Wishdom is more able than Power

     Kandagupta was a famous saint. He lived in the outskirts of Maninagar, which was the capital of Manipur Kingdom. There were very few who did not know about the wisdom of Kandagupta. He was also known for his fortune telling. 

    Maniraj who was the king of Manipuri came to know of the feats of Kandagupta. He wanted to pay respect to this great saint. So, he invited Kandagupta to his palace. 

    When Kandagupta arrived, Maniraj welcomed him and offered him a seat. Then, the king asked the saint to tell something about his feature from his horoscope. 

    After a keen observation into the king’s horoscope, Kandagupta started telling the future boons to be blessed upon the king. The king was so happy. He kept on rewarding the saint with gold and silver for every boon told by Kandagupta. 

    Now, came the time to say the future misfortunes. The whole outlook of Maniraj started to change. At one point he shouted, “Stop! You filthy soul! How dare you say such nonsense! I order you to say me the time of your death". 

    Kandagupta replied in a small voice, "My lord! According to my calculations, my death will take place just an hour before thy death". 

    The king was stunned. He felt his error. He begged pardon from Kandagupta and sent him off with furthermore wealth. 

Moral : Wisdom is more able than power.

Energy is the key to productivity, not time

     Learning how to perform at high levels for extended periods of time is a very valuable skill. As Tony Swartz in his paradigm shifting book The Power of Full Engagement put it:

"Energy is the key to productivity, not time."

    You can have all the time in the world but if you don't have the energy to do what you want; all the time doesn't matter.

    Building a deep reservoir of energy you can tap into when you need it, is one of the highest leverage things you can do to create a more successful and fulfilling life.

    Some people believe that performing at high levels consistently is something only the lucky enjoy. Or that you must work out for hours each week and eat the perfect diet to get any return for your efforts.

Neither is true.

Anyone can learn to increase their energy and performance when they employ effective strategies.

It can be as simple as a 7 minute ritual.

You can invest seven minutes in yourself each day right?

Try this simple ritual out for three weeks.

You'll notice how much it raises your energy, channels your focus and raises your performance.

7 Minute Morning Ritual:

Minute 1:

• Stand up, place your feet shoulder width apart and close your eyes.
• Rest your hands by your sides and feel your feet connected to the earth.
• Feel the force of gravity connecting you to the earth.

Minute 2:

• Keeping your eyes closed, take several intentional deep breaths in through your nose. Fill your lungs from the bottom up.
• Feel your chest rise and fall with each breath. Smile.

Minute 3:

• Empty your mind.
• Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and pay attention to the rise and fall of your chest. Let go of any tension.
• Become aware of the beat of your heartbeat.

Minute 4:

• Sit down.
• Close your eyes.
• Project yourself along your timeline to the end of the month.
• Ask: What 3 goals did I achieve this month that were key to creating my dream life?
• Write them down.
• Then see yourself achieving them.
• Make note of what steps and people are involved.
• Open your eyes.
• Write down any tasks you need to complete to achieve them.

Minute 5:

• Return your attention to the present.
• Ask: What is this day about?
• What are the top 3 results you need to achieve for the day to feel both successful and fulfilling?
• Write your top 3 results down.

Minute 6:

• Set a clear, powerful intention for your day.
• Get clear on your reasons why achieving your top 3 results is so important and how it will serve many areas of your life.
• Visualize yourself taking purposive action, things going exactly as you want.
• See yourself alert, engaged and performing to a high level.
• Rehearse it in your mind several times.

Minute 7:

• Stand up again and walk for 1 minute paying special attention to how your foot to toe strikes the ground. Become absorbed in this.
• As you do take 3 deep breaths in and s-l-o-w-l-y exhale.
• Continue to walk.
• Finally bring your attention to rest on your 1st most important goal for the day.
• Schedule a block of time in to get it done.
• Go grab breakfast!

This simple 7 minute process will leave you feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and highly focused.

P.S. : Source unknown. Copied content.

Risk Taking is the Way to Get What You Want

 Risk Taking Is the Way to Get What You Want : By Dr. Alan Zimmerman 

    Everything you want in life requires risk. If you want friends, for example, you've got to take the risk of introducing yourself, starting conversations, and showing interest in others. Of course, the people you choose might not be interested in you. That's the risk. But without taking the risk, you're left alone. 

    The same is true at work. Everything you want at work requires risk. If you want a promotion, for example, if you want a position with more responsibility, challenge and money, you'll have to take the risk of doing more than what you 're being paid to do. Of course, management may not notice and may not reward all your extra effort, and you may upset your colleagues who are doing just enough to get by.

    That's life. Not every risk pays off. But taking intelligent, constructive risks will work much more often than sitting around waiting for things to happen. 

    So what's the problem? Most people are addicted to one or more comfort zones. In fact, they're so used to doing certain things in a particular way that they even get defensive when you suggest a different way or a better way of doing things. The risk avoider will tell you, "I'm getting by. I don't need to be a risk taker. Things aren't that bad." 

    Well, things probably aren't that good either ... if you're not an active, constructive risk taker. Your comfort zone may be killing you ... and you may not even know it. For example, when you stay stuck in your comfort zone...

1. You damage your mental health.

 
    After two years of research, Dr. Bruce Larson discovered that poor mental health and comfort-zone living go hand-in-hand. If you wimp your way through life, stuck in your comfort zone, afraid of change, afraid of risk, you cannot have great self-respect.

    Think about it. If you go around saying things like: "I couldn't do that," or "I've always done it this way," you're killing off the very drive you need to achieve the bigger and better things in life. As Larson writes in his book There's a Lot More to Health Than Not Being Sick, when you think and talk along those lines, you're committing emotional suicide.

    In the book, Taking Charge, Richard Leider and James Harding refer to emotional suicide as "inner kill." They define inner kill as "dying without knowing it" and "coping rather than living." It's a matter of taking the safe way, avoiding decisions, daydreaming about the future, talking about the life you'd like, and taking no risks whatsoever to make it happen. You simply cannot feel good about yourself if that's the way you live.

    Emotionally, you use it or you lose it. You either take risks or you lose your ability to take risks. You can take risks to get what you want ... which will ... in turn ... build your self-confidence to take more risks. Or you can fail to take risks ... which will diminish your self-confidence so much you won't even think you could take a risk.

It's a downward cycle that you don't want to get on. If you don't take enough risks...

2. You damage your relationships.

 
    Once you've damaged your emotional health and self-esteem, your lack of risk-taking begins to damage your relationships. After all, strong, healthy relationships are built on the risks of openness and honesty, but if you don't take those risks, you're headed for trouble. You'll never experience true love and real intimacy, no matter how long you've been married or been with someone if you play it too safe.

    Unfortunately, it's difficult to take the relational risks of openness and honesty ... because someone's going to get hurt at one point or another. And the most natural response to hurt is to pull back ... and stop taking the risks you need to take to build your relationships.

    You might even get to the point where you say, "I've been hurt enough. I no longer trust my husband (or my wife, or all males, or all females, or all managers, or all whomever). No more hurt for me." You might pull back in hopes of keeping out the hurt, but you also keep out the closeness. Quite simply, without risk, there is no intimacy.

    Joyce H. Irminger says it quite well in her poem, Risk...

How carefully I guard the core of me--

The part I know is me,

The tender part that feels.

Letting others have glimpses only now and then--

The fear is much too great,

The hurt has come too often.

And yet how eagerly I want to share--

When I feel trusting,

When I sense caring.

The task is now to take the risk--

Not just to let others in,

But most of all, to let me out!

    In addition to the loss of intimacy, you'll also lose the respect of others if you're a risk avoider. Imagine going to your boss and saying, "I have a great idea on how we can change our department to become more productive and profitable." You give your idea only to have your boss say, "We've never done that kind of thing before. We've always done it this way." How would you feel? You'd feel disappointed, and you wouldn't feel a great deal of respect for your boss.

    There's no way you'd be thinking, "That's the kind of boss I want. She has such vision, such foresight. She inspires me. I want to follow her!" No! You wouldn't be inspired by your boss' fear. At best you'd feel sorry for her, but you wouldn't be inspired by her. You don't respect someone whose life, whose career, and whose decisions are based on fear.

    I learned that from my great aunt. Auntie was never married and lived in a small town of five hundred people. The town had one hardware store, one grocery store, and five bars -- like a lot of towns in Wisconsin. Auntie owned the hardware store.

    When I was a kid of six, ten, twelve years of age, I would go live with Auntie, because she let me work in the store. I loved it. I waited on the farmers, packaged up the bolts and nails, and played with the cash register. I felt grown-up.

    As I got older, I began to feel sorry for Auntie. Auntie was a full-blooded Norwegian, which was not the part I felt sorry for. She spoke Norwegian. In fact everyone in town spoke Norwegian. They ate all the ethnic foods of lutefisk and lefse. What I felt sorry for was her tiny, restricted comfort zone. All her life Auntie kept saying: "I want to go to Norway. I want to see my cousin in Norway. I want to travel. I want to see the United States." The truth is, Auntie never went anywhere. Even though she had plenty of money and could have afforded to travel, even though she had no husband or kids holding her back, even though she had employees who could have watched the store, Auntie always had her excuses.

    I encouraged her to go. I had gone to Norway at age 18, had hitchhiked through the country, and had met her relatives. I kept saying, "Auntie, you'd love it. Your relatives are wonderful. So welcoming. The scenery is awesome. You'd love it. Go for it."

    But Auntie always had her excuses. She would say she was a single woman and had no one to take her. So I suggested she go with one of her Norwegian friends in town, but she replied that they had their husbands, their kids, and they couldn't pack up and leave. I suggested she go with a tour group, saying she wouldn't be alone then. She said, "Yeah. There are tour groups, but you never know the weirdos you meet in those groups." A couple of times I almost had her convinced to go, but she would reply, "What if the furnace would go out? What if the water pipes would freeze? Who would pick up the mail at the post office?" Excuse after excuse. 

    In short, if you want more of anything in life, you'll find it outside your comfort zone. But if you refuse to take a risk ... if you refuse to leave your comfort zone ... just remember you won't get a free ride in life. It will damage your mental health and your relational health. 

    Are you sure you want to do that? If yes,

ACTIONS:

What are two constructive risks you can and need to take?
When are you going to do it?

P.S.:- Copied Content

Be True to Yourself

 To be true to yourself means to act in accordance with who you are and what you believe.

    If you know and love yourself you will find it effortless to be true to yourself.  Just as you cannot love anyone else until you love yourself, you cannot be true to anyone else until  you are true to yourself.

Be who you are! 

    Have the courage to accept yourself as you really are, not as as someone else  thinks you should be. Do not take action or pretend to be someone else for the sake of  gaining acceptance.

    Many young people believe that when they do things to please their peers, such as drink when they shouldn't, or behave and party in inappropriate ways, they will be popular and liked. They go against the advice of their parents or their own common sense only to find themselves in trouble and not accomplishing what they set out to do.

    When you do things that are not genuine or a reflection of the real you, you will not be happy with yourself and will end up confused. You'll be confused because you won't know whom to please, or how.

    Self-respect comes from being true to who you really are and from acting in accordance with your fundamental nature. When you respect yourself, others will respect you. They will sense that you are strong and capable of standing up for yourself and your beliefs. When you are true to yourself, you allow your individuality and uniqueness to shine through. You respect the opinions of others but do not conform to stereotypes or their expectations of you.

To be true to yourself takes courage.

    It requires you to be introspective, sincere, open-minded and fair. It does not mean that you are inconsiderate or disrespectful of others. It means that you will not let others define you or make decisions for you that you should make for yourself.

    Be true to the very best that is in you and live your life, consistent with your highest values and aspirations. Those who are most successful in life have dared to creatively express themselves and in turn, broaden the experiences and perspectives of everyone else.

Tips On Being True to Yourself:

• Be who you are, be your genuine self.
• Follow your own value system and common sense.
• Listen to the advice of others, but make up your own mind.
• Recognize, appreciate, and develop your unique talents.
• Stand up for what you believe in and you will gain respect.
• Know that being 'different' is a gift.
• Understand that you are enriching others by being Yourself.

P.S. :- Copied Content. Source Unknown.

The Tablecloth : Things happen for a Reason

 A Beautiful story.... makes you understand that things happen for a reason....

    The brand new pastor (a priest/father/cleric), newly assigned to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. 

    They worked hard, repairing pews (a long bench with a back, to sit inside a church), plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. 

    On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to see. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

    The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity--a street market selling second hand goods, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored crocheted Tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and designs embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

    By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

    She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc, to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

    Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that Tablecloth?" He  explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials 'EBG' were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. 

    The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten "The Tablecloth". The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again.

    The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house-cleaning job. 

    What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

    One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.

    The man asked him where he got the Tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to the one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?.. 

    He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety.  And he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again in all the 35 years between.

    The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine. 

True story - Submitted by Pastor Rob Reid ,who says, God does work in mysterious ways. His love is always with you.

P.S. :- Content Copied. Source Unknown.