The Gift of Christmas by Jerald Simon

I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, "Music, Motivation, and More - The Positivity Podcast."

My name is Jerald Simon, and I am the host of "Music, Motivation, and More - The Positivity Podcast.

I am the founder of Music Motivation® (http://www.musicmotivation.com) and the creator of the Cool Songs Club (https://www.coolsongsclub.com).

In this episode, 012 - "'The Gift of Christmas", I talk about the following:

1. Intro/Opening: The best Christmas gifts to give at Christmas.

2. Positive Perceptions: "Thank You..." pg. 67 from Perceptions, Parables, and Pointers by Jerald Simon

3. Motivation in a Minute (a motivational/inspirational topic): "He who conquers others is strong..." pg. 189 from Perceptions, Parables, and Pointers by Jerald Simon

4. The Music Within: The First Noel arranged by Jerald Simon (the EP: "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" by Jerald Simon

5. Poetry that Motivates - "A Life Well Lived" pg.123 from my first poetry book, "The 'As If' Principle" (motivational poetry) featuring 222 motivational. inspirational poems I have written.

As a music educator, I have written 25 music books featuring original music I have composed and teaching piano students worldwide about music theory, improvisation, and composition. I refer to them as Theory Therapy, Innovative Improvisation, and Creative Composition. You can learn more about the various music books I have written on my website, http://www.musicmotivation.com. -

I began composing what have become known as Cool Songs to help motivate teens to want to play the piano - the FUN way. You can learn more about the fun, COOL SONGS I composed each month that have accompaniment minus tracks so students can play along with drums, guitars, keyboard synths, and other instruments and sound effects on my COOL SONGS website at https://www.coolsongsclub.com -

Here is a link where you can download a FREE PDF book on motivating teen piano students ("20 Ways to Motivate Teen Piano Students to Want to Play the Piano - the FUN way): http://www.coolsongsclub.com/freebook. After entering your email where you'd like the FREE PDF sent, the page will then refresh and you can learn more about the COOL SONGS Club.

You can join the COOL SONGS Club FaceBook group on my COOL SONGS FaceBook group page at this link: http://facebook.com/groups/coolsongsclub/ - If you know anyone who would be interested in joining this new group, please invite them. I'm excited to share ideas, suggestions, and hear your thoughts, ideas, and tips on motivating and inspiring piano students - the FUN way!

Transcript

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The gift of self to be selfless. It is where we stop being selfish and we start focusing on everything we can do to help those around us. It's serving, it's giving, it's loving, it's living. See, the best Christmas gift anyone can possibly give is the gift of helping those around them. It's giving of your time. It's giving of your talents. It's giving of your thought. It's giving without thinking of anything in return or receiving anything in return. The gift of self is the gift where we give of ourselves. Welcome to music motivation and more the positivity podcast. I am your host, Gerald Simon. I am the founder of music motivation and the creator of the cool songs club. Today's podcast is titled the gift of Christmas. Now, the best Christmas gift anyone can give is the gift of self, the gift of self to be selfless. It is where we stop being selfish and we start focusing on everything we can do to help those around us. It's serving, it's giving, it's loving, it's living. See, the best Christmas gift anyone can possibly give is the gift of helping those around them. It's giving of your time. It's giving of your talents. It's giving of your thought. It's giving without thinking of anything in return or receiving anything in return. The gift of self is the gift where we give of ourselves. For the positive perceptions portion of this podcast, I would actually like to read one of the parables that I have written from my book, perceptions, parables, and pointers. And this book features my own perceptions, my own thoughts and views on life, teaching values, morals, experiences that I have experienced and what I personally wish I would have known when I was younger. But then the parable section features, parables, short stories. I have written that share a motivational message, a message of hope, of inspiration. So right now I would like to read one of those parables to you. The parable is titled, thank you and listen to this short story. Everything had fallen apart in Daniel's life. There seemed to be nothing left for him. He thought his life was ruined and felt as though he had nothing to live for. Daniel had hit rock bottom and wanted to end everything. Daniel had been one of the top executives in his organization graduating at the top of his class, had taken some work, but it was nothing when compared with how quickly he had risen within the company to become second in command. He always spoke with a smile and had a twinkle in his eye that caught others off guard and kept a person riveted. His positive personality and charismatic character brought so much hope to the other employees in his organization that people depended on him. He was beloved by all and had been the center of attention for quite some time. All eyes were on him because he was next in line to become the CEO at age 36 Daniel would be the youngest president this company had ever had. Everything seemed perfect, but that's when the black envelope arrived. Daniel had been on a business trip meeting with the other employees in other States. When you returned home, there was a stack of mail that had been piling up in his mailbox. He expected the usual bills, junk mail and family letters, but there was a black envelope with the inscription to Mr. Daniel, the most worthless man on earth. You deserve what you get. Upon opening the envelope, Daniel pulled out a handwritten letter that spoke of all of Daniel's shortcomings. The letter went into great detail about his mistakes and failures with the company and even pointing out problems in his personal life. The letter was written with hatred, inventions. There was no signature and no return address at that moment, Daniel felt as if he truly were the most worthless man on earth. Every week a new black envelope appeared in his mailbox. Each new letter was worse than the previous ones days and weeks went by and Daniel continued to seek into a self-made pit of despair. He stopped taking care of his appearance. Things begin to slip through the cracks. He became more irritated and frustrated with others. His anger raged and his temper became unbearable. Daniel looked at others with hatred, fear, and jealousy. He began to lose interest in life. The arguments between him and his wife reached an all time high and his wife moved out. Not only had Daniel's work capacity decreased, but his attitude became bitter and his positive personality was so poisoned by pessimism that people begin to avoid him altogether. No one could depend on him and frankly no one wanted to be around him. As Daniel was getting ready for work one morning there was a knock on the door. His wife's attorney was delivering divorce papers. When Daniel arrived at work, he was told to meet with the president of the company. Daniel knew his performance and productivity with the company had declined, but the president told Daniel that he had one day to remove all of his personal items from his office. Daniel was fired because he was bringing the company morale down and affecting customer relations with the company and their customers. Due to his negative attitude and outlook on life, everything had ended. He gathered his belongings and drove away his entire life destroyed. When he arrived home, his mailbox was full of letters he had ignored from the previous weeks. He angrily stuffed the unwanted envelopes into his dirty coat pocket and began to walk slowly down the lonely street where he had once been so happy. It began to rain in his damp and spirits sank further as if the storm within had propelled the storm about him. He passed an old abandoned building and then as if realizing he had nothing to live for. He walked toward the decrepit edifice and scaled the winding stairs to the top. The building had been condemned one week earlier and for the first time Daniel felt at home as if he belonged in the condemned building. One side of the building had been knocked down, leaving it open and uncovered. Daniel walked to the edge of the 10th floor hall where a wall had once been and looked at the ground below, feeling he was the most worthless man alive. He needed a moment to accept his fate as he embraced the realization that he had nothing to live for and was better off dead. The rain turned to hail as he was preparing to jump, as he was about to end his life, his quivering hands were fidgeting, fumbling, and trembling. He placed his hands into his dirty trench coat and felt the envelopes in his pocket as if without thinking, he pulled one letter out from the pile and decided to read it. Daniel opened the envelope and began to read. He couldn't believe what he was reading and as he read the letter, tears fell from his eyes. Daniel, you don't personally know me, but I have always looked up to you and have tried to be the kind of person you are. You are so talented and so intelligent and I have been so amazed with your accomplishments in life. I am your younger brother's age and have never had any siblings of my own. My parents were both killed in a car accident when I was in high school, so I've been alone for most of my life. I've always admired you and tried to pattern my own life after yours because of the wonderful person you are. You have been such an example to me and I want to thank you for being the kind of person I want to be. I recently finished my schooling, have started my career and wondered if you would mentor me and help me be and become a better person. I know how optimistic and positive you are and I respect you so much. I am at a crossroads in my life right now and knew I could turn to you for help. I didn't know where else to go, but I knew if anyone could help me. You could. Thank you again for your wonderful example throughout my life. I have looked up to you as a big brother and as a father figure and I'm so grateful for the man you are in the man. I hope to become. Please let me know if you would be willing to mentor me. I appreciate you taking the time to read this letter. Thank you so much. Daniel stepped away from the edge and knew he had something to live for. He now knew the kind of man he needed to be and would again become. He vowed then and there to never lose sight of who he was and how he should live his life. He had lost his life because of one letter, but had gained a new life because of another. Now that story teaches a valuable lesson. The first half of the story we hear about Daniel and how amazing Daniel is and how he has everything going for him. And then out of the blue, Daniel receives a black envelope filled with hatred, terrible words that were meant to destroy and every day, every week he received new and terrible news and ultimately it almost destroyed him. He became pessimistic. He became dark. His optimism was overthrown. He was overrun by bitterness, by hatred. He could not trust anyone, and slowly his life began to spiral out of control. Now we all have times when we are like Daniel and because of the negativity around us, because of the black envelopes we receive either what people say to us, how people treat us, what happens around us, everything pushes us back. It tears us apart and we have a choice. We can either let that darkness consume us and eventually try to destroy us or we can look for the good. Now that one letter, that positive letter at the end from someone who looked up to Daniel and wanted to be like Daniel wanted Daniel to mentor him. That one letter changed Daniel's life. The gift of self. It doesn't need to be Christmas time for us to give this gift. We can give it year round, but the gift of self is where we lift and build. We strengthen those around us. We uplift and Edify. We are positive to others and about others and by doing so we actually go about doing good. If we will be positive, if we will spread positivity to those around us, we can strengthen them. It's not about being selfish, it's about being selfless. Sometimes when we get so caught up and consumed with our own wants and needs and we are so focused on what is happening to us or what we feel others are saying about us are doing to us, our perspective is skewed. It's warped and we become so focused on ourselves, whether it's our bad health, whether it's our bad job or whether it's our bad attitude. We become so focused on all of the bad things that are happening to us that we don't see the good there so much goodness around us. There is so much light, so much positivity. Negativity is a terrible nemesis and it destroys us, but if we can be positive even when we feel negative, when, if we can spread sunshine when we feel as if everything is dark, black bleak. If we can be a Ray of hope to someone else, then we can find hope for ourselves. For the motivation. In a minute portion of this podcast, I would like to read from page one 89 of my book perceptions, parables and pointers. This quote by Lao Tzu, he who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty. If we can overcome ourselves, you can think of it as self control. You can think of it as self thought, the power of personal positivity, however you want to think about it. If we can overcome that negative nemesis within us, we can start to help those around us bring out the best that is within them. For the music within portion of this podcast, I would like to have us listen to a piano solo arrangement that I did of the first Noel. This is from a Christmas album or epi of, Oh, come all ye faithful that I came out with. And you can listen to this on Spotify or Pandora, iTunes, Amazon, any of the social streaming sites available or radio stations. But I would love to have you listen to this. Let me know what you think. Listen to this and feel the movement of the piano piece as it goes up and down the piano.

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so that was the first. No. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. It's a piano instrumental arrangement that I did and I really wanted to have a lot of moving parts for the first Noel as it moves up and down the piano, but I hope he enjoyed listening to that for the poetry that motivates portion of this podcast. I would like to read a poem I wrote titled a life well lived. This is from my book, the as if principle motivational poetry features 222 motivational poems I have written. Let me read this to you. A life well lived. A man looked back at the road. He tried, he thought about life and his blessings from God. He saw each friendly face, he knew and paused beyond the curtains, blew step through the light and was on his way and experienced the birth of a brand new day. The man was ready for what lay ahead he'd prepared for this day during the life he had led. The man looked back and gave thanks to God for the blessing of loved ones on the he had trod. It's very simple. If you think about it, this gift of self being selfless, not being selfish, but selflessly serving and helping everyone around you. That is one of the best Christmas gifts anyone can give at this time of year and throughout the year. It does not need to be Christmas for us to give the gift of ourselves. We can give of our time, we can give of our talents, we can share, we can help, we can assist, we can serve our neighbors. We can say a friendly hello. It doesn't take much, but the gift of self is the very best Christmas gift you can ever give and it's the best Christmas gift you could ever receive when someone truly thinks of you and your needs and they think about how they can serve you, how they can help you, and in turn, when we think about how we can serve those around us, how we can help them, it does not need to cost anything. All it costs is our time, our willingness, our level of commitment. It costs so little on one hand, but it amounts to so much. On the other hand, every day we can think about what good we can do today to serve those around us. So I would recommend and counsel that starting today you think about anywhere from one to five individuals you can serve and help today. It can be a sibling, it can be a parent. It can be a neighbor. Find out who you will serve and then serve them. Help them. You can share a message of hope. You can be kind to them. You can call them, you can speak with them. You can see them at in front of their home and help them with their yard work. It won't take much, but these little almost seemingly insignificant steps to becoming more service oriented, more selfless. These steps help us to put our life in perspective of what truly matters most. Focus on giving the gift of self this Christmas and every where you give of your love, of your kindness. You give of your intelligence, of your humor, you give of your talents you give of yourself selflessly serving and helping those around you in all you do. I hope you enjoyed this podcast today. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You can visit my website for my contact information. That's music motivation.com I would love to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening to these weekly podcasts. If you have a family member or a friend who may enjoy these podcasts as well, I would love your help in sharing this podcast with them, that hopefully we can share a message of hope that others can begin to understand how much good they can do, that they can see what needs a bound that they can serve, they can help, they can do their part, that we can all learn and grow together and be our best and do our best in all we do. So thank you again for listening. Until next time, smile all the while. Have fun. Do your best, be your best and help those around you do their best as well. Thanks for listening. See you guys. Bye. Subscribe to music motivation and more the positivity podcast with Gerald Simon to receive updates about each new weekly podcast. Every Monday. A new podcast is released to help motivate and inspire individuals to learn, to grow, to do, to be and become the very best they can become. These are all motivational messages that inspire men and women of all ages to do and be their best, to set goals, to work on improving who they are and who they would like to become. Thank you again for listening. Connect with us on social media to become part of the conversation as we all work together to motivate each other to do in VR best. Thanks for listening to music motivation and more the positivity podcast. I am your host, Gerald Simon, and I'm grateful to have you listen to this podcast. Every Monday we come out with a brand new podcast and you can listen to it on any of the podcast streams sites available. Just search for music motivation anymore. The positivity podcast with Gerald Simon, any of the music that I've shared in these podcasts, you can listen. All of my music is available on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon, and any streaming site available. You can also check out my music books@musicmotivation.com and you can find my poetry, self-help and motivational books available from amazon.com from Barnes and noble and from all different online shops and stores. If you have any questions about the music that I create through my company, music motivation, you can learn more@musicmotivation.com and you can visit my website, cool songs, club.com to learn more about how I create fun, cool piano music that helps motivate piano students to watch, play the piano the fun way, especially during their teenage years. I'd love to have you check that out, but thank you again for listening. Please feel free to connect with me on any of the social media sites out there. You can watch my YouTube videos on youtube.com/ Gerald Simon. You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all social media sites at your old Simon. Thanks again for listening. Until next time, keep up the great work and have fun. See you guys. Bye.