Time And Money......

When the angel of death came to Joe Smith, to accompany him to his real home, Joe dismissively responded “I am not ready to die as I have so much left to do. Do you mind coming back later?”

The Angel replied, sorry your time is up and we must leave now.

Joe enquired, “Don’t you know who I am? I am Joe Smith, one of the richest men in the world.

The Angel nodded, “I know all about you as I do everyone else; now hurry along, Let’s go.”

Joe pleaded, “If I were to give you 10% of my fortune, which is over a billion dollars, will you turn a blind eye and return a year later?”

The Angel shook his head and replied, “You don’t seem to understand Joe. It is time to go”

For the next few moments, Joe tried his best to negotiate with the angel giving away more of his fortune for lesser time. He finally succumbed and offered, “if I were to give you all my fortune, which is 10 billion dollars, will you give me 5 minutes so that I can call my wife and children and tell them that I love them? I have never told them this and it is very important to me that they know how I feel about them. I also need to seek forgiveness from two people that I have hurt the most. All I ask is 5 minutes!”

The Angel paused and looked at Joe curiously and asked, “How long did it take you to make your 10 billion dollars?”

Joe replied, “30 years my friend – it took me a whole 30 years – it’s a great deal in exchange for 5 minutes, take it – you will never have to work another day in your life".

The Angel shook his head and said “I really do not understand you human beings! If you are willing to give up 30 years of your life's work for 5 minutes, then why did you not make the most of every minute while you had it? How did you value your time? Where were your priorities? Why did you not say or do the things that really mattered?”

The lights went off a second later, Joe was gone. His 10 billion dollars could not buy him the time to do what really mattered.

RISK.................

To laugh, is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep, is to risk appearing sentimental.

To give without regard for reward, is to risk misunderstanding.

To reach out to others, is to risk involvement.

To seek justice, is to risk reprisal.

To open your heart, is to risk vulnerability.

To expose feelings, is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your dreams before a crowd, is to risk their loss.

To love, is to risk not being loved in return.

To live, is to risk dying.

To hope, is to risk despair.

To try, is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to do nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and.....is nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.

Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave, they forfeited their freedom.

Only the person who risks, can be free.

(--author unknown--)

Sharpen Yourselves.............

Once upon a time, there was a very strong woodcutter. He asked for a job from a timber merchant,and he got it.

The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought down 18 trees.

The Boss was very much impressed and said, "Congratulations keep it up!"

Very motivated by the words of the boss, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he only could bring down 15 trees.

The third day he tried even harder, but he only could bring down 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing down less and less trees.

"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought to himself.

He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

"When was the last time you sharpened your Axe?" the boss asked.

"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees.

The moral of the story:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to sharpen the axe.

In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp?

There is nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to care for others, taking time to read, etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

So start from today, think about the ways by which you could do your job more effectively and add a lot of value to it.