Inspiring Stories
We all love stories that inspire us, don’t we? Below please find some inspiriational stories that may be of interest to you . Feel free to use them at your next invocation, inspirational speech or dinner-table conversation! And if you know the original author, please e-mail me.
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Inspiring Real Estate Story or Just Things to Think About
Not sure if this will inspire you or frighten you, but if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death;
1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
The above work was e-mailed to me by Barbara Shaefer of Lubbock, Texas.
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An Inspiring Story of a FATHER TO BE
anonymous
A man was driving home one evening, on a two-lane country road. Work in this small Midwestern community, was almost as slow as his beat-up Pontiac. But he never quit looking. Ever since the factory closed, he’d been unemployed, and with winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home. It was a lonely road. Not very many people had a reason to be on it, unless they were leaving. Most of his friends had already left. They had families to feed and dreams to fulfill. But he had stayed on.
After all, this was where he’d buried his mother and father. He was born here and he knew the countryside like the back of his hand. He could go down this road blind, and tell you what was on either side, and with his headlights not working, which came in handy. It was starting to get dark and light snow flurries were coming down. He’d better get a move on. He almost didn’t see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help.
He pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so.
Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help you ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan.”
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through.
She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid. Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past… He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Bryan added “…and think of me.” He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy-looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The cash register was like the telephone of an out-of work actor-it didn’t ring much. Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.
The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan. After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back.
The waitress wondered where the lady could be, then she noticed something written on the napkin under which was some $100 bills- four of them to be exact. There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote. It said: “You don’t owe me anything, I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. Later that night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was still thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s gonna be all right. I love you, Bryan.”
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A Story to Inspire called ELEMENTARY PASSION
Source: London Independent International News http://www.independent.co.uk/
Nearly a third of people have no passion in their lives. Psychologists have found that a sizable proportion of the population have no strong inclination towards any particular object or activity and as a result are less satisfied than people who have a “passion.” . Passion has long been associated with brilliance and success. From Michelangelo’s passionate relationship with marble to Richard Branson’s passion for building businesses.
The darker side of passion, which leads to suffering and unhappiness, has been the inspiration for many films. John Wayne in The Searchers spends his life trying to find his kidnapped niece, sacrificing everything for his obsession. The results of the study, conducted by Robert Vallerand, professor of psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal, were presented at the American Psychological Society annual conference, in Denver, Colorado. Professor Vallerand, who studied 525 people, found that 30 per cent had no passion in their lives, while the remainder were split between two distinct types of passion: harmonious and obsessive.
“If someone can’t help themselves and they have to let their passion run its course at any cost then they have obsessive passion,” he said. “People with obsessive passion neglect the rest of their life, causing conflict both within themselves and with those around them.” In contrast those with harmonious passion are in control: “They are able to decide when to fulfill their passion and can fit it in with the rest of their life. It has a very positive effect on their enjoyment of life,” he said. Those involved in the study were asked to choose something that they loved to do, did regularly and felt was important to them. They then filled in three questionnaires. The first determined the kind of passion they felt by asking them questions such as how they felt if they were prevented from indulging in their pet passion. The second determined how they felt during and after indulging their passion and the third assessed their general state of mind and enjoyment of life.
Two-thirds felt they had a passion that was important to them. “People with harmonious passion use their activity to cope better with the other aspects of their lives. It appears to facilitate increased self-confidence and personal growth, said Professor Vallerand. “Those who engage in obsessive passion neglect those around them. They have the same satisfaction with life as those with no passion at all.”
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YOUR GOALS – do they inspire you?
If you have ever been discouraged because of failure, please read on. For often, achieving what you set out to do is NOT the important thing. Let me explain.
Two brothers decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were working, a couple of older boys stopped by to watch. “What are you doing?” asked one of the visitors. “We plan to dig a hole all the way through the earth!” one of the brothers volunteered excitedly. The older boys began to laugh, telling the younger ones that digging a hole all the way through the earth was impossible. After a long silence, one of the diggers picked up a jar full of spiders, worms and a wide assortment of insects. He removed the lid and showed the wonderful contents to the scoffing visitors. Then he said quietly and confidently, “Even if we don’t dig all the way through the earth, look what we found along the way!”
Their goal was far too ambitious, but it did cause them to dig. And that is what a goal is for — to cause us to move in the direction we have chosen; in other words, to get us to digging! But not every goal will be fully achieved. Not every job will end successfully. Not every relationship will endure. Not every hope will come to pass. Not every love will last. Not every endeavor will be completed. Not every dream will be realized. And when that happens, when you fall short of your aim, can you say, “Yeah, but look at what I found along the way! Look at the wonderful things which have come into my life because I tried to do something! For it’s in the digging that life is lived. And it is joy in the journey, in the end, that truly matters.
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https://sellinghomes1-2-3.com/home/
A STORY TO INSPIRE CALLED “THE 3 BLUE RIBBONS “
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in High school by telling them the difference they each made using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told them how they made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, “Who I Am Makes a Difference.”
About a month later, the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this Acknowledgment Ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, to see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning . He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, “We’re doing a class project on recognition, and we’d like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened.”
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised . The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure". The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people"
That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.
Imagine . He thinks I'm a creative genius . Then he put this blue ribbon that says 'Who I Am Makes A Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you. My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school, and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"
The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to."
Looking for an inspiring quote?
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CRITICISM: IT CAN INSPIRE YOU OR DESTROY YOU
by Steve Goodier & Life Support Systems
Former U. S. President John F. Kennedy received endless advice and criticism from the media concerning how he should run the country. Much of it he took good-naturedly. In fact, he often used a favorite story in response to the media's comments about how they thought he could do a better job.
He told about a legendary baseball player who always played flawlessly. He consistently hit when at bat and was never thrown out at first. When on base he never failed to score. As a fielder, he never dropped a ball and he threw with unerring accuracy. He ran swiftly and played gracefully. In fact, he would have been one of the all-time greats except for one thing -- no one could ever persuade him to put down his beer and hot-dog and come out of the press box to play!
Most of us can empathize, for we all have people in our lives who criticize and second-guess. They are quick to point out flaws and quicker yet to offer advice. When it comes to receiving criticism, I believe it helps to remember first that not all criticism is invalid. Wisdom listens for the kernel of truth and saves it for future growth.
But when criticism seems unfair, I believe it helps to remember the hawk. When attacked by crows, it does not counterattack. Instead, the hawk soars higher and higher in ever widening circles until the pests leave it alone. When there is nothing to learn from criticism, can you rise above it and soar?
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ATTITUDE - how a young boy's viewpoint inspires his father
One day a wealthy father took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. To prove his point, the wealthy man allowed his son to spend a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family.
When the boy got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"Very good Dad!"
"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Yes!" he answered.
"And what did you learn?"
The son thought for a moment before he answered, "Well, I saw that we have one dog at home, and they have four. We have a swimming pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, but they live next to a lake that has no end. We have imported lamps in our garden, but from their front porch you can see all the stars. Our back yard patio has a nice view of our back yard, but from their back yard, you can see the whole horizon."
When the little boy had finished, his father stood speechless. The boy started to walk away.
"Wait," said the father. "Is there anything else?"
His son stopped, and turned. " Oh, right. Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are compared to them!"
Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude towards life -- you've got everything! You can't buy any of these things, but still you can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!
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http://febrinaldi.blog.upi.edu/2009/06/13/mp3-player-seukuran-kapsul-obat/
http://law.scu.edu/blog/hightech/invitation-to-attend-portrait-unveiling-for-judge-whyte-318-at-330p-fairmont-hotel-sj.cfm
http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/rcls4004001f2010site2/blog/2010/09/30/amy-lancaster/
http://blog.vcu.edu/dpgray/2009/04/yoga_and_presence.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/huiex001/FYI/035239.html
http://a.parsons.edu/~kellj539/blog/?q=image
http://iws.punahou.edu/department/WoCenter/China/Blog/2006/07/sitting_on_the_steps.html
http://iws.punahou.edu/department/WoCenter/China/Blog/2006/07/chris_reflects_on_chinese_scho.html
http://febrinaldi.blog.upi.edu/2009/06/13/mp3-player-seukuran-kapsul-obat/
http://law.scu.edu/blog/hightech/invitation-to-attend-portrait-unveiling-for-judge-whyte-318-at-330p-fairmont-hotel-sj.cfm