1000 Awesome Things - Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha uses the power of blogging to spread a little optimism each day about the awesome things that make life worth living.

Why you should listen to him:

Neil Pasricha never imagined that writing about the smell of gasoline, thinking it’s Thursday when it’s really Friday, or wearing underwear just out of the dryer would amount to anything. A self-described “average guy” with a typical 9-to-5 job in the suburbs, Neil started his blog 1000 Awesome Things, as a small reminder — in a world of rising sea levels, global conflict, and a troubled economy — of the free, easy little joys that make life sweet.

He certainly didn’t anticipate that his site would gain a readership of millions of people, win two Webby Awards (“the Internet’s highest honor” according to The New York Times), be named one of PC Magazine’s Top 100 Sites On the Internet, or become a place where people from around the world would come to celebrate the simple pleasures of daily life. His just released first book The Book of Awesome has become a #1 International Bestseller and The Book of Awesome 2 comes out in Spring, 2011.

Wonderful TED talk by Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome

The Top 1000 Awesome Things

Top 5 Regrets of the dying

Bronnie Ware is a writer and songwriter from Australia who spent several years caring for dying people in their homes. She has recently released a full-length book titled 'The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing'. It is a memoir of her own life and how it was transformed through the regrets of the dying people she cared for. For more information, please visit Bronnie's official website at www.bronnieware.com or her blog at www.inspirationandchai.com.

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

 

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Reference: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

My personal views on this:-

An excellent message from Bronnie Ware. By a profound learning from these life experiences from different people on their death bed, we can learn from these and make right choice for us.

Be a right choice maker for your life.

Couple of questions that popped in my mind

• Are you a choice maker of your life or consequence receiver?
• What will be your Top 5 choices for having a fullfiling life?

Message from Congo’s humanitarian heroine

Sister Angélique Namaika won this year’s Nansen Refugee Award [$1,00,000/€75,000]. Sister Angélique, a Congolese nun has been pivotal in helping rehabilitate hundreds of women who have been raped and abused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and other groups in the remote north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

What is your message to civil society across the world?

The message I would like to give to civil society is the following: in everything you do you need courage and be able to give yourselves to accomplish your objectives even if there are obstacles on the road. You have to accept volunteer work without waiting for an immediate benefit. In addition, it is important to love the work we do and to be diligent. It is important too, to be … to go beyond the criticism. We must trust in god and what we do. If what we do is good, we must continue to do so.

Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? - by Johann Von Goethe

If the morning wake us to no new joys,
if the evening bring us not the hopes of new pleasures,
is it worth while to dress and undress?

Does the sunshine on me today that I may reflect on yesterday?
That I may endeavor to foresee and to control
what can neither be foreseen nor be controlled
- the destiny of tomorrow?

beautiful lines from Johann Von Goethe

My speeches on Toastmasters Journey

Competent Communicator Journey speeches

7 great websites for educating yourself online - Readers Digit Article

Missed out on subjects at school? Interested in learning something new? The internet is opening up education to everyone, and now you can be taught by the best educators from the best universities in the world, free. Most won’t get you an actual degree, but they will expand your brain.

1. Khan Academy - khanacademy.org - Library of over 4100 educational videos viewed over 250 million times.
2. Coursera - coursera.org - Online degrees and lectures from the best professors worldwide.
3. TED Talks - ted.com - Videos of more than 1400 talks from the world’s greatest thinkers.
4. OpenCourse Ware Consortium - ocwconsortium.org - Video courses and lectures from top universities.
5. iTunes U - apple.com/education/itunes-u - Download or create lectures for iPod, iPhone or iPad.
6. Wikiversity - en.wikiversity.org/ - Open educational resources and collaborative learning communities from the Wikimedia Foundation.
7. Textbook Revolution - textbookrevolution.org - Free textbooks on the net.

This is an extract from The Khan Aacademy, originally published in Reader's Digest Magazine July 2013.

- See more at: http://www.readersdigest.com.au/educate-yourself#sthash.5tFimD0M.dpuf

Epics are holistic depictions of Life - StoryTeller Craig Jenkins

I read an interesting article in "The Hindu" - Metroplus 17th Sep 2013

Key Excerpts are
Epics are holistic depictions of Life - StoryTeller Craig Jenkins

• Craig says what makes The Ramayana and The Mahabharata interesting is that they are holistic depictions of life. “It [Researching epics] shows us there is light and dark in all of us.[தமிழ் - நல்லவரா / கெட்டவரா?]  And it is an interface between a story and reality because every one of these stories allows us to question. When Jambavan tells Hanuman about his childhood, Hanuman discovers the power within. This story is a metaphor for those times in life when we don’t know what we are capable of, but it takes one moment to make us realise that we can do it.”

• It [researching epics] took over my life, really. I don’t think I’ll ever know the stories fully. And I’d want it to be that way. It’s like swimming in an ocean and the more I move with the waves, the more I re-discover something else.”