Bahasa Khutbah

Sumber:http://soulpower-kuasajiwa.blogspot.com/2010/03/bahasa-khutbah.html
MARCH 22, 2010
“Jika kamu berkata-kata kepada kawan kamu ketika imam berkhutbah pada hari Jumaat walaupun dengan perkataan ‘Diam’, maka laghalah (sia-sia) dia.” (Riwayat al-Bukhari dan Muslim)

Begitulah ingatan yang sering kedengaran sebelum khatib memulakan khutbah. Malangnya biar berbuih ingatan diberikan tetap juga kita mendengar suara-suara ‘khatib’ di belakang berbicara pelbagai perkara hingga adakalanya mengganggu khutbah sebenar.

Saya terbaca di satu forum yang mana ada menyebutkan bahawa Nabi pernah bersabda :Barang siapa yang bercakap-cakap ketika Imam sedang membaca khutbah (Jumaat), maka dia bagaikan seekor keldai yang membawa kitab-kitab dan sesiapa yang berkata diam (kepada rakannya yang bercakap) tiadalah Jumaat baginya, Jumaatnya tidak sempurna. (Imam Ahmad).
Saya melihat dengan jelas akan duduk perkara khutbah di sini yang sebenarnya perlu kita ikuti dan fahami untuk mengubah sikap kita seminggu mendatang.

Khutbah bagi saya adalah satu ceramah motivasi yang baik, juga merupakan ruang untuk saling ingat mengingat hal-hal kebaikan serta waktu terbaik untuk mendapatkan ilmu baru. Saya sendiri adakalanya akan membawa buku nota ketika khutbah dan mencatat isi kandungan yang dapat saya amalkan dan hayati. Kadangkala hal itu menjadi satu kepelikan teman-teman di sebelah apabila melihat nota khutbah dicatat. Saya berpendapat bahawa di waktu khutbah jumaat, banyak perkara yang sebenarnya dapat kita pelajari dan kalaupun perkara tersebut sudah kita ketahui namun tidak menjadi kesalahan jika catatan itu bakal memberi peringatan untuk kita seminggu mendatang.

Jika kita perhatikan suasana jemaah sewaktu khutbah, pelbagai ragam yang dapat kita lihat. Tetapi lebih ramai yang kita lihat menundukkan kepala mereka, mungkin mereka khusyuk mendengar atau khusyuk nak tidur. Saya sering berkata yang waktu khutbah adalah waktu awal tidur kerana waktu itu kita lihat ramai sekali yang menguap dan mengantuk bahkan ada yang tidak sedar ketika khutbah dibacakan. Salah siapakah hingga berlakukan situasi sedemikian, adakah salah jemaah yang datang berjumaat atau salah khatib yang membaca tanpa minat.

Saya cuba membicarakan hal ini pada kali ini semoga kita beroleh satu dimensi baru dalam khutbah jumaat baik untuk para jemaah mahupun untuk para khatib yang saya hormati. Saya berpandangan waktu khutbah jumaat adalah waktu yang paling sesuai untuk mengumpulkan para muslimin untuk mendengar keilmuan baru, ingatan yang baru, serta motivasi diri yang baru yang insyaAllah dapat diisikan dalam minda pendengar dan seterusnya mungkin dapat pula disampaikan pada seisi rumah agar ilmu tersebut berpanjangan.

Dalam erti kata yang lebih mudah, saya berpandangan bahawa khutbah merupakan majlis ilmu yang baik namun persoalannya mengapa ketika itu ramai yang mengantuk bahkan tertidur. Jika soalan ini ditanya, maka jawapan yang saya rasa hampir didengar adalah waktu itu syaitan datang mengganggu. Jika kita tahu waktu itu syaitan mahu datang mengganggu mengapa tidak kita persiapkan diri untuk menepis segala gangguan. Kita begitu mudah memberikan jawapan tetapi begitu sukar merungkaikan persoalan.
Kita mudah diganggu kerana kita lemah, lemah dalaman hingga membawa kelesuan fikiran serta keletihan badan. Jika saya ditanya akan soalan sedemikian, maka saya menjawabnya dalam dua pandangan. Pertama, jemaah dan kedua ialah khatib yang bertugas.

1) Jemaah
Pernahkah kita duduk di sebelah seorang yang menguap dan tidak lama kemudian kita pun terikut menguap?.. dalam keadaan ini anda dikatakan sedang melakukan kalibrasi dengan jiran anda itu. Walaupun pada keadaan tersebut anda sebenarnya tidak mengatuk namun akibat kalibrasi yang terjadi tanpa anda sedari telah membuatkan anda menjadi mengantuk sama. Jika anda berada dalam keadaan bosan, tidak keterlaluan jika saya katakan yang jiran anda juga akan turut merasa tempiasnya. Hal ini saya gelarkan kalibrasi gelombang otak.

Biar apapun yang anda panggil tetapi yang jelasnya keadaan anda serta gelombang otak anda ternyata dapat mempengaruhi jiran anda. Jika seorang dari ahli jemaah masuk ke lapangan solat dalam keadaan malas, bosan dan mengantuk, maka secara hukum alamnya mereka yang berada di sekelilingnya akan turut merasa begitu jika kita tidak dapat mempertahankan kedudukan gelombang otak yang betul. Apa yang pasti tidak ramai dari masyarakat kita memahami keadaan ini lantas mereka tanpa sedar menyumbang kepada keadaan jemaah sekeliling dalam lapangan solat terutamanya ketika khutbah mula dibacakan.

Saya mempunyai pendapat yang agak berlainan dan jika ada yang ingin membetulkan pandangan saya, saya begitu berbesar hati demi kebaikan ummah, saya berpendapat bahawa jika kita memasuki ruangan solat dalam keadaan terpaksa, mengatuk, malas atau dengan membawa sekali tekanan duniawi maka kita turut merosakkan keheningan yang ada dan secara tidak langsung menyumbang kepada kelalaian orang lain. Buruk benar jika kita terlibat dalam melalaikan mereka ketika khutbah dibaca dan lebih ngeri ketika solat dilaksanakan.

Bagi kami yang memahami akan hal kaitan gelombang otak dengan ibadah serta peradaban manusia, hal-hal menyumbang kepada kerosakan insan perlu kami jauhi walaupun ianya kelihatan remeh bagi sesetengah pihak. Maka dengan itu, kami akan berusaha untuk masuk ke ruangan solat dalam keadaan yang dapat menyumbang kekhusyukan para jemaah yang ada dalam ibadah yang bakal dilaksanakan. Justeru, marilah kita mengubah sikap kita ketika masuk ke masjid terutamanya ketika khutbah sedang dibaca kerana tanpa sedar keadaan kita akan membuat jiran kita juga merasa apa yang kita rasa.

Jika kita menghayati khutbah serta mengingati Allah swt dengan cintaNya maka kita akan membuat satu jariah yang tak pernah kita sangka kerana kita turut membawa jemaah sekeliling untuk merasa khusyuk. Mungkin tak ramai yang mengetahui bahawa gelombang otak kita yang rendah ketika solat begitu kuat dan boleh disebarkan hingga 27 lapis dan dek kerana itu solat jemaah itu 27 kali ganda pahalanya kerana kita membawa 27 orang untuk merasa kelazatan solat.

2) khatib
Sudut yang kedua yang perlu kita lihat adalah penyampaian khatib dalam menyempurnakan khutbah. Mungkin ada diantara kita pernah mengalami kebosanan ketika mendengar khutbah kerana khatib tidak menyampaikannya dengan ruh tetapi membacanya dengan akal. Lebih buruk jika bacaannya merangkak-rangkak hingga ada yang berdoa di dalam hati agar khutbah cepat sampai ke penghujungnya. Bagi saya khatib perlu terlebih dahulu menghayati setiap apa yang ingin disampaikan lalu sampaikanlah dengan ruh bukan dengan minda. Kata-kata yang dilontar dengan akal hanya akan sampai ke cuping telinga tetapi kata-kata yang disampaikan dengan jiwa akan terus menusuk jiwa.

Apabila jiwa dapat disentuh berubahlah si pendengar dan sayulah tubuh akibat getaran kata-kata ingatan. Khatib pada pandangan saya harus tahu bagaimana melontarkan kata-kata untuk terus menusuk sukma jemaah dan bukan hanya sekadar menghabiskan tugas. Terlebih dahulu saya memohon maaf andai setiap tutur kata saya menyinggung namun demi kebaikan ummah saya beranikan diri untuk memberi pandangan supaya ianya dapat diperbaiki dan khutbah dapat dijadikan medan mengubah orang kepada manusia. Teks khutbah juga amat penting kerana ianya perlu diwacanakan mengikut sains minda dan bukan karangan biasa.

Jika ada kefahaman bagaimana untuk menafsir minda jemaah dan bagaimana untuk menerapkan terus ke dalam memori minda bawah sedar jemaah, saya yakin insya Allah lebih ramai akan terpengaruh dengan khutbah yang disampaikan bahkan ianya menjadi senjata yang ampuh dalam membentuk satu generasi Islam yang cemerlang, yang mampu menakluk dunia dengan kebijaksanaan dan bukan dengan demonstrasi jalanan. InsyaAllah saya akan mengadakan bengkel sehari khusus untuk mereka yang terlibat secara langsung dalam khutbah untuk mengupas bahasa khutbah yang difahami minda untuk penyampaian lebih efektif.

Betul Tak?

Sumber:http://soulpower-kuasajiwa.blogspot.com/2010/02/betul-tak.html
FEBRUARY 2, 2010
Saya pernah menulis tentang penggunaan bahasa yang betul dalam kehidupan dan beberapa hari lepas saya disapa oleh seorang teman, katanya “boleh ke cerita balik tentang bahasa sebab cerita yang dulu pendek sangat”. Saya bukanlah pakar bahasa tetapi saya yakin bahawa bahasa itu bukan sekadar menunjukan bangsa bahkan lebih halus lagi dan tidak salah jika dikatakan bahasa itu melambangkan jiwa. Orang yang jiwanya kacau akan mudah berbahasa negatif begitu juga orang yang punya masalah akan mengeluarkan kata-kata sesuai dengan keresahannya. Jika kita lihat filem-filem zaman hitam putih, mereka berdialog di dalam filem dengan dialog yang digunapakai di dalam kehidupan itu sendiri

Saya pernah membaca buku tentang filem zaman itu yang mana ramai para pelakonnya tidak tahu membaca tetapi jika dilihat di dalam filem mereka ini lebih asli atau lebih semulajadi lakonannya. Sebagai orang di luar industri perfileman, saya mungkin melihatnya dari satu segi yang berlainan, saya melihat kecenderungan cerita dahulu dalam menggunakan bahasa pasar yang sememangnya mereka gunakan seharian. Hasilnya mereka merasakan lakonan itu sebenarnya juga adalah satu watak dalam kehidupan mereka. Jika kita lihat juga masyarakat di kala itu begitu positif dalam menjalani kehidupan mereka, mengapa agaknya mereka bersikap sebegitu sedangkan mereka tidak duduk dalam era kemodenan seperti hari ini.

Hari ini, kita semakin moden namun malangnya kita semakin sempit fikirannya bahkan lebih negatif dari sehari ke sehari. Jujurnya saya melihatnya mungkin dari satu sudut lain, bukan hal-hal fizikal kerana kecantikan dan kekuatan fizikal tidak melambangkan perwatakan sebenar seseorang itu. Pada pengamatan saya, ianya seperti yang pernah saya katakan dahulu, ianya adalah erana penggunaan bahasa yang salah. Cuba nanti kita tonton cerita zaman hitam putih, cerita tahun 1950-an, dan cuba kita amati penggunan bahasanya. Pada pemerhatian saya, mereka begitu kurang menggunakan frasa negatif diakhir bicara. Ini sungguh berbeza dengan keadaan kita pada hari ini yang mana hampir kebanyakan dari kita akan menggunakan frasa negatif diakhir bicara.

Tanpa sedar kita sebenarnya memberitahu pada diri kita untuk menjadi negatif dan kita juga secara tidak langsung telah menanam nilai-nilai negatif kepada pendengar. Kita sejak dilahirkan ke dunia ini dikenali sebagai manusia, saya yakin tidak seorang pun dari kita yang lahir sebagai binatang seperti monyet dan akhirnya pada umur tertentu bertukar menjadi manusia. Sebagai manusia, kita tetap mempunyai nilai yang sama seperti mana kita dilahirkan dan system kita juga sebenarnya sama. Sewaktu kita mula belajar bertutur, kita hanya mula mengenali dan memeahami sukukata terakhir yang diucapkan, jika emak maka kita akan mudah faham jika disebut mak., ini menunjukkan bahawa minda bawah sedar kita begitu mudah menerima serta menanam sukukata terakhir dalam bicara kata.

Trend bahasa pada hari ini amat berbeza apatah lagi jika dilihat bahasa yang digunapakai oleh remaja dalam konteks sistem pesanan ringkas (sms). Kebanyakan sukukata akhir dalam pengucapan adalah negatif dan inilah yang menyumbang banyaknya sikap negatif dalam kehidupan kita pada hari ini, semakin moden semakin negatif, semakin moden semakin hilang ciri bahasa standard. Jika kata-kata itu kita lontarkan kepada anak-anak kita maka sebenarnya kita sedang mencipta anak-anak yang akan melihat negatif yang banyak dalam kehidupannya dan pastinya akan mendapat banyak masalah yang tidak dijangkakan.

Justeru pada pandangan saya, lebih elok jika kita dapat mencuba dahulu menukar penggunaan bahasa kita selama dua minggu dan insya Allah setelah itu kita akan menjadi lali atau menjadi tabiat untuk bertutur dalam bahasa positif. Kita perlu ingat bahawa minda bawah sedar akan menerima apa sahaja arahan kata-kata untuk diperlakukan dan disimpan. Paling penting untk kita faham adalah minda bawah sedar tidak akan mengambil kira samada ianya kata kenyataan atau bentuk arahan, yang hanya diketahuinya adalah menerima ransangan dari kata-kata terakhir. Maka jika mengakhiri bicara dengan sukukata negatif, ia sebenarnya memberi satu bentuk afirmasi kepada minda bawah sedar untuk mengubah hidup kita kepada persepsi negatif.

Hasilnya berlakulah hukum penarikan yang negatif dan pastinya banayak masalah dirundung, banyak keletihan dilalui yang begitu melelahkan dan begitu mengecewakan hingga kita merasa hidup ini tiada ertinya. Bagi mereka yang ingin bertukar menjadi positif , mari kita tukar suku kata akhir menjadi positif. Mulai hari ini kita gantikan perkataan tak, tidak, yang sering kita ucapkan diakhir bicara dengan lah, kan. Misalnya jika dahulu kita menyebut betul tak kini ianya sudah menjadi betul kan… Jika dahulu kita berkata cantik tak?, kini kita memberi nafas positif dengan menyatakan cantik kan.

Jika perlakuan penukaran gaya bahasa ini dapat kita lakukan selama dua minggu berturut-turut insya Allah kita akan mula melihat suasana positif dalam hidup. maka benarkan untuk berubah menjadi positif itu tidaklah mahal harganya melainkan tahu apa yang perlu dilakukan.. Bahasa tahu sikapnya, dengar katanya terbuka rahsianya.

When you are 50’s

Sumber:http://investkk.com/when-you-are-50s/
You are entering final few years of your career life which is ended around 55 years old. Are you ready with all your savings and EPF to support your remaining life? Is that enough to support your current living style up to 80 years old? How much is your total saving including your EPF fund? Will you have enough skills to manage the pool of fund once you withdraw from EPF after you are 55?

Can you solely depend on them?
Research shows majority of EPF contributor will run out of money after they are 58 years old. Yes that is 3 years just after their ‘golden’ years. So who is going to support for the rest of 22 years if you live up to 80 years old?

The problem not ended there. At this stage, you are entering into most crucial part of your life whereby your kid’s education expenses start to run. If you are lucky, your kids should be entering working life, but if you are not, your kids might be at the peak of their university level whereby they need most of the financial support from you. How much education expenses you really need nowadays? For your information, I spend a total of RM60K to get my degree in local colleges that is including college fees, accommodations and general expenses. Cheap? Yes…but this is back in year 2000. In today’s value I believe it should be more. Assuming inflation rate is running at 10% per annum that means every 7.2 years the expenses should be double. So the amount expected at today’s value easily reaching RM150k for a general degree course including schools fees, accommodation and general expenses. So how many kids you have? If you are having big family say 3 kids that mean you need to prepare around RM500K provided they are not taking expensive course like doctoral or engineering courses. But if they did so, you better eat less to support them. Bear in mind, your responsibility is not ended even though they had completed their degree. They still need your financial support especially when they found a job that pays insufficient salary to support their basic life. Sometimes when I think back, life is not as easy as we always thought off. Even with so many properties in hand, I still feel the pressure of life and the feeling of insecure. What more those who didn’t buy any properties!! What will happen? I don’t even dare to think of it.

After tiring and hard work of more than 30 years, it’s a normal that you thought of enjoying life. Enjoying here referred to wake up early without worry that your sales target is not met. Without pressure from your employers about your works and of course your current life style is sufficiently supported by your savings and asset especially from your rental portfolio. Are you able to achieving all the above within your entire working life? Please do so as you have not much time in your life accumulating enough solid assets to support your non-working life whereby the expenses are much higher. Just to share with you, my supervisor who is entering his retirement life few years from now is pressured by higher management to achieve higher sales target. Do you know he has not much choice but to accept the challenge? Sometimes I also had sleepless night thinking of the endless target been given and the worst when this target start from zero every new month and quarter. I always ask myself, how many times in our life we are so motivated to consistently upbeat sales target given every month for the next 25 years?

Endless target!!
I bet, not all the times we would achieve it. Some of the month we definitely will miss the target given. So is this the life that you are having now? Sleepless night if sales not achieve? Why not pressured yourself by accumulating more rental portfolio properties and I bet your pressures will gradually decreasing in the near future. I hope 3 years from now I can accept less pressure job with less pay knowing my asset has upbeat my earning and I can stay financially free while enjoying helping people building solid properties asset. I also hope majority of you will enter your ‘golden’ years with smile in face knowing all your plans will work well once you stop working at the age 55 or earlier. After all life isn’t just work and make other people richer!!

Four Words That Make Life Worthwhile- by Jim Rohn

Sumber:http://chinkk98.blogspot.com/
Over the years, as I’ve sought out ideas, principles and strategies to life’s challenges, I’ve come across four simple words that can make living worthwhile.

First, life is worthwhile if you LEARN. What you don’t know will hurt you. You have to have learning to exist, let alone succeed. Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences—negative or positive.

We learn to do it right by first sometimes doing it wrong. We call that a positive negative. We also learn from other people’s experiences, both positive and negative. I’ve always said that it is too bad failures don’t give seminars. Obviously, we don’t want to pay them, so they aren’t usually touring around giving seminars. But that information would be very valuable. We would learn how someone who had it all, messed it up. Learning from other people’s experiences and mistakes is valuable information because we can learn what not to do without the pain of having tried and failed ourselves.

We learn by what we see, so pay attention. We learn by what we hear, so be a good listener. Now, I do suggest that you should be a selective listener. Don’t just let anybody dump into your mental factory. We learn from what we read, so learn from every source. Learn from lectures. Learn from songs. Learn from sermons. Learn from conversations with people who care. Always keep learning.

Second, life is worthwhile if you TRY. You can’t just learn. Now you have to try something to see if you can do it. Try to make a difference. Try to make some progress. Try to learn a new skill. Try to learn a new sport. It doesn’t mean you can do everything, but there are a lot of things you can do if you just try. Try your best. Give it every effort. Why not go all out?

Third, life is worthwhile if you STAY. You have to stay from spring until harvest. If you have signed up for the day or for the game or for the project, see it through. Sometimes calamity comes; then it is worth wrapping it up and that’s the end. But just don’t end in the middle. Maybe on the next project you pass, but on this one, if you signed up, see it through.

And lastly, life is worthwhile if you CARE. If you care at all, you will get some results. If you care enough, you can get incredible results. Care enough to make a difference. Care enough to turn somebody around. Care enough to start a new enterprise. Care enough to change it all. Care enough to be the highest producer. Care enough to set some records. Care enough to win.

Four powerful little words: learn, try, stay and care. What difference can you make in your life today by putting these words to work?

The Determinant of Your Success

Sumber:http://chinkk98.blogspot.com/
By: Brian Tracy

Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.

What Successful People Believe
Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. That we have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality. What we’ve discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they’ll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your financial goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.

The Foundation of Willpower
Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It’s based on conviction. It’s based on faith. It’s based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who’ve achieved success. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.

“Accomplish More in a Month Than Most People Accomplish in a Year”
Your ability to discipline yourself “to do what you should, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not,” is the key to becoming a great person and living a great life. When you develop the habits of self-discipline, you will accomplish more in a month than most people accomplish in a year. Click for more >>

Beat the Odds on Success
Remember that success is rare. Only one person in one hundred becomes wealthy in the course of a lifetime. Only five percent achieve financial independence. That means that the odds against you are 19-to-1. The only way that you’re going to achieve your financial goals is if you get really serious. To succeed, you must get serious. You must get busy. You must get active. You must get going. Remember, everything counts.

Resolve to Achieve Greatly
Self-mastery, self-control, self-discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self-mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk and think about only what you desire and not talk or think about anything that you don’t want for 24 hours. Then you’ll see what you’re really made of. It’s a hard thing to do but with practice, you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time. Then, your whole life will change for the better.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to build a belief system consistent with the financial success you desire:

First, continually repeat to yourself the words, pictures and thoughts consistent with your dreams and goals. Whatever you repeat often enough, over and over, becomes a new belief.

Second, set a goal for yourself to think and talk only about the things that you want for the next 24 hours. This will be one of the hardest things you ever do. But if you can keep your mind on what you want and off of what you don’t want for 24 hours, you can begin to change your entire future.

It Pays to be Nice … and CALM!

Sumber:http://chinkk98.blogspot.com/
by Jack Canfield

The North Wind boasted of great strength. The Sun argued that there was great power in gentleness.

“We shall have a contest,” said the Sun.

Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat.

“As a test of strength,” said the Sun, “Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man.”

“It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat,” bragged the Wind.
The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder the wind blew down the road, the tighter the shivering man clung to his coat.
Then, the Sun came out from behind a cloud. Sun warmed the air and the frosty ground. The man on the road unbuttoned his coat.

The sun grew slowly brighter and brighter.

Soon the man felt so hot, he took off his coat and sat down in a shady spot.

“How did you do that?” said the Wind.

“It was easy,” said the Sun, “I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way.”

# # #

Today’s featured article was an easy one for me. In this world of increased stress, financial pressures, pink slips, traffic jams and cancelled flights, it pays to know how to stay centered and calm—how to interact like the sun and not the wind.

Believe it or not, it’s a critical success strategy.

Pamela Bruner is one of my students. She is a graduate of my seven-day Breakthrough to Success Summer Training (this year August 8-14), a participant in my year-long Train the Trainer Mentorship Program, and a member of my Platinum Inner Circle Master Mind Group.

Pamela is a master practitioner of the success principles I teach, and is currently working on a book with me applying the principles and techniques of the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to removing the emotional blocks and limiting beliefs that confront people when they attempt to apply the 64 success principles that I teach in my book The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

She sent me and an e-mail earlier this month that shows just how valuable it is to stay calm, expect the best, believe it’s possible to get what you want no matter what is happening around you, and to take action to produce the desired result.

Here is Pamela’s e-mail. I hope it will uplift and inspire you as much as it did me.

More importantly I hope it will serve as a valuable lesson for what to do if you find yourself in a similar situation—trying to get from where you are to where you want to be…when all the flights to where you want to be are being cancelled!

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I was flying to West Palm Beach to film a TV spot for my husband Dave’s company, Heartland Harps. My plane was supposed to arrive at 8pm, and we needed to be in the studio at 7:30 am the next morning. The film crew would be there, waiting. My flight was delayed, and then delayed 3 more times. At 9:50pm, they announced that they were waiting for a call from the higher ups as to whether the flight would be cancelled.

Many people were angry, and were yelling at the two USAir representatives behind the counter. I went over and said to one of the reps, “The flight might still go, is that right?”

She replied, “I really think that they’ll cancel it at this point.”

I said, “I really need to be in Boca Raton tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I’m not upset, but I’ve got a film crew waiting for me. Is there any way you can help me?”

She went around the corner, and a few minutes later she beckoned me over. “There’s a flight leaving for Ft. Lauderdale at 10:15. It’s oversold, but I might be able to get you on it. I think they’ll lose a few people.”

I said, “It’s 9:55 now. Can I make it?”

She replied, “It’s been delayed also. Go now!” As I grabbed the new boarding pass she’d printed for me, I thanked her profusely, and as I ran away, she said, “It pays to be nice…and quiet!”

I ran to the other terminal, exchanged my new boarding pass for one with an actual seat assignment (hurray!) and waited. The plane didn’t leave until midnight, and I got in at 2am. All around me I heard people grumbling about the delays, the service, etc. All I was thinking was how grateful I was to have made it before my 7:30am deadline.

I did see a few people from my West Palm Beach flight come over to the Ft. Lauderdale flight, but no one else got on. I was the only one who made it that night!

Thank you Spirit!!

The Success Principles employed:

—#4: Believe It’s Possible and You Get What You Expect
—#55: Be a Class Act, and
—#17: Ask, Ask, Ask!

Warmly, Pamela

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This is a great example of how applying the principles can literally get you from where you are to want to be…when everyone else is being left behind. Try a little kindness and be a class act.

As Pamela’s story illustrates, warm sunshine works a lot better than a harsh wind.

© 2010 Jack Canfield