Brahma Kumaris

30.08.15 Life Can Begin To Flow As we grow in strength in our spiritual life, we give up the habit of worrying. It serves no purpose other than to make us feel tense and miserable. When I stop fretting about things that are beyond my control and focus instead on generating optimistic and kind thoughts, my life can begin to flow in ever more positive directions. Such a light and easy approach to life enables me to take everything in my stride. The nourishment of happiness brings health. The one who always gets the nourishment of happiness, has a happy and healthy life. Every aspect of life is filled with good things. There is enthusiasm and energy for making use of the resources in the best way. There is the power to overcome physical ailments too. Without happiness, life becomes dull and boring and there is no energy to do anything. Today I will be happy. Even if things go wrong, I will not worry about it today. I will do all I have to do, but with the consciousness of being happy all the time. This will ensure that I remain healthy in the mind, and therefore the body too. Motivation - The Life Driving Force (cont.) "Challenges are like spice - in the right proportion they enhance the flavor of a dish. Too little of them produces a bland, dull meal; too many of them may choke you at times." Have you ever noticed some people only work a few hours a day and are hardly ever confronted by deadlines or other pressures, but they are more stressed and less motivated than those working long hours to tight deadlines. Have you ever watched two people doing the same or similar work, to the same deadlines? One tears their hair out with a lot of anxiety. The other is completely relaxed while doing it. Some people are trailblazers, they love challenges. They love it when they are occupied and bottled up with challenges at hand and passionate about overcoming them. They work hard on themselves to overcome challenges and are not overwhelmed by them. What really reinforces them to do that is the motivation that they have to overcome the challenge and become successful. Challenges motivate them. At the same time, there are times when there are too many challenges to overcome and deadlines to meet and the same people who have overcome challenges earlier are not able to cope up with them and keep themselves motivated. That is the time when they realize that what they are going through is stress and challenges have affected their motivation levels adversely. Why the difference between two people, why the difference from challenge to challenge or situation to situation? Perception. So it's not what you do, or when you have to do it by, that causes your stress and brings down your motivation; it's how you perceive the whats and whens of daily life that generates your stress and affects your motivation levels. It's how each one perceives what they do and the possible outcome. And your perception is based on your beliefs and beliefs don't come built into your genes. All beliefs are learned. We learn them, send them into our subconscious and they then pop up and out through our thoughts, emotions and words. The problem is we not only hold beliefs, we identify with them. But beliefs are not the truth. (To be continued tomorrow ....) Soul Sustenance Wearing The Crown Of Servant Leadership Gracefully (Part 1) It is commonly stated that perhaps those who are best suited to leadership power are those who never seek it. On the other hand, those who have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, find to their own surprise that they wear it well. This process starts as early as our school life, when we become monitors and prefects and are granted significant responsibilities. We learn leadership at a young age. The type of leadership skills we inculcate at that age are important. Importantly, a good leader, starting at an early age, should inspire and not aspire. Personal aspirations that are regardless (irrelevant) to others always convert a humble and successful leader into a failed one. A good leader should influence, not control - controlling i.e. passing orders, policies, rules, goals, targets, reports, visions and changes to force team members to work the way they believe it should be done; failing to listen or only perfunctorily listening (listening with little interest); exhibiting the “Do as I say, not as I do” mentality and providing inadequate support. Negative thoughts, words, actions or inactions expressing emotions like: * Why aren’t they performing better? * What’s wrong with that person? * Why don’t they know their job? * They should know their job! lead team members to believe that leaders disrespect them and do not care for them at all. It results in failure of an organization or the task in hand. (To be continued tomorrow …) Message for the day The one who has attention on the self is the one who constantly experiences progress. Projection: Whenever I am faced with a situation, it is very easy to think and talk about others and their mistakes. I hardly have any time to look at and understand myself and my mistakes. I then continue to repeat the same mistakes again and again. Solution: Whatever the kind of situations I am faced with, I need to remind myself that I am the one who is going to benefit by bringing about a change in myself. So with this thought I need to constantly continue to check myself and bring about a positive change in myself.