Best Christmas/New Year MP3 Gifts

Monday, January 31, 2005

DRIVING LESSONS (PART II)--ENJOYING IT ALL THE WAY

January 30, 2005

Dear Reader,

I was taking my children to our ancestral home. It was an old house on a mountain slope beside a creek. It was surrounded by pine forest. At this time of year it must be covered by a thick layer of snow. My seven year daughter and five year son were visiting the home for the first time.

No sooner had I put my car in gear than the children started talking excitedly.

“I will climb the tallest pine tree and gather the pine cones,” said my son.

“I will jump into the creek,” replied my daughter.

“I will ski down the slope and oh, I will enjoy the snow so much,” he exulted.

They kept on talking and enjoying every bit of it till the panoramic scenery of approaching mountains caught their attention.

“Oh, see the little water falls! How beautiful they are! Daddy, can we stop, I want to see how cool the water is,” asked my son, little expecting me to stop.

“See, see, there is a hare in the grass. No, there are two.”

They kept on talking and enjoying every bit of it till we reached the home. As for me and my wife, we were tired and bored by driving and the constant talk of the children. The drive was routine for us. We hardly cast glance left or right out of the side windows. We too were looking forward to enjoying at the ancestral home. But we were not in the habit of enjoying the scenery on the way.

The children jumped down the SUV and started gamboling and laughing and throwing snow balls on each other.

They were happy even before they had reached here or seen it. Even if the mountains and snow were different they would have still enjoyed it. They had pre-decided to enjoy it. They had pre-arranged their mind to enjoy. Their happiness had very little to do with the outer reality. Happiness was in their mind.

Not only were they happy on reaching here or on the way thinking of it, they were happy in arriving here also. They were happy during the journey. They enjoyed thoroughly the road, the grass, the trees, the scenery, the mountains, and the snow. They enjoyed the way to the destination. Though they looked with anticipation and joy towards the destination, they enjoyed every bit of the journey to the destination. They really lived the interval between starting and reaching.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

Monday, January 17, 2005

DRIVING LESSONS (PART I)--OTHERS ARE ALSO DRIVING FINE

January 16, 2005

Dear Reader,

My secretary had misplaced the Jovorosky case file. My boss was a pest. My colleagues were a bunch of inexperienced morons. I was in a rage. I left office lamenting how everybody around me was a big incompetent fool.

I eased my car once I reached the highway. Traffic was, as usual going at a high speed both ways in multiple lanes. It was high speed but smooth. It sort of acted as soothing balm on my brain.

Who were the drivers of these cars, SUVs and motorcycles? I realized that one of them may be my incompetent secretary or colleague. In fact, they were a motley crowd—educated and uneducated, police officers and criminals, smart and lazy fellows, intelligent and imbecile. It would not have inspired any confidence in me if they were working in my office as my colleagues. But they seemed to be driving fine!

Their driving concerned me vitally. In fact, my life was in their hands. If any of them made a wrong move, a terrible accident could occur in which I could perish. But there are surprisingly very few accidents on the roads.

I cannot support low witted, lazy, ignorant people. They give me a lot of headache and tension. But the same people are driving fine on the roads. Perhaps they are doing fine in the world also. It is me who is unnecessarily getting tense. After all the world is running fine. Not only around me but in very very far flung regions also. It is doing fine without my guidance. It has always been doing fine and will be doing fine. The people have always been, are and will be capable of doing fine. I need not worry on account of people. I have to worry about myself. I should be driving fine and everything around me would be fine.

I remember when I was learning to drive. When I used to get discouraged, my instructor friend used to say, “See, every Tom, Dick and Harry is driving. People less smart than you, people less educated than you, and people less active than you are driving. If they can, you can also.

Since then, I have observed, if a man or woman can do something, another also can do it. Perhaps do it better. If one person can drive, millions of others can too. If one athlete can run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds other can also. In sports all records are broken sooner or later.

Millions of people are driving fine around me. Many people we just reject without seeing—because of our prejudice against sex, race, color, religion, language and age, etc. Others we reject on seeing on above grounds but also on the basis of looks. We so often reject people who are not handsome or beautiful. But when it comes to driving on the roads, looks do not count, as, of course, sex, race, color, etc. are also irrelevant.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

Monday, January 10, 2005

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART III

January 9, 2005

On top of your New Year Resolutions were some such things:

To get up at five.
To go for jogging.
To write for two hours.
Etc.

You were celebrating the Old Year Night till the early hours of New Year. You went to bed nearly at 2 a.m. You are fast asleep till 10 a.m. if not till mid-day. You have slight hang over. It is difficult even to get up what to talk of jogging or writing for two solid hours. Your New Year Resolutions have been broken on the very first day! The virginity of the resolutions has gone. They have lost their charm. In any case, you now realize, there is nothing new in the New Year. You are the same. The world is the same. Why bother with the New Year Resolutions!

To keep your New Year Resolutions and motivation, it is, therefore, very necessary to guard against the factors which kill them in the infancy itself. Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Exceptions do make the rule and one swallow does not make a summer. New Year Resolutions are not “All or Nothing” affair. However, the New Year Resolutions are so dear to us, like a shining brand new car, that often if we fail to observe one of them, we get very disheartened and leave them totally. But that is the first thing we have to guard against. Already when we make New Year Resolutions we make them as if we are living in an ideal world. We have already crammed into our resolutions what no human being will be able to accomplish in ten years. So, don’t worry if some of them are broken on the very first night or very early in the year. What is important is your determination to keep as many New Year Resolutions as possible. Just keep at it. If jogging is broken for a week or month, restart it. If your diet has broken for a week or month, restart it. Come back to your New Year Resolutions.

2. So, you have re-committed yourself to your New Year Resolutions. Now is the time to revise them. Your New Year Resolutions were theoretical only. They lacked practical reality. You put too much into it. Even if you work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you would not be able to do it. You set too many diverse aims to accomplish—you want to excel at job, you want to be a good family member, you want to be the best baseball player, the best writer, the best singer, and so many other things. You want to go on a world tour, you want to learn music, you want to practice Yoga, etc. Well, your intentions are honorable, but not practical. Prune your list. If something is not going to be done any way, why not cut it from your list now. You can add it later, if you want to. Revise your list periodically.

3. You broke your resolution of going to gym early in the morning. Did you regret? Did your heart break? Did you loathe yourself whole day? If not, the resolution was not worth the paper it was written on. Your heart was not in it. It was not an obsession. See obsessive chatterboxes, smokers, drinkers. No harm making them your role models! Just change the activity. Your New Year Resolutions should be like obsessions.

4. Do you remember in your New Year Resolutions, in Three Greatest, you had put hard work, discipline, and self-control? Of all the great qualities, why you chose only these three? Because they are the most difficult. First, listen to a story. A man prayed to God for many years. The God became happy and asked him for a boon. The man asked for immortality. The God gave him a bottle of nectar and told him to drink it every morning and evening. The contents of the bottle will never finish. As long as he drank the nectar regularly he would not die. The man kept at the routine for some time. But then he got bored with it. One day he neglected to drink the nectar. He died the same day! To keep the routines is very difficult. But in life and the world all great things are routine—the sun rises routinely, the heart beats routinely, we breathe routinely, and so on. In fact other vital activities are also to be performed every day—drinking of water, taking food, and sleeping etc. On the other hand, if you are in the habit of doing something, like getting up early, you will keep on doing it happily and without any effort. This teaches us two great lessons: first, have discipline and self-control to keep your New Year Resolutions and, secondly, keep on repeating your affirmations and resolutions. They work only when you keep on repeating them. As mentioned above, even life depends on repetition of heart beat and respiration, and so many other things.

5. What is www? World Wide Web! What is Internet? Interconnected computers! In both of these the concept of connection is paramount. Everything is connected with everything, so to say. And this connection for web pages is through links. So, in your personal life also link. Link one thing with another and you will never fail to do it. If you decide to drink at least ten glasses of water per day, which you should for good health, link drinking of water with routine activities of day-to-day life—drink two glasses first thing early in the morning on getting up, one before breakfast, one before leaving for office, one on reaching office, one each after you go to bathroom, one a couple of hours after lunch, one before leaving for home, one on arriving at home, one after freshening up, one a couple of hours after super, one before retiring. You will easily drink a dozen of glasses of water this way. Link getting up early to playing a game, and you will not be able to even sleep in anticipation of next morning’s game!

6. Don’t put your resolutions to only in a computer file and forget all about it. Write the resolutions in a diary, on your desktop (StickIt software will do it. Get it at http://www.singerscreations.com/Files/SIFix.exe ), in your Note in Outlook or other program, in you screen saver, on your fridge, on the wall of your room, etc. If you are of shy type and don’t want others to know that you are in the self-improvement business (it is strange, a smoker is not embarrassed, but an adult man who want self-improvement is sometimes laughed at!).

7. Repeat New Year Resolutions on waking up, in your prayers, and before retiring. In this way you will remain focused. In this way, you will be ordering you subconscious also to work for you and create the circumstances which are optimum for the realization of your New Year Resolutions.

8. Get a support group. Work with your family. Have a circle of friends to support and encourage each other. Have a jogging group and you will manage to jog all the year round.

9. Subscribe to inspirational/motivational newsletter. Read books on the subject. Listen to audios or see videos on the subject.

10. Ultimately, it is not terribly important whether you keep your resolutions in their entirety exactly as they were written at the beginning of the year. What is important is that you work hard, be disciplined and self-controlled. With just a little focus, you will be going in the right direction.

BE HAPPY! BE SUCCESSFUL! BE HEALTHY!

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

(This concludes New Year Resolutions)

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART II

January 3, 2005

In my last blog I had written about New Year Resolutions and how to make them. In this entry I will give some New Year Resolutions. Of course, yours would and should be completely different from them. But they are good examples on which you could base your New Year Resolutions.

You would observe that I do not give simple ten or twenty or hundred resolutions. I, of course, give ten resolutions, but I also give Three Greatest, Ten Affirmations/Imageries, Ten Blessings, Ten Do’s, and Ten Don’ts. These deepen and reinforce New Year Resolutions. These could be considered as tackling a problem from different angles. For example, to learn something, we may read it, write it, attend a lecture, listen it on an audio tape, may be see a video on the subject, and ask a friend to ask questions on the subject to test our understanding.

You should, if possible, make separate resolutions for your official or job life and for your personal life. Your aims for your official life and personal life would be different. In many cases the resolutions for official life may be very simple—do your work efficiently and hang on there! It is in your personal life that you would be aiming for paramount changes. In your official life you may be a machine operator but in your personal life you may be striving hard for becoming a writer. These resolutions are geared to some such scenario. Very few lucky persons may be doing the same thing for their profession or occupation for which they have real passion in life. For such persons also these resolutions would be appropriate.

These resolutions seem formidable. They are not intended to be perfected hundred percent. They show the possibilities. Whatever you achieve would suffice. Just give an honest try.

These resolutions are written for a person who is doing some job but who wants to become a great writer. You may want to become a great player, an artist, or a web designer. Modify them to suit you. Also, you could modify them during the year on review also.

Here are the resolutions:

[GREATEST AIM, PASSION, AND ASSET]

My greatest aim in life is happiness, success, and health.
My greatest passion in life is daily writing, writing and writing.
My greatest asset in life is hard work, discipline, and self-control.

[AIMS FOR THE YEAR, 2005]
(These are the main resolutions)

I will establish myself as a writer.
I will write 3 books, and one each of collection of stories, poems, and articles.
I will get published and win competitions.
I will make a circle of writer friends and make or become member of local writer’s club/association.
I will read great literature and books and articles on how to write.
I will lessen my involvement in activities which are not related to my main aim of writing.
I will try to become a full time writer.
I will take care of my health.
I will give quality time to my family.
I will be happy, successful, and healthy.

[DAILY TEN BLESSINGS]
(If you pray, ask God for these blessings. If not, visualize that you have already got them or you are striving after getting them.)

Peace of mind.
Happiness.
Good luck.
Success.
Health.
Discipline.
Hard work.
Self control.
Love.
Focus.

[DAILY TEN AFFIRMATIONS/IMAGERIES]

(These are to be repeated as and when possible, especially just after getting up in the morning and just before retiring for the day in the night.)

1. I am so successful in my greatest aim in life of happiness, success, and health that I am always happy, successful, and healthy.
2. I am so successful in my greatest passion in life of writing, writing and writing that I am writing daily and copiously and have become the greatest writer of the world.
3. I am so successful in relying upon my greatest asset in life that I am hard working, disciplined, and self-controlled.
4. I am able to daily follow/seek the Three Greatest, Daily Ten Blessings, Daily Ten Affirmations/Imagery, Daily Ten Do’s and Daily Ten Don’ts.
5. I am in extremely good health and getting healthier and healthier and younger and younger day by day.
6. I have extra-ordinary mental and spiritual development and I am always focused, positive, and persistent.
7. I am constantly being published; my books are becoming best sellers and I am winning contests/competitions and awards.
8. God, family and friends, and people in general, are my well wishers and supporters
9. Today I will be/was hard working, self-disciplined and self-controlled.
10. Today I will be writing/wrote.

[DAILY TEN DO’S]
(Make them your daily routines)

Get up at fixed time and sleep at fixed time.
(Some people like to get up early, some work late. Fix the time according to what suits you best.)
Follow the Greatest Three and Daily Ten Blessings, Daily Ten Affirmations/Imageries; Daily Ten Do’s, and Daily Ten Don’ts.
Do short prayer or meditation after getting up; short prayer or meditation before retiring.
(Repeat and do imagery of Three Greatest, Daily Tens; plan/review day; and order unconscious mind.)
4. Morning write; evening write.
5. Morning exercise/walk; evening exercise/ walk.
(Combine exercise/walk with thinking about writing.)
6. Day write or related work.
(It means that during the day also get some time to devote to your passion in life, even if your occupation is something different.)
7. Eat well and variety of foods; drink lots of water.
Be active, play games, swim, remain outdoors.
Constantly keep thinking and planning about writing ideas.
10. Follow time management and optimization techniques.

[DAILY TEN DON’TS]

Don’t neglect New Year Resolutions. If defaulted, immediately start following them again instead of losing heart or putting them off to next day, next week , next month, or next year.
Don’t waste time, especially on TV, emails, or unfocussed internet surfing, or on useless parties, outings, etc.
Don’t waste energy on unimportant activities.
Don’t be negative. pessimistic, and mournful.
Don’t over eat or drink and don’t eat unhealthy food.
Don’t neglect personal affairs.
Don’t neglect family and good friends.
Don’t take undue risks.
Don’t ever hurry or worry.
Don’t neglect rules of happiness, success and health.

Well these are some suggested Resolutions. Refine and revise them. However, guard against ‘paralysis of analysis’. Be practical rather than theoretical. Anybody can make perfect Resolutions. Few can follow them. Be one of those few.

Be Happy! Be Successful! Be Healthy!

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus


Next entry: New Year Resolutions—III (How to keep them.)

Saturday, January 01, 2005

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART I

31st December, 2004


I am an avid New Year’s Resolutions writer! In fact, I write them often. May be two or three times in a year. My success rate with them is mixed. I am more or less disciplined and hard working person. So I keep on pushing ahead. But my Resolutions are too ambitious, you may say impractical, to be fulfilled. For example, I may write during this year I will write 3 novels, three non-fiction books, 50 articles, 50 short stories, and 50 poems. At the end of the year, I may not have completed even a single novel, a single non-fiction book, and written only a few articles, short stories, and poems.

My experience with New Year Resolutions has taught me some lessons which I am sharing with you.

Don’t leave New Year Resolutions for the last moment to write! If you do, on the last day of the year you may end up hurriedly writing down something not better than a shopping list. Spend some time and energy in writing them. At the same time, if you fail to write them before the New Year starts, don’t think that now it is too late. Write in the first week of the year or later. It is better writing late than never.

Before writing about the New Year and future, cast a glance at the old year and the past. How was the old year? Did you keep your resolutions? If yes, to what extent? If not, why? Given another chance, how would you plan and live the old year. Have a vision of the future. How would you like to see yourself after one year or thereafter? Base your resolutions on this analysis.

Write down what you really want to do, not what is routine, customary, or fashionable. If you have no inner urge to reduce weight or quit smoking, it is no use resolving to do so.

Make new year resolutions a vehicle for change. While we are comfortable with status quo, we want to change our life too. Everybody thinks that he is in a rut. He or she would have been happier in another job, in different circumstances, in new places. But we fear change. Don’t just foolhardily jump into change, but plan for it.

Plan for new and exciting things in life. Learn something new—dancing, playing a musical instrument, a new language, tennis, web-designing, or writing poetry. If you have never loved, love. It is an exciting thing. If you are in love, get married. It is intoxicating.

Write down specific goals rather than general. Instead of writing, “I will reduce weight,” specify how many pounds or kilograms you want to reduce within which period and by what means. So write, during the year I will reduce my weight by 30 pounds. I will aim at reducing 10 pounds every quarter (so that I have some extra time towards the year-end). I will regulate my diet (be specific about diet too), will exercise or play some game, go for morning or evening walk, start yoga, and lead an active life.

Break down bigger whole year aims to smaller quarterly and monthly aims. In fact, each week write down the aim for that week also. Of course, also keep a daily to-do list (to be written at the start of the day or one day in advance). Revise the monthly and quarterly targets in the light of progress made and aims abandoned and new aims added. In fact, write down a continually evolving list of to-do for the year. Whatever you want to do in the year, just add to this list and do when the right time comes.

Supplement the Resolutions list with other lists: Daily Prayer in which you may pray to God for giving you happiness, success, and health, etc. Daily Affirmations, in which you may use the power of affirmations. Daily Do’s in which you may fix your daily routine which may be helpful in fulfilling your Resolutions, Daily Don’ts, things you should not do.

Use positive power! Most of our resolutions fail because they are about negatives rather than positives. We want to reduce weight or quit smoking, or drinking. But all these are negatives. We will surely be defeated fighting against them. Instead, if we decide to start playing tennis, it would be a positive thing. Little by little we will get interested in it. We will get addicted to it. We will not be able to stay at home when it is play time, whether it is at 5 a.m. or 5 p.m. We will have to go when our partner calls us. If we are over-weight, we will jog, eat less and sensibly. If we get fatigued easily, we will quit smoking and drinking. We would like to be at the top of our tennis team! We will reduce weight, quit smoking and drinking easily (because our game of tennis demands it!).

Don’t abandon all Resolutions on slight failure! One of the main reasons why diets are abandoned is ‘All or Nothing’ attitude. If we fail to follow the diet for one day or eat too much one day, we consider that we have failed and abandon the resolution. The same is true of our resolution about quitting smoking or drinking.

If your resolutions break down, and they will and should now and then, for example, when you are celebrating something, when you are honeymooning, when you are meeting some deadline, restart the resolutions. Similarly, periodically evaluate the progress, even make changes. A year is a long period; reexamine your life every three months.

Don’t forget the unwritten premises! When we write our Resolutions we concentrate what we want to achieve in worldly sense. But we fail to mention other important things in life, like: I will be happy, I will love my family, and I will enjoy nature, etc. These unwritten resolutions are more important than the written ones. If we fulfill them and even fail at achieving the written aims, we have still won. If we succeed at both, that is superb!

Now write down your resolutions! Happy New Year! Good Luck.

Be Happy! Be Successful! Be Healthy!

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

Next entry: New Year Resolutions--Part II (Some suggested resolutions.)