How To Do Blog

Many people are frightened of credit cards as they have seen many of their known ones have sunk into debt due to inappropriate and injudicious use of the plastic money. But smart people know how to best utilize it for their gains specially when credit card issuing companies (mostly banks) are offering huge incentives in the form of redeemable points which can be redeemed later by the consumer. The more one spends, the he or she receives points for every purchase he makes using the card from the issuing authority. But I am not suggesting that you will spend carelessly and get into debt trap. What I am saying is that whenever you need to buy something, use your card so that your redeemable points are maximized.

Choosing the best card for best purchase is what is required. There are lots of banks offering different types of cards - so choosing the right one is not easy. Most cards don’t offer cash in exchange of bonus points. They offer gifts like gadgets, accessories etc. instead. Some issuing authorities also offer air miles in exchange of bonus points earned by the user. Recently, some are even offering instant redeem options when a client may redeem at the cash point. The banks have definitely tied up with these companies. Also co-branded credit cards yield more bonus points than the normal cards.

One should also remember that, not all purchases of same amount yield same points. So one has to study a little bit about all the options that come with a card in order to gain maximum benefit.

Men from cave age are living their life in different ways. There is a proverb ” Men were happy when they lived in caves”. Well, there are many points in support of it. Then, the people had limited desires. They lived in particular areas and their desires were confined to that extent of experience. When we see little, we desire little. In fact, this very proverb is not tenable when we recall the sayings of Jean Jacques Rousseau that, in the ancient time, life was short and brutish. But my point of view is that, happiness does not depend on the span of life. It is rather a matter of contentment. And there are many ways to be contented. Our likings are different. Some find pleasure in earning, while others find pleasure in spending. Others find pleasure in storing their properties. So happiness is not confined to riches alone. It is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of how you take things you pass by. Some are irritated at the sight of break dance, while others are pulled by the thrill of it.

Men are by nature peculiar. Men do not know where happiness lie. The mad rush of the modern world itself is an example. Somerset Maugham said that, happiness is fairly distributed to the rich and poor. It is not the monopoly of the riches alone. The poorest of the poor also find mental solace at a particular time or place.

Those who are positive - they find happiness even in adversities. They sustain hope even when the circumstances are against hope. They are men of indomitable courage and strength. These type of people are imitable - they are men of jovial personality. But those who are pessimists - they see darkness everywhere. They are man of morbidity. They are by nature melancholic. They do not find happiness even when there are reasons to be happy. Such people suffer - and make others suffer. They are psychic patients. These type of people must be avoided.

Many religions teach us that real happiness lies in sacrifice. Man does not live for bread alone. Man wants something else after bread. This is the difference between men and animals. Men are to live for men. A man is nothing if he/she is not in the company of other fellow human beings. A man’s personality develops only in the company of man. So in order to be happy, we have to do something for our fellow men. If a man lives in his own world - he is otherwise happy like a philosopher, being forgetful of this mundane world. But a societal man needs to care for his society. If the society suffers, a lone person can never be happy. Hence is the necessity to take care of our environment or surroundings. Even a beggar may be happier than the mightiest king because he has limited desires and less problems.

Animals are satisfied with full valley of fodder. But this is not true in case of human beings. Men are always dynamic. A step forward is the chief motive of all men. An ever striving zeal may make him unhappy but at the same time - achieving of important goals may make his life fulfilled. This is the root of happiness.

Successful people should recognize the fact that all they need for success is within them. Everyone wish to successful in life, yet few people understand the truth about achieving success. Success is not an outcome of avoiding failures but it is all about managing failures. You must see failures as a temporary setback and a chance for correction.  Successful people are not worried about failures. They are more bothered about the opportunity that they could miss, if they do not even try for themselves.

The attitude of a person is very much linked towards achieving success. Depending on the words that a person speaks, reflects the person’s chances of being successful. It is easy to recognize if the person is in control of his life or whether he is being led by his circumstances, based on what he speaks. Certain people wrongly assume by saying, “It is not in my hands”. These people also go further by blaming their circumstances for whatever happens or does not happen to them. Once a negative assumption is made in your mind, the mind tries to follow the suggestion, like a slave. The reason most of us undergo stress in our daily life has less to do with our individual circumstances and more to do with ourselves. It is not what happens to us that creates dissonance in our mind but it is how we perceive when things happen to us.

Most of us feel that success is limited to a few selected people, who already have everything in life. They further feel that only the lucky ones shine in life. In other words, we feel that success is something that we are either born with. Both these assumptions leads us to give up responsibility for our own success.

By accepting the fact that success comes only to the selected few, you start a subconscious thinking process that suggests, you may not be part of that selected group. On the other hand when you think that it is luck that helps people get success, is also equally limiting. It is indeed a limiting belief because by thinking in this way, you tend to believe that if you do not have luck by your side, you cannot get success. The consequences of the latter thinking process are no different from that in the previous case.

Successful people believe in themselves and do not limit their thinking. A positive thinking mind-set helps them to face difficult situations in their day to day life. Successful people know that success has to be earned and therefore it is achieved by certain amount of hard work.

To be successful, we should have an attitude of living in the moment and enjoying each moment of our life. We must not fear drawbacks but learn to tackle it, forcefully. You must have a purpose in life that allows you to unlock your hidden talent. Failures are not to be considered as dead-end, but should be taken as a temporary setback. Falling is not important but getting up after you fall is an important action to be consider. Successful people see failures as temporary setbacks. It is that one extra attempt that we take, creates a difference between success and failure. In other words, it is that one extra step towards a particular situation in life that leads us to success.

By Sardar Joginder Singh ( Former Director, CBI)

Competition Refresher, July 2005 Issue

L. RON HUBBARD says: “When a person becomes terribly interesting, he has lots of problems. That is the chasm, which is crossed by all of our celebrities, anybody who is foolish enough to become famous. He crosses over from being interested in life to being interesting. And people who are interesting, are really no longer interested in life. It is very baffling to some young fellow why he cannot make some beautiful girl interested in him. Well, she is not interested, she is interesting.”

Shift the Attention

Many persons reason that the course to success is to be interesting. It is to show off or act like some celebrity or copy some one’s style. This one tendency is more to be seen in the younger generation, who feel dressing up in stylish clothes or having the hair style of a film star. Some of them believe that having the latest mobile phone or the car, will make them interesting and make people take interest in them. An actor while acting on stage can be interesting. Similar is the case with speakers, comedians, models and magicians. Their livelihood and job depends on being interesting. When they stop being interesting, which is a part of their jobs, they go out of circulation. If you want people to collaborate with you or to be fond of you or to be approachable, you must be enthralling and absorbing. Instead of concentrating on yourself, be interested in others. Observe what makes them happy or miserable. You should shift your attention from yourself to others.

Proper Judgment.

When you focus is more on others than yourself, you experience less stress. You act and react with more shrewdness and judgement. Your quest and awareness level increases, enabling you, to have more entertaining thoughts. If you want to relish life, keep yourself actively engaged in various activities. But do not neglect leisure, amusement and laughter as well as your health and sleep. Do not waste your time, on imaginary and theoretical problems or thinking. Do not involve yourself, with things or situations about which you can not do anything like the weather or lightening or what others feel about you or how you should react if a particular thing were to happen. Life can be, and is totally different, than what many armchair generals or theoreticians have realized. Try to live in the present. Tackle the most unpleasant chore first as putting off unpleasant task will only lead you and simply give you, more time to your way of thinking to make a mountain out of a probable molehill. Any time spent on anxiety will sap your self-confidence. Doing whatever you are to do right now is the best way to overcome tension or worry.

Some people have a habit of pouring their woes and anxieties on other people. I had a neigbour Brajesh, who would always be condemning his colleagues, bosses and even sub-ordinates. He never had a good word for anybody. Apart from this, he was always talking of his ailments and body problem. He would describe his symptoms in great detail. After listening to him for a week, I felt that I had all his health problems. I got myself thoroughly checked up and was declared hundred percent fit. Then I realized that it was the unhealthy exposure of the talk, information and bemoaning of Brajesh, which had affected me. When next time he wanted to talk about his problems, I made a decent excuse to go away from his presence. I repeated the same approach for a month. Then one day he asked me as to why I was avoiding him. I told him equally frankly that everybody has his problems, and I was not allowing myself, to become the dust bin of his negative thinking. I said he was welcome to be with me, as long as he did not talk of his ill health or badmouth others. I told him, not to look for sympathy and not think of his problems as difficulties. Instead, he should consider them as opportunities and to develop his faculties and skills to overcome them.

Another friend of mine, Kaman, is always in a tearing hurry for everything. He told me that he envies my life because I never give the impression of being nervous, though sometimes I may be so. When he asked me as to how I do so, I said that, as far as possible, I try to arrange my schedule, and pad my time, I such a way that I am not late for any programme. Being late and in a hurry can shatter anybody’s poise. Avoid being in a situation here you do not have to hurry. Hurry and worry are closely inter related. Combined together, they can destroy and shatter aplomb, self-assurance, self-confidence and self control.

Tackle the Situation

The basic point here is that we all face problems, and unavoidable situations in life. Rarely or mostly nobody has smooth sailing and trouble free existence. We should be prepared to divide any job simple manageable segments for completion. This is the only way in which we can forge ahead. If worse comes to worst, we should be ready to do our best and in most cases our best will be better than the best we had anticipated.