January 2016 | What Inspires Me

1. FALL AND RISE:
Today, when I slipped on the wet tile floor a boy in a wheelchair caught me before I slammed my head on the ground. He said, “Believe it or not, that’s almost exactly how I injured my back 3 years ago. 

2. A FATHERS ADVICE:
Today, my father told me, “Just go for it and give it a try! You don’t have to be a professional to build a successful product. Amateurs started Google and Apple. Professionals built the Titanic. 

3. THE POWER OF UNIQUENESS:
Today, I asked my mentor – a very successful business man in his 70’s – what his top 3 tips are for success. He smiled and said, “Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and do something no one else is doing.

4. LOOKING BACK:
Today, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’m working on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said, “Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile."

5. TRY & YOU SHALL KNOW:
I am blind by birth. When I was 8 years old, I wanted to play baseball. I asked my father- "Dad, can I play baseball?" He said "You'll never know until you try." When I was a teenager, I asked him, - "Dad Can I become a surgeon?". He replied "Son, you'll never know until you try." Today I am a Surgeon, just because I tried!

6. GOODNESS & GRATITUDE:
Today, after a 72 hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said, “On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.”

7. LOVE CONQUERS PAIN:
Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, he licked the tears off my face.

8. A DOOR CLOSES TO OPEN ANOTHER:
Today at 7AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went into work. At 3PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too. A man in a BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.

9. LOOKING BACK:
Today, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died. She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”

10. AFFECTION:
Today, I kissed my dad on the forehead as he passed away in a small hospital bed. About 5 seconds after he passed, I realized it was the first time I had given him a kiss since I was a little boy.

11. INNOCENCE:
Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?” “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.

12. JOY:
Today, when I witnessed a 27-year-old breast cancer patient laughing hysterically at her 2-year-old daughter’s antics, I suddenly realized that I need to stop complaining about my life and start celebrating it again.

13. KINDNESS:
Today, a boy in a wheelchair saw me desperately struggling on crutches with my broken leg and offered to carry my backpack and books for me. He helped me all the way across campus to my class and as he was leaving he said, “I hope you feel better soon.”

14. SHARING:
Today, I was traveling in Kenya and I met a refugee from Zimbabwe. He said he hadn’t eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. Then my friend offered him the rest of the sandwich he was eating. The first thing the man said was, “We can share it.”

Cheers to life!

Source: https://www.facebook.com/491049917717965/photos/a.506812959474994.1073741829.491049917717965/538798986276391/?type=3&theater


Discover Inner-self: Solo Traveling is probably the best way to make peace with your inner self. It’s an opportunity to explore the higher realm of your personality, just as you explore the world. Solo travel gives you the much needed time which you can spend and enjoy in your own company, away from all the stress and hustle bustle of daily life. It’s a chance where you break-free and can work out on thoughts, dreams, strengths, limitations and most importantly to analyse what you want. You never know, your best friend might just be hidden within you. You might just end up loving yourself.

New people, Lifetime Friends: Travelling with a group of friends or family is always fun but it also gets on as a limitation as we tend to overlook engaging ourselves with others. While you ride solo on the road, you will most likely be engaging yourselves with the people, locals around because there’s no one holding you back. You get a chance to create some of the most precious bonds that you will cherish, your whole lifetime. Maybe you’ll find great friends; you’ll probably meet a travelling soul or even fall in place with a city – who knows…

Opportunity to get out of your comfort zone: Being a solo traveler and specially a girl, I have always been questioned about the possible ‘risk’ I take while I travel. Well, travelling alone may seem scary or sounds creepy, but it can be fun and exciting if you travel with open mind. A lot many times we let fear or comfort stop us from taking life’s greatest risks and end up missing out on truly rewarding experiences. But honestly when you put yourself in a new environment, cut off from nearly everything you know, your priorities and attitudes towards the life changes. You change. You will discover a ‘newer version’ of yourself, and probably something which you have never imagined or visualised before.

Turns you into a storyteller: While you are solo traveling, there are higher chances of you turning into a storyteller, sharing every tit and bit of the place which you have just come back exploring. And probably you will share the stories which left a deep impact on you, bringing out a more refined and positive person out of you. While you are enjoying the realm of nature at your own luxury, you get to observe and examine the place deeply than you have ever imagined.

Money Management: Traveling alone will make you learn to save, splurge only on what’s necessary and enjoy a minimalistic lifestyle. It will teach you that you can even enjoy travelling with the minimum you spend. A whole new dimension to living within your limited means – almost a challenge!

Something to tell your grandchildren: There’s nothing like embarking on a courageous journey alone. Even if you never travel again by yourself you’ll always look back and be appreciative about yourself, for the true wanderlust which you experienced, when you decided to step out of your comfort zone, into a world which till then only remained on wish list.

So, if you want to travel and especially solo travel, stop making excuses. Life will always get in the way if you let it come!!!

As Mark Twain say “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Source: http://buoyantfeet.com/2014/10/01/76