Read it carefully, and absorbed in your life to rise above

“It is an extraordinary in the sense that you can read it and miss it completely, because the meaning of the story (although it is not a story) is not in the words of the story. The meaning of the story is running side by side in silence between the words, between the lines, in the gaps. If you are in a state of meditative ness if you are not only reading a fiction but you are encountering the whole religious experience of a great human being, absorbing it; not intellectually understanding it. The words are there but they become secondary. Something else becomes primary: the silence that those words create. The words affect your mind, and the music goes directly to your heart.”

Reading a story like the story is an art by itself. And it is a story to be read by the heart, not by the mind. It is a story not to be understood, but experienced. It is something phenomenal. Millions of people have tried to write books/stories so that they can express the inexpressible. If you allow it, the story becomes alive and something starts happening to your being.”

Lessons of the Square Watermelon: This is not a story for detail see my blog dated 19th March 2010. (www.subhashrawat.blogspot.com)

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than shops in other countries and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that the watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it.

That is how majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, ‘How can we provide one?’ It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon

The solution to the problem of round watermelons was not to solve as the farmers did not assume it was impossible – and simply asked how it could be done.

They found out and grow into a square fruit.

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in other countries.

What does this have to do with anything in life or at our job? There are a few Lessons that you can take away from this story which helps you, Don’t assume; The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things.

Question habits: The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you work. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them.

Be Creative: When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter watermelons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions too many problems where others can’t see them.

Look for a better way: The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It’s impossible to finds a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find there often is.

Impossibilities often aren’t: If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error. Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances, health, Medical, relationships etc.) and you will find out that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all aspects of your life.