365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 61 - Take Care of Your Body!

      Take Care of Your Body.

Health is not valued till sickness comes.

Dr. Thomas Fuller 

Next time when you watch a cricketer playing, notice how carefully he keeps his tools such as the bat and the glove. In the same way a tennis player will take utmost care of his racquets. So will a musician take care of his violin or guitar or keyboard. A software engineer will ensure that his computer is not affected by any virus. They all know that if their main instrument fails, they will fail.

Just think which is the most critical of all the instruments? Isn’t it our body? But do we take care of our body properly? If any one part of the body fails, you will not get a spare, which is as good as the original!

Ask yourself the following questions:

·         Do I take care of my body?

·         Do I exercise regularly?

·         How are my health indicators such as blood pressure and sugar?

·         Am I taking sufficient precautions against the break-downs?

·         Am I eating right? Am I eating too much or too little?

·         Do I take enough rest and sleep?

Today resolve to take care of your body to sustain all your activities!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

www.thetimefoundation.com

N C Sridharan

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 60 - The Ten Commandments for Success!

 The Ten Commandments for Success

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;

An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

– Winston Churchill

The best gift you can give yourself is the gift of positive thinking. In fact this is a gift, which others cannot give to you. When you think positively, your energy level will drive you into limitless action.

Ensure that you develop the following traits to remain positive in your thinking:

1.       Be optimistic, but at the same time plan for contingencies.

2.      Be enthusiastic. Your enthusiasm will be contagious.

3.      Believe in your potential to realise your dreams.

4.      Believe in the integrity of your mind.

5.      Persevere. Don’t give up at the slightest provocation.

6.      Sincerely and honestly pursue your dream.

7.      Seek the company of positive thinkers.

8.     Focus on the end result and not on the process.

9.      Make self affirmation statements such as ‘I will succeed, come what may’.

10.  Remain calm and composed during crisis.

You have to strongly believe that you cannot change the environment, which is not in your control.  Your inner mindset will alone make the difference. Life is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

www.thetimefoundation.com

NC Sridharan

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 59 - Audit Your Laziness Index!

 Are You Lazy?

You delay, but time will not.

– Benjamin Franklin

There is no substitute for hard work. In this world of global opportunities and intense competition, hardwork is very important.   Compared to 50 years ago, everyone is working harder. Today’s tennis player has to practice four times harder than his predecessor. The same applies to any sport, be it football or chess.

Do a very honest audit of your working habit with the following questions:

• Am I working hard enough? How many hours do I work per week?
• Am I doing adequate justice to the role I am holding in the society?
• How is my hard work compared to that of my competitor?
• What is my ‘prime time’? Am I investing my prime time on some vital activities?
• While working, what is the intensity of my concentration and focus?
• Over these years, is there an improvement in the level of my responsibility and hard work?
• Am I lazy? How much of my work is pending at any point of time and is it due to my laziness?

Sometimes your perception of yourself may be wrong. Check with someone whom you trust most.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 58 - Learn How to Disagree!

Learn How to Disagree

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

– Mohandas Gandhi

Do you disagree with others when necessary? Or, are you a ‘yes’ man?   The ability to analyze and to come to an independent decision is an important life skill to be developed. Everyone has a right to have their own views and express the same. Their decisions and views may also affect us. But we also have the right to think independently and form our own views. The problem is that some of us may not know how to express our views assertively. You have to train yourself to express your own point of view if needed. Like you learnt cycling or typing, you need to learn this skill also.

One way to do this is to keenly observe people who express a contradictory view and tactfully model them. Start expressing your views on small issues. On major issues, you may take time and reflect on the choices you have. You may jot down your reasons, why you don’t agree on the view expressed by others before expressing your point of view.

Start developing this trait in you from this week and notice your assertive personality growing!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 57 : Be a Leader!

 Be a Leader

Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead.

– Ross Perot

Are you a leader or a manager? There is a difference between leadership qualities and managerial abilities. While leading is an aligning function, managing is a control function. Leaders get the cooperation of others by empowering them, while managers use their power and authority and get the work done. Leaders are chosen due to their leadership qualities, while managers are appointed by others. Leaders look beyond today and have a vision and mission. I can go on giving you all the differences. Make it an objective to:

1.       Read a book on ‘leadership’ and get to know what it means to be a leader. Stephen Covey’s ‘Principle Centered Leadership’ is an excellent book on the subject.

2.      Go to any search engine and download games and exercises to understand leadership style.

3.      Get involved in some social project and experience what it means to lead and execute a project.

In order to succeed in the long run, you have to develop leadership qualities in addition to be a good manager. It is not a choice to be a leader or a manager. You should be both.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

00000

365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 56 - Learn to Decide Correctly

Learn to Decide Correctly

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

– Napoleon Bonaparte

The quality of our life depends on the quality of our decisions. Bad decisions affect our life adversely. All of us are capable of making good decisions, if we remember the following simple rules:

·         Decide the purpose, which you want to achieve by your decision. If the purpose is not achieved, then your decision is wrong!

·         Do not hesitate to take an unpleasant decision for the only reason that it is painful.

·         List all the choices you have and not just go after one choice due to ego or obsession.

·         Collect and analyze all the available data before deciding.

·         Use trusted friends and well-wishers as ‘sounding board’ before deciding as they may have a different perspective.

·         Listen to the ‘voice of dissent’, since your views may not be always correct.

·         Take responsibility for your decision and execute.

·         Evaluate the result of your decision and learn from past wrong decisions.

Today, list at least three wrong decisions you took in the past three months and check if you have considered the above points before taking those decisions.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 55 - Watch Your Words When You Are Angry

  Watch Your Words When You Are Angry

Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger.

– Chinese Proverb

How often do you hurt others’ feelings? You may not know every time you do so, but the concerned person will not forget. In fact people may forget when they are praised, but they will never forget when they are insulted. When choked with emotions, we may not know what we say and how we express the same. It is very difficult to build healthy relationship, but it takes only a few moments to destroy the same.  Like a broken glass, it is impossible to patch up completely.

Perhaps you can apply the following tips before emotionally bursting out:

·         Remain silent for a few minutes before you speak.

·         Be conscious about the words you are using.

·         Count ten before you burst out. Spoken words will not come back.

·         Resolve to be pleasant even when you are angry.

·         Recall what and how you spoke last time, when you blew your top and the consequence.

It makes sense to behave decently even when we are upset. It enhances our personality and image.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

www.thetimefoundation.com

NC Sridharan

00000 

365 Exciting Ways to Live! Excitement # 54 - 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)

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live : Excitement # 53 - 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')
N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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