My Articles

There are a lot of traffic road signs and the best one i like is "U Turn." U Turn has been the navigator of my life and has made me the architect to design my life the way i wanted.  U Turn is a metaphor we all can use in our lives to enhance our intra personal relationship, i.e the relationship we have with ourselves and inter personal relationship, the relationship which we have with the world outside. The inter relationship which we have with the people outside comprehensively depends on the intra relationship which we have set for with ourselves. The world views us with the image we have set for ourselves. If we view ourselves as a confident person the world views us  as a confident person. If we have a high self esteem, the world gives us respect and treats us accordingly. Everything in this world begins with us. When we get ourselves right we can get the world right. Whatever we want in life is possible to achieve if "U Turn" your energies in that direction.

To cite an illustration a man had gone on an official trip to a faraway place for a few days and had come home. He had to urgently send some reports soon since the Management needed it. He sat on the sofa and started working on his laptop. His son got home just then and seeing his father after a long time was all over him and wanted his father to play with him. Please, "daddy, please come and play with me." The father who was tired and stressed still had work to do before he could relax said, " I would love to play with you but i have to finish this report, then we can play." To engage his son, he spotted a travel magazine which had a world map on the rear cover page tore that sheet. He then ripped the page into several pieces and gave it to his son and told him to assemble the pieces together. The little boy grabbed the pieces ran to the other room assembled the pieces together and was there with his father almost within a couple of minutes and asked,"daddy i have assembled the pieces together, can we play now?" The father gave a astonished look and asked his son,"how did you finish it so soon?" the little boy responded," well, on the other side of the world map there was a picture of the man. When i got the man right, the world fell into place !!  By this the little boy has stumbled accidentally on an element of success !!

When we get ourselves right the world will fall into place. The challenge for all of us is to address the elephant in the room !! If we haven't achieved our health and well being, we blame the gym, our family, our work, our thyroid, the weather and so on. When we haven't achieved our target we blame it on the economic climate, the market, the recession.. When our relationship is less than joyous we blame the partner, our job, our parents, our horoscope...The good news is when we get ourselves right our health, business our relationship, everything will fall into place. "U TURN" !! The bad  news is -- we have to get ourselves right before our health, business  and and our relationship will fall into place.

We spend a lot of time focusing on other peoples faults, for example,  I wish he wasn't so negative. I wish that he would be a bit more punctual.  I wish that he would give up his drinking habit. I wish that he would prioritize his schedule and so on... We try to force these people to change.  But people change, only when they want to change !! We can't push the chicken out of the egg !! Instead we can all follow my favorite quote from M.K.Gandhi,"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." We can at best be a beacon of  light to clear the path for others. If you want your best friend to be more positive allow your positivity to permeate through this friendship. If you want your friend to be punctual set your commitment to be on the dot every time. If you want your  friend to go a little easy on alcohol introduce him to more teetotalers !! Qualitative changes happen because of quantitative changes.

Getting yourself right: What's the difference between the people who  succeed and people who don't? It's the same elephant in the room that  is the difference between your success and lack of success--- YOU !!  When we work on ourselves and when we grow, learn, change to become  the person we need to be... the world, our success, and most importantly  our Peace will fall into place. in other words "U TURN" for getting your life right.

The Starfish story: There is a story of a man throwing starfishes into the sea. An elderly man was walking along the beach admiring the wonderful view. As he walked he noticed that a large group of star fishes had been washed ashore by the receding tide and they were struggling to get back into water. The man was sadened by this  turn of events, but accepted that there was nothing he could do to change anything. The man continued to walk noticing the large number of helpless starfishes, until he saw an other man in the distance standing at the water's edge amongst the starfishes. Curious, the elderly man walked over to him, wondering what he was upto.. As he got  closer the elderly man could see that the other man a lot younger than himself was  picking up the starfishes one by one and throwing them back to the sea. Astonishes,  the elderly man got close enough for the other man to hear him, and then he called out,"what on earth are you doing?"  The other man out of the corner of his eye saw the elderly man smiled and continued his duty of picking up the star fishes and throwing them back into the ocean. He said,"I am helping these starfishes get back into the ocean.."The elderly man couldn't believe it, why was this man wasting his time throwing starfishes back? There were thousands of them here, it would take him days !! He voiced his thoughts. "Why are you throwing them back?" There are thousands here and it will take you forever !! How can you possibly hope to make a difference to the starfishes?" Remaining calm,the younger man continued his duty without looking at the elderly man. Just as he threw another starfish back into the ocean, he replied, "I made a difference to that one." The elderly man was moved and he also started picking up the starfishes and hurling them back into the ocean thereby giving them a new lease of life. 

Mother Theresa said," I alone cannot change the world but i can cast a stone across the water to create ripples." She also said that if each of us would sweep our own doorstep the whole world would be clean. Everything in this world begins with you. So, be the change you wish to change in the world, the world would be wriggling around you to be all yours... "U Turn" to your advantage..