Managing Time

“Priority management is the answer to maximizing our time “–John c Maxwell

       For most of us, pressing need is how to manage time. Even though there are best seller book and training session on time management with many formats, techniques, they help to some extend on awareness creation only. Those external driven factors may not be much more effective as  time management is more of  “Internal driven”. It is not managing time, it is about managing your temptation and emotions.

      For instance, If someone offers you a choice to get one cheque with  valued Rs 1000 and another Rs 2000. Obviously, most of us choose Rs 2000 cheque. In case, if  it comes with a choice that Rs 1000 could be cashed tomorrow and Rs 2000 could be cashed after a year, would your decision remain same? Most of us in a real experiment  would decide to take Rs 1000, despite the fact that the second option is a rationally better choice.

      This example demonstrates the temptation kicks in when immediate benefit is present, we tend to take irrational decision.Our ability to take good decision disappears when we see, short term benefits.The same is applicable when we prioritize our IMPORTANT and URGENT work. We know very clearly what is important for us in terms of growth  and strive for doing important things.When short term, immediate benefits come across our way like emails, meeting, phone calls, entertainments, we become sensitive to urgent and lose the focus on Important aspects.The attraction of small, short term pleasure outweighs the big, long term, hard activities.

       When we learn to manage those temptations or emotion, we become master of time management. Be aware of your emotions!

Adversity

“Every adversity, every failure carries with it the seeds of an equal or greater benefits”-Napoleon Hill

         Adversity or difficult times happen in our life at any moment. The difficult moments can be losing job suddenly, losing dear ones, losing all earned money etc. Those moments make our life upside down and literally we may not have clue what would happen next. As it is beyond our control, we can not avoid and only option is to undergo the experience.

          Actually, those tough times only teach us a lot of valuable lesson about life. It brings loved one closer to us than ever before. It brings us a lot of time to introspect our past mistakes, which leads to difficult times. It makes us to think to handle the future different way .It brings out our real divine power within us and rise up as stronger than ever.


           Let us look back your life; you might have come across so many difficult times in different point of time. Despite all those ,today you are .This is due to the powerful learning’s , courage, will power, divine energy you got from those tough times. Similarly, you look around any nation, which had undergone many tough times in the past and today it stands tall because adversity makes them stronger than before.

          Hence, adversity need to be looked at as part of life, that also will pass over a period of time .Real happiness is not in good times and it is on how we manage tough times and come up .Great time ahead after every adversity. That is the Law of Nature!

Encouragement

“Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea”.--Swami Vivekananda

       The following true incident happened several years ago in Paris Opera House.  A famous singer had been contracted to sing and all the arrangements were made  and the all tickets were sold out.During the event day, before starting the program, there were  feeling of anticipation and excitement among the fans. 

       The Event manager took the stage and said “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid that due to illness, the man whom we have booked will not be performing tonight. However, we have found a suitable substitute and we hope  he will provide you a comparable entertainment experience”. The crowd shouted in disappointment and failed to hear the name of the person which was announced by the event manager. The total environment turned from excitement to frustration..

      The new  performer gave the performance everything he had. When he had finished, there was no reaction from the audience except silence. No one  applauded and the performer about to step down from the stage. Suddenly, a little boy stood up and shouted, “Daddy, I think you have done a wonderful job, Love you so much”’. The crowd broke into thunderous applause and cheering.

   We all need people in our lives who are willing to stand up for us , once in a while and say “ I think you have done wonderful Job”. That makes a big difference!!!

Begin with Certainty

“Ninety percent of selling is conviction and 10 percent is persuasion.”--Shiv Khera

        One of the key point lesson in sales training is that sales person must approach the prospects with  belief that  prospects turns out into sales .That is "begin with certainty". This is applicable to all aspects of your life.

       When you start a new venture, even though you know that it is going to be risky, start with certainty as this will give mindset to move confidently. In case if you  start with skepticism, that makes you weak and your efforts would be half hearted. Any obstacles during the venture makes you more vulnerable.

      Similarly, in organizational setup, if the leader is not convinced about any new initiatives or new targets and starts with uncertainty mindset, he signals the same through his energy, enthusiasm and communication to his team. More than his verbal, his body language triggers low motivations to his team.

      Even when you begin with certainty, there may be obstacles you may face, at least this mindset will enable you to think alternative solutions,otherwise you are vulnerable for any minor setbacks during the journey..

Hence begin with certainty as this will  provide more energy  to resolve any challenges during the journey!!

Enhance your Perspectives

“Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you will see them all around you.”-Jon Bon

     We form opinions about life based  through our family, friends, working environment and the place where we are living. Eventually we form some beliefs and that  beliefs are  guiding our behavior and actions. Unless we enhance our perspectives about  life, our quality of life may not improve significantly.

     Enhancing perspective means to increase our ability to look at the things from different angles or view points and ability to differentiate which is good or right.

      For example, we may form the opinion that our children  as “Average” based on their  academic performance. But we might have missed to notice their other positive qualities such as good in sports, interpersonal skills, taking things cool and problem solving capability  and so on. Unless we are open, observe, listen and keen to enhance our perspective about the child, we continue to have fixed mindset as “Average” and lead our relationship with that quality.Similarly, we have some  fixed mindsets  in our capabilities, potential, career  growth, health, wealth, business development opportunities etc.. 

    The point is  that be open, flexible, keen to change your perception and accept new  information. This  attitude will enhance your  ability  to look the things  in different way in turn will improve the quality of life. 

What do you focus Success or Growth

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvements, achievements and success have no meaning”.—Benjamin Franklin

We may come across people who is perceived as “Successful“ either in terms of positional status, wealth accumulation or any other measurement by society, may not be so happy internally or  feeling fulfilled. One of the reasons could be  the success does not lead to happiness or fulfillment if there is a lack of growth.

To  get clarity on this, we need to understand the difference between success and growth.

Success is just a milestone and not necessarily end of life journey. Success may be too personal and it may not be impacting others. When a particular success is achieved, you may feel happy temporarily  and again start craving for something to just feed your own ego.

Whereas Growth is  a continuous or progressive journey, during the progression, it is impacting others as well in  a positive way. when you are continuously growing  and others are also benefiting along with your journey, you feel fulfilled.

For example, achieving or attaining the  promotion in your profession may be a success. Once attained, through the new role, if you are not making an impact  or contributing others, you are not growing and growth is stagnant. If there is no further progress, the success may not give you fulfillment and it becomes burden.

To summarize, if you focus more on achieving success  and it does not make  impact to others, that success may not bring fulfillment. If you focus more on achieving success after success with more impact to others, you are on a growth path  and the journey will give  a sense of fulfillment. What you focus makes a difference to your life!!

Building Momentum

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”-Thomas Edison

              Many times, we have good ideas or intentions to do something to improve our profession to business, but we fail to convert those ideas into reality. When we see others to implement similar ideas, we use to regret or feel guilty. One of the reasons for not converting ideas into reality is a lack of building momentum the moment idea is conceived.

Building momentum is one way of giving a shape to  idea to the next stage.

For example,

If you have an idea or intention to visit a foreign country, you can build momentum immediately by getting  as much as information about the place, cost of travel, culture, weather  etc.. This action  may propel you to next step and so on..

If you have idea to diversify your business into a new product portfolio, you can build momentum by getting information about the competition, market size, investment etc..This step may propel you to next step and so on..

If you have the intention to bring new initiative in your organization, you can build momentum by immediately seeking suggestion or help from those people who did it already.

Simply, if you have an idea or intention, communicate to your dear ones and commit.That way you build the momentum and that momentum may take you to next level action.

All the achievements are made by execution only. Hence action is important to convert any intention to reality. Hence, building and keeping momentum is a first step and necessary  for any achievement!!!

Acceptance Mindset

“The first step toward change is awareness.the second step is acceptance.”—Nathaniel Branden

          One of the qualities of highly matured people is “Acceptance Mindset”. Acceptance mindset means first accepting anything as such  without resistance. That can be accepting the people as such, accepting the situation as such, accepting the self as such etc .Once accept as such , then they will  do the response or do the corrective mechanism to improve.

      For example, when you accept some of your bad habits or rude behavior as such, you may think of an improvement. When you do not admit, always tend to fault others for your habits or behaviors.

       When  you accept the other’s behavior as such in your professional environment, then you think of modifying your response to each person, else you always get into firefighting, arguing or blaming others.

       When you accept that your business is not going well, you will think changing strategy to improve, else , you cite the reason as government’s failure, Economy, your own employees etc.


      The point is to accept anything first, that is reality. Once you accept, your mind will work on improvements or alternative. Once you resist to accept, you are going against the nature  and it gives back to you in terms of losing temperament, spoiling  health and  quality of  relationship etc...Hence, accept first and cultivate the habit of acceptance and act !

Being grateful does not lead to complacency

              Recently, in the management seminar, I was speaking about being grateful for what we  got in life. After the session, one participant asked me if we are grateful and  content  with what we have, does it not lead to complacent  and stop our growth further? I realized  that I should  have explained  elaborately more about  gratitude, being content and complacency as it requires clarity  for most of us.

My perspective on this is as follows:

               Contentment means being grateful for what you got or achieved. For example, with so many years of  hard work and dedication, you might have attained  your dream senior leadership position in your organization. You can be grateful for the achievement and remember all the people with gratitude. That is grateful and contentment.

               But it will or should not stop you to think next level promotion. Obviously the next level growth demands  further more hard work, skill set  and if you are not ready to invest yourself in skill development and hard work, then you become complacent. To put it simply, when possibilities are there for higher level growth and if you are not willing to invest yourself, that is complacent.

             To summarize, being grateful  and content  will give you peace of mind and that  peace of  mind will enable you for next level growth provided you are ready to pay the price for that. If you are not ready, you become complacent, not due to grateful. Hence grateful does not lead to complacency!

Start Now

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”-Arthur Ashe

        Everyone wants to lead a life with achievements in a profession or business, maintaining cordial relationship with others, healthy body and mindset. But in reality, not all will have the right environment  and opportunity right from childhood to channelize their energy towards achieving the above. Only a few gifted people have the blessings from childhood, For others, it may take life long process. During the process, some people give up, eventually contented, or even complain about age, circumstances, and others.

        If you look at one of the most divine creations, “Butterfly” which everyone likes for its colorful wings and shape. In its life cycle, it evolves as butterfly only at the fourth stage by passing over the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis stages. However, it completes its lifecycle with the transformation from ugly caterpillar to beautiful butterfly. What matters is a transformation in a lifetime, no matter at what timeline it happens in life.

Hence,

If you have not managed your business so far, start now to transform now…
If you have not managed your relationship well with others, start now to renew it…
If you have not managed your finances properly, start now to reorganize
If you have not managed your health, start now to rejuvenate or look into it.


        Every day is a possibility of positive change in life.No point in regretting about the past and complaining the environments or others.Start now for new beginnings!