Soul n Peace

NOVELIST SINCLAIR LEWIS was supposed to deliver an hour-long lecture to a group of college students who planned to be writers.

THE LONG SPAN of the bridge of your life is supported by countless cables called habits, attitudes, and desires.

THE BRAVEST are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.

I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

There is a single reason why 99 out of 100 average businesspeople never become leaders. That is their unwillingness to pay the price of responsibility. By the price of responsibility, I mean hard driving, continual work . . . the courage to make decisions, to stand    the gaff . . . the scourging honesty of never fooling yourself about yourself. You travel the road to leadership heavily laden. While the nine-to-five-o'clock worker takes his ease, you are "toiling upward through the night." Laboriously you extend your mental frontiers. Any new effort, the psychologists say, wears a new groove in the brain. And the grooves that lead to the heights are not made between nine and five. They are burned in by midnight oil.

Success in life comes not from holding a  good hand of cards, but in playing a poor hand well.

FOR MANY OF US, personal motivation is unfocused and diffused. When motivation is not tied to a specific goal, it rapidly disintegrates into inertia. But when motivation becomes focused on a single, well-defined goal, it becomes a powerful force for success and achievement.

Think of motivation as steam. If released into the open atmosphere, steam evaporates and disappears. If steam is  trapped in a room, it can make you feel uncomfortably sticky and hot. But harness the steam to an engine, and it can pull a thousand-ton train.

It's the same with motivation. Motivation can escape from you, evaporating into thin air, leaving you feeling unenthusiastic and lethargic. Or motivation can be trapped inside, causing you to be agitated and filled with frustration. But motivation harnessed to a goal can get you to accomplish virtually anything you set your thoughts on.

Motive is meaningless until it is combined with action. That's why we call it motivation.

There is one word that blocks action, that poisons motivation, that smothers any chance for success and happiness. That killer word is can't.

So many individuals faced with a crisis or an opportunity react negatively. The first thing that pops into their minds and out of their mouths is "I can't."

"We need this report by Thursday," the boss tells us.

"No way," we reply. "It can't be done."

But life need not be lived that way. There is another word, one of the most powerful words in the English language—can.

The gap between what people think they can achieve and what is possible for them is actually very small.

"I can" cuts across all lines of work and all endeavors within a chosen profession, whether your ultimate goal is lifting enough weight to pass a firefighter's exam, closing a  sale, getting a promotion, earning a Ph.D., making a million dollars, or landing a job in the first place.

"I can" is energizing. Say it to    yourself right now: I can. Did you feel a lift, a small surge of well-being? Say it over and over, again and again, a hundred times a day. You'll soon find your enthusiasm spilling over into everything you do at work and at home.

There really are no good uses for the word "can't." But think you can, believe you can, and you'll find that you can indeed!

Good management is the art of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

LIVE YOUR LIFE EACH DAY as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.

A MONARCH OF LONG AGO had twin sons. There was some confusion about which one was born first. As they grew to young manhood, the king sought a fair way to designate one of them as crown prince. All who knew the young men thought them equal in intelligence, wit, personal charm, health, and physical strength. Being a keenly observant king, he thought he detected a trait in one which was not shared by the other.

Calling them to his council chamber one day, he said, "My sons, the day will come when one of you must succeed me as king. The burdens of sovereignty are very heavy. To find out which of you is better able to bear them cheerfully, I am sending you together to a far corner of the kingdom. One of my advisors there will place equal burdens on your shoulders. My crown will one day go to the one who first returns bearing his burden like a king should."

In a spirit of friendly competition, the brothers set out together. Soon they overtook an aged woman struggling under a burden that seemed far too heavy for her frail body. One of the boys suggested that they stop to help her. The other protested: "We have a burden of our own to worry about. Let us be on our way."

The objector hurried on while the other stayed behind to give aid to the aged woman. Along the road, from day to day, he found others who also needed help. A blind man took him miles out of his way, and a lame man slowed him to a cripple's walk.

Eventually he did reach his father's advisor, where he secured his own burden and started home with it safely on his shoulders. When he arrived at the palace, his brother met him at the gate, and greeted him with dismay. He said, "I don't understand.  I told our father the burden was too heavy to carry. However did you do it?"

The future king replied thoughtfully,  "I suppose when I helped others carry their burdens, I found the strength to carry my own."  

WE DECEIVE OURSELVES when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it more. A straw or a feather sustains itself long in the air.

To solve the human equation, we need to add love, subtract hate, multiply good, and divide between the truth and error.

When you get what you want, it isn't always what you bargained for.

Consider the story of the badly spoiled child who was having one of his frequent tantrums.

Hearing his cries, his mother said to the nanny. "Alice, go out in the yard and give him whatever he wants." The nanny went outside and conferred with the child, but the volume of his cries only increased.

When the nanny returned, the mother said, "What's going on now? Didn't I tell you to give him whatever he wanted?"

"Yes," replied the nanny. "It was a bee he wanted, and he got it."

If you want to go into politics, make sure that when you run for something, you stand for something.

BEN FRANKLIN was not always the wise and restrained man we now picture him as being. When he was young he was often brash, rude and tactless. To Franklin's credit, however, he learned the folly of his actions, and set out to change them.

One of Franklin's youthful faults was intolerance of the weaknesses and foibles of others. He was often bluntly critical and would tell people to their faces what was wrong with them. Naturally, he created many enemies.

Later in life, though, Franklin became so adroit at handling people that he was made Ambassador to France. There he was greatly admired for his diplomatic talents.

Someone once asked Franklin the secret of his success in getting along with others. "I will speak ill of no man," he answered, "and speak all the good I know of everybody."

Carlyle put it another way: "A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men."

IN EACH AGE, people of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. Geniuses go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear. People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. Seeing them aloft, see them in the distance; but they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it, hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breathe. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; theirs is a sad weariness.

The bold ones continue. They are eyed by eagles; the lightning plays about them; the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere.

When you're under pressure to make a decision and you're not sure which way you want to go, the best answer is "No."It's easier to change "No" to "Yes" than it is to change "Yes" to "No."

Make it a point to do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

IN HIS BOOK ABOUT CREATIVITY, A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech tells us about a major oil company's concern with the lack of creativity among some of its research and development people.

To deal with the problem, top management brought in a team of psychologists to determine the difference between the creative R & D people and the less-creative ones. The hope was that their findings would stimulate the less-creative people.

The psychologists asked the scientists all  kinds of questions. They asked about educational backgrounds, about the environment in which their favorite colors were. After three months, the psychologists found that the biggest difference between the two groups was that the creative people thought they were creative and the less-creative people did not. As a consequence, those who thought they were creative acted like it. They ignored old methods and hatched new ideas. The less-creative people did things as they had always been done.

Some "I'm not creative" people stifle themselves because they think creativity belongs only to people like Beethoven, Einstein, and Shakespeare..These are some of the super luminaries of the creative world, but by and large, these people didn't get their big ideas out of the blue.

On the contrary, most of their big ideas came from paying attention to their small ideas, playing with them, and making them big ideas.

One of the major factors that differentiate creative people from less-creative people is that creative people pay attention to their small ideas. They know that a small idea can lead to a big breakthrough, and they believe that they are capable of making it  happen..

People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.

SOME TIME AGO, noted research expert Daniel Starch asked a sizable sampling of people what were the most valuable guiding principles in living.

IN MY STUDY of achievers, I  found that the difference between the great and the mediocre is one thing:

Open Soul Meditation Technique

Are you tired of meditation tapes and downloads that promise the earth and deliver very little?

With Open Soul Meditation Technique

Meditation Has Never Been Easier

Soul and Peace caters to life solvent solutions to achieve a peaceful soul & healthy living. The site was started with the sole aim of prompting the open soul meditation technique to the masses. Open soul meditation is a new age meditation technique, suitable for modern busy lifestyle. The open soul meditation technique can help you reduce the stress & strain of modern living & remain in active life with mental peace, harmony & happiness.