The 60 things I have learnt from my Life

Everyone gets drilled with certain lessons in life. Sometimes it takes repeated demonstrations of a given law of life to really get it into your skull, and other times one powerful experience drives the point home once forever. Here are 60 things I’ve discovered about life, the world, and its inhabitants by this point in my short time on earth.


1. You can’t change other people, and it’s rude to try.


2. It is a hundred times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.


3. If you’re talking to someone you don’t know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you’re talking about than you do.


4. The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.


5. Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.


6. Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.


7. Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.




8. Yelling always makes things worse.


9. Whenever you’re worried about what others will think of you, you’re really just worried about what you’ll think of you.


10. Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it.


11. You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.


12. If you never doubt your beliefs, then you’re wrong a lot.


13. Managing one’s wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn.


14. Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.


15. Whenever you hate something, it hates you back: people, situations and inanimate objects alike.


16. People embellish everything, as a rule.


17. Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even moreso.


18. Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive.  And we are.


19. When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds.  Watch and see.


20. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.


21. Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what’s going on in the world. It’s just way too big for any one person to know it well.


22. A person who is unafraid to present a candid version of herself to the world is as rare as diamonds.


23. The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people.


24. If what you’re doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.


25. The greatest innovation in the history of humankind is language.


26. Blame is the favorite pastime of those who dislike responsibility.


27. Everyone you meet is better than you at something.


28. Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match your own.


29. Knowledge is belief, nothing more.


30. Indulging your desires is not self-love.


31. What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can be themselves with ease.


32. Getting truly organized can vastly improve anyone’s life.


33. Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes you roll your eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.


34. People cause suffering when they are suffering themselves. Alleviating their suffering will help them not hurt others.


35. If you aren’t happy single, you won’t be happy in a relationship.


36. Even if it costs no money, nothing is free if it takes time.


37. Emotions exist to make us strongly biased towards or against something. This hinders as often as it helps.


38. Addiction is a much greater problem in society than it’s made out to be. It’s present in every person in various forms, but usually we call it something else.


39. “Gut feeling” is not just a euphemism. Tension in the abdomen speaks volumes about how you truly feel about something, beyond all arguments and rationales.


40. Posture and dress change profoundly how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you, like it or not.


41. Justice is a human invention which is in reality rarely achievable, but many will not hesitate to destroy lives demanding it.


42. Casual swearing makes people sound dumb.


43. Words are immensely powerful. One cruel remark can wound someone for life.


44. It’s easy to make someone’s day just by being uncommonly pleasant to them.


45. Most of what children learn from their parents isn’t taught on purpose.


46. It is worth re-trying foods that you didn’t like at first.


47. Problems, when they arise, are rarely as painful as the experience of fearing them.


48. Nothing — ever — happens exactly like you pictured it.


49. When you break promises to yourself, you feel terrible. When you make a habit of it, you begin to hate yourself.


50. A good nine out of ten bad things I’ve worried about never happened. A good nine out of ten bad things that did happen never occurred to me to worry about.


51. You can’t hide a bad mood from people who know you well, but you can always be polite.


52. There is no point finishing a book you aren’t enjoying. Life is too short for that. Swallow your pride and put it down for good, unfinished.


53. There is no correlation between the price of a brand of batteries and how long they last.


54. The fewer possessions you have, the more they do for you.


55. When you’re sick of your own life, that’s a good time to pick up a book.


56. Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.


57. The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.


58. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there


59. It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions


And Finally,


60) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

Ideas from an Indian

We all know that Petrol costs goes up day by day probably intra-day in future. Everybody is struggling to get petrol due to its higher cost. This petrol price hike hits other factors of production of the county to the greater extent. Rise in the petrol price will cause the country in every nook and corner. Considering the various factors and being affected by the petrol price hike, now one question arises who consumes more, why don’t the government levy special tax on excess consumption by certain categories of people in India?. I agree, there must be exceptions to this tax in such a way that it should not affect the normal people those who are below the poverty line. Hence it could be levied on personal excess consumption identified through special mechanism which could be developed in this regard.


This could lead the said category people to cut down their excess consumption from luxury to normal necessary requirements. The tax levied on this way could be used to compensate the petrol price hike in the county consequently there shall not be any further rise for longer period of time. This tax shall not be the income to the government; it must be used only to control the price hike of petrol in the country. Special purpose vehicle could be formed by the government and that can do all the required things.

People may wonder how it is possible to tax this petrol excess consumption; it is quite different but not difficult. Everybody has permanent account number issued by Income-tax department which could be considered as identification of the personal with vehicle RC book where in the name of the registered owner will be traced or from the database of the Vehicle registration department details of the vehicle owner to be identified with special software as and when the sales man enters the vehicle number in the software for billing.

The agencies which are selling petrol shall be controlled by special rule made in this purpose.

Now what is mean by excess consumption? This question is the subject matter that the people of India have to decide?

The price hike has following impact:

Petrol Price hike à Price hike for Factors of Production -à Price hike in Products à Inflation of Rupee à Life change for human being à forcefully man has to create new methods to get more money to survive -à  Leads to abnormal physical and mental changes in human beings in the Country à Could lead to overriding law, rules etc.

The above impact for one time hike, let us imagine there are continuous hike in the price. Only god can save us! But continuous increase in the factors of production is not at all good for the health of the nation!

Now what we can do........................................................................................?

Aal izz well !!

There was a man who worked for the railroad. One day as he went into the freezer compartment to do his

routine work, the door accidentally closed and he found himself trapped in the compartment.

He shouted for help but no one heard him since it was past midnight. He tried to break down the door but he

could not. As he lay in the freezer compartment, he began to feel colder, and colder. Then he began to feel

weaker, and weaker, and he wrote on the wall of the compartment, “I am feeling colder, and colder; and I am

getting weaker, and weaker. I am dying, and this may be my last words”.

In the morning when the other workers opened up the compartment they found him dead. The sad twist to

the above story is that the freezing apparatus in the compartment had broke down a few days earlier.

The poor worker did not know about the damaged freezing apparatus and in his mind the freezing apparatus

was working perfectly. He felt cold, got weaker and literally willed himself to die.

SUCCESS PRINCIPLES

Our sub-conscious mind can be cheated. The sub-conscious mind can only accept and act on information

passed to it by the conscious mind. It has no capacity to reject or decline any instructions or

information passed to it by the conscious mind. In the case of the poor worker, he consciously thought that he

was getting colder, weaker and dying and the sub-conscious mind accepted the above instructions and

affected his physical body. That was how he willed

himself to die.

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment

will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at

a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

Some bits of humour in Financial Management

A beggar to another beggar: I had a grand dinner at Taj yesterday.


How? The other beggar asked.

First begger : Some one gave me a Rs 100/- note yesterday.
I went to Taj and ordered dinner worth Rs 1,000/-,
and enjoyed the dinner. When the bill came, I said,
I had no money.
The Taj manager called the police man, and handed me
over to him.
I gave the Rs 100/- note to the police fellow, and
he set me free.

A wonderful example of financial
management indeed..!!!

The Art of Giving

"Rivers do not drink their own water, nor do tree eat their own fruit, nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them. The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others?

Even after accepting that giving is good and that one must learn to give, several questions need to be answered.

The first question is when should one give ?

We all know the famous incident from the Mahabharata.

Yudhisthir, asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day. On this, Bhim rejoices, that Yudhisthir his brother, has conquered death! For he is sure that he will be around tomorrow to give. Yudhisthir gets the message.

One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give! The time to give therefore is now.

The next question is how much to give.

One recalls the famous incident from history. Rana Pratap was reeling after defeat from the Moghals. He had lost his army, he had lost his wealth, and most important he had lost hope, his will to fight. At that time in his darkest hour, his erstwhile minister Bhamasha came seeking him and placed his entire fortune at the disposal of Rana Pratap. With this, Rana Pratap raised an army and lived to fight another day.

The answer to this question how much to give is "Give as much as you can!

The next question is what to give. It is not only money that can be given. It could be a flower or even a smile.

It is not how much one gives but how one gives that really matters. When you give a smile to a stranger that may be the only good thing received by him in days and weeks! "You can give anything but you must give with your heart!

One also needs answer to this question whom to give .

Many times we avoid giving by finding fault with the person who is seeking. However, being judgmental and rejecting a person on the presumption that he may not be the most deserving is not justified. “Give without being judgmental!

Next we have to answer How to give

Coming to the manner of giving, one has to ensure that the receiver does not feel humiliated, nor does the giver feel proud by giving.

In giving follow the advice, ’Let not your left hand know what your right hand gives? Charity without publicity and fanfare is the highest form of charity. 'Give quietly!

While giving let not the recipient feel small or humiliated. After all what we give never really belonged to us. We come to this world with nothing and will go with nothing. The thing gifted was only with us for a temporary period. Why then take pride in giving away something which really did not belong to us? Give with grace and with a feeling of gratitude.

* When you help someone in need, give it before he asks for it; for if you place him under the necessity of stretching out his hand, you take away from him his self-respect which is worth more than the value of your alms.

What should one feel after giving?

We all know the story of Eklavya. When Dronacharya asked him for his right thumb as "Guru Dakshina", he unhesitatingly cut off the thumb and gave it to Dronacharya.

There is a little known sequel to this story. Eklavya was asked whether he ever regretted the act of giving away his thumb. He replied, and the reply has to be believed to be true, as it was asked to him when he was dying.

His reply was "Yes! I regretted this only once in my life. It was when Pandavas were coming in to kill Dronacharya who was broken hearted on the false news of death of his son Ashwathama and had stopped fighting. It was then that I regretted the loss of my thumb. If the thumb was there, no one could have dared hurt my Guru.

The message to us is clear. Give and never regret giving!

And the last question is How much should we provide for our heirs?

Ask yourself 'are we taking away from them the gift of work'? - A source of happiness! The answer is given by Warren Buffett: "Leave your kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing!

I would conclude by saying: let us learn the Art of Giving, and quoting Saint Kabir:

"When the wealth in the house increases, when water fills a boat, Throw them out with both hands "

First class Management Lessons

One day in a school in London, a teacher said to a class of 5-year-olds

I'll give 10 pounds to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who ever lived."

An Irish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Patrick."

The teacher said, "Sorry Paddy, that's not correct."

Then a Scottish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Andrew."

The teacher replied, "I'm sorry, Hamish, that's not right either."

Then a Jewish boy put his hand up and said "David",

The Buddhist boy said "Gautama Buddha" and the Muslim boy said "Mohammed".

They all were not successful. Finally, a Gujju boy raised his hand and said, "It was Jesus Christ."

The teacher said, "That's absolutely right, Jignesh, come up here and I'll give you the 10 pounds that I promised."

As the teacher was giving Jignesh his money, she said, "You know Jignesh, since you're a Hindu Gujarati; I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ."

Jignesh replied, "Yes. In my heart I knew it was Krishna, but Bijness is Bijness!!!!! !

Moral : Talk the language which listener (Customer) wants, not that which you know.

Extract from "The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln"

On his first day in office, as President Abraham Lincoln entered to give his inaugural address, one man stood up. He was a rich aristocrat. He said, “Mr. Lincoln, you should not forget that your father used to make shoes for my family.”

And the whole Senate laughed; they thought they had made a fool of Lincoln.But certain people are made of a totally different mettle. Lincoln looked at the man directly in the eye and said, “Sir, I know that my father used to make shoes for your family, and there will be many others here, because he made shoes the way nobody else can. He was a creator. His shoes were not just shoes; he poured his whole soul into them.

I want to ask you, have you any complaint? Because I know how to make shoes myself. If you have any complaint I can make you another pair of shoes. But as far as I know, nobody has ever complained about my father’s shoes. He was a genius, a great creator and I am proud of my father”.

The whole Senate was struck dumb. They could not understand what kind of man Abraham Lincoln was. He was proud because his father did his job so well that not even a single complaint had ever been heard.

Remember: “No one can hurt us without our consent.”

“It is not what happens to us that hurts us. It is our response that hurts us.”