When I Talk, I Am Talking to Myself

Consider these four greetings.

Hiiii. - This from a person who is feeling great.
Hi. - This from a person who is just about there.
Hmm. - This from a person who is borderline in the negative and slipping.
Get out of here. - This from a person who is down there, totally negative and in a huge hole.

Infuse life

Or they could be the same person. (In fact, they are.)

Here's the story.
I caught myself saying an unusually cheery hello the other day. This came as a big surprise to me because this person who benefited from it was the usual pain - one I normally reserve for greeting number 4. But I continued on in this vein and the person was surprised etc etc.

After I left I wondered if I was beginning to like this person. Or perhaps, I was becoming like that person. This was a sad thought.

I thought some more. I noticed that my mood had been upbeat that particular morning owing to various other factors. The first person I encountered after my elevated mood swing was this - and all my love was showered on this person.

So it appears that when I am talking to someone, it is not that person who is affecting how I behave. It's me! In a good mood I am all cheer and happiness and charm and in a foul mood (the normal one) I am all fire and acid. In a mopy mood I drip self-pity. The other person is merely reflecting it like a mirror.

Which makes the other person almost irrelevant. Almost neutral.

On the other hand, in my world, my entire exercise seems to be to infect that person, whichever mood he or she is in, with my current mood. If I succeed we can both sail in the same boat pleasurably, miserably. If I don't I don't like that person much and leave instantly.

My existence seems to be to convert as many people I meet into clones of what I am feeling. I want more of myself. It's like some crazy alien horror movie. Only the alien monster here is me.

Ok, this is when I am infected by a mood and I carry on passing it. Huge plot point here. How can i use this information to save the world? Is it possible that I could, affect the others person by faking the emotion? Is it? Is it really possible?

Maybe by faking the emotion (the Hiiii one is preferable) I could uplift myself. I could address that part of me in others and it comes back to me through them (they are mirrors remember). I could then feel happy that some good is coming my way (little knowing that it's my fake Hiii that actually started it and is coming back to me magnified) and cling on to it.

We have a chain reaction here ladies and gentlemen.
Happiness, it appears, can be manufactured. Go forth then, and multiply it.

How to Earn a Living - Creative and Uncreative Ways

After looking at the ways of the world for a few decades I have come to the conclusion that there are many ways of making a living. What interests me is how a living can be earned.

Don't let the sun go down on me

Most uncreative ways of making a living:
These forms are crude and prehistoric. They involve waging war and taking over others properties and belongings, stealing, robbing, confiscating. The earnings have been stolen. obtained by hook or crook, by force or subterfuge.
Negative energy. Rule is by fear. Mostly the perpetrators will die by the same method. Will be feared and despised.

Uncreative, dishonest ways of earning a living:
This is using a position and troubling people by misusing its power. Corruption is one form of this. Insider trading, landgrabbing, cheating are all forms of this method. From common thieves to corporate bandits, dacoits to landgrabbers, sarkari clerks to cheating businessmen, they all fall in this category.
Negative energy. Drains the world. Hoard and store. Cannot enjoy the money as they are constantly living in fear of losing it.

Uncreative, honest ways of making a living:
This is where you have nothing to offer and consider yourself pretty useless so you hang around and beg or wait for the world to give you something to get by. No creative thought.
Zero energy. As good as dead.

Slightly more creative ways of earning a living:
This is by accumulating some skill and using it well in exchange to earn a living. You can gain employment, start a business, give advice.
Positive energy. Unsure space. Will at least sustain themselves and not drain the world of its energy. There is an incremental benefit to the world. Nothing stunning or excitement.

Most creative ways of earning a living:
This is where by making a small shift, introducing a fresh thought, an unmet need of the world is met. People feeling lonely, scared, people wanting recognition, people wanting to be connected etc etc suddenly find that there is a medium and are attracted to it. Their needs are met, you sit back and just make it better. They are happy, you are happy, the world is happy.
High energy. Exciting and positive energy. New wealth is created in the system. The world is a better place because.

You can make a living and enliven many more lives or you can make a living at the cost of many lives. Or you could just survive and die. It's a matter of attitude, of using the grey cells.

Thought for the Day - The Link Between Fun, Fear and Productivity

Our lives are limited by only one thing. Fear. Fear limits our imaginations. Our actions

Our fear comes from being responsible for the outcome. Failure or success. It's serious business.

So let's break these shackles of seriousness. Let's play for fun. We are not bound by the result and are only responsible for  the process. We are in a great position - all freedom, no responsibility. Go have fun.

So here we are. Having fun. Being irreverent. Being intense. Breaking boundaries. Questioning. Ducking. Weaving. Pushing. Shoving.

Chasing fun.

What does it do? Fun makes people irresponsible.
Not really. If we were serious instead we are back in a fearful space again - that if we have fun, we might not give our best.

But tell me this. Is your energy highest when you are serious or when you are having fun?
When you are having fun, right? So that's the best place to be.

Add fun. Be focussed on the outcome., be mischievous, be creative, be wicked, be wily. It whips up the energy in the environment,

And out of this high energy space come newer thoughts. High enthusiasm draws good energy. You attract great people. You attract the best in people, You even attract more luck. The best thing is that when you are having fun, you don't have fear. What's to fear? It's win win. If you win you are in good space. If you lose, you still had fun right?

Anyway you see it, fun is great for productivity, To have fun, to be a part of a high energy team is what everyone dreams of. High energy teams sustain themselves only on fun. That's their fuel. If you're serious, you drain energy. That's high stress teams for you.

All fear of making a mistake goes out of the window when we're having fun. We are more compassionate, more accommodating. We are looking out for one another. We push one another. The atmosphere is chilled out because of the fun. The energy is good. Team mates do not fear the environment, do not fear non-performance.

Fear is mitigated.

Productivity is increased. And we all had fun anyway. Who was working?

Find the fun. Find the mischief. Bring the zing back into your life. See how it suddenly takes off into another level. You can find it in every moment. Look for it. I am over the moon right now. You could be too.

Priceless - Movie Review

It's one of the cutest love stories I saw ever, with a 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' twist to it. The director apparently said he was inspired by B at T. But save the fact that the girl is looking for rich men to marry, nothing else is similar.

Irene is a gold digger and is looking to trap a rich man to settle down with and get out of the mini skirt, fake smile and bar routine to get by. She is close to getting hitched to a rich old man when she has a midnight drunken dalliance with the young hotel barman, Jean, whom she mistakes for a rich man. Her old man breaks off the engagement when he comes to know of her affair. Irene is mad that all her hard work has gone waste. But she still has this other rich man Jean who plays along now. Irene finds out soon that he is a poor bar man. When she leaves Jean follows her to Cote d Azur to apologise and make up. But Irene has no time for poor guys. When Jean insists, she vengefully squeezes him dry of all his savings, to the last Euro, which he gives her for another ten seconds to look into her eyes.

Jean however cannot pay his hotel bills and is rescued by a rich woman who makes him her companion. Irene has hitched one rich old man herself. Together the two young people figure out how to milk their rich patrons. Jean is madly in love with Irene though and it is only in the end that Irene realises that she loves him too.

One of the top 10 romances in my book. Jean's last euro for the extra ten seconds, his spending all his savings on her, his getting an expensive watch from his benefactor which he sells to buy Irene a classy dress and a week's stay when her catch ditches her are stuff that great love stories are made of. His female companion realises she has no power on him - it seems I cannot buy you out - she says. Very nice. I liked the sensibilities.

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines - Movie Review

I watched this movie in about ten instalments which in itself makes it something special. Not that it was boring - just that it happened so. In fact it is an amazing piece of film making with the number of different kinds of planes, flying stunts etc. The cinematography is exceedingly beautiful, the locales perfect. Its a lot like 'The Great Race'.

It's 1910 and a British newspaper magnate, owner of The Daily Post, announces a race in flying machines from London to Paris. The obscenely huge reward attracts adventurers and flyers from all over. There is an American, a German, a Frenchman, and Italian, a Japanese, and all of them play stereotypes. The race starts with fourteen planes but some do not take off (sabotaged by an  unscrupulous competitor). Some planes crash midway. Four of them make it.

The American and the Englishman are also vying for the attentions of the magnate. The Frenchman is vying for anybody's attentions and the Italian has a huge family and no time for anyone else. The Englishman wins, but only narrowly because the American stops to save the Italian whose plane catches fire. But the American gets the girl. Lots of similarities to 'The Great Race'.

The planes, the scenery, the perfect period settings, clothes, cars make it a visual delight. Enough in the story to keep it going too. Lots of funny characters. I cannot imagine any movie being made like this one though. Very unique. For a 1965 movie it boggles the mind to see the amount of thought and precision and money spent on the sets, the planes the visuals. Unique.

Treasury of Joy and Enthusiasm - Norman Vincent Peale

Norman Vincent Peale is the greatest inspirational author of all time says the back cover. I don't know how it landed up in my shelf but the book was a nice size and was easy on the eyes so I picked it up. It is filled with small interesting stories, poems, thoughts and reads like a bunch of random musings oriented towards bringing joy and enthusiasm into our lives. I will reproduce some parts that give the gist.

Orient Paperback, Rs,120, 217 p

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.

Also good advise on what to do to keep joy and enthusiasm high. Here goes.
Believe you can do the impossible. Try laughing when circumstances in your life make you want to cry. Act as if you possess the quality  you feel you lack. On a day when you feel you have nothing to be thankful for, write a thank you letter to someone who once made a difference in your life. Open the door to enthusiastic, joyous people.

All doable. Also pretty much what he wants you to do.

I liked this quote - If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm. - Bruce Barton

Joy and enthusiasm are the basic ingredients for a good life. 

Being happy resulted in enhanced rhythm. Sing a song to find your rhythm. Apparently MS Dhoni does that to help him focus (find his rhythm) - he sings to himself while batting out in the middle. I used that technique once - helped.

The more deliberately we let god shoulder the heavy responsibilities of life, the more we take life calmly and with patience.

Practice enthusiasm, says he.

Advice from Norman's mother - "Learn that the world is athrill with beauty and excitement. keep yourself sensitised to it. Love the world, its beauty and its people. I do believe that anyone who is trying to consistently follow that simple advice will be blessed with abundant enthusiasm and have a life full of joy."

If you want a quality act as if you already have it. - William James.

Tell yourself the good news in bed before you get up for the day. (All the good news you wish to meet today). This was a practice that Henry Thoreau followed.

Find a need and fill it if your life seems empty and boring,

I can do all things through god who strengthens me.

Hereford cows
In dealing with obstacles he shares the story of the Hereford cows. When storms came upon the ranches all the other animals ran away until they hit a wall and then died. The Hereford cows on the other hand went towards the storm and faced it. In most cases, these cows survived.

Wednesday Worry Club
I also liked the idea of the Wednesday Worry Club. Put all the things that are seemingly without solution in a box. (In this case the person involved called the box the Wednesday Worry Club.) On Wednesday he'd pull the stuff out of the box and found almost 95% of them resolved without his knowledge. The other 5% he put back into the box.

A few lines by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"Some of your hurt you have
And the sharpest you still have survived
But what torments or grief you endured
From evils that never arrived.?

I dare you
I also liked the 'I dare you' story. On how a weak boy who was being bullied around in school was challenged by the teacher. 'I dare you to be the fittest boy in the class.' said the teacher who refused to accept that the boy could remain like that. Dared so, the boy built his health and became the fittest in the class. Years later the boy found one of his salesmen giving up because of no sales. He dared him similarly to come back with the maximum sales that day. The salesman did.

Attitudes are more important than facts.

'You want to be happy? Then love people and trust them." - Jesus

Stories of the man who took in the juvenile delinquents and converted them with love. 'I don't care what they did. I'm only interested in what they are and what they're going to be."

The story of sending thanksgiving letters to people who have been kind to him in his life is a fine one. The teacher who receives the letter and says that it is the first letter of appreciation she ever got in her fifty five years of teaching shows how often we forget those who helped us along.

It reads like a bubbly stream. Happy, joyful, once here and once there, this book is a tiny little reminded to be joyful and enthusiastic and how being so, can change our lives. Practice joy and enthusiasm like the man who started his day wishing everyone a fine day in spite of it being gloomy and how everyone brightened up. If you can't be, pretend to be joyful and enthusiastic. Its better than your original sad and mopy face.

Proof of God

Here's proof of god.

Light. Warmth. Nourishment. Life. Dependence. Coexistence. Metronomical precision. Glow. Aura. Brilliance. Clarity. Awe. Wisdom. Power. Compassion. Gentleness. Love.

Always there. For everyone.

In equal measure.

Let go. Let god.