I was talking to this 9 year old who had asked me to do something. I told her that there is a 99% chance of it not happening. Her reply to me was,"That means there is a 1% chance that it will happen". And guess what, it did happen. I loved the enthusiasm and the optimism of the youngster. Hoped, this enthusiasm and such a positive attitude was there with all of us.
A visiting foreigner once asked me as to why there is almost one festival every month in India. I asked her as to what happens in her country during the month of December when Christmas is celebrated. She said that there is lot of joy, a feeling of giving, lot of shopping, lot of visiting relatives..and generally, a lot of love and fun in the air. I asked her what if there is a Christmas every month? She said that would be the best thing to happen in her country. I told her that is why there is something to celebrate every month in India. It keeps the cheer and the feeling of giving, love and sharing throughout the year. The atmosphere is charged with a positive attitude.
Our ancestors were amazing at ensuring that the positive attitude remained throughout the year and they came up with different reasons to celebrate. Most of the time, we are caught up in the day to day chores that we forget to celebrate our successes. We forget to see the positives in the messages that we receive in this universe.
I was flipping between various news channels the other day and saw only depressing news coming through.. an accident here, floods there, miners trapped, someone murdered, etc...it is not Sri Lanka that won the cricket match..but, it is India that lost the match which makes news value...I am sure that for every such sad news that we have, we also generate enough happy news. We just don't seem to share such happy news.
In the corporate world too, we see that the senior management is always grumpy and under pressure. Have we ever wondered why? Day in and day out they are getting only bad news - what we call "escalations". If someone is just feeding you with bad news happening in the company through the day, how do you expect your mood to be? Despite all this bad news, the company would have grown 20% during the year. So, I keep wondering as to why only bad news should reach the top management? It is good to get the bad news out there on top so that quick decisions can flow through to rectify the situation. But, it is also worth the while to sandwich this bad news with good ones too. That will create an atmosphere that is positive to work in while resolving issues.
Let us look at this universe in the way that the creator wanted it to be...balanced, peaceful, happy!!! If each of us decides to share one piece of happy news every day with at least one other person, this world will be a better place to live in.
Very nice and insightful, Ravi. thanks for sharing :-)
ReplyDeleteI am sharing a few positive news articles in your forum.
ReplyDeletehttp://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/15/slide-show-1-success-story-of-dosa-plaza.htm#contentTop
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/01/slide-show-1-from-studying-under-streetlamps-to-ceo-of-us-firm.htm
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/aug/13/slide-show-1-candle-seller-to-multi-millionaire.htm
All these are outstanding success stories of people who had great dreams and worked hard chasing their dreams to turn them into reality.
As for our monthly quota of festivals, those were mainly tools of promoting trade and commerce in our towns. Thats where we get together..share a few laughs. I am not surprised that negative news gets great attention because that excites people a lot.
The saddest part is that many people are not happy and content with what they have, but upset and furious about what others have got.