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

 

1st June 2010

"Be careful the environment you choose, for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose, for you will become like them."

W. Clement Stone

Human beings are also `thinking beings' and we are `meaning making beings'.  This feature distinguishes the human race from the animals. Animals do things whether or not they are convinced. They have to be forced to indulge in an activity or task. They need not be convinced. Hence they merely `participate' in a task but they don't `involve' themselves.

On the other hand human beings have to be convinced and extent of our commitment and involvement will depend upon the level of our own conviction. In order to be convinced, we have to be fed with lot of reasons and our mind is actively involved in this process. This is an intellectual activity.

In this context, the type of people we are surrounded with makes a big difference. The environment we live should be with such people who will influence our thought process and give us a rich and intelligent mindset.

This is one of the reasons why residential schools and college hostels make a difference in a student's life. If you are a journalist, move with such people who have accomplished well the field of journalism. The same principle applies to every profession. What you see and what you hear all through the day will influence your mind set and thought process.

Over this weekend, it will be a good idea to check this aspect of your surrounding!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

31st May 2010

"First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."

—Napoleon Hill

We are always thinking, whether we are aware of it or not. Some thoughts catch our conscious awareness and some thoughts go unnoticed. It is said that on an average over one hundred thousand thoughts cross our mind. Intelligent people catch the thoughts and organize the same into ideas and strategies. The follow through from the thought stage to the idea stage is very important.

Once the ideas are converted into strategies and action plans, then the rest of it is very easy. The problem with ideas is the fact that if not acted upon, they will squelch and disappear. The first thing we should do upon getting an idea is to record the same and set aside some time to ponder over every idea and explore the same.

The next stage is the transformation of the idea into specific action plan in real life. This is the most important stage in any idea exploitation process and this stage will decide the productivity of the idea.

Over this weekend, you try to recall any good idea you got over the last one month and check if you can take up any one idea and work on the same through the above process.

N C Sridharan

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

 

28th May 2010

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

– Albert Einstein

The secret of success cannot be summed up more effectively. Are you willing to stay with your problem longer? Or let me add two more words: are you willing to stay with the problem monger than others? All of us encounter problems on our way to success. But few of us persevere. Those who succeeded stayed with the problem longer and thought about the solution longer.

Animals have basically two coping mechanisms: the fight and the flight. But only the human beings have the third option of problem solving. We have the freedom to exercise our independent free will and think. In fact as the human race progresses, the quality of thinking is getting refined more and more. The technology of thinking in a different way altogether is becoming more and more popular.

In order to fight the problems that lay on our way to success, we need three qualities:

·        Courage,

·        Endurance, and

·        A dogged determination to surmount obstacles.

Over this weekend, identify three projects you gave up during the last one year due to some problem that you encountered and rate if you had the above three qualities. Just ponder as to how your life would have transformed if only you had stayed on the problem longer.

N C Sridharan

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

 

27th May 2010

"The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed."

-- Jim Rohn

Just imagine you are designing an automobile or a furniture. Or for that matter you are designing the house you are going to live for a long time. You will consider various parameters and spend considerable amount of thinking to ensure that its utility is enhanced. How comfortable and elegant is the thing will depend on how much time you have spent in designing the same. The amount and quality of your mental visualization will decide how it will come out in reality.

The same thing applies to designing your life. Like your house has various rooms such as the drawing room the kitchen, dining room etc., you have various roles in your life. You would want each part of your house to be well designed and comfortable. You would discuss with others and seek their ideas. Similarly, you are designing your various roles in life such as your role as executive, father, husband, etc. Just like you spend your resources such as time and money to design your drawing room, you also `invest' your time to shaping your career, your family life etc.

The most important point is if you make a mistake in the design of your house, you can always redesign and alter and such mistakes will not cause a permanent damage to you. But if you commit a mistake in the design of your future, the damage can be serious. You may not be able to rectify some damages.

Perhaps it will be a good idea to ponder over the above comparison.

N C Sridharan

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

 

26th May 2010

If you go through life quitting everything, you'll never know success. If you're going to taste the fruits of success, you've got to stick with something.

  Unknown Quote

We need to identify our core competency and find a platform to explore our potential. We need to choose a field of our choice and excel. We have to be clear about our long term, medium term and short term goals. At the same time, we should have some clarity on our life's mission. We need to understand that life's mission is different from goals. Mission is our understanding of the purpose of our life. It is a touch stone on which our goals will be tested. If our goal does not match with our mission, we will not be involved and committed in what we have undertaken to do.

While the above is true, the most important factor for success is our ability to stick on to a project for a sufficiently long period of time. There is an old adage `rolling stone gathers no mass'. So is a fickle minded person. The bigger the goal, the more difficult will it be to reach. We may have to stretch all our resources. We may encounter problems and we may be tempted to give up. Or we may be anxious and restless to see the result of our effort immediately. Sometimes we may even evaluate our progress too early and give up disappointed.

It will be a good idea to audit our own ability to persevere and stick to a project and introspect if we have to improve on this quality.

N C Sridharan

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

 

25th May 2010

Become a `possibilitarian'.  No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

If you look into the dictionary, there is no such word as `possibilitarian'. But I like this quotation for the powerful meaning it conveys. We have come across words such as parliamentarian, disciplinarian etc. These words indicate to the life style or avocation of a person. A parliamentarian believes in the parliamentary system of governance and a disciplinarian believes in a disciplined way of life. If you apply such a logic to this word, a `possibilitarian' believes in possibilities.

A few days ago a teacher approached me for a conduct certificate and he said that he is applying for a Government job, but added that there is no possibility of getting the job and he is applying for the job to satisfy his wife! Can we call him as `impossibilitarian'!

You have to believe in possibilities how ever low it could be. The law of success says that you are attracting everything you believe strongly. You know the law of self fulfilling prophesies? Wikipedia, defines self-fulfilling prophecy as a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.

Before you start any project, start with a positive feeling that there is some possibility of succeeding and gather all the resources to enhance the probability of success. This will give you the self confidence that you will succeed one day or other if you persevere.

Over this weekend, list all the projects you gave up thinking that they are impossible and find out it some one else achieved the same!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

24th May 2010

"Learn to use ten minutes intelligently. It will pay you huge dividends."

William A. Irwin

I am sure you have learnt some skill such as typing, cycling, swimming etc. You would have noticed that the coach teaches you how to do it in small doses. If you cycle for some distance without falling, he will leave you to learn cycling on your own since you have understood the principles involved in cycling. The same applies to any other skill.

Managing time also follows the same pattern. In fact, as I have repeatedly said, there is no such thing as `time management, nut only managing outcome or result. It's about using your time intelligently. If you know how to use the next ten minutes effectively, you should be able to manage the next ten years also effectively. Just like learning to swim ten fifty feet alone is sufficient to swim a longer distance, if you can manage ten minutes, it means that you have mastered the fine art of `time management'.

What is most important is to become conscious of how you manage each ten minutes and notice if you have applied your mind on the priorities on hand. If you do justice to every ten minutes, you don't have to worry about your ability create your own future.

Let me give one more example. Suppose you have to travel one hundred miles, as long as you travel the next ten miles in the right way, you don't have to worry about the remaining ninety miles!

Stop reading this; make a log of how you manage the blocks of ten minutes until you go to bed today. Do this exercise for a week and notice what happens to your time consciousness!

N C Sridharan

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

 

21st May 2010

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling.

– Lucretius

If you read the success story of any great person, you will find one common denominator which decided their success: perseverance. They were continuing their efforts regardless of intermediary results. They honestly wanted to achieve and strongly believed in their process, worked very hard, focused on the end result, persevered and finally reached their goal.

On the other hand, those who did not achieve great things also worked hard, but the difference was in the quality of their perseverance. Sometimes their effort level was intense and on some other times it was not so. They were not consistent in their effort level. Their hard work was marked by ebbs and lows. Success means continuously improving our effort level by repeating our strategy and not working very hard.

If you see how a person becomes an expert in music, you will understand this principle. They practiced consistently everyday. It is not how much they practiced on any one day. There is a saying `repetition is the mother of skill'. The same applies to life also.

Over this weekend, identify one task which you want to accomplish over the next ninety days and check how consistent you are on your effort level no matter how much hard you have been working on any particular day.

N C Sridharan

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge

 

20th May 2010

`You don't just luck into things….You build step by step, whether its friendship

or opportunities'.

Barbara Bush

There is no `instant formula' for success. You succeed over a period of time gradually. Not is success by chance or decided by luck. You may be lucky to be in a particular environment at a particular point of time. However, that alone cannot assure that you will get what you want.

If you read the autobiography of any successful person you will understand how much hard they had to work to get what they got. All that they were aware was that they had something special and unique to offer and that there is an opportunity to exploit their talent. They got an idea and what is lucky is that they noticed and exploited that idea. We all get ideas and the only difference is that we don't act on the same till the idea succeeds.

For example, J K Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter fantasy series got the idea about the book while she was travelling from Manchester to London in 1990. When she conceived the idea of the book she was living on welfare and she has become a multi-millionaire within five years. As of March 2010 Rowling's net worth is estimated to be $ 1 billion and she is believed to be the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain.

If you just visit the website of Harry Potter you will be stunned how one person can become so successful by converting just one idea which came to her while travelling into an action plan and working on the same. May be she was lucky that she got the idea. But it is her focused work which brought her to fame. She was able to `connect' her idea and the opportunity to exploit a topic and market the same.

Over this weekend, do an exercise: list at least three ideas that you got in the last thirty days and ponder what you did to explore if there is an opportunity to put your idea into action.

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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