Purposeful Growth

A judge sues his cleaners over a lost pair of suit pants–for $67 million dollars! The cleaners found and returned the pants a week later, but the judge claims they weren’t his.

Subsequently, the cleaners offered a $3,000 settlement, three times the cost of the judge’s entire suit. The judge refuses. The cleaners offer another settlement offer of $12,000; the judge rejects it and now the matter of a $67 million dollar pair of trousers will go to trial. (NBC5.com article of May 2, 2007)

This has to be, among other things, a classic demonstration of cognitive dissonance. The judge refuses to budge from his self-righteous, victim position despite evidence that the situation is resolvable: a) his pants were returned, and b) the cleaners offered a settlement of twelve times the cost of his suit.

The judge steadfastly (stubbornly?) maintains he was wronged, to the tune of millions of dollars. Oh, and included in the judges calculation of damages is a leased car to enable him to drive to a different cleaners.

As if the story itself isn’t humorous enough, author Brenda Layman (Song of Joy, http://www.healmyspirit.com/) penned these hilarious lyrics. Sing along to the tune of Darlin’ Clementine.

Oh, My Trousers

In a country, in a city,
Cleaning spots and pressing suits,
Was a cleaner, from Korea,
Just a guy with Asian roots.

Came a judge with fancy jackets,
Costly suits he wanted clean,
But the cleaner, from Korea
Didn’t know what this would mean.

Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!

We are sorry, said the cleaner,
We have lost your pair of pants,
But, we will try hard to find them,
If you’ll just give us the chance.

But the judge just couldn’t stand it.
How he’d loved that pair of pants!
Now, his spirit was downtrodden,
And his soul no longer danced.

Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!

Said the cleaner, to the client,
We have found the pants for you!
Said the client, to the cleaner,
I will still be suing you!

For I loved those special trousers,
They were near and dear to me.
So you owe me several million,
Here in the Land of the Free.

Oh, my trousers!
Oh, my trousers!
You have ruined my favorite suit!
They are lost and gone forever,
What a chance to grab some loot!

Copyright Brenda Layman, 2007

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A successful life is available to each of us if we incorporate a handful of simple steps that guide our approach.

What are the secrets of success? They really aren’t secrets at all, the secrets of success are well known, well documented, and available to all of us. We can easily see these success components by examining Real People Succeed, an interview with Joel Conrad. Joel’s direct comments are in bold. Let’s examine them for the secrets they reveal.

Joel: (I would ask a young person) Are you committed?

• Success secret #1: Committment. Joel was definitely committed. Look again at his typical day of work, classes, work, classes. Joel committed to learning his trade and worked very hard at it.

Joel: I had high self esteem that…I’d succeed. Yes (I was fulfilling my purpose). I had blind faith, believed in myself. When called for an audition, I knew I would succeed.

• Success secret #2: Self Confidence. Self confidence and a vision of the end goal kept Joel focused on his goals.
• Success secret #3: Purpose. Joel was confident that he was fulfilling his life purpose. Being on the path of purpose brings us strength and determination.

Joel:I am resilient…bounce off of disappointment.

• Success secret #4: Resilience Joel had a clear vision of his purpose which helped him shrug off rejection and kept him moving on his path. We all have setbacks in life. Vision and purpose give us the resilience to get back on track when life’s obstacles show up.

Joel: It started reaching me that there were other ways of living my life. (I’m) a work in progress, constantly evolving…still growing.

• Success Secret #5: Reflection. Life purpose and how we each define success will change over time. At twenty we see success as professional achievement, at forty this may shift to include the overall feeling of life fulfillment, at fifty we might begin to grasp the spiritual nature of life, and at sixty we may begin giving back the gifts we’ve learned.
• Success Secret #6: Continuous Growth. Success is not a destination. Success is a direction, a path that combines living with purpose and doing what we love to do. Life equals change. The purposeful life, the successful life, incorporates and welcomes change through conscious and continuous growth.

There they are, the secrets of success available to each of us: Committment, Self Confidence, Purpose, Resilience, Reflection, and Continuous Growth.

This article first appeared in the Personal Development topic at Suite101.com.

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