Courtesy costs nothing: Using Power of Choice to be Courteous

Sanjay had to go to the railway station. When he tried to catch an auto rickshaw, he could find many rickshaws passing by. He tried to stop them, but in vain. Finally one rickshaw stopped which appeared to be new. A decent driver invited him to board in. Driver came out and took the luggage to adjust in his rickshaw.

Sanjay was really impressed with his friendly gestures. Sanjay asked him his name. 'I am Sonu.’ He replied very confidently. Then he very humbly asked Sanjay if he could continue the music. Sanjay consented. The music was very soothing.

Sonu asked, “Which train you want to catch, sir?”

Sanjay replied, “Avantika.”

Sonu volunteered, “Okay, then I will take you to Siyaganj side of the station. You will directly reach the platform.”

Sanjay asked him, “Are you aware of details of all the trains?” Sonu replied
“Yes Sir. I want my passengers to reach their destination conveniently. Hence I need to keep myself updated.”

Sanjay is very talkative, so he took the conversation ahead, “Is this your own rickshaw? Recently purchased?”

Sonu rejoiced, ‘Yes Sir! It is my own rickshaw. Recently purchased but it is pre-owned. I maintain it so well that it appears to be new. After all it earns me my bread and butter, sir.”

'Tell me, Sonu,' Sanjay was amazed and asked him, 'Are you always courteous with your passengers like this?'

Sonu looked through the mirror and smiled. “No, Sir. It is only in the last one year. In my first two years of driving, I spent most of my time complaining like others and having arguments with passengers, other drivers and policemen. My days used to be very frustrating and hence back home I generally used to have arguments with Manjusha, my wife. Then I heard about power of choice one day.”

“I used to be like most of the rickshaw drivers – rude, greedy, careless. Then one day, a passenger like you boarded my rickshaw. In fact, he was going to Sarafa Bazar to enjoy Dahi Vada at Joshi’s. He took me along to enjoy Dahi Vada. He told me about Power of choice and that how Joshi used his Power of Choice and has become so famous.”

“This passenger said that I can choose to be careless about my rickshaw and complain about repercussions. Else I can choose to be careful for it and Stop complaining! I can choose to be rude with passengers and end up arguing with most of them or I can choose to be courteous with passengers and both me and my passengers will be happy.”

“I looked around at the other rickshaws and their drivers. The ricks were dirty, the drivers were rude, and the passengers were unhappy. So I decided to change. I put in some efforts at a time. When my passengers responded well, I did more. My income is ever increasing since then. Many passengers call me on my cell.”

Sanjay new about my ‘Power of Choice’ and ‘Dahi Vada’ Philosophies, so he called me to share this story of Sonu and he also shared Sonu’s cell number with me. I was very happy to get the feedback about Sonu so I connected back with him. Since then I am in regular touch with Sonu. He has relocated to Ujjain and runs a business there. He leads a peaceful and happy life with his wife and little princess.

Sonu made a different choice. He chose to be courteous.

Dahi Vada Philosophy: For Professional and Personal Lives

For the then beautiful city of Lahore it was said that “Jin Lahore nai vekhya, woh janmiyan-i nai,” which means that one who has not seen Lahore is not born.

In today’s time we can say this for Joshi’s Dahi Vada. If you have not visited Joshi in Indore’s Sarafa, I will strongly recommend you to at-least once do this.

Dahi Vada: Delicious invitation...

Dahi Vada in itself is such a delicious thing that hardly anyone would dislike it. A soft spongy stuff soaked in fresh and thick curd and garnished with sweet-sour chutney on it and aroma of spices sprinkled on it give us an invitation to enjoy this delicious dish.

Sone pe Suhaga: Joshi’s Dahi Vada at Sarafa of Indore

Dahi Vada and that too from Joshi’s at Sarafa of Indore. The way he welcomes his customers cannot be described in words, its warmth can only be felt.

His sweet way of talking is icing on the cake or so to say chutney and spices on Dahi Vada. He keeps Dahi Vada in a bowl and pours fresh and thick curd on it. He then throws it up from one hand, it spins and goes up, comes down which he catches it in his other hand.

He then hides different spices among his fingers and sprinkle them on Dahi Vada. One is amazed to see his style of doing this.

Lessons

Joshi’s Dahi Vada teaches us a philosophy for life. Dahi Vada in itself is a wonderful thing. There are many thing to be learnt from it. The way Joshi serves Dahi Vada teaches us few more thing we can adopt in our lives.

Soaked in Water: Free from weaknesses

If you eat a fried Vada you may not like it as it is not just tasteless but oily too. It is therefore first soaked in water for few hours so that oil comes out and it becomes soft. Then it is pressed to remove the water also.

We must also overcome our weaknesses like Vada leaves oil in water and then water also comes out. After we overcome our weaknesses, we face lesser threats.

Absorbing Curd: Open for Value addition

Dahi Vada is made with such stuff that it has a capacity to absorb curd. As stated above after soaking in water, Vada is pressed so that both oil and water comes out. Now it is ready for absorbing curd and also for chutney and spices.

Similarly we must also be ready for value addition. We must also explore what all additions would be beneficial for us. Identifying and overcoming weaknesses is crucial for all of us. Just like that sustained value addition is a must for our growth.

Joshi’s Style: Enjoying our work

Joshi also gives us beautiful messages of life. First and foremost is – while selling Dahi Vada he is always in good mood and he enjoys doing that. He is so cheerful and energetic that his style makes his customers also cheerful and energetic.

We can also work enjoying our jobs. Whatever we do, we can always enjoy it. We can either do what we enjoy or if it is not feasible for certain reasons, we can enjoy what we are doing

Delighting the customer: Making difference for people we serve

Joshi delights his customers with his pleasing style of conversation and highly energetic serving. With his style he delights his customers, he makes their day.

Like Joshi, we can also make it a point to make a difference in the lives of people we serve. We can also aim at delighting the people we serve.

Joshi’s Attention: Power of Now

While actually entertaining his customers, Joshi is always attentive on what he is doing. If he is not attentive he may not be able to catch Dahi Vada. He actually uses his power of now while he serves his customers.

Exercising power of now is something which can always help all of us all the time in whatever we do. Using our power of now helps us do things more effectively and with better efficiency.

Joshi chose different style: Power of Choice

Joshi could also sell Dahi Vada like other vendors do, but he chose to do it differently. He does it in his way and makes a difference. Had he chose the option of doing it like others he may not have had such name, fame and money. With the other option, he is so famous that people take their guests to his shop to enjoy more than Dahi Vada which obviously gets him more business and profit.

We also have Power of Choice all the time and in whatever we do. We can choose to be Victims of circumstances or we can take charge of our own lives. We can choose to pass our day and life just like that or we can choose to enjoy each day of our lives.

What will you choose?

Visit Joshi just to enjoy Dahi Vada or also to learn from it.

Just read the article or also follow the learning's

Wish you a life full of Josh.

Rise and Shine

I am really blessed that my Gurus came in my life at different points in time and guided me whenever I needed a direction so that I could ‘Rise and Shine.’ Now I am trying to repay at-least a part of what I got from my Gurus. Hence I have made it my mission to spread their messages among people so that anyone and everyone can ‘Rise and Shine.’

Sit on a seed to rise and shine???

A boy was sitting in a ground for a pretty long time. Looking at this, people asked him why he was doing so. He very innocently replied, “I want to rise and shine.”

“But you are just sitting here, doing nothing. How will you rise and shine?” Someone asked.

“I have sowed a seed here, someday there will be a tree here and I will automatically rise. Once I will be on the top of the tree, I will shine with the sun-shine.” He innocently replied.

Poor boy did not realize that if he will sit on the seed, there will be no plant, what to say about his automatic rising with tree.

The boy’s story shows us the power of choice that we all have. We can either sit on a seed or can climb up a tree. We always have this power of choice with us. We always have two options; with the power of choice we can choose the right option.

Anyone willing to rise and shine has to put sincere efforts for it. What all efforts will be required? Will it be possible for anyone to do it?

You are different, you are very special.

Let us deal with the second question first. Everyone is different from others. More than that everyone is very special. Everyone is blessed. And particularly you are really different and blessed. You are reading this article, which shows that you are different from millions of people who may not venture to read it, or from many others who may not be even read anything, or from many others who even cannot read anything. You were under no compulsion to read this, yet you are reading, that shows you are different and special. You too are blessed hence you are getting the message which I got from my Gurus.

And now the first question i.e., what all efforts are required. You need to do self-analysis. If you do it genuinely, you will know your strengths and weaknesses. Once you know your strengths, you can always bank upon them. Similarly, when you know your weaknesses, you can anytime start working to overcome them. This will help you to rise and shine.

Even after knowing our strengths and weaknesses and banking upon our strengths and overcoming our weaknesses, we may not rise and shine. Something stops us from rising and shining, what is it? What stops us?

‘You can’ rise and shine

There was an average boy from a lower middle class family, who studied in a Hindi medium school run by the Government in a small town. He was so much shy, that if he had guests at home, he will not come out of the room to greet them. He was, in fact, highly introvert. Today he travels throughout the country and delivers his talks. He has, by now imparted trainings to tens of thousands of young men and women on Pan-India basis.

This boy is none other but the author of these lines. I am sharing all this with you not for self-boasting but for giving you an example of rising from ground and shining. Entire world and specially our country have lots of examples wherein people have risen to greater heights from ground level. All of them had one thing in common – ‘Can Do’ attitude. You can also rise to greater heights, if you too have ‘Can Do’ attitude. If you want to rise and shine, you will have to develop this ‘Can Do’ attitude.

With ‘Can Do’ attitude also many may not rise and shine. Where do they lack?

Difference between ‘steel and gold coin’

What is the difference between a One Rupee note and a One Thousand Rupees note lying in your valet? What is the difference between them if you want to buy something from them? The difference is not much if the two notes are in your valet but if you want to use them to buy something, the difference is bigger.

Just like that, difference between you and an ordinary person may not be very big unless you use your full potential to rise and shine. And for this one has to take charge of one’s own life.

Many humans are actually EMM’s: Excuse making machines. Whatever we wish to do or not do, we have excuse for that. If someone wants to do something he will say, “Oh because of this I had to do it.” If someone does not wants to do something he will say, “Oh because of that I could not do it.” That is why I am of the view that we have excuses for whatever we want to do (or not do). We generally are EMM’s.

But if we really wish to rise and shine, we must take charge of our own life. We should take responsibility of our own life. We must be answerable to ourselves. In place of excuses, we must have rationality for whatever we want to do (or not do). We must not be EMM’s. Instead we must have logic, reason, rational or justification for everything we want. Particularly for whatever we want to do, be or have, we must have a rational for it, why do we want to do, be or have something.

So now after self analysis, using our power of choice and taking charge of our life may we rise and shine? Still not. What is wrong?

Right Direction

A young man was driving his car on a highway to go to the nearby city. He got stuck in traffic jam so he diverted from the highway, asked someone and that person showed him a way and said, “You will reach faster by this route.” So he took that other route. He drove for almost four hours and had travelled almost 300 KM’s but he could not reach his destination. He was shocked to know then that the other person misguided him and he was in wrong direction and was still 400 KM’s from the city which was just 250 KM’s from his own city.

Was he not putting his efforts to go to the other city? Certainly he was, but not in right direction. To rise and shine, we must also put our efforts in right direction.

Now the steps to rise and shine:

I-O-E-U-A

A-E-I-O-U are five consonants. If we rearrange them as above they signify the Guru-mantra to rise and shine as follows:

Imagine, dream, see or visualize what you want to do, be or have for rising and shining. Forty seconds of focused visualizing and feeling yourself doing, being or having what you want gets you the same. Practice it for your smaller wishes and gradually try it out for anything and everything. With this technique you can manifest what you want to do, be or have.

Organize, develop a plan or make a plan of action for your wishes. You might already know, ‘If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.’ So plan for doing, being or getting what you want.

Execute what you have planned. Act as per your plan of action. Many of us do lot of planning but we may not implement our plans. This renders entire task of planning futile.

Utilize your full potential to get what you want to do, be or have. Whatever you choose to do, be or have, give your 100% to it. We generally like discount, but no discount should be there when it comes to giving our 100% to whatever we are doing to do, be or have what we want.

Accept the things which are beyond our control. Acceptance causes disappearance whereas resistance causes persistence. This phrase does not advocate the acceptance of status quo, but when thing cannot be changes it is better to accept whatever is there.

Following the aforementioned will definitely help you ‘Rise and Shine’ in your life. I will pray for your success in rising and shining. May the good God bless you with best of everything.

Improve your English

Many of my trainees ask me how they should improve their English. Hence this post on how one can improve one’s English.

Improve your Learning Skills

Learning in itself is a skill and hence it can be improved. Here are FOUR steps towards improving your Learning Skills:

Self Awareness
Learning effectively is possible by developing self concept. To put it differently one can learn better through knowing:

• How far one is able to learn
• How has one learned successfully in the past
• What are one’s interest in the field, and
• How much is one’s knowledge of what one is willing to learn

Self Motivation
One must ensure that one is motivated to learn English so that one will not become so frustrated as to give up. One can check the following honestly:

• Why does one need to learn/improve English?
• Where will one need to use English?
• What is one required to do in English? (Read/Write/Listen/Speak)
• When is one’s deadline for English improvement?
• How much time can one afford to devote to it?
• How much money can one afford for it?

Set SMART Goals
For improving one’s English, one should set smart goals as follow:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

Dedicating short time each day to learn English will give better, longer-term results than a half or full day on the weekend and then nothing for a week.

A good motivation to attain one’s goals is to have a system of rewards and punishments. One must decide on a reward one will give oneself for attaining one’s goals.

Know the learning method that suits to you
There are different ways to learn. One can find out what kind of learner one is, in order to better understand how to learn more effectively. One can also check whether one is an auditory learner, a kinesthetic learner or a visual learner, accordingly one can take part in activities, listen more or watch/observe lessons.

One must do something regularly in this matter. If one doesn't do anything, one won't get anywhere. One can make it a habit, and above all have fun.

There is no need to be in a hurry. One is on a long journey and there'll be delays and frustrations along the way. One can always try to really enjoy the experience.

Improve your English

There are many ways to improve the level of English, but only the person himself/herself can find the right way for him/her. Here are a few steps that will surly help:

Reading
To get comfortable with the language, read regularly an English newspaper, magazine, book or novel. It can be even a sports or film magazine.

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language. Hence it is recommended to read aloud.

Writing
Develop written language. With requisite vocabulary one can communicate well.

Speaking
Speak in English as much as possible. Try spoken English on anyone who will be able to respond. Don't be afraid of making mistakes.

Listening Others
Keep the ears open for the accent. Watch the English news on Television.

Similarly have someone proficient to read aloud something. Watch how they move their lips while pronouncing certain words.

Listening Self
Recording and listening own voice and catching pronunciation mistakes can help avoid them. This is a very important exercise because doing it helps becoming conscious of the mistakes made.

Learn Grammar
Grammar is important. The parts of speech, tenses, form of verb, articles, etc. contribute to fluency. One can make an effort to learn them.

Build Vocabulary Dictionary can be made a friend. Refer to it when come across a new word. Familiarize with its meaning and use it in a sentence.

Familiarize with the phonetic symbols of the dictionary. Look for correct pronunciation of words.
Learn one new word a day. To increase active vocabulary, start memorizing the meaning of a word heard and use it regularly to absorb it vocabulary.

Think in English
Learners generally think in native language first, translate it in English and then speak. The best way is to directly THINK IN ENGLISH and speak. In general also thinking, not done for speaking, may be done in English.

With these Spoken English will improve, but not if commitment is lacking.

Keep in mind the skills involved in any language are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Any single one can't be developed in isolation.

I started thinking about it and realized that I was lucky to learn it in spite of having done my schooling with Hindi medium.

Expose to the language as much as possible by reading anything in that language. You will find it a huge benefit to listen to the language and to practice conversation with others as much as possible.

Key Points
Overcome fear of making mistakes. Mistakes are bound to happen but keep in mind:

“Resistance causes persistence, Acceptance causes disappearance”

Avail every opportunity you have to speak with people in English. Talk to friends who are also learning English. Hang out together and speak only in English.

Listen to and sing English songs.

Be patient with yourself. Learning any language can be frustrating. Be master of yourself, be in-charge of yourself, have self control.

He Moves Our Cheese

Who moved your cheese? The power to move anybody’s cheese in the world lies with... The Almighty
Whatever happens to us is as per his wish and his wisdom. He knows what is the Best for us. Keep in mind: Every happening has a Purpose in life
When we look back in our lives for days when we faced a problem, and check our strength, we realize that: After every trial we become stronger
We must remember: During the time of our suffering and trials he is always with us. Because of him only our difficulties get reduced, else things and circumstances would have worsen.
Life is easier as He is with us.