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Monday, June 27, 2005

Steven Covey should be shot. And then shot again.


Received this in my mail the other day.
By Steven Covey(Author of bestseller The 7 Habits ofHighly EffectivePeople)

Discover the 90/10Principle. It will change your life(at least the way you react to situations).What isthis principle?

10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% oflife is decided by how you react. What does thismean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens tous. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% isdifferent. You determine the other 90%.

How? By your reaction. You cannot control a redlight. However, you can control your reaction. Do notlet people fool you; YOU can control how you react. Let us use an example: You are eating breakfast withyour family. Your daughter knocks over a cup ofcoffee onto your business shirt. You have no controlover what just happened. What happens next will bedetermined by how you react. You curse. You harshlyscold your daughter for knocking the cup over.

She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, youturn to your spouse and criticize her for placing thecup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and changeyour shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughterhas been too busy crying to finish breakfast and getready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse mustleave immediately for work.

You rush to the car and drive your daughter toschool. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles anhour in a 30 mph speed limit zone. After a 15-minutedelay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arriveat school. Your daughter runs into the buildingwithout saying goodbye. After arriving at the office20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase.Your day has started terrible. As it continues, itseems to get worse and worse. You look forward tocoming home, When you arrive home, you find smallwedge in your relationship with your spouse anddaughter.

Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Whydid you have a bad day?
A. Did the coffee cause it?
B. Did your daughter cause it?
C. Did the policeman cause it?
D. Did you cause it?

The answer is "D". You had no control over what happened with thecoffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is whatcaused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "Its ok honey, you just need tobe more careful next time". Grabbing a towel, you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look throughthe window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early andcheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

Notice the difference? Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different. Why? Because of how you REACTED. You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction. Now you know the 90/10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90/10 principle is incredible. It CAN change yourlife!

So I came up with this:
By Chua We-Ki (Author of an unwritten book: The 7 Bad Habits of People Who Read Self-Help Books)

Discover the SHAPE (Shit HApPEns) principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle?

Bad things happen to good people AND to bad people ALL THE TIME. So what is your reaction? Well, shit happens. Stop groaning around looking for pity and get the hell on with your life.

Let's use an example. You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "Its ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". This cheers her up and she leaps onto your lap. This time, she knocks her cereal over and it splashes onto your pants! Again, she is on the verge of displaying a huge waterworks session, so you comfort her again and say "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time." You then walk upstairs to your room to change into a new set of clothes. Now, she feels really happy because she has such a loving father, so she runs upstairs to make you a card. She can't find paper anywhere so she starts looking around the house. She sees your briefcase and opens it, trying to rummage for paper. Then she sees this nice looking black folder labelled "Business Proposal 2005". She decides that this would be a nice basis for a "I love you Daddy" card. So she tears open the papers inside the folder and starts doodling away with your Mont Blanc pen, the one your boss gave you for the very excellently presented "Business Proposal 2004". She finds that there's no ink in fountain tip pen. Her 8 year old mind deduces that you're supposed to hit it on the nib to get the ink to flow. *tap tap tap* Nothing happens. Then she recalls having seen you refill your pen with black ink from your desk. You walk in on her spilling ink all over the contents of your briefcase. And there comes that dreaded line again. "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time".

You quickly blot out the ink and you run downstairs to finish up your breakfast. You compliment your wife on how good the breakfast was. She gets really pleased with the nice gesture and proceeds to suggest a quickie. You realize that you're running late for an important meeting at work so you gently refuse. She, however, being high on hormones that morning, inteprets that to mean that you can't wait to see your lovely secratary; who in your opinion, has "killer legs". She then yells at you "It's your loss. You're no sexier than an elephant anyway!!!!" You kiss her on the forehead, apologize, and offer to make it up to her. On your way to your car, she adds "AN ELEPHANT WITH ATHELETE'S FOOT!!" for all your neighbours to hear.

You drive to work, singing and grooving to the Pointer Sisters, and you don't realize that you're doing 120 in a 90 zone. Cop pulls you over in his battered Kancil. He hints for a bribe. Being a good Christian, you tell him that you're a Christian and you can't bribe. He then accuses you of disrespecting him and threatens to lock you up in the same cell with the guy who had a burning passion (literally) for Canny Ong. After tonnes of apologizing and cajoling in your incomprehensible BM, he lets you off.

You arrive at work late. You cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having and wonders out loud if you know what time work starts. You smile and nod your head. He misconstrues and starts yelling at you for being sarcastic. You explain that you weren't. He calls you a lying son of a bitch and tells you that the clients are waiting in the conference room. You rush in and open your stained briefcase. You pull out the business proposal which you have been working on for the past 3 months (In fact, your wife accused you of having an affair with Miss Killer Legs because you had stayed back late in the office, working on the proposal). You then confidently slide it across the table to your German client. He opens the black folder and stares at the document your daughter ripped up. "Sheize!! Arschloch!! Nein nein! Verdammt arschficker!!" You give a puzzled look as they get up and leave. Your boss is furious. He asks you to pack up your desk and leave by 5.

You leave the office. On the way home, you pick up some flowers for your wife. You can't wait to give them to her. You open the door to your room and you find her in bed with your neighbour. You then think to yourself "It's my fault. I should have knocked."

You get upset and you decide to spend the night in the park. It's a cold night. It's a good thing you bought the flowers - its the only thing keeping you warm.

Picture the exact scenario if you had applied the SHAPE Principle.

Coffee splashes over you. You quip, "Shit happens." Before your daughter can react, you run upstairs and get a new shirt and then head off to work. You scream along with Papa Roach. You don't realize that you're driving at 180 in a 90 zone. You get pulled over by a beat up Kancil copper. He comes along and you think to yourself "Shit happens. I'll just get the summon". He asks you why you were speeding and you answer "Tahi menjadi." You both have a good laugh at your horrendous BM and he lets you off with a warning. You arrive at work on time. You walk into the conference room and wish your German clients a very "Guten Morgen". You open the black folder and realize that you've left the business proposal at home. You explain it to your clients and you end off with "Ahhh sheize geschehen." They burst into laughter and tell your boss what a good sense of humour you've got. You bring them out for lunch and buy them a round of beers while you head back home to pick up the business proposal. You seal the RM5mil deal and pick up a diamond necklace on the way home. You get lucky. Very lucky. Very very very lucky.

Notice the difference? Just accept that this is a fallen world. Shit happens. Don't cry over spilt milk. Don't weep over de-foresting. Don't grieve over dying endangered spieces. Don't mourn over failures. There are so many things to do and so little time to do them in. You don't get forever. Get the hell on with your life and don't expect sympathy. If you don't help yourself, nobody else can. Or will.

I hate self help books. No offense to those who swear by them but they just don't work for me.

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