Do you have the habit of reviewing/checking/critiquing/measuring?

If you do not review or measure your progress, you will never get anything done. Even if you manage to get things done, you may end up doing things that may not get you too far.

I have been doing some serious thinking these days to add some formal review/critiquing mechanism to my personal life too; Even though, I am more right brained than left brained, a metrics/review/critique driven life can definitely help me.

What are the areas in life that you should measure or review?
Let me draw up a list here, at random:

1. Savings in the bank


2. Weight


3. Pursuit to specific goals


4. Meditation-your spiritual life


5. Time you spend with your spouse


6. Time you spend with your daughter/son


7. Vacation


8. Your health-Blood pressure, HDL, LDL, Total cholesterol---


9. Your diet


10. Your community work


11. The number of quality books you have read


12. Your expenses


13. Your debt


14. Your earnings


15. Your resume


16. Your business numbers


17. Your hobbies


18. Time you fritter away


19. Your bad habits


20. Your good habits


21. Wholesome movies you have watched


22. Your friends


23. Your extended family


24. Your possessions


25. Your property


26. Your cars


27. Your laptop


28. Your cell phone


29. Your PDA


30. Your camera


31. Your video camera


32. Your jewellery


33. Your skill sets


34. Your knowledge


35. Work life balance

The list above is not exhaustive. As I was typing the above list I suddenly realized that I have not used my video camera for more than a year. I do not know what is the state of its batteries.

A regular review can give you real insights about yourself and your life. Once you identify areas you need to take action, you can begin to act and live a more fulfilled life.

What do you think? Do you systematically review/critique important areas of your life?

Try it out! It can make a huge difference.

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What are the 30 things that make you an "also ran"?

There are so many factors that limit you to mediocrity and makes you an "also ran".

Check out whether any or all of these are playing a havoc in your life:

1. Blind role modelling
2. Unexamined influence of people
3. Labels you or others have attached onto you
4. Negative programming you have undergone
5. Lack of vision
6. Lack of mission
7. Lack of well thought out goals
8. Unexamined values
9. Complacency
10. Quickly satisfied with what you have currently achieved
11. Laziness and other habits
12. Not knowing your strengths
13. Environment
14. Negative cultural influence of:-(1) family, (2) Team, (3) Organization, (4) Country, (5) Current era in which you are born to (6) friends
15. Your self-talk
16. Narrow interests
17. Narrow focus on your job
18. Inadequate support
19. Wrong job
20. Poor risk taking
21. Inadequate seeking of adventure
22. Negative influence of books
23. Negative influence of TV
24. Negative influence of movies
25. Negative influence of Internet
26. The place your are currently living in
27. Unexamined negative experiences from your past
28. Your lack of education
29. Not spending time alone to introspect
30. Not learning from your mistakes

Use the above checklist and break free.

What do you think? Do record here your comments.

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How often do you try new things?

It is very easy to get into a rut and live a dull life. We get stuck to our careers, place we live, kind of books we read, entertainment we seek,---

Unless we schedule some time to try out new things, we may live for years missing out on many experiences.

I have decided to schedule an hour a day for trying out new stuff.

Some of the stuff I have shortlisted:

• Drawing
• Writing a book
• Playing around with photoshop
• Editing my video tapes
• Social work

I may not do everything everyday, but I will do something, for an hour, everyday.

Exploring various options, potential talent areas, and experiences are very important in addition to pursuing goals related activities.

Try it out! Break the monotony in your life-try new stuff!

What do your think? Do leave your comments here.

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Lessons from music!

I was listening to music on my ipod; Relaxing, with lights switched off, I could easily focus on the lyrics of the song and the accompanying music, the chorus, the violin here and there, the drums, ---

It set me thinking.

How does the music director/composer know the various sounds he has gathered together to compose such a melodious music?

I am sure she would have done the following:

1. Be passionate about music
2. Research the various instruments
3. Research the various sounds
4. Put in years of practice
5. Experiment with various sounds
6. Use her innate talent in composing music
7. Studied music
8. Practice till she is perfect
9. Use her creativity to compose

Our lives should be like that.

We need to pack our days with carefully selected experiences; Just like a music director composing music.

Steps to pack in wholesome experiences:

1. List out the stuff that are wholesome and fun to do
2. List out things that are beneficial to do
3. Align them to your goals.
4. Carefully plan your day and week with things to do that will give you maximum fun and benefit-Example-Exercise, listen to music, study, time with family---
5. Live them
6. Have fun
7. Reap the benefits

Fill your day with carefully chosen activities and you will be amazed how much fun living can be!

Try it out!

What do you think? Do share your thoughts in your comments here.

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Do you have secrets in your family?

A healthy family should be an open family. There should be high trust and willingness to share with no room for secrets. This is possible only if all the family members are mature and trustworthy.

It is important to build such families, consciously. Your family is an open family when your family members have nothing to hide from one another.

A couple marries, has children, and the family culture is formed by their actions. The culture can be from completely being open to being completely closed.

The key to openness in families lie in the willingness and the capability, of its family members, to resolve conflicts. It also depends on how emotions are handled, both from the giving and receiving end. If anger is the main currency of emotion in the family, it becomes very difficult for people to open up.

I have seen many families. Some of them are completely closed. These families seem to do well when things are normal. There is a sense of calm. This calm is very deceptive as there is simmering anger and mistrust among family members.

These families will break up when faced with jugular issues - such as property, business, expenditure, and other materialistic concerns.

I have also seen families that get into the storm of conflict, but because the family members trust each other, and are willing to go the mile to resolve the conflict, through openness, humbleness, forgiveness, and trust, they emerge victorious-stronger and more cohesive than ever before.

What about your family? Do you have secrets from your trusted family members; It is time to examine them.

It requires a lot of intra-personal work to become a person with no secrets.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!
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17 steps to live a life congruent to your wholesome values

It is very important to have all our actions congruent to our wholesome values. One of the best ways to ensure that your actions and values are aligned and congruent is to introspect and take action.

Here are a few steps to do them:

• Find yourself a free time-say about an hour
• Seclude yourself-you need to be alone for this exercise
• Look back at your life, as it is, currently happening.
• Ask yourself this question-Am I doing anything that is against my value system?
• List them down at random on a pad or in your PDA memo
• If you have more than two violations then you need to prioritize them
• Prioritize them by the biggest violation
• Select the biggest violation
• Decide to get rid of this behavior that violates your deep seated, principle based values
• Assess the impact of getting rid of the behaviour
• Give yourself a timeline to get rid of this behaviour
• Check out whether you can get rid of this behaviour on your own or you need help
• Reach out to your family members or close friends (if you are comfortable doing so) and take their support and help. This may require you opening up to them.
• Determine action steps to get rid of the behaviour
• Get rid of the behavior
• Reward yourself
• Continue this exercise till you have eliminated every non aligned behaviour

Try this out. It can have tremendous impact on your self-esteem. It will boost your self-esteem sky high. It will also relieve a lot of stress in the long run

Living a congruent life is foundational to living a life of joy and happiness.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Do you have important information at your finger tips?

There are times when you need information at your finger tips. Hence it is important to classify all the information you need on a day to day, week to week, or month to month basis and constantly record and update them so that you can retrieve them in less than 2 minutes time.

Here are some key steps to achieve that:

1. Identify and make a list of information you will require
2. In the first month it will be better to make up an initial list and add to it as you go by-examples: Your bank address, your credit card payment information, your bank balance, your dues, telephone numbers, frequent flier number---
3. Decide where you will record them-PDA, cell phone, small pad ---
4. Update constantly

Try these strategies and you will never be at loss for want of an information.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Twelve steps to build your knowledge and be the most sought after person in your field!

You never know when you will need knowledge? There is a distinct difference between knowledge and information. Many people confuse information for knowledge!

What are the steps you can take to build your knowledge in your chosen fields?

Here they are:

1. Choose the fields in which you want to build your knowledge
2. Identify your sources for that knowledge-Books, Journals, Training, discussion groups---
3. Develop a plan for utilizing these resources
4. Read a book a week in your field
5. Visit book stores once a week and buy the latest books in your field
6. Buy the best sellers in your field.
7. Buy CD ROMS connected to your field
8. Record your own experience and learning connected to your field
9. Fraternize with people in your field. Discuss and exchange the latest knowledge based inputs with them
10. Study and utilize your company's knowledge management system
11. Develop communities of practice in your field-You lead the way.
12. Attend seminars and workshops in your field

The more you do these, the more demand you will be in.

Try these twelve steps; They will change your life forever.

You never know when you will need knowledge! Be prepared!

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Do you mix up support tasks from tasks that take you to your goals?

It is very easy to fill your day with support tasks.

Some examples:

• Checking your mail
• Checking your bank balance
• Paying the bills
• Cleaning your desk
• Charging your mobile
• Paying credit card account

The list can go on. These are useful activities. They need to be done. They are hygiene. However, they support your goals, but don't actually help you to reach your goals.

Example: Checking your bank balance will help you to know how much you have in the bank, but it will not increase your earning capacity nor your saving capacity.

It is important to distinguish tasks that will lead you to your goals with tasks that will support your goals.

You need to do both. You need to plan for both.

Stay tuned for future posts on this subject.

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Are you living with resources gaps? Time to take action---

Have you ever postponed getting yourself an important resource? I did! In fact, I postponed for years, buying myself a table; In our family we share the work table.

However, I bought myself a table few days back. The table is having a good impact on my productivity. I now have a place to sit and focus on the various tasks at hand; Not that I could not do it before, but I had always had to use some other place for work, other than the table, when my wife or daughter was using it.

I wish I had bought myself the table much earlier. The fact that, we lived in different countries where my consulting assignments took me did not help either.

The learning for me is that I need to examine the various resources I need, rate them on an importance scale and go about buying them.

What about you? Have you checked about the important resources you need day in day out?

Take a look at your needs and examine your current resources. If you have a gap then you need to seriously consider bridging the gap.

The result of such an endeavour can be profound and it will make your life much easier.

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Are your ideas stuck in a queue?

You may be the type who have a lot of ideas running in your head. While many people struggle to get ideas, you come up with a lot of ideas with ease. However, you find, to your dismay, that people with lesser ideas getting far ahead of you.

Why does this happen?

For many creative people, coming up with ideas becomes an end in itself instead of a means of achieving success. They may even take pride in labeling themselves as Mr. Creative or Ms. Genius.

If your ideas get stuck in a queue, then they die.

There is something strange about ideas.

Ideas live only if they are executed!

It is important to examine your hit rate with ideas. Are your brilliant ideas fading out in the long queue because you are just sitting on your hands doing nothing?

Take stock! Take action!

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Seven steps to stop yourself from anticipating and worrying about disasters!

All of us, some time or another, have anticipated or rather worried about an impending disaster.

It may be an interview we need to participate in for a job offer or a presentation to a client we need to make or resolve a conflict with a co-worker ---

Painting a picture of disaster in your mind will not only stress you up, but, also, will set you up for failure.

When was the last time you imagined a major disaster upon yourself and got totally stressed up?

Think about it, while you read about the 7 steps that will free you completely from the grips and aftereffects of your imagination

Here is what you need to do:

Remember, at least, last three times, you got your self into a panic. Did what happened later match your imagination. Invariably, you will find that none of the disasters you imagined actually happened. Even if it had happened, still it was not as bad as you had imagined it to be.

Look at each of the interim events , things or people you are imagining that will lead you to the disaster. Challenge them in writing. When you write your fears and anxieties on paper, it has a near therapeutic effect; Read and challenge them on paper

Paint an opposite picture in your mind; Preferably write them down again on paper- read and smile.

Imagine your close friend has come to you with the same anxiety and fear. What will you counsel him? Role play it your mind. You may be surprised at the counsel you hear yourself giving to your friend. Remember! You can befriend yourself and give yourself the same advice.

Talk to a close friend about your fear. Let her counsel you about it. Follow your counsel.

Remember the worst problem you had encountered in the past, victoriously! Go through the memory in full detail and revel in how clever you were in overcoming it. Compare that problem to this imaginary problem that has not even occurred.

Look at what you are imagining carefully and identify areas where you can take direct action to prevent those areas from creating trouble.; Develop contingency plans too. Prepare carefully and leave the rest to God.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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How to use the "power of routines"?

It is so easy for you to get caught in routines. This can be good or it can be bad. It depends on the nature of routines. Most of the people underestimate the power of routines and its influence on their lives.

Routines can either make or break you. Routines can keep you healthy or put you on to the path to illness. Routines can make you rich or drive you down to poverty.

What are the different kinds of routines you follow? Understanding the types of routines is the first step to mastering them.

See the picture before you read further.

There are four kinds of routines:

• The blind routine: These are the routines that has been set unconsciously and you have been following without examining them. They are dysfunctional- On the softer side they can cause hindrance and on the harsher side they can cause great harm. Example: Throwing your important papers around your home; Swiping your credit card mindlessly.
• The lucky routine: These are routines that are very useful for you but they have been set unconsciously. You are lucky to have these routines and they help you every step of the way. Going for a walk with your spouse daily-you both get an opportunity to talk and and additionally get the benefits of walking; This routine happened naturally, as both of you never planned it consciously.
• The dumb routine: These are routines you have consciously set up that are useless or harmful-Your colleague and you go down to the smoking area for a smoke; Both of you want to catch up and talk, and you consciously decided that meeting in the smoking zone and smoking together is the best way to accomplish both-talking and smoking.
• Smart Routine: Example: You set up a routine of listing the goals you want to achieve the next day, the previous night. These are the routines you have consciously decided and they lead you to your goals.

It is important to examine the mix of routines you have; Weed out the dysfunctional routines, both conscious and unconscious ones, and replace them with beneficial ,conscious ones.

Set your routines right! You will be well on your way to abundance, health, success, and happiness.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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When was the last time you went down the memory lane of the moments you spent with your father?

When was the last time you went down the memory lane of the moments you spent with your father?

Today was the day, many years back, I lost my father. I will never forget the day. I received a telegram stating that he has expired. I was in another town and caught the immediately available transportation home. The loss is irreplaceable.

I was very close to my father. He was my friend, philosopher and guide. He was there for me every step of the way, until that fateful day.

Today I just have memories of him. As I looked back at the many years that have gone by since his passing, how many times have I consciously decided to focus on his memories? Most of the time it was at random. May be mind has a way of guarding itself from pain and loss and keeps these memories far below the surface.

As I look back I feel only love and affection for him, the pain has subsided, even though I miss him especially when I want to share my success and happiness with him.

Today I have decided to periodically look back, as a conscious effort, and relive the memories with him-remember the various incidents, the lessons embedded in them, the love and joy that we experienced together.

I have also decided on a project- Collect all the photos of him, connect to the event when the photo was taken, and relive those moments. I have also decided to develop a collage of pictures in a video format carefully narrating the incident, the lessons he taught, and some insight into the person he was.

I think this will reinforce the lessons he taught me and also I will record details of him for my family and future generations.

A large part of the good things and the success that has happened to me I owe it to my father, who molded me to the person who I am today. He along with my mother were the prime architects of my character, values, and strengths that are responsible for my success. I am eternally grateful to them. Hopefully, I, along with my wife, will be able to transmit these values, character and strength to my daughter and her children when she raises her family.

Do you interpret and then act or act and then interpret?

Day in day out we are exposed to events, tasks, results, and our own internal desires. Most of us interpret it and generate a vicious cycle of disaster (see the first figure-Interpretation before action).

Example:

• Result: we are exposed to our disorganized home


• Interpretation: Organizing the house is a painful and boring job


• Generate feeling: Feeling of boredom


• Form belief: I don't enjoy organizing


• Label: I am a poor organizer


• Action or avoid action: I do nothing about organizing the house


• Result: More disorganization

This vicious cycle continues till a major disaster strikes; Even then change is limited to your capacity to interpret.

Let me give you a virtuous cycle-(Act and then interpret)

Act: Instead of interpreting we begin to act. We postpone interpreting

Positive results: We make progress. We get positive results- apart of our house is now organized

Interpret: That wasn't difficult. In fact I liked organizing and I did get the house organized, even though it is a small area of the house

Generate positive belief: I am beginning to enjoy organizing; Organizing the house is easy if I start small and continue for a few days till I get the whole house spic and span.

Dislodge dysfunctional label: I am not a poor organizer.In I am a good organizer; In a few days I will be great organizer

This is a virtuous cycle that will put you well on the path to getting your house organized and you becoming a good organizer.

You can apply this virtuous cycle in every area of life.

Try it out! It will change your life.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!
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Do you have the habit of checking on your resources before you venture upon something?

I caught the company bus today and I was well on my way to a meeting when I suddenly realized that it was raining outside. Even though it is a rainy season in Mumbai, we experienced little rain in the last few days; So I forgot to take an umbrella.

This set me thinking-If only I had checked on what resources I needed before I left for the day, I would not be without an umbrella.

Many of us jump at an activity or a journey without thinking through the resources we need to accomplish the activity or get through a journey.

It is not enough to set goals or define tasks, It is also important to define the resources we need to accomplish that goal or to do that task.

Goals can be achieved through action and if we need to act, we will need the resources that enables the action to be executed.

You need to do the following:

Have a resource pause and ask your self the following question:

What resources do I need?

This one question can save you a lot of time and trouble.

Try it out.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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What is one of the best ways to boost your self-esteem?

One of the sure fire ways to boost your self-esteem is to help someone in real need of help. The help could be in form of you doing something for them or it could be a financial support when they need money suddenly or it could be both.

The more you help others in different ways, the more your self-esteem will grow.

How do you go about helping others?

Here are a few tips:

• Be alert to opportunities that will come by your way
• Scan your community and plan your help strategy
• Join social groups that are involved in helping others
• Begin with your friends and relatives

Try it out! The trick is not to wait for grand opportunities to help others, it is to grab any opportunity, even a small one and help others with a sincere desire to do so with no thought of any return from them in any kind.

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How can you make next week the most productive week of your life?

As I sit today and look back at the week that went by, I feel I have accomplished quite a few things. However, I cannot say I was most productive all the days of the week.
Why is that so?

What about you? Was this week, the best, in terms of productivity?

Let's make next week the most productive week! Here are few of my thoughts of how to accomplish, just that.
This is possible only if you have every day of next week taken care of.

How do you make a day, any day productive?

Here is what you need to do:

• Always have your days goals set the previous night. Never start a day with out a list of goals to achieve.
• Have a good nights sleep the previous day
• Get up sufficiently early to reach your work place an hour earlier
• Start your day wit tasks related to the first goal you have planned to go after. Never start the day opening your email.
• Complete at least one major task before you check your email.
• Do not keep your email open for more than 15 minutes. Get yourself a timer and ruthlessly shut down the email when the alarm beeps.
• Set shutting down as a cue to get out of your desk and walk away from your desk-may be to another colleague, just to say hello or to the water cooler or to any other place you choose; This is your break and limit it to just 10 minutes.
• Get back, refreshed, and start on another task related to the same goal or another goal.
• Determine a preset time you will work on the task, say 30 minutes, and set the timer on
• Ensure that you tackle at least two major goals in the first half of the day and two major goals (total 4 goals) in the second half of the day.
• Check emails periodically and act according to urgency. always get back to the task you have started.
• You can use minor, unrelated tasks as breaks too.
• Ensure you spread the goals around the dashboard (see previous post on dashboard)
• Ensure that when you get back you have goals set for home/personal front too
• Schedule an hour to do totally random non goal related things

Try this out! Do share your experience here.

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Is your environment conducive to your goals and values?

Of all the powerful forces that act on us, environment is top on the list. It can make or break you. It can make or break your family. It can make or break your child.

How much of the environment you and your family are exposed to, are under your control?

It is important to take stock; While it is always not possible to have an environment conducive to your values or goals. it is very important to take charge your environment as far as possible.

You need, what I call compensatory exposure to environments/people who will reinforce your values and goals.

Compensatory exposure cannot happen by chance. You need to engineer it and plan for it.

What is your experience?

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Do you use the "power of ONE"?

There is the "power of one". It helps you to focus. It helps you to move quickly and steadily towards your goals.

What is the "power of one"? It is a very simple concept; Yet it is powerful and profound.

The "power of one" is getting into the habit of asking the following question and acting on the answer:

What is the ONE thing I need to do today that will get me to my goal? Answer this question and then schedule to do that; Do that!

You can ask the "power of one" questions at different levels and in different areas of your life.

Examples:

• What is the one goal I need to pursue today that will give me the maximum return?


• What is my one fault that if I correct will give me a giant leap in becoming a productive individual?


• What is my one talent that I possess if I utilize will give me a tremendous fulfillment?


• What is the one thing I need to do to improve my relationship with my child?


• What is the one thing I need to do to contribute meaningfully to the society or community?

Once you have achieved that one thing then you can move on to another.

Try it out! Do share your thoughts here!

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Do you project a false image of yourself to the outside world

I recently met a few people and found that they were projecting, to the external world, a image of themselves, that was so out of step with reality.

Are you the person, you project to the outside world? If not then there is a major congruence problem.

For many people the projection process may be subconscious, however for a few others it may be deliberate.

In either case, it is not a healthy situation. Watch yourself closely when you next interact with people, you may be surprised at the drama being played.

If you find a disconnect, of who you are and the image you are projecting, then you need to change the behaviour of projecting the false images; This needs a lot of intrapersonal work.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Have you ever got back to your roots?

I took a vacation and went to my native town. Took my family to our ancestral homes and showed them the spots where various events had happened in my childhood. The whole trip was nostalgic. I went to my kindergarten school and took some photographs.

Since, I had lots of time on hand-no laptop or cell phones, I had lots of time to think and reflect back. I found the whole experience very refreshing.

Have you ever tried to go back to your roots? Try it out!

As memories will flood back, along with it you will get nuggets of values that have been associated with those memories. These are the values that have made you the person who you are. Examine them! keep the good ones and discard the dysfunctional ones.

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I am back from vacation!

I was away on a vacation last week.

I will start posting from today.

What are the prerequisites of any action?

Every action can be done well or it can be done poorly. An action can hit the mark or be wasted in terms of effort and time spent on it.

What are the universal prerequisites that will take your action to the level of excellence and give it a masterpiece touch?

Let me list, for you, the prerequisites for you here:

Please refer to the picture while reading the list below.

• Your desire to contribute through the action must be very high. This one factor is the missing link between you and excellence. Check your desire to contribute and consciously raise it.
• Your commitmentt to the action must be high; If you are highly committed to the action, you will leave a stamp of excellence. Check your level of commitment for the task.
• You need to set the goal/objective of the action. It is very common for people to start an action without thinking through what they want to accomplish through it. Check whether you have set a goal for the action. This is also the time to set a deadline.
• Include others in the action; especially if team work is required for carrying out the action. Even if it is only you who have to carry out the action, it is a good ideas to discuss the action with others. They may give you a different perspective. Ask your self who you can contact for this action.
• Generate ideas of how you will carry out the action. The more you generate, the richer the choice you have. You can choose the best alternative. In this stage it is a good idea to involve others. They may give you priceless ideas or their ideas may lead you to a totally new idea. Check whether you have generated sufficient ideas before you have decided what to do.
• Action it out without any delay. If there are several, sequential actions then list them out and do them one by one. Delegate the actions and monitor your other team members for completion.
• Once the action is complete, learn from it; This is especially true for recurring actions.

Use this list and you will be amazed at the results you get in life!

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Do you use locks effectively to reach your goals?

In this world of extreme distraction, we need to learn to use locks. If we do not learn to use locks effectively, we can end up in an imbalanced and unfulfilled life.

Look at the picture and you will see the series of locks you need to use to accelerate the achievement of your goals.

Let me describe them here:

• Contextual lock-This is the first lock you need to engage-example: You are in the office and you lock yourself in the professional context; Which means that your actions are all related to your professional and company related matters. At home you engage the family lock and do not continue to pursue actions on the professional front, unless it is an emergency.


• People lock-Once you have locked the context, then you need to engage the people lock. The actions you are going to pursue, are they for self or some specific individual in your organization, assuming your context is professional at that moment.


• Contribution lock-Once you have engaged the people lock, then you need to ask yourself how you can contribute to this person and establish an area for contribution-example your boss has asked you to develop a business plan for a new business venture.


• Goal Lock-Once you have engaged the contribution lock, then you need to determine which goal you will pursue in the locked context, person and contribution area. Identify a goal and engage a further goal lock with an established period of time you will pursue this goal-15 minutes 0r 1 hour or half a day.


• Action lock-You develop an action plan based on the locks you have engaged so far and finally engage an action lock, which means that for the next period of established time, say one hour, you will pursue this action and nothing else.


• Unlock-Once you have finished the action and the time period is over then you will unlock and pursue either another action or decide to continue the action you are doing by re-engaging the locks.

There is a power in this cycle! It is one of the best antidote to distraction and multitasking which will get you nowhere.. It also helps you to achieve a balanced success in all areas of your life

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15 things to do so that you do not have to hear ideas, you could have thought about yourself, from others.

Hearing ideas from others is a valuable exercise. We need to be open to others ideas so that we can examine our own and discard them if we encounter a superior idea. However, many a times, we hear ideas from others, we could have easily come up with ourselves.

Have you ever come out of a meeting thinking how you wish you had thought of that idea yourself?

Here are the fifteen things you need to do to avoid such a situation:

1. Define the problem or issue completely so that you home in on ideas that are rich and relevant to it
2. Arrive at the definition only after arriving at at least 5 alternative definitions of the problem or issue
3. Apply the Pareto principle-what are the 20% of the elements of the issue or problem if I tackle, will give me 80% of the results or impact?
4. Depending on the complexity of the problem or issue, set aside 3 to 5 sessions of creative thinking.
5. Use an expensive pen and a note book to capture your priceless ideas; Nothing motivates like luxury!
6. Generate as many ideas as possible
7. Look at the issue from different angles
8. Plan your sessions sufficiently advance so that you can sleep over after each of the sessions
9. Read the ideas you have written just before falling asleep
10. Capture ideas, if any, in the morning
11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 for every planned session
12. Consolidate the ideas and review
13. Choose the best of the ideas and form an ideas list
14. Start applying these ideas to the issue or problem
15. You are now ready to listen to the ideas of others with an open mind

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Do you miss an opportunity even though it stares in your face?

Some opportunities will knock your door hard and you need to to be completely stone deaf not to hear it. However, most of the opportunities arrive silently and are in the backdrop;

They stay there until time elapses and the opportunities fade away, unnoticed.

Most of the people miss opportunities as they are unaware of them!

Why does this happen?

Experiment:

Just close your eyes and decide that when you will open it you will notice all the red colored stuff around you.

Did you suddenly become aware of all the red colors around you? The more you are in this red color search mode, the more you will filter out the other colors or even if you see them, you will ignore them.

Hence, it is very important to scan for opportunities. The problem is people get fixated on their goals. They wear goggles and forget to remove them (Check out the previous post on "goggles" if you have not read it).

Examples:

So executives get stuck to their professional goals to the neglect of their family goals or people get stuck to their financial goals to the neglect of their health goals; This is assuming that they have set goals in the first place.

To a person carrying a hammer, everything will appear as a potential nail.

What is paradoxical is that even if you have set goals in different areas of your life, you will miss them if you do not actively scan for opportunities.

The more you are aware of your goals, in different areas, in your life and the more you keep them in front of you and scan for opportunities, the more you will be able to spot opportunities and grab them.

The picture depicts what you need to do.

Steps:

• Identify the situation or context you are in (in office or out on the road or at your daughter's school or ---)
• Select a goal relevant to the situation
• Scan for opportunities relevant to the goal
• Spot the opportunity
• Action it
• Accomplish

Going through this cycle again and again for different goals can completely change the direction of your life!

Try it and share your experience here!

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Do you use pen and paper to think?

Try this out! Next time you have a complex problem to solve, take a pen and paper and begin to think by capturing on paper your thoughts.

For many of you, this will give a tremendous boost in the quality of your thinking; While you write down your thoughts, you should also attempt to draw them.

You will realize the power of this technique only when you actually experience it.

Once you find your quality of thinking improving, you can then buy an expensive pen and a note book; Name this pen as the think pen and the note book as the think note book.

Have them handy! You never know when you will need them!

Why do you need to buy expensive pens and notebooks? It is because you need these tools to record your priceless thoughts!

Many of us do not have this habit of thinking on paper and we miss out on the powerful thoughts that could have flown from our minds to the pen to the paper if only we had these tools and used them!

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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What is your degree of ownership and contribution to a specific cause?

The degree of your ownership and contribution will determine the extent to which you give high quality output and attain satisfaction for others and yourself.

Let's examine the Ownership-contribution matrix:

Please study the picture before you read further.

Quadrant of Low Ownership and Low Contribution:

In this quadrant your ownership to the goal/task is low and also the contribution is low. Unless you have consciously examined the goal/task and determined that it is of no value to you, this is a wrong quadrant to be in. It can also be a dangerous quadrant to be in.

Example: You have consciously examined and determined that it is a waste of time to wash the car as it will rain any moment.

Example: You have low ownership of your weight loss program and your contribution to your own weight loss is zero, as you don't exercise and continue to eat junk food.

Quadrant of Low Ownership and High Contribution

In this quadrant your ownership to the goal/task is low, but your contribution is high. This more of forced contribution.

Example: Your child doing home work because her teacher is going to check the home work tomorrow.

Example: You go to the gym everyday and work out because your spouse will be very unhappy otherwise and may nag you.

Quadrant of High Ownership and Low Contribution

In this quadrant you have high ownership for the goal/task, but your contribution is low.

If it is a conscious choice to delay the contribution because of specific reasons, such as, you having a time constraint, as you are focused on achieving other high priority goals, where your ownership and contribution is high, then it is alright to be in this quadrant for the particular goal/task in question.

However, if you are in this quadrant because you are pursuing other non value adding activities that have diverted your attention or pursuing activities dictated by others which are not aligned to your goals and you said yes to them because you couldn't say no to the people who asked you, then this is a dangerous quadrant to be in.

Example: You have consciously decided to delay exercising till you finish your forthcoming exams

Example: You have forgotten about exercising because you have chosen to watch TV mindlessly or you have postponed unconsciously because you value lazing around the TV more than exercising.

Quadrant High Ownership and high Contribution

This is the best quadrant to be in. It is possible to be in this quadrant only if we constantly ask ourselves these two questions:

• What is my current ownership to this goal/task?


• How can I contribute, my best, to this goal/task?

We need to ask these questions and raise the degree of our ownership and contribution!

This is a sure fire recipe to a highly successful living!

Try it out and it will change your world forever!

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Do you see your world, coloured, through just one pair of goggles?

All of us wear goggles! I am using the word "goggles" metaphorically here. There are different kinds of goggles. Some of them are shown in the picture.

Different types of goggles!

• Parent goggles
• Business person goggles
• Professional goggles
• Hobbyist goggles
• Fitness goggles
• Recreation goggles
• Spouse goggles
• Leader goggles
• Manager goggles
• Citizen goggles
• Contribution goggles (How can I contribute to the betterment, enhancement, achievement---)
• Family goggles
• Friend goggles

There are many goggles you wear in life. The ones you wear the most, color your world the most; For example, if you wear your professional goggles, it will filter everything out that is not related to your professional life. If you forget to take this goggles off when its utility is done, you will continue to see your world colored through it and you may neglect your other areas of life.

The good news is that you have a choice to select the appropriate goggles you wear! You also have a choice to rotate different goggles you wear, day in day out, so that your life is balanced.

The way you see the world determines the thoughts and the actions you will be taking.

Questions to ask yourself:

What goggles am I wearing right now?

How long have I been wearing them?

Are there other goggles that I should be wearing but I have not worn them for a long time?

A successful life is a balanced life! Use the powerful concept of goggles to have uniform achievement in all areas of your life!

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What is the timelag between your goal oriented actions?

Let's say you start an action which you chose that will take you to one of your goals. You do it for a certain period and then stop; Then there are a set of actions that are not related to your goals, which lasts for a certain period of time; This action goes on till you suddenly realize that you have to get back to the activities that are meaningful to you and goal oriented to you.

What is the time lag between the two set of goal oriented activities ? Have you ever checked that out?
For some people it may be an hour or two, for some it may be minutes, and for a lot of people it may be days or months or even years!

Do this experiment! You may be surprised at the results.

This monitoring may prove to be one of the most important activities you ever have done in your entire life.

The time lag between your goal oriented actions will determine whether you will achieve all the goals in your life!

Think about it!

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Do you speak with people who matter?

I visited an old colleague of mine whom I have always respected. I enjoyed my conversation with him. We discussed various topics including the consulting industry to which we both belong.

Not only did I enjoy the conversation, I also found my mind drawing in some options for solutions to some specific issues I was juggling with.

What is amazing is that neither one of us were directly talking about or discussing the issues in question.

It is important to have a select few individuals with whom you need to talk on a regular basis. You will be surprised at the amount of subliminal inputs you get from them.

Try it out! Do share your experience here.

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