Happiness for New Year

Christopher Garder (the father) to his son (Christopher):

Christopher Gardner: Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right? 
Christopher: All right.
Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period. 

This is one of the best quotes in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, if you haven’t seen this film then seriously do yourself a favour before setting the goals for the coming year do watch this film. Because this is what I’m going to talk about in today’s blog: 2011 what a year it was!! and the moment you realise this the year is almost gone... It blazes past you like a bullet train while you keep hanging on like an analog watch at the railway station.

This year was one of the best travelling year for me, almost did the world tour in an year’s time. Been to lots of places and met lots of people. I saw someone snatching bags and purses at Eiffel tower and someone showing way to lost people in London. Some of them drunk as hell and wasting time near subway and some trying to earn a decent living and entertain crowd while playing music in metro stations.

I kept observing this at everyplace I went; whether it was London, Paris or Rome people are the same everywhere and they are all doing their best to keep up. To be happy, to be content, to be successful some of them are and some not.

 In this time of financial meltdown people are showing their aggression towards the political system all over the world. What is making us so much restless? Although there is a lot that needs to be done as a society but let’s just talk about ourselves here. It reminds me of that adage “It is so simple to be tough but so tough to be simple” “tough time never lasts but tough people do” – Be tough! Be simple!

Let me share another excerpt from this movie:

Christopher: Hey dad, you wanna hear something funny? There was a man who was drowning, and a boat came, and the man on the boat said "Do you need help?" and the man said "God will save me". Then another boat came and he tried to help him, but he said "God will save me", then he drowned and went to Heaven. Then the man told God, "God, why didn't you save me?" and God said "I sent you two boats, you dummy!" 

Isn’t this true? Every day in some way we keep getting these messages, help or favours next time when you get it don’t forget to reciprocate it. You never know when your help could come handy in saving someone’s life or someone’s dream.

There is no fixed recipe or secret to happiness, there is only realization of its presence some days we feel it some days we don’t. Whenever you feel it spread it around. When you don’t always remember help will come in some way, shape or form until then keep your pursuit going.

A Very Happy New Year and good luck for new pursuits... 

Keep The Hope Alive

My apologies; it took a while to get this blog out but never the less, I wanted to talk about one of my all time favourite film. The Shawshank Redemption, my friend actually gave it to me to watch this sometime back and I loved it so much that I ended up watching it twice. You will have to watch the whole film to understand the depth of acting, direction and writing but there is this one quote that is quite inspiring:

[last lines] 
Red: [narrating] I find I'm so excited; I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope. 

Hope is all we live on isn’t it? hope to have all the goodies we wanted as a child, hope to have the perfect life partner, hope to get the dream career, hope to have the dream car, dream house and what not. Why is hope that important? I believe it’s actually part of our unconscious world, which we want to turn into reality. Hope is the beginning of all we wish to convert into reality. How to do that is little tricky! Some people does it quite well others probably not that much but hey! it doesn’t stops from keeping the hope alive.

In theory we always hope for the best things to happen and in reality sometimes most of them turn out to be best for us. Not really? OK let’s take an example:

Sometime back I started a training company; I lived the dream of doing what I wanted to do for a long time. Left a well paying job, went overseas toiled hard later to find out that, I was broke. Soon I had to start all over again. It was totally out of alignment result from what I would have hoped for. But later on, I realised the lessons I learned and mistakes I made was probably the trigger of that trough. It was bound to happen that way, the moment I had the answer I immediately got free from the burden of failure.

It is called connecting the dots, sometimes we probably think it’s not worth chasing the dream any longer. Probably it’s not worth making the next step but sooner or later you will realise that, what happened was actually part of the bigger picture.

Wait for that moment to come until then it is worth keeping the hope Alive!

Only If You Believe

Hello there! You know on an average around 65000 thoughts pass through our minds every day. Our mind is just busy building up the web of thoughts even if we don’t want it to and if you have a creative bent of mind then the problem is even worse. Have you ever pondered upon why does this happen? Is it because of the dreams we have? Is it because of your nature? What is it? I think it is because of something deep within us that is part of our value system. The inner recordings of subconscious brain that keeps playing on and on, the things that tell us what is right and what is wrong, the voice that guides us through our tough times, the voice that makes you love what you like and hate what you don’t. This voice is part of our daily life our routine and habits. You may call it spiritual self, inner strength, value system or the part that make us analytical being, things that make us believe.

As Master Oogway says in the movie “Kung Fu Panda”, oh yes that reminds me Kung Fu Panda 2 is being released this week. I loved the first part and very much eager to see the sequel of this great kung fu legend with such a simple message. Here is one of the excerpts:

Oogway: My friend, the panda will never fulfil his destiny, nor you yours until you let go of the illusion of control. 
Shifu: Illusion? 
Oogway: Yes. 
[points at peach tree] 
Oogway: Look at this tree, Shifu: I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time. 
Shifu: But there are things we *can* control: I can control when the fruit will fall, I can control where to plant the seed: that is no illusion, Master! 
Oogway: Ah, yes. But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach. 
Shifu: But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung! 
Oogway: Maybe it can, if you are willing to guide, to nurture it, to believe in it. 
Shifu: But how? How? I need your help, master. 
Oogway: No, you just need to believe. Promise me, Shifu, promise me you will believe.

How simple but profound message “you can’t believe until you let go the illusion of control”. Recently, I started a new business that introduced a new brand of organic natural beauty products into the market. Apart from the usual roller coaster style changes happening around me, I added one more i.e. moving into a new country. Every morning I use to wake up and go for run in Hyde Park thinking how to control this situation and day by day it seems like getting out of my hands, until I recalled this “illusion of control” and there was the answer just in front of me.

No matter how hard we try to control things around us, no wonder how much we think about it over and over again. I’m not saying not to take action but nothing can happen until we believe and let go. You may call it law of attraction, Murphy’s Law or law of universe but in simple words all it boils down to is belief in yourself. As the renowned wise sage said “believe in yourself and the world be at your feet” you just need to believe.

Live it as you want

Hello there! I know... I know it’s been a long time I haven’t blogged but here it is hope you’ll like it. I guess it brings a lot of internal satisfaction to talk about your feelings with your friends and thanks to social media you can do it in any part of the world and still stay connected as if it was a chat over a cup of coffee.

Now lot of my friends ask me this question including myself... (Yes “I talk to myself like most of us do! and there is nothing weird about it” I think it is the realization of this inner voice that makes us more human and connected to our own self).

Life’s conundrum can’t be solved reading few pages, books or spending hours or days pondering about it. It can only be understood while “living it”. Yes that’s what most of us forget! It is not about “will you ever get what you want” – A perfect house, perfect partner, perfect money, perfect career and so many perfects. It is actually the perception of this so called “perfectness” that introduces the misery.

As the rat in the movie “ratatouille” says... hang on! I should ask you to watch the movie instead Ha! Never mind here is the excerpt and when you get a chance please do watch the movie! It’s funny but one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. And yes it is a cartoon film or probably if I should say it’s a “Pixar” animation that should be enough.

Django: [showing the exterminator shop to Remy with the dead rats in the window] Take a good long look, Remy. This is what happens when a rat gets a little too comfortable around humans. The world we live in belongs to the enemy, we must live carefully. We look out for our own kind, Remy. When all is said and done, we're all we've got. 
Remy: [Django starts to walk away] No. 
Django: What? 
Remy: No. Dad I don't believe it. You're telling me that the future is - can only be more of *this*? 
Django: This is the way things are. You can't change nature. 
Remy: Change is nature, Dad. The part that we can influence. And it starts when we decide. 
Django: [Remy turns to leave] Where are you going? 
Remy: With luck, forward.

I’ve “bold” the lines that are of immense importance in this scene.

How true it is “Change is nature! the part that we can influence and it starts when we decide”. Yes sometimes “life sucks” eventually we come to an end of so called “sucking” and fall into another situation where we’ll be “sucked” henceforth. It’s a vicious circle from cradle to grave. Just look at your life or maybe a good look around, you will find so many stories all over the place. Someone is unhappy about something. I tell you the good news is... you are not the only one! Ha!

Think of it this way “if you are dead tomorrow” how important will be the context of “life sucks” to you? It immediately brings a shift in your thoughts, needs and wants. Will you still be saying “life sucks?” or will you be saying “I want to live!” May be you would like to go to Paris or run to your loved ones? I don’t know what it will be that you want to do before you are gone but thinking about it immediately brings a shift in your state of mind.

Then why not ask yourself this question every time you feel down, dejected or exasperated? Ask yourself “Is this something that you’ll really care about if it was your last day?” This definitely helps me “live life King size” and with luck, keep moving forward!

I promise I’ll write another post soon with another great movie quote till then keep grinning!