Vinay
Junior Member
Get busy living or get busy dying !!
Posts: 21
Optional: Public Administration
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Post by Vinay on Jul 16, 2014 17:35:36 GMT 5.5
Looks good and motivating !! ( From Insightsonindia site ) Wake Up Before It’s Too Late
You are watching lots of movies; you are reading lots of other stuff – news articles, novels, magazines etc; you are on phone most of the time; you may be quarreling a lot with girlfriend/boyfriend, parents and siblings; you are daydreaming a lot; or you may be just sleeping too much. But you are not reading the books that matter in clearing the UPSC civil services exam despite dreaming day and night about becoming an IAS officer. You want to read a lot. You want to make notes. You want to start answer writing practice. Yet, these are not happening. Days are being spent on doing things that do not help you succeed. The fact is that you are doing these things to escape from your own fears. You are scared about pending works. You are scared about doing something that you haven’t done before. You are scared about the result because you may be thinking that you would be never able to match the score of toppers. Or you may be just scared about the UPSC and its seemingly ‘uncertain’ behaviour! You waste time not because you are fond of wasting it, it’s because you want a safe hiding place from so many responsibilities. Last night you decided to make notes from The Hindu, but today you read the same paper for 3 hours yet failed to make notes. Instead, you wasted whole day watching movies because you felt bad about not making notes; or you just told yourself that you would do it tomorrow because there is still plenty of time left. Funny thing is that you know time once gone is gone forever. You try to console yourself by postponing your tasks. You think you are ‘buying’ time, but you don’t realize that you are ‘burying’ the time. You are burying the future. lbsnaa, ias, lal bahadur shastri nantional academy administration LBSNAA – Shaping Your Dream But why are you wasting time? Some aspirants assume that they can give the exam next year by preparing very well this year. This feeling gets stronger as the Prelims approach. This is one of the reasons why only less than 50 per cent of applicants write Preliminary exam every year. You are wasting time because you think that you have plenty of time. Because you think that you have still got many attempts. Because your confidence level is very low. Because you have lots of pending things to complete. Things go on accumulating because you waste your time doing tasks that in no way help you achieve your goal. The more you procrastinate, the more your confidence levels hit the bottom. Even if you have got only 30 days for the exam, start preparing today. Don’t worry if you succeed this time or not, things you do seriously today would help you tomorrow. If you go on postponing your tasks, I can guarantee you that you will do the same in your next attempt too. Don’t worry how less you have studied till now. Don’t worry how much pending work you have. You must start studying now. Just take a pen and write an answer. Solve a problem or two. Read a chapter or two from your optional subject. Do it for 4 hours. Your confidence will be back. Try it if you are serious about getting a rank. All you need is a genuine START. Then accelerate. Know your speed. Sustain the momentum. Always realize that the hours you waste today would cost you tomorrow. Once you realize that you are wasting time for no reason, you will start focusing on your goal. Realize it now. You have sacrificed a lot to prepare for this exam. You have come far away from your home. You have pent 2-3 years for this exam without a job experience. There is no point in wasting time. You have to get a rank. And ranks don’t come if you keep on procrastinating your plans. One key to sustain your momentum is to love what you do. Once you start well, your confidence soars. When your confidence is good, the mind is relaxed. The more you are relaxed the better will be your performance in your studies and exams. It’s just a starting problem, or a ‘restarting’ problem. Wake up now and start again. No one can stop you except yourself. A start should be such that you should stop only at the doorstep of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. No matter where you stand today irrespective of your levels of preparation, start now. As Prelims are nearing, it’s better to start with brushing up your basics again. Solve lots of questions. Don’t worry about the past. If you do more now, the past will slowly melt away. Get busy with exam related stuff. Start enjoying this journey. Remember, once you start, your stop should be at the LBSNAA. Good Luck.
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Jul 31, 2014 18:58:55 GMT 5.5
The following article was published after the CSE 2011 results were declared. I find it very motivating as it tells us how civil services is not an end but the beginning of a new venture...
IN A few months, UPSC topper Dr Shena Aggarwal will undertake a 1040-km long journey, from Nagpur’s Chhindwara Road to the hill town of Mussoorie. Shena, who cleared UPSC last year and became an IRS probationer, is currently undertaking training at Nagpur’s National Academy of Direct Taxes. But after standing first among 910 successful candidates in civil services exam, 2011, Shena will now take up IAS as her career and move to Mussorie for training.
An MBBS from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Shena probably does not need any prescription from anyone, but BoI has listed out 10 Corridor Tips for Dr Shena and her would-be batch-mates. Here are the tips:
1. As an IAS, you are an icon and will remain so. Try to retain your clean image for the next three decades and more.
2. The journey is such that non-performers can remain in the system, safely. But make conscious attempts to become a doer. Try to be a Tendulkar or a Dhoni, and not someone who does not know whether he is playing the next game.
3. Don’t go with a great socialist spirit that you will work only for aam aadmi. As the DM, of course you will handle MNREGA and many pro-poor schemes, but as a generalist, you could be asked even to anchor a state-run company. In that case you will have to think about top-line, bottom-line and shareholders’ value.
4. There will be times when you will not agree with your political boss. Don’t be suicidal by opposing your boss tooth and nail. Be smart, use tactics. Yet, never become your political boss’ rubber stamp. Remember, your one signature could lead you to Tihar jail.
5. Now, file-notings come under RTI. That means, any sentence you write on a file could be under public scrutiny even at a much later stage. Also remember, your detractors within the system may officially “leak” stuff through RTI.
6. You will serve in an era of citizen journalism, high-voltage activism, and social media. You don’t need to get scared by any one of it. But don’t leave any loose end. Remember, every mobile phone is a powerful camera and also video recorder.
7. In the first few years, just check out what interests you more. And accordingly make your next moves. You should be at the right ministry when you come on a Central deputation for the first time as a deputy secretary.
8. During your career, you must choose a good government-funded scholarship for a proper masters or PhD course from a highly reputed foreign university. You should not randomly choose the university or the course. It should be strategic, and must align with your possible future postings.
9. As a civil servant, you are not expected to be super rich. A successful doctor will earn 10 times more than you even after 7th Pay Commission. Don’t compare your wealth with that of college day’s friends.
10. Sooner or later, private sector specialists would be allowed to make lateral entry into bureaucracy. That means you will have to compete with more energetic private sector talents. So, retain your spirit of UPSC preparations all throughout your career. Have the spirit and energy of a start-up.
Congrats. Party hard, but work harder.
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Post by Don Quixote on Aug 25, 2014 12:38:39 GMT 5.5
End of Idealism -- Harsh Mander
Independence Day each year is a good time to pull out my personal thermometer and evaluate the mood of our country. This year I find a mood of optimism among people of privilege and aspirational privilege, but sadly little idealism. Their hopes are of a revived economy, which will yield better jobs and more individual wealth. But these dreams mostly exclude millions still trapped in impoverishment and want. Even less do they worry about the vast public moral decline: a political, bureaucratic and business class joined at the hip making great fortunes based on injustices to nature and working. I look back on an old film that wonderfully captures the time in our collective life as a nation when idealism began to die — Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s philosophically-complex Satyakam. Set in the relatively idealistic years just after Independence, it tells the story of a fiercely honest government official, who is not only uncompromisingly honest but also fights corruption among his peers and official superiors. What is fascinating about the narrative is that it shows the honest man not prevailing, but isolated, bitter and falling to ruin as the result of his principles, whereas his more ‘flexible’ peers prosper. Most chronicles on good and bad show the good to ultimately prevail and triumph. This account is a rare exception, because the life of the honest officer disintegrates into shambles. His fate indicates that, in the real world, choosing to do what is ethically right may not just block access to wealth, career growth and well-being, but may also cause suffering, persecution and loneliness. In the end, knowing he is going to die and leave his wife and son penniless, he agrees to take a bribe for the first time in his life. But it is his wife who opposes him. In this act of his wife’s refusal — choosing to live penniless after his death rather than allow him to compromise on his lifelong convictions — his life gains meaning, and he dies satisfied. In the first generation of the civil services, which included also my father, it was not unusual to encounter officers in the mould of Satyakam’s character: fiercely uncompromising, unshakeably honest, modest in lifestyle and driven by public service. By the time I joined the civil service, 33 years had lapsed since Independence, and the numbers of Satyakams had significantly dwindled. Today they are even rarer, and are no longer regarded as heroes but cranks. This is not the fault of the young recruits themselves. I address almost every new batch of civil servants in their training academy in Mussoorie; every time I encounter a hall crowded with faces shining with idealism and hope. But the government systems that they encounter are so cynical and self-serving that most except the most heroic get sucked rapidly into these. The meaning of corruption has also altered dramatically with the passing years. The protagonist in Satyakam is furious when his wife pulls a chair from his office into their bare sitting room to seat a guest. He offends an old friend because he refuses to leave office five minutes early to meet him after many years because personal work cannot be allowed on official time. And he shuns the company of wealthy businessmen. In neo-liberal times, the idea of good government has changed dramatically from the defence of the poor and the weak, to success in attracting large business investment. In this new imagination of government, cultivating the company of the super-rich is no longer perceived to be corruption but is, instead, nation-building. The country is in the throes of spectacular levels of crony capitalism, and big business has found numerous ways of winning favour of public officials, not just through mammoth illicit cash transfers, but by many creative ways ranging from supporting the education of their children in the best foreign universities, to all-expenses-paid foreign holidays. The newfound middle-class activism against corruption is schizophrenic because, unlike the poor who are only victims of corruption, the middle classes are not just victims, but also willing participants and beneficiaries of corruption. Popular philosopher Michael Sendel warns of the consequences of our transition from a market economy to a market society, in which social relations are valued using the narrow currency of profit and loss. I see an equal danger as a country, which is still home to every third impoverished person in the world, moves into what I can only describe as a market state. No wonder then that I feel such great nostalgia today for the foolhardy idealism of the public official in Satyakam — prepared to place at stake and indeed sacrifice every reasonable personal benefit for the defence of what is true, just and good. Click here for source.
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Aug 25, 2014 13:16:25 GMT 5.5
I have read a few pages from Michael Sandel's 'Justice - What's the right thing to do?'. I found myself asking whether every wrong deed can be 'logically' explained. Sad state of affairs it is.
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Post by Don Quixote on Oct 6, 2014 12:34:52 GMT 5.5
The Learning Curve
- Known thing, but helps to re-read. Learning is a messy, organic process. Everyone learns at a different pace. One common factor in learning anything however, is that hard work is unavoidable. Here's a graph every parent should know: This graph applies even to adults. Whenever you begin learning a new subject such as maths, science, programming, a new language, or the piano, your enthusiasm level soars. Basic concepts are simple and easy to grasp, everything is fresh and new = this is fun! Then comes the trough where simple things, just aren't so simple anymore. Concepts become more complex and harder to understand, everything is old hat = this is not fun anymore. With work and perseverance, you eventually master the more advanced material and pass the inflection point, and gain confidence. Advanced concepts become easy, you get to apply the knowledge in new and interesting ways of your own choosing = this is way more fun than it was before! Src : qr.ae/JDRlx
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Post by Don Quixote on Nov 5, 2014 11:37:14 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Nov 5, 2014 16:53:50 GMT 5.5
Thanks! This is truly inspirational. I love it when women ride Harley Davidsons. And now she's shooting for a film based on Lisbeth Salander's 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. Couldn't have asked for more
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sunny
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by sunny on Nov 9, 2014 22:51:09 GMT 5.5
Please pore in some motivational thoughts.
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Nov 10, 2014 2:10:42 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Nov 10, 2014 2:15:18 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Nov 10, 2014 21:28:17 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Nov 30, 2014 18:02:19 GMT 5.5
Meet Kia Scherr, a peace entrepreneur, whose husband & daughter were killed in 26/11 terror attacksScherr looked pensive. On that day — November 14 — exactly six years ago, Scherr had dropped off her husband Alan and daughter Naomi to the Dulles International airport after a happy breakfast of eggs, toast and a last cup of coffee, which she mentions in a moving haiku on her blog (see Tragedy in Verse). Alan, an art professor turned-meditation-proponent and Naomi, their only daughter, homeschooled on a modern meditation sanctuary on the Blue Ridge mountains and readying to go away to a boarding school in New York, were excited about visiting India. "I dropped them at Dulles. We hung out there together for awhile, reluctant to say goodbye too quickly. Our last words were 'I love you, see you in two weeks'!" says Scherr. That was the last time she saw them alive.Scherr's calm when she speaks is almost unreal. She is willing to talk about her sorrow, her experiences in India, her work and her life — as long as it helps her mission of spreading peace. And she has the ability to stare out of the window of the bus we're travelling in for long periods of utter, reflective quiet, right in the middle of a drunken pub crawl, of which she is a willing participant. This is so much in alignment with her "Letter to a Terrorist," which was made into a short film with her reading the letter in which she says she feels "with each passing day, more alive than I have ever been". The film was banned in Pakistan and threats were made to those who wanted to show it, says Scherr. Her story was also included in Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu's latest book, The Book of Forgiving, which he wrote with his daughter. Scherr has developed a foundation programme to increase individual and collective awareness of the benefits of cooperation. "This establishes an operating system that will shift the way we teach, learn, do business and govern. It creates a new mindset based on respect, resulting in peace and tolerance in everyday life," she says. She calls this her Pocketbook of Peace. Instead of taking refuge in revengeful feelings, Scherr tried to make sense of the senselessness of what had happened to her. -- When to Forgive is Human (26/11)
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Dec 7, 2014 23:57:58 GMT 5.5
Friendly Obstacles
For every hill I've had to climb, For every stone that bruised my feet, For all the blood and sweat and grime, For blinding storms and burning heat, My heart sings but a grateful song- There were the things that made me strong!
For all the heartaches and the tears, For all the anguish and the pain, For gloomy days and fruitless years, And for the hopes that lived in vain, I do give thanks, for now I know There were the things that helped me grow!
'Tis not the softer things of life Which stimulate man's will to strive; But bleak adversity and strife Do most to keep man's will alive. O'er rose-strewn paths the weaklings creep, But brave hearts dare to climb the steep. --Author Unknown
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WanderLust
Junior Member
सैर कर दुनिया की ग़ाफ़िल !!
Posts: 25
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Post by WanderLust on Jan 6, 2015 15:46:09 GMT 5.5
I find the poem IF by Rudyard Kipling very inspiring, it's like reading Geeta Saar.
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Jan 15, 2015 13:24:03 GMT 5.5
In a conservative and patriarchal state like Rajasthan, women are definitely breaking the glass ceiling in professions that were earlier considered a male domain. Audacious, gritty and determined, they are setting new trends for others to follow. Meet The Fearless Female Fire Fighters of Rajasthan
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Post by Dr. Yatri Thor on Jan 16, 2015 2:18:56 GMT 5.5
In a conservative and patriarchal state like Rajasthan, women are definitely breaking the glass ceiling in professions that were earlier considered a male domain. Audacious, gritty and determined, they are setting new trends for others to follow. Meet The Fearless Female Fire Fighters of RajasthanOne of my classmate from school is a Metro train operator in Jaipur now...
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Jan 21, 2015 18:29:11 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Jan 28, 2015 15:57:42 GMT 5.5
Sharing the last verse of the poem Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant.
"So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
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Post by Mr. S on Jan 29, 2015 13:05:23 GMT 5.5
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Post by Dr. Yatri Thor on Jan 29, 2015 22:51:29 GMT 5.5
Thanks a lot Mr. S for this nice video !!! Loved it.
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Post by Mr. S on Jan 30, 2015 9:16:03 GMT 5.5
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Post by Don Quixote on Feb 2, 2015 11:25:12 GMT 5.5
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Post by Lisbeth Salander on Feb 6, 2015 21:39:21 GMT 5.5
An Overview Of Assertiveness SkillsAssertiveness Skills.pdf (188.08 KB) Excerpts, As you may already know, assertive communication is when you look out for or stand up for your rights and needs, in a self-assured, direct manner, while also being respectful towards the person you're talking to. I'll break down that definition: ...look out for or stand up for your rights and needs... - Everyone has implicit rights in interpersonal situations, Everyone also has various needs and preferences, ranging from what they need from a friend to feel happy in a friendship, to what type of restaurant they'd like to go to that night. ...in a self-assured, direct manner... - When you communicate assertively you're being open about what you want and how you're feeling. That doesn't mean you have to spill your entire soul every time though. Someone could be assertive just by saying, "Hey, cut it out" in a tone of voice that showed they were serious, or by going "Well it was nice meeting you..." with a firmness that says, "I'm done talking with you now." ...while also being respectful towards the person you're talking to. - Assertive communication allows you to protect your rights, but respects those of the people you're talking to. It's different from aggressive communication, where you look out for your own rights but trample over someone else's (by insulting them, threatening them, badgering them, etc.).
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Post by Dr. Yatri Thor on Feb 10, 2015 2:19:57 GMT 5.5
One of the best motivational speech
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Post by avinashagrawal on Feb 19, 2015 15:24:33 GMT 5.5
बेसब्र हर शक्स, यहाँ वहाँ फिर रहा है .... कोई शक, कोई गफलत, कोई गर्दिश, मे घिर रहा है.... मुझसे मत पूछो, की रास्ता किधर है....... मैं खुद हूँ मुसाफिर, मुझे अपनी फिकर है|
k'avi
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