The 99 Club

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King and he asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?" The man replied,"Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."


The King was not satisfied with his reply and sought the advise of his most trusted advisor. The advisor said, "Your majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?", the King enquired. The advisor suggested that to know more about the club, he must leave a bag of 99 gold coins at servant's doorsteps.

When the servant found the bag and opened it, he let out a great shout of joy...So many gold coins. However, after counting them he wondered, "What could have happened to the last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided to work hard to earn that extra coin and complete his collection. Soon, his life changed : he was overworked, horribly grumping, started complaining about trivial matters and he stopped singing while he worked.

When the King saw this, he asked his advisor about his servant's drastic transformation.

The advisor replied, " Your servant has now joined The 99 Club. It is a club for those people who have enough to be happy but they are never contented. They keep telling themseleves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I'll be happy for life."

We can be happy, even with little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt people around us: all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

Touching Lives

It was a sports stadium. Eight children were standing on the track to participate in the running event.
* Ready !
* Steady !
* Bang !!!

With the sound of toy pistol, all eight girls started running. Hardly have they covered ten to fifteen steps, one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down. Due to bruises and pain she started crying. When other seven girls heard this sound, stopped running, stood for a while and turned back, they all ran back to the place where the girl fell down. One among them bent, picked and kissed the girl gently and enquired 'Now pain must have reduced'. All seven girls lifted the fallen girl, pacified her, two of them held the girl firmly and then all seven joined hands together and walked together and reached the winning post. Officials were shocked. Clapping of thousands of spectators filled the stadium. Many eyes were filled with tears and perhaps it had reached the GOD even!

I haven't cooked up this story for my readers. YES. This actually happened in Hyderabad (India), recently! The sport was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health. All these special girls had come to participate in this event and they are Spastic children. Yes, they were mentally challenged. What did they teach this world?

Teamwork? Humanity? Equality among all !

Let's just not live for ourselves. Help others who are in need. Let's give them a reason to smile.

Get The Midas Touch

A group of researchers put some coins in the coin return slots of public pay phones and then watched the people who made calls to see if they would reach in to check if there was any change that someone before them forgot.

Whenever a person retrieved the coins from the money return slot, one of the researchers walked up to the person and said that they think that they left some money in the phone, by chance, notice any money in the slot? 97% of the people who took money from the coin slot said no, that they hadn't found any money in the phone. They lied.

With the next group of money grabbers, then the researchers changed thier approach.
Now, instead of asking the way they did before, when they asked the people who had taken the money out of the coin return slot if they had noticed any money in the slot, the researchers lightly touched the people on the arm or shoulder. Ready for this?

95% of the people who had been touched said that, yes, they had found some coins in the slot, and gave it to the researcher.

From 97% dishonesty to 95% honesty....
And the only variable was the touch on the arm.
Now why would that be?

Well, when we like people and when they like us, we touch them and they touch us... either with hugs, pats on the back, hand holding, ticking, high-fiving, wrestling, kissing, a quick rub, a massage... lots of different ways.
Sure... to show approval and to celebrate, we touch. Its just automatic... built into us. And we love it.

So, when the researchers touched the people they were studying while they asked them if they found any change in the coin slot, the people immediately felt more comfortable and closer to the researcher...Instantly closer. All because of a touch.

So, what's the lesson?

If you want to gain trust and familiarity, try a gentle and familiar touch and you will get your way and persuade others to your way of thinking a whole lot more often.
People will most definitely respond positively if a touch is innocent enough and not sleezy.

Attitude Determines Altitude

The story is told of a woman who during the war went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert.
She simply hated the place; the heat was almost unbearable, 125 degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand- sand everywhere.
Finally, in desperation she wrote to her parents in Ohio that she couldn't stand it another minute and was coming home.
Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father - just the two familiar lines:
"Two men looked out from the prison bars... one saw the mud, the other saw stars."
The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post.
She made friends with the natives, learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it.
The desert hadn't changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart to the words her father sent, a whole New World opened up to her.

So, the next time you have a problem -- at home or at work, big or small -- decide to manage your attitude toward it. Try changing your beliefs about the problem. When you change your beliefs, you also change the consequences of the situation.

Unlike some things in life, we can choose our outlook. Sometimes we just need a reminder that happiness can often simply be a result of choosing attitudes.

The Magical Mustard Seed

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died.In her grief, she went to the holy man and asked,"What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?"

Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow.We will use it to drive sorrow out of your life." The woman went off at once in search of that magical musturd seed.

She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me". They told her,"You have certainly come to the wrong place ," and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them. The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?" She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hotels, and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.

The woman became so involved in helping others cope with their sorrows that she eventually let go of her own. She would later come to understand that it was the quest to find the magical mustard seed.

Don't spend your life brooding over sorrows and mistakes. Don't be one who never gets over things.

No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with the gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears.

A Little Kindness

Here's a true story of a little boy who thirsts for attention.

There was a little boy who was perplexed about life.It seems he could not help doing things that would call attention to his antics. He would get things and he would do things that would irk the other kids in the boarding school where he was studying.
Whenever something was amiss, it became prevalent for everyone to surmise that he would be the culprit.
One evening, in the place where he lived , he unexpectedly recieved a pack of fried salted peanuts from the person in authority.
The bag of peanuts in hand, the little boy stood in awe, he did not know what to say.
He could not believe that he was worth this much attention without him doing anything at all!
He went back to his sleeping quarters feeling happy and in a daze....
Shortly, he came out of his room and he in turn, surprised the kind Peanut Giver with a "gift" of his own.
He gave the Peanut Giver the "gift" -wrapped in a white paper saying softly: "I found this." Then he timidly walked away.

Was the money really found by the little boy?
Or....?
Did the Peanut Giver make a big mistake???

The Peanut Giver would like to think that the little boy felt he was valued, so he was encouraged to do good, so he did the right thing.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said:
"IF YOU JUDGE THE PEOPLE,
YOU HAVE NO TIME TO LOVE THEM."

SO....FRIENDS,
LET US DO ALL THE LOVING
WHILE WE STILL CAN...

Commitment

An old man lived in a certain part of London, and he would wake up every morning and go to the subway.He would get the train right to Central London , and then sit at the street corner and beg.He would do this every single day of his life.He sat at the same street corner and begged for almost 20 years.

His house was filthy, and a stench came out of the house and it smelled horribly.The neighbours could not stand the smell anymore, so they summoned the police officiers to clear the place.The officiers knocked down the door and cleaned the house.There were small bags of money all over the house that he had collected over the years.

The police counted the money, and they soon realized that the old man was a millionaire.They waited outside his house in anticipation to share the good news with him.When he arrived home that evening, he was met by one of the officiers who told him that there was no need for him to beg anymore as he was a rich man now, a millionaire!

He said nothing at all; he went into his house and locked the door.The next morning he wake up as usual, went to the subway, got into the tram, and sat at the street corner and continued to beg.

Obiviously, this old man had no great plans, dreams or anything significant for his life.So,what do we learn from this story?

We learn nothing from this story other than staying focussed on the things we enjoy doing, commitment.We should remain true to our course; which may mean committing yourselves to things that people around you would normally disapprove, let nothing distract us from being happy, let nothing else determine our fate, but ourselves.

What makes us happy is what matters in the end, not what we acquire.

Cheers!