These little instructive stories, packed with interesting and helpful lessons, have made the world a better place. They have helped many people understand the principles of happiness and success.
1. Tactics
Epigraph.
- I work from morning to evening!
- And when do you think?
(Dialogue between the young physicist and the brilliant Rutherford)
You might have seen it on television, heard about it on the radio or in the newspapers, but this time the annual world championship was held in British Columbia. The finalists were Canadian and Norwegian.
Their task was as follows. Each of them was assigned a certain area of the forest. The winner was the one who could knock down the most trees from 8 am to 4 pm.
At eight o'clock in the morning the whistle blew and the two lumberjacks took up their positions. They cut tree after tree until the Canadian heard the Norwegian stop. Realizing that this was his chance, the Canadian redoubled his efforts.
At nine o'clock, the Canadian heard that the Norwegian was back to work. And again they worked almost in sync, when suddenly at ten to ten the Canadian heard the Norwegian stop again. Once again, the Canadian set to work, wanting to take advantage of the enemy's weakness.
At ten o'clock the Norwegian got back to work. Until ten minutes to eleven he paused briefly. With an ever-increasing sense of glee, the Canadian continued to work at the same rhythm, already smelling of victory.
And so it went on all day. Every hour the Norwegian stopped for ten minutes while the Canadian continued to work. When the bell rang for the end of the competition, exactly at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Canadian was quite sure that the prize was in his pocket.
You can imagine how surprised he was to find out that he had lost.
- How did it happen? He asked the Norwegian. “Every hour I heard you stop working for ten minutes. How the hell did you manage to chop more wood than me? It's impossible.
“It's actually very simple,” the Norwegian replied bluntly. - Every hour I stopped for ten minutes. And while you continued to chop wood, I sharpened my ax.
2 the parable of the two wolves
Once upon a time, an old Indian revealed to his grandson one life truth.
In every person there is a struggle, very similar to the struggle of two wolves. One wolf represents evil - envy, jealousy, regret, selfishness, ambition, lies … Another wolf represents good - peace, love, hope, truth, kindness, loyalty …
The little Indian, moved to the depths of his soul by the words of his grandfather, thought for a few moments, and then asked: - And which wolf wins in the end?
The old Indian smiled faintly and replied:
- The wolf you feed always wins.
3. Find out the reason
A traveler walking along the river heard desperate cries of children. Running to the shore, he saw drowning children in the river and rushed to save them. Noticing a passing person, he called for help. He began to help those who were still afloat. Seeing the third traveler, they called him for help, but he ignored the calls and quickened his steps. "Do you care about the fate of children?" - asked the rescuers.
The third traveler answered them: “I see that the two of you are still coping. I will run to the turn, find out why children fall into the river, and try to prevent it."
4 two friends
Once they got into an argument and one of them slapped the other. The latter, feeling pain, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:
“Today my best friend slapped me in the face.
They kept walking and found an oasis in which they decided to swim. The one who received the slap almost drowned, and his friend saved him. When he came to, he wrote on the stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."
The one who gave a slap in the face and who saved the life of his friend asked him:
- When I offended you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write in stone. Why?
The friend replied:
“Whenever someone offends us, we have to write it in the sand so that the winds can erase it. But when someone does something good, we must engrave it in the stone so that no wind can erase it.
5. Pig and cow
The pig complained to the cow that she was being mistreated:
- People always talk about your kindness and gentle eyes. Of course, you give them milk and butter, but I give them more: sausages, hams and chops, leather and stubble, even my legs are boiled! And still nobody loves me. Why is this so?
The cow thought a little and answered:
- Maybe because I give everything during my lifetime?
6 parable of heaven and hell
The faithful came to the prophet Elijah with a request to show Heaven and Hell.
They came to a large hall, where a large crowd of people was crowded around a large cauldron of boiling soup. Each had a huge metal spoon, the size of a man, in his hands, scalding hot, and only the very end of the handle was wooden. Thin, greedy, hungry people greedily thrust spoons into the cauldron, with difficulty taking out the soup from there and trying to reach the cup with their mouths. At the same time, they burned themselves, swore, fought.
The Prophet said, "This is Hell," and led him into another hall.
It was quiet there, the same cauldron, the same spoons. but almost everyone was full. Because they split into pairs and alternately fed each other. The Prophet said, "This is Paradise."
7. Five simple rules to be happy
One day a farmer's donkey fell into a well. He screamed terribly for help. A farmer came running and threw up his hands: "How can we get him out of there?"
Then the owner of the donkey reasoned as follows: “My donkey is old. He didn't have much time left. I was going to get a new young donkey anyway. And the well, all the same, is almost dry. I had been planning to bury it for a long time and dig a new well elsewhere. So why not do it now? At the same time, I will bury the donkey so that the smell of decomposition is not heard."
He invited all his neighbors to help him bury the well. All together took up shovels and began to throw earth into the well. The donkey immediately understood what was going on and began to emit a terrible squeal. And suddenly, to everyone's surprise, he quieted down. After a few throws of land, the farmer decided to see what was down there.
He was amazed at what he saw there. Every piece of earth that fell on his back was shaken off and crushed by the donkey. Very soon, to everyone's amazement, the donkey appeared above - and jumped out of the well!
… In life you will encounter a lot of all kinds of dirt and every time life will send you more and more new portions. Whenever a lump of earth falls, shake it off and go upstairs, and this is the only way you can get out of the well.
Each of the emerging problems is like a stone for crossing a stream. If you don't stop and give up, you can get out of any of the deepest wells.
Shake yourself up and go upstairs. To be happy, remember five simple rules:
1. Free your heart from hate - I'm sorry.
2. Free your heart from worries - most of them do not come true.
3. Lead a simple life and value what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
8. Nothing that would be untrue …
One day a blind man was sitting on the steps of a building with a hat at his feet and a sign "I'm blind, please help!"
One person passed by and stopped. He saw a disabled person with only a few coins in his hat. He tossed him a couple of coins and, without his permission, wrote new words on the tablet. He left her to the blind man and left.
In the afternoon he returned and saw that the hat was full of coins and money. The blind man recognized him by his steps and asked if he was the man who had copied the tablet. He also wanted to know what exactly he had written.
He replied: “Nothing that would be untrue. I just wrote it a little differently. "He smiled and left.
The new inscription on the plate read: "It is spring now, but I cannot see it."
9. The choice is yours
"It's impossible!" - said the Reason.
"This is recklessness!" - Experience noticed.
"It's useless!" - snapped Pride.
"Try …" - whispered Dream.
10 the bank of life
… The students had already filled the classroom and were waiting for the lecture to begin. So the teacher appeared and put a large glass jar on the table, which surprised many:
-Today I would like to talk to you about life, what can you say about this bank?
“Well, it's empty,” someone said.
- Quite right, - confirmed the teacher, then he took out a bag with large stones from under the table and began to put them in the jar until they filled it to the very top, - And now what can you say about this jar?
-Well, and now the bank is full! - again said one of the students.
The teacher took out another bag of peas and started pouring it into the jar. The peas began to fill the space between the stones:
-And now?
-Now the bank is full !!! - began to echo the students. Then the teacher took out a bag of sand, and began to fill it into the jar, after some time there was no free space in the jar.
-Well, now the bank is definitely full - the students screamed. Then the teacher, smiling slyly, pulled out two bottles of beer and poured them into the can:
- And now the bank is full! - he said. - And now I will explain to you what has happened now. Bank is our life, stones are the most important things in our life, this is our family, these are our children, our loved ones, everything that is of great importance to us; peas are those things that are not so important to us, it can be an expensive suit or a car, etc.; and sand is all the smallest and insignificant in our life, all those minor problems that accompany us throughout our entire life; so, if I first poured sand into the jar, then it would no longer be possible to put either peas or stones in it, so never let all sorts of little things fill your life, closing your eyes to more important things. That's all for me, the lecture is over.
- Professor, - one of the students asked - what do the bottles of beer mean ??? !!!
The professor smiled slyly again:
- They mean that, no matter what the problem, there is always time to relax and have a couple of bottles of beer!
Photo: impious flickr.com/khear_alipala_07
