The group replied, "Yes."

He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar. The speaker jiggled the jar until the gravel filled the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, "Is the jar full?"

This time, the group replied, "Probably not."

The speaker then added some sand and asked, "Is the jar full?"

"No!" shouted the group.

Finally, the speaker filled the jar to the brim with water and asked the group the point of this illustration.

Someone replied that you could always fit more things into your life if "you really work at it."

"No," countered the speaker. The point is, if you don't put the big rocks in first, " . . . would you ever have gotten any of them in?"

As you start the new year, think of the "big rocks" in your life as the things you can do to make this a healthier and happier year for yourself and others.

The most important thing here is that you don't forget about yourself in the process. Give yourself some priority and work everything around that, be kind to yourself because if you are not kind to your poor self no one else will be, as people treat you like your treat yourself; if you love yourself you will be loved, and if you think less of yourself, others will think less of you and the list goes on. So if you are complaining about not being loved or respected, look within yourself and you will find the answer.

A little girl asks her mother: "mommy; what makes people happy?"

Mother: why do you ask dear?

Girl: well, when you take me to school in the morning, and I see parents bringing their kids before going to their work; they seem unhappy. But when you come to pick me up in the afternoon and other parents come for their kids after they finish work; they are smiling and seem happy; so does work make people happy?

Isn't it amazing how children see the world?

What the little girl saw is that they were unhappy before work and seemed happier after they went to work, so logically work must have made them happy.

How long do you think it will take this little girl before realizing that what she saw was quite the opposite of what she understood?

As I was driving to work this morning; I was looking around me at the other drivers and they all seemed unhappy. I was telling my sister (I take her for the ride every morning), I was telling her that no one is even smiling, and if you do smile, people would think that a) you are crazy, b) you are flirting with them or c) you are making fun of them

How sad is that?

But the question remains; why don't we like going to work? Why do we see it as a burden?

I believe that each one of us should ask him/herself; what motivates me to get out of bed each morning? What is my passion? Is the type of work I am doing satisfying enough? What would make it better and gratifying?

Yesterday; my best friend was chatting me on msn and asked how I was; I told him that I was feeling kind of down because I have so much on my mind, so he told me that I should be happier and deal with my life in a better way, and then he told me this: 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react; apparently this is a known principle (the 90/10 principle) and then he sent me the whole article (by Stephen Covey).

WOW!!

If we all knew and dealt with our lives as this article suggests, I think we would be smiling and happier before and after work.

For your convenience; you can read the full article here.

Enjoy and keep smiling … you look better smiling!

We always hear speakers and entrepreneurs who deal with self improvement and communication skills; we hear them tell everyone to just be themselves and everything else will fall in place. But how helping being yourself actually is? I haven't even thought about that before.

I have been working all my life to learn how to be comfortable in my own skin and just accept myself and be me; just me in its simplest unmodified or masked form. It is very difficult to reach this point where you are at ease with the way you look, walk, talk, laugh … etc.

There comes a time when you look around you and see how it looks to the other parties; are they comfortable with you as you are with yourself? Are they OK with the level of comfort you have reached? Do they get offended by the way you express your ideas or feelings? Do they see you like you see yourself?

I took this look and was not happy with what I realized. After some observation and thinking; I came to a conclusion that people do not like it when you are too comfortable with yourself and they even get intimidated by this one fact. It is almost as if you are trying to put them down or be superior to them just by being you.

Is it that we reached a point where people do not believe or trust any more? Is it that they get envious? Are they programmed to expect the worst out of every situation? Are we all programmed this way?

But what does it mean to be yourself and make use of it? To me; it means that no one can hurt me by judging me, and when they do judge me; it is an indication of a weakness they have. It would not matter to me if someone is wearing more expensive clothes, or is more beautiful or attractive, or driving a fancier car. Being me teaches me about my uniqueness and shows me how to put forward the good and work on the bad. Being me makes me make rational choices, cause I don’t get ahead of myself, it helps me be realistic and helps me manage my own expectations. It helps me become bolder to capture opportunities and live my life fully.

All these benefits and more tell me that I am doing what is right for me, and I will continue to work hard with those I care about to see things from my point of view, even if we agree to disagree; at the end we will have respect for each other, and that alone is an achievment.

Sometimes I look at my life and what I had achieved so far and can't help but ask myself: is this really what I want? Was this what I dreamed of all these years? Did I always know what I wanted and went after it?

Sadly; the answer is NO

Growing up was so exhausting! It was bad enough that we had to struggle to become anything in a community that cripples any attempt to breaking free.

All I remember is my mom threatening me to tell my father if I insisted on doing anything she did not approve. My dad was the monster; when we heard him pull the car inside the garage; we used to crash in each other (me and my sisters) to run away from the way. It felt like anything he would have said to us, would be a punishment of some kind.

When I started developing some guts to raise my voice in projection; I remember that I was always on mom's black list. She thought that I would cause her some problems with dad and he would end up accusing her of not raising me well. All I remember is that I was boiling from the inside trying to break free from all the nonsense and just be able to dream and make something in my life.

I always wanted to sing. Some of you might say that it's almost the dream of the majority, but I was actually good at it and I have a nice voice. Back at the university; I went to the music section and did a test for my voice with the music teacher. He listened to me like someone who had just discovered something, and he wanted me to sing with the pianist "solo", because I had a pure voice (quoting him), but I was afraid to take any action because I would be killed if I did (another honor killing form), so I thought that my life was worth more.

Now and after all these years; I watch my past life like a movie and I realize that I did not live any of my dreams; they were all crushed at the rocks of reality. I ask myself; when do we say that it's too late? When does it become too late to think of your unfulfilled dreams? Is it ever over for one to think of lost dreams?

I know one thing; I will never do this to my children; I will help them pursue and fulfill their dreams no matter how much I don’t like them or approve of them; it is their lives after all and not mine!!!

"I ran into a stranger as he passed by."Oh, excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too; wasn't even watching for you." We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said good-bye. But at home a different story is told, how we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal, my daughter stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked her down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown. She walked away, her little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said: "While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the children you love, you seem to abuse. Look on the kitchen floor, you'll find some flowers there by the door. Those are the flowers she brought for you. She picked them herself; pink, yellow and blue. She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise, And you never saw the tears in her eyes."

By this time, I felt very small and now my tears began to fall.I quietly went and knelt by her bed; "Wake up, little girl, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"

She smiled, "I found them out by the tree. I picked them because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like them, especially the blue." I said, "Daughter, I'm sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." she said "Oh Mom that's okay. I love you anyway". I said, "Daughter, I love you too, and I do like the flowers especially the blue"

Are you aware that: If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family an unwise investment indeed."  story  found on  "evidyarthi"

Isn't it true that we tend to be harsh and provocative with our loved ones and we save the nice attitude and pep talk to those that are not even close to us? We are tuning the kind generous attitude towards one side without the other.

I am not suggesting that we become impolite with the rest of the world, but why can't we be nice with those that care about us the most? We yell at them and we don’t stand for a minute to think about their feelings and reaction to what we do or say. It is like we are taking them for granted and we count on them being there all the time.

How many times we heard adults ask young children: who do you love more? Mommy or daddy?

Just by asking this question; we assume that love comes by default. Just because someone is related to you by blood, you are supposed to love them unconditionally. Well, I don’t believe that any more. Love is a reflection of positive energy; when you feel love you radiate it and reflect it back. When you are given love; you will give back, but in no way when you don’t feel it or get it; that you will be able to give back.

As a second child in the family; I always thought that I had to prove myself real hard so that my parents would love me more than my beautiful elder sister and my smart cute younger sister. I subjected myself to a tremendous amount of pressure to impress them just because they did not know how to show me that they loved me no matter what. Only now I know that they do.

If you love someone; tell them and show them in every way you can because this might be your last chance to do so.