Ideas are not enough

Half way into an hour and a half commute to work and the rain was still falling. The roads were slick with water and visibility could have been better. For some reason the traffic had slowed to a crawl and then I saw on the inside lane the reason. A car had broken down and stood forlornly with its hazard lights feebly blinking away. A woman stood, holding her coat hood down against the rain, hand bag in hand next to the car. She was getting wet. And in five minutes she’d be a lot wetter.

Now the next thought that went through my head was that I could pull over and give her the umbrella that was sitting, unused, next to me in my car. I don’t need it and she did. I could have stopped right by her car.

But I didn’t.

Twenty yards further down the road I saw a parking place. Again I thought that I could very easily turn the wheel, slow the car, and pull up. Then I could get out, walk twenty yards and give her the umbrella. A decent, quick idea that would make a difference.

I kept driving.

Now I’ve thought about this up and down and the reason why I didn’t act is not the topic for this thought for the week. The topic is rather that ideas aren’t enough on their own. Action has to follow them.

If you don’t put your ideas into action then the ideas won’t make a blind bit of difference.

If you have an idea to develop yourself, follow it with action. If you have an idea how to increase your sales, improve your health or your wealth then follow those ideas with action. Otherwise nothing will change.

Listen to your ideas, take action and make a difference.

(And I offer my most profound apologies to the woman in the rain…)

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

“Never give up, never surrender!”

“Never give up, never surrender!”

A few years ago I was on a plane flying to the beautiful city of Seattle from England. I was on one of those planes with the neat mini television screens set in the seat in front of you. I flipped through the available channels, saw a film on the listings that looked like fun and slipping the headphone on I settled back in my aisle seat to enjoy the movie.

Minutes into the film I started to laugh. First a chuckle, then a contained laugh. I tried to suppress my laughter due to the other passengers on the plane but it got worse. Soon I was crying with laughter, tears streaming down my face as I doubled up in my seat with convulsions. People started looking at me funny and I realised I was the only person on the plane laughing! In a quiet moment of the film, as I wiped the tears from my eyes I glanced puzzled at what they were watching as it seemed inconceivable to me that they wouldn’t be laughing just as hard as I was.

They weren’t watching what I was. Definitely their loss.

At about the half hour point I gave in and laughed and chuckled through the rest of the film as quietly as possible but still loud enough to draw some odd looks from the other passengers…hey what can I say – the film was funny!

So what’s the point of the story? Is it “walk your own path”? Or “Be respectful of others”, or “Humour is good for you”? Well all good points but not where this is going. You see the film was a sci-fi spoof – literally a Star Trek spoof called Galaxy Quest. Now as such it had a heroic Captain Kirk type figure who’s motto was “Never give up, never surrender!” And that’s the point of the story…well that’s the point of the blog, the point of the story was to make entertain you as you read it – picturing one man crying with laughter in the centre of a plane whilst everyone else looks on bemused not knowing why he is so happy! (Watching with headphones remember on my own mini tv)

So for this first blog on blogger I have chosen “Never give up, never surrender!” as the motto. For here is a truth for you, no matter what you want to do in life, no matter who you want to be, as long as you don’t give up and don’t surrender to the objections and obstacles of the world then you will triumph. Consider how many marvellous things that have been created, how many wondrous inventions given life and how many lives bettered because people kept going.

So dear readers it is good to laugh at films and equally it’s brilliant to “”Never give up, never surrender!”

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

PS This was posted on my blogger site before I moved to wordpress.