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

 

18th May 2011

The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows.
Aristotle Onassis

`Knowledge is power'. It is indeed a powerful saying. The more knowledge you have, the more powerful you will be. Today we live in an era of information explosion. Everyday a new technology is unfolding, edging out old products based on outdated technology. The whole world is shrinking at your finger tips. In day's context, unless you are the best, you will be eliminated.

In today's context, unless you are globally competitive, you cannot exist. People want to use world class products. They want to travel in world class transport. They want to work in MNCs. Parents want their children to study in international schools. Sports people want to win international recognition. Patients want to access international health care.

In this context, we need to have knowledge of international standard. If we want to work for an international organisation, we need to have international knowledge base and skill set. You have to be the best in your chosen field. Unless and until you know the international technology and skill, you cannot produce international products and service.

Over this weekend ask the following questions:

  • What is my industry and where do I work?
  • What's my functional specialisation?
  • What is my skill inventory and how does it compare on a global level?
  • How is my bench mark on a global scenario? For example, if I play basket ball, how do I compare with Michael Jordon?
  • What is the gap between my knowledge and skill and the global standard?
  • Over the next six months how am I going to reach to the global standards in terms of knowledge and skill?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

17th May 2011

The three R's to become famous!

`Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time'

Arnold H. Glasgow

Everybody wants to become famous. Each one of us have some idea or other. Most of us also work very hard. But all are not successful. I was reading the life history of successful people and I notice that the following strategy is present in them:

They do the right thing, in the right way and at the right time.

The first question we should ask ourselves is: is this the right thing I should be doing? In my time management seminars I encourage people to ask a question frequently in a day: what's the best possible use of my time right now? This powerful question will make you to evaluate if you are doing what is right at any given point of time. By asking this question very often, you will become very clear about your priorities.

The next important thing is to ensure if your process is right. Take a simple thing as typing. If your fingering is not correct, you cannot be fast and accurate. In big organisations people talk about `SOP' which stands for Standard Operating Procedure. For doing anything a set of procedure is laid down and people are encouraged to follow the same. By following the right procedure, we can eliminate an unnecessary act which consumes our time but do not achieve any result. You may have the costliest car, but if you don't know how to drive, then it is useless.

The timing is very important. We may have the best idea; we may have an effective strategy to put the idea into practice. But if we don't act in time, then everything will be lost. Time and tide will wait for no one. We may have many reasons for not acting in time. The most dangerous reasons are laziness and procrastination. These two traits have destroyed many potential achievers. The only one thing they lacked was lack of time sense and timing.

Do you have these three R's?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

16th May 2011

They can because they think they can.
Virgil

The three E's for success!

I was thinking about the main qualities of successful people and I notice that they share three common traits:

  • They are highly energetic,
  • They equip themselves well, and
  • They enjoy what they do.

In short we can say that they are Energetic, Equipped and Enjoy!

As a part of my NLP programme, I interview successful people. I find them to be very energetic. I know a very senior and respectful educationist who is well past mid eighties. She cannot walk freely. But that has not stopped her from doing her normal work. She is very active and energetic right through the day. He day starts early in the morning and goes up to ten in the night. You can find her as energetic late in the evening as she was in the morning.

I also notice that successful people are very meticulous in equipping themselves well. They have the kind of infrastructure and gadgets they need to do their job effectively. Whenever they shop and come across some gadget or other they ask the question to themselves `will it be useful to me?'. They have the right type of computer, laptop, mobile phone, table size, chairs and what not. They have the right type of people around them. They equip themselves with the right type of knowledge and skill to their job effectively and efficiently.

Last but not the least, they enjoy their job. You can see the joy in their face. They never curse themselves for having to do what they have to do. This joy becomes contagious and they make others also enjoy what they do. This internal joyful frame of mind brings out the best from them. No matter how tough and hard their work may be, they enjoy the same. They enjoy the pain associated with their job. Next time you see a tennis player sweating out on the ground notice their love of their game.

Over this weekend, can you evaluate how you fair on these three E's?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

13th May 2011

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.

Evert, Chris


For achieving any outcome in life, we have to integrate two subsystems in us. They are the brain and the mind. The brain represents the hardware and the mind represents the software. While the brain is the store house of all the relevant information and gives the intelligence to act in a particular way, the mind gives us the strategy and the will power to act consistently in the direction of our goal. We need enormous will power to stretch all our faculties to succeed. For writing my book `The Gift of Time', I interviewed over five hundred successful people in various fields to understand their formula for success. If I want to summarise the success formula which I understood from them it is: focussed training and hard work.

While I write this I recall a story I heard about the Chinese philosopher called Chuang Tzu. One day he was walking through a forest where he saw a very old man in his nineties catching insects through a long stick. He was bent and fragile, but he was catching the insects very accurately. Chuang Tzu was surprised about the skill with which he was catching the insects despite his age and weakness. He asked the old man how he was able to do it.

The old man replied that it was due to his meticulous training. He explained that for the first six months he was balancing a ball on the top of a stick. Then for the next six months the practiced balancing two balls over the stick. Next he balanced three balls over the stick. Then he balanced four and then five balls. Finally he balanced six balls on the top of the stick for six months. He thought he was able to concentrate, but he was not happy about the quality of his concentration. Finally he practiced standing like a tree motionless for six months. He said that in spite of all these training he was not satisfied. So for the next six months learnt to concentrate his mind on nothing but the insects. He said that then only he was satisfied with his training and now when he is catching the insects, there is nothing in his mind except the insects and hence was able to catch the insects!

Over this weekend why not do a small exercise: take any one important project that you are now handling and evaluate the quality of your concentration taking the old man in the above story as the bench mark!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

12th May 2011

"I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude."

Anonymous

There are certain virtues and values which are purely voluntarily and no one can force them on anyone. Discipline, obedience, truthfulness, punctuality etc are personality traits which cannot be forced on anyone. Even the so called most indisciplined person will be highly disciplined in certain occasions if he chooses to be so.

While I write this, I recall a Zen story I read somewhere.

There was a Zen master with great wisdom. His talks were attended by thousands of his followers. He will talk not from his lips, but from his heart. One day a person from a rebel group attended his talk. This man was determined to debate and quarrel with the Zen master. When the Zen master was giving a talk, this person interrupted and shouted that he will never obey the Zen master and challenged him if he can make him to obey him.

The Zen master called him to the dais where he was sitting and asked him to sit to his right. The man went up to the dais and sat to the right of the Zen master. The Zen master then asked him to come to his left and the man did.

Then the Zen master complimented him and said that he is the most obedient disciple he ever had!

This is a simple but a powerful story. I had to read it several times to understand the principles hidden in the story. Sometimes we do display certain virtues like obedience without our being aware of the same. We may think that we are lazy. But there are occasions where we were very brisk and active. We may think that we are very kind and people loving. But it is likely that others may find us to be unkind and unreasonable without our being conscious of the same.

May be we have to introspect and do a self audit on our own hidden personality so that there is a congruity between what we think we are and what we are really!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

ooo

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

 

11th May 2011

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

-William Shakespeare


Suppose you by an equipment worth 3 million US $ which will add lot of values to the quality of your life, how will you use it? How proud will you be about your most precious possession? Will you misuse the same? Will you not take utmost care to preserve and maintain the same?

As I started to type this piece, I happened to watch an interesting news item on the television on what is called the first ever face transplantation carried out in a hospital in Boston. In 2008 Dallas Wienes lost his face in a fire accident when he accidentally came into contact with a high tension electric wire. He lost his eyes, ears, nose, tongue etc. His once attractive face completely got disfigured. Until the previous day, he used stand in front of a mirror and admire his face. But over night, he could not even imagine how his face became ugly.

Some anonymous person donated his face and in a fifteen hours marathon surgery a team of doctors did what is called the first ever complete face transplantation by a team of surgeons led by Dr. Eloff Erickson.

Now Dallas Wienes can smile, speak and face the world with his new face!

When I watched this television show, I was thinking on how we are using our face! Do we take care of our face? Do we smile and wear a happy countenance? Perhaps if we are conscious of the value of our face, we will be even more careful.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Am I pleasant looking?
  • Do I smile?
  • Do my eyes sparkle?
  • Do I care for how I look like?
  • How do I use the four of the five sensory which are situated in my face?

Perhaps we are not aware of our precious possession!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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

 

10th May 2011

`He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own'

Henry Ward Beecher

As I am typing this piece, the country is waiting for the election results for the various State Assemblies. Throughout last few months the political leaders were very busy making various election promises to appeal to the voters to vote for them. The voters will decide whom to vote depending on whether their expectations are met or not. If a political party has correctly understood the mind of the electorate, it will be voted to power. But the key issue is: how to know exactly what the people want? I don't think we have any technology to exactly find out what is in the mind of the people.

I recall a Zen story I read somewhere. A person happened to find an old lute, which is a stringed musical instrument. He did not know how to play the instrument. But every day at a fixed time he will sit underneath a tree and play the instrument. He was doing this months together. Over a period of time the birds which were living in the tree used to gather around him and dance to his tunes.

Another person saw this. He knew how to play a stringed instrument. He wanted to play the same instrument and make all the birds to dance to his tune. He purchased a very costly lute, and learnt how to play the same from an expert. After practicing the same for over three to four months rigorously, he came to the same place where the other man used play the lute. He chose the next adjacent tree and started playing a very melodious and wonderful note which was far better than the music played by the other person. He expected all the birds from the adjacent tree to come in front of him and dance. But it did not happen. He continued to play even more rigorously, but the birds will not come.

He went to the other man asked what is that he is doing to make the birds to dance to his tunes, even though the quality of the notes he was playing was awful. The other man replied that it is not how well he plays the lute, but the more important thing is whether the birds like the music!

Life is also like this. No matter what we do and promise, the most important thing is whether the people want what e promise and do!

Have you learnt something very useful from the story?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

ooo

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