MrBanks

I want to share a story/senario that made me realize the importance of selflessness.

One Monday morning when Rob and Janet arrived at school, they noticed that their teacher, Mr. May, had an interesting smile on his face. “I wonder what Mr. May is going to do today,” Janet whispered to Rob. The other students in the class also seemed curious about what was behind Mr. May’s intriguing smile.

It seemed to take forever for class to begin. When the bell signaled the start of class, Mr. May said, “Today I am going to give each of you three gifts. You may do whatever you wish with the gifts. But the object of receiving these gifts is to get more of them by the end of the week.”

With that short explanation, Mr. May gave each student three small pieces of paper. Rob quickly looked at each one. On one piece of paper was the word “Smile.” A second piece of paper read “Sincere compliment.” The third simply read “Help.”

A student raised her hand and asked, “What are we supposed to do with these?”

Mr. May smiled again. “You can figure it out,” he said.

Determined to get more gifts, Rob stuffed the pieces of paper into his pocket so no one would be able to take them from him. Then he spent the rest of the week trying to get gifts from other people. He poked fun at one of the students in the class and then looked around to see how many people had smiled at him. When he got a good grade on a spelling test, he showed his grade to several people, hoping that someone would give him a sincere compliment. And he reminded Tom of a favor he had done for him once, saying, “We’ll be even if you will help me with my book report.” By the end of the week, all Rob had was three crumpled pieces of paper in his pocket and a sick feeling in his stomach.

Janet didn’t really think about Mr. May’s assignment. She just went about her week as she always did. She greeted everyone with a smile. When she noticed that Emily had done especially well on a math quiz, she congratulated her. Later that week she noticed that Loren was having a hard time with his science project. She helped him with the problem that was frustrating him. By the end of the week, Janet was happier than she had been before, even though she had forgotten about Mr. May’s challenge to get more gifts.

Rob was confused. He had tried hard to get more gifts, but he had failed. Mean-while, he noticed that even though Janet had not done anything different, everyone smiled at her. People were always giving her sincere compliments. And when she needed help with something, someone always seemed to notice and offer assistance.

The important thing is that it is more important to think of others before you think of yourself. Selflessness is not a tool to recieve attention. Service will make us happy. Receiving is just a bonus.

This was a useful blog entry from: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/07/how-to-maximize-your-memory.html

Students (of all ages) might have more on their minds now than ever before — from work, to school to all of the other distractions pulling at them. So how can they be expected to concentrate, focus, memorize and execute the educational materials they have in front of them each night?

It’s difficult, especially in a plugged-in world that places daily demands on people to not only increase their knowledge base professionally, but to also update the blogs and social networks they’ve established.

Here are some tips on how you can maximize your memory, focus and concentration whether you are a student or someone just working on adding skills to their worklife.

Write more things down: Seems like a no-brainer, but keeping an extra piece of paper nearby when you are in class or at home will allow you to keep a note of what you just learned. By transforming those moments into your own you, they will have more meaning to you.

Review Regularly: Just think about how much information you look at or listen to in a typical day. That’s why you need to give yourself a daily time set aside just for reviewing. This can be at night, when you can take 10 to 15 minutes to look over your notes and any material that you were given.

Just breathe: One of the best things you can do for your memory is to increase the flow of oxygen to your brain. Get rid of the sleepy haze you may have come over you in the morning and at night as you get to the end of the day. The best thing to do is to take part in some physical activity to start your day. Also have some water with you all the time to help you stay alert and engaged.

Write even more things down: With this, you need to write down all of the thoughts that don’t have anything to do with what you are working on. It may end up looking like a mess of random thoughts and to-dos, but by writing them down you are clearing them out of your mind and resisting the urge to do them right now. This keeps you on the task at hand and allows you to have an action list for when you have free time.

Don’t multitask: If you are on the computer or have your phone nearby, you may be tempted to multitask. In addition to doing your work, you may want to send emails, update your Facebook page or look at other websites. DON’T! Put your focus on the one thing you are studying, and complete it in a shorter amount of time with longer lasting results.