Are you an Oak Tree in a Flower Pot ?

A monkey which leaves the tree and swims in a lake is inferior to a fish.

A race horse housed in a beautiful apartment is inferior to a rat.

A good swordsman wielding a plough to cultivate a piece of land is inferior to a peasant. In the same way, people who do not raise their potential tend to get reduced to inferior beings.

"I am not comfortable talking to people, I feel shy, I can't mix with people, I feel diffident getting jobs done by others. I am an introvert. How can you help me someone asked me.

We have to strike the right balance between work and the home and at work among the people whom we work with. Imagine we spend so much time at work beginning from getting ready to work and then un-wind after work including the travel time. If we can strike a chord with our folks back home with far less time spent with them, and without any inhibitions of not comfortable talking, or feel shy, or can't mix with people, etc., and never have said while with people at home "I am an introvert, I do not seriously believe this is possible at work. It's fake. You ought to be a winner - both inside and outside the house, you ought to be a winner inside and outside yourself.

There is a story to support this (unknown source)

In ancient times, a wood-cutter had a struggle to earn two meals a day. He me a monk who then advised him, "Don't stop at the edge of the forest go right in. One day's work will fetch you one month's food. The woodcutter followed the advice. Deep within the forest he found sandal wood tress. He was excited. He expressed his gratitude to the monk. And the monk advised him again. "Take the risk of going further inside A day's work will fetch you six month's meal." The woodcutter ventured and found a silver mine. He came back and thanked the monk. The monk said, "if you trust me and go still deeper one days work will make you earn enough to fetch you food for a life time." This also turned true for he found a gold mine.

The woodcutter wondered, "Why then does the monk still stay at the edge of the forest and not venture into the forest, as he has been advising him.

He gathered courage and asked the monk about this. The monk replied, "If you want to be eternally happy sit under this tree and I will teach you to go within, then you will be eternally happy.

To be an outer winner, one has to explore the outer world. To be an inner winner one has to go within oneself. The balance between being an outer winner and an inner winner is what will make us feel good, and that is the balance which we all need to strive for.

When you say are you shy?.

You are shy because you are not feeling good within yourself or you are pre-occupied in trying to make yourself look good. When you aren't feeling good from within, even if you try a million times, it will end up the other way.

When you say you are not comfortable being with people. Your discomfort is mainly due to the lack of good self management, internally within you, and poor people skills externally. When you are in conflict within yourself, it will be the same, conflicting, when you project outside.

Your best comes when you strike a balance being both, an outer and an inner winner.

to motivate yourself from within and then motivate the others around you. Learn to be at peace with your imperfections inside you and then become tolerant to the imperfections of the others outside you. Shed your ego.

Don't be shy, for shyness could be a form of an ego, so reject the games that ego plays with you.
A woodpecker was pecking an oak tree. A lightning struck the tree and felled it. The woodpecker flew away and boasted, "I never knew I am so strong, that I can make a solid tree fall like that."

Drop your ego. Most of us are like the oak tree in a flower pot. The flower pot is like the ego and our being like an oak tree. Drop your lower self and let your higher self guide you. Which means look at everything around you and appreciate everything that is happening around you and not only that which is happening with you.

I have every right to be happy or contented but when I go outside I must work to see that the others reach a similar like the one I enjoy but I should not go "public" with it because I might either fan a jealousy or make the other feel inferior, both of which isn't good for me. We should live and let others live too, that's the unwritten "Law of the Universe."

Punch line for the day: If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives." - Vince Lombardi