How easy it is to blind ourselves to our own wrongdoing by pointing to the wrongdoing of others. (C. Terry Warner, Bonds That Make Us Free)

The happiest people I know are people who don't even think about being happy. They just think about being good neighbors, good people. And then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy being good. (Harold Kushner)

The great secret is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another. (adapted, G. Shaw)

Glinda: For the record, I knew you always had it in you.
Oz: Greatness?
Glinda: No, something better. Goodness.
("Oz the Great and Powerful", 2013)

In the horrifying calculus of self-deception, the greater the pain we inflict on others, the greater the need to justify it to maintain our feelings of decency and self-worth.
[Carol Tavris, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)]

Truly powerful people have great humility. They do not try to impress, they do not try to be influential. They simply are...They listen. If there is anything they can offer to serve you, they offer it. (adapted, Sanaya Roman)

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. (Albert Schweitzer)

Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation. (John Ortberg)

"I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.
Brian Sibley: Or brains even?
Oh gosh, yes, brains is one of the least. You can be a lovely person without brains, absolutely lovely. Kindness - that simple word. To be kind - it covers everything, to my mind.
If you're kind that's it." (Roald Dahl)

When we give freely, we feel full and complete; when we withhold, we feel small, petty, impotent, and lacking. We are meant to learn this great truth, that giving fulfills us, while withholding and trying to get causes us to feel empty and even more needy. This truth runs counter to our programming, which drives us to try to get something from others to fulfill our neediness, only to end up even more needy, grasping, lacking, and unfulfilled. (Gina Lake)

The most effective team leaders are servants first… they put others before themselves… they are not too important to do the unpopular jobs… they are the first to volunteer… others know they can trust them for help… they make others better and stronger… they sacrifice personal recognition for team goals… they work just as hard when there is no one to impress… they don't back away from leading when things are tough. (from Proactive Coaching)

Our happiness is not necessarily a function of meeting our needs first, or at the expense of others. In fact, to address our needs in such a way is to foster unhappiness. The reality of life is that happiness depends on how I am with others. I am most happy when I am alive to others' needs. (Who We Are)

Prejudice...means we don't see the other human being anymore, but only our own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence. (adapted, Eckhart Tolle)

I've been studying aggression for about 30 years, and I've seen that the most harmful belief that a person can have is that they're superior to others. (Brad Bushman)

Beautifully said and I wonder how this could inspire our Tweddle University efforts?

"The great end in [education], is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own; not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth; not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs; not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular creed or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision; not to burden memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought." (adapted, William E. Channing)

Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked. (Fulton J. Sheen)

Our own humanity is intimately bound up with our capacity to sense something of others' needs and feelings... We may or may not betray someone else when we do wrong by others, but we always betray the most sensitive and humane part of ourselves. (Bonds That Make Us Free, p. 21)

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life. (William Blake)

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. (Mother Teresa)

Watch the week 8 video and then think about these two questions: 1. Think about a current problem we are facing as a team 2. How could I more fully involve others in the problem solving process?