Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs….who arranged a running competition.
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. .

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants….

The race began…

Honestly..

No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower..

You heard statements such as..

“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”

“They will NEVER make it to the top.”

“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one….

Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher….

The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up….

But ONE continued higher and higher and higher….

This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally want ed to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal?

It turned out….

That the winner was DEAF!!!!

The wisdom of this story is..

Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be..

negative or pessimistic…because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you — the ones you have in your heart!!

Always think of the power words you have…

Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!!!

Therefore…

ALWAYS be….

POSITIVE . . . . .

And above all…

Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!!

Always think…

God and I can do this!

Pass this message to “tiny frogs”  you care about..

Give them some motivation!!!
Most people walk in and out of your life……but FRIENDS leave footprints in your heart…!!

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking Attitudes, Inspiring Story, Persistance, Positive People

Failure
By Tim Connor

Failure

It’s only a word.

But it carries with it so much pain
and so little concern
so much frustration
and so little respect,

so much stress and so little
understanding
that people spend their lives
running through their days

in the hope of avoiding the long arm
of this little word.

To test our vision, you must risk
failure.

To temper your ego, you must attempt
the impossible.

To tell your story, you must
take a chance.

To see beyond the horizon, you must
spread your wings.

To be all you can be, you must
stretch, flex, try, and go beyond
your proven limits.

To bridge the silence, you must risk
rejection.

To advance into the unknown, you must
risk the peril of all your
previous beliefs and emotions
that feel so secure.

Failure is not negative. It is a teacher.
It molds, refines, and polishes you
so that one day your light will
shine for all to see.

It isn’t the failure you experience
that will determine your destiny,
but your next step and then the next
that will tell
the story of your life.

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking

Dreams
By Unknown

It is not enough to have a dream unless I am
willing to pursue it.
It is not enough to know what is right unless I am
strong enough to do it.
It is not enough to join the crowd, to be acknowledged and accepted, I must be true to my ideals, even if am
left out and rejected.
It is not enough to learn the truth unless I also learn to live it.
It is not enough to reach for love unless I care enough to give it.

admin Inspiring Thoughts, Motivation Zone Dreams

Let us persevere to achieve our goals and objectives. We must have self-belief that ‘We Can do’ and ‘We Can Win’. Positive Thinking will help us to stay determined and focused despite setbacks, which we shall have to overcome to reach our chosen Destination.

Perseverance

•  Athletes and Sports persons train hard for years. They regularly fight and overcome pain barriers to reach their mark.

•  Abhinav Bindra worked on his bad back for almost two years and went on to win the Air Rifle Shooting Olympic Gold in 2008.

•  Sania Mirza overcame her bad wrist and Mahesh Bhupati his bad back to win the mixed doubles Tennis Gold in the Australian Open 2009.

•  Lance Armstrong conquered cancer to become seven times Tour-de-France endurance cycling tournament.

•  Nelson Mandela stayed in solitary confinement at Robin Island for twenty seven years, before being released and went on to become President of South Africa. He never wanted to take revenge on his captors and is a Happy ninety years today, full of goodwill and smiles!

•  Abraham Lincoln lost every election from the municipal ward upwards, but kept faith and kept raising the bar to contest at the next higher level, till he became the President of The United States. He has been recently voted as the ‘Best’ ever President of the U.S in a survey!

•  Soldiers on the battlefront Climb Mountains in –40 degree C, fight extreme fatigue, frostbite and even torture by the enemy as they are ‘focused’ on their duty for the country.

•  Actors fight temptation to eat food of their choice and exercise hard to get toned bodies for adulation and success, which they crave.

We must note that they persevered, despite seemingly impossible odds, all because of Staying Positive.

Never, Never, Never Give Up.

Patience

Patience is a virtue, which we have to imbibe in order to keep thinking positively. It is required for our Mental Peace and Happiness.

Lord Krishna’s message of ‘Nishkam Karma’ directs us to do our deeds without thinking about the results. (Which we tend to do all the time)
‘Pursue Excellence, Rewards Will Follow’-this is a certainty, but we have to leave the time frame to the ‘God as We Understand Him/Her)

•  Let us ‘Dare To Dream’ but work hard to turn our Dreams into Reality.

•  Let us not wait for thunderbolts of inspiration but start the process.

•  A sculptor famous for carving Elephants form stone when asked as to how did he do it replied that it is very simple. I chip away at the extras from the stone block, till only the Elephant remains! Slow and patient work definitely!

•  So let us chip away at all the extras patiently to get to our Goal.

•  Learned Cricket commentators say that Sachin Tendulkar patiently gets his eye in and takes time in getting set. But when he gets set and going, he is so focused that he sees nothing else-the cricket ball looks to him to be as big as a football.

•  Let us set ourselves stretch but not impossible targets and raise the bar incrementally after achieving every milestone.

•  Let us NOT straightaway aim at becoming Roger Federer or Shah Rukh Khan. They are extraordinary achievers.

•  We should first aim at becoming ‘Good’ before aiming to become ‘Great’.

•  About three decades back an interviewer told Ravi Tikoo, then one of the richest Indians in the World that he was very Lucky. Ravi said yes, but to stay lucky he had to work very hard on a consistent basis.

CONCLUSION

Perseverance and Patience are the hallmarks of great achievers. Positive Thinking and Self-Belief are the mantras to be always kept in mind.

ARUN VEDHERA

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking Patience, Perseverence, Persistance

Our THINKING is shaped by the multiple inputs stored in our brain since childhood and the on-going experiences we have on a daily basis. Some experiences and events however leave a profound long-term impact on us.

All these experiences and inputs are a combination of whatever we term for ourselves as happy, sad and indifferent ones.

It is a universal truth that life will present all possible combinations in everyone’s life.  No one can aspire to have only ONE kind of CHOSEN experiences.

It is however in OUR OWN HANDS to view and interpret these inputs:

• As Positive or Negative
• To rewrite on Our Old Stored Memory and re-interpret the stored thoughts and experiences.
• To ultimately position ourselves to view things logically while drawing POSITIVES from each occurrence, whether it directly concerns us or not.

The Power of Positive Thinking is immense. We can change our whole personality and the day-to-day state-of-being through Positive Thinking.

A whole body of writings is available on this subject and almost 4,000 books have been written on Happy Psychology and related subjects last year (The Times of India-Magazine Section, Sunday 1st Feb’09).

While there has been tremendous material progress the world over in the last decades and new opportunities are available for hitherto unheard of careers, new services are available, choices for the consumer have increased multifold, we have to recognize that in today’s globalized world, this automatically leads to higher competition and  greater emphasis on performance.

• Is there anything wrong in it? Definitely not.

Evolution is a natural process and the shape of things is continuously undergoing transformation.

• Can we stop it? No.
• Can we ignore this fact? At our peril only.
• Do we want to go back to the earlier ages? Only if we want to regress.

We have to learn to live and enjoy in this wonderful world full of opportunities while being conscious of the challenges the pace of development poses.

There is an on-going debate between materialism and spiritualism and many ‘Gurus’ ascribe higher stress and depression faced by mankind today to the RACE towards materialism.

• Can we stop the Race? No.
• Can we retard the PACE of growth or PROGRESS? No.
• Do we want to scream-STOP THE WORLD, WE WANT TO GET OFF? No.
• We all should and do want to remain on this fast moving train and enjoy the fruits of progress and the increased choices without feeling depressed or unduly stressed.
• We do not want to go to an isolated mountain or an island to pray and meditate, yet want to lead a HAPPY LIFE.

It is definitely POSSIBLE. We only have to imbibe POSITIVE THINKING and the RIGHT ATTITUDE towards things, events and happenings.

This will also help to achieve the necessary BALANCE.

According to Lord Krishna in Gita, the mantra is of ‘Karma’ and of ‘Detached Attachment’. It is a bit difficult but can be achieved to a reasonable degree if we think positively and strive to achieve it through continuous conscious efforts.

CONCLUSION

We can engage in the Worldly Pursuits and also follow the Path of Spirituality simultaneously by following the ‘GOLDEN MEAN’, the path of moderation. We have to keep defining boundary limits for ourselves and should never go overboard.

Positive Thinking helps us to view things differently and enables us to develop a healthy perspective.

ARUN VEDHERA

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking Positive Thoughts

ROADMAP FOR POSITIVE THINKING-MOVING AHEAD

We must give positive inputs to our mind to stimulate positive thoughts and filter out the negative ones.

Power of our Thinking

• Our thoughts can shape our lives and drive us towards success and happiness.

• Through positive thinking we can create circumstances, which will enable us to achieve what we desire.

• We shall be always looking for ‘Solutions’ rather than Problems’.

• If we anticipate joy, good health, happiness and accomplishment, then we shall surely experience each one.

• Staying positive will keep us in good mood and shall enhance the quality of our every experience.

• With persistence we can condition our mind to judge fleeting, self-defeating thoughts as inconsequential and shall dismiss them.

• Our positive thoughts will get translated into positive attitude and we shall get positive feelings from others too in almost every interaction.

• We shall slowly but surely be rid of resentments, anger and jealousy, which are our enemies number one.

Gratitude

· Feeling grateful can actually change our lives.

· Let us be grateful to the ‘God of Our Understanding’ for his /her blessings. Remember that God is always benevolent and is our best ‘Friend’. We have to do our deed and leave the rest to God, rather than constantly trying to force the results.

· The change in our perspective will enable us to view our whole life differently.

· It will enable us to become joyful, more determined and enthusiastic.

· Feeling grateful can actually make us healthier and shall lead us towards a ‘Higher Quality of Life’.

· We shall not feel depressed or anxious.

· We should be grateful to our parents, life partner, children co-workers and friends, as they are partners in our progress.

· Gratitude when expressed to others always comes back.

· We must record our ‘Thanks’. Normally we forget to thank others for the ‘Several Small Good Things’, which make life happy and joyous for us. Example-Thank the spouse for a good hot meal, thank your boss for his guidance and appreciation, thank your juniors for their support and good work etc.

(Many ideas have been taken from an article by Deborah Norville in The Readers Digest-Feb.’09 issue)

Enjoy the Journey of Life

The thrill is actually in the ‘Journey’ and not so much on reaching the ‘Destination’.

· The anticipation, planning, joys of small achievements and heartaches due to failures are all parts of a landscape we witness from a moving train-sometimes green and rosy, at other times barren and rocky.

· One always gives way to the other and we should therefore enjoy both.

· We shall enjoy the sweet smell of success only after the struggle. (sometimes even failures)

· Mahatma Gandhi laid greater stress on the ‘Means’ rather than the ‘End’ and rightly so.

· Let us not aim at achieving success through bluff and unfair means. If we want to move through life with our head held high, then let us take the straight but sometimes longer path. This will make the Journey immensely rich and amazing.

CONCLUSION

Positive thinking will enable us to ‘Enjoy the Process’, the Journey of life, with all its ups and downs.

For Positive Thinking to change our lives, it must become our predominant mind-set.

ARUN VEDHERA

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking Positive Thoughts

Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?

Lot have been said and written about attitudes…..What exactly are attitudes?

The dictionary meaning of attitude is:

“1. a feeling or opinion about something or someone, or a way of behaving that is caused by this: example :It’s often very difficult to change people’s attitudes.

2 If you say that someone has attitude, you mean that they are confident and independent, often in a rude or unpleasant way.

All of us have been following a set of attitudes we learned in our lifetime through our own experiences and those of others. Some of them are positive ….helps us to live our lives to the fullest-enjoying every moment. There are other attitudes which make our lives and that of others miserable – harming ourselves or others around us.

There are a few other attitudes in life which are neither negative nor positive……but can be put under the category – General – living our lives the way we have been and living and doing nothing to progress in life – in our careers, our relationships, our physical, mental or spiritual aspects of life.

Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thoughts, and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized.–Paul Myer (in Developing the Leader Within You by Maxwell)

The essence of Life as human beings is progress…..One thing all of us have to understand clearly is that if in any way we want to improve our lives -want more money, bigger house, smaller cell phones, have good health, recover from our addictions-if any, looking for “peace within”, serenity and contended life, we have to work on ourselves to change for the better. There are no two ways about it.

“Changing our attitudes will definitely change our altitudes” But the problem is that many of us are not ready to change…..we fear change….Friends “pain doesn’t come from change ….it comes from resistance to change”

Here are a few “action steps” which will help you to work on the “Change of Attitude” Process. Try to work on it honestly and thoroughly. After all it is your life which can improve for the better.

First of all, do a little self searching exercise. You can ask yourself these questions:

a) Am I happy with the growth at my work.

b) Am I having a loving and understanding relationship with my wife/husband/partner or parents or children?

c)  Do others treat me the way I want them to treat me?

d) Am I grateful for whatever I have today?

e) Do I believe that “my feelings are results of my thoughts” can I can change myself to think differently to feel and act differently.

There are many, who answer in affirmative to the above…they are doing a wonderful job with themselves are working on other areas in life where they feel there is scope for improvement…..and the focus is on progress and not perfection. Because once we aim at perfecting a particular thing or behavior…..we don’t even start…it is human nature….we tend to be perfectionists…..either we do it perfectly or we don’t do it at all…So friends …..we are not looking to have a noble price for living a happy and better life but are targeting at improving from our present one.

If the answer to any of the above questions is in negative, then it is time we get going and ACT.

How do we go about changing ourselves?

Here are a few tools which helped me alter my attitudes thereby changing my life for the better .These tools have worked for me and thousands of others…and if these worked for us…it sure will work for you too…the only thing you have to do is let them.

1. Be honest, open minded and willing to change – This is the most important step. Until you are honest with yourself, open to ideas and suggestions, and Willing to improve ….there is nothing in this world which will work for you.

2. List down all the negative characters or traits you have – You can always take the help of your wife/husband/partner or a close friend as sometimes…we may not be able to see in ourselves what others can see in us.

3. Start working on them from “easy to hard” – start from the easiest one …the ones which requires less effort and gradually move on to the harder ones….break the harder ones into smaller parts….have a time limit…..set your own schedule… . but do a little bit on a daily basis….that way we will remain in touch with ourselves.

4. Compliment yourself on your achievements….howsoever small……compliment yourself …that way we are motivated to do a little more.

5. Thank your Higher power for whatever you have and whatever you were able to change……If you don’t believe in the concept of God…thank your stars……thank the universe…or thank science……the idea is not Whom to thank……but is to be grateful.

6. Snap yourself out of negative thoughts….and be conscious about them. One tool you can you can use is to wear a thick rubber band on your wrist and snap it whenever you are having negative thoughts…it will hurt you a little whenever you do that. By doing this you are giving signals to your brain that “pain is always comes from negative thoughts”…and if we don’t want pain….we might as well not think negative. Try it for 30 days and I am sure you mind will be alert whenever a negative thoughts comes.

7. Learn from your experience: “The one thing that is more painful than learning from experience is NOT learning from experience!”

Friends, life changes and if we WANT to be happy….we need to keep changing with time….and keep altering our attitudes to the changing situations and circumstances.

Most of us just need to start……..take action……. take the first step……….rest , God of your understanding and the universe will help you move on……

“It is easier to get older than get wiser”

Choice is yours….

Anurag Chopra

What have you to say on this ……Use the comments section below

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking, Self improvement Attitudes

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your ATTITUDE toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
Brian Tracy

Our ATTITUDE toward life determines lifes’ ATTITUDE towards us
Earl Nightingale

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their ATTITUDES of mind.
William James

There is little difference in people but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is ATTITUDE. The big difference is whether it’s positive or negative.
W. Clement Stone

A positive ATTITUDE may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright

If you don’t think every day is a good day, just try missing one.
Cavett Robert

How we think shows through in how we act. ATTITUDEs are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.
David J. Schwartz

ATTITUDES are more important than facts
Karl A Menniger

Develop an ATTITUDE of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
Brian Tracy

ATTITUDE is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston Churchill

Happiness is an ATTITUDE. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.
Winston Churchill

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
Paul H. Duhn

It is so often true that whether a person carries with him an atmosphere of gloom and depression or one of confidence and courage depends on his individual outlook.
James Keller

The only disability in life is a bad ATTITUDE.
Scott Hamilton

There are no menial jobs, only menial ATTITUDE.
William J. Bennett

Being a sex symbol has to do with an ATTITUDE, not looks. Most men think it’s looks, most women know otherwise.
Kathleen Turner

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of ATTITUDES.
Hugh Downs

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. ATTITUDE determines how well you do it.
Lou Holtz

Success or failure depends more upon ATTITUDE than upon capacity. Successful people act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly and you will be amazed at the positive result.
Dupree Jordan

Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
Anonymous

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

All the technology in the world will never replace a positive ATTITUDE.
Harvey MacKay

We awaken in others the same ATTITUDE of mind we hold toward them.
Elbert Hubbard

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.
Betty Smith

admin Motivation Zone, Positive Thinking Add new tag, Attitudes, Positive Thoughts