The travelers and the plane tree Two travelers, worn down by the heat of the sun, decided to throw themselves on the ground to rest under a large plane tree. While they were resting under its shade, one man said to the other: -What useless tree this is! I see that it doesn't bear fruit, and I think we cannot use its wood for anything. -Don't be so ungrateful! rustled the tree in reply. I am being extremely useful, shielding you from the hot sun. And you dare to call me useless and unhelpful! Always, we must appreciate and show gratitude for the goods received. Big or small, they're all for our benefit.

A best friend story A legend told that there were two friends walking through the dessert, and at one point during the trip, they had an argument. The other who was offended, wrote in the sand: - Today, my best friend slapped me in the face. They went ahead and reached an oasis where decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped and hurt, started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he had recovered from the near drowning, he took a stiletto and wrote on a stone: - Today, my best friend saved my life. Intrigued, the friend who had saved asked: - Why after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone? With a huge smile on his face, the other friend replied: -When you are offended by a great friend, you should write it in the sand, where winds of forgetfulness will take care of erases it; on the other hand, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind in the world will be able to erase it.

The master and the scorpion An Asian master who was watching a scorpion drowning, decided to take it out from the water. But when he did, the scorpion stung him. From the effect of the pain, the master dropped the animal, which again fell in the water drowning. The master tried to get it out newly, and the animal stung him again. Someone who has observed everything, approached the master and said: 'Excuse me, but you are stubborn! Don't you understand that whenever you'll attempt to pull it out from the water, it will sting you?' The master replied: -The nature of the scorpion is to sting, and this will not change mine which is to help. And then, with the help of a leaf, the master drew the animal from the water and saved its life. Do not change your nature if someone hurts you;just take precautions.

The gift of insults Near Tokyo lived a great Samurai, now old, who used to teach Zen Buddhism to young people. In spite of his age, the legend told he was still able to defeat any adversary. One afternoon, a warrior, which he was known for his complete lack of scruples, showed up over there. He was famous for using techniques of provocation: he waited until your adversary made the first move, and being gifted with an enviable intelligence in order to repair any mistake made, he counterattacked with fulminating speed. The young and impatient warrior has never lost a fight. Knowing the Samurai's reputation, he had come to beat him, and increase his fame. All the students were against the idea, but the old man accepted the challenge. All went to the square of the town, and the young man started insulting the old master. He threw some rocks in his direction, spat in his face, shouted every insult he is known, he even insulted his ancestors. For hours, he did everything to provoke him, but the old man reminded impassive. At the end of the afternoon, feeling exhausted and humiliated, the impetuous warrior left. Disappointed by the fact that the master had received so many insults and provocations, the students asked him: -How could you bear such indignity? Why didn't use his sword, even knowing that might lose the fight, instead of displaying a coward in front of us all? - If someone comes to you with a gift, and you don't accept it, who does the gift belong to? Asked the Samurai. - He who tried to deliver it, - replied one of his disciples. - The same goes for envy, anger and insults. - said the master. - When they are not accepted, they continued to belong to the one who carried with them.

The bottle There was a man lost in the desert, destined to die of thirst. Luckily, he arrived in a crumbling old cottage. No windows. No roof. He walked around and found a small shadow where sat down for protecting the heat and the sun of the desert. Looking around, he saw an old water pump. It was completely rust. He crawled toward there, took the handle and began pumping without stopping, but nothing happened. Disappointed, he wiped his wet forehead with his hand and lay on his back. His arms lay limply on the floor at his sides. And then he noticed that there was a bottle on his side. He picked it up and read what the label on the bottle said."You first need to prepare the bomb with all the water that it contains, then, please have the courtesy to fill it again before you leave." The man took the lid off the bottle and saw that it was full of water. "I could drink this water, and I might survive. But I could fill the pump. Maybe I'd get fresh and cold water from the bottom of the pit, and I could take all the water that I want. What should I do?" He thought. In the end, he spilled all the water into the pump, grabbed the handle and began pumping. The pump started to grind, but nothing happened. He was breathing hard with his eyes locked onto the pump, a sad expression on his face. The pump continued with his whining noises. And then suddenly a little flow started to pour. The water ran with abundance, fresh and clear water. With a startled expression on his face, he filled the bottle and drank anxiously. Immediately after, he filled it up to the next traveler, took the note and added another phrase: "Trust me it works, you have to give all the water before you get it back."

Dear friend Dear friend, I see you're crying because it's my time to go. Please do not cry. I want to explain you some things. You' re sad because I've gone and I'm happy because I met you. How many, like me, die every day without having met someone special? Sometimes, we spend so much time alone to our luck! We only know the cold, the thirst, the danger, the hunger. We have to worry about as we'll get something to eat and where we'll spend the night sheltered. We see many faces every day that passes without even a look, and sometimes it's better that they don't look at us before realize that we are there and harm us. Sometimes, we have the great luck that among people, passing an angel and pick us up. Sometimes, those angels come in a group, and they're organized. Sometimes, there're other angels far to send help to us. And there it all changes. If it's necessary, they take us to another type of angels who know much and give medicines to heal us. They choose a strange word that they pronounce every time we come. 'name' I think that is how they call it. And that makes feel special, we cease to be anonymous, of being one of many. And we know what it's like a house! Do you know how important that is for us? We don't have to be afraid anymore, no more hunger, or cold, or pain, or danger. If you could give an account of how happy that makes us that. For us, any house is like a palace! We let take care if it's going to rain, or if something is going to hurt us. And mostly we're not alone anymore because no animal likes being alone. What more you could ask for? I know that you get sad my departure, but I had to go now. I want to ask you to don't blame yourself for nothing. I heard you sobbing that you should have done more for me. Do not say that, you did a lot for me! Without you, I wouldn't have known everything nice that I'm taking with me. Please, don't cry! I leave happy, taking with me the memory of the name, and every caress you gave me, the sound of your voice talking to me even though you don't always understand what you told me. My first task now is to help you from here to be not sadder. Tonight when you look at the sky and see a star blink I want you to know I am eye-catching, warning you that I arrived well and thank you for the love that you have given me. I say goodbye for now. There's a heaven for special people like you. The same sky where we're going and the life rewarded ourselves for finding there. I'll be waiting for you.

Keep your goals to yourself. Take a few seconds and think of your biggest personal goal, okay? Imagine deciding right now that you're going to do it. Imagine telling someone that you meet today what you're going to do. Imagine their congratulation, and their high image of you. Doesn't it feel good to say it out loud? Well, bad news: Darek Silvers says that telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen. He explains that any time you have a goal, there're some steps that need to be done, you need to do some work in order to achieve it. Ideally you'd not be satisfied until you'd actually done the work. But when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, the mind is kind of tricked into feeling that's already done. And then because you've felt that satisfaction, you're less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary. He shows a lot of researches that prove this argument. One of them goes like this: 163 people across four separate tests were tested to see how long / hard they'd work toward their goals, if they announced them versus if they didn't. The results proved his point, those who announced their goals on average working 12 minutes less that those who did. So, next time you're tempted to tell someone your goal, try to talk about something you can state it in a way that gives you no satisfaction. What do you think about this idea of Silvers?