Pain & pleasure

I could call back now when I was studying grade five, every time when I was about to board the school bus, I used to have a rational motive, plainspoken and lie that I suffer from stomach ache shamelessly. My papa knows me very well and despite all my stupid reasons he would nudge me into the bus and wave his hands at me with a smug glow in his face.

Have you also suffered from this "School bus stomach ache"?

Well, you are not alone! 

Many at times, I hear the alarm buzz but, I hit the snooze button few times and eventually ask my mom to wake me up & rush to the school without having my breakfast! Now if this too describes your morning routine? Oops, you are not alone!

So often I take an oath that in order to stay healthy I should workout & take healthy foods. It actually sounded simple enough in words, but I then discovered that it wasn't as easy as taking the oath. I would make up my mind not to eat the panipuri & pastry but the moment I see it, all my discipline would go for a toss. 

If these are also your thoughts, you are not alone!!

Well! I'm neither talking about eating right nor about exercise nor undergoing regular health check-ups. I'm touching off your mind about what you believe!

Life can be navigated by two indomitable forces called "the pain" & "the pleasure".

The inherent nature or instinct is to avoid pain and embrace pleasure. Only on these forces, we determine what actions we take on a daily basis. Okay! let me be very simple to you.

For the pleasure of staying in bed every morning, we ignore the wake-up call. At the same time, to avoid the pain of punishment that we are bound to receive when we go late to the school, we eventually get out of bed.

For the pleasure of eating, we enjoy the butterscotch Icecream. To avoid the pain of being overweight, we end up on a binge diet.

But the fact is about how our beliefs and activities get to associate with the pain and pleasure.

Say, while you think of a fad diet, raw vegetables, less food and damn workouts we associate pain with that activity. But when we think of having another scoop of Icecream, we get to associate pleasure with that activity.

So, now where the problem exists?

I leave the answer to you.

And if you ask me, I would say, after all, it's just a matter of reprogramming your mind!

(PS: I'm an ECE engineer:P)

With smiles...

Swathi Mohan

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)

Think twice

A CA Student called his girlfriend on phone.

And her dad picked the call!

Dad: Hello. Who is this?

CA Student: I am Amitabh Bachchan calling from Kaun Banega Crorepati. Your daughter’s friend is sitting on the hot seat, could you please give the phone to her

Dad: Oh! Oh! (in excitement, gave phone to her)

CA Student: The question is: “Where will you meet me in the evening?” and your options are:  

  Option a: Beach

  Option b: Park

  Option c: Coffee shop

   Option d: Mall

 Girl: Option A

CA Student: Thank you. And your time ends now.

Moral: Where there is a will, there is a way. If you fail to achieve your dreams, change your ways but not your principles!

Trees change their leaves but not their roots..!!

Think twice. Act wisely.

 With smiles....

Swathi Mohan

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)

Don't give up!

Today we cannot see many roads without seeing a Honda made vehicle pass by. It has become a superpower in the automobile industry now! 

In 1938, when Honda took his first working sample of piston ring Toyota. It was rejected stating that the sample was not up to their standards. Rather than focusing on the failure, he continued to work on his goal. After two years of redesigning, he finally won a contract with Toyota. He built a factory which was brought down into rubbles by an earthquake.

Honda was not a man who would accept failures as a possibility. Recession & depression caused by the war had created extreme gasoline shortage in Japan. So people resorted to walking & cycling. Honda designed a tiny engine & attached to his bicycle.His neighbours too wanted one of those motorised cycles from him. He was unable to meet the demand. So, he built a plan & manufactured his motorcycle, “The super cub” which earned him the emperor’s award. Today, Honda Corporation employs over 10,00,000 people. Why?

Honda never considered failure at the end.

Great people became great people because of the way they dealt with failures & setbacks in life. At every fall they refused to be fallen. They refused to accept a “NO” from life.

The newspaper editor fired him because he had no good ideas. A pastor employed him to draw canvassing material for the church. He was allowed to stay in the backyard of a mouse-infested church gauge. One of those mice inspired the man so much, that  “ Mickey Mouse” was born, & Walt Disney was revealed to the world.

Einstien ’s parents thought that he was mentally retarded. Steven Spielberg was placed in a special class for learning disabled. Issac Newton did poorly in grade school. Beethoven’s music teacher told him,” You are hopeless”. Michael Jordan was dropped from his high school basketball team. Winston Churchill failed in his 6^th grade. Edison’s teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything.

Failure is a parenthesis inside which the success hides. There is no sunrise without sunset. There is no life without death. There cannot be an only success and no failures. Champions understand that it is better to face outstanding failures than mediocre success. Only those who would not succumb to defeats, only those who persisted in spite of midway failures went on to write success stories.

Nothing wrong ever turned out to be right in the long run. The very fact that so many failures have finally turned into success implies that failures are not wrong. Learn from your failures and move on.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up”

Just don’t give up!! 

With smiles...

Swathi

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)