20 Ways to Find, Sustain and Share Happiness
The Dalai Lama says that we all share one common aspiration: we all want to be happy; no one wants to suffer. This universal desire binds us together.
At some point the realization dawns that no matter how big the paycheck is, no matter how many degrees we get, no matter how nice the house and the white picket fence is, none of it can assure happiness.
What is it that does bring lasting happiness, no matter what the circumstance? The ancient poet and mystic Rumi gives us a clue when he says, “Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.” The invisible world is within you, and it’s where lasting happiness resides.
Here are some suggestions for working in the invisible realm:
1. Look closely at what causes lasting happiness. Buying a new sweater might feel good for a moment or two, but looking closely you see that that sooner or later all new stuff loses its appeal, growing old and mundane. Reinforce in your mind that happiness is not the result of accumulating goods.
2. Savor the moment. When your child gives you a bear hug, live that experience fully, noticing every little detail. The same holds true for the boring meeting that’s putting you to sleep. As Leo Buscaglia, the author of Love, says, “Braille your world.” Being mindful doesn’t mean things will be good, just that you are aware of them as they are, without judgment.
3. Expand your awareness. See new perspectives by challenging your own beliefs. Expand your horizons by asking yourself, “What if…”.
4. Play. Between work, family, and grocery shopping, finding time to play can be just another chore. Forget picking up that gallon of milk on the way home from work today. Instead, tickle your children.
5. Practice gratitude. Focus your mind on all that you already possess, relegating that feeling of “needing more” to its proper place. If it works for Oprah, it can work for you.
6. Follow the yes path. Margaret Wheatley, best-selling author of Leadership and the New Science, says that when events call out yes, follow that path. It’s certainly easier than banging your head against the wall.
7. Take time for self-reflection. Since childhood, we’ve been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A much better question to ask is “How do I want to be?”
8. Choose to live your values. After reflecting on your personal values, instill them in your everyday actions.
9. Experiment. Philosopher Nietzsche said, “Life is a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves.” Give yourself permission to try something different, without obsessing over the outcome.
10. Listen. Get your mind off your own problems by lending an ear to hear others.
11. Stay present. As the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn has recommended in his many books, when you wash the dishes, just wash the dishes. The mind’s habit is to rehearse what the future holds or re-run life by mulling over past events. This moment is where life actually is lived.
12. Smile. It’s such a simple way to change your inner landscape and connect with others.
13. Know that life is finite. You are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Your life is precious. Live it fully.
14. Happiness is here, in this moment. George Bernard Shaw said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Know that there is nothing to magically “find” for happiness; it’s created through you.
15. Notice your breath. It’s not difficult to simply notice the air entering your body and then watching it exit, but it has a powerful effect. Use it to re-focus from the hectic outside world to an attitude of mindfulness.
16. Give. Whether you gift the gift of time, money, or knowledge, sharing transforms the mind.
17. Your path to happiness is uniquely yours. Thomas Merton said, “Looking for God is like seeking a path in a field of snow; if there is no path and you are looking for one, walk across the field and there is your path.” It’s the same for happiness; you make your own path.
18. Drop the guilt trip. Go ahead and have a night out with a friend. See the sappy show that your husband wouldn’t be caught dead at.
19. Spend time in nature. Get out of a world lit by fluorescent lights and divided by cubicles. Take a walk in the woods. At the very least put a plant in your office.
20. Go to bed early. Never underestimate the power of a good nights sleep.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Wonderful thoughts by Great People
Napoleon........
"The world suffers a lot.
Not because of the violence of bad people,
But because of the silence of good people!"
Einstein.........
"I am thankful to all those who said NO to me
Its Because of them I did it myself.."
Abraham Lincoln.........
"If friendship is your weakest point
then you are the strongest person in
the world"
Shakespeare..........
"Laughing Faces Do Not Mean That There Is Absence Of Sorrow!
But It Means That They Have
The Ability To Deal With It".
Willian Arthur.........
"Opportunities Are Like Sunrises,
If You Wait Too Long You Can Miss Them".
Shakespeare.....
"Never Play With The Feelings Of Others Because You May Win The Game But
The Risk Is That You Will
Surely Loose The Person For Life Time".
Hitler.....
"When You Are In The Light,
Everything Follows You,
But When You Enter Into The Dark,
Even Your Own Shadow Doesnt Follow You."
Shakespeare.............
"Coin Always Makes Sound
But The Currency Notes Are Always Silent.
So When Your Value Increases
Keep Yourself Calm Silent"
John Keats........
"It Is Very Easy To Defeat Someone,
But It Is Very Hard To Win Someone"
"The world suffers a lot.
Not because of the violence of bad people,
But because of the silence of good people!"
Einstein.........
"I am thankful to all those who said NO to me
Its Because of them I did it myself.."
Abraham Lincoln.........
"If friendship is your weakest point
then you are the strongest person in
the world"
Shakespeare..........
"Laughing Faces Do Not Mean That There Is Absence Of Sorrow!
But It Means That They Have
The Ability To Deal With It".
Willian Arthur.........
"Opportunities Are Like Sunrises,
If You Wait Too Long You Can Miss Them".
Shakespeare.....
"Never Play With The Feelings Of Others Because You May Win The Game But
The Risk Is That You Will
Surely Loose The Person For Life Time".
Hitler.....
"When You Are In The Light,
Everything Follows You,
But When You Enter Into The Dark,
Even Your Own Shadow Doesnt Follow You."
Shakespeare.............
"Coin Always Makes Sound
But The Currency Notes Are Always Silent.
So When Your Value Increases
Keep Yourself Calm Silent"
John Keats........
"It Is Very Easy To Defeat Someone,
But It Is Very Hard To Win Someone"
7 Dynamic Strategies for Creating a Life
7 Dynamic Strategies for Creating a Life that Works
Everyone wants a life that works effectively, whether that means harmonious relationships, a happy family life, a successful career, or the achievement of an important mission. People with successful lives take certain actions consistently.
These seven strategies can bring more success and satisfaction to your life. There is a question after each strategy to bring insights that apply specifically to you.
1. Follow the Rules
We may not always like the rules, but that does not make us an exception to following them. Rules lend order and organization to everything we do. When followed, they also bring peace and harmony to our relationships. When rules do not work, the successful person works to change them, not break them.
Where might you be overlooking the rules and sabotaging your peace of mind and chances for success?
2. Turn Rejections into Reflections
We cannot please everyone nor conduct our lives based on what others think of us. However, we can achieve our maximum potential. Rejections and failures are learning experiences. Reflect on your strengths and on the advantages in every situation.
Realize that you will experience resistance when you attempt to do great things. Allow rejections to fortify your resolve to become more skillful.
What will you do to focus on your desired outcomes regardless of the well-meaning opinions of other people?
3. Use Your Strengths to Outshine Your Best
Think creatively instead of competitively. Rather than comparing your weaknesses to another's strengths, look at your best performance to date. Think of new ways to out-distance yourself. Respect your uniqueness by focusing on new ways to use your gifts and talents. Set a new benchmark that is all yours.
What are your greatest strengths, and how can you fine tune your performance, attitudes, and beliefs to become even stronger?
4. Tell and Acknowledge the Truth
Truth is the foundation of integrity and character. It allows us the dignity to make mistakes, admit them, and apologize. The truth keeps us aware of our current abilities and brings a tremendous sense of freedom.
To get where we want to go, we also need to be honest about where we are now. Acknowledging the truth about what does not work allows us to begin doing what works.
What truths do you need to acknowledge that could bring more peace of mind and freedom to your life?
5. Set and Keep Boundaries
We need personal rules and limits for what we will expect and accept from others and ourselves. Boundaries are like compasses that help to guide our actions. They allow us to make decisions with confidence. They add integrity and consistency to our lives. Set firm boundaries that will guard you and guide your daily decisions.
What are the boundaries for each important area of your life?
6. Live with a Purpose in Mind
Living our unique purpose makes us feel joyfully alive. It allows us to envision and enthusiastically dedicate our time to worthwhile missions of our choosing. Living purposefully, we focus on our objectives with the resolve needed to finish what we start.
You already have a purpose. However, it is important to recognize it and keep it clearly in mind. Think about the things for which you would like future generations to remember you. Give yourself permission to embrace and achieve them. Become the master architect of your life and those things you will leave behind.
What is your action plan for fulfilling your life's purpose?
7. Balance the Roles You Play
Functioning well in our careers, families, and communities depends on allocating enough energy to each of these areas. To care for others, we need to keep ourselves fit mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Staying balanced keeps priorities in perspective and brings success and enjoyment to all the roles we play. Look at where you expend most of your energy now.
What are your most important priorities each day?
The Importance of Personal Responsibility
Woven throughout these actions is a theme of personal responsibility. People who live successfully do not shift the responsibility for their circumstances to other people. They accept ownership of their actions, consequences, and experiences.
Successful people are proactive. Instead of waiting for breaks, they make their own breaks. They identify and fine-tune their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. They search for ways to do more of what they enjoy. Proactive people meet challenges head on and affirm that they will achieve the desires of their heart.
Responsible individuals are life-long learners, always seeking to increase their skills. They welcome change, and they change with the times. They communicate with others clearly and live with a spirit of cooperation throughout the many changes life brings.
What personal challenges repeatedly hold you back? What are you willing to accept ownership of in order for your life to work?
A Call for Action and Commitment
Think of several ways you could apply each of these strategies. Reflect on each of the questions and write an answer for each one.
By doing so, you will begin to outline a strategic plan that belongs to you. Work your plan, and keep fine-tuning your actions to point toward the results you want to achieve. Commit to turning these actions into life-long habits beginning today. Imagine how attractive your life will be when you have designed it to work the way you want!
Everyone wants a life that works effectively, whether that means harmonious relationships, a happy family life, a successful career, or the achievement of an important mission. People with successful lives take certain actions consistently.
These seven strategies can bring more success and satisfaction to your life. There is a question after each strategy to bring insights that apply specifically to you.
1. Follow the Rules
We may not always like the rules, but that does not make us an exception to following them. Rules lend order and organization to everything we do. When followed, they also bring peace and harmony to our relationships. When rules do not work, the successful person works to change them, not break them.
Where might you be overlooking the rules and sabotaging your peace of mind and chances for success?
2. Turn Rejections into Reflections
We cannot please everyone nor conduct our lives based on what others think of us. However, we can achieve our maximum potential. Rejections and failures are learning experiences. Reflect on your strengths and on the advantages in every situation.
Realize that you will experience resistance when you attempt to do great things. Allow rejections to fortify your resolve to become more skillful.
What will you do to focus on your desired outcomes regardless of the well-meaning opinions of other people?
3. Use Your Strengths to Outshine Your Best
Think creatively instead of competitively. Rather than comparing your weaknesses to another's strengths, look at your best performance to date. Think of new ways to out-distance yourself. Respect your uniqueness by focusing on new ways to use your gifts and talents. Set a new benchmark that is all yours.
What are your greatest strengths, and how can you fine tune your performance, attitudes, and beliefs to become even stronger?
4. Tell and Acknowledge the Truth
Truth is the foundation of integrity and character. It allows us the dignity to make mistakes, admit them, and apologize. The truth keeps us aware of our current abilities and brings a tremendous sense of freedom.
To get where we want to go, we also need to be honest about where we are now. Acknowledging the truth about what does not work allows us to begin doing what works.
What truths do you need to acknowledge that could bring more peace of mind and freedom to your life?
5. Set and Keep Boundaries
We need personal rules and limits for what we will expect and accept from others and ourselves. Boundaries are like compasses that help to guide our actions. They allow us to make decisions with confidence. They add integrity and consistency to our lives. Set firm boundaries that will guard you and guide your daily decisions.
What are the boundaries for each important area of your life?
6. Live with a Purpose in Mind
Living our unique purpose makes us feel joyfully alive. It allows us to envision and enthusiastically dedicate our time to worthwhile missions of our choosing. Living purposefully, we focus on our objectives with the resolve needed to finish what we start.
You already have a purpose. However, it is important to recognize it and keep it clearly in mind. Think about the things for which you would like future generations to remember you. Give yourself permission to embrace and achieve them. Become the master architect of your life and those things you will leave behind.
What is your action plan for fulfilling your life's purpose?
7. Balance the Roles You Play
Functioning well in our careers, families, and communities depends on allocating enough energy to each of these areas. To care for others, we need to keep ourselves fit mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Staying balanced keeps priorities in perspective and brings success and enjoyment to all the roles we play. Look at where you expend most of your energy now.
What are your most important priorities each day?
The Importance of Personal Responsibility
Woven throughout these actions is a theme of personal responsibility. People who live successfully do not shift the responsibility for their circumstances to other people. They accept ownership of their actions, consequences, and experiences.
Successful people are proactive. Instead of waiting for breaks, they make their own breaks. They identify and fine-tune their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. They search for ways to do more of what they enjoy. Proactive people meet challenges head on and affirm that they will achieve the desires of their heart.
Responsible individuals are life-long learners, always seeking to increase their skills. They welcome change, and they change with the times. They communicate with others clearly and live with a spirit of cooperation throughout the many changes life brings.
What personal challenges repeatedly hold you back? What are you willing to accept ownership of in order for your life to work?
A Call for Action and Commitment
Think of several ways you could apply each of these strategies. Reflect on each of the questions and write an answer for each one.
By doing so, you will begin to outline a strategic plan that belongs to you. Work your plan, and keep fine-tuning your actions to point toward the results you want to achieve. Commit to turning these actions into life-long habits beginning today. Imagine how attractive your life will be when you have designed it to work the way you want!
Leadership
What is Leadership?
"Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right."
- Professor Warren G. Bennis
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The word "leadership" can bring a variety of images to mind. For example:
• An army officer, charging forward to meet the enemy.
• An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his party to follow.
• An executive, developing her company's strategy to remain ahead of the competition.
Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization. Leadership is dynamic, vibrant, and inspiring.
Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their team to the right destination in a smooth and efficient way.
Leadership: A Definition
According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who does the following:
1. Creates an inspiring vision of the future.
2. Encourages and motivates people to engage with that vision.
3. Manages delivery of the vision.
4. Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.
To become an effective leader, you need to learn the skills needed to do these things. We'll look at each element in more detail.
1. Creating an Inspiring Vision of the Future
In business, a vision is a realistic, convincing and attractive "best case" depiction of where you want to be in the future. With a clear vision, you can provide direction, set priorities, and establish targets, so that you can tell that you've achieved what you wanted to achieve.
Therefore, leadership is proactive - problem solving, looking ahead, and not being satisfied with things as they are.
Once they have developed their visions, leaders must make them compelling and convincing. A compelling vision is one that people can see in their minds, feel, understand, and embrace. As such, effective leaders provide a rich picture of what the future will look like when their visions have been realized. They tell powerful stories, and they explain their visions in ways that everyone can relate to.
Here, leaders combine the analytical side of vision creation with the passion that comes from emotional engagement and shared values, creating something that is really meaningful to the people being led.
2. Motivating and Inspiring People
A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership. But it's a leader's ability to motivate and inspire people that will help him or her deliver that vision.
For example, when you start a new project, you will probably have lots of enthusiasm for it, so it's usually easy to support the project's leader at the beginning. However, it can be difficult to find ways to keep the vision alive and inspirational, after the initial enthusiasm fades, especially if the team or organization needs to make significant changes in the way that they do things. Leaders recognize this, and they work hard on an ongoing basis to connect their vision with people's individual needs, goals, and aspirations.
One of the key ways they do this is through Expectancy Theory . Effective leaders link together two different expectations:
1. The expectation that hard work leads to good results.
2. The expectation that good results lead to attractive rewards or incentives.
This motivates people to work hard to achieve success, because they expect to enjoy rewards - both intrinsic and extrinsic - as a result.
Other approaches include restating the vision in terms of the benefits it will bring to the team's customers, and taking frequent opportunities to communicate the vision in an attractive and engaging way.
What's particularly helpful here is where leaders have expert power. People admire and believe in these leaders because they are expert in what they do. They have credibility, and they've earned the right to ask people to listen to them, and follow them. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire the people they lead.
Leaders can also motivate and influence people through their natural charisma and appeal, and through other sources of power, such as the power to pay bonuses or assign tasks to people. However, good leaders don't rely on these types of power to motivate and inspire others.
3. Managing Delivery of the Vision
Leaders must ensure that the work required to deliver the vision is properly managed - either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility - and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully. Leaders also need to make sure they manage change effectively. This will ensure that any changes required to deliver the vision are implemented smoothly and thoroughly, with support and full backing from the majority of people affected.
4. Coaching and Building a Team to Achieve the Vision
Individual and team development are important activities carried out by transformational leaders. To develop a team, leaders must first understand team dynamics..
A leader will then ensure that team members have the necessary skills and abilities to do their job and achieve the vision. They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by training and coaching people to improve individual and team performance.
Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others. By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment where you can continue success in the long term. And that's a true measure of great leadership.
Key Points
Leadership can be hard to define and it means different things to different people.
In the transformational leadership model, leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. They also manage delivery of the vision, either directly or indirectly, and build and coach their teams to make them ever stronger.
It takes time and hard work to develop the skills needed to be an effective leader. However the returns - whether in terms of physical reward or of personal satisfaction - are enormous. Enjoy the leadership journey!
"Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right."
- Professor Warren G. Bennis
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The word "leadership" can bring a variety of images to mind. For example:
• An army officer, charging forward to meet the enemy.
• An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his party to follow.
• An executive, developing her company's strategy to remain ahead of the competition.
Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization. Leadership is dynamic, vibrant, and inspiring.
Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their team to the right destination in a smooth and efficient way.
Leadership: A Definition
According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who does the following:
1. Creates an inspiring vision of the future.
2. Encourages and motivates people to engage with that vision.
3. Manages delivery of the vision.
4. Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.
To become an effective leader, you need to learn the skills needed to do these things. We'll look at each element in more detail.
1. Creating an Inspiring Vision of the Future
In business, a vision is a realistic, convincing and attractive "best case" depiction of where you want to be in the future. With a clear vision, you can provide direction, set priorities, and establish targets, so that you can tell that you've achieved what you wanted to achieve.
Therefore, leadership is proactive - problem solving, looking ahead, and not being satisfied with things as they are.
Once they have developed their visions, leaders must make them compelling and convincing. A compelling vision is one that people can see in their minds, feel, understand, and embrace. As such, effective leaders provide a rich picture of what the future will look like when their visions have been realized. They tell powerful stories, and they explain their visions in ways that everyone can relate to.
Here, leaders combine the analytical side of vision creation with the passion that comes from emotional engagement and shared values, creating something that is really meaningful to the people being led.
2. Motivating and Inspiring People
A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership. But it's a leader's ability to motivate and inspire people that will help him or her deliver that vision.
For example, when you start a new project, you will probably have lots of enthusiasm for it, so it's usually easy to support the project's leader at the beginning. However, it can be difficult to find ways to keep the vision alive and inspirational, after the initial enthusiasm fades, especially if the team or organization needs to make significant changes in the way that they do things. Leaders recognize this, and they work hard on an ongoing basis to connect their vision with people's individual needs, goals, and aspirations.
One of the key ways they do this is through Expectancy Theory . Effective leaders link together two different expectations:
1. The expectation that hard work leads to good results.
2. The expectation that good results lead to attractive rewards or incentives.
This motivates people to work hard to achieve success, because they expect to enjoy rewards - both intrinsic and extrinsic - as a result.
Other approaches include restating the vision in terms of the benefits it will bring to the team's customers, and taking frequent opportunities to communicate the vision in an attractive and engaging way.
What's particularly helpful here is where leaders have expert power. People admire and believe in these leaders because they are expert in what they do. They have credibility, and they've earned the right to ask people to listen to them, and follow them. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire the people they lead.
Leaders can also motivate and influence people through their natural charisma and appeal, and through other sources of power, such as the power to pay bonuses or assign tasks to people. However, good leaders don't rely on these types of power to motivate and inspire others.
3. Managing Delivery of the Vision
Leaders must ensure that the work required to deliver the vision is properly managed - either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility - and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully. Leaders also need to make sure they manage change effectively. This will ensure that any changes required to deliver the vision are implemented smoothly and thoroughly, with support and full backing from the majority of people affected.
4. Coaching and Building a Team to Achieve the Vision
Individual and team development are important activities carried out by transformational leaders. To develop a team, leaders must first understand team dynamics..
A leader will then ensure that team members have the necessary skills and abilities to do their job and achieve the vision. They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by training and coaching people to improve individual and team performance.
Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others. By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment where you can continue success in the long term. And that's a true measure of great leadership.
Key Points
Leadership can be hard to define and it means different things to different people.
In the transformational leadership model, leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. They also manage delivery of the vision, either directly or indirectly, and build and coach their teams to make them ever stronger.
It takes time and hard work to develop the skills needed to be an effective leader. However the returns - whether in terms of physical reward or of personal satisfaction - are enormous. Enjoy the leadership journey!
Five Ways to Create Reserve Energy Everyday
Did you ever feel like your "get-up-and-go" got up and deserted you? Has a stressful situation left you feeling drained and unmotivated to perform the simplest tasks?
Most of us have experienced times of stress followed by fatigue. The resiliency to work, play, and enjoy life after stressful times requires enough reserve energy to bounce back.
Bruce Lee said that "... the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." Flexibility is indeed one key to resiliency.
Those bamboo trees, in bending one direction, build potential energy to bounce back. However, human minds and bodies are not made of bamboo. We might expend more energy while bending under stress than we have in reserve. We can easily break before we bounce.
Depleted energy results in career burn out, depression, and physical illness. Relationships suffer. Periods of intense apathy can steal much of the joy in living. Springing back after stressful times requires a storehouse of reserve energy.
How can we generate and conserve enough energy to keep us resilient in times of crisis or stress?
Choose Equanimity
Webster defines equanimity as a habit of mind that is only rarely disturbed under great strain. Equanimity is the practice of right disposition, stability, and balance.
Energy reserves can be replenished daily through the discipline of balance. Balance provides flexibility, a quality essential for responding in positive ways to events in all of the major life areas. How can we begin achieving equanimity and balance?
Do Something Enjoyable Every Day
Balance includes taking time daily for relaxation and participation in activities that we enjoy. What do you like to do? Take a sheet of paper or open a text file on your computer now, and write ten things that you love most. Then pick one of those things and do it today.
A wise friend once told me that she kept a happy book. It contained hundreds of things she loved most -- things that made her smile, laugh and daydream. Each day, she made sure she did a few of the things in her happy book. This became a great way to replenish the energy consumed during daily living.
Maintain Total Wellness
Wellness is an actively sought state of health. It includes spiritual, mental and physical well-being. We can perform better under pressure, recover from setbacks, and minimize resiliency fatigue by strengthening our spirits, minds and bodies.
If you feel chronically fatigued, see your physician. Regular health care checkups can help to prevent illness and maintain wellness. Physical fitness, meditation, and gratitude-focused prayer increase energy levels tremendously. Always check with a physician before beginning any exercise or nutritional program.
It is easy to resist making necessary changes in our lifestyle. We would rather not acknowledge habits and tolerations that work against us. Change is uncomfortable.
However, it is an unbreakable spiritual law that whatever we resist will persist and thrive by consuming our energy. What are you resisting that could be stealing your energy now?
Discard Time Excuses
"I don't have time," usually means one of two things. It either means the person doesn't manage time, or it means that they have other priorities.
Your priorities are completely under your control. They will either give energy to you or take energy away from you. If your priorities are not in harmony with your values, they will consume your energy.
We are completely responsible for how much time we dedicate to various activities. We either control our schedules or our schedules control us.
If we choose to work ourselves to the bone without investing a few minutes in personal growth, it's not because there is a lack of time. Rather, it's simply our choice. We must live with its consequences.
Keep Nourishing Your Reserve Energy
The ideas I've mentioned will help you to create more reserve energy and resiliency. I work from early morning until late afternoon on weekdays, then exercise, read, and relax or socialize during the remaining hours. Doing things that we love in compelling ways naturally builds reserve energy.
God created us with the ability to be very resilient. However, we must nourish that resiliency. So, He also provided ways to laugh, relax, and enjoy improving our lives.
How will you increase your energy reserve and resiliency today?
We can choose to restore our internal energy reserves and become resilient. We can create equilibrium and flexibility by engaging in enjoyable activities, maintaining wellness, and taking responsibility for our time expenditures. Perhaps we can even become as resilient as those bamboo trees!
Most of us have experienced times of stress followed by fatigue. The resiliency to work, play, and enjoy life after stressful times requires enough reserve energy to bounce back.
Bruce Lee said that "... the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." Flexibility is indeed one key to resiliency.
Those bamboo trees, in bending one direction, build potential energy to bounce back. However, human minds and bodies are not made of bamboo. We might expend more energy while bending under stress than we have in reserve. We can easily break before we bounce.
Depleted energy results in career burn out, depression, and physical illness. Relationships suffer. Periods of intense apathy can steal much of the joy in living. Springing back after stressful times requires a storehouse of reserve energy.
How can we generate and conserve enough energy to keep us resilient in times of crisis or stress?
Choose Equanimity
Webster defines equanimity as a habit of mind that is only rarely disturbed under great strain. Equanimity is the practice of right disposition, stability, and balance.
Energy reserves can be replenished daily through the discipline of balance. Balance provides flexibility, a quality essential for responding in positive ways to events in all of the major life areas. How can we begin achieving equanimity and balance?
Do Something Enjoyable Every Day
Balance includes taking time daily for relaxation and participation in activities that we enjoy. What do you like to do? Take a sheet of paper or open a text file on your computer now, and write ten things that you love most. Then pick one of those things and do it today.
A wise friend once told me that she kept a happy book. It contained hundreds of things she loved most -- things that made her smile, laugh and daydream. Each day, she made sure she did a few of the things in her happy book. This became a great way to replenish the energy consumed during daily living.
Maintain Total Wellness
Wellness is an actively sought state of health. It includes spiritual, mental and physical well-being. We can perform better under pressure, recover from setbacks, and minimize resiliency fatigue by strengthening our spirits, minds and bodies.
If you feel chronically fatigued, see your physician. Regular health care checkups can help to prevent illness and maintain wellness. Physical fitness, meditation, and gratitude-focused prayer increase energy levels tremendously. Always check with a physician before beginning any exercise or nutritional program.
It is easy to resist making necessary changes in our lifestyle. We would rather not acknowledge habits and tolerations that work against us. Change is uncomfortable.
However, it is an unbreakable spiritual law that whatever we resist will persist and thrive by consuming our energy. What are you resisting that could be stealing your energy now?
Discard Time Excuses
"I don't have time," usually means one of two things. It either means the person doesn't manage time, or it means that they have other priorities.
Your priorities are completely under your control. They will either give energy to you or take energy away from you. If your priorities are not in harmony with your values, they will consume your energy.
We are completely responsible for how much time we dedicate to various activities. We either control our schedules or our schedules control us.
If we choose to work ourselves to the bone without investing a few minutes in personal growth, it's not because there is a lack of time. Rather, it's simply our choice. We must live with its consequences.
Keep Nourishing Your Reserve Energy
The ideas I've mentioned will help you to create more reserve energy and resiliency. I work from early morning until late afternoon on weekdays, then exercise, read, and relax or socialize during the remaining hours. Doing things that we love in compelling ways naturally builds reserve energy.
God created us with the ability to be very resilient. However, we must nourish that resiliency. So, He also provided ways to laugh, relax, and enjoy improving our lives.
How will you increase your energy reserve and resiliency today?
We can choose to restore our internal energy reserves and become resilient. We can create equilibrium and flexibility by engaging in enjoyable activities, maintaining wellness, and taking responsibility for our time expenditures. Perhaps we can even become as resilient as those bamboo trees!
Relieve Stress and Anxiety
Relieve Stress and Anxiety
As he pounded his fists on the desk, he shouted, "I haven't got time to relieve stress!" Sound familiar? Stress results from our response to events, and it can wreck our health, careers, relationships, and lives. Here are seven tips to help relieve stress and reduce anxiety that are a minimal, yet excellent, investment of time...
1. Get Enough Sleep. Inadequate sleep effects one's mood negatively and increases stress level. Adequate sleep helps people to be healthier, happier, more creative, more productive, less accident prone, and more effective in relationships.
2. Optimize Your Schedule. Look at your priorities and choose those activities that are essential for your purpose and objectives. If you find that you are over-scheduled, opt out of the nonessentials. Work with excellence on what is most important at the time.
3. Keep Expectations Realistic. Expecting ourselves or others to be perfect is certainly not realistic. However, expecting continuous improvement is realistic. Compliment others for a job well done. Request help when you need it rather than becoming stressed over something that cannot be done well without help.
4. Stay Physically Fit and Eat a Healthy Diet. Moderate exercise helps to reduce stress. A healthy diet with proper vitamins and minerals provides the fuel to help our bodies function optimally, especially under stressful conditions. Get regular checkups from your physician, and follow his or her recommendations to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
5. Relax Everyday. Each day, do at least one activity that you enjoy. This is like replenishing your emotional energy account. Meditate for mental and emotional health. We feel the best when our emotions are in a moderate stage of engagement. When emotions run too low or high, they also negatively affect our physical tension, posture, and feelings of well-being. Use simple breathing and relaxation exercises if you are in stressful situations. This will trigger a relaxation response, the body's opposite to stress, producing a sense of well-being.
6. Change your Routine. For many people, monotony in a daily schedule can drive stress through the roof. Occasionally, take a different route to work. Begin reading about something you've always wanted to learn about. Change the design, lighting, or colors of your home or workspace. Introduce a new leisure activity to your family. Try that delicious-looking recipe you saw in a magazine. Do something just for you that you've always wanted to do - no more putting it off. Do one small thing that is completely new for you every week!
7. Solve Problems with Action. Much of the stress and anxiety we experience comes from dwelling on our problems and feeling a lack of control. This attitude only attracts more anxiety as we begin to worry about things that will never happen. Instead, put yourself in the driver's seat. Look calmly at your problem and take stock of your options. Then, take one positive action toward a solution. Action leads to confidence, and it will help relieve stress and anxiety, giving you a greater feeling of control.
Wishing you blessings and success!
As he pounded his fists on the desk, he shouted, "I haven't got time to relieve stress!" Sound familiar? Stress results from our response to events, and it can wreck our health, careers, relationships, and lives. Here are seven tips to help relieve stress and reduce anxiety that are a minimal, yet excellent, investment of time...
1. Get Enough Sleep. Inadequate sleep effects one's mood negatively and increases stress level. Adequate sleep helps people to be healthier, happier, more creative, more productive, less accident prone, and more effective in relationships.
2. Optimize Your Schedule. Look at your priorities and choose those activities that are essential for your purpose and objectives. If you find that you are over-scheduled, opt out of the nonessentials. Work with excellence on what is most important at the time.
3. Keep Expectations Realistic. Expecting ourselves or others to be perfect is certainly not realistic. However, expecting continuous improvement is realistic. Compliment others for a job well done. Request help when you need it rather than becoming stressed over something that cannot be done well without help.
4. Stay Physically Fit and Eat a Healthy Diet. Moderate exercise helps to reduce stress. A healthy diet with proper vitamins and minerals provides the fuel to help our bodies function optimally, especially under stressful conditions. Get regular checkups from your physician, and follow his or her recommendations to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
5. Relax Everyday. Each day, do at least one activity that you enjoy. This is like replenishing your emotional energy account. Meditate for mental and emotional health. We feel the best when our emotions are in a moderate stage of engagement. When emotions run too low or high, they also negatively affect our physical tension, posture, and feelings of well-being. Use simple breathing and relaxation exercises if you are in stressful situations. This will trigger a relaxation response, the body's opposite to stress, producing a sense of well-being.
6. Change your Routine. For many people, monotony in a daily schedule can drive stress through the roof. Occasionally, take a different route to work. Begin reading about something you've always wanted to learn about. Change the design, lighting, or colors of your home or workspace. Introduce a new leisure activity to your family. Try that delicious-looking recipe you saw in a magazine. Do something just for you that you've always wanted to do - no more putting it off. Do one small thing that is completely new for you every week!
7. Solve Problems with Action. Much of the stress and anxiety we experience comes from dwelling on our problems and feeling a lack of control. This attitude only attracts more anxiety as we begin to worry about things that will never happen. Instead, put yourself in the driver's seat. Look calmly at your problem and take stock of your options. Then, take one positive action toward a solution. Action leads to confidence, and it will help relieve stress and anxiety, giving you a greater feeling of control.
Wishing you blessings and success!
5 Logical tips about Credit Cards
Credit cards are becoming increasingly common in India, and while they come with a lot of convenience, the high interest rates and other charges mean that you have to be careful about how you use them.
In this post, we look at 5 tips on wise credit card usage, and how following them, can save you a whole lot of financial heartache. These 5 tips are pretty logical & self-evident; we have to understand that the free credit we get from a credit card is not really free. It’s actually a business for Credit card companies and hence somewhere in the whole process, they have to have a way to make money .
1. Pay your balance in full: This one is so basic, I was not going to point it out at all, but on second thought – I realized that this should really be the first point. Of all the loans you take, credit cards come with the highest interest rates. If you run a credit card balance every month, then the interest charges add up really quickly. If you have a balance on your credit card, pay it off in full before the next due date. This ensures that you don’t pay interest on your balance, which really is extra money you can keep to invest and build savings for yourself.
Curiously enough, I know of people who don’t pay off their credit card balance in full, but at the same time, put their money in low yield investments. This is really bad math. If you have a credit card balance that is charged at about 30% per annum and an investment that gives you just an 8% return – you are much better off paying the entire credit card balance before you even think of investing your money. The extra interest you pay on your outstanding balance offsets any interest income you receive from your investment. If you run a balance, realize, it normally is a strong indication that you are spending beyond your means. This is a bad financial habit that you should get rid of as soon as possible.
2. Avoid credit cards with annual fee: Unless you have a specific benefit in mind, from the credit card, don’t get a card that has an annual fee. It is always good, to get a credit card with no annual fee, because then the only expense you have on it, is the interest payment; and if you pay off your balance in full every month – you don’t pay any interest and your credit card will, in effect, be free! Add to that, the fact, that even most free credit cards have some sort of a reward program, you can benefit from. Why pay for something when you can get it free?
The other thing to keep in mind, while evaluating the fee, is how likely you are to benefit on it, based on your usage. I reviewed the HDFC Value Plus Cash Back credit card a few months ago, which had an annual fee of Rs. 700 and up to 5% cash back. At a cursory glance, it seemed to me that Rs.700 may not be very high due to the cash back, but a deeper look at the terms and conditions told me, that the cash back will only be credited to your account if the monthly balance is over Rs.10,000. I realized the card was not meant for people like me, who aren’t likely to run up such a balance on their credit card every month.
Bottom-line: If you are going for a credit card that has an annual fee – make sure you go through the fine print and are certain it will be worth the cost to you.
Conclusion
The overarching theme of these tips is, “Get the convenience of credit cards for free.” That’s what it really boils down to.
To me, credit cards make shopping convenient and that is a big benefit, but at the same time, they also tempt me to go beyond my means, and then pay extra by way of interest. The key is to get the benefit of convenience but not have to pay anything for it. The above tips will help you do both, or at the very least – strike a balance between the two. What do you think?
In this post, we look at 5 tips on wise credit card usage, and how following them, can save you a whole lot of financial heartache. These 5 tips are pretty logical & self-evident; we have to understand that the free credit we get from a credit card is not really free. It’s actually a business for Credit card companies and hence somewhere in the whole process, they have to have a way to make money .
1. Pay your balance in full: This one is so basic, I was not going to point it out at all, but on second thought – I realized that this should really be the first point. Of all the loans you take, credit cards come with the highest interest rates. If you run a credit card balance every month, then the interest charges add up really quickly. If you have a balance on your credit card, pay it off in full before the next due date. This ensures that you don’t pay interest on your balance, which really is extra money you can keep to invest and build savings for yourself.
Curiously enough, I know of people who don’t pay off their credit card balance in full, but at the same time, put their money in low yield investments. This is really bad math. If you have a credit card balance that is charged at about 30% per annum and an investment that gives you just an 8% return – you are much better off paying the entire credit card balance before you even think of investing your money. The extra interest you pay on your outstanding balance offsets any interest income you receive from your investment. If you run a balance, realize, it normally is a strong indication that you are spending beyond your means. This is a bad financial habit that you should get rid of as soon as possible.
2. Avoid credit cards with annual fee: Unless you have a specific benefit in mind, from the credit card, don’t get a card that has an annual fee. It is always good, to get a credit card with no annual fee, because then the only expense you have on it, is the interest payment; and if you pay off your balance in full every month – you don’t pay any interest and your credit card will, in effect, be free! Add to that, the fact, that even most free credit cards have some sort of a reward program, you can benefit from. Why pay for something when you can get it free?
The other thing to keep in mind, while evaluating the fee, is how likely you are to benefit on it, based on your usage. I reviewed the HDFC Value Plus Cash Back credit card a few months ago, which had an annual fee of Rs. 700 and up to 5% cash back. At a cursory glance, it seemed to me that Rs.700 may not be very high due to the cash back, but a deeper look at the terms and conditions told me, that the cash back will only be credited to your account if the monthly balance is over Rs.10,000. I realized the card was not meant for people like me, who aren’t likely to run up such a balance on their credit card every month.
Bottom-line: If you are going for a credit card that has an annual fee – make sure you go through the fine print and are certain it will be worth the cost to you.
Conclusion
The overarching theme of these tips is, “Get the convenience of credit cards for free.” That’s what it really boils down to.
To me, credit cards make shopping convenient and that is a big benefit, but at the same time, they also tempt me to go beyond my means, and then pay extra by way of interest. The key is to get the benefit of convenience but not have to pay anything for it. The above tips will help you do both, or at the very least – strike a balance between the two. What do you think?
Self Management
You are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Learn to accept total responsibility for yourself. If you do not manage yourself, then you are letting others have control of your Life. These tips will help "you" manage "you."
Here is a list of things that help you in self management and which will in turn lead you to the path of success: -
-) Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.
-) Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in your potential to complete any task.
-) Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude toward the upcoming task.
-) Frequently ask, "Is what I am doing right now moving me toward my goals?"
-) Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time later to fix it.
-) Accept responsibility for your job successes and failures. Do not look for a scapegoat.
-) Do not view things you do as a "job." View all activities as a challenge.
-) Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you do want. Instead of telling yourself, "I can't do that very well," say, "I can do this very well."-) Give yourself points for completing tasks on your "to-do" list in priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.
-) Practice your personal beliefs. It may be helpful each morning to take 15 minutes to gather your thoughts and say a prayer.
-) Make a commitment to show someone a specific accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel motivated to have it done.
-) Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.
-) Believe that you can be what you want to be.
-) Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill or part of yourself that if you so chose, you can change. You do not have any weakness, only untapped potential.
-) Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation.
-) Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have in the past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.
-) Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that they can accomplish their goals.
-) Create your own "motivation board" by putting up notes of things you need to do on a bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what you need to work on. When an item is done, remove the note. Also keep your goals listed and pictured on your board.
-) Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is interesting in your work. Change your perspective and look at it as someone outside your job would,
-) Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your own high enthusiasm and performance level.
Here is a list of things that help you in self management and which will in turn lead you to the path of success: -
-) Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.
-) Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in your potential to complete any task.
-) Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude toward the upcoming task.
-) Frequently ask, "Is what I am doing right now moving me toward my goals?"
-) Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time later to fix it.
-) Accept responsibility for your job successes and failures. Do not look for a scapegoat.
-) Do not view things you do as a "job." View all activities as a challenge.
-) Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you do want. Instead of telling yourself, "I can't do that very well," say, "I can do this very well."-) Give yourself points for completing tasks on your "to-do" list in priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.
-) Practice your personal beliefs. It may be helpful each morning to take 15 minutes to gather your thoughts and say a prayer.
-) Make a commitment to show someone a specific accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel motivated to have it done.
-) Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.
-) Believe that you can be what you want to be.
-) Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill or part of yourself that if you so chose, you can change. You do not have any weakness, only untapped potential.
-) Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation.
-) Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have in the past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.
-) Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that they can accomplish their goals.
-) Create your own "motivation board" by putting up notes of things you need to do on a bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what you need to work on. When an item is done, remove the note. Also keep your goals listed and pictured on your board.
-) Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is interesting in your work. Change your perspective and look at it as someone outside your job would,
-) Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your own high enthusiasm and performance level.
How to reduce stress
Stress is a big challenge in life nowadays.
The sources of stress are many and the helpful ways to reduce stress are also plentiful.
Common symptoms of stress include skin problems, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, fatigue, insomnia and frustration.
We don't need to set a time to reduce stress, we need to incorporate some strategies in our daily life routine to prevent stress and reduce its effect on the body.
Here are 11 simple steps we can easily take to reduce stress:
1. Define your goals: we must define our life goals and begin to achieve these goals; this action will support us against stress because we will feel that we know what our life purpose is and why, and that we control our own lives.
2. Take control of your diet: we can use simple ways in our diet plans to reduce stress by avoiding some stimulants such as coffee, alcohol, tea and sugar and we can use chamomile tea as an alternative because of its calming and relaxing effect.
We need to eat slowly in a calm environment to allow our digestive system to work well.
We can use honey as an alternative to sugar but in small amounts (one or two spoonfuls per day).
3. Take hot baths regularly: after a very busy day or when we feel that we need to relax (I do this three times a week).
You can take a hot bath by sitting in warm to hot water and the water level should be above the waist, using lavender oil can also enhance this relaxing experience.
4. Aromatherapy: in the office you can use aromatherapy to relax and avoid stress.
One of the best ways is to use lavender oil on a source of heat and take in the scent; this is a great way to relax during the day when you need it the most.
5. Exercise: This is one of the important things you can do which will reduce stress and bring happiness.
When we exercise, our brains release substances which bring feelings of happiness and relaxation; we need engage in some exercise regularly such as walking, dancing or swimming.
6. Breathing techniques: Yoga, meditation and Tai Chi all use deep breathing techniques.
To meditate, simply sit with closed eyes and concentrate on your breathing.
Breathing deeply regularly is great for health and from there, you can learn various other breathing techniques to gain enhanced benefits.
7. Relaxation techniques and self hypnotherapy: we can easily do this after the hot bath to relax even more, simply sit or lie down in a comfortable place with your eyes closed, imagine there is a spot light above your head and concentrate on it, then concentrate on your body part by part and try to relax the body and feel the relaxation deepening -- you can also use a self hypnotherapy audio tape to help in this process.
8. Massage: this is a great way to reduce stress, I do this when other ways fail, I feel better after receiving a massage.
You can get a professional massage or you can simply ask your partner to massage you.
9. Spiritual healing: prayers and the act of helping others are very important components for happiness and stress reduction.
You will feel calmer and have a sense of inner peace.
10. Talking through your problems: talking about your feelings acts as a releasing mechanism and you will soon find that talking about your problems with your partner or best friend may help the solution to the problem come to light and will help to release blocked emotions.
11. Multivitamins: I take a Vitamin B complex regularly to decrease stress and this has been a great help in my stress reduction.
I hope that you find these suggestions helpful, my hope in sharing this information with you is that you can benefit from it.
Reading about this is not enough to reduce stress, you must take action.
LIKE THIS EMAIL THEN FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS TOO
The sources of stress are many and the helpful ways to reduce stress are also plentiful.
Common symptoms of stress include skin problems, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, fatigue, insomnia and frustration.
We don't need to set a time to reduce stress, we need to incorporate some strategies in our daily life routine to prevent stress and reduce its effect on the body.
Here are 11 simple steps we can easily take to reduce stress:
1. Define your goals: we must define our life goals and begin to achieve these goals; this action will support us against stress because we will feel that we know what our life purpose is and why, and that we control our own lives.
2. Take control of your diet: we can use simple ways in our diet plans to reduce stress by avoiding some stimulants such as coffee, alcohol, tea and sugar and we can use chamomile tea as an alternative because of its calming and relaxing effect.
We need to eat slowly in a calm environment to allow our digestive system to work well.
We can use honey as an alternative to sugar but in small amounts (one or two spoonfuls per day).
3. Take hot baths regularly: after a very busy day or when we feel that we need to relax (I do this three times a week).
You can take a hot bath by sitting in warm to hot water and the water level should be above the waist, using lavender oil can also enhance this relaxing experience.
4. Aromatherapy: in the office you can use aromatherapy to relax and avoid stress.
One of the best ways is to use lavender oil on a source of heat and take in the scent; this is a great way to relax during the day when you need it the most.
5. Exercise: This is one of the important things you can do which will reduce stress and bring happiness.
When we exercise, our brains release substances which bring feelings of happiness and relaxation; we need engage in some exercise regularly such as walking, dancing or swimming.
6. Breathing techniques: Yoga, meditation and Tai Chi all use deep breathing techniques.
To meditate, simply sit with closed eyes and concentrate on your breathing.
Breathing deeply regularly is great for health and from there, you can learn various other breathing techniques to gain enhanced benefits.
7. Relaxation techniques and self hypnotherapy: we can easily do this after the hot bath to relax even more, simply sit or lie down in a comfortable place with your eyes closed, imagine there is a spot light above your head and concentrate on it, then concentrate on your body part by part and try to relax the body and feel the relaxation deepening -- you can also use a self hypnotherapy audio tape to help in this process.
8. Massage: this is a great way to reduce stress, I do this when other ways fail, I feel better after receiving a massage.
You can get a professional massage or you can simply ask your partner to massage you.
9. Spiritual healing: prayers and the act of helping others are very important components for happiness and stress reduction.
You will feel calmer and have a sense of inner peace.
10. Talking through your problems: talking about your feelings acts as a releasing mechanism and you will soon find that talking about your problems with your partner or best friend may help the solution to the problem come to light and will help to release blocked emotions.
11. Multivitamins: I take a Vitamin B complex regularly to decrease stress and this has been a great help in my stress reduction.
I hope that you find these suggestions helpful, my hope in sharing this information with you is that you can benefit from it.
Reading about this is not enough to reduce stress, you must take action.
LIKE THIS EMAIL THEN FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS TOO
Have Mosquito Attitude
When Snake is alive, Snake eats Ants.
When Snake is dead, Ants eat Snake.
Time can turn at any time.
Don't neglect anyone in your life........
2. Never make the same mistake twice,
There are so many new ones,
Try a different one each day.
3. A good way to change someone's attitude is to change your own.
Because, the same sun that melts butter, also hardens clay!
Life is as we think, so think beautifully.
4. Life is just like a sea, we are moving without an end.
Nothing stays with us,
what remains is just the memories of some people who touched us as Waves.
5. Whenever you want to know how rich you are?
Never count your currency,
just try to Drop a Tear and count how many hands reach out to WIPE that-
that is true richness.
6. Heart tells the eyes see less, because you see and I suffer lot.
Eyes replied, feel less because you feel and I cry a lot.
7. Never change your originality for the sake of others,
because no one can play your role better than you.
So be yourself, because whatever you are, YOU are the best.
8. Baby mosquito came back after 1st time flying.
His dad asked him "How do you feel?"
He replied "It was wonderful, Everyone was clapping for me!"
Now that's a Positive Attitude .
When Snake is dead, Ants eat Snake.
Time can turn at any time.
Don't neglect anyone in your life........
2. Never make the same mistake twice,
There are so many new ones,
Try a different one each day.
3. A good way to change someone's attitude is to change your own.
Because, the same sun that melts butter, also hardens clay!
Life is as we think, so think beautifully.
4. Life is just like a sea, we are moving without an end.
Nothing stays with us,
what remains is just the memories of some people who touched us as Waves.
5. Whenever you want to know how rich you are?
Never count your currency,
just try to Drop a Tear and count how many hands reach out to WIPE that-
that is true richness.
6. Heart tells the eyes see less, because you see and I suffer lot.
Eyes replied, feel less because you feel and I cry a lot.
7. Never change your originality for the sake of others,
because no one can play your role better than you.
So be yourself, because whatever you are, YOU are the best.
8. Baby mosquito came back after 1st time flying.
His dad asked him "How do you feel?"
He replied "It was wonderful, Everyone was clapping for me!"
Now that's a Positive Attitude .
Thursday, March 4, 2010
When you lose, Don’t lose the lesson : Azim Premji
The funny thing about life is that you realise the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black to salt and pepper and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realise the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have learnt along the way.
The first lesson I have learnt is that, we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming.
The parents were concerned. They said: "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim?
While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing with me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supper market and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. She had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be delicious! The difference was that she had cooked it!
In my own life, I have found that nothing gives us as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. What is gifted or inherited follows the rule ‘Come easy, go easy'. I guess we only know the value of what we have\ if we have struggled to earn it.
The third lesson I have learnt is no one hits a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some.
You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or anyone else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is , when you lose, do not lose the lesson.
The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for.
Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us, that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received.
In my own life, I have found that nothing gives us as much satisfaction as earning our rewards.
Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.
The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves.
Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from outside. We must feel the need from within.
It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit.
I remember the inspiring lines of a poem which says, that you reach must always exceeds your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is with yourself.
The sixth lesson I have learnt is never to give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring one's hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel.
A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed.
Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her: "Look, why don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day."
The girl looked up. There was a strange look in her eyes. "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!".
If we preserve long enough, we can put any problem in it's perspective.
The first lesson I have learnt is that, we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming.
The parents were concerned. They said: "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim?
While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing with me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supper market and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. She had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be delicious! The difference was that she had cooked it!
In my own life, I have found that nothing gives us as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. What is gifted or inherited follows the rule ‘Come easy, go easy'. I guess we only know the value of what we have\ if we have struggled to earn it.
The third lesson I have learnt is no one hits a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some.
You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or anyone else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is , when you lose, do not lose the lesson.
The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for.
Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us, that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received.
In my own life, I have found that nothing gives us as much satisfaction as earning our rewards.
Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.
The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves.
Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from outside. We must feel the need from within.
It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit.
I remember the inspiring lines of a poem which says, that you reach must always exceeds your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is with yourself.
The sixth lesson I have learnt is never to give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring one's hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel.
A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed.
Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her: "Look, why don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day."
The girl looked up. There was a strange look in her eyes. "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!".
If we preserve long enough, we can put any problem in it's perspective.
TEN PRINCIPLES FOR PEACE OF MIND
Ten Principles for Peace of Mind
1. Do Not Interfere In Others' Business Unless Asked.
Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others' affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.
2. Forgive And Forget.
This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive, Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.
3. Do Not Crave For Recognition.
This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yourself in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.
4. Do Not Be Jealous.
We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody's life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.
5. Change Yourself According To The Environment.
If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.
6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured.
This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.
7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew.
This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations.. Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.
8. Meditate Regularly.
Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.
9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant.
An empty mind is the devil's workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God's name.
10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret.
Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn't I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilt milk?
1. Do Not Interfere In Others' Business Unless Asked.
Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others' affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.
2. Forgive And Forget.
This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive, Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.
3. Do Not Crave For Recognition.
This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yourself in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.
4. Do Not Be Jealous.
We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody's life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.
5. Change Yourself According To The Environment.
If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.
6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured.
This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.
7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew.
This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations.. Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.
8. Meditate Regularly.
Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.
9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant.
An empty mind is the devil's workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God's name.
10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret.
Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn't I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilt milk?
Quote for the Day...
Raquel Welch said:
"Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before you please yourself, and you begin to follow your own instincts - only then can you be successful. You become more satisfied, and when you are, other people tend to be satisfied by what you do."
"Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before you please yourself, and you begin to follow your own instincts - only then can you be successful. You become more satisfied, and when you are, other people tend to be satisfied by what you do."
3 words of advice
Here are three words of advice for you to help you start to get the best out of yourself:
Make Yourself Uncomfortable.
All of us tend to live within a narrow boundary that we define as our own comfort zone. We know that pretty much anything that we attempt between the walls that we've internally agreed upon is possible for us to achieve.
Anything outside those walls may present a challenge.
And a challenge, God forbid, may make us fall flat on our faces.
When did we learn such defeatist behavior?
When we were kids we didn't say, 'I'd better not learn to walk in case I fall over'. No - we fell over. Over and over again.
And most of the time we probably rolled around laughing about it.
We didn't refuse to speak in case we said something wrong. We DID say things wrong, and people laughed at us. But we learned.
We didn't look upon writing as something other people did. We practiced until our chicken scratches were intelligible (and if they never did become intelligible we went to medical school).
And then we didn't say to our teacher, 'I can't write a story today because I've never done it before.' We just accepted that this was another challenge to get on with.
So when did you, and I, learn to fear being uncomfortable?
What sets people who achieve great things apart from the majority of people who achieve nothing is the degree to which they are struck motionless by their fear of being uncomfortable.
So today, make an agreement with yourself that you will do one thing that will make you uncomfortable.
Embrace that discomfort and see it not as a harbinger of doom and defeat, but as a break in the clouds that brings a ray of sunshine to light up your world of opportunities.
If you try to make yourself uncomfortable every single day the walls that surround you won't just expand, they'll crumble to reveal a fantastic and exciting world that is yours for the taking.
Make Yourself Uncomfortable.
All of us tend to live within a narrow boundary that we define as our own comfort zone. We know that pretty much anything that we attempt between the walls that we've internally agreed upon is possible for us to achieve.
Anything outside those walls may present a challenge.
And a challenge, God forbid, may make us fall flat on our faces.
When did we learn such defeatist behavior?
When we were kids we didn't say, 'I'd better not learn to walk in case I fall over'. No - we fell over. Over and over again.
And most of the time we probably rolled around laughing about it.
We didn't refuse to speak in case we said something wrong. We DID say things wrong, and people laughed at us. But we learned.
We didn't look upon writing as something other people did. We practiced until our chicken scratches were intelligible (and if they never did become intelligible we went to medical school).
And then we didn't say to our teacher, 'I can't write a story today because I've never done it before.' We just accepted that this was another challenge to get on with.
So when did you, and I, learn to fear being uncomfortable?
What sets people who achieve great things apart from the majority of people who achieve nothing is the degree to which they are struck motionless by their fear of being uncomfortable.
So today, make an agreement with yourself that you will do one thing that will make you uncomfortable.
Embrace that discomfort and see it not as a harbinger of doom and defeat, but as a break in the clouds that brings a ray of sunshine to light up your world of opportunities.
If you try to make yourself uncomfortable every single day the walls that surround you won't just expand, they'll crumble to reveal a fantastic and exciting world that is yours for the taking.
Good Habits.. Bad Habits??
Bad habits, good habits, they are all habits.
The way you manage your life, including the finite amount of time you are blessed with each day, is largely a matter of habit.
We are creatures of habit - that is the way we deal with life.
Our habits - or learned behaviors - are the bedrock that keeps us on track. But unfortunately, there are times when our learned behaviors are keeping us on the wrong tracks.
When you read about good ideas to manage your time better, or to help you set and achieve goals, or to positively advance your life, what do you do?
Do you read about them, think 'Good idea!' and forget all about them?
Do you halfheartedly put them into action for a day or two and then forgetfully revert back to your old behaviors? And end up saying that the new idea was good, but didn't work for you?
Or do you actively embrace the idea, put systems in place to make it work in your life, become an evangelist for it, and over time incorporate it into your daily living?
I doubt if the latter applies very often!
And the reason boils down to habit. It is more comfortable, more habitual, to keep on keeping on than to make the real effort required to bring about real change in your life.
It takes three to four weeks to really create a new habit in your life. And those 3-4 weeks are hard work.
First you have to be sure that you really want this new habit - and that you're prepared to ditch the old one.
Then you have to build it into your life. By this I mean that you have to be on the lookout for all of your other behaviors that work to reinforce the old bad habit and find ways to modify them to the advantage of the new.
If possible, try to document your new behavior - write an entry in your diary, or tick a box on a form to show you've completed it each day.
Ask people around you to keep on reminding you.
Most of all, reward yourself. The more beneficial you can make your new habit RIGHT NOW the deeper and faster it will bed into your life.
In a few short weeks you will have changed.
Your new behavior will no longer be something you are learning - it will be something that you rely on.
The process of actively managing your life - whether that is the time allocation part of it or any other part - will have begun.
The way you manage your life, including the finite amount of time you are blessed with each day, is largely a matter of habit.
We are creatures of habit - that is the way we deal with life.
Our habits - or learned behaviors - are the bedrock that keeps us on track. But unfortunately, there are times when our learned behaviors are keeping us on the wrong tracks.
When you read about good ideas to manage your time better, or to help you set and achieve goals, or to positively advance your life, what do you do?
Do you read about them, think 'Good idea!' and forget all about them?
Do you halfheartedly put them into action for a day or two and then forgetfully revert back to your old behaviors? And end up saying that the new idea was good, but didn't work for you?
Or do you actively embrace the idea, put systems in place to make it work in your life, become an evangelist for it, and over time incorporate it into your daily living?
I doubt if the latter applies very often!
And the reason boils down to habit. It is more comfortable, more habitual, to keep on keeping on than to make the real effort required to bring about real change in your life.
It takes three to four weeks to really create a new habit in your life. And those 3-4 weeks are hard work.
First you have to be sure that you really want this new habit - and that you're prepared to ditch the old one.
Then you have to build it into your life. By this I mean that you have to be on the lookout for all of your other behaviors that work to reinforce the old bad habit and find ways to modify them to the advantage of the new.
If possible, try to document your new behavior - write an entry in your diary, or tick a box on a form to show you've completed it each day.
Ask people around you to keep on reminding you.
Most of all, reward yourself. The more beneficial you can make your new habit RIGHT NOW the deeper and faster it will bed into your life.
In a few short weeks you will have changed.
Your new behavior will no longer be something you are learning - it will be something that you rely on.
The process of actively managing your life - whether that is the time allocation part of it or any other part - will have begun.
Power Thought for the Day..
Success, as we are so often reminded, is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. 'Take massive and continual action' is the mantra of our age.
But I think that there is a step missing in the success formula that is so often trotted out.
What comes before that massive action?
Action makes things happen and drives us towards our goals, but how do we start taking action? What is the fuel that sparks our action-engine into life?
Motivation.
If we are not motivated in the first place, we simply can't be bothered.
Then that other buzz-word of today, procrastination, comes into play. Tomorrow will do. I'll do it later. I can't be bothered.
Motivation is like a river. It flows through us, occasionally irrigating a few seeds, once in while dropping some silt, but mostly sweeping on by. It runs right through our fingers.
Even though we know that we need to bottle it, by the time we've thought that, it has gone.
But you know what? Rivers can be dammed.
Enough of the metaphor. How can we build up the reserve of motivation in our life to such a high level that taking action becomes the easy part?
We have to have an itch to scratch.
Very few people will be motivated to take massive action to achieve something that they feel luke warm about.
We all need a burning desire to achieve something great.
But each of us is motivated by a different set of desires: love, money, companionship, self esteem, material possessions, safety, novelty (Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs explains it well).
Personally I'm motivated by the desire to support my family and the fascination of new things.
Knowing that helps me to tailor my goals so that they are in tune with what I know lights my fuse.
Your motivations are going to be different to mine, but understanding them will have exactly the same result - you will be able to tune your life around the reality of who you are.
So take some time today to think who you are and how you can build that into your goal planning.
Once you manage to achieve that, your river of motivation will be harnessed, taking action will be the natural result and 'I'll do it tomorrow' will be a thing of the past.
But I think that there is a step missing in the success formula that is so often trotted out.
What comes before that massive action?
Action makes things happen and drives us towards our goals, but how do we start taking action? What is the fuel that sparks our action-engine into life?
Motivation.
If we are not motivated in the first place, we simply can't be bothered.
Then that other buzz-word of today, procrastination, comes into play. Tomorrow will do. I'll do it later. I can't be bothered.
Motivation is like a river. It flows through us, occasionally irrigating a few seeds, once in while dropping some silt, but mostly sweeping on by. It runs right through our fingers.
Even though we know that we need to bottle it, by the time we've thought that, it has gone.
But you know what? Rivers can be dammed.
Enough of the metaphor. How can we build up the reserve of motivation in our life to such a high level that taking action becomes the easy part?
We have to have an itch to scratch.
Very few people will be motivated to take massive action to achieve something that they feel luke warm about.
We all need a burning desire to achieve something great.
But each of us is motivated by a different set of desires: love, money, companionship, self esteem, material possessions, safety, novelty (Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs explains it well).
Personally I'm motivated by the desire to support my family and the fascination of new things.
Knowing that helps me to tailor my goals so that they are in tune with what I know lights my fuse.
Your motivations are going to be different to mine, but understanding them will have exactly the same result - you will be able to tune your life around the reality of who you are.
So take some time today to think who you are and how you can build that into your goal planning.
Once you manage to achieve that, your river of motivation will be harnessed, taking action will be the natural result and 'I'll do it tomorrow' will be a thing of the past.
10 Worst Work Habits
10 Worst Work Habits
When two people fall in love, they only see sunshine and rainbows when they look into each other's eyes. If you asked, "What's the worst trait of your boyfriend or girlfriend?" they would answer, "Absolutely, positively nothing!"
Ask that same question a few years later when they're living together and have seen each other at their respective worst. You'll get a pretty good list:
"She cuts her toenails on the coffee table."
"He speaks in a cutesy voice on behalf of the dog."
"She kicks me in her sleep."
Hopefully none of these nuisances finds its way into your work life, but other ones probably do. Everyone has some weaknesses in their work behavior that they need to work on, and they often extend beyond annoyances (such as eating a smelly lunch at your desk) and become problems for your career.
Here are 10 work habits that you should try to break:
1. Procrastination
A lot of people work best under pressure, or at least they say so. With everyone having a different personality, you can't say a strict schedule works best for all employees. Putting tasks off until the last minute, however, invites plenty of problems, even if you think the final result will be glorious.
When you leave yourself no wiggle room to complete a task, you run the risk of encountering an unexpected obstacle that makes you miss the deadline. Even if the situation is out of your hands, everyone will be left wondering why you didn't plan better and account for last-minute emergencies.
2. Being a sloppy e-mailer
E-mails are second nature to most people these days, and in informal communications they've become a digital Post-it note. We type out a message and send it without proofreading or double-checking the recipients. That's a recipe for disaster.
If you haven't learned your lesson by now, the day will soon come when you accidentally "Reply All" to an e-mail and a slew of unintended readers receive a silly note you intended only your co-worker to read.
3. Confusing informal with disrespectful
In many workplaces, the boss might be the decision maker, but he or she isn't the stern, humorless caricature you saw on TV. Using your supervisor's first name and going for some drinks after work are common in many industries. Still, you are the employee and the boss is the boss -- the one who can fire you and tell you what to do. Don't cross the line by talking to her as if you're talking to one of your direct reports or even your best friend. You need to show some respect for her authority.
4. Taking advantage of leeway
Some companies are strict about the time you clock in and out. Others have guidelines but no hard rules, so you can arrive at 8:35 a.m. and no one cares. If over time you're arriving at 9:10 a.m. and leaving at 4 p.m. (with plenty of breaks in between), your reputation will suffer.
This also goes for dress codes. Business casual is up to interpretation, but ripped jeans and concert tees probably don't fall under your company's accepted definition.
5. Refusing to mingle
Plenty of wisdom lies in the advice not to mix personal and professional lives. However, refusing to take part in any social activity -- such as the office potluck or a happy hour -- will not help your career. You don't need to be the resident party animal, but being personable with your colleagues helps build camaraderie. You get to know other people better and they get to know you as more than the person they pass in the halls.
6. Always running late
This isn't the same as abusing leeway; this is a matter of trust. If you're late to work, to meetings and with projects, your boss and colleagues will associate that trait with you. When it's time for a promotion or to deal with an important client, everyone will think twice before giving you the opportunity. Who wants to trust the person who can't manage his or her time?
7. Being rigid
One of the unfair aspects of the working world is that sometimes it seems you can't win. If you're hired to do a job, most bosses don't want you passing the day by reading your favorite book. The reason: You were hired to do a job, so do it. But if the boss comes to you with a new project that's outside the parameters of your usual duties, it's still yours to do. "You don't pay me to do that" isn't something you want to tell your supervisor.
8. Acting as the resident contrarian
We all love your spirited personality, but try not to be the person in the meeting who always has a better idea and can tell you why everyone else's idea is dumb. Voices of opposition are often missing in many workplaces because too many eager employees want to be "yes" men and women. But too much negativity grates on nerves and makes people dread hearing your voice. Continue to be a critical thinker, but make sure you're doing what's best for the company and not just trying to be the loudest voice in the room.
9. Badmouthing the company
With blogs, Facebook, Twitter and a host of other sites, you have plenty of opportunity to vent your frustration with life. If you're going to complain about how dumb your boss is and how much you hate your job, keep those rants private. The Internet is public domain and comments have a way of finding their way back to all the wrong people. If you wouldn't stand outside your boss's office and tell a co-worker how ready you are to quit, don't express the same thoughts in an open forum.
10. Politicking
Office politics are often unavoidable, and sometimes having a grasp on what's going on can benefit you, but you shouldn't spend more time masterminding office warfare than you do working. Getting caught in the crosshairs of a workplace controversy can be out of your control, but if you're the one instigating the drama, you're earning a bad reputation. You're the person who starts trouble and whom no one trusts. That's the kind of notoriety that follows you from one workplace to another.
When two people fall in love, they only see sunshine and rainbows when they look into each other's eyes. If you asked, "What's the worst trait of your boyfriend or girlfriend?" they would answer, "Absolutely, positively nothing!"
Ask that same question a few years later when they're living together and have seen each other at their respective worst. You'll get a pretty good list:
"She cuts her toenails on the coffee table."
"He speaks in a cutesy voice on behalf of the dog."
"She kicks me in her sleep."
Hopefully none of these nuisances finds its way into your work life, but other ones probably do. Everyone has some weaknesses in their work behavior that they need to work on, and they often extend beyond annoyances (such as eating a smelly lunch at your desk) and become problems for your career.
Here are 10 work habits that you should try to break:
1. Procrastination
A lot of people work best under pressure, or at least they say so. With everyone having a different personality, you can't say a strict schedule works best for all employees. Putting tasks off until the last minute, however, invites plenty of problems, even if you think the final result will be glorious.
When you leave yourself no wiggle room to complete a task, you run the risk of encountering an unexpected obstacle that makes you miss the deadline. Even if the situation is out of your hands, everyone will be left wondering why you didn't plan better and account for last-minute emergencies.
2. Being a sloppy e-mailer
E-mails are second nature to most people these days, and in informal communications they've become a digital Post-it note. We type out a message and send it without proofreading or double-checking the recipients. That's a recipe for disaster.
If you haven't learned your lesson by now, the day will soon come when you accidentally "Reply All" to an e-mail and a slew of unintended readers receive a silly note you intended only your co-worker to read.
3. Confusing informal with disrespectful
In many workplaces, the boss might be the decision maker, but he or she isn't the stern, humorless caricature you saw on TV. Using your supervisor's first name and going for some drinks after work are common in many industries. Still, you are the employee and the boss is the boss -- the one who can fire you and tell you what to do. Don't cross the line by talking to her as if you're talking to one of your direct reports or even your best friend. You need to show some respect for her authority.
4. Taking advantage of leeway
Some companies are strict about the time you clock in and out. Others have guidelines but no hard rules, so you can arrive at 8:35 a.m. and no one cares. If over time you're arriving at 9:10 a.m. and leaving at 4 p.m. (with plenty of breaks in between), your reputation will suffer.
This also goes for dress codes. Business casual is up to interpretation, but ripped jeans and concert tees probably don't fall under your company's accepted definition.
5. Refusing to mingle
Plenty of wisdom lies in the advice not to mix personal and professional lives. However, refusing to take part in any social activity -- such as the office potluck or a happy hour -- will not help your career. You don't need to be the resident party animal, but being personable with your colleagues helps build camaraderie. You get to know other people better and they get to know you as more than the person they pass in the halls.
6. Always running late
This isn't the same as abusing leeway; this is a matter of trust. If you're late to work, to meetings and with projects, your boss and colleagues will associate that trait with you. When it's time for a promotion or to deal with an important client, everyone will think twice before giving you the opportunity. Who wants to trust the person who can't manage his or her time?
7. Being rigid
One of the unfair aspects of the working world is that sometimes it seems you can't win. If you're hired to do a job, most bosses don't want you passing the day by reading your favorite book. The reason: You were hired to do a job, so do it. But if the boss comes to you with a new project that's outside the parameters of your usual duties, it's still yours to do. "You don't pay me to do that" isn't something you want to tell your supervisor.
8. Acting as the resident contrarian
We all love your spirited personality, but try not to be the person in the meeting who always has a better idea and can tell you why everyone else's idea is dumb. Voices of opposition are often missing in many workplaces because too many eager employees want to be "yes" men and women. But too much negativity grates on nerves and makes people dread hearing your voice. Continue to be a critical thinker, but make sure you're doing what's best for the company and not just trying to be the loudest voice in the room.
9. Badmouthing the company
With blogs, Facebook, Twitter and a host of other sites, you have plenty of opportunity to vent your frustration with life. If you're going to complain about how dumb your boss is and how much you hate your job, keep those rants private. The Internet is public domain and comments have a way of finding their way back to all the wrong people. If you wouldn't stand outside your boss's office and tell a co-worker how ready you are to quit, don't express the same thoughts in an open forum.
10. Politicking
Office politics are often unavoidable, and sometimes having a grasp on what's going on can benefit you, but you shouldn't spend more time masterminding office warfare than you do working. Getting caught in the crosshairs of a workplace controversy can be out of your control, but if you're the one instigating the drama, you're earning a bad reputation. You're the person who starts trouble and whom no one trusts. That's the kind of notoriety that follows you from one workplace to another.
This is attitude
This is attitude
IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS.
IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN...... .LIFE BEGINS.
GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN .
This is attitude
IT'S BETTER TO LOSE YOUR EGO TO THE ONE YOU LOVE.
THAN TO LOSE THE ONE YOU LOVE ....... BECAUSE OF EGO
This is attitude
WHY WE HAVE SO MANY TEMPLES, IF GOD IS EVERYWHERE ?
A WISE MAN SAID :
AIR IS EVERYWHERE,
BUT WE STILL NEED A FAN TO FEEL IT .
This is attitude
WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT....... AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO :
EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON
This is attitude
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........
IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK
This is attitude
SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES ,
MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.
This is attitude
THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS "
BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.
This is attitude
"You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away."
-Arlene Blum
This is attitude
“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
Chinese proverb
This is attitude
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”
Ben Herbste
IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS.
IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN...... .LIFE BEGINS.
GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN .
This is attitude
IT'S BETTER TO LOSE YOUR EGO TO THE ONE YOU LOVE.
THAN TO LOSE THE ONE YOU LOVE ....... BECAUSE OF EGO
This is attitude
WHY WE HAVE SO MANY TEMPLES, IF GOD IS EVERYWHERE ?
A WISE MAN SAID :
AIR IS EVERYWHERE,
BUT WE STILL NEED A FAN TO FEEL IT .
This is attitude
WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT....... AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO :
EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON
This is attitude
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........
IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK
This is attitude
SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES ,
MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.
This is attitude
THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS "
BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.
This is attitude
"You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away."
-Arlene Blum
This is attitude
“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
Chinese proverb
This is attitude
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”
Ben Herbste
Don't give up.....
Don't give up.....
One day I decided to quit...
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality...
I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
"God", I asked, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"
His answer surprised me...
"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes", I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
I gave them light.
I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth
Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.
> In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would
not quit." He said.
> "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared
> to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6
> months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
> It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.
> I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He asked me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots".
"I would not quit on the bamboo.
I will never quit on you."
"Don't compare yourself to others."
He said.
"The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern.
Yet they both make the forest beautiful."
"Your time will come", God said to me.
"You will rise high"
"How high should I rise?"
I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.
"As high as it can?" I questioned.
"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story.
I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never, Never, Never Give up.
For the Christian prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don't tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!
One day I decided to quit...
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality...
I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
"God", I asked, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"
His answer surprised me...
"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes", I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
I gave them light.
I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth
Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.
> In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would
not quit." He said.
> "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared
> to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6
> months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
> It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.
> I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He asked me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots".
"I would not quit on the bamboo.
I will never quit on you."
"Don't compare yourself to others."
He said.
"The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern.
Yet they both make the forest beautiful."
"Your time will come", God said to me.
"You will rise high"
"How high should I rise?"
I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.
"As high as it can?" I questioned.
"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story.
I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never, Never, Never Give up.
For the Christian prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don't tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Dare you be different?
You may not have ever heard of an early 20th-Century entrepreneur by the name of Marquis M. Converse, but you are certainly aware of the effect his ideas have had. Certainly, brands such as Nike, Reebok and Addidas have learned his lessons.
Marquis Converse (1861-1930) owned the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Company and was doing pretty well selling 4000 pairs of rubber boots and shoes daily.
But he had what he called his master precept. This was his over-riding attitude to life and business.
The story goes that as a young man Converse worked in a department store. His hours were 8 AM to 6 PM.
One day he was promoted to the position of buyer. Now the buyers generally came in at 8.30 AM and went home at 5.30 PM. So Converse did the same. About a week later, the owner of the store called him in and told him that his hours were now changed to 11AM to 2 PM.
Converse started working his new 3-hour days but pretty soon got fed up and went back to the owner and asked if he could return to normal working hours.
The owner said, "if you are ready again to do a full day's work, sit down: I want to talk to you."
The boss went on to give Converse these words which became his master precept for life:
"If you want to be what most others are, do what most others do; if you want to be different, do things differently and better."
Those words stayed with him and in 1915 his shoe company invented the rubber-soled canvas tennis shoe - a basic design that has influenced sports and leisure footwear ever since.
In 1917 he introduced one of the first basketball boots and to differentiate his product hired one of the then top basketball coaches to help create the design. The result was padded ankle-bone patches. An innovation that is still in use in basketball boots today.
In 1924, Converse wrote, "I believe that advertising is directly productive in proportion to the extent to which it is different."
Another clear example of his master precept at work.
We can all learn from Marquis Converse. We can all be different.
If we dare.
Marquis Converse (1861-1930) owned the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Company and was doing pretty well selling 4000 pairs of rubber boots and shoes daily.
But he had what he called his master precept. This was his over-riding attitude to life and business.
The story goes that as a young man Converse worked in a department store. His hours were 8 AM to 6 PM.
One day he was promoted to the position of buyer. Now the buyers generally came in at 8.30 AM and went home at 5.30 PM. So Converse did the same. About a week later, the owner of the store called him in and told him that his hours were now changed to 11AM to 2 PM.
Converse started working his new 3-hour days but pretty soon got fed up and went back to the owner and asked if he could return to normal working hours.
The owner said, "if you are ready again to do a full day's work, sit down: I want to talk to you."
The boss went on to give Converse these words which became his master precept for life:
"If you want to be what most others are, do what most others do; if you want to be different, do things differently and better."
Those words stayed with him and in 1915 his shoe company invented the rubber-soled canvas tennis shoe - a basic design that has influenced sports and leisure footwear ever since.
In 1917 he introduced one of the first basketball boots and to differentiate his product hired one of the then top basketball coaches to help create the design. The result was padded ankle-bone patches. An innovation that is still in use in basketball boots today.
In 1924, Converse wrote, "I believe that advertising is directly productive in proportion to the extent to which it is different."
Another clear example of his master precept at work.
We can all learn from Marquis Converse. We can all be different.
If we dare.
Are you putting anything off because it is too hard?
Are you putting anything off because it is too hard?
Try this simple technique - but don't be put off because it IS so simple.
Take a blank sheet of paper and write down the difficult task at the top.
Now imagine that you have got to sell that hard job to someone else. What would you say to convince them to take it on?
Use every scrap of imagination you possess and find three 'benefits' that another person will gain by doing the job. Get creative here!
Write them down as bullet points and then draw a line under them.
Now, under the line, write down the first action that is needed to begin the job. What is the VERY first thing that you have to do?
THAT action is your primary task for today.
When it is done, read your whole sheet over again and write down the NEXT action required.
Keep on repeating the process until the job is done or you are so far into it that your own momentum will keep you going.
But don't forget to read the ENTIRE sheet each time you come back to it.
Re-reading it is the key because each time you go through it you will reinforce to yourself the positive benefits that the job will bring. Plus, your motivation will be enhanced every time you see all the parts of the job that have already been achieved.
Simple, but not stupid.
Give it a try and get something really hard done today.
Try this simple technique - but don't be put off because it IS so simple.
Take a blank sheet of paper and write down the difficult task at the top.
Now imagine that you have got to sell that hard job to someone else. What would you say to convince them to take it on?
Use every scrap of imagination you possess and find three 'benefits' that another person will gain by doing the job. Get creative here!
Write them down as bullet points and then draw a line under them.
Now, under the line, write down the first action that is needed to begin the job. What is the VERY first thing that you have to do?
THAT action is your primary task for today.
When it is done, read your whole sheet over again and write down the NEXT action required.
Keep on repeating the process until the job is done or you are so far into it that your own momentum will keep you going.
But don't forget to read the ENTIRE sheet each time you come back to it.
Re-reading it is the key because each time you go through it you will reinforce to yourself the positive benefits that the job will bring. Plus, your motivation will be enhanced every time you see all the parts of the job that have already been achieved.
Simple, but not stupid.
Give it a try and get something really hard done today.
Don't u think it is worth taking challange?
Here are three words of advice for you to help you start to get the best out of yourself:
Make Yourself Uncomfortable.
All of us tend to live within a narrow boundary that we define as our own comfort zone. We know that pretty much anything that we attempt between the walls that we've internally agreed upon is possible for us to achieve.
Anything outside those walls may present a challenge.
And a challenge, God forbid, may make us fall flat on our faces.
When did we learn such defeatist behavior?
When we were kids we didn't say, 'I'd better not learn to walk in case I fall over'. No - we fell over. Over and over again.
And most of the time we probably rolled around laughing about it.
We didn't refuse to speak in case we said something wrong. We DID say things wrong, and people laughed at us. But we learned.
We didn't look upon writing as something other people did. We practiced until our chicken scratches were intelligible (and if they never did become intelligible we went to medical school).
And then we didn't say to our teacher, 'I can't write a story today because I've never done it before.' We just accepted that this was another challenge to get on with.
So when did you, and I, learn to fear being uncomfortable?
What sets people who achieve great things apart from the majority of people who achieve nothing is the degree to which they are struck motionless by their fear of being uncomfortable.
So today, make an agreement with yourself that you will do one thing that will make you uncomfortable.
Embrace that discomfort and see it not as a harbinger of doom and defeat, but as a break in the clouds that brings a ray of sunshine to light up your world of opportunities.
If you try to make yourself uncomfortable every single day the walls that surround you won't just expand, they'll crumble to reveal a fantastic and exciting world that is yours for the taking.
Make Yourself Uncomfortable.
All of us tend to live within a narrow boundary that we define as our own comfort zone. We know that pretty much anything that we attempt between the walls that we've internally agreed upon is possible for us to achieve.
Anything outside those walls may present a challenge.
And a challenge, God forbid, may make us fall flat on our faces.
When did we learn such defeatist behavior?
When we were kids we didn't say, 'I'd better not learn to walk in case I fall over'. No - we fell over. Over and over again.
And most of the time we probably rolled around laughing about it.
We didn't refuse to speak in case we said something wrong. We DID say things wrong, and people laughed at us. But we learned.
We didn't look upon writing as something other people did. We practiced until our chicken scratches were intelligible (and if they never did become intelligible we went to medical school).
And then we didn't say to our teacher, 'I can't write a story today because I've never done it before.' We just accepted that this was another challenge to get on with.
So when did you, and I, learn to fear being uncomfortable?
What sets people who achieve great things apart from the majority of people who achieve nothing is the degree to which they are struck motionless by their fear of being uncomfortable.
So today, make an agreement with yourself that you will do one thing that will make you uncomfortable.
Embrace that discomfort and see it not as a harbinger of doom and defeat, but as a break in the clouds that brings a ray of sunshine to light up your world of opportunities.
If you try to make yourself uncomfortable every single day the walls that surround you won't just expand, they'll crumble to reveal a fantastic and exciting world that is yours for the taking.
Hey... shortcut to happinezzz
There is something you can do, right now, that will:
* Make you feel better
* Make the people around you feel better
* Disarm difficulties
* Release chemicals into your blood to brighten your mood
* Make people like you better
* Make people respond to you better
It isn't a book to read, or a tape to listen to. It doesn't take any time to learn to do, but is a skill that many people have forgotten.
It wont cost you a penny, but it has a priceless value in your life.
Have you guessed?
Of course - it is a smile :-) :-)
* Make you feel better
* Make the people around you feel better
* Disarm difficulties
* Release chemicals into your blood to brighten your mood
* Make people like you better
* Make people respond to you better
It isn't a book to read, or a tape to listen to. It doesn't take any time to learn to do, but is a skill that many people have forgotten.
It wont cost you a penny, but it has a priceless value in your life.
Have you guessed?
Of course - it is a smile :-) :-)
Thought for the Day!
Bad habits, good habits, they are all habits.
The way you manage your life, including the finite amount of time you are blessed with each day, is largely a matter of habit.
We are creatures of habit - that is the way we deal with life.
Our habits - or learned behaviors - are the bedrock that keeps us on track. But unfortunately, there are times when our learned behaviors are keeping us on the wrong tracks.
When you read about good ideas to manage your time better, or to help you set and achieve goals, or to positively advance your life, what do you do?
Do you read about them, think 'Good idea!' and forget all about them?
Do you halfheartedly put them into action for a day or two and then forgetfully revert back to your old behaviors? And end up saying that the new idea was good, but didn't work for you?
Or do you actively embrace the idea, put systems in place to make it work in your life, become an evangelist for it, and over time incorporate it into your daily living?
I doubt if the latter applies very often!
And the reason boils down to habit. It is more comfortable, more habitual, to keep on keeping on than to make the real effort required to bring about real change in your life.
It takes three to four weeks to really create a new habit in your life. And those 3-4 weeks are hard work.
First you have to be sure that you really want this new habit - and that you're prepared to ditch the old one.
Then you have to build it into your life. By this I mean that you have to be on the lookout for all of your other behaviors that work to reinforce the old bad habit and find ways to modify them to the advantage of the new.
If possible, try to document your new behavior - write an entry in your diary, or tick a box on a form to show you've completed it each day.
Ask people around you to keep on reminding you.
Most of all, reward yourself. The more beneficial you can make your new habit RIGHT NOW the deeper and faster it will bed into your life.
In a few short weeks you will have changed.
Your new behavior will no longer be something you are learning - it will be something that you rely on.
The process of actively managing your life - whether that is the time allocation part of it or any other part - will have begun.
The way you manage your life, including the finite amount of time you are blessed with each day, is largely a matter of habit.
We are creatures of habit - that is the way we deal with life.
Our habits - or learned behaviors - are the bedrock that keeps us on track. But unfortunately, there are times when our learned behaviors are keeping us on the wrong tracks.
When you read about good ideas to manage your time better, or to help you set and achieve goals, or to positively advance your life, what do you do?
Do you read about them, think 'Good idea!' and forget all about them?
Do you halfheartedly put them into action for a day or two and then forgetfully revert back to your old behaviors? And end up saying that the new idea was good, but didn't work for you?
Or do you actively embrace the idea, put systems in place to make it work in your life, become an evangelist for it, and over time incorporate it into your daily living?
I doubt if the latter applies very often!
And the reason boils down to habit. It is more comfortable, more habitual, to keep on keeping on than to make the real effort required to bring about real change in your life.
It takes three to four weeks to really create a new habit in your life. And those 3-4 weeks are hard work.
First you have to be sure that you really want this new habit - and that you're prepared to ditch the old one.
Then you have to build it into your life. By this I mean that you have to be on the lookout for all of your other behaviors that work to reinforce the old bad habit and find ways to modify them to the advantage of the new.
If possible, try to document your new behavior - write an entry in your diary, or tick a box on a form to show you've completed it each day.
Ask people around you to keep on reminding you.
Most of all, reward yourself. The more beneficial you can make your new habit RIGHT NOW the deeper and faster it will bed into your life.
In a few short weeks you will have changed.
Your new behavior will no longer be something you are learning - it will be something that you rely on.
The process of actively managing your life - whether that is the time allocation part of it or any other part - will have begun.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Seven changes that a ‘better India’ awaits!
Seven changes that a ‘better India’ awaits!
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We made the common men wear the thinking cap and propose changes, reformations and alterations that they think can contribute to a brighter future for our nation. Here's the list of proposed changes...
1. KRA's & accountability of MP's
“When every odd job and employee in our country is assessed on the basis of clearly defined ‘Key Result Areas’, the performance of the so-called ‘well-wishers’ of our country definitely demands a fair assessment! Consequently, all deserving candidates should be rewarded, while a bad performer has to bear the brunt. The MP’s and politicians should be treated according to their performance,” suggests chef Devraj Halder.
2. Mind set
“The mindset of the Indian people definitely needs an overhaul. The day people feel that it's 'My country’, there will surely be positive changes in their approach towards everything,” opines Mahesh Srikanta, a Mumbai-based media professional.
3. Responsible youth
“It’s high time we stop blaming the government and get rid of the “It’s government’s fault” attitude! This is the time to take charge. The youth should become more responsible towards their country and realise the fact that no one else, but the people of India chose their government...so better blame yourself for all the chaos!” exclaims Noor Enayat, a Delhi-based PR professional.
4. An end to moral policing
“It is time to break free from the barriers of moral policing and set a code of moral conduct, where individual freedom deserves utmost respect. The government should shift its focus to other important issues rather than raiding pubs or indulging in round table conferences to fix the dress code for women,” says Mohika Gupta, a journalist.
5. Overhauling of the education system
“The government should realise that students don’t need initiatives like scrapping the class 10th board exams, but the need of the hour is the complete reformation of the education system. ‘Relevant education’ should be heralded! The condition and quality of education provided in government schools should be improved and higher education should be streamlined to be in touch with industry. In short, we should stop taking short cuts and embrace educational reformations that will benefit the students and the country in the longer run,” says Harish Kumar, a chartered accountant.
6. Responsible cinema
“Since the youth is deeply inspired by what they see in films, there should be a paradigm shift in Indian cinema as well. Rather than sticking to slapstick comedy in the name of entertainment, focus on responsible and meaningful cinema,” opines Raghav Dasgupta, a student from Delhi.
7. Better journalism
“The amount of footage given to celebs like Chand and Fiza or to Rakhi Sawant made me say that. I think there are better events/people to cover,” feels Tariq Khan, an Indian techie.
|
We made the common men wear the thinking cap and propose changes, reformations and alterations that they think can contribute to a brighter future for our nation. Here's the list of proposed changes...
1. KRA's & accountability of MP's
“When every odd job and employee in our country is assessed on the basis of clearly defined ‘Key Result Areas’, the performance of the so-called ‘well-wishers’ of our country definitely demands a fair assessment! Consequently, all deserving candidates should be rewarded, while a bad performer has to bear the brunt. The MP’s and politicians should be treated according to their performance,” suggests chef Devraj Halder.
2. Mind set
“The mindset of the Indian people definitely needs an overhaul. The day people feel that it's 'My country’, there will surely be positive changes in their approach towards everything,” opines Mahesh Srikanta, a Mumbai-based media professional.
3. Responsible youth
“It’s high time we stop blaming the government and get rid of the “It’s government’s fault” attitude! This is the time to take charge. The youth should become more responsible towards their country and realise the fact that no one else, but the people of India chose their government...so better blame yourself for all the chaos!” exclaims Noor Enayat, a Delhi-based PR professional.
4. An end to moral policing
“It is time to break free from the barriers of moral policing and set a code of moral conduct, where individual freedom deserves utmost respect. The government should shift its focus to other important issues rather than raiding pubs or indulging in round table conferences to fix the dress code for women,” says Mohika Gupta, a journalist.
5. Overhauling of the education system
“The government should realise that students don’t need initiatives like scrapping the class 10th board exams, but the need of the hour is the complete reformation of the education system. ‘Relevant education’ should be heralded! The condition and quality of education provided in government schools should be improved and higher education should be streamlined to be in touch with industry. In short, we should stop taking short cuts and embrace educational reformations that will benefit the students and the country in the longer run,” says Harish Kumar, a chartered accountant.
6. Responsible cinema
“Since the youth is deeply inspired by what they see in films, there should be a paradigm shift in Indian cinema as well. Rather than sticking to slapstick comedy in the name of entertainment, focus on responsible and meaningful cinema,” opines Raghav Dasgupta, a student from Delhi.
7. Better journalism
“The amount of footage given to celebs like Chand and Fiza or to Rakhi Sawant made me say that. I think there are better events/people to cover,” feels Tariq Khan, an Indian techie.
Thoda Gyan: Spirituality :Six stages of realisation enabled by Krishna
When Parama Purusa incarnates as Taraka Brahma, the liberating Supreme Entity, at a certain transitional period, the people of that period
Six stages of realisation enabled by Krishna
invariably enjoy some special privileges. As Vraja Krishna and Parthasarathi, the Lord helps people find the path of spirituality.
When people attain progress in the realm of spiritual realisation, that progress is divided into six stages. At the stage of salokya, people feel that they have come onto the earth at the same time as Parama Purusa. This brings a sense of ecstasy. This state of bliss is termed salokya. When Krishna was in Vraja, the people felt intense joy and a sense of pride that a great personality in the form of a young man had chosen to live in their midst.
Duryodhana, even though he was apparently Krishna's enemy, was convinced that Krishna was not an ordinary person. He thought that he would be fortunate indeed if he could win Krishna's support. So on the eve of the Kurukshetra war he went to Krishna to ask Him for help. Arjuna was there, too, for the same reason.
Duryodhana arrived at Krishna's palace before Arjuna to find Krishna lying in bed with His eyes closed. He seemed to be fast asleep. Duryodhana sat near Krishna's head. Arjuna came afterwards and took his seat near Krishna's feet. Suddenly Krishna sat up. He was awake. He looked first towards Arjuna sitting near His feet and said, "Welcome Arjuna, you've come. It's good to see you." Then He caught sight of Duryodhana and said, "Welcome Duryodhana, you have come too. It's good to see you." Duryodhana's realisation of salokya was less than Arjuna's; hence he could not get benefits of salokya, while Arjuna easily could. Now the entity who seemed to be asleep was not Vraja Krishna, the constant wielder and player of the magic flute, but instead, He was Parthasarathi Krishna, the intellectual. Had He been Vraja Krishna, he would have played his magic flute, drawing Duryodhana as close to Him as Arjuna. Parthasarathi Krishna was practical and diplomatic.
The second stage of spiritual realisation is samiipya. In the second stage, they feel close enough to Parama Purusa to talk to Him on friendly terms, even regarding extremely personal matters, and thus be relieved and comforted by Him.
Next comes the stage of sayujya. It implies close contact, almost body contact, the closest proximity imaginable. But it was not so easy to attain the state - not everyone was blessed with this realisation. None of the other brothers had the opportunity.
The next stage of sadhana or spiritual practice is sarupya. It implies that "Not only am I close to Him, but whenever I think of Him I see Him in all directions." Next comes sarshthi, when spiritual aspirants realise Parama Purusa in all possible ways and in all conceivable manners. Not only do the devotees see Him, they also remain united with him, one with Him. When a sadhaka attains this stage, he feels, "Lord! You exist. I exist. We are so close that I have become You. You have become me."
One can attain sarshthi through Parthasarathi Krishna no doubt, but not of this kind. There the ideation is "O Parama Purusa, O Lord, O Parthasarathi! You have made me exclusively Your own. Finally when the devotee merges with Parama Purusa without maintaining its existence, that is the stage of Kaevalya.
Six stages of realisation enabled by Krishna
invariably enjoy some special privileges. As Vraja Krishna and Parthasarathi, the Lord helps people find the path of spirituality.
When people attain progress in the realm of spiritual realisation, that progress is divided into six stages. At the stage of salokya, people feel that they have come onto the earth at the same time as Parama Purusa. This brings a sense of ecstasy. This state of bliss is termed salokya. When Krishna was in Vraja, the people felt intense joy and a sense of pride that a great personality in the form of a young man had chosen to live in their midst.
Duryodhana, even though he was apparently Krishna's enemy, was convinced that Krishna was not an ordinary person. He thought that he would be fortunate indeed if he could win Krishna's support. So on the eve of the Kurukshetra war he went to Krishna to ask Him for help. Arjuna was there, too, for the same reason.
Duryodhana arrived at Krishna's palace before Arjuna to find Krishna lying in bed with His eyes closed. He seemed to be fast asleep. Duryodhana sat near Krishna's head. Arjuna came afterwards and took his seat near Krishna's feet. Suddenly Krishna sat up. He was awake. He looked first towards Arjuna sitting near His feet and said, "Welcome Arjuna, you've come. It's good to see you." Then He caught sight of Duryodhana and said, "Welcome Duryodhana, you have come too. It's good to see you." Duryodhana's realisation of salokya was less than Arjuna's; hence he could not get benefits of salokya, while Arjuna easily could. Now the entity who seemed to be asleep was not Vraja Krishna, the constant wielder and player of the magic flute, but instead, He was Parthasarathi Krishna, the intellectual. Had He been Vraja Krishna, he would have played his magic flute, drawing Duryodhana as close to Him as Arjuna. Parthasarathi Krishna was practical and diplomatic.
The second stage of spiritual realisation is samiipya. In the second stage, they feel close enough to Parama Purusa to talk to Him on friendly terms, even regarding extremely personal matters, and thus be relieved and comforted by Him.
Next comes the stage of sayujya. It implies close contact, almost body contact, the closest proximity imaginable. But it was not so easy to attain the state - not everyone was blessed with this realisation. None of the other brothers had the opportunity.
The next stage of sadhana or spiritual practice is sarupya. It implies that "Not only am I close to Him, but whenever I think of Him I see Him in all directions." Next comes sarshthi, when spiritual aspirants realise Parama Purusa in all possible ways and in all conceivable manners. Not only do the devotees see Him, they also remain united with him, one with Him. When a sadhaka attains this stage, he feels, "Lord! You exist. I exist. We are so close that I have become You. You have become me."
One can attain sarshthi through Parthasarathi Krishna no doubt, but not of this kind. There the ideation is "O Parama Purusa, O Lord, O Parthasarathi! You have made me exclusively Your own. Finally when the devotee merges with Parama Purusa without maintaining its existence, that is the stage of Kaevalya.
Thoda Gyan
The Bhagavad Gita's approach to death is cool and unsentimental. In the second chapter Krishna tells Arjuna: ''For one who is born, death is
Religion has been raising human consciousness for centuries.
assured; for one who dies, rebirth is assured; therefore, for what is inevitable, you should not grieve.'' However, human relations are not as simple as this advice may sound.
In life we go through so many different experiences that involve relationships of varying degrees of intimacy. The husband and wife relationship is the closest physically, emotionally and spiritually, in a way symbolising the union of male and female as in the unique figure of Shiva depicted as Ardhanarishwara, half-male, half-female.
Recently my wife passed away in the sixtieth year of our marriage. Having married when we were teenagers, we virtually grew up together, becoming an integral part of each other's lives. As i watched my elder son light the funeral pyre, it struck me that fire had defined our relationship when it began and now after 60 years, when it ended. We were married when we circumambulated the sacred fire seven times, it being witness to the union. When it was time to say goodbye, again, it was fire that bore witness to our separation with her departure.
In Vedic tradition, fire has always been held to be sacred. Aurobindo calls his translation of the Vedic verses 'Hymns to the Sacred Fire'. Several Vedic hymns are on Agni, the interlocutor between the human and the divine, and which, through Yagna, conveyed human aspirations to the higher power. In several western cultures also fire has a special place. The brave Prometheus brought down fire from the heavens to humanity, for which the jealous Gods punished him with eternal torment. The Zoroastrians have their fire temples. The discovery of fire by early humans marked a major milestone in human evolution.
With its dual quality of having potential to remain benign as well as to be destructive, fire has been cherished down the ages. A Rig Vedic hymn to Agnideva says: "Virtuous Agni, we set thee, a sage, around us as a fort, thee triumphant in thy colour, day by day, destroyer of the treacherous foe. Through Agni man finds prosperity, nourishment from day to day, glory and greatest pride in heroes. To thee, Agni, dispeller of night, we come with prayer day by day, offering thee our obeisance.''
Shiva as Nataraja carries fire in one of his hands and is often depicted dancing within a fiery nimbus. The Isha Upanishad closes with the verse: ''O Agni, lead us by the fair path that we may reap the good we have sown. Thou knowest all our deeds. Lord, destroy all sin in us. We salute Thee with our words again and again.''
The outer fire is but a symbol of the spiritual flame that burns in our hearts. Fanning the spiritual spark into the blazing fire of divine realisation is the true, deeper purpose of our existence. However, there are lower dimensions of fire also, as in the insatiable desire for worldly possessions, or negative aspects such as emotionally disturbing manifestations of anger and revenge. Robert Frost's poem titled Fire & Ice says it all: "Some say the world will end in fire/ some say in ice./ From what I've tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favour fire./ Though if it had to perish twice/ I think I know enough of hate/ to say that for destruction ice/ is also great and would suffice.
The contours of our inner life will depend on which dimension of fire we choose to embrace.
Religion has been raising human consciousness for centuries.
assured; for one who dies, rebirth is assured; therefore, for what is inevitable, you should not grieve.'' However, human relations are not as simple as this advice may sound.
In life we go through so many different experiences that involve relationships of varying degrees of intimacy. The husband and wife relationship is the closest physically, emotionally and spiritually, in a way symbolising the union of male and female as in the unique figure of Shiva depicted as Ardhanarishwara, half-male, half-female.
Recently my wife passed away in the sixtieth year of our marriage. Having married when we were teenagers, we virtually grew up together, becoming an integral part of each other's lives. As i watched my elder son light the funeral pyre, it struck me that fire had defined our relationship when it began and now after 60 years, when it ended. We were married when we circumambulated the sacred fire seven times, it being witness to the union. When it was time to say goodbye, again, it was fire that bore witness to our separation with her departure.
In Vedic tradition, fire has always been held to be sacred. Aurobindo calls his translation of the Vedic verses 'Hymns to the Sacred Fire'. Several Vedic hymns are on Agni, the interlocutor between the human and the divine, and which, through Yagna, conveyed human aspirations to the higher power. In several western cultures also fire has a special place. The brave Prometheus brought down fire from the heavens to humanity, for which the jealous Gods punished him with eternal torment. The Zoroastrians have their fire temples. The discovery of fire by early humans marked a major milestone in human evolution.
With its dual quality of having potential to remain benign as well as to be destructive, fire has been cherished down the ages. A Rig Vedic hymn to Agnideva says: "Virtuous Agni, we set thee, a sage, around us as a fort, thee triumphant in thy colour, day by day, destroyer of the treacherous foe. Through Agni man finds prosperity, nourishment from day to day, glory and greatest pride in heroes. To thee, Agni, dispeller of night, we come with prayer day by day, offering thee our obeisance.''
Shiva as Nataraja carries fire in one of his hands and is often depicted dancing within a fiery nimbus. The Isha Upanishad closes with the verse: ''O Agni, lead us by the fair path that we may reap the good we have sown. Thou knowest all our deeds. Lord, destroy all sin in us. We salute Thee with our words again and again.''
The outer fire is but a symbol of the spiritual flame that burns in our hearts. Fanning the spiritual spark into the blazing fire of divine realisation is the true, deeper purpose of our existence. However, there are lower dimensions of fire also, as in the insatiable desire for worldly possessions, or negative aspects such as emotionally disturbing manifestations of anger and revenge. Robert Frost's poem titled Fire & Ice says it all: "Some say the world will end in fire/ some say in ice./ From what I've tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favour fire./ Though if it had to perish twice/ I think I know enough of hate/ to say that for destruction ice/ is also great and would suffice.
The contours of our inner life will depend on which dimension of fire we choose to embrace.
You Better Slow Down ....
You Better Slow Down
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
or listened to rain slapping the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,
or gazed at the sun fading into the night?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
Do you run through each day on the fly,
When you ask 'How are you?', do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,
with the next hundred chores running through your head?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow,
and in your haste not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die,
'cause you never had time to call and say 'hi'?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
it's like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race, so take it slower,
hear the music before the song is over.
Author Unknown
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
or listened to rain slapping the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,
or gazed at the sun fading into the night?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
Do you run through each day on the fly,
When you ask 'How are you?', do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,
with the next hundred chores running through your head?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow,
and in your haste not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die,
'cause you never had time to call and say 'hi'?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
it's like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race, so take it slower,
hear the music before the song is over.
Author Unknown
Hold on tightly . . . Written Kelly D. Caron
Hold on tightly . . .
. . . to what's truly important in your life!
Hold on to faith - it is the source of believing that all things are possible. It is fibre and strength of a confident soul.
Hold on to hope - it banishes doubt and enables attitudes to be positive and cheerful.
Hold on to trust - it is at the core of fruitful relationships that are secure and content.
Hold on to love - it is life's greatest gift of all, for it shares, cares, and gives meaning to life.
Hold on to family and friends - they are the most important people in your life, and they make the world a better place. They are your roots and the beginnings that you grew from; they are the vine that has grown through time to nourish you, help you on your way, and always remain close by.
Hold on to all that you are and all that you have learned, for these things are what make you unique. Don't ignore what you feel and what you believe is right and important; your heart has a way of speaking louder than your mind.
Hold on to your dreams - achieve them diligently and honestly. Never take the easy way or surrender to deceit. Remember others on your way and take time to care for their needs.
Enjoy the beauty around you. Have the courage to see things differently and clearly. Make the world a better place one day at a time and don't let go of the important things that give meaning to your life.
. . . to what's truly important in your life!
Hold on to faith - it is the source of believing that all things are possible. It is fibre and strength of a confident soul.
Hold on to hope - it banishes doubt and enables attitudes to be positive and cheerful.
Hold on to trust - it is at the core of fruitful relationships that are secure and content.
Hold on to love - it is life's greatest gift of all, for it shares, cares, and gives meaning to life.
Hold on to family and friends - they are the most important people in your life, and they make the world a better place. They are your roots and the beginnings that you grew from; they are the vine that has grown through time to nourish you, help you on your way, and always remain close by.
Hold on to all that you are and all that you have learned, for these things are what make you unique. Don't ignore what you feel and what you believe is right and important; your heart has a way of speaking louder than your mind.
Hold on to your dreams - achieve them diligently and honestly. Never take the easy way or surrender to deceit. Remember others on your way and take time to care for their needs.
Enjoy the beauty around you. Have the courage to see things differently and clearly. Make the world a better place one day at a time and don't let go of the important things that give meaning to your life.
A Child's View of Thunderstorms
A little girl walked to and from school every day. Even though the weather one morning was very questionable, and dark clouds were forming, she still headed off to enjoy her day at school.
As the day progressed, the winds whipped up, along with a tremendous thunderstorm.
The little girl's mother felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she feared that the electrical storm might harm, or at least terrify her child.
Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove towards her daughter's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along in her own very unique and care-free way. And today there was also an added surprise: At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile.
More lightning than the mother had seen in a while, and with each flash the little girl would look at the flash of light and smile.
When the mother drew up beside her adorable child, she lowered the window and called to her, 'What are you doing sweetheart'? The child answered, 'I'm just looking as pretty as I can because God keeps taking my picture'.
Just have a good day today; and every other day as you face the storms that may come your way.
We all get 'em at times you know! Don't let pride stand in the way of asking friends for help.
As the day progressed, the winds whipped up, along with a tremendous thunderstorm.
The little girl's mother felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she feared that the electrical storm might harm, or at least terrify her child.
Full of concern, the mother quickly got into her car and drove towards her daughter's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along in her own very unique and care-free way. And today there was also an added surprise: At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile.
More lightning than the mother had seen in a while, and with each flash the little girl would look at the flash of light and smile.
When the mother drew up beside her adorable child, she lowered the window and called to her, 'What are you doing sweetheart'? The child answered, 'I'm just looking as pretty as I can because God keeps taking my picture'.
Just have a good day today; and every other day as you face the storms that may come your way.
We all get 'em at times you know! Don't let pride stand in the way of asking friends for help.
Quotes on Father
Father's Day Quotes
The love and care of a father is as essential as sunlight is in our lives. It is his protection that shelters us, his care that nurtures us, his guidance that leads us and his love that fills us with joy. Father's Day is the day to pay tribute to that wondrous creature called the Father. Great people all over the world have, from time to time, praised their own fathers; pondered over the greatness of fatherhood and commented on what goes on to make ideal fathers. TheHolidaySpot brings to you some of the choicest of such quotes. Scroll down and go over our wonderful assortment of inspiring, funny, enlightening, reflective and truly nice quotes about Fathers that you can use in cards, plaques, gifts or other crafts for Father's Day! If you want to share these with your friends and acquaintances, So join in the Father's Day celebration with us. Loads of wishes to all of you and your Father from all your friends here at TheHolidaySpot. Happy Father's Day!
The greatest gift I ever had
Came from God; I call him Dad!
~Author Unknown
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
~ Anonymous
A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season.
~ Anonymous
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
~ Enid Bagnold
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.
~ Confucius
If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.
~ Bill Cosby
You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together.
~ Erika Cosby
Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee.
~ Margaret Courtney
How true Daddy's words were when he said: "All children must look after their own upbringing." Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
~ Anne Frank
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
~ Sigmond Freud
A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.
~ Gabriel García Márquez
It is a wise child that knows his own father.
~ Homer
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
~ William Shakespeare
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
~ Kent Nerburn
He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.
~ William Penn
None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world - so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.
~ Queen Victoria of England
It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
~ Anne Sexton
That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
~ J. August Strindberg
For thousands of years, father and son have stretched wistful hands across the canyon of time.
~ Alan Valentine
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later...that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.
~ Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."
~ Charles Wadsworth quotes
"Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough"
~ Wilhelm Busch
"It is a wise child that knows its own father, and an unusual one that unreservedly approves of him"
~ Mark Twain
"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family"
~ Anthony Brandt
"To be a successful father there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years"
~ Ernest Hemingway
"Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope"
~ John Ciardi
"The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf."
~ Bertrand Russell
"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."
~ Bill Cosby
"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
~ Clarence B. Kelland
"A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again."
~ Enid Bagnold
"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."
~ George Herbert
"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass"; "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys";"
~ Harmon Killebrew
"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
~ Lydia M. Child
"Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents."
~ Margaret Mead
"A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma."
~ Marlene Dietrich
"My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either."
~ Madonna
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection."
~ Sigmund Freud
"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was."
~ Anne Sexton
"Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance."
~ Ruth E. Renkel
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."
~ William Shakespeare
"That is the thankless position of the father in the family-the provider for all, and the enemy of all."
~ August Strindberg
"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."
~ Aziza Friedrich Nietzsche
"He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care."
~ William Penn
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
~ Mark Twain
He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~ Clarence Budington Kelland
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
~ Harmon Killebrew
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
~ George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640
Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.
~ Bill Cosby
Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.
~ William Wordsworth
Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it.
~ Clarence Budington Kelland
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
~ Enid Bagnold
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
~ Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836
It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
~Johann Schiller
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
~ Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874
Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown.
~ Author Unknown
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.
~ John Gregory Brown (Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery), 1994
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
~ Elizabeth Stone
The love and care of a father is as essential as sunlight is in our lives. It is his protection that shelters us, his care that nurtures us, his guidance that leads us and his love that fills us with joy. Father's Day is the day to pay tribute to that wondrous creature called the Father. Great people all over the world have, from time to time, praised their own fathers; pondered over the greatness of fatherhood and commented on what goes on to make ideal fathers. TheHolidaySpot brings to you some of the choicest of such quotes. Scroll down and go over our wonderful assortment of inspiring, funny, enlightening, reflective and truly nice quotes about Fathers that you can use in cards, plaques, gifts or other crafts for Father's Day! If you want to share these with your friends and acquaintances, So join in the Father's Day celebration with us. Loads of wishes to all of you and your Father from all your friends here at TheHolidaySpot. Happy Father's Day!
The greatest gift I ever had
Came from God; I call him Dad!
~Author Unknown
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
~ Anonymous
A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season.
~ Anonymous
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
~ Enid Bagnold
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.
~ Confucius
If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.
~ Bill Cosby
You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together.
~ Erika Cosby
Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee.
~ Margaret Courtney
How true Daddy's words were when he said: "All children must look after their own upbringing." Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
~ Anne Frank
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
~ Sigmond Freud
A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.
~ Gabriel García Márquez
It is a wise child that knows his own father.
~ Homer
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
~ William Shakespeare
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
~ Kent Nerburn
He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.
~ William Penn
None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world - so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.
~ Queen Victoria of England
It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
~ Anne Sexton
That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
~ J. August Strindberg
For thousands of years, father and son have stretched wistful hands across the canyon of time.
~ Alan Valentine
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later...that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.
~ Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."
~ Charles Wadsworth quotes
"Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough"
~ Wilhelm Busch
"It is a wise child that knows its own father, and an unusual one that unreservedly approves of him"
~ Mark Twain
"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family"
~ Anthony Brandt
"To be a successful father there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years"
~ Ernest Hemingway
"Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope"
~ John Ciardi
"The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf."
~ Bertrand Russell
"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."
~ Bill Cosby
"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
~ Clarence B. Kelland
"A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again."
~ Enid Bagnold
"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."
~ George Herbert
"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass"; "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys";"
~ Harmon Killebrew
"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
~ Lydia M. Child
"Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents."
~ Margaret Mead
"A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma."
~ Marlene Dietrich
"My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either."
~ Madonna
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection."
~ Sigmund Freud
"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was."
~ Anne Sexton
"Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance."
~ Ruth E. Renkel
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."
~ William Shakespeare
"That is the thankless position of the father in the family-the provider for all, and the enemy of all."
~ August Strindberg
"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."
~ Aziza Friedrich Nietzsche
"He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care."
~ William Penn
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
~ Mark Twain
He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~ Clarence Budington Kelland
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
~ Harmon Killebrew
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
~ George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640
Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.
~ Bill Cosby
Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.
~ William Wordsworth
Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it.
~ Clarence Budington Kelland
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
~ Enid Bagnold
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
~ Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836
It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
~Johann Schiller
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
~ Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874
Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown.
~ Author Unknown
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.
~ John Gregory Brown (Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery), 1994
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
~ Elizabeth Stone
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