Fulfilling Our Dreams

I have always believed in the power of dreams and am truly fascinated with the impetus brought by clarity for fulfilling our dreams. The best tool to bring clarity on what we want is to – Write our dreams down on a piece of paper.

Though, the universe is aware of both the nebulous dreams, we have not yet begun to refine and the concrete goals we actively pursue. Neither our struggles nor the day dreams that inspire us are beyond the range of the universal perception. Yet, to manifest our aspirations, we not only need to know what it is we generally wish to achieve. We also need to clearly articulate these aims to ourselves and the universe. When we create a list of what we want citing as much detail as possible, our aspirations take on new substance. What was once a mere wish becomes real and achievable when put into words and given a timeline. Words bring clarity which gives power to our desires.  

List everything you ever wanted to be, to do, to have, to go to or to achieve; date each item when you enter it and indicate the area of life involved, also write the approximate time you want to get the goals by. As you pour the contents of your heart and soul into your list; your well defined ambitions become a part of you and the universe responds to your new determination by placing opportunities related to your objectives in your path. Whatever the nature of your desires, your list can help you channel your intellectual and emotional power into your efforts to realize them.

The list you create should not only be a record of your individual goals. Rather it should be a comprehensive, exhaustive catalog of each target you want to reach, your reasons for aiming those things and photographs cut from magazines, newspapers or printed specifically for your dream notebook. This may mean that your list will encompass many pages of text and art. When you write down and review your ambitions, you empower yourself to more accurately direct your goal realization efforts. You then also have a framework on place that helps you distinguish success from setbacks.

If you keep your list in a convenient spot and review it daily, you will inadvertently reaffirm your conviction about your aspirations demonstrating to the universe that you are truly devoted to your chosen path, while keeping your objectives fresh in your mind. If you have a special slab or stand to keep your decorated dreams list, this would be a great place for the list.

As you compose your list, try not to edit or judge what you have written. Some of what you want may seem bizarre when considered in the context of your current circumstances. Whether the items on the unique long-term agenda you create are destined to be fulfilled in 10 years or 20 years, if you are free with your ideas and understand that you may not bring these dreams into the realm of reality for some time, your list will attract the universe’s benevolence even as it energizes and inspires you. Believe that you are god’s own child and your wishes will be fulfilled just like the wishes of a prince or princess.  Of course the dreams have to be in tandem with the wellness of the world – there is a magnet in our hearts which attracts people and things of our thoughts to us. Your job is to remove the clutter from this most powerful magnet and rust from the things you want to attract; the magnet will start doing its work.

This article is inspired from:

The book, ‘DailyOM by Madisyn Taylor’

The book, ‘The Secret by Rhonda Byrne’

The Bollywood movie, ‘Dasvidhaniya’

Let the power of clarity fuel your dreams...

Inner ocean sings with the Atlantic Ocean

Let the duty to shine be on hype.

Let the happiness flow in your life.

Let the lord enter into your soul.

Let the mind focus on your goal.

Let the hate hurt and love liberate.

Let the life blossom and be great.

Let the path not be blocked by mist.

Let the faculties join and make a fist.

Let the plans and goals be on a chart.

Let the lion like faith roar in your heart.

Let the hands join and make network.

Let the power of teams do great work.

Let the magic of fantasies prevail while you race. 

Let the contagious smile spread on your face.

Let the drops fall and spread the gleams.

Let the power of clarity fuel your dreams.

                               - By Mukesh Kulothia

Thoughts - Words - Power

I have always believed in Lord Buddha’s most important teaching to the world, ‘With our thoughts we make our world’ or ‘what we think we become’. However the power of thoughts gets multiplied and impacts eternity when they are crafted by the greatest sculptors and expressed in the form of words.  

Hence thinkers, philosophers and man/woman of substance who ever stretched their soul to the greatest possible extent become artists whose art is invaluable and the world has got no money to barter. Therefore they simply give it for free which may be a reason that we tend to ignore it.

One such piece of craft is left behind by Napoleon Hill, ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe; it can achieve.’ Let us observe this with all our sensory faculties and especially feed our head & heart which generally get starved in the rat race of filling our homes and our days with stuff like TV, Smartphone, Skype, Facebook etc.  

Firstly the quotation above is not complete. The whole of it which Napoleon Hill wrote was –“You can be anything you want to be, if you only believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve” Yet the second half represents the essence of it. Let us try to understand the same by breaking it into pieces.

I am no authority to give meaning to what Mr Hill said. I am just helping you to make more sense out of this so profound, poignant, beautiful and meaningful collection of words. Such word crafts always make me realize that pen is truly mightier than sword.

The quotation, “whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”, has one noun – ‘the mind’ and three very powerful verbs – ‘conceive, believe & achieve’.

The mind does not only mean the left side of the brain or the so called argumentative mind rather it implies to conscious, subconscious & super conscious minds together. All three have to do the activity of conceiving, believing & achieving collectively.

Now coming to the verbs - – ‘conceive, believe & achieve’.

Conceive: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to become pregnant with’. When a lady becomes pregnant she is very clear about the result and she has a timeline for that too. Exactly in same fashion for achieving BIG things in life we must develop a dream in our heart and convert that into a goal. Importance of having a goal can’t be overemphasized and we convert our dreams into goals when we put a deadline to them. Conceiving really means choosing one idea to parent and nurture until the ‘D day’ is reached. Making it a reality also needs a plan to gather & utilize resources (your time, focus, money) in reach.     

Believe: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to accept something as true’. We must accept our goals as true. ‘Can I do it?’ is a wrong question once you have believed in the idea. You need to have faith in the idea and in yourself. People generally find the later as difficult. Faith and belief in oneself needs to be cultivated step by step. One should do small things with impeccable consistency to strengthen self-belief. For example if you can set a goal of waking up at 6 am every day and do it without fail for 3 months or decide to be on time in all the appointments and are on the point for 3 months it gives immense self-belief which really helps in achieving your BIG dreams which you conceive.     

Achieve: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to attain something with effort or despite difficulties’. It requires persistence which is more of one’s attitude for continuing against all the odds than a skill. Conceiving & believing gives you a destination and the strength to reach there but still you will have to walk the distance. The journey is as important as the result and the means matter. Make sure, you have right guidance, motivation and other resources helping you walk the distance.       

So what is your BIG idea which you want to conceive, establish faith in the idea and yourself and work incessantly towards achieving the same? If you do not have time to think about and write down your dreams; where will you find time to act and achieve them?

Talent Vs Attitude

When we observe excellence, we wish we could be talented like that. However, excellence does not come from talent alone. In fact a major part of excellence has nothing to do with talent. In course of time once you go beyond certain level (which is not too high), ability and talent are two of the least used qualities that matter. It is what you do with that talent which matters and here comes the word ‘attitude’. Talent breeds ego and talent never solves problems beyond a point while attitude does.

Sachin Tendulkar has become synonym of Talent in the world of cricket. In mere age of 14 years, he played 55 days without a break. He practiced for long hours; played the game, slept on the dining table and then played again. Fifty Five days in a row – that can’t be talent rather it is attitude -attitude towards the game. In an interview with a TV channel he said that he is a man of preparation and the match for him begins much earlier than the real start on ground.

But we all think when Sachin was born; nurse picked him up and said, ‘here is Mr Tendulkar and here is his century of centuries’ – which is not the truth. Is it Tendulkar’s talent that produced the greatest cricketer of the century? No, it is his work ethics, attitude and more than anything his passion to perform which counts far more than talent. Talent opens the first door, it might also open second for you but it is never going to open the last.

As per Harsha Bhogle, the famous Cricket Commentator, there are many young cricketers who are extremely talented. But the moment they see roadblock, they don’t know how to proceed because they never struggle for success, they always use their talent to succeed. In his book ‘The Winning Way’ he writes that the victory or defeat of cricket team is decided in the dressing room before the ground. Only by sensing the attitude of the team in dressing room, it can be told if the team is going to win or lose the match.

In army when they build Elite Core team, they look at ones career track record. If one never failed they won’t pick the person because if he did not face any failure earlier; he may not know how to bounce and persevere until the goal is achieved. They pick person who failed and bounced; that is where ones ‘attitude’ comes through.

As per study of William James at Harvard University, “The greatest discovery of this generation is: human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude.”

In another study it was found that when a person gets a high profile job, 85% of the times it is because of his attitude and only 15% of the times because of smartness or knowledge of facts and figures. Surprisingly, almost 100% of our education expenses and time go to learn facts and figures which account only for 15% in success at work and life.

Truly, attitude defines the altitude and attitude makes all the difference in pursuit of excellence. 

This article is contributed by my friend and fellow Toastmaster Mr Anurag Singh.  If you are enriched by this, please take a moment to say thanks in the comments section below. 

I am proud of Aamir Khan

Once, I was enjoying lunch at an Indian restaurant in Zambia (Africa) with my local friend there, Mr Ronald Mboma. Incidentally a song from one of the Bollywood movies started playing on large flat screen plasma television.

‘He is an Indian actor, Rancho, right?’ Mr Mboma asked with a big smile and excitement on his face. I was amazed and happy to hear this and told that his name is not Rancho, instead it is Aamir Khan.

He further told me that one of his movies ‘3 idiots’ is his wife’s favorite movie. They have watched it multiple times and this character (Rancho which was played by Aamir Khan in the movie) has influenced the couple very much.

I never expected that people from other continents and countries would be influenced so much and admire actors from Indian cinema to this extent. As the Indian Cinema was known for those typical boring love stories which do not have any strong positive message for betterment of the society. I too, never liked them. Now when the change is taking place, this actor is leading the same.  

‘3 idiots’ is certainly one of my most favorite movies and especially I liked the messages of

• Being fearless in our actions
• Chasing excellence instead of success
• Not begging small things from god and
• Studying for knowledge and not for grades

Swami Vivekananda asked a soul searching question to citizens in the nation, ‘Country gives us everything, what do we give to the country?’ The same was rephrased by the famous president of the USA John f Kennedy, ‘Ask not, what the nation can do for me? But ask what can I do for the nation?’

Truly this man is an answer to that call of doing something for the society. Aamir has always been one of the most respected and loved actors in Indian cinema. Yet, movies ‘Taare Zamin Par’ and ‘3 idiots’ followed by television serial ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth Always Prevails) have made him a real hero.

Be it a cricket match of Indian team in World Cup or Anna Hazare fasting in New Delhi to make India a corruption free nation or an appeal from tourism ministry to keep country clean and beautiful, Aamir has always been on the frontier for India. Over the last decade Aamir Khan has saved villagers from an oppressive tax, led a movement against corruption, educated parents about learning disabilities and fought India's flawed education system. Now another fight against a dozen social malpractices with a hope and conviction that truth shall prevail.

Satyamev Jayate was certainly a different avatar of this young leader with no title. All the episodes have spread awareness on different malpractices in society and moved people from inside to take a stand against those. This would certainly help in making India a better country.

I want to let Aamir know that that he is making difference in lives of people beyond boundaries of geographies, languages and cultures.

‘Well done, my friend. You are a real hero, youth icon, social activist and a leader without title. I am proud of you and so are my readers!’

What do you learn from this man of change? Leave a comment.