Category: Lessons for Life

by Jackson Brown Jr.

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work on something you enjoy and that is worthy of your time and effort.
3. Give people more than what they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, Persistence, Persistence
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love and those who love you (they arent same always!).
21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

Very rarely some one forwards an email thats worth reading. This is one of those.

H B Gelatt articulates four neuroses that stifles our ability to make confident decisions about future.

Future Phobia, Info-Mania, Perspective paralysis and Reverse Paranoia.

I am probably a possibilist, but I for sure have the Info-mania disability. Always feels like I can’t get enough knowledge. The lesson for me from Gelatt : Genuine Igonorance. So I am going to be learn to be genuinely ignorant of world wide knowledge from now on!

When I was there, I also read this insight on metaphors for future. Read it and then identify yourself with one. For me, I believe future is a great ocean and I hope to be a good navigator treading the uncharted waters, of course, barring any typhoons!

btw, If I had truly learnt Gelatt’s first lesson above, I shouldnt have stayed back to read the second one and more on his website. Isnt it?

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine if, we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.

Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow” I say! “I will call on Jim”
“Just to show that I’m thinking of him.”

But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner! yet miles away,

“Here’s a telegram sir” “Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the end.

Around the corner, a vanished friend.
Remember to always say what you mean.
If you love or like someone, tell them.
Don’t be afraid to express yourself.
Reach out and tell someone what they mean to you.
Because when you decide that it is the right time
it might be too late.
Seize the day. Never have regrets.
And most importantly,
stay close to your friends and family,
for they have helped make you
the person that you are today.

From my cousin Krishna Ananthan, Sunday, November 02, 2003 5:23:52 AM