YOUR STRENGTH LIES WITHIN YOU!

“I never met a man so unknowledgeable. I could not learn something from him.”–Galileo Galilei

Humming bird is the smallest bird but has the distinction to fly backward too. Kangaroos can run fast but cannot go far. Tortoise cannot run but can go far.

Penguins and Kiwis are the birds which cannot fly, but they are also the birds who are blessed with something which is restricted to them only. For instance, Penguins can jump as high as six feet in the air and can also move faster than a submarine, while Kiwis have the distinction to hunt with their sense of smell.

Birds can differentiate between colours, they use this ability to choose their food, whereas animals are colour blind, they have a better sense of smell.

We humans are no different if one falls short in one field; he of course has something other special ability which is limited to him only. We all have that seed within us, which awaits our attention and which has the potential to blossom into a full-fledged plant one day.

Even a weak is capable

A king once wanted to get his only daughter married. Unable to decide on the person, he got the two rooms of his palace filled with the gold bars of equal weight and size. He made an announcement, “Whoever succeeds in getting the most number of gold bars from the two rooms of my palace, would marry my daughter. The only condition is, no one is allowed to enter the palace twice.”

People from many different fields came forward to take part in the offer. Everyone, in his own way, tried to walk out with as many bars with him as he could. Some even tried to tie the bars around their body in order to increase the numbers. 

Some professional weightlifters had also tried and had managed to get a decent number of bars with them. This way, one after another, everyone tried their best to defeat each other at numbers .

The king, after the competition, realised that there was not much difference among the numbers each participant had obtained. Unsatisfied with the score, the king let the offer remain open.

A few days later, a skinny person came to the palace and participated in the competition and later it was known that he managed to come out with all the gold bars, leaving not a single bar in any of the two rooms. Everyone was curious to know about his strength .

The king asked, “How could you do what no one else succeeded in doing?” He replied, “Your majesty, had this competition been of checking one’s physical strength alone, one could have easily won by this time. The competition required one to prove his both physical and mental ability. I just brought all the bars to the exit gate before throwing them out. I stepped out only when I had thrown the last bar I had brought to the exit gate!” Listening this, the king happily made his intentions clear of marrying his daughter with him .

So we see, even a weak person has the skills to take on the heaviest. If slender people can fall with a lesser force, they are also blessed with the ability to get up faster than plump people.

It is said that everyone is gifted with at least one special distinguishing characteristic, but not many in their lifetime succeed in deciphering it. We slide into the rut of life so easily and comfortably that we hardly give space and time for our talent to show up. We start concentrating on routine and trivial issues so much so that we literally make a life out of them, thus failing to concentrate on wider perspective of life. Oliver Wendall Holmes was right when he echoed, “Most people go to their graves, with music still in them.”

TALENT—FINDING YOUR NICHE

A king once wanted to shorten the length of all coming years, so that he could celebrate his daughter’s birthday, every year more frequently. In order to decide which month to delete, he called all the months and asked them to prove their worth or risk facing a burial into the pages of history The bemused months asked for a week’s time to defend themselves.

A week later all the months, in order, lined up in front of king. January, being the first defended himself by saying, “Your majesty I am the beginning, without me people would be deprived of a new year”

The next in line, February said, “Children cry less in my presence as I have the least number of days, besides I give people a chance to come closer and celebrate love on my 14 th day”

March defended himself by saying, “I bring in the season of spring, giving a sense of freshness to the atmosphere”

April squealed, “Only I am traditionally authorised to have a specific day for people to play fool on one another, if I am gone, people would miss the opportunity to make themselves and others laugh”

May put, “Flowers begin to blossom during my presence.”

June said, “People are always eager to choose me as their wedding month, if I am gone, people would fret for having lost the opportunity to get married in my presence.”

July and August echoed in equal voice, “We are the only months to be bundled together with 31 days; deleting one would mean breaking our association and uniqueness”

September reminded the king, “It’s during my presence that most crops get harvested”

October was comfortable to put, “Your daughter loves me most. I am her birthday’s month!”

November eagerly said, “The universal children’s day is celebrated in my presence, if I am removed, many countries would be in dilemma to celebrate their children’s day.”

Finally December defended himself by saying, “If I get deleted, people would be confused of the ending of a year, and would also be deprived of a Christmas each year”

In this way all the months, one after another, defended themselves for a survival. The king, who had been patient with everyone, noticed that they all had a valid point in their favour. Eventually, he announced, “Though you all are different from each other, yet all of you are equally worth in your own right and none can face an execution; you all are safe”

So we see, the months who were ignorant of their own self, discovered and made out their worth when the situation demanded of them. Similarly, we humans, like animals, birds and even trees— which are positively unique among themselves—have something special within us, only waiting to be tapped. This ‘something’ can take us higher, stretch us longer and make us stronger and faster. This ‘something’ is our talent.

By Anchit Barnwal; WINNERS PODIUM—Everyone fits on it.

CHARACTER —AN INVESTMENT TO SUCCESS

To be successful in life is everyone’s natural desire. Achieving Success means getting something desired or planned in the field one chooses and then moving forward to be ahead from others.

Success gives you the following advantages:

• Recognition in the Society
• Respect and Regard
• When a successful person attends a function or a gathering, he is recognised by all without any introductions
• One can earn money and it provides him comforts and conveniences
• Society remembers him for a long time

However, achieving success is not an easy task. One has to work hard, face difficult situations, hardships and should be disciplined.

Amitabh Bachchan, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhirubhai Ambani, Steven Spielberg, Ram Gopal Varma, Mani Ratnam, R.D Burman, A.R Rahman, Steffi Graf, Madhuri Dixit, etc are some of the many well‒known personalities who belong to different fields but have one aspect or quality common in all of them and that is Success! Victory!!

All these people are successful in their respective fields and have reached to the highest positions in their lives.

However, one may wonder, what methods did they follow, or what acts did they do to reach to that level??

In fact, when you study the lives of all the above mentioned great personalities, you can notice some common qualities such as ‒

• They all have a goal in their lives, an ambition. Until they achieve their ambition, they do not rest.
• They have a strong personality to face any difficult situation or problem in their path of achieving success.
• They are not overwhelmed with trivial initial results and struggle till the end until they achieve complete success.
• They set a plan and move forward until they achieve their goal.
• They are all workaholics, and follow the principle, ‘Work is Worship’.

All the above‒mentioned achievers of success are Genius! And we all know that some may be born Genius, but most of them are not born Genius, but made.

When we talk of a Genius, we immediately recall Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of the world. Here’s an amazing story behind his genius.

One day some scientists met Einstein and asked his permission to examine his brain after his death. He accepted their request with a small condition.

The condition was that he wanted to place a letter in a sealed cover which was to be opened only after receiving the report prepared on his brain examination!

They accepted his condition.

Later, Einstein passed away. Scientists conducted a thorough examination of his brain and prepared a report, and then they remembered his letter and opened it before all.

There were two sentences written in Einstein’s own handwriting:

First sentence ‒ “You have examined my Brain? My brain has nine billion cells like other human brains.”

Yes, even the scientists’ report said so.

Second sentence ‒”I alone know what the difference between others and me is.”

When they read those two sentences, they were astonished.

Actually, what Einstein intended to say was that he had the same brain what others have, but the only difference was that he had sharpened it with constant use, logical thinking and experimentation.

That is why Intellectuals say that if you want to become a genius, you need 80% perspiration, and 10% inspiration.

Perspiration means‒determination, attention, efforts, sincerity and hard work to reach the goal.

To become a genius, or to achieve success in any sphere of life, such as education, profession, love, marriage, etc, one has to put one’s efforts or hard work along with the desire and determination to fulfil one’s goal. Of course, self‒confidence and belief in oneself are compulsory!

In a recent survey conducted in the United States of America, regarding persons who achieved success, or reached to the top in their respective fields revealed that 85% of them attained success by improvising their personalities and the remaining 15% with their experience and talents in their respective fields.

So, in order to succeed, or achieve success in one’s field, be it 

literature, politics, cinema, journalism or any other field, one must first shape one’s personality and character. Your personality, character and individuality act as a passport leading your journey towards success. Hence, to achieve shape and groom your character, what all do you have to do??

Here is a famous saying by the well‒known scientist, Albert Einstein:

“There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.” You can adopt any one of the two ways.

HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED???

Every day, all day long, we are presented with choices: simple ones, like “Should I hit the snooze button on my alarm one more time?”; more complex ones, like “How ought I to respond when someone I care for fails to live up to my expectations?” And every day, all day long, we make these choices. We do the best we can with the information and experience we have, and we try to make choices that reflect our deepest values and are consistent with the sort of person we would like to be.

Every choice we make goes into creating who we are. With every move we make—every action, every inaction, every thought that flashes through our minds—more sand trickles from the top of life’s hourglass into the bottom. Each grain of sand—every single instant we’re alive—builds up to form an afterimage of who we were, where we came from, what we did, and how we loved. This afterimage is our legacy, our gift to the future, the story of our life to be told after we’ve gon

When your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and beyond talk about you, what will they say? Who is the person they will see when they examine the afterimage you have left behind?

Think of your own recollections of those who have preceded you: family members, friends, co-workers and colleagues, public figures great and small, the well- and the little-known. What remains of them when they are no longer here?

Possessions are disbursed, projects taken over, vital statistics catalogued away until all that’s left of who we were is who we were.

OUR CHARACTER

Our character is our legacy. And our legacy is ultimately a moral legacy. It is the story of the good and bad things we did to and for other people.

Our bequest to tomorrow will not primarily be monetary or physical or even spiritual; that is, it won’t be something beyond this earthly plane. What we will grant to others in our absence is what we have granted to them in our presence: how we have met our obligations to them as family members, lovers, neighbors, colleagues, and fellow human beings.

As we proceed through life, this can be hard to see. The day-today responsibilities of making a living, raising a family, keeping up with the Joneses—not to mention rooting for one’s favorite sports team, downloading the latest Internet software, and keeping tabs on the extramarital dalliances of world leaders—incline us to perceive ourselves as individual, autonomous agents whose legacy is more about what we produced than how we lived. While few people really believe that whoever dies with the most toys wins, many of us do live our lives as if our acquisitions will have a more lasting effect than our offerings.

But when we look back upon things, it becomes obvious how much more enduring is what we give than what we take. And we can see better how our legacy—both individually and as a society—is most clearly forged by the moral choices we have made.

It doesn’t take a wise old person to recognize this; even a child (even a teenager!) can recognize how enduring our moral legacy really is—and how unforgettable are the choices that lead to its creation.

From the book CHOOSING THE RIGHT THING TO DO by DAVID A. SHAPIRO