[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

30th October 2009

 

Wild dreaming….

 

A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when

it becomes today.

Edward G Bulwer-Lytton

 

Your mind has no limit or boundary. The so-called limitations are not imposed upon us. We accept them. Our mind is an excellent instrument and very people, if at all, have made enough use of it. Many of our life's ambitions are born in our mind. First it originates as a small idea and if properly nourished, it grows into a massive implementable action plan. If we do not pay attention to our mind's small signals, over a period of time, it will stop giving us such useful start up ideas.

 

This week end, take a piece of paper and just write down what ever you want in your life in the same order it comes to your mind. Don't stop the flow. Don't become critical. Just write. Write down anything you want to see, read, hear, taste, feel, experience, explore…Let the mind really go wild with imagination.

 

Then classify the items in the list into material wants, spiritual wants, personal wants, family wants, career wants, relationship wants, social wants, etc. While listing be bold and daring, let not anything stop you. Neither your financial position nor your educational qualification should stop you from adding variety to your list. Don't bother as to what others will say. Let them say what they want.

 

Keep on writing until you have nothing to write. If there is nothing new coming, take a break, gaze through the windows, take a stroll, and then come back and write again. Write down everything you wish for in your life.

 

One day your wish will take a final shape in the form of a strategy. Revisit your list some five years later and you will be really surprised that some of them have started seeing the light of the day!

 

What are you waiting for? Get a pen and paper and start writing….

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

29th October 2009

Stretching the mind…

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

Andrew Carnegie

Many of us experiment and find out how much we can stretch our body. We try to find out how much weight we can lift, how many miles we can run or swim, how many push ups we can do etc. Do we ever find out how much our mind can stretch? Our mind can stretch and we can find out our limits. In fact we should.

 

You can do some simple exercises. Sit in a quiet place and let your mind travel back to your past. Try to recall a picture of what you did one hour ago. See it as a video clipping. Now, `rewind' the mental VCR and see a clipping of what you did five hours ago. Like this way slowly go back and `see' what you did this time yesterday. Like this try to go back as much as possible and see the `clippings' of your actions as if some one has video covered you and is playing the same for you. Check for the quality of the picture and see how clear the picture is. See if you can see the scene as a panoramic picture. `Hear' the various voices and recall each face as you watch the picture. See the picture in a 3 D format.

 

Some will be able to do this exercise without much difficulty and some others have to strain a bit. When you practice this regularly, you will be able to stretch your mind to `see' a picture far back in the past. Making a mental picture and stretching improves the right side of your brain. The right side of the brain is the most creative side of your brain. By activating the right side of your brain, you will be able to see life in a larger perspective. You will become more creative and innovative. The difference between those who achieve great things and those who achieve ordinary things depends on how they use the right side of the brain.

 

Try and stretch your mind as see the difference.

 

 

N C Sridharan

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

28th October 2009

Mental workouts…

Minds, like bodies, will fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.

Charles Dickens

Try this exercise: sit on the ground and be there without moving your body for about one hour and try getting up. You will feel giddy and you will not be able to stand up immediately. Since you have not used the body for a long time it gets frozen. The same thing happens if you have not opened a door for a long time or not used the car for months together. The door will not open and the car will not start.

 

In the same way, if we do not give sufficient work to our mind, it will get `stuck' and will become inefficient. Just like an athlete keeps the body fit and active by going to the gym everyday and working out, we need to visit our `mental gym' and exercise so that we are mentally active and alert. With the invention of many gadgets, we give less and less work to our mind. Even for simple calculations we use the calculator. For problem solving we use computers and other devises. We do not give enough work to our mind compared to what our parents and grand parents did.

 

Our mind becomes out of shape if we do not give challenging assignments to it. We have to do something to get out of this trap.

 

Learn a new language. Solve a crossword puzzle. Try juggling three balls. Learn music. Solve a Rubik cube. Go to a new place and explore the area. Find out unknown facts about known things. Count 1000 numbers backwards skipping alternate numbers. Count 1000 numbers forward skipping every fourth number. Do mental arithmetic. Write a story. Stop reading a story and construct the balance yourself. Recall a scene you have already seen and see it vividly in your mental screen.

 

Do something please; exercise your brain, since you have to be mentally fit!

 

N C Sridharan

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

27th October 2009

A balanced diet for the mind…

 `If the brain sows not corn, it plants thistles'

-George Herbert, 17th Century Poet

 

Just imagine what will happen if you take the same food every day. If you ignore the concept of a balanced diet, even if you take a large quantity of food, it will not be enough to keep your body fit. You need a variety of food such as carbohydrate, protein, water, mineral, fats etc to fuel your body and give you the necessary energy so that you carry on all the activities and remain fit.

 

The same analogy applies to the mind. The mind also needs a balanced diet in the form of good feelings, thoughts, emotions and new ideas. Every day you come across a lot of news items, read a variety of magazines and books. You read stories and jokes. Some magazines give you ideas and tips. There are crossword puzzles and tidbits. You need all this. You also need light reading material to relax. All these constitute mental diet. You need to have this rich variety to keep your mind fit and energetic.

 

Just think what will happen if you had only junk food and starved yourself of healthy nourishment. You will not have the requisite energy to sustain your activity level. The same applies to your mind also. If you do not feed your mind with healthy thoughts and ideas, you will become mentally weak.

 

So, every day set aside time for feeding your mind with healthy thoughts and ideas. Read good books and magazines. Read one autobiography of some one great every month. Collect thought provoking quotations. Join a humour club. Join a discussion group. See a good movie. Visit an art gallery.

 

See the difference in your mental health!

 

N C Sridharan

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

26th October 2009

Add a VIP to your list every day!

Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
--Robert Schuller

We need to know people and seek their help and cooperation to achieve what we want to achieve in our life. Success is a team effort and we cannot succeed alone. We have to know who are the people who have the resource to help us. The word `important' means `having great effect or value'. So, an `important' person is one who can add value to our life. We need to have as many such people as possible so that `our team' wins.

Just like a marketing person wants to know who can help him to sell his product in the market, you need to search for people who can help you reach your goals in life. You may not all of them. It is your responsibility to know them. I can give another example. A good craftsman will look for such tools which will help his work. If he comes to know that there is such a tool available, he will take efforts to acquire the same. We should understand that people are also `tools' and we need proper tools to do what we want to do. The dictionary meaning of the word `tool' is `a device or implement used for particular task' and `a person used by another'.

Once we understand this simple principle, it is easy to implement the idea presented in this page. We may not be able to know all the people at a time we want them. We need to work on this important portfolio on a daily basis. So every day add a person to your list and try to know them. Send a card, telephone them that you want to meet them and meet them. You may not get an immediate interview. But you can make some progress over a period of time.

Try this idea and see the difference in your contact level in one year!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

23rd October 2009

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.

John Wesley

Clean up your mind!

We clean up our car, our house, our garden and the living environment. If we do not maintain these things neatly, dust will accumulate and destroy the thing. If the item under reference is made of steel, rust will erode the article. We realize the same and do cleaning up periodically. Just imaging what will happen if the roads are not cleaned up. Government passes pollution control legislation to keep the environment clean. Under this legislation, excessive smoke, dust, effluents etc are controlled.

The same principle is valid for our mind also. Our mind is also capable of becoming `dirty'. The only difference is that we may not be able to notice the same since it is internal. The mind is polluted by bad thoughts, negative emotions and unproductive thoughts. If we do not clean up our mind, this mental pollution will affect our output. The quality of the cleanliness of our mind will decide the quality of our thinking process and ultimately our actions. Our actions cannot be clean if the mind is not clean.

We need to be conscious about what type of thought enter and occupy our mind. If we are not conscious about it, the mental pollution will grow. Negative feelings such as greed, anger, jealousy, fear, etc pollute our mind. If we do not notice and clean up our mind, the same will affect out thought process and we will indulge in actions reflective of this state of mind.

The first step in any cleaning operation is noticing. We have to notice dust and rubbish in order that we remove the same. Similarly, we have to notice what is in our mind. Today you set aside some thirty minutes and do a soul searching and honestly list the negative feelings and emotions that are in your mind. Then think about the consequences if you do nothing about the same. This process itself will trigger an appropriate action plan to clean up your mind.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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