"The past is knowledge, today is opportunity, the future is possibility."
"What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity."
"Failure is just a rehearsal; success is the main event."
"You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation."
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."
"Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth."
"Seven Deadly Sins
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Science without humanity
Knowledge without character
Politics without principle
Commerce without morality
Worship without sacrifice."
"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."
About Me
- Purvi Patel - Essar
- Coimbatore ( Tamilnadu), Mumbai, V.V.Nagar ( Gujarat), Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, India
- Master of Computer Application from S.P.University - Vallabh Vidhyanagar. Serving as a S/W eng. at Essar Information Technology Ltd.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
"Self Praise – No Recommendation"
"We should not always focus on ourselves; we should think of others too."
"Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble."
The sweetest of all sounds, it is said, is praise. Coleridge wrote that Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. Everyone likes to be praised and admired; even a refusal of praise is believed to reflect a desire to be praised twice.
Those who love self-praise were compared by George Eliot, in his famous work “Adam Bede”, to a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. But Voltaire, in his “Philosophical Dictionary”, contended that “self love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind; it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it”.
But self praise can never be a recommendation because it is based not on merit and talent but on self-love and flattery, both of which are exercises in deception.
Self love is often the greatest of all flatterers. After all, flattery is nothing but to see virtue where none exists; to admire some one for something of which he or she is absolutely innocent. And where self-praise is based on something non-existent and imaginary, it is ill-founded.
How can it ever be a valid recommendation? When praise and admiration emanate from quarters which are distinctly motivated, these are not worth having. Tributes are worth receiving only when these are well founded and well deserved.
Ironically, flattery by others tends to become the first love of many proud individuals in whom ego dominates, even to the exclusion of basic human virtues. While ego is defined as an individual's perception or experience of himself and implies his capacity to think, feel and act, to that extent, it may be regarded as unobjectionable. But it is when a person becomes egocentric, that is, self-centered and egoistic, that difficulties begin to arise.
Systematic selfishness leads to egoism; it is a state of mind when one is always thinking of oneself, as against altruism, when a person takes a charitable view of others and is moved by compassion and consideration.
Similarly, self conceit, selfishness and the practice of always talking about oneself develops qualities which are associated with undue praise and recommendation of oneself.
This leads in due course to narcissism- a mental state in which there is self-worship and excessive interest in one's own perfections or presumed perfections; for, presumed or imaginary perfections and achievements prompt self-recommendations which cannot be taken as genuine or even worth taking note of.
Moreover, self-praise is a trait of character that tends to become almost perpetual. Those who indulge in praise of oneself, in the belief that one is perfect, also begin to harbour the illusion that all others have a faulty makeup, that they lack merit and talent and are, therefore, inferior beings when compared to themselves.
A man who either praises himself all the time or loves to hear praises from others soon becomes conceited. Praise soothes, quietens and comforts the listener, creating a false sense of pride.
Self-praise is, of course, fed by a feeling of self importance, which in turn may result from frequent flattery by others. The flatterers and those who are flattered both seem to rejoice in the bargain. The flatterers and sycophants are often professionals; they have practiced the art on many people and, thus, achieved their selfish ends. But it is not the flatterers we should condemn, as much as those who readily lend their ears to such self seeking individuals, and who readily fall victims to their admirer’s subtle game.
Kind words and high sounding epithets seek to build a glorious image and he who does not fall a victim to flatterers must be an extraordinary person. Deriving a high degree of mental satisfaction from praise and temptation of all kinds is a human weakness that few are able to resist.
A person who is well flattered soon learns to flatter and praise himself, because he argues to himself that so many others cannot be wrong. Even modest people fall a prey to admirers.
After all, neither self-praise nor praise by others, including the habitual hangers-on, costs anything. It requires no financial investment and comes free like air and water; all that praise requires is a glib, oily tongue and a growing feeling of self-importance.
Praise is said to be a kind of fire which, if persistently applied, has the capacity even to melt the hardest of minds and those with iron in their souls. Praise can achieve what criticism, even self-appraisal, cannot. Those who habitually resort to self-praise are never happy when others also start praising themselves beyond measure, because admiring oneself implies that others are not, and can never be, as perfect as they themselves are.
Consequently, they never form a brotherhood or a fraternity; rather, they become egoistic day by day.
Praise feeds upon itself; those who are hungry for it will ever and always feed themselves on this diet. From their standpoint, there cannot be a surfeit of praise, including self-praise. Nor will such people ever be well disposed towards those who try to caution them against the pitfall of constant self-praise.
Even well-meant advice is not welcome these days. In fact, people who love to praise themselves day in and day out may like to praise those who praise them, as members of a mutual admiration society generally do. They can all afford praise.
The truth, however, must be faced; truly wise and talented men seldom praise themselves. They err on the side of humility; they are humble and meek; they know their faults and are aware of the fact that pride leads to a fall. It is pride that pulls a country down.
Pride sometimes taints good men. Even small things may make base men proud and develop a fondness for cheap praise. Where praise, especially self-praise, abounds, humility and a sense of proportion are scarce. Where, on the contrary, there is abundant praise without rhyme or reason, the admirers may make an ass of the object of their adoration, without the latter being aware of it.
Self-praise sometimes takes the form of boasting and bragging, even though discriminating people detest such boasts, for they knew that empty vessels make much noise. It is only the shallow people who praise themselves, publicly or privately. Soon they stand exposed; instead of self-praise serving as a recommendation, it tends to act as a self-denunciation. Those who blow their own trumpets are derided at their backs. They lose credibility and are laughed at.
The praised ones begin to believe even falsehood and lose the capacity to distinguish between chalk and cheese, the genuine and the fake, vice and virtue. A fool, it is said, may even begin to believe he has wit.
Just as the praise of a book or a painting or a piece of sculpture by its author or artist is no recommendation, similarly self-praise can never be a sound basis to know the real value of a person.
Recommendation is good, sound advice or opinion about somebody or something; it is bound to be misleading when it comes from the person concerned or by one who is an interested party.
Another aspect of self-praise also needs to be examined. When you come to think of it, can’t we indulge in self-praise for the pleasure, even if momentary, it gives in a world so full of troubles, so bristling with baffling, complex problems?
Even if self-praise is no recommendation and is in effect self-delusion, does it matter much? Innocent, harmless pleasures are rare in this mundane world, and self-praise is one such inexpensive, largely harmless exercise.
"Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble."
The sweetest of all sounds, it is said, is praise. Coleridge wrote that Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. Everyone likes to be praised and admired; even a refusal of praise is believed to reflect a desire to be praised twice.
Those who love self-praise were compared by George Eliot, in his famous work “Adam Bede”, to a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. But Voltaire, in his “Philosophical Dictionary”, contended that “self love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind; it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it”.
But self praise can never be a recommendation because it is based not on merit and talent but on self-love and flattery, both of which are exercises in deception.
Self love is often the greatest of all flatterers. After all, flattery is nothing but to see virtue where none exists; to admire some one for something of which he or she is absolutely innocent. And where self-praise is based on something non-existent and imaginary, it is ill-founded.
How can it ever be a valid recommendation? When praise and admiration emanate from quarters which are distinctly motivated, these are not worth having. Tributes are worth receiving only when these are well founded and well deserved.
Ironically, flattery by others tends to become the first love of many proud individuals in whom ego dominates, even to the exclusion of basic human virtues. While ego is defined as an individual's perception or experience of himself and implies his capacity to think, feel and act, to that extent, it may be regarded as unobjectionable. But it is when a person becomes egocentric, that is, self-centered and egoistic, that difficulties begin to arise.
Systematic selfishness leads to egoism; it is a state of mind when one is always thinking of oneself, as against altruism, when a person takes a charitable view of others and is moved by compassion and consideration.
Similarly, self conceit, selfishness and the practice of always talking about oneself develops qualities which are associated with undue praise and recommendation of oneself.
This leads in due course to narcissism- a mental state in which there is self-worship and excessive interest in one's own perfections or presumed perfections; for, presumed or imaginary perfections and achievements prompt self-recommendations which cannot be taken as genuine or even worth taking note of.
Moreover, self-praise is a trait of character that tends to become almost perpetual. Those who indulge in praise of oneself, in the belief that one is perfect, also begin to harbour the illusion that all others have a faulty makeup, that they lack merit and talent and are, therefore, inferior beings when compared to themselves.
A man who either praises himself all the time or loves to hear praises from others soon becomes conceited. Praise soothes, quietens and comforts the listener, creating a false sense of pride.
Self-praise is, of course, fed by a feeling of self importance, which in turn may result from frequent flattery by others. The flatterers and those who are flattered both seem to rejoice in the bargain. The flatterers and sycophants are often professionals; they have practiced the art on many people and, thus, achieved their selfish ends. But it is not the flatterers we should condemn, as much as those who readily lend their ears to such self seeking individuals, and who readily fall victims to their admirer’s subtle game.
Kind words and high sounding epithets seek to build a glorious image and he who does not fall a victim to flatterers must be an extraordinary person. Deriving a high degree of mental satisfaction from praise and temptation of all kinds is a human weakness that few are able to resist.
A person who is well flattered soon learns to flatter and praise himself, because he argues to himself that so many others cannot be wrong. Even modest people fall a prey to admirers.
After all, neither self-praise nor praise by others, including the habitual hangers-on, costs anything. It requires no financial investment and comes free like air and water; all that praise requires is a glib, oily tongue and a growing feeling of self-importance.
Praise is said to be a kind of fire which, if persistently applied, has the capacity even to melt the hardest of minds and those with iron in their souls. Praise can achieve what criticism, even self-appraisal, cannot. Those who habitually resort to self-praise are never happy when others also start praising themselves beyond measure, because admiring oneself implies that others are not, and can never be, as perfect as they themselves are.
Consequently, they never form a brotherhood or a fraternity; rather, they become egoistic day by day.
Praise feeds upon itself; those who are hungry for it will ever and always feed themselves on this diet. From their standpoint, there cannot be a surfeit of praise, including self-praise. Nor will such people ever be well disposed towards those who try to caution them against the pitfall of constant self-praise.
Even well-meant advice is not welcome these days. In fact, people who love to praise themselves day in and day out may like to praise those who praise them, as members of a mutual admiration society generally do. They can all afford praise.
The truth, however, must be faced; truly wise and talented men seldom praise themselves. They err on the side of humility; they are humble and meek; they know their faults and are aware of the fact that pride leads to a fall. It is pride that pulls a country down.
Pride sometimes taints good men. Even small things may make base men proud and develop a fondness for cheap praise. Where praise, especially self-praise, abounds, humility and a sense of proportion are scarce. Where, on the contrary, there is abundant praise without rhyme or reason, the admirers may make an ass of the object of their adoration, without the latter being aware of it.
Self-praise sometimes takes the form of boasting and bragging, even though discriminating people detest such boasts, for they knew that empty vessels make much noise. It is only the shallow people who praise themselves, publicly or privately. Soon they stand exposed; instead of self-praise serving as a recommendation, it tends to act as a self-denunciation. Those who blow their own trumpets are derided at their backs. They lose credibility and are laughed at.
The praised ones begin to believe even falsehood and lose the capacity to distinguish between chalk and cheese, the genuine and the fake, vice and virtue. A fool, it is said, may even begin to believe he has wit.
Just as the praise of a book or a painting or a piece of sculpture by its author or artist is no recommendation, similarly self-praise can never be a sound basis to know the real value of a person.
Recommendation is good, sound advice or opinion about somebody or something; it is bound to be misleading when it comes from the person concerned or by one who is an interested party.
Another aspect of self-praise also needs to be examined. When you come to think of it, can’t we indulge in self-praise for the pleasure, even if momentary, it gives in a world so full of troubles, so bristling with baffling, complex problems?
Even if self-praise is no recommendation and is in effect self-delusion, does it matter much? Innocent, harmless pleasures are rare in this mundane world, and self-praise is one such inexpensive, largely harmless exercise.
We Can Remake Ourselves By Altering The Thought Process
We, as human beings, can change our lives by altering our thinking process that reinforces the attitudes of mind towards the expectation that we envisage.
As we think, so we shall be. So flush out old, tired, worn-out thoughts. Let us fill our mind with fresh, new creative thoughts of faith, love, and goodness. By such process we can actually remake our life.
How do and where do we find such personality remaking thoughts?
I know a business executive, a modest man, but the type of individual who is never defeated. No problem, no set back, no opposition ever gets him down. He simply attacks each difficulty with an optimistic attitude and sure confidence that it will work out right, and in some strange way, it always does for him. He seems to have a magic touch on life - a touch that never fails.
Because of that impressive characteristic this man always interested me. I knew there was a definite explanation of his being this way and of course, wanted to hear his story. But in view of his modesty and antisocial behavior, it was not easy to persuade him to talk about himself.
One day, when he was in the mood, he told me his secret; an amazingly simple but effective secret. I was visiting his unit, a simple, up-to-date structure, much of it air-conditioned. Robust methods & systems equipped with well-maintained instruments comprising of various jigs and fixtures that produce the products in his shop with outstanding efficiency. Labor management relations seem as nearly perfect as is possible among imperfect human beings. A spirit of goodwill pervades the entire organization.
His office is also very simple but had an ultramodern decor and was furnished with handsome desks, rugs, and paneled with exotic woods.
Imagine my surprise to see on his highly polished desk an old battered copy of Bhagwat Gita and the Bible, along with many ethical books full of inspirational stories extracted from ancient great history.
On seeing my surprise over those books he replied, "These books, along with Bhagwat Gita and the Bible are the most up-to-date things on this planet. Equipment warts out and furnishing styles change, but these books are so far ahead of us that they never become out of date."
He continued with his modest way of soft-spoken style.
"When I was studying in college, one day my great mother gave me Bhagwat Gita and it so happen surprisingly. on the same day, one of my favorite teachers, who taught us physics, gifted me the Bible with the suggestion that if I would read and practice its teachings, I would learn how to get through life successfully.
But I thought at my age, they both seemed old and to humor my mother and teacher, I took them. For years I never looked at them. I thought I didn't need them."
"Well," he continued with smile, "I was a dope and stupid, and got my life into a terrific mess. Everything went wrong primarily because I was wrong. I was thinking wrong, acting wrong, doing wrong. I succeeded at nothing, failed at everything. Now I realize that my practical trouble was wrong thinking. I was negative, resentful, smug, and opinionated. Nobody could tell me anything. I thought I knew everything. I was filled with gripes about everybody. Little wonder nobody liked me. I certainly was a 'wash-out'.
Days passed. One day while going through some papers, I came across the long forgotten books of ethical thoughts that were gifted to me, which brought up old memories and I started aimlessly to read them. Day and night without interruption I continued reading one after another and do you know, a strange thing happened.
Just in a flashing moment of time, everything became different. As I was reading, many incidences that were described in these ethical and holy books leaped up at me and changed my life; I mean changed it. From the minute I read them everything has been different, tremendously different.
What is this wonderful thing that as a weapon killed all my misery? Faith in me, through the power that I received in my thought process from the infinite intelligence, is the strength of my life and that gave birth to the confident me.
I could not understand why this thing affected me so, but it did. I know that I was weak and negative; a defeatist. Something happened inside my mind. I guess I had what they call a 'spiritual experience'. My thought pattern shifted from negative to positive.
I decided to put faith in myself and sincerely do my best, trying to follow the principle of ethical thoughts that were outlined in these books. As I did so, I began to get hold of a new set of thoughts. In time, my old failure thoughts were flushed out by this new spiritual experience and an inflow of new thoughts emerged gradually by actually remaking me."
My friend initially was a physics teacher but always had in his mind to become a successful entrepreneur in life. One day he left his teaching profession and shifted all of his endeavor efforts to that of a business executive. As he narrated about being an arrogant and severe person, first he miserably failed. But today he is one of the most energetic successful businessmen; well respected and modest too.
This is the story of a friend of mine: "a successful businessman". He altered his thinking. The new thoughts, which flowed in, displaced the old thoughts which had been defeating him and his life was changed.
This incident illustrates an important fact about human nature: you can think your way to failure and unhappiness but you can also think your way to success and happiness. The world in which we live is not primarily determined by outward conditions and circumstances, but by thoughts that habitually occupy our mind. We should remember the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, one of the great thinkers of antiquity, who said: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."
There is a deep tendency in our nature to become precisely like that which we habitually imagine ourselves to be.
It has been said that thoughts are things; that they actually possess dynamic power. We can actually think ourselves into or out of situations. We can make ourselves ill with our thoughts and by the same token we can make ourselves well by the use of different and healing type of thoughts.
Think one way and we attract the condition that way and if we think other way, we can create an entirely different set of conditions. Conditions are created by thoughts far more powerfully than thoughts create conditions.
Think positively and set in motion positive forces which bring positive results to pass. Positive thoughts create around us an atmosphere propitious to the development of positive outcomes. On the contrary, negative thoughts create around us an atmosphere propitious to the development of negative results.
To change our circumstances, first start thinking differently. Do not passively accept unsatisfactory circumstances, but let us form a picture in our mind of circumstances, as they should be. Hold that picture, develop it firmly in all directions, believe in it, pray about it, work at it, and we can actualize it according to that mental image emphasized in our positive thinking.
I learned this law in a very interesting manner and today, I never see any negative thought that could ever dare to enter in my thought process.
This is one of the greatest laws in the universe. Thus, by the astonishing fact of this law, let us posses all the prosperity and success in our life by using the three powerful words: Believe and Succeed.
- By Madhukar Parikh
As we think, so we shall be. So flush out old, tired, worn-out thoughts. Let us fill our mind with fresh, new creative thoughts of faith, love, and goodness. By such process we can actually remake our life.
How do and where do we find such personality remaking thoughts?
I know a business executive, a modest man, but the type of individual who is never defeated. No problem, no set back, no opposition ever gets him down. He simply attacks each difficulty with an optimistic attitude and sure confidence that it will work out right, and in some strange way, it always does for him. He seems to have a magic touch on life - a touch that never fails.
Because of that impressive characteristic this man always interested me. I knew there was a definite explanation of his being this way and of course, wanted to hear his story. But in view of his modesty and antisocial behavior, it was not easy to persuade him to talk about himself.
One day, when he was in the mood, he told me his secret; an amazingly simple but effective secret. I was visiting his unit, a simple, up-to-date structure, much of it air-conditioned. Robust methods & systems equipped with well-maintained instruments comprising of various jigs and fixtures that produce the products in his shop with outstanding efficiency. Labor management relations seem as nearly perfect as is possible among imperfect human beings. A spirit of goodwill pervades the entire organization.
His office is also very simple but had an ultramodern decor and was furnished with handsome desks, rugs, and paneled with exotic woods.
Imagine my surprise to see on his highly polished desk an old battered copy of Bhagwat Gita and the Bible, along with many ethical books full of inspirational stories extracted from ancient great history.
On seeing my surprise over those books he replied, "These books, along with Bhagwat Gita and the Bible are the most up-to-date things on this planet. Equipment warts out and furnishing styles change, but these books are so far ahead of us that they never become out of date."
He continued with his modest way of soft-spoken style.
"When I was studying in college, one day my great mother gave me Bhagwat Gita and it so happen surprisingly. on the same day, one of my favorite teachers, who taught us physics, gifted me the Bible with the suggestion that if I would read and practice its teachings, I would learn how to get through life successfully.
But I thought at my age, they both seemed old and to humor my mother and teacher, I took them. For years I never looked at them. I thought I didn't need them."
"Well," he continued with smile, "I was a dope and stupid, and got my life into a terrific mess. Everything went wrong primarily because I was wrong. I was thinking wrong, acting wrong, doing wrong. I succeeded at nothing, failed at everything. Now I realize that my practical trouble was wrong thinking. I was negative, resentful, smug, and opinionated. Nobody could tell me anything. I thought I knew everything. I was filled with gripes about everybody. Little wonder nobody liked me. I certainly was a 'wash-out'.
Days passed. One day while going through some papers, I came across the long forgotten books of ethical thoughts that were gifted to me, which brought up old memories and I started aimlessly to read them. Day and night without interruption I continued reading one after another and do you know, a strange thing happened.
Just in a flashing moment of time, everything became different. As I was reading, many incidences that were described in these ethical and holy books leaped up at me and changed my life; I mean changed it. From the minute I read them everything has been different, tremendously different.
What is this wonderful thing that as a weapon killed all my misery? Faith in me, through the power that I received in my thought process from the infinite intelligence, is the strength of my life and that gave birth to the confident me.
I could not understand why this thing affected me so, but it did. I know that I was weak and negative; a defeatist. Something happened inside my mind. I guess I had what they call a 'spiritual experience'. My thought pattern shifted from negative to positive.
I decided to put faith in myself and sincerely do my best, trying to follow the principle of ethical thoughts that were outlined in these books. As I did so, I began to get hold of a new set of thoughts. In time, my old failure thoughts were flushed out by this new spiritual experience and an inflow of new thoughts emerged gradually by actually remaking me."
My friend initially was a physics teacher but always had in his mind to become a successful entrepreneur in life. One day he left his teaching profession and shifted all of his endeavor efforts to that of a business executive. As he narrated about being an arrogant and severe person, first he miserably failed. But today he is one of the most energetic successful businessmen; well respected and modest too.
This is the story of a friend of mine: "a successful businessman". He altered his thinking. The new thoughts, which flowed in, displaced the old thoughts which had been defeating him and his life was changed.
This incident illustrates an important fact about human nature: you can think your way to failure and unhappiness but you can also think your way to success and happiness. The world in which we live is not primarily determined by outward conditions and circumstances, but by thoughts that habitually occupy our mind. We should remember the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, one of the great thinkers of antiquity, who said: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."
There is a deep tendency in our nature to become precisely like that which we habitually imagine ourselves to be.
It has been said that thoughts are things; that they actually possess dynamic power. We can actually think ourselves into or out of situations. We can make ourselves ill with our thoughts and by the same token we can make ourselves well by the use of different and healing type of thoughts.
Think one way and we attract the condition that way and if we think other way, we can create an entirely different set of conditions. Conditions are created by thoughts far more powerfully than thoughts create conditions.
Think positively and set in motion positive forces which bring positive results to pass. Positive thoughts create around us an atmosphere propitious to the development of positive outcomes. On the contrary, negative thoughts create around us an atmosphere propitious to the development of negative results.
To change our circumstances, first start thinking differently. Do not passively accept unsatisfactory circumstances, but let us form a picture in our mind of circumstances, as they should be. Hold that picture, develop it firmly in all directions, believe in it, pray about it, work at it, and we can actualize it according to that mental image emphasized in our positive thinking.
I learned this law in a very interesting manner and today, I never see any negative thought that could ever dare to enter in my thought process.
This is one of the greatest laws in the universe. Thus, by the astonishing fact of this law, let us posses all the prosperity and success in our life by using the three powerful words: Believe and Succeed.
- By Madhukar Parikh
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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