Paying it Forward: Hot stove! Ouch!
Experience is the best teacher. Getting us to learn requires observation. Picking the right key experiences, at the right time, is a powerful teaching style with lasting impact.
Experiences teach us life lessons. If you’ve burned your hand touching a hot stove, it’s an experience you’d prefer your children (and grandchildren), don’t repeat.
Imagine if you could guide someone in making the right choices.
I’ve been reviewing “How Will You Measure Your Life?”
One of my favorite business authors, Clayton Christensen, gave this speech to the 2010 Harvard Business School graduating class.
I remember three quotes, First, “it’s easier to hold your principals 100% of the time than it is to hold them 98% of the time.”
Secondly, “if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody; your learning opportunities will be unlimited.”
Thirdly, Christensen urges not to worry our prominence, but” Worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.”
Christensen’s impact comes from his ability to “show” others the “experience” of learning.
Sharing this lesson, such that another can pass it on again is a value to others. Imagine how such success experienced by many others in a community would inspire even more people to continue the practice.
Thanksgiving leftovers remind us of our “plenty.”
Others have less than many of us do.
Last weekend, while shopping with grandson Connor, he experienced giving to another.
From now through the end of the year, most families will gather in celebration.
What experiences can you “arrange” that help them learn and improve?
I love helping at MSU Burns Fantasy of Lights by collecting donations that help the 50 exhibits continue for the 51styear.
Last year, a mother driving from Colorado to DFW shared, “This is so special tonight. Neither my 14 nor 11 year-old daughters remember as we moved away when the oldest was three.”
Mom remembers; she wanted to share this memory with her daughters. After 30-minutes down memory lane, they resumed their drive to DFW, three mountain bikes strapped to the SUV.
Volunteer and receive.
Benefits include new skills and experiences, better physical and mental health and increased productivity as well.
Help your family experience the magic of these holidays.
Volunteer in service to another.
Give a person a reason to smile and you will also.
Pick your favorite nonprofit, or pick here: facebook.com/groups/servewichitafalls/
Published Wichita Falls Times Record News, Trends section, Sunday December 8, 2024.
Jack Browne is a community volunteer and former engineer, who became a technology sales and marketing executive over 40 years at Motorola Austin, MIPS Technologies and other silicon valley companies. How are the children doing?
Caption:
Photo Jack Browne