dead in the water with any problem. Doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without immediate risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business." -- Thomas J Watson, Jr.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." -- Henry David Thoreau
Bring It Down To Size One way to find relief from stress is to bring challenges down to size by taking them one at a time.
"Sir Henry Morton Stanley, when asked if he had been frightened by the jungle that had daunted previous explorers: 'I did not see the whole. I only saw this rock ahead of me; I only saw this poisonous snake which I had to kill in order to take the next step. I only saw the problem directly in front of me. If I had seen the whole thing I would have been too overwhelmed to have attempted this.'" -- John Mack Carter & Joan Feeny
"Never bear more that one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three-- all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have." -- Edward Everett Hale
"Army doctor to a GI faced with combat fatigue: 'Think of your life as an hourglass. The thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck on the middle, one grain of sand at a time. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass. When we start in the morning, there are hundreds of tasks which we feel we must accomplish that day, but if we do not take them one at a time and let them pass through the day slowly and evenly, we are bound to break our own physical or mental structure.'" -- Dale Carnegie
Working from the Inside Out People who encounter opposition often look externally for causes or blame. But the best way to initiate change and to make progress is to first look inside-- to start with yourself.
"Often we change jobs, friends, and spouses instead of ourselves." -- Akbarli H. Hetha
"A Chinese general put it this way: 'If the world is to be brought to order, my nation must first be changed. If my nation is to be changed, my hometown must be made over. If my hometown is to be reordered, my family must first be set right. If my family is to be regenerated, I myself must first be.'" -- A. Purnell Bailey
"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself." -- Leo Tolstoy
"He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality." -- Anwar Sadat
Humor Sometimes when we are down the best solution is to laugh and move on, for some aspects of life just cannot be taken too seriously.
"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -- Victor Hugo
"If you're going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now." -- Marie Osmond
REFLECTIONS
Do you know someone who is a model of dealing with Adversity? What characteristics does he or she exhibit when faced with opposition? What can you learn from them and apply?
Faced with opposition, is your tendency to adapt and do what you've got to do to move forward, or do you let opposition stifle and deter you? What examples from your past best represent your ability to overcome Adversity?
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