We love to highlight songs that offer lessons and today’s is a holiday favorite, The Little Drummer Boy.
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Here’s a quick review of the story…
When our favorite coach, John Wooden, graduated from 8th grade, his father gave him a card with a 7-point creed to live by.
Click the player to listen to this episode of The BIGG Success Show Podcast. Below is a summary.
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Graduation season is known for inspiring commencement speeches. Today, we’ll focus on a special graduation gift.
If you’re a regular to BIGG success, you know that we love John Wooden. He made history as a coach, and among his accomplishments was winning 10 NCAA championships. He also created the Pyramid of Success which has 15 characteristic blocks that lead to success.
In his book, “They Call Me Coach,” Wooden tells the story of his father giving him a gift for graduation. A piece of paper with handwritten words of wisdom, which included the creed.
The other night we saw an episode of According to Jim. Jim (played by Jim Belushi) was stressing because he had not had a good year – money was tight and it was Christmas time. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to buy his kids the gifts they wanted.
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His wife, Cheryl (Courtney Thorne-Smith) pointed out to him that the kids had barely looked at the presents they got the year before. In fact, one was still in its original package – it had been unwrapped but never opened and played with!
Maybe that kid was just a collector at heart!
But this show made us think … sometimes we get caught up on getting something new and not reflecting on the gifts we already have. So today we want to unwrap some of our most special gifts.
If you want to listen to us open these gifts, just click the “play” button above. Otherwise, picture each package being opened …
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Why don’t you kick it off, Mary-Lynn?
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This one is a real, real special one. It’s the gift of my Dad. He had a bit of a health scare going into the holidays. He’s fine – clean bill of health. So thank you, God. I love my gift this year! Alright George, it’s your turn.
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My gift is memories of Mom and Dad. Mom’s been gone a couple of years now so it’s still somewhat fresh, I guess. I think about the things I learned from them, the things that helped make me who I am, for better or worse – I can blame them! I had a very special Mom and Dad and I’m very thankful for that. Now, you’re up Mary-Lynn.
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Oh, yes … we’ve had a cold winter here in Illinois. There have been nights when you just hear that wind outside howling and I am inside and toasty warm! So the gift of a nice warm house is something I’m very, very grateful for this year.
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We often don’t stop to think about the basics and how many people there are who don’t even have something as simple as that.
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Exactly. Alright, George, tear into the next one.
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One of the features of our car is remote unlock. Man, as we’ve been out shopping in the cold, it’s really nice to be able to find your car quickly because it winks at us. And of course, to be able to get right in once you’re to it.
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That’s a good one. Okay, I’ll open the next one. Ah, the gifts of our kitty cats – Fifi and Fraidy. We have original cat names, don’t we? Boy, they just give us gifts all year long … loving and purring.
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Yeah, and sometimes they leave us a little something on the floor!
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We don’t like those gifts at all!
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Okay, let’s open the next one. It’s for both of us, Mary-Lynn. Let’s see what it is … ah, it’s our families. You have a great family, Mary-Lynn. Love your dad and your sister.
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You have a great family, too. Your sisters are all so fun – listening to all of the siblings laughing together. It’s just so nice!
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Yes, and the in-laws aren’t so bad either. A cool group of nephews and now, one little niece. And Mary-Lynn, while we’re on family, I have to say that I’m also very thankful for you.
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Ah, that’s so sweet. I’m thankful for you too. You’re a special man!
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It brings up the point, though. I think sometimes those closest to us are the people we most take for granted. We often don’t show them the appreciation we should.
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Yeah, I forget about you all the time, George.
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I know you do!
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George, I’ve got to tell you … I think we scored this Christmas.
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I’m with you on that – but Mary-Lynn, I just noticed something … over there in the corner, it looks like there’s another bigg present for us.
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Alright, let’s open it up … ah yes, of course. This is something we’re really grateful for.
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We’re grateful for you! The fact that you spend time with us like you do – you share your insights, you listen to our show, you read our blog posts. However you spend time with us, we’re just so thankful.
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You are the reason that we get to do what we love to do! That is such an amazing gift and we thank you so much.
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So to you we say, whatever your chosen holiday at this time of year, we wish you and yours the very best. For us, it’s Christmas … so Merry Christmas!
Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00294-122508.mp3
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“It’s better to give than to receive.”
Our parents teach us this from the time we’re young and society reinforces it.
We wondered about the origin of this quote. It turns out that it comes from the Bible.
By Bigg Success Staff
November, 25 2007
John Bramblitt is an unusually gifted painter. More importantly, he is an inspiration to countless numbers of people. We think you’ll be as inspired by him as we have been.
You see John has dealt with adversity for most of his life. He first experienced a seizure over twenty years ago. He had a kidney removed as a kid. He endured hearing loss. At eleven, he required glasses.
If all that wasn’t enough for a young man who had just turned thirty, he began noticing that his friends’ faces weren’t clear. A doctor diagnosed that he was going blind. The cause of his blindness is still unknown.
In the years since, John has experienced a lot. At first, he was sad, frustrated, and angry. He turned to painting, in part, to symbolically give God the finger.
That’s when he made an amazing discovery.
He sees better now than he did before.
He says he sees with one hand, while feeling the paint with the other
. The more he painted, the less angry he was. He found that, what he thought was a curse, has turned into a blessing.
So what can we learn from John Bramblitt?
You possess more abilities than even you know. Look at each day as an opportunity to discover gifts you didn’t know you had. To practice this, check out our 8 visualization exercise.]
John learned that he could distinguish colors by their feel. He developed his memory so he could picture the painting in his mind as he touches it with his hands. Get excited about all you can learn when challenges come your way!
John knows a painting is done when doing any more would take away from it.
We recently discussed John Wooden’s definition of success. We said that you must do all you can, but that’s all you need to do. When you do that, you have peace of mind. John achieves this with every one of his paintings, then he quits.
To learn more about John, check out the following links:
See John’s paintings. You’ll be amazed at this young man’s talent.
