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KIND WORDS What Stops You? A Taxiing Experience
The author wishes to remain anonymous
Edited by Shmuel Greenbaum
Printed with Permission of
I needed to take my baby to the hospital for some medical exams. I called a private cab the day before and the driver told me he would pick me up when he drove a group of people to work the next morning. In my rush and nervousness I left my wallet on the table at home and noticed this several minutes into the ride. I couldn't ask the driver to turn around as there were other people in the cab and I was too embarrassed to ask these strangers for money. After the other passengers got off, I explained my predicament to the driver whom I'd never met before. "Don't worry! These things happen. I know your address and I'll get the money another time." After thinking a moment he said, "Wait a minute! How are you going to get home?" I told him that I'd call him when I was ready to leave and when he took me home I'd pay him for both directions. "What if I'm busy?" he asked. "Here, take 100 shekels so you have money to get home in case I can't come." I took the money but was happy that a few hours later he was able to take me home so I could return the money and pay him the fare. When I got into the car and handed him the 100 shekels he said, "What! you were there for three hours and didn't even buy yourself a drink?!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- "What Stops You?" From Kindness: Making a Difference in People's Lives: Formulas, stories, and insights By Zelig Pliskin Printed with Permission of Shaar Press What Stops You? "What stops you?" This is a valuable question to ask yourself and to ask others. "What stops you from doing more for others?" If the answer is that you are already at your limits of resources of time, money, and energy, that means you are willing to do more as soon as you have greater resources. If, however, the answer is laziness, a need for comfort, selfishness, not caring enough about others, or not even thinking about the issue, you will now have a sense of direction for what you need to do to become more of a giver. When you ask this of yourself, you might prefer the wording, "What stops me from doing more?" "What stops you?" Pose this question to others who would like to do more than they are presently doing in any area of their lives. There might be major obstacles that are blocking them from doing more or there might be minor obstacles. Being clear about the exact nature of the obstacles is a major step in overcoming them. Often, people don’t think about the exact nature of what stops them. They just know that they don’t, won’t, or can’t do something. Now that they think about the specifics of what stops them they will find it easier to find ways around, over, and under those obstacles. If a person is stopped from doing positive things because of a lack of knowledge and information, help them get that information. You might have that information yourself. If not, you might know who can be consulted. You might know of books or pamphlets that supply the necessary information, or you can suggest ways to acquire those books. If a person is stopped because of fear or anxiety, you might be able to alleviate that fear by showing the person that things will be much easier than he thinks. You might have had the same types of fears and overcame them. You might be able to give the person so much encouragement that he now will have the confidence and courage to do what he was hesitant to do before. Ask him how he overcame past fears. Ask him about times he was afraid to try something and when he actually tried to do it the fears vanished. Asked him how he coped with difficulties in the past. Show him that he will benefit so much with what you are suggesting that it’s worthwhile facing those fears head on and not let them get in the way. If a person is stopped from doing more for others because of self-centeredness, explain how the good that one does for others is the greatest good that one can do for oneself. A student told the author the following story: I wanted to continue my studies but because of financial pressures I felt unable to. A friend of mine tried to convince me that it would be in my best interests to start a study program. To me this seemed overwhelming and I meekly responded with an, "I can’t." "What stops you?" my friend asked me. I told him a number of reasons. Once he heard the specific objections, he showed me how I could overcome each obstacle. This general pattern of calmly finding the objections and dealing with them has made his life immensely successful. I am just one of the many people whose lives he has helped make more meaningful.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Paying the Meter for a Stranger May Be Illegal Municipalities install parking meters and often have laws prohibiting the feeding of meters in order to allocate scarce parking to people who need to park for short periods of time. Several subscribers, annoyed about meter feeders who made it difficult for them to find parking, forwarded news articles about car owners who were ticketed even though the meter feeding was not observed by a police officer and in one case a woman who was feeding meters for strangers and stopped to speak with a police officer wound up with a 30 day jail sentence. A quick web search of the words meter feeding illegal brings up almost 4 million hits.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Kind Words is a free weekly e-mail distributed by Partners In Kindness. The archive for Kind Words e-mails is located at: Although the content of these e-mails contains copyrighted material, Partners in Kindness allows users who register at our website to reprint them in print, on a website, or on an e-mail distribution list at no cost. If you have permission to reprint this e-mail, please ensure that you reprint the entire e-mail (including this notice). Names of people, places, and other details mentioned in these stories may have been changed to protect privacy. Kindness is like music, art, sports or any other discipline -- it can only be mastered with practice, training, and lots and lots of encouragement. That is what PartnersInKindness.org is trying to promote. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PartnersInKindness For further information, please visit our Website http://www.PartnersInKindness.org e-mail: info@... ----------------------------------------------------------------- To un-subscribe send a blank e-mail to: Kindness-unsubscribe@... To subscribe send a blank e-mail to: Kindness-subscribe@... |
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