A boy was drowning in a river and he shouted for help. A man passing by jumped in the river and saved the boy's life. As the man was leaving the boy said, Thank-you.'' The man asked, "For what?" The boy replied, "For saving my life."
 
The man looked into the boy's eyes and said,
 
"Upon, make sure when you grow up that your life was worth saving."
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A farmer had a dog who used to sit by the roadside waiting for vehicles to come around. As soon as one came he would run down the road, barking and trying to overtake it. One day a neighbor asked the farmer "Do you think your dog is ever going to catch a car?" The farmer replied, "That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is what he would do if he ever caught one."
 
Many people in life behave like that dog who is pursuing meaningless goals.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

There is a big difference between activity and accomplishment. This was demonstrated by a French scientist named Fable. He conducted an experiment with processionary caterpillars. Caterpillars follow the one in front of them blindly. Fable arranged them in a circle in a flowerpot so that the lead caterpillar actually was behind the last one forming a circle. He put pine needles (food for the caterpillars) in the center of the flowerpot. The caterpillars kept going in a circle in the pot. Eventually, after a week of circling around, they dropped dead of exhaustion and starvation with food only inches away from them. We need to learn a lesson from the caterpillars. Just because you are doing something, doesn't mean you are getting anywhere. One must evaluate one's activity in order to have accomplishment.
 
A man was out driving with his wife and the wife said, "Honey, we are going the wrong way." The husband replied, "Who cares, we are making great time!" If we confuse activity with accomplishment, we could be making great time but we won't get anywhere.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
 
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.
 
Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
 
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
 
The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate.. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
 
What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
 
LIFE IS THE HOT CHOCOLATE; YOUR JOB, MONEY AND POSITION IN SOCIETY ARE THE CUPS.
 
They are just tools to hold and contain life.
 
The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.
 
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
 
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.
 
by Unknown
 

 
On the best sunny day, the most powerful magnifying glass will not light paper if you keep moving the glass. But if you focus and hold it, the paper will light up. That is the power of concentration.
 
A man was traveling and stopped at an intersection. He asked an elderly man, "Where does this road take me?" The elderly person asked, "Where do you want to go?" The 150 of 150 man replied, "I don't know." The elderly person said, "Then take any road. What difference does it make?"
 
How true. When we don't know where we are going, any road will take us there. Supposing you have the football eleven enthusiastically ready to play the game, all charged up, and then someone took the goal post away. What would happen to the game? There is nothing left. How do you keep score? How do you know you have arrived? Enthusiasm without direction is like wildfire and leads to frustration. Goals give a sense of direction.
 
Would you sit in a train or a plane without knowing where it was going? The obvious answer is no. Then why do people go through life without having any goals?
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick was on her way to becoming the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. She had already conquered the English Channel. The world was watching. Chadwick fought the dense fog, bone-chilling cold and many times, the sharks. She was striving to reach the shore but every time she looked through her goggles, all she could see was the dense fog. Unable to see the shore, she gave up.
 
Chadwick was disappointed when she found out that she was only half a mile from the coast. She quit, not because she was a quitter but because her goal was not in sight anywhere. The elements didn't stop her. She said, "I'm not making excuses. If only I had seen the land, I could have made it."
 
Two months later, she went back and swam the Catalina Channel. This time, in spite of the bad weather, she had her goal in mind and not only accomplished it but beat the men's record by two hours.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
An ancient Indian sage was teaching his disciples the art of archery. He put a wooden bird as the target and asked them to aim at the eye of the bird. The first disciple was asked to describe what he saw. He said, "I see the trees, the branches, the leaves, the sky, the bird and its eye.."
 
The sage asked this disciple to wait. Then he asked the second disciple the same question and he replied, "I only see the eye of the bird." The sage said, "Very good, then shoot." The arrow went straight and hit the eye of the bird.
 
Unless we focus, we cannot achieve our goal. It is hard tofocus and concentrate, but it is a skill that can be learned.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure. The farmer replied, amour Honor, I am primitive. I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale." The judge asked, "Then how do you weigh the butter?" The farmer replied "Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker."
 
We get back in life what we give to others.
 
Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don't even know what the truth is anymore. But who are they deceiving? Themselves, more than anyone else.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A man, once upon a time, was selling Hotdogs by the roadside.  He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio.  His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs.  He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up.  He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more. He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers.  He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove.
 
As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father.
 
Then something strange happened.
 
The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times."
 
The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colorful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic.
 
He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit.
 
The father said to his son, "Son, you were right". "We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."
 
Moral of The Story: Its all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A little boy got angry with his mother and shouted at her, "I hate you, I hate you." Because of fear of reprimand, he ran out of the house. He went up to the valley and shouted, "I hate you, I hate you," and back came the echo, "I hate you, I hate you." This was the first time in his life he had heard an echo.
 
He got scared, went to his mother for protection and said there was a bad boy in the valley who shouted "I hate you, I hate you." The mother understood and she asked her son to go back and shout, "I love you, I love you." The little boy went and shouted, "I love you, I love you," and back came the echo. That taught the little boy a lesson that our life is like an echo: We get back what we give.
 
Benjamin Franklin said, "When you are good to others, you are best to yourself."
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
According to scientists, the bumblebee's body is too heavy and its wing span too small. Aerodynamically, the bumblebee cannot fly. But the bumblebee doesn't know that and it keeps flying.
 
When you don't know your limitations, you go out and surprise yourself. In hindsight, you wonder if you had any limitations. The only limitations a person has are those that are self-imposed. Don't let education put limitations on you.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his surprise and horror, read his name in the obituary column. The news papers had reported the death of the wrong person by mistake. His first response was shock. Am I here or there?
 
When he regained his composure, his second thought was to find out what people had said about him. The obituary read, "Dynamite King Dies." And also "He was the merchant of death." This man was the inventor of dynamite and when he read the words "merchant of death," he asked himself a question, "Is this how I am going to be remembered?" He got in touch with his feelings and decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered. From that day on, he started working toward peace. His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize.
 
Just as Alfred Nobel got in touch with his feelings and redefined his values, we should step back and do the same. What is your legacy? How would you like to be remembered? Will you be spoken well of? Will you be remembered with love and respect? Will you be missed?
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
Once when Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, finished a concert, someone came up to the stage and said, "I'd give my life to play the way YOU do." Kreisler replied, "I did!" There is no magic wand for success. In the real world, success comes to doers, not observers. A horse that pulls cannot kick; a horse that kicks cannot pull. Let's pull and stop kicking.
 
Success is not something that you run into by accident. It takes a lot of preparation and character. Everyone likes to win but how many are willing to put in the effort and time to prepare to win? It takes sacrifice and self-discipline. There is no substitute for hard work.
 
Henry Ford said, "The harder you work, the luckier you get."
 
Hard work is both a beginning and an end in itself. The harder a person works, the better he feels; and the better he feels, the harder he works. The best ideas will not work unless you work the ideas. Great talent without will power and hard work is a waste.
 
We need to learn from nature. The duck keeps paddling relentlessly underneath but appears smooth and calm on top.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
Once there was a lark singing in the forest. The lark stopped him and asked, "What do you have in the box and where are you going?" The farmer replied that he had worms and that he was going to the market to trade them for some feathers. The lark said, "I have many feathers. I will pluck one and give it to you and that will save me looking for worms." The farmer gave the worms to the lark and the lark plucked a feather and gave it in return. The next day the same thing happened and the day after and on and on until a day came that the lark had no more feathers. Now it couldn't fly and hunt for worms. It started looking ugly and stopped singing and very soon it died.
 
The moral is quite clear what the lark thought was an easy way to get food turned out to be the tougher way after all. Isn't the same thing true in our lives? Many times we look for the easier way, which really ends up being the tougher way.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
There is a legend about a wise man who was sitting outside his village. A traveler came up and asked him, "What kind of people live in this village, because I am looking to move from my present one?" The wise man asked, "What kind of people live where you wa nt to move from?" The man said, "They are mean, cruel, rude."
 
The wise man replied, "The same kind of people live in this village too." After some time another traveler came by and asked the same question and the wise man asked him, "What kind of people live where you want to move from?" And the traveler replied, "The people are very kind, courteous, polite and good." The wise man said, "You will find the same kind of people here too."
 
What is the moral of the story?
 
Generally we see the world not the way it is but the way we are. Most of the time, other people's behavior is a reaction to our own.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A boy was flying a kite with his father and asked him what kept the kite up. Dad replied, "The string." The boy said, "Dad, it is the string that is holding the kite down." The father asked his son to watch as he broke the string.
 
Guess what happened to the kite? It came down. Isn't that true in life? Sometimes the very things that we think are holding us down are the things that are helping us fly. That is what discipline is all about.
 
What we think is pulling us down is really taking us up. That is what discipline is all about.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
A young executive with poor self-esteem was promoted but he couldn't reconcile himself to his new office and position. There was a knock at his door. To show how important and busy he was, he picked up the phone and then asked the visitor to come in. As the man waited for the executive, the executive kept talking on the phone, nodding and saying, "No problem, I can handle that." After a few minutes he hung up and asked the visitor what he could do for him. The man replied, "Sir, I'm here to connect your phone."
 
Why pretend? What are we trying to prove? What do we want to accomplish? Why do we need to lie? Why look for feelings of false importance? All of this comes from insecurity and poor self-esteem.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win } 

 
A flood was threatening a small town and everyone was leaving for safety except one man who said, "God will save me. I have faith." As the water level rose a jeep came to rescue him, the man refused, saying "God will save me. I have faith." As the water level rose further, he went up to the second storey, and a boat came to help him. Again he refused to go, Belying, "God will save me. I have faith." The water kept rising and the man climbed on to the roof.
 
A helicopter came to rescue him, but he said, "God will save me. I have faith." Well, finally he drowned. When he reached his Maker he angrily questioned, "I had complete faith in you. Why did you ignore my prayers and let me drown?" The Lord replied, "Who do you think sent you the jeep, the boat, and the helicopter?"
 
The only way to overcome the fatalistic attitude is to accept responsibility and believe in the law of cause and effect rather than luck. It takes action, preparation and planning rather than waiting, wondering or wishing, to accomplish anything in life.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
Monkey-hunters use a box with an opening at the top, big enough for the monkey to slide its hand in. Inside the box are nuts. 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.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }
 

 
Pride of performance does not represent ego. It represents pleasure with humility. The quality of the work and the quality of the worker are inseparable. Half-hearted effort does not produce half results; it produces no results.
 
Three people were laying bricks and a passerby asked them what they were doing. The first one replied, "Don't you see I am making a living?" The second one said, "Don't you see I am laying bricks?" The third one said, "I am building a beautiful monument." Three people doing the same thing gave totally different replies. The question is : did they have different attitudes? And would their attitude affect their performance? The answer is a clear yes.
 
by Shiv Khera { You Can Win }