PREACHER

When good preacher preaches, people say: "Preacher is great."

When great preacher preaches, people say: "Krsna is great."

GAIN NEW PERSPECTIVES

Here are some questions to help you gain new perspectives:

1. What can I learn from this?

2. In what way is the current situation absolutely perfect?

3. How could I turn this around immediately, and like the process?

4. What in this situation can I find to be grateful for?

5. What am I doing well? What can I do better?

6. What’s one way I could have more inspiration in my life?

7. If I was my own coach, what coaching would I give myself right now?

8. What is the value of my current attitude?

9. What’s my favourite way of sabotaging myself, and my goals?

10.What should I do if I notice myself doing that?

NOT MY PROBLEM

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me.
I cannot be bothered by it."


The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a
mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember ... when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

Each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry; our lives are woven together for a reason.

PREACHER

My dear preacher, women should be object of your compassion, not your passion.

PRIDE

Few more powerful quotes on pride.

A proud man is always looking down on things and people. As long as you're looking down, you can't see something or someone that's above you.

Temper gets you into trouble. Pride keeps you there.

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.

PRIDE

Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble.

- Srila Prabhupada

COACHING BENEFITS

What I found was that coaching provides accountability and objectivity. We are more likely to follow through on something if we have committed to another person. You commit to your coach each week to do certain things, things that you may not even attempt, what to speak of follow through on, if you didn't have a coach.

The coach sees things about your situation in a different way than you do, and thus can help you see how to better reach your goals (and also help you define them in the first place). In this process, the coach will help you overcome what you think are insurmountable obstacles to your goals (or maybe you don't think they are insurmountable, but you just don't know how to deal with them).

A coach helps you clarify what you want to achieve and the best means of getting there.

I think too many of us allow our lives to be run on automatic pilot and don't take more control to change what we don't like and aim for what we know we want or need. A coach helps you clarify your priorities and help you deal with past conditioning that allows past habits to control your behavior (and keep you down, or keep you from operating at a higher level).

I teach seminars, and no matter what the topic I find that many of us feel stuck (because of conditioning) and thus think "this is just the way I am." In most cases it's more accurate to say, "this is the way I have allowed myself to be."

Give it a try. Akrura helped me build momentum towards a goal I wasn't taking seriously enough, and thus wasn't moving towards as quickly as I wanted.

Mahatma dasa (ACBSP), Florida, USA

TRANSFORMING BAD HABITS

I found this article yesterday and adapted it for my readers.

Our habits have been developed from early childhood as the result of things that we have chosen to do, or not to do. Our entire life is the result of your past choices and decisions. And like all of us, you probably have some bad habits that have held you back from your true potential. But here’s the good news: Since you are always free to choose, you can make new choices and decisions today that will determine what happens to you in the future.

It will be good if one of our main objectives in life is to develop new habits and make them our masters, while at the same time overriding and setting aside old habits that may be interfering with our progress.

We have two major types of habits. We have habits that revolve around our desires and habits that revolve around our fears. The habits that revolve around our desires for spiritual advancement, health, happiness, financial stability, and success are life-enhancing. They are the habits that have brought us the success we have today.

The habits that revolve around our fears, on the other hand, act as brakes on our potential. They hold us back. They interfere with our success. They deceive us on a regular basis. They cause us to sell ourself short and settle for far less than our potential.

Dr. Martin Seligman, in his book, Learned Optimism, wrote about the great psychological phenomenon of modern life. He called it “learned helplessness.” Based on his 25 years of research, he discovered that virtually every person has one or more areas where they feel helpless and unable to do something that they really want to do.

Seligman’s research demonstrated how animals can be trained to feel that they are helpless. In one example, he put a dog into a cage with a glass wall in the middle that separated the dog from a bowl of food. The dog was hungry and tried to get at the food but kept banging his nose on the glass. After several hours, Seligman removed the glass. And what happened then? The dog, who was still hungry, sat only a few inches away from the food and never even attempted to eat it. The dog had learned to feel helpless. The had become so convinced that he was incapable of getting to the food that even when the obstacles were removed, he just sat there with his stomach growling.

There are dozens of experiments like this. In every case, it is clear that animals, and human beings for that matter, learn to feel helpless. They develop habits of thought that hold them back from reaching their full potential.

If someone were to tell you that you could learn to type 30, 40, or 50 words per minute by taking a typing course and practicing an hour each day for the next few months, you would shrug your shoulders and say, "Of course!" Everybody knows that you can acquire a particular physical skill by learning how it is done and then repeating it over and over again until it becomes automatic.

But when it comes to mental habit patterns, most people are a little baffled. They don’t realize that they can learn mental habit patterns by following exactly the same process that you would use to learn physical habit patterns. And mental habit patterns will have a far greater impact on our life and happiness than any physical habit pattern ever could.

Once we have recognized the old, negative habit patterns that do not serve our purposes, we can determine what new habit patterns we would like to adopt.

Let's begin this process by looking around and determining the people that we admire the most, both living and dead. We can ask ourself: What qualities do they have? Which of their characteristics do I most wish to have? Then we can make a plan to incorporate those ideal habits into our own character and personality.

We know that we can shape a piece of clay into any desired form. We can also shape our own character and personality by our personal effort and Krsna's mercy. I won’t say that it is easy. Changing our beliefs and attitudes about ourself is one of the most difficult undertakings we will ever face. But it is definitely possible and achievable if we dedicate the necessary time and effort.

How long does it take to develop a new habit pattern? It depends on how complex the habit pattern is. You can develop a simple habit pattern in 14 to 21 days. For example, if you want to begin getting up half an hour earlier so that you can plan and organize your day, it might take just two to three weeks to develop the habit.

If you want to develop a new habit pattern of behavior that does deeper into your character, it might take several months or even a year or more. The most important point is that, no matter how long it takes, the end result is achievable if you are really determined.

The habits of success have been studied by the great thinkers and philosophers for at thousands of years, and they have found that the very best people have the very best habits. Based on these findings, seven habits have been identified that we need to develop if we want to perform at our very maximum in everything we do.

The first is goal orientation. You need to become a habitual goal setter, and dedicate yourself to working from clear, written goals every day of your life.

The second habit you need to develop for success is result orientation. Result orientation is made up of two practices. The first is the practice of continuously learning so that you become better at what you do. The second practice is that of time management, which means setting very clear priorities on what you do and then concentrating single-mindedly on the most valuable use of your time.

The third major habit you need to develop is that of action orientation. This is really the most important habit for material success. It is the ability to get on with the job and get it done fast. Fast tempo in whatever you do is essential to your success. You need to overcome procrastination, push aside your fears and launch 100% toward the achievement of your most important goals.

The fourth habit you need is people orientation. This is your decision to cultivate within yourself the habits of patience, kindness, compassion, and understanding. Virtually all of your happiness in life will come from your ability to get along well with other people. And getting along well with other people is based on a set of habits that you have learned, or failed to learn, from childhood. But it is never too late to become a wonderful human being in your relationships with other. The more you practice being a truly excellent person in your relationship with others, the more you will internalize those qualities and actually become that person.

The fifth habit you need for great success is health orientation. This means that you must make a conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right proportions. You must exercise on a regular basis, continually using every muscle and joint of your body to keep it young and fit. And finally, you must have regular habits of rest and recreation that will enable you, in combination with diet and exercise, to live a long, full life. Remember, your health is the single most important thing you have, and it is completely dependent upon the habits you develop with regard to the way you live.

The sixth habit is an orientation toward honesty and integrity. In the final analysis, the character you develop as you go through life is more important than virtually anything else. Honesty means that you practice the “reality principle” in everything you do. You are completely objective with yourself and with the world around you. You set very clear values for yourself and you organize your life around your values. You develop a vision for yourself and then you life your life consistent with your highest ideals. You never compromise your integrity or peace of mind for anyone or anything.

This attitude of honesty will enable you to enjoy all of the other success habits that you are developing.

The seventh habit—the one habit that guarantees all the others—is that of self-discipline. Your ability to discipline yourself, to master yourself, to control yourself, goes hand in hand with success in every area of life.

My favorite definition of self-discipline comes from Elbert Hubbard. He said, "Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

Every one of these habits—goal orientation, result orientation, action orientation, people orientation, health orientation, honesty, and self-discipline—can be developed. The following is a seven step method you can use to internalize any habit or group of habits that you want to make a permanent part of your character and personality.

1. Decide clearly on the new habit. Write it down as a goal in the form of a present tense, personal, positive affirmation. For example, if you want to develop the habit of self-discipline, you write, "I am an extremely well-disciplined individual in everything I do."

2. Repeat your affirmation as often as possible, and with as much enthusiasm and conviction as possible. The more times you repeat this command, the more likely it is that your subconscious mind will ultimately accept it and begin to adjust your thoughts, words, and behaviors to be consistent with it.

3. Visualize yourself as if you already had the new habit pattern. Imagine yourself as already being exactly the person that you want to become in the future. Remember, your subconscious mind is activated and programmed by mental pictures. All improvement in your life and character begin with an improvement in your mental pictures. Use visualization on a regular basis in conjunction with your positive affirmations.

4. Emotionalize the affirmation and the visualization. Take a few minutes each day to actually experience the feeling of being the excellent, outstanding human being that you have decided to become.

5. Launch into your new habit with conviction. Assume the role, acting as if you had been hired to perform this role in a movie or play. The more you behave exactly as if you already had the habit, the more you actually become the person that you desire to be.

6. Tell others that you have decided to develop this habit. When you tell others, you motivate and encourage yourself. You also force yourself to consistently act in accordance with your new resolutions because you know that others are watching.

7. Continually review your progress on a day-to-day basis. When Benjamin Franklin developed his own process for character formation, he would review his behavior every single day to see if he was living consistent with the values that he had determined were important. You can do the same thing. At the end of every day, do a brief recap of your behavior during the day relative to the values and habits you are trying to develop. Give yourself points when you are strong, and be patient with yourself when you slip from time to time.

The most important keys to developing new habit patterns are patience, determination, and persistence. When you begin to change yourself, you will find that it is not particularly easy. But it is possible if you continue to work at it.

You can take complete control over the shaping of your character and personality, and everything that happens to you in the future, by making the decision, right now, to define and develop the habits that will lead you to great success. And when you develop the habits possessed by other successful people, you will enjoy an equal, if not greater, level of success.

USING STUMBLING BLOCKS AS STEPPING STONES

I got this text today and adapted it a bit for my readers. Gita Coaching can help you apply it.

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Everyone makes mistakes and the busier you are, the more mistakes you will make. The only question is "How well and how effectively do you deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life?"

In this article, you will learn the difference between a positive and negative worldview. You learn how to benefit from your mistakes and how to remain positive in the face of adversity.

Let the Light Shine In

This is achieved through the simple exercise of self-disclosure. For you to truly understand yourself, or to stop being troubled by things that may have happened in your past, you must be able to disclose yourself to at least one person. You have to be able to get those things off your chest. You must rid yourself of those thoughts and feelings by revealing them to someone who won't make you feel guilty or ashamed for what has happened.

Using Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones

There are two ways to look at the world: the benevolent way or the malevolent way. People with a malevolent or negative worldview take a victim stance, seeing life as a continuous succession of problems and a process of unfairness and oppression. They don't expect a lot and they don't get much. When things go wrong, they shrug their shoulders and passively accept that this is the way life is and there isn't anything
they can do to make it better.

On the other hand, people with a benevolent or positive worldview see the world around them as filled with opportunities and possibilities. They believe that everything happens as part of a great process designed to make them successful and happy. They approach their lives, their work, and their relationships with optimism, cheerfulness, and a general attitude of positive expectations. They are grateful and they are seldom disappointed.

Flex Your Mental Muscles

When you develop the skill of learning from your mistakes, you become the kind of person who welcomes obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to flex your mental muscles and move ahead. You look at problems as rungs on the ladder of success that you grab onto as you pull your way higher.

Two of the most common ways to deal with mistakes are invariably fatal to high achievement. The first common but misguided way to handle a mistake is the failure to accept it when it occurs. According to statistics, 70 percent of all decisions we make will be wrong. That's an average. This means that some people will fail more than 70 percent of the time, and some people will fail less. It is hard to believe that most of the decisions we make could turn out to be wrong in some way. In
fact, if this is the case, how can our society continue to function at all?

Cut Your Losses

The fact is that our society, our families, our companies, and our relationships continue to survive and thrive because intelligent people tend to cut their losses and minimize their mistakes. It is only when people refuse to accept that they have made a bad choice or decision - and prolong the consequences by sticking to that bad choice or decision - that mistakes become extremely expensive and hurtful.

Learn From Your Mistakes

The second common approach that people take with regard to their mistakes, one that hurts innumerable lives and careers, is the failure to use your mistakes to better yourself and to improve the quality of your mind and your thinking.

Learning from your mistakes is an essential skill that enables you to develop the resilience to be a master of change rather than a victim of change. The person who recognizes that he has made a mistake and changes direction the fastest is the one who will win in an age of increasing information, technology and competition.

By remaining fast on your feet, you will be able to succeed in all areas. You will become a creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances.

Action

Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, imagine that your biggest problem or challenge in life has been sent to you at this moment to help you, to teach you something valuable. What could it be?

Second, be willing to cut your losses and walk away if you have made a mistake or a bad choice. Accept that you are not perfect, you can't be right all the time, and then get on with your life.

Third, learn from every mistake you make. Write down every lesson it contains. Use your mistakes in the present as stepping stones to great success in the future.

TAKE ACTION

1. What’s the first/next step?
2. What research could you do to help you find the first (or next) step?
3. Who could you talk to who would illuminate this issue?
4. Who should you be hanging out with - so that achieving this goal becomes natural? (i.e. who’s already doing it?)
5. How can you get the knowledge/information you need?
6. What are three actions you could take that would make sense this week?
7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited do you feel about taking these actions?
8. What would increase that score? (e.g., handle fear, clearer steps, more support, more fun)
9. What would effective person do in this situation?
10. What will happen (what is the cost) if you do NOT do anything about this?

IS YOUR CLIENT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY?

If your client is not taking responsibility for his life, you and he might be wasting time with coaching.

If your client is doing the following things, he is most probably not serious about solving his problems or achieving his goals:

- Late for sessions
- Doesn't show up at all
- Doesn't do the agreed action points few times in a row
- Uses reactive language: blames others, whines and complaines
- Doesn't review his session notes
- Forgets about sessions

EFFORT TO LEARN

Your effort to learn shows your seriousness to change.

DEPRESSION

To be in depression means you are not grateful for what you have.

YOUR LIFE

If you want your life to change, YOU will have to change.

There is no other way, no other way, no other way.

If you try to become the change you want to see in the world, amazing things will start happening.

You can choose to do things you know you should do.

You can choose to stop doing things you know you should not do.

Although there are external forces that govern our lives, the way we use our free will largely determines the results we get in life.

SINGLE MINDEDNESS

Got this text from a friend:

Having acquired a clear grasp of your priorities, it’s very important to cultivate the personal character trait of single-mindedness.

By that I mean the ability to discern the difference between the good and the best and not to let the good become the enemy of the best.

There are so many distractions in life, and many of them are genuinely good things.

But if our desire is be as productive as we can, then we must learn to shun the good for the sake of the goal on which we’re focused.

TAKE IT IN YOUR HANDS SERIOUSLY

The same example as I gave sometimes, that you learn how to drive aeroplane.

So you go high in the sky.

But if you are in danger, no other aeroplane can help you.

You are finished.

Therefore you must be a very careful pilot to take care of yourself.

Similarly, in this material world everyone individually has to take care of himself ...

A teacher can give you hints.

The acarya can give you hints that "You can be saved in this way."

But the execution of the duties, that is in your hand.

If you perform the spiritual duties rightly, then you are saved.

Otherwise, even acarya gives you instruction, if you don't follow, so how he can save you?

He can save you by instruction, by his mercy, as much as possible.

But you have to take it in your hands seriously.

- Srila Prabhupada

DEFINE YOUR GOALS

1. If you were to FULLY live your life, what is the first change you would start to make?
2. What areas of your life could be upgraded/tweaked?
3. What could you work on now that would make the biggest difference to your life?
4. How would you feel about doubling that goal?
5. What are you tolerating/putting up with?
6. What do you want MORE of in your life? (Make a list)
7. What do you want LESS of in your life? (Make a list)
8. What are three things you are doing regularly that don’t serve or support you?
9. How could you make this goal more specific or measurable?
10. What would be the biggest impact from achieving your goal(s)?
11. What would you try now if you knew you could not fail?
12. How can you make this something you're aiming towards, rather than something you're trying to move away from?
13. What do you love?
14. What do you hate?
15. What’s one thing you would love to do before you die?
16. Is now the right time for you to make a commitment to achieving these goals?
17. What could you work on right now that would really put a smile on your face?
18. For your life to be perfect, what would have to change?
19. What do you really, really want?
20. What’s one change you could make to your lifestyle that would give you more peace?

NO ENEMY

A sadhu, or a devotee of Krsna, is friend of all living entities. He is not only friend of the humankind. He is friend of the animals, trees, the ants, worms, reptiles, serpents - everyone. And because he is friend of everyone, he has no enemy.

Unfortunately this world is so bad, that even to such a sadhu people become enemies. Just like Lord Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi had enemies who killed them. Anyway, from his side, sadhu has no enemy. He is friend of everyone.

Although a sadhu does not do anything which will create an enemy, the nature of this world is that people become envious. Any person who has done no wrong, but is making progress, will be envied by his friends or neighbors or others. They will think: "Oh, he is becoming successful." So envy is very much present in this world.

It doesn't mean that because you have become Krsna conscious there will be no enemy. Of course, for a Krsna conscious person there is no enemy, in the sense that no enemy can do any harm to him, because he is always protected by Krsna.

12 QUESTIONS

I found these questions in one book on leadership and management. I modified them a bit, so you can apply them to both your devotional service and your professional career.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received any support and guidance in my work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions count?
8. How does my work relates to the mission/purpose of my company?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?
12. At work, have I had the opportunities to learn and grow?

If you like, you can send me the answers and we can discuss them.

SPIRITUAL DIET FOR THE MIND

Monitor your mental diet the way you would your physical diet.

Be sure that you feed yourself throughout the day with positive spiritual stories, words, pictures and conversations related to the things you want to be, do and have in your life.

Refuse to read, watch, listen to or discuss things that are negative, depressing or degrading.

This will make a tremendous difference in how you think, feel, what you want and how you act.

POWER QUESTION

What does success mean to you and what price are you willing to pay?

WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR COACHING TO SUCCEED?

Your success with a coach will depend on what you put into it. Your coach may be experienced in assisting you to get the results you are looking for, but the ultimate factor in your success is your level of participation.

My service to you is to bring out your best and accept no less. So expect to be challenged. We all have bad days, so I won't dock you any points for that, but I am here to support you and guide you, not wave my magic wands. You have to do the work.

There is customarily work to be done in between sessions for optimal benefit and timing. Believe it or not, I don't want you to stay with me forever. I want you to succeed and move on.

EDUCATION

People are working so hard simply for bodily comforts, without education regarding the spirit soul. Thus they are living in a very risky civilization, for it is a fact that the spirit soul has to transmigrate from one body to another (tatha dehantara-praptih [Bg. 2.13]).

Without spiritual education, people are kept in dark ignorance and do not know what will happen to them after the annihilation of the present body. They are working blindly, and blind leaders are directing them. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanas te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhah (SB 7.5.31).

A foolish person does not know that he is completely under the bondage of material nature and that after death material nature will impose upon him a certain type of body, which he will have to accept. He does not know that although in his present body he may be a very important man, he may next get the body of an animal or tree because of his ignorant activities in the modes of material nature.

Therefore the Krsna consciousness movement is trying to give the true light of spiritual existence to all living entities. This movement is not very difficult to understand, and people must take advantage of it, for it will save them from the risky life of irresponsibility.

Srila Prabhupada

PRINCESS

Once upon a time there was a lovely princess living in the castle of her father, the king.

One day a big dragon came and kidnapped the princess. She was scared to death and lived in fear day and night.

After many years, a beatuful looking powerful prince came on a white horse (in the form of a counsellor, coach or psychotherapist) and rescued the princess from the dragon of her mind.

HAPPY BLOG

Today I was very happy to meat one of my readers who read all the texts here. That's very encouraging. This reader has won a cake at the Govinda's restaurant!

EGG

Picture and egg just sitting there. No one pays it much attention until, one day, the egg cracks open and out jumps a chicken! All the major magazines and newspapers jump on the event, writing feature stories - "The Transformation of Egg to Chicken!" "The Remarkable Revolution of the Egg!" "Stunning Turnaround at Egg!" - as if the egg had undergone some overnight metamorphosis, radically altering itself into a chicken.

But what does it look like from the chickens point of view? It's a completely different story. While the world ignored this dormant-looking egg, the chicken was evolving, growing, developing, incubating. From the chickens point of view, cracking the egg is simply one more step in a long chain of steps leading up to that moment - a big step, to be sure, but hardly the radical, single-step transformation it looks like to those watching from outside the egg.

Similarly, your success is built up every single day, one step at a time.

SET PRIORITIES

Set Priorities on Your Activities and Concentrate Single Mindedly on One Thing at a Time

This is the powerful formula for high levels of productivity and performance and for becoming successful.

By setting priorities and concentrating, you can accomplish much more in life.

Your ability to determine your highest priority and then to work on that high priority until it is completed is the primary test and measure of willpower, self-discipline, and personal character.

It's the hardest to do, but also the most important thing if you want to be a big success.

Here's the formula for high productivity: begin by making a list of everything you have to do before you begin.

Set priorities on your list by asking yourself these four questions over and over:

Question number one: “What are my highest value activities?” What is it that you do that is more valuable than anything else to your service, work or to your business?

Question number two: “Why am engaged or on the payroll?” What exactly have you been hired or engaged to accomplish? Focus on results, not activities.

Question number three: “What can I and only I do that, if done well, will make a real difference?” This is something that only you can do. If you don't do it, it won't get done. But if you do do it and you you do it well, it can make a significant difference in your service, business or your personal life. What is it?

Question number four: “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” There is only one answer to this question at any time. Your ability to determine the single most valuable use of your time and then to start in on that task is the key to high productivity and success.

Finally, commit yourself to working single-mindedly on one task, the most imporant task, and staying with it until it is 100% complete. Perservere without diversion or distraction. Push yourself to keep working at the job until it's done.

The good news is that by continually setting priorities and concentrating on your highest-value tasks, you soon develop the habit of high performance.

This habit will then become automatic and will virtually guarantee you great success in life.

CLIMB FROM PEAK TO PEAK

Be Prepared to Climb From Peak to Peak in Your Life and in Your Serveice or Career

Just as a mountain climber who has reached one peak must go down into the valley to climb to another peak, your life will be the same. Your life, service and career will be a series of ups and downs. As they say, life is two forward and one step back. All of business life is cycles and trends. There are up cycles and down cycles. There are trends in business that can often lead to a complete change in the industry. We see this today with the Internet and the expansion of technology in all directions changing many of our fixed ideas and beliefs about the way business is done.

Develop long time perspective. Take the long view in everything you do. Plan two, three, four, and five years into the future and don't allow yourself to get onto an emotional roller coaster with the short-term ups and downs of daily life. Keep reminding yourself that everything in life goes in cycles and trends. Be calm, confident, and relaxed with short-term fluctuations in your fortune. If you've got clear goals and plans that you're working on every day, the general trend line of your life will tend to be onward and upward over the years.

Brian Tracy

MY CHILD

Get this!

It was all so easy in the beginning. There you were with your tiny bundle of joy, looking forward to its first word, first steps, first day at school. You felt proud and privileged to be a parent ... and then it turned into a teenager!

Suddenly your child is transformed into a sulky and disobedient being whose only means of communication consists of grunts and a succession of door slamming. You are nearing the end of your tether.

"My teenager has no respect for me and will not do anything I say. My teenager and I don't talk to each other."

So what to do?

Read this book:

Help! My Teenager Is an Alien: The Everyday Situation Guide for Parents by Sarah Newton

It may give you some ideas.

LIGHTHOUSE

An idea of the reality — and the impact — of the principles (natural laws) can be captured in a paradigm-shifting experience as told by Frank Kock in Proceedings, the magazine of the Naval Institute.

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.”

“Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain called out.

Lookout replied, “Steady, captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.

The captain then called to the signal man, “Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees.”

Back came a signal, “Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.”

The captain said, “Send, I’m a captain, change course 20 degrees.”

“I’m a seaman second class,” came the reply. “You had better change course 20 degrees.”

By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, “Send, I’m a battleship. Change course 20 degrees.”

Back came the flashing light, “I’m a lighthouse.”

We changed course.

The paradigm shift experienced by the captain — and by us as we read this account — puts the situation in a totally different light. We can see a reality that is superseded by his limited perceptions — a reality that is as critical for us to understand in our daily lives as it was for the captain in the fog.

Principles or natural laws are like lighthouses. They are natural laws that cannot be broken. As Cecil B. deMille observed of the principles contained in his monumental movie, The Ten Commandments, “It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.”

SPIRITUAL CONFIDENCE

My peer-coach gave a nice definition of spiritual confidence.

Confidence is having firm faith that Krsna (God) will arrange or allow what 's best for me, both spiritually and materially. So there's nothing to fear.

TOLERANT OR VICTIM

Recently I asked Hridayananda Maharaja what is the difference between being more tolerant than a tree and being a victim. This is his reply:

We must keep in mind the most universal injunction and prohibition: always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna. Since all injunctions and prohibitions serve these, the tree-rule must also serve it.

I should tolerate if and when such tolerance is favorable to my Krishna consciousness, which usually includes physical, mental, emotional, intellectual and spiritual health.

Of course a proud person may always find it 'unhealthy' to tolerate. We can see the truth of the Bhagavatam's statement [11th canto] that in this age, those who have good intelligence worship the Lord through His sankirtan mission. Krishna also states in the Gita Ch 12, mayi buddhim nivesaya, "invest your discerning intelligence in me."

As in all things, as Krishna explains in the Gita, there must be balance and moderation. In a healthy physical workout, the rigor must not be too little or too much. We challenge the body without damaging it. Similarly we must challenge our pride and selfishness without damaging our physical, mental, and spiritual health.

As we advance it becomes 'natural' to tolerate more.

I AM THE SOUND IN ETHER

Maybe you wondered what does it mean in the Bhagavad Gita when Krsna says "I am the sound in ether." Here's what Srila Prabhupada said:

"O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man." Here the Lord exhibited His presence everywhere by the tumultuous sound in the sky (sabdah khe). The tumultuous thundering sound was proof of the Lord's presence. The demons like Hiranyakasipu could now realize the supreme ruling power of the Lord, and thus Hiranyakasipu became afraid. However powerful a man may be, he always fears the sound of a thunderbolt. Similarly, Hiranyakasipu and all the demons who were his associates were extremely afraid because of the presence of the Supreme Lord in the form of sound, although they could not trace out the source of the sound.
SB 7.8.17 P

Sabdah means sound, and whenever we hear any sound we should know that it is a vibration of the original sound, the pure spiritual sound om or Hare Krsna. Whatever sound we hear in the material world is but a reflection of that original spiritual sound om. In this way when we hear sound, when we drink water, when we see some illumination, we can remember God.
OWK 3: Seeing Krsna Everywhere and Always

While drinking water, while seeing the sunshine, while seeing the moonshine, while chanting Vedic mantras, or even hearing some sound in the khe. Sound is produced by the ether. So many sounds we are hearing. If you simply remember this sloka of Bhagavata, that sabda, any sound... Hare Krsna sound is transcendental. That's all right. But if you don't like Hare Krsna sound, you take any sound, any sound is also... That is coming from the original sound. Simply it is covered by maya. What is the difference between spiritual and material? Everything is spiritual. Sarvam khalv idam brahma. But when it is covered by maya, it is material. That's all. And what is maya? Forgetful of Krsna.
Bhagavad-gita 7.8 -- Bombay, February 23, 1974

COACH IS

"A Coach is your partner in achieving your personal goals, your champion during turnaround, your trainer in communication and life skills, your sounding board when making choices, your motivator when strong actions are called for, your unconditional support when you take a hit, your mentor in personal development, your co-designer when developing an extraordinary project, your beacon during stormy times, your wake-up call if you don't hear your own, and most importantly: your partner in living the life you know you're ready for, personally and professionally."

- Thomas Leonard

COACH IS

"A Coach is your partner in achieving your personal goals, your champion during turnaround, your trainer in communication and life skills, your sounding board when making choices, your motivator when strong actions are called for, your unconditional support when you take a hit, your mentor in personal development, your co-designer when developing an extraordinary project, your beacon during stormy times, your wake-up call if you don't hear your own, and most importantly: your partner in living the life you know you're ready for, personally and professionally."

- Thomas Leonard

A VICTIM TREATS HIS MUGGER RIGHT

My friend Mayapur from Varazdin (Croatia) sent me this story.

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.

“If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money.”

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’”

Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?’”

“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’”

Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”

“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said. Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.

The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to. When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

SADHU

Once upon a time a sadhu (holy man) was living in a village.

One day villagers decided to invite him to a public gathering to speak about God.

He agreed. When he came in front of the crowd he asked them: "How many of you believe in God?"

Villagers looked at each other and considering that a saint was standing before them they all raised their hands, confirming that they do believe in God.

Sadhu then said: "All right. Because all of you believe in God I have nothing to say." And he left.

After some time, villagers invited the sadhu again and he came. Once again, he asked: "How many of you believe in God?"

This time the villagers have agreed that no one will raise their hand, expecting that he will speak.

Sadhu said: "Because no one believes in God, I have nothing to say to you." And he left again.

After some more time has passed, villagers invited the sadhu again. This time they decided to be honest. Those who believe in God should raise their hands, and those who doubt should be silent.

When sadhu came, once again he asked: "How many of you believe in God?"

This time some people have raised their hands and some didn’t.

Sadhu then said: “All of you who believe in God, preach to those who don’t.” And got up and left once again.