Beliefs vs Knowledge

We all have beliefs in our lives. These have been handed down to us through our parents, friends and social environment. Some of them we form on our own. We base our existence on these beliefs and we assume everything which we have been told to believe is true.

Are beliefs good for us or do they restrict us? Why does someone believe in something and another person does not? Yet they both fare equally well in life? You may believe its bad luck to walk under a ladder yet someone else might ridicule the notion. Who is right?

That's when the power of knowledge comes in. We have beliefs built into us from birth. Whether we accept them or not is up to us. However blindly accepting a belief is stupidity. Just because someone else believes something does not make it true. Beliefs are uncertain whereas knowledge is certain. Once you have the knowledge of something, you simply know its true. You cannot question it's existence or power.

You want to know why that belief is there in the first place and whether the belief is doing you good or restricting you. Get rid of your debilitating beliefs by placing knowledge behind them. Know them for a fact.

Do not let beliefs restrict you. Instead turn these beliefs into knowledge and the power behind the knowledge will make miracles happen. Plato defined knowledge as "Warranted True Belief". You do not want false beliefs binding you down.

In business for example, you might have the belief that a potential customer will not give you the order for whatever reasons. That might prevent you from approaching the customer in the first place. Your belief will restrict you. You will not know until you approach, ask and discuss with the customer. Who knows, he might say 'Yes'? Even if he says 'No' you now know your belief to be true. Until you ascertain the truth, is it prudent to keep on believing?

Believe in yourself and know that that belief is certain.

Facing the Wrong Way

You have a greatness in you. The doorway to higher awareness opens inwards.

Most of us spend a good portion of our lives looking the wrong way. We look outside ourselves to find solutions for our problems. Whereas inward, is where the answers lie. All problems can be solved and any challenge can be met by looking within because that's where the solutions lie.

Spend some time in solitude. There is great strength in silence. That's when you can get in touch with the higher force. The force that will help you solve problems, to achieve goals and to gain success.

Looking outward will only distract you and will cause you to blame situations or people for your life. You will feel out of control because you will be placing yourself in another persons hand. No one can live your life for you. You have to live your own life.

Stop facing the wrong way. Look within and you will find bliss that you have never known before.

The Truth about Six Pack Abs - Part II

Okay, now that you have finally decided that you want six packs in 6 months, the first step is to define your goal. As mentioned in Part I of the series, six pack abs basically means getting your body fat down to 10% or lower.

So the first step is finding out your current body fat percentage. There are a number of ways to do this but to get an easy but approximate idea try the following:

Calculate Body Fat Percentage

Now suppose your body fat percentage works out to be 25%. That simply means you need to lose 15% of your body fat. Lets do the math.

Suppose you weigh 70 kilos. At 25% body fat you have 17.50 kilos of fat. That's 52.50 kilos of lean body mass.

Our goal is 10% body fat which translates into 7 kilos of fat (70 kilos into 10%). You have a lean body mass of 52.50 kilos. Add to this the 10% body fat of 7 kilos and your target weight will be 59.50 kilos.

So your target weight is 59.50 kilos and you need to lose 10.5 kilos.

IMPORTANT: Please note that woman have a higher body fat percentage than men. Women naturally have 10-15% higher body fat than men! If you are a woman, to get six pack abs please add this 10-15 percent. A woman with 10% body fat will be very unhealthy and prone to illness.

Ideal body fat percentage chart for men and woman

Please use the above link to find out acceptable values.

Now that you have defined your target and you know how much weight you have to lose, be mentally prepared for the transformation. You will require a combination of cardiovascular and weight training to achieve the goal, in a healthy way.

More of that in the next part of the series.

Majoring in Minor Things

"Most people fail in life because they major over minor things" - Anthony Robbins

Couldn't have been truer! We spend way too much time fretting over the unnecessary. We receive an ambiguous email, we spend hours wondering what it means. Our dinner is not cooked properly, we get nasty and stay that way till the next morning. We get upset and crib over other peoples bad habits. A friend doesn't call as promised, we wonder what he or she is upto.

The list is endless.

Do you have any idea how much energy you waste on minor issues? If you would have channelled that same energy on the things which really matter, miracles would have happened by now.

Infact, 80% of our time we are doing things which give us minimum results. Then we crib over how overworked we are and how we never have enough time on our hands.

We have wasted so much of our energy on these minor things, that we do not have energy left for the major issues before us. These major issues take backseat and we wonder why life is not heading in the direction we want it to.

Learn to distinguish between the major and minor things in life. Ask yourself, "Will this really matter to me a year from now?" If the answer is no, then don't spend too much time on it. Focus on the more important aspects of your life and you will see changes happening.

Changes which you want, the way you want them.

Chance to Believe

In every motivation speech you hear or book you read, the importance of dreaming big dreams will be hammered onto you. If you cannot dream it you cannot achieve it. We get enough chances to dream. You will find enough people who will motivate you by telling us to dream big and follow your dreams.

How many give you a chance to believe?

Belief can make miracles happen.We do not need chances to dream, we dream enough already. We need more chances to believe. We need people and situations which give us chances to believe in ourselves, in the power of the almighty and the power of our mind.

Chances to believe that:

• we can achieve our dreams
• we can do well
• we can be happy
• we can be healthy
• we can live the life we want
• we can raise a happy family
• we can make miracles happen
• things will work out no matter how bad the current situation is
• we have the power to achieve whatever we want to achieve.

Don't just make people dream, give them the chance to believe.

Build Castles in the Sky

The statement generally implies daydreaming - unreal and fantastic. You must have been told never to build castles in the sky. You must have been warned that if you do, you will fail and never succeed.

Boy, are they wrong!

All the greatest achievements in the world started as castles in the sky. They were only dreams of an individual or a group of individuals. At some point of time they were nothing but ideas and thoughts.

Castles by nature are built in the sky, not on the ground. Once you know how your castle looks and where you want it, only then can you start building the foundation beneath. How many architects do you know, who have built a house without knowing how it will look in the end? We always start out with a concrete image of the end result in our mind. Only then do we go out planning and realising the goal.

Its very easy to build castles in the sky. Thats when the demons come out to play. We are so satisfied with our imaginary castle that we forget to work on the foundation. We do not put our full strength into working and building the foundation. Many times our castles are like New Year resolutions, we work on them only for a week or month. Then then vanish. So will your castle.

Build castles in the sky but start building the foundation immediately. Give yourself a time frame and plan a definite way to reach your castle. Lay the full foundation. Always keep the image of your castle in your mind.

Once you have laid the foundation, the castle will emerge in reality.