AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 97 of 153 differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is yourself. 112. The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity . It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring your hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, ‘Look, why don’t you just give up? I don’t think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day.’ The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, ‘But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!’ If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective. 113. The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change , do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations. Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts. At the end of the day, it is values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to the destination. 114. And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, ‘Thank you, Sir.’ One day, the vendor’s assistant asked him, ‘Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don’t you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow?’ The vendor smiled and replied, ‘He can’t help being rude and I can’t help being polite. Why should I let his rude behavior dictate my politeness? In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realize that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defied our elders to fall in line with our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do. 115. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life. Remember, those who win are those who believe they can INDIAN DETERGENTS WASH OUT MNC BRANDS - Star Of Mysore Online 116. Mysore, July 28 (MA)- The market is aflood with innumerable detergents for washing clothes and till now the consumer had to rely on the claims made in advertisements to decide what he wanted to buy.