Inspirational Stories:

A Short Inspiring tale from the book "THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI" by Robin Sharma.


One night a father was relaxing with his newspaper after a long day at the office. His son, who wanted to play, kept on pestering him. Finally, fed up, the father ripped out a picture of the globe that was in the paper and tore it into a hundred tiny pieces. 'Here, son, go ahead and try to put this back together', he said, hoping that this would keep the little boy busy long enough for him to finish reading his paper. To his amazement his son returned after only one minute with the globe perfectly back together. Wwhen the startled father asked how he achieved this feat, the son smiled gently and replied, 'Dad, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person, and once I got the person together, the world was okay'

Moral:
How does one go about building courage?
It's the same as the story: Once you get yourself together, your world will be okay. Once you master your mind, body and character, happiness and abundance will flow into your life almost magically.


Story: Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

Moral:
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. 'I'm glad you asked.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'


Story: Peter and the Magic Thread

Peter was a boy that liked to day dream his time away. When he was in school, he'd dream about being older. When he was at home he'd dream about leaving home. He was not content and always wanted something different.

One day as he was walking in the woods behind his house he met an older lady. She knew Peter was not content, so she offered him a ball with a magic golden thread. "If you want time to speed up pull the thread." said the lady. "You can't tell anyone and be careful."

Peter excitedly took the magic ball and thread. The next day he went to school and began to day dream about school being out. Then he thought about his magic thread. He pulled it and in a instant school was over.

Peter was so excited that his magic thread worked. Each day he began to pull the thread and school was out. Peter thought if I pull it more then I'll be completely out of school. He pulled it and found himself on graduation day.

Peter left home to go to college. College got a little hard one day so he pulled the thread just a little and a year pasted by. He spent some time in college but when it got a hard he pulled the thread. The time went by so fast and he was finished college.

Peter met a girl and wanted to marry her. When he asked her she told him she wanted to wait a year before marriage. Peter didn't want to wait so he pulled the thread. It was instantly the wedding day.

He was happy and wanted children, so again he pulled the thread. A child was born. Peter was happy, but still not completely content. He pulled the thread again and two more children were born.

One day his wife became sick. Without thinking completely Peter pulled the thread, not wanting to see his wife suffer. The day instantly came that she had died.

Peter had a tough time taking care of the children by himself so he pulled the thread. He found himself completely alone. All the kids were now grown up.

Peter looked at the thread. It had turned from gold to silver. He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was gray and he was alone. He did not pull the thread any longer.

He took a walk in the same woods he did as a boy. He ran into the same old lady. She had not aged a bit. The lady asked Peter, "Did you like the golden magic thread?" Peter told her that he didn't. I wish I could of put the thread back in and back up time. The lady told Peter that he was very ungrateful and then asked him if he wanted one more wish. Peter without hesitation said he wanted to be a little boy again without any magic thread.

Peter's Mom woke him up. Peter looked around and told his Mom about the bad dream he had. Peter then went to school and did not day dream. From that time on he appreciated everything around him.

Moral:
Unfortunately the story of Peter and the Magic Thread is just that, a story, a fairy tale. We here in the real world will never get a second chance to live life to the fullest. Today is your chance to awaken to the gift of living - before it is too late. Time really does slip through your fingers like tiny grains of sand. Let this new day be the defining moment of your life, the day that you make the decision once and for all to focus on what is truly important to you.


Story: Compassion / Eternity

There was once a feeble old woman whose loving husband died. So she went to live with her son and his wife and daughter. Every day, the woman's sight grew worse and her hearing grew worse. Some days her hands trembled so badly the peas on her plate rolled onto the floor and the soup ran from her cup. Her son and wife couldn't help but be annoyed at the mess she made and one day they said enough was enough. So they set up a little table for the old woman in a corner next to the broom closet and made her eat all of her meals there, alone. She would look at them at mealtimes with tear-filled eyes from across the room, but they hardly talked to her while they ate, except to scold her for dropping a spoon or a fork.

"One evening, just before dinner, the little girl was sitting on the floor playing with her building blocks. 'What are you making?' her father asked earnestly. 'I'm building a little table for you and mother', she said, 'so you can eat by yourselves in the corner someday when I get big.' The father and mother were moved to silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then they started to weep. In that instant they became aware of the nature of their actions and the sadness they had caused. That night they led the old woman back to her rightful place at their big dinner table and from that day on she ate all her meals with them. And when a little morsel of food fell off the table or a fork strayed onto the floor, nobody seems to mind anymore.

Moral:
In this story, parents were not bad people. They simply needed the spark of awareness to light their candle of compassion. Compassion and daily acts of kindness make life far richer. Take the time to meditate every morning on the good you will do for others during your day.


Quotable Quotes:

I've gathered these quotes from the book "THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI" by Robin Sharma.

Outer world is just a reflection of your inner world.

Chinese character for 'crisis' is composed of two sub-characters: One that spells 'danger' and another that spells 'opportunity.' => There is a bright side to the darkest circumstance - If you have the courage to look for it.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.

When you dedicate yourself to transforming your inner world your life quickly shifts from the ordinary into the realm of extraordinary.

The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it. Once you do this, abundance flows into your life and all your desires are filled with ease and grace.

If you meet with an outcome you did not expect and feel a little disappointed, remember that the laws of nature always ensure that when one door closes another opens.

Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.

I have had dreams and I have had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.

My friend, saying that you don't have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying you don't have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving.

One must not allow the clock and calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle - and a mystery.

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

Every second you spend thinking about someone else's dreams you take time away from your own.

Only those who seek shall find.

People who study others are wise but people who study themselves are enlightened.

Always remember what lies behind you and what lies in front of you is nothing when compared to what lies within you.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

Never forget the importance of living with unbridled exhilaration. Never neglect to see the exquisite beauty in all living things. Today, and this very moment, is a gift. Stay focused on your purpose. The Universe will take care of everything else.

Its not what you will get out of the books that is so enriching - It is what the books will get out of you that will ultimately change your life. Books do not actually teach you anything new.

Happiness comes through good judgement, good judgement comes through experience and good judgement comes through bad judgement.

We don't laugh because we are happy. We are happy because we laugh.

While what you say to others is important, even more important is what you say to yourself.

You sow a thought, you reap an action. Reap an action, you sow a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap your destiny.

6 principles => Industry, Compassion, Humility, Patience, Honesty and Courage. "When all your actions are congruent and aligned with these principles, you will feel a deep sense of inner harmony and peace.

The Universe favors the brave. When you resolve to lift your life to its highest level, the strength of your soul will guide you to a magical place with magnificent treasures.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

I am no longer in the world. The world is in me.

Wage war against the weaker thoughts that have crept into the palace of your mind. They will see that they are unwanted and leave like unwelcome visitors.

Time slips through our hands like arains of sand, never to return again. Those who use time wisely from an early age are rewarded with rich, productive and satisfying lives.

The quality of your life will come down to the quality of your contribution.

The most noble thing you can do is to give to others. Start focusing on your higher purpose.

The harder you try, the longer it will take you to reach your aims. Instead, simply follow the path of your dreams in full expectation of the bounty that is certain to flow. This will bring you to your devine destination.

Never sacrifice happiness for achievement.

We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.

I am more than I appear to be. All the world's strength and power rests inside me.


Read Good Books

Bhagavad-Gita
Who Will Cry When You Die
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
The Alchemist
The Secret
The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Outliers
Blink

Watch Best Movies

Bhagavad-Gita
The Secret
An Inconvenient Truth
The Pursuit of Happyness
Shawshank Redemption
The Fountainhead
Cast Away
The Terminal
Saving the Private Ryan
Forrest Gump
The Greenmile
Wall-E
Serpico


Quotes from the book "COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH" by Arindam Chaudhuri.

Believe Passionately in two words: I CAN.

Success is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of what you think you are capable of. It is a matter of futuristic thinking and planning. It is about doing things carefully. Instead of getting out of your car without looking at the speeding car zooming towards you, you can be more careful. You can also climb down a little carefully so that you don't fall off the aircraft stairs. In fact, it is also about taking a couple of backups on your computer in case it is th emost important project of your life.
And then it is about counting your chickens before they hatch... and about a positive attitude... and about believing that: "If you think you can, you are right".

It is impossible to experience everything by oneself and reading fills up this gap.

3 dimensions to Success: ASK principle - Attitude, Skill and Knowledge - In Order

You know what you are but not what you can become.

You see things and say: WHY? But I dream of things that never were and say: WHY NOT?

"That the failure does not necessarily mean that the cause you were fighting for was not worth it." - Che Guevara

What is essential in the existence of a man of my type is what he thinks and how he thinks, and not what he does or how he suffers. - Albert Einstein

PASSION:

It is about being blind since birth and yet having the conviction that you can make it and becoming a Stevie Wonder.

It is about being deaf and composing some of the best and profoundest music ever, like Beethoven did.

It is about not only being blind and deaf but also being dump and becoming a Heler Keller.

It is about being kicked out of school and then becoming the world's leading business tycoon and changing the way the world works, like Bill Gates has done.

It is about failing 9999 times and learning 9999 times to invent Electric bulb as Tomas Edison did.

It is about knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives at the age of 12, serving poorest of poor tirelessly throughout her life and becoming Mother Teresa.

It is about recognising the importance of interpersonal relationships in achieving most objectives; therefore devoting reasonable efforts to develop and maintain adequate relationships with others and becoming JRD Tata - one of the few people known for his ability of having great faith in the capabilities of others and make them achieve success.

Infact, It is about failing in business at the age of 21, being defeated in a legislative election at the age of 22, overcoming the death of his sweetheart at the age of 26, losing congressional races at the ages of 34 and 36, losing the senatorial race at the age of 45 and, again later at the age of 49, losing the race for the vic-presidential post at the age of 47, and finally becoming the President of Uniated States at the age of 52! It is about being Abraham Lincoln. - He believed these failures are stepping stones to a future that he passionately dreamed of.

Passionate people like games of skill over games of chance because they feel no control over the outcome of the latter.

Be no afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

We can characterise people with a passionate attitude for work as restless, energetic, striving for, seeking and enjoying challenges. For them, life is a reasonable adventure.

If you are a street sweeper, so be it - but clean your street so well that others are forced to acknowledge your existence and feel that "here lived a street sweeper who did his job well." Thus, anything worth doing is worth doing passionately.

If you think you can, you are right. Just be passionate about it. And if you lack passion, then develop it because success never comes till you are passionate about it.

At first people refuse to believe that a strange thing can be done, then they begin to think it can't be done. Then they see it can be done. Then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done before.

The world stands aside to let pass the man who knows where he is going.


Mahabharata

Read Mahabharata!


No James Camaron can equal in this story written by Lord Vinayaka while dictated by Veda Vyasa. It shares a lot of wisdom. Its all about What is Good Vs What is Bad. What to do Vs What not to do. Consequences, Promises, Power a of a word, Actions .. What not, Everything includes in Mahabharata. Its not just a story, Its enlightenment !

Don't Miss it !

I am Loving It.


Look at positive sides not dark sides - An inspiring Story

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water..

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do ha lf of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?'

That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my cracked pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!


Unexpected Question

Once Swami Vivekananda went to USA, an educated, rich and beautiful lady asked him to marry her. Swami asked her to explain what prompted her to ask him for that proposal. The lady replied that she was fascinated by his intellect and wanted to give birth to a child of such an intellect. So she asked Swami to give her a child like him.

Swamy replied, "there is no problem my dear lady, I understand your desire. Marrying and bringing a child in to this world and understanding whether it is intelligent or not takes very long time. More over it is not guaranteed. Instead, I suggest a shortcut and guaranteed way".

"Accept and Adopt me as your child. Now, you are my mother; your desire of having a child of my intellect is completely fulfilled."

The lady was speechless….!!!

We may receive unexpected questions at times; we have to handle them with WISDOM !!!