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54 / 365 Calibrate Your Anger Index

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is natural to feel angry sometimes.  If we don’t express our feelings, we will suffer ‘emotional constipation’! We are human beings with feelings and emotions and it is okay to experience the same. But the most important question is: how frequently we feel so? It is like having fever or head ache. If we have fever very frequently, our system will break down. Similarly, if we feel angry very often, we will end up with emotional breakdown. Feeling happy and excited all day long will not affect our mental health. But negative feelings will alter our mindset and attitude.

We have to calibrate the frequency and intensity of our anger by an exercise for a week. Have some beads or coins handy. Whenever you feel angry, transfer a bead from one pocket to another. Or you can put a tally on a paper, whenever you feel angry. At the end of the day, calculate the number of times you felt angry. This is an index of your negative mental health.

Try this for a week and notice what happens to the frequency of your anger!

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

'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 - 53

53 / 365 Tame the Wandering Mind

Success in any Endeavour requires single-minded attention to detail and total

concentration.

Willie Sutton

Do you know that if you can concentrate on one thing, you can concentrate on anything? The ability to concentrate is a skill, which can be developed. Some people may have this skill naturally in them like a mature good voice. Others can develop the same.

The quality of our concentration will decide the quality of our execution. In order to accomplish any task, we need to integrate the powers of our brain and the powers of our mind.  Brain power is natural, whereas mind power has to be harnessed.

From today, spend at least thirty minutes every day to develop and enhance your concentration quality. Have a fixed time and a fixed place. Take any one idea or thought or mantra like Om and focus all your attention on the same. Be conscious whenever your mind wanders and bring it back to the point of concentration. Start with just 5 minutes and slowly go up to 30 minutes or even one hour. Unless you take efforts, your span of concentration will not improve!

We have to tame the wandering mind.

(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 - 45

45 / 365  'Improve Your ‘Creativity Quotient’

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right

by having no ideas at all.

Edward de Bono

These days we hear about Intelligent Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ) etc. Have you thought about ‘Creativity Quotient’?  Lot of researchers and scholars across the world are trying to do some research on this subject. Leave out all those jargons! Are you a creative person? Do you want to be thinking differently?

A few days ago, in one of my ‘IGNITE’ seminars, a participant asked me how to improve his creativity. Here is my answer: Creativity is a function of the Right Side of our brain. We can trigger the Right Hemisphere through ‘Brain Gym’ exercises. Log on to any search engines and you can get simple Brain Gym exercises. Spend 10 to 15 minutes a day doing simple Brain Gym exercises.

Become inquisitive to think creatively. Instead of following a beaten track, ask yourself: ‘why should I not think in this way’? Try to find an alternative solution to simple everyday problems. Read books written by Edward De Bono, who came out with the breakthrough concept called ‘lateral thinking’.

From today, spend at least 45 minutes per day to think differently! Let your creativity sprout and grow!

(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

Pension denied for a 95 year senior citizen! Shame....

Courtesy : Indian Express 27.10.2014

What Pension ?  You’re fit to Work,  95 yr old told

By Vinodh AM

Madurai – In an apparent display of apathy, the Tashsildar of social security schemes here rejected the old age pension application of a nonagenarian, asking him to work for his bread.

Murugan’s (95), a resident of Sellur in the city, ordeal for old age pension began on May 19, this year, when he first applied for the scheme during a grievance day meeting at the collectorate. After several representations and running from pillar to post, his plea was finally registered on June 28.

Subsequently, the revenue inspector and the village administration officer visited his place and after proper verification declared him destitute. The old man also furnished a copy of his ration card to substantiate his claims. However, nonagenarian’s world came crashing down on September 4, when the social security schemes Tahsildar, Madurai East sent a letter rejecting his plea. The official said that Murugan was fit enough to work even at the age of 95 and hence was not eligible for pension.

Speaking to Express, Murugan, who relies on support to even walk, said that his wife died four years ago and ever since he had been struggling.

“Though I had two sons and a daughter, they were in no position to help me. One of my sons is dead and the other is confined to bed due to paralysis while my widowed daughter is hard pressed to even fend for herself. It was under ultra distress that I applied for the scheme, which was recently rejected,” he added.

Murugan, who himself was a government servant, had resigned as a sanitary inspector from the Madurai Corporation way back in 1957, due to which he had become ineligible for pension.

It takes several minutes for me even walk out of the house, but the government has declared me fit. It believes that I am capable enough to work for my bread,” the 95 year old said.

Despite several attempts, the officials declined to speak to Express on the issue.

NC Sridharan

365 Exciting Ways to Live - 44

44 / 365  Check Your Personal Integrity Account

Rather fall with honor than succeed by fraud.

Sophocles

A person’s financial creditworthiness is evaluated by analysing his bank account. The more you credit and the less you debit your account, the more will be your creditworthiness. If you are creditworthy, people will respect you.

Similarly, you are also building up your ‘personal integrity account’. Every time you promise something and keep up your promise, your personal integrity account is credited; every time you promise something and you don’t keep up your promise, your personal integrity account is debited. Finally, your credit and debit will be balanced to evaluate your creditworthiness as a person, in terms of integrity.

People evaluate you by what you say and what you do. Check for these following traits in you:

·         Do you over-promise and under deliver?

·         Are you late to appointments?

·         Do you tell lies?

·         Do you fail in your commitments?

The list is only illustrative and not exhaustive. If the answer to such questions is ‘yes’, you run the risk of damaging your personal integrity account and image!

Audit your personal integrity account periodically and take remedial action before it is too late!

(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 - 37

37 / 365 Develop Your Successor

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

 Harvey S. Firestone

The higher up you go in your career, the more you need the help and support of people. You should graduate from doing to getting things done by others.  For this, you should know how to develop people. The difference between supervising and managing lies in the number of people, for whom you take the responsibility. That is why there are supervisors and managers in an organisation.

Today, take a person who could be your subordinate, your son or daughter, whom you want to develop. You should have a plan of action to develop them, taking them through the following stages:

1. Look into this problem and give me all the details and I will decide.
2. Think and discuss with me the alternatives for me to decide.
3. Think of alternatives and recommend the course of action.
4. Check with me and keep acting until I say ‘no’.
5. Keep me informed.
6. Tell me only when your actions do not produce results.

7.    Take over from me.

Take the ‘people development portfolio’ seriously! Your people will grow and ofcourse, you will also grow to the next higher level.

(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