Tag Archives: Focus

If you want to begin 2017 with a bang, put your faith on four fundamental equations

Dec 31,2016 / By

abcThere are 4 fundamental forces, which govern all what happens in our universe – gravity, electro-magnetism, strong and weak forces. Likewise, there are 4 basic equations that govern all what we do.

We spend days and decades doing our things; but most of us fail to see how things are interwoven or interconnected. There exist clear cut relationship between causes and consequences or events and effects.

Here below are 4 equations that are universally applicable from the strongest person to the weakest in our world and give you command on the results from what you do:

  1. You believe = What you perceive or conceive repetitively
    This equation is the mother of your ideas, beliefs, tendencies, traits or habits. It shows that beliefs do not come from blue; but you actually build them. Whatever you think or observe on a repetitive basis or you are made to do so, you would start to believe it, regardless it is right or wrong.
    This equation governs your learning in school, college or elsewhere. It builds your fantasies, fascinations, faith to fundamentalism or fanaticism.
    One of the far reaching repercussions of this equation can be observed across the world – humans are very prone to negativity; our attention is very quickly drawn by adverse scenarios or news. We tend to think, talk and see more of wrong or depressive things and in that process, we build up wrong beliefs or ideas resulting in our anger, anxiety, fear, frustration, doubts, depression or superstition.
    So, to develop good ideas or right beliefs, you have to perceive or conceive right things.
  2. You become = What you believe
    If you believe in dynamism, you are bound become dynamic. If you put your belief in leadership qualities, you can never be a laggard. You want to stand tall, nobody can make you small.
    If you believe that you can be a singer, engineer, professional or public icon, you would become that. All that you need is a belief, which is unquestionable and unshakable; which you would not doubt or dither, go back and forth. You would relinquish anything that comes as a roadblock; but not reverse that belief. Then, such powerful belief would automatically push you to pursue what you want to be, develop a passion and open door of opportunities to get there.
    This relationship works both way; so if you believe you cannot become someone you like, you would not.
  3. You get = What you give
    Often bosses complain that their sub-ordinates do not respect them; but then they are oblivious of the fact that they do not deal with them with respect. If you give smile, then it is not possible that people would not return it with smile. If you give trouble, you would necessarily get in trouble. You love someone sincerely; it is impossible that person would not fall in love with you.
    So, you get what you give. It is universally applied to all of your actions without exception.
    If we fail to notice such a simple cause and effect relationship, it is only because of our ego, biases or obsession, which blinds us to see what exactly we are doing or giving.
  4. You see = What you sow in your mind
    One morning, you wake up in great spirits and you find everything going great that day. But, another day, you get up with low energy and esteem, though nothing has changed externally.
    So, what has actually changed?
    It is ideas and images, which you have sown in your mind previous day, during dreaming or first few moments after waking up that have actually changed for good on 1st occasion and for worse, in case of 2nd.
    So, you would always see, what you have sown in your mind. Positive and negative aspects or angles of everything exist side by side. Depending upon what is in your mind, you start to focus on plus or minus or mix of the two and you fathom things accordingly.
    If you want to see things in order, you have to put your mind first in orderly state. If you like to witness happiness around, you have to be happy. But, if you have roped in miserable ideas in mind, you would only reap miseries.

So, these equations give you complete control on whatever you want to believe, become, get and see!

What else do you need in 2017 and beyond?

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Six leadership lessons highly worth learning from psychology of a physician

Nov 25,2016 / By
abc

Be your own physician?

We all know that medical practice in any field is a noble profession; but what is little known are unique lessons that we should learn from the mindset of a medical practitioner. We are talking about just a good physician, leave alone successful ones.

Let us look at what does psychology of a physician teach us:

  1. Managing conflict of interest
    Getting into medical profession entails lot of efforts, time and money worldwide. It is natural that motto of getting into this field for most is earning name, fame and wealth.
    It is also clear that every visit to or by a physician fetches a fee for him/her.
    Now, a physician is faced with conflict of interest – treat his/her patients or customers for self-interest or serve them selflessly. Good doctors would always manage this conflict by rising above self and greed, and serve customers keeping in mind their interests. They prescribe minimum medicines and pathological tests and discourage patients to make frequent visits. Many have grace to charge less fees from those, who can’t afford.
    Let us draw a parallel to above the stock options scheme in corporates for employees and top management. Such options have a singular motive of driving employees to perform well, so that company profitability improves, which in turn would reward employees with more options. But, when it comes to top management, conflict of interest creeps in – should company performance improve to increase value of his/her substantial stocks or should it improve to increase values for customers and employees, even if it means slight dent in company’s profitability? Many CEOs allegedly and subtly act in favor of the former – serving self-interest.
  2. Maximum availability
    A physician is available 24×7 to his/her patients, at least in India. Their work-life balance is heavily tilted towards work.
    I am not suggesting that it is good for them, although it is good for their customers. What is more significant lesson is that they don’t make any excuse for non-availability. Their dedication for duties is total.
  3. Memory management
    Did you notice that a good doctor’s memory is very good. He/she would remember history of his/her patients correctly, correct medicines’ name, spelling (usually complex), potency and names of manufacturers for innumerable number of ailments and case histories of other patients.
    What is the key – inbuilt sharper brain or they pop up some pills to sharpen their memory? Not any of these. It is registering the information without any conflict in mind and recalling it without any stress.
  4. Motto of service to customers
    A physician’s actions are completely oriented towards his/her customers and obtaining the results for which they have approached him/her. They never compromise their attitude to serve.
  5. Maximum confidence and concentration
    Successful practitioners give their advice or prescription with total confidence and rarely side or back track. Their focus on duties is deep.
    They are never shaken by patient’s condition, however adverse and do maintain their composure effortlessly. They are attached to their duties but detached from their customers while serving them unflinchingly.
  6. Marvelous understanding of their own body
    In leadership programs or schools, reference to this quality is by and large missing. It is extremely important to understand how you or your body would react to different situations, what triggers your emotions and how to manage the same.
    Doctors do very well on above count and hence, rarely fall sick or fall prey to sickening situations.
    A good leader needs to understand his/her body (including mind) well in order to be robust, consistent and persistent in his/her pursuits.

So, a good physician is a great case study at business schools and organizations!

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Fine dividing line between Passion and Obsession or Dogma/Doctrine!

Oct 29,2015 / By

Passion to live in a home! Source: http://www.flickr.com/

On the face of it, this topic may not be very interesting to you. But hang on a bit and think it over – you want to do what you love or you want to love what you do? Which of the 2 options you choose can make a difference of day and night! If you believe that, you must know the following:

In modern corporate life, time and again you would hear – you must be passionate about what you do; in other words, you must love what you do. How does that differ from desire to do? What happens, if your love changes to lust? Is it not the same as passion changing to obsession?

No leader had ever become laudable, unless he/she had passion for what he/she pursued! Look at some examples – Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos of Amazon Inc.

But, then there are also very successful personalities like Michelangelo, Michael Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Beckham or Donald Trump – Republican Party hopeful for 2016 US Presidential election. They have been adjudged by many as obsessive. Even Charles Darwin was known to suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). How about Vladimir Putin – current Russian President, who is a real hero in the eyes of his countryman? He is dogmatic!

Now, see the effect of fine line between passion versus obsession or dogma. According to author Joshua Kendall, Steve Jobs was obsessive. Though he made Apple as the most imaginative successful company in the world, his obsession costed him happiness, health and family! Though Winston Churchill has been acclaimed as a passionate statesman, he had visibly showed signs of being dogmatic!!

Distinguishing passion from obsession or dogma/doctrine

Here below are the key differences among the three:

  1. Passion is consequence of consciousness; whereas obsession is an emotion and dogma/doctrine is driven by strong biases.
  2. Passion means mindfulness; on other hands, obsession is mindlessness and d/d is rashness or even madness.
  3. Passion is backed up by rationale; but the base of other two is rigidity.
  4. Passion thrives on reasonableness; obsession on recklessness and d/d on ruthlessness.
  5. Passion is coupled with consideration and kindness; however, the other two are devoid of concerns and cultivate cruelty.
  6. Foundation of passion is wisdom; but obsession is weird and d/d is vindictive.
  7. Passion allows freedom to focus on all aspects of what you are passionate about; other two generate fear as well as focus on single aspect of what you are obsessed or dogmatic about.
  8. Passion has peace! Obsession or dogma/doctrine has noise and turbulence!!
  9. Passion is what you implement for self; obsession and d/d are what you impose on others.
  10. An impartial observer would love you for your passion but hate you for your obsession and dogma/doctrine! 

Notwithstanding the above, a very common and confusing element in three of these is very intense feeling, though in 3 different shades, for a person, object, idea or activity; only the method to execute the same and attitude underneath change! 

Preventing to cross-over from passion to obsession or dogma/doctrine!

When you become passionate, you come on a slippery slope and can easily slip into obsession or dogma/doctrine and hence, always be aware of perils of the latter two illustrated in ten points above!

Catch the phrase mentioned in the beginning of this article once more – “What works – Do what you love or love what you do”. There is an extra-ordinary meaning behind this ordinary phrase! 

If you do only what you love or like, you would run eminent risk of converting your love into lust; make a maniac. If your passion for beauty migrates to love for body, you would fall prey to obsession. If you love or respect only God or godmen, and not godly messages and acts, it would generate in you religious fanatic. Your focus or passion for your duties is what would turn into great performance and ownership; however, doing it for love or attracting attention of employer/s would no doubt brand you loyal but make you laggard!

If you only do what you like or love, you would tend to overlook or omit what you ought to do, because you may not love that. This is what seemed to have troubled Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft and several famous leaders. 

True passion is to love what you do and not love for whom you do! Love your objectives and not the objects to achieve same! If you put your trust in this, you can never transgress into obsession or dogma or doctrine!!

Passion is always positive! Apart from bringing to you what is elaborated in above points, it makes you highly focused and dedicated, brings you tremendous purpose and ownership and promotes innovation and creativity at the same time. It is in your hands to develop your passions. Never carry false notion of passion being necessarily a gift of your genes. To be passionate for what all you do should be your top agenda!

Best option is to determine and develop passion after setting your goals. Whereas passion and goals are individually golden, alignment of the two together is what makes it platinum and that also helps you to prevent crossing the fine dividing line between what is desired and what is to be damned!

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One master key that can open many doors of opportunities!

Jun 18,2015 / By

When opportunities open for you! Source: http://www.flickr.com/

Most of us would like host of opportunities to come our way. We would like have highly remunerative job in hand, be able to change to better employer when needed, dream home to live in, fabulous vacation at bargain price and so on. However, sometimes we get those and other times, we have to be content with or compromise our needs or wants, since desired opportunities do not show up or some of those come our way but never fructify.

Most people work hard to become more deserving or increase their potential to attract better opportunities through additional MBA, MS or other specialized qualifications in their portfolio, attending courses to enhance their soft skills like managerial courage, conflict management, communication, focus, decision making or leadership. However, it is often seen that those, who are destined to get opportunities, get it without additional degrees or development programs! More the qualifications and certifications are, less are the opportunities available for most; Murphy’s Law seems to rule the roast!

One thing is certain – people, who do get opportunities easily, do their things very differently than those, who may be dexterous and diligent but are deprived of opportunities! The most powerful key to bring such a differentiation is “Open mindedness”!

One may be very dynamic, dashing, dedicated, diligent, highly qualified and/or experienced; but if she or he is not truly opened minded, all of those attributes would not be of much avail! An open mind is a master stroke to defy Murphy’s Law!!

There are 4 types of people:

  • Those who are not open minded.
    They are dogmatic!
  • Those who are open sometimes and close minded on other times.
    They are directionless or opportunistic! 
  • Those who are open by desire but close their mind, when it comes to doing it.
    They are dithering type.
  • Those who are truly open.
    They are decisive!

It is only the last category above, who holds the master key to open doors to opportunities.

Signs of open mindedness

Everyone would say she/he knows what open mind is; but research shows only less than 5% of people really comprehend it correctly.

True definition of open mind is – “Absence of any preconceived notion and presence of mind”! This definition implies that mind is always in attentive and present mode.

Clear signage of an open mind is:

  1. You would be a great listener.
  2. Your mind would never be overwhelmed by your ego, emotions and prejudices.
  3. You would not have hard traits or habits.
  4. You would accept the realities without hesitation.
  5. You would never be afraid of being proved wrong.
  6. Your capacity to take risks and challenges by choice would be enormous.
  7. Your faith or beliefs can’t blind or blank your mind.
  8. You would not turn blind eye even to your mentor, teacher, preacher or guru.
  9. You are unlikely to block your mind by choosing a role model!
  10. You are bound to be candid and upright! You would hate to play politics or have split personality!
  11. You would be free from confusion and full of confidence!

Significance of an open mind!

An open mind would not only be attentive, receptive and present, but also be clear. You automatically become a keen observer! The clarity of mind would help you to see opportunities in every problem or challenge!

Remember the fact that mother of all opportunities is nothing but problem, issue or challenge!!

In short, an open mind makes you a positive man, who is constantly seeking, cracking and creating opportunities in every sense. When you do that, then your luck or destiny comes chasing you; believe me. The popular phrase – “God helps those, who help themselves” comes true on you! You would be amazed to see how one good news brings another; one opportunity opens the door of another.

Open mind brings sense of deep satisfaction and accomplishment. What is very important to understand here is that when mind is open, it has to necessarily close on decisions and actions!

So, would you not like to make your mind truly open and obtain the master key to control be it your career or be it destiny?

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Why terrific thoughts and quotes go for a toss in implementation!

May 22,2015 / By

Absence of execution means presence of illusion! Source: http://www.flickr.com/

All of us know what is good or great for us; but when it comes to doing it, we lose grip on same! We love motivational thoughts, positive thinking and inspirational quotes; but when it comes to implementation, these seem to lose impact and we hardly practice the same seriously!!

Many times, some of our own thoughts are so overwhelming, powerful and life changing; but we fail to bring any change. Often the fact is that we might have even determined that this is how we want to be; but our deeds are hardly matching to our own decision and determination.

Look at this – “Life is about making an impact, not making an income – by Kevin Kruse”! Don’t you love this quote? Perhaps you do, since this is one of the most popular quotes! If you love this, are you working incessantly to make an impact? No, you don’t; you do the opposite – being busy in making income. You put those making millions of dollars on high pedestal and make them your role models! Many of us believe that we make impact by selling or buying followers or friends in XX dollars on social media!! We crave for the quote; but wrongly comprehend its very essence.

See another one – “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve – by Napoleon Hill”. Nobody would disagree with power of mind. But, then how many of us realize the enormous energy that resides in us? Should it not make each one of us supremely confident and courageous? On an average, we only make less than 7% productive use of our mind!

All of us want to be successful and are perhaps aware that “If you are focused, you can’t fail!” Only thing that stands between success and setback is focus. We would spend lot of time and energy in attending learning programs, leadership courses and undergo mentorship; but the success is seldom in sight for many. Reason – most don’t seriously put their sight on “Focus”!

It is incredibly ironical that we are so near to our own thinking, which is terrific; but we throw or tow ourselves away from practicing it! What bugs us?

Why we love terrific thoughts and quotes!

Various people do it for a variety of reasons:

  1. These have become a fancy and fashion for all, especially elite and celebrities!
  2. Most take pride in citing good quotes in their conversation or communication.
    These no doubt make content of your communication rich!
  3. People like to be known in public that they side with positives and not negatives.
    Reality may be often reverse!
  4. Quotes are usually phonetically very appealing and concise. These have subtle humor or rhetoric. Therefore, a good quote can be very catchy.
  5. These invariably relate to real life examples and have profound meaning.
    Therefore, these are striking to us.
  6. Good thoughts and quotes evoke emotions and euphoria! These release Endorphins in our body, which is a “feel good” hormone!!

Why we lag in executing our lucid thoughts and quotes!
If 10% of population would have believed in employing their positive thoughts and quotes, our planet would have been dramatically different! Is not is amusing that things, which are mind boggling, becomes meaningless to us when it comes to imbibing or implementing! The most probable reasons are:

  1. Our inertia
    Many of us believe that we are dynamic and dashing; but reality often is we are docile to change! We are perennially infested by our inertia.
  2. Fractured conviction
    You believe that you have conviction in a good idea or great quote; but you are actually in “Yes & No” state!
    In absence of firm convictions, your terrific thoughts go for a toss:
    – When you face crisis or criticism
    – When your role model/s, nears and dears carry different ideas than you
    – When your friends mock at you
  3. Fragile patience
    To pursue anything positive, patience is a must. Everything that is right or good has a systematic and structured method to evolve. One cannot bypass this.
    Most of us are impatient; like quick results and when that does not happen, we give up. We go on the wrong side, which would show quick result albeit wrong one.
  4. Tendency to follow masses
    Even though masses mostly commit mistakes, we feel out of place if we don’t follow them. We are shy of standing out of and away from crowd.
  5. Confusing emotions as inspiration
    You normally comprehend a thought or quote on its surface; look at its face value. This evokes your emotions and you confuse same as your inspiration. It is for this reason that you experience a short kick of excitement.
    You need to go deeper and focus on its larger implications. This is when emotions give way to your inspiration. If you are inspired, you feel compelled to implement! 
  6. Lot of reactions but little of actions
    Out of total efforts and energy that we spend in our life, actions are as little as less than 10% and more that 90% emanate from our reactions. This is one important reason why we are high of intents and low on implementation.

So, would you not like to dump above 6 tendencies as much as you can, to allow terrific thoughts or quotes to shape a terrific life for you?

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