The reasonable man and unreasonable one

Posted by Maung Soe

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to him. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"

This quote reminds me of people I have met and also prompts me to question what kind of person myself.

Some people are decidedly reasonable, sensible and level-headed. I admire them for their calmness and coolness even under the most challenging circumstances. They are also popular and have many friends who are ready to seek advice from them. They may not be perfect but they are ready and open to admit their mistakes and imperfections. They are also good at adapting to the changes in the circumstances.

The other type of people is the complete opposite of the first group. They are distinctly odd. They are irritable and dislike almost everything in the universe. Most of their ideas are always at odds with other people. They are not the type you can befriend easily. They are not popular in their community and they do not care less about their popularity either.

Most people fall between those two extremes, they are not too reasonable but they are not too outlandish. However, the interesting types are the two extremes.

George Bernard Shaw, as quoted above, favoured the unreasonable type. Probably he liked the idea of a misfit coming up with a weird idea once in a while.

I always like the reasonable ones who are easier to deal with. They may not change the world but they are the ones who are reliable and always bring results. So give me the reasonable types, please!

Wait a moment! On second thought, imagine the world full of people who are ready to accept whatever is given and always happy, we would still be living in the Stone Age. How about the world full of people who are always unhappy and trying to change the world every moment of their lives? We would have finished each other over the arguments and there would be no civilisation left.

So, I would go with the majority population of the reasonables with probably less than one percent of the unreasonables.

What kind of person am I? I thought, I already answered.

Teacher Poems

Dear Saya,

I wish there is some way of showing our gratitude for all you have done for us.

Teachers
Paint their minds
and guide their thoughts
Share their achievements
and advise their faults

Inspire a Love
of knowledge and truth
As you light the path
Which leads our youth

For our future brightens
with each lesson you teach
Each smile you lengthen
Each goal you help reach

For the dawn of each poet
each philosopher and king
Begins with a Teacher
And the wisdom they bring

(by Kevin William Huff )

I'm happy that you're my teacher;
I enjoy each lesson you teach.
As my role model you inspire me
To dream and to work and to reach.

With your kindness you get my attention;
Every day you are planting a seed
Of curiosity and motivation
To know and to grow and succeed.

You help me fulfill my potential;
I'm thankful for all that you've done.
I admire you each day, and I just want to say,
As a teacher, you're number one!

(By Joanna Fuchs)

Thank you teacher for helping us
To learn what we need to know
We'll all remember you
No matter where we go.

Thank you teacher for being
So nice and kind and good;
We like you so much, teacher,
We'd stay here if we could!

(By Joanna Fuchs)

Tha Din Gyut Candle light festival in Burma

Time is so fast. Now it’s month of October and there will be celebrate Tha Din Gyut Candle light festival in this month in our lovely country, Burma.

I got one article about that festival from http://www.finemyanmar.com.

I want to share you.

“The traditional festival annually holds in this month is religious in origin , character and significance. The festivals was held in the memory of Buddha' s ascended from Tavatimsa. Buddha journeyed to Tavatimsa to preach his sermon for all celestial being including his previous mother who had became the life of deva ,for her good deeds. This tradition is handed down and passed through many generation and was held about three days for activity. Those three day are for the day before full moon day, the full moon day, and after full moon day.
For the lay men the ceremony is performed according to Buddhism there are five infinite debts of gratitude,
• the gratitude owed to Buddha
• the gratitude owed to Dhama (his teaching)
• the gratitude owed to Monks
• the gratitude owed to parents and
• the gratitude owed to teachers.
The festival of light in Tha Din Gyut is an occasion for rejoicing and merry- making but in essence it is auspicious occasion for spiritual delight and merit-making. The fore runners of this month are the sounds of fire crackers exploding and the sight of paper kites flying against the blue sky.
Visitors can enjoy the brightness of Pagodas , peoples’ houses, and buildings and the colourful activities of the festival.
Houses, streets, and public building are illuminated and festooned with coloured electric bulbs. The lighted oil bowls are placed on the terraces of Pagodas and beauty to the scene steeped in the silvery moon light. “

I would like to pay my respect and gratitude to all the persons who are mentioned above, AND especially Saya U Thein Oo.

If you want to join with me to do so, please sign up your name in Comment section.

The 10 Success Skills of Great Leaders

by Jim Allen

from http://superperformance.com/10successskills.php

Struggling to achieve success? Maybe you need to hone some skills.

What skills exactly?

Well, after some intensive reading and study of successful leaders in business, industry, government, and personal development, I've found that there are 10 core skills that the most successful leaders all share.

While these leaders may not be masters of every particular skill, they have, at least, a basic knowledge of them.

Anyone looking to achieve higher levels of as a leader, in business, volunteering, or even just at home, would be well served by strengthening their abilities in each of these skill sets.

1. Critical Thinking

Successful leaders all have powerful critical thinking skills. The ability to quickly survey and analyze a situation then identify the core issues that need to be dealt with is key to business success. As is, the ability to understand new issues and factors that impact one's goals and designs.

2. Creative Thinking

These leaders also have varying abilities to think, well, differently. They have the ability to step out of rigid mindsets so that they can explore potential new ideas that others may consider risky, crazy, or silly.

3. Listening

Great leaders are great listeners. Experienced at focusing their energy to the task, this includes listening, so that when they listen, they are very focused on hearing everything that's being said so that they can make well-informed decisions.

4. Reading

The ability to read is vital to lifelong personal and professional success. Leaders in any industry or area all tend to be good readers who are exposed to large amounts of information through reports, newspapers, white papers, books, etc. While they may not be speed readers, they are excellent at grasping the main ideas and context of the material they do read.

5. Writing

They may not write often. And they may not write a lot. But when they do, successful leaders are clear, concise, and to the point.

6. Speaking

Perhaps the most important languaging skill, the best leaders are also good speakers. They are able to present their ideas verbally to audiences of all types and sizes, as well as easily change their presentation style so that they meet an audience's needs. While it may not be a skill that a leader is ever completely comfortable with, she understands that if she can't speak about the issues her business faces, nobody can.

7. Motivating

Skilled leaders are superb motivators. They understand that each of us is propelled by our own, personal, motivations. These leaders are able to apply all of their languaging skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) to create powerful group goals and visions that spur people to give 110%.

8. Networking

Successful people have successful networks. They have contacts, associates, and friends in a wide array of fields who they can call on for ideas, input, and assistance. These leaders actively cultivate and grow their networks all the time.

9. Delegating

To some, this may not seem like a leadership skill, but it is. Leaders who excel are leaders who don't try to take everything on themselves. Indeed, they understand that they can't do everything. They easily delegate all but the most important of tasks to their employees, assistants, and networks. They create systems so that they are available to focus on the most important issues at any moment.

10. Evolving

In evaluating successful leaders, I think this is the most powerful, yet most difficult skill to master. Evolving is the ability to adapt, quickly, to the newest technologies, styles, and modes of thinking that create success. It is a skill requiring a supreme sense of self-confidence coupled with extreme humility. For leaders, it is a skill applied not just for personal success, but also for the success of their business, their workers, and their families. It provides those who can master it, the opportunity to achieve life-long success in all areas of life.

Magic Tricks for Great Leaders

By Anna Farmery
From http://www.anna@theengagingbrand.com

When my nephew was growing up he loved magic and learned how to be a magician....at the age of 13-14 he could bamboozle a whole room of adults with an array of tricks. He left us inspired, entertained and intrigued. I always felt there were some lessons for business

M= Magicians are not born they "become great" through practice, from studying their skill. Great leaders constantly develop their thinking, their coaching skills, communication techniques and understanding of the world. Just how you cannot produce magic tricks by reading a book, you cannot lead without practice and learning.

A= Audience participation. Magicians draw people in, by incorporating them into their show. Great leaders "draw in" employees by including them in the strategy, the discussions of ideas, talking about the future - by including them, they feel part of the show.

G= Get close to the audience. The great magicians do not hide away from the audience. They have close ups, they walk around, they spin the props around......Great leaders do not hide in their offices. They are constantly talking to their employees, they are visible in the company, they are open in their thoughts to show they have nothing to hide.

I= Ingenuity. Magicians do not do the same show all their lives. They continue to surprise the audience, they change their style, their content...they keep the audience guessing. I think this is true for great leaders. They find new ways of communicating the message, of explaining the goals, of keeping people engaged with the vision.

C= Cherish the values. The magic circle has boundaries, people are only admitted to the circle if they adhere to the values - like not sharing how the tricks work. I think leaders can learn from this approach. Cherish the values of the company, choose people that can live by those values...when those values are compromised then deal with it quickly and strongly.

Great leaders create a magical corporate environment that engages employees - they inspire people to achieve what seems the impossible. They understand that they need to inform, entertain and engage their audience.

In reality there is no magic to leadership, it is about treating people like the human beings that they are!
In reality when you treat people like human beings, magic happens...they are engage and believe the impossible is possible. Spread a little magic today...

Why People Lie ?

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/dontpanic-tour

What is a lie?

A lie is an untruth, a deviation, big or small, from what is known to be real. It is a false statement deliberately presented as being true, thus misrepresenting a situation or giving a totally wrong impression about something.

There are generally two types of lies - white lies, which do little or no damage, and black lies, which can do detriment to the deceiver or the deceived when the truth is found out.

The People who lie

Everybody lies. Admit it - you do as well. There is probably not a single person who has ever lived who has not once in his life told a falsehood or misrepresented the truth, regardless of whether it was unintentional or if he told it so that someone else's feelings would not be hurt - or if he did it for more sinister reasons.

Why people lie?

We have already covered different types of lies and on what occasions people tell them. But here is the question - what makes people lie?

* Greed - for power, for advantage, for money, for admiration

* Fear - we are sometimes driven to lie by fear - usually of what will happen if we tell the truth

* Acceptance - no man is an island. We find ourselves doing whatever it takes to be accepted, to be liked and appreciated

* Habit - compulsive liars lie compulsively because they are used to it

Example of lie

(1) 'Yeah, I'll Get to Work on it Right Away'

False promises are those that people make and then do not follow through. A typical example might be, 'No problem - I'll just make a few calls to the companies; you'll get the stuff in no time' (even when you know that you'll be busy for the rest of the week, and will never get around to making those calls). Of course these are lies that will eventually be found out - usually to your detriment, because your acquaintance/friend may decide never to trust you again.

Of course, there are cases where false promises have worked to a person's advantage, to the detriment of the other party. Hitler was one example - he'd promised British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 that he wouldn't invade Czechoslovakia if the Czechs would consider redrawing their border with Germany. He didn't exactly hold up his end of the deal, did he?

(2) ‘I Did it’

Plagiarism. A serious offence committed by desperate students who have to hand in a paper by the next morning, but have neither the time nor the imagination to compose their own thoughts or ideas. This is seriously damaging, whether or not the person gets caught. A student who gets away with it is encouraged by his own audacity to try the trick again. And again. Until he gets caught. This dependence on somebody else's work hampers his own creativity, and suppresses his ability to think for himself - something that is not going to get him anywhere in the long run. It is also damaging to those who are honest enough to do their own research, but get poorer grades than those who cheated, thus causing them to think that there is little use in pouring so much effort into their assignment. And if the cheat gets caught - well, let's just say that it's usually a case of copyright infringement. At the very least, the student gets suspended - or expelled.

(3) ‘I Didn’t Do it’

This is probably one of the most common lies. Students who neglected to do their homework tell it to avoid getting punished ('The computer ate my homework'). People who have accidentally totalled an expensive piece of equipment may resort to lying to avoid getting the blame ('I don't know. It just stopped functioning'.). People of power lie to get themselves out of sticky situations that might damage their career, as did Representative Gary A Condit, Democrat of California, who lied about his affair with Chandra Ann Levy.

This is usually a case of evading responsibility. A person does something he knows to be wrong. He may not be able to come to terms with what he has done, or is afraid of being blamed or condemned for it. So he tells a lie to get out of the situation, often transferring the burden of the blame to a scapegoat - chance, a colleague, the dog.

There is a variation to this type of lie - 'What do you mean, I'm losing my hair???' We live our lives by parameters we set for ourselves. Sometimes, things just don't turn out the way they're meant to, sometimes people point out things that we were not previously aware of, things that we never expected would happen to us. Death is one example, excessive weight is another. When that happens, the shock that hits us is sometimes too great for us to accept, thus triggering the denial reaction. Denial is a form of lying - to ourselves, because of our inability to accept the sudden change to our lives.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide. Just a word of advice - if you decide to lie, you'd better make sure you don't get caught.