Try Living Once
1. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Sleep for 7 hours.
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Play more games.
6. Read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink plenty of water.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
14. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
15. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
16. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
17. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
18. Smile and laugh more.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
23. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about. Don’t compare your partner with others.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Forgive everyone for everything.
26.. What other people think of you is none of your business.
27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
28. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
29. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
30. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
31. The best is yet to come.
32. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
33. Do the right thing!
34. Call your family often.
35. Your inner most is always happy. So be happy.
36. Each day give something good to others.
37. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
38. Go Blog Yourself.
Life’s Instructions
1. Have a firm handshake.
2. Look people in the eye.
3. Sing in the shower.
4. Own a great stereo system.
5. If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.
6. Keep secrets.
7. Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.
8. Always accept an outstretched hand.
9. Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.
10. Whistle.
11. Avoid sarcastic remarks.
12. Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.
13. Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.
14. Lend only those books you never care to see again.
15. Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have.
16. When playing games with ! children, let them win.
17. Give people a second chance, but not a third.
18. Be romantic.
19. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
20. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.
21. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for our convenience, not the caller’s.
22. Be a good loser.
23. Be a good winner.
24. Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.
25. When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.
26. Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born.
27. Keep it simple.
28. Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.
29. Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.
30. Live your life so that your epitaph could read, No Regrets
31. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the one’s you did.
32. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
33. Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.
34. Take charge of your attitude. Don’t let someone else choose it for you.
35. Visit friends and relatives when they are in hospital; you need only stay a few minutes.
36. Begin each day with some of your favorite music.
37. Once in a while, take the scenic route.
38. Send a lot of Valentine cards. Sign them, ‘Someone who thinks you’re terrific.’
39. Answer the phone with enthusiasm and energy in your voice.
40. Keep a note pad and pencil on your bed-side table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 a.m.
41. Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.
42. Send your loved ones flowers. Think of a reason later.
43. Make someone’s day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.
44. Become someone’s hero.
45. Marry only for love.
46. Count your blessings.
47. Compliment the meal when you’re a guest in someone’s home.
48. Wave at the children on a school bus.
49. Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.
50. Don’t expect life to be fair.
Live Your Life To The Fullest
Do you sometimes feel that you’re living a boring life? You just can’t seem to find anything exciting.
You wake up in the morning, then do the same old rituals. You go to the office or to school. You meet the same people, do the same job, travel the same road, booooring. Next day, same story.
Do you want a change in your life? The solution is YOU! You’re the master of your destiny. You decide if you want to have a change or not.
Take the situation of a high school graduate. He have 2 choices – to continue through college or earn money working as a clerk.
He’s intimidated by the difficulties of studying, thesis, etc. He doesn’t think he will pass the exams because he thinks he’s below average. He doesn’t like to take the risk of failing college and earning no money at present.
So he works as a clerk earning meager income. He’s happy because he’s earning money at such a young age while his friends are having a hard time.
But then his friends graduated and got high-paying jobs. He envies them. If only he have sacrificed a few years and faced all the challenges of college, then he could’ve had a better life. If only he had taken the risk!
There are also some people who want to improve their lives, but they’re just too afraid to come out of their comfort zones and explore the endless opportunities out there.
Yes, there may be challenges and problems; but if you try your best to move forward, you’ll get more out of life.
Explore and diversify. Take a different route to work, eat exotic foods you’ve never tasted, do something outrageous (not dangerous).
Life could be exciting. It’s your choice. Are you satisfied with your life right now? If not, then you
need to do the things that you think will make your life complete and meaningful.
You’ve got only one life to live. Maximize every opportunity. Go out and do those things which will leave lasting memories in your mind. Live every day as if it’s your last.
Seize every moment!
Five steps to reinvention
Rethink. That one word is causing enough alarm. Rethink applies to various things. If you admit your child to an unconventional school, you are rethinking. If you buy a hybrid car, you are rethinking. And, if you start overhauling your career, you are
rethinking.
Rethinking is as fashionable as moving around with an iPhone. Soon, docs will tell you that there is something wrong with you if you do not rethink. The process of rethinking is never planned. It happens just like that: you focus your mind and it lights up your future.
It is a state of mind you enter when you are nudging 40, at 40, over 40, or well over 40. You simply answer the question: how do you reinvent? Your workplace is filled with people half your age who have just one goal: just do better than them. Them, of course, refers to you.
So, when and how do you rethink? The world around you has enough triggers to set you meditating. You could rethink when you are at the movies, for instance. If you are watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you may have a fat reason to rethink. In his latest portrayal, Indy is a knowledge-seeker. The flamboyant treasure-hunter of Raiders of the Lost Ark now finds himself in a rethink mode, as Indy 4.0. Sounds familiar?Yes, it does. For, Indy’s is a quest for relevance. It is what makes the entire process of rethinking as exciting as an Indiana Jones flick. Even if this struggle for relevance is not part of every Indian workplace, there is no doubt that tension is surfacing. Anecdotes of people tweaking their work profiles, retooling themselves, or changing careers, are not hard to find. To get some first-hand experience I asked a friend, who took nearly 10 years to reinvent himself, how he did it. “Was it easy for an executive to turn into a restaurateur?” I asked him. Here are some ideas from his strategic reflections.
Four stages of life: Life, as we know it, has reorganised itself into four parts: the student phase (when you are grabbing local and global degrees), the initiation stage (when you are learning the ropes at an organisation), the execution part (when you are working your butt off), and the dream zone (when you dream of a great ending). If you compartmentalise your life into these four parts, you will be able to react to change faster.
Can you really drive on an autobahn? If you are 40, 40 plus, or 40 superplus, you have just landed yourself on an expressway. The rules are simple: vroom, vroom, vroom. Driving should be easy but for the fact that you are riding a cycle. You can reinvent yourself by motorising your vehicle, but you will still be shoved aside. You can carve out a new identity by arming yourself with a mega hooter, but will that get you ahead of the streaming traffic? Just look at the absurdity: a cyclist trying to compete with SUVs by reinventing the bell. Sadly, that is today’s reality, where reinvention is as incremental as a cyclist removing mud guards to reduce weight — and win.
Indy 4.0: The fourth version of Hollywood’s most handsome conquistador, Indiana Jones, is a wakeup call to all fortyssimos. It is a story of keeping a character alive,
a competency ticking, and a message fresh. So, rethink aloud. The music you play may not be the music people like. So, stop being a maestro, reinvent yourself as a chef.
But makeover is not all that easy. For, self-change requires a bullwhip to get the message into the skull.
You are not alone: There is some good news for those well into their forties. The Rethink Syndrome also affects the young: people in their twenties and thirties.
As their careers telescope into projects, getting shorter and shorter, they will have to constantly recalibrate, readapt, reengineer, rethink. And they will have to do that every year.
Indy 8.0: So, if you are 20, it may be another 20 years before you see Indy 8.0, the eighth flick in the Indiana Jones series. It may well turn out to be less thrilling and exciting than your superfast career. Surely, you don’t need a crystal ball, or a skull, to predict that.
by Vinay Kamat on Saturday, May 31, 2008 10:17 IST
Love the things that irritate you
The things that drive you crazy are actually giant opportunities. The people who press your buttons are actually your greatest teachers. The issues that make you angry are actually your biggest gifts. Love them.
The people or circumstances that take you out of your power have extraordinary value: They reveal your limiting beliefs, fears and false assumptions. The celebrated psychologist Carl Jung once said: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” One very powerful point. How much would you pay someone who promised that they could pinpoint exactly what is holding you back from your greatest life? How much would it be worth to get intimate information and intelligence on why you are not exactly at the place you’ve always dreamed of being?
The things that irritate, annoy and anger you are entry points into your evolution and elevation as a human being. They are signposts for what you need to work on and fears you need to face. They are gifts of growth. You can blame the people who trigger you and make it all about them. Or you can do the wise thing and look deeply into yourself to discover the reasons for your negative reaction. Use challenges to grow self-awareness. How can you overcome a fear you are not even aware of?
As you begin to shed light on your personal weaknesses and take responsibility for them, you actually begin the very process of shedding them. Shadows exposed to the light begin to disappear. You become stronger. More of who you were meant to be. You see the world differently.
Kahlil Gibran, one of my favourite thinkers, once wrote: “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am grateful to those teachers.” So the next time a co-worker sets you off, or your teenager gets you going, or the next time a rude waiter in a restaurant makes you angry, walk over to them, give them a hug. Thank them for the gift they just gave you.
Speak like a superstar
The words you use determine the way you feel. The language you choose shapes the way you perceive reality. Your vocabulary drives meaning in your life. Please think about this idea. I believe it’s a big one.
The superstar businesspeople who I’ve coached are among the most high-spirited people I’ve ever met. And the way they talk reflects that devotion to being an uplifter and elevator of human beings. They wouldn’t dream of calling a setback a “problem”- they’d call it an “opportunity to create something even greater.” And then, as if by magic, their positive language provokes a set of positive sensations within them that supports them in playing victor versus victim in the seemingly difficult situation.
The great ones among us would never express information about an upset customer as “bad news” but instead would label it “a challenge that will help us grow.” Rather than using negative words, they prefer winning words that inspire those around them to dwell in possibility and keep their heads focused on the dream. The words you use influence the life you live. Select them wisely.
I have a little exercise to offer you. Pull out your journal or a clean white sheet of paper and record an inventory of the words you most frequently speak. The more aware you can become of the quality of your language, the more choice you will give yourself. And writing things down dramatically raises your self awareness. Then, once you have identified your most commonly used words, do another list. Articulate a series of spectacularly positive words that will serve you-words that you imagine a superstar in your field using. Bring them into your daily vocabulary. You will discover that speaking these words will make you feel better. More powerful. More passionate. And when you feel great feelings, guess what? You’ll do great things.
Learning — the cure for ageing
There’s a cure for ageing that no one talks about. It’s called learning. In my mind, as long as you learn something new each day, stretch your personal frontiers and improve the way you think, you cannot grow old.
Aging only happens to people who lose their lust for getting better and disconnect from their natural base of curiosity. “Every three or four years I pick a new subject.
It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject but they are enough to understand it. So for more than 60 years I have kept studying one subject at a time,” said Peter Drucker, the father of modern management who lived until he was 95. Brilliant guy.
Last year, I had the joy of spending a couple of hours in conversation with Shimon Peres, the former Israeli prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was nearly 82 at the time, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes actually sparkled as he spoke of his love of books, big ideas and learning.
I asked: “Mr Peres, when do you read?” His reply: “Robin, when don’t I read? I read when I get up in the morning, when I can during the day and every single evening. Most of my weekends are spent reading great books. Books are my constant companions.” He then added with a smile: “If you are 51 years old, eat three times a day you’ll be fed. But if you read three times a day you’ll be wise.”
Too many people never pick up a book after they’ve finished school. Unbelievable. Too many people spend more time watching TV than getting deep inside the minds of the greatest people who have walked the planet. Too many people have closed their minds to new insights and powerful thoughts.
One idea discovered in one book can change the way you see the world. One idea read in one book could transform the way you communicate with people. One idea found in one book could help you live longer or be happier or drive your business to remarkable success. Never leave home without a book in your hand.
Robin Sharma is author of The Greatness Guide (Jaico)
The mind works best when it is kept open
“Instead of worrying about my losses, I started to count all the things I still had, and it was a revelation,” says Alexis Leon a software engineer with Tata Consultancy Services who met with a road accident, which left him paralysed waist down. Post accident he went through agonies associated with such an accident. But when you prepare yourself to think about how to overcome the challenges, you are able to endure the unendurable, accept the unacceptable, and move on to do the best with what you have. Leon prepared his mind to overcome the challenge and has done very well and went on to author over forty books on computing.
Most of us are healthy and have not experienced any of the challenges that people like Alexis Leon have endured, yet we are not living as vibrantly as we can. It is also important to realise that the likes of Alexis are as human as any one of us. Read more about people who live vibrantly, instead of reading about criminals in the newspapers. Better still, whenever you read about an achiever cut it out and paste it in your scrapbook for later reference.
“Victory belongs to the most persevering. Think of life as a win-win situation. Always attack a problem from all sides not just one,” says GM Rao, the founder of the GMR group. Rao was conferred the Entrepreneur of the Year award 2007.
Rao’s family was involved in trading jute and grain. All his family members had the most basic education. He was the first one to become an engineer in his family. After his education, Rao also started with trading in agriculture products, but later went on to become a force to reckon with in the infrastructure industry. GMR currently is building the airport in Delhi and also owns the IPL team the Delhi Daredevils.
Be as passionate as an entrepreneur
If you’re determined to achieve something, there’s no looking back
Ships are safe in the harbour, but ships are not profitable if they stay in the harbour! Likewise, your personality is only important because it gives you a head start. Eventually, the ideas in your head and feelings in your heart will take you ahead in life. For this, keep your mental screen turned on: That is Focus.
Most of us don’t focus! We want to squeeze in too many things and end up confused! Success comes when we prioritise every night before we go to sleep. That way, from the moment we get up in the morning, we are already goal-oriented and are all set to optimise our working hours. A true entrepreneur uses not just five senses; he uses the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth too.
When the bug of entrepreneurship bites an entrepreneur he becomes ‘passionate’. He has limited resources and has to think of creative and easy ways to scrape together enough money to put up as seed capital. S/he is a person who has passion, determination and persistence to take calculated risks. All these values may seem theoretical, but the blending of these values, which give the final results. They are successful because their passion leads them to organise available resources in new and more valuable ways.
One such person is Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, a practicing Hindu. She attended a Catholic School in Chennai, was an avid debater, played cricket and the guitar, and was an active member of a rock band! Her grandfather and her parents gave her the values and ethics by examples.
She worked in Boston Consulting, Motorola and Asia Brown Bowery and joined Pepsi in 1994. As CEO of Pepsi, number 63 on the Fortune list of top 500 companies, she earned $7 million in 2006!
Her biggest and most unusual strength is that CEOs before her — all white men — were good friends and good consultants to her. She says, “After Pepsi, I do want to go to Washington, I want to give back — to work for no money for four or five years.”
If she has achieved all this at 52, imagine what she can do by 60, once she makes up her mind. Her journey started when she was a little girl who used to wake up at 5am to fill two buckets of water before going to school, just so she could help out around the house.
“Effective entrepreneurship is not making speeches or being liked; entrepreneurship is defined by results, not attributes.” — Peter F Drucker
by Vijay Batra (wellness guru)
Just say ‘no’ when you feel like it
People with low self-esteem keep saying ‘yes’ to everyone, keeping their own priorities on the backburner
How many times have you wanted to say ‘no’ to something but said, ‘yes’ instead? Why do we find saying ‘yes’ more easy than saying ‘no’? Think about it. This habit gets into a lot of trouble, isn’t it?
In our culture, it is seen as a good thing to agree. Marriage can break or make our lives. But when a girl says ‘no’ to marrying a boy, parents and relatives want to know why she rejected the match. But they never ask had the girl said ‘yes’.
People with low self-esteem have a problem saying that they will not do something. Low self-esteem makes us want to satisfy everyone and meet everyone else’s expectations. Most of us feel guilty saying, ‘no’ — even ashamed. It is therefore not easy getting used to saying ‘no’.
But it is not that difficult either. Steel up your confidence, and ask yourself what you want to say. If you want to say ‘no’, say it without lowering your voice or your eyes. Say it emphatically in a clear voice. After all, you are only protecting your interest. It is important not to let anyone ride your thoughts, emotions and actions. Once you say ‘no’, stick to it. If you sound hesitant, the other person might think you have not actually made up your mind, that you are unsure and all you need is convincing.
Give a logical explanation as to why you said ‘no’ when you were expected to agree. This will cut down unnecessary attempts at convincing you to change your mind. Do not nod and smile while saying ‘no’ as your body language will send out a wrong signal. It should not sound or look ambiguous.
Tell yourself that you are not saying a ‘yes’ because it would have painful consequences. Doing something you don’t want to do might get you short-term gains, but is it really worth it? Do not wallow in guilt after saying ‘no’. Just move on.
If you become a doormat, people will stand over you. That is why self-esteem is crucial if you want to engineer a straight ‘no’. You have to understand that it is not possible to please all. Those who are obsessed with pleasing all, usually end up saying, ‘yes’ to everything. It is their way of dealing with their inability and their eagerness to feel wanted and accepted.
Sometimes, we say ‘yes’ not wanting to taste failure. But failure is not a bad thing. It is a great learning experience that often is crucial to our success. It is important to place yourself before the needs of others. This is not advocating selfishness, but the need to recognise and respect your needs. After all, your self and individuality matters.
We also keep saying ‘yes’ wanting to show that we are capable of doing anything and everything. Often that gets misunderstood and we find that others keep expecting a ‘yes’ every time. And you keep the act going not wanting to feel uncertain, unpopular, embarrassed and unsure. But in the long run you end up being the loser.
So it is important to understand the importance of saying ‘no’.
Why delay, when you can do it today
Things that need to be done today should never be put forward to tomorrow. Challeging yourself will drive away boredom
Procrastination. Familiar with the word? It seeps into our lives even if we are organised. It shatters what we have slowly achieved. Suddenly, this phase hits you where you just don’t feel like doing anything. The energy you always had has been sapped up. There is an overwhelming feeling that all this will lead you nowhere. You feel like a failure. If you are feeling like this, you have hit the procrastination phase.
Why does this happen? It is important to understand this to stop it from happening. Myriad factors could be at play. You have paid for the gym, but have not visited it in weeks. The easiest thing in life is to be lazy, or get distracted. You need to fix a tap leak, but you will rather watch that stupid soap on television. You need to go to the market to buy vegetables, but you will rather have precooked noodles. To get something, you need to work. And work hard.
Sometimes, work can get boring, as it is repetitive. But every moment in life cannot be exciting; there has to be some moments of boredom. Just tell yourself that it is a part of your investment in reaching the final goal.
One way of fighting procrastination is to challenge yourself all the time. It cuts down the boredom and you get a surge of energy as there is risk involved, and you have to be brave to take it. No one ever built an empire hanging around in a comfort zone.
Don’t leave anything for tomorrow what can be done today. The very fact that we leave work for another day creates room for procrastination to thrive.
Often, procrastination is because of fear of failure. We indefinitely postpone doing something fearing that we may never be able to do it. It is your defence mechanism to deal with your doubts and lack of confidence.
Once you delay, you keep on putting the work off because you don’t want to face the fact of not doing something at the designated time. So you also try to distract yourself from guilt by doing other chores.
One of the best ways to beat procrastination is to get organised. Grab an organiser. Jot down what you want to do, the deadlines and the timelines you can afford. Make a priority list.
It may even help to write down how you will gain with a little discipline, and how your self-esteem will rise as others see you differently in a more efficient avatar. Reward yourself if you finish on time and do not procrastinate. At a subconscious level, it will work wonders. Tell a colleague or close friend to monitor you.
Check your to-do list every day to ensure that yesterday’s work is not being done today. If you have let it slip, you have chosen to procrastinate. Winners never do that.
Ramesh Menon is a writer, filmmaker and corporate trainer
