Peace in the midst of the challenges

There was a king offered a prize to the artists who would paint the best picture to represent “PEACE”. Many artists tried and only two artists came for the final round.The king looked at both artists’ picture.

One picture was of a calm lake surrounded by peaceful mountains with green trees. Overhead there was a blue sky with white clouds.The picture looked cool and everyone felt this picture would win the prize.

The other picture also had mountains, but with rough surface and plain. The overhead was the sky with dark clouds, from which rain fell and lightning was also shown. This did not represent peaceful at all. But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall, a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush, a  bird had built the nest.The bird was sitting in perfect peace in midst of the lightning and raining.

The king chose the second picture and surprised all. He explained that peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise and trouble. Real peace means to be in the midst of all those troubles and still be calm in the heart. 

Moral of the story is that how we maintain our coolness and peace at heart amidst all the troubles and challenges in life.Some times we are disturbed due to external factors.Real maturity is being calm despite external challenges and this is what we need to learn.

Why is patience required for development ?

      

One of the most challenging tasks for self at a personal level or leaders in a business environment is to reach next level growth by changing self or inspiring others to change. The strange nature of the change management process is that it requires continuous effort on nurturing and the result may not be visible immediately. Without knowing the change management process and with impatience mentality, most of us, either give up the effort or getting into inferiority feeling or spoiling the relationship or environment.

        As you might have aware of a bamboo tree, it is different from other trees as it does not grow in the usual fashion. While most of the trees start growing steadily from the beginning, this Chinese bamboo tree does not even break the ground for the first four years. Then on the fifth year, this tree starts to grow at an amazing growth rate. It is said that within four to five weeks time, it even grows to 90 feet height. Actually, during the first four years, growth is not visible externally, but the tree has internally grown and made the roots strong. This nature reveals a lesson on our growth efforts on self-development or on other people development.

        Whatever efforts we put on self-development or people development, it works internally and needs time to be visible externally. Here the key point is your patience to go through the process makes you realize the result, especially on self development or people development.
       

Life is all about the experience of it

Three friends went inside the forest and they lost the direction to reach back to their home village. They tried to find their way out, but none of them agreed to go one path together.

The first man said, “I use to listen to my intuition, hence I will go left direction to reach home” and he left.

The second man said, “Logically, we have to follow through our past, hence I will follow the same path as we reached “and he left to follow the old path.

The third man says himself “why should we explore different options when we are not sure, so let me climb up the tall tree and take a better look around, I will find the shortest path to my home “and he did so and found the path, went ahead, reached the destination. He thought the other people are not brilliant and smart enough like him.

Eventually other friends also reached the home, but with different experiences on the way. The first person met new people, made them as friends, with their help, he reached home. The second person had to fight a pack of wild animals and managed to reach home, but he learned how to survive in the forest.
In essence, all had reached the destination, but with different experience. Our life is also like that, we may take different decision in life which leads to different paths, at the end, what matters is the experience and perspectives we gain from the life. Let us enjoy the experience whatever the path we choose!

Environment Influences

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people are not used to an environment where excellence is expected”. Steve Jobs

    As you may aware that Koi fish is belonging to the ornamental fish category and generally used for decorative purposes in outdoor ponds. This fish has the ability to survive and adapt to any climate.The interesting characteristic is that it grows in accordance to where it lives. For example, if we keep the Koi fish in the bowl, it grows few centimeters length, and if it is in a larger tank, it grows to twice that length or in a pond, it grows to one foot or place it a large lake and it may grow over a meter long. To sum up, its growth depends on which environment it lives.**

     I think, this applies to human being as well. Our growth or ability to leverage the potential depends on which atmosphere or environment, we are living. The most influencing environments could be home and  professional environment. Home environment helps the child to pick up the right values and beliefs.
Especially in a professional environment, the learning ability and growth potential depends on the organization we work for and the leaders / managers we work with. The organizational environment enhances the person's potential and allows them to stretch. 

     To sum up, if leaders / managers create a learning environment wherein the individual learning experience, exposure can be maximized. Likewise, the parent is influencing the child to take on the values and beliefs from home environment. If it is so, is it not a responsibility for seniors to create a positive environment and facilitate the development of people?

**source: 50 stories &snippets for conference & workshop presentations by David Williams

Adversity

“Every adversity, every failure carries with it the seeds of an equal or greater benefits”-Napoleon Hill

         Adversity or difficult times happen in our life at any moment. The difficult moments can be losing job suddenly, losing dear ones, losing all earned money etc. Those moments make our life upside down and literally we may not have clue what would happen next. As it is beyond our control, we can not avoid and only option is to undergo the experience.

          Actually, those tough times only teach us a lot of valuable lesson about life. It brings loved one closer to us than ever before. It brings us a lot of time to introspect our past mistakes, which leads to difficult times. It makes us to think to handle the future different way .It brings out our real divine power within us and rise up as stronger than ever.


           Let us look back your life; you might have come across so many difficult times in different point of time. Despite all those ,today you are .This is due to the powerful learning’s , courage, will power, divine energy you got from those tough times. Similarly, you look around any nation, which had undergone many tough times in the past and today it stands tall because adversity makes them stronger than before.

          Hence, adversity need to be looked at as part of life, that also will pass over a period of time .Real happiness is not in good times and it is on how we manage tough times and come up .Great time ahead after every adversity. That is the Law of Nature!

Acceptance Mindset

“The first step toward change is awareness.the second step is acceptance.”—Nathaniel Branden

          One of the qualities of highly matured people is “Acceptance Mindset”. Acceptance mindset means first accepting anything as such  without resistance. That can be accepting the people as such, accepting the situation as such, accepting the self as such etc .Once accept as such , then they will  do the response or do the corrective mechanism to improve.

      For example, when you accept some of your bad habits or rude behavior as such, you may think of an improvement. When you do not admit, always tend to fault others for your habits or behaviors.

       When  you accept the other’s behavior as such in your professional environment, then you think of modifying your response to each person, else you always get into firefighting, arguing or blaming others.

       When you accept that your business is not going well, you will think changing strategy to improve, else , you cite the reason as government’s failure, Economy, your own employees etc.


      The point is to accept anything first, that is reality. Once you accept, your mind will work on improvements or alternative. Once you resist to accept, you are going against the nature  and it gives back to you in terms of losing temperament, spoiling  health and  quality of  relationship etc...Hence, accept first and cultivate the habit of acceptance and act !

Start Now

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”-Arthur Ashe

        Everyone wants to lead a life with achievements in a profession or business, maintaining cordial relationship with others, healthy body and mindset. But in reality, not all will have the right environment  and opportunity right from childhood to channelize their energy towards achieving the above. Only a few gifted people have the blessings from childhood, For others, it may take life long process. During the process, some people give up, eventually contented, or even complain about age, circumstances, and others.

        If you look at one of the most divine creations, “Butterfly” which everyone likes for its colorful wings and shape. In its life cycle, it evolves as butterfly only at the fourth stage by passing over the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis stages. However, it completes its lifecycle with the transformation from ugly caterpillar to beautiful butterfly. What matters is a transformation in a lifetime, no matter at what timeline it happens in life.

Hence,

If you have not managed your business so far, start now to transform now…
If you have not managed your relationship well with others, start now to renew it…
If you have not managed your finances properly, start now to reorganize
If you have not managed your health, start now to rejuvenate or look into it.


        Every day is a possibility of positive change in life.No point in regretting about the past and complaining the environments or others.Start now for new beginnings!

Possibilities

“The Future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.”- John Sculley

         Sometimes we are skeptical about the future and think that the status quo will continue as such either business growth or financial status or even professional growth  or quality of life.During such time, “Possibilities thinking” may be useful to get confidence or overcoming the skeptic mindset.

        For example, observe any successful people from business, sports, media, politics, etc., You may realize that their background were ordinary or much worse than yours. How they became successful is that they believed themselves. Before believing themselves, they think the possibilities of becoming successful or achieving something great. They believed in the possibilities of changing their destiny better than they were. They believed in the possibilities of tomorrow, which would be  better than today.

        Similarly, look at the developments in all the fields like connectivity of the world through internet, mobile communication, affordability of transportation modes, education, healthcare inventions, etc which was not imaginable a few   decades ago. Today it has become reality as  someone was thinking about the possibilities changing from better to best.

         In a nutshell, what was not possible yesterday becomes reality today and it is the result of possibilities thinking of humanity. Hence, think about new possibilities in your life either business turnaround, personal transformation or improving the quality of life, it will become reality with right actions!  

Appreciating the value

“Light can be understood only with the wisdom of darkness."--Ka Chinery

         Most of the time, we use to approach the aspects of life as granted. The reason could be we   get anything easily and we do not see much value in it. Our tendency is while everything goes right, we assume that it happens because of our brilliance or effort and hesitate to appreciate the giftedness.

         In order to balance this mindset only, nature always plays with balanced and equanimity principle. To appreciate the value of life and its blessings, challenges or difficulties are given.

For example,

When we get sick, we appreciate the value of fitness and respect the physical body....

When we loss materialistically, we appreciate the value of hard earned money....

When we are alone, we appreciate the value of relationships....

When we are undergoing the tough times, we appreciate the value of mental strength and self-development....

We appreciate the value of light when we are in darkness...

         It does not mean just to appreciate the value of life, one need to undergo all the troubles in life. With a little bit of awareness, gratitude and balanced approach, we can appreciate  everything that happens in our life.

Past # Future

“Past does not equal to future.” –Anthony Robbins

      Everyone may experience  setbacks in life either in business or in professional endeavor or in financial aspects. But how quickly we learn from the setbacks and change the strategy is all about real growth.By nature of the design, no one  will be going through continuous success  or continuous failure throughout the life.

      Most of us have a tendency to get into  the hopelessness emotion  during setbacks  and  too much celebration or noisy  during success.  Remember the phrase “Past does not equal to future “ in both good and bad times.

If your past is painful:

Remember past does not equal to the future. Learn from the failures or pain, change the strategy  and approach the life with the new way. The new approach will give different results..

If your past is so successful :

Remember past does not equal to the future. Do not be too complacent about the past. Feel good about the past, be grateful and accelerate  the strategy for being more successful or sustain the success.

Since the law of nature is “ Change “ and it cannot be avoided, Hence, whatever happens, enjoy the experience, welcome the future with confidence and hope as past does not equal to the future!

Emotional Setback

“If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance. -Ralph Marston

          A life changing events at any age affects us in many ways. Many people get upset  and take a long time to recover. Few people who are strong willed  and able to console themselves, they even become stronger  than ever before. Sometimes emotional setbacks bring  new hope and possibilities.

       For example, no one would forget the tsunami 2004 and its effect  on the east coast areas of south India. One of the victims of the tsunami  is Parameswaran, an engineer at ONGC  and his wife Choodamani. The tsunami turned their family upside down as it killed their three children and seven relatives. The couple  broke down and  even  thought of committing suicide. But something sparked their thought process and  they realized that there must be greater  cause for which they were alive.  They began to provide  shelter and food   for the children  who lost their parents in the tsunami  and  eventually  started a trust Nambikkai (meaning HOPE). Today (after 10 years), they look after  37 children and they found the purpose of their life. 

Key insights from the example:

a) Accept the setbacks, the flow of life  as such, as we may not know the purpose behind it..

b) In any adversity, there may be some positiveness..

c) Sometimes emotional setbacks turn into new possibilities as we do not know the big picture of life!!

Being generous-an attitude towards happiness

“Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you will not have to hunt for happiness.”--William Gladstone

          One of the way of being happy is to be always in generous mindset. By definition, generous can be understood as “freely giving or sharing money, time, knowledge or any valuable resources of yours to others”.

          Being in generous mindset brings not only happiness to self; it improves the quality of relationship with others and to the world. In today’s liberalized economy, most of us are leading a better life than our parents, even then, the mind is filled with POVERTY mentality only. Due to this mindset, life is looked upon with  insecure and fearful. In a family, the split happens between blood relationship over family assets  is mainly due to lack of abundance mentality or lack of generous attitude.

          But by nature, more you give yourself to others, you get more energy  or resources to take care of yourself. With  generous attitude, life will be perceived as opportunities. When does  one behave as  generous? Only when he feels  that he has sufficient  enough  to give it others or  when feels that he has the capability to acquire more when required. This abundance feeling brings generous attitude.

          You can experiment this yourself. For example, if you use to give  Rs x  as tips to waiter  at restaurants, next time you experiment  by giving Rs 2X;  experience the feeling you are undergoing  and look the reality of wealth erosion fear. Similarly  experiment  by spending  2X time with your family members than usual; experience the feeling you are undergoing and look the reality of work productivity fear.

          Be generous in giving your resources to others and you will attract good things in life!

Chinese Bamboo Tree

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”-Napoleon Hill 

        Have you heard about the Chinese bamboo tree ?. This is different from other trees  as it does not grow in the usual fashion.. While most of the trees start growing steadily over a period of time, this Chinese bamboo tree does not even  break through the ground for the first four years.. Then on the fifth year, this tree starts to grow at an amazing growth rate.. It is said that within four to five weeks time, it even grows to 90 feet height. Actually, during the first four years, growth is not visible externally, but the tree has internally grown and making the roots strong.

       This nature’s creation reflects about our life. Sometimes, our life works   this way. You may be  working  hard  for your business growth  or professional growth or improving a relationship  for  weeks, months or even years and you may not even see  much significant progress. All of a sudden, you realize a significant transformation or growth in your business results and quality of relationship.Here the key point  is your patience to go through the process or faith on the positive outcome or perseverance  in your effort makes you realize the result.

       Any new initiative or effort  in business or even people development or relationship building takes time.. All it requires patience and faith in the outcome..

      Be patience in all your endeavors, keep making your effort and  you attract the good things in life!!