Doing a ‘google’ on it I found it was previously written by Robert Fulghum. His book by the same title dominated the New York Times best seller list in 1989 and through much of 1990.

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK . Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Wednesday, 10 November 2004

Help, God – the bottom has fallen out!…

Psalm 130:1 TM
If you burn the candle at both ends, you aren’t as bright as you think! In these times of working harder but achieving less you can get irritable and cynical and lose your sense of humour. David was there: “Help, God – the bottom has fallen out.” If that describes how you feel sometimes, here are two helpful suggestions:

1) Don’t go it alone. The Bible says that on the seventh day: “God…rested from all his work” (Genesis 2:3 TM). And rest is still one of His priorities for your life. But that can be a problem when you’re a one-man band. Check out Moses. He had trouble sharing out the responsibility for keeping two million Israelites happy in the wilderness! Finally, he told God: “I cannot carry all these people…the burden is too heavy…kill me…now” (See Numbers 11:14-15 NIV). Wow! Now that’s major burnout! And what was God’s response? “I never told you to do it all yourself. There are talented people all around you just waiting to be asked. Don’t be a plonker Mo’ – get them involved!”

2) Nobody’s perfect. Chuck Braun runs a company called Idea Connection Systems and gives all his trainees ‘a mistake quota’. It works like this: each person can make up to 30 mistakes during a session with nothing to worry about. If anyone uses up all 30, Chuck gives them another 30, then another. And the result? They learn to see their mistakes as a creative process and begin thinking of them as part of the learning curve. And you need to do that too!

Before all this took place I wrote on a whiteboard in my office the simple word ‘Focus’. It was one of those cathartic moments where I just wanted to get myself back on track. Since that time a lot has transpired and now I’m back behind the desk considering a paper tray, an Outlook inbox, an online project management system and my personal task list. How do I get to the goal?

First question might be ‘What is the goal?” and that’s where we should start. If you ask me it comes down to my most valuable commodity, time! I really would like to be able to write a book, paint a picture, develop more websites and read, read, read. What stops me you ask? One word; CLAG.

It should have been an acronym, but simply put CLAG sounds as good (or as bad) as it really is. Clag is the ‘stuff’ that clogs the tubes, blocks the road or simply stuffs up your systems. Its like a barnacle on your boat, plaque on your teeth or the business process developed by a civil servant without a deadline. I think it really is Cancerous Legions Around Goals.

My thought for today is this; to focus its sometimes not about the goal but about clearing the ‘CLAG’ so that the goal is revealed. The goal was always there its just clouded from the things of the day. Time to throw the clag in the bin, sell the clag in a garage sale or give it to someone who sees that ‘one mans trash is another mans treasure’. Just to be fair, don’t give trash away! DUMP IT.

Hope you start to see a glimpse of your goal as you throw out the CLAG!

Isn’t this a great idea. Whether you are after that one crème de la crème T-Shirt or something that the whole rugby team can use, this is the site for you. The online art and text composition tool is well worth a play just to see what potential is in this site and the ideas of creative design.

All in all a good idea that I heard about from Seth Godin who promoted it in his blog due to the concept of the ‘pleasant surprise’. Check out what happened when Seth went to order T-Shirts for a charity through www.customink.com