Friday, September 30, 2011

Motivational thoughts-Overcoming destructive emotions

The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful.”
– Dalai Lama



Love quotes-Worth fighting for

Love is everything it’s cracked up to be…It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
Erica Jong, O Magazine, February 2004

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Famous people quotes-Sing away sorrow

"Sing away sorrow, cast away care."
- George W. Bush

Friendship quotes-Better class

Money couldn't buy friends but you got a better class of enemy.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Inspirational quotes-A good teacher

The most extraordinary thing about a really good teacher is that he or she transcends accepted educational methods. Such methods are designed to help average teachers approximate the performance of good teachers.
- Margaret Mead

Qoutes from the movies-Infinity

"To infinity, and beyond!"
- Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear) in Toy Story

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Proverbs-Without smiling face

A man without a smiling face must not open shop.
- Chinese proverb

Inspirational quotes-A gentle word

"A gentle word is never lost...It cheers the heart when sorrow-tossed, And lulls the cares that bruise it."
- Hastings

Monday, September 26, 2011

Famous people quotes-Cease to be funny

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."
- George Bernard Shaw

Short quotes-Wonder

"Wonder is the basis of worship."
- Thomas Carlyle

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Thoughts-10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

Life could be so much better for many people, if they would just spot their negative thinking habits and replace them with positive ones.

Negative thinking, in all its many-splendored forms, has a way of creeping into conversations and our thinking without our noticing them. The key to success, in my humble opinion, is learning to spot these thoughts and squash them like little bugs. Then replace them with positive ones. You’ll notice a huge difference in everything you do.

Let’s take a look at 10 common ways that negative thinking emerges — get good at spotting these patterns, and practice replacing them with positive thinking patterns. It has made all the difference in the world for me.


10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

1. I will be happy once I have _____ (or once I earn X).

Problem: If you think you can’t be happy until you reach a certain point, or until you reach a certain income, or have a certain type of house or car or computer setup, you’ll never be happy. That elusive goal is always just out of reach. Once we reach those goals, we are not satisfied — we want more.

Solution: Learn to be happy with what you have, where you are, and who you are, right at this moment. Happiness doesn’t have to be some state that we want to get to eventually — it can be found right now. Learn to count your blessings, and see the positive in your situation. This might sound simplistic, but it works.

2. I wish I were as ____ (a celebrity, friend, co-worker).

Problem: We’ll never be as pretty, as talented, as rich, as sculpted, as cool, as everyone else. There will always be someone better, if you look hard enough. Therefore, if we compare ourselves to others like this, we will always pale, and will always fail, and will always feel bad about ourselves. This is no way to be happy.

Solution: Stop comparing yourself to others, and look instead at yourself — what are your strengths, your accomplishments, your successes, however small? What do you love about yourself? Learn to love who you are, right now, not who you want to become. There is good in each of us, love in each of us, and a wonderful human spirit in every one of us.

3. Seeing others becoming successful makes me jealous and resentful.

Problem: First, this assumes that only a small number of people can be successful. In truth, many, many people can be successful — in different ways.

Solution: Learn to admire the success of others, and learn from it, and be happy for them, by empathizing with them and understanding what it must be like to be them. And then turn away from them, and look at yourself — you can be successful too, in whatever you choose to do. And even more, you already are successful. Look not at those above you in the social ladder, but those below you — there are always millions of people worse off than you, people who couldn’t even read this article or afford a computer. In that light, you are a huge success.

4. I am a miserable failure — I can’t seem to do anything right.

Problem: Everyone is a failure, if you look at it in certain ways. Everyone has failed, many times, at different things. I have certainly failed so many times I cannot count them — and I continue to fail, daily. However, looking at your failures as failures only makes you feel bad about yourself. By thinking in this way, we will have a negative self-image and never move on from here.

Solution: See your successes and ignore your failures. Look back on your life, in the last month, or year, or 5 years. And try to remember your successes. If you have trouble with this, start documenting them — keep a success journal, either in a notebook or online. Document your success each day, or each week. When you look back at what you’ve accomplished, over a year, you will be amazed. It’s an incredibly positive feeling.

5. I’m going to beat so-and-so no matter what — I’m better than him. And there’s no way I’ll help him succeed — he might beat me.

Problem: Competitiveness assumes that there is a small amount of gold to be had, and I need to get it before he does. It makes us into greedy, back-stabbing, hurtful people. We try to claw our way over people to get to success, because of our competitive feelings. For example, if a blogger wants to have more subscribers than another blogger, he may never link to or mention that other blogger. However, who is to say that my subscribers can’t also be yours? People can read and subscribe to more than one blog.

Solution: Learn to see success as something that can be shared, and learn that if we help each other out, we can each have a better chance to be successful. Two people working towards a common goal are better than two people trying to beat each other up to get to that goal. There is more than enough success to go around. Learn to think in terms of abundance rather than scarcity.

6. Dammit! Why do these bad things always happen to me?

Problem: Bad things happen to everybody. If we dwell on them, they will frustrate us and bring us down.

Solution: See bad things as a part of the ebb and flow of life. Suffering is a part of the human condition — but it passes. All pain goes away, eventually. Meanwhile, don’t let it hold you back. Don’t dwell on bad things, but look forward towards something good in your future. And learn to take the bad things in stride, and learn from them. Bad things are actually opportunities to grow and learn and get stronger, in disguise.

7. You can’t do anything right! Why can’t you be like ____ ?

Problem: This can be said to your child or your subordinate or your sibling. The problem? Comparing two people, first of all, is always a fallacy. People are different, with different ways of doing things, different strengths and weaknesses, different human characteristics. If we were all the same, we’d be robots. Second, saying negative things like this to another person never helps the situation. It might make you feel better, and more powerful, but in truth, it hurts your relationship, it will actually make you feel negative, and it will certainly make the other person feel negative and more likely to continue negative behavior. Everyone loses.

Solution: Take the mistakes or bad behavior of others as an opportunity to teach. Show them how to do something. Second, praise them for their positive behavior, and encourage their success. Last, and most important, love them for who they are, and celebrate their differences.

8. Your work sucks. It’s super lame. You are a moron and I hope you never reproduce.

Problem: I’ve actually gotten this comment before. It feels wonderful. However, let’s look at it not from the perspective of the person receiving this kind of comment but from the perspective of the person giving it. How does saying something negative like this help you? I guess it might feel good to vent if you feel like your time has been wasted. But really, how much of your time has been wasted? A few minutes? And whose fault is that? The bloggers or yours? In truth, making negative comments just keeps you in a negative mindset. It’s also not a good way to make friends.

Solution: Learn to offer constructive solutions, first of all. Instead of telling someone their blog sucks, or that a post is lame, offer some specific suggestions for improvement. Help them get better. If you are going to take the time to make a comment, make it worth your time. Second, learn to interact with people in a more positive way — it makes others feel good and it makes you feel better about yourself. And you can make some great friends this way. That’s a good thing.

9. Insulting People Back

Problem: If someone insults you or angers you in some way, insulting them back and continuing your anger only transfers their problem to you. This person was probably having a bad day (or a bad year) and took it out on you for some reason. If you reciprocate, you are now having a bad day too. His problem has become yours. Not only that, but the cycle of insults can get worse and worse until it results in violence or other negative consequences — for both of you.

Solution: Let the insults or negative comments of others slide off you like Teflon. Don’t let their problem become yours. In fact, try to understand their problem more — why would someone say something like that? What problems are they going through? Having a little empathy for someone not only makes you understand that their comment is not about you, but it can make you feel and act in a positive manner towards them — and make you feel better about yourself in the process.

10. I don’t think I can do this — I don’t have enough discipline. Maybe some other time.

Problem: If you don’t think you can do something, you probably won’t. Especially for the big stuff. Discipline has nothing to do with it — motivation and focus has everything to do with it. And if you put stuff off for “some other time”, you’ll never get it done. Negative thinking like this inhibits us from accomplishing anything.

Solution: Turn your thinking around: you can do this! You don’t need discipline. Find ways to make yourself a success at your goal. If you fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Instead of putting a goal off for later, start now. And focus on one goal at a time, putting all of your energy into it, and getting as much help from others as you can. You can really move mountains if you start with positive thinking.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Philosophical quotes-Obstacle

The obstacle is the path.
- Zen Proverb

Thought for the day-Price for Peace

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
- Amelia Earhart

Friday, September 23, 2011

Famous people quotes-In sorrow

"Who never ate his bread in sorrow, who never spent the darksome hours weeping, and watching for the morrow - He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers."
- Kahlil Gibran

Quotes from the Movies-All for Nothing

"And in the end you wind up dyin' all alone on some dusty street. For what? For a tin star. It's all for nothin', Will. It's all for nothin'."
- Lon Chaney Jr (Martin Howe) in High Noon(1952)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Friendship quotes-Language

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings".
- Henry David Thoreau

Famous people quotes-Valuable discoveries

"If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent."
- Isaac Newton

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Thought for the day-The last thing

"The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first."
- Blaise Pascal

Love quotes-A choice

I believe love is primarily a choice and only sometimes a feeling. If you want to feel love, choose to love and be patient.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Famous people quotes-Gift of fantasy

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."
- Albert Einstein

Deep thoughts-Our wishes

"We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified."
- Aesop

Monday, September 19, 2011

Short quotes-How?

"How could they tell? " (upon hearing that President Coolidge had died)
- Dorothy Parker

Motivational thoughts-Vitality

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over."
- F Scott Fitzgerald

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Thoughts-Educational systems

Our present educational systems are all paramilitary. Their aim is to produce servants or soldiers who obey without question and who accepts their training as the best possible training. Those who are most successful in the state are those who have the most interest in prolonging the state as it is; they are also those who have the most say in the educational system, and in particular by ensuring that the educational product they want is the most highly rewarded.
- Fowles, 1964. The Aristos

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Famous people quotes-Steak

I don't like to discuss my marriage, but I will tell you something which may sound corny but which happens to be true. I have steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?
- Paul Newman

Thought for the day-Young inside

A grandparent is old on the outside but young on the inside.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Philosophical quotes-Fastened

You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you.
- Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Motivational thoughts-Patience with yourself

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Famous people quotes-The Infinite Father

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that he is even infinitely above it.”
- Benjamin Franklin

Sarcastic quotes-Form of worship

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.”
- Henry Louis Mencken

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Famous quotes from the movies-Vision

"I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals."
- Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy) in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Hilarious quotes-Burial service

"Everything is drive-through. In California, they even have a burial service called Jump-In-The-Box."
- Wil Shriner

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Proverbs-Able man

"Behind an able man there are always other able men."
- Chinese Proverb

Famous people quotes-Sick and tired

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.
- Fannie Lou Hamer

Monday, September 12, 2011

Thoughts on Life-Graduate

"Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!"
- Louisa May Alcott

Deep thoughts-City without walls

"It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls."
- Epicurus

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Famous philosophers quotes-A few enlightened people

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness.
- Einstein, 1954

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Famous people quotes-The philosopher

The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge.
- Plato, 380BC

Hilarious quotes-Graduation ceremony

A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success."
- Robert Orben

Friday, September 9, 2011

Success quotes-Rub the edge off

Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.
- Beatrix Potter

Inspirational quotes-Darkest of days

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.

- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Famous people quotes-Shallow

“Only the shallow know themselves.”
Oscar Wilde

Love quotes-Be loved

There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), ‘Of Human Bondage’, 1915

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Friendship quotes-Best conversation

"The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had".

Daily quotes-Never frown

"Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who could be falling in love with your smile.."

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Famous people quotes-Intellect

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
- Albert Einstein

Short quote

“Know thyself.”
– Plato

Monday, September 5, 2011

Philosophical quotes-Some of the questions

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
- James Thurber

Famous people quotes-Constant

"Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love".
-William Shakespeare

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Thoughts-A Profound Answer

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make?" (She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

"I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

"You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

"I make kids wonder.

"I make them question.

"I make them apologize and mean it.

"I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

"I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.

"I make them read, read, read.

"I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

"I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

"I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

"Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life." (Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

"What do you make Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped, he went silent.

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY TEACHER, EVERY CEO, EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW.

Even all your personal teachers like mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, coaches and your spiritual leaders/teachers.

A truly profound answer!!!

Teaching is... the profession that makes all other professions possible!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Deep thoughts-Not blind

Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.
- Rabbi Julius Gordon

Sad quotes-Used to love

The saddest thing in the world, is loving someone who used to love you.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Friendship quotes-Honest

"Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves".
-Albert Camus

Marriage quotes-Many pains

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."
- Samuel Johnson

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Philosophical quotes-Same river

You cannot step into the same river twice.
-Heraclitus, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives

Proverbs-Great men

Small men think they are small; great men never know they are great.
-Chinese proverb