The one last bend

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the one last bend.jpg

Few days back, I received an e-mail from a close friend of mine. She is getting ready for her final exam, which is her gateway to enter into the medical faculty. She was ding so well but at the edge, with all the stress that weighing her down, seemed like her faith is shaken a bit.

We all have experiences which stand in line with this. We all have passed times that we feel like loosing our grip. But why should we let go of our faith, when we need it the most?

It takes some new skills to achieve what we need always. That is what keeps us lagging behind. If we have the required level of skills, then  we are done instantly. But when we do not have it, we have to create it manually, little by little. 

We can't play 300 lbs on bench press, on the very first day to gym, not even any closer to that, because it asks some real muscles of iron. But we can strengthen them day by day and one day we'll be there. But we have to hold on until that day. 

A man walked a road. He walked, walked and walked, because there laid a treasure, in the end of that road; he was told by an angel, in a dream. 

He met no treasure but bends, one after one. Sun came up and went down, over and over again. His shoes worn out and torn, feet kissed the stony ground under them. The faith he had on dream was washing out by the sweat, day by day. But the road continues with all its bends.

The man was so full of regrets by now, thought of turning back.

" No bends again ! "

Facing one such a bend for the last time, he gave up on his journey, so as all his faith in following his dream. Jaw dropped man continued to walk to his village, to the life that he was used to live.

But there was one thing he didn't know. That treasure was right ahead of the bend, that one last bend that he gave up upon. 

Achievers are fighters. They never turn back; they get what they want, in the end, no matter what it cost. Once you in the water, you have to swim-that's how you learn to swim. But you can't leave after gulping some chunks of water, saying you can't swim. You have to gain the skill through persistence. If you think of leaving, then those chunks you gulped, the times you sank, all will in vain. 

Therefore we have to walk hand in hand with the faith, until we see the treasure, beyond the last bend. Can we survive a one last bend? 


photo credit: mcall

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kite rises high against the wind.jpg

In this factory, in which I'm having my industrial training currently, and I am writing this post as well ;) , there are workers who do the same job for over 25 years. Most of them are machine operators. They've been pressing same buttons, putting on and off same switches all this time, monotonously. Can you believe it? It's more than my age even. If it was me, who had to do this, I would be dead by now from boredom.

But I don't think that it's a stinky job. The thing is they need to earn more money, they have families to support, they have hopes on their children, they have their own dreams about life and need better jobs to make all of them come true. But still they are pushing this button, being in the same place, where they were 20+ years back, disappointed. How sad?

Then why can't they move out, shift their job for a better one? What made them stuck here?

It's friction. By definition, it's the force resisting the motion of two solid surfaces in contact. It resists us, when we try to move away from our current situation. It resides inside, holding us back from moving out.

You want to change, change your life. but you find difficulties always. Or else can't change it in the way want it to be. Some reasons will provide excuses to hide you from yourself. And also it will make you procrastinate.

Just imagine a world without this frictional force. Everything is done, every dream is achieved. People are bored. No workers, only the bosses. The world would be a complicated place and a mess. So the nature, the controller of life, made 'friction' to differentiate one from another and to make processes bit more interesting.

But always this friction adds color to life. Think about a river which flows calmly across a flat land. It flows, no changes. People will love to see a waterfall rather than this. It falls across the rough slope, where lots of rocks stand in its way. It creates enchanting scene, marking its victory, overcoming all the resistance. Friction ends up being the beauty of it. 

Identify the frictional forces in your life

In our lives, it exists in different forms and continuing to back us off,when we struggle with something new.

If you are a student, you'll need to study of the exam that is drawing closer. You'll make plans, schedules to do revision and past papers. But you'll feel sleepy or else you'll see that it's too hot or cold to study. That's how friction slows you down from moving out to a new set of habits.

If you are a blogger, you'll need to lift up your blog with number of readers, which is rocketing high. So after reading this and that about blogging at problogger, copyblogger or somewhere else, you'll come up with dozens of things you need to be doing. You'll notice that you don't have that much of time, though you want to read a lot and do those dozens of thing, you've learnt newly. Or maybe you'll think of starting them from next month, when you are not busy this much. but by that time, your original kick will be dead, ensuring you ain't moving nowhere. 

How are you going to sail away from these tides, in order to get the life you want? I've tried these two simple methods.

Move out loud

Have you ever tried pushing a stalled car? Initially we have to push it with gritted teeth since the ground under the wheels trying its' best to avoid it from moving. But after that it starts moving on the ground smoother than it did in the starting point. Frictional force reduces, as the wheels start rotating against the resisting force. This can be done easier by pushing hard at once in the beginning. The big resistance which comes first can be exceeded in that way.

So we can do the same with our plans. The first day of your plan, or the first try that you are going to give must be done extremely well. It's better to do it in a way that exceeds the energy limit that you've planned to put on it. If it is 10 push-ups are which that is planned, try 12 or 13 in the first day. 

Move out loud from the high frictional zone from that way.

Use lubricants

Use lubricants to avoid the friction. How would you do that? What about breaking down your plan into few small pieces? Then give yourself a little reward as you complete those tasks one by one. It will push you forward, even without knowing.

If you are a student, you can take a little break after implementing the new plans on the first day. You can watch a movie or something. 

Do whatever the thing you are afraid to do, or reluctant to do.  And reward yourself for it. You'll find it's easy to overcome the force against you.

When I was thinking about how to end this up, suddenly i saw a boy, with a thread in hand, loosening it and pulling it back again. In the end of the thread, there's a kite, a big nice kite, rising high and high, against the wind. Kite was fighting the wind that was resisting it. And it was showing off its pride, by soaring high, against the force resisted it. Why shouldn't we? 

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opportunity.jpg

" We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations"
~ Charles R.Swindoll 

Exam was drawing closer. In canteens, in study areas, in libraries, people were discussing subject matters in every nook and corner of the university. Stressed out faces were not a rare sight. Whole university was getting ready for the end semester exam. 

I was running here and there, to collect notes and then to photocopy them, having a hectic time, since everything was to be done in the last moment. Almost every discussion, which I had with friends, finally connected with the exam somehow, one of the topics I hate most. 

One day, a close friend of mine, brought some interesting news , obviously not about exam. He had applied for an international business and management competition, which was organized by an Indian University, despite it was exam season. A case was given to propose solutions, after analyzing and researching further on it. He had registered for the competition but he was unable to find members for the team.  He couldn't get students from our batch, or senior batches because all had exams. So he got one team member from a younger batch and seeking for another one who was interested.

Competition was interesting, because they had mentioned that teams which come up to the best four, would be getting a 8 days, fully sponsored trip to Malaysia. I always had a thing for travelling, so as my friend.

But it was not a right time for such an adventure. Exam pressure and stress were weighing us down. Signing up with something like that, would have been a stupid thing, since it was a big task and the report should be submitted by the end of the exam. But case was pulling me towards it and i found the offer was awesome, if win.

So I thought of joining the team, and the team was ready. We started working on the case that involved a lot of researching. We worked hours and hours on it, while studying for the exam, spent nights in front of the computer screen, until eyes got reddish and wet,until back aches forced us to hit the sack. More it got complicated, more we understood that it was no right time because the other competitors must be working full time on the case while we were killing our selves, part time and not to mention about stress and the pressure. But no one wanted to give up.

Researches were almost done and fractions of the final report were waiting for us, saved on our pc s, to put them together to complete the task.

It was the final day for the exam, final day for the report as well, but we managed to get few more hours, due to our exam. Normally we end a semester by having a blast with our friends. But we came home that day, after going out only for a cup of coffee with friends.

We worked from three places, our homes, sat in front of the screen for the final report around 9 o' clock in the evening and worked continuously, until it got done, around 7:30 in the morning, and it was mailed. 

I got a mail from my friend, few weeks later, along with a forwarded mail, asking me to ' pack up my stuff'. Forwarded mail was from organizing committee, mentioning that we had come in to top four, from over 160 teams from different countries.

We did it finally, after a striving a lot. But if we gave up that opportunity, because of the exam, we would be waiting, like most people, who complain about lack of chances.

I have talked to lots of people, who were with great ideas, which could lead them towards their dreams. some had business ideas, seemed like ones got potential, but they had decided to wait until they get enough money to put them into action, at once, perfectly, without failures. Some had needed to shift their jobs, for a better ones. They were waiting, until they get an offer, and they are waiting still. 

In this factory, that I'm having my training currently, there are workers, who are unsatisfied about their salaries, about not getting bonus and some other dozens of problems, which have occurred due to lesser production in these days.

But there's a machine helper, with a very little salary. He hires his three-wheeler, when he is working night shifts. He does some other businesses also. He never wastes his time to complain. He never waits until an opportunity comes and knocks his door to him wake him up, to start his journey towards peak. He brings coconut from his area and sell them to groceries in the town. His next goal was to buy a small lorry. I was very much pleased to see his courage and I helped him personally from finding him a buyer who could buy his whole supplies at once. That chance came to him, because he was going for it. 

" If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd"
  ~ Edward de Bono

Majority of people have plans on what to do. But all of them are waiting for an opportunity except few. Those few doesn't wait, but create them by themselves. Those few cross the end line, victoriously, while others are still yawning at the start line, until the weather become fine, until the fog clears off and until their opportunity comes. 



photo credit: Dufur Tee

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weaver bird.jpg

Weaver bird has got fame for its beautifully and neatly built nest. He is such an architecture that he design those houses with smoothly done, separated rooms.

The male bird selects a tree in a safe ground, which means mire, out of humans and other animals reach. Then he brings straws, strings and grass from its beak, which he uses as needle to weave them up to build the nest.

Nest is done finally. It hangs from a tiny, swinging but strong twig, with an opening from the bottom part, which brings extra protection to the nest. 

Now he is ready to brag about his new property with his spouse, because its time to mate. 

But the most interesting thing is, his family doesn't have to live in the dark, though they do not have electricity. Weaver bird is smart enough to get it done by fireflies. He catches fireflies, brings them in and sticks them to the walls of the nest, where they spend rest of their lives as light bulbs.

This incident can be seen among people also. If you are inquisitive enough, you'll see the weaver birds, who are smart, determined, strong willed and hard working, in this society. They dream, they plan, and start getting there, step by step, striving to bring their dreams into life.

" The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job"   ~ Michael Gerber 

Most of them are entrepreneurs. They start businesses and manage to get involve people, who are talented in handling certain processes, fireflies.

Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, is one of the well known weaver bird type person, which history can't forget.

Once, press mentioned that he was a fool and he sued against the press, claiming for a big compensation. He didn't have much of a  school education, no bachelors or masters degree. At the court case, lawyers from the press, asked him few basic questions about American history, geography and stuff like that, where he almost proved that Press was right and then it happened suddenly.

He proved that he was a weaver bird. At the end of those questions, he raised his brave voice.

He told, though he never knew the answers for those questions, by a single clap of his palms, he could summon people, not only who can answer those questions but also who are capable of answering to questions that, that lawyers didn't have a knowledge to ask even.

He got millions of dollars from the press as his compensation.

That story explains fireflies also. They don't like to work by themselves. They want someone else to boss them around. Because they do not like to take much troubles and pressures.They want to feel secured under someone else's wind.

So there are two paths to follow. We can either use our talents and be self employed or work for someone else and get paid. Though the first one is tougher, society never lacks risk takers and challenge lovers.


photo is by : Lip Kee


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lance1.jpg" Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into a life of action, and purpose" 
             ~ Lance Armstrong 

I'm not cycling fan. I've never been watching cycle races. Though I hardly know about this sport, a one name, probably the most spoken name, keeps echoing in my mind.

Lance Armstrong, the legendary man, with seven record shaking, history shocking ' Tour De France' titles in front of his name. If that wall in my room, which holds his poster, the only poster with a sports figure in there, can speak, it will brag about it. That is one of inspiring figures who has the capability of charging my cells in any hard situation.

These are few facts that I like about him.

Never giving up

Heaven called him when he was 25: advanced Choriocarcinoma spreaded to his abdomen, lungs and brain. He was under gone numerous tests. He was X-rayed.

He says " black means clear; white means cancer. My chest looked like a snowstorm."

But he's got pitched back. he came from the death, like a phoenix who rises up from the ash. The lessons, that he was taught by near death experience molded his life forever. 

" Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever."    ~ Lance Armstrong

For someone who underwent that situation, coming back to life again and competing in a         ' Tour De France' would be a great achievement. But he went from competing to winning 7 titles in a row, which sounds like a fairy tale more than a real life story. This steel hearted man never gives up.  

Ability to sing  while the hell is burning around

Mountain climbings are the hardest parts of the tour undoubtedly. Those ascents are the indicators,  which indicate your stamina and guts, which filter the winners. Climbing a peak, under changing weather, after pushing hours on the bike would suck off the moral of the strongest even.

One day, during 2000 tour, bikers get up to see freezing rain around. To make it worse, a mountain event is ahead, dreading the attitudes even before the start. A perfect hell and you know you are gonna burn. 

But Lance jumps out of his bed, dancing with joy. He trains under such situations. His muscles know the pain, and how to kick it off. His confidence never shakes. He loves challenges, he is strong, even at hardest points. 

Consistent and disciplined training makes him a steel man. 

Dedication that never wilts

Training consistently is something, which requires lots of discipline and dedication in some situations, keeping the consistency would cost you extra pounds of dedication.

In one gusty day, Armstrong is on bike, intending to ride up one of the hardest ascents, a misty hill, which can chill you to the bones.He climbs and comes to the peak, but not satisfied about his ride. He decides to climb the it up again. This time he masters the climb, while his breath makes ghosts with white vapor, while the mixture of snow and sleet whips his face.

That's the spirit. He is so strong and determined with his burning passion and enthusiasm that he can do the hardest climb twice in a weather, which no one can collects the nerve to get on the bike. 

Generous heart

If someone mentions about being generous, in a race like 'Tour de France', which covers over 2250 miles ,strongest cyclists of the world dying on bikes for 20 plus days, fighting till their last bit of strength, for gaining the epic yellow jersey, the dream of the every cyclist, then he must be kidding.

Once he climbs the the hardest mountain, in a tour. He sees some cyclist; a hard working guy, tries to open up a lead, but fails. But he tries again and again. Feeling guilty about taking all the fame to himself, Lance decides to slow down a bit and cheer the fellow to the finish line and to give him the win of that stage..

But it is the hardest stage, which strongest cyclist wins.No one would think about gifting it. Who knows whether some one get a second chance to cross the line as first?

Being frank always no matter its victory or defeat 

How will a person of fame; fame as the best, feel when he loses in a race, which all believe that he wins? 

His hopes for a gold medal fell apart in the Sydney Olympics 2000. He did at his best but failed. But he confronted media, admitting the truth, though he could have blamed his recent injuries or something. 

" I felt good" He told press. 

" I can't say that I had any major problems. No mechanical problems, no discomfort on the course, no problem with the neck. My preparation was good. I have no excuses. I gave everything and I got third place. The two riders in front of me were better and faster and stronger"

No wonder that he was the winner for seven consecutive years. He deserved that. 

To finish this up, I think its not Lance who won the yellow jersey, but jersey itself won him.

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holes that time runs away.jpg

In past few weeks, I noticed that my time vanishes from the clock, as if it has some holes. I planned my days and hours.But end of the day, dead lines were not met in the way I wanted. 

But I was doing really well some time back. So what is the reason? I think in those days, I happened to manage my time really well because the days were busier than these days and amount of things I had to do in a day was weighing me down, mercilessly. 

Whatever it was,I needed to achieve my full efficiency again and therefore I did a little survey to recognize the holes in my clock in which time runs away.

1.Hitting the snooze button

This is the one which I start my day with. When alarm starts shouting at the crack of dawn, I'm used to snooze it and several snoozes follows, which make me repent at the end. To tell you the extent that I have gone with that habit, now I can snooze it even without knowing I am doing it.

So what I'm gonna do with this is to keep the alarm in a place that I can't reach without getting down from the bed. I started it today. It works. But from the other end of the sleep, I have to go to bed early so that I can get a healthy sleep by the time alarm hits.

2.My talent in making excuses

This is one of the major issues with me. I've developed a subtle skill ;a skill that I am not proud of at all, to make excuses to flee from my 'to do' list at the end of the day after wasting my time on some less important things. The reasons I give are so fair that I myself  also  have to believe that I have no options but to let that tasks go. 

So my excuses have to go.They have to go today onwards. I've found this great quote and I wrote it with bold letters and paste on my wall as I can see from the computer desk, writing table and bed. 

" Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure"   ~ Don Wilder 

Not only that.I'm going to maintain a registry in case if I make any excuses. So at the end of the day I can see the excuses that I've make and then I can take possible actions to eliminate them,  I mean to annihilate them. 

3.Not identifying the ways that I can and can't score

When I plan my day, a big mistake that i do is not recognizing the things that I can and can't control. Some things totally depend on us and we can score from such tasks by finishing them earlier than its supposed to be finish, which means we get some bonus time. But some are not. 

For a example, if something I have to do is depending on some one I meet and the resources that I can access through him, then I can no longer take control over it since we can't predict about the things in that person's hand. 

In such cases I have to allocate some recovery time in advance, in case those tasks clash with the next tasks.

4.Procrastination in replying to emails

I read e-mails as soon as I receive them but most of the time i procrastinate replying. I've noticed how it steals my time. Because when you reply to your mails later, you have to go through them again definitely for make sure that you are missing any points in your reply. 

So today onwards, that habit has to say 'bye'. I'm going to read my mails whenever I have time to  reply them directly after reading them. That hole is patched. 

5.Clicking on the 'You Tube' shortcut 

In my chrome browser, I have a big short cut to ' You Tube'. When I need a break, I click on it instinctively. So what happens is, I end up with watching at least half a dozen of videos before I understand that I've lost because it always provide videos by recommending in a way that you can't say 'no'. 

So what can I do about this? Well.I don't want to say 'no' to 'you tube' totally. So I remove my 'You Tube' short cut( I hope now I wouldn't remember it all the time) and gonna put a limit to the number of videos that I watch for a one time. Two is enough.   

6.Wrong thing at a wrong time

I think I should rethink about tasks that I have to do and the times that I select for them. As an example, when I do things like blogging in the first part of the night, then its difficult to do my assignments in the mid night because I start to doze off. But by interchanging those two tasks, both see success because blogging is something which is full of excitement. So I have to rearrange the allocated times for the certain tasks in a way that efficiency would boost. 

And also I'm going to use my traveling time that is 1.5 hours a day, to make mind maps to my posts. 

So this is my discovery of the major holes in my clock. And I'm gonna patch them up in the ways that I've mentioned above. 

What about you ? What are your holes? Have you recognized them? What do you to over come those issues? Can you relate with mine ? I appreciate if you can share. 



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identity.jpg

An engineer lost his job, as management of the company decided to outsource the function of maintenance. He was specialist in his field with a lot of talents, added to the years of experience. He got a new job in some other company with a reasonable salary. But his knowledge was put to rust, in new company, as only a small fraction of it was being used.

It was not more than couple of months, when he got an emergency call from his old company, pleading him to check on some problem in a production line, which has lead to shut down of that line.

A monitoring system had failed, after spending a lot on installing that, in locating the error. And consultants, who were employed on identifying the source of the problem, also had failed and turned back, empty handed.

Finally they had no options left, except their former plant engineer. And he agreed to spend a weekend there, on the issue.

He spent couple of hours and found the root cause of the issue.He took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and put a sign on the machine part which caused trouble. Director was so happy that he bought him few drinks before he left.

Few days later company received his invoice. It said;

for one chalk sign                            $ 1
for knowing where to put it            $ 99,999 

There were no further queries. Bill was paid and engineer was re-employed with a larger salary.

This is not only about engineering but stays true to other professions also. This is one of the major points where people differs from one another.

Common things uncommonly well


" The success is to do the common things uncommonly well "
                                      ~ John D. Rockefeller 

If it is that simple, I mean if it's only doing the common things , why most of the people do not do it? In above story, while there were dozens of engineers, who could've hired for a lower salary, what made management get their former engineer for a larger salary? They could've easily found numerous engineers, but that man was a master. Engineers were common but that expertise was not. He breathe it and lived in that.

We, everyone of us has some talents as you've read or heard dozens of times. But they remain hidden until we unveil them, pull them to the surface. But your talent differs from mine and the most important thing is to identify what you are good at doing.

If you drive your 4WD jeep on a highway, you'll gain not much attention; you won't lead the race, since most of the other vehicles will overtake you. But you'll make people gape at you, if you drive it in the off road races. Because that's where you belong.

" If someone can write down your job description, they can find someone to do your job cheaper"
       ~ Seth Godin

We must add our own colors to our talents, that comes by practice. When talent aligns with what you do, your engine will transform into a turbo one. Then you can dive into depths that no one has ever dared to dive, in your field. You can redefine the task you do or your profession with  your talents and experiences, which shapes your identity.


What about fuel?


Let's say, you follows your path. But it's not enough.You are still not leading the race. Journey will be so hard and you'll be distracted and discouraged by the times that things go wrong. So what is it still pulling you back?

If the road is clear and if you are in a vehicle , that doesn't mean you are getting where you want to be. What about fuel ? It's fuel which takes you there, no matter how good your vehicle is. Whenever you are moving ahead, sharpening your talents and boosting your strengths, enthusiasm will be your fuel, which gives you the power you need to persist. 

" Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. "
    ~ Dale Carnegie

You'll create your identity, well shaped, which make you stand out of the crowd,  whenever you find out the person lives in side you, whenever you aware of his/her talents, when you choose that path to follow, supported by whole heart and soul, powered by enthusiasm. World will be calling your name, when you get there, creating your own identity, which can't be substituted.


photo is from : merinews
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learn4.jpg
If I say " We are living in a university " do you agree with me? Ok. I guessed that most of you wouldn't agree with me.But I'm gonna prove my words here.

Each day of our life we waste lots of gold. Well as I can remember someone has said that " time is gold". So how come we waste this much of time? Just think about it. How many hours do we waste in buses, trains or in traffic jams per a day? How much time we spend thinking about our dreams that haven't come true still?Being exhausted by working or something else how much of time we spend letting your mind wander where ever it feels like going?

The sad thing is all this time we are living in a university; a place full of resources even without knowing it. We have all sorts of knowledge around us. The knowledge we can use for betterment of our and others' lives. God has stored it in different forms. And he checks whether we are awoken enough to identify those sources, whether we are talented enough to absorb the knowledge that has been hidden. And if we are smart enough to locate this hidden treasure, he award us gifts that are really worth, success that we dream of. Let's see what these sources are.

Our experiences

Each day, we live our life through some incidents cause disappointments, frustrations as well as happiness. Despite they grieve our heart or make us happy, they become our experiences ultimately as they add to the book of history. 

But these experiences become beams of light we are in darkness sometimes, when we feel lost among several options or when we are in a dilemma with a confused mind. If we can be opened enough to our past experiences, we can see the lessons lie beneath them which are capable of helping us out. 

"Learn the past, watch the present and create future"

We can analyze our experiences. We can see the points where we have failed or which brought us misfortune. Once we see them, we can find the reasons for them. In that way we can use them to deal with our day to day life in a way which is quite useful.

Actually that's one of the reasons for elders being respected in the society.They have gone through lots of things in life and by their experiences they can see things deeper.

Learn about the people who are around

Some of us think that they do not have to deal with people much because their jobs are different. I think they are wrong.

People who do businesses or jobs in fields like human resources management have to connect with the people directly. But if you are doing a job in some technical field then also you have to deal with the people because you are recruited by them and your products are finally use by them. And in our life we all have to move and deal with people. So the knowledge of successfully dealing with people and understanding of their behaviors are really useful to all of us.

Dealing with people, it's like both science and an art. Some one can tell you that people are like  this and that. But if you want to swim, you have to get into the pool. That means we have to learn about them by dealing with them. 

Most of the times we are surrounded by people. At our work places, in our schools, in the road and in the market place we have to move with them.

So why don't we use these opportunities to learn about them? Why don't we observe them closely during the times we waste by day dreaming? Listen to them and pay them your attention. Let them feel that they are special. You'll unveil the wonders of human behaviors and you'll have the keys to their hearts.

Learn from the people who are around

People who are around us are like closed books that are walking. You must open them up and read. You'll gain a huge knowledge. Because after living this life up to here they must be rich in various kinds of experiences and knowledge. 

I can remember the days that I used to listen to my grandpa on a sofa in the living room. He was closing to 90th flag and his stories about his younger age were always full of wonders and colors. In those days as a teenager I enjoyed them. But its now only I realize the knowledge about life which stored in each one of those stories.  

Books and time

Books are the best friends that we can ever have. They can leave us wiser and experienced than the people we used to be when we start reading. 

All of us have heard about the great Russian writer 'Maxim Gorky'. Unlike other children who were at his age, he didn't get a chance to get a school education. He had to pass a childhood which was full of miseries. He worked hard, harder than most of us can imagine to make a living. So how come he became one of the greatest writers and a thinker that world has ever seen? Books. His habits of reading books and learning from the people he met did the magic for him.

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Make the best use of your time. Read as much as possible.It increases your ability to concentrate while booming your knowledge. If you think you don't have enough time since you are busy, do this simple exercise.

Take a piece of paper and write down the useful things that you have done through out the day. And try to put the time duration for each of those task approximately. Add the number of hours you slept and add the durations of your meals also. Then subtract the total from 24. You'll see the number of hours you have wasted. 

Finally we can come to the conclusion that if we want to learn, there are lots of resources always. So I think I've proved my words above. Let's be mindful and let's learn. 
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I was watching an episode of documentary called ' Life' by BBC. That was about hunters, the smart hunters of the jungle. Even proud looking lions and stylish cheetahs were there, it's this little fellow attracted my mind called ' Stoat'.

It's a very flexible, agile animal which can be found almost everywhere throughout the northern temperate, subarctic and arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America.

The guy was getting ready for a hunt. He was giving witty looks at something and reaching for it carefully, quietly. I thought it was a mouse and screen hadn't shown the animal yet.

Suddenly camera was turned towards his target.

" Oh! My gosh! "

Target was at least 3 - 4 times larger than the stoat. It was a huge rabbit.

And the game was begun as our guy jumped. Rabbit started to run at its top speed. It was running rounds across the grassy land where it was having its supper. It was taking sharp bends to miss the stoat but it wasn't that easy.

Then only I noticed that there were dozens of other rabbits, with watchful eyes and ready to run at any moment. And most interesting thing was during his chase, stoat happened to pass several rabbits those were close to him but seemed like he didn't care. His eyes were glued to the rabbit he chose and that was that.

Still the rabbit was far away from him and I thought he would have to give up. But it was not him.

Chase was there for sometime and slowly stoat started closing in. Finally he managed to reach for a paw and rabbit happened to slow down as the stoat bit its paw. Then he clung on to rabbits' bod and slowly reached his target, the neck and the final bit was fatal.

I was amazed by his focus and discipline. All that time his eyes were on the rabbit but he could have been distracted by other rabbits. If he started chasing after another one he would have to stay hungry because then he would have to start the chase from the beginning no matter how close they were, rabbits are good runners.

In that way he hunted down the rabbit which was 3 - 4 times large than him. 

Unlike the stoat, most of us are running after several rabbits at a time. The result is quite clear. We end up with being tired and empty handed. What are these rabbits ? Those are our tasks in day to day life.

The complain most of us make is that 24 hours is not enough for us to finish our ' must do' s in a day. But the truth is it's more than enough. We run after this rabbit and that rabbit until our time is gone.

How did they do that?

You and me have 24  hours per a day. The owner of the world famous ' Virgin' brand, Richard Branson owns more than 360 companies. But still he  manages to reply for the all mails which send to him by his employees,  by himself while looking after all the other businesses. But does he have 48 or 72 hours per a day ? I doubt that.

All of you know about Leo Babuta @ Zen Habits. He is a full time blogger with massive 1, 60, 000+ subscribers and a writer who's been published both online and offline. In his early days he had to work at his 9 - 5 as well as writing to his blog. Yet he managed to post 3 - 5 times a week plus 1 - 3 guest posts on other blogs. And I didn't mention about working as a free lance writer for magazines. And apart from that he had a big family to care about with 6 kids. So how did he do all these things in 24 hours ?

One rabbit at a time

What makes all these difference? It's the power of focusing. Remember the stoats' rule, One rabbit at a time. If we can focus our mind on an one task at a time, it will boost our efficiency.

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You love examples.don't you? Imagine you are writing a blog post and your browser stays minimized with inbox opened. Suddenly you get a mail.So you stop writing to peep into inbox. But after reading the mail you decide that you can reply to the mail later because you have this post to finish. Then you move to the post again but by then you've lost your flow so now getting back on the flow consumes your precious time. And when you start replying to that mail later, you find you have to go through it again to reply. If you open the mail after finishing the post it will save you  a lot of time.

" I had limited time for writing. But I blocked that time off, in the early morning, during lunch, and a little after work. And I learned that I had to cut out all the distractions during this time, and focus, and just write."

That's how Leo Babuta has mentioned about the way he used to focus.

Improve the ability to concentrate

We must improve our ability to focus along with some discipline. It will help us to stay focused without distractions. There are some simple methods to improve concentration of your mind. Simple meditation methods can help you a lot with concentration. I tried this and it is really easy to follow. It worked for me. Try it and it's totally for FREE. 

Be determined to have some disciplines and to continuously practice on concentration. The more you practice on focusing more you live.


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Simple acts of kindness

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In that night he understood the power of simple acts which can change lives, which can create big differences.

My uncle works for Commercial Bank and he is the responsible person for ATM machines and networks. Always he has to travel around the country to work on issues of networks.

It was almost midnight and he was working on some issue in a ATM machine at Polonnaruwa branch. He was concentrating on what he was doing and there came this bloke who wanted to know the time which the machine would be corrected.

But unfortunately he couldn't tell him an exact time because it was some serious fault. The guy was crestfallen and my uncle had asked him the reason for being so desperate. There was no other ATM machines in the area and and he needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible because his mom was badly ill at there. But he didn't have any money in hand at that night to go there.

My uncle was so upset that he took his wallet out and checked. He too didn't have much money in hand because a vehicle and all the other facilities were provided to him by his bank. He asked that guy to took those money he had. For few seconds there were mixed feelings on his face; worry, amazement and gratitude. Then he had thanked him and left. 

Few weeks later my uncle was asked to meet his boss. Do you know why?

That man who was amazed by the generous act in that night has reported about his act to the head office and it was thoroughly appreciated by the bank management.

That man could get to his mom on time and he was really impressed about the bank and its officers. It was a very little amount of money but his act won't be forgotten.

" Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless"  

                                                                                                  ~ Mother Teresa

Some simple acts can create big impacts. It depends on our will to help or give. They always have the potential to change things because through them, common languages to universe;love and affection, speaks. These languages can change and create impressions and change people and their hearts.

Have you thrown pebbles into still waters ever ? Those curvy waves spreads while getting bigger and bigger. Simple acts of kindness are like that. Sometimes they bring solace to dozens of hearts.

Though these acts are small they are wrapped with generosity and kindness. That's why they have all this power to change things, creating differences. 

We always come across the situations which  we can give out ourselves in our day to day life. But must sensitive enough to see them and act. Share your smiles of kindness with world out side.That would light up the souls of some people and they'll feel it as the light which shines from the heaven on their lives. 
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