{"id":301,"date":"2010-01-26T12:23:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T12:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2010-01-26T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T12:23:22","slug":"are-you-a-lawn-mower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Are you a Lawn Mower?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Provocative statement, don&#8217;t you think?<\/p>\n<p>Before I expand, remember, choose your friends carefully. Who you hang out with, that&#8217;s who you&#8217;ll become.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of great life tips that I found in the book <?php book(\"The Takeaway\", \"0757313892\")?> by Karen Williams. This one has had the biggest impact. I&#8217;ve extracted the important excerpts to make this post.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Walt Disney used to say, <strong>there are three kinds of people in this world<\/strong>: Well Poisoners, Lawn Movers, and Life Enhancers. Hang with the Life Enhancers.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n1. Well Poisoners<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;They&#8217;re the people who have something negative to say about everything. There&#8217;s no joy in their lives or in their words. They&#8217;re miserable inside, and they want you to be miserable, too.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n2. Life Enhancers<\/strong><br \/>\nThese &#8220;are the people who build you up. Everyone loves being around Life Enhancers, and you know it when you&#8217;re with one. They glow, they smile, they laugh &#8212; there&#8217;s a joy that comes from within. They&#8217;re quick to hand out compliments because they&#8217;re secure in themselves.\u00a0 These are the people who are always feeding into your life, investing something of themselves in you. You feel good when you hang with Life Enhancers.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n3. Lawn Mowers<\/strong><br \/>\nThey &#8220;are tricky. They&#8217;re the people who get up every morning, get their mower out, and mow their lawn. They work to maintain their lawn, trimming and mowing only what&#8217;s required on their side of the fence &#8212; nothing more, nothing less. They don&#8217;t bother their neighbors. They&#8217;re living their lives, doing only what needs to be done, and leaving everything and everyone else alone. They&#8217;re perfectly happy with the status quo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Good stuff, right?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I thought so too.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s reflect a little.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is nothing wrong with hanging out with the Lawn Mowers, except that they don&#8217;t enhance your life,&#8221; said Pat Williams to Karen in the book.<\/p>\n<p>I learned a lot from these three definitions. Most of all, I now have good names for the different types of people in the world.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nSome Questions For You<\/strong>: <strong>Question One<\/strong><br \/>\nLet&#8217;s start with a question about yourself: Which category do you put yourself in?<\/p>\n<p>Think about it for a while.<\/p>\n<p>I think most of us have been all three at some point in our lives. Consciously or not, when you complain a lot, talk bad about your friends behind their back, gossip, etc.: you are a Well Poisoner. At work, you try to do all that&#8217;s required of you. You do it well. Same with your families and friends. You just enjoy being around them. You are a Lawn Mower. Whether you like it or not. It&#8217;s when you step outside the &#8220;circle,&#8221; and do something extra that is not required of you; when you inspire others; when you put pressure on others to improve. That&#8217;s when you can call yourself a Life Enhancer.<\/p>\n<p>So which one are you now?<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps a better question: which one of the above actions do you do the most?<\/p>\n<p>OK, you figured out which category you belong to. Are you going to do anything about it? You don&#8217;t have to be a Lawn Mover the whole life. There are always ways you can improve. Even if you are a Life Enhancer &#8212; but I&#8217;m sure you already know that.<\/p>\n<p>We all mow lawns at some point. But do you really want to do that for the rest of your life? Be a lifetime mower?<\/p>\n<p>Hmm&#8230; that does not sound good.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nQuestion Two<\/strong><br \/>\nLet&#8217;s move on to the second aspect: Who do you hang out with?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure we know people in all three categories. But with whom do you like to spend your time with? Who&#8217;s your first choice?<\/p>\n<p>Do you remember what I said at the beginning of this post?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who you hang out with, that&#8217;s who you&#8217;ll become.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My wife tells me that I shouldn&#8217;t group people. I think what she really means is that I shouldn&#8217;t reject any of them. True. I think we should respect every human being. Even the Well\u00a0Poisoners. But choosing who you hang out is different. You make a choice.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me what you think about this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reference<br \/>\n<\/strong><?php book(\"The Takeaway\", \"0757313892\") ?>, Karyn Williams (p. 167-169)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Provocative statement, don&#8217;t you think? Before I expand, remember, choose your friends carefully. Who you hang out with, that&#8217;s who you&#8217;ll become. There are a lot of great life tips that I found in the book by Karen Williams. This one has had the biggest impact. I&#8217;ve extracted the important excerpts to make this post. &#8220;Walt Disney used to say, there are three kinds of people in this world: Well Poisoners, Lawn Movers, and Life Enhancers. Hang with the Life Enhancers.&#8221; 1. Well Poisoners &#8220;They&#8217;re the people who have something negative to say about everything. There&#8217;s no joy in their lives or in their words. They&#8217;re miserable inside, and they want you to be miserable, too.&#8221; 2. Life Enhancers These &#8220;are the people who build you up. Everyone loves being around Life Enhancers, and you know it when you&#8217;re with one. They glow, they smile, they laugh &#8212; there&#8217;s a joy that comes from within. They&#8217;re quick to hand out compliments because they&#8217;re secure in themselves.\u00a0 These are the people who are always feeding into your life, investing something of themselves in you. You feel good when you hang with Life Enhancers.&#8221; 3. Lawn Mowers They &#8220;are tricky. They&#8217;re the people who get up every morning, get their mower out, and mow their lawn. They work to maintain their lawn, trimming and mowing only what&#8217;s required on their side of the fence &#8212; nothing more, nothing less. They don&#8217;t bother their neighbors. They&#8217;re living their lives, doing only what needs to be done, and leaving everything and everyone else alone. They&#8217;re perfectly happy with the status quo.&#8221; Good stuff, right? Yeah, I thought so too. Let&#8217;s reflect a little. &#8220;There is nothing wrong with hanging out with the Lawn Mowers, except that they don&#8217;t enhance your life,&#8221; said Pat Williams to Karen in the book. I learned a lot from these three definitions. Most of all, I now have good names for the different types of people in the world. Some Questions For You: Question One Let&#8217;s start with a question about yourself: Which category do you put yourself in? Think about it for a while. I think most of us have been all three at some point in our lives. Consciously or not, when you complain a lot, talk bad about your friends behind their back, gossip, etc.: you are a Well Poisoner. At work, you try to do all that&#8217;s required of you. You do it well. Same with your families and friends. You just enjoy being around them. You are a Lawn Mower. Whether you like it or not. It&#8217;s when you step outside the &#8220;circle,&#8221; and do something extra that is not required of you; when you inspire others; when you put pressure on others to improve. That&#8217;s when you can call yourself a Life Enhancer. So which one are you now? Or perhaps a better question: which one of the above actions do you do the most? OK, you figured out which category you belong to. Are you going to do anything about it? You don&#8217;t have to be a Lawn Mover the whole life. There are always ways you can improve. Even if you are a Life Enhancer &#8212; but I&#8217;m sure you already know that. We all mow lawns at some point. But do you really want to do that for the rest of your life? Be a lifetime mower? Hmm&#8230; that does not sound good. Question Two Let&#8217;s move on to the second aspect: Who do you hang out with? I&#8217;m sure we know people in all three categories. But with whom do you like to spend your time with? Who&#8217;s your first choice? Do you remember what I said at the beginning of this post? &#8220;Who you hang out with, that&#8217;s who you&#8217;ll become.&#8221; My wife tells me that I shouldn&#8217;t group people. I think what she really means is that I shouldn&#8217;t reject any of them. True. I think we should respect every human being. Even the Well\u00a0Poisoners. But choosing who you hang out is different. You make a choice. Tell me what you think about this. Reference , Karyn Williams (p. 167-169)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,49],"tags":[21,26],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-self-improvement","tag-friends","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifelonglearner.kubasek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}