Andy Rooney's Learnings--Enlightened Perspective

Author: Andy Rooney
Type: Learnings

ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE

If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with
an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily
basis:

They're written by Andy Rooney, a man who has the gift of saying so much
with so few words. Enjoy.......

I've learned..... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of
an elderly person.

I've learned..... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned...... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned..... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned..... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned...... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned..... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned..... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be,
everyone needs a friend to act goofy with. (Cathy)

I've learned..... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned..... That simple walks with my father around the block on
summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned....... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer
it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned..... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.


I've learned..... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned..... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.


I've learned .... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned..... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned....... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are
only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned..... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned..... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to
surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned..... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned..... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.


I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned..... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the
ones you miss.

I've learned..... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock
elsewhere.

I've learned..... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one
more time before she passed away.

I've learned..... That one should keep his words both soft and tender,
because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned..... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your
looks.

I've learned..... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little
finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned..... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but
all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned..... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done...

Sometimes we get what we need and not what we want

Author: Unknown
Type: Thought Sharing

Once there were 3 trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the 1st
tree said, "Someday, I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and
precious gems and be decorated with intricate carvings. Everyone would see my beauty."

The 2nd tree said, "Someday, I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters

and sail to the corners of other world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally, the 3rd 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. One came to the 1st tree and 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 2nd tree, one of the other woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree. I should be able to

sell it to the shipyard." The 2nd tree was happy, because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.


When the woodsmen came upon the 3rd tree, the tree was frightened, because it knew that, if it cuts

down, its dream would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from

my tree, so I'll take this one," and he cut it down.


When the 1st tree arrived at the carpenter's, he was made into a feed box for animals, placed in a barn

and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.

The 2nd 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 3rd 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 filtered day, a man and woman 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 its boat.


Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets, and the crowd mocked

the man who was carrying it. Finally, 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.


The moral of this story is that, 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. Each of the trees got what

they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.


We don't always know what God's plans are for us.
We just know that His ways are not our ways, but

His ways are always best

'Someday We Will Be Happy'...That Someday is Today

Author: Anshuman Singh
Type: Life and Happiness

Before reading this post, I would recommend to read the story 'Club 99' (Its a short story and is not going to take more than 2 minutes to read and understand it completely). The link is:
http://anshumansinghchauhan.blogspot.com/2008/07/club-99.html

'Someday We will be Happy'......That Someday is Today

When I first read the story Club 99 the beauty with which the concept of happiness is explained in that story forced me to think on what do we actually do in our life to get this so called happiness. After all Happiness is what matters to us at the end of everything. But we often misinterpret the above statement, as its going to be something special which will happen some day which in fact will make us happy. We interpret 'end of everything' as it appears and wait for that time when we will reach an end point of something which will make us feel happy. Doing this, we miss the happiness which is present all around us in the form of a journey to reach that end point.

We all have something or the other from our past which makes us feel happy, it could be, our 1st class notebook, our collection of stickers, our toys, our study table, our half broken bat, our first bicycle, the roads where we used to ride it, the playground where we used to spend our evenings, moving from the front of our best friends house, old tree which used to be a meeting spot near river, our childhood group photographs of class...etc etc......have we ever asked a question to ourselves, as to what was so special about our childhood, that we still feel happy to think about it, see and touch our old things, walk in the old lanes, searching the old hideouts..but on the other hand, its really difficult to find out instances from our later part of life which will make us feel happy...its only because the things which reminds us of our childhood were the moments where we were happy, living that present moment. There was no fear of future and no regret of the past. It was we in that present moment, at our best, giving our 100% in that present moment, enjoying it at the fullest......but do we ever wonder why now we have to wait for a time when we will be happy, we have to search for reasons to smile, we have to find words before talking to a stranger.....we think what we have is not sufficient and can not make us happy, we think that a little more might provide us something which will make us happy, why, exactly why have this thing happened to us that we often remain either scared or tensed but not happy, although doing any one of them doesn't costs anything, then why do we choose to stay quiet, depressed, tensed, afraid, concerned, frustrated, complaining, regretting, condemning, and much more....when at that time we could have stayed happy? It is because, either we live in future or in past, and doing that we forget what actually matters to us and is in fact in our hand, i.e. the Present. As we grow we make Happiness a phenomenon, just like appearance of a comet, happening only once in years, and that too it last for seconds. Why, Why did suddenly this scarcity of happiness took place in our lives. Why do we have to wait for a saving of some more money to be happy when we have enough to keep us and our family healthy and happy, why do we need to be tensed about getting a bigger house or a bigger car or a new suit or a new pair of shoes or new mobile ....... many endless things just to make us feel happy? Why is it that when we were not employed then we thought that a job paying 5K/month will be enough to make us happy, but now when we are earning much more than expected, why are we still unsatisfied, unhappy and tensed, and keep looking for new better paying job, changing companies, groups, even friends......why? All this is done by us to get a time when we will be happy, but in our present we get so busy waiting for that time, that we forget to appreciate our present, we forget to appreciate the things which we have, which belong to us, which are enough to make us happy & satisfied, we stop observing our surroundings, we stop exploring things, we neglect the happiness around us.....

This attitude not only reduces our mental ability to think and find out solutions but also, effects our actions, our behaviour, our thoughts, our basic nature, our relationships and results in loss of our unique personality.

I still remember how anything and nearly everything appeared like a toy to us when we were kids, we used to live in a world of our own imagination. We used to imagine match box as car and were happy playing with it but now when we own one but still we are not happy and desire for a something bigger, we used to make houses of sand available at the neighbourhoods construction site and were happy watching it, but now when we have enough space for us and our family, then why do we need a bigger house to make us happy, how we used to enjoy listening to one song saved in our toy for thousands of time, but still never got bored and now when we have millions of songs in our computers but still we are unhappy and need more, why were we happy watching only one channel 'Doordarshan' and now unsatisfied with hundreds of available channels....why? exactly why?............We have to ask this question to our self and I am sure the day when we will start finding happiness in things around us, will stay satisfied with what we have, will stop complaining for what we don't have instead will prefer to work in that time, will start enjoying small success, will not be afraid thinking about what will happen in future, rather will plan it , will not regret about what we did in the past, rather will learn from it and will start living, living our present , then we will definitely wont have to wait for a time to feel the magic of happiness.....It will then become part of our daily routine to stay happy and spread happiness, will make us fell at peace and completely satisfied, will help us to bring out our best in terms of potentials, talents and skills and will help us to lead a successful and happy life ahead..

To conclude I would like to say, Happiness is a gift given to us by god, without any wrapper. We purposefully put a thick wrapper of Material things on it and then expect to reach it someday. Dear friends observe and appreciate whatever we have in our present, this will automatically make us happy. One of my friend correctly stated,'Happiness is not a Destination, its a Journey'. Lets not wait for some day or some thing to make ourselves happy. Let us thank god for whatever we have, stay satisfied and happy with it, keep on working without expecting results(GITA), elongate the list of wonderful memories by adding each day to it, lets change 'Staying Happy' from a phenomenon to a habit and live & enjoy our present.

Before closing this post I would like to recall the essence of the book 'The Present' written by Spencer Johnson, it says 'Learn from the Past, Plan for the Future but always live in The Present and Stay Happy'

:-)

कोशिश करने वालों की- हरिवंशराय बच्चन (Harivansh Rai Bachchan)

A Beautiful and Inspirational Poem Written by Mr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan:

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है।
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है।
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है।
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में।
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो।
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम।
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती।

Club 99

Author: Unknown
-------------------

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked.

This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy andgloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy.

The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?"

The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much -just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."

The king was not satisfied with that reply.

Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.

After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty,
I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club.

"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep ." Done.

When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house.

When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy...

So many gold coins! He began to count them.

After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were only 99 coins.
He wondered, "What could've happened to that last gold coin?
Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive.
Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin andcomplete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy,and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin.

He stopped singing while he worked. Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled.

When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."

He continued, " The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are nevercontented, because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: "Letme get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life ."

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires.

That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

The NEGLECTED HAPPINESS

As known by all, knowingly or unknowingly, a Human is always left with two options, be it any thing, and the two options are, to love it or to leave it. When it comes to a thing which relates to our daily bread, we have to love it. If not compelled, we often tend to leave the things which are of prime Importance to us, in terms of Happiness, because to gain this so called Happiness we have to put in allot of efforts both physical and mental. But as Human nature suggests, we always opt for a path having minimum hurdles although we know, that the rough path is far more helpful, but in general we prefer to walk on the shorter and slippery path neglecting the bad effects which it might create afterwards. Some call it bravery but in my opinion, its stupidity, until you are going to get killed for not following it. After reading these above mentioned lines, anyone can easily Interpret this text to be another of so called lectures from me which aim on working hard or giving our best in terms of dedication, sincerity and passion. But no, this time its none of them. This time its about our day to day living and the Happiness which we neglect either knowingly or unknowingly. Humans are social animals and although one may always argue either with self or with others, about benefits of single living, but deep inside we all are afraid of being left alone. Indians, for majority of their life stay with their parents or the people who have fulfilled the responsibility of parents for them. When we stay with these humans, let me call them parents for the upcoming part of this writeup, then we assume, that we are entitled to have the best of them, be it Love, respect, money, property, support, favour, warmth, safety..and much more. This assumption unknowingly takes our focus, away from what their needs might be. what they might expect from us, what might make them happy, what might make them sad etc. and this happens because somewhere in our self we have assumed, that its their responsibility to do all the best for us. If you talk to kids (even the grown ups), then they will have an argument, always ready to back up their this false notion, as they proudly quote that "they have not done anything special for us, it was their responsibility as they have given birth to us and above all, all the parents do it for their kids, so whats special have they done?". Having such an attitude was never taught by any parent in this world, but its the surroundings and its the human nature which compels the kid to think like that. He/She is so relaxed from his/her parents front, that he/she don't ever think on exactly what those two people have done for him/her. Parents, who might not have slept for many nights, just to make sure that he/she sleeps well in night. Those who might have sacrificed many of their dreams, just to make sure that their kids get the best. Those who might not have purchased new clothes or shoes for years, just to make sure that that money could be used to get new dresses and new shoes for their kids every year, or to get new toys or games for kids every year or every month or probably every week. Those who might not have left their city for years, so that the money could be used for sending their kids to various parts of the world. Those who might not have eaten out for years, just to make sure that the saved money could be used for their kids parties........this and many more......but have we, as kids have ever thought that why was all this done to us by out parents......this is just to make us Happy..that's it. Our parents find Happiness in our Happiness. They get sad, when we are sad, they get restless, when we are ill, they get angry to make us feel the importance of life and they get happy to see us happy. They feel whatever we feel, and if we might have ever thought of it as why and how could they do it, it because, of their self less love for us, their kids. They always search for love, respect and Happiness in us, that's it. So its our responsibility to make them happy and proud of us. It is our responsibility to make sure , that our parents life and their sacrifices, which they have made for us, should never go waste, as we the kids are their biggest Purpose for living and in a sense the biggest achievement. If we as kids make sure to provide adequate Love, Respect, Honour and Importance to our parents through our words and deeds and we too try to find Happiness in their Happiness, then we can definitely achieve Internal peace and can discover this NEGLECTED HAPPINESS, regain it and live with it. When we have grown up, its time for us to take care of the needs of the people who have donated their life for us, our parents. We should always be faithful and true to them, as a person who can never be faithful to his/her parents, who are the only reason for his/her existence, can never be faithful to anyone else in this world. There is no difference between a child and old aged parents, both require equal attention, love, care, respect, safety and peace. As grown ups its our responsibility to provide them all this. This requires small but allot of efforts, which we often tend to neglect and this is what I mentioned in the beginning of this writeup. Things like, making our parents a major part of our life's decisions, asking their opinion and following it provides the required respect and Importance to them. Before they can expect, if we make sure to take care of their needs, do what they like, try to take interest in their talks, ask them about their past and young age as kids, provide a helping hand in their daily tasks, share our secrets with them, if required say sorry or thank you....all this and many such small things, which look very small but hold allot of importance and requires allot of mental and physical efforts, will provide them immense Happiness and will make them Feel that their life was not a waste as they have been able to make us what they had always wanted. Its not either an Engineer, or Doctor or Scientist etc...but a real Good Human, who stays happy and spreads Happiness. Yes this is the biggest achievement of our parents if they could see that Human in us. So we should all take this as our responsibility to keep this Happiness as no more neglected and live our life with a purpose and be good Human so that the efforts, sacrifices and life of our parents should not go waste.......May God Bless All The Parents a Healthy, Happy and Long Life :))

Love Change to Grow and Live Happily :-))

Often a question is raised in general high tea talks and leisure time discussions that, why do IT companies prefer to recruit fresh graduates from any and nearly every discipline. I often think, it could be something to do with the nature of this Industry which forces it to Involve the Energy, Interest, Passion and Flexibility of young graduates into its process of growing leaps and bounds every year. IT is majorly a Self Service Industry where in the nature of job changes with the changing needs. For completing the Job in hand, generally the companies are left with stringent deadlines and pressure to deliver high quality work. It could be really difficult to manage work under such constraints without the availability of freshers. When I say such words, then every reader has a right to question me WHY Do I SAY SO, and it is completely logical to ask me. Now there is definitely an explanation to this thought. In general, every project, which is taken up by an IT company, requires allot of Expertise for it to be completed on time and with acceptable quality. The Expertise which might be expected, comes after few years of working. This creates a need of having some Experienced resources as the drivers of Project. The most strange part of Technology is, that its pretty different then what it looks like. Using an already build product requires far less brain then to create it. When I say create a product then I mean a project which we have been talking about, since beginning. The building of the product involves rigorous analyses and planning which forms the major part of development cycle. Now this stage is so sensitive, that, if a single condition is missed, then that will definitely increase the time of development of the project. As a human nature, irrespective of the amount of experience we hold, we can always narrow the scope of making mistake but can never avoid it from happening. Thus in real time systems, this makes it mandatory to have some buffer time and some buffer resources. When I say buffer time, then does not mean to have some extra time for development, but to keep some time out of the available one, as buffer. But when it comes to resources, then as Buffer resources, you need to have people, who are fresh, full of energy, have an appetite for learning new technologies and systems, have no problems to work for extra hours, have no commitments or general responsibilities to fulfill, have flexibility to moves to any part of globe, have burning desire to perform and progress, are easily influenced by the motivating words from seniors and have no resistance what so ever about working on any platform or in any domain. All this and more can be extracted from fresh graduates only. The biggest asset is their flexibility for doing nearly any and every thing which is in general lacking in the Experienced resources, who with time, develop some kind of mental resistance, for the change of technology, domain, geographical location etc. This can be explained, as with time, as they grow, they also grow allot of responsibilities for themselves. There are people who are dependant on them and every decision taken by them, effects not only their life but also the life of the other people who depend on them. This thing somehow Increases a kind of resistance in them, for any kind of change, which might effect their job and in turn life of the people who are dependant on them. But the experience which they have gained over years, can never be neglected and that's what makes their presence Important in nearly every project.

I think, looking at the present trends and the growing needs in IT, a person who would be able to manage to grow his/her experience and knowledge, but at the same time would remain flexible and will keep positive attitude towards work and life would definitely be able to maintain a balance in his/her personal life and would live a happy and quality life.