World's Most Valuable Gem

WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE GEM

By Jim "Gymbeaux" Brown, February 23, 2014

In the interest of full disclosure this idea came from the movie The Secret.

The Stone

(By me)

Such a simple non imposing piece of glass

To most not worthy of a first look let along a second

Most would ignore it as it rests upon the ground

Even if it were observed as it lay in the grass

It is the world's most valuable gem, at least to me

Because buried within lies a power to recall

People, memories and thoughts most precious

Easily recalled whenever the gem I see.

In the movie The Secret the narrator referred to the use of a Gratitude Stone.  Actually the stone could be anything, a stone, a jewel, or even a photo but the stone seems to work best because of its size and the fact it is in places that would seem to be out of place.

How does it work?  The principle is so simple.  If someone is constantly giving gratitude/thanks for all that is important to them it is extremely difficult to be depressed at the same time.  We all have choices such as:

Your spouse, family member or best friend has done something that you do not like.  You can choose to be angry and hold a grudge or you can choose to be grateful that this person has been and continues to be a very important part of your life.

Your car suddenly has a scratch or dent where there was no scratch or dent.  You can choose to be upset and angry or you can choose to be grateful that you have a car when others do not.

At work something goes wrong.  You can do as most people do and with a knee-jerk reaction become angry and even choose to look for ways to get even.  Or you can decide that one of your main purposes in life is to respond rather than react to situations and fix them and be grateful for the opportunity. 

You have failed at something.  Do you dwell in what went wrong or do you use the occasion as an opportunity to learn and develop from the experience?  In this regard read Dr. John Maxwell's Failing Forward.

There are a lot of similarities between playing golf and life.  In both you get the opportunity to do well and you also get the opportunity to experience difficulties.  When you hit your golf ball into a spot that at first appears impossible to recover from do you get upset and throw your club or do you use the opportunity to literally show off your skills and amaze your playing partners?  In life when things go wrong do you get angry and react (throw your club) or do you take a deep breath and then respond and like in golf use the opportunity to show off your patience and skills to fix a problem rather than making it worse?

So here's the deal.  Go to a hobby store and buy a glass stone, the type you put in the bottom of a fish tank.  Buy a colorful stone; buy several.  Then I strongly recommend you do the following:

• Carry the stone (World's Most Valuable Gem) with you everywhere you go
• Carry it in your pocket or your purse.
• Whenever you see or touch it, pause for just a second and give thanks (gratitude) for something in your life like your spouse, children, friends, pets, home, car, job, food, you name it, give thanks for the mere fact that you have them or it in your life. 

No matter what your situation is, good or bad, others have less while others have more but few if any have exactly what you have.  And remember, there are many in this world that would consider having what you have as having won the lottery.  Be grateful for what you have in your life even the less than desirable situations or relationships because it is from those situations and relationships where learning really occurs.

Gary Keller in his book The Millionaire Real Estate Agent suggests that the only time a real estate agent/company can grow their business is during the times when the market is down.   When all is well in the world and business is great, it is great for everyone and you do not work as hard to develop it; business just seems to happen.  Then when business tails off the best in the industry really get to work and that is how the cream rises to the top within the real estate industry and they work harder not less to insure their business grows.  Then when the business turns around these people are light years ahead of their competition because they responded to the situation in a positive way rather than reacting by complaining about a bad market.

The same is true, at least in my opinion, in life.  Adverse situations may not be the ONLY time you can shine but you have to admit, these situations give you the opportunity to be positive and creative where you literally become the person who rises to the top, responds rather than reacts and gets things done.  Think about that for just a moment.  When a less than desirable situation arises in your life, who do you turn to?  You know you immediately go to someone in your life either for the answers you need or to complain about what happened.  Why is that person not you?  Why not turn to yourself to resolve the issue(s)?

Use the Gratitude Stone as a constant reminder of the value of being grateful for all that you have in your life.  As I write this Nugget the stone sits next to my keyboard.  When I first began writing Nuggets For The Noggin over 12 years ago I was fearful that no one would want to read them or that they would not like them.  As a result I wrote them more for myself more than for others.  Then the Nuggets began to spread and some people responded telling me how much they appreciated the thoughts I had put on paper.  When I write a Nugget such as this I need only look and/or touch the Gratitude Stone, stop and give thanks that (1) I am able to write the Nugget good or bad; (2) that I have a computer on which to write it; (3) that I have a means to distribute it via the blog www.NuggetsForTheNoggin.com; (4) that the Internet enables me to alert people via sites such as Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Plaxo and others that a new Nugget has been written and posted; (5) that others will read the Nugget and hopefully that at least one person will find value in the words; (6) that I have a roof over my head; (7) that I have a supporting family and the list goes on and on and on. 

I am also grateful that in the future the words that I put to paper (computer file) may be of value to my children and their children.  My father passed away decades ago and there are many times I wish I could ask him questions but obviously can't.  The Nuggets I write may offer my children and their children an insight to the way I think and my beliefs and that in turn may help them in their lives.

What are you grateful for?  When was the last time you expressed your thanks for these things?  Learn to use the Gratitude Stone; make it a habit that you carry it with you everywhere you go and give thanks every time you see or touch it for something in your life at that very moment. 

If you really want to make a difference, give one of the extra glass stones you purchased to family members or friends and explain what it is for.  Never forget:  One action you take, one word you use, may be the action or word that can literally change the world!  If you want to see a demonstration of how that works, watch Andy Andrews on Joshua Chamberlain in this YouTube Video, you won't soon forget the lesson you will learn:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57I2EECFzTA  If you watch this video and if you enjoy the American way of life, you may want to pause and give thanks to Joshua Chamberlain and Andy Andrews.

The Eye Of The Beholder

Nuggets For The Noggin

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder!

By Jim "Gymbeaux" Brown, December 8, 2013

In the late 80's I was called by a Home Savings and Loan, if you remember those, to list a home for them that had been foreclosed on.  The addressed indicated that it may have been a condominium situated on Lake Pontchatrain in Slidell, Louisiana.  That was both good news and bad news.  The good news was that it was on the water, the bad news was that it was a condominium.  Condominiums at that time were very difficult to sell because the mortgage companies were under such heavy restrictions regarding funding loans on condos. 

As I drove to the property I turned on the road named Rat's Nest Road, how's that for a start?  On one side of the road where homes, townhomes and condos all situated on a deep water canal that lead out to the lake.  On the other side of the road where mostly what can best be described as "camps".  Some on land but most on pilings out over the lake.  Some camps were simply that, camps while others were very nice homes but still on pilings out over the water.

As I pulled up to the address given, I noticed that this was a 4-plex structure and incorrectly assumed it to be a condo.  It was not a condo but rather a townhome so my enthusiasm was given a good positive jolt.  Three stories with a garage on the ground floor and two floors of living area above.  But the closer I got the more I could see that this home was not in the best of conditions.  The key let me into the garage where you could not help but notice that a very large square was cut out of the ceiling sheet rock and that there was trash in the garage everywhere you looked including the stairs leading to the living area above.

Once inside the living area I discovered why the hole had been cut.  The appliances in the home had been stolen and they were lowered down through the hole into a truck apparently parked in the garage where no one could see what the thieves were doing.  The home apparently had been used by teenagers and the homeless as a place to party and/or live unnoticed; it was completely trashed.  Anything of value had been taken or so I thought.

I called the Home Savings and Loan representative to give them a report and asked what he wanted me to do about cleaning up the home.  He said to arrange for a company to clean the home and bill the company and that if there was anything I wanted to keep to do so.  Upon first glance there was nothing left in the home that appeared to have any value to anyone.  Rotten food stuffs, old stained mattresses, broken cups and plates, empty alcohol bottles, beer cans - everywhere you looked.

In one room there was a window screen that seemed to still be in tact so I moved some of the trash to get to it.  When I did I saw an overturned 8x10 picture frame.  When I picked it up it was an autographed black& white photo of Ricky Jackson, All-Pro Linebacker for the New Orleans Saints.  This was not his home, just a photo.  And then I found a real gem - a book.  From when I first saw it I could see that this was no ordinary book.  It was clad in vinyl with a spiral ring along the top and a vinyl clasp along the bottom.  It was designed to sit standing up on your desk where you could easily read one page at a time and then simply turn the page over to the back.  I also noticed that the pages were printed back-to-back but the numbering was completely off.  Then I realized that as you "flipped" the pages over, you simply turned the book around and continued reading - thus the pages remained in order.

The name of the book is "Making the I COMPANY More Profitable" by A. Lou Vickery.  The first page indicated it had been "Written and Edited" by A. Lou Vickery.  Copyright 1979 by MOTO, INC. (no longer in business).  It also indicated it had been printed in the United States of America by Aydale Litho, INC of Decatur, Georgia (no longer in business).  Below all of this was a handwritten note,

To Al (unreadable last name),

With my highest regards and many thanks.

Toni (and what appears to be "Buford")

I have literally spent years looking for A. Lou Vickery, Aydale Litho, Motto, Inc., and anyone who might know of either one, all to no avail.  Why would I do so?  Never thought you would ask.  The book has become one of my most prized possessions.  It contains so much wisdom that it is beyond description.  Quotes, poems, essays, articles, graphics - wisdom!  I wanted to purchase more copies because this book would not last long.  The pages had already become yellowed, some were beginning to tear along the spiral binding and some had become completely dislodged but all the pages were present.  I wanted my children to have a copy; I considered its contents that valuable.  155 pages of the guidance on how to become the best person you could become that I have ever seen in one location.

On the Second Page was the following simple quote:

If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find.  If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who have never succeeded.  If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around for those who are succeeding and do as they have done.

...Joseph Marshall Wade.

The book is literally about making the "I Company", that being you the reader, more profitable.  Page after page of really great educational and inspirational wisdom.  I felt its contents were so valuable and given that I could not find one book store, person or reference who could tell me how to contact the author to obtain more copies that I started to reproduce the book on my computer one page at a time.  I knew that it had a copyright; it was never my intention to reproduce it to sell but only to be able to make 4 copies to give a copy to each of my four children.  It was a timely process because most of the pages contained graphics and I wanted to give justice to the original by making it as realistic to the original as possible. 

So why am I telling you the reader all of this.  Because beauty, not to mention value, is truly "in the eye of the beholder."  The contents of this book will be forever available either in the book or elsewhere long after the value and/or benefit of the items stolen from the home have since disappeared.  In fact Hurricane Katina has even taken the home and left only a vacant lot in its place.  The contents of the book however, far more valuable at least to me, was and continues to be far more valuable than any of these other things.

If only the burglars and others that occupied the home as they destroyed it had read what appears on page 21, which follows and I can only assume written by A. Lou Vickery (most of the other material in the book gave credit as to who wrote it but the following did not), I would believe their lives would have turned out drastically different.

VALUES

Every day we meet life situations which challenge us to decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust and even where we are going in life and why.  Some of these situation are unique; many are a matter of routine; others are of extreme importance.  And behind almost everything we do, every choice we make, every choice of action we take (or not) in these situations, is our system of values.

Values are "preferences based on the feelings were have about what is desirable".  If we choose our own values wisely and discriminantly, we project ourselves into life situations with conviction of right and purpose.  But when our values are chosen, on the basis of what others feel is desirable and good, we experience difficulty in acting in accordance with the best that's within us.

Many of us know what it is to join the crowd and turn to indulgence, to diversions, or to the popular fads of the day, to satisfy the restlessness and hunger for meaning and direction.  While some of us find these way satisfying in varying degrees, most of us find the temporary and the momentary pleasure we experience from them creates a great deal of problems for us in the long run, because they did not spring from our best self.

It is not sufficient to know we have a system of values.  To live vitally we must know what it is we value.  And this is often difficult in a society which makes confusing and conflicting demands upon us.  Too many times we make important choices not on the basis of our own feelings, but rather on the basis of what a group or another believes is right for us.

When we let others decide what we should value in life we give them veto power over our lives.  If our worth as a human being is to be measured by how closely we conform to the wishes of others, then we become worthless to ourselves.  Our greatest strength then becomes our biggest weakness.  We no longer act on our own free will.

Values are personal .  The choice of what gives meaning and direction to our lives is ours and ours alone.  And when we are willing to go within to find out what we truly value, our actions will be consistent with the best that is within us.

AND ALL THESE PEOPLE LEFT THIS MATERIAL BEHIND AS BEING WORTHLESS.

BEAUTY AND VALUE IS TRULY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER!