Super Cop gives tips for self-improvement

When you have to interact with people in diverse fields, energy levels have to be very high. To maintain high levels of energy, one has to get away from all that depletes it. The idea of having high level of energy is to use it on things which matter to you most.

One needs to be abreast of new inventions and discoveries, which can help in this direction. Videoconferencing can eliminate stressful travelling. But travel sometimes, has its own admirable points like discovering new things or places or even being able to catch up on your reading during train or air journeys.

It is a good idea to begin and end your day with a prayer. I invariably do one non-Sikh religious reading like on Christianity or Jainism or Buddhism or Islam or Geeta every day, apart from the Granth Sahib. In the night before sleeping as well as in the morning before starting the day,  some positive and thankful reading is a must. It really sways your thoughts. Some people do some meditation. Anything which helps you to become more efficient and a better person and encourages you to live in the present moment should be welcomed. The idea is, to do your best in your work. Always try to think positive, as positive vibes make you feel good about yourself and the world. Being positive radiates positive energy to others including people hostile to you. Have a target to make one person happy and smiling every day.

Focus all your energies on working hard and in achieving whatever you have set out to achieve. It will be a very satisfying experience. Your efforts should be to stay healthy as health is basic to all achievements. A healthy body will enable you to work harder and for longer hours. It will make you feel more confident and change you for the better. Have a programme of staying healthy by incorporating exercising in your life. Never sacrifice your exercising regimen. I get visitors quite often and some of them turn up when I am just going for exercise. I invite them to join me and discuss whatever they want to say during the exercising and walking session. As most people are out of shape, they drop off soon by cutting short their conversation, which would have gone on interminably otherwise.

There are others, who meet me at functions or programmes or even during the exercise and tell me that they want to come to my place to discuss a few things. I do not put them off discourteously, but tell them to discuss whatever they want straightaway. This saves me from listening to their litany of grievances later on.

Having a friendly disposition makes life pleasant and gives you a feeling of being on top of the world. Stay relaxed and do let your hair down. Do anything which makes you feel good whether it is partying, reading books, meditating or seeing films. With this approach you will feel refreshed and energised.

We need to strive for continuous improvement in every walk of our life, be it professional, social or personal. Most of the time people are rigid about their methods of working, living, socialising and even meeting others. A friend’s wife insisted on bathing her one old year baby with cold water in severe cold in December in Delhi on the ground that it is healthy to bathe with cold water. She continued doing this till her baby caught pneumonia and was on death bed. Only after a lot of arguments by her parents and her husband, she realised that it was not necessary to punish the baby with ice cold water in winter. It was her fixed mindset which almost killed her baby, who survived due to the intervention of his grand parents.

Once I was posted in an office, where I found that I could not dictate my letters to anybody as nobody knew stenography or typing. Any expectation that they would be typed correctly and accurately was out of question.

Conventional, conservative and fixed ideas lay down expectations that in Government offices all typing work should be done by the typist or secretary or your stenographer. It was not applicable in the present context. So instead of sticking with such a person, I insisted on his transfer and got it done from another person. The substitute was so good that I had him transferred with me and he spent a large chunk his service with me as my private secretary. At his advice, I learnt typing when still in service. As the typing keyboards of the computer and the typewriter are similar, the transition has been easy and very convenient. This knowledge and skill has resulted in my having written 29 books and in honing my writing skill.

I am convinced that if we do not keep on learning throughout our lives, we are left behind. Whenever I am faced with a problem, I think of how I can solve it and not how it cannot be done. Making excuses for not doing anything and everything is the easiest thing. What matters is doing by questioning the existing theories and practices.

This is the difference between pessimist and others. The pessimist will give all kinds of reasons and excuses as to why something cannot be done instead of getting into the arena and doing it. I reason that it is better to try and get wrong results than not to try at all. Trying something is vital and is the first step in getting any outcome. Undoubtedly, better ways will be found as we go along. We should not put off doing, under the excuse that we are doing only 50 or 75% correctly. Starting itself will help you get past the ‘stuck-up’ point. We can always rectify or adjust as we go along the way.

If you discover that you have made a mistake, correct it right away.  Accept that mistakes are a part of life and they happen. Do what the pilots do when flying aeroplane. Though they put their planes on auto pilot, they keep on constantly adjusting so that the plane lands at its intended destination. It is equally true of our lives and self-improvement. The path to the progress and self-development is not always straight. It requires corrections from time to time. It lies in our power to do it.

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Joginder Singh had a distinguished career as an Indian Police Service Officer and retired as the head of India’s top investigating agency CBI. He is a prolific writer, having published 29 books including translated versions.