What words will they chisel into your tombstone? Oh I know, most people are cremated these days. What I am really saying here is this - when it is all over for you, what will you be remembered for?

What about something like this?

“Here lies Fred Nurk. He was born. He lived. He died.”

Not too impressive is it? You might ask: “What did Fred do all his life? Perhaps somebody in mourning congregation might say a few words to explain meaning of Fred’s life.

“Well, Fred never said much coz Fred hated criticism. And he didn’t do much either coz he couldn’t be bothered. He never married either coz he couldn’t make a commitment. He didn’t work either coz he never found anything worth doing. Shucks, I guess poor old Fred never did anything!”

Why is it that some people achieve so much, while others achieve so little?

This reminds me of a story I heard once where a poor man walked up to a very successful business man and asked:

“What is secret of your success? How do you get so much done?”

The business man replied: “That is answer.”

The poor man scratched his head to which business man said: “I see you are having trouble with my answer but you mentioned answer yourself in your question.”

Again poor man scratched his head.

The business man said: “I am successful because I get so much done.”

The poor man then asked: “How do you do so much?”

The business man replied: “How do you do so little?”

This sounds like Confucianism. But it shows that sometimes, if we are smart enough to ask question, we are already in sight of answer.

Many people have realised that our busy and stressful lives need some balance. They are flocking in droves to gymnasiums all over country. Others are even engaging Personal Trainers who, themselves, are experiencing boom times in international quest for fitness.

It seems that people everywhere are becoming increasingly conscious of their physical condition. Everybody wants to feel younger and look younger. But what about mental conditioning? Sadly, too many people do not have time to build mental muscles by educating themselves. Sure, Joe and Jane Citizen read newspapers, watch television and listen to radio programs. But is that education? It could be argued that these media are a form of negative education. You see, most of news flowing through to us is full of doom and gloom.

Negative sells. Editors know this. They also understand that most people are negatively tuned. That is why they skew their editorials with a negative disposition. We see glaring headlines like "Car Crash Kills Six" or "Fourteen People Die in Suicide Bombing."

For most people, doom and gloom is eminently believable. The more they are fed, more they believe.

Try this little test:

Assume somebody called you and informed you that you had just won a big lottery prize. Then, directly after, somebody else called you saying you were subject of a tax audit. Which story would you be inclined to believe?

Let's now qualify this a little more. What if you knew absolutely that you had bought that lottery ticket from an outlet that has a history of selling winning tickets, and you also knew absolutely that your tax return had been filed by a highly competent tax accountant? What would your instinct tell you to believe?

Understand this - power of negative is far more powerful than power of positive. It is so easy to let that little self-talk gremlin inside your head influence you in a negative manner.