Gopi Kallayil is the Chief Business Strategist, AI, at Google. An avid yoga practitioner, triathlete, global traveler, and Burning Man devotee, he has spoken at TEDx, The World Happiness Summit, and Wisdom 2.0. Gopi’s books, The Internet to the Inner-net and The Happy Human, are available in bookstores and online. He is on the Board of Directors, Grameen Foundations USA.

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Gopi Kallayil

<h4 style="text-align: justify;">GOPI KALLAYIL is a successful brand marketing executive in one of the largest global
 companies in the world. Yet it took a group of very ordinary hard-working women to show him how to live a really
 fulfilling life.</h4>
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About 7.2 billion people make up our human family. Half of them live on $3 a day, less
 than what I pay for one cup of gourmet coffee. Several of these people live in my home village in India,
 Chittilancheri. My parents both grew up in Chittilancheri without electricity, running water or a college education.
 In one generation, the family’s fortunes shifted. My parents worked hard and created the opportunity for their four
 children to earn advanced degrees. My parents were ordinary people.
Later in life, I learned the extraordinary impact that ordinary people can have yet
 again, this time from Oseola McCarty. Former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, had come to
 Google to speak, and had given out copies of his book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. When I
 read that Oseola McCarty had created her own scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi, I thought,
 “Surely she must be a very wealthy woman.” Well, Oseola dropped out of school when she was twelve to care for her
 sick aunt, and for the next seventy-five years the only job she had was washing and ironing other people’s clothes.

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<h4 style="text-align: center;">About 7.2 billion people make up our human family. Half of them live on $3 a
 day, less than what I pay for one cup of gourmet coffee.</h4>
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She saved her modest income in the bank, and when she turned eighty-seven she asked her
 bank manager how much money she had in her account. He answered, “Three hundred thousand dollars.” I imagine she
 must have said something like, “Son, there are no shopping malls on the way to heaven. I want to create a
 scholarship so that girls from poor families can go to college.”
When news of Oseola’s decision was made public, local leaders funded an endowment in her
 honour, increasing her gift’s reach still more. Before she died, four years later, the University of Southern
 Mississippi’s most famous donor received acclaim and honour, including the Presidential Citizens Medal — the highest
 civilian award of the United States — and honorary doctorates from the University of Southern Mississippi and
 Harvard. Oseola McCarty was an ordinary person, and her resources at the outset were certainly limited. Yet she made
 an extraordinary impact on the world.
Have you ever wondered if you could make an impact like that on others? I did, sitting
 in a coffee shop. The barista yelled out, “Gopi, your grande caramel cinnamon chocolate Frappuccino is ready. And it
 is fat-free.” I knew that only the fat was ‘free’, and it struck me that the drink was more abundant than anything
 many of the people I knew back in Chittilancheri would enjoy that entire day.
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">“Can I, an ordinary&nbsp;person with limited resources, really make an
 extraordinary impact on someone else’s life?” Yes, you can, starting today.</h4>

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So I wondered, “Could I sacrifice a few cups of coffee and make a big impact?” I found
 my answer in Kiva, a San Francisco–based organisation that allows ordinary people, like most of us, to give
 microloans to women in the Third World to start small businesses.
That same day, I made my first loan online, for the princely sum of $25. The
 entrepreneur who received it was Ngô Thi Chung, a 54-year-old woman living in Trung Giã village, Vietnam, who was
 starting a farm supplies business. She needed a loan of $1,200, and I wondered how my $25 could help. But never
 underestimate the power of people working together! In four hours, several others had made modest loans of their
 own, and she had her $1,200. Next month, I gave another loan to Esther Laboso, a 46-year-old widow with five
 children living in Kericho, Kenya, who was starting a grain store. The following month it was a fisherwoman in Peru,
 and then a tailor in Pakistan. I was hooked. This was much better than a grande caramel cinnamon chocolate
 Frappuccino.
Recently, I connected with friends from high school. The lovely Lakshmi, voted most
 likely to succeed in our class, asked, “Gopi, where are you these days? What are you doing?” And I, who was voted
 most likely to join the circus, replied, “I am an international banker. I finance entrepreneurs around the world.”

Perhaps you are inspired by these stories, but still skeptical that this truth could
 ever apply to you. “Can I, an ordinary person with limited resources, really make an extraordinary impact on someone
 else’s life?” Yes, you can, starting today. I learned this from my parents, from Oseola McCarty, and through my work
 with Esther Laboso and Ngô Thi Chung. As Clinton says in his book, “We all have the capacity to do great things,”
 and we can do it with whatever resources we have on hand. Ordinary people can make an extraordinary impact.
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Excerpt adapted from The Internet to the Inner-Net:&nbsp;Five Wats to Reset Your
 Connection and Live a Conscious Life.&nbsp;
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by GOPI KALLAYIL</h4>
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Be creative with money

<h4>GOPI KALLAYIL shares his 10 tips for organizing a better life.</h4><hr>I always hear the same lament, no matter who is saying it. CEOs of companies tell me they are overworked. Farmers back in my home village in southern India say they have no time. We can all complain that we are under the tyranny of schedules, that there is no time in our day. Each of us can say that much of our life is driven by someone else’s agenda or outside pressures – things we have to do, things we would like to do, things we are expected to do.When I graduated from business school, I had a terrible time organizing my day. Seven days a week, work was my number one priority. I fed on the thrill of accomplishments. I dashed to meetings, raced to meet flights, and ate whatever food was given to me, like airline food and conference food, which is terrible stuff. My house was a mess, with stacks of bills that I was too busy to open, let alone pay, suitcases half unpacked from the last trip and partially packed for the next. A few times my phone was cut off or my credit card declined. Not because I didn’t have the money, but because I was trying to focus so much on my work and travel that I didn’t have the time to pay bills.It was embarrassing, as though I couldn’t take control of my own life. This chaos went on for almost a year, until I reached breaking point, and started asking myself, “Why am I living this life? What is the purpose of it? What am I trying to do here? And what is the price I am paying?” My life had become travel, bad food, and not enough exercise and meditation. And I realized I had to re-prioritize.I asked myself, “If I only had a few hours, or just one hour, fully under &nbsp;control, what would be the one thing I would do with it that would maximize this quality of joy, presence and life? What would support my five essentials on a day-to-day basis?” I came up with ten items. As the list developed, the idea switched from a theoretical notion to a tactical way to structure my days that would support what’s important to me in my life, what resonates and brings me joy.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/time1_a07dc8d16a.jpg" alt="Time">&nbsp;Your list of how to spend your hours in each day might contain different items with different priorities. My list has changed my life, and I’d like to share it with you.Incorporating this list into my daily life shapes how I feel as a human being, and it increases my focus and sense of accomplishment. I become more conscious of investing my time in a manner that maximizes my energy potential. Once you create your list and start following it, once you consciously spend your twenty-four hours each day, I believe you will enjoy increased physical energy and operate at a higher level of performance and productivity. You will alter your perception of time, and change how you view what you focus on. And most important, you will live a life of greater joy and presence.So, what are the ten things by which you will organize your twenty-four hours?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;