Increasing your Face Value

I have been posting a lot of stuffs that deals with life and how to handle the challenges we encounter in our day to day activities in my blog these days.

We see a frequent change that's happening in the economic condition in the US and a lot of us have started fearing the impact of these changes in the long run. As these news on the crisis that's happening around us and the uncertainity of the future are seen and heard through the mass media, a lot of us have started to turn more pesimistic in our thoughts which really concerns me.

We usually try to complain for the conditions we are in. It's easy to complain and point fingers at others. We should understand that when we are pointing a finger at someone, four of our own fingers are pointing at us.

It's in our nature to compare ourselves with others. When we start comparing ourselves with others, we are insulting our own self. It would mean, we are questioning our own potential.

We need to understand that no one would manufacture a lock without a key. Similarly every problem will have a solution to it.

Life laughs at us when we are unhappy, it smiles when we are happy and it salutes us when we make others happy. We should accept the pain and get ready to succeed in life. For it's a fact that every successful person will always have a painful story to share and every painful story has a successful ending.

It's always easy for us to judge the mistakes of others, and it's difficult for us to recognize our own mistakes. As the saying goes, "It's easier to protect your feet with slippers than to cover the earth with carpet"

Past is past. no one can go back and change a bad beginning, but anyone can start now and create a successful ending. If a problem can be solved, there is no need to worry about it. But if a problem cannot be solved then what is the use of worrying?

Mistakes are always painful when they happen, but years later collection of mistakes is called experience which lead to success.

If you miss an opportunity we should not fill our eyes with tears. Since it will hide another better opportunity in front of us. "Changing the face can change nothing" but "Facing the change can change everything". We should stop complaining about others and change ourselves if we want peace in our lives.

We should be bold when you lose in life and be calm when we win. Heated gold becomes ornament, beaten copper becomes wires, depleted stone becomes statues. So the more pain we get to face in life, the more valuable you are to the society.

Dealing with Rejection...

One of the first and most important things to understand in life is that no matter what you do, not everybody is going to respond positively to you. Not everyone you smile at will smile back at you. Not everyone you say hello to is going to say hello back to you.

We should stop expecting a positive response 100% of the time. Just because somebody did not smile back at you does not mean that you're not an attractive person or that you made a mistake by smiling. The only thing it means is that it did not work with that one person.

We should understand that life Is All About Rejection. Everything in life has rejection involved in it. If you're a salesperson who makes 10 sales calls, you may only get one or two people to say yes. You don't have to quit simply because you experienced some rejection. Imagine if you stopped looking for work when your very first interview didn't result in a job offer. That would, of course, be ridiculous. You just have to keep increasing your odds of success in life.

When you feel like you are getting more than your fair share of rejections, instead of focusing on those rejections, focus on increasing your odds of success. The fact is that by playing the percentages you will be successful. The reason is that every time you take action -- every time you smile, say hello, or walk over and initiate a conversation -- you get better at it. Increase your odds every single day and in everything you're doing.

Remember that you will not be on the front page of the news! When you're rejected, you need to just get over it. No one is talking about you. People are concerned about themselves and what is going on in their own lives, just as you are focused on what's going on in yours. So the fact that you get rejected in front of other people at the market, at the gym, or anywhere else is not a big deal to anyone but you.

If I smile at someone and they don't respond, you should think that you are not playing hide-and-go-seek the next time you see him/her. You should be equally friendly to them the next time I see him/her, because you never know what will happen that second time. It's a different day.

These are some ways to help get over rejection. Realize that in order to get good at interacting, you are going to get rejected. In fact, you would want to get rejected every single day, because if you're not, it means you're not trying.Once you get rejected, you should start thinking as to how you can go out the next day and make it better than what it was before. Learn to not only handle but to embrace rejection, and you will meet great new people and have an amazing social life.

Three Days to See

Here is an interesting article by Helen Keller on the importance of sight. An inspiring article that I wish to share with you all.

What would you look at if you had just three days of sight? Helen Keller, blind and deaf from infancy, gives her answer in this remarkable essay.

I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight, silence would teach him the joys of sound.

Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.

How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after the winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

At time my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say for just three days.

On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul,” the eye. I can only “see” through my fingertips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces.

For instance, can you describe accurately the faces of five different friends? As an experiment, I have questioned husbands about the colour of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. I should like to see the books which have been read to me, and which have revealed to me the deepest channels of human life. In the afternoon I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature. And I should pray for the glory of a colourful sunset. That night, I should not be able to sleep.

On my second day, I should like to see the pageant of man’s progress, and I should go to the museums. I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. The evening of my second day I should spend at a theatre or at the movies.

The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, new revelations of beauty. Today this third day, I shall spend in the workaday world, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life.

At midnight permanent night would close on me again. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen.

I am sure that if you faced the fate of blindness you would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw will become dear to you. Your eyes will touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at least, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty, which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.

- By Helen Keller

The Bridge

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with Brooklyn, however bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision and after much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built. Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

In spite of the mockery and his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. . Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.


Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a "never say die" attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.