Rising Indian Footballing Hero....

Eight years ago, when he first arrived at the orphanage in the southern Indian state of Kerala, Raja Chinnaswamy had never seen a football. Today he is a rising star of Indian football, a 14-year-old already being talked about by his excited coaches as a future fixture in the national team.
The story of Raja is so extraordinary.Born in Tamil Nadu in 1994, he was four when his mother died. A couple of years later his father fell ill and lost his job at a sugar cane factory.

Hoping their luck would change, the boy and his father headed for the town of Thrissur in Kerala, but quickly found themselves penniless and on the streets. With his father too ill to work, Raja turned to begging.

If anyone needed a break, it was Raja. Finally he got one. A friendly bookseller found him sobbing in the street and took pity on him. He knew of an orphanage where the boy would be safe. It was Raja's good fortune that the Janaseva Boys' Home in Madhurappuram was run by a former international athlete, Jose Maveli, whose has a passion for sport.

Maveli offered the 100 or so boys who lived there a chance of an education, but, more importantly for Raja, sports training. It was not long before his natural footballing talents were spotted by a couple of former Indian footballing internationals roped in by Maveli to lend a hand with the coaching.

"He is a very speedy player with the ball and a very good goal-getter," said Soly Xavier, who played right back for the national side from 1986 to 1989. "He thinks about positioning and is always watching the other players. Whenever he gets an opportunity, he scores a goal. Within a year and a half he will be in the national side."

Last September, Raja was selected for the state football team: "I was happy and crying. Many of the players were crying because they had not been selected, but I was crying because I had."

Now trials for the Indian national side are beckoning. Neither Raja nor his coaches doubt that he will make it. "I will definitely play for India. I can do it," he says.

And he trots off towards the centre circle of the red dirt pitch carved out of a scrap of land surrounded by palm trees in one of the most beautiful parts of a country that does not yet care about football - but may soon have something to cheer about.

"A life without challenge would be likegoing to school without lessons to learn.
Challenges come not to depress or get you down,but to master and to grow and to unfold your abilities."

Getting Over Problems

Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.
To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought lower rice.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little trashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.
Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fishes are challenged.

As soon as you reach your goals, such as finding a wonderful mate, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax.

Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. L. Ron Hubbard observed it in the early 1950's. "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."
The Benefits of a Challenge The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

Reflection:

Instead of avoiding challenges jump into them. Beat the heck out of them. Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired.

Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help.
Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.

Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!