Brain Trains
As humans, we all have value. It comes with the territory. Just being human gives us value. This is intrinsic value. We don’t have to have a degree, speak multiple languages or have six pack abs. Nobody but the most evil would consider a new born baby to be without value. A more enlightened perspective is that we are so valuable we are priceless. There is an implicit understanding of this in many cultures.
As we develop, we “learn” to value certain traits including the physical, the mental, the spiritual, the emotional, etc. Some of this “learning” is consciously or actively acquired and much of it is subconsciously or casually acquired. Consciously deciding what you value requires that you stop and engage in the process of figuring out what is important to you. Subconsciously acquiring values happens when we believe and behave like our friends, family or role models often times without ever considering why. Obviously what is considered valuable varies from person to person, community to community, family to family, country to country, culture to culture, etc. When we value a personality trait, a physical feature or the way an organization conducts business it is generally because it matches what we have learned to be the ideal.
Quotes / Poems
Quotes and poems can be used to help motivate, inspire and create a team's culture. Some ways to use them are to have the team commit them to memory, have quotes posted on signage around the training facility, have team members recite them while doing training drills, etc.
THINKING (The Man Who Thinks He Can)
If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't
If you think you'll lose, you've lost
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind
If you think you're outclassed, you are
You've got to think high to rise
You've got to be sure of yourself
Before you can ever win the prize
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!
—Walter D. Wintle
DON'T QUIT
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must—but DON’T YOU QUIT!
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow—
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the GOLDEN CROWN.
Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the cloud of doubt—
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—
It's when things seem worst that YOU MUSTN'T QUIT.
INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
–William Ernest Henley
COMMITMENT
Until one commits there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That moment one definitely commits
oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way.
–William Hutchison (W.H.) Murray