Thirst is a remarkable representation of empathy, compassion and true giving. the author of the book Scott Harrison founded The charity: water back in 2006 with no funds and no experience. Through the years, his organization has raised over $300 million to bring clean drinking water to more than 8.2 million people around the globe.
Well written, the book is a memoir of the author’s life and a story of The charity: water – his vision of changing the world for the better, the purpose and the WHY of his life. Thirst is full of interesting and compassionate stories about the communities suffering from lack of water and the tireless unique & creative ways of the charity to collect funds, build trust in donors and deliver sustainable water solutions for the millions of families in need.
Everyone should read this book – there is so much that can inspire you to go out and change the world by as little as donating your birthday to a higher cause than just acquiring stuff.
Today’s quote is really powerful, but you have to be ready to change and be emotionally mature to be able to make it work for you.
What should you do when you are not happy with the reality? You should cultivate a “can-do” attitude and start changing the life around you one-step-at-a-time, piece by piece until you build a happier place for you and people surrounding you.
If things are out of your hands, and it’s hard to alter the reality around, you should try to change your way of thinking and make the most of the situation, keep positive and find the things that makes you happy.
Here are 10 tips to complain less and stop the negative thoughts so you can focus on finding solutions and behappier:
Shift your thinking from negative to positive thoughts
When you ask people about love, they’ll tell you about heartbreak.When you ask people about belonging, they’ll tell you about how they have been excluded. When you ask people about connection, the stories they’ll tell you are about disconnection.
Interesting, right? We always first recall the negative experiences in life and mute the positive memories.
Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston and the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and Dare to Lead.
In her TED Talk: The power of vulnerability, she outlines the following four life-changing practices that can help us live worthy, wholehearted life, stop recalling only the heartbreak, pain and disconnection, but find the joy and happiness:
Have a sense of COURAGE– when communicating with others tell the story of who you really are and accept your imperfections.
Practice COMPASSION– treat yourself kindly first and then treat others with compassion.
Develop CONNECTION as a result of authenticity– willingness to let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are.
Embrace VULNERABILITY – give without expecting anything in return, share anything without the fear of being judged, open yourself to people you love, because you are worthy of the same love. If we don’t allow to be vulnerable, we block the joy, gratitude and happiness, and feel worse.
If you want to learn more how to live with courage an vulnerability, check out Dr. Brown’s book
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
I hope all of you were able to have a relaxing and happy long weekend despite the overwhelming and controversial pandemic news everywhere.
This week’s quote comes from Helen Keller – an American author, political activist, and lecturer, who was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
This quote is almost 100-years old and still 100% valid.
When we have experienced happiness, we try to cherish and think of it, like it will never happen again and tend not to jump right into a new experience. Most of us are cautious when starting a new task or event and assess the success of it through the lens of already experienced success. It’s the same with happiness – we don’t see the new opportunity of being happy again, as we are comparing the new experience with the previous, and they will never be the same.
More happiness quotes from Helen Keller:
“We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.”
“I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy, and an objective.”
“If we do not like our work, and do not try to get happiness out of it, we are a menace to our profession as well as to ourselves.”
Today’s timeless quote comes from the great Irish playwriter George Bernard Shaw written in his satiric work “An Unsocial Socialist”, published at the end of XIX century.
Isn’t it an interesting point of view?
I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking: What is my purpose in this life? What is the reason for my being? What are my talents? and When will I find myself?
And the truth is, very few people know their talents from a young age. And even if they know their talent, lots of hard work and learning is needed to master a talent i.e. to create yourself.
For the rest of us, where the talent is not defined early, we need to:
learn new things on a regular basis;
repeat what we know to master a skill,
connect our knowledge and build on top of it.
This is basically the process of creating ourselves. Once we start sharing our knowledge, helping others, getting a sense of accomplishment, and even feeling happy with our contribution, then we can say we created ourselves. But that’s not the end of it – lifelong learning continues and self-development never stops.
Actress Marilu Henner is 1 of 10 known people in the world with the ability of superior autobiographical memory – an astonishing ability to recall details of every day of her life. In her book “Total Memory Makeover”, Marilu unfolds pros and cons of having autobiographical memory and illustrates them with multiple personal stories.
Part of the book is dedicated to help the readers improve their memories, enjoy and cherish every moment of the life, by keeping a memory journal to track events from the past and build personal history “track”.
What I like the most from her advice in the book is the three simple rules for unforgettable experience, which I admit is 100% true for my memories of events from my past that have left vivid imprints in my mind.
The first rule is: ANTICIPATION – Make sure to get prepared for the event. Talk to family and friends about it, reveal your plans, and show excitment. For example, if you are planning a two-week vacation, allocate time to get mentally ready, to plan fun trips and entertainment and share the plans with someone.
The second rule is PARTICIPATION – once you arrive at the event or start the trip, try to be 100% present, participate in the planned activities and have fun – enjoy the moment to the fullest, take photos, mementos and keepsakes. Don’t forget to keep a journal with notes from the journey – it will come handy later when you need to refresh the memories.
The third rule is RECOLLECTION, and comes after the event or activity is completed, and you are no longer part of it. This phase is the longest and can continue forever, but should start as soon as the experience is over, while the memories are still fresh. Start talking to friends and family – how photos from the places you’ve been, share stories what happened and how it felt.
Please make sure to check out the book for more entertaining, and educational advices from Marilu. The book is easy to read and her stories for sure will resonate with readers everywhere.
Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, who has researched the different personalities of employees and determined that in the office environment, there are three basic kinds of people:
Givers,
Takers &
Matchers
According to the research, the majority of people are Matchers and we all have our moments of giving and taking, but we most probably are inclined to be either a Giver or a Taker.
You can figure out for yourself by acknowledging which of the following two questions you will most often ask yourself when you interact with your colleagues: What can you do for me?or What can I do for you?
Many studies have proven that in order for a company or an organization to prosper, there is a need to have a culture of generosity, where people, willing to teach others are encouraged and the knowledge and skills are safely carried over from person to person, without fear of being judged or laughed at.
In my experience with a company for more than 3-4 years, I have seen a high percentage of turnover of staff, and in many of these cases, the knowledge and wisdom these people possessed were lost for the organization once they left. This lack of learning is not always acknowledged by the company but has a significant impact on the new employees. The newly hired employees inevitably start from scratch and build proficiency, mostly based on own practice and errors, and lack the wisdom of mentors or senior associates.
For making any organization successful, Adam Grant offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share. The three simple steps are:
Protect Givers from burnout – Make sure Givers provide quick tips and don’t just do most of the work themselves.
Encourage help-seeking – Make it easy and safe to ask for help.
Get the right people on the bus. Keep the wrong people off the bus – having Takers in the team, poisons the atmosphere, where any and all collaboration is difficult. In such an atmosphere, even the Givers are discouraged to help.
Read the Entire Book
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success and you can order it from your favorite online book store or get it from your neighborhood library, where it is available in multiple formats: printed version, e-book or audiobook.
The book has been translated into 30 languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune’s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review’s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post’s books every leader should read.
Are you wondering if you are a Giver or a Taker?
Assess yourself. As Adam Grant explains, the assessment is using state-of-the-art methods in organizational psychology. For each question, give the answer that comes naturally to you. Your results will only be as accurate as you are honest—and self-aware.
If you haven’t read it yet and you are interested to hear all about Adam Grant’s research on the matter, please read the book. The full title is 
Nadia Karaboycheva 