Maintain Determination

With enough determination, no goal is out of reach. Determination carries you past seemingly insurmountable obstacles and makes things real that were once considered impossible.
So how do you create and maintain sufficient determination to take you where you want to go? How do you keep the power of determination working for you?
To maintain your determination, you simply must remember it. For as powerful as your determination can be, it is nothing more than a concept in your mind.
As long as you can keep that concept of determination at the front of your mind, it will work for you. As long as you can remember, with passion and with clarity, the what, why and how of your determination, it will carry you forward.
When the challenges come, remember that you are determined and you will be. Though your determination won't solve your problems for you, it can keep you going long enough for you to solve them yourself.
What things in your life do you truly wish to change, to improve, to create, to accomplish, and why? Sincerely answer that question, and you'll discover plenty of determination within yourself.
Keep that determination in mind as each moment goes by, and you'll accomplish whatever you choose to accomplish.
-- Ralph Marston

Value of Attention

Sometimes you can move ahead more quickly by slowing down. Often you can get more accomplished by being less busy.

When you rush quickly through a task, without taking the time to get it right, what have you accomplished? When you hurry through life so frantically that you can't keep track of where you are, what value does that bring you?

When you try to do too many things at once, you're sending yourself a subtle, yet powerful, negative message. You're telling yourself that not one of those efforts, by itself, is worthy of your undivided attention.

Similarly, when you rush through a task, you're sending yourself a message that the task is not worthy of your time. If you have no respect for what you're doing, it won't produce much value, no matter how quickly or in what quantity you do it.

To achieve maximum value, work quickly enough to get it done and slowly enough to do it right. Before taking on a new task, be sure that you have enough quality time to give it your full attention.

Stop wasting so much energy rushing from one thing to the next and back again. And you'll have more than enough time to create real, lasting value.

-- Ralph Marston

Quote on Great People

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

-- Mark Twain.

Choice of Feelings

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you’ll know exactly what to do.-Michelle Ventor
Choice of feelings
You create your feelings and you are responsible for them. By controlling those feelings in a positive and purposeful way, you can profoundly change your life for the better.
If you blame another person for your feelings, what you're really doing is giving that person control over an important part of your life. If you avoid taking responsibility for your feelings, those feelings can quickly overwhelm you and leave you powerless.
The way you feel can affect every corner of your life. By taking positive control of your feelings, you put yourself in a powerful and influential position in your world.
Keep in mind that every feeling you experience is a feeling you have chosen. Though much of what comes your way is beyond your control, the way you feel about it all is completely up to you.
If your life seems to be stuck, that's a sure sign that you're holding on to feelings that are no longer appropriate. Know that you can let those feelings go and be gloriously free to move quickly ahead.
Feelings are powerful and can bring much richness to life, and the power they have is the power you choose to give them. Choose your feelings wisely, and life will be rich indeed.
-- Ralph Marston

Getting out of dissappointment

It feels lousy to be disappointed, whether it is by other people, by circumstances, or by your own mistakes. And yet, in each disappointment there is also opportunity.  When a disappointment comes, acknowledge it and feel it for what it is. Then quickly step away from it and take a more objective look.
You'll discover that in the larger context of your life, that disappointment can have positive value. Though one door has been closed to you, many more have just been opened.
From each disappointment you can gain knowledge, motivation, perspective and a more clearly defined purpose. From each disappointment, you can learn much about life and about yourself, much that will help you move on ahead.
When life lets you down, there is value to be found in that disappointment. Quickly get back up and begin to live that value.
When you go forward, you will occasionally stumble. And when you choose to positively recover from those stumbles, you'll move more quickly ahead.
-- Ralph Marston

Socratic Method for teaching

Socratic Method for teaching

I found this nice way of teaching the people any topic.

Read more info. About the same at

http://www.soci.niu.edu/~phildept/Dye/method.html

http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/handbook/approach.html

http://www.garlikov.com/Soc_Meth.html

Remove the limits on your thoughts

Here's a story about George Dantzig - the famed mathematician who's contributions to Operations Research and systems engineering have made him immortal.

As a college student, George studied very hard and often late  into the night. So late, that he overslept one morning, arriving 20 minutes  late for Prof. Neyman's class. He quickly copied the two maths problems on the board, assuming they were the homework assignment. It took him several days to work through the two problems, but finally he  had a breakthrough and dropped the homework on Neyman's desk the next day.

Six weeks later, on a Sunday morning, George was awakened at 6 a.m. by his excited professor. Since George was late for class, he hadn't heard the professor  announce that the two unsolvable equations on the board were mathematical  mind-teasers that even Einstein hadn't been able to answer. But George Dantzig, working without any thoughts of limitation, had solved not one, but two problems that had stumped mathematicians for thousands of  years.

Simply put, George solved the problems because he didn't know he couldn't.

You are not limited to the life you now live. It has been accepted by you  as the best you can do at this moment. Any time you're ready to go beyond the limitations currently in your life, you're capable of doing that by  choosing different thoughts. All you must do is figure out how you can do it, not whether or not you can. And once you have made your mind up to do it, it's amazing how your mind  begis to figure out how. Afterall, a person is limited only by the thoughts that he/she chooses. 

Take the first step

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Take the time
Take the time to put something back where it belongs, and you'll easily be able to find it next time you need it. Take the time to learn, and you'll make yourself more effective.
Take the time to listen, and you'll much more clearly understand. Take the time to think before you act, and your actions will take you where you want to go with no regrets.
Take the time to say thank you and to appreciate the good things you have, and abundance will grow in your life. Take the time to truly enjoy yourself, and you'll inject positive energy into all you do.
Take the time to offer a word of encouragement, and your world will be a brighter place. Take the time to give a helping hand to someone in need, and your own troubles will suddenly shrink away.
Take the time to work through a challenge, and you'll discover a whole new level of positive opportunities. Take the time to be curious and aware of the world around you, and you'll see magnificent possibilities in every direction.
Take the time to love, to smile, to wonder, to play, and to find out who you really are. Take the time to fully live in each moment as it comes along, and life will be rich indeed.
-- Ralph Marston

Code

often encounter code like this:















































































































view plainprint?

The excessive nesting of conditional clauses pushes the code out into an arrow formation:









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And you know you're definitely in trouble when the code you're reading is regularly exceeding the right margin on a typical 1280x1024 display. This is the Arrow Anti-Pattern in action.
One of my primary refactoring tasks is "flattening" arrow code like this. Those sharp, pointy barbs are dangerous! Arrow code has a high cyclomatic complexity value-- a measure of how many distinct paths there are through code:
Studies show a correlation between a program's cyclomatic complexity and its error frequency. A low cyclomatic complexity contributes to a program's understandability and indicates it is amenable to modification at lower risk than a more complex program. A module's cyclomatic complexity is also a strong indicator of its testability.
Where appropriate, I flatten that arrow code by doing the following:

1. Replace conditions with guard clauses. This code..


2. if (SomeNecessaryCondition) {


3.     // function body code


4. }

.. works better as a guard clause:
if (!SomeNecessaryCondition)
{
    throw new RequiredConditionMissingException;
}
// function body code

1. Decompose conditional blocks into seperate functions. In the above example, we're in a do..while loop which could be decomposed:


2. do


3. {


4.     ValidateRowAttribute(drc[rowIdx]);


5.     rowIdx++;


6. }


7. while(rowIdx < rowCount && GetIdAsInt32(drc[rowIdx]) == Id);


8. Convert negative checks into positive checks. As a broad rule, I prefer to put the positive comparison first and let the negative comparison fall out naturally into the else clause. I think this reads a lot better and, more importantly, avoids the "I ain't not doing that" syndrome:


9. if (Attributes[attrVal.AttributeClassId] is ArrayList)


10. {


11.     // do stuff


12. }


13. else


14. {


15.     // do stuff


16. }


17. Always opportunistically return as soon as possible from the function. Once your work is done, get the heck out of there! This isn't always possible -- you might have resources you need to clean up. But whatever you do, you have to abandon the ill-conceived idea that there should only be one exit point at the bottom of the function.

The goal is to have code that scrolls vertically a lot.. but not so much horizontally.

Mutual Funds for Beginners

Mutual Fund for Beginners
First time investors in Mutual Funds act in the face of imperfect information and often get overwhelmed by uncertainties characterizing the investment situation. But there’s more to Mutual Fund investing than market timing.
The first thing an aspiring unit holder must do is to establish what type of portfolio he wants to build. In other words, to decide the right asset allocation. Asset allocation is a method that determines how you invest your money in different investments with the proper mix of various asset classes. Remember, the type or class of security you own i.e. equity, debt or money market, is much more important than the particular security itself.

The popular thumb rule for asset allocation says that whatever the investor’s age, he should keep that percentage of his portfolio in debt instruments. For example, if an investor is 25, he should have 25% of his investments in debt instruments and the rest in equity. However, in reality, different circumstances and financial position for each individual may require different allocation. Portfolio variable is another factor that one needs to understand to practice asset allocation. These are age, occupation, number of dependants in the family. Usually the younger you are, the more riskier the investments you can hold for getting superior returns.

How to pick the right fund/s?

Next, focus on selecting the right fund/s. The key is to select the fund/s based on their investment philosophy and consistency in terms of returns. To ensure you are selecting the right type of funds that are appropriate for your needs, consider following:Determine what your financial goals are.

Are you investing for retirement? A child’s education? Or for current income?Consider your time frame. Do you need money in three months time or three years? The longer your time horizon, the more risk you may be able to take.How do you feel about risk? Are you in a position to tolerate the ups and downs of the stock market for the possibility of higher returns? It is necessary to know your own risk tolerance. It can be a guide for choosing the right schemes. Remember, regardless of the potential returns, if you are not comfortable with a particular asset class, you should consider other options.  

   Fund Candy   Diversified equity funds   Index funds   Opportunity funds   Mid-cap funds   Equity-linked savings schemes   Sector funds like Auto, Health Care, FMCG, IT, Banking etc.   Balanced funds for those who are not comfortable with 100% exposure to equity

If selected properly, these equity and equity-oriented funds have the potential to deliver returns that could be far superior to other asset classes.Remember, all these factors will have a direct impact on the fund you choose and the return that you can expect to get. If you are a long-term investor with some appetite for risk and are looking for returns to beat inflation, equity funds are your best bet. MFs offer a variety of equity and equity-oriented schemes (See table ‘Fund Candy’). For a beginner, it makes sense to begin with a diversified fund and gradually have some exposure to sector and specialty funds.Investment Strategies that will help you make the best of your MF Investment and Traps that you should avoid.Keeping track..Filling up an application form and writing out a cheque is not the end of the story. It is equally important to keep an eye on how your investments are performing. While having a qualified and professional advisor helps both in terms of making the right decision as well as measuring performance, it makes sense to know how to do yourself with a little help from these sources:Fact sheets and Newsletters: MFs publish monthly fact sheets and quarterly newsletters that contain portfolio information, a report from the fund manager and performance statistics on the schemes managed by it.Websites: MF web sites provide performance statistics, daily NAVs, fund fact sheets, quarterly newsletters and press clippings etc. Besides, the Association of Mutual funds in India, AMFI, website, contains daily and historical NAVs, and other scheme.Newspapers: Newspapers have pages reporting the net asset values and the sales and redemption prices of MF schemes besides other analysis and reports.Remember, it is very important for you to be well informed. To achieve this, you need to spend a little time to understand and analyze the information to enhance the chances of success. Even if you spend one percent of the time that you spend on earning money, it’ll be a good beginning. Above all, take help of a professional advisor to select the right fund as well as the right mix of one time investment, SIP and the STP.

For more info. go to the URL: http://moneycontrol.com/backends/News/frontend/news_detail.php?autono=168248&call_section=MF


    

Looking into eyes of problem

How many new and ambitious efforts would you undertake if you knew for sure that there would be no problems? And how many worthwhile achievements do you avoid because you fear that there will be problems?
Yes, in most things you undertake there will be problems. And yes, you always have what it takes to work through those problems without being overwhelmed by them.
In order to be free of problems, you do not need to avoid those problems. You can be surrounded by all sorts of complex problems, deeply involved in working through those problems, and still be free of them.
Because the problems will get to you only to the extent that you allow them to do so. You can give your time, effort and attention to the problems while at the same time keeping your precious, innermost self completely detached from them.
Success is attained not by avoiding problems. Spectacular success comes when you can thoroughly deal with the problems without letting them pull you down.
Learn to keep the inner part of you problem free. And no problem will ever be a problem for you.
-- Ralph Marston

Meditation - How to for Beginners

Meditation: “Dhyaanam Nirvishayam Manah” (Sankhya Darshan: 6/25) means “The state of mind when remains objectivitated i.e. without any thought (when the mind is away from worldly objects, but remains connected with the self), is called the ‘Dhyaan’ or Meditation”. It is clear with this Sankhya-Sutra that meditation is the state of continuous non-objectiveness of mind, which means when mind is away from all wordily things i.e. objectless.


· “Tatra Pratyayaikataanataa Dhyaanam” (Yoga-Sutra: 3/2) which mean, “Sustained concentration (Dhaarnaa*) is meditation (Dhyaan).

[*Concentration is the fixing of the Chitta (mind stuff) upon a particular object. This is ‘Dhaarnaa’. (Yoga-Sutra: 3/1)]

Meditation is of two types: First is “Samprajnaata” i.e. where the meditator is conscious of self and the act of meditation and second is “Asamparajnaata” when even this consciousness is lost and meditator Experiences only the bliss of Omnipresent God.



Meditation is a journey within, to meet our own consciousness. But to achieve higher state of consciousness, of deep silence of ‘Samaadhi’ and Meditation, one has to transcend all words and all thoughts. No language can lead us there. Therefore, talking of that state, declare Upanishads:



· “Yato Vacho Nivartante, Apaapya Manasaa Saha” means that state, where words cease to be, cannot be achieved through mind”.



Although everybody seems to be talking of Meditation these days, but few really practice it regularly and know the meaning of “Meditation”.



Beginners often start meditation with too many expectations, waiting for something to happen. When nothing happens they are disappointed and give up the practice of meditation. They imagine that by simply sitting in a straight-backed position with their eyes closed, they will reach in the state of ‘Samaadhi’. But this is not possible because most adults have a sharp sense of ego problem, which keeps them confined and restricted.

It is recommended to all new practitioners that they should start with very short sessions, not more than five or ten minutes at a time. These periods may be repeated several times and each time the attitude should be of relaxed stillness, expecting nothing, but ready for anything.

The human mind is full of thoughts – random and never ceasing. It is impossible for the average person to stop these thoughts and the only way to get some control over them is to adopt a steady watching attitude. Without this, each thought will hook itself on to another thought and another.

It helps if you realise that thoughts generally fall into three categories -- remembering, planning and dreaming. If you are remembering, then you are lingering uselessly in the past, which can be both repetitive and obsessive. Just let it go. Don’t get involved. If your mind is busy with planning, you are thinking of the future, your aims, desires and hopes. Dreaming is self-explanatory. Do not get involved. Let the thoughts come and go without clinging to them. Five minutes is all you are allowing yourself, so there is no expectation, no strain. The quality of meditation and not the duration is what you are interested in for the present. Meditation has been described as a mind suspended in space – a pure and complete awareness without clinging.



There are many aids to meditation. There is a Mantra, which repeated in your mind will eventually stop random thoughts. There is a candle flame or a statue or picture on which you can concentrate. Or you can simply concentrate on your breathing. All these methods are effective, but only if you take it lightly, giving only 25 per cent of your attention to them, with the remaining 75 per cent of your mind relaxed and floating in space.

The sitting posture is important since a straight spine and all the different ‘Chakras’, so that energy flows smoothly and the mind calms down and is at ease. But even here it is not necessary to go to extreme. You can sit cross-legged on a cushion. The legs can be folded easily and not rigidly in the lotus pose. You may even sit on a chair with feet flat on the ground. Whichever way you sit you should be comfortable so that you can sit for as long as necessary.


A person sitting quite and contemplating, with no purpose or aims except that of experiencing himself and his oneness with the world, is meditating. Studies by Herbert Benson, a Harvard cardiologist, show that meditation produces psychological changes which include reduced heart rate and blood pressure, as well as reduced oxygen consumption, reduced blood lactate level (associated with anxiety) and reduced respiratory rate. The body is deeply relaxed while the mind remains alert. Benson calls this ‘the relaxation response’, which counteracts state of fear, anger and anxiety.



At the psychological level, with regular meditation there is deceased anxiety, a higher level of relaxation at all levels, and progress to wards self-actualization. The meditator begins to experience in a more positive way, and a more peaceful and secure self-concept is developed. Physical dysfunctions such as lack of sleep, fatigue, headaches lesson or disappear altogether.

Regular meditation increases empathy, concern and interest in the well being of others. Today all doctors agree that stress and anxiety play a role in the development of many diseases.

In meditation alpha waves increase the state of reflecting an extremely restful, non-anxious and non-problem solving mental state. After successful meditation the person is relaxed, with a greater capacity for creativity, love and compassion.



When someone talks about ‘meditation’ it’s understood that this term is related to something that is spiritual (inner) world. It’s one hundred per cent right. Meditation means to realise/find/feel of some super-conscious thing to get peace of mind, which is always there, but because of ones ignorance and laziness one is unable to seek/search it. That is why man is always unhappy and unsatisfied in his life, even after getting all kinds of comforts in this materialistic world. Something is missing! Of course! Something is missing! But, what is that something, which is missing? In the Vedic philosophy this something is nothing but—the Bliss (Anand) of God. The term “Anand” can be defined, as the spiritual happiness of the self.



[The soul is in search of the real spiritual happiness but after coming to this beautiful and amazing wonderful materialistic world, he* forgets everything because of his limited knowledge. He (the soul) wanders after illuminated and colourful material things in this world made of Tri-attributed Prakriti. *The soul has no gender but being a sensate or Chetan thing, it can be pronounced in masculine/feminine manner.]



Mind is the most important thing and without mind’s involution one can not meditate. Meditation is nothing but to think of self-consciousness, but in philosophical point of view, Meditation is defined as a technique or an art of concentration. To control the mind is not an easy job, one needs a lot of practice, and practice makes a man perfect. One thing, here, is to be noted that mind is not a conscious thing like the soul, but it is an inert thing that cannot do anything by its own. The soul is its master and master should be alert. If/When any work is given to the mind; it will be busy and cannot wander of its own. This is one of the method by which the mind is can be controlled easily. “A will, will find a way”, so one has to practice.



Many people believe that the mind is the slave of the senses, on the contrary the mind is said to be their king (Boss), all senses are under mind’s control, and the mind is under intellect’s control. Soul is the master of our physical (inert) body and all organs are its instruments (means) to work.



The mind functions the way we want. For desired results in any sphere of activity, the mind needs to be focused. Thus, an individual must have control over it and its cravings. Striving to fulfil each desire leads to even more desires. All endeavours, all efforts and struggles must be directed towards strive to attain this goal—of keeping the mind in control—rather than seeking the fulfilment of every desire.

Satsang - 1

Here is the summary of our first Satsang held on 17th June 2005 Friday

1. During conducting any meeting, always let others speak first and dont give your judgement before hand

2. Quality decision making is important and it should be quick and not hasty !!

3. Never underestimate anybody and keep your antennas open. Ego is one which can block the antennas

4. Dont be mechanical in doing things, live each and every moment. Be alert.

5. Nevery apply constraints/assumptions while doing things as it blocks creativity .

6.All qualities are essential for any human being but they should be in proper proportions(SAMTVA)

7. You dont know when and from whom you would get your advice from.