Archive for the ‘Book Review’ Category
Disney – A company which has impacted the entertainment industry like no other. Be it animated characters, cartoons, movies, TV shows or resorts – the brand Disney has its marks. Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney who is going to complete his tenure in December 2021 and will complete 16 years as CEO has shared this wisdom in his auto biography: Ride of a life time. Out of many interesting lessons, here are 5 in infograph
Destiny
Posted on: January 20, 2018
- In: Book Review
- 1 Comment
I recently came across a very interesting story from the book: Zen Stories to tell your neighbors. The story is about destiny. Can we create our circumstances? If you are a person who has to motivate others or you are a person who considers that you are master of your destiny, this is a motivating story for you. Here it goes:
During a momentous battle, a Japanese general decided to attack even though his army was greatly outnumbered. He was confident they would win, but his men were filled with doubt. On the way to the battle, they stopped at a religious shrine. After praying with the men, the general took out a coin and said, “I shall now toss this coin. If it is heads, we shall win. If tails, we shall lose. Destiny will now reveal itself.”
He threw the coin into the air and all watched intently as it landed. It was heads. The soldiers were so overjoyed and filled with confidence that they vigorously attacked the enemy and were victorious. After the battle, a lieutenant remarked to the general, “No one can change destiny.”
“Quite right,” the general replied as he showed the lieutenant the coin, which had heads on both sides.
So, is destiny in our hands?
The Power of Now!
Posted on: July 11, 2011
A beggar was sitting on the road side for thirty years. A stranger was passing by. The beggar asked him for some money.
The stranger responded: I have nothing with me. But I notice that you are sitting on a box. What is inside this box?
The beggar responded: I don’t know. There is no use of knowing it either. There is nothing in it.
The stranger said: Open this box and see if there is any thing. When the beggar opened the lid of the box, he found gold in it!
We all have gold inside us, yet, we are not aware about it.
The above is from Eckhart Tolle’s book: The Power of Now!
Those of you who are looking for spiritual enlightenment must go through this small book which was one of the New York best sellers.
Another important point which I found in the book was the strong verdict that a person is himself or herself creator of pain or pleasure. One need to live in present without fear of past or any tension of the future. This is the path to the enlightenment and what do we mean by enlightenment?
Enlightenment has been defined as: The absence of all sufferings!
Are you worried? Do you have many ‘what-if’ thoughts?
Our mind keeps on creating imaginary fear and imaginary future which we never see in our life – Those are just our thoughts!
Another interesting point was to know that we are all ‘waiters’. We are waiting for good times. We are waiting for promotion. We are waiting for success. We are waiting for money and in all this process, we are not living in the present moment. The key to joy is to enjoy the present moment. To realize harmony with the universe.
So, let’s enjoy the present!
Your thoughts?
How can we become a big thinker?
Posted on: July 1, 2011
When success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, pounds or in term of their family background or wealth, people are measured in term of the size of their thinking. The bigger people think and act, more successful will they be.
The question is: How can we think Big?
In this blog post, I will share ideas from David Schwartz book, The Magic of Thinking Big!
A practical exercise
Here is a practical exercise which is used in certain motivational training workshops by David Schwartz which can be used by us too:
1. What are our five chief assets or qualities? We need to list them down.
We can take help of any our our friend or some one who can assess us. Those qualities may include our education or a particular skill or appearance or home life or any other item.
2. We need to write down names of three people who don’t have any of those assets but are still successful in life. (We need to look around and think hard on this but believe me, we will find some people who don’t have the qualities we have but those people are still successful)
David Schwartz says that once we complete the above exercise, we will realize that we outrank many people in life! We have certain qualities and certain assets which are not available with many successful people. If this is the case, we can be successful too.
Big Thinker’s style of talking:
Big thinkers are able to create a positive picture in minds of other people even when there is no good news to tell e.g. Instead of saying: We incurred a big expense, big thinkers say: We made a big investment!
Or, instead of saying that: We are afraid to report that we failed, big thinkers say: We need to make another attempt.
Let’s think of the situation when a person comes to us and say that we face a big problem.
This will create an image of despair and gloom. Instead this can be phrased as: We have a challenge to deal with.
In order to be a ‘big thinker’, we need to create positive mental pictures – all the time!
We need to look at things not as they are in the present but what could those things be in the future.
An architect visualizes a house which is not built yet. An entrepreneur visualizes a successful business when there is no business plan on paper. A painter constructs a master piece in mind first before putting it on paper.
Why can’t we visualize success when it is yet to come?
Let’s try this: Whenever we have an issue or challenge, let’s use the words which create a positive picture and not a negative one.
Your thoughts?
If you want to know your past, look at your present conditions
If you want to know your future, look at your present actions – Buddhist saying
Many educated guesses are being made about the future. There are numerous books, articles and websites on this subject. However, these days, I am reading a book named: Future Files. Here are some ideas from the book about five trends that will shape science and technology in future:
1. Nanotechnology
Gone are the days when we used ‘floppy disks’ and ‘magnetic tapes’ for storing data. Now, there are USBs, flash drives and what not. This will shrink further. It may happen that there will be a small ‘chip’ for mobile phone and that smallest chip will be connected to fingers for dialing numbers. That is one of the examples of ‘nano’ technology. This technology will affect all industries. However, we will see public debate only when some ‘major’ nano-event happens!
2. Biotechnology
Genetics will be the talk of the world in next 20 – 25 years. People will be impacted by genetically enhanced humans! Biotechnology will be used for benefits of society but like every technology, it will be the brains behind the technology which will determine the use of the technology.
3. Emotionally aware machines
We might see cars with sensors. Those sensors will sense the ‘mood’ of the driver. Online retailers will tailor their pages according to the customers’ need and so on. Seems unbelievable? Once upon a time, flying in air was impossible too!.
4. Robotics
We may see small scale robots working all around, carrying bags, doing repetitive task and helping us in complex tasks. However, to see robotics on a vast scale, we might have to wait for 20 to 25 years!
5. Ethics
With the advent of digital era, privacy is long dead. The only way to maintain privacy is not to use any form of social media or mobile phone which are becoming necessities of life. Hence, debate on ethical use of technology is going to continue in time to come.
Note: The above ideas are from the book: Future Files by Richard Watson.
Your thoughts? You may read about Thomas Friedman’s book: The World is flat from: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/?p=879
Note: I have moved to my own website www.wisdomfrombooks.com . You may visit the website and book mark the same. Thanks
Becoming a better manager is easy and Kenneth Blanchard has told us about doing it in one minute!
One Minute Manager was an international best seller which was translated in over 25 languages.
It is about a person who tried to become the best manager. He met a mentor – a person who was great manager. He told him about the one minute principle. Before we proceed to one minute principle, here are a few ideas from the author:
1. If God wishes us to talk more and listen less, he would have created two tongues and one ear!
2. It is not important what people do in front of you. The important thing is: What people do behind you.
Read more from: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/?p=1076
Why some people achieve financial independence in their lives and why some do not? Is it because of education, family background, society or is there any other related factor too?
Brian Tracy mentions that in according to a Harvard Study of 1970, achieving success is result of a particular attitude of mind. This attitude was termed as ‘long term persepctive’. How can we set priorities in our lives? Here are five ideas from Brian Tracy: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/?p=1063
Dear All
I would like to inform all readers that I have bought my own domain www.wisdomfrombooks.com
You are requested to visit the new site henceforth and book mark it for reference and visit purposes. Please feel free to inform your friends, colleagues and people whom you consider are interested to read ideas from best selling motivational, self-help, inspiration, business and classic books.
Your suggestions on the layout and the content of the new site are welcome. Keep reading, contributing and sharing your thoughts.
regards
Malik Mirza
Here is a summary of ten positive thoughts from Mr. Qaiser Abbas’s training on developing a positive mental attitude:
1. It takes equal energy to think small and big. So why not think BIG!
2. Change impossible – to I’m possible. You will note that impossible can also be read as: I M POSSIBLE (Its the matter of reading and perception! – Here is inspirational story of Honda: http://wp.me/pHUHq-9X)
3. Gratitude and Negativity cannot be together – hence remove negativity NOW! (and replace it with Gratitude. Every one has some thing in life to be thankful for. (Read more from: http://wp.me/pHUHq-4i)
4. Your mind’s eye should see – and what you see – is what you will possess. Remember your mind cannot differentiate between a dream or what you are thinking in reality. A negative imagination will only make you negative and depressed. Hence THINK POSITIVE. The pictures you show to your mind will become a reality – hence show positive things constantly.
5. The Law of Attraction – ask – answer – receive, hence how you are living now is what you have attracted. (Read summary of The Secret: http://wp.me/pHUHq-4q and the three principles of the law of attraction: http://wp.me/pHUHq-3Y)
6. Live with PRIDE – Promise, Risk (Calculated), Innovation, Drive, Empowerment
7. Focus on your inner positive juice – don’t worry of the outcome. Remember if you don’t have it – you can’t give it. So enable yourself towards positive states.
8. Give to your colleagues, positive and timely feedback for their behaviors – knowing that ultimately they will reach their goal. However, note that all the time feedback is not given – but this does not stop us – we work around, we fall but we re-bound.
9. Have a positive state of mind. Make this your shield. Create this behavior and enabling state which is excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation, confidence, motivation, energy – this will lead towards empowerment. Don’t be in paralyzing states of anxiety, stress, depression, anger, hate, and resentment – that only lead to negativity.
10. Your STATE can change by your BODY (Posture, Breathing), Language (Tone, Metaphors), Focus (Pictures, Dark/Bright). So, if you want to turn negative thinking into positive, change your body posture – (Try it – believe me, it won’t cost any thing!)
Note: Mr. Qaiser Abbas is a motivational and inspirational speaker. He is author of best selling book: Tick Tick Dollar. Read his earlier posts from this blog: http://wp.me/pHUHq-gt
Can a person be at peace and at war, both at the same time?
Can a person become a ‘peaceful warrior?
After reading Dan Millman’s book: The Way of a peaceful warrior, my answer is ‘Yes’
One of my friends recommended me to watch the movie: The Peaceful Warrior when I posted top three motivational movies on this blog (you can read about three motivational movies from this link: http://wp.me/pHUHq-fz)
The book is based on a real life story of an athlete who suffers with an accident and his leg is broken.
This book (or you may watch the movie if you want) is about a young person who meets a mentor called Socrates at a gas station. His mentor teaches him to be at peace with himself first rather than fighting a war. He gives him practical guidance to walk on the path of focus. Even after meeting a major accident, that young person is able to become athlete again. It is a must watch if you want to get motivated to achieve big in life.
The Author of the book has claimed: The book that changes lives!
In this post, I would like to share three ideas from this book:
1. We should live in present
No tension of past or no worry of the future – only present!
Some one said: You cannot change your past but you can certainly destroy your present by worrying about the future.
A peaceful warrior is at peace in the given moment. A peaceful warrior is present in whatever he or she is doing. I remember another great saying: Past is gone, future is yet to come, you are blessed with a gift of current moment – that is why it is called: PRESENT!
2. Happiness is the name of a journey not destination
It may happen that we get what we wanted but after that, we feel empty!
One should enjoy the path – the journey of life – every moment of it.
3. Have solitude and discover what is inside us
A peaceful warrior spends time in silence and tries to discover one self. One of the difficult tasks is to be at peace and harmony with oneself i.e. to discover the inner self!
Once a person is silent and tries to ‘listen’ to the voice of silence, peace is achieved which comes from within. (Who can change you? Here is an interesting post: http://wp.me/pHUHq-9F)
Message of the day: Let’s live in the present!
Your thoughts?
Wisdom From Books 
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