You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 14th, 2008.
“You can be nice or you can be rich, powerful and successful.” Niceness has long been considered a sign of weakness in the popular culture. Like a fork in the road, you have to choose to be nice—or not. Protest, revolution and getting ahead of others exemplify the not-so-niceness of the past several centuries. If you have to be nice, then you can’t be tough, and no one listens to nice people—or so the prevailing wisdom went.This theory is being thrown out on its ear by the recent publication of a business advice book that commends the virtue of niceness in business success. ThePower of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval explains the policy of nice that allowed the authors to successfully build a multimillion dollar advertising agency in the last few years. Their notions of niceness include: smiling more, paying attention, cooperating, listening well, collaborating and being willing to share credit (Andrea Sachs, “Nice Girls Get Even,” Time, Nov. 6, 2006).
“Nice,” like “interesting,” is often overused. Explore a dictionary and you can get the details about nice. Random House Webster’s Dictionary lists some fairly straightforward adjectives under nice: pleasant, agreeable, amiable and kind. However, another definition sheds light on the mechanics of nice: “requiring or displaying great skill, tact, or precision.” Niceness gets a bad reputation since people assume it is an unstudied skill. In reality, it takes a lot of coordination and wisdom to not only seem nice, but in thought, word and action to be nice.
God in His premier work, the Bible, cornered the market on nice, since—well, since forever. God invented nice. He outlined the ultimate in kindness when He created the Ten Commandments that govern and define an emotionally and spiritually happy life. To better understand the great Ten, request or download the free booklet The Ten Commandments. The familiar Golden Rule summarizes the last six commandments: do to others what you would have them do to you (paraphrase of Matthew 7:12).
Niceness shows respect for others. To practice the skill of niceness, we need to pay attention to those around us and learn how to be tactful in delicate situations. Sometimes nice is misconstrued as false and dishonest, especially when you have to be nice when you don’t feel like it. But this is when the Golden Rule comes in. Remember, we want others to treat us well, even on their bad days. Being mean and unkind isn’t more genuine; it’s just mean and unkind.
Be courageous, think vertically. Try niceness today—even in the face of not-so-nice people. It is gradually and ultimately contagious to those who benefit from its effects. Nice finishes first!
–About the Author–
Amanda Stiver has a history degree from the University of Oregon and now lives near Columbus, Ohio, where she works as a freelance writer.
When I was 20, two questions weighed heavily on my mind: “What is the purpose and meaning of life?” and “How can I live the best life possible?”While reading one night, I stumbled upon a statement that I shall never forget: “Your life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want, but you can only spend it once.”
The realization was most powerful—I had only one life to live. There were many roads I could travel, but I didn’t want to take just any road. I wanted to find the way—the way to the best life possible. What was that way?
I realized that one of the wisest things I could do was to invest time finding out what is the purpose of life in the first place! It only seemed reasonable and logical. What’s the point of living if you don’t know what life is for? I realized that many people were like me—clueless. Why do they do the things they do? Is it right? Why do they believe the things they believe? Are they true and correct? Many don’t even care to ask these kinds of questions. What a waste of that one precious life.
Determined to find the answers, even if it took me the rest of my life, I was not interested in simply finding a purpose for living, but the purpose for human life on this earth: What’s the whole point? Why are we here?
Dedicating my life to seek the answers to these two questions, I spent many days and nights in careful study and research. I acquired books, articles and other resources that would shed light on my questions. I was consumed with this topic. Spending more hours than I care to remember in libraries and bookstores, I read, thought, meditated, prayed and reflected. When a flash of insight came, I wrote it down in my journal. Slowly, a rock-solid foundation emerged.
What did I find? Our destiny is quite literally out of this world—the Kingdom of God (John 18:36)! Our greatest goal should be to enter and inherit this wonderful Kingdom (Matthew 6:33). But how? Listen to this precious nugget of wisdom: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all [our whole reason for being]” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, emphasis added). That’s the way to get there. It’s that simple—and that profound.
If only we would quit treating that verse as just a nice little quotation and actually do what it says! It’s the ultimate in vertical thinking—building a strong relationship with God, the source of wisdom, life and every good thing we could possibly ask for. I totally believe that if you follow this piece of advice, you too can learn man’s true purpose. To begin your own study of this important subject, please read, download or request the free booklet, What Is Your Destiny? What is more, you will live the best life possible—and it will be out of this world! VT
–About the Author–
Daniel Macaraeg is a ministerial trainee and assistant office manager for the United Church of God in the Philippines. He lives in Davao City.
