Jesus the Great Teacher --Lessons LearnedWritten by Greg Ryan
I don’t know of anyone who really liked taking tests in school if you did there is something seriously wrong with you. It just seemed as though some breezed through while people like myself always struggled. Life is not fair!!!! Some call it tests anxiety. I think I just concentrated on trying not to get answer wrong instead of relaxing and allowing my brain to find answer in my head. Most times next day I could do better because of no pressure. Second golf shots are like that too! So when I received my test scores back all I noticed were red marks and disappointments instead of how many right answers I had out of one hundred. Having said that, perfect test scores were few and far between for most of us I think. Life at times gives us impromptu tests that at time we think we have fail in our minds. In other words, when all said and done our nature is to focus on what we did wrong and our imperfections and not opportunity for growth that is in front of us. Life is not about perfect papers it’s about learning from red marks. Yet, in most experiences lessons can be learned from those moments. Jesus was a great teacher. In bible there are thirty-nine parables in which Jesus teaches us through life
| | Steven Covey Meets Paul - First Things FirstWritten by Greg Ryan
I’m not sure Paul had Japanese culture in mind at time when he writes, “Seek ye first Kingdom of God and all other things will be added unto you.” I’m not sure how much popularity bible has in Japan today either. Yet, it seems as though Japanese people have at least one biblical principle figured out. In book, “First Things First”, Steven Covey helps us understand how and why Japanese people think how they do and accomplish so much more than American’s in a same twenty-four hour period. Covey explains, that we can divide all our daily tasks into two main areas of our lives. One area is Important/Urgent-NOT Urgent area and second consists of tasks in NOT Important/NOT Urgent area. In last twenty years Corporate America has marveled at efficiency and productivity of Japanese worker. So we decided to study their behaviors. Over time researchers have come to this conclusion that boils down to one basic principle, “80/20 rule” in life. They found that Japanese spend eighty percent of all their time on tasks that are Important/Urgent to NOT urgent and twenty percent of their time on tasks that fall into Not Important/Not Urgent at all area. In other words they determine what daily tasks are important by lining them up with their priorities. Then they will spend majority of their time focusing on those tasks at hand and less time on less significant areas. Researchers have also studied behaviors of Americans, and in contrast they have found opposite thinking holds true. Americans spend eighty percent of their time in Urgent/ NOT so important issues and twenty percent of their time in important areas. In other words, we spend most of our time on urgent things that don’t necessarily line up with our priorities and take up a lot or most of our time and emotional energy.
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