"I'm Right, You're Wrong"

"I'm Right, You're Wrong"

I’m in beautiful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my hometown, for a visit with my family. Pittsburgh is a nice place, extremely livable.
Anyway, I’m here to tell you that I’m right, and you’re wrong. Right about what? Doesn’t matter—I’m right and you’re wrong. Well, at least that’s how most of us operate. Whether disagreements or conflicts are big or small, human beings have a need to make the other person wrong. Think about how much mental and emotional energy you spend making other people wrong. We hate to be wrong—to some, it’s embarrassing to be wrong, a real blow to the ego. So instead, anger, justifications and rationalizations fill our minds and our mouths. Have you had a disagreement recently with someone in your family or at work or school? How did you respond? Did you consider that the other person may be right—or did you classify them as completely wrong? I’ve got news for you—the truth usually lies somewhere in between you and the other person.
Making wrong ranges from individuals to groups to large organizations all the way up to nations. We’re right and they’re wrong. Next time you have a disagreement with someone, say to that person “You may be right”. It’s a much better way to start the dialogue than saying “You’re wrong”.

Key Words

Justification-n-a reason or explanation given to explain why something was said or done.

Rationalization-n-similar to justification, an explanation that’s often given in an either/or form.

I’ve got news for you-idiom-a way of pointing out a truth to another person.

Dialogue-n-conversation or discussion between two people.

"You're Late!" (click on for video, text below)

"You're Late!" (text)

You’re late! What’s your excuse?! Are you late for everything? The majority of people tend to be late; late for dinner, late for lunch, late for meetings, late for appointments, late their own funeral. Punctuality is a lost art.
Why? Part of it is poor planning. We like to blame our lateness on traffic, the weather, the cat or the dog, or best of all, some other person. We’ve all done that, right? “I’m late because so and so made me late”. That’s it, take the easy way out, and blame someone else. Poor planning, and our subsequent lateness, is a result of not allowing a proper amount of time for events and transition. We think we can magically transport ourselves through space instantaneously. So, examine your planning and time management.
The second, and more important, deep underlying reason we’re late is we don’t respect other people. That’s right—we don’t respect people, and that is terrible. By showing up late, to any function, what we are communicating to the other person or people is that “You’re not important”. Yep—that’s the message we’re sending. And if you don’t respect the other people, and the most valuable thing they possess—their time, then how can you expect them to respect you?
Next time you tell someone to meet at a certain time, make sure you’re there, on time!

Key Words

Punctuality-n-arriving on time, efficient with time.

Subsequent-adj-something that follows, the next thing.

Instantaneously-adv-very quickly, the very next moment.

Underlying-adj-the root cause of something, the real reason (which may be hidden).

Respect-v-honor shown to another person or thing.

"Keeping Your Word" (click on for video, text below)

Keeping Your Word (text)

Do people believe you? When you tell people that you’ll do something, do you do it? The sad truth is that most people don’t keep their word. “Sorry” has become the catch-phrase for all situations. Just say you’re sorry, right? That’ll take care of everything, won’t it? Not really. If you have integrity and keep your word, you won’t have to say, “I’m sorry”.
There’s a difference between saying, “I’m sorry” when an accident happens, or you make a mistake—it’s necessary to say, “I’m sorry”. The problem is that “I’m sorry” is used by many people to apologize for laziness and lack of integrity. After a while, “I’m sorry” means nothing.
What am I talking about here? If you tell a friend that you’ll meet him at 8 o’clock, you don’t show up twenty minutes late—there’s no integrity in that. If you tell your boss that you’ll complete a task by next Monday, make sure it’s completed by Monday. If you promise to go to someone’s birthday party on Thursday night, don’t blow it off because it’s become inconvenient for you.
The problem in all three of these, and many other situations like these, is that we lose integrity and credibility—we give people reason to not believe us. Our reputation suffers. Here’s something else that suffers—our self-esteem. How does it feel when you’re twenty minutes late? When that important project is not completed? When we don’t show up at our friend’s party, after promising that we would? You probably don’t feel too good about yourself and your confidence and outlook on life take a hit.
It’s simple, really—from now on, when you tell someone that you’ll do something, keep your word. It will do YOU a world of good.

Key Words

Catch-phrase-n-a convenient idiom or statement that is often over-used.

Integrity-n-consisting of quality, maintaining consistent behavior, truth, honor.

Keep your word-idiom-doing what you say you will do.

Blow it off-idiom-to skip something, to not do it, without much care or concern.

Self-esteem-n-how we feel about ourselves.

Take a hit-idiom-a negative impact, to lose value, become less.