We Are What We Choose

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/we-are-what-we-choose-2010-6#ixzz0skUdt1Lv

Invictus - rediscovered

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-----William Ernest Henley (1849–1903

To Thine Own Self Be True

Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for.
There ... my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg’d comrade.  Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

 -- William Shakespeare

Why persist???

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something?
For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know?
Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No?
Could it be for love?
Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.
You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win.
It's pointless to keep fighting.
Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 20

---- Robert Frost (1874–1963).

Mountain Interval. 1920.

SUCCESS

Success has no address
NO landmark

No calling Card
But the path is steep
And some will take the elevator
But i will take the stairs

Some will get there faster
But I'll get there stronger
And adversity will be my
Traveling companion

Because When i get there.
I can turn to adversity and say,
So long...


And heave the bag of taunts
and insults I gathered
along the way, and scatter them
to the birds.

I will miss them
But feel lighter

Yes
That will be the day
When I stand at
a large bay window
And unclench my fist

For there will be no more
odds to conquer
Not even in the "MIND"

SURVIVAL

I'm not a star
There is no Halo over my head

Fate doesn't like the colour of my eyes
Struggle and strife are old friends of mine

Who am i?
I'm survival. I'm guts. I'm pride

I like odds
especially when they're
stacked against me

Because there'll come a time
When I'll stare them in the eye

And smile the smile of
the one who's pulled it off

I am the guy who will have
deep lines on his face someday

And it'll make me look good
When i laugh

Because that is the day
I'll fear no fear

And taste sweat that is sweet

And look back for the
very first time and say,

I did it my way
The long hard way!

Stubborn

When i left college they said
I was being stubborn

When i was leaving home
My DAD said I was stubborn

When I left my first job
the boss said I was too stubborn

Well.........

I hope they're right
Bercause I hate hammocks
And i don't believe in
half days
Or long weekends

NO

I will not take life as it comes
I'll scratch and claw
And fight it every step of the way

For I have met fate
She can be pretty mean
When she's not in the mood

So I'll collect all those
Words of discouragement and
make paper rockets out of them

And fly them in
a strong cross wind

Society has a name for
guys like me

"Stubborn"

Memories

Duur jo aaj hain,
Yaad aate tau hain

Khwaab adhoore sahi
Khwaab sahare tau hain


Aaj bhee meri raahein rokti hain
Yaadein teri, daaman kheinchti hain

Bhool chuke hain jo hamein
Yaad aate tau hain


Sadiyon ke fasle aaj hain darmiyaan
Ho jaaein magar jitni bhi dooriyaan

Aap jahan bhi rahein
Aap hamare tau hain

Khwaab adhoore sahi
Khwaab sahare tau hain


Aaj bhi meri raahein rokti hain
Yaadein teri, daaman kheinchti hain

Bhool chuke hain jo hamein
Yaad aatey tau hain


Jaaney phir kab milain, tere mere raaste
Aas tootte nahi yaad, itna rahe

Raat dhalni tau hai
Aaney ujaale tau hain