Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Let us say bye to 2014 and welcome 2015. Many things that happened in 2014  may not be to our liking. We did not have any control on many of those things. In 2015 let us resolve to apply our mind to change things that are in our control.

When I type this, I recall a story I read recently.

There was a thick large forest. One day there was a big fire in the forest. All the animals and birds started fleeing the forest to save their lives. Tigers, deer, bears, even elephants. After a while even the Lion King started running away from the forest. As the Lion King was running for his life, he saw a small little bird going towards the forest fire. The Lion King asked the bird if he was trying to commit suicide by jumping into the fire. But the tiny bird replied that he has a drop of water in his beak and going to the forest and extinguish the fire! The Lion King broke into laughter and asked how he can extinguish the fire with that little drop of water.

The bird said 'I don't know if I could extinguish the fire, but I am doing my bit' and continued to fly towards the fire!

We may not be able to change the world, but let's do our bit!

N.C. Sridharan

https://www.facebook.com/nc.sridharan.7

www.thetimefoundation.com

365 Exciting ways to live-83

83/365 Fine Tune Your Observation Skill

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

William Blake

You should cultivate a keen observation skill. Our mind does not notice the same thing which our brain notices. There is a difference. We may be ‘looking’ but not ‘observing’. Looking is a mechanical brain-triggered process through our eyes. Observation is a mind process which takes place only when mind-wandering is arrested and the mind is made to focus on the thing on which the eyes are fixed.

Similar to writing or reading skills, you should develop observing skill also through systematic efforts. Next time when you are in a meeting, where someone is speaking, observe the following:

• The facial expression and the non verbal cues.
• The involvement and participation of others.
• The choice of words and how the same is used.
• The examples and metaphors that are used.
• The tonality and voice inflection.

With keen observation, the quality of your understanding is greatly enhanced. When you have to decide something very important, if you fail to observe something very critical, the quality of your decision making will suffer. This will result in an irreparable damage.

Evaluate the quality of your observation.

(From my book “365 Exciting Ways to Live”)

'365 Exciting Ways to Live' is an ideal gift for any special occasion and a good reading material for supervisory development. You can also gift this book to the school or college you studied....

www.thetimefoundation.com

 N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

'CONNECT'

1^st January  2015

'CONNECT' - Tips on Powerful Public Speaking

'CONNECT' 1

"There are always three speeches for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave!" 
 Dale Carnegie

There could be several billions of living beings in the word and human beings are one among them. The one unique feature that distinguishes human beings from other living beings is the ability to speak. The  'ability to communicate', is different from the 'ability to speak' since animals and birds also 'communicate' but they cannot 'speak'! Communication is the ability to convey our ideas to others. The ability to speak is a small but important segment of effective communication and is a very critical skill.

Public speaking is the process of making our ideas public. It is about sharing our ideas with others, and most importantly, influencing others with whom we communicate. Many are afraid to speak in public. Somewhere I read an interesting statistics on the various types of fear which I give below:

Speaking to a group                 41%

Heights                                    32%

Insects and Bugs                      24%

Financial Problems                    23%

Deep water                                22%

Sickness                                   20%

Death                                        19%

Flying                                        18%

You will notice that people are more afraid of public speaking than even death!

Given the importance of public speaking, I will attempt to give some useful and interesting tips on public speaking in this new series of newsletters.

I do hope you find them useful and relevant.

N C Sridharan

00000

365 Exciting ways to live. 82

82/ 365  Birds of the Same Feather Flock Together

Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.

 Earl Nightingale

When you want to heat up something, you put it in an oven. To freeze something, you place it in a deep freezer. The object takes the property of its surroundings. It is the law of nature. We are also influenced by the people, who surround us. To be a writer, move with writers; to be an artist, be in the company of artists; to be a musician, spend a lot of your time with musicians.

To become an expert, we should acquire the best knowledge. There are two gateways to knowledge: through what we hear and what we see. Unless you are in the company of right people, you will not have the opportunity to get exposed to relevant knowledge, appropriate for your profession.

Introspect and decide the field in which you want to make a mark. List all the people, who are achieving in that field and try to spend as much time as possible with them. Join a professional association, where such people meet and discuss and take active part in such bodies.

You alone should succeed, but you cannot succeed alone!

(From my book “365 Exciting Ways to Live”)

'365 Exciting Ways to Live' is an ideal gift for any special occasion and a good reading material for supervisory development. You can also gift this book to the school or college you studied....

www.thetimefoundation.com

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

365 Exciting ways to live - 81

81 / 365  Practise Austerity

Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.

 Epicurus

Austerity is an important quality to be developed. Money is a valuable resource which should not be squandered away. These days everything is becoming dearer. It is wiser to save one rupee than to earn five rupees!  We live in a ‘world of temptations’ where the media is so powerful that anyone can make out a case that their product is essential for us. Every day a new mobile phone with tempting features hits the market with jazzy media advertisement tempting you to buy.

One of my relatives who has been living in the United States for the past six years in a fairly decent senior position tells me that he has been managing comfortably with one car, one cycle and one mobile phone! He says that he doesn’t have more than six pairs of dress. What is even more interesting about his claim is the fact that in the United States, the temptation to spend is very high!

Over this weekend, critically audit your basic need and check if you need all those gadgets, which are in your pending buying list!

Spend less, save more and live happily!

(From my book “365 Exciting Ways to Live”)

'365 Exciting Ways to Live' is an ideal gift for any special occasion and a good reading material for supervisory development. You can also gift this book to the school or college you studied....

www.thetimefoundation.com

 N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

365 Exciting ways to live - 80

80/ 365  Ensure Accessibility and Visibility

Putting out a newspaper without promotion is like winking at a girl in the dark -- well-intentioned, but ineffective.

 William Randolph Hearst

All of us have some talent or skill and we have to offer the same to others. We become more valuable when what we offer reaches more people. In this context, accessibility and visibility are important factors, which we should be conscious of. In this electronic era, visibility and accessibility can be easily managed, provided it is our priority. At this exact point of time, someone from somewhere may want to reach us. Check the following:

·         Do you have a mobile phone? If so, does your address card carry the number with the correct area code prefix number?

·         Have you thought about a website? It is a powerful visibility tool. If you have one, are you taking efforts to make people to visit? What is the ‘hit rate’?

·         Is your mobile service provider good enough? Does the signal break and irritate the other person while you are speaking?

·         Do you have an e-mail id? Do your people know the same?

In order to exploit all our hidden talents and achieve our ambitions and goals, accessibility and visibility are very important portfolios to be managed intelligently.

Are you doing justice for this portfolio?

(From my book “365 Exciting Ways to Live”)

'365 Exciting Ways to Live' is an ideal gift for any special occasion and a good reading material for supervisory development. You can also gift this book to the school or college you studied....

www.thetimefoundation.com N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com