Assiduity

In your day-to-day life, you perform a number of activities but not all of them match your expectations, going by their results. Do you wonder why it is so ?

Well, there may be many reasons for this but one certain reason is that all those activities, failing to meet your expectations, actually lack your assiduity i.e. the quality of being very careful to ensure that something is done properly or completely, with great interest and attention. It is true that if you don't give your best, you can't expect the return to be the best. If you do something half-heartedly, the result will often  be disappointing. In fact, your time, energy, resources and everything else that you employ almost goes waste when you don't do things with great interest and care. All the great works of the world are the results of people's assiduity. 

In the real life situations, there may be occasions when it may be somewhat difficult for you to maintain assiduity as, in the words of J. J. Rousseau, "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." But, you mustn't forget that 'something worth doing is worth doing well'. The great thinker and motivator Mr Shiv Khera also writes in his book "You Can Win" that whatever you do in your life, do it wholeheartedly or don't do it. He further writes that when you do something wholeheartedly, you get some result but when you do something half-heartedly, don't think, you'll get half the result; the fact is that you'll get no result. So, make it a rule that whatever you do in your everyday life, as a student, as a parent, as an educator, as an artist, as a labourer, as an official or whatever you may be, do it with great interest and care, whether someone notices it or not. Eventually, the beauty of your work will be a source of pleasure and satisfaction for you and, sooner or later, this beauty has got to be recognised and appreciated. This appreciation will further motivate you for more beautiful work.....leading to more appreciation......more motivation......and so on......  . You'll be well on the road to success. But, all this is possible only when you are assiduous.

So, every time you take up some task, make sure you are going to do full justice to it with your assiduity,  will you ? 

Best of luck ! 👍😊

Manoj

Positive vs Negative Thinking

"Our life is what our thoughts make it.", says Marcus Aurelius. It is true that the way we think determines how we live, grow and respond to the things around us. Our thinking may be positive or negative. 

A person with the positive thinking always

tries to see the good in everything whereas one with the negative thinking always finds a fault with everything howsoever good it may be. 

If our thinking is positive,we'll try to get the best even out of the worst and if it is negative we'll fail to appreciate even the best. With a positive frame of mind, we can find a solution to every problem, sooner or later but with negativity in our mind we often miss an opportunity and fail to get the solution.A person with the positive thoughts explores the possibilities amidst all the limitations and one having negative thoughts always finds a problem and some excuse. A teacher with the positive thinking instills good values in the students and helps them become dutiful and responsible citizens whereas the one with the negative thinking keeps looking for the ways to disturb the system, sometimes also involving the students and taking them on a wrong path, not to talk of making them dutiful and responsible. A worker with the positive thinking always tries not to be reminded of the task and is often dependable but the one with the negative thoughts keeps everyone doubtful and is hardly dependable. If we think positively, we are generally appreciated and supported in our cause but if we think negatively, we are usually avoided by the majority in society and we often fail to get their support when in need. 

The persons with negativity in their mind are bound to manifest their malafide intentions and evil designs, sooner or later, howsoever they may try to look good and positive. Julian Huxley also says, " Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct." On the other hand, those who think positively are bound to find a way out of all difficulties because they feel motivated and energised from within and also, sooner or later, they get support from different corners as people have faith in them and their intentions.

Thus, we see that the positive thinking gives us courage,energy and motivation to go ahead and keep improving and bettering things whereas the negative thinking only ruins our spirit and enthusiasm and leads us to a condition where there can't be any good - personal or social.

Now, the choice is yours - whether to go with the positive thinking or with the negative thinking. Thank you ! 😊😊

Manoj

Tactfulness

Human life is very complex and the complexities and intricacies of the various aspects of life keep multiplying as we grow older. Amid these challanges, we have to explore the possibilities to keep going. So, we need to have different skills to deal with things and people such that  not only should our life go smoothly but things around us should also, as far as possible, be happening the way we want them to happen. This is possible only when in addition to some other skills we also have tactfulness i.e. ability to deal with people and things effectively.

As a matter of fact, in the real life situations, the more tactful we are, the better the outcome of our efforts. Though it does matter in personal life, its importance in social and professional life increases manifold. Every day, we meet and interact with scores of people, we exchange ideas and other things and often expect direct or indirect favour from them for winning at some task. How far we are able to get their favour or support depends on how tactfully we deal with them.

A shopkeeper who deals with the customers tactfully is often able to increase the number of his regular customers.An administrator who is tactful is usually able to get the required support of the public. A boss who is tactful can get a work properly done even by the staff who has a shirking attitude or an escaping tendency. An officer responsible for maintaining law and order may be more successful by tactfully handling an irate mob and, thereby, preventing a bad condition from getting worse. In fact, tactfulness pays in normal times and pays more when the condition is not favourable.

There may be situations when we have to be audacious but even in audacity, there should be tactfulness because lack of tactfulness may sometimes cause huge loss.For example, the annoyed or angry crowd may turn violent if not dealt with tactfully and the result may be shocking. To quote Jean Cocteau, "Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far." 

So, all in all, it may be said that we can make our life more successful and meaningful by being tactful. What do you say ? 😊😊

Manoj

MOTHER

Mother - an impeccable creation of God and the source of all human life on the earth - can hardly be described in words for the place she occupies in our life.

A mother comes into our life even before we come into this world, takes care of us for thousands and thousands of minutes, every minute, when we are in a different world lying within her viz the womb and, bearing the severest pain that we can think of, paves the way for our safe arrival in this world. This world can't provide another example where someone will only think of the best for you even when you cause unimaginable pains and exertions to them. What a sacrifice !

After our entry into this world, the mother dedicates all her days and nights for weeks and months to our care and comfort; there is hardly a day when she has full hours of sleep. Day in and day out, she keeps busy, at least in our culture, looking after all in the family, managing her personal and professional life and hardly caring for herself. We can't think of a single day in which the mother is not present, directly or indirectly. Even during her physical absence, the lessons we receive from her as our first teacher continue to be us, guiding us and helping us in our journey of life. The never-ending love that she showers on us keeps giving us a soothing feeling even when physically she is not around. When we are with her, we are often demanding and fail to realize how she leaves all her comfort aside, without showing any sign of chagrin on her face, just for our happiness. She is an epitome of love, devotion, dedication and sacrifice. No wonder, since time immemorial, in Hindu culture, she has been worshipped as "Devi", the goddess, in various forms like Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Laxmi, Sita, Parvati and Prithvi. It has been said in our scriptures that the place where the females are worshipped becomes the home to God. " Yatra pujyante nariyasya, ramante tatr devta " and  " Matri devo bhavah " are the teachings that our religious texts have given us.

Let's extend our heartiest thanks, with the deepest sense of gratitude and respect, to every mother of the world for making our world so beautiful and worth living in.

Wish you all a very happy Mother's Day !

🙏🙏

Manoj

Faith and Courage

If you want to win at anything in your life, two things that you must have in plenty are faith and courage. Actually, your faith in yourself gives rise to courage.

You may remember the story "King Bruce and the Spider", where the spider makes six unsuccessful attempts to climb the wall of the cave but in the seventh attempt it succeeds and its success gives new hope and energy to the king who is watching the incident in his hideout, after escaping the English enemy in a battle. How does the spider turn repeated failures into success ? The  simple answer is the spider's faith in its ability, which gives it courage to keep attempting till it is successful. Take another example from the world history. In the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel was attacked by the joint forces of the neighbouring Arab countries Egypt, Jordan and Syria, she was not even half her enemy nations in respect of number of soldiers, tanks, fighter planes or arms and ammunition but just by virtue of her faith in her ability and undaunted courage, she badly defeated those forces and even today, though surrounded by all the enemy nations, she is not afraid because she has full faith in her capability and immense courage to face any challenge. Amazing..... isn't it ?

Yes, the effect of faith is mostly amazing.It is deep faith that enables the pilgrims to walk for hundreds of miles. In your day-to-day personal life, your faith in the Almighty gives you courage and energy to cope with every situation. The basic reason for the prayers sometimes resulting in miracles is nothing else but unflinching faith in the invisible power. It is faith that gives people courage to scale Mount Everest or dive deep into the Pacific ocean. It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but this first step can't be raised in the absence of faith and courage. The toughest part of any venture is to begin and your faith in yourself gives you courage to initiate and go ahead.Faith also gives you a sense of security. When you are with your loved ones, you feel more secure because you have faith that if anything untoward happens, they are there to take care of you. Faith strengthens your relationship. A family or a society where members lose faith in each other disintegrates. A system where mutual faith is lost ceases to work effectively. A nation where citizens lose faith in the government undergoes chaos,instability and sometimes even toppling of the government; Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan are the examples. A loss of faith means the growth of doubts.History is replete with uprisings, battles and wars resulting from the loss of faith and growth of doubts, which themselves may be the consequences of some undesirable

factors. Without faith, peace and progress are jeopardized. Faith is necessary for the growth of  an individual, a family, a society, a nation and entire humanity.

So, do have faith in yourself, in the Almighty, in the system and go ahead to be a reason for peace and progress- individual, social, natioal as well as global. Thank you !😊😊

Manoj

Improvement and Betterment

The world we see today is far different from what it was like a few centuries ago and will definitely be different from its present state in the coming decades and centuries.

 Actually, change is the law of nature.

Right since evolution of life on the earth, things have been changing. Changes are  natural as well as man made. We don't have much control over the natural changes, but we can, by and large,  determine the nature and magnitude of the changes which are due to our activities.

When we talk of the human controlled changes, we may refer to two types of changes - those taking place in our body and mind  and those that take place outside us i.e. the world around us. The nature of these changes, whether inside or outside us, may be governed to be positive, desirable, enriching and beneficial. This is possible only when we believe in and keep working for improvement and betterment of things in and around us.

Improvement and betterment are the facts that can't be dispensed with if we think of development. It is through these processes that development at personal, social or national level is possible. Actually, they are long continuous processes and our guiding force for development. Development often doesn't take place in a short period; it requires a fairly long period of time. We have to keep improving and bettering things to realise the fruits of development. To develop our personality, we have to keep identifying and removing our weaknesses, which is not a short term phenomenon. To ameliorate the condition of the people and things, the  society and the nation have to work for years and the social or the national efforts for improvement and betterment have to be backed by our personal efforts. 

For our personal inside development, we may do yoga, meditation, exercises, morning walk, lots of reading and writing and practice of the things we want to be well versed in.These things will make us physically and mentally sound and enhance our overall efficiency. For the outside development, at personal level, we may ensure conservation and optimum use of resources, do our bit as a part of solution to the problems, create awareness in the people, contribute to various schemes and programmes going on for development, help the  people, especially the poor and deprived ones, to get their due, encourage peace and harmony in society, take initiative to better the cleanliness and hygiene condition in our locality and lots of such other things to improve and better the overall condition.lt is only through the well concerted efforts at all levels for improvement and betterment that we can enjoy the present more and make the future happier. "Ensuring improvement and betterment of things" has to be the catch phrase for all.

So, wherever you are, with whomsoever you are and in whatsoever condition or capacity you are, keep doing your best to improve and better the condition- both inside and outside you. Wish you happier times ahead !👍😊

Manoj

Politeness and Humility

"He that is down needs fear no fall,

 He that is low no pride;

 He that is humble ever shall

 Have God to be his guide."

These lines of John Buniyan speak volumes of the importance of being polite and humble.

Really, politeness and humility are the traits which not only win you appreciation and respect but also facilitate your journey of life by averting or reducing problems and challenges on the one hand and securing support and co-operation from the people around you on the other.

When you are polite and humble, you send a positive signal to the people around you and they usually develop a liking for you, which is helpful to you, directly or indirectly, in your efforts to fight the day-to-day challenges. Your politeness and humility makes other people feel at ease when they are in front of you. They communicate with you freely and are able to understand your point of view better. This results in greater amount of support coming from them, which in turn makes things easier for you. Many a time, your politeness and humility prevents a bad condition from getting worse as it enables you to deal with the things more tactfully. It often reduces the anger and aggressiveness of the people meddling with you on some issue. In the office, your subordinates feel comfortable in sharing the issues with you and you are more accessible to them. This helps you in establishing better personal, social and  professional relationships, which opens more avenues for you and paves the way for your success. 

On the other hand, if you are impolite and and rude, hardly anybody will like you; you can't have good relationship with the people around you and consequently you won't be able to get much support from them. It is also possible that people may create problems for you and you may experience too much difficulty in tackling the issues. Your impoliteness or rudeness, whether in personal or social or professional life, only deprives you of people's acceptance and co-operation and you happen to be a loser in some way or the other. There are a number of cases when the employees have been fired by their bosses just because of impoliteness and rudeness. You can't expect to be selected for a job if you are impolite or rude during the interview. Your impoliteness and rudeness prevents a business deal from being settled. Thus, impoliteness and rudeness pays you nowhere; it only costs you, sometimes too dearly. There may be times when it is really difficult for you to remain cool and calm, but there also, you  must remember, "Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of man."

So, try to be polite and humble as far as possible and allow your life to go more smoothly and meaningfully. All the best !👍😊

Manoj