365 Exciting ways to live - 28

28 / 365  Practise Active Listening

The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.

Thich Nhat Hanh

How do you listen when someone talks to you? What is the quality of your listening? Do you feel restless and butt in, when others speak to you? If you do all these, stop!   The quality of listening is very important in the process of communication.

The difference between listening and hearing lies in the quality. There are two types of listening: active listening and passive listening. Active listening encourages the communicator, whereas passive listening discourages him. Active listening is also called ‘whole-body listening’, where the listener also participates in the communication process. For active listening, the following parameters are important:

• Your body language.
• Your eye contact with the communicator.
• Asking relevant questions and clarifications.
• Paraphrasing what the communicator says.
• Facial expression.

From today, be conscious and look for the above in you,   when you listen to someone. Ask your close friends to give feedback on the quality of your listening and actively listen when they give the feedback!

(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

21 / 365  Interrupt Interruptions

Other people’s interruptions of your work are relatively insignificant compared with the

countless times you interrupt yourself.

Brendan Francis

We cannot manage time as we have no ‘control’ over time. But we can and should control the ‘productivity’ of time by turning maximum quantifiable output within the time available.

Our time is fragmented and dissipated by interruptions, which cannot be eliminated altogether.  If we don’t control interruptions, we will take more time to complete the task than what is required. A perfectly normal day will be full of interruptions like telephone calls, drop in visitors, meetings and people. If you are not at all disturbed, it means that you are not required.

We should manage the interruptions and keep them short by studying the nature of interruptions and work out a strategy. You can have an ‘interruptions log’, in which you meticulously note down every interruption and study them. Know who and what interrupted you and how long. You will know why you were interrupted. After this homework, you can work out a strategy to deal with that major interruption, which takes away a lot of your precious time.  Try this from today!

(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 - 27

27 / 365  Make Every Day a Thanks Giving Day

Nothing is more honourable than a grateful heart.

 Seneca

Have you heard of ‘Thanks Giving Day’?   Why not make every day a Thanks Giving Day?   We need the help of others to achieve in life. We need the cooperation and support of many. In fact we also need lack of cooperation and inaction of others! If everyone cooperates and provides an ideal environment, we will not mature in life! Isn’t true?

We should remember people's help and thank them. While thanking, both the person thanking and the person receiving feel happy. People yearn for recognition and reciprocation, as much as we yearn for help and support. When we recognise and reciprocate, we build healthy relationship and emotional wellness.

Try this today. Make a list all those who helped you in some way or other – small or big. Every day, send a ‘thank you’ card to one person and don’t go to sleep unless you’ve done this! In this electronic era, it is very easy to do this. You can either send a sms or an e-mail or you can use your mobile, etc.

Do this regularly and notice what happens to your emotional bank account!

(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 - 26

26 / 365  Know How You Irritate Others

Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your

mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength

alone will not do.

Lord Chesterfield

Do you irritate others? If so, do you know how? We may not know how we irritate others. It may be some mannerism or traits such as interrupting,  when someone talks; speaking with a loud voice; wounding someone’s emotions or feelings with words; talking too much; boasting; snoring; slurping; making unconnected or inappropriate comments; seeking undue favours. The list can be endless!

Many may not tell you, but you need to be aware.

There is a whole range of a subject called ‘Etiquette’, the social skills, which we need to know compulsorily. It changes from culture to culture. Especially when you move with a heterogeneous body of people drawn from various cultures, you need to know what is not acceptable in each culture.

Today why don’t you do an exercise? Talk to some of your very close friends and ask them to give you some feedback on how you irritate others? Encourage them to be frank. Work out an action plan to get rid of the same!

(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 - 25

25 / 365 Take Inventory of Your Bad Habits

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits

are subtracted from your good ones.

 Benjamin Franklin

In any organisation, once in every year a complete inventory is taken to take stock of the assets and the liabilities so that the balance sheet can be drawn. The health of an organisation can be seen not merely looking at the profit and loss account, but also at the balance sheet. The investors will be keen to know the liability part of the balance sheet. As individuals, we should also know our assets, which are our good habits as well as our liabilities, which are our bad habits.

Today, make an inventory of your bad habits! Sit calmly and list at least ten bad habits, which you want to get rid of. Against each bad habit, honestly write down how the same has affected your life. Just visualise how your life would be now and in future without these bad habits.

The law of nature is very clear: what is noticed alone will grow. The same applies to removing something bad. Unless you notice a bad habit, you cannot remove it. It’s like garbage removal. Unless you notice, you will not remove it!

Make today an inventory taking day!

(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