Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Half a glass of water, is it half full or half empty?

Half a glass of water in never just half full nor is it ever just half empty. It is always half full and always half empty. So when we teach our children to look on the bright side it is indeed bright to look at half a glass as half full and not as half empty. But we are teaching our children a half truth. It is always brighter to teach our children the full truth. When you show them half a glass of water tell them it is half full and half empty. The brightest move would be to show them the empty part and tell them that this empty part is their opportunity to fill up the glass.

"THEY DON'T JUST SHOW THEIR KIDS THE GLASS AS HALF FULL THEY SHOW THEIR CHILDREN THE HUGE EMPTY GLASS THAT THEY HAVE TO FILL AND THAT THEY ARE DESTINED TO FILL!!!!!

To really understand life/time we must wake up to the fact that life is life. Whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly(WHICH IT NEVER IS) happy or sad it is all 100% life. The empty part of our glass of life is even more important as it represents an opportunity because only through failure and pain can we experience and learn to improve our brain/mind and come closer to our ultimate destiny of becoming wise.

In fact until recently it was a given that most Americans were handed over a decent inheritance. Now it is becoming less and less usual. More and more young Americans are being handed a less than half full glass of life where even the glass size is shrinking. We must pause and focus on how to reverse this problem.

Prof. White Head would start a new class by drawing a horse carriage on the black board. Then he would ask the class what was the most important part of the carriage. Some would say the horse or the wheel etc. He said it was the idea of the carriage. The concept is the most important. So in this case too we must start with the concept.

Therefore instead of showing the children/student that half of the glass of life is half full let them rejoice on the half full part but show them two facts:

a) The half empty part is the opportunity waiting to be filled.
b) The glass size itself has to be made larger. (Don't just focus on the half full also focus on the glass size and over prepare your self and your children/students to increase the glass size itself many fold).

So you have to train to take the empty part, the dark part as an opportunity to be filled up and an opportunity to hone ones skills so that not only is the glass filled it is exchanged for a bigger and bigger glass.

When we focus on the half full we become less concerned over the half empty so we tend to use the half full less responsibly. For many of us the half full becomes quarter full. This is what is happening to many Americans today.

Many Americans have told me, 'You foreigners come to our country and become rich. You do better then us and you are leaving many of us behind.' Well we Indians look at our life's glass and say to our self not only is my glass half empty it is also too small. So instead of focusing on the blessings of the half full glass (we already feel happy by merely being here as we know we have the opportunity of making the glass fuller and bigger, so we size this opportunity) we focus on not only filling up the glass we focus on making the glass bigger and bigger and for some of us we collect many more glasses. When one focuses on fullness rather than emptiness then the tendency is to spend more money than is required. It's like I am rich rather than poor when I see the full part only.

Given the current economic mess; America to get out of the current economic mess must start training the young minds to not focus just on the bright side but also to focus on the brightest side by taking the following steps:

ALWAYS TELL THE WHOLE REALITY/TRUTH AND TRAIN THE YOUNG MINDS ON THE FULL FACTS FOCUSING ON OPPORTUNITIES RATHER THAN MAKING THEM FEEL CONFIDENT ON A HALF TRUTH AND ALSO:

a) Instead of focusing on the half full lets focus on the half full and half empty.
b) Lets also realize that the half full is not going to remain the same it will become less if we just sit on it.
c) Lets wake up to the fact many of us have used the half full to the last drop.( If only the Federal Govt. would wake up to the ballooning federal deficit and took wise measures we are not too far down the empty yet.)
d) Not only must we prepare to fill the half empty part we must over prepare to increase the glass size many fold.

It is my hobby to research how individuals and groups become super rich and in my experience I have found that the most successful group comes from a small town called Mewar in Rajhasthan, India. This super rich group is called Marwaris. They control the bigger factories, the diamond trade etc. Where ever there is more money to be made they are right there on the top. Unlike the rest of India where we tell our kids that you have to become a doctor, an engineer or a Govt. officer etc. they tell their kids that the future of whole countries depends on their shoulders. They don't tell them that when they grow up they are going to have the best job they tell them that they are going to provide others with the best jobs. They are going to start factories and big businesses. THEY DON'T JUST SHOW THEIR KIDS THE GLASS AS FULL(for they say to the child look here our glass is full. We have enough to last several generations but I got a smaller glass from my parents and I made it bigger but you are going to make it much bigger because the world needs you to provide them with higher paying jobs) THEY SHOW THEIR CHILDREN THE HUGE EMPTY GLASS THAT THEY HAVE TO FILL!!!!!


As of today not much is lost if we can only wake up and not bring up our children on half truths.

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