Life Learnings

How Old Are You ?

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Atul Kailash

How Old Are You?

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re children? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m going to be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re going to be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .. . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was JUST 92.’

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. ‘I’m 100 and a half!’

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

 

How To Stay Young:

  1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay ‘them.’
  2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
  3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.
  4. Enjoy the simple things.
  5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
  6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
  7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge .
  8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
  9. Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
  10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

 

And Always Remember :

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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Leading & Leadership

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Atul Kailash

What gives a man or woman the right to lead?

It certainly isn’t gained by election or by appointment. Having position, title, rank, or degrees doesn’t qualify anyone to lead other people. And the ability doesn’t come automatically from age or experience, either. No, it would be accurate to say that no one can be given the right to lead. The right to lead can only be earned. And that takes time.

 

The Kind of Leader Others Want to Follow

The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go. As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help you grow:

  1. Let go of your ego.
  2. Become a good follower first.
  3. Build positive relationships.

Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.

  1. Work with excellence.

Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do.

  1. Rely on discipline, not emotion.

Leadership is often easy during the good times. It’s when everything seems to be against you – when you’re out of energy, and you don’t want to lead – that you earn your place as a leader. During every season of life, leaders face crucial moments when they must choose between gearing up or giving up. To make it through those times, rely on the rock of discipline, not the shifting sand of emotion.

  1. Make adding value your goal.
  2. Give your power away.

One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You’re meant to be a river, not a reservoir.

Find courage, Display character.
People will recognize these admirable qualities and will follow you.
Remember that it takes time to become worthy of followers.

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The 100 Day Challenge

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Atul Kailash

We all began this year at GO, and all roads lead to a final rendezvous; the difference is what we’ve done en route. Goals set, actions taken, and results realized determine if you get to call this year a success or not.

September 23rd is an important date as it marks the 100 day countdown for each year.

With that in mind, I have put together a number of questions for you to consider as you progress toward the finish line and bring this year to an end:

  1. What specific results have you achieved so far this year?
  2. Are you healthier, wealthier, and wiser?
  3. Are you winning, losing or just holding ground?
  4. What results are you committed to achieve by the end of the year?
  5. How have you grown and what have you learned this year?
  6. Is there any unfinished business that needs to be tended to in your life?
  7. Are you actively pursuing what’s most important on a daily basis?
  8. What habits do you need to change to ensure better results?
  9. What is the key issue that inhibits your ability to perform at your best?

You must live to answer and honor these questions, because when it comes to the last 100 days of the year, every day and everything you do counts.

One thing we all have in common is that we all love a challenge. For some it could be a goal that puts you to the test, an obstacle that says you can’t beat me, a belief system that is begging for a breakthrough, or even a mountain that just dares you to climb it.

Whatever it is, your attitude should be BRING IT ON, as there’s nothing quite like a good old fashioned challenge to see what you’re made of, to push the boundaries and tests your limits as it is ONLY when we overcome these trials that we get to reap the sweetest rewards.

“You have to believe in yourself, challenge yourself, and push yourself until the very end; that’s the only way you’ll succeed.” ~ G-Dragon

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A Healthy Mind

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Atul Kailash

A healthy mind is as essential as a healthy body to make a healthy ‘you’. So while it is nutritious food and regular exercise for the body, it is meditation for the mind. The only drawback with meditation is that the enthusiasm seen in the beginning gets lost midway. However, with a few simple tips you might be able to enjoy a more fulfilling practice. First and foremost is to choose an exclusive meditation space, either a corner in your home that you love or a nearby garden/park. Once the space is finalized, settle on a particular time in the day. Early mornings are the best for practice. Set a routine in your mind for regularity without being hard on yourself . The more you try to silence the mind purposefully, the harder meditation becomes. There is no right or wrong technique. So don’t worry, rather enjoy the practice alone in your hideout everyday.

1. Breathing connects us to the present moment.
Mindfulness is a term we often hear, but what does it mean? It’s as simple as breathing. The problem for many of us is that we aren’t aware of our breath. Being aware of our breath connects us to the present moment. In this present moment we are connected to our dreams and desires. When we’re stuck in the past, we can feel depressed or hopeless. And when we lose hope, we cannot heal. When we’re worried about the future, it fuels anxiety. By consciously breathing, we take the peace we foster in our meditation practices into our daily lives.

2. Conscious control of breathing reduces stress.
Anxiety, depression and insomnia are examples of stress-based illnesses that are rooted in the mind’s perception of external stress. By consciously controlling our inhalations and exhalations, we start to shift our autonomic nervous system from a flight-or-fight response to one of the relaxation response. When the brain switches to the relaxation response, the heart rate and blood pressure will decrease, and the brain will regain focus and mental clarity. In this state of breathing and meditation, we also retrain our brains to change our perception of stress, thus reducing our propensity to feel anxious or depressed.

3. Breath connects you to your life purpose.
Career burnout arises when our external world is not in alignment with our internal soul compass. The way we find our life purpose is being aligned with our internal soul compass. Our internal soul compass is the place within us where all the answers reside; some call it intuition, gut instinct, or internal wisdom. It was during the mindful practices of pranayama, yoga, and meditation that I learned to focus on my breath, and then clues to my life purpose started to surface.

Meditation isn’t a marathon! Go at your own pace and don’t be too hard on yourself if you didn’t stick to the schedule you originally had in mind. Take a breath in. Exhale. There you go. You just took a big first step onto your true path.
“Dedicating some time to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy of recovery. As your mind grows quieter and more spacious, you can begin to see self-defeating thought patterns for what they are, and open up to other, more positive options.” – Sharon Salzberg
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As ye sow, So shall ye reap

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Atul Kailash

George Bernard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”

Well, it’s pretty apparent, isn’t it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about. Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he’s going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry – his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing… he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I’ll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it’s good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision.

We’re comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn’t care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn’t care what you plant.

Now, let’s say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand – one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land…and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

So it is written in the Bible, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

Remember the land doesn’t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants – one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn’t care what we plant…success…or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal…or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams.

It will return anything we want to plant.

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Clarity Is A Choice

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Atul Kailash

Career just meandering along ? Life following a course of it’s own ?

Maybe your focus needs to be clearer. If it is all just waking up each morning and seeing what happens, then it is absolutely crucial that you take the time to decide and write down exactly where it is you want to go. How much longer will you continue to climb the ladder of success, only to realize too late that it was leaning against the wrong building? Just pick a point in the future, whether it’s six months from now or five years from now, and spend a few hours writing out a clear description of where you want to be at that time. I know many people who aren’t sure where they want to go, so they avoid committing anything to writing in order to “keep their options open.” What would happen if you pursued that attitude to its logical conclusion? If you always kept your options open and never made any firm commitments, then you’d never get promoted, start your own business, get married, have a family, move to that new home, etc. except to the degree that someone else made that decision for you.

I used to have a friend like this, who still hasn’t decided what he wants to do with his life. He yields control of his life to others without even realizing it, simply because he’s unwilling to take the time to define a vision for his own life out of fear of making the wrong choice. His life is ruled by others who push their goals onto him, which he accepts by default. Ask yourself if you’re in the same boat. If a friend of yours became totally committed to getting you to change something in your life at random — your career, your living situation, your relationship, etc. — could s/he do it just by being absolutely certain and committed that it’s the right thing for you? Could a business associate come along and radically alter your plans for the week without you ever deciding consciously that such a change is consistent with your goals? We all suffer from problems like these to the degree that we fail to set clear goals for ourselves. There is a big difference between recognizing and acting on a true opportunity and being knocked off course without making a conscious decision to shift gears.

Waiting for something to inspire you and hoping that the perfect outcome will just fall into your lap is nothing but a fantasy. Clear decision-making won’t happen passively; you actually have to physically put in the time to make it happen. If you don’t have clear goals simply because you don’t know what you want, then sit down and actively decide what you want. That sense of knowing what you want isn’t going to just come to you in a form of divine inspiration. Clarity is a choice, not an accident or a gift. Clarity doesn’t come to you — you have to go to it. Not setting goals is the same thing as deciding to be a slave to the goals of others.

“The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.” – Conan O’Brien

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