Kind Gestures in Milk

Milk

Right, so I'm doing a morning post and being the good growing boy I am, I was drinking a glass of milk while thinking of what to type for the blog. Then it hit me! (not the milk, an idea hit me) I heard a story once, about kindness and milk, and I hope today's post will help empower you to do that extra bit of kindness this weekend and the weeks ahead! :)

There was a boy who went door to door to sell goods. He was poor, and he sold these goods to help himself barely get by each day and to get through school. Times were hard and he had little faith in anything or anyone. One day, when he was going from door to door, he realized he had run out of money and had only a dime left. So being the street wise kid that he was, he decided to ask for a small meal at the next house. 

But a boy will always be a boy, he loss his nerve when a beautiful young lady opened the door. So instead of asking for the much needed meal, he ended up asking for a glass of water. 

However, as in all motivational stories, the lady was able to see that the boy was hungry and instead brought him a glass of milk. The boy drank it slowly, enjoying every sip of the milk. Then he asked the lady how much he owed her. The lady replied "nothing at all. Mother taught us never to accept pay for kindness". In return, the boy thanked her wholeheartedly. But that was not all, the boy went away from that house feeling re-energized and his faith in God and humanity was restored.    

That's not the end of the story.

Several years later, Dr. Howard Kelly received a phone call that informed him of a middle aged lady who had been struck by a rare illness. Being one of the best doctors around he went down to see the patient. on his way there he looked through the patient's records and documents, when he saw where she was from he immediately rushed into the hospital room. When he saw the lady he told the nurse that he'll be giving special attention to this case.

After a long battle with the illness, the lady survived and was completely cured. 

Then came the bill...

Moments before the bill arrived, Dr Howard Kelly had written something on the bill outside. the lady feared that the price of the bill would be so great that she would've needed to spend her entire life repaying the bill. 

She opened the bill.

And on the bottom corner of the bill where the signature was supposed to be, there was a hand-written note saying:

"Paid in full with one glass of milk"

-Signed Dr Howard Kelly

I hope you guys liked the story! :) Just for those younger readers, Dr Howard Kelly is the poor boy all grown up and the middle aged lady was the beautiful young lady at the door. Also, it is true that a small act of kindness and humanity that you do today, may have an  impact on your life years later without you even realizing! 

So take a moment to perform an act of kindness on someone today! Make it a habit and life will definitely be more enjoyable! :)

Always Lifting You Higher!

Twitter: @toranseth

Instagram: @sethtoran

Leave a comment or message me (FB, email, tweet, DM, comment) if you have any requests or feedback! :)

Self Esteem

Self Esteem

A lot of people often speak about self esteem in a very general manner. 

"It's good to have self esteem" 

"have more self esteem" 

"why do you lack self esteem" 

and so on...

But honestly, how does being confident or having self esteem actually benefit you in your life?

We are what we think ourselves to be. It took me awhile to really understand this phrase at first. Does this mean I can think that i'm superman and literally fly? I wish. This phrase applies to our inner self. How we believe in our own abilities. 

Do you have high or low self esteem? When you look at yourself in the mirror every morning what do you think? If you can laugh at yourself or be happy about being you, you most likely have a higher self esteem. If you're upset or depressed about your own image, maybe the later part of this post will be able to help you.

I'm not saying it's bad to have low self esteem, there is nothing negative about it. (except maybe your outlook towards life and yourself) But having a certain level of self belief and self esteem is really helpful and serves as a "boost" as we go through or daily lives.

So how do we improve on our self esteem? For some of us it may come rather naturally and may have more of a problem with over confidence (which i will talk about next time) but for a good number of us, self esteem really is an issue. 

Here are some tips:

1) Dress well 

A lot of people undermine the importance of dressing well. When I was in lower secondary, I had a teacher who thought me the importance of personal grooming. This teacher wasn't your ordinary guy, he was already a millionaire and I figured he taught because it was his passion to. Anyways, he himself had a high level of self esteem and he passed that on to his students. During one of his lessons he taught us the importance of dressing up well, shaving (if we needed to) and some other grooming stuff. It's surprising to note that in the workforce, statistics show that fellow employees find it harder to trust those with unkempt facial hair. Also, dressing well raises your own esteem level. It's like how some people feel smarter wearing glasses. A psychological thing. Here's an example, when you wear baggy jeans and a singlet as compared to wearing a suit and tie, which one is going to portray an image of someone slick and confident? You yourself will be able to feel an internal boost by liking the way you look.

2) Looking up

Over my years in shooting and captaining I've seen some kids walk through the door, go through one entire training and leave with their head facing the ground the whole time. I mean, isn't that tiring? LOOK UP! The world is a lot more beautiful then just the square tiles or the cement on the floor. When you speak to someone, look at them (unless you find them repulsive, then that'll be a matter of tolerance). I went to this place once and the speaker happened to go off topic awhile and started speaking on communication. He shared that a lot of us really do not know where to look when talking to a person face to face. We don't know where to focus. If we maintain too much eye contact, well staring is bad. If we give too little eye contact, that's a sign of disinterest. So where do we look? The speaker that day recommended the spot between the person's eyes, you know the T zone area? yeah. It works pretty well too cos you get to observe the person's non-verbal language and signals too. So, we can see how looking up serves more benefits than looking down. So why not? If you are someone who tends to admire the floor more than the world around you, take some time and look up, look at people. Slowly but surely, you will feel a confidence boost to face the world.

3) Think positive

Most people will put this as the most important and first way of boosting one's confidence. I personally will put it at the end because despite it being easy to say that every action begins with a thought, it must be noted that if you are having a self esteem issue and you are reading this now, you've probably been thinking negatively towards tons of things your entire life. Am i right? And I know by saying "Be confident" it isn't going to change much. But what I can do and have done is by giving you the first 2 steps. 2 physical steps. Dressing up well and looking up. 2 physical steps to  work from the outside in. Only when you've managed the first two, then try this 3rd step. 

Thinking positive is harder then it sounds, even for people with a high self esteem. As humans, we complain, whine and get depressed at times. When you've just had a bad day, you really just want to shut yourself out from the world and you should. Negativity, just like positivity, is infectious. One persons mindset can easily influence his/her surrounding people. Start small, start slowly, that's what I recommend. Practice by waking up everyday and telling yourself "I can". Then for the rest of the day, use this "I can" phrase when you feel the world is getting down on you. Let's say you just got verbally abused. Tell yourself: "I can control myself" If they said you suck, Tell yourself "I rock". Do you realize that I use "I rock" instead of "I don't suck"? The moment you place a "don't" or a "not" in your positive belief phrase, it isn't positive anymore. So try it. use positive belief phrases bit by bit day by day. Practice becomes a habit, so START PRACTICING POSITIVITY. 

Be confident everyone! If you have a self esteem problem or you need help, you can always DM me on twitter end me a private message on facebook or even an email :) 

Always Lifting You higher!

Twitter: @toranseth

Instagram: @sethtoran