[Time-Management] 100 More Exciting Ways to Live!

 

4th June 2012

 

If I Had Only Known

(Jana Stanfield, Craig Morris)

If I had only known
It was the last walk in the rain
I'd keep you out for hours in the storm
I would hold your hand
Like a life line to my heart
Underneath the thunder we'd be warm
If I had only known
It was our last walk in the rain

If I had only known
I'd never hear your voice again
I'd memorize each thing you ever said
And on those lonely nights
I could think of them once more
Keep your words alive inside my head
If I had only known
I'd never hear your voice again

You were the treasure in my hand
You were the one who always stood beside me
So unaware I foolishly believed
That you would always be there
But then there came a day
And I turned my head and you slipped away

If I had only known
It was my last night by your side
I'd pray a miracle would stop the dawn
And when you'd smile at me
I would look into your eyes
And make sure you know my love
For you goes on and on
If I had only known
If I had only known
The love I would've shown
If I had only known

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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1st June 2012

 

`Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell people how much they mean to you'

Unknown

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If you want to know the value of any resource, you need to know how much of the resource was available and how much is the balance. When the fuel gauge shows near empty, you become very careful in the use of the car. One hundred rupees is not the same in the beginning of the month and at the end of the month!

So is the case with time, the invisible and scarce resource. When people are with us, we don't know how much dear is their presence. We will know it only when they are gone.

Try this exercise. If you have a daughter or son who is going to leave you for higher studies or after marriage, calculate the number of weekends you have before their leaving. For example, if they will be leaving you in a year from now, you will have fifty two weekends before they are gone. Buy fifty two marbles and put it into a glass jar. Remove one marble every weekend and ask yourself if you have spent a quality time with them during that weekend!

Notice what happens to the quality of your relationship as the number of marbles in the glass jar comes down!

Somewhere I read a very touching poem on relationship, and I will send you in my next newsletter!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 More Exciting Ways to Live!

 

31st May 2012

The greatest oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground'

Unknown

In life we pass through many phases and in each phase we were guided by two types of belief systems, the driving beliefs and the limiting beliefs. Driving beliefs give us the energy to move further; limiting beliefs act as the negative force.

There were many things we believed we could not do. For example:

·         I cannot speak;

·         I cannot walk;

·         I cannot run;

·         I cannot pedal a cycle;

·         I cannot …

·         I cannot…

But, did you not do all these over a period of time? Even now you may strongly believe that you cannot do many things and you may not even attempt to do the same.

Today list all those you believe you cannot do at this point of time and start believing you can. Believe that you are greater than what you think you have already done. Believe that your `installed capacity' is much more than your `displayed capacity'.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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30th May 2012

`Start by doing what is necessary, then what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible'

Saint Francis of Assisi

What is necessary, what is possible and what is impossible are decided by us. Isn't it true? They fall into a line of the various things we do. The ability to identify and execute tasks from these three categories will decide the quality of our life. An ordinary person will have things only from the first category – what is necessary. A very successful person will graduate from one to the other, not due to external compulsion, but due to an inner drive!

During the last three decades of my mentoring, I have seen people rising from the level of a graduate trainee to the level of Chief Executive Officers.  During the same period I have also seen people remain in the same position for the entire tenor of their service. I was curious to know the difference which made the difference.

I interviewed all of them and tried to understand their mental programme. I noticed a common denominator: those who grew graduated from the necessary to possible to impossible! Those who remained where they joined were satisfied with doing what is necessary to keep their job!

Read the life story of people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc and you will understand what this theory more in detail.

How about you?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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29th May 2012

`Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle'

Napoleon Hill

We need to be tested to prove that we have the ability to win. Some tests are severe and make us to learn hard lessons.

I read somewhere the story of a butterfly and it goes like this.

A butterfly was trying to come out of a small hole that appeared in a cocoon. A man sat and watched the butterfly struggling to come out. To help the butterfly to come out without the struggle, he took a small scissor and slit open the cocoon and the butterfly came out.  The man was very happy that he helped the butterfly and waited for the butterfly to come out and take its first flight of freedom. He noticed that the butterfly had a withered body and weak wings. The butterfly was never able to fly and spent the rest of its life by crawling around.

The man did not understand that the restricted hole in the cocoon and the struggle that the butterfly goes through to come out is the God's way of forcing a fluid from the body into its wings and the fluid will give the necessary strength for the wings to fly. Since the butterfly did not go through this struggle, the wings remained weak and shriveled and the butterfly was never able to fly!

We need struggle and defeats to prepare for greater success in life!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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28th May 2012

`The history of liberty is the history of resistance'

Woodrow T Wilson

I had an interesting experience this morning which taught me an important life skill. I was trying to light an oil lamp in my prayer room. I had a new match box from an established brand. The oil and the oil lamp were ready to be lit. I tried to ignite the match stick by scratching its head against the side of the match box couple of times but failed. I tried to understand why the match stick was not ignited.

Then I noticed that in the process of lighting the oil lamp, my fingers had come into contact with the oil which I had applied on the side of the match box. The oil removed the friction which is required to ignite the match stick!

I learnt: you need friction to force to use the driving force! This is the law of nature which you cannot defy. But all of do not want any obstacles and we want to succeed without any problem. We have to understand that this is not possible.

Think of a rock which has seen a chisel and a hammer and another which was safely lying on a mountain. We don't admire a raw rock, do we?

I have an interesting story of a butterfly, you have to wait for a day!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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25th May 2012

Small things will make a big difference…

I admire some people, not because they have done great things in life, but they do some small things so well that you remember them always. Here are those small things that make a big difference in life:

·         When we visit them, they come to the gate to receive you with a big smile;

·         When we are with them in their house, they give you 100.00% attention. They switch off their mobile and television, unless you want them.

·         When they buy a gift, they give such a meticulous attention to what will be very useful to you, and not what they have already to be given away as gift.

·         When they call you over phone, they don't disconnect unless you disconnect.

·         They remember all your important days and greet you without forgetting.

·         When you do even a small help to them, they thank you so profusely that you like helping them again.

·         When you visit them they talk more about you and your achievements and not about them and their achievements.

·         When you are in need of some help, they are always there and you feel so confident in their presence.

These are very small things which anyone can do easily. What is required is a sincere feeling of love and affection.

Do you have them?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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24th May 2012
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Are you in the right place?

You have to check if you are in the right place that matches your skill and resources.

I recall an old story. The story goes like this:

Baby camel (in a zoo):  Mommy, can I ask you a question?

Mother camel: Yes dear, is anything bothering you?

Baby camel: No mommy, why do we have long legs?

Mother camel: Oh, we are desert animals and we have to walk on sand, and we are the only animals who can do this!

Baby camel: Wow! Why do we have strong legs?

Mother camel: We carry a lot of people across the desert which no other animal can!

Baby camel: That makes me proud! Why do we have this hump?

Mother camel: We store food and water in our hump and we can be without food and water for months together which no one else can!

Baby camel: I'm excited. Why do we have such thick eye lashes?

Mother camel: We can stand any amount of sand storm and can walk without any interruption across the desert!

Baby camel: Can I ask you one last question, mommy!

Mother camel: Yes, dear, still anything else bother you?

Baby camel: We have strong long legs, we have an envious hump, and we have thick heavy eye lashes which no one else has. With all this unique features, what are we doing in this Zoo?

Do you resemble that camel in anyway?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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23rd May 2012

`Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work'

Bette Davis

Is your job intellectually stimulating?

Do you feel bored in your job? If so, the chances are that there is no improvement in your job content. As we work and climb our career, a time will come when there will be no surprises or crisis in our job. Perhaps we will also like this state of no tension or stress. This is when we have to be careful not to fall into the routines of our life.

Our job should engage us intellectually. This means we have to accept challenges, small or big. Sometimes others will give us challenges. If not, we have to set ourselves some `near impossible' tasks. Try to fix a target three times your known capacity and try to achieve the same. Notice what happens to your energy. Notice what happens to your untapped potential. Notice what happens to your ability to muster all your skills and resources.

It is something like exercising in a gym. You have to burn your unwanted fat. When you fix a near impossible task and achieve the same, you will burn some of the harmful mental fats such as laziness, complacency, sluggishness etc. You will become mentally alert.

When you do this, you will realise that all of a sudden your job has become intellectually stimulating!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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22nd May 2012

`One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few and they are more beautiful if they are a few'

Anonymous

How do you keep what you already have?

I'm typing this piece while I am waiting at a hairdressing saloon. I see people with locks of hair trying to give them an attractive appearance. I also see people with very scanty hair trying to trim them, at the same time not losing them. I imagined the guy with very scanty hair some twenty years ago! Would he have been as careful with his hair as he now?

This is what happens with all what we have in plenty. When have something in plenty, we don't even notice them leaving us. Many things in life will not come back. Our youth, our strength, our wealth and the list can be endless.

Next time when you see a person begging for food, recall how you treat your food. Next time when you see a blind person, remember how you treat your eyes. Next time when you see a person in poverty, think how you spend your money.

While we are in a job, we may not value all the perks the job brings. Only when we lose our job, we will realise the value of the canteen food, the medical treatment, the company transport and all the friend and fellowship that go with the job!

This evening, list all that you have now and think how you treat them!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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21st May 2012

`If you are going to panic, panic constructively'

Anonymous

The Cockroach Approach – A Lesson on Self Development

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. She started jumping, desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. She finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. 

The waiter rushed to their rescue and the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. He grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Think: did the cockroach cause histrionic behavior? If so, why was the waiter not disturbed? It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

It's not the traffic jams on the road, but it is our inability to handle the disturbance that disturbs us. More than the problem isn't our reaction to the problem that creates chaos in our life?

Don't react, but respond in a mature way.

Reactions are instinctive. We have to intelligently respond to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry. 

(Courtesy: Mr. M.U. Subramanian)

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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