365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 96. Promise Yourself All the Very Best!

Promise Yourself

 To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

– Christian D. Larson

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live : Excitement # 93. Sponsor Your Own Training and Development!

 Sponsor Your Own Training and Development

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

– Muhammad Ali

Do you invest on your own training?   We live in world of exciting opportunities and unless we are the best, we cannot remain competitive. For this we need to hone our knowledge and skill.

Normally, people wait for their organisation to sponsor them for training. But achievers are proactive and design their own training calendar. They are clear about where they are going and what they are lacking. They are focused on their long, medium and short term goals. They plan to equip themselves with the type of knowledge and training they need to reach their goals.

Do the following exercise:

·         Review your list of goals and identify the gaps in your ‘skill set’.

·         Identify your training requirement – technical and non-technical.

·         Evolve a monthly budget in terms money and training hours and nominate yourself for appropriate training programmes.

In short, you should become your own HR and Training Manager! You can surrender anything to others, but not your future. The quality of your life depends on what you can deliver, which in turn depends on your training and personal development.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 92: Encourage Others

Encourage Others

A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.

– Anonymous

Do you generally encourage or discourage others? Encouraging others is an important quality of a leader. We all need encouragement to achieve in life. Encouragement is the emotional tonic you give to others to build self confidence. This is the mutual help we give each other. We need a lot of help from others, but the most important one is their encouraging words.  

Great achievers were lucky that they got encouragement at the right time, which made all the difference. But for the encouragement of Helen Keller’s mother Kate Adams Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan, she would have remained deaf and dumb forever.

Read the following:

·         Do you generally encourage people or discourage them?

·         Are people comfortable to come to you to say what they are trying to achieve? Or, do they shy away from you for fear of discouragement?

·         Would you have achieved whatever you’ve achieved, if you had not been encouraged by someone?

Over the next one week, identify at least ten persons, who are trying to achieve something in their life and think how you can encourage them.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 91: Don’t Brag!

Don’t Brag!

Do you wish men to speak well of you? Then never speak well of yourself.

– Blaise Pascal

Do you brag too much? We may not know, but others notice it! Bragging means to speak boastfully. There is nothing wrong in talking about your achievements. But, if you do it out of context, it’s bragging and others may not like it and it may also irritate others.

There may be specific contexts when you have to talk about your achievements. But, if you are talking about your achievements on every occasion and to every person you meet, then it is bragging.

Be conscious about the following:

• Do you talk about yourself in every meeting?
• When you are supposed to be speaking about someone’s achievements, are you actually speaking about your own achievements?
• How do people perceive you with reference to this important trait?
• When someone talks about his achievements, do you belittle the same by giving an example of how you did better than him?

Building a positive image is an important factor in life. Let it not be spoilt by your bragging. Remain humble when others talk about your achievement.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 90: Respect and Remember Names

Respect and Remember Names

If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment;

 You indicate that I have made an impression on you.

Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.

– Dale Carnegie

 

Do you give importance to remember peoples’ name? It is a basic courtesy you can show to any person who is introduced to you. A name is a very emotional thing for a person. The happiest time for a parent is the day when they give a name for their child. From our childhood days we have been repeatedly called by our names. When we achieve something, we are given a certificate carrying our name and we proudly show it to many people.

Don’t we feel happy when someone addresses us by our correct name? Remember the following basic etiquette:

·         Take interest to remember a person’s name.

·         If there a special way in which the person wants his name to be spelt based on numerology or other sentiments, respect the same.

·         When you address a letter, use the correct spelling with the correct first name, initial etc.

·         After meeting a person on several occasions, don’t embarrass him by asking his name once again or calling him by a wrong name. You are insulting him.

There so much in a name!

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 88. Double the Planning Time!

 Double the Planning Time

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

– Benjamin Franklin

Double the planning time to cut the execution time by half! Looks very simple! But it is a very powerful time management idea. Every project involves a planning and an execution phase. If you plan meticulously, you will be able to accomplish any task to the highest quality standard.  

Before going to sleep, spend at least thirty minutes of your time on how you are going to spend your next day. In addition, spend the first hour of the day in planning and meditating.

Take an important project which will make a substantial value addition to your life and do a detailed strategic planning. Use project management charts and tools. Plan for all the activities, resource mobilisation, time schedule etc. Anticipate problems and think ‘if this goes wrong then...’ and prepare a contingency plan.

Put your plan on a piece of paper. Many people don’t do this part well. Mental planning is not good enough for important projects. When you write down, many things will get cleared. It will be a good idea to discuss your plan with others, who may have a different perspective.

Meticulous planning will avoid unnecessary tension during execution. 

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

N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 84 : Programme Your Reading Portfolio

     Programme Your Reading Portfolio

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should have an effective reading programme. In a world where information is power, you should be well informed about the most important developments in your field of specialisation. Due to various other priorities, your reading portfolio may get the least priority if you don’t programme your reading.

Consider the following:

·         Set aside a specific place for reading. Have a small book shelf, note pads, pencil, etc. to help your reading effectiveness.

·         Practise fixed time reading as a discipline. May be one hour in the morning or one hour in the night.

·         Remove sources of distractions such as television, radio and mobile phone.

·          Use the timer or stop watch to track time frame.

·         Ensure that you are not disturbed by others.

·         Practise paraphrasing each chapter and it will enhance retention.

·         Focus reading topic-wise, like leadership on one month, time management on another, etc.

Time is an invisible resource. If you don’t have a schedule and budget, it will be dissipated on unimportant activities at the cost of critical issues.

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

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 68 : Read and Acquire Knowledge

     Read and Acquire Knowledge

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

– Sir Richard Steele

Fine tune and improve the quality of your ‘reading portfolio’. In an era of infinite and exciting opportunities, we can realise even a very ‘wild’ dream through an effective strategy. Focused knowledge acquisition should be an integral part of our success strategy. Compared to ten years ago, our competition has also grown several times and we should be intelligent enough to survive competition.

The cutting edge which will decide our success is our knowledge base, which will assume great importance in the era of perfect competition. Consider the following:

• Focus on your reading. Do not read everything and anything.
• Read with a purpose. Before reading, decide how it will be useful.
• Set aside specific time and place to read. Even if you skip eating, don’t skip reading!
• Use technology to improve your reading. Use internet, e-books, audio books, iPods etc.

·         Target your reading topic wise, form a discussion group and a study group.

Honestly audit your reading portfolio to check if it is adequate, given your responsibility and ambitions in life. Remember that knowledge acquisition is an important survival strategy and not a luxury anymore!

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 50 - Your 'Thought Factory'!

You and Your ‘Thought Factory’.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes;

– Mohandas Gandhi

What are you producing in your ‘thought factory’? If your mind is occupied by lofty thoughts, your actions will be noble. If your mind is occupied by petty thoughts, you will end up with doing ordinary things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the ancestor of every action is thought.

You may be sidetracked by some happenings, which are not to your liking or may be someone will hurt your feelings and ego. You may be emotionally hijacked. Someone may irritate you touching your hot buttons. Or, a temporary failure may derail your strategic thinking and inspiration.

Get back to your normal self by saying ‘cancel, cancel’ internally and refocus all your thoughts on your empowering goal. It is something like a road block to your destination. If your destination is exciting, you will find out how to overcome the road block. On the other hand, if your destination is not so exciting, you will use the road block as an excuse to give up your travel! Resolve to bring back all your thoughts on your empowering goal! Fix your goal ten times tougher than your past achievement and notice how your thoughts work wonders for you!

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

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 45 - Improve Your ‘Creativity Quotient’

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 Excitement Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 16: Carry a Book of Learning!

Carry a Book of Learning!

Learning never exhausts the mind.

– Leonardo da Vinci

Some time back I wrote about an idea book, which I suggested that you carry it wherever you go and jot down every idea that pops up in your mind.

How about a ‘learning book’? The other day I met a very important person, who showed me a book in which he writes every day, what new thing he learns on that day.  A learning book registers something you learn every day.

Suppose you miss a flight, write down one new thing you learnt while you went through the tension of missing the flight. If you meet with a minor accident, jot down what you learnt out of that experience. If you mess up something in the office and your boss shouts at you, jot down one learning point.

Once in every month read all the learning points that you’ve registered and you will be stunned at the richness of the experience!

It’s a simple, yet powerful self-improvement plan.

Do it from today! 

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live'

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live : Excitement # 38

Enjoy Freedom from Technology.

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man – the airplane, the automobile, the computer – says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.

– Mark Kennedy

We should use technology to enhance our productivity without becoming a slave to technology. We should control technology and not allow technology to control us. Check if you are a slave to technology:

·         Are you restless if you don’t have your mobile phone for an hour?

·         Are you upset when the lift does not work?

·         Do you mess up your morning, if your alarm does not go off at the time set?

·         Are you immobilised if there is no fuel in for your vehicle?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you may be a slave to technology! Why don’t you learn to live without technology? Refuse to be paralysed if technology lets you down. Try these simple exercises to enjoy freedom from technology:

·         Try to remember telephone numbers and dial without using the phone memory.

·         Do simple calculations without using a calculator to know what is four times four.

·         Don’t lift your mobile phone every alternate hour.

·         Climb the stairs one day every week and don’t use the lift.

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

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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