DO ONE THING AT A TIME

Never step over one duty to perform another; this is the only way to excel.
1. One seed at a time and the garden grows.
2. One drop at a time and the river flows.
3. One word at a time and the book is read.
4. One stroke at a time and the paint is spread.
5. One step at a time and the mountain is scaled.
6. One chip at a time and the statue is carved.
7. One thing at a time and the job is done well.

ARE YOU RECEPTIVE TO PEOPLE AND IDEAS?

1. A simple mental device for opening up our paradigm is to treat the unaccustomed as interesting rather than stupid.
2. In our own interests, we need to be open to new experiences, new facets of people, new possibilities, new insights, to observe, to empathise and to be constantly alive to our own thinking.
3. We should keep in mind that our worldview is influenced by the nature and extent of our exposure to people, places, professions, technology, books, etc., and should therefore examine how one's prejudices are based on the limited nature of our evidence and experience.
4. To the extent that we are open to new evidence, our paradigms will be liberated of limitedness and negativeness, enabling you to approach the attitudes, beliefs and customs of strange and alien groups with empathy rather than alienation.
5. Examining ourselves every now and then, and scanning our environment for changes and new developments that have taken place, can alert us to the danger of seeing the accustomed as right, and will allow new stimuli to influence our internal world pattern.
6. Openness involves making space for a new idea to enter your mind in its own right and find its own equilibrium, which is easier if you develop an awareness of your pre-conceptions and biases through reflection, and enables to enlarge your paradigm.
7. Being open to people does not come easy to most of us because there is a strong tendency not only to categorise and pigeonhole people but to rush into judgement, leading to our compulsive urge to put in our word to show that we know better.
8. Once we recognise these hurdles, then the process of being open to people becomes less formidable, though not so easy yet, because receptivity to people calls for a great deal of patience, our need to notice their talent, potential and competence in specified areas, as well as our need to offer recognition and nurturant support where it is called for.
9. This openness to others adds to your sense of maturity, enables you to earn more affection and respect from people around you, along with genuine regard, trust and warmth

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH OUR EDUCATIONAL PARADIGM?

1. Group, religious and community pressures contribute strongly to our unexamined paradigm paralysis, because the spirit of questioning and enquiry is often seen as a threat to the system, and anything that does not fit into the ruling paradigm of the day is shot down.
2. Most of us tend to slot and classify people even on first encounters on the basis of images we have formed in our minds about good, bad, ugly, indifferent people, and resist the commonsense urge to realise that the stereotype in which we are trying to fit another is as limited as the other person's interests and impulses are unlimited.
3. The problem with the educational paradigm of our times is that it blocks rather than fosters learning, and makes us argumentative, defensive and contentious, rather than open and inclined to listening without any reservations or preconceptions.
4. Education fosters a stuck paradigm in another novel fashion, by tending to make people stuck on concepts, formulae and jargon which they have picked up alongwith their degrees.
5. We need to remember that these are explanations or ideas of brilliant individuals, but what is good for another individual, howsoever great, is not necessarily good for you.
6. Unless we stay alert to the process all the time, there is a very real danger of unconscious hardening of our mental attitudes and biases by adopting such ideas wholesale, hence their validity for all people and all times is not to be taken for granted.
7. Relevance can be sought through critical challenge and questioning so that such ideas don't get converted into norms, rules and routines, thereby losing their vitality.
8. Again, it is important to listen to other people without filtering their message through concepts with which we are familiar, as we will lose out on the meaning and variety which others have to offer, by trying to reduce everything other people say to our own familiar concepts.

LOOK OUT FOR SIGNS OF PARADIGM PARALYSIS

1. When we get used to doing things in a particular manner, we tend to believe that it is the right way or even the only way to go about the business of life.
2. We even get stuck on the kind of responses which we consider appropriate, which at best lead to amusing situations or at worst to a lot of tension.
3. One of the simplest ways of understanding how encrusted your paradigm has become is to observe your attitude and responses to people who have social norms and habits that are different from your own.
4. The stupider you find your attitude and responses, the graver your symptoms of mental hardening and lack of flexibility.
5. People with stuck and hardened approaches have a tendency to generalise almost impulsively, as they feel a compulsive need to impose their order on everything around.
6. Stuck paradigms also condition people into drawing conclusions based on their own logic rather than being receptive to life and its impulses.
7. If you tend to react to suggestions which call for a change in your attitudes with rationalisations, buts and ifs, then in all likelihood you have a blocked paradigm.
8. A little introspection will show that by shutting out suggestions and ideas, you are not only denying yourself the benefit of being open to change, but you are also being arrogant by trifling with the sense of integrity of other persons.
9. The urge to come down heavily on mistakes is another symptom of mental ossification, and this approach is destructive of initiative in oneself as well as in others.
10. Negative fixations, obsessive hatred, rigidly held beliefs, inflexible attitudes, inability to accommodate others, self-centredness are all symptoms of a closed paradigm, which cause a lot of tension and internal stress for the owner.
11. The ability to let go of anger, rigid beliefs and regrets helps us to cultivate positive energy and resourcefulness, otherwise we can end up feeling drained at a time when we need to feel charged with energy.

I'LL BE THERE

1. When no one is there for you and you think no one cares, I'll be there.
2. When the whole world walks out on you and you think you're alone, I'll be there.
3. When the one you care about the most could care less about you, I'll be there.
4. When the one you gave your heart to throws it in your face, I'll be there.
5. When the person you trusted betrays you, I'll be there.
6. When the person you share all your memories with can't even remember your birthday, I'll be there.
7. When all you need is a friend to listen to you whine, I'll be there.
8. When all you need is someone to catch your tears, I'll be there.
9. When your heart hurts so bad you can't even breathe, I'll be there.
10. When you just want to crawl up and die, I'll be there.
11. When you start to cry after hearing that song, I'll be there.
12. When the tears just won't stop falling down, I'll be there.
13. So you see, this is a promise made until the end, that I'll be there.
14. If you ever need me, just give me a call, and I'll be there.
15. This is just to let all friends - current, lost, lost touch with - know, that I'll be there. 

SYMBOLS OF SUCCESS

1. Travelling one milestone at a time, success is a measure of one's journey through life - a journey enriched with experiences, goals achieved, self-confidence gained and personal standards raised.
2. Achieving your own standards gives one innermost joy and satisfaction.
3. Recall the first well-crafted pen that you pulled out, with a discreet flourish, and felt it glide along as you developed your own signature.
4. Your first credit card gave you the freedom of accessing finance at any given moment, but within limits, and now you want to choose those limits.
5. The first set of wheels just took you places, and now you prefer to travel with smoothness and comfort.
6. You strive for premium quality because you have earned it.
7. These are not materialistic needs but the new conveniences of life.
8. With every rung that you climb, you will shift and broaden your horizon.
9. By virtue of success, your picture will get bigger, your stakes higher and your ambition loftier.
10. So, go ahead.. visualize, dream big and redesign your future.

THE ART OF MARRIAGE

1. A good marriage must be created; in marriage, the little things are the big things.
2. It is never being too old to hold hands.
3. It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.
4. It is never going to sleep angry.
5. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
6. It is standing together facing the world.
7. It is forming a circle of love that encompasses the whole family.
8. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
9. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
10. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
11. It is not only marrying the right person; it is being the right partner.

ENTHUSIASM

1. Thomas Edison tried 9999 times to perfect the light bulb and hadn't succeeded.
2. Someone asked him, "Are you going to have 10,000 failures?"
3. He replied, "I didn't fail, I just discovered another way not to invent the electric bulb."
4. He had discovered how other sets of actions had produced different results.
5. Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

ADVANTAGE OF SPECIALISATION

1. Don't be a jack of all and master of none; be otherwise.
2. It's the specialist versus generalist world.
3. Most of the time people prefer to do business with specialists and not generalists.
4. If you have a heart problem, you see a cardiologist, not a general practitioner.
5. Instead of doing several things sub-par, do one thing exceptionally well.
6. This will guarantee success in the long run.

CUSTOMER SERVICE FACTS

1. It costs six times more to attract a new customer than it does to retain an old one.
2. A typical dissatisfied customer will tell 8-10 people about his problem.
3. Seven of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favour.
4. If you resolve the complaint on the spot, ninety-five percent will do business with you again.
5. Of those customers who quit, seventy percent do so because of the attitude of indifference by the company or a specific individual.
6. All these facts, therefore, say that customer satisfaction equals success.

PERCEPTION

1. Marketing is a battle of perception, not products.
2. The real driving force in the business world is perception.
3. It plays a dominant role in the success or failure of a business.
4. Competitive products tend to have similar features.
5. The difference in their quality is also sometimes difficult to measure.
6. But the differences in perception, however, are substantial and easy to measure.
7. Therefore, the sole objective of a business should be to improve the quality of perception.

LOSING AND WINNING

1. Lose as if you like it, and win as if you are used to it.
2. There are times when you lose, no matter how hard you try to win.
3. There are times when your opponent alo deserves to win, and does.
4. Most of us ar not trained to take in a losing situation gracefully.
5. Losing gracefully distinguishes the mature from those who are immature.
6. It requires maturity to play the game of life gracefully, both in winning and losing.
7. Large reserves of inner strength are critical for the ability to lose gracefully, and move back into the fight again - to emerge as winner the next time.

GENIUS AND TALENT

1. Genius is the gold inside the mine; talent is the miner that works and brings it out.
2. It is like having wealth worth billions buried in the backyard and not knowing about it.
3. All of us have qualities that nature has concealed at the bottom of our mind, and of which we are not aware.
4. As hidden qualities and hidden treasures count for nothing, so they have to be discovered to the level that they can change our performances - like the hidden treasure brought to the surface to be used.
5. A quality neglected or uncared for is bound to wither and die.
6. One should develop his talent to the extent needed to explore nature's endowed qualities and learn to use the whole of them.
7. The real tragedy of life is not being limited by qualities; but in lack of talent to use them.
8. Develop your talents, as that's the ony thing which is in man's power. 

INFERIORITY

1. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
2. At times. most of us feel inferior; about our life, looks, skills, abilities, status or performances.
3. The reason for that is the comparison we make with others or what others say or feel about us.
4. We are what we are, created by God, with a touch of uniqueness and originality.
5. Our success doesn't lie in our comparison with others; but by comparing our accomplishments with our capabilities.
6. We can be best by using our capabilities to the best.
7. We should consider ourselves unique and special and use our talent instead of wishing for the talent of others.
8. The supreme secret of success in life is the attitude we take towards ourselves, as the belief about our capabilities strongly governs the level of our performances.

SUCCESS

1. The toughest thing about success is that you have got to keep on being a success.
2. If you are a success, you can't rest on your oars; one or more successes produced should not be a reason to relax.
3. This is because, to survive in a tough business world, it's not only important to be the best but also keep on evolving to stay the best.
4. Staying there on the top is hard; only the fittest can survive and thrive.
5. Companies and people should not be content to stay where they are, no matter how successful they seem to be.
6. Keeping on being a success depends on understanding needs and expectations of people, and ultimately meeting or exceeding those needs and expectations.

WORRYING

1. Worrying is a stupid waste of time.
2. It has never led, and will never lead, anyone to victory in any phase of life.
3. Worries don't have solutions and cause psychological disorders only.
4. Don't waste time and energy in worrying about things you can't control.
5. Tame your worries and energize your health.