“Doing your best and taking an initiative will never let you down.”

A youngster came across an advertisement in the newspaper about a walk-in interview for an job to be held next day starting at 8am, on a first-come-first-serve basis.

He went to the interview venue the next day at around 7.15am, 45 minutes before the scheduled time. He was surprised to see that there were already 30 youngsters lined up in a queue.

He took his place in the queue, and started to think as to what he could do to optimize his chances of being hired despite the fact that he was the 31st in the line to be interviewed. He thought, and around 15 minutes before 8am, he wrote a note and handed it to the receptionist and requested her to give it to the interviewers. The note read: I am <name> and am No.31 in the line. I request you not to make any decisions about hiring before you have interviewed me.

The interviewer liked the initiative and ended up hiring him. Life is a series of opportunities to hone one’s skill of making great choices in life’s challenging situations.

Learning to maintain dignity and calmness in challenging situations needs to be developed consciously. Whenever faced with challenging situations, anchor your mind to the thought that a choice can be made to deal with the situations by asking the question, what can I do to be my best right now? To do this, we need to intensify the habit of making choices. Become more deliberate in living your life, starting with making choices in day-to-day things. Ensure that from today:

When you go to the restaurant, go through the menu yourself and decide, instead of requesting your companions or the person waiting on you to decide for you. You can always ask for suggestions, but make sure that you make the decision as to what to order, after understanding the menu and getting a feel of what you would like to eat.

Empower yourself by volunteering your services to do more than what is expected of you. It could be volunteering yourself an organizer of events at your workplace, or the locality where you live. Volunteering develops your ability to take on challenges and develop your ability to make decisions.

Develop the ability to transform seemingly insignificant situations to something special, enjoyable, meaningful and memorable because of your conscious thinking and actions. Become the creator rather than merely being a spectator.

Be the one who constantly finds new  ways to make life better for yourself and others.

Wat Rong Khun

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Wat Rong Khun is different from any other temple in Thailand, as its ubosot (Pali: uposatha; consecrated assembly hall) is designed in white color with some use of white glass. The white color stands for Lord Buddha’s purity; the white glass stands for Lord Buddha’s wisdom that “shines brightly all over the Earth and the Universe.”

Prambanan

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Central Java in Indonesia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.

Shwedagon Pagoda

The Shwedagon Pagoda also known as the Golden Pagoda, is a 98-meter gilded stupa located in Yangon, Burma. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within, namely the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa and eight hairs of Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

Chion-in

Chion’in Temple in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan is the headquarters of the Jodo Shu. The vast compounds of Chion-in include the site where Honen settled to disseminate his teachings and the site where he died.

Harmandir Sahib

Sri Harmandir Sahib or Darbar Sahib, informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God. It is located in the city of Amritsar, which was established by Guru Ram Das, the fourth guru of the Sikhs and the city that it was built in, is also due to the shrine, known as “Guru Di Nagri” meaning city of the Sikh Guru.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

The temple occupies an area of 156 acres (6,31,000 m²) with a perimeter of 1,116m (10,710 feet) making it the largest temple in India and one of the largest religious complexes in the world. In fact, Srirangam temple can be easily termed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist.