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Enemies of Happiness- Procrastination

Procrastination is the bane of life. It is a major problem. The procrastinator losses perspective. He/she tends to do unimportant tasks because either they are easy or to his/her liking. In any case this is a bad habit which must be eradicated all together.   Normally one tends to postpone difficult and time consuming projects. In case the project is likely to take a long time you need to decide that you must make a beginning. Long ago I had listen to a training tape where the trainer said that in such cases use ‘Salami Technique.’ Further he described when you look at the Salami it is very unappetizing to look at. But if you cut it into smaller slices it becomes quite palatable. Similarly if we break a daunting task in small pieces we can handle the small parts of the problem and solve it using this piecemeal approach. The best suggestion is that you focus on starting the project rather than thinking about how it is going to be finished.   Another suggestio

Enemies of Happiness- Indecision

1. Spend a few days noticing when the malady i.e. indecision bothers you? What types of things  trouble you? Are they small things or big things? How much time do you devote to make simple decisions?   2. one thing to focus on, something that you’re constantly struggle with (it could be what time to get up the morning, what to eat that day, what outfit to wear). Make sure it’s a small thing to start with. Bigger problems can be dealt when you are more experienced.   3. When you go to a restaurant do you take too much time to decide what to order? 4. When your boss asks you to work on a holiday, how much time you take to respond? Do you say instantaneously and then repent about it?   5. While driving in heavy traffic, do you feel that you that you have taken a wrong lane which moves very slowly? 6. Next time you find yourself struggling to choose on your chosen subject, remind yourself mentally “I am a decisive person and I will not waste my time and e

Enemies of Happiness 6

Friends, I hope you must have reflected on the two Enemies of Happiness that originate and grow in the mind. After Anger and Fear, I proposed to talk about Jealousy in this post. Jealousy: Jealousy is quite common in our competitive world. It’s important to recognize the reason for the jealousy. You must also identify how much time and attention it takes you to contemplate on this daemon. Jealousy can be really debilitating. It doesn’t allow you to reach your goals. Once you admit to yourself that this ugly dragon keeps creating problems in your mind, you must seek corrective measures.   Some suggestions: 1. Reflect on your achievements. Count your blessings. And then try to achieve more. When you are busy in making and implementing your plan to achieve your goals you will not have time to waste with this malady.          2. You must accept yourself as you are. Assess your strengths. Try to leverage these strengths for your achievements. Meanwhile you mus

Enemies of Happiness 5

In my last post I had talked about Anger. The next most dangerous enemy of happiness is Fear. It is an emotion induced by a threat among the living beings. Among humans fear may occur in response to perceived risk to health or life, security, power, status or risk of losing any valuable. We keep on harboring fear by thinking that it is something natural to human being. Yes it is. But it can be conquered. How?   1. First of all accept it. Accept that you are afraid of certain things until we maintain our brave face we cannot device remedial measures. It’s preferable to write it down what you are afraid of and if possible defines the reasons there off.   2. Decide to face your fear. Ask yourself whether fear helps you to come out victorious in a particular situation or fear has any kind of advantage. Answer is always ‘No’. Some situations you can’t even escape.   3. Don’t allow anyone to frighten you for anything. We must also understand that caution is

Enemies of Happiness 4

Out of the 8 personality problems or 8 Enemies of Happiness in the personality, Anger is most damaging. Anger is an emotional response related to one’s psychological interpretation of having been threatened. At times the response could be volatile. Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. The ability to take right decision is impaired. Unabated continuous anger can cause he decks, migraines, chest pains etc. over a long period anger results in high blood pressure, depression and heart related diseases.   So we all agree that anger must be avoided to remain fit n fine. But how do we do that. I am listening below some suggestions which I do not claim can totally eradicate your anger, but they are helpful. If practiced with a positive attitude and consistently they can defiantly mitigate anger and control minds of very short tempered people. The suggestions are as follows. 1. The first step is to control your speech. Anger is an emotion which will be di

Enemies of Happiness 3

  In my last posting I had talked about the enemies of happiness within i.e. oneself. But there are many enemies waiting to spoil your happiness outside. These could be found at your workplace or even in the social group that you belong to. They are also there in your neighborhood. We should also not undermine the enemies present in the extended families or among so called friends.   In this post I like to talk about the enemies at the workplace. Most of our conscious time, we spend at the workplace. If we are happy at work we are likely to carry the same good feelings when we reach home. However if we find that there are happiness spoilers at workplace, it’s necessary to identify them. It is also necessary to deal with them for whatever it takes. I wouldn’t say that any given time you can totally be free from such enemies. But if you identify and take remedial measures, you can definitely mitigate their bad influence.   At workplace some people often o

Enemies of Happiness 2

Yesterday I had talked about 8 enemies of happiness which resides in human’s body or soul. I had detailed 4 out of these that is anger, fear, jealousy and indecision. If you have contemplated as suggested, am confident that you would have found sufficient relevance of this discussion. Today I shall talk about attachment, hesitation, procrastination and greed. These are also happiness spoilers. Greed if goes unrefined, can cause disaster. Attachment: Bhagwad Gita advises that any human should not be attached to anything. By attachment I mean you should never have such proximity that separation to that particular object may cause distress. Change is the law of Nature. Everything changes. These changes are bound to bring some objects (including people) close to you and some other away from you. In both situations you have to maintain your poise realizing that this is how life is. It was like this. It is so now. And it will remain the same in all times to come. So for our