HONE THOSE WRITING SKILLS !


There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.
                            

                                            -   William Makepeace Thackeray

Because of your uniqueness, you have your own set of experiences/ judgments in response to outer happenings in the world. They need to be constantly channelized in the form of writing.  If you go untapped those creative thoughts, they get buried inside you .


Experts say that to write, your inner environment must be serene. William Zinsser says that ' writing is thinking on paper'. In fact all your experiences become a distilled wisdom and settle in a retrievable place and  you must inculcate the habit of choosing the right ones in the right time.  I personally feel that writing helps to  integrate your creative right brain with logical left brain. One great man sagely advises to exercise the writing muscle everyday even if it is only a letter, note, a title list, a character sketch or a journal entry. He further says that writers are like dancers, athletes and without that exercise, the muscles can not be strengthened.

To become a writer means, you need to be an avid reader. One essential element for good writing is to give a lending  ear and one must also listen to the sounds of one's own prose. Peggy Teeters says that the only way to learn to write is to write.

Honing writing skills is a painstaking job.  More word power means more fire power. If you are armed with less vocabulary, it means you are poorer by expression which may not help in improving your writing skills to  rivet the readers .

James F. Stephan gives a tip here : " originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself".  To write means to have a patience. The written prose is vulnerable to constant editing as new ideas continue to flow in the mind.    As the mind is a factory of ideas, every time when I sit for writing, a new wave of thought sweeps through and a natural editing of written lines happens.

The writing ability severely batters when the family atmosphere is not conducive. So you must be careful to have harmonious relations. Economy of words is another secret of writing. Thomas Jefferson says that the most valuable of all talents is   “never using two words when one will do.” L.P. Hartley advises that it is better to write about things you feel than about things you know about. Eugene Lonesco has made the task cut out for a writer " A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.”

Personality Development Guru Robin Sharma says that "Maintaining a daily journal is one of the best personal growth initiatives you will ever take.” He further says that “it offers you the opportunity to have regular one-to-one conversations with yourself.”  You may not become a professional writer,  but  in between your hectic professional life, writing on chosen subject with your insights help others benefit from your writing.  That's why Robin Sharma asks to write as little as 15 minutes daily in a private journal which can improve health, functioning of your immune system and above all your overall attitude.

Dr. Deepak Chopra, the famous Indian American doctor and also a prolific writer  once replied that he is neurotic and compulsive about writing.    


The success stories of writers is endless. Chetan Bhagat, the youth writer who shot into fame with his first English novel “Five Point Someone’   is an IITian with - management degree from IIM . He left his job  as an investment banker in a multi-national company to settle as writer and the rest is history. The New York Times called Bhagat 'the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history". Time magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.

Writing is such an enticing act that  transports the ideas of writer to the succeeding generations.


To wrap up in the words of Harlan Ellison "writing is the hardest work in the world. Lonelier, and nobler and more enriching !!




WAKE UP WITH FIRE IN BELLY !

 

Tomes were written about the immense health benefits of early rising. Benjamin Franklin says that ' the early morning has gold in its mouth'. What beauty lies in rising early and how it impacts your quality of work life are the questions you must dwell up on yourself.

 Deepak Chopra, the mind-body medicine expert and the author of famous book "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" says that when you live with right questions, the life will move into answers. He further says that you must treat your body as an energy and information field and not as a fixed  structure.

In fact, when you rise early, the day appears to be slowed down and you feel leisurely to accomplish all your chores without any tension. If you have any creative hobbies, early rising is a perfect vessel to nurture those hobbies.

Don't be in indoors after you wake up. Go for a morning  run or walk to a nearby woods / park/ green patch. In those solitary walks, knowingly or unknowingly you tune-up your system. Experts say that it is the gift you have to give to yourself daily !

One great man sagely advises to get up early to have  a bullet-proof mindset. It is true that when you have passion to your work, literally you will wake up with a fire in the belly. When you wake up early morning, you feel mystically connected to your higher -being and the body is naturally at the peak of its performance.

Personality Development Guru Robin Sharma says that new habits are like new pair of shoes. First 40 days the habit needs to be nurtured blindly so that it almost becomes your second nature. If you mentally program before night at what time you need to wake up, you could wake up perfectly to that time without the aid of an alarm clock , because your bio-clock would act upon and wake you up.

Instead of jarring alarm clocks, Deepak Chopra says, you can set some soothing music to play at the time you want to get up and that will work. He further adds that your intention to wake up will stir you even before the clock plays music.

Physical fitness and early rising are inter-connected. If you are super fit, you need less number of hours for sleep. Richard Whately wraps up that " lose an hour in the morning and you will be all day hunting for it".

SUN - THE SHINING STAR

 


In fact Sun is the living wonder right in front of us. Without His rays, no living species would survive and the Earth would freeze into an ice ball.   Though we made some inroads into knowing other stars in the Solar System, our research on Sun is still at nascent stage.

When I talk about Sun, I am reminiscent of a Sun Temple in my Home State Andhra Pradesh, India, called Arasavalli Sun God temple situated in the coastal district of Srikakulam. It is one of the ancient Sun God temples in the country. The beauty of the temple structure is such that sun rays fall on the feet of the idol twice in the year during March and September in early hours of the day. This ancient temple is believed to have been built in the later half of the 7th century by Devendra Verma, the Ruler of the Kalinga Kingdom.

When it comes to  research on the Sun, it is reported  that   a group of scientists from Hawaii, Braziland California have measured the diameter of the Sun with unprecedented accuracy by using a spacecraft to time the transits of the planet Mercury across the face of the sun in 2003 and 2006. They measured the Sun's radius as 696, 342 km with an uncertainty of only 65 km.

It is believed that this gigantic ball of spinning gases is about 5 billion years old. The base material is Hydrogen (71 %), Helium (26.5%) and other elements (2.5%). The nuclei of hydrogen collide and fuse to form helium and this chain reaction produces energy, which among other things, lights and heats the solar system.

Scientists estimate that the mean distance between Earth and Sun is about 150 million km. If translated into flying hours, it means that a jet aircraft with 1000 km/hr would need more than 17 years of non-stop flying to reach the Sun.

Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer (1571-1630) produced the first accurate model of the solar system.  Inspite of so many advances in science,  deeper aspects of life and origin of Universe are  shrouded with mystery.  We can't be able to connect dots and what Arthur Eddington said to the world 84 years ago in his work : “ The Nature of The Physical World, 1928 (291)” still holds good: Something unknown is doing and we don't know what it is.

So the home point is, we are part of that mystery which we are trying to solve!


THE LEADER IN YOU

 

Book Review :

Dale Carnegie is one of the foremost personality development gurus of 20th century in America.   During his time, Dale was known to conduct famous courses on self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills.

Now so many leadership courses are on offer at 
http://www.dalecarnegie.com/ and all the current courses are based on the ideology of  Carnegie whose books are sold widely  throughout India.  His famous books include How to Win Friends and Influence people and How to stop worrying & start living.

The above book is in fact not written by Dale Carnegie, but each chapter of the book starts with Carnegie's famous quote.  The chapters dwell at length on the real life situations underlying the core management principles of Carnegie.

The back flap of the book says  that the co-authors Stuart R. Levine and Michael A. Crom offers Carnegie's time-tested human relationship principles to demonstrate how anyone can harness creativity and enthusiasm to work more productively.  The book offers very rare insights of authors   to strike a balance between work and leisure.  The book also guides you to achieve  your goals and increase your self-confidence and above all, the book facilitates you to identify your own leadership strengths.

The interesting chapters on subjects such as Listening to Handling Mistakes bring a total transformation in your life.  It injects a positive mental attitude into your life  to achieve the goals set for yourself.

The crux of the book lies in overcoming your worries and tread a path to success !