Wednesday, December 29, 2010

WORDS




Words are very powerful. They can empower you or destroy you. Therefore the intelligent use of words is crucial. Anthony Robbins describes here the power of words and necessity using words with caution and intelligence. Read and think....and be careful hereafter in your use of words.

N.Ganeshan


WORDS


Words . . . They've been used to make us laugh and cry. They can wound or heal. They offer us hope or devastation. With words we can make our noblest intentions felt and our deepest desires known. Throughout human history, our greatest leaders and thinkers have used the power of words to transform our emotions, to enlist us in their causes, and to shape the course of destiny. Words can not only create emotions, they create actions.

Most beliefs are formed by words—and they can be changed by words as well. Our nation's view of racial equality was certainly shaped by actions, but those actions were inspired by impassioned words. Who can forget the moving invocation of Martin Luther King, jr., as he shared his vision, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live the true meaning of its creed . . ."? Many of us are well aware of the powerful pan that words have played in our history, of the power that great speakers have to move us, but few of us are aware of our own power to use these same words to move ourselves emotionally, to challenge, embolden, and strengthen our spirits, to move ourselves to action, to seek greater richness from this gift we call life.

An effective selection of words to describe the experience of our lives can heighten our most empowering emotions. A poor selection of words can devastate us just as surely and just as swiftly. Most of us make unconscious choices in the words that we use; we sleepwalk our way through the maze of possibilities available to us. Realize now the power that your words command if you simply choose them wisely.

What a gift these simple symbols are! We transform these unique shapes we call letters (or sounds, in the case of the spoken word) into a unique and rich tapestry of human experience. They provide us with a vehicle for expressing and sharing our experience with others; however, most of us don't realize that the words you habitually choose also affect how you communicate with yourself and therefore what you experience.

Words can injure our egos or inflame our hearts—we can instantly change any emotional experience simply by choosing new words to describe to ourselves what we're feeling. If, however, we fail to master words, and if we allow their selection to be determined strictly by unconscious habit, we may be denigrating our entire experience of life.

Most people are not challenged, though, by the size of the vocabulary they consciously understand, but rather by the words they choose to use. Many times, we use words as "short cuts," but often these short cuts shortchange us emotionally. To consciously control our lives, we need to consciously evaluate and improve our consistent vocabulary to make sure that it is pulling us in the direction we desire instead of that which we wish to avoid.

- Anthony Robbins

Thursday, December 23, 2010

How to form good habits?





Forming a habit is easy. To form a habit all you need to do is repeat the activity. With enough repetitions it becomes a habit. A habit can be formed in a few days, depending on the amount of repetition. The more you do it after the habit is formed, the more reinforcement you give to that habit and the stronger it becomes. Since habits form so easily and they can cause you a lot of problems, you should make sure you are forming good habit when you create it.

All habits start small but end up eventually being very difficult to break. A small thing over a long period of time can have some massive unintended consequences. But it is never too late to change. Regardless of our age or how old the habit has been, this can be done by awareness and using techniques that modify behavior. People quote very often that you can't teach an old dog new trick. We are human beings, not dogs. Neither are we performing tricks. We can unlearn self-destructive behavior and learn positive behavior.

The secret of successful people is that they form the habit of doing things that failures do not like to do and would not do. For example, failures do not like discipline, hard work, or keeping commitments. Successful people also dislike discipline, hard work (an athlete does not like and want the discipline to get up and train every day but he does it regardless), but they do it anyway because they have formed the habit of doing things that failures do not like to do.

You can be successful, but it takes a lot of energy and focus and motivation and it is hard to do that with a lot of habits all at once. It is better to start with one habit, and apply proven habit-change methodology to that habit, and then once that has become a habit, move on to the next habit.

Here are the methods you can use to form new good habits successfully:

Set your own goal and keep it in writing . Write the goals down in simple terms, and post them all around. In your kitchen, bedroom, office, even the bathroom if necessary. Viewing the goals many times a day subconsciously begin to influence you.

Visualize the goal clearly. If you can perfectly visualize the habit in your head, the work will be easier.

Start slowly. If you want to become stronger or faster, choose short exercises at first. Then, make them larger, in order to adapt to the habit.

Give importance to consistency rather than performance. For example, if your goal is to do daily push ups, it's better to start by doing one push up EVERY DAY for a month than by doing 20 push ups for two days and then giving up. After you have done one pushup consistently for a number of days, you have formed the habit. Now increase the number of push ups gradually from there, all the while striving to do some number of push ups EVERY day. Excellence is the result of repeated conscious effort until it becomes a habit. It needs enough practice to become a habit.

Focus. It’s extremely important that you maintain your focus on this new habit for the full 21 days. That is why it is hard to do more than one or two habits at a time — you can not maintain focus. Find ways to bring your focus back to your habit.

Excuse yourself for failures – this is hard work. Falling off the wagon for one week is not a total failure, it’s just a setback. When you fail, ask yourself, “What got in the way of my achieving goal?” Be honest with yourself. Think about the reasons and guard yourself against future occurrences

Positive thinking. This is perhaps the most important element. If you tell yourself that you can do this, that you will do it, then you will. Remove all negative thoughts, and replace them with positive ones. You can do this!

Rome wasn’t built overnight, and you can’t change from being undisciplined, unorganized, procrastinating, unproductive to organize, productive, with a do-it-now habit. Give yourself time to make these changes. But stick to your plan against all odds with determination.

- N.Ganeshan

Saturday, December 11, 2010

THE VISION




“The vision that you glorify in your mind,” says James Allen, “the ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become. Every man becomes like his ideal, realizes the vision which dominates his life, and towards which he constantly struggles". So the vision we hold in our mind is the determining factor of our life. Without vision nothing worthwhile can be achieved in our life. Orison Swett Marden explains eloquently why one fails while other one succeeds and the role of vision in success and failure. Read these thoughtful lines and think.....

- N.Ganeshan


THE VISION



We rise with our vision. All elevation, all progress, is first mental. It is based on faith in a visualized ideal. Everything starts with a vision, and the result always corresponds to the nature of the vision and our faithfulness to it. Buddha became what he did because he gravitated towards his vision. George Washington concentrated upon a vision of liberty and a grand democracy which would be a model for the whole world, and he never ceased to struggle until the vision became a reality. Andrew Carnegie became the great iron master because he gravitated towards his vision; because of his struggles to realize that dominant vision. John Wanamaker is what he is because he concentrated upon his vision, by always reaching out toward it, always striving to match with reality his dream of a mammoth business.

“The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say ‘How lucky he is!’ Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim ‘How highly favored he is!’ And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, ‘How chance aids him at every turn!’ They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifice they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart.”

The reason why so many people fail to realize their ideals is that they are not willing to do their part to make it real. Remember that the longing, the desire to do a certain thing, is merely sowing the seed of your ambition. If you stop at this you will get about as much harvest as the farmer would get if he put his seed in the ground without preparing the soil, without fertilizing it and keeping the weeds down.

No one gets very far in this world, or expresses great power, until he catches a glimpse of his higher self—until he feels that the divinity which is stirring within him, and which impels him on the way of his ambition, in the line of his aspiration, is an indication, a prophecy of his ability to reach the ideal which haunts him. The Creator has not put desires in our hearts without giving us the ability and the opportunity for realizing them. There are a thousand proofs in the very formation of our body and brain that we were planned and adapted in every detail of our marvelous structure to achieve grand, glorious things, that we were created and fitted for success and happiness.

No matter how unfortunate your environment, or how unpromising your present condition, if you cling to your vision and keep struggling toward its realization, you are mentally building, enlarging your ideal, increasing the power of your mental magnet to attract your own.

Never mind opposition, never mind criticism, never mind if others call you a fool or a crank—they called the Christ the same—be true to the mysterious message within, the divine voice which bids you up and on. No matter what other things you have to give up, no matter what sacrifices you have to make, let everything else go if necessary, but cling to the ideal which haunts your dreams, for it points to the star of your destiny, and if you follow it you will come out of the darkness into beauty and brightness. Your highest ideal, the vision of your life work which you long to make real, is your best friend. Keep as close to it as you can, stick to it, and it will lead you to your goal. You may not understand why the star has been put so high above you and why so many mountains of obstacles and difficulties intervene, but if you keep your eye on the star and listen to the voice of your soul which bids you climb on, you will reach it.

- Orison Swett Marden