Day with a Difference – 29-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“The reason man may become the master of his own destiny is because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind.” – Napoleon Hill

Thought of the day

The power of your subconscious mind cannot be under estimated. Even though we do not fully understand how the subconscious works exactly, the power of it is undisputed.

It is important to understand that both negative and positive thoughts have an effect on your subconscious mind. By continually dwelling on what’s wrong in our life, our subconscious is fed with negatives, and we become gloomy. Just by being aware of what we think, read, and listen to, we can make a positive change.

If you leave it, your subconscious mind will be like a garden that is unattended – the weeds will take over.

You DO have control over this awesome power. And the really cool thing is that there is no rocket science needed to develop it.

A practical method for feeding your subconscious mind with positive material is reading. Find an article, or book chapter about something that really strikes a chord with you – something that’s really positive.

Reference: http://www.motivaction.biz/Articles/thepowerofyoursubconsciousmind.html

Idiom of the day

"Eat like a bird" – to eat very little.
Example: We went out for a meal, but she ate like a bird and hardly said a word.

Joke of the day

There were three men on a hill with their watches. The first man threw his watch down the hill and it broke. The second man threw his watch down the hill and it broke. The third man threw his watch down the hill, walked all the way to the bottom, and caught it. The other two men were puzzled and asked the third man how he did it. The third man said, "Easy. My watch is 5 minutes slow!"

Have a great day!

Warm regards,
Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 28-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have.” – Anonymous

Thought of the day – Whose time is right?

There was a man who works as a foreman at a factory. Every morning on his way to work , he would pass a particular shop selling watches. He will stop in front of the shop and adjust the time on his wrist watch, and will then proceed to work. He will do this every day. The watch shop owner became very curious and one day stopped the man and asked him what he was doing. The man said that he was the foreman of the factory and everyday it was his duty to ring the bell to sound the alarm at 5.00pm to indicate that it was time to stop work for the day. He wanted to be accurate with the time and therefore everyday he would look at the big clock in the shop to adjust the time on his wrist watch. The shop owner started laughing! He said, “Everyday at 5.00pm when the factory bell sounds the alarm, I would quickly adjust the time on my clock”.

It is important for us to realize that to be successful we have to follow and copycat the right leaders. We should role model leaders with good characters, values and beliefs, otherwise we may find that we may reach the “top of our ladder”, but only to realize that we are on “top of the wrong ladder”.

Word of the day

“Personalia” – personal details such as biographical data, reminiscences, or the like.

Joke of the day

Policeman: Excuse me, sir, but your license requires you to wear glasses. You are not wearing them, why not?
Driver: I have contacts!
Policeman: I don’t care who you know! I’m giving you a ticket and you can tell it to the judge!

Have a great day!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 27-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” –Confucius

Thought of the day – The seeker of truth

After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, in which he would find a well. ‘Ask the well what is truth’, he was advised, ‘and the well will reveal it to you’. Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question. And from the depths came the answer, ‘Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking’.

Full of hope and anticipation the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather uninteresting shops. One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third. Nothing and no one there seemed to have much to do with the revelation of truth.

Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation, but he was told only, ‘You will understand in the future.’ When the man protested, all he got in return were the echoes of his own shouts. Indignant for having been made a fool of – or so he thought at the time – the seeker continued his wanderings in search of truth. As years went by, the memory of his experience at the well gradually faded until one night, while he was walking in the moonlight, the sound of sitar music caught his attention. It was wonderful music and it was played with great mastery and inspiration.

Profoundly moved, the truth seeker felt drawn towards the player. He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings. He became aware of the sitar itself. And then suddenly he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three stores and had thought it to be without any particular significance.

At last he understood the message of the well: we have already been given everything we need: our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way. Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone.

Idiom of the day

“Compare apples and oranges”

To examine the similarities of things that are completely different

Example: Comparing the average wages of workers and managers is like trying to compare apples and oranges.

Joke of the day

TEACHER : George, go to the map and find North America.
GEORGE : Here it is!
TEACHER : Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS : George!

Have a great week ahead!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 24-Feb-12

Quote of the day

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow – Doug Firebaugh

Thought of the day

Monkey-hunters use a box with an opening at the top, big enough for the monkey to slide its hand in. Inside the box arenuts. The monkey grabs the nuts and now its hand becomes a fist. The monkey tries to get its hand out but the opening is big enough for the hand to slide in, but too small for the fist to come out. Now the monkey has a choice, either to let go off the nuts and be free forever or hang on to the nuts and get caught. Guess what it picks every time? You guessed it. He hangs on to the nuts and gets caught.

We are no different from monkeys. We all hang on to some nuts that keep us from going forward in life. We keep rationalizing by saying, "I cannot do this because . . ." and whatever comes after "because" are the nuts that we are hanging on to which are holding us back. Successful people don’t rationalize. Two things determine if a person will be a success: reasons and results.
Reasons don’t count while results do.

Word of the day

“Perspicacious” – Having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning.

Example: You are perspicacious, know the ways of the world, and are more tactful than most men of your age.

Joke of the day

Two men took a test at a job interview and both scored nine out of ten. When one was offered the job, the other asked why he didn’t get it.
“Simple,” said the manager.
“You each answered the first nine questions correctly but, on the tenth, the successful candidate wrote, ‘I don’t know.’
“You wrote, ‘Neither do I’

Have a nice weekend!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 23-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” – Mark Twain

Thought of the day- Inspiration

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before. Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built. Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge. The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

"We told them so."

"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."

"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment. It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife. He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again. For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do. Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realized with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Word of the day

“Ubiquitous” – Being or seeming to be everywhere, or in all places, at the same time; omnipresent.

Example: “His ubiquitous influence was felt by all the family”

Joke of the day

Boy was drunk and came home late..

To avoid his dad’s scolding, he quietly took the laptop and started working,

Dad: "are you drunk?"

Son : "No"

Dad : " then what are you doing with my suitcase???"

Have a great day!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 22-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” -Mother Theresa

Thought of the day – A meeting of minds

Martin was returning to work in his London office after spending two weeks with his brother over in New York. He was coming back with a heavy heart. It was not just that it was the end of a wonderful holiday; it was not just that he invariably suffered badly from jet lag; it was that Monday mornings always began with a team meeting and, over the months, he had grown to hate them. Martin was aware that colleagues approached these meetings with hidden agendas; they indulged in game-playing; and he knew that people were not being honest and open. The meetings themselves were bad enough – but then there was all the moaning afterwards. "The usual people saying the usual things". "I could have improved on that idea, but I wasn’t going to say". "I was thinking of making a suggestion – but I couldn’t be bothered".

As this morning’s meeting began, Martin braced himself for the usual moroseness and monotony. But, as the meeting progressed, he became aware of a strange background noise. At first, he thought that he was still hearing the engine noise from the aircraft that had brought him back to London – he had had to sit over the wing and the droning was terrible. But, as he concentrated on the noise, it became a little clearer. He realized – to his amazement – that he could hear what his colleagues were thinking as well as what they were saying. As he concentrated still harder, he found that he could actually hear what they were thinking at the same time as they were speaking. What surprised him, even more than the acquisition of this strange power, was that he discovered that what people were saying was not really what they were thinking. They were not making clear their reservations. They were not supporting views which they thought might be unpopular. They were not contributing their new insights. They were not volunteering their new ideas.

Martin found it impossible not to respond to his new knowledge. So he started to make gentle interventions, based more on what he could hear his colleagues thinking than on what he could hear them saying. "So, John are you really saying ..""Susan, Do you really think that …" "Tom, Have you got an idea on how we could take this forward?" He was aware that his colleagues were unsettled by how insightful were these interventions. They looked at him mystified. In truth, he felt rather proud of his newly-acquired talent.

Emboldened now, Martin forgot his usual misery at participating in such meetings and began making comments of his own. However, he became aware that some of his colleagues were looking at him quizzically. One or two even had a gentle smile playing on their lips. Only gradually did it dawn on him – they could hear his thoughts and he was not really saying what he was thinking.

As the meeting progressed, Martin became aware of changes to the tone and style of the event. It was clear to him now that, one by one, each member of the meeting was learning how to hear the thoughts of all the others and this was subtly changing how they inter-acted with one another. The game-playing started to fall away; people started to speak more directly; views became better understood; the atmosphere became more open and trusting.

The meeting ended. As people left the room, Martin found that he could still hear what they were thinking. "That was the best meeting we’ve ever had." "All meetings should be like that." "In future, I’m going to say what I think".

Author: Roger Darlington

Idiom of the day

A "mammoth task" is a task that is, figuratively speaking, huge; huge like a woolly mammoth, an extinct relative of the elephant. Example: "Solving global poverty is a mammoth task

Joke of the day

Teacher : What shape is the Earth?
Student : I don’t know !

Teacher : Well ! What kind of earrings does your mom wear?
Student : Square ones

Teacher :No, I mean the ones she wear on Sunday
Student :Round

Teacher : Then, what shape is the Earth?
Student : Square on Weekdays and Round on Sundays

Have a great day!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 20-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” -Babe Ruth

Thought of the day

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and totted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is too not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!

Word of the day

“Defeatist” – A single word to describe a person who gives up too easily.

Joke of the day

Sylvia: Dad, can you write in the dark?
Father: I think so. What do you want me to write?
Sylvia: Your name on this report card.

Have a nice day!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 20-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.” -Tommy Lasorda

Thought of the day – Obstacle in our path

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.

Phrase and its origin

“Wear your heart on your sleeve” – which means to display one’s emotions openly.

Origin: Shakespeare’s Othello

Joke of the day

Teacher: "What is common between JESUS, GANDHI and BUDHA?"

Tintu: "All are born on government holidays.

Have a superb week ahead!

Warm Regards,

Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 17-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fact of the day – Anger takes your breath away

If you’re prone to losing your temper, beware: being angry can make your lungs weaker. A study by Harvard school of public health measured the lung capacity and rated the hostility of 670 men, 3 times over 8 years. At the end of the study, the lung power of those who exhibited high levels of hostility had become significantly worse compared to those with a low rating.

“When you’re angry, you produce hormones to help your body prepare for a fighting”, says Dr.John Moore Gillon, president of British Lung Foundation. “These release chemicals that can cause cells in your bronchial tubes to inflame. The tubes then narrow and you’ll feel breathless. Dr.Moore Gillon says, this type of lung damage is tiny compared to the effects of smoking. But long-term, irreversible damage can be caused.

So, if someone says something you don’t like, don’t fly into a rage. Instead, take a deep breath, count to 10 and ask yourself, “How important is this really?”

Idiom of the day

“Eyes like a hawk” – If someone has eyes like a hawk, they have very good eyesight and they notice everything.

Example: You need eyes like a hawk to be a line judge at Wimbledon, especially these days when the top tennis players hit the ball so fast.

Joke of the day

A 911 operator gets a call from a man who sounds frantic. “I’m on a hunting trip, and I accidentally shot my friend.” The 911 operator says, “The first thing we have to do is make sure if he’s dead.” She hears a loud bang, and then the guy comes back on. “Okay,” he says, “He’s dead. Now what?”

Have a fantastically funny weekend,

Regards,
Prasanna

Day with a Difference – 16-Feb-12

Quote of the day

“Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy” – Mike Ditka

Thought of the day

Sometimes an uncontrollable feeling of sadness grips us. We recognize that the magic moment of the day has passed and that we’ve done nothing about it. Life begins to conceal its magic and its art. We have to listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. That child understands magic moments. We can stifle its cries, but we cannot silence its voice. The child we once were is still there. Blessed are the children, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If we are not reborn – if we cannot learn to look at life with the innocence and the enthusiasm of childhood – it makes no sense to go on living. There are many ways to commit suicide. Those who try to kill the body violate God’s law. Those who try to kill the soul also violate God’s law, even though their crime is less visible to others. We have to pay attention to what the child in our hear tells us. We should not be embarrassed by this child. We must not allow this child to be scared because the child is alone and is almost never heard. We must allow the child to take the reins of our lives. The child knows that each day is different from every other day. We have to allow it to feel loved again. We must please this child – even if this means that we act in ways we are not used to, in ways that may seem foolish to others. Remember that human wisdom is madness in the eyes of God. But if we listen to the child who lives in our soul, our eyes will grow bright. If we do not lose contact with that child, we will not lose contact with life.

Source: “By the river Piedra I sat down and wept” by Paulo Coelho

Idiom of the day

“Back to the drawing board” – You can say “back to the drawing board” when a plan or a design has failed, and you decide to begin all over again.

Joke of the day

Teacher: Johny, join these two sentences together. I was cycling to school. I saw a dead body.
Johny: (thinking for a while) I saw a dead body cycling to school.

Have a nice day!

Warm Regards,
Prasanna