Be it a Marathon or Yoga or learning new skills for your profession, here are the five Ps:
– Participate – meaning enroll first and start going and learning, ensure your momentum is there and you are not procastinating
– Prepare – start getting involved and getting to know the nuances of whatever you want to acquire or learn, be interested and stay in the game.
– Push – try hard, push yourself and continuously improve day by day
– Persist – there would be times you would think to quit but do not – be there, and continue to excel and get better,
and
– Perfect – with usage and experience (time in job, they say), you get to perfect what you do.
And at last , be Proud (the 6th P !)
Category: Deep thoughts
Work, results and adversity, as per Gita
An interpretation from Bhagwad Gita:
A man who works for himself or for others or for God. In these three cases, he does things for himself, he does things for others and he does things for God. IN the first two, some metric is defined for success but when he works for God, that success metric is NOT defined or unknown or will not be realized in a quantitative sense. Working for himself makes one selfish but working for others or for God, it makes himself unselfish.
One goes from attachment to semi detachment to total detachment in these three scenarios.
Gita also talks about motiveless result that goes against any business objective of the today’s corporate world – simple put, grow your expertise, your skills (like a soldier has to be fit and should practice his skills daily for an eventuality) and pretty much results would follow. Your skills and expertise applied properly will eventually lead to a guaranteed result.
Same way, three kinds of adversity: Adhyatmika, arising from disorder of the body, Adhibhautika, arising from external objects such as tigers, snakes, road accidents etc, and Adhidaivika, arising from the action of great cosmic forces, such as those that cause natural disasters. A man who is not perturbed by any adversity and who is free from attachments is the wisest of them all.
Coincidence between 2nd and 3rd USA Presidents
It is unbelievable to note that the 2nd and the 3rd President of USA – both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on the same day – July 4, 1826. Both were the sort of the founding fathers of USA and co-authored the Declaration of Independence for USA which was adopted on July 4th, 1776 – the same day they both died exactly 50 years later.
Four things critical for any professional life
Four things are important to life for any professional, however big or busy they are:
- You need to belong – everyone belongs to a community, and one needs to contribute back to the community in terms of time (more than money). For every food wasted, think about a deprived child who does not have any good for days together. Get a sense of responsibility and let your actions speak a lot about yourself, without expecting anything in return. It is not only about you and yours but others as well, care about them. Volunteer at a local school, or a community centre or a specific interest group.
- You need to be available – always have time for your family and closest friends who would be with you through your life. Never say no or delay meeting up with them. Drop that ego and always have an ear and eye for them. It is said that people who socialize more have a healthier life. Go on vacations, short or long with these folks regularly – at least twice a year.
- Stay healthy – how much ever money one has, it cannot bring back your youth nor can it guarantee your life. Dedicate ten hours each week for one sport you love to play and one passion or hobby you love to pursue (can be even music). Once in a while, do an activity that is hard, provided your health agrees, like hiking or rafting, so that you satisfy your adrenaline rush properly.
- Reward yourself – if a dog deserves a treat for doing something nice for you, then you need to reward yourself to having achieved something – small or big. Do it often, even at a small scale like indulging in an ice cream or a Cheesecake, upon achieving something credible that you set out for. If you manage a team, yes, have some small kudos functions often to highlight the achievements of the team – I call it an energy booster. AT the end of the day, we all work for getting something, money or otherwise.
Quality is relative
Quality is relative. Yes, the die harders would define quality as something that is meeting specifications. I disagree. What you perceive as quality is what you would get as quality, unless if your perception is very stringent that you would get the best.
Define success for an entrepreneur
In a recent discussion with a few just-out-of-college future technologists, we got into something interesting – they all have a dream to become a successful entrepreneur.
Usually a dream is the first step, with that belief to accomplish what you are likely to set out for is equally important. Once you have this belief, then there should be prospective intent ( in terms of goal setting and high level planning ) with a first end result in mind. Then comes the passion to achieve is critical – many people cook, only few are renowned as Chefs – the passion is what separates them from the ordinary and they take pride in what they cook – I always says they know what the food lovers would relish. These are the few ingredients of accomplishing what you set out for.
Dream + Belief + Intent + Passion = Achieving Intended Results -> Success
Sponsorship JINX
The jersey sponsors for Indian Cricket team since 1990s like Wills, ITC, Sahara, PayTM, Star, Oppo and now Byjus have paid top dollars to get their branding across through most watched sport in India – they used Indian cricket to market their name. Now I notice Sahara is no more there, PayTM is in trouble with competition recently(I love this wallet though), OPPO is just an also-ran mobile company, and BYJUs seem to be exposed bare. Not sure if the intended RoI has been gained or they had established themselves as the key player (let alone be the leader) of their pack, and certainly does look like a Jinx to me most of the time. Any other inference?
Resolutions – make them work
It is that time for RESOLUTIONS when a new year starts. Again, as in any goal, make them SMART.
I would always recommend dividing your precious time across three facets, and make each of them meaningful to you:
(i) Life – Family and friends
(ii) Work (and wealth) – your profession, save for a rainy day
and (iii) Health – taking care of it and keeping yourself in the best shape
Your hobbies, sport activities, gym, moonlighting, travel, religion, spiritual enlightenment, etc would all fall into one of these buckets.
But be wise to spend good percentage across these three depending on your priorities
What is motivation and discipline?
Motivation is a thought, a realizable dream, a potent desire to do something because of some reason. It is NOT the act or action itself. Having just motivation is not enough. Being motivated is a good start.
Discipline is when you act on the dream and make it a reality. Discipline is when you take concrete steps to realize the thought or the dream. Discipline over time becomes a habit.
Great entrepreneurs have discipline as a key strength – they take an idea to fruition, or create a successful business.
Success = Motivation + Discipline + risk management
Discipline is what makes motivation happen. Say for example, one is motivated to join the gym but nothing happens unless you get to the gym regularly to push your body around which is where discipline is needed.
Numbers never lie but Liars use numbers
As my friend Chandroo says ” Numbers never lie but liars use numbers”. This is what present media does, wanting us readers to form an opinion based on what they want to write or sell – they all have a bias and they present adequate data to validate the bias. They will never report the other side that does NOT sell. Unfortunate to see us always getting opinionated just reading one side of any story.
Unfortunately, it is the same formula that works in corporate world as well – the guy or gal who presents his or her agenda and backs it up with biased data to support it usually gets to fulfill the agenda. (s)He will not expand too much on the downside but tries selling the upside. Great if it benefits, but bad if it derails the organization.
Biases always drains one’s emotion and makes one look bad as enough homework is not done to see both sides of the story. Politicians play on those emotions, stock trading relies on these emotions, not on actual data.