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Showing posts from March, 2011

Mastering the Law of Attraction (The Secret)

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Using Spiritual Tools to Master the Law of Attraction “Everything you want is out there, waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you but you have to take action to get it. The universe wants you to succeed.” Jack Canfield Law of Attraction simply states that we attract into our life whatever we focus on. To whatever objects or ideas, we give our energy and attention, comes back to us sooner or later. If we are focused on the good and the positive, we attract more of good and positive and if our focus is on the lack and negative, we attract more negativity and shortage in our life. Understanding the law of attraction is the key to creating the life of our dreams. Law of Attraction is a scientific principle, like law of gravity. By properly applying its principles in our lives, it will help us get whatever we want. By consciously working with the law of attraction, we can create exactly what we desire with minimum effort and maximum joy. But mere understanding ...

Interesting People in My Life - I; Andrea Sobotka, Critter Doc

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Andrea Sobotka, Animal Spirit Wisdom “I have noticed that the Universe loves gratitude. The more grateful you are, the more goodies you get. When I say ‘goodies,’ I don’t mean only material things. I mean all the people, places, and experiences that make life so wonderfully worth living.” - Louise L. Hay Yes I am trying to be grateful to the God or the higher power and coming across people like Andrea, is making life wonderfully worth living. Andrea Sobotka is an Leadership & Management Specialist and Business Development Consultant. Well that’s the boring, traditional part. The interesting part is that Andrea is also an intuitive and works with animal spirits and animal rescue. She calls herself Critter Doc and has an owly smile ~;o} always ready, between her messages for me. What is animal spirit wisdom, readers must be wondering. I am borrowing few lines from Andrea’s website to explain exactly what she means, “We all are blessed with the presence of l...

Shalini Verma, India's Executive Coaching Pioneer

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A lot happened over a cup of coffee today. I met Shalini Verma, Founder, The Skyscrapers Academy at Barista in New Friends Colony, New Delhi. We had fixed a meeting at Barista almost an year back which did not materialize, so we had a long chat this time and compensated for the previous meeting as well. Shalini is among the pioneers of leadership and life coaching in India and did her coaching certification from International Coach Academy, Australia. She offers the LEAP program (Leadership Enhancing and Accelerating Program) with its various variants for coaches, women, executives, holistic living and so on.  She talked of the interconnection between our personal and professional lives and the critical influence they have on each other. She says, "The first three coaching sessions may be directed to professional leadership coaching but then one needs to probe into the personal life of the coachee as improving personal life can often be a founda...

So What If Life Slapped you Hard? Get up and Carry On

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"God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight."  Reggie White As long as the breath continues in the body, learning and growing continue. Seneca says, “As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” I love travelling and during one of my travels, I met an interesting passenger. He looked very sophisticated and educated. So I asked him, from where have you done your schooling and college? He replied, " I matriculated from Saint Suffering School, went to the College of Frustration Studies and did my higher studies from the “University of Life” " Don't we learn so much from our struggles, provided we take it with the right attitude? We need to develop a positive attitude towards difficulties and suffering. Arrow can be sent only by pulling it back. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means it is going to launch you to your target. My mentor Dr Daisaku Ikeda says, “Surviving a life of hardships and difficulties, of...

How can I Become Courageous?

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‎'I do not want to crawl; crawling is tiring & I am ready to die to learn flying'. (Lessons from butterfly) Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.  It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.  ~G.K. Chesterton I always say, "The one who is used to walking on the thorns, is the one who can take the bull by the horns. The one who gets the best of the best often goes through the worst of the worst." What is courage after all? Is it just lack of fear or a spirit of adventure? Is courage the strength to walk the off beaten track or to walk alone? Is courage standing up and speaking out your mind or is it small routine things like tolerating a bad boss for the sake of family duty? According to Wikipedia, "Courage or bravery is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk, uncertainity or intimidation. Physical courage is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship or threat of death while moral courage is the ability t...

Carrot and Stick

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Carrot and stick approach means combining a promised reward with a threatened penalty, in management jargon. An average human being needs a combination of carrot and stick to push him and motivate him to work. The ratio of carrot and stick to be used depends upon the individual’s maturity, inner drive, company culture and a host of other factors. People with self respect would not be able to fit in with a culture where there is too much stick and too little carrot. Too much carrot and too little stick will fail with immature and lazy employees. People who have high achievement orientation work for their own learning, growth and ambitions, the inner drive motivates them to work and they do not need much of external carrot or stick. They keep the carrot of ‘achievement’ forever dangling in their mind. Once I was joking with my students that an average person needs to have a carrot dangling in his front and a stick hanging at his back. If carrot does not motivate him, he sh...

Do You Want to be Different?

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"If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." ~Albert Einstein All of us want to be different, often different for the sake of being different, without understanding the why and how of being different. The fear of getting lost in the crowd can be sometimes so intimidating that one is ready to do all silly and funny things to appear different. I remember a wonderful story in an English textbook of school days. There was a man who wanted to be different. So one day he decided that he will call chair as table and table as clock and clock as wall. He decided to create his own vocabulary to be different. After some time he forgot the original vocabulary and whenever he would go to the market, if he wanted to buy a chair, he said that he wanted a table. As expected, no shopkeeper understood his vocabulary and there was lot of misunderstanding. After a while the world declared him mad. Well, he had to pay a high price for being differen...

Growing from Managers into Leaders

During my MBA days I had read a famous book from the Harvard Guru Warren Bennis, ‘Managing People is Like Herding Cats’. Wow ! what a book and how different are leaders from managers. Bennis rightly says, just as cats never stay in a group and cannot be herded, people cannot be managed. People have to be led. My mentor Dr Daisaku Ikeda says, “Everything is determined by the leader’s behaviour. There is a passage in ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ that says “Those who possess genuine wisdom and virtue win the highest regard from people. They will become leaders who will make everyone feel comfortable and at ease.” A leader must win the hearts of his followers. As the saying goes, it is very easy to defeat someone but very difficult to win someone. Leaders epitomise maturity and humility. Coins make so much sound; but currency notes are always silent.   In my opinion, one must become a good manager first to become a good leader. One has to imbibe the fundamental prin...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, When I have Faith, There is Just no Bar

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The Power of Faith "God CAN DO is believe; God WILL DO is faith" Anonymous Faith has enormous power, much much more than we have ever imagined. My mentor Dr Daisaku Ikeda says, “Faith is light. The hearts of those with strong faith are filled with light. A radiance envelops their lives. People with unshakeable conviction in faith enjoy a happiness that is as luminous as a full moon on a dark night, as dazzling as the sun on a clear day.” Developing faith is a long and difficult process. Its actually a vicious circle, unless we see miracles ourselves, we do not develop complete faith and unless we develop complete faith, we cannot experience miracles. Dr Ikeda says about the power of prayer,  “ When we plant the seed of happiness that is faith and carefully tend its growth, it will produce fruit without fail. We have to bear in mind however that we cannot plant a seed today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow. If we persevere, then our prayers will definitely be a...

I am the POWER, the POWER of Universe

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Let me share the best quote I have read in the recent times which hit straight at my heart.”Just change the pictures in your mind from worst possible outcomes to best possible outcomes, visualize the joy of having it now and then slowly release all attachment to the outcomes. Appropriate words and actions will follow with unprecedented power.” Why do we imagine the worst possible outcomes all the time, why so many fears, so many doubts, so many insecurities we live with. Why the simple facts of life require years to be absorbed, why are we so foolish, while we have the potential of God himself (to become the Buddha.) Why not make a list of everything that we want in life. Pray to God as if we have already received it, “Thank you God for giving me the promotion, the right life partner, a beautiful home and so on.” And then see the powers, the miracles that happen. While you visualize this, keep on repeating, “I am the power, the power of universe.” Now get ready for the miracl...

The Treasure is Within You

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“I have been and still am a seeker. But I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings, my blood whispers to me.” Hermann Hesse The funny thing about life is that we have everything inside us and yet we are searching things outside all the time. I remember a childhood days’ Hindi story which has left a very strong mark on my life. Once a rich businessman is travelling for business and he stays at a lodge for the night. Due to certain compulsions, he has to share a room with another person, who is a thief. The thief gets up in the middle of the night and starts searching the luggage of the roommate (or businessman). After a long search, he fails to find any valuables & cash and goes back to sleep. Next morning when he gets up, he is so frustrated & curious that he frankly asks the businessman that this is the first time in his long career as a thief, he has failed to steal. The businessman says, “Dhan Tumhare paas hai” or...

Finding the Purpose of Your Life

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“When people fundamentally transform their inner attitude, awaken to their life’s mission and bring forth their highest potential, they can change everything.” Dr Daisaku Ikeda You get a good job. Few years pass, you get bored. You get an even better job, few more years pass and you again get bored. After all what is that which can sustain our attention forever. Why does everything which seemed so exciting, gets boring after a while? Why does this restlessness not come to an end? Why, why, why? What is going to give me everlasting peace? When will I find something so exciting that I will wake up every morning eager to get up and immerse myself in work? When I loose in the rat race, i feel like a loser, when I win the rat race, I am still searching for something, questioning the permanence of my happiness? If losing and winning both give temporary happiness, what will give me that everlasting joy. The questions never seem to end and answers never seem close to us. There a...