Lessons from the coffee bean - COVID 19

Coffee beans are extricated from the plant to make great espresso. As somebody who cherishes a well brewed espresso, some of the times more than tea or ice cream, I wanted to take a couple of lessons that I learned and check whether they can be useful to you. I am certain you will cherish what I'm going to explain since this is something that we are experiencing in these difficult times. 

GRINDING PROCESS 

The extraction procedure of coffee from the beans looks extremely simple when it is plucked from the plant however it is definitely not simple. After the seed is sun-dried, it is required to experience a grinding procedure. At the point when the coffee beans are placed in the processor, they lose their shape, their structural integrity, and are changed over to what exactly may appear to be an aimless powder very different as what it was previously.  But this is just the beginning of the process because they are to end your more into becoming something. If you get coffee bean to talk at this stage, it might say that is been through a really tough time and it has lost its entire identity as it has gone through the painful grinding process. But we don't get the coffee powder to make good coffee unless the bean is ground thoroughly. So when you are going through tough times it is not always tough on you for a bad reason but it might be an opportunity for you to endure this pain and learn something nice and become something better. When you compare coffee beans with coffee powder, I prefer coffee powder because that is ready for me to do something with it and even smells better than the bean. So hang on when the grinding is happening because it is going to make you and your life better. Learn what you can during this grinding.

SIZZLING HOT BAPTISM 

If the coffee bean thinks that its pain is over and it is ready to flourish as a good cup of coffee, it is in for a surprise. The extracted powder that just endured the grinding process, is then suddenly sent into another tough process where is put through more pain where it is added to hot boiling water. The sizzling hot water baptism burns the coffee powder and takes only the essence out of it leaving the remaining coffee powder, which is of practically no use. You might say that the coffee powder has served its purpose but if you think of the bean or the plant, it is just discarded at this stage and can add nothing more to the coffee. So when you are going through tough times I encourage you to look at the better side of life. You have a significant role to play in whatever you are doing. Take the good in. Ardently see how you can pass on your essence and give whatever your character is to make the way better further. Don't just be there and exist or survive through this but thrive. Strive to add something to your work, family, or someone else so that you are able to change from what you are to better. Many of you are making the best of this time by creating content, working better, by helping others, by being with your family, by taking care of your parents, by rekindling relationships that are lost or teaching your children helping out with chores. Some of us are taking additional responsibilities at work, helping people who are down, managing our finances better, and so on. Make sure this tough time helps you to learn what is important and encourage you to be ready to bring the best in you out. 

THE DRESSING CONUNDRUM 

Let's go back to the journey of a coffee bean. Are we at the end yet? Now that we have a sizzling hot cup of black coffee, many people are happy at this stage as they might prefer black coffee. Some of us like to add quite a few things to our black coffee like milk, cream, cinnamon, chocolate, icecream, froth, or all to make it interesting. So at the end of the entire tiresome grinding, being put through sizzling water, the coffee is then taken to add more elements to make it interesting or personal to someone. Just like the basic dark coffee that comes out of the coffee machine is the same, each of us is going through the toughest of times our generation has ever seen. But each of our experiences is different just like how we can customize by adding your own flavors & choice of ingredients to make it better. 

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR COFFEE? 

So when this unavoidable time is upon us and we are forced to go through this grinding process with health scares; hot sizzling water like situations that have led to job losses, financial struggles, lock-downs, delayed loan payments, mental health issues and uncertainty about future, I urge you to add your own flavor to it to make this bitter experience better. Add love, joy, caring, compassion, and empathize with people around you to make this bitter experience better. 

Needless to say, if you share your cup of coffee, whether it is a cold one or a hot sizzling one with cream on the top, with someone you care about or even a stranger it always enhances the experience of having the coffee and takes the bitterness out of it. So today, take this opportunity to connect with somebody that you'd love to share your story or send me a message and I would love to hear from you #TalkToTiger and I promise to get back to you at the earliest. 

Time for a cup of coffee and driving the blues out. Wishing you an August day ahead.

Munching office politics - Monday Blues

So, how is your Monday going? How is the attitude at work and politics? How are you driving yourself to keep up with the pressures of life? When faced with certain circumstances, we are often tempted to take a path that is curt, to the point and  dusted with harmful options. 

These are easy to come up with and react. However, as a leader, you need to look up above the simple low-minded people's attributes and behave. Learn to let it go, forgive, move on to be a better person than you can be. Revenge is not ours and it will be taken up when needed. Not by you and I but by the power high up above. I am really telling you this.

You may be thinking that I don't understand your situation but trust me when I say, I have been in the worst of politics, dealt with people who behave like animals fighting for survival and have still come up victorious. The revenge when the pride falls is sweet, beautiful and worth waiting for. The key is in understanding the psyche and learning to let the barking snarling dog go. You will find your light, soon enough.

Here is a hymn by Horatius Bonar that keeps me from losing my cool and waiting patiently for the show to mature.

Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be;

Lead me by Thine own hand, choose Thou the path for me.

I dare not choose my lot; I would not if might;

Choose Thou for me, my God, so shall I walk aright.

Immerse yourself in your domain, responsibilities. Keep that smile on, push forward and perform better than anyone you know and you will live to see the fall. 

Monday Blues: The Animal in you

Keep the animal in you alive. Never lest it slack and rest. Keep it sharp, alert, agile, active, aggressive and ready. Feed it the blues and make it beat everything and go on. Be on fire, be fast, over perform, over deliver.

Keep searching for the excellence and perfection. Because if you don't, it will be suicide. 

Opportunities - don't let them go

She is said to knock only once. Will knock twice if you are very lucky. Not many are but that is how she rolls. What do we do when we meet a great opportunity? We usually hesitate if we can take it right now or think if we can do a good job with this and so on. I want to encourage you today to take up every opportunity that comes across in your life and give it your best shot. Often opportunities come in disguised as problems, roadblocks or rejections. When we face these, we tend to lose hope on what we are doing and think this is a dead end of the road for us and turn back. Instead if we look at this as an opportunity and see how to overcome the problem, find a solution and surge ahead with double speed, we would be encashing a large bank of possibilities.

Let me give you an example. Take Elon Musk, one of the most admired entrepreneurs. He made a lot of money in Paypal, probably the biggest inventions of his time and used that money to invest in a couple of ideas he believed in. Unlike many others who use the money to live a lavish lifestyle, he chose to live a normal life while working with the ideas of future. Last week he launched the Model 3 of Tesla car which would probably go on to be one of the best Hybrid cars of all time and be a game changer. Elon is a leader who saw the problem and decided to tackle it head on as he made it an opportunity to grab. 

Take Bill Gates for example. When he was in business end of Microsoft, he was bullish, very competitive and used all his time and energy to build an empire where Office meant Microsoft. Now that he has retired, he joined his wife Melinda in their Melinda Gates foundation and is hell bent on doing charity work and rehabilitation programs all over the world. He could have donated to some charity and relaxed his retired life but despite being the richest man on the planet, he chose to be involved in a cause he believes is an opportunity to serve.

We all face problems on a daily basis, rejections often and failures too but if we look up to them and tell them that they cannot intimidate you despite being real and that you will not give up, there will be a door somewhere for you, open and ready to start off. Today I encourage you to take up a stand and challenge yourself that next time you see a problem you will smile and find a solution. Next time you see a challenge you will roll up your sleeves and win it. Next time you fail, you will pick yourself up, dust off and take a detour. Live gives you an opportunity to win, make sure you win it.

#PositivePsychologist
#ConsumerPsyche
#Failureisanopportunity
#AtoZChallenge
#MondayBlues

I is for Ignore Haters - Monday Blues

I have written about it before and here is the topic again. Ignoring is an art and leaving without getting hurt is another. While we live in a beautiful world, it is also important that we understand how it works to maintain the balance. For every negative thing that happens here there are many more positive that happen too. For every negative person you encounter, who want to put you down, berate you and demotivate you, we also will find more positive and encouraging people who would help us stay alive.

So when you find hates, remember haters gonna hate anyways. So why bother. If you do not have enough enemies already and people who make it a point to tell you how bad you can be, then you seems to be doing things in conformity and probably mediocre way. Stop right now. Up the ante and beat the Monday blues away!

You got to take a stance and say you are not going to compromise or hide based on what others might think. Stay strong and firm on your decision to improve. You know how you can get ahead of these haters? By being successful in what you are doing, by zipping ahead of what you set yourself up to. Stay positive, focused and remember you can burn these people by winning. 

Interestingly enough the most successful people have surged through a load of negativity to win and oddly enough it seemed to motivate them to succeed all the more. Can we use this negative fuel and perform better? After all we are human machines running for cheers. Let us convert these boos to cheers and then stunning silence when we succeed.

#AtoZChallenge
#ConsumerPsyche
#MondayBlues
#PositivePsychologist