Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts

Friday 8 October 2021

Resilience and quality of network

 Resilience and quality of network 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 
Recently read an interesting research article, and the insight may be helpful to you. Some people easily overcome any setbacks in life, and some struggle to overcome them, reflecting their resilience power. Resilience is nothing but the ability to bounce back from challenging situations emotionally and physically.

Most of us may be thinking that resilience is something inherent quality within us. However, the research article indicates that people with high resilience power have a good network of people or forums to develop their resilience.

For example, if you have a network of good friends or like-minded people in your professions and whenever you face challenging situations, you may interact with them and get different ideas/views to overcome the problem. That kind of association enables one to look at the situations from a different perspective than those who do not build that network.

The key learning is how we develop our network with worthy or reliable people, which may help us develop the capability to overcome any challenging situations.

When i was reflecting on this key insight,i realized that some of my friends, when they had a challenging situation in their career, they used to approach many people and sought their views (not seeking employment help) on solving the problems and successfully managed the crisis.

Developing a vast network is relatively easy for some people, and it may be difficult for some. However, we can create a quality relationship with a few reliable people who can guide us during a tough time. They could be your spouse, friends, mentors, colleagues, senior people, or any professional forums that can guide you without any bias.

We need to ask ourselves is "Do we have trustworthy, reliable sources or relationships in our life whom we can approach when we have challenges in life?"

If yes, then we are leading a healthful life;

If not, then we need to develop a quality relationship or network now…!

Have a great week ahead.

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Managing Changes- Is change good or bad?

Is change good or bad?



As discussed last week, change is a continuous event in life, and we need to master the emotional aspects of the transition process.

In personal and professional life, most of us encounter the following changes.

  •   Relocating to a new place
  •   Changing job from one organization to another
  •   Change of boss 
  •   Shift in career 
  •   From the audience to the active presenter to knowledgeable group
  •   From employee to self-employed
  •   From individual contributor to people manager
  •   Learning a new skill to improve professional growth
  •   Being a bachelor to married 
  •   When an unexpected event happened from our plan 

When you look at the list above, some of the changes are imposed on us by the circumstances or by others and some of the changes we initiate on our own.

For example, relocating to a new place is a change that might have occurred due to others or by our own decision.

Depending on the nature of the change and the inward or outward momentum, the transition process creates different emotional turbulence inside.

Is change good or bad?

Most of the time, the change brings progress only, either in terms of comfort, wellness, material prosperity, or mental maturity.

For example, one of my known friends was asked to relocate to different geography of the same company, without much change in the positional, materialistic, job profile. But the change in a location exposed the friend to the new experience of handling people in different geography and helped him to accelerate the career at a later stage. 

When you relate to the changes in your life, you also will conclude that most of the changes brought good things in your life.

Having benefitted from the changes most of the time, but why do we initially resist the change?

Let us discuss it next week!

Have a great week until then! 

Monday 22 July 2019

Finding Balance


Both in personal and professional life, one of the causes of stress or losing peace is due to taking an extreme stand or bias in a given context. When we fail to be in balance state, we invite all the troubles. Being in a balanced state is the outcome of self-awareness. Effective people will always find a balance in their approach.
 
For example,

Being too much aggressive or too much passive in communication only leads to stress or ineffective. A balanced state is being in an assertive, firm and friendly tone which improves harmony as well as the effectiveness of communication as end result.
 
Being too much lenient with new employees and being too much harsh with on old employees only leads to instability in the organization. Balanced state is respecting both with compassion.
 
 Being too much on planning or too much busy on execution without calibration leads to either no result or poor result only. Balanced state starts with planning and get into execution and do the course correction.
 
 Being too much on micromanaging other’s work or fully leaving it to others also leads to stress only. Balanced state is to allow others to do the work with feedback for improvement.

The point is finding balance in your approach leads to harmony and peace than being extremism.It requires awareness on the state of mind which is possible with practice.
 

Tuesday 9 July 2019

Pursuing interest beyond work


As we are spending almost half of our life for work, obviously we expect a sense of fulfillment through our work. There are a few people gifted enough as they get all the status, benefits, and above all, sense of accomplishment due to the contribution or impact they make through the work. In reality, not all people get satisfaction through the job for various reasons, but due to personal commitments, they need to continue to work. Eventually, this non-fulfillment state affects self-identity and confidence.

To overcome that situation, as a proactive, it is essential to find and do something beyond your daywork that fulfills your inner feeling. For example, some of my known contacts and friends are engaged in activities that are not related to their current profession. When interacting with them, I realized they are  feeling more fulfillment in their extra activities beyond work like

One person engages himself in reading books after his office hours and weekends
One medical practitioner engage himself in conducting free medical camps / educating people on health on every Wednesday
One person is preparing himself for marathon participation
One person opens up his library after office hour for public and for mentoring the needy people  


The point is that you need to find a way to get a sense of fulfillment when the work circumstance does not provide. The only thing you should ensure is that the path must be more meaningful to you, and it should not affect your regular work, family, the community at large. The choice of feeling fulfillment is with you only!

Wednesday 26 June 2019

One Habit for a Lifetime


Habit is what you are doing consistently.

For all behind success story, there must be consistency in some of the actions. That is a habit. Even for our own sake of fulfillment, we need to have consistency in some of the practices what we do. The frequency is what you set depending on the action.
 
For example, I know some of my friends have the following “consistent practices or habits” as their life long practices.
 
  • Walking for an hour daily for the last 30 years
  • Being punctual to any event by being  present 10 min before the event
  • Giving Blood donation once in 3 months for the last 20 years
  • Calling the people on the birthday and wishes for more than 15 years
  • Conducting weekly discourses for more than 20 years
  • Waking up before 6 am and doing yoga for more than 40 years
 
When you observe your network, you may also come across many people with good lifetime habits.
 
When you have some good habits, as an individual, more than external monetary success, you feel proud of yourself, and also it enhances your confidence.

One habit for a lifetime, whatever it may be in terms of frequency, easiness, significant to others. However, sticking to one pattern for a lifetime is very much meaningful to you and make a difference to you.

The action is irrespective of your age, profession, choose some habit now, and practice it consistently.

or

if you are practicing some habits, please share as this will be an inspiration for others !!!

Sunday 2 September 2018

Preserving Quality of Relationship

    
Most of the time, we use to be emotionally upset or hurt by close relationships like family members, relatives, friends due to their communications, behaviors or actions. Any stranger may not have much impact on our emotions.

      When we emotionally upset, either we tend to reciprocate to them with outburst or we tend to think too much about the incidents or the person who causes the hurt. Eventually, without our consciousness, we start recalling all unfavorable moments with the person in the past and it reinforces our emotional outburst further. In this process, we spoil our health/mind and further strain the quality of the relationship.

     What is required at the moment is just awareness on our thought process. Instead of rewinding one bad moment for many times and affecting the relationship, rewind the Positive moments many times and cherish the relationship. They are dear ones and part of our lives on many occasions as wellwisher. The quality of the relationship has to be preserved without any further straining the relationship with our thought process.
The point is some relationship come across your life and stays with you for a long time for a purpose and it has to be preserved even though a few emotional outbursts happen. It needs awareness, patience, and compassion!!.

Sunday 22 July 2018

How to quickly overcome when you feel low?


The difference between a person, who is happy and someone is unhappy, is not about how often they feel low or depressed. It is how they deal with “low mood” situation.

For example, most of us, when we feel bored, sad or feeling low, what we use to do? Immediately we switch over to browse WhatsApp, Facebook or changing the channels on TV. The strange thing is even after completing all the outlets; again we feel sad or depressed. The reason is that we are not accepting the reality of the state and allow our mind to undergo the feeling of low .Instead we switch to others.

Just experiment this when you feel low. Be open and accept that you are feeling sad, and go through the moment of sadness for a few minutes. You will surprise that you come up with the positive mood in a moment. Instead, if you look for some outlet, you are suppressing the reality, and again you start feeling low.

As I observed a few highly effective people when they feel low or hear bad news, they accept that moment and use to be calm for a few moments. Then they recover back quickly to their routine.

Hence 
accept – undergo – get back. This requires your awareness of your intention when you feel bad and overcome it positively!

Wednesday 20 June 2018

Being proactive and cool


In personal and professional life, everyone has some primary responsibilities which can be done only by self. When we do not execute the primary responsibility on time; the consequence may be more stress or pain. Also by nature, any delayed response will consume more time and energy.For example, 

As an individual, if you are not spending time proactively on taking care of your health, any way you need to spend time when you get sick.

As a business head, If you are not spending time proactively on planning your customer orders delivery at the beginning of the month, any way you have to spend at the end of the month in firefighting mode which more stressful.

As a leader, If you are not spending time with your team on developing, mentoring and teaching the skills, any way you need to spend time when they make costly mistakes in their execution.

As a parent, If you are not spending time with your kids during  childhood on values development, any way you need to spend time in future when they slip on the life values which is more pain

The point is that 
proactiveness is required at least on your prime responsibilities. Else, any reactive time spending would affect the quality of life. Hence, be aware of your prime responsibility and be proactive!

Tuesday 29 May 2018

Your self-esteem grows through your actions


Self-esteem is all about how you feel and think about yourself as this determines your quality of life. Even though factors like your childhood, upbringing, environment influence your level of self-esteem, one of the most significant factors drives your self-esteem is your own thoughts and action. When your thought process and action are same, your self-esteem improves. Alternatively, when there is misalignment on your thoughts and actions, it affects your self-esteem.

       For example, you want to inculcate a new habit to improve your effectiveness, and you form a resolution to surf the social media contents only when you are in leisure, not during busy hours. When you are determined by this resolution and make it happen, your self-esteem goes up as your subconscious mind reinforce that you are capable of making anything happen with your persistence.

       In case, if you are not able to follow your own resolution and break the habit formation, your subconscious mind reinforce that you are weak in following up on your own resolution. When this kind of instances happen frequently, you mind convince that you are either strong or weak in following your own commitments and your self-esteem grows or pulls down.
 
      That is, our self-esteem grows or falls on our own thought process and action. This is applicable both in a personal and professional environment too as a leader. Just be aware of your thought and action alignment, raise your standard continuously and stick on it.

Thursday 17 May 2018

How does “being punctual” help your growth?



If you observe highly successful people, you can identify one universal quality they consistently display in their life is “Being Punctual.” 

What is meant by “being punctual.”?
As we generally understood, being punctual is not only on time for any event or meetings, it is adhering to the commitments to self and others. It is a commitment to yourself towards any activities and respect for others or sensitive to other’s time.

Being punctual is all about organizing self.

It is all about your attitude towards yourself, your work and care about others

How this attitude does helps you?:

When you organize yourself, eventually you will get the capability to organize others

For example, when you are committed to your work and you showoff on time, that makes you calm and you can think clearly. When you are sensitive to your commitments to others, it makes you more alert .when you are in calm and alert that makes you more effective in your execution. When your execution is effective, likely you achieve success.

Alternatively, when you are not showing off on time, you demonstrate your irregularities. You are perceived as not trustworthy. Sometimes, your irregularities make you restless, anger and eventually affect your work quality. This attitude reduces your personal effectiveness and in turn growth.

Hence, Set right your attitude of “ being punctual “ and this  will accelerate your growth as we witness from achievers ! 

Monday 7 May 2018

How to be grateful forever?



Being in a grateful state is one of the biggest virtues a person can possess. Grateful is a powerful feeling of being thankful for everything happened in life. A lot of research is being conducted for the benefit of being in the grateful and many studies show that the person with gratitude mindset will have more satisfaction, happy in life and less disturbed with life challenges.

Being in the grateful state is a natural process for a few people and difficult for some people in the world of a busy lifestyle.However, from my experience, with a little effort, the mind can be trained to look at the life with more gratitude 

How to practice gratefulness?:

1.Pick any one aspects of your life, say your education, job, family members, friends or any other opportunities you got in your business.
2.Think through how much lucky you are to have those aspects of your life. Think through the possibilities of forces which could have worked against you and how all the forces have worked out in your favor in getting those aspects.
3. When you think through deeply, your mind starts accepting your giftedness.When you do this frequently, eventually, you start looking at everything in life with gratitude mindset.

The point is that everyone has troubles and challenges, but how you look at the things with gratitude will give you strength to overcome the challenges. Being in a grateful state is possible by all with a little bit of awareness and effort!

Thursday 5 April 2018

Who is a winner when you quarrel?


There were a couple of lions lived in a forest.One day, both felt thirsty and reached the water pond.They immediately began to argue about who should satisfy their thirst first.The argument became quarrel and each took a stand to die in the quarrel rather than give up the privilege of being first to quench the thirst.

       They started attacking each other as their emotions turned into rage. Suddenly they stopped their attack and looked up at the sky as there was a flock of vultures circling the pond. Those vultures were eagerly waiting for the loser to die and it would become a feast for them for a week.

       On realizing the intention of the vultures, both lions stopped their quarrel and shared the water together to quench the thirst and walked away. The vultures disappointed.

Moral of the story:

When you quarrel each other as a couple for a silly reason, the loss would be family harmony only. Similarly even in the organization, when we spent energy on small things and argued for hours, the loser would be the organization, and the winner would be your competition.

Be aware of what for you are fighting and against whom you are fighting! 

Tuesday 13 March 2018

why do we need a role model?



As you are aware that Roger Bannister, the athlete who created a record and famous for “four-minute mile” phrase expired last week at age of 88. He was seen as a legend not only for creating an athletic record, but he paved the way to study human mindset and life growth. Till 1954, in the sports world, finishing a mile within 4 minutes was impossible by human beings.When Roger Bannister created the record by completing in 3 min 59 sec, this became a possibility.

           Within 46 days banister’s achievement, an Australian runner not only broke the record he created a new record to complete by 3min 58 sec. Now, over the last half-century, more than a thousand runners have conquered a barrier that had once been considered was not possible.

            Nature had played its role thru banister to humanity on mindset.and possibilities.Either it could be on personal or in business, our mindset limits our potential. We always look someone as a role model or predecessor to show a new way or break the status quo or breaking the mindset.

             When you break your personal or business mindset, you become a leader or role model in your circle.But in reality, it is not possible for all, to create their own path by being role model. In such a case, look around, observe and pick someone as your role model and follow what they do.
Ultimatley, your mind restricts your growth , expand it through some reference , you life horizon also expands!

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Never react when you are in disturbed state


     One day Buddha was traveling from one town to another town along with his followers. On the way, they took a rest and the Buddha asked one of his followers to get some water from the nearby lake.A disciple walked up to the lake and he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the lake water and also a bullock cart crossing through the lake.As a result, water became muddy and the disciple thought this muddy water cannot be given to Buddha to drink. He came back to Buddha and told that the water was muddy and not suitable for drinking.

     After a while, Buddha again asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get some water. The disciple also went to the lake and found that mud was settled down and the water was clean enough to drink.So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

      Buddha looked at the water and looked up at the disciple and said “what did you do to make the water clean to drink? You just allowed it as such to settle down the mud.Similarly, when your mind is in a disturbed state, you cannot make use of it effectively for decision making or doing anything useful. 

      Most of our email communication or direct communications in professional life becomes annoyed or tuned out negative when we react it during our disturbed state. Give a little time to settle it down, your mind becomes in a positive state and you can produce results”

Monday 6 November 2017

Being busy is not being effective

       
Most of us have the tendency of “being busy always” either in professional or managing a business. Being busy in chasing money, success after success or even managing the challenges with the same approach.In this process, over a period of time, either we become addicted to the same methodology without evaluating its effectiveness or become so rigid in thinking process leads to ignoring other aspects of the relationship, quality of execution, next level growth, etc.

       Most of the highly effective people have one common pattern in their daily management process. That is they take a timeout from their regular work for reflection.Frequently, they use to take time for themselves and evaluate what is going on in their life, what is important, what needs to be changed, etc. This will give them clarity on the behavior to be dropped or adopted, the strategy to be modified or tuned, etc. for improving the quality of life and even manage the challenges in a different approach.

       Take time out frequently from being busy and get clarity on what is right and good for you and your surroundings. Finally what counts is your impact and quality of life!!