In a battle, a soldier prepared to bring this wounded friend back from the field.

His Captain said,
“It is of No use! Your friend must be dead”.

But soldier still goes & brings back his friend.

Seeing the dead body, Captain says
“I told you it is of no worth. He’s dead”.

The soldier replies with moist eyes:
“No sir, it was really of worth…..
When I got to him, my friend saw me, smiled & said his last words: “I KNEW YOU WOULD COME”……

Moral: Rare, Precious, Trustworthy, True, Strong friends…. are always there when you need them the most….!!!

A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop. She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene. So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.” With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left; she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half, as he ate the other; she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, why he didn’t even show any gratitude! 

She had never known when she had been so galled and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate. 

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes. 

If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief. 

Moral - Sharing is a big thing. Keep your heart big enough to help others as well as share each small happiness with people. Once a word is spoken, an occasion is lost or the time has gone, you will never be able to recover it. So be happy and keep others happy.

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE." 

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE." 

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" 

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it." 

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND, AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE

Old Lady

An old lady had a hearing-aid fitted, hidden underneath her hair.

A week later she returned to the doctor for her check-up.

"It's wonderful - I can hear everything now," she reported very happily to the doctor.

"And is your family pleased too?" asked the doctor.

"Oh I haven't told them yet," said the old lady, "And I've changed my will twice already..."

The blind man and advertising

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. 

On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: 

'Blind - Please help'.

No-one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

"It says," said the stranger, 

" 'It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.' "

How will you measure your life?

Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you’ll die today.

Our life can be as long as we can make it to be and as short as we can wish.

Life is all about developing various relationships with family, relatives, friends, fellows, work, money, objects, hobbies, and last but not least with yourself.

We all want to love, be loved, learn, teach, mentor, take on responsibilities, acquire various assets, contribute, create, get recognized, be powerful and off course be wealthy.

Now developing any relationship involves giving and taking and if the end result is to be happy we must give more and never expect to get something back. But that’s where unhappiness comes in because all we expect is something back from any/all relationship.

Life becomes complicated because of this give and take game whereas the goal is to make it simple. So you need a strategy to define your life to ensure enduring happiness in any relationship situation.

You are the director of your life but more than often life goes into an endless spiral of uncontrolled spin and there is very little you can do to control it. In such a situation all you have to do is to hold on to it till you get a hang of it. Much of our pain is self-chosen. Just remember there is always an end to any beginning and a new beginning after each end.

We all generally take risks not out of bravado but out of ignorance and blindness to probability and this happens with all of us in almost all life situations.

But that’s the way we all learn the lessons of life isn’t it.

Life is all about making mistakes and the more mistakes you make the more wise you become. Life teaches you by testing you before you learn your lesson, quite opposite to school where you are taught a lesson before test. The good thing about life is that it will give as many chances to anyone who is willing to get up and start again.

Even if you fail all the times, you can still take a new start. At the end of the day you will feel satisfied that you have taken all the chances you could and have played the card well.

It is also true that we cannot go back in life and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

The idea is that later in your life if you have a chance to measure your life; you should be able to feel good about it on any scale.

To have a purpose in life can be a good beginning point to help you give direction to your life.

The idea of selection and pursuing a profession to your satisfaction can be one way to achieve the purpose of your life.

For a successful and satisfactory professional pursuit you must decide on the right mix of resources allocation to shape your life’s strategy. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to under invest in their families and over-invest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.  

If your purpose in life is as simple as to be happy then all you have to do is simply be realistic and lower your expectations from the world around you.

There was and will never be something like a perfect life.

Another important fact of life is that it does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. The point to remember is the life goes on, with you, without you, so while you are there enjoy the ride.

If we try to group the world around us we can group them in two ways, one where we can do something to change the outcome, second where we cannot do anything to change the outcome. Most of us try to fiddle with the second and spend our energy to change something which cannot be changed.

It all depends which door you open and which door you leave closed. Take a close look because more than often the most important things in life are not things to even bother about.

More time in our life is spent in waiting for any action than the action itself, so why not learn to have fun while standing in a queue, that way we can have more happiness in our life.

Lastly do not worry about life; as we all are not going to survive it anyway.

Plan for an early Retirement

The idea of an early retirement is as exciting as it sounds, but the party ends there. To achieve an early retirement you need more than luck and by luck it is never meant that you have to live that long. The good news is most of us are going to live long, but that also is bad news.

Retirement planning will help you manage your funds pre and post retirement keeping in view your life style and retirement goals. Retirement planning is not a simple things its very long and hard work but then at the end of day it will give you the Golden years you and you only deserve, remember  “It's the hottest fire that make's the hardest steel.”

The demographic dividend over the next few decades is expected to spur India’s economic growth. But they are going to get older, living longer and paying for it. Early retirement may be a distance dream for most who fail to take certain simple steps as discussed below.

So let’s get set and get started for a step by step analysis of the factors that are most important in the success of a plan to retire early.

1.       The first and most important thing is the realization of the impact of a plan and no plan for retirement. The retirement period can be as long as 25-40 years. Today retirement or retired doesn’t mean what it used to. To retire in style is getting harder than ever. You may have to plan not only the expense but also what you will do with the time you have at your disposal. If not planned with the help of a professional planner it is possible there won’t be any retirement at all. Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.

2.       The second most important thing to consider after the realization for a need to get a retirement plan in place is underestimating how long you will leave. The advance in medicine will make you live as long as you can, so to plan for retirement you must plan for a reasonably long period of retirement.

3.       The third important thing is underestimating the effect of inflation. Inflation is the biggest risk to any retirement saving. Inflation is the sustained increase in the price of goods and services over time. It will affect your expenses on food and health care beyond imagination, so the failure to consider it may result in the risk of lasting savings before you last. Related to this factor is the decision to position investments for growth, a too conservative investment strategy can be just as dangerous as a too aggressive one.

4.       Then most often we commit the mistake of starting to plan for retirement too late. Not saving enough and not saving early enough can derail the best of retirement plans. The best way is very simple, save early, save often and save consistently.

5.       Then the most common of all mistakes that most of us do is to do it yourself. Going alone on a plan for retirement will expose you to missed investment opportunities, sloppy planning and lax saving schedules. Retirement planning is a serious business and the assistance of a professional retirement adviser is going to make the plan and the process of executing the plan more efficient and manageable.

6.       Some other things that will help you in better retirement planning and which your retirement adviser will take care are, making a portfolio with right asset allocation according to your risk profile and goals, taking advantage of free money, power of compounding, bucket investing, diversification and using enforcement tools.

More than 80% people in our country fail to plan and for most of the other 20% the plan fails because of not taking assistance of a professional retirement adviser. One out of every 3 elderly Indian is already living below poverty line. It’s high time we take this issue seriously and take right decision in time to take care of retirement period right at the start of our career, because we may have to cater for a period longer than our earning period and that is a real challenge. It's better to do the right things wrong, than the wrong things right.

I wish to end this article with, “The person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry—his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing. So think big...start small...move fast.”

Once, a professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it. He held it up for all to see and asked the students, 'How much do you think this glass weighs?'
1 pound! ....2 pounds! .....3 pounds! ......the students answered.
I really don't know unless I weigh it, said the professor, 'but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?' 
Nothing the students said.
OK what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked. 
Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the students.
You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day? 
Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis; have to go to hospital for sure ventured another student. 
All the students laughed.
Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change? Asked the professor. 
No, replied the students. 
Then what caused the arm ache; the muscle stress?
Instead, what should I do? 
The students were puzzled. 
Put the glass down' said one of the students. 
Exactly! said the professor. 
Life's problems are something like this. Hold them for a few minutes in your head; they seem OK. Think of them for a long time; they begin to ache. Hold them even longer; they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.
It is important to think of the challenges in your life, but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to 'put them down' at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh, strong, can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!
Remember friends- PUT THE GLASS DOWN TODAY!

The trick is to shake it off...

One day a farmer's donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old, and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast, and simply fill in the well. Hopefully the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.

The farmer asked his neighbours help, and before long they all began to shovel earth quickly into the well. When the donkey realised what was happening he wailed and struggled, but then, to everyone's relief, the noise stopped.

After a while the farmer looked down into the well and was astonished by what he saw. The donkey was still alive, and progressing towards the top of the well. The donkey had discovered that by shaking off the dirt instead of letting it cover him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as the level rose. Soon the donkey was able to step up over the edge of the well, and he happily trotted off.

Life tends to shovel dirt on top of each of us from time to time. The trick is to shake it off and take a step up.

The story goes that sometime, close to a battlefield over 200 years ago, a man in civilian clothes rode past a small group of exhausted battle-weary soldiers digging an obviously important defensive position. The section leader, making no effort to help, was shouting orders, threatening punishment if the work was not completed within the hour.

"Why are you are not helping?" asked the stranger on horseback.

"I am in charge. The men do as I tell them," said the section leader, adding, "Help them yourself if you feel strongly about it."

To the section leader's surprise the stranger dismounted and helped the men until the job was finished.

Before leaving the stranger congratulated the men for their work, and approached the puzzled section leader.

"You should notify top command next time your rank prevents you from supporting your men - and I will provide a more permanent solution," said the stranger.

Up close, the section leader now recognized General Washington, and also the lesson he'd just been taught.

Short Story-3

Once, during the course of his travels, Guru Nanak arrived at a village where the people were a quarrelsome lot. He blessed them and asked them to prosper and live in that village forever. In the next village, where the people were peace-loving, Guru Nanak blessed them too but asked them to abandon the village and disperse. Mardana, his close disciple, puzzled by the guru’s strange blessings, asked him why he blessed the first village with prosperity though its people were unworthy |of it and asked the good people of the second village to disperse. Guru Nanak smiled and answered: “The quarrelsome will only spread unrest and friction wherever they go. So I asked them to remain where they were. But it is better for the peace-loving to disperse and take their good qualities with them so that all those who know them can learn the art of peaceful coexistence.”

Short Story-2

As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a youth ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the young boy, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. “But the beach goes on for miles and there are thousands of starfish,” countered the old man. “How can your effort make any difference.” The young boy looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to the safety of the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.

Short Story-1

Two travelling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up on to his shoulders and carried her across the water to the other bank. She thanked him and departed. As the monks continued on their way, one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out: “Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!” “Brother,” the second monk replied. “I set her down on the other side, while you are still carrying her.

Life is more accurately measured by the lives you touch than the things you acquire...

One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night.

"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked. The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town.

"All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night."

When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine here in the office," the clerk told them. So the couple agreed.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe, someday I'll build one for you."

The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh.

As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking him to pay them a visit.

The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a palace of reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.

"That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage."

"You must be joking," the young man said.

"I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

The older man's name was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.

"We are not to turn our backs on those who are in need, for we might be entertaining angels".

Life is more accurately measured by the lives you touch than the things you acquire...

Philosophy of Life...

A boat is docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"

The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. We have a full life."

The tourist interrupted,

"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!

You should start by fishing longer every day.

You can then sell the extra fish you catch.

With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?"

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City !

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.

"How long would that take?"

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children,
catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

"With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what we are doing now. So what's the point wasting twenty-five years?" asked the Mexicans.

And the moral of this story is:

Know where you're going in life, you may already be there!

“Live your life before life becomes lifeless”

LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE PRICKS IN YOUR LIFE...

Fable of the porcupine...

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.

The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen.

So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together.

They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the warmth that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

The real moral of the story......LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE PRICKS IN YOUR LIFE.

"Free your mind from worries - Most never happen"

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player, was dying of CANCER.

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease?"

To this Arthur Ashe replied ...

"The world over --

5 crore children start playing tennis,

50 lakh learns to play tennis,

5 lakh learns professional tennis,

50,000 come to the circuit,

5000 reach,

50 reach to the grand slam Wimbledon,

4 to the semifinals,

2 to the finals.

When I was holding a cup, I never asked GOD "Why me?" And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?"

Happiness keeps u sweet....

Trials keep u strong....

Sorrow keeps u human....

Failure keeps u humble....

Success keeps u glowing....

But only God keeps u going!!!!

"Free your mind from worries - Most never happen"

Why generosity?

This is from Panchatantra.

An ant was moving by a stream of water and had suddenly fallen into water by the sudden heavy blow of wind. There is no time to respond or react. It was a struggle even to breathe, it tried its best to survive and yet it couldn't make any way out but it didn't loose hope. This was all noticed by a bird who is on the branch of the tree which is near by the water stream. Its heart poured with kindness after noticing the helpless attempts of the little ant. The bird with out wasting time dropped a leaflet for that to fall exactly before the ant. The little ant got itself fixed on to the leaf and the bird picked the leaf back from the river to the land. It all took a bit of generosity for the bird but in fact it saved the life of the ant. Miraculous!! Isn't it?

A few days passed by and one day the bird was resting on the branch of a tree in the nearby woods. This was noticed by a cruel hunter and he aimed at the bird with his catapult. He was almost to shoot the bird and there aren't any seconds to count. The little ant swiftly had bitten the leg of the hunter as hardly as it can stretching all its vigor. Alas! The shot missed the hit and the bird woke up to this disturbance and had flown away from the tree with out being shot by the hunter. How could all this happen? Is the ant that big enough to fight with the hunter?

This is a lesson of treasure for all of us to realize the power of generosity. It is the gratitude of the ant to the generosity of the bird that finally saved the life of the bird.

May this bird & ant story inspire all of us to be rightfully generous...

Carrots, Eggs & Coffee!!!

A carrot, an egg and a cup of coffee....You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up; she was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

NEVER CRY FOR THE PAST

I have heard a beautiful story - I don't know how far it is correct, I cannot vouch for it.

In paradise one afternoon, in its most famous cafe, Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Buddha are sitting and chatting. The waiter comes with a tray that holds three glasses of the juice called "Life," and offers them. Buddha immediately closes his eyes and refuses; he says, "Life is misery."

Confucius closes his eyes halfway - he is a middlist, he used to preach the golden mean - and asks the waiter to give him the glass. He would like to have a sip - but just a sip, because without tasting how can one say whether life is misery or not? Confucius had a scientific mind; he was not much of a mystic, he had a very pragmatic, earthbound mind. He was the first behaviorist the world has known, very logical. And it seems perfectly right - he says, "First I will have a sip, and then I will say what I think." He takes a sip and he says, "Buddha is right - life is misery."

Lao Tzu takes all the three glasses and he says, "Unless one drinks totally, how can one say anything?" And Lao Tzu says, " He drinks all the three glasses and starts dancing!

Buddha and Confucius ask him, "Are you not going to say anything?" And Lao Tzu says, "This is what I am saying - my dance and my song are speaking for me." Unless you taste totally, you cannot say. And when you taste totally, you still cannot say because what you know is such that no words are adequate.

Buddha is on one extreme, Confucius is in the middle. Lao Tzu has drunk all the three glasses - the one that was brought for Buddha, the one that was brought for Confucius, and the one that was brought for him. He has drunk them all; he has lived life in its three-dimensionality.

Live life in all possible ways; don't choose one thing against the other, and don't try to be in the middle. Don't try to balance yourself - balance is not something that can be cultivated. Balance is something that comes out of experiencing all the dimensions o flife. Balance is something that happens; it is not something that can be brought about through your efforts. If you bring it through your efforts it will be false, forced. And you will remain tense, you will not be relaxed, because how can a person who is trying to remain balanced in the middle be relaxed? You will always be afraid that if you relax you may start moving to the left or to the right. You are bound to remain uptight, and to be uptight is to miss the whole opportunity, the whole gift of life.

Don't be uptight. Don't live life according to principles. Live life in its totality, drink life in its totality! Yes, sometimes it tastes bitter - so what? That taste of bitterness will make you capable of tasting its sweetness. You will be able to appreciate the sweetness only if you have tasted its bitterness. One who knows not how to cry will not know how to laugh, either. One who cannot enjoy a deep laughter, a belly laugh, that person's tears will be crocodile tears. They cannot be true, they cannot be authentic.

Do not be in middle way, reach the total way. Then a balance comes of its own accord, and then that balance has tremendous beauty and grace. You have not forced it, it has simply come. By moving gracefully to the left, to the right, in the middle, slowly a balance comes to you because you remain so unidentified. When sadness comes, you know it will pass, and when happiness comes you know that will pass, too. Nothing remains; everything passes by. The only thing that always abides is your witnessing. That witnessing brings balance. That witnessing is balance. "

Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life...

How to improve your relationship to money?

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Money will always motivate people in doing so many funny things and there are so many ways in this world to make money and so many more to loose it.

But there exists room for everyone to improve his relationship with money as there is scope in any relationship on this earth.

Money is the opposite of the weather. Nobody talks about it, but everybody does something about it.

The answer to how to improve your relationship with money can be well understood the same way as the answer to how you would go about improving ANY relationship and that is through more love. You can't enjoy a good relationship with money unless you're willing to love it, through thick and thin.

Love is a choice and an intention—not only an emotion, but also a behavior.

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down.

We know we've invested our love in the right way when our relationships continue to improve. And, our relationships with money will continue to improve too, as long as we honor it in the same way that we honor the other important relationships in our lives.

Pay Attention to It:

When your loved one comes into the room, you acknowledge him or her. Even if you don't have time or your hands our full, you still pay attention. You would never roll your eyes and tell them, "I'll deal with you later!"

Money requires attention and serious attention if you wish to have more of it, just like any relationship demands attention.

Money is a headache, and money is the cure.

Make Time For It:

With attention money also requires time to nurture it, time to take care of it and time to understand its dynamics.

Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.

Prioritize It:

As we get older and our lives get fuller, we must choose how we spend our time. Whether this is conscious or unconscious, our priorities create our value system. If you want to place more value on money in your life, you have to make a conscious choice to prioritize it.

Most of the time we may have to forgo many a good things in our life to make money and most of the time we get into such situations unconsciously.

But a stable value system can bring the required balance, it is difficult but not impossible to achieve.

Celebrate The Good:

When a kid achieves something, you put the medal, certificate or piece of art on the fridge. When you feel like you've made some progress with your money relationship, you must allow yourself the same moment of recognition.

Take time to pat on your back and celebrate the moment when you made good money and you will feel better about it, share it not only with your family but friends and employees too.

Forgive The Bad:

When a loved one makes a mistake, you don't flip out on them (I hope you don't!); you acknowledge they did their best, forgive them and move on. When money doesn't come soon enough, or you find yourself earning less than you hoped for, you need to remember that this is one blip in a relationship that may not last a lifetime . . . and move on.

Any set back or loss it to be taken with all humility, learn the lesson and move on.

Keep A Sense of Humor:

Have you noticed that it's more fun to be with someone when they are willing to laugh at themselves? Those characteristics of self awareness and the willingness to not take them so seriously is a killer combination for successful relationships.

Money doesn't have to be super serious; in fact, it's better when it's not. Money or no money life goes on.

You don't have to die in order to make a living. So it is always a better option to have fun and make money.

Respect It:

With loved ones, you don't simply take their voice or presence for granted—or if you do, you're not going to get the kind of relationship you want.

Your money is always trying to tell you something, so you need to pay attention and look for the clues.

No matter how hard you hug your money, it never hugs back, still respect what you have and it will respect you back.

Don't Manipulate It or Try Power Plays:

With people and things you really love, you don't really think about the balance of power. And if you love someone, you'd never want them to do something just because you manipulated them into doing it (unless you're money codependent).

If you're hoping to get money from someone who you perceive to be in a power struggle with you, it will come very slowly. Eliminate the ideas of power from your thoughts about money and it will flow much more easily.

When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

Don't Blame It For Your Bad Mood:

Money is never the reason you're in a bad mood; it's your perception of the situation that causes you fear and pain. When you think you're mad at money, you need to pull back the lens and try to understand how your thinking got you to this place. You can’t heal your emotional life with intellectual thought, but you can start to understand your triggers.

No Quid Pro Quo:

Quid Pro Quo means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services—you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Can you imagine setting up this kind of arrangement with a loved one? With a monetary situation, this kind of dynamic is bound to make you feel like you got the short end of the deal, regardless of the arrangement.

Seek To Understand:

When something happens in your family or friendships that you weren't expecting, you find out all of the details before moving forward. When something happens with your money, you need to devote the same attention to understanding the dynamic before jumping to the wrong conclusion. You may find your knee-jerk initial response to the situation is wrong, once you review the facts calmly.

Discuss the situation with a professional if need be, after all a session with a counselor helps you in reclaiming your disturbed relationship, so why not get some help in case of money, its important and will do you good.

Don't Lose Yourself:

This is a tip from conscious spending; you need to know exactly how you feel about all of the different ways your money leaves your accounts. If you're not happy about any one of them, you need to stop. If you're unconscious about your money, then your relationship is on the decline. Another name for this is money fog.

Recognize Difference Between Want and Need:

You WANT your child to be a superstar, but you need him to be kind, thoughtful and compassionate person. If this is a romantic relationship, one is a deal breaker and one isn't. With your money, you WANT to go on an African safari, but you need to meet all of your expenses. There is room for Wants, but they need to be in alignment with your current life and not just driven from your ego.

Seek Clarity:

If you're not clear about what is happening in a relationship with someone or something else, chances are they don't know either. You always have the choice to let a situation remain ambiguous or to choose clarity. The results of clarity may not be pretty (and you may have to move past some shame-filled thoughts), but it's far better to be clear about the ugly truth than to be uncertain about an attractive ambiguity.

With money be very clear on why, where, how much, legal/illegal, realistic/unrealistic, it’s always good to be clear.

Have Faith In Long Term Vision:

Relationships are seasonal; sometimes they are exciting, and other times they just quietly exist in the background. Nothing is static. The same is true of your relationship with money—it can't be all rainbows and parades. That's when you must make the choice to love it anyway.

Bottom line, if you haven't made a choice about how you feel about your financial life, it's the same as when you put off making a decision about whether or not your current beau should stay or go. You think you're on the fence because of something external, when in reality; it's you, refusing to accumulate the data needed so that you can make an informed choice. Change can be painful—but on the other side of the pain is a money relationship full of love and freedom; it's only waiting for you to decide. Otherwise you will be nothing but a poor man with money.