InspirEmail No 114 - July 30, 2007

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
William Arthur Ward

InspirEmail No 114 - July 30, 2007
'Inspirational messages to refresh the spirit and boost the emotional bank account'

Few Good Followers

A young woman was filling out an application for college when she came across the question: Are you a leader? She thought she had better be brutally honest, so she answered, 'No.' She was convinced when she sent the application in that she'd never hear from them because of that answer.

But she received a letter back from the school that read: 'We have reviewed numerous applications and, to date, there will be some 1,452 new leaders attending school next year. We have decided to accept your application because we felt it was imperative that they have at least one follower.'

One man bought a sign and put it on his office door. The sign read: 'I'm the boss.' The next day he came to work he noticed that someone had put a post-it on his sign that said, 'Your wife called and she wants her sign back.'

We can't all be the boss. And what good are leaders without followers? In actuality, we need to be both.

Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow. We lead by example, but we still follow role models. We lead by sharing our expertise, but we remain open to the wisdom of others.

There are numerous courses and lessons on leadership. Yet the best leaders are also excellent followers. They know how to listen, they respect and follow great ideas from those around them, and they are humble enough to seek help when it's needed.

You may be the boss, but do you know how to follow? This world could use a few good followers.

Written by Steve Goodier

Steve Goodier publishes This is Your Life Support System, a free e-newsletter sharing life, love and laughter. You can visit Steve's website at . . . lifesupportsystem >>>

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Lessons About Life

You will receive a body - you may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period you're around

You will learn lessons - you are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid

There are no mistakes, only lessons - growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The 'failed' experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately 'works'

A lesson is repeated until learned - a lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson

Learning lessons do not end - there is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned

'There' is no better than 'here' - when your 'there' has become a 'here', you will simply obtain another 'there' that will, again, look better than another 'here'

Others are merely mirrors of you - you cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself

What you make of your life is up to you - you have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you and the choice is yours

Your answers lie inside you - the answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust

You will forget all this - unless you consistently stay focused on the goals you have set for yourself, everything you've just read won't mean anything

Author Unknown