Happy New Year

As we see another New Year in, it is time to reflect on the learning experiences (or mistakes) we were blessed with the past year, to take ownership of these mistakes and responsibility for them, learn from them and look forward to a year of opportunities, armed with new knowledge and experience we didn't have a year ago.

It's time to pause, rest a while, then grit our teeth and walk out like a champion, ready to win spectacularly.

And here is some good advice from one of the greatest entrepreneurs who ever lived:

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better person."
Benjamin Franklin

A time for giving

At Christmas, what better time to reflect on the law of giving and receiving, on of the seven laws of attraction.

Deepak Chopra says this about the law : "The universe operates through dynamic exchange...giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives."

What better way to enrich our lives than to give heartily to somebody who needs it, for instance a child who has never had a toy before - and experience their joy in receiving that gift.

If you want to experience true happiness this Christmas, give heartily.

It's the Life in your Years That Counts

Paralysis through fear of failure is so widespread in our community that there is actually a medical name for it - Atychiphobia. While for a small percentage of the population, this is probably a very real condition that needs therapy, the problem with making it into a medical condition is that it gives many more an excuse for not moving on.

If you research the number of daily searches on keywords in Google, you will see ten times the number of searches for information on diseases as there are for cures for those diseases. People get their feeling of importance for having a medical condition and find out everything there is about that condition so they can relay that to their friends - that is everything except how it may be cured.

I think nothing would be more of a tragedy than the realization in your twilight years that you had forgot to live life - that you had been so paralized by the fear of failing that you had not tried anything

'In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years'-- Abraham Lincoln

'Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever'-- Gandhiji

Ayurveda

Have we lost our way so much that we have really completely forgotten our reason for being on this Earth?

I came across this definition of health care while researching holistic health. It comes from an Indian health center called SOUKYA that specializes in their local treatment, Ayurveda. Have you ever heard a doctor of modern medicine talk about treatment in this way?

"The practice of ayurveda is designed to promote human happiness, health and creative growth. It is the science of daily living and this system of knowledge evolved from the sage's practical, philosophical and religious illumination which was rooted in their understanding of the creation. Ayurveda helps the healthy person to maintain health and the diseased person to regain health."

The quote came from the SOUKYA website: http://www.soukya.com/ayurveda.html and I have to say it is the best definition of health care I have ever heard.

You will find those you seek, everywhere

I live in the Philippines, because I like many things about the country - most of all, the people. I run a company here with fourty people and not a day goes by when I am not soundly impressed with their attitude and work ethics.

So it came as some surprise when another foreign guest married to a local, insisted that the people were not trustworthy and were out to get anything they could from foreigners. We later found out that this man behaved like a wealthy royal landowner from medieval England and treated those around him with complete disrespect.

The attitude of the locals toward him simply mirrored his attitude toward them.

Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.

John N. Mitchell

When our attitude towards ourselves is big, and our attitude toward others is generous and merciful, we attract big and generous portions of success.

W. Clement Stone

The Ability to Engage In Passive Resistance Is The Real Measure of Strength

Having just been through a bitter business struggle where my opponents made the battle personal, I learned first-hand the power of passive resistance.

Time after time I was passed emails and chat transcripts with baseless accusations of criminal behaviour and boasts that I was about to be arrested, all attempts at ruining my credibility and driving me out of business - but instead of responding, I got on with my job.

Though my first instinct was to follow my emotions and respond in kind, friends and clients calmed me down and gave me good advice and the result: I ended up with a healthy business while my antagonists fled the country owing money.

It took everything I had not to react and I learned that the real measure of a person's strength is their ability to control their actions. As Gandhi once said: "All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions".

And the reason I got good advice, was purely the company I had chosen to keep. The Greek philosopher Epictetus is quoted as saying: "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."