Consider one of these.
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Kent M. Keith
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building can be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
10.. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
In 1968, as a sophomore at Harvard University, Kent M. Keith wrote “The Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership” as part of a booklet, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council. It was distributed to high school student councils across the United States. Several years later, the National Association of Secondary Principals reissued the booklet. Some 30,000 copies were sold in the sixties and seventies.
As Keith worked with student councils, he grew tired of hearing excuses. Therefore, he laid down the Paradoxical Commandments as a dare. He writes, “The challenge is to always do right and good and true, even if others don’t appreciate it. Making the world a better place can’t depend on applause. You have to keep striving, no matter what, because if you don’t, many of the things that need to be done in our world never get done.”
Keith cites the night of his high school senior awards ceremony as his moment of epiphany. He writes, “It occurred to me at that moment that I was so happy about what I had done that year and I felt so good about what I had learned and whom I had helped that I didn’t need any awards. I had already been rewarded. I had the sense of meaning and satisfaction that came from doing a good job.”
Keith, a graduate of Harvard, went on to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and at Waseda University, Tokyo. He holds both a law degree and a doctorate in education. He has served in the cabinet of the Governor of Hawaii and as a university president. At the present, Keith who is married and has three adopted children, is the senior vice president of Development and Communications for the YMCA of Honolulu. He also spends much of his time speaking to groups and writing books.
For a quarter of a century, Dr. Keith went about his life making a living, always true to the premise of his commandments. Then his college writings resurfaced on the Internet as a document for librarians. And in 1997, Keith attended a Rotary Club meeting where he listened to a poem, “The Paradoxical Commandments,” attributed to the late Mother Teresa.
Afterwards, he asked the speaker where he had found the poem. He was directed to a book, Mother Teresa: A Simple Path. When Keith checked, his commandments had been reformatted into verse form and credited, “from a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta.” Mother Teresa never claimed credit for the words and her followers always disclaimed that she had written them. However, if anyone ever lived life by these words, it certainly was this one woman who gave her entire life to the poor of India.
Keith says, “I was fascinated that the Paradoxical Commandments had spread around the world and after 25 years they began to come back to me in various ways and shapes. It suggested to me that people are as hungry as ever for meaning and spiritual truth.”
Thus in 2001, he wrote Anyway, the stories behind each of the commandments. This year, Do It Anyway was released.
According to Keith, a paradox is an idea that is contrary to popular opinion, something that seems to contradict common sense and yet is true. He says, “Think about it. What kind of person does not give his or her best? Why does anybody hold back? Why would anyone want to deliver a second rate performance?”
For years the Paradoxical Commandments lived their own life, with the author either listed as anonymous or as a saint. Yet, their fascinating story from inception on a college campus, to their travel across this country, around the world and back again to the author proves the validity of the message. If you are looking for New Year Resolutions, this is a good place to start. You also might like to read the book Anyway; it certainly explains why the commandments work.
Keith concludes, “What ever you choose to do, one thing is certain: When you live the paradoxical life, you will find meaning in a crazy world. You will make a difference. You will change lives. One of the lives you change will be your own.”
However, his haunting challenge prompts resolutions. “If you are not giving the world your best, what world are you saving it for?”
2004
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