“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.
So let’s just move on to some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.
1. Change yourself.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”
If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.
And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.
And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.
2. You are in control.
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.
You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.
And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.
3. Forgive and let it go.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.
You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.
If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.
And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.
So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.
You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.
5. Take care of this moment.
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”
The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.
Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences - or reflecting on past failures - of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.
Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit - a sort of muscle - that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.
6. Everyone is human.
“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.
And I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.
It’s also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.
7. Persist.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.
Find what you really like to do. Then you’ll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going. You can also find a lot of useful tips on how keep your motivation up in How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump and 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself.
One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn’t give up.
Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days. You can read more about this in One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make.
Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi’s third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.
8. See the good in people and help them.
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.
And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.
By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. A few articles that may provide you with useful advice in that department are Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation? and Dale Carnegie’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills. Or you can just move on to the next tip.
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”
I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.
When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words.
With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.
Also, if your actions aren’t in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people’s belief in you too.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.
”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”
You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.
Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don’t then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.
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译文:
甘地改变世界的十个首要原则
“你不能对人性失去信心。人性是一个大海；大海中少数水滴是肮脏的并不意味着大海就变肮脏了。”
“我们做了什么和我们有能力做什么之间的差别足以解决世界上的大部分问题。”
“如果我没有幽默感，早就自杀了。”
莫汉达斯·甘地不需要过多的介绍。人人都知道是他领导印度人民在1947年脱离英国统治的。
让我们来看看我最喜欢的甘地的一些名言。
1. 改变自己
“你必须实现自己想在世上所见到的变化。”
"作为人类，相对于能够改变世界——原子时代的神话，能够改造自我更能体现其伟大之处。“
如果你改变了自己，那么你也就改变了你的世界。如果你改变了你的思维方式，那你就会改变自己的认知以及行为。从而你身边的世界也就会改变。这不仅仅因为你会以新的思想、情感境界来观察你所处的环境，还因为其内在的变化允许你以不曾有的方式行动，更或者未曾想过思想的进入你旧有的思维方式。
改变你外在世界而不改变自我的问题在于当你达到你所竭力争取的变化时，你自己却没有变化。你仍然维持了原有的缺点、愤怒、消极、自爆倾向等等。
如此，在新的形势下，你依然找不到你所希望的，因为你的思想还渗透着消极的东西。假如你再不察觉到自己的自负并远离它，它将会变本加厉。因为你的自负总爱将事情分开，去发现敌人和产生间隔，它可能开始尽力在你的生活和世界中去制造更多的问题和矛盾。
2. 能够自控
“没有我的允许，无人能伤害到我。”
对于事物你如何感想以及怎么行动，是你始终要面对的。可能有一种“正常”或一种普通的途径来应对不同的事。但那也只是主要的。你可以选择你自己的想法、行为和情绪来让很多事变得更美好。你不必焦虑不安，过度消极对待。或许并不是每次或立即就能做到，有时一个条件反射就会起作用。或者一个旧的思维习惯就会消失。当你认识到除了你之外没有人能真正地控制你的感知时，就可以着手将这些思维融入到日常生活中去，并将其发展成为一种思维习惯，一种你能随着时间变得更强的习惯。这样会让生活更舒适愉快。
3. 宽恕并让它成为过去。
"软弱的人永远学不会原谅，宽仁之心属于强人。”
“以眼还眼只能使整个世界被遮掩。”
以恶制恶对谁也没有好处。就像前面所说的，你总得选择如何去应对事情。当你能把这种思维习惯越来越融入到生活中时，你就能以一种对自己和别人更有益的方式来应对各种事情。
你会发现宽恕和释放过去对你和你世界中的人们都是一种巨大的支持。从亲身经历中得到教训后，把时间花在一些消极的记忆中对你没有任何帮助。那可能只能使你更痛苦，并使你麻痹而不能即刻采取适当的措施。
如果不能学会宽恕，你就会让过去和另外一个人来操控你的感知。通过宽恕，你可以将自己从那些镣铐中解脱出来。然后可以完全地关注于下一个焦点。
4. 没有行动你将一事无成。
“少量的实践也比不断的讲大道理更有价值。”
不行动什么也做不了。然而，采取行动是很艰难的，有很多内在的阻力。
因而像甘地所说的你，就可能诉诸于讲大道理，或者无休止地阅读和学习，看起来你在进步，但事实上没有或只有少得可怜的实际效果。
因此，要做到真正到达你的目的地，真正了解你自己和你的世界，就需要实践。书本只能带给你知识，你必须行动起来，把知识转化为结果和理解。
你可以在How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips中选择一些有效的意见去克服这些问题，来核实一下是否正确。或者也可以转换关注点去采取更多的自己所建立的行动，而不是只停留在一个最好的点上。
5. 珍惜现在。
“我不想去预测未来，只关注于珍惜现在，因为上帝并没有给予我控制未来的力量。”
内心阻力常常在我们行动时打断我们，迄今，我发现解决此问题的最好方法是尽可能保持并接受现状。
为什么呢？因为在维持现状时你不必担心不管怎样的都无法控制下一刻。行动的阻力来自于你消极的未来结果的想象，来自于对过去失败顾虑，这些失败中你的行动未起作用。这样，行动或保持你对现状的关注就会变得相对容易，并执行得很好。
看一看8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment 这个链接，找找如何快速实现维持现状的意见。记住，重新与现状联系起来或保持现状是一种精神习惯，一种你能使其增长的肌肉。随着时间推移，它会变得更强大，使步入到维持现状的状态更容易。
6. 人人都有人性。
“我主张成为一个就像其他同事一样容易犯错的简单的人。但是，我自认足够谦虚，能承认自己的错误并挽回错误。”
“对于自己的理智过于自信是不明智的。时常提醒自己最强的人也会变弱，最明智的人也会犯错，这才是有益的。”
当你开始在人民中制造神话时，即使他们创造了非凡的成就，你也是在冒切断他们之间联系之险。你会开始感觉自己永远也做不到与他们所做的事，因为他们是如此的与众不同。所以，不管他们是谁，坚持认为他们都一样只是人类，这是很重要的。
谨记我们都是人类并都容易犯错，我认为这是很重要的。以不合理的标准来衡量人们只会给你的世界产生更多不必要的矛盾，对自己产生消极性。
这一点，对于避免陷入让自己曾犯的错打击自我这样一种相当不好的习惯也是重要的。如此也能看清你错在何处，看清你能从自己的错误中学到什么，并不断地改进。
7. 坚持。
“一开始他们不理睬你，然后嘲笑你，再然后他们攻击你，最后还是你赢得胜利。”
坚持住，周围反对你的就会消失、倒下。内心的阻力和自暴自弃倾向会变弱，它们总是想要拖你后腿，要你一成不变。
找到你真正乐于做的事，你才能找到不断前进、前进、前进的内在动力。在How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump 和25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself 里面，你还会发现许多有用的要点。
甘地的非暴力不合作运动之所以如此成功，一个重要的原因就是他和他追随者的不断坚持，从不曾放弃过。
成就或胜利很少会来的像你所期望的那么快。我以为其中一个原因是人们达不到目标仅仅是因为他们放弃得太快。他们认为实现成就所需要的时间与实际常常所需求的时间不一样。此错误的想法部分源自于我们生活的世界，一个漫天都是魔力药剂的世界，通过广告频繁地承诺我们，能在一个月内减掉很多体重或赚许多钱。在One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make中你能读到更多关于这方面的东西。
最后，一个保持你持续前进的忠言就是，听从本文所提到的甘地的第三个名言，保持幽默感。它能缓和你最艰难时期的困苦。
8. 发现人们的善良并帮助他们。
“去发现人的优秀品质，我自己并不完美，也不会去探究别人的缺点。”
“一个人是否伟大在于他为同胞安宁幸福所做的努力。”
“我认为以往领导力意味着力量；但是今天，它意味着与人民和睦共处。”
人民的很多方面都是很好的。也许有些东西不是那么好，但关注于哪些事你是可以选择的。如果你想改善，而后去关注人民的好的一面，那将是一个有益的选择。这也让你的生活更轻松，因为你的世界和人际关系变得愉快和积极向上。
同样，当你看到人们好的一面时，这会更易于为你更好地服务于他们提供动力。通过服务于别人，给予他们价值观，你就不仅仅使他们的生活更美好。随着时间过去，你就会从你的付出得到回报。你所帮助的人们也会更倾向于去帮助他人。如此，你就创造了一个积极的，螺旋向上的变化，并日益强大。
加强社交技巧，你能成为一个更有影响力的人，逐步强大起来。在这一方面，一些文章可能为你提供有用的建议：Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation? 和 Dale Carnegie’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills。或者你只需转换到下一个要点。
9. 做到和谐，真实，成为真正的你
“快乐就是你所想、所说、所做的都是和谐的。”
“总是旨在思想、话语和行为的完美和谐，旨在净化你的想。那么，事事都会变得美好。”
我认为对于提高你社交技巧的最好途径就是举止和谐，言谈可信。人们实际上是喜欢真实的谈话的。但你的思想，用词，行动一致的时候，就会得到更多发自内心的喜悦。你会觉得自己的强大和优点。
当言语和思想一致时，就会透过你的谈话表现出来。因为你让你的声调和肢体语言与你的用词一直，有人说声调和肢体语言占据了谈话的90%以上。
通过这些一致的途径，人们就会真正听从你所说的。你的谈话没有了矛盾、混淆的信息或者说是虚假。
当然，如果你的行为不和你说的一致，你就开始破坏你能做什么的自我信念，破坏别人对你的信心。
10. 继续成长和进化。
“持续发展是生命的定律，一个始终设法维护他的信条，以显得坚持己见的人实际上是把自己放在虚伪的位置。”
你可以不断改善你的技巧、习惯或重新评价你的价值。你可以更深层次地理解你自己和世界。
无疑，你可能每每看起来很矛盾或不知道自己在做什么。你可能在做到和谐一致或真诚交流有困难。但是如果你不这样的话，就会想甘地说的，将你房子一个虚伪的位置。在这个位置，你认识到其中有些东西是错误的同时，却又尽力高举或坚守自己的旧观念以看起来你是前后一致的。这不是开玩笑。选择成长和进化是可采取的一种快乐和更有用的途径。
如果你喜欢这篇文章，请翘起你的大拇指支持一下（a thumb up in Stumbleupon）。非常感谢！