A giant ship engine failed
The ship's owners tried one expert after another
but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young
He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.

After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something.
Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for 10,000 Dollars.

"What?! the owners exclaimed. He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill!
The man sent a bill that read :

Tapping with a hammer- $2.00

Knowing where to tap- $9,9998.00

"Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

(Unknown)

In January 2010, a sensitive journalist wrote Payeng's incredible story in Assam's Dainik Janambhumi, and India suddenly took notice. Payeng was honoured as the "Forest Man of India" in New Delhi on Earth Day, 22 April 2012. Last September, the Planet workshops International Forum for a Sustainable Development invited him to speak at Evian, France. And in November, he received a Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award in Mumbai.
Sitting with Payeng over a meal , I asked him how he coped with the relentless news about poaching and deforestation in Assam.
"I have no time to worry about things I can't control," he smiled. "Infact I hardly have time to work on things I can control."
That simple philosophy by a simple cow-herder undrscores the most effective conservation strategy.
(GreenHeart)

a) When you enter nature's domain, really enter it by scuba diving, or walking in a rainforest, or trekking high up in the Himalayas, or, perhaps walking in a desert....humility is injected into you, without your ego being bruised, because you know you are not in competition with nature. This is one emotion that all humans must experience. ( Bittu Sahgal)
b) When you were young and getting started in England, were you able to relax ?
Anthony Hopkins : No, not really. When you are younger, you tend to be tense and it's all very important. As the years go by you think, oh well, let's just relax and enjoy it, it's all a game. (source : Readers Digest)

If you grow up with something that you have always enjoyed, loved and connected with a level where you feel totally contented, then life itself becomes joyous. When something has such an affect on you that it transports you to a different level of consciousness, you get an incredible amount of happiness and you feel like sharing the same with others. And that's how it's been with me; I feel a sublime, divine connect with my instrument. ( Ustad Zakir Hussain)

A child once accompanied his parents on an outing to the mountains. With them, he drank cool water from a mountain stream. Loving its fresh taste, he filled a bottle from the stream and took it home with him. There, he would sip only a little water each day, wanting to make it last as long as possible.

What was his disappointment a few weeks later, then, to find that the water left in the bottle had become stagnant. Money, similarly, grows stagnant when we "bottle it up"- that is to say, hoard it. To attract a steady money-flow in our lives, we must learn to view money not as a thing merely, but as an expression of energy- ultimately, as an expression of our energy. 

(Kriyananda)

Assess the people around you; understand them for what they are. Then you will not have unreasonable expectations of them. Do you hate a lion for its ferocity? Do you dislike a deer for its timidity? No. You understand that they all function according to their nature. As long as you feel negativity about anyone you will suffer, not the other person.
(Excerpt from Speaking Tree-Times of India)

2012 “Readers Favorite Awards”

The Illuminator - Access to Universal Intelligence by  Rajith Rajappan  won the Honourable  Mention award for Non-Fiction/Self-Help; its Universal Intelligence theory focuses on emotions, knowledge, and self-improvement goals to help you succeed in every aspect of your life. 

http://readersfavorite.com/2012-award-contest-winners.htm#NonFiction-SelfHelp-a