Hope we need for encouragement. No matter how things look, but especially on those dark days, we need to hope for the best. We hope for ourselves, but also for others -- for all of humanity. There is still hope that we as a species can get it together and realize we are not in this alone. To this aim, the individual contribution is essential.

Dreams we need to show us the way. They illumine our aspirations and goals. They are the distant images of all that we can be. We need to believe in ourselves and our dreams, trust in the universal energy, and dare to achieve great things. Yet these great achievements are not about reaching some goal so that we can proudly strut around and say: "Look at me. I've done great things." No, for me these remarkable achievements are to be expected -- a wonderful, but also logical fulfillment of each person's purpose in life.

Which brings me to humility. Occasionally I do something really well and feel exquisite happiness. Without humility, this joy would transform into self-complacency. I need to remain alert, always do my best, believe in myself but know there is always room for improvement. I want to remember that a job well done is simply part of my destiny.

It's okay to feel happiness or enjoy praise -- in moderation. Last year I had a good example of that. I was well-prepared for a concert, and it really went over well. A couple of months later, I gave another concert. Riding on the success and good feelings from the previous one, I didn't have my heart in it as much. It was more like going through the motions and expecting the audience to react the same as the previous audience. The energy was lacking, afterwards I was dissatisfied, and then it became clear to me: Every concert is a new experience. Each time I need to be centered, put my whole heart into it, and be humble. I cannot assume that it will go over well, just because it did once. That was a valuable lesson.

These valuable lessons are cause for gratitude. I am grateful for everything I learn, for each step I can take. Even if the price seems to be exhorbitant, the results are also impressive. When gratitude is lacking, insatiability can run rampant. We get caught up in wanting more, bigger, and better, and lose touch with where we came from and what it's all about. There's a wonderful post by SanityFound which serves to remind us that we may indeed have what we need and reason to be grateful.

Sometimes the key to progress and success is simple patience. To be patient with one's self and the course of things is necessary at times. When I trust that I am doing my best -- without burning the candle at both ends -- that gives me confidence to trust that all is well. All is as it should be. I do what I can, and the rest is up to higher power, the universe, and time. All good things will come with time.

Don't even think for a minute that I'm writing this because I know everything and have the answers. Although, now that I write that, I do have the answers and knowledge. But that doesn't always help. Doubt and impatience still manage to rise up at times and the confidence, trust, hope and dreams seem to disintegrate before my eyes.

During the past week I have experienced how essential it is to (re)connect with hope. When I start to slip down into that dark space, or if I've been there for a while, I need to seek the light -- even if it means crawling on my hands and knees to get there. Or it means admitting great sorrow about the plight of an individual or the masses, and nevertheless going out into the world and being open to receive guidance. My experience at the Buddhist Monastery was a wonderful illustration of what can happen when I open up, rather than hide with my sadness in solutide.

For today, I wish that all of us will find the appropriate proportions of each of these ingredients to mix for a fulfilling day. Yes, I am humble today. I don't make this wish for a whole life, just for this day. One day on which everything fits together is precious. Do your best, but be patient and know that time is an element of every success. Be resourceful and creative, and trust that the universe will be equally creative and bring you opportunities you'd never imagined.

It can be helpful just to let go of a mindset. Open up to new possibilities, new ways of relating to life, situations and other people. The rules and patterns we absorbed from the moment we were born do not have to determine our path. The magic of being human is that we can reflect, think logically and consciously make changes! That is a miracle.

Along those lines, I find this song very inspiring.

Breakthrough (Another great one from Queen)

When love breaks up
When the dawn light wakes up
A new life is born
Somehow I have to make this final breakthrough
Now

I wake up
Feel just fine
Your face
Fills my mind
I get religion quick
cause you’re looking divine
Honey you’re touching something you’re touching me
I’m under your thumb under your spell can’t you see
If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough - oh yeah

Breakthrough these barriers of pain
Breakthrough to the sunshine from the rain
Make my feelings known towards you
Turn my heart inside and out for you now
Somehow I have to make this final breakthrough
Now!

Your smile speaks books to me
I break up
With each and every one of your looks at me
Honey you’re starting something deep inside of me
Honey you’re sparking something this fire in me
I’m outta control
I wanna rush headlong into this ecstasy
If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough

If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough
Oh yeah
Breakthrough breakthrough

If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough

If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough

Breakthrough

So I got reading and got many gems. Since I am going to be fabulously rich, I needed this kind of stuff before going to bed. Some excerpts .....

“You are where you are and what you are because of yourself. Everything you are today, or ever will be in the future, is up to you. Your life today is the sum total result of your choices, decisions and actions up to this point. You can create your own future by changing your behaviors. You can make new choices and decisions that are more consistent with the person you want to be and the things you want to accomplish with your life.” And I thought, wow, this is great stuff. I read on ....

"Just think! Everything that you are or ever will be is up to you. And the only real limit on what you can be, do and have is the limit you place on your own imagination. You can take complete control of your destiny by taking complete control of your thoughts, words and actions from this day forward", so am thinking thoughts, words, actions. This is very good food for the brain. I kept reading.

"If you want to be happy, healthy, prosperous, popular, positive and confident, just find out how other people who are enjoying these benefits got that way and do the same things that they do. Think the same thoughts. Feel the same feelings. Take the same actions. And as sure as two plus two makes four, you will eventually get the same results as others do. It is no miracle." Mmmmmm, I took a notepad and scribbled the names of the guys whom I would like to know better and emulate as far as what I want to do is concerned. By now its becoming clear where I should be going ....

I stopped there when I started getting heavy-eyed. Closed the laptop and went to bed. I will share the excerpts fro the rest of the e-book as I read it. Great stuff!

Million dollar habits ..... mmmmmh now I know

Our insecurities can drag us down, they can make us do things which all seem to hurt us in the end. I was with a cocaine addict for longer than I should have been because I started to feel that is all I was worth, that that was my lot in life and I just had to deal with it, it was all I was worth. For those who have travelled with me in the blogosphere will know there is more to that, point is that I was looking for worth in the wrong places.

I attached worth to the relationship that reflected my own self worth, right or wrong?

Truth is that I don't think anything in this world will make us happy unless we are happy with ourselves for ourselves, not for anyone else just ourselves. We might meet our soul mate but if we are not at peace with ourselves what are the chances of that relationship lasting?

I once heard a saying "You shouldn't be with someone because you need them but rather because you want to be with them" - Need is often outgrown, what will fill that void when it does?

So often we don't see it as need, we just want to be loved, have someone to go home to, someone that fills us, we think that is what it is all about, we believe that we are not whole until we have someone else in our lives that loves us, we believe that if we are single we are an anomaly and that we are worthless. Often to add fuel to the fire, we are asked about our partners, we are asked when we are going to get one - worth is added to our needs.

Self worth and respect is more important than anything else, without it the reality is that no matter how much you love something or someone, if it's purpose is to fill a hole, it will fade, move on and outgrow.

How can you truly love someone else if you don't love yourself?

How can you respect someone else if you don't respect yourself?

How can you give freely if you don't give to yourself?

Need - something that is temporary, fills an immediate gap/hole, is a necessity

Want - something that lasts, adds to you, is something you choose, you desire

Loving yourself is key...

... just another rambling by a wondering soul ...

All companies operate on a set of processes. These processes drive all avenues of a business ranging from Internal operations, business development, sales, marketing and execution to name a few critical functions. When these processes are missing or loosely defined a business faces several long term disadvantages which arise in areas such as productivity, efficiency, price and overall morale of the team. If these factors are not paid close attention to from the start you will substantially increase the risk to your business, keeping it from reaching future growth. This is a set of measures that can be put into place at your startup to help reduce this level of risk.

1. Product/Service development is a critical stage in a company's development. This process should be clearly defined from  time of inception, selection, development and execution. Using such a process allows you to push viable product/services faster through the levels aided with input from all divisions or team members. At the same time it allows you to kill product/service ideas at earlier stages to maximize efficiency.

2. Break down the product/service you are providing into components. This helps identify a supply chain and is critical when you want to know the level of business risk exposure. This is something I am still in the process of learning. This has brought about a greater amount of transparency and increased efficiency in the companies I have been involved in implementing this strategy.

3. Delivery and execution mechanisms are vital to ensure that your product/service gets to your customer at the right time and place and matches their expectation. This operations component must be tweaked constantly to ensure that customer satisfaction levels remain high and retention levels are maintained. If this part of operations is neglected you may find yourself at a severe disadvantage against a competitor who has concentrated in making their delivery mechanisms optimal.

4. Internal processes such as finance, communication and CRM should be automated with the help of technology to achieve a faster flow of communication from one department to the other. When organizations begin to scale is when a disconnect takes place internally. I have experienced this many a time and now rely on technologies to keep everyone connected and keep the flow of information and communication clear and fast. 

Listed above are some of the steps I have taken in businesses  I am involved with to increase operational efficiency and decrease risk of process breakdown . Operational management is actually a very complex topic, The above is a very simplistic approach that startup or younger companies can adopt to establish processes which will help them to scale faster in the future .

If anyone reading this post has domain knowledge regarding operations management at a startup or SME's I would appreciate your comments and feedback on this post.

Large corporates are now spending anywhere from $5 m to $100 m on market research and analysis. Research agencies too have tried to complement the changing needs of clients with professional management, consolidation and creation of value through both delivery mechanisms and interpretation. The increasing use of technology has led to standardization and consolidation in the research industry, thus preparing the ground for greater outsourcing.

The Indian MRO space comprises over 110 vendors and most of these offer ‘non-market research’ services also. However, interestingly, the leaders in the category are largely market research-focused firms and not necessarily the diversified BPO and KPO firms. Indian MRO vendors began with servicing fairly “standardized” research needs and are steadily moving up the value chain.

It estimates that Indian MRO revenues stand at $148 m in FY07, and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 36% to touch $800 m by FY12. According to Arun Jethmalani, CEO, “This period (up to 2010) will witness value growth due to capacity addition in high-end services. Initially, the services outsourced were in modular format and delivered through short-term project based engagements. However, over time vendors have begun providing services in both transactional and tactical level activities performed by research agencies. There is a clear industry trend towards “integrated” services”.

Going forward, Indian MRO companies are poised to move from research back-office operations to becoming strategic partners in executing research.

The Indian vendor landscape for MRO services is made up of

Pure Play MRO Vendors, which are pioneers in this space like Ugam, Annik and Exevo
Full service research firms in India like Prognosys and Tecnova
KPOs offering services in verticals other than MRO like Evalueserve and Integreon
Large BPOs like WNS and HCL
Small BPO firms doing low end work like Cheers Interactive

We expect vendors to broaden their product/service portfolio, customer base, and geographical reach while adding global service delivery capabilities. Currently, vendors are rapidly scaling up their existing capabilities and are trying to build differentiators through specialized offerings or efficient technology platforms. A critical success factor for India as a rising destination for MRO services is acquiring and retaining talent.  Says Pranav Dixit, “Acquiring and retaining talent which can provide client ready output is critical towards achieving growth plans of Indian MRO vendors. The high attrition and rising wage levels along with adverse rupee dollar ratio will impact the profitability of the segment. These factors in turn could reduce the competitiveness of India over other destinations like Philippines and Latin America”.

Partnering with other entities in the MR value chain, marketing arrangements, and partnerships for high-end analytics services, strengthening front-end capabilities will be aggressively undertaken by Indian MRO vendors. According to Neeraja Kandala, "MRO industry might witness some mergers and acquisitions post – 2009. While pure play vendors will continue to lead the MRO space; competition will intensify with the entry of large BPOs. End to end offerings will be the key to survival for pure-play MRO vendors."

The report: Market Research Outsourcing: The India Growth Story provides an overview of the buyer scenario and an in-depth analysis of the Indian vendor space along with profiles of major industry players. The report is designed to help:

Research companies looking to outsource/off-shore MRO services
Large BPOs, MR software vendors exploring MRO opportunity
Large research agencies, MR vendors like data collection agencies, programmers wanting to outsource their work
Other potential vendors to assess opportunities in India
MRO vendors to assess the competitive environment in India
Venture capital companies looking for investment opportunities
Researchers looking for detailed information on MRO services offshored to India

For more information, kindly visit :
http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=71528
_______________________________________________________________

Large corporates are now spending anywhere from $5 m to $100 m on market research and analysis. Research agencies too have tried to complement the changing needs of clients with professional management, consolidation and creation of value through both delivery mechanisms and interpretation. The increasing use of technology has led to standardization and consolidation in the research industry, thus preparing the ground for greater outsourcing.

The Indian MRO space comprises over 110 vendors and most of these offer ‘non-market research’ services also. However, interestingly, the leaders in the category are largely market research-focused firms and not necessarily the diversified BPO and KPO firms. Indian MRO vendors began with servicing fairly “standardized” research needs and are steadily moving up the value chain.

It estimates that Indian MRO revenues stand at $148 m in FY07, and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 36% to touch $800 m by FY12. According to Arun Jethmalani, CEO, “This period (up to 2010) will witness value growth due to capacity addition in high-end services. Initially, the services outsourced were in modular format and delivered through short-term project based engagements. However, over time vendors have begun providing services in both transactional and tactical level activities performed by research agencies. There is a clear industry trend towards “integrated” services”.

Going forward, Indian MRO companies are poised to move from research back-office operations to becoming strategic partners in executing research.

The Indian vendor landscape for MRO services is made up of

Pure Play MRO Vendors, which are pioneers in this space like Ugam, Annik and Exevo
Full service research firms in India like Prognosys and Tecnova
KPOs offering services in verticals other than MRO like Evalueserve and Integreon
Large BPOs like WNS and HCL

Small BPO firms doing low end work like Cheers Interactive

We expect vendors to broaden their product/service portfolio, customer base, and geographical reach while adding global service delivery capabilities. Currently, vendors are rapidly scaling up their existing capabilities and are trying to build differentiators through specialized offerings or efficient technology platforms. A critical success factor for India as a rising destination for MRO services is acquiring and retaining talent.  Says Pranav Dixit, “Acquiring and retaining talent which can provide client ready output is critical towards achieving growth plans of Indian MRO vendors. The high attrition and rising wage levels along with adverse rupee dollar ratio will impact the profitability of the segment. These factors in turn could reduce the competitiveness of India over other destinations like Philippines and Latin America”.

Partnering with other entities in the MR value chain, marketing arrangements, and partnerships for high-end analytics services, strengthening front-end capabilities will be aggressively undertaken by Indian MRO vendors. According to Neeraja Kandala, "MRO industry might witness some mergers and acquisitions post – 2009. While pure play vendors will continue to lead the MRO space; competition will intensify with the entry of large BPOs. End to end offerings will be the key to survival for pure-play MRO vendors."

The report: Market Research Outsourcing: The India Growth Story provides an overview of the buyer scenario and an in-depth analysis of the Indian vendor space along with profiles of major industry players. The report is designed to help:

Research companies looking to outsource/off-shore MRO services
Large BPOs, MR software vendors exploring MRO opportunity
Large research agencies, MR vendors like data collection agencies, programmers wanting to outsource their work
Other potential vendors to assess opportunities in India
MRO vendors to assess the competitive environment in India
Venture capital companies looking for investment opportunities
Researchers looking for detailed information on MRO services offshored to India

For more information, kindly visit :
http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=71531
_______________________________________________________________

It's been a long week so you're not going to any original thinking out of me tonight... But here's a nugget from Paul Hawken (who wrote Blessed Unrest) via Outside magazine to tide you over:

"Our best thinking got us here, and part of that is our addiction to growth. We do need to grow, the question is, Grow what? When we're adults, no one wants to grow physically, but we do want our wisdom, our understanding, our compassion to grow. Those same things are true of the economy. We do need to grow - we need to reimagine mobility, we need to reimagine our agriculture, we need to reimagine our cities, we need to reimagine our buildings as systems. Do we need to grow our Starbucks? No." [my bolding]

Happy Friday. And don't forget to take a photo for our nascent flickr pool if you see a "Responsible? Brand" in action this weekend!

... Sign up to receive IBC via email or RSS ...

Photo credit: Oliver S. [taken @ recent art fair in NYC... artist's name is?]

But if I take the holistic picture, life is still a breakdown. I am not meeting my friends or speaking to my family, regularly. I am not exercising, neither am I waking up at 5. I am not keeping my house spic and span. Not washing my clothes regularly and almost nothing is planned. I am not reading either.

Ok, so I put all these things together in my life from tomorrow onwards.

Truly converting all my ORs to ANDs.

There are a lot things that I had said I'll do by the weekend.

• Doing 100 volumes in sales and recruiting 1 person in my team by tomorrow 3PM. I did only 66 volumes and haven't recruited anyone yet! But I have time till 3PM
• Putting up the Startup Pains research website. (This will be done tomorrow)
• Interviewing 2 people. This again will be done by tomorrow.
• Memorizing my dialogs. Tough, but I have to memorize them by tomorrow.
• Inviting 15 people for my workday.
• Fixing the date for an HILF and a CILF. I am not enrolled to making this happen.

Freaks, its too much.

And I'll make all of this and the ones above it happen tomorrow, and onwards.

I already have a headache imagining how seemingly tough it looks. This is when I shall grow.

----

A few journal entries,

Did my rehearsals today. Not sure how good or bad they were. I forgot my dialogs left, right and center :P

Met my college buddy Siddharth Banerjee today after a long long time. He is like a family to me. It felt awesome. Got calls from Krishna and Prateek, both came as a surprise. Felt real fortunate in life!

For example, a simple technology is the knife.  It can be used very efficiently to cut plants for harvesting or cooking as well as to create precise incisions for surgery.  However, if put into the wrong hands, a knife can also be used to damage property or cause unwanted physical harm to another person.  These latter uses of the knife carry a much more negative association.  

A not so simple example is the computer.  It can save you lots of time and resources by allowing you to perform powerful calculations in the blink of an eye, access unlimited information for free, communicate with people quickly through email or instant messaging, buy products and book tickets online, check your bank accounts and bills, and get updated with the latest news and events.  However, some may spend too much time on the computer, exclusively using email and instant messaging to communicate with others that they never develop the skills to socialize face to face.  Some may play role-playing online games so much that they become physically unhealthy and lose touch with the real world.  Some may depend on their computers so much for daily activities that when it crashes, they are unable to function properly.

Every technology can be used for a malicious purpose, and every technology can allow its user to become dependent and weaker without it.  A good measure of proper technology usage is whether it enhances the quality of your life while not hindering your personal growth.  For a technology to enhance your quality of life, you must know how it works and its full range of capabilities.  Then you can choose which features of the technology to use based on your needs and moral standards.  To prevent it from hindering your personal growth, you should minimize your time with the technology, using it only when beneficial.  You should also know what alternative methods or backups exist so that you are ready to use them if the technology ever were to fail.

Moral of the story, technology is an “amplifier” with a double-edge.  How you use it can have variable effects on you and everyone around you.  The best advice is to be informed about the technology you use as much as possible so that you may maximize the benefits and minimize the negative effects.

We all have underlying beliefs which form the foundation of our lives. These beliefs determine the way that we respond to the world. We believe that we have a certain place in the world. We believe that we have certain entitlements or lack thereof. We believe that the world will respond to us in a certain way and that there are things that we can and cannot achieve. Some of these beliefs are conscious, some are not. Many of them only become apparent to us when they hurt us.

Tana, my oldest daughter, and I had been fighting about her lack of attention to school. She had no understanding of the consequences of her actions. I was up against a brick wall and could not break through. One day we went out to lunch with a friend, and when I left the table to go to the Ladies Room Tana and my friend were talking about her failing in school. When I returned to the table I overheard my friend asking Tana what would happen if she really failed, what would she do? Her response was, “My mommy will fix it…she always does”.

I felt as though someone had hit me over the head with a sledgehammer. I did this, were the first words that I heard in my head. I have ruined my daughter’s life. This belief of hers covertly affects each decision that is made. It’s not a thought, something that one weighs when life is happening; it has a quiet, unfelt weight. It is just there, but it is the determining factor. Sadly, I passed this one on to her.

When I was a child I was expected to be perfect. I was expected to bring home A’s from school, no fanfare, no reward, just expected. I began noticing that when my friends brought home A’s they were rewarded by their parents for their hard work, I simply heard, “So, what else would we expect of you.” So in fourth grade I decided to fail, you know, start from the bottom so maybe I would receive some appreciation for my hard work. How could I believe myself to be worthy of love? I was taught that it was conditional, and the conditions were always somewhere beyond my best efforts. So, in fourth grade I proudly walked into my house with a Big Red “D”. My mother immediately made an appointment with the Principal. She insisted that my fourth grade teacher was prejudiced and gave me the grade because of it. After all, I had never in my life brought home less than an A.

I don’t understand how she did it, considering the fact that I really earned that “D”, but she did. It was changed to an A. This created a foundation belief. If I wanted acknowledgement, I had better give it to myself. There was no prize out there for me. These moments that impress us deeply are difficult to change. It was my “D” and she took it away. Whenever I had a favorite toy, or doll, my father would take it away from me and give it to a poor child, because I could get another one. But I couldn’t get another on that was my favorite. When I was young I was a pack rat. I collected everything and kept my collections in my closet. My grandmother went into my closet one day and decided to clean out the “garbage”. She threw away all of my collections. I would hoard every penny of my allowance and every penny that I could find and save it all in a kitty bank. One day, I walked into my room and it sat broken in half and empty on my dresser. No one took responsibility for taking the money or for breaking the bank until almost six months later; when finally my mother admitted to it. I was being taught from the youngest age, that attachment caused suffering. This was a foundation belief. I sabotaged everything, I could not let myself fail, but I could not let myself succeed either. Whatever I had I lost. After each loss I committed to doing things differently the next time, but I couldn’t, my beliefs created the program that my subconscious ran. And I just worked the program.

The key to understanding our subconscious programming is that we can’t just affirm it away, we can’t just understand it away. A program is not designed by the conscious mind, and so it cannot be upgraded by it. Our programs are designed by our emotional mind through repeated emotional feedback. The more painful the experience that designed the program, the more safeguards, firewalls, and passwords are installed to prevent us from tampering with it. In order to change a belief based program, we must act consciously contrary to our instinct. We must do this enough to impress upon our subconscious mind that the new way is a more state of the art security system. Only through acting as if, and realizing the results of the new way, can we change a response or a behavior that has been set up as a defense mechanism. In other words, “Fake till you make it”. We cannot just reject a prior belief. Of course, we can, it just won’t make any difference in our lives, because we can’t change the program that will automatically act on that belief. If someone has a quality that you see attracts to them what you want, act like in those ways that you see working. Eventually, those actions will provide enough feedback to your subconscious to be accepted as the new way.

My soul, my heart – could not accept love that was earned, love that was conditional. But my subconscious believed that the only way to be loved was to earn it. So, if I believed that someone loved me for something that I did, or the way that I looked or carried myself – eventually I resent that person and acted in a way that would make them leave me. If someone came along who just seemed to love me for who I was, I distanced myself from that person like the plague because according to my program, my belief, if I didn’t earn love I would lose it. So I set up a lose, lose situation – and as crazy as it sounds, my subconscious did it for my own good.

There are the beliefs that we can list, and those we just live. The ones that we live have deep roots. My grandmother believed that you have no one but yourself to depend upon. She believed that if you don’t hold on tightly to everything it will disappear. Every decision that she made emanated from those beliefs. Everything that we face in our lives is filtered through the lens of our beliefs. If you know the beliefs of a person you can easily predict how they will hand any situation.

We can change our clothes, we can change our minds, but changing our beliefs is something altogether different. A belief has a deep root. We can’t just pull it out without replanting, without acting as if we hold a different belief.

When I was a child people would occasionally compliment the way I looked or some talent that I had like painting. When that happened I could feel the fury building up inside of my mother. I could feel her jealousy in my soul. I would pay. So my belief was that if I stand out, if I am publicly outstanding in any area, I will pay. So I crave the light and at the same time I shun it. This is so deeply rooted that I can’t change it despite my understanding of its cause. What I can do is act as if I did not believe that I would suffer. So, I decided to give a lecture to a woman’s group. I wasn’t punished, I did not suffer and it felt so wonderful to share that I began upgrading my old belief through this action and replacing it with the new belief that this is a good thing. It is not easy and takes a lot of work, Rome was not built in a day and cannot be rebuilt in a day, but it can be rebuilt.

The distance between a familiar set of beliefs and one that is new and unfamiliar feels infinite. Crossing that space between fully believing one thing and believing something else feels the same as stepping off of a cliff. Act as if you are not afraid when you are shaking with fear. Hold your head high as if you own the room, when you feel like you should be sweeping it. It is not easy, but the results are worth it. Look, you can’t visualize that you no longer smoke until the desire abates. You can’t visualize yourself hating potato chips until you do. You have to stop smoking – to become a non-smoker. You have to stop eating the potato chips, to stop craving them. You must replace a program with an opposite program to neutralize it and allow the new program to run instead.

When we are born we have a personality. This personality has been formed out of all of our past life experiences, good and bad it is filled with programs developed as a result of the past. Our natural talents come from lives of hard work and practice, our automatic fear are programmed to protect us from past life experiences. The programs are activated by certain stimuli, and reinforced in childhood. We enter each life to utilize the gifts and understanding that have been programmed and to reprogram the areas where we are stuck in spiritually self-destructive programming. When we change our beliefs we are entering a strange new country. In time though, that country become home. In order to make the transition it helps to realize that we can always go back to what we once believed. We have choice.

If our lives are not working the way that we want them to, there is something in our beliefs about our living, not in our lives, that is not working. When we try to change, we cannot maintain it because it is contrary to what we believe. We are not able to commit unless it is to something that we believe. We may change our direction, but if we are going left and still believe that we should be going right we will never see the value in having made the change.

One of the obstacles that we face in changing our beliefs is our need to be right. We need to realize that whatever it was that we once believed was completely appropriate for our lives at the time that we developed that belief. That belief gave us a sense of safety on ground that we walked at the time. Now however, things have changed and the facts that those beliefs were based upon are no longer applicable. Accordingly our beliefs must evolve.

It is not that what we have believed up until now was wrong, and therefore the way that we lived was wrong. It is that what we believed worked in the environment in which they were developed and now those beliefs must evolve to accommodate the here and now.

We can change our beliefs without damaging our sense of self by understanding that all beliefs have a reason for being. We don’t just believe something because we are stupid. We believe things because in order for us to have the experiences that we are meant to grow from the Universe has programmed our personalities to react to the stimuli of our family environment by forming these beliefs.

Using Astrological examples, if a Pisces steps on your foot he/she will apologize profusely for not seeing it. The preprogrammed belief being, if it goes wrong it is my fault. A Taurus who steps on your foot will tell you to watch where you put your foot. Thus believing that if you were not in the way you would not have been stepped on, your problem. If it were a Scorpio you might be accused of trying to trip them. They are obviously programmed with trust issues! Through our beliefs we make sense of the environment in which we must not only survive but thrive. Yet since we are here to evolve it only makes sense that our beliefs evolve in the same manner.

These are very difficult times that we are experiencing now. Nothing is as it was. It is as though everything looks as it did, the form is there but nothing has the same substance. This is a transitional period. We are forming a new reality and therefore the old one is losing its power. We are being forced to seek within ourselves and find the truth. It is what we cannot touch that has the greatest strength, consistency and dependability.

Whatever we can touch, will fade and pass away. Nothing will ever be the way it was. Nothing will ever work the way that it did. Yet if we allow ourselves to grow do the work to change our beliefs, our programming, we will find a strength and sense of self-empowerment that we never believed possible. Life is now miraculous; we are living in the possible all we need is to believe in the fact that nothing asked of us by the Source, the Universe is for anything but our good. Imagine the truth as a three-hundred-sixty degree circle, with every degree being a degree of the truth. We enter our incarnations at zero degrees of truth. That zero degree of truth is the foundation of our first beliefs, it is what our first program is built upon. It is TRUTH. Only, when we reach ten degrees, we see a greater truth and must reprogram our beliefs to accommodate the larger vision of truth that is now available for us to see if we are willing. At no point, were we wrong. The only way to be wrong is to have ten degrees of the truth visible and insist on seeing only the first one. We all see the truth, but it is only when we reach the three-hundred-and-sixtieth degree, that we know the whole truth. If we do not allow that there is always more truth to see, and that seeing it does not make the current truth less true, we will prevent ourselves from the greater experiences, the greater joys that lie in the greater truth.

Our beliefs need to be in alignment not only with our lives as they are but as we want them to be. We must believe in who we are, in who we are here to become, and in the process of that becoming. It is through the building of positive beliefs that we create a positive life. Our beliefs are where we begin when we build faith. And faith is the cornerstone of our successes. The doors to our future are opened by the faith built upon our beliefs. It is through our beliefs that we have the vision to see those doors and through our faith that we have the power to open them.

It is our beliefs that empower our obstacles. I have a friend who was afraid to go back to school even though she knew that she had an opportunity and that it would help her achieve her goals. Yet she was afraid because she believed that she was learning disabled. After speaking about it for a while she acknowledged to me that when she was a child there was such disruption in her home that it was very difficult for her to focus on schoolwork. There were so many emotional disturbances during her childhood that school took a back seat and so she did not do well. Today she is not in her parent’s home anymore. She is not a helpless child anymore, but still the belief that she is somehow unable to learn is still standing in the way of her progress. This is a belief that is built upon a prior view of the truth, but not connected with the current visible truth.
Our beliefs build the mountains that are in our way or they bring us the faith to move those mountains.

“... verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” (Mark 11:23)

N by the end of fall last year had allowed us to put him in a swing and push him gently.  All last summer he struggled with the idea of the big boy swing.  He enjoyed being pushed high in the baby swings but the openness of the big boy swing was a little much.  This spring there is no fear of the open swing, in fact we are doing "underdogs" or whatever monster truck he is at the moment.  He loves the wind in his hair and the higher the better.  He is letting down his guard a little bit at a time, it is so cool watching those insecurities of last year melt away.

M no longer needs mommy's guidance, or as I called it the linebacker defense, as she toddles up the stairs and heads down the slide.  In fact the idea of me behind her brings out the sullen teenager in her.  Roll of the eyes and finger pointing down makes her look twelve not almost two.  I am still cautious but I take a step back.  M is my no fear girl.  I always think of the quote, my lovely sister-in- law told me once.  "Well behaved woman seldom make history."  Watching Megan demand her independence in the smallest ways makes me know she will make history. 

For a few moments I get to sit on the park bench and watch my kids play.  I get to watch and laugh as M tries to chase bird, or see N have monster truck races down the slide.  Being able to relax like this reminds me that my children are getting older, I can take a step back and watch them play.  But for the record I will always take my shoes off and play in the sandbox.

(Lilacs. May 2008. © Robin)

About the time we first hear the Robin's ringing welcome to spring we may listen for the Bluebird's more gentle greeting. No bird's song is more associated with the return of Spring than the Bluebird's: nor is there a bird's note more expressive of the passing season than the Bluebird's Autumn call of far-away, far-away.

~ Frank M. Chapman, Birdlife, 1897

It's not all snow, all the time here in the Bogs. In spite of the cool weather we've been experiencing lately, spring is taking hold. Why, I expect before long summer will be here and we'll wonder where spring got to.

The plants and trees are not the only creatures displaying their warm weather plumage. The bluebirds are simply brilliant this year:

(Male bluebird at the bath. May 2008. © Robin)

As usual, birds are difficult subjects for me (meaning: the photos aren't that great). I do give myself credit for capturing this bluebird at all because these guys flit around like crazy and rarely stay in one (visible to me) place for a long enough period to snap a photo.

This is an eastern bluebird. As you can see, they have wonderful coloring. I think we have at least four pairs of bluebirds on our property. They hang out with the American goldfinches which have a brilliant yellow coloring. I'll be able to get a few shots of them late in the summer as they are attracted to the sunflowers (and we've planted plenty of sunflowers).

(The same bluebird. © Robin)

I'll leave you with a sunset...

(Sunset by the pond. © Robin)

... and some music. And a little more music. And the music you might have been expecting.

If a bluebird has come into your life, look for opportunities to touch the joyful and intrinsically native aspects of yourself that you may have lost touch with.

~ Ted Andrews, Animal Speak

About a month ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when Sarah and I went to our editor, Scott Swafford, with the idea for a series on growth and development in Columbia. Now, with the last article done, I know. It is a complex concept full of intricacies, and there are way more than two sides to this story. It was full of hours of interviews and a constant questioning of how a process cannot work – in some way – for everyone involved.

After doing this series I am left with one impression: the development process in Columbia is broken. It sounds harsh and judgmental to say that about a city I have grown up in and grown to love. However, I feel, it is the truth. The process is not working for anyone.City Council listens to hours of public hearings and debates about tiny details while also trying to answer the bigger question of how the particular development up for debate fits into the larger fabric of Columbia. The Planning and Zoning Commission does much the same thing, and members frustrated that ordinances are out of date and no longer match what the community needs.

Developers feel decisions are inconsistent; if they meet the rules and uphold the ordinances as they stand, they argue, they should be able to break ground and build. Neighborhoods lack the resources and knowledge to fully participate. Often the only way they are effective in brokering deals with developers is by using past experience or drawing on the expertise of someone in their neighborhood who just happened to be an ex-city attorney, a former councilman, or a past planning commissioner.

In my mind there are many questions, but one of them comes from my background as a Columbia resident: How does this town, with it’s quaint charms and college-town feel, grow into the city it is quickly becoming? When my family first moved here I remember my dad saying Columbia would soon reach 100,000 people and that after that point growth skyrockets. I go to college here knowing that when I return after I graduate this will not be the Columbia I remember in some ways.

We are growing quickly. Not so long ago there wasn’t much to look at when driving down Range Line Street past Big Bear Boulevard. Now there’s a crazy looking Sonic and fast-food restaurants galore, subdivisions and a bank every 20 feet (practically). And that’s only one side of town.

What many stakeholders brought up is that there is no comprehensive plan to guide Columbia’s growth. Stabs have been taken at a plan. There’s the Metro 2020 plan, but many agree its elements are applied only when it seems convenient. There is a call for a real plan with teeth, one that states goals for the city’s growth as a whole.

Columbia has taken steps toward the creation of that plan. The visioning process and talk about revitalizing and retaining the uniqueness of downtown are among them. So is the call from stakeholders across the board for a comprehensive plan.

On the whole, it might solve a lot of problems. A comprehensive plan for exactly what kind of city residents want this to be would inform the process of changing ordinances, if still deemed necessary. Better ordinances and a uniformly applied plan would put an end to the developer’s problems of inconsistencies in votes for or against their plans. More involvement by neighbors could end feelings of isolation or helplessness.

At the very least, most seem to think it wouldn’t hurt to pursue this avenue.

But here’s my two cents. What may be more important than a plan is simply a conversation about a plan. Or a conversation about frustrations felt on all sides. Or a conversation about better communication between developers and neighbors. What’s important is that there is talk from multiple viewpoints that could lead to  understanding and consensus. Getting the wheels going and changing the process so  it better meets the needs of Columbia may be as simple as talking to each other.

I am still meeting with my friend as time allows to discuss faith issues, and I am pleased to report that she has been responsive.  Credit goes more to her openness than to my skills (cough cough) as an apologist. No, a bright light has not shone upon her causing her to fall to her knees and shout, "You're right! How did I miss this?", but she is receptive and willing to consider what I throw out there.

The last time we met we discussed that old but venerable hang-up about the suffering of the innocent.  As wiser folks than I have observed, no answer to this question is 100% satisfactory.  There are some explanations that hold together better than others. However, addressing pain in this life is far more than an intellectual exercise.  Suffering stops people cold in their tracks and leaves deep, ugly scars in its wake.  Sometimes it derails their faith completely. And no argument for a good and loving God makes it easier. It is one thing to theologize about it, another to live it.

I am convinced that every believer has to find his/her own answer to dealing with this.  The longer I live the less stock I put in meta-explanations, i.e. responses that are suitable for every suffering person in every conceivable situation. What I am putting more stock into is each person finding his or her own answer in scripture and prayer; less an orthodoxy than a personal understanding between the believer and God that allows the believer to stay in the game without being overwhelmed by cognitive dissonance.

I don't presume to know all of the whys and wherefores to this. But one "why" that I try to keep in the forefront of my mind is that God is in the process of refining the world and everyone in it; especially those who call on Him.  And He is doing so in the context of haphazard lives lived out in a fallen world.  This means that our growth and change is done in the hardest way possible, through experience.  Sometimes, sadly, this process breaks the believer's faith. Other times, the believer who comes out the other side has a tougher, sharper faith.

Nobody lived through this process more than Paul the apostle. Consider the following: 

2 Cor. 4:7-12

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." [Emphasis mine]

Romans 5:1-5

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." [Emphasis mine]

In fact, the Lord predicted the experiences of Paul in Acts 9-11-15:

"The Lord told him, 'Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.'

 'Lord,' Ananias answered, 'I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.'

 But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'" [Emphasis mine]

None of this means that the believer should go it alone.  This is where the fellowship comes in.  I am convinced that we exasperate the sufferings of others through our failure to alleviate their suffering in any way possible. It takes more than a hug, an offer of prayer, and a reminder to "call if you need anything."  We have to suffer together. 

Philippians 2:1-4 

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

James 1:27

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

James 2:14-17

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Again, this is the hard way to do it, because it means taking on more struggles in addition to our own. But I am convinced that this is the only way that any of us our going to get out of this world with our faith intact. As John Mark Hicks writes:

"...In Jesus, God did not explain suffering—how I long for a “Sermon on the Mount” about suffering—but rather he experienced it as one of us and redeemed us from it.

Jesus responded to suffering by sharing its burden, even death. Moved by love and compassion (even for his enemies, including us), he redeemed cosmic fallenness through healing and atonement."

At a conference I attended several years ago, a speaker (for the life of me I cannot remember his name) spoke eloquently of his struggle with cancer; none of his doctors expected him to make it. Fortunately, they were mistaken. However, during the worst days of his struggle, he confessed to a friend that he did not have enough faith to face more chemo and surgery. His friend responded, "Then I'll have enough faith for both of us."

"I'll have enough faith for both of us."  That simple yet beautiful promise has haunted and inspired me ever since. That is how we do it, brothers and sisters. When you are in the thick of it, let another believer have enough faith for you. When your brother or sister is facing the worst that the world has to offer, make sure that you have enough faith for yourself and him/her. But make sure that it is the faith that James talks about, the one that produces good works.  It's the hardest way, but I am more and more convicted that it is the only way.

Our world is in a constant state of flux with the rapid flow of information and increased uptake in technological advancements, and the pace of change continues to increase manifold at mind boggling speed. The increased level of change will result in an increased level of uncertainty in the market place. If these trends are not closely monitored you could find yourself providing a product/service to a market which is slowly becoming extinct. As an entrepreneur this may hit you whilst you are setting up your own business or keeping levels of market risk at a manageable level. Hence you have to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry you operate in, constantly.

These are some tactics we use to manage market risk in the organizations I am involved with :

1. Read voraciously about your industry. Subscribe to industry specific reports, magazines and newsletters to help keep abreast with latest trends. This helps business development divisions to accurately estimate market size as well as being able to create market maps. A market map helps you to segment the industry and provides you with critical data regarding growth opportunities. 

2. Meticulously track local and international competitors who are at the beech-head of advancement in your industry. This helps identify growth paths as well as information regarding the competiton's strenghts and weakness. Accordingly structure growth paths to develop competencies in areas where you can compete most effectively and efficiently.

3. Establish mediums through which you can be in constant touch with your customers, suppliers and retailers. They provide you with ground realities which cannot be measured with extrapolated projection analysis. Constantly monitor consumption, sales and feedback to ensure that your product/service is continuing to provide the value that is expected of it.

The tactics mentioned above may appear simple and logical, yet, many startup organizations venture into spaces where they have not clearly outlined the size of potential markets or gauged whether the product/service they are providing is what the market demands. If you fail to gather data regarding these critical factors you will exponentially increase your venture's risk level. In the final analysis, the fate of any business lies in its ability to create or provide a product/service that fits the market demands or needs.

The soaring food prices that have triggered global political and economic turmoil over the past year have finally shown the first tentative signs of stabilising.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation food price index, considered the best measure of global food inflation, saw its first decline in 15 months in April, as wheat, dairy, sugar and soyabean prices fell.

The article finished with:-

The last time the FAO food index posted a monthly drop was in January 2007, but that proved a blip. This time officials are more confident that some prices will stop rising or even fall as farmers plant more crops to take advantage of record prices amid better weather than last year.

Agriculture experts warned prices could continue to rise because of the growing appetite for crops for the biofuels industry and bad weather, such as the cyclone in Burma.

They said retail prices could also keep climbing even if wholesale food inflation stabilises, as companies pass on previous increases to consumers.

It will be interesting to see whether any impact registers here as regards dairy products and the fortunes of Fonterra.

author’s note:

I caught the movie Indestructible Man a few years ago at the New Orleans Worst Film Festival.

I’m sorry if I’ve ruined the ending for you.
 

INDESTRUCTIBLE

The title would seem to be
misleading...

because Indestructible Man
erupted into raging fire
at the end of the movie.

But was he really destroyed?

True, he would no longer
rampage the land--no longer
be ruled by an anger
born from the incessant bullwhip.

But was he really destroyed?

In a recurrent dream
I know I have to step
on a certain round green stone
in the road, though I know
the stone will explode me--

impaled on shearing points
of a merciless wind,
I’ll be broken to bits
in a mad wrathful rush--yes

but even worse:
I will not become
unconscious--I will not
receive that black relief--

to fully appreciate hell
I must remain aware.

I do not have to step on that stone
yet I must step on that round stone.

Sometimes you see a sledgehammer
and you know in an instant
that sledgehammer owns you
for the next fifty years--

other times, you don’t know
then realize decades later
that you did know.

Or you see someone draining
his blood into an irrigation ditch

and you know he will soak through you
over the next fifty years.

He will because
you are indestructible.

And when someone asks “why did you?”

my reasonable excuses feel like lies.

But modesty will not allow me
to say what I wish to say
--except in a poem:

“I am indestructible--
 my arm may bleed,
 my feet may curse,
 my head may burst

 but

 I stepped on that bomb,
 I picked up that sledgehammer,
 I carried that broken body

 because I am indestructible--

 and yet I need to be destroyed

 because I’m still a long way
 from the core--so I know
 I’ll jump on many more
 round green stones
 in this road--

 but I also realize
 that I am--in that brief ringing--
 a brilliant nova
 at the top of the tower.
 No longer a ghost
 but the streak of a comet--
 shedding light
 through my universal home.”

© 2008, Michael R. Patton
dream steps
earnest audio

-85% of start-up businesses (and ministiries) fail within the first five years because of inadequate planning, structure, and systems.

How do we not become a statistic?

Ministry Venture's 5 Best Practices are a step.

1. Prayer

God is a God of order.

"Putting things in order is Wise and faithful stewardship"

That is a very convicting statement for us dreamers, visionaries, idea guys, and big thinkers.  Have to work on that.

3 Biblical Principles:

1. Build on a solid foundation of prayerful planning.

2. Build a ministry that can withstand adversity.

3. Build around process and not personality.

A Master obviously will take over the decision making for a slave. This is apparent to anyone who gets involved in the lifestyle. Yet, part of the value in a slave lies in her ability to get things handled on behalf of her Master. A slave who has to be baby sat can become a tremendous burden on a Master. Ideally, a slave should be able to grow into her role over time.

Training a slave to be able to think of how her Master would want things to be is a valuable concept to implement. A slave's value increases drastically when she is able to decipher what her Master would want done in each situation without the intervention of her Master. This allows Him to focus His attention in other areas. It is a natural process for a slave to pick up on the likes/dislikes of Master as time passes. However, this will not occur if she is not given the freedom to do this.

I have seen many Masters completely smother their slaves. They feel that they are maintaining control by removing all decisions from the slaves. This seems backwards to me. I found it better to encourage my slaves to learn about my tendencies and to progress in being able to decide for themselves what is best in each situation. Of course, they are taught that the decisions they make are done with what is best for me. It takes some effort to break them of the natural tendency to make a decision based upon themselves.

This Master is a firm believer that increasing a slave's value is at the core of my responsibility. To allow her abilities to languish and die is not in my best interest. I want to maximize the use of all my assets.

social bookmarking links:

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

(c) 2001, 2005 Doug Britton (Permission granted to print for personal use)

Introduction: What you do matters.

This study is adapted from Self-Concept: Understanding Who You are in Christ.

You have a purpose-to touch the world for Christ.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Notice two points in this verse:

• God created you. You are not an accident.
• God has a plan for you.

1. You are created to know God.

I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again (John 3:3).

I am the bread of life (John 6:35).

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Would you like to learn more about knowing God? If so, click here for a Bible study on "salvation" (or being "born again").

2. You are created for God's glory.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made (Isaiah 43:6-7).

3. You are created to praise God.

All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O lord; they will bring glory to your name (Psalm 86:9).

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever (Psalm 86:12).

4. You are created to grow the fruit of the Spirit.

The type of person you become is more important than your successes and failures in the world.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

5. You are created to spread the Gospel.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples (Psalm 96:3).<-p>

Make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted (Isaiah 12:4).

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

6. You are created to use the talents God gave you.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully (Romans 12:4-8).

7. Do not minimize your role.

All Christians collectively form the body of Christ. The body is formed of many different parts (Romans 12:4-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). All are important. It does not matter what part of the body you are.

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it (1 Corinthians 12:22-24).

Overcome jealousy or bitterness.

Don't be upset if you do not have a place of prominence, for, as you read in the above verse, God gives special honor to people with "less honorable" roles.

Do not downplay the value of what you do.

Don't compare yourself to others or give up if someone seems to do a better job than you. Of course there are others who have more talent! If all the evangelists or witnesses or teachers in the world decided to stop trying because someone else did a better job, where would we be?

What counts is that you be faithful.

God gave you talents and abilities. He expects you to develop them. Study Matthew 25:14-30.

Personal application

Have you felt purposeless in life? ___ Yes ___ No

How will you use the above information to live a more purposeful life?

No human being is exempt from shameful behavior. We will have discovered we will need to do one or more of the following when we feel ashamed of what we have done:

• Forgive ourselves and make a heartfelt commitment to not repeating the behavior.
• Make amends to those affected by our behavior.
• Completely accept we are capable of shameful behavior, put it behind us and move on.

Carrying guilt is an enormous burden for any of us. We must resolve the shame felt by our behavior. We must resolve the shame felt by any condition we happen to find ourselves.

Take this for instance,

Right now I have 4 important things to do :-

1. Prepare for my play - "The Death of a Salesman"
2. Build/Test and publish the web app for my research on "Startup Pains" by 18th May.
3. Sell books and earn - involves giving presentations and all.
4. My SELP
5. Build Website for Mumma. (I just finished it today)

Each of the above 4 are very important to me and I can't ditch any of them. The amount of work involved in doing all 4 together looked almost impossible due to the sheer lack of time and inflexibility. For instance, I have to rehearse for my play everyday in the evenings and that is the time that I gotta make presentations for my books as well. Similarly, the web app would have easily taken about 20 hours of my time. SELP would take the whole of 18th, all monday evenings and about 10-15 hours in the week. Whatever... basically, doing all of them together looked impossible to me.

But my possibility of replacing the ORs with ANDs was equally inspiring. So I did this, I sent a mail to the Bangalore Ruby Users Group and asked if any of them want to work with me on building the web app (point 2). It was a proactive step and I had never considered it. It helped a lot, I got 2 replys. I went and met Satish Kota, of Heurion Consulting and he gladly took the responsibility of the whole website! Amazing, isn't it! I earned myself about 15 free hours. I woke up at 5 today and finished designing Mumma's website. I again requested Aashish to host it! So I save some more time by making powerful requests.

I am still struggling with time, but what I have realized is that, everything is possible if you really want to make it happen.

I have given Gyanesh, my director a word that I will memorize my dialogs before going tomorrow. Looks tough, but I shall do it. A word is a word.

I am beginning to realize what Stephen Covey calls 'being proactive' and what SELP calls 'making powerful requests'. I am beginning to live an extraordinarily powerful life!