Technology has been developing at a staggering rate. In recent times, technological developments have started to outpace even the most active imaginations. Today, most manufacturing processes have been automated. Assembly lines have become common place. The importance of human labor in the manufacturing process has become almost negligent. We have gone from being the hands that made the goods, to being the eye that watches goods being made.

Technology has made a huge impact on our daily lives as well. We have vacuum cleaners to do our cleaning. Dish washers and washing machines, to wash our clothes and vessels. We have doors that sense our arrival and open on their own, chairs that adjust themselves to suit our postures. Japan is even inventing a machine that helps people walk. With so much being done for us, I can’t help but wonder what will we do? We don’t have to cook, just pop a meal in the microwave. We don’t have to walk; we have cars, busses, trains, mopeds, scooters and a number of other machines to take us places.

With newer technologies emerging every day to make our lives easier, will manual labor become obsolete? There are technologies in the pipeline that will even make it unnecessary for us to plug in our devices to charge them. If machines take care of everything, what will we do? Sure there will be some machines that will need to be taken care of, but how many people would be required to take care of them? These people would need technical training, and not all of us were made to deal with wires and chips. So, what happens to the rest of us?

There may come a time when all humanity will have to do is keep itself entertained. The question is; is such a time really something that we should be hoping for?

Do you have hope for the future? If you don’t, you should! Hope is a crucial first step in building a better future. Make that hope realistic by believing in a positive future for yourself. Believe that good things are coming your way. Know that you deserve it. You really do. If you don’t believe that, then you have another step to work on – acceptance of your inherent worthiness.

Since you are wondrously made, isn’t it only natural to believe you deserve to live a satisfying and contented life? The universe is open to you! Just ask and, with the right thought patterns, you will receive.

Sounds simple, right? Well, yes and no. The key is “right thought patterns.” Those thought patterns mean being positive in all your thoughts, whether it be your self talk or your visualizations. Thinking positively can be difficult, especially if you’ve grown up with a lot of negativity surrounding you. In order to think positive, you will have to make a concerted effort to do so. It takes practice, as well as setting aside time each and every day to practice that underused “muscle.” Once you have mastered positive thinking, you will have hope for the future. And having hope will lead to bigger and better things: the manifestations of your dreams. Pretty soon you’ll be thinking: “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!”

Hope for the future. Build for the future, and believe in that future you so richly deserve! And get some good sunglasses while you’re at it. *wink*

I see myself as an ordinary human. I have two legs, two hands, average mental faculties and a pair of eyes. I see myself as an ordinary human capable of extraordinary things. I see myself walking into a grand tower that is the seat of my empire. I see myself holding document after document, which prove my success. I use simple logic to chart my future plans. I see all of this and more. I see so much with eyes that are closed.

I open my eyes. I am an ordinary human capable of extraordinary things. I believe that I will build myself a sprawling empire. I believe that I will build a piercing tower, to be the centre of all my work. I believe that I will have everything I saw, when my eyes were closed.

I am an ordinary human who has accomplished extraordinary things. With the help of trusted colleagues, friends and simple logic, I built my empire. Today I sit in my glass tower and think of all that I have done and all that is left to be done. More than anything else, I am here because of my hard work. I am and will always be an ordinary human, living the extraordinary.

Visualization is so much more than just a motivational tool. Only when you visualize your objective, can you hope to achieve it. If you are not working towards something, any accomplishment you achieve will be an achievement that life gave to you. If you drive down a road, you will eventually reach somewhere. If you plan on going somewhere, you won’t just be driving down a road; you will take the best route. Inspire yourself to find the best route. Visualize your objective. See, Believe, Become.

When we are born we don’t have too many thoughts. We think about things like, we’re hungry, we’re thirsty, we’re sleepy and so on. We don’t know too much about anything. We don’t have opinions about anything. As we grow up we learn things. We learn that it is good to share. It’s not good to hit people. We learn that people can be mean and that mom’s, though not always right, will always love you.

Most of what we learn is good, but sometimes, in the process of growing up, we pick up some ideas that are not so good. Some people are taught that they should always think of themselves first, that it’s okay to kill an animal for sport and that, boys don’t cry. We are all made up of our ideas and our beliefs. I propose that, ‘You are what you think’.

How many of us take the time to question our beliefs? You may have an opinion about something, but have you ever thought about whether or not that opinion is yours? Are you a vegetarian because you don’t believe in killing animals, or because that is how you were raised? Do you hate a particular place because you hate it, or because that’s what you heard from the people around you?

I know so many people who believe in something but have no idea why they believe in it. They don’t even know when they started believing in it. Some beliefs can be dangerous. No person is born evil. So many crimes are committed in the name of personal beliefs.

If people took the time to examine their core opinions, maybe we would live in a world without war, hate crimes or racism, a world in which boys could cry.

A 26-foot-long dying shark washed ashore Tuesday on a Long Island beach. I’m sure the first reaction to this news will be fear and worry. After all 26 feet packs a lot of bite; but there is no need to fear, the basking shark is not a threat to humans as it feeds on plankton. There is cause for worry though. The cause of death of this mighty beast is still unknown; but the lack of any obvious outer injuries to the fish, raises some very troubling questions. We cause so much destruction to the planet, even by simply carrying out day to day tasks, that we can no longer tell if something is our fault. It is very possible that authorities will discover, some kind of human interference is the cause of the shark’s death.

There was a time when we would pray to God for rain. After all a drought was an effect of the environment, we had no hand in it. Today we blame our governments for water shortage. We cause the droughts. We have even started cloud seeding and cloud farming. Though these are environmental issues they have a very profound effect on our society and hence on our businesses. We leave such large footprints on the environment these days that it would be disastrous for any business to not be environmentally conscious.

For all the harm we do to our environment there is a price to pay, If not by us then by our children. Every time there is no rainfall in India, the price of cotton worldwide goes up and clothes get more expensive. Today our environment affects our economy and our actions affect the environment. It is time each person thought of the consequences of his actions. Ask yourself ‘What have you done?’

Just a few hundred years ago the fate of the world was decided by the death and destruction taking place on a battlefield. World Commerce was answerable to the rise and fall of political tides. Nowadays the fate of the world depends, not on the armed soldier but on the smart businessman. The war has moved from the battleground to the board room. Today it would seem world commerce is answerable to no one. It has grown into an institution of such mammoth proportions that it does not bend to the whims of any man. But is this a good thing? Is it in our best interest, that the fate of the world rests in the hands of businessmen whose primary and sole motive is earning profit? Much wrong has already been done with the purpose of making money. With the kind of power that corporations command and their impact on the world around us, it is not only unethical but also dangerous for businessmen to be accountable to no one.

So what is the solution, or rather who, is the solution to this problem? The answer is you. You are the answer to this moral dilemma that the corporate world finds itself in today. You are the answer because you are the businessman as well as the client. Without you there is no commerce. If each and every one of us makes it our priority to practice conscious business and to do no harm, we can ensure that the world is a better place for everyone to live. World commerce may have grown too big for any political organization to dictate but it has not grown so big that it can be accountable to no one. It will be answerable to the planet and its people, not because of its inherent nature but because we, the people, make it so.