All posts by : Sami Bugay

On a cold January morning, a man plays six musical pieces from Bach with his violin for 45 minutes at a subway station in Washington DC. During this time, about a thousand people pass by the violinist, in the rush to get to work in time. About three minutes after the violinist started playing, for the first time, a middle-aged man notices the violinist, slows down, and after a few seconds, he continues on his way to get to where he had to go. The violinist gets his first dollar tip a minute later. A woman passes by quickly, throwing the money into the container placed before the violinist without interrupting her walk. A few minutes later, another man pauses, leans and listens, but takes a look at his watch and continues his way with expressions stating that he is in a hurry not to be late for work. The most attentive person is a three-year-old boy. Despite his mother’s tugging, the child stands before him and looks carefully at the violinist. Finally, his mother forces his child to walk by pulling him faster. The boy turns around and looks at the violinist, desperately following his mother. Similarly, there are a few more children, and they are all forced away by their parents to continue walking. During his 45 minutes of performance, only 6 people stand before the violinist for a very short time. 20 people give money as they are passing by. The violinist earns $32 during the time of his performance. When he finishes playing, silence prevails, and no one even realizes that he has stopped, does not clap. Nobody realizes that he is the best violinist in the world, Joshua Bell, and he has played the most complex musical pieces ever written with the $ 3.5 million violin in his hand. However, Joshua Bell’s concert tickets in Boston two days before this mini concert on the subway were sold for an average of $100.

This is a true story, and Joshua Bell’s disguise in the subway was designed by the Washington Post newspaper as a social experiment on perception, enjoyment, and priorities. Things questioned was: Can we perceive beauty in an ordinary place, at an inappropriate time? Do we stop to enjoy it? Can we recognize talent in an unexpected environment? The moral to point from this short story is that if we don’t have a minute to stop and listen to the best musician in the world playing the best music in the world, what else are we missing?

Motivation is vital to be happy and successful. The tips below will help you motivate and sustain yourself. These are practical and result-oriented recommendations. If you don’t apply, they will not go far beyond being general culture.

1. WRITE YOUR STORY

Write the story of the future you desire on a clean piece of paper with a few paragraphs. Write down what you are doing in the future, where you live and what you own. This will motivate you both now and in the future.

2. VISUALIZE THE FUTURE

Close your eyes and imagine yourself doing what you would like to see yourself doing in the future. You are running healthy, you are dealing with or working on the flowers in your garden. For example, if your dream is to open a small business, imagine yourself on the day of opening, greeting your customers and employees. Thus, you can embody your dreams.

3. VISUALIZE THE PAST

When you visualize the past, you see where you have been before and how far you’ve come. You understand how much you have achieved your planned goals and where you have made mistakes. This will keep you on the right track. Think of a driver, if he just looks forward and doesn’t take advantage of the rearview mirror, what would happen? Looking back from time to time is as useful as looking at the driver’s rearview mirror.

4. THINK BIG

Don’t be afraid of thinking big about your future. This will make it easier to endure your short-term failures. Obstacles will not be able to stop you. Because your eyes will be locked on the ultimate goal. Imagine that you will meet your loved one after a long time, would you be disturbed by the pouring rain while you are headed to the train station to pick him/her up?

5. TRAIN YOURSELF

Learn, read, speak, listen and try everything related to your goal or dream. If you want to be a writer, take lessons, read books, write, talk to other writers, participate in workshops.

6. BE TIDY

A clean, tidy and well-organized home, office and life are indispensable for a motivated mind. Physical clutter causes mental clutter. Have an orderly life, so you will feel more energized every day. For example, have a regular schedule for going to bed and waking up. Be sure to have breakfast and walk at least half an hour in the morning.

7. ALLOW MOTIVATORS AT YOUR HOME AND OFFICE

Include symbols, signs, notes or objects that will remind you of your goals and dreams in your home, office, car, wallet. These reminders will guarantee your motivation. Do you want to own the top model car? Then hang the pictures of your dream car on the wall of your room, keep it in your wallet and look at it whenever you need and remember your destination.

8. PARTICIPATE IN VOLUNTARY WORK

Help other people voluntarily. When you do this, you will realize how satisfying it is to make other people happy. At weekends, it may be a good idea to go to the Child Protection Agency with your spouse.

9. MOTIVATE OTHERS WITH YOUR OWN MOTIVATION

The best learning method is to teach. Help your children to be motivated, your friends to set more effective goals, and your spouse’s to reach his/her personal dreams. When you help them, you will actually be helping yourself.

10. SPEND TIME WITH CHILDREN

Spending time with kids will give you perspective. Problems or worries at work or in your private life will melt away when you play with your children. Children look at everything simply and even learning this is beneficial for us.

There was an old man in a village. He was very poor, but even the King was jealous of him… He had such a legendary white horse that the King offered almost all of his treasure to get this horse, but the man never sold it.

He always said, “This is not a horse for me but a friend. Can you sell your friend?” One morning, the horse was gone. The villagers gathered around the old man, “You old senile! It was obvious that they would not leave that horse with you. If you had sold it to the King, you would have lived like a lord until the end of your life. Now you have neither money nor a horse.

The old man said, “Don’t rush for judgments.” You can just say, “The horse is missing”, because that’s the truth. Beyond that are your comments and judgment. Is my horse being lost a misfortune or a chance? We don’t know that yet. Because this is just the beginning. Nobody knows what will come next. ”

The villagers laughed hard at the old man. About 15 days later, the horse suddenly came back one night… It turned out that it had not been stolen but it had left for the mountains. And it brought back the 12 wild horses in the valley with it. The villagers who saw this gathered and apologized from the old man. “Hey, old chap,” they said, “You were right. The disappearance of your horse was not a misfortune but a godsend for you; now you have a herd of horses.” “Once again you are rushing to come to conclusions.” the old man said. “You can just say that the horse is back. This is the only known fact. We do not yet know what will happen next. This is just the beginning. How could you have an opinion about a book by just reading the first word in the first sentence?”

The villagers did not openly make fun of the old man this time but “This guy is a real idiot.” they thought… In about a week, the only son of the old man fell from the horse and broke his feet while he was trying to manage the wild horses. The son who was the only source of income in the house would have to stay in bed for a long time. The villagers came back to the old man and said, “You were right again.” “Because of these horses, your only son will not be able to use his leg for a long time. However, there is no one else to take care of you. Now you will be poorer and more miserable than before.” “You have been caught up in early decision-making disease.” the old man replied. “My son broke his leg. That’s true. Anything beyond that is your opinion. God knows if it is true. Life comes in such small pieces and you are never told what will happen next. ”

A few weeks later, the enemies attacked with a massive army. With one last hope, the king called all the young people who can fight to the army. The officers who came to the village enrolled in all young people, except for the old man’s broken-legged son. Bereavement surrounded the village. Because there was no way to win the war, and everyone knew that the young people who were going would either die or be captured.

The villagers came to the old man again… They said, “It has been proved that you are right again”. “Your son has a broken leg but at least he is with you. But perhaps ours will never come back to the village. It was not unfortunate that your son’s leg was broken, but it was luck … “You keep on rushing to early conclusions,” said the old man. “However, nobody knows what will happen. There is only one reality. My son is with me, yours are in the military … But only God knows which is fortune and which is just bad luck. ”

Lao Tzu completed his story as follows:

“Don’t make hasty decisions. Avoid looking at a small piece of life and making decisions about the whole. Decision is what makes your mind stop. When you make a decision, the mind stops thinking and therefore developing. However, the mind always forces people to decide. This is because development is dangerous and makes people uneasy. The trip never ends. As one road ends, a new one begins. As one door closes, another opens. You reach a goal and you see that a higher target is right there. “

One day:

Buddha sits under a tree with his students. A man comes along and spits in his face. Buddha wipes his face and asks the man: What else? What else do you want to say? The man is surprised because he did not expect someone to ask him “what else?” when one spits on that person’s face. He has no such experience. He has always humiliated people before, and they reacted by getting angry. Or they smiled with fear and tried to get along with the man. But Buddha did not do either, neither got angry nor scared. Just plain other? he asked.

But Buddha’s students get angry and react. His closest student, Ananda, says: This is too much, we cannot tolerate it.

Buddha speaks: Be quiet. He didn’t annoy me, BUT you made me angry. He’s a stranger, he has just got here. He must have heard something about me, like this Man does not believe in God, he is dangerous, he is misleading people. He got an opinion about me. He did not spit on me, he spat on his own thoughts; he doesn’t know me, how could he spit on me? If you think about it, he spat in his own mind. I am not part of it, and I see that this poor man must have something else to say. Because this is a way of saying something; spitting is a way of saying something. Sometimes there are moments when you feel language is not enough; in deep love, intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is not enough. Then you have to do something. When you feel deep love, you hug someone; WHAT do you do there?

The man is even more surprised! And Buddha says to his students: You made me angrier because you know me, you lived with me for years, but you still react.

Surprised, confused, the man returns home. He can’t sleep all night. He comes back the next morning. He goes down on Buddha’s knees. Buddha asks: What else? This is another way to say what cannot be said using words. When you touch my feet, you say something that doesn’t fit in words and cannot be described in ordinary language. Buddha continues: Look Ananda, this Man is here again, telling us something. This is a Man with very deep feelings.

The man stares at Buddha: Forgive me for what I did yesterday. Buddha answers: Forgive you? But I’m not the Man you made that move yesterday. The river Ganges flows constantly, it’s never the same Ganges. Every Man is a river. The Man you spit is no longer here; I look just like him, BUT I’m not the same, so much has happened in this twenty-four hour! A lot of water flowed from the river. So I can’t forgive you because I’m not angry with you. ”

And you have been renewed. I see that you are not the Man who came yesterday because that Man was angry. He was angry, BUT you bend in front of me and touch my feet, how can you be the same Man? You are not him, so let’s forget this. Those two Men; The Man who spit and the Man who was spit, no longer exist. Come closer. Let’s talk about other things. ”