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

 

1st April 20101

"Stop rationalizing, stop stewing. Get up out of your chair and start doing."

Denis Waitley

I became curious to know the exact meaning of the word `stew' and looked up the dictionary and it means: `a room for hot air bath; a over heated or sweaty state; mental agitation; worry'.

With this meaning in mind read the above quotation once again and you will realise the power of the same! We get into a comfort zone and don't feel like getting up. In the past we might have worked hard and all our hard work would have got us the comfort we enjoy today. We may enjoy the result of our hard work and get complacent. Or we may get worried about something and get stuck and immobilized and get into an inactive mode. May be we are confused to do this or that. Or may be we may be disappointed about our progress.

Don't ever waste your time. You cannot put the clock back. Even the richest in the world cannot buy one minute of the time that is past with all his wealth. Nor the most powerful man can do it. Time will slip through your fingers like grains of sand. Your children are growing and your parents are getting old and so you are. Your opportunities are also the opportunities of anybody.

Whatever may be the reason for your stewing, get up and start doing! On any day action is better than inaction.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

31st March 2010

DISCIPLINE

"It's not what you do once in a while; it's what you do day in and day out that makes the difference."

Jenny Craig

We are all very good at some point of time in our life. We have the best idea and in the best state of mental energy. We become enthusiastic and we want to conquer the entire world. But what happens after this initial spurt of activity is very important. Many of us do not follow through. We give up. We jump from one idea to another.

There are three most important things in life to succeed – clarity of our goal, focus and consistency. If you draw a triangle and put these qualities on the three corners and put your goal at the center of the triangle, you will understand what I mean.

One without the other will make your goal as mere `wish' or a `desire'. In life you don't get what you wish or desire. You only get what you deserve. You can deserve a goal only when you work very hard and consistently. It is not the spurts of energy, but is it the daily discipline that makes you what you are.

Stop reading this and draw the triangle and see where you are!

N C Sridharan

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

 

30th March 2010

DO IT NOW!

" `Now' is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don't need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for 20 minutes and watch your heart start beating."

—Sam Ewing

I am convinced that the most fatal and dangerous of all the diseases is procrastination. Nut is not a terminal disease, in the sense that it is not curable. There is a cure and the only medicine for this disease is `hard work'. Procrastination is merely a state of mind and it is not more than that. We have to get out of this state.

Have you heard of the metaphor `eating an elephant'? It means breaking up a task into small activities and doing one activity at a time. It is like eating a huge elephant one bite at a time. Also think of other quotations such as `Rome was not built in a day'; `little drops make the mighty ocean' etc. Just think how a huge book is written. Just one letter per second but consistently.

In my time management seminars I ask people to break down a task or a project they have been postponing for a long time into about fifty to sixty activities and give each activity a time limit to complete. At the end of the activity invariably the participants used to say that they realized that the project was not that difficult as they thought! The reason for this realization is the fact that the whole project occupied their mind and made them feel overwhelmed and not the simple activity which they could have done!

Why not do this exercise over this weekend? Please understand that no matter whatever genuine reason you might have for not acting, the world will continue to move regardless of your inaction!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

29th March 2010

I believe we can fly on the wings we create.

Melissa Etheridge

We have to choose between two types of pain and pleasure – temporary and permanent. We choose to undergo temporary pain or accept permanent pain in the future. Or we can enjoy the temporary pleasure or prepare for the permanent pleasure. Creating our bright future is painful involving a high amount of discipline and endurance. But there is no compulsion. In fact no one can compel us. But we have to understand that every hour of planned and sustained hard work will create years of our happy life in the future.

Next time you see someone laying a road or building a house, notice how hard they work. You need to notice whether they are constructing their own house or a house for someone else to live.  This principle applies to our life also. We can decide to take charge of our life and create our own future. If we do it we can fly with the wings we create.

But many of us are under the mistaken impression that whatever we do we do it for others. We don't have to work for others, we don't have to please others, we don't have to live for others, and we don't have to be disciplined for others' sake.

We need to understand that every minute we are writing one line of our own autobiography! Let us write it well!

N C Sridharan

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

 

26th March 2010

SELF-MOTIVATION

Most of life is routine--dull and grubby, but routine is the mountain that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.

Ben Nicholas

If you think for a while, after some time of doing anything, it becomes a second nature to do it. When we learn to do something in the beginning it is all excitement. We may commit a mistake and go through the pain of learning. But once we have mastered the art of doing it, it becomes routine. When we reach this stage, we may feel bored and at times we may even feel like giving up.

But is here we have to be motivated even to remain where we are. Sometime back I was working in an organisation headed by a person who is the personification of energy and empowerment. One day as I was walking with him into the factory shop floor I pointed to very senior operators who have put in more than thirty years of service in the same job on the same machine and in the same shift. Os asked him if these workers will get bored of the routine since there is no more excitement in their job. He looked at my face and asked me how long I have been walking! I was confused about this question and replied that I have been walking for the past may be forty years. He asked me if I got bored of walking!

This question made me to accept the reality that whether we get excited or not, certain routine things have to be done, whether we like it or not! Just because we don't like it, the world will not wait till we make up our mind to do it with enthusiasm. It is upto us to muster the enthusiasm and excitement to do what we have to do.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

25th March 20101

Use what talents you possess:  the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Henry Van Dyke

Just think: what took an airplane in the mid sky? Isn't a small spark in the engine? Is that spark strong and big enough to keep the plane flying? Definitely not.  We need a spark or a starting point for anything. Look at the first model of the automobile developed by Henry Ford. Was it a perfect automobile? Compare the same with the latest automobile that is developed and marketed by the Ford Company in today's competitive world! If Henry Ford had waited till he got all the ideas to make today's automobile, would he made even one automobile?

This principle applies to our life also. All of us have some talent in us. We may have a talent to sing or write or play etc. But we may not be willing to take efforts to fully exploit that talent since we feel shy or afraid of criticism. In my time management programme one common problem expressed by even very senior executives is the stage fear. They are afraid to speak on a platform. They are afraid that others may find fault in what and how they deliver!

One way to overcome this starting problem is to start somewhere. Over this weekend, identify one talent you have but you have not taken any action to exploit the same due to fear or any reservation. For example, you have a flair for writing. Then take a paper and pencil and WRITE just one sentence. Write that one sentence which comes to your mind, no matter how imperfect the sentence may be. Do it regularly at a fixed time everyday and notice the difference over the next thirty days!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

24th March 2010

When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word "succeed," you find that it simply means to follow through.

F. W. Nichol

Everyone has something or other to achieve. We may have a big goal or a small goal. Or we may have a small task to achieve. We may be very clear about the strategy also. The strategy and the action plan will be clear and we will be very honest in desiring to achieve the goal. However, in spite of all this, we may not succeed the way we want. The most common reason for this is lack of follow through.

As we go through our life, lots of ideas cross our mind. We take some of the ideas seriously and try to implement the same. But over a period of time, we notice that some of the ideas have not been implemented. There could be any number of reasons. We may not even know how many ideas we got and how many we implemented.

We need to distinguish between the total number of ideas we got and the productivity of such ideas. Any idea that we did not take to the logical conclusion are not productive. They could have engaged our mind and sometime our material resources also. Such an investment of our time is also unproductive.

Do an exercise over this weekend. List all the ideas on which you initiated some action and invested your time and track where they are now. Work out the percentage of ideas that you followed through and those which did not follow through! You will know your personality!!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

23rd  March 2010

"Begin with praise and honest appreciation. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders…. Make the fault easy to correct. Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest."

 —Dale Carnegie

The higher up you go in life, you will have to be dealing with more of people's problem than of technical problems. It is hot how much you can work. What is even more important is how you can get the work form others. The day of carrot and stock is gone. Today we are talking about empowerment and motivation.

We are entrusted with various types of resource such as money, machine, material etc. managing the human resource the most important skill since this is the only resource with feeling and ego. We can manipulate the other resources, but people have to be handled sensitively.

People will make mistakes knowingly or unknowingly. But the way to correct them is very important. We should deal with people's mistake tactfully without hurting their ego and feeling. Ignoring these parameters and getting their compliance through use of authority and power may yield immediate result. But they will go back to their normal behaviour. We will have not time to constantly supervise them.

We should deal with people's mistake knowing fully that they have self respect, self worth and self image. Any corrective action without taking these parameters will be counter productive.

With this in mind, try to understand the above quotation and implement the same.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

22nd  March 2010

"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun."

—Mary Lou Cook

The future belongs to those who can work smart and not hard. Working hard is putting long hours of work and toiling. Working smart is producing enormous quantity of outcome with least effort. This is the difference between manual work and mental work. Those who work with hands are paid less than those work with their mind. Think of a person assembling a computer and another writing a software for the computer. Both may be putting in the same amount of work. But the software engineer is paid much more than the other person because he is using his mind and not his hand.

Once we accept this, we can understand the next stage of thinking conventionally and thinking creatively. People who think conventionally and rationally will be paid less than those who work creatively. Conventional thinking deals with methodology. This means, for producing this result, do that. Creativity is thinking drastically differently like, `why should I do that and why not this? Is this the only way to do it?'. Conventional thinking may avoid a problem. On the other hand only creative thinking will solve a problem.

The future will belong to those who can think differently to produce products and services in newer methods saving material and time. Log on to a search engine and see the picture of a computer in 1970s and compare the same with the latest palmtop computer. You will understand the meaning behind the above quotation.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

20th March 2010

Here's a feedback!

 

Dear Readers,

 

I do hope that you like the contents of my newsletter. I will be too happy to receive your feedback. I give below a feedback that I received yesterday which I want to share with you.

 

I once gain request to enrol as many of your friends to receive this mail since I want to reach out to a cross section of people in discharge of my mission: `to make a difference in others' life!'

 

Dear Mr. Sridharan

Sir, Although I was very much proud by reading and ordering your classic book – The Gift of Time – due to that adoration, few of my colleagues are receiving your cryptic path breaking daily emails (actually sermons).

Sir - I am grateful and pray to almighty in future also the knowledge that you possess, will percolate and offer great guidance to my associates. I do pray for your good health.

 

Regards

Dhiru Kapasi

 

 

Thanks

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

19th March 2010

 

"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides."

—Margaret Thatcher

 

In this competitive world, you need certain skills to keep you ahead of competition. One such skill is the ability to take correct decisions in time. It is not important whether you decide or not. What is important is the timeliness of your decisions.

 

In a fast changing world there is no such thing as status quo. We have to keep pace with the changes that are taking place around us. The world will not wait for us to take a decision. We cannot stop others from acting. Everyone is focused and is very keen to have their future assured.

 

You may have your own reasons for not acting but that is not a reason for others to wait. Your reasons for inaction could be very genuine and true. But it is not relevant for others. We cannot go against the wind. Sailing with the wind calls for lesser energy. It is wiser also.

 

Indecision is in fact a decision not to decide. You might have taken a lot of decisions in your life, big or small. Each one of them would have in some way affected your life. No matter how many correct decisions you have taken, if you do not continue to take decisions, your progress will be affected.

 

Over this weekend do a small exercise: list all the issues pending with you waiting for your decision, small or big. Against each of them write at least three valid reasons for not deciding. Do this exercise honestly and review. You will be surprised about the quality of your decision making ability.

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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