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

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.

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. 

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

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.

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. 

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.

photo is from : merinews

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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 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.

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. 

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.

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 ?

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.

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.

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

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.

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