THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!--BE HAPPY! BE HEALTHY! BE SUCCESSFUL!

RUNNING IN THE OLYMPICS WITHOUT LEGS

2008-05-20T18:21:00.004+05:30

Physical disability is no bar to live one's dream. In the

history of humankind there are many men and women who lived

their dream despite physical disability. The obvious names

which come to mind are those of Helen Keller, Stephen Hawking,

and numerous blind musicians and singer and poets.

Helen Keller was deaf and blind. Stephen Hawing suffers from a

disease known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which

is a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease

caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells

in the central nervous system that control voluntary

muscle movement.

However, most of them had to revise their dreams to suit

their disability. Helen Keller could read only Braille,

Stephen Hawing lives in the world of mind (and theoretical

science) and many others excel in the fields unrelated to

their disability.

But here is the example of somebody who fought against all

odds and excelled in the same field for which he was not

well equipped.

This is the story of Oscar Pistorius who was born without

fibulas (the thin outer bone between the knee and ankle) and

was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the

knee. He now uses prosthetics. Pistorius holds the 400m

Paralympic world record of 46.56 seconds, but that time is

outside the Olympic qualifying standard of 45.55. He

could also be included in South African Olympic 1,600 relay

squad.

On January 14, 2008, the International Amateur Athletics

Federation (IAAF), ruled him ineligible for competitions

conducted under the IAAF rules, including the 2008 Summer

Olympics. But on May 16, 2008, Court of Arbitration for

Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, overturned the ruling. And now

even IAAF says that it accepts the binding decision. Its

President said that he is an inspirational man and we look

forward to admiring his achievements in the future.

All this goes to prove that persistence and will power

overcomes all hurdles.

Live The Life Beautiful!

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be Successful!

Now, Year Round and Forever!

DEAR MOTHER!

2008-05-08T22:48:00.001+05:30

Imagine if you could remember everything in your life!

Then you would surely remember your birth, enfancy, childhood, and a constant presence, life-support, and abode of infinte love and care--your dear mother.

Your mother bore you nine and half months in her womb. She nourished you there from her blood. She carried you inside her mindful of your safety and care. She sacrificed her comforts, life style and food habits for you. Your mother might have even sacrificed her career and health for you.

Then Your mother went through excruciating pain while giving birth to you. She endnagered her own life and health while giving birth to you. It is said that child birth is second life for the mother--because she could have died during it.

After your birth, you were totally dependent on the mother for all of your needs--love and care, security, and nourishment. She nourished you with her milk. She slept pitfully waking at every movement and cry of yours. You pissed and defecated all over her. Your mother did not mind. You scattered food and water all around the house. She did not care. When you fell sick your mother sat awake all night looking at your face.

When you grew up a little, she taught you all sorts of things and carried you all around proudly and carefully. She worried everytime when you went outside. She imagined all sorts of bad things happening to you. She worried no end.

But, of course, you don't remember all that. You think that you were born adult! That's why even today you don't remember your mother. To serve one's mother is the greatest bliss on earth. Those are fortunate whose mother is alive.

If you are a girl, you may be looking eagerly to motherhood. If you are already a mother, you must be taking care of your son or daughter. Then how could you forget somebody who took similar care of yours.

If you are a man with children seeing your wife taking care of your children with love, think of your mother too.

Are you not ashamed that you have practically forgotten your mother? You have left her to fend for herself in her old age. What would have happned if your mother too had abandoned you at your enfancy? You could not have survived. How, then, you imagine that your mother can survive without your care and love in this old age?

Even if your mother is not old and incapable, she still loves you and wants to be near you and your family. Give her opportunities to be a part of your family.

And, if she is still with you in a joint family, don't treat her as a burden. This is a great opportunity to serve your mother.

On this mother's day, give her the gift of love and care. This is the greatest gift you could give her. She really does not want anything else from you.

But in your childhood you pestered her for millions of things and she gave you thousands of gift. So, on this special Mother's Day give her some gift which she would love and cherish.

Above all, don't forget Mother's Day. Plan for it from this moment. And choose your gifts (don't give her just one!) with love and care. Don't let money come between you. Sky is the limit where mother's love (or gift) is concerned!

Happy Mother's Day!

MOTHER OF ALL BOOKS!

GIFTS FOR DEAR MOTHER!

The Beautiful Summer!

2008-04-27T18:04:00.000+05:30

The beautiful summer is here. Summer is of long sunny days, cool mornings and evenings, extended daylight into the late hours of evenings.

It is the time of time of long morning/evening walks/jogs, picnics and all the outdoor activities. It is the time to catch up with your health resolutions, readings, and learning a new skill.

The beautiful summer is for activity—both outdoors and indoors!

It is also the time to make fresh resolutions after the sad demise of New Year Resolutions!

New Year Resolutions were doomed to be broken. They were made at the wrong time.

New Year comes at the height of the winter. Days are shorter and outdoors are inhospitable for sports and recreation. It comes after the festival season. Everybody has dined and danced and needs rest rather than the strict regime of New Year Resolutions.

In many countries and regions, New Year is celebrated in March-April. For example, in Indian National Calendar (Saka Calendar), New Year starts on March 22. Iranian, Zoroastrian, Bahai, Saka (Balinese-Javanese), calendars commence on various days in March. Assyrian, Nepali, Thai, Cambodian, and Sinhalese, etc. New Years are celebrated in April. Within India, various States celebrate their New Years in March or April.

In Gregorian calendar it falls in winter as the two months of January and February were added later (that is why September, October, November, and December are 9th-12th months rather than 7th-10th months as their names would suggest.

Summer is for action and catching up on unattended chores and projects.

Let your Summer Resolutions be:
1. You will reactivate your New Year Resolutions. If they have failed miserably just take this as a lesson in knowing what works and what not.
2. Since in summers there is extended day light both in the mornings and evenings, resolve to take advantage of this. The obvious choice would be some physical activity—walking, jogging, swimming, playing, etc. Join some team or club so that there is team pressure to be regular to play.
3. Develop new interests, for example, in climbing, surfing, fishing, trekking, etc.
4. If you are writer or artist, use the extra day light to devote to your work early in the morning or in the evening.
5. Go for camping, etc. during the week-ends. Summers are not for staying cooped up in one’s own home.

Your New Year’s Resolutions failed because the time was not right for those type of activities which you had resolved to do. But another reason was that you had not committed any money or effort before hand into it. What I mean by it is that you might have resolved to play tennis, but perhaps you did not even buy a tennis racket!

I, therefore, suggest clicking on the following links and preparing yourself for your resolutions before hand.Perhaps, you would say that in the garb of this article, I am only interested in selling something. Well, for The Life Beautiful! our attitude should also be positive. What you are going to gain by enquiring into my motive and getting frustrated. You have to just see whether my advice makes sense or not. Talking of motives, our entire market and service sector has profit motive behind it. Does it follow that they are not useful? Are our leaders, legislators, doctors, and shop keepers not useful by the mere fact that they may be profit oriented too!

best selling gym equipments

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The Gift of the Magi

2006-12-23T23:46:00.000+05:30

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

(O. Henry)

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.
"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
"Give it to me quick," said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"
At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."
"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.
"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"
Jim looked about the room curiously.
"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"
And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."
The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
[Reproduced with acknowledgements and thanks]

KNOWLEDGE IS THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

2006-11-28T22:43:00.000+05:30

CONVERT INFORMATION INTO KNOWLEDGE

LIVE THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

Recently in a class where I was sitting as a Co-coordinator, the lecturer posed a question:

“What is the difference between Information and knowledge?”

Even as I was wondering what could be the best answer and anticipating as many answers as the participants were in the class, a lady replied,

“Knowledge is practical application of information.”

Just repeat this: Knowledge is practical application of information.

Learned people may find fault with this statement. But see the power of it.

The world is full of enough information. Nearly all of it is freely available to all of us. But often we fail to practically apply it.

Let us just start from smaller things to bigger things:

All of us know the basic information about keeping good health (balanced diet, exercise, positive attitude, etc.), we also know the basic information for being successful (definite goal, persistence, planning, etc.), and we also know how to be happy (be near nature, love your family and friends, be positive and cheerful, etc.), but we miserably fail to apply these in our life.

All the information regarding people and basic emotions and places is known. However, some are able to convert this information into great works of fiction and non-fiction, while others just read them, and get even more information, never being able to write a page.
Quite a lot of information about natural laws is available. Working on that great scientists and scholars discover and invent great new things. With the help of technology they make new things.
Criminal Code and Law books mention penalties for all sorts of crimes. Yet this information does not deter many of us to commit crimes! This is a negative type of application!
All the tenets of good and moral behaviour are there in the great religious books. Just following them we could make this earth a paradise. But we not only fail to apply these in our life, but often we misinterpret them and fight with and kill each other.

This list can be expanded indefinitely. But the central point is clear:

Knowledge is practical application of information.

I am not for a moment saying that this practical application is always simple and easy. Discovering the riddles of life and universe or making a space ship out of the available knowledge is not for everybody. Many of them may lack even sufficient information.

But in many spheres of life we do know all the information. Yet it is precisely in these spheres that we fail miserably. These are: Inter-personal relations, being happy, healthy, and successful, controlling our emotions and violent and criminal acts, avoiding harmful substances and drugs, etc.

If I may say it differently, I would assert:

In the sea of information, we are thirsty of knowledge

LIVE THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

SECRETS OF GREATNESS

2006-11-13T19:31:00.000+05:30

LIVE THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

Fortune magazine has titled its October 30, 2006 issue as the Excellence Issue. It explores the Secrets of Greatness.

The conclusion of its article ‘What It Takes To Be Great’ is that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. Painful and demanding practice and hard work is the secret to success.

Greatness is achieved through demanding and painful hard work over many years. Most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work for becoming world class. Greatness in any field requires constant ‘deliberate practice’.

Talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. Excellence is not a consequence of possessing innate gift.

Even if you possess some natural gift, high-level performance is not possible without experience or practice. Many prodigies don’t achieve greatness.

Motivation is the key to constant hard work and practice.

In another article, ‘12 Peak Performances’, it talked to twelve successful people - a global trader, drill instructor, test driver, gambler, scientist, pro athlete, rock musician, security expert, movie star, venture capitalist, chief executive and concessionaire.

Some of the conclusions derived from the discussions are :-

1. Practice makes perfect. This is the explicit or implicit refrain of practically all the 12 persons interviewed.

2. Have obsessive quest for self improvement and staying focused.

3. You can not get locked into a mindset. A lot of people just keep adding to a bad position.

4. A failed experiment is actually rich source of information. People tend to focus on positive results, but people who are successful are often those who also learn from the negative.

5. Stress yourself out. You can not go out and expect to do well when the pressure is on if you don’t put the pressure on yourself in practice, in the off-season, or when nobody else is there.

6. Be obsessive over the data especially analyze data relating to your practice, experiment, experience or business.

But…

7. If you spend too much time analyzing reams of data, you become paralyzed and never make interesting decisions.

8. Buckle up for a wild ride if your job demands it.

9. Embrace ambiguity.

10. Think more.

LIVE THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

THE POWER OF AFFIRMATION AND VISUALIZATION

2006-10-30T08:28:00.000+05:30

This is a sad story with a powerful message.

I think I read it in some Science Fiction story book and it seems to have been written by a famous writer.

The story line is very simple but with an unexpected twist at the end.

Once a man developed the faculty of seeing the future. When he was convinced that he had really the power to see the future, he became curious about his own future.

He visualized and saw that for last 10-20 years of his life he was bed-ridden. In fact, his whole body was paralyzed and he could not even talk.

He got panicky and thought that it were better to die than live such a life. He drew his revolver and shot himself in the head to commit suicide.

The bullet lodged in his brain and as a result he was paralyzed for life!

Well, this is exactly what we do with our future!

We see ourselves poor, weak, old and unsuccessful and by the power of visualization we do become so.

That is the power of negative visualization.

But, even extraordinary is the power of positive visualization.

Visualize yourself as sick and you will feel sick.

Visualize yourself as on top of the world and you will feel on top of the world.

Same is true of Affirmations.

Affirmations and Visualizations have great power. Use them.

LIVE THE LIFE BEAUTIFUL!

BE HAPPY! BE HEALTHY! BE SUCCESSFUL!

BE SUCCESSFUL! BE PERSISTENT!

2006-10-14T19:04:00.000+05:30

"A thing of beauty, is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases; it shall never Pass into nothingness"--John Keats.

Dear Readers,

Let me tell you a story.

Once a man prayed to God for many years. God was happy with his prayer. He appeared to him and told him to ask any blessing he wanted.

The man replied, “O, God! Give me the blessing of immortality.”

God was in a tight spot. Human beings were not immortal. Only gods were so. He thought long and hard and ultimately gave the man a bottle filled with nectar.

He said to the man, “This is the drink of the gods. It gives immortality. You drink it once daily exactly at 4 in the morning and you will never die. But if you fail to drink it even one day, you will die immediately. This nectar inside the bottle is inexhaustible. It will fill itself daily.”

The man became very happy and thanked God profusely. God only smiled enigmatically.

The man started drinking the contents of the bottle regularly. But soon he found following the routine difficult. He found it a great burden to get up early in the morning just to drink the nectar. He also thought perhaps God had played a cruel joke on him and there was nothing special in the liquid inside the bottle. It tasted just like plain water.

Day by day he found it difficult to get up at 4 a.m. just to drink the water.

One day he totally neglected to drink the nectar and died immediately!

Well, the moral of the story is that it is practically impossible for human beings to stick to a routine.

And that is the reason of fall of the man (and woman) right from Adam and Eve. Had they stuck to their routine life and food, they would not have been tempted to taste the apple.

The difference between success and failure is this: Sticking to the routine of working hard and working hard day in and day out.

Well, I said that it is not possible humanly. But stick to it as much as possible, at least stick to it more than another person, and you will be successful.

Well, what are the lessons of our Odyssey with the Web?

The most important one, and the first, is overnight success is impossible. It is not even possible in a few months, perhaps not even in one or two years. You have to slog it out for many years.
This should not come as a surprise. Doctors, engineers, and MBs etc. study for years to learn their trade. Then they require many more years to get established. Then only the more persistent and the best ones taste success. All claims of instant and early success are lies.

Let us take Internet business itself. Those who sell us sure success formulas for these claim that we could be successful on Internet overnight or within a month. Far from it.

You may take days, months, and may be years, thinking to day something on Internet! Even when you are ready you may take days, months, and may be years, to plan exactly what you want to do, get domain name (s), server, and most importantly, somebody who could design a website exactly according to your wishes. He or she will take his or her sweet time to make it. If it is a friend or relative who is doing it for you free, it may never see the light of the day. One have emergencies and other preoccupations!

Once your website is ready, you would find that there are many things wrong with it. Belatedly you realize that you must learn elementary, and later advanced, web designing, intricacies of learning all about your web server.

But it does not stop there. You have to learn all about search engines and submission to them, ezines and ezine advertising, copywriting, creating and uploading files, traffic exchanges, and thousands of other things. You wish you had full time to devote to your Internet business. But you are still a part timer. And so far no money has come your way. In fact, you feel more and more that you have to invest some money on such softwares as search engine submissions, ezine cover designer, Google AdWords or other advertising activities.

You want to bring uniformity in all your web pages. You copy the source code. Add some new material and when you see the outcome, you find that something has gone wrong. Everything has shifted to left or right or up or down. In fact, you would be fortunate if you had saved separately the original code. Now you start tinkering with the code. By the time you have fixed everything, it is already early morning!

You have to do all this. You have to do all this in your spare time, late in the night. Some such sort of things I had been doing all these days to revive the website. It is still not perfect but I am too not finished with it.

The only solace for you is hope of success. The good thing about all this is the more you do it the more you get interested in it. It seems that you are really not doing it for money. You are doing it for pleasure, for testing yourself, and for success. You no longer get tired doing it. You rather enjoy it. You look forward to it. That is the best work. It has become sort of worship.

Below is the life history of one of the greatest ‘failures’ of the world:
Age: 21 years :Failure in business.
Age: 22 years :Failure in elections.
Age: 24 years :Failure in business.
Age: 26 years :Death of wife.
Age: 27 years :Nervous breakdown.
Age: 34 years :Defeat in Congress elections.
Age: 45 years :Defeat in Senate elctions.
Age: 47 years :Defeat in attempt to become Vice-President.

Who was this man?

Abraham Lincoln who became President of America at the age of 52.

Persist dear friends and you will be successful. Never, dream of overnight success. There is no such thing.

BE SUCCESSFUL!

REINCARNATION!

2006-10-07T09:19:00.000+05:30

Dear Readers,

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be Successful!

You must have given us as dead! Gone! Finished! Well, sphinx like we have resurfaced.

I am very sorry to have disappeared for such a long time. Much has flown down the Ganga (you will get used to my spellings) since then. Well, much has happened with us also. This is a long story. Someday I may tell this personal story. For the time being let it suffice that it (plus habitual procrastination) interfered with the continuity of the blog.

Since this is sort of our rebirth, let us ponder over our future and priorities. Most of the blogs on the net are on current activities, news, happenings, and thoughts and views on them. We had started The Life Beautiful! to Be Happy! Be Healthy! and Be Successful! We would like to stick to these. In our blog we will give you information and view how to be happy, healthy, and successful and make your life beautiful.

We have also changed our priorities a little. Previously we used to write Be Happy! Be Successful! Be Healthy! Now we are writing Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be Successful! This reflects our realization that health is more important than success.

Like the blog, our website, The Life Beautiful! www.thelifebeautiful.com and its three subdomains: www.happinessmantra.com, www.fitnessmantra.com, and www.successmantra.com, remained inactive these months. Lately, we have worked on thelifebeautiful, happinessmantra, fitnessmantra, and successmantra. We have painstakingly brought uniformity in all the pages of the website, added quite a lot of material, and, most importantly, checked that all the links were alive and well. This Blog and the website both are being re-launched simultaneously. Please visit the website and subdomains at the above addresses.

We have also written new ebooks and fully revised old ones. Now we offer following ebooks:

BE HAPPY! GUIDE
BE SUCCESSFUL! MINI-GUIDE
ACCIDENTAL LOVE (Short story collection)
ODYSSEY OF LOVE (A long sweet-sour love poem)
INDIAN RELIGION (An Introduction)
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY (An Introduction)

Please read about them at: www.thelifebeautiful.com/ebookstore.html

Quite a lot of material has been added to the website and its subdomains and we request you to visit it and let us know your comments either through comments under this blog or through Guest Book or Forum in the main website.

We have compiled a Mini-Guide on Happiness which is freely downloadable at www.thelifebeautiful.com/free.html and we strongly urge you to read it.

We have given quite a thought to the future of the blog. Though we would have liked to write it daily, it seems that it is an unrealistic aim. Even once a week seems somewhat difficult. On the other hand, we are sure, you would like to read new material at least once a week. So, we have decided to begin with once a week. If we are not able to write any significant original material in a given week we will still try to give you some material to read. Let us see how it works.

All the difficulties on being unable to maintain the website and the blog, have given us new insights into various aspects of success. As mentioned above, we have also just completed the Mini-Guide on success. We would like to share some of the insights in it with you in next blog (which will, hopefully, be just one week after this one!).

With regards,

The Life Beautiful!

Next Blog: Overnight Success and Hard Work and Persistence.

WIN MILLIONS OR EARN MILLIONS

2005-03-03T21:20:00.000+05:30

ONCE IN A LIFE-TIME MILLION DOLLARS WIN-WIN OPPORTUNITY

Dear Reader,

WIN A MILLION DOLLARS PROJECT:

On 15th March, 2005, Craig Perrine, The List Profit Coach from Nitro Marketing, will be releasing something that is going to be publicized all over the Internet.

Here's a quick glimpse at what the product looks like:

It is the ONLY complete step by step training system that shows exactly how to build a highly responsive and profitable list quickly and easily. The actual product will be a complete home study course (4 manuals, DVD, video tutorials and 28 cd's) that teaches people the keys to building a list, managing and mailing their list, and profiting from their list.

Nitro Affiliates will open up applications for "The Entrepreneur". The Entrepreneur will be one lucky person that they select to partner with them to run a million dollar project. That's right, this person will get handed a $1,000,000 dollar project!

As part of this project, they'll apprentice with Nitro Affiliates and learn everything they know about marketing. They'll learn Nitro's proprietary business system from the inside (which they've never shared with anyone). This project they work on with Nitro will be their business and they'll have the opportunity to earn a million dollars or more from it.

The person that is selected for this project needs to be extremely well versed in Nitro's proprietary system for building and profiting from lists. So only the first 1000 List Profit Secrets customers will be invited to apply for The Entrepreneur. The training and implementation of that course is absolutely critical to the million dollar project Nitro will hand to The Entrepreneur.

EARN MILLION DOLLARS AND MORE ON AND ON:

What if you don't want to be The Entrepreneur or not selected or want to learn more before committing yourself to buy "List Profit Secrets"?

Well, Nitro will have a free webcast to kick off the "List Profit Secrets". The webcast will run from 8 pm-9:30 pm EST on 15th March, 2005. At the end of the webcast, orders for the "List Profit Secrets" will begin to be taken.

You probably know that building a list and actually making a profit from your email campaigns is probably the most common challenge that holds people back in their business. That is going to be a thing of the past.

There are three keys to making money with a list and until now no one actually explained everything in one place.

First you have to get subscribers. We all know that. Craig's List Profit Secrets course explains both no cost and paid list building methods that anyone can use.

He's got a unique system of taking a step by step approach that before you know it has you raking in targeted subscribers and setting them up to be highly responsive.

Craig's sure dug up the cutting edge info for this course.

And his guest speakers are like a who's who of Internet Masters.

Second, you really have to know how to manage and mail to your list. With all the hub bub about Spam and the ins and outs of autoresponders and all that, most people just suck it up and learn by trial and error.

But Craig reveals the 'best practices' that will keep your list clean and avoid problems, while managing your subscribers for maximum profit at the same time.

Third, and perhaps most important if you think about it...Craig teaches you how he profits from his lists.

And by the way, Craig has built lists totaling 7 million opt in subscribers for himself, clients and customers -- so he knows what it takes to get you started on the right foot.

Well, what has this all to do with EARNING A MILLION DOLLARS AND MORE ON AND ON?

Firstly, in order to qualify for The Entrepreneur the person must attend the webcast.

Secondly, if you attend the webcast you will learn never revealed secrets of list building and will be on your way to a million dollar income which can be earned repeatedly year after year.

And thirdly, if after the webcast you buy the product you will have a shot at The Entrepreneur and the million dollar project with which it is associated.

What if you are not selected as The Entrepreneur? Well, it may be a blessing in disguise! Perhaps with the List Profit Secrets you would be earning even more than a million dollars!

Talk of a win-win situation!

But the key to all is the webcast. To learn more and register for the webcast, please visit:

Nitro Web Casts

See you at the webcast and Good Luck!

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES:

Well, even if you are one of the first 1000 buyers from amongst whom The Entrepreneur is to be selected, you must prepare for the selection process. For this you must know something about the Internet business. Nitro has a suit of very good books on Internet marketing. I recommend reading most of them. But the most important thing is to know the Nitro Marketing philosophy. To know the Nitro Marketing Mindset.

This Nitro marketing philosophy or mindset would also be very helpful to you if you are not The Entrepreneur but you want to make your own million dollars on and on.

But, what is Nitro Marketing Mindset?

Simply put, it is an audio package consisting of an interview by Tellman of Kevin Wilke and Matt Gill, two very successful Internet marketers behind Nitro. However, in this interview Kevin and Matt not only reveal the secrets that allow Nitro to consistently create lofty goals and reach or exceed them every time with ease. This package can be said as the philosophy and “how-to” guide of any successful project, and as such is a must “hear” for every aspiring individual in general and Internet marketer in particular. The interview lasts more than four hours. Then there is another session of more than three hours of bonus interviews, and NLP Power Sessions. To learn fully about this incredible package, please visit:

The Millionaire Mindset!

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

DRIVING LESSONS (PART IV)--PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

2005-02-26T00:50:00.000+05:30

February 25, 2005

Dear Reader,

I am driving to office. I am a careful driver. May be I have imbibed many of the happiness lessons some of which help me in not getting unnecessarily agitated. I am subconsciously thinking to Be Happy!

A brilliant idea comes to my mind. I am very observant of the traffic around me. Both in the direction I am going and coming from the opposite direction. On cross roads I am especially careful of the traffic moving in all the directions. But what happens when I pass the cross road?

I nearly completely forget the traffic which I had just passed and had paid so much of my undivided attention! It has become of no concern to me! But moments before it was of vital importance to me. My life depended on it. I am not worrying where all those cars and drivers have gone. Whether they were red or blue or green cars, whether the drivers were good or bad. All this does not affect me now at all.

Similarly, I am not concerned what is happening far away and out of my field of vision. What cars will be crossing me at the next cross road is not my concern at present. What is happening far away is not my worry now. If I worry about it just now, I may cause an accident.

What I am completely and totally concerned about is the car in front of me; the car coming from opposite direction; the car coming from my left and right. Then I am concerned about the immediate traffic around me. I occasionally see the rear view mirror; see the side mirrors and glance behind while changing lanes or taking a turn.

Dwelling upon past is futile. Howsoever you worry about past it is not going to change. Whatever has happened has happened. Similarly, worrying about future is useless. What you dread may never happen. Do your best and hope for the best. Live in the present, because,

“Life is now in session. Are you present?”—B. Copeland

Imagine a drive to a beautiful place. Our destination is a dream-like place. We are thinking of our destination. Beautiful brooks, rivers, forests, country side, hills, cities, morn, day, night, sun, rain, snow, pass by. We remain oblivious of them. We are going to enjoy them when we reach our destination! It is only the one who enjoys the journey who really travels.

Similarly, we go through life planning to be happy on some future day! I will be happy after I finish my education, after I get a job, after I get married, after I buy a computer, a car, a house, after my children have finished their education, after they have got married. I will be happy after I retire. That day will come and go but I will never be happy. If I cannot be happy now, how can I be so on some future day! Happiness does not come automatically after some day; it does not depend on worldly possessions. If you cannot be happy in the process of achieving some goal you cannot be happy after obtaining that goal. If you cannot enjoy the journey you cannot enjoy the destination. To be happy you must live in the present.

“Yesterday is ashes; tomorrow wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.”—Old Eskimo saying

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

DRIVING LESSONS--III--IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

2005-02-07T06:19:00.000+05:30

February 6, 2005

Dear Reader,

“Son of a bitch! How dare you pass me!!” shouted Henry. He gassed the car. We shot from a comfortable 40 to 70 miles per hour. Unfortunately, before Henry could teach the stupid teenager one or two lessons in fast driving, the boy turned right on the Main Street oblivious of the brewing rage and competition in his wake.

“Coward! Come, why are you running away from the battlefield like a mouse?” Henry challenged as if throwing his lance at a fleeing enemy. His face had become red. He was clutching at the steering wheel, sitting at the edge of his seat. I thought if there were really a race Henry’s Civic Honda would be no match to the sports car of the teenager. But I kept quiet. This will infuriate Henry all the more. Suddenly it turned amber at the Fraser. Henry speeded to jump the light, but the car in front of him hesitated and then decided that it was better to stop. He stopped right in the middle of the pedestrian crosswalk. Henry spat an obscenity and slammed on the brakes. The car in front wanted to reverse to clear the pedestrian walkway but Henry rolled down the glass and gave him a finger. The driver gave him two fingers! Henry got down from the car and approached the driver. Just then the light turned green and the driver sped away, leaving Henry stranded outside his car. Before Henry could come back and move, other cars behind us started blowing horns and showing finger to Henry.

By now Henry was raging mad. He lit another cigarette. “Damn these lights. I always get red light when I am in a hurry.” Sure enough we got another red light at the next crossing. To go faster and possibly avoid the next red light he changed to the left lane. Suddenly, a red car, driven by an oriental talking on the cell phone, overtook him dangerously from the right and came to the left lane in front of us. The light had turned red. Henry stopped. It changed to the green and the red car gave left turn signal and kept standing. It was too late for Henry to change lane.

“These Orientals! They cannot even see where they are going. Didn’t he know before hand that he had to turn left? He could have turned even when it just turned red. Or, is he being given directions on the cell phone?”

It turned red again. The red car couldn’t turn left as there was heavy on coming traffic, which didn’t stop even at amber. Henry was insanely mad by now. He tried to change lane, created a near accident scenario and somehow managed to change and go ahead when it turned green again.

It was uncommonly hot. He started perspiring. He kept on fuming and fussing all the way. Against God (why it was sunny and beautiful that everybody was on the roads); against the Government (why they don’t make the roads wider, why they don’t expand sky train service); against all others on the road (why old men and women drive so slowly, why the teenagers who drive so recklessly are not caught by the police, why…why….) I could see plainly that the blood vessels on Henry’s temple had become swollen and they were palpitating visibly. Within the half an hour driving he had already consumed five cigarettes!

Henry was my colleague at the office. He was, in fact, our accountant. He was forty-five, married and father of two beautiful daughters. He was fond of eating and drinking. He smoked two packets of cigarettes daily, drank beer like water, and substituted it with coffee in the office. He liked fast food and red meat. He was fond of sports and spent his entire evenings at home watching football and hockey on the TV.

Henry and I had joined the Universal Imports and Exports together. It was a long long time ago. Nearly twenty-five years. Henry was a lean and thin youth then. He was a tennis player. Those were the good old days! We worked hard, played tennis, and frequented bars and nightclubs. But within a few years things started changing. We got more and more involved in the work. We got married and had children. We don’t remember when we stopped playing tennis, stopped going to gym, and stopped doing any physical work, except carrying files and ledgers in the office!

It was full of tension for Henry at the office. Every Department committed accounting mistakes. At the end of the day, therefore, the accounts invariably did not tally. Henry swore, called names, and sat late to reconcile the accounts. By the time he reached home, he was tense, tired, and hungry. He flopped on the sofa, turned the TV on, and sat with his beer and potato chips. He talked to his wife and daughters during the commercials and ate dinner in front of the TV. He moved from there only to go to bathroom and finally to the bed.

We reached the Headquarters. It was always a struggle for Henry to get out of his car. In fact, he had out grown his car. He was excessively bulky and pot-bellied. Yet he drove two-door small Honda Civic. Every time a colleague sat with him, he or she would ask, “Why don’t you buy a bigger car?” His wife also asked the same question. It seemed that just to spite them he was never going to change his car!

It was nearly one in the afternoon. Office workers were returning from the lunch. There was a mini crowd near the lift. Henry went ahead and pushed the lift button that must have been pushed scores of times already. Within a minute when the lift came, he had again pushed it twice! We entered. Soon it was filled. The door closed. But before the lift moved, the doors opened again and a courier boy tried to enter. Henry snapped at him, “Don’t you see the lift is already full!” The boy still squeezed in. Henry gave him a dirty look.

We were summoned to discuss the budget. The boss was in a hurry. By now we were also tired and in not very good mood. Henry and the boss got into an argument. Henry got excited. To me it seemed a mere trifle. But Henry wanted to make his point. The boss his own. Henry’s face grew red. He started breathing fast and heavily. He lit yet another cigarette. I intervened. The meeting ended on a sour note.

All the way back Henry continued to live the anger of their encounter. We stopped at a restaurant. Had a couple of beers each and ate a pizza. I went home. Henry to office.

Next day, Henry was no more.

He had a heart attack in the night.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

DRIVING LESSONS (PART II)--ENJOYING IT ALL THE WAY

2005-01-31T03:09:00.000+05:30

January 30, 2005

Dear Reader,

I was taking my children to our ancestral home. It was an old house on a mountain slope beside a creek. It was surrounded by pine forest. At this time of year it must be covered by a thick layer of snow. My seven year daughter and five year son were visiting the home for the first time.

No sooner had I put my car in gear than the children started talking excitedly.

“I will climb the tallest pine tree and gather the pine cones,” said my son.

“I will jump into the creek,” replied my daughter.

“I will ski down the slope and oh, I will enjoy the snow so much,” he exulted.

They kept on talking and enjoying every bit of it till the panoramic scenery of approaching mountains caught their attention.

“Oh, see the little water falls! How beautiful they are! Daddy, can we stop, I want to see how cool the water is,” asked my son, little expecting me to stop.

“See, see, there is a hare in the grass. No, there are two.”

They kept on talking and enjoying every bit of it till we reached the home. As for me and my wife, we were tired and bored by driving and the constant talk of the children. The drive was routine for us. We hardly cast glance left or right out of the side windows. We too were looking forward to enjoying at the ancestral home. But we were not in the habit of enjoying the scenery on the way.

The children jumped down the SUV and started gamboling and laughing and throwing snow balls on each other.

They were happy even before they had reached here or seen it. Even if the mountains and snow were different they would have still enjoyed it. They had pre-decided to enjoy it. They had pre-arranged their mind to enjoy. Their happiness had very little to do with the outer reality. Happiness was in their mind.

Not only were they happy on reaching here or on the way thinking of it, they were happy in arriving here also. They were happy during the journey. They enjoyed thoroughly the road, the grass, the trees, the scenery, the mountains, and the snow. They enjoyed the way to the destination. Though they looked with anticipation and joy towards the destination, they enjoyed every bit of the journey to the destination. They really lived the interval between starting and reaching.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

DRIVING LESSONS (PART I)--OTHERS ARE ALSO DRIVING FINE

2005-01-17T10:03:00.000+05:30

January 16, 2005

Dear Reader,

My secretary had misplaced the Jovorosky case file. My boss was a pest. My colleagues were a bunch of inexperienced morons. I was in a rage. I left office lamenting how everybody around me was a big incompetent fool.

I eased my car once I reached the highway. Traffic was, as usual going at a high speed both ways in multiple lanes. It was high speed but smooth. It sort of acted as soothing balm on my brain.

Who were the drivers of these cars, SUVs and motorcycles? I realized that one of them may be my incompetent secretary or colleague. In fact, they were a motley crowd—educated and uneducated, police officers and criminals, smart and lazy fellows, intelligent and imbecile. It would not have inspired any confidence in me if they were working in my office as my colleagues. But they seemed to be driving fine!

Their driving concerned me vitally. In fact, my life was in their hands. If any of them made a wrong move, a terrible accident could occur in which I could perish. But there are surprisingly very few accidents on the roads.

I cannot support low witted, lazy, ignorant people. They give me a lot of headache and tension. But the same people are driving fine on the roads. Perhaps they are doing fine in the world also. It is me who is unnecessarily getting tense. After all the world is running fine. Not only around me but in very very far flung regions also. It is doing fine without my guidance. It has always been doing fine and will be doing fine. The people have always been, are and will be capable of doing fine. I need not worry on account of people. I have to worry about myself. I should be driving fine and everything around me would be fine.

I remember when I was learning to drive. When I used to get discouraged, my instructor friend used to say, “See, every Tom, Dick and Harry is driving. People less smart than you, people less educated than you, and people less active than you are driving. If they can, you can also.

Since then, I have observed, if a man or woman can do something, another also can do it. Perhaps do it better. If one person can drive, millions of others can too. If one athlete can run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds other can also. In sports all records are broken sooner or later.

Millions of people are driving fine around me. Many people we just reject without seeing—because of our prejudice against sex, race, color, religion, language and age, etc. Others we reject on seeing on above grounds but also on the basis of looks. We so often reject people who are not handsome or beautiful. But when it comes to driving on the roads, looks do not count, as, of course, sex, race, color, etc. are also irrelevant.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART III

2005-01-10T00:38:00.000+05:30

January 9, 2005

On top of your New Year Resolutions were some such things:

To get up at five.
To go for jogging.
To write for two hours.
Etc.

You were celebrating the Old Year Night till the early hours of New Year. You went to bed nearly at 2 a.m. You are fast asleep till 10 a.m. if not till mid-day. You have slight hang over. It is difficult even to get up what to talk of jogging or writing for two solid hours. Your New Year Resolutions have been broken on the very first day! The virginity of the resolutions has gone. They have lost their charm. In any case, you now realize, there is nothing new in the New Year. You are the same. The world is the same. Why bother with the New Year Resolutions!

To keep your New Year Resolutions and motivation, it is, therefore, very necessary to guard against the factors which kill them in the infancy itself. Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Exceptions do make the rule and one swallow does not make a summer. New Year Resolutions are not “All or Nothing” affair. However, the New Year Resolutions are so dear to us, like a shining brand new car, that often if we fail to observe one of them, we get very disheartened and leave them totally. But that is the first thing we have to guard against. Already when we make New Year Resolutions we make them as if we are living in an ideal world. We have already crammed into our resolutions what no human being will be able to accomplish in ten years. So, don’t worry if some of them are broken on the very first night or very early in the year. What is important is your determination to keep as many New Year Resolutions as possible. Just keep at it. If jogging is broken for a week or month, restart it. If your diet has broken for a week or month, restart it. Come back to your New Year Resolutions.

2. So, you have re-committed yourself to your New Year Resolutions. Now is the time to revise them. Your New Year Resolutions were theoretical only. They lacked practical reality. You put too much into it. Even if you work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you would not be able to do it. You set too many diverse aims to accomplish—you want to excel at job, you want to be a good family member, you want to be the best baseball player, the best writer, the best singer, and so many other things. You want to go on a world tour, you want to learn music, you want to practice Yoga, etc. Well, your intentions are honorable, but not practical. Prune your list. If something is not going to be done any way, why not cut it from your list now. You can add it later, if you want to. Revise your list periodically.

3. You broke your resolution of going to gym early in the morning. Did you regret? Did your heart break? Did you loathe yourself whole day? If not, the resolution was not worth the paper it was written on. Your heart was not in it. It was not an obsession. See obsessive chatterboxes, smokers, drinkers. No harm making them your role models! Just change the activity. Your New Year Resolutions should be like obsessions.

4. Do you remember in your New Year Resolutions, in Three Greatest, you had put hard work, discipline, and self-control? Of all the great qualities, why you chose only these three? Because they are the most difficult. First, listen to a story. A man prayed to God for many years. The God became happy and asked him for a boon. The man asked for immortality. The God gave him a bottle of nectar and told him to drink it every morning and evening. The contents of the bottle will never finish. As long as he drank the nectar regularly he would not die. The man kept at the routine for some time. But then he got bored with it. One day he neglected to drink the nectar. He died the same day! To keep the routines is very difficult. But in life and the world all great things are routine—the sun rises routinely, the heart beats routinely, we breathe routinely, and so on. In fact other vital activities are also to be performed every day—drinking of water, taking food, and sleeping etc. On the other hand, if you are in the habit of doing something, like getting up early, you will keep on doing it happily and without any effort. This teaches us two great lessons: first, have discipline and self-control to keep your New Year Resolutions and, secondly, keep on repeating your affirmations and resolutions. They work only when you keep on repeating them. As mentioned above, even life depends on repetition of heart beat and respiration, and so many other things.

5. What is www? World Wide Web! What is Internet? Interconnected computers! In both of these the concept of connection is paramount. Everything is connected with everything, so to say. And this connection for web pages is through links. So, in your personal life also link. Link one thing with another and you will never fail to do it. If you decide to drink at least ten glasses of water per day, which you should for good health, link drinking of water with routine activities of day-to-day life—drink two glasses first thing early in the morning on getting up, one before breakfast, one before leaving for office, one on reaching office, one each after you go to bathroom, one a couple of hours after lunch, one before leaving for home, one on arriving at home, one after freshening up, one a couple of hours after super, one before retiring. You will easily drink a dozen of glasses of water this way. Link getting up early to playing a game, and you will not be able to even sleep in anticipation of next morning’s game!

6. Don’t put your resolutions to only in a computer file and forget all about it. Write the resolutions in a diary, on your desktop (StickIt software will do it. Get it at http://www.singerscreations.com/Files/SIFix.exe ), in your Note in Outlook or other program, in you screen saver, on your fridge, on the wall of your room, etc. If you are of shy type and don’t want others to know that you are in the self-improvement business (it is strange, a smoker is not embarrassed, but an adult man who want self-improvement is sometimes laughed at!).

7. Repeat New Year Resolutions on waking up, in your prayers, and before retiring. In this way you will remain focused. In this way, you will be ordering you subconscious also to work for you and create the circumstances which are optimum for the realization of your New Year Resolutions.

8. Get a support group. Work with your family. Have a circle of friends to support and encourage each other. Have a jogging group and you will manage to jog all the year round.

9. Subscribe to inspirational/motivational newsletter. Read books on the subject. Listen to audios or see videos on the subject.

10. Ultimately, it is not terribly important whether you keep your resolutions in their entirety exactly as they were written at the beginning of the year. What is important is that you work hard, be disciplined and self-controlled. With just a little focus, you will be going in the right direction.

BE HAPPY! BE SUCCESSFUL! BE HEALTHY!

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

(This concludes New Year Resolutions)

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART II

2005-01-04T08:21:00.000+05:30

January 3, 2005

In my last blog I had written about New Year Resolutions and how to make them. In this entry I will give some New Year Resolutions. Of course, yours would and should be completely different from them. But they are good examples on which you could base your New Year Resolutions.

You would observe that I do not give simple ten or twenty or hundred resolutions. I, of course, give ten resolutions, but I also give Three Greatest, Ten Affirmations/Imageries, Ten Blessings, Ten Do’s, and Ten Don’ts. These deepen and reinforce New Year Resolutions. These could be considered as tackling a problem from different angles. For example, to learn something, we may read it, write it, attend a lecture, listen it on an audio tape, may be see a video on the subject, and ask a friend to ask questions on the subject to test our understanding.

You should, if possible, make separate resolutions for your official or job life and for your personal life. Your aims for your official life and personal life would be different. In many cases the resolutions for official life may be very simple—do your work efficiently and hang on there! It is in your personal life that you would be aiming for paramount changes. In your official life you may be a machine operator but in your personal life you may be striving hard for becoming a writer. These resolutions are geared to some such scenario. Very few lucky persons may be doing the same thing for their profession or occupation for which they have real passion in life. For such persons also these resolutions would be appropriate.

These resolutions seem formidable. They are not intended to be perfected hundred percent. They show the possibilities. Whatever you achieve would suffice. Just give an honest try.

These resolutions are written for a person who is doing some job but who wants to become a great writer. You may want to become a great player, an artist, or a web designer. Modify them to suit you. Also, you could modify them during the year on review also.

Here are the resolutions:

[GREATEST AIM, PASSION, AND ASSET]

My greatest aim in life is happiness, success, and health.
My greatest passion in life is daily writing, writing and writing.
My greatest asset in life is hard work, discipline, and self-control.

[AIMS FOR THE YEAR, 2005]
(These are the main resolutions)

I will establish myself as a writer.
I will write 3 books, and one each of collection of stories, poems, and articles.
I will get published and win competitions.
I will make a circle of writer friends and make or become member of local writer’s club/association.
I will read great literature and books and articles on how to write.
I will lessen my involvement in activities which are not related to my main aim of writing.
I will try to become a full time writer.
I will take care of my health.
I will give quality time to my family.
I will be happy, successful, and healthy.

[DAILY TEN BLESSINGS]
(If you pray, ask God for these blessings. If not, visualize that you have already got them or you are striving after getting them.)

Peace of mind.
Happiness.
Good luck.
Success.
Health.
Discipline.
Hard work.
Self control.
Love.
Focus.

[DAILY TEN AFFIRMATIONS/IMAGERIES]

(These are to be repeated as and when possible, especially just after getting up in the morning and just before retiring for the day in the night.)

1. I am so successful in my greatest aim in life of happiness, success, and health that I am always happy, successful, and healthy.
2. I am so successful in my greatest passion in life of writing, writing and writing that I am writing daily and copiously and have become the greatest writer of the world.
3. I am so successful in relying upon my greatest asset in life that I am hard working, disciplined, and self-controlled.
4. I am able to daily follow/seek the Three Greatest, Daily Ten Blessings, Daily Ten Affirmations/Imagery, Daily Ten Do’s and Daily Ten Don’ts.
5. I am in extremely good health and getting healthier and healthier and younger and younger day by day.
6. I have extra-ordinary mental and spiritual development and I am always focused, positive, and persistent.
7. I am constantly being published; my books are becoming best sellers and I am winning contests/competitions and awards.
8. God, family and friends, and people in general, are my well wishers and supporters
9. Today I will be/was hard working, self-disciplined and self-controlled.
10. Today I will be writing/wrote.

[DAILY TEN DO’S]
(Make them your daily routines)

Get up at fixed time and sleep at fixed time.
(Some people like to get up early, some work late. Fix the time according to what suits you best.)
Follow the Greatest Three and Daily Ten Blessings, Daily Ten Affirmations/Imageries; Daily Ten Do’s, and Daily Ten Don’ts.
Do short prayer or meditation after getting up; short prayer or meditation before retiring.
(Repeat and do imagery of Three Greatest, Daily Tens; plan/review day; and order unconscious mind.)
4. Morning write; evening write.
5. Morning exercise/walk; evening exercise/ walk.
(Combine exercise/walk with thinking about writing.)
6. Day write or related work.
(It means that during the day also get some time to devote to your passion in life, even if your occupation is something different.)
7. Eat well and variety of foods; drink lots of water.
Be active, play games, swim, remain outdoors.
Constantly keep thinking and planning about writing ideas.
10. Follow time management and optimization techniques.

[DAILY TEN DON’TS]

Don’t neglect New Year Resolutions. If defaulted, immediately start following them again instead of losing heart or putting them off to next day, next week , next month, or next year.
Don’t waste time, especially on TV, emails, or unfocussed internet surfing, or on useless parties, outings, etc.
Don’t waste energy on unimportant activities.
Don’t be negative. pessimistic, and mournful.
Don’t over eat or drink and don’t eat unhealthy food.
Don’t neglect personal affairs.
Don’t neglect family and good friends.
Don’t take undue risks.
Don’t ever hurry or worry.
Don’t neglect rules of happiness, success and health.

Well these are some suggested Resolutions. Refine and revise them. However, guard against ‘paralysis of analysis’. Be practical rather than theoretical. Anybody can make perfect Resolutions. Few can follow them. Be one of those few.

Be Happy! Be Successful! Be Healthy!

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

Next entry: New Year Resolutions—III (How to keep them.)

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS--PART I

2005-01-01T00:03:00.000+05:30

31st December, 2004

I am an avid New Year’s Resolutions writer! In fact, I write them often. May be two or three times in a year. My success rate with them is mixed. I am more or less disciplined and hard working person. So I keep on pushing ahead. But my Resolutions are too ambitious, you may say impractical, to be fulfilled. For example, I may write during this year I will write 3 novels, three non-fiction books, 50 articles, 50 short stories, and 50 poems. At the end of the year, I may not have completed even a single novel, a single non-fiction book, and written only a few articles, short stories, and poems.

My experience with New Year Resolutions has taught me some lessons which I am sharing with you.

Don’t leave New Year Resolutions for the last moment to write! If you do, on the last day of the year you may end up hurriedly writing down something not better than a shopping list. Spend some time and energy in writing them. At the same time, if you fail to write them before the New Year starts, don’t think that now it is too late. Write in the first week of the year or later. It is better writing late than never.

Before writing about the New Year and future, cast a glance at the old year and the past. How was the old year? Did you keep your resolutions? If yes, to what extent? If not, why? Given another chance, how would you plan and live the old year. Have a vision of the future. How would you like to see yourself after one year or thereafter? Base your resolutions on this analysis.

Write down what you really want to do, not what is routine, customary, or fashionable. If you have no inner urge to reduce weight or quit smoking, it is no use resolving to do so.

Make new year resolutions a vehicle for change. While we are comfortable with status quo, we want to change our life too. Everybody thinks that he is in a rut. He or she would have been happier in another job, in different circumstances, in new places. But we fear change. Don’t just foolhardily jump into change, but plan for it.

Plan for new and exciting things in life. Learn something new—dancing, playing a musical instrument, a new language, tennis, web-designing, or writing poetry. If you have never loved, love. It is an exciting thing. If you are in love, get married. It is intoxicating.

Write down specific goals rather than general. Instead of writing, “I will reduce weight,” specify how many pounds or kilograms you want to reduce within which period and by what means. So write, during the year I will reduce my weight by 30 pounds. I will aim at reducing 10 pounds every quarter (so that I have some extra time towards the year-end). I will regulate my diet (be specific about diet too), will exercise or play some game, go for morning or evening walk, start yoga, and lead an active life.

Break down bigger whole year aims to smaller quarterly and monthly aims. In fact, each week write down the aim for that week also. Of course, also keep a daily to-do list (to be written at the start of the day or one day in advance). Revise the monthly and quarterly targets in the light of progress made and aims abandoned and new aims added. In fact, write down a continually evolving list of to-do for the year. Whatever you want to do in the year, just add to this list and do when the right time comes.

Supplement the Resolutions list with other lists: Daily Prayer in which you may pray to God for giving you happiness, success, and health, etc. Daily Affirmations, in which you may use the power of affirmations. Daily Do’s in which you may fix your daily routine which may be helpful in fulfilling your Resolutions, Daily Don’ts, things you should not do.

Use positive power! Most of our resolutions fail because they are about negatives rather than positives. We want to reduce weight or quit smoking, or drinking. But all these are negatives. We will surely be defeated fighting against them. Instead, if we decide to start playing tennis, it would be a positive thing. Little by little we will get interested in it. We will get addicted to it. We will not be able to stay at home when it is play time, whether it is at 5 a.m. or 5 p.m. We will have to go when our partner calls us. If we are over-weight, we will jog, eat less and sensibly. If we get fatigued easily, we will quit smoking and drinking. We would like to be at the top of our tennis team! We will reduce weight, quit smoking and drinking easily (because our game of tennis demands it!).

Don’t abandon all Resolutions on slight failure! One of the main reasons why diets are abandoned is ‘All or Nothing’ attitude. If we fail to follow the diet for one day or eat too much one day, we consider that we have failed and abandon the resolution. The same is true of our resolution about quitting smoking or drinking.

If your resolutions break down, and they will and should now and then, for example, when you are celebrating something, when you are honeymooning, when you are meeting some deadline, restart the resolutions. Similarly, periodically evaluate the progress, even make changes. A year is a long period; reexamine your life every three months.

Don’t forget the unwritten premises! When we write our Resolutions we concentrate what we want to achieve in worldly sense. But we fail to mention other important things in life, like: I will be happy, I will love my family, and I will enjoy nature, etc. These unwritten resolutions are more important than the written ones. If we fulfill them and even fail at achieving the written aims, we have still won. If we succeed at both, that is superb!

Now write down your resolutions! Happy New Year! Good Luck.

Be Happy! Be Successful! Be Healthy!

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Gus

Next entry: New Year Resolutions--Part II (Some suggested resolutions.)

The Life Beautiful!--Be Happy! Be Successufl! Be Healthy!

2004-12-24T00:08:00.000+05:30

December 23, 2004

Dear Reader,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have finally arrived. Not in the holiday season and at the year-end. Of course, we have arrived there too. But also at the http://www.thelifebeautiful.com/. To launch this has been a love of sharing. We wanted to share our views on The Life Beautiful and on Happiness, Success, and Health. Our sincere aim is to benefit everybody. We want you to BE HAPPY! BE SUCCESSFUL! and BE HEALTHY!

We have big plans. We want this site to be the Mother of All Sites on the life beautiful, happiness, success, and health. And yet we don't know whether Internet can support all that. We, therefore, need your help and guidance. Howsoever, egotist we may be, our limited knowledge and capabilities cannot rival the unlimited resources of you the readers out there.

I often recall the words of Newton,

"I don't know what I may seem to the world; but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Well, that ‘smoother pebble or prettier shell' I will be showcasing now and then. But the ‘great ocean of truth' belongs to you. Allow me to have a peep at it. Share it with other readers. On my part, what I bring with me is some experience of living in various countries of the world, observing closely various people, religions, and cultures, reading some of the world literature, and some original thinking. After all this observing, reading, and surfing the Internet, I have come to the conclusion that, alas, I am not the best brain or the best writer in the world. I am rather just above the average! But I will try to cover my limitations with your help.

This is your blog. The site http://www.thelifebeautiful.com/belongs to you. Help us to develop the blog and the site. Become a member; contribute to ezine, discussion forums, and the blog, etc.

I try to follow Gita:

‘You have right to action only, never to its results; never be attached to the results of your actions; but don't take to inaction also.'— Gita (2.47)

But, to be truthful to you and myself, I have not yet reached that stage of ‘Niskam Karma' . In my heart of heart, I am very much ‘attached' to the results of this project. I crave for its success. I will surely shed some tears if it does not grow as I dream.

As we wish Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, we also sincerely hope that we will also be blessed.

We look forward to New Year and http://www.thelifebeautiful.com/.

Before I leave, I recommend you to read the following from The Life Beautiful Ezine:

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Gift of Santa

I am sorry if this first Blog entry seems an apparent sales pitch. I could not avoid it. The Life Beautiful and this Blog are twins! But I hope they would go in their separate way, though still remaining twins, and will be more concerned with their own lives.

With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
Gus