[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

2nd November 2012

`Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life'

J.K.Rowling

I was wondering what would have been the economy of Japan if there had been no Second World War!  These days we hear so much about the growth of China and it is believed that China will become the most powerful country economically in 2020. What would have been the situation if China had not been the most populated country in the world? What would have been the life of Colonel Sanders if his restaurant had not been closed down?

Denial of basic human needs is a powerful motivator for success. It is said that motivation is an intrinsic factor and not an external factor. This means that motivation is from inside a person.

There is some good even in the worst thing. No one likes to be poor and no one wants to be suffering. But poverty and suffering is a powerful motivator. But not everyone who is poor is motivated! The key question is: do you hate being poor? The more and more you hate your poverty, the more you are going to work to realise financial freedom! It is not a sin to be born poor. But it is unfortunate to die as a poor person.

Do a small research. List at least ten billionaires in the world and study their family fortune in the origin. You will understand if poverty is a good enough motivator!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

1st November 2012

`The art of happiness lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.'

Henry Ward Beecher

The other day I was in a park near a school and I saw children playing. They had very ordinary things in their hands. They had just a pad and a tennis ball and a stick stuck to the ground. But they were playing `20-20 World Cup'! They were completely lost in their game jumping with joy and jubilation. They were at the peak of their happiness enjoying life with what they had!

As we grow in life, we acquire and acquire stuff. Your parent went to a small shop for shopping and came back with a happy shopping experience. But we go a malls these days and return home feeling how many things we still do not have!

Your parent travelled by bus and enjoyed the travel. But we travel in our car, but return home and regret we do not have a BMW!

Your parents saw a show in a black and white television and got immersed in the show. You have a home theatre system  these days, but are you happy?

You parents shared their happy moment with their friends ad relatives with just a land telephone line. But are we happy with our smart phone which is already one year old?

Life is not what all you have, but it is being happy with what you have already!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

31st October 2012

`Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you'

Anonymous

 `Time' is a very emotional resource. The present moment is very important and we will not get it again.

The other day I went to meet an old friend of mine whose wife was in the intensive care unit of a hospital. The lady was dying and in the next few hours anything could happen. She has been in coma for the past nearly more than a month totally unconscious that all her dear and near ones were praying for her recovery.

I saw my friend sitting next to her head sobbing and repeatedly saying the words `please speak to me, please speak to me, please speak to me…..'.

Two months back I visited them. There was some quarrel between them and he had stopped speaking to her for nearly one month. I heard his wife pleading with him to speak to her and begging him to forgive her if she had done anything wrong. But he was adamant and refused to speak to her until she went into coma.

There was a time when she wanted to speak to him but he did not. But now, he wants her to speak but she cannot!

Your time is very scarce and valuable and never miss to enjoy every moment!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

30th October 2012

`Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams'

Anonymous

A man lost his car key in a dark room searching for the same and obviously he could not find it. Outside his house he saw bright street light and he went and started searching for his key under the lamp post! His friend was passing that side and asked him what he is searching and he said he was searching for his lost key. Soon his friend also started helping him and started his search. After a while the friend asked him where he lost the key and the man replied that he lost it in his room. The friend was perplexed and asked the man as to how can he find the key under the lamp post when he lost it in the room. The man replied that there was darkness in the room and hence he is searching for the lost key where there is light!

Some people look for an answer for their problem outside them by blaming and complaining about others. Great people are different from this point of view. They depend on their own resources and try to take maximum effort to succeed regardless of external environment.

Are you also searching for your key under the lamp post?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

29th October 2012

`The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects the wind to change; the realist adjusts the sails'.

William Arthur Ward

Life is not what happens to us. It is what you do with what happens to you. There are many things on which we have no control. There are many things which we may not like, but we cannot wish them away. Some events around us will be helping us, and some others may hinder our progress.

We have to make best use of what is available to us.

Pessimism and optimism are two states which we should know how to use the same. Ask a stock broker and he will tell you. When everyone is pessimistic and sell their shares in panic, a optimist will buy the same. When everyone is optimistic and buy a share, he will sell! This strategy makes them to earn!

I read somewhere that this is what Franklin Templeton did during the recession and he made millions of money! I don't know if it is true, but I like this strategy!

Just ponder: are you using both favourable and unfavourable conditions around you?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

26th October 2012

`You are confined only by the walls you build yourself'

Unknown

Today we live in a world of exciting opportunities and we have infinite potential. I have been repeatedly saying that we are all created equally in terms of brain power. We are different only in terms of our attitude and mindset.

Many of you may know what is called the `SWOT' analysis, which means we should examine ourselves and the environment in which we live: we have certain Strengths and Weaknesses in side us; there are Opportunities and Threats around us. We have to build on our strengths, remove our weaknesses to exploit the opportunities with an appropriate strategy to overcome the threats.

We can easily understand the above formula and work our way to success. But we are surrounded by certain `walls' we construct around ourselves! These walls are: worry, negative attitudes, laziness, procrastination, wrong associations, lack of self-confidence, lack of initiative, complacency, unnecessary fear, lack of trust on ourselves, unwillingness to learn and change etc. This list can be very long depending on our imagination!

We should know that these factors are in our control to remove or improve. If we decide, we can remove these walls.

From today, identify what type of walls you have constructed around yourself and work on a strategy to remove the same!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

25th October 2012

Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image. 
Denis Waitley 

We are not merely biological entities. We are also a product of our thoughts. Our thoughts affect our character and image. Our thoughts and impressions about ourselves change our belief system. Our beliefs decide what we do.

I want to give you a `mantra' which I call as the `I am mantra'. I chant this whenever I feel down or when I need extra energy while facing what I call `self put downs'. Perhaps you can also chant this!

Sit in a calm place where you will not be disturbed for about five minutes and chant:

  • I am intelligent…
  • I am creative….
  • I am smart….
  • I am hard working…
  • I am sincere about my goals….
  • I am clear about my life's mission…
  • I am a kind hearted person…
  • I am energetic….
  • I am humble….
  • I am a leader….
  • I am innovative….

You can add to this list by including the traits you want in you. The best time to do it is the last five minutes just before you go to sleep when you are half awake and half asleep. Whatever you repeat while you are in this state will enter your subconscious mind!

Try this for a month and notice the difference in your self-image!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

24th October 2012

`He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else'

Benjamin Franklin

Two days ago I wrote about excuses and I liked the quotation. As I was going through the quotes page, I came across several interesting quotes on excuses. I have no excuse not to give them!

`There aren't nearly enough crutches in the world for all the lame excuses'

Marcus Stroup

`Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts'

Edward R. Murrow

`Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses'

George Washington Carver

`We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses'

H.V. Adolt

`People with integrity do what they say they are going to do. Others have excuses'

Laura Schlessinger

`For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life'

Eric Hoffer

`Several excuses are always less convincing than one'

Aldous Huxley

`The trick is not how much pain you feel but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live; excuses, excuses, excuses.'

Erica Jong

It is easier to find an excuse than to find a reason'

Doug Brown

`I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse'

Florence Nightingale

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

23rd October, 2012

`Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears'

Rudyard Kipling

All of us get ideas. But few of us notice the same. Among the few who notice, even fewer act on the same. The percentage of those who persevere on one good idea is even fewer! The ability to work on an idea till it succeeds ultimately is the trait I notice in great achievers which I find missing in ordinary people.

Some ideas have really transformed our life. Some of them are: that man can fly, that we can speak through wire, that the world is not flat but round, that man can land on the moon, that a ship made of iron can float on water, that wheels can make our travel easier, that a paper message can be electronically transmitted, that telephones need not have wires, that the characters in a movie can speak, etc. 

All these were ideas which came in someone's mind. All those people were ridiculed by others. I read somewhere that a good idea has to pass through the stages of: ridicule, resistance and criticism before that they are accepted.

Achievers don't brush aside the unsupportive attitude of others. But they don't slip into fear. Ordinary people slip into fear and give up their ideas!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 100 Thoughts for Self Improvement!

 

22nd October 2012

`Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure'

Don Wilder

In my three decades of training career, I am yet to come across even one person who said that he does not have a goal or an ambition! All of us have goal and all of us want to achieve something in life. But the difference between those who achieve great things and ordinary people is the facts that achievers have more reasons to achieve than the excuses for not attempting! When you have more excuses for attempting, you give up the goal.

In my time management seminars, I ask the participants to do the following exercise which you can do over this weekend:

  1. Write down what you want to achieve in your life.
  2. Refine the same and be specific adding a time limit within which you want to achieve the same.
  3. Write five reasons why you want to achieve the same.
  4. Write five `excuses' for not having achieved the same all these years.
  5. Write down three ways in which you life would have been different already if you had achieved the same.

At the end of this exercise, I encourage the participants to present what they have written. I used to see many participants getting emotional!

Here's a very powerful question: `If for some reason you were not allowed to have those excuses, how your life would have transformed?'

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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