Photo on top by Ben White of Unsplash
A Turn Around Alcoholic INVITES You to Cultivate the READING Habit
I was born to a middle income family. Was sent to private boarding school 80 miles away from home at the age of six. My parents never spoke in English.
Yet, I had books in English – to read at home.
My father had schooled up to grade eight [he passed away forty yrs ago] & my mother up to the seventh [and she passed away just one yr ago].
This post is about the reading habit . . .
Therefore, I reminisced the empowerment, I received from my parents. . . to read.
The books that were made available for me, from pretty young age to read at home were:
- The Plain Truth Magazine published by Herbert W. Armstrong of the Ambassador College
- Their version of the bible, titled ‘LOVE’
- The Readers Digest Magazine
- How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
[and, in all probability there’s no doubt, that I may have skimmed through the pages than reading them at the onset, for lack of ability to comprehend the language]
In spite of the stated facts above, both my parents hailed from a Buddhist background. From very early childhood I remember the hearing of the daily chanting of the gathas by both of them in the morning & evening as part of their daily rituals. It could have been a really sad situation for them, when they became aware that I had begun to imbibe alcohol.
I schooled up to grade ten. Though my parents would have expected me to go on, higher – but, I didn’t. Hence, Latin, Greek & Roman civilization nor anything close to anthropology was the furthest from my thoughts & even. . . reach 🙂
No matter what, I thank my luck stars that I was EMPOWERED to get the reading bug in me
with an EARLY Start:)
The Analogy – Newton’s First Law on a Human
Then, LIFE became so monotonous, & I was overwhelmed with its trials & tribulations. I was attracted by the legendary works of one single person & then, another’s. The initial person’s work was the equivalent of Newton’s first law acting on a living, breathing, dead . . . life. With the addition, I was gearing myself more to overcome resistance [friction] & was able to get hold of my own bearings to start giving value to my own life.
Would you like to get into a FRESH-START ? . . . with ME 🙂
“You will never win if you never begin,”
. . . is a quote by Helen Rowland, an American journalist and humorist. It’s such an obvious statement, but one that is at the crux of making positive changes in our lives.
The question now being posed by me is, when we set out from our parental nest to find employment & keep working for our bread, butter & bills – ‘Do we get empowered? – adequately, more than it deems necessary OR not at all‘?
If I were allowed to to prod you to THINK, let me be candid by asking you:
Is there anything in the way of value-addition to our lives
from / at the work place !!
Below are some fascinating stunners extracted from the book,
‘Teach Your Team To Fish’ by Laurie Beth Jones – Author of Jesus, CEO ~
[page 103 ]
Cardone Industries, a huge car-parts and battery manufacturing plant in Philadelphia, runs
ongoing classes in literacy, money management,
and foreign languages for its five thousand
multinational workers.
ServiceMaster does the same, helping train its
250,000 associates in basic life-management skills
as well as work required for the job.
The American Bible Society allocates
fifteen hundred training dollars per employee
for a year-all employees.
SAS Institute, the nation’s largest independently
owned software corporation, has incorporated
on-site child care and preschool training
for the seven hundred children
. . . of its five thousand employees.
. . . and the ‘Turn Over Rate’ at SAS is among
the lowest in the industry 🙂
Dyson Appliance Limited, a vacuum cleaner company and the fastest growing manufacturer in Great Britain, has an unusual policy:
On the first day of their employment, all new hires-no matter what their title-are taught to build a vacuum cleaner from start to finish.
In so doing
the leadership is communicating to the team that
all workers are geniuses, that everyone is expected to have inside-out product knowledge,
and that anyone can be called upon to do the job
when needed
in order to serve the customer.
Dyson also has assembly-line workers switch places
on the line every forty-five minutes,
so they won’t get bored.
If Only You KNEW That – Beginnings Require Endings
An ending doesn’t necessarily mean you’re giving up – it just means that you’re starting over, but in another direction.
“You will never win if you never begin,” is a quote by Helen Rowland, an American journalist and humorist. It’s such an obvious statement, but one that is at the crux of making positive changes in our lives.
The New Year is a time when you may be reflecting on the past and planning to make changes in your life that will both renew and rejuvenate and make you thinner, healthier, wealthier, wiser – or any number of positive results.
Those New Year reflections turn into “resolutions,” and it’s a sad fact that most of us don’t carry through with these vows to change ourselves for the better. You can make a decision to change on any day at any time of year and have the results you desire.
There’s no reason to wait until the New Year, birthday, new job or career change to begin making the choices and changes that can help you live your best life. But, know that every beginning requires an ending. Nothing changes without a price and you must be dedicated to say goodbye to old habits and patterns before the new ones can take their places.
Beginnings Require Endings
An ending doesn’t necessarily mean you’re giving up – it just means that you’re starting over, but in another direction. For example, it doesn’t mean that you’re giving up on a job because you quit working at your place of employment. It does mean that you don’t see a good reason to continue in the present job, so you’re going to begin another that will take you more in the direction you want to go.
New beginnings require that you absolutely bring an end to the part of your life that isn’t working for you and bring in the positive thinking of the new life you’re about to enter.
Here are some ways you can make an ending final and absolute to make way for the positive beginnings:
Change your mindset – Change your mind about whatever isn’t working in your life and concentrate on the steps that will lead you toward the changes you want and need to make. Think of the changes as positive forces in your life. For example, if you want to change your dietary habits, think of your old ways as unhealthy – poison to the system and taking years off your lifespan.
If you can’t control it – let it go. When you mentally and physically distance yourself from those things you can’t control, an amazing transformation takes place. You begin to think about more positive aspects of your life and change what you can control.
Focus your energy and time on the positive aspects of your life. When negative thoughts and events attempt to lock you in a deep, dark place don’t waste your valuable time fretting about them. Trying to move around in the dark only means you’ll bump into things. Instead, focus on the brightness of the positive changes you’re bringing into your life.
Step back for awhile. Sometimes, you just need to rest and take a fresh look at what’s happening in your life. Rest will give you the strength you need to make the right choices for the path you’ve chosen. You’ll be able to begin again with a new attitude.
Accept the reality of your life. Not everything is always going to go your way. You can either learn from the mistakes and challenges that come your way and keep plugging on or let them drag you down to a place where you may not ever recover.
Develop an appreciation for your struggles. With every obstacle you overcome, consider it an opportunity for growth and learning. These challenges will define the person you’ll become and make you more capable of facing adversities in the future.
One way to be sure you’re always ready for positive new beginnings to happen in your life is to take chances. They may not always materialize or have an outcome that you desire, but the opposite of not trying is regret that you never did.
Make Each Day a New Beginning
When you get up in the morning are you filled with excitement about the possibilities that the day will bring – or do you dread going to the office or facing a day doing something that you abhor?
If you answered the latter, it’s time to reassess your goals and think about taking another path that will make you happy and give you confidence that you’re moving on with your life in a positive direction.
You can’t go back – but you can move forward. End whatever isn’t working for you and begin with a new plan for your life. Think back on your life’s journey and you’ll find that almost everything had a new sheen or excitement to it.
Each birthday and Christmas marked a fun new journey with new things and new experiences that a certain age brought with it when you were a child. Going to school was filled with the excitement of learning new things.
Independence likely came when you graduated or began a job in your chosen career path. You had your whole life in front of you – and life was good. The future was full of new beginnings.
But, as we age, those days we marked as new beginnings as young people begin to fade into sameness and become just another day. Nothing is brand new anymore and you may picture an eternity of one long highway of doing the same things day after day.
By the time you’re middle-age, you may look back at your life with some regrets. After all, you began your independence by thinking you were put on this earth to change the world for the better.
Things like marriage, kids, mortgage and the economy may have gotten in the way. But, you may not be finished yet. What if you use this beginning of the New Year to reevaluate what you’re supposed to be doing with your life and begin on that journey now?
Chances are, you’d have a new lease on life. You’d get up in the morning with plans that both excite and motivate you. It’s the perfect time in your life to begin something new because you now know so much that you didn’t know when you were younger.
There may still be some surprises, but you’ll be better able to handle them and come away unscathed. A danger in new beginnings at a later age is comparing yourself to others who have already reached the pinnacle you’re climbing toward.
If you engage in the imaginary scale of success, you’re likely to fail at the new beginnings journey. There will always be someone ahead of you, but keep looking up the ladder rather than down and you’ll reach the top much faster.
5 Best Tips for Making a Fresh Start
Here are some ideas and words of wisdom to help you dive into new beginnings with a new excitement and energy that you may not have felt in a very long time. So, set those goals and keep motivated – here’s how:
1. Take ‘failure’ out of your vocabulary. Not meeting a deadline or goal is actually an opportunity to learn how to do it better next time. Think of your new beginning as a map with detours and roadblocks along the way.
2. Try something new each day. Whether it’s a new route to work or a new recipe at home, don’t become stagnant with your daily routine. See a movie or read a book that’s different from those you usually see or read.
3. Meet people. Make it a point to meet new people outside of your current social and work circles. Be approachable for others – a simple “hello” works most of the time.
4. Don’t try to be part of the crowd. It’s what is different about you that sets you apart and makes you special. Embrace those differences rather than trying to change who and what you are just to fit in.
5. Take care of your own needs first. It’s like the speech they give on an airplane – “be sure to put on your oxygen mask first and then help others.” Unless you’re a bit selfish with your own needs and wants, you won’t be any good to others.
Always be willing to change to meet your desires and goals. Remember that no matter how hard you worked or how far you’ve come today doesn’t meet the need for where you want to be tomorrow.
You should have a personal mission statement that both outlines and specifies what sums up who you are and what you want to become. It will help to bring focus and purpose to the life you want to lead.
Celebrate each goal you reach, whether small or large and always look at the big picture of where you want to be. Focus on the milestones of your journey rather than the beginning or end to make the journey much more doable.
Thank you 🙂
Ps:
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