Intake Introduction: The Story of the Trash Bins

Once upon a time, in a typical, nondescript office in your city of choice, there were three trash bins. The first trash bin was designated for recyclable products, including paper and soda cans. The second trash bin was reserved for perishable refuse, you know, leftover food, coffee grounds, chicken bones, that kind of garbage. The third trash bin was set aside for everything else that didn’t fall into those two categories, under the generic label “non-biodegradables.”

One day, I overheard the three bins talking – hey, it’s my story, you’re just going to have to take my word for it – and they were discussing their lot, so to speak.

“Man,” said the Biodegradables Bin, “I smell like %#**&x~@ fish bones!”
“What’s wrong with that?” asked the Recyclables Bin.
“It’s *&^%#$^&!” replied the Biodegradables Bin bitterly. “I always get the garbage that smells like #%^&!”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“You’re just repeating yourself, you *&^%^!” ranted the Biodegradables Bin. He turned to the Non-biodegradables Bin. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
The Non-Biodegradables Bin stayed silent.
“Well?!”
“I have nothing to say,” replied the Non-Biodegradables Bin.
“You’re a @#$%!” hissed the Biodegradables Bin.
“What’s wrong with that?” asked the Recyclables Bin.

What can we learn from this story? While we can control our own personalities to great extent, to an even greater extent, we are what we take in.

We can choose to take in “perishable garbage,” the stinky, decomposing type of information that, if anything, contributes negatively to our lives or the lives of the people around us: gossip about someone we know, or excessively violent or pornographic material and videos littered with profanity and inappropriate images. When we’re surrounded with material like that, can we really expect our dispositions and personalities to be the types that will attract people or contribute to our effectiveness in our respective vocations? The Biodegradables Bin’s language and disposition reflected the quality of what was put in him; he was dirty, inappropriate, and foul.

This brings us to “non-biodegradable material” and “recyclable material.” These are relative: what is “recyclable” and “non-biodegradable” depends on who we are as people. The challenges, however, when we surround ourselves with material that we believe is “recyclable,” are 1) discerning what to do with this information; and 2) knowing when to use it.

When we expose ourselves to “non-biodegradable” materials that don’t really contribute to improving our lives or the lives of the people around us, we end up like our friend the Non-Biodegradables Bin. We don’t add anything of value. We just live lives of apathy and mediocrity, happy to just take home a paycheck. When we expose ourselves to “recyclable” material, good materials that can inspire us all to be better at what we do, we add value to the mix and contribute to people’s growth. We become attractive to others because they see value in your presence.

A caveat on “recyclable” materials: don’t be too dependent on those materials. The abundance of “recyclables” may stifle our creativity and make us dependent on others instead of innovating ourselves. We may end up becoming a “recycling machine,” repeating other people’s adages, using other people’s concepts, or imitating other people’s businesses, and thus lose our own individual vocation identities. Like the Recyclables bin, we may end up just “repeating ourselves,” losing all context of originality.

If you read nothing but garbage, you can expect to spew nothing but garbage. If you expose yourself to inspirational, encouraging material, you can likewise be an encouragement to others. Garbage in, garbage out; good things in, good things out. The Bible tells us that our mouth speaks out of the abundance of our hearts: if our hearts and minds are full of trash, well, I think you know what comes next.
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This is Intake. This column will provide you with a lot of “recyclables,” which makes it a great addition to your Wednesday reading, because it may jumpstart your creativity or provide that needed encouragement to get you through a hellish week. Some of it, you might be able to use; some of it, you might not. Regardless, we cherry-pick our stories and ideas in the hope that it will cater to the needs of the majority of LifeBiz readers, people who are trying to make a difference by being the best they can be in their vocations of choice.

We’re providing a variety of material for you. Stories to inspire. Quotes to keep in a wallet. Articles to increase your personal productivity. Songs to serve as soundtracks to your wins (and occasional losses). It is our prayer that you will become the best boss, colleague, or employee that you can be.

If you come across anything “recyclable,” please feel free to share it with us. Send an email to stories@lifebiz.ph with the title “Recyclable” in the header, and we’ll take a look-see to determine if you’ve just passed on something that can change the lives of people, as we know them. We just need to be a little open-minded to the possibilities.
Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will. – Vernon Howard