What are things you need to do that will make you outstanding?

What do you need to do periodically that will make you outstanding?

Here they are:

1. Identifying and challenging assumptions


2. Constant search to do something no one else has done in your field


3. Being alert to changes in your context and situation


4. Being alert to opportunities around you


5. Seeking opportunities in every event and situation


6. Trying to do something new and enjoying it; Learning to enjoy failure if you encounter one
   
7. Creating opportunities for yourself

I am monitoring, periodically, whether I do all these things.

What about you?

Your first subordination analysis

In order to take control of your subordination process (see the previous posts), you need to know the activities you want to subordinate. It will be a good idea to look at your activities landscape systematically. This is a very simple exercise and shouldn't take a lot of time.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Be aware of every activity you do through out the day-make a mental note of the time you spent on it(a rough estimate would do).


2. Mentally scan through the activities at the end of the day and choose one or two activities you feel you can subordinate. The choice is entirely up to you. Search for frequent, fun activities (trivia) such as gossipping over the telephone, reading novels, reading the news paper, watching the TV etc. These activities should be the trivial ones we spend time on and cutting them will not in any way harm us or collapse our world.


3. Make sure that you are not selecting any important, high yielding activity.


4. Map this activity in a similar template shown in the picture


5. Negotiate with yourself the amount of time you will cut. Example-I have cut two hours of my daily TV viewing time.


6. Do this for a typical week of yours.


7. Look at your week and decide which activity you could subordinate.

Calculate the amount of time you will free up if you subordinate the chosen activities.

You can now decide to do those activities, you want to do, which you thought you never had time for!

Try this simple but very powerful tool. It may change your life for ever.

Do write back, through your comments here, of using this tool.

What are the laws of subordination?

It is important to keep in mind the laws of subordination (See the previous post) while changing the landscape of your activities.

First law of subordination:

Activities that are the most fun to do will be the most resistant to subordination

Example-Balancing your check book vs watching a baseball game on TV.

Second law of subordination:

The act of planning activities and conscious subordination work together, in synergy, to produce results

Example-Planning to do your assignment instead of watching Disney channel

Third law of subordination

The balance of indulgence in an activity and the subordination of it needs to be maintained for successful subordination.

Example-You cannot keep missing your Disney channel for ever. You are going to rebel, sooner or later

Fourth law of subordination

Successful subordination releases the time you need for important activities you thought you had no time for

Example-You get time to do your hobby instead of surfing the Internet blindly

Fifth law of subordination

Rotational subordination will ensure your fun activities get a chance to give you fun

Example-you don't get stuck just playing cards, you also paint, go for movies, play your piano --- while you get your important things done too

Keep these laws in mind while planning your activities for the day; Breaking these laws of subordination leads to procrastination and failure.

Stay tuned for further posts on how to successfully subordinate and live a fun filled, productive life.

Do you make the "principle of subordination" work for you?

What is the principle of subordination?

Every activity happens at the expense of another. One activity, thus, subordinates another in a finite continuum of time.

Let's say you come back home from work every day at 8:00 PM and watch TV from 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM, every day. One day, you suddenly realize the dire need for exercising; so you come back home and go for a walk, along with your spouse, for an hour and get back home at 9:30 PM. You have, automatically, subordinated the activity of watching TV.

Your ability to continue exercising will depend on the tug of war between these two activities. Let's assume that you succeed in sticking to exercising, instead of watching TV, will that mean that you will reduce or totally stop watching TV. I don't think so.

Your TV watching may subordinate your activity of sleeping and may erode into your sleep time. Does that mean you will sleep less? May be or may not be, as you may sleep late and subordination is carried forward till it finds a nice, high priority area on to which it can settle down, finally.

The problem is, for most of us, this happens automatically and unconsciously. This is dangerous because you may subordinate important activities like sleep, family time, work ---

The more you are in control of the process of subordination, the more fulfilled your life will be.

How do you subordinate effectively? Well! that is for another post.

Meanwhile, you can begin to examine and identify important high priority activities that are getting subordinated by relatively low yielding activities.

Stay tuned in, for more, in the future posts.

Are your values being slowly eaten?

When was the last time you checked the shift in your values? Day in day out you are bombarded by advertisements, movies, soap operas, colleagues, bosses, friends, strangers and this constant assault can erode your values. Hopefully your parents/guardians/teachers have set in you default values for success such as:

• Honesty


• Integrity


• Hard work


• Smart work


• Concern for others


• Speed


• Punctuality


• Walking the talk


• Respect for others


• Commitment to friendship and friends

The list can go on. These are default values and hopefully you have, consciously, examined these and chosen them, again for yourself.

Environment has tremendous impact on you, whether you realize it or not;It can quietly eat in to your values and turn you into a new leaf with a new color.

Are you turning into a new leaf?

Same thing can happen to your child. A single exposure to a conniving relative or stranger can quietly change your child's values.

Vigilence is the only answer to this immense problem.

Examine your values again, today. It is a high priority action item, as your success or failure depends on maintaining wholesome values you have gained or been gifted with.

Also check your child's value shifts. Build trust with your child and be alert for changes.

When was the last time you went for a picnic?

We often wait for that time of the year, when we can go on a vacation. While our eyes are fixed on that far away time, we allow many opportunities, to have pure fun in the "here" and "now", to slip away.

Last Saturday, we went for a picnic, to a spot, just 100 KM, away from Mumbai.

Here is my experience:

Just to "be"*

I stood in the open air,

with the wind blowing in my hair,

I stared at the distant peaks,

while the warm sun rays, kissed my cheeks,

I was in the "here" and "now",

while I watched the lazy cow,

I saw my family, on the tree,

letting go their "child" totally free,

I had no planned goals to chase,

but just stand there and gaze,

I had no lit screens to stare,

but just, be there and be "aware",

I felt, it's so rare to be so free ,

and I was so free just to "be".


The experience was very rejuvenating.

When was the last time you set yourself free, just to "be".

*© Muralidharan Jayaram