BOYS DON’T CRY, GIRLS SHOULDN’T LAUGH

 

Our behaviour is sometimes conditioned by society. There are certain qualities attributed to boys and some qualities are said to be girlish. Today we have come very far from these narrow- minded beliefs and liberated ourselves to believe in equality of genders, not confining or classifying any of the behaviour as pertaining to boys or girls. When girls are being educated and are allowed to work, there can be no such restrictions or biases. We want both, boys and girls to be responsible individuals.

Being manly should not come in the way of stifling their feelings. Men too can express their emotions. In fact, a man who expresses his tears shows that he is human. But from childhood boys are told that they are sissy when they cry. Bottled up emotions can take a toll on them. Whoever said that boys don’t cry have not understood the value of bringing out the humane qualities in them. Boys should not be ashamed to cry out of joy, happiness, love, gratitude, sorrow, and sometimes for no particular reason. Only such a man will be able to understand the tears of the women in his life.

Boys should be able to express their emotions without any inhibitions. Pent up feelings bring out a lot of negativity. There will be situations in which they can show their strength. Crying out should not be seen as a weakness. We see men crying out of joy when they see their new born baby. There is a beauty in seeing that. But crying itself should not be used as a weapon. Crying should be for the right reasons. Else it will become your weakness.

There are so many ways in which a girl can express her delight. Laughter is her prerogative. There is nothing wrong in a girl laughing loudly. In many families, girls are rebuked when they laugh. They are told to behave themselves.  How else do you convey your happiness? It is a positive emotion and should be encouraged. There should be no restrictions whatsoever. The household should reverberate with laughter. Girls are not any less in any way. There is no gender in emotions, as much as there is no gender in the qualities and values that we have to imbibe.

Gone are the days when girls were told that they should not be heard, that they were expected to be meek and obedient. Today girls enjoy a lot of freedom. But they should ensure that they handle their freedom with responsibility. They should bring dignity, grace and charm into their personality and win the respect of one and all.

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

SAYING NO IS IMPORTANT

 

Today when I look back at my growing up years I realize that every choice that I executed in life had a consequence.  I was fortunate that I had the discipline to say “No” to whatever was least important in life. Those are the trifles. Time flies, either use it or lose it. I realized this in class 10 when I was awaiting my board exam results. I made a silent pact with God that henceforth I will use my time productively if I am given a chance to pass! From then onwards I have not been guilty of wasting my time. Everyday is planned and put to purpose. We should not live a life of regret. We must quickly transform at the point of realization. Else we cannot rejoice our life. Treat failure or setback in life as maturity gained.

 

  Time management is not clock management, but life leadership. Our future depends on how well we utilize the time that is at our disposal. That on which you invest time grows. That which is starved of your time shrinks. Your growth comes from your investment of time for all the right purposes.  Life is full of distractions. Attend to what is important and urgent. Be selfish for yourself in terms of achieving your goal. Never take away your eyes from your goal. Let it loom large in front of you.

 

Temptations in life will pull you down if you succumb to it. We should fill our mind with the right thoughts. Never ask, “Will I be caught or not?” Ask yourself, “Am I right or not?” Choose actions that will speed up your growth. Surround yourself with the right company of friends. Your friends have the power to influence your thoughts. We tend to choose the wrong friends only when our self-image is dented. Gift yourself small victories, either in developing certain right habits, or by doing well in sports or any other activity. When you are able to look up to yourself, you will feel good about yourself and your self-image will be intact. Then you will not require endorsement from anyone. Decide to believe in yourself. Wrong company could be fatal. It is better to walk alone and be right, rather than be with a group that will make you fall in life.

 

Ensure that distractions do not become attractions in life. From where you begin has nothing to do with where you can reach. Wear blinkers like a horse and focus on your goal. Today I am able to cherish where I am and rejoice what I am doing only because my life was not driven by pain and pleasure, rather by right and wrong.  I stood corrected very early in life. I give undivided attention to my work. Work is worship for me. My workplace is my temple and my life’s my prayer unto Him. It took years of training my mind and consistent practice to reach here.  The rewards are plenty for a life well lived. Hey! What are you waiting for? Gift yourself the ability to say no to the 99 distractions in life and say yes to that 1 discipline which will skyrocket your life.

 

 #Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

HOW DO I CULTIVATE RIGHT HABITS

What I repeatedly do becomes my habit. Habits create our life. The rise and fall of man can be attributed to his habits. If somebody has made it big and somebody didn’t make it at all, you can be sure that those who made it big were masters of their habits. They were in control of their habits and were not controlled by their habits. Anything, even if imperfectly done, on a daily basis, produces far greater results than something that is done perfectly, but once in a way. Habits are formed very early in life. Everything that I do on a daily basis creates a memory cell in me. We need to take the effort to create the right memory cells.

First and foremost, we need to fix a goal for ourselves. What is it that we want to achieve. We should not begin with stretch goals. Aim for 1% improvement every day. Work on a couple of things first. Let’s begin small. Let us not put our hands into too many things. Every legendary person has certain qualities for which they are known. They have cultivated certain habits which became their master stroke. It is in conquering ourselves that we win.

 The giant of a personality within you emerges when you start practising one habit at a time consistently and achieve it. The mantra to achieve your goal is, Consistent Directed Self-motivated Intelligent Effort (CDSIE). Begin with one mental philosophy or habit, and when that becomes part of you, go to the next. Some of us fix one for a year and then go to the next.  Some of us go by the popular belief that anything that is practised for twenty- one days consistently becomes a habit. For example, if I decide to make punctuality a habit, I must consistently practise it for twenty-one days. The same goes for reading, exercising, meditating, appreciating people, eating the right food, and so on.

 We need to first develop a powerful mind. What gave me the strength to pick up the right habits and drop the unwanted ones, or, in other words, to give up in order to go up, was sitting in non-doing every day. This helped me to develop a powerful mind and it became a lot easier for me to choose what is right over what is easy and convenient. I always loved to sleep for long hours, I was lazy to exercise, I chose tongue conscious food over healthy food. But sitting in non-doing brought a lot of discipline in my life and helped me to choose meditation over sleep, exercise over TV time, healthy food over junk food and many more. What was necessary was made compulsory in my life. I became accountable to myself. Every time I developed the right habit, I grew in my own eyes. I not only started feeling good about myself, it also created a self-belief in me that I can. My life became more organised and I started experiencing a flow in my life by cultivating the right habits. If I can, you too can!

 #Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

WHY I BELIEVE BEING AN EDUCATOR IS THE MOST NOBLE PROFESSION

 

“ I will be anything, but a teacher,” I would always say in my growing up years. But destiny had other plans for me and I became an educator by default. It was an unintended consequence. Sometimes it so happens that anything you resist, God decides to persist. That’s the irony of life. But to my surprise I was thoroughly enjoying my profession, which I earlier disliked. I slowly started realising that my love for my profession was primarily because of my love for children.

Teaching is the mother of all professions. All professionals are the products of a teacher. Nobody bypasses a teacher. There is so much we can do for growing up children. So long as we take ownership of their lives. They come to us as raw materials, and we may create them as wealth of the nation. The scope is immense, but do we have the heart? The joy in seeing them flourishing in life is unparalleled, but do we have the desire? An educator wields such a powerful tool. An inspiring educator can motivate the students. We create the future citizens of our nation. The growth and well-being of the nation depends upon its citizens.

Not all can become an educator, unless it is destined. You have to be His chosen one. I realise this when I look back or recount the twenty-five years of my journey as an educator. That we have the power to touch lives and make a difference. An educator enjoys the privilege of being both, the mentor and the parent in a child’s life. The growing up years of a child are the most crucial years as the seed for a healthy life is sown at a very young age and most of their waking hours are spent in school. Apart from imparting knowledge, we can also inculcate values and discipline in them and mould their character and make them future ready. In short, we play a humongous role in preparing them for life.

 We cannot quantify the joy that we experience when we see our products living a life of values, as highly successful professionals or decision makers around the globe, impacting many lives, creating ripples in the world, making their life count, doing the country proud, bringing unbound happiness to the parents and laurels to the schools. I have been blessed with such an experience and I am sure you too have.   Let’s all take great pride in being an educator, who has the power to shape the destiny of a nation!!!

 

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting