All Entries in the "Growth" Category

That’s me over the last 10 years. I wonder what’s coming in the next 10!

A very old Chinese Taoist story describes a farmer in a poor country village. He owned a horse which he used for plowing and for transportation.

Many people believe that creativity is inborn and only a chosen few are creative. While it is true that creativity is inborn, it is not true that only a chosen few are creative.

There are three different kinds of creative responses. Which is yours?

Myths have a way of perpetuating themselves. There are quite a few related to training and learning too. Everyone seems to believe in them. So much so that they have become sacrosanct and no one even bothers to question them.

My earlier article ‘Avoiding Death by PowerPoint’ was about the art of making interesting presentations. This one is about using easy but powerful tricks that can dramatically improve the quality of your presentations and also bring that extra oomph that is needed for any presentation to stand out. Here are some tricks that I use [...]

Our attitude towards failure gets formed very early in life. Usually in school…and it never just goes away. All through school, we perhaps take hundreds of tests, exams, assignments etc. And we are in BIG trouble if we fail even ONCE. So we are scared of failure. But real life is different. In real life [...]

      Curiosity is made up of an open mind, acute sensing abilities and an urge to seek and find. As a child, you had natural curiosity and a sense of wonder. Hungry for novelty, you were always on your toes to welcome the next moment. A curious mind enabled you to see what [...]

I sometimes get hundreds of emails a day. I used to get sucked in and spend hours sorting them out. I invariably ended up having a day when nothing seemed to be getting done. Over time, I discovered and started using these tricks and now I feel completely in control and save many hours every [...]

As you grow up and gain experience, you absorb assumptions which then drive your life and limit your choices. You can break away from them with a simple tug if you want to but you don’t. As you acquire more and more experience, your repertoire of blind assumptions grows too, correspondingly limiting your choices. Your experience becomes a hindrance in your being creative.

I have decided to incorporate a new habit/attitude every week for the next 49 weeks. Every week, I will try to add on/inculcate a new habit or attitude. All these 49 may not be for you. Do pick up the ones that resonate with you and add some of your own too! I will of [...]

When was the last time you were stuck for an idea? It happens with everyone, but the trick is not to remain stuck for long. What if you had a magic wand and you could come up with ideas about anything at will? How would it change your life? This article lists down some of [...]

I must say that I am equally fed up of the numerous ‘rules for making presentations’ that we stumble across every few days either in a presentation or on the net. When you google ‘rules for making presentations’, you get more than 8 million results! Most of them are standard clichés that irk me no end. So I have created my own set of presentation rules. I follow my rules to the last detail and I have rarely been disappointed. I implore you, urge you and beg you to follow my rules as well.

Saying no is perhaps the most important productivity tool that exists. Saying no is an art. It is also perhaps the most difficult thing to do for most people. I used to dread the occasions where I knew I will have to say no and I used to prepare for such situations for days. Now, [...]

Tickled by Life recently celebrated its first birthday. To celebrate the occasion we have created a series of marvelous ebooks for our readers. These ebooks are beautifully designed compilations of the best articles published on Tickled by Life in the last one year. We believe that these compilations of life changing articles are a must [...]

Once upon a time, many years ago, in prehistoric times, at a time when there were no cities, no buildings and perhaps even no villages, there was a hunter. He had had a successful day and was walking through a forest back to his tribe. He had slung a deer across his shoulder with some homemade [...]