365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement# 73: Focus on Your Core Competency!

      Focus on Your Core Competency

You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.

– Charles Bruxton

Are you a ‘Jack of all trades, but master of none’?

Today, we live in a world of specialization and you have to be a specialist in any one specific field. You should identify your special talent and become an expert in that area. You should focus all your efforts to develop that talent. This is called ‘core competency’. Many organizations focus all their attention on their core competence and even stop manufacturing products which do not fit into this strategy.

Over this weekend, introspect and reflect to find out your core competency. Analyze and evaluate if you are spending adequate time on this area. Check if your time is dissipated on activities which may be interesting, but does not relate to your core competency. Prepare a ‘not to do list’ in which you list at least five activities, which do not belong to your core specialization area to release your time to pursue your most important activities.

Unless you say ‘no’ to unimportant, but interesting trivial things, you will not find time to do the most important and critical things which will add value to your life.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Excitement Ways to Live: Excitement # 72: Plan for the unexpected!

       Plan for the Unexpected

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

-Norman Cousins

It is ideal to wish that everything will go as we want. However, the reality is that certain things may not be in our control. Some unanticipated events may throw our plans haywire. Someone may not be as effective and efficient as he should be. Some assumptions could go wrong. You have to anticipate such eventualities.

You can ask yourself the following questions when you are about to get out of your bed:

·         What is the most important task that I have to complete today?

·         Do I have all the resources lined up, including time?

·         What could go wrong and what should be my counter-measure?

·         What critical assumptions could go wrong and what should I do?

·         Am I realistic about my expectations of others? Am I too optimistic?

I am not sounding pessimistic. While we should be optimistic, we should also plan for unexpected events. Perhaps we should be ‘optimistically pessimistic’!

Human beings are unique from other living beings in their ability to anticipate and plan and this has made us to survive millions of years while other living beings extinct.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 71: Rebuild Broken Relationship!

     Rebuild Broken Relationship

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it.

That factor is attitude.

– William James

There is an excitement in building something. There is an even more excitement in rebuilding something! An entrepreneur will be very excited to build an organisation from the scratch. When the organisation is lost and destroyed for any reason such as obsolescence of technology or competition, he will be even more excited to rebuild the same organisation once again.

The same thing applies to rebuilding relationship. I have seen this quality in successful people. They can fight with people and part friendship. But they can also build the same relationship once again. It is an important leadership quality. In the past, you may have quarrelled with someone and parted friendship and both of you may not like it.

Over this weekend, list at least five persons with whom you have quarreled and work out a strategy to rebuild the relationship. Your ego may stand in the way. You may not have the attitude and the ability to communicate your feelings. You may be afraid or embarrassed. Still do it. It builds your personality and you will evolve as a complete person!

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 70 : Take Pride as People Developer!

       Take Pride as People Developer

He isn’t a real boss until he has trained subordinates to shoulder most of his responsibilities.

– William Father

Time is a limited resource and we have to intelligently invest it. It is not how long you work. What is more important is the ‘productivity’ of your time. Our aim should be to work less and produce more.

One key factor which will decide your effectiveness is the competency of your people. In your own interest you have to develop and train them. Let us compare this with the automobile metaphor. If you are the engine, your people are the sub assemblies such as the wheels, the gear box, the transmission, the brake and the accelerator. No matter how good and powerful is the engine, if the sub assemblies are not maintained properly, the vehicle will not arrive at the destination at the right time!

Today, you list the people who work for your project and evaluate their knowledge, skill and competency.  Assess the gap which will affect your project.  Discuss with them and evolve a strategy to develop them. Take pride as a people developer. When you develop your people, both you and your people will be empowered!

Do this honestly!

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 69: Develop ‘One-Pointedness’

Develop ‘One-Pointedness’

Concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.

-Andrew Carnegie

What’s your longest span of concentration and focus on one single selected task without your mind wandering? Great success calls for great efforts and a disciplined mind. By nature, mind is not disciplined and will drift. We have to train the mind to ‘one-pointedness by deliberate exercise and practice. When we were children, we were able to concentrate on one thing. But as we grew older we lost this important quality, like we gave up diaphragmatic breathing!

Every day set aside one hour to concentrate on the most important task on hand such as writing, portfolio management, reading and thinking. Switch off your mobile phone, shut down your television set and tell people that you are not available. If necessary lock yourself for one hour in a room. Just disappear from the crowd! If you find it difficult to concentrate for one full hour to start with, begin with fifteen minutes and gradually improve. Treat this as a very important self-development portfolio exercise, like jogging and workout.

Sincerely do this for a month and notice your self confidence going up along with the quality of your work!

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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