All Entries Tagged With: "Personal Growth"

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.

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 [...]

Who does not like the idea of being one’s own boss, calling the shots, managing assets (and may be people), and making money as unlimited as your talents and enterprise? Yet loving the idea of business ownership is one thing, and making the business a success is another.

Fall is one of my favorite times of year‚Äîthe temp starts dropping, the air gets crisp, the trees put on a glorious display of color‚ÄîI love it! I also think it’s a great time to drop what’s not working for you. If trees can let go of every leaf, why can’t we let go of what no longer serves us?

Ouch – we all hate it when we’re rejected. Fear of rejection stops salespeople from asking for the sale. It stops us from reaching out to new friends and associates. It stops families from coming together. It even stops us from pursuing our dreams. Rejection is a given – no matter how fabulous you are, [...]

For most of us, childhood is when life is most enjoyable. Bereft of responsibility, we are taken care of, sheltered, fed, clothed, educated and kept in good health. All we have to do is savour every wonderful moment to the fullest.

Choice of career, choice of spouse, choice of investment, the list goes on. Is it by instinct or “gut feeling” or do we actually analyse the important decisions we make in life?

There is much talk of progress and success nowadays. Motivational programs are everywhere. In what sense of the word are we talking? For argument’s sake, let’s confine ourselves to the sense of advancement in career and money-making prospects. This then presupposes that everyone would always be striving to improve one’s earning capabilities and keep on [...]

There’s an old German saying that goes, “You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.” Are you planning to just let life “happen” to you or do you plan to play an active part in designing the life you want?

It’s when events are overwhelmingly beyond your control, that you either find new ways to cope or are pulled down by the undertow. Your usual defenses are inadequate to protect from overwhelming long-term stress. Stress can build gradually beyond tolerance level, or a surprising turn of events like those recently reported in the news can create the kind of vulnerability that demands openness to change.

Right now it’s tough to not feel like a victim. So many events seem to be beyond our control, and so many consequences of the decisions of others appear to have cost so many so much. It’s an easy time to choose to blame others and let events just carry us along- the perfect example of a victim.

What on earth are ‚ÄòBusiness Burps‚Äô you may be asking? It was a phrase I thought of whilst … burping. Can you remember as a child when you first let out a burp after gulping a fizzy drink? Wasn‚Äôt it a bit exciting (as well as a little bit rude)? Weren‚Äôt your parents just a tiny bit embarrassed?

Ambiguity is not a desirable state in most situations. It typically causes communication problems and has no place in certain circumstances. For instance, an infantry commander would not want to say, “Make sure you cross one of the bridges soon or else.” This could be a prescription for disaster. Rather, the infantry commander would say, [...]

The countdown for the New Year has started. Immature persons are thinking hard to decide on a remarkable New Year resolution which can transform their life in a night and experienced persons like us, who are guilty-ridden about breaking their resolutions every year, are working seriously on the reasons of failure and finding a failure-proof resolution.

As responsible adults, we are encouraged to create both a Will and a Living Will. Wouldn’t it be great to also create a document that declares how we want to live! It could be called a “Living Willfully Declaration.” This document wouldn’t divide up what we have, or detail how we want to leave with dignity, but instead it would bear witness to the principles and values we want our lives to express. By Living Willfully, I mean living with intention and integrity, purpose and determination, mindfulness and just action. It means consciously choosing how we want to respond to life instead of simply reacting.

I was living a beautiful, content life of marital bliss, enjoying motherhood and generally just being there. Life was good, I believed in myself, God was not a word in my lexicon; I passed my leisure reading fiction and watching movies. But, and it is a big ‘but’, at times I felt that there was more in me.

2009 was an eventful year with its fair share of ups and downs and nothing indicates that 2010 won’t follow suit, if not further test our mettle. As

When I stuck my head inside me like an ostrich, whoa, I found a person – confused, desiring to be someone else, someone who was slim, svelte, spoke very well, oozing confidence, knew what to talk, spoke so knowledgeably that I silently gawped. So I plunged headlong and imitated, spoke like “Her’ adopted her values and attitudes. Headily I watched myself transforming into a miniature ‘She’.

I have been actively making new-year resolutions for the last 3 years with very little success. It is usually regular stuff like fitness, skills, jobs, money, etc. It usually lasts for a few weeks. The longest was last year when I started jogging regularly and kept at it for a few months.

I was in Dumaguete, a city in the South of Manila, when I celebrated my 44th birthday last November 2008. I was not alone. I was with a group from the office, managing a multi-million peso event that was to crown all our achievements for the year. I was the team leader and I owned the project.

Comparison is crazy-making. It stamps on potential and truth and all the good things you might already have going for you if you weren’t so busy shadow-boxing with the people whom you think have it better. Would you compare a snowflake to a snowflake to decide which was more beautiful and unique? No two snowflakes are the same.

A little child is being rewarded by her mother for good behavior. “Mom I want ice-cream!” She shouted excitedly. The momentarily indulgent mother immediately takes the course to the best ice-cream corner….not knowing what she’s getting into. On the way, the little girl is busy describing her favorite ice-cream, “Mom, you know what I like [...]

I thought I was lucky to get a front row seat at a musical evening in Washington DC where a top Bollywood singer was scheduled to sing — an event that Indians abroad await with excitement. My excitement quickly turned into disappointment as the singer began to belt out in very high decibels, ‘adhunik’ songs [...]

In the midst of our pursuits in  life, we experience many simple happy moments as well as wonderful life affirming events like births, graduations and marriages. And at  other times, certain events frustrate and challenge us. We seem to have little or no control over them. Despite adopting a ‘positive thinking’ attitude, we are faced [...]

This weekend my son and I ended up at a Sand Mandala ceremony guided by Tibetan Monks. I just vaguely remembered that something about monks was going on at the Chinese Gardens, and we just happened to arrive as the ceremony was beginning. And there was a prayer carpet in the front row that was [...]

“We’ll live somewhere else, away from Dad, ok?” I nodded silently, nonplussed about what was going on. I was convinced that none of the confusion appeared on my face, but that was the time I didn’t know how impossible it is to hide things from Mum. I was nine that day. Time has changed since. [...]

Turning points. They are experienced by everyone. These are events that are capable of transforming the entire being of a person: both positively and negatively. They can restructure psyches – or sometimes even shatter them and create new ones in place. What is the reach of such incidents? Everywhere possible – individually and collectively, physically [...]

In his brilliant book titled Job-Shift: How to Prosper in a World Without Jobs, William Bridges says we are living in a jobless society. What you ask? There are no jobs? Let me explain. In the US, the concept that we have of jobs has only been in existence for about the last 150 years. [...]

Wouldn’t it be great if when you are born, someone hands you a book of guidelines, titled “Life Guide” to show you how to live your life? Instead, we stumble, fumble and stutter our way through our lives toward our ultimate demise. If you are lucky, a realization springs on you somewhere along the way [...]

Fold and toss & fold and toss & fold and toss….house after house. Are you old enough to remember this? This was the little boy who lived down the street and delivered your newspaper. If he were lucky, he had one of those spiffy canvas bags he wore to carry the papers. He got very [...]

Whatever or who-so-ever it may be is either an original or a duplicate! Duplicates as they get compounded, they are often confounded too. Originals as collectibles are yearned for, owned, respected, demanded and commanded till eternity. They are seldom if ever — reprimanded. They are perpetually — demanded. As they are never “On Hand.” Original [...]

It is time to challenge the Einsteins and Newtons of this world. Do you have the courage to stop making a product, even when it is the largest selling one in its category? Can you think of wanting ‘demanding customers?’ Do you start developing the next model even before introducing the earlier one in the [...]

You are a beautiful essence expressing your own unique genius. Yes, I said genius. And no, I don’t mean like Albert Einstein. We each have something that delights us, that we enjoy doing and most times a yearning to share that with others in some way. This essence that wants to manifest itself, leads you [...]

One of my visits to the beach left me thinking about the term, ‘sea change.’ What exactly is the connection between ‘sea’ and ‘change’? Delving into the dictionary for its meaning, I was able to figure out that it can mean: transformation, a u-turn, reversal, change of heart, etc. Etymologically speaking, William Shakespeare used the [...]

Some very cool things happen when I’m jamming with Fire Starters. Aha’s, elevated perspectives, connections. But my favourite phenomenon is when someone decides, with a nudge, to give up on what’s not working. Throw in the towel. Close shop. Call it quits. In the last month or so, I’ve witnessed two store closings, three blog [...]

It occurred to me this week that this is a mighty powerful question. What’s it going to take? We usually use that phrase in dire circumstances. What’s it going to take for you to wake up? What’s it going to take for me to quit? What’s it going to take for them to realize? But [...]

Organisations should tap into the whole system intelligence to take important decisions to cope with the economic crisis. The economic slow-down and the financial crisis in India has put CEOs and promoters under pressure. While a few segments of the industry would be more affected than others, the ripple effect is seen and felt everywhere. [...]

In this beautiful part of the world where I live (Eastern Ladakh) the hills are alive with a pregnant vibrancy. Even though the mountain tops (and the passes) are still covered with snow; our beautiful emerald lake Pangong tso is still frozen; and we are still experiencing minus degree temperatures, there is a tangible expectation [...]

At the beginning, I felt slightly astonished. Glancing at my life, I realized that it was all gone, in a matter of instants. I thought about it for more than what seemed an endless second and the result wouldn’t change. I lost my job. Funny how fast I became an actual victim of this worldwide [...]

If you and your organisation are facing large-scale change, you have a number of choices: run away and pretend it isn’t happening, get someone else to fix it, institute some diversionary activity, or cling to what you have in the hope that it will comfort you through the times ahead. Or, you can learn to [...]

Every body talks about living the dream.  How many of us really get to do “living the dream”?  It is my belief that more of us are living it than we realize, while others watch others in wonder and say “Why not me?”  There is no magic formula, no special potion and (shhh…) no secret [...]

In a hilarious sequence in one of his immortal films Charlie Chaplin ambles into a shipyard and finds himself right next to a big ship with no one around. He cannot resist fiddling with the ship. He notices that the ship has been tethered with ropes. In his inimitable bumbling way Chaplin loosens just one [...]

There is so much of talk about change these days. People embrace change easily, when it comes to their desk for execution. But the same persons, when in a discussion, resist or try to block any such move even when they agree that the change being proposed is the right thing to do. Why? What [...]

Since our early childhood we are taught ‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’. It’s also supposed to be the way to our finest life and somewhere we all want to live it. In this pursuit one habit which we all want to inculcate is the habit of [...]

One of my professors in my management classes used to say, “Shape up or ship out.” In our world today, it seems that one thing that is fully certain is change.  The speed of transformation that our business world is seeing – the rapid growth of technology, the ever changing needs of consumers, the needs [...]

Emerson states, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. A majority of the issues related to worker productivity stem from enthusiasm or the lack thereof. Individuals simply go to work despite their abhorrence of their employer, the monotony, and the products. There is no passion or pride. Much of this issue stems from practices embedded [...]

If I live to be a hundred, I’ll still remember Friday, January 28, 1983. It was a bright sunny day, and I blissfully sang “I’m on the top of the world!” off-key as I dressed for work.  The day before, the company physician had confirmed what I’d suspected for weeks–I was three months pregnant–and after [...]

I have a confession to make.  I am a procrastinator.  I can find a reason to do just about anything other than the tasks I dread.  For example, I should be getting a mailing out right now, but I am writing this article.  However, I recently completed a ton of tasks I had been putting [...]

When the performance gurus talk about riding out the highs and the lows of business, what they mean is that when business is swinging, you act cool, and when it goes wrong – you still act cool. It is not wrong to celebrate success, but if you are still partying a week after you land [...]

If there is a singular thought you must equip you with, when faced with a pink-slip, it  is to reiterate to yourself that what happened is owing to extraneous factors – the event per se is no reflection of your own professional or personal capabilities. Embedding this deep down in your mind will keep you [...]