Common sense has become an uncommon virtue, today. It is said that common sense is not gift any more but it is punishment! Why? Because, the person with common sense has to deal with people who are without it, mostly! Yet, for sure, in spite of talent and hard work you can hardly reach your goal without this simple precious merit.
Why has common sense become uncommon? There are many social, business and environmental reasons.
Let us try to find when` one loses commonsense.
1 When people consider that they are super intelligent, they lose perspective. Where there is no perspective, there is no commonsense. Thus, ego is the worst enemy of common sense. Application of mind is difficult. But judging is not. So people don’t try to apply mind but they choose a simpler way and they prefer not to understand, but to judge. You must be self aware and ready to learn. Knowledge is limitless but thinking that you know all shows lack of common sense.
2 When we start to explain away our obvious mistakes, the situation betrays lack of common sense. Instead of learning from the experience one tends to reinforce the mistakes. Habits die hard and commonsense also tells us so. We must learn from every mistake that we make. Mistakes are made but if the same mistake is repeated it shows our apathy towards improvement.
3 Even when religion is followed dogmatically, we lose commonsense. This does not mean that we should not respect our religion. It only means that we must not follow anything blindly. When we properly understand our religion, there will be greater respect.
4 Overpowered by the carnal desire, one loses total sense leave alone common! At times, strong desires also make you lose commonsense. Because, You do not consider repercussions of your actions.. Self awareness and you decisions to maintain your perspective will not allow such an occurrence to takeplace.
5 There is another reason- we start comparing ourselves with others. Comparison is odious. Mostly people compare their plight with those who are better off. They think why they are left behind when they are equally talented and hardworking. It is not possible to understand and assess the true reasons of a successful person. So it is best never to compare oneself with another.
6 Lastly when you try to please everyone you lose common sense. You may harm your interest inorder to please someone. You may not even realize it. Sometimes, pleasing others becomes habit that causes losses more than gains. And we know that habits tend to stay with you long enough.
So friends, whenever you find yourself in mess, just try to locate your common sense!
Thanks for reading.
Category: Uncategorized
Positive Attitude
What is Attitude? How can we define it? Your attitude is the way you look at thing, situations or persons. The way you perceive these, determine your attitude – positive or negative. Positive attitude will find opportunities in difficulties, facing any kind of situations with courage and a reason and ability to create good redactions even with difficult people.
Conversely, you see difficulties in opportunities, find yourself victim in challenging situation and consider certain people impossible even though they are important to you. These are symptoms of a negative attitude.
Positive attitude is nicely explained in the lines that follow:
Your mission in mind
Desire working strong
once you lose your perspective
many matters go wrong.
Meeting many people
Friends and hidden foes;
keep positive perspective,
Best way to grow.
When your mind
follows intellect,
maintaining cool
and remains kind.
Your senses
Fully controlled
by mind,
There isn’t hatred,
of any kind.
your words
do not betray your
thought,
You follow your goals,
Not applause!
When your every
moment is significant.
you don’t waste
Nor hanker for success
In demeaning haste
when you see
Deep darkness and the
Rising sun
Vicissitudes of life
Adds to your fun
When you realize you
are a man much above
the sheer beasts.
When your vision is clear
And, at human goodness,
it feasts.
When you do not remain
Of senses, a slave.
You become free,
knowing that
you are born free.
It is said that life is 20% how you make it, but 80% how you take it. So, positive attitude is not only good for your success, but also for your peace!
8 Facets of Ruinous Anger
Anger, we all know is of no avail. It serves no objective. It creates many problems, but offers no solution. Yet most of us get angry. What is Anger? And, why do we get angry? A good definition of Anger is- It is our response to anything happening which is totally against our wishes- something which is never expected.
- In fact, we get angry because of our own short comings. If we are not able to deal with someone efficiently, we get angry. If we are not able to fulfill our commitment, we get angry. If our boss gets upset; again we get angry. We also get angry because of our arrogance. Almost anything may hit our pride and the result is anger.
- Further, your junior repetitively makes a mistake, you get angry. You may even know that anger will not improve his conduct, yet, anger never abates. Your anger deteriorates his/her conduct. This makes an occasion for you to become even angrier. The victim may not show anything but will keep that in mind which is even worse.
- You boss fires you over the delay in completing something that you had committed. This results in bitterness which may graduate into hate. Instead of trying to draw a lesson, an easier solution is adopted- rage.
- The consequences of the dangerous emotion are known to all of us. If we contemplate and consider on these disastrous repercussions, will we ever do that? Perhaps yes! Bad habits die very hard.
- Buddha said that you will be punished by your anger and not the person on whom you get angry.
- Someone else said “speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret”.
- Another clever man said that you should make your anger so expensive that no one can afford it; and make your happiness so cheap that people get it almost free.
- Bruce Lee said “A quick anger will make a fool of you soon enough”.
Anger ruins your chances of success. Success requires following the plan with a cool mind. It requires eye for details while doing the job which needs meticulous attention. But huff will not allow it to happen.
Above all, wrath ruins efficiency. Productivity suffers. Power of concentration is diminished. Even though you may be able to complete some tasks on time, this foolish emotion will come in between. The task gets delayed and you go into tantrums. Reputation suffers. You may have earned it bit by bit, but the blow is sudden. If you lose temper, your help to a person is erased all at once. If people consider you short tempered, they will avoid you as much as they can.
Anger spoils your gains often. You may be on the verge of receiving some benefits, gifts or gains but anger spoils it all.
Lastly, but more importantly; anger is bad for your health. It increases blood pressure which leads to hypertension. We all know that continuous hypertension eventually results in heart attacks.
So never get angry!
Thanks for reading.
5 habits which don’t allow you gain financial freedom
Everyone wants to gain financial freedom- free from worry of providing finance resource when you stop earning. This is particularly so if you are a working professional. Today, we have examples of financial wizards who have grown to riches starting at the bottom of the ladder. But here we talk about much lesser achievement- just to gain financial freedom. So what is holding you back? There are five major reasons. These are:
- Fear
- Cynicism
- Laziness
- Poor habits
- Arrogance
1. Fear: What is fear? Why does it come? What are the problems that it may create? These are a few of many questions one may ask to understand the affliction and its implications. These may differ from person to person. But the ultimate problem the fear causes is the same. Fear doesn’t allow you to grow. In fact, it makes your life miserable.
2. The second in my list is Cynicism. A cynic is always skeptical of things other than mathematics. The doubtful nature of the cynic doesn’t allow to trust anyone. What if is the perennial problem the cynic faces? With negative, jaundiced view, a cynic becomes a pessimist. She/he is unable to see the brighter side of things. They become color blind and cannot differentiate the various colors of human life. They say that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But for the cynic the tunnel becomes endless. In these circumstances who can progress in any field. They hold back and blame everyone around for this failure.
3. The third the list is When you don’t feel like working, when your indolence doesn’t allow you to get out of the bed, you are too lazy to think solution of even a minor problem. You know what is to be done. You know how it is to be done. But your sluggishness holds you back. You tend to procrastinate. It is often observed that if you delay action, the significance of the action is lost. Who lose out? You. And why? Only because of laziness. The remedy is discipline. Discipline beats laziness. Simple definition of discipline is doing something which needs to be done even when you don’t like.
4. Next point on my list of reasons of failure is “Poor habits”. Good habits are hard to cultivate, but poor habits come uninvited. And then, like the undesirable guests, they occupy the most of your mind. What are these poor habits? You don’t live up to the need of the situation; when you remain deficient in any action that you take. You do nothing about your inadequacies. You get to know that your performance is below average, yet you do nothing about it. You accept below par action as enough. These don’t provoke you to do any better in spite of the rebuff of your superiors; lack of respect of your time and that of others is another unpardonable habit.
5. And finally, it is Arrogance. Arrogance is equal to Ego plus Ignorance. When you think you know all, you feel, that to know what you don’t know is not important, therefore, can be ignored. Arrogance doesn’t allow you to listen. God has endowed every human with two ears, but only one mouth. I would say that we should listen twice as much as we speak. But arrogance will not allow you to listen and understand others. Therefore, you don’t allow others to speak. Your high headedness breeds more enemies than friends. And you stand to lose everywhere. The aforesaid five problems need to be addressed by everyone who wants to progress.
Your success depends on the following three activities:
- Your eye on cash flow
- How you manage people
- And, how you manage your time
But the above 5 snares will not allow you to perform anyone of above three activities even satisfactorily, much less effectively.
Thanks for reading.
What makes ‘Public Speaking’ a critical skill today?
Public Speaking has always been a subject of fear. The great speakers were poor speakers at one time. It is a myth that public speaking is a God given talent. The ability has to be developed. One has to work hard. It’s always better to practice under guidance of a competent trainer.
Public speaking is no longer a necessity for only for the political leaders or motivational speakers. The competence in this talent needs to be developed by everyone who wants to progress and who wants to maintain self-esteem. The concept is now extended even to speaking one on one or to a group or to your family members. The underlying qualities required are:
- Articulation: It refers to the clarity in speech. One must be in a position to express clearly whatever is there in mind. Syllables can be pronounced correctly only with the adept use of speech organs.
- Speech Organs We have 5 speech organs. These are- jaw, tongue, teeth, lips and palate. Wherever some of these are not use adequately, clarity is compromised.
- Eye Contact The speaker has to hold the attention of the listener/listeners. This can be achieved by making an eye contact with the audience. You must connect whether you are speaking to one person or to a large audience. Maintaining an eye contact is crucial.
- Coordination Between Mind & Speech Human brain thinks 10 times faster than the speech. Coordination between the mind and speech is of prime importance. Often times the speaker is at a loss to find the right word. While speaking it causes fumbles during the speech. This happens due to inadequate coordination. It can be achieved with practice.
- No Age Bar It is a fallacy that the talent needs to be developed at an early stage. Age is no bar to develop public speaking talent. Here I would like to relate a recent case study.
One of my students (in his late 60s) said that during his life he never could speak to more than 1 person at a time. A diamond merchant by profession, he retired and handed over the business to his sons. With a desire to give back to the society, he started an NGO. Due to his contacts he was able to gather enough funds. His dedication to the cause enabled him to do good work in his village in Gujarat. Whenever a project would be completed he would face the “biggest problem in his life”. Invariably people would ask him to say few words and that was the “biggest problem”.
Because of the aforesaid compulsion, he was motivated to learn public speaking after retiring from business. A strong desire enabled him to practice hard. Subsequently he participated in various seminars and now he is an accomplished public speaker.
Life has changed. It is moving extremely fast. Snail mail has been replaced by email. Enthusiastic business leaders want things to happen ‘yesterday’. Telecom revolution and internet has changed the rules of the game so far as communication is concerned.
To be continued…..
Sin
When spirits are low
Allowing ignorance to swell
Your actions become slow
And the confusions dwell
In your mind and your soul
Symptoms of sin, this are
Immediately, you must dispel.
But to these negative emotions
And the unwanted situations
You fail to react fast
And allow there to last
You get entangled
Like a spiral bangle.
You cannot came out
Of expanding sin’s clout.
Lessons that we learn from history.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In the worst of times, keep your mind cool and composed. After 20 years of ruling France, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the Allied army. He was forced to abdicate on April 6. 1814. He was exiled to Mediterranean island of Elba. Before leaving, he addressed the remaining officers of France. His address given below gives us a strong lesson that whatever be the circumstance we must maintain our composure of mind. That speaks the strength of one’s character. His address is reproduced below.
“Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell. For twenty years I have constantly accompanied you on the road to honor and glory. In these latter times, as in the days of our prosperity, you have invariably been models of courage and fidelity. With men such as you our cause could not be lost; but the war would have been interminable; it would have been civil war, and that would have entailed deeper misfortunes on France.
I have sacrificed all of my interests to those of the country.
I go, but you, my friends, will continue to serve France. Her happiness was my only thought. It will still be the object of my wishes. Do not regret my fate; if I have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory. I intend to write the history of the great achievements we have performed together. Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart.”
Thanks for reading
Pursuit of happiness should also be pursuit of success
18 questions you may ask yourself in 8 minutes every day. Observe the change in your attitude to life week after week. The questions are:
- Have you written down your goals? And SMART goals?
- Do you keep in mind that striving for excellence and not looking for perfection makes you more successful?
- Do you realize that struggle and obstacles are the first steps of your story of success?
- Do you have a strong desire to succeed?
- Are you a person committed to your values and determined to win?
- Are you able to shoulder responsibility?
- Are you always prepared to do hard work?
- Do you remain composed in difficult time?
- Do you make it a point to learn from past mistakes?
- Do you always avoid resorting to excuses?
- Are you always courteous and polite without being subservient?
- Do you maintain your discipline?
- Do you believe in yourself and say ‘Yes, I can’
- Are you able to work without supervision or reminder from others?
- Are you persistent in your efforts and approach?
- Are you proud of your excellent performance, whenever it happens?
- Do you believe in continuous learning and have a mentor to help?
- Do you realize that for achieving high degree of success, you much stretch in your efforts?
Thanks for reading.
Three Personalities from Indian Culture & Entertainment
1. Bhagwan also known as Bhagwan Dada. He was born on August 1, 1913 in Mumbai. His first successful movie was Albela. it was produced & directed by him. Albela became a hit. Thereafter he was producing his movies and he was also recognized as an entertaining actor. He was particularly known for his special style of dancing.
Bhagwan’s story is the story of Rages to Riches. At one time he had a fleet of 7 cars. He was successful and entertaining actor. He was also a very generous and helpful man.
His important films are Albela 1951, Aasha 1980, Chori Chori 1956, Geet 1970 and many others. He started his career with the film called Mera Badla made in 1943.
But died as a poor man. Many of his colleagues whom he had helped during his hay days shied away during his penury.
2. Birju Maharaj was born on 4th February 1938 in Varanasi. He belongs to Banaras Gharana. His parents Acchan Maharaj and Ammaji Maharaj were also great dancers.
Whenever we think of an Indian dancer who have trained renowned classical dancers and who has also performed throughout his life, that only name that comes to mind is, Birju Maharaj. His performance was appreciated throughout the world besides, he got many awards. These included National award for classical dancer.
Birju Maharaj choreographed some of the song and dance sequences in various films. His most recent contribution is in the film Bajirao Mastani. In this film he choreograph ‘Mohe Rang do’. This has become extremely popular. The song is sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Pandit Birju Maharaj himself. It is composed by the famous director Sanajy Leela Bhansali. Even at the age of 77 Birju Maharaj is still very active.
3. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, the Indian classical singer in the history of Indian music who has achieved maximum recognition and awards is, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
Many of his albums have become extremely popular. These include Abhangwani, Shradhanjali, Bhakti Sangeet and many more. His awards include Bharat Ratna, Padmvibhushan and others. Without doubt, his singing talent and ability have well deserved the recognition. Commonly he most remember by his song ‘mile soor mera tumhara…..’
He was born on February 4th 1922 in Gadag- Betageri in Karnatka. However most of his time, he spent in Pune. He died on January 24, 2011 in Pune. A classical singer of his stature can only been seen once in a century.
Thanks for reading.
Homage on ‘Punyatithi’
Yesterday the 31st January was a Sunday, my holiday. More importantly, it was Punyatithi (Death anniversary) of two very important actors of Indian cinema. They are- Suraiya and K. N. Singh. With apologies for the delay of one day, I pay homage to these two important actors.
Suraiya was born on 15th June 1929 in Gujranwala, Punjab (now in Pakistan). It was her mother who wanted that she should become an actress. In 1937 she got to perform in All India Radio. She was not formally trained in music. So she just got an opportunity to sing.
However it was in 1945 that Suraiya got the first leading lady role the film called ‘Tadbeer’. Thereafter there was no looking back. When Naushad, the famous music director got an opportunity to meet Suraiya and listen to her song, he decided that he will definitely give her opportunity to sing in his films.
Anmol Ghadi was one of the most popular films of Suraiya. She sang her songs and the music was given by the Naushad. Though Naushad gave her many opportunities, it was music director Husanlal Bhagatram for whom Suraiya sang maximum songs.
Mirza Ghalib was an another very important film. One of the very beautiful ladies of her time, Suraiya was also known for living the character she played. I take this opportunity to post some of her very popular photographs in yesteryear’s.
Suraiya died on 31st January 2004 in Krishna Mahal, the flat at Marine Drive in which she had spent most of her life. Suraiya was honored by the Indian post office on May 3, 2013.
K. N. Singh was known as a gentlemen villain. Actually, he was an advocate. His father was also an advocate. K. N. Singh was supposed to take up the profession of his father. But when we leant that as an advocate he has to prove that whatever he says is the truth even if it is not, he found it against his principle. His conscience did not allow him to do so.
K. N. Singh was also an athlete. He could have represented the country in Olympic Games when he was in 20s. But due to circumstances he could not go there. It seems he was destining to become an actor.
He met Prithviraj Kapoor in Calcutta, who in turn introduced him to son Raj Kapoor. So we find k n. singh featuring in many films of Raj Kapoor. First film was Barsaat followed by Awara. His two important films were released in 1958. These are Howrah Bridge and Chalti Ka Naam Gadi.
(Picture from Howrah Bridge)
As a villain he only played the role of boss of an illegal outfit.
Unfortunately in his last years he turned totally blind. He died on 31st January 2000 at the age of 91.
