Zip the excuse

Why do we tend to move closer to excuses and find them at every corner and nook? If you need to improve yourself, which all of us need to do, we need to stop finding excuses and do more. Act more, learn more. How can I you may ask. Where can I do? Well this article is about you. 

In the olden days, and in some cases almost a decade ago, education and training was limited to the select few who could afford classes, material and time to go through the process. It was very expensive, time consuming and stressful. Not anymore. Now you have an ocean of knowledge just available on your smart phone and you would be an idiot if you ignore the potential. Don't use your phone to just play games and read jokes on whatsapp. Read good books, search online and train yourself to be better at what you like and what you do. Don't give yourself the reason that you don't have time too. If you can spend 1 hour on facebook, whatsapp, you can definitely spend fifteen minutes a day to learn something new. Do that.

When knowledge is freely available, it is a great equalizer. You need to unleash that potential and use it to your advantage to surge ahead. If you have been given a full paid ticket to learn at Harvard or any other best university in the world, would you just sleep rather spend time reading jokes and unnecessary forwards? The technology has enabled us to do that. Let us push ourselves and learn something new every month. 

When the race needs you to move faster and upgrade, instead of stressing more upgrade your skills. This is a race of death and defeat. So either upgrade or get obsolete. You have no option.

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#Ziptheexcuse

Yearn for success

Want success like nothing else. Yearn for it and learn to earn it! The most important thing is wanting success is whether you want it for yourself or for others. If you want to win something for others you might lose interest in between but if you want to win for yourself then there is nothing that can stop you. 

The secret here is to keep yourself going regardless of what the situations are and what people around you tell you. There may be chances of failure but if you keep pushing yourself to do better. When naysayers and situations tell you to stop and be bogged down, tell them to stop irritating you and take a hike. Tell your excuses to take a hike. Tell your problems, issues, fears, distractions to take a hike. Then you take a hike and perform. Because if you don't yearn enough, you will never give enough.

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#Yearnenough
 

Team Maker

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a captain who has seen many victories in his life as a cricketer. His captaincy style is lauded and he is one of the best captains Indian cricket has ever seen. Nadal and Federer are probably two of the best tennis players the world has ever seen and have won numerous matches and titles. Saina Newal is one of the best badminton players in the world. All these people have something in common regardless of the sport. Though they come out as winners and are seen on the podium, they cannot reach there without a massive team effort behind them. Teams of people who take care of them right from training to food to studying the competition to helping them to move on and surge from defeat to victory. The best of the best are because of their teams and it is always a joy to work in teams.

Today's tip would be to work with an awesome team both in life and work. At home make a team with your partner, kids, parents, family and ensure they all know what their roles are and make sure each of them fulfill that to the best of their abilities. The roles can be insignificant to your goal but still they may have to function a particular way to let you win. A team that works together wins together. No role is anything less than what it should be and none of the contributions can be ignored.

Same applies to work where your office boy who gives you water and coffee needs to function efficiently to ensure all the staff goes on their work in an efficient manner. Same applies to your driver, lift operator and many others who help the day go on. Most of these jobs get minimal appreciation and thankless comments are galore. We need to understand that unless these people are at their best, the damage is immense and hence it is important to have them work efficiently every day.

Build a team of people who enjoy their work around you. Be thankful, respectful and appreciate their contribution to the main cause. I have seen worst of the people come out with grace with a little appreciation where money and force couldn't. Train if required and make each one of your team understand their purpose of work. Be a team maker and when your team is shining, you will too.

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#AtoZChallenge

#WorkBlues

Simplicity

Simplicity is a virtue not many possess and not many can handle. The quicker you get to learn to handle that you would be a winner. Simplicity in what you may ask, so here I go! In everything we do in our lives from things we need, buy, use, how we celebrate, communicate, appreciate, criticize and assume. Look at some of the best world leaders in thought and culture, they have been at their best when they were simple.

Let us start with what we expect from our family. When you get served food, love and affection, learn to appreciate the time taken by the other person in getting things done despite having their own problems and the effort put into bringing things together. Don't fuss about presentation, taste, color, warmth of the food and so on but appreciate that it is there. A small compliment would go a long way in boosting the confidence and appreciation is like wild fire, catches things that are dormant for ages and lights them up. If you really need a presentation try working in the kitchen for a day catering to the family or find a high class restaurant. 

At work, do not be fussy about the way things go about. Being simplistic in your choices. The simpler your choices are the easier it would be to handle the situation. Let me give you another example. Steve Jobs is well known all over for his creativity, innovation in design and business acumen. He could do things that no one else could do in terms of creating trends that world would wake up to. In his personal life he chose a principle of simplicity, which many often ascribe to his visit to India and the principles of Buddhism, Jainism and ancient Hindu Sattvic life values, he kept his choices simple. He always wore a black turtle-neck tee shirt and jeans as he thought these mundane things like dressing up every day would be of no use when you need to focus on more important things about life, work and so on. This principle in life is also seen in the design of the iphone and ipad which had only one button on the top. In the world of mobiles having multiple buttons, this was a revolutionary innovation but it makes your life simple and clean. The same dressing style is taken up by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who shows up with a ash round neck tee and jeans unless he is in a suit.

Have simple choices and in life. People around you would fuss for a while, then give up and then ignore and then choose to respect your choices. About ten years ago I started wearing a black tee shirt and jeans to work and kept at it. I get a lot of time to think, use my time in a much better way. Try it out and I am sure you would like it. Have a simply awesome life.

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#KeepitSimple
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#WorkBlues

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.

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J for Just do it!

Just do it! 

I have seen many people and myself sometimes stay at one point where we are waiting for the best idea to emerge, best design to come up while we sit there and wait till the last minute and then rush into doing things that we are not proud of. You know what I mean don't you?

Most of the work is tiresome and non interesting but we got to get through that to get to the interesting stuff. So it is better to start off early and finish the mundane tasks that make our routine and then have time for the creative, productive stuff.

Plan your day and make good use of the plan. Have complete attention in the time you can. Like have on hour of your best time, morning coffee time in my case, to answer your mails and set out the tasks for the day. In that one hour, don't have anything open on your laptop, have your phone on emergency calls only and focus on completing the task. I also would encourage you to pick up the toughest task you have for the day and handle it as the first thing you would do for today. Answering that query, completing the presentation, replying to the client or making that report. Whatever you usually put off till the last minute, handle that first. Once you do that, you take taken up the strongest enemy on the table and then you are practically blazing through the rest of the day.

Having a coffee break or a simple stroll during the day also helps. Try it for a week and see how easy your day becomes. So don't keep it pending till the n'th hour. Just do it and finish it off.

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G for Grab those opportunities

Everyone knows that they have to grab those opportunities. What is different in this post? Well how do you recognize the opportunities. Some of them are quite visible and are easily caught while some of them disguise themselves in the form of pain, rejection, challenges, failures and hesitation. Whoever said opportunity is going to be easy was just kidding. It is going to be a monumental task to seek, make them work out in your favor and to conquer them. 

Most of the times we are held back by doubt, fear and thoughts about failure. May be we will fail or lose but the important fact is that we keep on trying. Make an effort, take a step and make it count. Put your full willpower, brain and strategy behind it. Seek help and advise, listen to everyone but follow your heart. 

Do you know what is different between leaders and followers? Leaders take a new step into an un-ventured territory without hesitation and make a way out. Leaders and winners are not exceptional people but normal please who grabbed that opportunity to excel and grow, to surge ahead of the bunch and take life in a more exciting way. Whenever you have a chance do that. Always remember that every failure is just another opportunity to take a detour. Your destination has not changed, the route might have changed. At every detour, take a deep breath and move on, forward. Grab that chance to accelerate your career, relationship and life. Cheers!

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F for Friends

My five year old nephew speaks to me about his huge friends circle and how they are bonding over football, jokes, technology and stuff. Every time I meet him he tells me about a new friend and how big his network is. Anyone he talks to for a few minutes becomes he friend. As children we tend to be more receptive and more willing to accept as things are. But as we grow up, we change the rules and apply these filters which ruin everything for us in relationships. 

Today I want to encourage you to explore, expand and increase your circle of friends. Don't expect but explore. As you tend to be more neutral and more receptive, you would find more peace and joy in your relationships. 

Having a circle of friends who can be your support system is excellent and helps a lot in your life. While positive friends bring you more hope, passion and encouragement, slightly harsher friends bring you more realistic view of life and so both are needed. 

Build a support system so strong that it can hold you up when you need it. Also be a part of the support system for your friends so they can trust you, believe in your capabilities and seek help. Build on your strengths that others can rely. Work on your weaknesses so you can rely on yourself too. The biggest help you can get is self help. 

Family is usually the first circle of friends we have and stay that way till the end. So don't ignore the family and be there. Make friends with people, situations and things you would have never imagined. Stop being finicky and bother about their personal preferences like food, color, taste and things like that as it wouldn't matter anyways. Focus on what is positive and improve on that. Ignore the negative. Life is too short to live in a shell and worry about all that is negative. Move forward, move ahead and be at peace.

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E for Everybody

Let me state it at the outset. You cannot please everybody... period. Now having out that out, let me explain. 

We all have influencers, idols, bosses, friends, partners and colleagues we continue to live with, look up to and plan to help them, work with them or have a partnership with them. But you never know when you are going to be dissed at. While trying to please everyone you might actually lose being yourself. Am I not right in saying so? If you are lucky enough to find a partner who would be willing to go that extra step to make you comfortable and you are really comfortable then the matter is different. But if you are not, then it is time to stop struggling and killing yourself over how to please that particular person. 

I am coming to you from a painful standpoint. I have just read about a suicide of a celebrity in India and have also read a couple of news items on my timeline about someone in my friend's circle who attempted suicide. Most of the these cases I have heard are based on what happened in that person's life. All they needed to do is get help!

Now suicide can be a tougher and stronger step of extreme measure but there are many among us who kill ourselves a tiny bit everyday trying to live up to someone else's expectations and it is really annoying that we continue to do so even after the other person giving two bits about it. So today's self help tip is that we accept this fact and move on. You were not brought to this beautiful world to live for somebody or their dream. Make a life of your own and live it to the fullest potential.

This is also the time for exams and if you are a student appearing in one, chill. These marks don't define who you are and you needn't be bothered about those three hours you spend in tension writing down some nonsense on your paper and feel as if they are your Mensa scores. Relax. If you are a parent, you need to relax too. We need to take this message out there and spread it.

So now that you have accepted that you can't please everyone, let us see what is important for us to excel in and move forward in that direction. Have a great day!

#AtoZChallenge

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#positivePsychologist

Monday Blues: Champion like attitude

I am hooked to this song from last night and after watching an emotional team celebrations and the speech by the captain, I am stunned and excited. The team didn't have the money, resources to even get their jerseys in time for the tournament and yet have come to be victorious. The adversities have brought the team together and made them champions. The song by DJ Bravo has also helped and the team embraced the challenges and conquered them.

Here is what the Windies captain said at the awards ceremony.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy: "Firstly I want to thank the almighty. We have a pastor in the team in Andre Fletcher, we keep on praying. Really happy for this win, it's something we'll cherish for a long time. We have a few matchwinners, nobody give us a chance, every game somebody stepped up - good to see Carlos play like that in his debut World Cup. Shows the T20 depth we have in the Caribbean, hopefully we will continue to improve. People were wondering if we would play this tournament, we had issues with the board, Mark Nicholas called us players with no brain. But all of us came together, these 15 men put adversity aside, play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans. It was tremendous. I want to thank the coaching team, Phil Simmons. We had a new manager in this tournament. Got to give credit to the entire team here. This is for all the fans in the Caribbean... I don't know when I'm going to be playing for West Indies again, I want to thank my team, thank my coaching staff. This is for the CHAMPIONS!"

Check out the song.

Monday Blues: Make a list

Every second, every hour, every day we are running. Running from responsibilities, running from work, running from deadlines, running from people, running from goals, running from ourselves. And we keep running because we do not have reason to stay committed. Like I was running from this blog. I can give you enough reasons bu there is frankly none. So here it is back on track.

Do you run away from your responsibilities and your goals and work? What about relationships? It is essential that you look up once in a while form your busy schedule and actually see if you are busy and if yes, are they for the right reasons. If you are busy for the right reasons, nothing like it. If not, time to take a break and re-evaluate and make a priority list. Yes make a list.

When you wake up from the rush and make a list of your priorities make sure you have your family, your loved ones and caring ones with you in that list. Because you can earn as much as you want but you can't eat two biryanis. 

Life is what you make it, but the choice should make that happen. When you wake up in the morning to head to work, it should be with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. If not you are not doing it right. So go brew a great cup of coffee, make that list and then press play!

This is a series of Monday Blues posts.

Monday Blues: Dare to dream

Let it be very simple. Let it be big. Let is be difficult. Let it be anything you think you want to do. May be it is too tough to do or too difficult to achieve but if you have it in you and pursue it, make it your dream. A dream worth living for. A dream to achieve and you will find ways to do it. But the first step is the toughest to take. It is a big leap. Dare to dream and you have already started off on that journey.

I have a secret to tell you and I am sure it will help you to dream and achieve it too. Have a specific dream. Specific to the color, size, brand, look and feel. It will help you make your dream better and live to see it turn to reality.

Let me give you a personal example. Years ago I had this dream of winning twin awards. Not one but two. Every time I thought of it I always had some notion that I wanted two. I always imagined I would be holding them and also remember the smile. Now I forgot the dream for sometime till I won the awards and was on stage to receive them and here is the picture. Dreams come to reality when you build foundations under them with hard work and determination. Dare to dream. Care to achieve. Want to read some success stories? Check out Talk To Tiger.

Stop your excuse and get going!

One afternoon in October 1931 Amy Carmichael (1861-1951) fell down and broke a leg and dislocated an ankle. Complications set in which, added to her thirtysix years of unbroken service in India, left her an invalid for the rest of her life. 

Yet from her bed — often lying completely flat — she continued her ministry of rescuing temple girls in Dohnavur, South India. She kept in touch with the outside world through her correspondence and, with help, wrote thousands of letters. 

Already the author of many books, she wrote a further thirteen books during this period, as well as revising her other titles and producing more poetry.

Monday Blues: Awesome Monday

Witnessing the bright blue skies on an early morning ride is always splendid. The creation is reborn every day, every hour and with every season. The same enthusiasm, charm, rise and hope makes it even more lively. The canvas is the same, artist is same too but the picture changes. Constantly. New. Bright. Fresh. This Monday, let us wake up and move forward with renewed youth, vigor, enthusiasm, passion and pursue our dreams like there is no tomorrow. Today is the day. Not tomorrow. Make it fresh.

#MondayBlues #ConsumerPsyche