The art of persuasion..

The art of persuasion...

"Pride and Prejudice goes for a fall...

To climb up and overcome the Great Wall,

Listen with care and love to Wake-up Calls...

Patience and Kindness will always stand tall..."

Lucy

Have you heard about this story called 'The Northern Wind and the Sun'? Maybe yes, maybe no, but most of us have. It is sometimes good to review and revise about the morals taught in this story. I like this short and meaningful story very much, provided it is of a good source, repeating it as many times as possible to different people of different ages is a noble deed indeed! Let it be a reminder to us.... because most humans tend to be forgetful....

There was once upon a time where the Northern Wind challenged the Sun on a game of power and might, to see who is more powerful and mightier?

It happened that there was a man who was passing by. The Northern Wind had an idea. The Northern Wind challenged the Sun to find out who could remove or blow away the coat of the man. When challenged by the Northern Wind, the Sun just smiled and nodded its head. 'After you, please...' To be fair and square, we should only use 10 minutes to see the effect. The Northern Wind agreed. He was thinking that was just a small matter to him.

The Northern Wind took up his might and blew and blew at the man. He was quite confident that he could use his Might and Power to blow off the coat from the man. He told himself that it should be no problem! What is there so difficult about it? He could uproot an acre of huge trees, he could blow and sink a ship, he could brew up a storm.... sink a ship if he wanted, and shape and cut the sand dunes too, in whatsoever shape he wanted..... He was so proud thinking of his power...about how he crushed the rock and 'chopped' up the trees of any size.

The proud and mighty Northern Wind puffed and puffed.... He blew with all his might..... But he was surprised that he couldn't blow off the coat of the man, instead the man held even more tightly to his coat! Eventually he gave up the task. Because the more he blew, the tighter the man held to his coat! The Northern Wind asked the Sun to try, thinking that if he couldn't do it, the Sun who had nothing would not be able to do it too.

To his surprise, the Sun was doing a great job. The Sun put up his smile confidently, radiating its warmth and love.... instantly and effectively affecting the man.. Because of the warmth of the Sun, he was feeling warmer and warmer. He felt the need to take off his coat. He had no need to wear it then because the weather was getting warmer. Yes, the man took off his coat!

The Northern Wind learnt a lesson, a valuable lesson. He understood the meaning of the art of persuasion. Seek to understand and then to be understood! He understood that not everything can be done by force. The forcing game is not practical here. Here is a person, not a tree. This is a person who knows how to think and feel. He is not a robot or just a thing.

Challenging is a good effort, but to stay cool and steady even after losing the game is even a greater effort. Learning positively means to accept being defeated or mistakes and learning not to repeat the same mistake.

This is a short story that talks on morals and a great lesson to all learning kids. I have it a little bit modified and I hope the writer of this story won't mind that I did that. Great minds think alike. Our goals are all set in educating and sharing to more people for a good purpose.

* In the case of human relationships, many messages or deeds can be conveyed and done more effectively when we understand the art of persuasion. So it is of great importance that the lesser conflicts it generated, the more effective we would be. Our tongue is just a soft tissue, but it cuts and bleeds deep if not disciplined.

I used to share with my people about disciplining our tongue. With the same tongue we praise the Lord, we also use it to hurt and kill a relationship. With the same tongue we use it for eating, we can also use it to cheat and say nasty words.

Beware of how we use our assets, be aware that we have others to think of. We are not living alone in an island. Think before we say, mind our speech....watch out for our words, that comes from our mind, our thoughts... Use the appropriate words for building a relationship, not to destroy it. Never do things to people that you yourself won't like to have it happened onto you.

Thursday, January 04, 2007