Teach our children to be adventurous, to explore.

Our children ought to be encouraged to be adventurous. Help them to explore the many places in his world. It is especially helpful for children who are too timid. The child here is one of my two sons. See how confident he is when the bond between mother and child is good.

Even without financial inheritance, it can be done!

I know that when I wrote that every aspect of life is within reach with confidence derived from intelligence, courage, strength and coordination, there is the possibility that someone would point out that poverty could be a stumbling block.

For that, I wish to draw your attention to a man I know. When I first met him, I knew he was the owner of his own big factory. Seeing his muscular build, I asked how often he frequented the gym. He wondered where the coversation was heading to but told me he had never been to one. His muscles came from bending heated canes to make cane furniture. He was the employee of the shop. And he did the work after school hours.

This man, now aged approximately forty, came from a poor farming family. His education was only up to primary school level but he did not lack intelligence. He worked hard at many jobs to help his parents. He was tough, ready to learn and improved his knowledge and ability in the school of hard knocks. He had the courage to even travel from his homeland to acquire sufficient knowledge and money to start his own factory.

So, with intelligence, courage, strength and coordination, one can gather the necessary knowledge, expertise, and money to achieve one’s goal in life.

Without strength and coordination, he might not have been able to do cane-bending well enough to earn his first pay-check and realize the importance of money in big projects in life.

Without the intelligence, he would not have realized that the boss gets the bigger share of it. He would not have realized it would require a lot of tough work to gain money and make the difference to his family’s total income. He would not have realised he had to find the expertise and knowledge to start his own business.

Certainly, he must have confidence to venture wherever it takes to gain the essential knowledge and ability to start a factory. Knowing the importance of money, he must have saved most of whatever he earned to be financially capable to think of a factory.

This is the story of a self-made man; one with the strength and coordination to take on many jobs, one with the confidence and courage to venture far from his poor beginning. Obviously, it was a tough, uphill climb but it could be done.

Of course, not everyone can do it because it needs true intelligence to learn in the school of hard knocks, understand and realize what it takes to make it, to realize effort must be substantial and have the courage to seize the opportunity when it comes.

Training for strength, coordination and confidence.

Without confidence and courage, who would dare to do this?

This vault needs flexiblity too.

This somersault needs lots of strength and coordination as well as courage.All the above must be learned through a good, vigilant coach.
All the pictures in black and white were taken at a time when coloured photos were not available; in 1968.

What qualities are essential?

Intelligence, Strength, coordination and courage make possible almost any required activity in every field of life.

The knowledge of one’s own ability to perform well gives a person the all important confidence to move towards any opportunity. And confidence gives him/her the courage to carry it out with a hundred percent effort. This ensures all obstacles can be swept aside to enable one to test the potentials which exist and end up with the best possible opening in life. With such confidence and courage, every aspect of life can be within reach!

Intelligence is important. Parents can help their children develop intelligence through some of the games available in the market.

Snake and ladder encourage children to count and learn co-operation by taking turns to throw the dice.

In checkers, children learn that rules are necessary. Our child has to think of a strategy to overcome an opponent.

Monopoly teaches the intelligent use of money. Our child learns how to manage money.

Chess is an excellent game requiring knowledge of rules and moves of various pieces in the game. It gets our children to be conscious of the need for strategy. It requires a player to imagine what can possibly happen with each move made. It teaches children to visualize the possible consequences of each move. It also teaches anticipation of the moves of the opponent. It is certainly an excellent game for children to be interested in.

Scrabble helps the child to increase his/her vocabulary and spelling.

Computer games help children improve coordination and anticipation. However, because the child plays by himself and therefore without the need to think of one’s ego, it does not motivate the child as much as other type of games to win. The child finds relaxation and through this relaxation becomes addicted to computer games.So, do not start the child too young on computer games.

Some learning institutions stress on intelligence and forgo physical development. Without sports and games on courts and in the field, our children’s opportunity to develop such strength is lacking.

Although our concrete jungle has replaced the wilds, strength is just as important in many spheres of our lives.

To be a good sportsman or a dancer, we need strength and coordination, besides intelligence and courage.

To be active in so many other activities in life, we require those same qualities.

Even to be a good speaker, we need the courage and confidence to stand in front of a crowd; we need to coordinate our mind with whatever movement of our body and facial expressions necessary to convey clearly the meaning of our speech. We need the strength to speed out loudly and clearly.

Baby and us.

Why am I so lucky? She hugs me so lovingly. And what a lovely smile she beams at me!
It's a loving mother and her cheerful bundle of joy!

Look how cute he is! He certainly loves to be carried and hugged.

A child is so lovable.

It's so easy to love babies. Giving them sufficent attention should not be a problem. Yet, many problems arise in this world because someone neglected the children or did not give them the right attention.

The power to perform makes the difference.

There was once a little boy who steps timidly to the back behind the crowd each time some activity needs to be performed. With a skinny body weakened by rheumatism at a very young age, this young boy knew from experience that he lacked the strength to perform the task well.

Knowledge of his weakness caused him sadness in the realization that he had to take a back seat and not be able to live life to the full. Yet it was the same knowledge that lead him to do something to reverse the lousy start fate had tossed at him. He ran. He read about Charles Atlas who pioneered the idea of developing strength through dynamic tension of the muscles without the use of equipment; using the left hand to give resistance to the right hand as it uses the biceps to bend at the elbow. With his well-sculptured body, Charles Atlas won the world title. This little boy used the same kind of training to improve his body. Later, he took up weight training and developed his strength. It was tough. It was a process that took approximately ten long, lonely years. Obviously, he was not made of championship stuff. But, he did persevered. He did gain strength gradually and muscles too when he finally graduated to weight training. His friends who have known him as small and weak were surprised at his development at the last stage. He did so well that he played rugby with the big, tough guys. He became good at gymnastics because of the power in his arms, shoulders, back and legs; and the spring which came with that power.

During those ten long years and some years thereafter, rheumatism did attack once every two to three years.

There was one stage when rheumatism did strike during a period of fatigue. When he approached a doctor for medical leave, the doctor took a look at the strong-looking guy and refused to allow him the leave. The next day, his body still wreaked by pain, he again went to the hospital for some medical leave. The doctor who listened to his heart did it four or five times, and he thought, “Oh, my gosh! This doctor does not even know how to use his stethoscope.” Anyhow, he still requested for medical leave, upon which, the doctor said, “No.”. He was on the point of bursting out with anger when the doctor shocked him with, “You are warded!”

Then, he was told to rest quietly on a bed, after which he was taken for an ECG, an examination of the heart. The result, according to a nurse, was he had a rheumatic heart. As he had been studying about health and nutrition, he knew a rheumatic heart patient has only six years to live.

Well, that young man lives to be more than sixty-two years old. I know because that weak little boy was me. Since the age of twenty-five, there was no more incidence of rheumatism. And because I practice yoga very often nowadays, there is also no pain anywhere in my body.

With exercise and the strength I gained, I had not only overcome weakness, I can truly say I live life to the full.Nowadays, there is still so much to learn, so much to do. Sometimes, twenty-four hours are just not enough!