I AM UNIQUE

 

I am blessed because life loves me

I am healthy because life loves me

I am fit because life loves me

I am happy because life loves me.

 

Looking into the mirror, I tell this to myself every morning, with a smiling face. And one day I suddenly remembered from where to where this gawky and awkward looking teenager, with thick glasses, unsure and feeling less of herself, lacking in confidence, has travelled in the journey of life. I never thought that I would be an achiever and a leader in life. Someone who can motivate others, and even transform lives! But the journey of discovering my potential was arduous. No support from any corner, poor self-image, and lifting yourself by yourself was no easy task. The number of times I have been humiliated, blamed, mocked at, laughed at, become the butt of ridicule, and much more, was all endured with bitterness and pain.

 

Can any of you relate to this? Sweethearts, I wish to tell you that that your life in the future will bear no semblance to any of this. My life is an example. Nobody will even believe that this was my past. I emerged out of it with aplomb and you will find no trace of it now. The world’s opinion does not affect me. I am accountable only to my conscience. Just believe in yourself. Each one of us is unique. No two people are similar in the world. Who you are is who you think you are. The world’s judgement about you is their problem. I want you to have a positive image about yourself in your mind. Don’t bother about your looks. Beauty is only skin deep. Become a beautiful person.

 

The world may tease you and taunt you for your shortcomings. Tell them (in your mind) “I will prove you wrong.” First, you don’t give up on yourself. Also, don’t try to be like someone else. Each of our fingerprints is unique and so are we. Do not compare yourself with anyone. Each of us is gifted differently. Identify what you are good at and excel in it. Gift yourself a victory, then repeat it, then one more time, and automatically your confidence level will go up. Make your weaknesses your strength. Have unquestionable faith in your abilities. It is a beautiful life. Don’t miss yourself. Tell yourself everyday the following self-affirmation.

 

“In the history of the world

There has been nobody like me.

To the infinite of times to come

There will be nobody like me.

And even today

There is nobody like me.

I am rare, I am unique, I am original

I am a Masterpiece.

I will make it very, very, very BIG in life.”

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

WHEN YOU ARE TOUGH ON YOURSELF, LIFE IS EASY ON YOU

 

“For a man, to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”

The entire hall was in hushed silence and only the commanding voice of the teacher was heard. He told the entrepreneurs, “Individual good should be a by-product of serving the larger good. It Is, integrating spirituality into your materialistic life.” Tears welled up in my eyes. I choked. When you have a goal that is larger than life, you need to get the being right, which is the toughest task. In spite of the huge Cause that I am representing, where I am responsible for the lives of thousands of students, and the challenges I face, I am ready to touch the lives of billions of students. My Surrender to that infinite intelligence and my faith in the Force above has given me the courage to take up such a daunting task.

 Energy + Intelligent Effort + Faith in the Energy = Humongous Possibilities.

 All said and done, serving a larger Cause calls for a high level of self-discipline and transformation within. I realized that the desire to serve should be backed by the readiness to become who you should be in the chair. I was willing to change everything of myself to be worthy of the chair. It took me a while to acquire all the qualities expected in an educationist. It had very many challenges.  But for my spiritual connect, I wouldn’t be where I am today. He fast forwarded my maturity and helped me to look up to myself. From an agitated mind to an aligned mind, the journey was made seamless. Today I am experiencing holistic abundance along with holistic growth in my life.

 

I have grown into a person who has learnt to make what is necessary, compulsory in life. Be it meditating every day, exercising five days a week, eating health conscious food, accepting what is, is, never getting even with people, being systematic and disciplined, maintaining quality standards in the workplace, etc. I am able to chose what is right over what is easy and convenient. I am able to be tough on myself and so, life is easy on me. Taking up something or dropping something will become easy only if you are uncompromising on your discipline and develop a powerful mind. Take up one at a time.

“If you are easy on yourself, life will be very tough on you.”

  You can overcome your temptations to take the easy route when you have aspiration and goals that are big enough, when you want to gift yourself a better life and when you realize the need to transcend your limitations. You will be able to say no to laziness, procrastination, inconsistency, insincerity, inertia, arguments, gossip, and anything that is a stumbling block to your growth. What is most important should not be at the mercy of what is least important. Learn to prioritize.  Live a life of no compromise.

 

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

BREAKTHROUGHS

                              

“Your breakthrough is on the other side of what you are resisting”

 When the bestselling author, Megha Bajaj, conveyed her desire to feature me in her book, The Breakthrough, along with ten other trailblazers, whom I looked up to, I couldn’t, for a moment believe what I heard. Me, to be featured in a book! There was disbelief, I must say. She spent close to eleven hours with me, probing into my childhood up to my recent past. She wanted to know the eleven key relationships in my life. As we got talking, I was animatedly telling her every important incident in my life. The eleventh relationship, who was the turning point in my life, created all the breakthroughs in my life.

 “Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

 The breakthroughs in our life need not necessarily be something humongous. But every small change we bring has a compounding effect on our overall growth and transformation. Every action that you take in that direction should take you closer to the person that you wish to become. There are habits that we need to pick up, and there are habits that we need to drop. To develop the right habits, first identify those and make a list. Break away from the pattern you have formed over the years. It is easier said than done. Much as we desire, we cannot do away with all the wrong habits all at once. Only one at a time.

 As a student, there are may be some areas in which you need to improve. Cultivating the habit of reading, practicing  a time for everything and everything in its time, or a place for everything and everything in its place, striving to achieve a good handwriting, remembering to take the required books for the day, completing your daily assignments, developing a study routine, being honest, not indulging in vices, overcoming anger, giving up tongue conscious food, knowing how important all of these are, and turning each of it as a right habit, is also a breakthrough.  

Transcending our habits may seem very trivial, but millions are struggling to come out of their habits. Addiction to television, to gadgets, to substance, to alcohol, and the list goes on. We need not even think of Einstein moments in our life. If we can break away from the habits or patterns in our life itself, we can make great progress and achieve eureka moments in our life. Begin from where you can and reach where you should reach in life. By doing away with one habit at a time, you will gain confidence to do away with the rest. The secret is, to never give up

 “When you are about to give up, your breakthrough is just around the corner.”

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

ARE YOU CONSTANTLY FIRE FIGHTING?

 

“Time management is not clock management, but life leadership.”

When I was new to my profession, I always found that I was literally panting for breath trying to meet deadlines. It made me feel tired and dissatisfied with whatever I was doing. I felt that there was no quality in what I was doing even if I was meeting deadlines. Lack of excellence always hurts me. I was upset with my own actions. I was constantly fire-fighting. One day I decided enough was enough and started working on making a proper plan for everything. I kept improvising on it. I invested a lot of time on what was important, but not urgent.  In course of time the schools received the NABET accreditation from the Quality Council of India. Automatically, systems came into place.

 

“That on which you invest time grows. That which is starved of your time shrinks.”

 

Even as students we tend to while away our time after school hours, with no proper plan to have a fixed study time at home. There is a lot of randomness in our daily activities. There is no goal. Each day goes in time wasters. Then comes a series of tests/exams and that’s when we realize that we have so much to study and very little time left. We keep fire-fighting. We get stressed not knowing from where to begin. We want to cry out loudly, but we cannot, as we ourselves are the cause for our misery. The day my std X result was to be announced, I was so full of apprehension. I cried bitterly. I made a silent pact with God that I will use my potential and that I will never waste my time. I realized my mistake. I had wasted a lot of my precious time. But, since then, I lived up to my promise and became very disciplined in my life. Today, I am not guilty of mismanaging my time, which is the greatest resource.

 

Why should we go through so much stress? In fact, we create our own stress. Nobody is responsible for it. Anything that is done in the last minute creates stress in us. So, we need to wisely plan our day to avoid disappointments and calamities in our life. This is true of our health too. All our life, we eat tongue conscious food and lead a sedentary lifestyle. The day we realize that it has taken a toll on our health, it is too late to make amends. The rest of our life we keep popping medicines, which becomes our food. Now we are ready to exercise every day, to save our life. But we cannot get back our health. When we do not utilize our time wisely, when we don’t prioritize, we have to keep fire-fighting constantly in life. I would urge everyone to identify which activity of theirs should go to which of the four quadrants of time management, important and urgent(Q1), important but not urgent (Q 2), not important but urgent(Q3), not important and not urgent(Q4). Invest more time on what is important. Else it will become urgent. Begin from where you can begin.

 

“Small beginnings

Incremental improvement

Sustained progress

Legendary possibilities.”

 

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

HOW DO YOUR DESIRES BECOME DESERVINGNESS?

                

 My mother used to always say, ”I need to pinch myself to believe that this school building is a reality.” An eighty-five thousand square feet building was definitely a far cry from a thatched shed! It took quite some years to achieve such a monumental growth. But it was always her dream to build a masterpiece for her students. And it happened one day. How? Through her consistent and relentless striving.

 I have always heard people expressing their dreams and desires and I never understood it at all. It was not about dreaming big, but more of wishful thinking. Man has endless desires in life. Some are logical, while some are illogical. Yet he keeps desiring for most and more. But by just dreaming and desiring, nothing happens. We need to work towards it.

 Mahatria Ra, the diviner of the Path, infinitheism, says, “Desires become deservingness only through consistent directed self-motivated effort.”

Let’s see what it means. Desires can come true only if we are consistent. Doing anything once in a way will not lead to progress and growth. That which is done on a daily basis will only help you achieve results. A student can achieve high scores only if he has a regular study time, a sportsman can win a game only if he practices every day, we can achieve good fitness level only if we exercise regularly, we can be healthy only if we eat heath conscious food on a daily basis. So, consistency is the key. This explains why each one became popular in their chosen field.

 Being consistent alone is not enough. Is our intelligence in the right direction? Define what you want to achieve and then choose what is the most suitable process. Participating in an inter-school competition is different from participating at the national level. The preparation is altogether different. Adopt the right method. The fitness level of an Olympian is far greater than that of a national champion. To be a topper at the state level in the Board exam calls for dedicated studies and much greater preparation. Give a direction to your desire.

 Those who are externally motivated do not achieve much growth. They wait to be pushed always. Only those who are intrinsically motivated reach very far in life as they are relentless and unstoppable. So, we need to be self-motivated. The goal itself should motivate us.

 Nothing is achieved without intelligent effort. Having defined your goal, find out what you need to drop and what you need to take up in order to achieve your goal. Time is the greatest resource in hand. How you utilize your time to achieve your goal makes all the difference. You should be ready to give up anything that is a deterrent to reaching your goal. Thus, your desires become deservingness.

 Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam said,” Dream is not that you see while sleeping. It is something that does not let you sleep.”

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

 

THREE WAYS IN WHICH I OVERCAME FEAR

 

    “Face fear and fear goes; avoid fear and fear grows,” says mahatria Ra, the Diviner of the Path, infinitheism.

Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss. Little children do not know the consequences of their actions and so they are daring. They want to jump from great heights, they want to deep dive, they are curious about a lot of things and so they try putting their little finger into the electric socket, they rush to the kitchen and grab the knife, they have several falls before they grow up, and meet with accidents within the house in their growing up years. Their memory of pain is short- lived and so they do it again and again. They don’t have fear in them.

Fear is an emotion that incapacitates and cripples us. It prevents us from progressing in life. It is a stumbling block. With all the capabilities we are unable to move forward and scale great heights because of fear. Even a bright student has fear of exams, which does not allow him to crack the paper, though he is capable. There are all kinds of fear in the world, including fear of the unknown. It is strange how we can fear about something that we have not even encountered. But that is how it is. Each one’s fear is unique and valid for them. To each his own.

“Why fear when I am here!” was God’s whisper in my ear.

When I was young, I feared God as I was always told, “God will punish you.”    As an adult, due to so many setbacks in life, at one stage, I even lost my confidence, and wondered what the future had in store for me. It was all, fear of the unknown. What if something happens to my loved ones! I used to imagine fearful situations and go to the extreme. Three ways in which I overcame fear:

1.     Firstly, I decided, come what may, I will face it when I encounter the situation. Till then I will stop entertaining imaginary fears.

2.Secondly, I told myself, just because there were setbacks in life, it need not be so for the rest of my life. I gained confidence in myself.

3.Thirdly, and most importantly, all my fears were vanquished progressively through my spiritual connect. Faith in the infinite gave me strength and I became more optimistic. Faith and fear cannot co-exist.

 

“The belief you hold in the beginning of the journey defines the journey.”

  

1.Identify what you fear most and keep facing it. Slowly you will overcome it.

2. Sports train you to face your fear. So, play a sport. Be part of a team or play an individual sport.

It is not what the world tells you. What you communicate to yourself makes all the difference. Ask life what you want. Don’t ask life what you don’t want. Live fearlessly!

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

WORK IS WORSHIP

 

The fragrance of the incense stick came from the prayer room, as I went towards it. As expected, my mother was chanting her morning mantras, which was a part of her routine. I have been seeing her do this from my childhood. She had her routine at home. After this, she would go to school, which she started, to perpetuate the memory of my father, whom I lost when I was nine months old. Even during summer vacation, when we used to go stay at my cousin’s place, she would go for work. Her first vacation was twenty-one years after she started the school! School meant everything to her. The dedication and devotion with which she worked was unparalleled. Her life was a message to us. She never preached to us.

 

Everything that we get in life is from our work. All the comforts we enjoy are the rewards of our work. I realized this very in my life. It was so much ingrained in me that my commitment to my work could not be otherwise. It became my DNA and was a natural part of me. This is called subliminal learning. You learn certain things unconsciously in your growing up years. These are all blessings in our life. To have your parent as your role model. This vital lesson that I learnt has made me grow in my own eyes. One thing that I am proud of is my commitment to my work. There is no compromise whatsoever. I always touch the floor of my work place every morning and whisper a thank you to God for choosing me as His instrument to represent such a beautiful Cause of educating children and creating a future for them. Today I am enjoying holistic abundance in my life.

 

How do you see your work? What are your thoughts when you enter your work place? Is it a mere building where you earn a living, or is it a place of worship for you?  Your future will come from that. We need to bring reverence to our work. Whether you are a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a designer, an actor, an architect, or even a cook or a driver. The more and more we do our work with devotion, the more we will grow in abundance. Money is only a by product of our work. We need to joyfully focus on process excellence and automatically we will see results. Success comes to us through work. Give yourself totally, that your work itself is your meditation and your prayer unto HIM. You will live a blessed life!

 

             “Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.”

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting