May

12

Guest Post on Pick The Brain Blog

Filed Under Guest Posts

I have a guest post on one of my most favorite blogs, Pick The Brain, today as well.

What a coincidence :)

5 Ways to Bury a Great Idea

Please visit and comment/Digg this article. Thank you in advance.

Please click on following link for the Digg.

Digg This

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>>>Big Thanks to my friend Peter Clemens !!

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May

12

Guest Post on Dumb Little Man

Filed Under Guest Posts

I have another guest post on one of my most favorite blogs, Dumb Little Man, today.

7 Ways to Eliminate Emotional Clutter

Please visit and comment/Digg this article. Thank you in advance.

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>>>>Big thanks to Jay White again for the opportunity !

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May

9

5 Axioms of Life: A Pathway to Happiness

Filed Under Family, Happiness, Positivity

Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.
-Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American writer.



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I live in Georgia, a beautiful state. We have our fair share of sunny days, mountains, lakes and serene trails. It’s peaceful to walk the trails, to hear the sound of the water falls and to marvel the beauty of the nature.

When I walked over the pathways that follow Anna Ruby falls, a thought flickered through my mind. A flash of truth stared in my face, I felt happiness that came from within. Life stifles without this serenity that we all want regardless of who we are. No worldly possessions or any power is as powerful as this serenity that comes from within.

What is the pathway to the lasting happiness? I realized that the secret lies in front of us staring in the eyes yet we are busy chasing mirage of happiness leaving the true pathway behind.

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a month — get married. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
-Chinese Proverb

1. Life is an echo:

My life is a reflection of choices I’ve made. I’ve made good choices and bad choices. When I look back, the bad choices were influenced by my egotist behavior. I’ve always failed miserably when I focused solely on the self. I’ve always been blessed to receive what I lacked to achieve my dreams. It’s simply a reflection of my Karma. We deposit gratitude in the life Bank and withdraw blessings. In my early days as an entrepreneur, I’ve had privilege to withdraw blessings that helped shape my life. We all reap what we saw. Make an effort to deposit gratitude by doing something that has no self interest. Everything you do will come back to you.You’ll begin to feel energy and serenity as a result.

2. The more is in less:

I used to buy clothes that I seldom wore, I used to buy books that I seldom read. Soon I realized that I was harboring sense of guilt by the possessions that were seeking my attention. In reality, I was buying on impulse with false hopes of glory that vanished in the guilt every time I looked at that book I never read. Lately, I’ve felt abundance of serenity after possessing less. I’m paying attention to the clothes I ware and books that I read. The more truly is in less.

3. Complaining is stifling:

Long back, I worked as an engineer for a fortune company. I used to focus only on the reports of complaints. After few meetings, Greg, my boss gave me an advice that has changed my life. He asked me to focus more on the solutions than on the problems. His challenge to me was not to see him unless with a complaint, I also had a resolution. Life truly offers answers to all of our complaints if we possess an intrepid mind that seeks answer that lies at the heart of the complaint. It is silly to complain. It is bold to either act to explore the solution from the ocean of difficulties or to forget and move on.

4. Best is always free:

We learn to set goals. We learn to achieve success. We learn to possess expensive cars, a big house and other things monies can buy. Ironically, most precious moments of our life , those that bring happiness beyond our wildest dreams, come from spending time with family, sharing laughter with kids, sharing moments of happiness and tragedies alike with the alter ego, and giving hands to the needy - they all are free. In our desire to find happiness, we get obsessed with spending to buy illusion of happiness. True happiness lies within.

5. Life is now or never:

In the past, I’ve had thoughts of despair, thoughts of self-pity when I looked back and analyzed the result of an action or lack of. We all are humans with our share of mistakes. I felt saddened when my choice of action or lack of turned out against me. I felt ashamed of my failure to choose the right action. I was wrong. Looking back and reflecting on past decisions is wise if you do so with the intent to learn from it but it is wrong if you allow ego to sink in and forget that past is dead. What I have in front is now, not past or tomorrow. I’m content with my life after learning this truth. Enjoy every moment that comes your way. Don’t be fooled by the failures of the past or the promise of tomorrow. Happiness is in content and not in contempt.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65) Roman philosopher and playwright.

Well, I’m almost at the end of the pathway leading to the happiness. Where are you?

Photo by Tommy Simms

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May

7

3 Guiding Principles to Find a Life Long Purpose

Filed Under Burning Desire, Goal setting, Happiness, Passion, Positivity, Success

Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
-Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th president of the U.S.



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Photo Courtesy of Paul Linton

I’m inspired to write this article by David | Beplayful.org who asked, “How do we distinguish our true passions for our false ones?” in response to my previous article, 3 Simple Steps to Kindle Your Inner Fire.

I’d like to dwell on this subject that has eluded all of us at some cross road in our life. I’ve had waves of zeal and enthusiasm that surfed my mind in the past about a new found passion only to find that these tidal waves receded in the matter of several days. I felt emptiness, a void with feebleness and deep guilt to perceive flakiness as a true, inner passion. I’m seeing many bloggers with talent and stardom only to disappear from the scene to leave thousands of fans hapless in the search of finding someone who kindled their inner fire once with vehemence. What happened?

Our mind has resemblance with vastness of the sky. I get drawn to what appears in the sky - the clouds, the sun, the moon, the rainbow, the showers. In reality, this appearance hinders the vastness that lies beyond what we can see. Vastness of our mind also is akin to the sky. Our constant desire to find happiness by wearing the tags of identity hinders the vastness of mind that possess our true passion, our true purpose.

While driving today, I stumbled upon a construction site that enlightened me with pathway to find a true passion, a true purpose. What follows is a metaphoric resemblance of how we can find our life long purpose.

1. Selflessness:

Our desires are like tidal waves, flirting with our mind constantly. Our mind gets focused momentarily with thoughts of achieving a physical form of attachment. It may be to become wealthy or to become famous. With the identity that we create in our mind, we get excited about others seeing us as a successful business tycoon or a blogger with vast readership. These identity masks create despair, haplessness when an outcome appears fuzzy at best in our mind. The best metaphor that describes a true passion is the sense of commitment and happiness, we feel when we fall in love with a stranger who influences our mind to overcome bad habits and fear of failure. We tend to do anything for that person without expecting an outcome favorable to us. It becomes a selfless act. True passion is akin to this state of selfless act. We begin to feel the deepness of our soul akin to the construction site with the deepness of the ground. Our passion, a true purpose should begin with the vastness for the mankind, with love and well-being of friends, family and our community.

2. Simplicity:

Simplicity is another touchstone of the life long passion, a true purpose. Simplicity is to eradicate attachment to our ego. When we borrow thoughts of passion, we borrow flakiness of identity - sometimes for one passion or another. We tend to buy clothes, books, training manuals in false hopes of becoming a success in chase of that passion. We forget that when passion dissipates as clouds do, our thoughts fall into the trap of hopelessness and a deep void. We end up cluttering our lives with clothes, books, training manuals that remind us of the false chase of a passion. Simplicity allows us to listen closely to our mind with a silence - resisting nothing, wanting nothing, lacking in nothing yet present and complete in all moments. Construction begins with simplicity - with old debris cleared, with land as clear as a mind with simplicity.

3. Mindfulness:

Abundance of articles exists on mindfulness. My intent is not to dwell on the meaning of mindfulness but more on its kinship with a true passion. Our intentions - wise and unwise manifest sensory information we receive filled with fears, expectations, likes and dislikes. Unwise intentions magnify the sensory information leading us to the pitfall of an expected outcome. Wise intentions receive sensory information yet remain aware of the present moment with vast focus on the task at hand - discovering a mind which is boundless. With the focus on the present, we see vastness of the sky beyond the clouds of fear, beyond rainbows of likes and dislikes - a vastness that encompass serenity and an eternal happiness. Construction begins with wise attention by the boundless mind which is determined to manifest the passion on the blueprint into its physical equivalent. Construction continues one day at a time with focus solely on the day until those days of work cumulate to the manifestation of a greater purpose of building an infrastructure that remains to serve humanity for years to come.

If we become conscious to apply these guiding rules to every passion that hits our mind like a tidal wave, we will develop a selfless, simple and mindfulness pathway to see through the vastness of the sky. We will see the true passion, a life long purpose hidden millions of miles behind those dark clouds yet shinier to fill our heart with energy of everlasting happiness.

Have you found one yet?

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder — waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.
-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) British historian and essayist.

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