Pace Yourself!

Every road has a speed and every person too!

Modern life is about breakneck speed…Patience level has  gone down so much that we are even  irritated by the computer’s boot-up time. Impatience then becomes the primary source of stress…Is it not?

Impatience makes us to cram  such much stuff into our life…right from jumping out of the bed in the morning to falling back on to the bed , most of rush with little or no pause between the activities…so then what is the solution?

I am not sure , if there is one  “magic pill” for everyone to take cure the Speeditis…but there definitely are some ingredients, that we can try out in ways and proportions to create our own customized pill…

Here go the ingredients…

Create an early morning Habit:

Mornings are powerful because they can set the tone for the day…Would it be not nice then to create a   morning habit that you start the day with?  It could be Physical exercise, meditation, reading a nice book, Writing…or just to enjoy the quietness of the morning !  So, Gents and Ladies, tomorrow start an early morning habit…The rub of the early morning habit help you carry through the stressful day! To get the algorithm of forming a new habit, check out this Habit Formation

Do not Overdo!

Speed alone is not the issue…we want the results too in a short-span…and then we move at the peak speed of our limits only to run out of gas before we reach our destination!

For example, let us take jogging as an habit…you cannot aim for a 1-km run on day one with aim of running the  full marathon in the next month…It is going to take longer than that for even professionals…So do not overdo even at the risk of under doing…To sustain the activity , you got to find average speed and be consistent at it …

Pause !

Master jugglers of multi-tasking are the modern era’s Hercules. In an era of mobile apps to track your productivity to the minute, you would want to jump from one task to another task without mental break in between…

So, pause…be gentle on yourself …after completion of an intensive task , allow yourself to ruminate about how the task went by…allow the dust of your mind to settle down a bit…allow your mind to clear the cache of the task that just passed…Then proceed to whatever you want to do next!

So, pace yourself …at your own convenience…nobody else can do that for you ! Choose the speed at which you want to travel the journey of Life…

Any speed greater than zero in the right direction is fine enough in Life!

Handling Distractions!

We live in the modern age where Phones are getting smarter, while the people are getting dumber…we are pounded with information every millisecond..through News websites, social media, Television, Instant messaging and what not!  Our attention span is getting down to rather dangerous levels…and this becomes the major source of mental stress in the modern life.

 In my experiments to handle distraction (which I am figuring out still!) the peaceful days were the one in which I was able to concentrate on a task to a specified time limit …even if it is 5 minutes. Here are few elements to handle distractions..

First, know your distraction:

We all have created habit of distractions…Reading news from Websites,Checking emails, Checking social network sites ,watching TV ,surfing the internet without purpose are common examples of the distractions. The first step to eliminate the distraction is to know what they are…to be self-aware of your distractions.

So watch yourself… the next time you are involved in an important activity and your mind tells you instead to wander about & read news or check email….you found your distraction . This is an absolute important step!

Second, Find one activity to focus on:

If you have one most important thing for the day(that you absolutely loathe doing!) pick that activity to focus on…I know this is easier said than done. This is a productivity habit that any Leader in any profession possesses…

Third, set an upper bound of time for focusing:

Set a timer on for say even 5 minutes , as an upper-bound  for focus…what this means is , you should not continue the activity beyond the 5 minutes …absolutely !!!  you may wonder why this is so ? In the distracted world, we got to sustain the habit of focus, and it is best we do it in small increments…This is also called the Pomodoro technique

Fourth,give yourself a break after the Focus

After all , you deserve credit for the hard focus that you just indulged in !…walk to the water cooler or grab a coffee…

Handling distraction is an habit…start small with attention span of as less than 5 minutes and slowly increase it day by day…I am sure you will relish it...It is an amazing feeling that I would exhort you to be part-of!

Life Quotes

Og Mandino, The greatest salesman in the world

“I will live this day as if it is my last. …I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, Yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad?”

I will live this day as if it is my last. This day is all I have and these hours are now my eternity. I greet this sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death. I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day. So too, I will beat upon my heart with gratitude as I consider all who greeted yesterday’s sunrise who are no longer with the living today. I am indeed a fortunate man and today’s hours are but a bonus, undeserved. Why have I been allowed to live this extra day when others, far better than I, have departed? Is it that they have accomplished their purpose while mine is yet to be achieved? Is this another opportunity for me to become the man I know I can be?”

An understanding about Life

“Your problem is not really your problem; your reaction to the problem is actually your problem”

Attitude decides your life

Soldier : “Sir, We are surrounded by enemies on all sides”

Major   : “Excellent! We can attack in any direction”

The Life percentage:

In Life, only 10% is about “how you make it?”…the rest 90 is all about "How you take it?"

A Gift called Life!

"I will live this day as if it is my last"...Og Mandino

(Transcript of a TED talk by Ric Elias)

Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D. I was the only one who could talk to the flight attendants. So I looked at them right away, and they said, "No problem. We probably hit some birds." The pilot had already turned the plane around, and we weren't that far. You could see Manhattan. Two minutes later, three things happened at the same time. The pilot lines up the plane with the Hudson River. That's usually not the route. (Laughter) He turns off the engines. Now imagine being in a plane with no sound. And then he says three words -- the most unemotional three words I've ever heard. He says, "Brace for impact." I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore. (Laughter) I could see in her eyes, it was terror. Life was over.

Now I want to share with you three things I learned about myself that day. I learned that it all changes in an instant. We have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to that I didn't, all the fences I wanted to mend, all the experiences I wanted to have and I never did. As I thought about that later on, I came up with a saying, which is, "I collect bad wines." Because if the wine is ready and the person is there, I'm opening it. I no longer want to postpone anything in life. And that urgency, that purpose, has really changed my life.

The second thing I learned that day -- and this is as we clear the George Washington Bridge, which was by not a lot -- I thought about, wow, I really feel one real regret. I've lived a good life. In my own humanity and mistakes, I've tried to get better at everything I tried. But in my humanity, I also allow my ego to get in. And I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter. And I thought about my relationship with my wife, with my friends, with people. And after, as I reflected on that, I decided to eliminate negative energy from my life. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better. I've not had a fight with my wife in two years. It feels great. I no longer try to be right; I choose to be happy.

The third thing I learned -- and this is as your mental clock starts going, "15, 14, 13." You can see the water coming. I'm saying, "Please blow up." I don't want this thing to break in 20 pieces like you've seen in those documentaries. And as we're coming down, I had a sense of, wow, dying is not scary. It's almost like we've been preparing for it our whole lives. But it was very sad. I didn't want to go; I love my life. And that sadness really framed in one thought, which is, I only wish for one thing. I only wish I could see my kids grow up. About a month later, I was at a performance by my daughter -- first-grader, not much artistic talent ... ... yet. (Laughter) And I'm balling, I'm crying, like a little kid. And it made all the sense in the world to me. I realized at that point, by connecting those two dots, that the only thing that matters in my life is being a great dad. Above all, above all, the only goal I have in life is to be a good dad.

I was given the gift of a miracle, of not dying that day. I was given another gift, which was to be able to see into the future and come back and live differently. I challenge you guys that are flying today, imagine the same thing happens on your plane -- and please don't -- but imagine, and how would you change? What would you get done that you're waiting to get done because you think you'll be here forever? How would you change your relationships and the negative energy in them? And more than anything, are you being the best parent you can?

Write Everyday!

Putting the ink on the paper is a much powerful exercise than you can imagine. It is powerful because of the following reasons :

Power of Recollection:

Writing requires dusting  your brain to bring out the thoughts out of your memory you want to jot down. This is true about whatever you write about….be it the errands list or a big novel. Recollection is one of the key steps in the memory retention process.

Firming up the Commitment:

Think of an issue that is on top of your mind and bothering you. Take a pen and paper. Just start jotting down your problem…I mean not even the potential solution…just the problem. While this writing process itself may be difficult, you will feel a sense of comfort after the writing exercise. Writing , especially in your own hand-writing firms up the commitment , which is the most important step in Problem solving process.

Dealing with “Open-loops”:

Most of us think, mental stress arises from focusing on one intense activity for a long period…No ..it is not…Mental stress arises from repeated thoughts about multiple set of issues that are accumulated in our memory without identifying the next step. These are the “open-loops” in the brain through which the energy leaks happen draining us out. Putting all the “Open-loops” onto a piece of paper takes the load out of our CPU’s memory.  David Allen , the world renowned productivity guru & author of “Getting Things Done”, calls this capturing of thoughts as “Collection” habit.

Exercise in Creativity:

Writing is an exercise an creativity. The more you write , the more you become better in telling a Story . The more you become adept in story-telling , the more influential you can be!

Don’t worry about your vocabulary, grammar or construction. Just make a resolve to write at least 250 words day and more importantly… Write …You can also start your  own blog free of cost on the WordPress or the Blogger

Write ! Write Everyday ! 

Eye of the needle!

Today, I stumbled upon this great article most presentations arent bullet proof  by Seth Godin .  This must be a millionth article on why mixing bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation is injurious to audience’s mental health !

In his excellent book “Beyond Bullet Points”, the author Cliff Atkinson provides an interesting metaphor to explain why bullet points do not work in a PowerPoint…Psychologists have found that any sensory information that we receive(Seeing, hearing, smell, touch ) in the present , has to pass through an “eye of a needle” test for it to be registered in the long term memory. What does this mean ? 

Take the example of your daily commute to office through your regular route for the past year or so .Even though your sensory memory was (and is) working  every single day (otherwise you would not be reading this !) , it is never etched on to your long-term memory.  However, I am sure though that you would be able to recall your commute on a particular day even  dating several years back .. a day on which it rained heavily during commute  or there was an accident on your route or you had to take a detour due to a major festival  …or some other striking event which caused the day’s ride to be etched on to the long-term memory.

So the Message to all the modern day PowerPoint presenters of the world is …Humans have a limited brain capacity (!!!) due to which our brain purges all the sensory information through a filter setup in the eye of a needle …anything that passes through the filter remains etched in memory for long…others are scrupulously erased from long-term memory. Unfortunately, all the bullet point efforts will not be remembered even to the basic level because they do not pass through “eye of the needle”. So, what does pass through the eye of the needle in our brain? not very much !

I recently came across this book “Made To Stick” –Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck by Chip & Dan Heath that provides some clue .The authors have the following elements  to express our idea in a way that it will make stick to the audience mind :

S  -          Simple –           Have only one core message that you wish to convey in a presentation

U –         Unexpected –   Make others to Pay attention

C-            Credible         -   Drive authenticity in the message

C-            Concrete       -    Use simple language…not jargons 

E-            Emotional     -    While data is good, Humans are a bundle of emotions !

S-            Stories           -     Narrate a Story !

I am sure you will complain that the above list again looks like a bullet-point list without bullets marked in front…Ladies and Gentlemen, so just take one message out of this …In every presentation TELL A STORY …….not three stories…just one story…your audience will be kinder with you…

In the next post , we will see how to weave a story!

Letting Go!

My favorite blogger Leo Babauta turned 41 today. As a celebration of his life Leo has given the following book  Letting Go  completely for free.  

This book is absolutely uncopyrighted…meaning you can download for free and even share it with your friends for free as well.

Check out the book and take a step towards knowing yourself!