Law of the Garbage Truck

I recently stumbled over this really interesting story in one of my emails. It surprisingly changed my whole perspective and made my realize something. I Hope it does the same to You.

   One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.

We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches. The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly.

Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself

   It is easy to spend much of your day beating up on yourself for past mistakes. We analyze that relationship that failed and relentlessly review all the things that we did wrong, or we look at that business decision that cost us so much and dwell on the things we could have done right. It is not going to get you any better. Once and for all stop being so hard on yourself. You are a human being and human beings have been designed to make mistakes. As long as you don’t keep making the same mistakes again and have a good judgment on letting your past serve you, you will be on the right track. Accept them and move on.

Many times we try to change ourselves by wanting to develop certain qualities and character that we see in others.

Lighten Your Baggage

  Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted.  The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. "How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.                                                                  

All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. 

Give Time, Time

We all have heard this famous quote,”Time is the best healer.”

I want to emphasize on it’s importance.

It happens to all of us, when we are going through difficult and negative situations  in our lives, we want it to get over soon…really soon. But after it is over and done with, those memories still remain fresh in our minds to some extent and we are often reminded of those situations which only makes us feel terrible and we go into our negative zones again. Like I mentioned in the previous article,”Don’t dwell on your past”, it will only hold you back from pursuing any of your current or future events. Learn from it so you don’t make the same mistakes again and you keep moving forward.

It is only a matter of time that our (negative) past events fade away from our minds. For some, it may take a month, maybe longer,

Always Honor Your Past

Every second you dwell on your past, you steal from your future. Every minute you spend focusing on your problems, you take away from finding your solutions. And thinking about all those things that you wish never happened to you is actually blocking all the things you want to happen from entering into your life. It makes no sense to worry about past events or mistakes unless you want to experience them for a second time. Instead, use the lessons you have learned from your past to rise to a whole new level of awareness and enlightenment. In other words, your past experiences are one of your best teachers. Be Grateful that you went through those tough times as those event have made you the person you are today.

Finding Your Life's Purpose

 “Your time is limited; don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

In essence, nearly all people work towards an ultimate goal towards being happy in life. With such a simple and beautiful thought that can help you achieve your dreams and ambitions, why is it that being happy is still a farfetched idea for some of us?

Often we convince ourselves that life will be better after we have graduated from college, or sincerely dedicated ourselves to a job that we truly enjoy, or get married and so on – the cycle can be endless. In doing so, not only are you escaping from the beauty of the small moments life has to offer, but you are delaying your happiness – from experiencing blissful happiness right now AND even in the future!

Sit back. Close your eyes. Breathe. Think again.

Three Principles to Help You Achieve What You Want

 It so happens, many times we don’t stay committed to some things as we planned to, or rather we give up too soon. Why?

Either because we were not motivated enough or  it was not all that important to us.

Allow me to get straight to the point.

I want to share with you three principles that will help you achieve what you really want...only if your are serious about achieving them.

1.    VISION

This is where most dreams are born. I call it a blueprint in the mind. Without a Vision, you will go nowhere. It is important that you see what you can’t see and you will achieve the impossible. You want something so bad that you naturally keep thinking about it, you are so charged up initially and later give up. Don’t let that happen to you.  Do not let other's push you down. Stay grounded, stick to what you really want, believe in yourself no matter what. Write a list of what you really want to achieve, put it up on your wall or pictures of them. It will keep you focused at all times.

Opinions Don't matter

It doesn’t matter what other people think of you. All that matters is what you think of yourself. We waste so much energy worrying about the opinions of others, wanting to be liked and accepted and needing to please. Going by other’s opinions restricts us to being who we really are. We go into this world where we become slaves of others by letting their opinions control us. Real personal mastery is all about rising above social approval... to self-approval.

Respect Yourself.

Respect yourself for who you really are. Listen to your heart and mind. Live in your own world, not other’s. Make a promise to yourself to close doors to other’s opinions, of course not to all but to where it does not apply. Living by your values, being authentic, running your own race and doing your own dreams will help define your true character. You will not only feel confident but also be proud of yourself and gain more respect from others.

Why worry what anyone else thinks or feels or says anything about you or your dreams. Remember, Success isn’t a popularity contest. And at the end of each day, what matters most is whether you were true to yourself.

Stay open minded.

Vishal D

Commit to Reading

How often do you find yourself reading an interesting book that changes your way of thinking? Or rather motivates you to do something you have never done before? Doesn't it feel great when we get ourselves into that reading mode, our whole perspective changes and the speed at which thoughts run in our heads trying to get in sync with different authors trying to understand what they want to convey.

 Reading is something we all do on a daily basis, but what matters is what you read. Does it affect you in any way? If so, how?

Decide to Be Decisive

We make so many decisions in a given day, but what matters most is what influences us and how we make them. I am sure some of you are highly influenced by mutual decisions, ie: consulting others for our decisions.

Many of us struggle with the process of decision making at times. Whether at home, or at work, sometimes we become paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong decision and this fear will often leads us to avoid making decisions promptly and we end up making our decisions based on other people’s opinions or advice.

For example, when someone asks, “Where do you feel like going for lunch?”

You might reply:

“Wherever you like.”

“Your choice.”

“Anything is fine.”

We often give dismissive responses which  also doesn’t answer the question asked and this becomes a habit of “indecision”. This habit of indecision can become an  obstacle in achieving our most important goals in life. Think about it.