First secret of success--Believe in yourself

– by Steve Goodier, www.lifesupportsystem.com

Adam was ready to retire. His wife Anna, however, was less enthusiastic.

As she explained to a friend, "Adam has never done anything that required physical exertion. He never played golf, mowed the lawn or even washed the windows. When he retires, he will sit in his easy chair and expect me to bring him his food."

But to Anna's surprise, soon after her husband retired, he joined a health club. And one night, when Adam arrived home from exercise class, he announced, "I signed up for the wrestling tournament. I am going to wrestle Friday night."

Anna was shocked. "Please don't do it, Adam," she begged. "You're not in shape. You will be so beat up they will have to carry you home!"

However, he couldn't be dissuaded and she told him that if he went through with his "lame idea," she was not going to watch.

True to her word, she stayed away that Friday evening as Adam wrestled.

And just as she predicted, two men practically carried Adam home. He lay down on the couch, every muscle strained and bruised.

Before she could speak, he sputtered, "Don't say a word, Anna! This is not the worst of it. I won tonight. I have to wrestle again tomorrow night!"

As Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said, "People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."

Mountain moving Faith

Unknown Author

A small congregation built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a church member.

Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new church.

Unfortunately, the church had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard.

Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen."

"We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too."

The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "come in," a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered.

"Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from a Construction Company in the next county. We're building a huge new shopping mall over there and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

Faith is not believing that God can, its believing that He WILL.
Does ‘Faith comes from miracles’ or ‘Miracles come from faith’?

Discovering a new way of life

In the mid 1970s, when he was about to complete his doctorate in physics, the scientist Stephen Hawking - who was already carrying the disease that would gradually paralyse all his movements - heard a doctor say of him that he had only two more years to live.

‘Right then,' he thought to himself. 'now that I don't need to worry about things like pensions or paying the bills, I can concentrate on trying to understand the Universe.'

Since the disease was progressing rapidly, he was forced to come up with ways of explaining his ideas as simply and as briefly as possible.

Two and a half years went by, twenty years went by, and Hawking is still alive.
He can communicate his highly abstract ideas through a tiny computer hooked up to his wheelchair and which has a vocabulary of only 500 words. He wrote his classic "A Brief History of Time" and was responsible for creating an entirely new vision of modern physics.

Rather than leading him into a life of complete disability, the illness forced him to discover a new way of thinking.

Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his "A Brief History of Time" stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. He is almost entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device.

Believe in yourself

Once, a person decided to realize his dream. Only he didn’t have enough strength to do it.

Then he turned to his mother: “Mother, help me!”

“Darling, I would be glad to help you, only I don’t have it. And everything I have, I’ve already given you…”

He asked a wise man: “Master, tell me, where I can get strength?”

“It is said that, it is on the Everest. Only I couldn’t find anything there, except the snowy winds. And when I came back, the time was irretrievably lost…”

He asked the hermit: “Holy Father, where to find strength for realizing my dream?”

“In your prayers, my son. And if your dream is false, you will understand it and find peace in your prayers…”

The more people he asked, the results of his search were only more confusion.

Looking at the confused man, an old man passing by asked, “Why are you so confused?”

“Yes, I have a dream, good man. But I don’t know where to find strength for realizing it. I asked everyone already- from Everest to hell. But there was no one who could help me.”

“Not everyone,” a light flashed in an old man’s eyes, “did you ask yourself that?”

Do you trust your dream? Trusting it means 100% trusting in yourself. No doubting because of what others may say or think. No second-guessing yourself. You know more than you think you do. If you don't fully trust yourself, who else will?

Test is a Taste of God

Sathya Sai Baba in ‘My Dear Students’, Vol 3, Ch 3, Jun 30, 1996

One Sankaranti day, Rukmini, Sathyabhama, Jambavati, Gopikas, and Draupadi among others were with Lord Krishna, joyously munching sugarcane.

Krishna, in order to test them, pretended as if His finger was cut. God always tests His devotees. Test is nothing but a taste of God. If the devotee is successful in the test, he/she receives God’s bounteous Grace. 

God does not conduct tests as a sign of hatred or enmity; He always does it out of intense love and compassion. 

As soon as Krishna’s finger was cut, it started bleeding. 

Sathyabhama asked a servant to quickly get a piece of cloth. 

Rukmini ran herself. 

Draupadi saw this and immediately tore a piece of her own sari and tied it to Lord Krishna’s thumb to stop the bleeding.

Witnessing this, Rukmini and Sathyabama were ashamed that their love and actions did not match Draupadi’s love. 

Later Lord Krishna showered infinite grace when Draupadi needed it the most.

image curtsy: commons.wikimedia.org

Trustworthiness

Author unknown

A sage presented a prince with a set of three small dolls. The prince was not amused.

“Am I a girl that you give me dolls?” – He asked.

“This is a gift for a future king,” Said the sage. “If you look carefully, you’ll see a hole in the ear of each doll.”

The sage handed him a piece of string. “Pass it through each doll.” – He said.

Intrigued, the prince picked up the first doll and put the string into the ear. It came out from the other ear. “This is one type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him, comes out from the other ear. He doesn’t retain anything.”

The prince put the string into the second doll. It came out from the mouth. “This is the second type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him, he tells everybody else.”

The prince picked up the third doll and repeated the process. The string did not come out. “This is the third type of person,” said the sage, “whatever you tell him is locked up within him. It never comes out.”

“Does that mean that this one is the best type of person?” – Asked the prince.

"Not always," said the sage and handed him a fourth doll, in answer. When the prince put the string into the doll, it came out from the other ear.

“Do it again.” – Said the sage.

The prince repeated the process. This time the string came out from the mouth. When he put the string in a third time, it did not come out at all.

“This is the best type of person,” said the sage. “To be trustworthy, a man must know when not to listen, when to speak out and when to remain silent.”

Trustworthiness involves four major traits: loyalty, integrity, honesty and keeping up promises. Invariably all these traits are synonyms for a person’s ethical character. They clearly define how a trustworthy person behaves. Its important to keep your heart, mouth and ear perfectly coordinated to practice trustworthiness.

Trust or Faith?

Trust and Faith are ‘seemingly’ similar concepts because of their similar usage. These two concepts go hand in hand because the common ground for both is--‘believing in something’. But they are separated by a very thin line. In a broader perspective, ‘faith’ is an allegiance or loyalty to a person or being; while ‘trust’ is placing a complete confidence, extreme faith on that person or being.

‘Faith’ can be believed to be more commonly used in spiritual concepts while ‘trust’ is used normally in worldly concepts. When we go through any turbulent phase in life, we pray to God having some kind of ‘faith’ in Him. When we lend money / any article to a friend we ‘trust’ that they would return it in due time. So, ‘faith’ is a belief that is not based on proof while trust is a reliance on integrity, strength, etc; a strong confidence.

Many times we misuse the word ‘trust’ for ‘faith’. For example, while going through tough times, many of us proudly say “I trust God; I have surrendered to Him; etc……” But continue to worry about the situation. Why? Because in reality, we have ‘faith’ but we don’t ‘trust’ that the situation will be resolved.

A story is told about a mountain climber. During a climbing trip, he put on his climbing gear and headed toward the summit. As he started his climb, there was a full moon to help him see where he was going. As he neared the summit, unfortunately, thick clouds were starting to build around the mountain as a winter storm developed. In just a few minutes heavy clouds and fog surrounded him.

He quickly started to come down hoping the storm would stop soon. On his way back, while moving along a narrow traverse, now in total darkness, he got into some rock, and slid down the edge of a cliff. He now found himself dangling in the air, suspended from his rope, unable to see anything around him. In desperation he cried out, “Oh dear God in Heaven, please help me!”

Suddenly, from above he heard a strong deep voice boom out, “Cut the rope!”

“What?!”

As the climber listened over the wind, once again he heard a deep voice say, “Cut the rope!”

Unable to see his true situation the climber concluded that hanging onto the rope was a better option. And he continued to hang onto the rope, while hoping to be able to grab onto something that would enable him to climb to safety.

The following day, the rest of his climbing party discovered him frozen to death, still dangling from his rope -- only eight feet above the ground!

Had he ‘trusted’ the voice and cut the rope, he would have been saved. His faith in God made him call out to Him, but he lacked trust to listen to the voice.

So ‘trust’ is ‘faith’ in action! It is the manifestation of our faith in our thoughts and actions. While faith says, "It ‘can’ happen..." trust says "It ‘will’ happen!"

Trust in God's powers

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come.

When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm.

While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it.

The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God.

The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God's power to lift us above them.

God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm.

Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them.

The Bible says, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles." Isaiah 40:31

Believe what you feel

Adapted from: "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom

A teacher had an exercise for the students to try. They were to stand, facing away from their classmates, and fall backward, relying on another student to catch them. Most of the students were uncomfortable with this, and they couldn't let go for more than a few inches before stopping themselves. They laughed in embarrassment.

Finally, one student, a thin, quiet, dark-haired girl crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes, leaned back, and did not flinch, like one of those Lipton tea commercials where the model splashes into the pool..

For a moment, all were sure she was going to thump on the floor.

At the last instant, her assigned partner grabbed her head and shoulders and yanked her up harshly.

"Whoa!!" several students yelled. Some clapped.

The teacher finally smiled, "You see", he said to the girl, "you closed your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, so you have to believe what you feel. And if you ever want to have other people trust you, you must prove that you can trust them too - even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling".

Ten Principles to The Zen of Attraction

1. Promise Nothing
Just do what you most enjoy doing.
Hidden benefit: You will always over-deliver.

2. Offer Nothing
Just share what you have with those who express an interest in it.
Hidden benefit: Takes the pressure off of wanting other people to see you as valuable or important.

3. Expect Nothing
Just enjoy what you already have. It’s plenty.
Hidden benefit: You will realize how complete your life is already.

4. Need Nothing
Just build up your reserves and your needs will disappear.
Hidden benefit: You boundaries will be extended and filled with space.

5. Create Nothing
Just respond well to what comes to you.
Hidden benefit: Openness.

6. Hype Nothing
Just let quality sell by itself.
Hidden benefit: Trustability.

7. Plan Nothing
Just take the path of least resistance.
Hidden benefit: Achievement will become effortless.

8. Learn Nothing
Just let your body absorb it all on your behalf.
Hidden benefit: You will become more receptive to what you need to know in the moment.

9. Become No One
Just be more of yourself.
Hidden benefit: Authenticity.

10. Change Nothing
Just tell the truth and things will change by themselves.
Hidden benefit: Acceptance.

God is in everything

A Bengali Folktale

"Where is God?" asked the disciple.

"Everywhere, in everyone and everything," said his Guru.

Later, as the disciple was going home, he saw an elephant charging towards him.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way," shouted the elephant-driver. "He has gone mad!"

But the disciple thought: "God is everywhere. He is in the elephant and he is in me. Would God attack God? No, therefore the elephant will not attack me."

He stood where he was. The elephant picked him up in his trunk and flung him aside. Fortunately, he landed in a haystack and was not too badly hurt. But he was terribly shaken and confused.

When the Guru and the other disciples came to help him and take him home, he said, "You said God is in everything, but see what the elephant did to me!"

"It is true that God is in everything," said his Guru. "He is in the elephant, but he is also in the mahout who kept telling you to get out of the way. Why didn't you listen to him?"

Never lose your Faith in Him

Author Unknown

There was once a man who was ship-wrecked and stranded on an island. Every day he prayed asking God to send someone to rescue him, but to his disappointment, no one ever came.

Months passed and this man learned how to survive on the island. During this time, he accumulated things from the island and stored them in a hut that he constructed.

One day after hunting for food and returning back to his hut, much to his dismay he saw that his hut was on fire along with everything else he owned!

All of his possessions were going up in smoke! The only thing he had left were the clothes on his back. Initially he was in shock, and then he was consumed with anger and rage!

In his fury he threw a fist into the air and began cursing God and yelling, “God, how could you let this happen to me? I’ve been praying everyday for months about being rescued and no one has come, and now everything that I have is on fire! How could you do to this to me! Why did you let this happen?”

Later the man was on his hands and knees weeping heavily when he happened to look up and catch sight of a ship coming in his direction.

The man was rescued and as they were heading back to civilization the man asked the captain, “How were you able to find me?”

The captain responded, “We were voyaging across the ocean when we noticed on the horizon a column of smoke going up. We decided to go check it out and when we did, that’s when we found you!” 

My thoughts:

God has perfect timing. Never early, never late. You need to have a lot of patience and above all faith. But when you are answered you'll realize that its worth the wait. 

God Loves you

Man : GOD, can I ask you a question?

GOD: Sure....

Man: Promise you won’t get mad....

GOD: I promise...

Man : Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?

GOD: What do you mean?

Man: Well, I woke up late....

GOD: Yes

Man: My car took forever to start....

GOD: Okay...
Man: At lunch they made my sandwich wrong. I had to wait...

GOD: Hummmmm.....

Man: On, the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call

GOD: All right....

Man: And on top of it all, when I got home - I just want to soak my feet in my new foot massager & relax. But, it wouldn’t work!!!! Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?

GOD: Let me see, the death Angel was at your bed this morning & I had to send one of my Angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that....

Man: (humbled): Oh!

GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Man: (Ashamed) All right

GOD: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick & I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.
Man: (Embarrassed): Okay

GOD: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling you was going to give false witness about what you said on that call; I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.
Man: (Softly): I see GOD

GOD: Oh, and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to throw out all the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in dark.

Man: I' m sorry GOD.

GOD: Don’t be sorry; just learn to trust me..... in all things, the good and the bad.
Man: I will trust you.

GOD: And don’t doubt that My plan for your day is always better than your plan.

Man: I won’t. And let me just tell you GOD, Thank you for everything today.

GOD: You're welcome, child. it was just another day being your God and I Love looking after my children.....
GOD LOVES YOU......

Life is a small candle in God's powerful hands

A man carried a small candle while climbing the stairs of a lighthouse.

In their way up to the top, the candle asked the man, "Where are we going?"

"We're going to the top of this lighthouse and give signals to the big ships on the ocean," the man answered.

"What? How could it be possible for me with my small light to give signals to those big ships? They will never be able to see my light", replied the candle weakly.

"That's your part. If your light is small, let it be. All you have to do is keep burning and leave the rest to me", said the man.

A little later, they arrived at the top of the lighthouse where there was a big lamp with a loop behind it. Then the man lit the lamp with the light of the candle and instantly, the place shone so brightly that the ships on the ocean could see its light.

With our being and our limitations, we're hardly able to do any meaningful things. Yet, one thing you should bear in mind is that your life is like a small candle in God's powerful hand. When we put all our trust in Him, we will see how He uses our lives, including our limitations, to be blessings to others.

The fruits of faith

A widow from a poor village in Bengal did not have enough money to pay for her son's bus fare, and so when the boy started going to school, he would have to walk through the forest all on his own. In order to reassure him, she said: 'Don't be afraid of the forest, my son. Ask your God Krishna to go with you. He will hear your prayer.'

The boy followed his mother's suggestion, and Krishna duly appeared and from then on accompanied him to school every day.

When it was his teacher's birthday, the boy asked his mother for some money in order to buy him a present.
'We haven't any money, son. Ask your brother Krishna to get you a present.'

The following day, the boy explained his problem to Krishna, who gave him a jug of milk.

The boy proudly handed the milk to the teacher, but the other boys' presents were far superior and the teacher didn't even notice his.

'Take that jug of milk to the kitchen,' said the teacher to an assistant.

The assistant did as he was told. However, when he tried to empty the jug, he found that it immediately filled up again of its own accord. He immediately informed the teacher, who was amazed and asked the boy:  'Where did you get that jug and how does it manage to stay full all the time?'

'Krishna, the God of the forest, gave it to me.'

The teacher, the students and the assistant all burst out laughing.

'There are no gods in the forest, that's pure superstition,' said the teacher. 'If he exists, let's all go and see him.'

The whole group set off. The boy started calling for Krishna, but he did not appear. The boy made one last desperate appeal.

'Brother Krishna, my teacher wants to see you. Please show yourself!'

At that moment, a voice emerged from the forest and echoed through the city and was heard by everyone.

'How can he possibly want to see me, my son? He doesn't even believe I exist!'

The unshakable Faith

Author: Unknown

A very tired traveller came to the banks of a river.

There was no bridge by which he could cross. It was winter, and the surface of

the river was covered with ice.

It was getting dark, and he wanted to reach the other side while there was enough light to see. He debated about whether or not the ice would bear his weight.

Finally, after much hesitation and fear, he got down on his knees and began very cautiously to creep across the surface of the ice. He hoped that by distributing the weight of his body, the ice would be less apt to break under the load.

After he made his slow and painful journey about halfway across the river, he suddenly heard the sound of singing behind him. Out of the dusk, there came a 4-horse load of coal driven by a man singing merrily as he went his carefree way.

Here was the traveler, fearfully inching his way on his hands and knees.

And there, as if whisked along by the winter's wind, went the driver, his horses, his sled, and the heavy load of coal over the same river merrily!

This is how many of us go through life.

Some stand on the bank of decisions unable to make up our minds about the course to take.

Others stand on the banks trying to muster enough courage to cross over to the other side of the task or problem encountered.

And some individuals crawl and creep through life for fear of thin ice. Their faith is not strong enough to hold them up.

Still there are those who whisk along whistling as they go. Their faith is UNSHAKABLE.

When we face the river of difficulties, we need not have to fear, nor do we have to creep through life. Trust in Him and with His help we can merrily make our way to the other side safely.

God plans in His own way

The Three Trees

Once there were three trees on a hill in a woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty."

Then the second tree said, "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees.

When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter," and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsman said, "I don't need anything special from my tree so I'll take this one" and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. 

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. 

The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark.

The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. 

Then one day, a man and women came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the king of kings in it's boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.

When things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts.