Chicken Soup for the Soul: Reader's Choice 20th Anniversary Edition

by Jack Canfield

  This story helped mold my relationship with my students in many ways. First it let them know I was interested in their dreams and goals whether or not they involved Biology. Some of my students had a real fear of science so it took the pressure off them thinking they had to love the subject to be successful in my class. Second, it let them know I am a person who thinks it’s okay to challenge an idea if you don’t agree with it. After all, questioning the “known” is the entire basis of scientific inquiry. The story also let them know I felt it was important for them to believe in themselves and for me to believe in them. This helped create a safe and supportive atmosphere in my classroom. Finally, the story let them know everyone makes mistakes, even teachers. Making a mistake isn’t the end of something; it’s the beginning of a deeper understanding.

  After reading the story, I would tell the students their assignment was to tell me their dreams. And dream they did! It was as if a dam had burst. As promised, I read every single Mind Matter that was turned in. I wrote comments like “Wow, this is an awesome dream!” or “Can I have your autograph now before you become famous?” or “Will you bring some of your artwork by so I can see it?” Every time, the students were anxious to have their notes returned so they could read my comments. I was humbled by how much they longed for the positive feedback.

  Allowing the students to share their dreams in a supportive atmosphere set the stage for the rest of the year. We built a bridge of trust and respect because the story allowed us to begin to know and accept each other as people, not just student and teacher. The story “Follow Your Dream” kept me mindful that words are potent stimuli in a person’s image of themselves. It made me acutely aware of the chance I had to influence a child’s life for the better. As a result I was more generous with my praise and judicious with my corrections. I came to school every day looking for ways to help. I visualized each student as a dream about to happen.

  Every Friday a new story was read. Every time the bond and understanding we shared deepened. I read over 50,000 Mind Matters in ten years. The things students wrote about ranged from the mundane, like what they had for breakfast, to the crucial: some were being bullied at school, abused at home or feeling suicidal. Whether the information was humorous or heart-wrenching, it gave them a chance to reach out and me a chance to interact or intervene.

  A teacher touches the dreams of thousands of students in the course of a career. What an incredible responsibility! What an awesome opportunity. Comments like the following kept my dream of making a difference alive:

  “I really appreciated how hard you worked to make each student feel special and accepted.” Gracy O.

  “I thought my parents were giving up on me and I even began to give up on myself, but you wouldn’t let go. I love you.” A

  “I’m sorry that this is my last Mind Matters. Your caring, understanding, attitude about the troubles in teenage life helped me immensely. Thank you!” Carrie J.

  I trust they learned some Biology along the way as well.

  ~Liz Graf

  Follow Your Dream

  Put your future in good hands — your own.

  ~Author Unknown

  I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has let me use his house to put on fundraising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.

  The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let Jack use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

  “That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on the 200-acre dream ranch.

  “He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, ‘See me after class.’

  “The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, ‘Why did I receive an F?’

  “The teacher said, ‘This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees. There’s no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher added, ‘If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.’

  “The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.’

  “Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He stated, ‘You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.’ ”

  Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, “I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The best part of the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought thirty kids to camp out on my ranch for a week. When the teacher was leaving, he said, ‘Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not to give up on yours.’ ”

  Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

  ~Jack Canfield

  My Own Goal Board

  Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

  ~T.S. Eliot

  In 1988, I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper, Skyline. I had big dreams of becoming a globetrotting, investigative journalist, but I also had big dreams for Skyline. I had three main goals: have Skyline join three new scholastic journalism organizations, have Skyline win the prestigious All-KEMPA newspaper award, and take my hardworking staff to New York City for the Columbia University high school journalism conference.

  I had no idea how I was going to achieve these goals, but I believed they were possible. In fact, after reading my mom’s copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, I figured out how I was going to do it. The story, “Glenna’s Goal Book” gave me the blueprint. Her principle: I x V = R, which is short for Imagination mixed with Vividness becomes Reality, spoke to me.

  I, like Glenna, believed that God gives us “the desires of our heart,” and my Skyline goals were written on my personal prayer list. But what I didn’t have were pictures of my goals to help me actualize them. So, I started cutting photos out of magazines and newsletters. For the first goal, I cut out the names of the journalism associations I wanted Skyline to join. For the second, I cut out a picture of the All-KEMPA award, and above it, I printed out the words, in big capital letters. For the third, I cut out photos of New York’s gorgeous skyline and a photo of a previous conference.

  Since these goals weren’t just for me — they were for my entire newsroom — I didn’t put them in a photo album. Instead, I tacked them all up on the bulletin board in our office. There, every day, when we made phone calls, wrote stories or worked on layout, we’d see the pictures of our goals, and it wouldn’t be just me seeing them.

  The first goal was the easiest to achieve. I simply talked to our newspaper advisor, Miss Miller, and she approved a budget item that would allow us to join three scholastic journalism organizations. I was pretty impressed with how well the IVR princ
iple was working, but most of my fellow editors and reporters were not as wowed.

  However, not a month after pushing all the tacks into the corkboard, our second big goal was realized. Our entire staff took an all-day field trip to the All-KEMPA journalism conference. Everyone gasped when Willowbrook High School’s Skyline was named the All-KEMPA newspaper of the year. It was surprising, but we had worked really hard for the last two years so some of my co-editors were not willing to ascribe the win to my goal board.

  The last goal — getting our staff to New York City — seemed completely impossible. But I refused to give up. I knew we could get there. I researched how other newspapers funded conferences, approached local businesses for sponsorships, tried to drum up extra revenue for the paper, and even wrote a grant proposal that I sent to the school district office.

  It was to no avail. No grants. No sponsorships. Not even our advertising budget would budge. Still, I maintained to myself, and I proclaimed to my staff, that we would be going to New York. Not going was not an option. Finally, the week before I was scheduled to fly out to Washington, D.C. to participate in Presidential Classroom (one of my own personal dreams that I had achieved), I sat down with my staff of eleven, and I asked them, “Who stands with me to go to New York City?” My best friend Venetia immediately said yes, but only three other members of our staff — Tom, Glenn and Ali — agreed. The rest, including my assistant editor, had excuses. “Jeanette, don’t get your hopes up,” or “Jeanette, this just isn’t a realistic idea,” or, my favorite, “I just don’t think I want to go.”

  So I wrote a revised proposal changing the budget from eleven students to five, and I sent the proposal back to the district office. While I was in D.C., Venetia called me. “You’ll never believe it — but someone in the district office likes us. They were impressed with all the awards our paper has won so they’re completely funding our trip!”

  And what a trip it was. We got limo rides to and from the airport because Miss Miller and the five of us couldn’t fit into a single cab. We stayed in a plush Manhattan hotel. We saw Les Miserables — from front-row seats! We looked out from the top of the Empire State Building, dined in Chinatown and Little Italy, and learned so much about journalism and writing. For the six of us, including Miss Miller, it was the trip of a lifetime!

  I’ve since made dozens of other goal boards, with goals as whimsical as swimming with dolphins and as serious as finding my soul mate. I did become an investigative newspaper reporter, and I’ve traversed the globe, including a visit with dolphins. I’m now an award-winning food and travel author, I’m married to an amazing man, and we have a wonderful son. I’ve even started doing corkboards for him, and he’s just three years old.

  The most curious thing about my very first goal board is what happened after the school district decided to fund my dream. As soon as we got the go-ahead, the six naysayers on staff decided they, too, wanted to go to New York. It was too late, however; my revised — and accepted — proposal only budgeted for five believers.

  So, you see, it’s not just picking out images that speak to your dreams and aspirations, It’s really believing in your goals, really convincing yourself that they are attainable, and really knowing that you deserve to have them come true. There’s no such thing as an impossible dream, but there are people who are afraid to dream. Dare to dream big. And get some tacks for your corkboard.

  ~Jeanette Hurt

  Glenna’s Goal Book

  Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.

  ~Arnold H. Glasow

  In 1977 I was a single mother with three young daughters, a house payment, a car payment and a need to rekindle some dreams.

  One evening I attended a seminar and heard a man speak about the I x V = R Principle. (Imagination mixed with Vividness becomes Reality.) The speaker pointed out that the mind thinks in pictures, not in words. And as we vividly picture in our mind what we desire, it will become a reality.

  This concept struck a chord in my heart. I knew the Biblical truth that the Lord gives us “the desires of our heart” (Psalms 37:4) and that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). I was determined to take my written prayer list and turn it into pictures. I began cutting up old magazines and gathering pictures that depicted the “desires of my heart.” I arranged them in a photo album and waited expectantly.

  I was very specific with my pictures. They included:

  1. A good-looking man

  2. A woman in a wedding gown and a man in a tuxedo

  3. Bouquets of flowers (I’m a romantic)

  4. Beautiful diamond jewelry (I rationalized that God loved David and Solomon and they were two of the richest men who ever lived)

  5. An island in the sparkling blue Caribbean

  6. A lovely home

  7. New furniture

  8. A woman who had recently become vice president of a large corporation. (I was working for a company that had no female officers. I wanted to be the first woman vice president in that company.)

  About eight weeks later, I was driving down a California freeway, minding my own business at 10:30 in the morning. Suddenly a gorgeous red-and-white Cadillac passed me. I looked at the car because it was beautiful. The driver looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back because I always smile. Now I was in deep trouble. Have you ever done that? I tried to pretend that I hadn’t looked. “Who me? I didn’t look at you!” He followed me for the next fifteen miles. Scared me to death! I drove a few miles, he drove a few miles. I parked, he parked. . .. And eventually I married him!

  On the first day after our first date, Jim sent me a dozen roses. Then I found out that he had a hobby. His hobby was collecting diamonds. Big ones! And he was looking for somebody to decorate. I volunteered! We dated for about two years and every Monday morning I received a long-stemmed red rose and a love note from him.

  About three months before we were getting married, Jim said to me, “I have found the perfect place to go on our honeymoon. We will go to St. John’s down in the Caribbean.” I laughingly said, “I never would have thought of that!”

  I did not confess the truth about my picture book until Jim and I had been married for almost a year. It was then that we were moving into our gorgeous new home and furnishing it with the elegant furniture that I had pictured. (Jim turned out to be the West Coast wholesale distributor for one of the finest East Coast furniture manufacturers.)

  By the way, the wedding was in Laguna Beach, California, and included the gown and tuxedo as realities. Eight months after I created my dream book, I became the vice president of human resources in the company where I worked.

  In some sense this sounds like a fairy tale, but it is absolutely true. Jim and I have made many “picture books” since we have been married. God has filled our lives with the demonstration of these powerful principles of faith at work.

  Decide what it is that you want in every area of your life. Imagine it vividly. Then act on your desires by actually constructing your personal goal book. Convert your ideas into concrete realities through this simple exercise. There are no impossible dreams.

  ~Glenna Salsbury

  Treasured Time

  Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment.

  ~Thích Nhat Hanh

  “Just think! We won’t ever have to set our alarm clock again now that you are retired, too,” my husband said as I watched the hand on the clock move to the exact time my retirement would begin. Now I hoped to keep “normal hours.” For me, this meant going to bed and getting up when I felt like it. I looked forward to spending quality time together doing all the things we had been unable to do when we were young and we were busy raising a family and holding down full-time jobs. On the other hand, it was scary.

  Doing research about retired people, I learned that divorce rates for couples in retirement were skyrocketing. Though many causes have been given, some of
the reasons point to the difficulties couples have adjusting to being together too much. In time, they can become bored with each other. I wondered if this would happen to my husband and me.

  At first, my fear was unfounded. We traveled to Ireland, took a barging trip around Texas, and attended our favorite concerts. For a while, I felt we were honeymooners. But just as the honeymoon wears off, so did our retirement bliss. I found I needed some space to be by myself. And even though my husband and I were communicating more with each other, I felt depressed at the end of the day because I had accomplished nothing.

  I remembered my career days when my days were fulfilling and filled full. At my job as a high school teacher, I felt I had accomplished something every day as I helped my students to create a fresh piece of writing, add a new word to their vocabulary, or put geographic locations on a map. In turn, I learned something from my students, too.

  My to-do list was finished on the weekend. The thoughts of doing something for me were out of the question. I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, listen to music, or become a published author.

  But when I finally had the time as a retiree, I caved in to all the vices of late risers — sleeping late and staying in my nightgown as I glued my eyes to the television till noon over endless cups of coffee. I was getting further behind every day; many jobs had to be done in the evening or left undone. I began to feel useless. And frankly, I became bored with watching my husband sit around all day watching me.

  About this time, I purchased a copy of the book Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution. I read it from cover to cover, and all the stories touched my heart; but there was one story that stood out above all the others: “Confessions of a Morning Person” by Mimi Greenwood Knight.

  That story began to change my life by altering my daily schedule at the most opportune time. Mimi Greenwood Knight relates how she kept early morning hours by getting up as much as four hours before dawn, as quiet as a cat burglar. And her secret — she enjoyed it. I thought, “If it worked for her, why I couldn’t make it work for me?”