The Calling

Hello people! Did you have an amazing weekend? I know you did and to give the following week a good start here I am sharing this beautiful piece ‘The Calling’ with you! Now, you may be wondering what this is all about. Before getting you acquainted with it let me share with you a small story.
I am sure some of you are familiar with the story of Moses. For others, he was an Egyptian prince who delivered Hebrews from slavery and led them to a promised land he never saw. He is a powerful figure who personifies the human struggle for freedom, balanced by a sense of belonging to and thus having a responsibility towards a community.
The story is as follows, Moses was out doing his job one day, minding his own business, keeping watch over the flocks, when he saw a bush on fire. When Moses went to investigate, he saw that the bush was burning, but was not being consumed by the flames. Moses went to investigate his burning bush, and when he got close to it, he heard a voice that seemed to come from inside it. The voice told Moses to do something – first to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. And then the voice told Moses to become a spokesperson for his people, who were being held as slaves in Egypt – specifically, the voice to go to the Pharaoh and persuade him to give the Hebrews their freedom. The Moses didn’t want the job, and offered legitimate excuses for not being able to accept the mission. Eventually the voice and Moses worked things out, and Moses accepted the call. This was Moses’ “burning bush” experience, when he came face to face with something unexpected, which at first made him curious, and then made him anxious, but ultimately caused him to change his way of thinking or believing or feeling about himself and his world and to do something he didn’t really want to do.


Friends, have you ever felt an inner urge to follow something; may be an occupation or a trade? Or have you ever felt a strong impulse like an inner voice or a voice from God, or a combination of both? That is exactly ‘The Calling’! We’ve all seen something like this bush in our lives, haven’t we? I saw it one morning at sunrise, as I watched the dawn light skim the tops of the trees, blinding me with a bright flash of yellow-gold. You’ve seen it in the smile of a baby, or in your lover’s eyes. You’ve felt it in the middle of a prayer service while people were singing a familiar bhajan as chills covered your arms or in the silence after the last note. It has whispered to you in a tender voice. It has held your attention and stopped you in your tracks.So we all have had a burning bush experience in our lives! A voice from an unexpected place calling us to do something outside of our comfort zone, making an offer we couldn’t refuse? We’ve all had these kinds of experiences at one time or another, whether we realize it consciously or not. What do I mean by a burning bush experience? Whether it is a major, life altering one, or one that has more to do with something on a less global level, think of it as one of those experiences that may have the following components: it comes unsolicited, unexpected, perhaps un-welcomed, unwanted; it changes our way of thinking, or believing, or feeling about some aspect of the world and/or about ourselves and leaves us unsettled and perhaps distressed, compelled to do something; it places a burden on us that we feel is uncomfortable and seems unfair, which may test us in some way, or require us to go outside of our comfort zones.
Friends if we are searching for answers in life (and all of us are doing that, trust me) we don’t have to look any further than our own self. We just have to tap into our inner voice for guidance.  We have only one life and hence we should live it to the fullest so that we have no regrets at the end. The things we want to do, we should do it! Most of us just think that we have all the time in this world and that is how every dream of ours takes a backseat and we move on with our normal lives. We should pursue our dreams and not look back later in life, when it is too late to do anything about it.
So what are you guys waiting for? Go on and find your ‘burning bush moment’. Begin creating the kind of life that you dream of. It may take you a week, a month or a year, but that doesn't matter. Just listen to your calling and you'll become a more positive and optimistic person. Even Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said, ‘The only tyrant I accept is my inner voice.’

You are special !

Hello folks! All this while I was bit occupied with professional commitments and the festive season caught me between family, friends and celebrations. I know you guys had a wonderful Diwali too. I personally enjoy festive season because they come with the much required break. It feels great catching up with loved ones by giving break to the otherwise hectic life. Simple things like sitting together and talking endlessly over coffee, watching classic movies, a quiet and peaceful dinner is such bliss. I was at one such gathering having fun time where some random observation gave rise to chain of thoughts in my head and I ended up writing this piece.

Friends, can you notice when someone you know looks lost even if they are with a huge group? Or for that matter when a closed one is behaving differently? Or reacting strangely in a distracted manner? These are the signs that we should look out for because they spell ‘D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N’.
Just have a look at the clues below.

I'm fine - I'm not fine please help me

I'm just tired - I can't take this anymore

I already ate - I starve myself

Go away - Show ne you care enough to stay

I'm just cold - I don't want t see my scars

I'm better, I promise - I've never been this bad

I'm okay - I just want to die


One such recent happening, passing of Robin Williams was a complete shock for the entire world. Even the Jiah Khan suicide that happened a year ago was so uncalled for.  I began to realize that there are people who cross our path seemingly fine but in reality are living in a dark area. They are walking down a long grey corridor never knowing when the light will go on. Many of us will find it difficult to understand what could possibly go wrong with them that they are driven to take their own life.

Friends, people who commit suicide don’t want to end their lives; they want to end their pain. And we will never be able to relate to it because something which is bothering them in a huge way might be nothing in our eyes. I wonder what affected Robin Williams to such an extent that he decided to take such an extreme step? I am sure a million others feel the same way. There can never be another Jumanji, Patch Adams, Goodwill Hunting, August Rush and none of these movies would have been what it is without him. In his case, Robin will forever be remembered for his work and we will share our love for him for years to come. What about others? Those who are known by few, the ones who have loved, raised a family, and had fallen through the cracks… who will immortalize them? Who will strive to bring back these lost souls and give them the right direction so that they realize that a little darkness is required for stars to shine?

Look out for these tiny hearts and if you notice that something is off in their life persuade them to get the help they need. Let them know they are worth it, and are not alone.

This Diwali lets strive to be an encourager and spread good vibes. Let’s love each other like crazy and make the most of this amazing gift called ‘life’.

Peace. Faith. Happiness.
BSR

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

try try till you SUCCEED

Some people believe – to live is to suffer. The true fact is that life is full of obstructions, barriers, hindrances or in other words ‘OBSTACLES’. But if you find a path with no obstacle, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. We fail to realize that most of our obstacles would melt away if instead of worrying about them we make-up our mind to walk boldly through them.

Let me give you a small example of a butterfly. One day a man found a cocoon and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through it. In his innocence the man took a pair of scissors and snipped remaining bit of the cocoon. And you know what happened after that, the butterfly had to spend the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings and it was never able to fly. The man did not realize that the restricting cocoon and struggled required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon were nature’s ways of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it is ready for flight. From above example, it is very evident that sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If nature allows us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us and we would not be as strong as we could have been.

Did you know that Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as a boy wanted to fly right from the age of 6? Dr. Kalam applied for the Indian Air Force but got rejected in the last stage of medical examination. But that rejection did not demoralize Dr. Kalam and he moved on with his passion for flying machines, designed several rockets and after so many years the boy who wanted to fly, did fly in a SUKHOI-30 MKI in an official capacity and as the president of India.

All great men of world struggled hard, really hard and overcame all obstacles in fulfillment of their mission. God has made human beings in such a way to conquer environment, solve problems and achieve goals and we find no real happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.

Remember…………..

Don’t be a coward, fearful and weak,

Be the last one to quit and first one to speak,

Don’t hide your face from light of the day,

Be courageous in life and stay that way,

Be wise and courageous, bold and brave;

And life will be worth living,

From your birth till your grave.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Recently, I attended a session on Power of Positive Thinking where the speaker suggested how the entire world works on the Law of Attraction. Whatever we think of, whatever we really focus on, is what we get. It is actually our own thought process that makes us win or lose things in life. The last few days, after I attended the session, have actually been funny. In my own small way, I have started to notice a difference. Every time, a negative thought crosses my mind, every time there is a fear that I feel, I convert it to a positive thought. I tell myself a story in the most positive words possible and somewhere it gives me immense confidence. Eventually I realize that by constantly forcing myself to think positive, using positive language, I realize that things are changing for good. It may be too early to say it with 100% belief if just your thought process can change everything for good around you, but I surely am seeing some tiny winy changes and I sincerely hope the same continues.

Having shared my thoughts, I would love to hear from you all about your thoughts, your experiences.

Did it ever happen to you that a mere change of thought from negative to positive, a mere change of language, actually changed the end results for you?
Would love to hear your stories….

The Marsh Is Pulling You Down!

Do you ever go through a phase where you feel “I want to do that but I don’t get time” Or perhaps “I took this path so that I could reach there but somehow I feel lost now” or maybe sometime it even says “If only I did not have to slog for so many hours in my current job, I could fetch time out to pursue things that I really wanted to work for me or those That I am really good at”

Many of us are into jobs that we do because we need money, have families to run, are the sole bread runners or simply doing because we have to. But I know a vast majority from this lot who have dreams of their own. Someone wants to open a restaurant; someone wishes to write a book; some wish to have their paintings displayed in the best art gallery and then there are some who would have been in a rock band. Yet for most of them this is still a dream that they had been carrying on for so long but still a dream…

I’ve also met some people who say “I’m a lot more clear about what I want. I’ll be in IT for a couple of years, make some money, travel some countries through an onsite assignment making more money and finally open a small café or restaurant somewhere.”

But when I meet them years after such a conversation, they are still doing what they were doing. The dream of that restaurant is there but is still the dream that is a couple of years away. That difference of number of years between ‘now’ and ‘dream realization’ never reduces.

And before I risk myself being tagged a snob who will be bombarded with questions on my own credibility, I will accept my own flaws as a human. I had my own set of dreams and I kept pushing them for quite a while and sometime I still do but during one of the urges to achieve my dreams, I realized my enemy! And I am sure the enemy for most of us is one – Lack of Focus!

We have loads of dreams but we fail to convert them into our goals. Even if some of us take an extra effort and make our dreams our goals, we lose the battle half way by lack of consistent effort.

 Over years, I realized that for all goals that I did not achieve in my planned time, I lost motivation on the way. Most long term goals die their natural death because we do not put in enough effort consistently- the effort that is required to make that dream a reality! And it all comes down because somewhere we lose focus.

It is when we lose focus that the environment starts to play the devil. It is our dedication and focus that will decide whether environment is more powerful than us or vice versa.

Let me take an example that I want to be a writer, which is my dream but I also work as a trainer, which in this case will become my environment. To fulfil my dreams, I start writing some small pieces but on the way if I lose focus, then I get absorbed into my environment. I will start to train more and do all work that relates to my current profession.  Once my focus has shifted from my dream to my environment, I would slowly give in less and less time to my dream realization. Oh yes! For all those observant epitomes of intelligence, I know you would say that even when I’m focussing on profession; it is still all about “focus”. But my dear friends, what I’m talking about here is the focus for dream realization. So, because my focus has now drifted away from my dream realization, I end up not achieving the dream in stipulated time frame and being humans, we end up finding the easiest way to get rid of guilt of not achieving – The blame game.

It will be extremely easy for me to say and convince my own self that “I do not get time to work on my dreams; My profession demands so much that I can hardly focus on my dreams; If only I could put in lesser hours at work, I would get some time to do what I really want to do”

The environment wins the round 1 but even then your dreams do not die. All your mind does is just give it a back seat. Then a couple of weeks or months later, the dream will come to the forefront, you will do some small thing about it but again the focus is lost and the cycle continues. Over a period of time, this process leads to frustration and uneasiness. The uneasiness of ‘not being able to do what you want to do’ converts to the frustration of ‘being made to do what you don’t want to do’ and most of us start hating our jobs.

But again in this case, who do we blame? – our environment – our jobs, our organizations, our managers. I call this environment as “The Marsh”.

Not once do we realize or even if we do realize we just don’t want to accept that why we are being pulled inside the marsh is not purely because the marsh is stronger but because we were weak, because we lost focus on the way.

The marsh always tends to become stronger than you and it will always try to pull you down into it soaking you completely. It is in your hands whether you want to be drowned and dead or you want to take charge and pull yourself out.

So if you have a dream and you want it to be a reality, Take Charge, Be Focussed.

Remember, for every passing minute where you are being de focussed, The Marsh Is Pulling You Down!

No limits, endless possibilities!!!!

"the sky can't limit you,
and boundaries can't stop you....

the four walls can't keep your imagination shut,
and limitations can't always hold your back.....

it's time to open the arms and unlock the possiblities,
and allow the doors of miracles to open...

it's your time to widen the horizon,
and see the whole world opening up in front of you....."