Let Us Grow

5 Steps To A Great Life

2011-09-24T05:48:00.000-07:00

If you live 80 years, you will have a total of 29200 days from birth till departure. If you are like me, you have already spent about half of these days. How have you spent these days? Have you spent your days fretting, worrying about the past or the future, running after endless TO DO lists, doing things you don't like, and wasting time on mind-numbing activities? If that is the case, would you like to continue the same way for remaining 15000 days? I hope your answer is NO. It should be NO.

If you want to change or improve the pattern of how you spend your time, your days, and hence your life, here are a few small steps to make your life more enjoyable.

1. Unplug Unplug from TV, computer, iPod etc by consciously, actively and ruthlessly reducing your time consumed by these devices. These have pulled us away from real living. Fill the available time with pleasurable positive activities instead. Read, cook, play a sport, meet with friends, do something creative, meditate, go to the theater, look at the stars, go for a walk, exercise etc.

Take a small practical step, get two additional hours this week by unplugging and use these for a walk in nature.

2. Simplify Simplify your life by letting some things go. You can't do or be everything. Pick a few things, and enjoy them fully. If you have loads of material things that you don't use, give them away. Don’t carry regrets or ill feelings. Be quick to forgive and quick to forget. Remember, negative thoughts create negative feelings. Holding grudges and nurturing old wounds is unhealthy and makes you unhappy. Actively seek to stop negative thinking. Learn to live NOW. If negative thoughts and feelings are getting intrusive, do something distracting.

Practical step. Meditate for 30 minutes or cut your TO DO list to half.

3. Grow by Contributing Whether through our work or otherwise, we all need to feel we have a purpose and have made some mark on the world. We need to feel that our lives have some intrinsic meaning. Share your knowledge, passions, skills, and time with someone else on a regular basis. Be kind to others. Improving one life can make a huge difference for that person and a ripple on the world. For you, it will be a great feeling.

Practical step. Donate to a charity or spend an hour teaching something to a child.

4. Appreciate Health When we feel good physically, we feel good mentally and emotionally and when we feel bad physically, we feel bad all over. It is hard to enjoy life when your physical health is poor. Appreciate the importance of good health and do some thing on daily basis to improve it.

Practical step. Spend 1 hour this week reading about healthy diet and half an hour to plan 5 healthy meals for the week,

5. Enjoy Enjoy Your Life. Play often. Have fun regularly. Get some exercise. Walk, bike, run, swim, dance, stretch, lift weight; what ever you enjoy, to take care of this remarkable house for your soul. Travel. There is so much to explore and see and enjoy. Pick some places that intrigue you. Plan some trips. Go outside frequently. Being in nature enlivens your soul and makes you feel connected to the world around you. There are more things in this world to enjoy than we could ever experience in one lifetime. If we are living in the framework of integrity, then pleasurable experiences should be pursued and enjoyed regularly--without guilt. Having fun is essential to savoring life.

Practical step. Find 3 new activities that you will enjoy and do these.

Addicted to Net? The Solution

2011-09-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

This comes in the life of every one.... Net Addiction. At some stage, every one becomes net addicted. Some stay there, some come back and some sink further and farther.

To come back requires a strong self discipline. In my case, I have defined some specific hours and some specific targets (e.g reading a specific number of articles, certain actions for blog promotion etc). I normally remain within that limit.

But not many people have that type of self discipline or control when it comes to net surfing. That being the case, one can invent certain tricks that FORCE the person to restrict net time. For example, this lady from Egypt get a cheap internet package on a fairly basic pre-owned mobile phone (a Nokia 2330 which has Opera Lite on it and is definitely not a smartphone of any sort 'Crackberry' as referred usually) - so for around $3.50 per month, it's just about handy enough to check Facebook and her most important email addresses (she has a LOT) and read new posts on various forums, but is not convenient enough (given the phone!) to type anything but the most pressing comments, posts or whatever.

It has really helped her - she saves a couple of hours of random surfing.

You can also try to have 2 days a week completely offline, like I do. Not always easy or possible depending what's going on.

So, pick the best day to do it, close down your internet computer the night before around bedtime, and don't put it on until the whole of the DAY OFF has rolled around and it's the day after that. For the first time you do it, it's probably easier if you pick a DAY OFF where you know you will be out most of the day and preferably won't be coming home until night-time otherwise it will be giving out it's siren call all day long.

What is the Purpose of Your Life?

2011-08-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

This was the question posted in one of the forums I recently visited. My reply was

At the moment, the purpose is to find the purpose of my life.

Seriously.

I have been thinking for last couple of years to really find THE PURPOSE of my life, our life.

Till the time I reach to some conclusion, I have SET my purpose as "To GROW and help others to GROW".

Sorry EntreCard Droppers - No More Drops From Me

2011-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

As a member of entercard, I frequently DROP on member's sites. Like other members, I also prefer to drop on all those who have dropped on my site. However, today as I was checking my entrecard INBOX and was dropping, my 9 year kid came along and sat next to me. I suddently realised that a number of droppers have pictures of sexy, seducing, half naked women as their avatar. Now it was areally an embarassing situation. I discourage such pictures, sites and TV programmes for my kids and here he was, seeing his dad opening a site with multiple pictures of sexy women.

OK, if you have a fashion, women, dating or adult site, it makes sense to have such avatars. But how such pictures relate to technlogy, computer, business sites?

So sorry my entrecard friends. No more drops on sites with pictures of sexy, seducing, half naked women as their avatar.

Beauty and The Beast – Who Would Rescue Beauty?

2011-08-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is the story of the beauty and the beast. However, the beast in this story is not the one who is kind and loving by heart. Here the beast is a good looking one, but evil by heart. And you are the only one to rescue the beauty. So the story goes like this:

Once, there was a mean moneylender (you got it, he is the beast), who had lent money to a trader (the father of beauty; you got it right again). Because of the setbacks one after the other, the trader was unable to pay (it had to happen, else there would not have been a story).

The trader had a pretty young daughter (well, you are right the third time. She is the beauty) and the devious moneylender had his eyes on her. To show his devious helpfulness, he suggested that if the trader would agree to his marrying the young girl, he would write off the dept or else hell would break loose.

Both the trader and the daughter were in a fix. The moneylender pretended to be generous by proposing that let fate decide. He proposed that he would put a black and a white pebble into an empty bag and the girl would pick one pebble. And if she picked the black pebble, she would have to marry him and the father’s dept would be forgiven. But if she picks the white pebble, she would not have to marry him and the dept would still be forgiven.

The daughter was not just pretty but also very intelligent (else, this story would have not been there). She didn’t want her father to go to jail, so she agreed to the proposition. The day came when the whole village gathered to see the fate of the trader and his daughter. They were standing on the bank of the river full of pebbles.

The moneylender stooped down to pick up the two pebbles. Making sure nobody was noticing, he picked two black pebbles to make sure he married the girl. The girl saw this but kept quiet.

The girl was then asked to pick one pebble, upon which her and her father’s fate rested. Supposing you were one of the spectators at this happening:

1. What would you have done?

2. What would you advise the girl to do?

3. How would you handle the situation?

4. What are the girl’s choices?

a. She could expose the moneylender by asking him to show both the pebbles.

b. She could refuse and sacrifice her father.

c. She could take a black pebble and sacrifice herself to save her father.

The choices aren’t easy. It was either her or her father’s life and she was not prepared to sacrifice anyone.

To see what the girl did, click comments.

World's Shortest Personality Test

2011-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

While surfing the web, I came across this site "World's Shortest Personality Test" at

http://www.blogthings.com/worldsshortestpersonalitytest/ I selected the the picture on right and the computer gave follwoing description of my personality

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky.
Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

Though I am not a great believer of such tests, however, the description matches my personality almost perfectly. At least my wife thinks so (and naturally, I have to agree with her...)

Impressed by the correct assesment, my wife also did the test.

She chose the picture in front and got follwoing for her personality description (which we believe to be correct...)
You are pure, moral, and adaptable.
You tend to blend into your surroundings.Shy on the outside, you're outspoken to your friends. You believe that you live a virtuous life...
And you tend to judge others with a harsh eye. As a result, people tend to crave your approval.

Are You the Gifted One? Do You Have The Mindset of a Champion?

2011-08-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

I have found a perfect shortcut to success. It is called hardwork.
Are you a born genius? Are you the gifted one? Do you feel that you have greatness in your soul? Do you have same talents as those of Tiger Woods or Olympic champions?

If your answer is NO, then are you worried about success in life?
If you do not have greatness as a natural gift, you don’t have to worry about success in life. Most, almost all, of the successful people do not have great natural talents. But still they manage to rise to top or be very successful in life.
I am one of those people. Though quite successful, but never felt like a natural-born winner, a genius, an outstanding talent. So are a many of my friends. These are quite successful people, but no one has a really outstanding talent.
How did, then, they managed to be successful? Simply because they were lucky??
I am a great believer in luck. And I have observed that harder I work, the luckier I become.

Take for example Michael M, a well known real character in the internet business. When he started his first job as with a newsletter called "Business & Trade", he hardly knew the difference between business and trade. But he learnt fast. His next business-related position was as editorial director for a publisher in Florida. He had a half dozen freelance writers reporting to him and his job was to edit and polish their work. But he could barely understand what they were talking about: agribusiness and professional practice management and robotics etc. How could he guide the reporters what to write? But again he learnt fast.

How did he do it? He spent hours every evening in the National Library, studying the subjects he was writing about. He never told his boss what extra work he was doing, as he did not want him to know how ignorant he was. He simply worked twice as many hours as the other writers did. And slowly but surely, he began to know what he was talking about. Eventually, he was way better than other writers in the team. He understood the mysteries that had befuddled him as a beginner in business and marketing slowly became clear.

Later, he set out to create and market his own investment newsletter. He recalls, “I was nearly paralyzed with fear. I was not just worried about failing. I was sure I would”. However, his doubtfulness was proven wrong. The publication earned him millions of dollars in its first year and is growing ever since.

About 30 years ago, Michael’s assets had a net value of about $2000/-. Today, he has two multimillion-dollar mansions, have tens of millions of dollars in the bank and brokerage accounts, and interests in businesses with a combined value of more than $20 million. And now he is enjoying his second retirement.

In his words, any one can be successful in life and accomplish amazing things without thinking like a champion or having great natural talents. If one has doubts and fears, he doesn’t have to change his "attitude" to be a winner. Although it is great to have a changed attitude, a mind set of a champion, but if one continues to wait for success till his attitude changes, he will, most probably, wait for ever. Success comes in small steps and with each success, confidence grows. But it is not confidence in self; instead it is the confidence in the process of working hard that really matters.

Years later, when he became very successful in business, people began treating him like a champion. They assumed he had natural born talents that they lacked. He disagrees. He thinks of himself an ordinary person, with ordinary talents. He believes that success can be achieved by every “ordinary” person by following two simple ideas that he followed, which are:

1. If you donot have an abundance of natural talent, you can make up for it by working harder to acquire the skills and knowledge you need.
2. If you don’t have the natural genius to come up with great ideas, you can find out what rich and successful people are doing and imitate exactly what they do.
The point of this article is that you don’t need the mind of a champion to be successful. You need to do only two things: Work harder than all those who are competing with you and imitate the actions of successful people you admire. If you do that long enough, you will have the success you long for. And as a bonus, you will have acquired courage and confidence too.

Courage and confidence in self and own abilities cannot be achieved by mantras or mediation or self-imaging alone. It is achieved by persistent application of hard work and action. If you work hard and smart at anything long enough, you will know success. And with each small success, your mind and heart will grow incrementally braver and more confident.

"I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be."

My Dream Home

2011-08-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I visited Taxila Museum, that houses remains of Buidha times. The picture above is rear view of the museum and a near perfect match to my dream home. So I am posting it here, making it public that this is my dream home and that I have also started ATTRACTING it.

Boosting Metabolism - Facts and Myths

2011-07-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

In my article Fat Loss and Weight Management – Learn the Basics (Part I) and Part II, I have discussed the important role your metabolism rate plays in your weight management. Your metabolism is the rate at which you burn calories every day. So higher the metabolism rate, more calories you are burning and it is easier for you to lose/manage weight. It is like passive income or an autopilot. You do the hard work one and then capitalize on it with little further effort. Great, isn’t it. However, the problem is that metabolic rate declines with age (especially with a sedentary life style) and one finds it more difficult to burn body fat with workouts and diet alone.

The awareness of link between metabolism and fat loss/weight management among masses has given birth to large industry to provide shortcut / quick fix solutions for boosting the metabolism. These include, but not limited to, powders, potions, pills, drinks and secret techniques that are promised to raise metabolic rate and help burn fat. The fact is, very few of these metabolism boosters actually work.

I’ve examined the claims about popular metabolism boosters, from exercise to nutrition, to show which actually work and which don’t merit your attention and time.

1. Fat-burner pills boost your metabolism greatly. Most fat burners are simply caffeine pills with a few other ingredients, such as green tea, Hoodia etc. Independent research hasn’t proven the effectiveness of these pills. One may get an increase in mental energy through use of these pills, but that is all; one doesn't get a boost in metabolism or burn fat. So my advice would be “avoid fat burner pills”.

2. Breakfast boosts metabolism. My answer would be “Breakfast boosts metabolism indirectly, not directly”. Research shows that eating breakfast is associated with successful weight loss. I always advocate a rich breakfast, comprising of protein, fiber, fruit and vegetables. It keeps you satisfied and your appetite in check till your next meal. Consequently, you don’t indulge is junk food eating. Try having an rich omelet containing broccoli, mushrooms and onions.

3. Ice-cold water with lemon juice. The theory is that body will burn calories to warm up the water, while lemon juice is a natural fat burner. The fact is, it is not correct.

4. Green tea. The claim is that green tea burns an extra 80 calories per day. The fact is that studies have shown burning of 80 calories in young men on the first day of supplementation. But it is not a lasting effect as the body gets used to green tea. I personally take green tea for its proven health results, especially for heart. Otherwise, green tea will help you lose weight only if you replace your high calorie caffeine mug with unsweetened green tea cup.

5. Eating small frequent meals. This has been proven to be a good metabolism boosting strategy wityh additional benefit of helping in cholesterol control. It is simple and effective. Start the day with breakfast and then take small meals/snack/salads/fruit and vegetable servings every four hours. This will give you mental alertness as well as make body to burn more fat.

6. High Intensity Interval training. Definitely YES. In comparison to cardio exercises, high intensity interval training results in a greater increase in post-exercise metabolism. Interval training is simply a short bout of hard exercise followed by a short bout of easy exercise, repeated 5-10 times. The article A 10-Minute Exercise Routine You Can Do Anywhere provides a good start for high intensity interval training.

7. Strength training. Definitely YES and probably the best. A recent study from the Journal of Applied Physiology has showed that strength training doubled post-exercise fat burning. So strength training must be a part of any individual’s fat loss/weight management workout routine. I personally do strength training three days per week, on alternate days and work out all major muscle groups.

The conclusion is that magic pills and potions just don't work. The good news is that you can increase your metabolism through regular exercise and improved diet and eating habits.

In a nutshell, exercising, building muscles and eating the right foods in the right amounts help you keep your metabolism stoked.

This is a repeat post.

Achieving Life Goals Daily Through Weekly Planning

2011-07-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone acknowledges the power of goals and goal setting for accomplishing what you want from life. Thanks to so much literature available on net and in books, setting goals and establishing priorities has now become quite simple. However, the real challenge is to ACT. No matter how well defined and realistic your goals are, how powerful your imagination and visualisation is, how knowledgeable you are, if you fail to plan and then execute that plan, you will not achieve your goals. So the toughest part is to follow your goals by planning and acting. When it comes to acting, the greatest hindrances I have observed are the lack of motivation (as there is no/less short term or instant gratification while working on tasks of long term goals) and lack of focus (urgent and less important tasks taking priority over important long term tasks).

Over the period of time, I have used different time management and organizing systems, with varying degree of success, to remain focused, motivated and committed towards my long term goals. However, for the last 5 years, I am following a “weekly planning with daily action plan” strategy with great degree of success. Some people only plan one day at a time; however, I prefer to be more forward looking than a single day. Therefore, I plan at least one week at a time. I use significant project milestones in my weekly planning and break those milestones into smaller components as daily tasks, accomplishing these daily. I have concluded that weekly scheduling is important for the overall success of bigger project/long term goal but it is the daily planning that will help me track my progress and determine whether or not I am on schedule. Following “weekly planning with daily action plan” approach, I had not only been productive but also enjoy my life more with a greater sense of fulfilment. I would like to give due credit to Stephen Covey and his book “First Things First”, on which this approach is based. Of course, I have refined it over the period so that it harmonises with my unique personality and work habits (or vice versa). Here is how I go about weekly planning for achieving my goals:

1. Top Down Approach For my weekly planning, I use top down approach. I have long term/life goals that I review every quarter and plan milestones/activities that I must reach/carryout to move me “considerably closer” towards my goals. This quarterly goal sheet is my blueprint for weekly planning and re-adjustments every month. So effectively, I am reviewing my progress every week and every month for my quarterly goals.

2. Whole Person Approach I plan my week for the whole ME; body, mind, heart and soul. Within these categories, I have certain roles; husband and father, GM/career/job, family member (brother, son) and friend, learner, teacher and guide, community worker etc (and now a Blogger as well). My weekly planning always covers the 4 areas. I try to accommodate some activity, no matter how small, in each roles of my life. It may be as small a task as sending an e-mail to an old friend, just five minutes to connect with my true self or a brief meditation session, but I make sure that each role of my life is touched during the week. Emphasis on a particular role may vary from week to week; however, I ensure that I maintain a balance over a longer period (1-3 months).

3. Dedicated Planning Time Over the period of time, I have realised that planning my week cannot be treated as a random activity. One has to dedicate a specific time slot for planning; making it a habit and doing it religiously. So I do my weekly planning Sunday mornings, mostly after my morning workout, when the kids are still asleep and I have a total interruption free and relaxed time. When I initially started weekly planning, it used to take me quite long. However, since the time that I have set my long term plans and goals clearly, it now takes me a maximum of an hour to plan the week.

4. Review of Preceding Week The planning process starts with a quick review of last weeks activities: achievements and shortcomings. I then consult my quarterly goals and adjust activities to offset the shortfalls and capitalise on achievements.

5. Adjust Big Rocks First This is one of the most important planning and time management concept that I have learnt. I took this idea from Stephen Covey’s “First Things First”. For those of you who have not read this book, I strongly recommend to have a copy and read it. I have found this philosophy very useful for my quarterly as well as weekly planning. I always adjust my big rocks first; long term goal setting, planning, process development, high leverage activities etc, for the individual days of the week. These normally occupy 2-5 hours of my daily time. I then fill in the gaps with less important (but may be urgent) activities. Since I am planning for a week, I normally have a good idea of comparatively less important but time critical activities (the deadlines) for the week. This way, I remain focused on bigger picture but at the same time, am able to handle day to day urgent issues.

6. Scheduling Interruptions No matter how well a person plans his time, there will always be new tasks or interruptions coming up throughout the day that need immediate action. I therefore never cram every minute of my day and normally leave 10-30% buffer time (depending upon expected “unexpectedness” of the week) to handle the unexpected. If nothing unexpected comes, great; I’ll use this time for other projects, planning and thinking. If volume of interruptions is too large, I follow Covey’s advice “exercise integrity in the moment of choice” to decide whether to entertain the interruption or not. The guiding principles for me are

a. Is it a good opportunity, aligned with my life’s mission/long term goals?
b. People are more important than schedules

If I decide to entertain the interruption and thus am unable to complete day’s tasks, I carry forward those tasks to next day’s buffer time.

7. Planning Entire Week I don’t plan the work days only, I plan the entire week. In fact, bulk of my social, family and personal development activities (sharpening the saw) are scheduled during the weekend. My weekend activities also affect my weekday plans. For example, if I have to arrange a dinner on Saturday, I’ll plan shopping on Friday or Thursday. On the other hand, I can use after dinner chat on Sunday evening with a business partner for some decisions, for which I’ll have to dedicate more formal time during my weekday. Over the time I have experienced that my weekend plans have a major contribution in my overall effectiveness.

8. Personal Time Scheduling some “personal time” is a must for my weekly plan. It includes some time for exercise (I normally have at least 2x30 minutes sessions in the morning and 2-3 sessions in the evening every week), quality time with the family (normally aim at going for joint activities such as visiting a new town together, watching a good movie together, playing together, teaching kids something new etc) learning something (sharpening the saw), or just that occasional lazy letting go time (which is normally unplanned but adjusted in the schedule afterwards) to have the feeling of “going with the flow”.

9. Adjusting Daily Activities I adjust my daily activities to optimise my use of time. This could be in the form of combining activities (listening to a podcost/music while exercising), grouping together similar activities (research for an article and some fun time on net, walk with shopping) etc. I also experiment with planning prolonged sessions of mental work and alternating between physical and mental work. It is totally personal choice; through experience, I know which mental sessions I should prolong and which mental activity will need to be interleaved with physical activity for better results.

10. Frequent Reviews Frequent reviews of daily plans and activities are very important for re-adjustment and re-defining of the priorities. In my case, I review my daily plan and activities 2-3 times everyday for about 2-4 minutes each time. These reviews are random; however, I always review the day at night.

11. Breaks My breaks during the day are planned as well as random. These do not necessarily mean rest; these may be switching of tasks. If I am stuck in a task and am not making a headway, I prefer to have a break or do something entirely different and then comeback to the task.

12. Organising and De-clutter Time Couple of years ago, I used to view de-cluttering as irritating and time wasting. Not any more. I have observed that 10-15 minutes of de-cluttering daily and a 30 minute de-clutter session on Friday afternoon is a great investment. Organising and de-cluttering is now a regular feature of my weekly planning.

13. End of Week Review At the end of each week I ask myself important questions like “What did I learn from this past week? Did I focus on the most important items?” etc and analyse how well the week has gone.
Practical Implementation

What tools are to be used for practical implementation of the planning? It is a matter of personal choice. I have tried different approached; PDA, organisers, palmtops, different software etc. But the best I have found is pen and paper, with computer and PDA just playing a small support role.

a. I use a diary with complete week on two opposite pages, facing each other, so with one glance I am able to see how my schedule looks for the 7-day period. Top of the page shows dates, days, day No of the year, remaining days and month’s calendar on the top right. Under the date for each day, there are lines representing the hours, so I can write each task or event at the correct time. I carry my diary with me all the time.

b. When planning my week, I have red, green and blue pens with me as well as a pencil. I write my “big rocks”, “Must Do” and the important tasks in red. Other tasks are written in green and blue, depending upon importance. There are certain other tasks which are my “may be” lists. These I write in pencil, so if required, I can erase and replace these.

c. I staple two blank pages on the next pages of the diary. On one of these, I write additional important and urgent tasks which come up during the week. I adjust these tasks in the weekly planning for that specific week or the next week. On the other page, I write ideas, “may be”, general information which I translate into useful data and file/act afterwards.

d. My quarterly goals for the present quarter are stapled on the first page of diary. Also, I keep a 2-3 page summary of my long term planning/goals in the inside jacket of my diary.

e. Whenever I complete a task, I circle it in green. A task which is not completed on schedule is circled in red and shifted to an available time slot in the week, with an arrow showing the shift. Greater number of green circles, better the week is. SIMPLE.
f. I do shift some of tasks on my computer planner. These are normally long term tasks which need analysis/further data.
Results

1. I have been following this approach since last 4-5 years (improving gradually over period of time) and have experienced really great results in terms of productivity and fulfilment. This approach connects bid goals with small tasks. So as I understand the link between a small task and big goal, I feel the motivation to accomplish the task. Accomplishing the task, no matter how small it is, brings me closer to a bigger goal, which is extremely satisfying. This turns in to an upward spiral: More motivation, more satisfaction, greater desire to accomplish more tasks, more satisfaction, more motivation ….. At times I keep on working for hours and hours on tasks which I dreaded to start a couple of years ago. I now see the end results and feel more energized to accomplish the linked task.

2. I am able to build and maintain momentum on a daily basis and hence achieve extraordinary results.

3. I have a better accountability and review system. I know where I stand at any given moment and know what to do to reach my desired position.

4. I rarely find myself short of time. The expression “I wish there were 48 hours in a day” is the thing of past. I have more time and more importantly, quality time.

5. Carefully planned breaks keep me energized to work on and complete tasks.

6. Weekly planning and daily actions have greatly reduced my stress quotient. Planning gives me the peace of mind that things are under control, I have plan for projects and am getting closer to my goals with completion of each task. Having buffer time for emergencies enables me to tackle the unexpected with out any stress.

7. I now have better control over my life.

8. I am not missing any part, any area of my life. My bodily needs are met. My social and emotional relationships have improved. I pursue my passions, spirituality and learning. So overall, this approach has really delivered for me. My sincere thnaks to Stephen Covey.
So, what are you waiting for? Plan your week right now. Or at least, earmark a time slot within next 2 days for this activity.
This is a repeat post of my most popular article.

My (First) DETOX Experience

2011-07-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

For quite some time, I was planning to do a DETOX. For one reason or the other, mainly travelling, the programme kept on delaying. This week, I had the opportunity so I decided a 4 day DETOX. The primary purpose of DETOX is to cleanse your inner body, though people do it for other reasons, including shedding a couple of pounds.

I started on 19 Jun, completed my 4 days on 22 Jun, but continued till a.m 25 Jun. So it was effectively a 7 day DETOX, which is normally the recommended duration. Before starting, I did some research on the net about what to eat, what to avoid, what to do etc. I observed that DETOX plans are quite versatile; from very relaxed to very stringent. Since this was my first DETOX, so I decided to remain quite relaxed. However, I followed a strictly controlled, though not well planned, diet.

Diet During first three days, I mainly consumed water, fruits, raw/slightly fried vegetables, nuts and dry fruits. First three days, I had fruit (banana), almonds and raisins for breakfast. Almonds were also my main (and almost only) snacks during the week. During these three days, I ate plenty of melons, water melons, apricots and some raw/fried vegetables. At office, I had a few cups of green tea with honey as the sweetener.

During later days, I had oatmeal with almonds and raisin for the breakfast. In the evening, I did have some boiled brown rice with slightly fried vegetables and with chickpeas curry one day.

Throughout the week, I had a glass of water with honey and lemon juice in the morning. This with heavy intake of water made me to rush to bathroom very frequently.

Exercise Though I did not go to gym during the week, however, I was quite regular in my evening walks. My brisk walks normally lasted for about an hour.

Food That I Avoided I strictly avoided soda drinks (I don’t take alcoholic drinks) meat, milk, sugar, salt, tea, breads, wheat products, confectionary etc. There were, however, two violations; on day 5, I had two sips of black tea and then 3 sips of tea.

Results At the end of the week (and during the week also) I generally feel better and light; both physically and mentally. I don’t know whether it was because of internal cleansing or light diet or regular walk. However, a feeling of improvement was clearly there. I lost about 2.5 lbs also in the process. Another Change I noticed was drop in blood pressure. My diastolic reading dropped by 4-5 points.

Challenges As I mostly ate fruit, craving for cooked, warm and saltish food was very strong, especially during first four days. During last two days, as I had brown rice with fried vegetables/chickpeas curry, the situation somewhat improved. There was some family pressure, as they wanted me join them for the dinner. But at the same time, they were supportive, watching the proceedings with interest. Nuts and raisin provided variety from fruits and vegetables.

Lesson Learnt A key lesson learnt is that one should have a clear and detailed plan for the DETOX week; especially the menu. During my DETOX week, I just went along with my food. This was not a very good idea. Next time, I’ll make menu for each meal and for each snack.

Future Plans At the end of week, I clearly observe an improvement in my physical and mental state. Therefore, I intend to make it a routine of DETOXING once every quarter. I intend to have every alternate DETOX to be of longer duration; 10-15 days.

The Driver ????

2011-05-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Two bowling teams, one of all Blondes and one of all Brunettes, charter a double-decker bus for a week-end gambling trip to Louisiana . The Brunette team rode on the bottom of the bus, and the Blonde team rode on the top level.

The Brunette team down below really whooped it up, having a great time, when one of them realized she hadn’t heard anything from the Blondes upstairs. She decided to go up and investigate.

When the Brunette reached the top, she found all the Blondes frozen in fear, staring straight ahead at the road, clutching the seats in front of them with white knuckles.

The brunette asked, “What the heck’s going on up here? We’re having a great time downstairs!”

One of the Blondes looked up at her, swallowed hard and whispered…
“YEAH, BUT YOU’VE GOT A DRIVER

Source:
BlackHumour! (With Thanks)

Downsize Your "To Do" List

2011-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

You know you have way too many things on your to-do list. Here are some ways to down-size that list, and turn it into a powerful income generating tool at the same time.

Step One: Acknowledge that it is impossible to do it all. Decide right now that you are going to choose the Highest Leveraged Actions in the important areas of your life, and focus on doing those every day.

Step Two: Do a mind dump. Unfinished business weighs on your mind and drains your energy. Take 10 minutes and make a list of everything in your mind that needs to be done, in every area of your life, personal and professional. Just keep writing without ordering or prioritizing, until you can't think of anything else. This is not a to-do list. This is a cleansing list.

Step Three: At the end of each business day, make a down-sized to-do list of highest leveraged actions. I use a special card designed to put 5 business items on one side and 5 personal items on the other.

Highest leveraged actions for your business are the ones that will have the biggest impact. If you have way more than 5 each day and they arent bottom-line oriented, then you need to think about delegating.

High leveraged personal actions are just as important as the business actions. These can include things like self-care (exercise, meditation), relationship (send a card, call your spouse), creativity (write a poem), and unfinished business (see Step Four). These things get lost in a huge to-do list, and end up never being attended to.

Step Four: Address one major unfinished business item each month. Pick one item from your mind dump and put one leveraged action on your card each day until its done. Then pick the next project.

Step Five: “Enough” is a decision, not a thing. If you are clear on your vision, have balanced your priorities to include personal and business, and you are taking small, consistent actions each day and delegating the rest, you are doing the best you can. Act AS IF youve done enough, acknowledge yourself, give yourself time to rest and rejuvenate, and watch your results expand.

Source:
Journey to Ten! (With Thanks)

How do you read?

2011-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

What a strange question it is. How does a person read?. Well, he takes a book or magazine and reads it. That’s it.

I developed a passion for reading at a very early age. Well, to be honest and precise , at a very very early age. I think I was only around 5 years of age when I started reading magazines, novels and digests (in my native language). Since my teens, there is hardly a day when I did not read something. However, most of it was fiction or novels. I turned to serious reading in late teens and early twenties. In my late twenties, I realized that I have developed a great habit of reading, but at the same time, an extremely poor style of reading; I read everything as fiction. I would read everything like a novel, without understanding the deep concepts, noting pearls of wisdom, asking questions, challenging ideas or absorbing the new themes. I realized that I was not getting much from my reading and felt the need to improve my reading style / approach. Since then, I have gradually developed some reading habits that have massively improved my gains from reading. I am sharing these with you so that you can also improve your gains from reading. Here are these:

1. While reading non-fiction books, articles etc, I extensively use pencil. Initially, I used yellow highlighter, but soon realized that it was difficult to use (remove and put on cap before/after every use) and had limited capability to grade texts of different importance. Also, ink of highlighters fades after some time (Yes, I do keep books that long …..).

a. I side line everything important or interesting (worth reading again).

b. I underline everything that is more important. The underlined portion is normally about 20-40% of sidelined portion.

c. Very very important concepts/parts of book are underlined as well as have 1-3 stars on the side.

d. To improve my vocabulary, I put a small dash-line along the line that carries the word. Once or twice a week, I write the sentence along with the meaning of the word in a separate note book and rub off the dash-line.

e. I give every book/article marks out of 100. The marks reflect the importance and usefulness of the book and help me to make selection for re-reading. It normally takes me only 20% of the time compared to first time reading to re-read a book to refresh all the concepts/ideas that I gained from the book. I am very selective in buying non-fiction books and all such books in my library are worth re-reading.

f. I list the books and articles read in two excel files, indicating title, author, time of last reading, marks out of hundred, whether I have hardcopy (for articles) etc. This helps me selecting my re-read material.

None of these reading habits is a rocket science. These all are common sense. But it took me years to find deficiencies in my reading habits and gradually develop habits to have massive gains from my reading. You must also be having some reading practices. Analyse these. Are you getting maximum out of your reading. If not, develop above mentioned reading habits. A 30 days conscious effort to implement these reading habits will put these on auto pilot and yield dividends for rest of your life.

This is a repeat post.

The Power of Positive Attitude

2011-03-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!' He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it!'
'You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'

He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or...you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.' Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.
'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'
I reflected on what he said.. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?'
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or....I could choose to die. I chose to live.'
'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked.
He continued, '...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'
'What did you do?' I asked.
'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity''. Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude....I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'

Source
Letters to Heaven ! (With Thanks)

Ways of GOD

2011-03-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

God answers our prayers in 3 ways.

1. He says YES and gives us what we want.

2. He says NO and gives us something better.

3. He says WAIT and gives us the best in His own time.

Stand Up to Burn Calories

2011-03-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

It may come as a s surprise to you that standing rather than sitting each day may help your body consume around up to 30 more calories per hour. Reducing 30 calories per day may seem trivial, but 30 fewer calories per day means 3.1 pounds lost over the course of a year. For many of us, weight gain is a gradual process, a matter of a pound or two per year. You can gain 3 pounds in a year if, each day, you consume just 30 calories more than you burn. As little as one hour standing on your feet and one less hour sitting can actually spell the difference between remaining at your current weight or getting fatter. If you exercise for 1 hour each day, the 8 hours you spend working and the several hours of leisure time each day can have a big impact on weight gain or loss. You can make healthier decisions throughout the day. Will you take the stairs or ride the elevator? As little as 5 minutes of stair-climbing burns 144 calories. Do you rely on email rather than getting up and having a conversation with your co-worker? Walking, even at an easy 3 mph pace, burns 280 calories per hour. When you get lunch, do you always have it delivered, or could you easily walk to get it? Just by taking short breaks (standing up occasionally to stretch or walking down the hall) you be on your way to a slimmer waist. In brief, by standing and walking more, and sitting less, you’ll be healthier in the long run.

Gold Or Garbage - What Are You Piling?

2011-03-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

b. Garbage. Have negative effect on us (damage us in some way).

c. Neutral. No or very little effect on us (leave us almost unchanged).

It is my observation that we all spent some time in each type of category. However, what really matters is that how much time, and with what intensity, we spent in each category? That is to say, whether you are piling Garbage or Gold or just “spending your time”. Your choice of Gold or Garbage activities will ultimately determine your long-term growth, personal development and effectiveness.

I personally grade these three types of activities on a scale of –10 to +10. Activities that fall between +3 t0 +10 are gold. Activities falling between –2 to +2 are generally neutral and anything below –3 is Garbage.The more gold you have, the better your life is, and more developed and successful person you are.The more garbage you have, less developed you are. You don’t have an effective “self” or a successful/great life, even if you have plenty of money.

How do we decide what is gold and what is garbage? My criteria for each type of activity and the activities that people generally pursue in that area are:

Gold Activities (+3 to +10)

These are the activities that have positive short and long-term effects. These are absorbing, engaging and challenge your intellect, body or emotions. Since these are challenging, one tends to avoid these, especially when he feeling low physically, emotionally, or mentally. However, once engaged, a person gets absorbed and may even lose sense of time. Consequently, these activities refresh, recharge and build up energy, making it easier to continue. A key characteristic of such activities is that when one has finished these, he feels satisfied positively, feels good about himself and has a sense of fulfilment.

My choice of Gold activities include

a. Reading a really good book. For example Steven Covey’s “First Things First” or “The 8th Habit”, Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, Coelho's "Al-Chemist" etc.

b. Exercise. Jogging, weight training, walking. These really refresh me and one hour of exercise allows me to add 2-3 hours of mental work or quality time with family.

c. Yoga and meditation.

d. Watching a really really good movie. A film like “Forest Gump”, “The Secret”, “Ben Hur”, or some educational and inspiring documentary etc.

e. Exploring/learning something new. This could be as small as a learning new words or basics of a new software module or may be something more challenging like flying and aircraft.Visiting a new place (during an evening or a complete holiday package) Tasting some new food/drink

f. Getting involved in emotionally engaging and intimate activities like making love, spending some quality time with family or friends, teaching something to your kids.

g. Writing, whether it is a diary, journal, article or a book

h. Gardening. Gardening provides light exercise, is engaging, and can be a great stress reliever for many reasons, including getting you into the sunshine and fresh air, creating more beautiful surroundings to come home to each day. A side effect is the sense of contribution towards nature, which, in the long term, a major positive impact on your life.

i. Some challenging games or puzzles that develop focus and concentration

The signs of a Gold activity are that it is intellectually or physically challenging, teaches you something worth knowing, develops a skill worth having, or improve your existing state (physical, emotional or intellectual). During the activity as well as later on, you have a strong sense that you are doing the right thing. It builds your self-esteem and confidence as well as your energy levels. And mostly, it is stress relieving.

Neutral Activities (-2 to +2)

These activities have no major long-term negative or positive effects, but have short-term positive effects as these rejuvenate a person. These are generally not intellectually or physically challenging and therefore, are easier to engage into. A conscious and positive person chooses these activities when he is physically and mentally tired and is not bothered much about long-term positive effects. After end of such activities, a person may feel physically or mentally refreshed, but most probably, it will be a very short-term effect. Neutral activities include:

a. Fun time with friends, without any intellectual or serious discussion

b. Watching light TV sitcoms and shows like “Friends”

c. Reading novels, magazines etc

d. Watching a sporting event

e. Listening to light music

f. Light computer games like “Hearts” and puzzles

g. Drawing and Paintings.

h. Learning to play or playing music instruments.

Whereas some of these activities have the potential to move to Gold activities, depending upon how you are engaged in these, a word of caution for Neutral activities. Neutral activities do not have a long-term negative impact if one engages in these for short period of time only. However, spending too much time in activities of this category will effectively make that very activity Garbage. You will come to know about it when, at the end of the activity, you have the unpleasant feeling that you've wasted your time.

Garbage Activities (-3 to –10)

We generally know that we must avoid activities in this category, but even then, we all tend to spend some time in this category. The difference, however, is that people with high self discipline and confidence spend a very little time in Garbage activities. This happens only when they are extremely low in their energy level, tired and exhausted for any reason. At times, it is a conscious choice or a revolt against self-discipline, just to challenge oneself. On the other hand, people with low self-esteem, having self-doubts and low energy levels spend most of their recreational times in Garbage activities. Whatsoever the reason, the indication that one is engaged in a Garbage activity is that he gets a dull pleasure during activity and feeling of guilt or loss after the activity. Even during the activity, there is a voice deep inside telling us that we are engaged in a self-destructive activity. It disables you intellectually, emotionally, and physically. During such activities, one is less capable of performing complex skills or dealing with complex emotional or intellectual issues.Garbage activities include:

a. Watching too much rubbish TV shows (like Jerry Springer Show, WWF etc)

b. Getting drunk

c. Watching violent movies

d. Doing anything that you'd be ashamed to talk about with others

e. Reading cheap novels or gossip magazines

f. Surfing the net without any specific objective

g. Using drugs

h. Internet chatting and attending forums (at any given time, if you are participating in more than 4 forums, I assure you that you are just wasting your time)

So What to Do?Personality/character of a person and the way he uses his spare time are reflective of each other. Confident, highly energetic people having high self-esteem, self-discipline and a positive attitude towards life mostly choose Gold activities.People with low self-esteem, doubtful and lacking self-discipline spent most of their leisure time in garbage activities.

The great news is,People spending more of their time in Gold activities develop self-esteem, confidence, and high energy levels.I invite you to make 2 lists.A list of all the activities that you do in your spare time and categorise them as Gold, Neutral or Garbage.Make another list of activities that you think are Gold and which you should undertake.Analyse list of current activities.Make a resolution to discard Garbage activities.Slowly and gradually replace your current Garbage activities with Gold activities of your second list.And enjoy the positive results over the period of time.

Note: This is a repeat post.

Negotiation - Aim for the Long Term Gains

2011-02-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Sid had done it. He had convinced the IRS agent to forgive the mistake my partner Joel and I had made. He had spent three weeks with the guy, working mornings, golfing with him in the afternoon, and taking him out to dinner.

If the IRS had stuck to their ridiculous position, it would have cost us $10 million. But Sid's logic and diligence and charm had persuaded one of its bulldogs to do the right thing.

A month later, Sid's bill crossed my desk. It was for $85,000. "That's odd," I thought. "I could have sworn Sid was billing us by the hour."

Had he done so, the bill would probably not have exceeded $15,000. Still, $85,000 was a small price to pay for the service he had provided. I signed the invoice and sent it on to my partner.

The next day, Joel called me into his office.

"You saw his bill."

"Yes, I signed it."

"I saw that. But you know he was supposed to bill us by the hour."

"Yes, I know. But what he did was worth a lot more than eighty-five grand."

"Maybe so, but that wasn't our deal."

I shrugged.

"We have to bring him in and negotiate his bill."

"Okay."

"But we have to plan this thing. We have to rehearse."

"Plan? Rehearse? I don't get it. You are the best negotiator I know. Everyone in the business is afraid to negotiate with you. Why do we need to plan for Sid?"

He shook his head. "You don't know Sid," he said. "He taught me to negotiate."

Three or four times over the following week, Joel and I rehearsed our lines. Joel was going to take the strong line. I was going to be the objective outsider.

When the day arrived, Joel had a small wooden stool placed in front of his desk.

"That's where he'll sit," he told me.

The only thing missing was a spotlight.

Sid, 75 years old and about 110 pounds at the time, sauntered in wearing his tennis togs. His bony knees and skinny calves almost broke my heart.

"Have a seat," Joel, said, motioning to the wooden stool.

Sid sat. And then we began our practiced pitch. First Joel. Then me. Then back to Joel again. All the while, Sid sat there like a deer caught in the headlights. His eyes were wide. His flesh was white. His hands seemed to tremble.

Surely we were killing the old man, I thought. This was the cruelest thing I had ever done. Surely I would burn in hell.

But we persisted. And Sid said nothing.

When it was all over, he just stared at us for a full 30 seconds. And then he said, "I have only one question for you, boys."

We said, "What is that?"

And he said, "Did you think $85,000 was the entire bill?!"

I swear. That's what he said.

We spent the next 45 minutes negotiating. And we settled at $115,000.

Sid taught Joel to negotiate and Joel taught me. Sid and Joel viewed negotiating as a contest of power. The object was to gain as much of an advantage as you could by using every means at your disposal.

And Then I Met Bill

I've read many books on negotiating that advocated that same approach. But it never felt comfortable to me. I didn't understood why until I became a colleague of Bill Bonner.

Bill Bonner, as you probably know, is the founder and CEO of Agora Publishing. Agora has been my primary client now for more than 15 years. During that time, I've seen it grow from a handful of employees with revenues of $8 million to a worldwide publishing powerhouse with nearly a thousand employees and revenues in the $400 million range.

I have witnessed Bill negotiating at least two dozen times. But I have never seen him do any of the clever things Joel taught me. When you negotiate with Bill, you have one of two conversations:

Conversation One:

Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?

Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.

Bill: Well, Frank, that seems reasonable to me.

Conversation Two:

Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?

Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.

Bill: Gee, Frank. I'm sorry but I don't think I can pay that much.

End of conversation.

I'm not kidding.

The amazing thing about Bill's low-key approach to negotiating is how well it works. People in the industry know that (a) he will never bully them, (b) he will never cheat them, and (c) he isn't a fool.

The difference between Bill's way and Joel's way is the difference between yin and yang.

The Yin Negotiator wants to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship. He is looking for a long-term partner so he doesn't care about short-term advantages.

The Yang Negotiator is not interested in the long-term. He sees his negotiating counterpart as an opponent, and believes that success comes one victory at a time.

How Much Yin and How Much Yang?

When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?

Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?

What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."

Let's answer these questions today.

When you think of business as a war and arm yourself accordingly, you can win plenty of battles. But as the years roll by and the battlefields change along with technology, all military approaches - however clever or powerful - fail.

Yes, you can fight your way to the top of the mountain when you are young and strong. But nobody stays on top forever.

Remember that old saw: Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because they will be the same ones you meet on the way down.

So long as you maintain an edge, you can take advantage of it. But the minute you lose ground, you will slide onto a slippery downhill slope - greased by the bitterness of the many people who secretly resent you for past transgressions.

More important, perhaps, it takes a great deal of energy and cunning to do business as a Yang Negotiator. You must work just as hard for the next deal as you did for the last. However, when you negotiate with yin principles, you create trust. And trust makes it much easier to do good deals as time goes by.

The Yang Negotiator's view of the world is based on at least two fundamentally faulty ideas. One is that power is static: He who is stronger now will be stronger in the future. Another is that wealth is a commodity: It is something limited as opposed to something organic that can grow.

Mother bakes an apple pie. She cuts it into four pieces, one for each of her children. Since Mom has not used a protractor along with her knife, the pieces are not exactly the same. "I will be better off if I get the largest piece," the Yang Negotiator thinks. So he abandons his manners and grabs for it first. He gets the biggest piece but loses the trust of his siblings.

The Yang Negotiator thinks he is smart, but actually he is half-blind.

He doesn't realize that Mom will be making lots more pies. And when she does, the other children will remember that he had the biggest piece the first time. If he is bigger and stronger than they are, he will keep "winning" for a while. But Mother Nature has a surprise in store for him. His peers are going to start to become faster than he is. And then he will get the little piece. Or he might even go hungry.

When I get into a deal, I don't want the other guy to feel as if he's been taken advantage of. I don't want that to happen for three reasons - two of them practical and one philosophical.

First of all, I believe that someone who feels he's been bested by me will quietly assign an emotional marker to my butt that says "You'll get yours one day."

Second, I believe that if I get known as a tough guy to do business with, the number of people who will bring me good deals will diminish and the pool will eventually dry up completely.

And, finally, I think that, in the great scheme of things, everything eventually balances out with interest. If I give you something today, I'll get something back from someone - plus interest - some years hence. If I take something from you now, I'll pay the price for it - with interest - in the future.

If you see things the way I do, you really, really don't want to take advantage of anyone. You'd rather be the one taken advantage of.

From what I've said, you might conclude that I discount what Joel taught me in favor of Bill's way. But the truth is that I have applied lessons from each of them. My overall strategy is definitely yin. But I do sometimes use yang tactics when I believe they will help create a fairer deal (fairer to both of us.)

For example, I never go into a negotiation unprepared. (Joel taught me that.) I always spend time thinking about what I want from the deal. But instead of simply imagining how much I can get, I think long-term. If this deal turns into a lifetime relationship, how much can I get from it?

I also spend as much time - sometimes more - thinking about what the other guy wants. I imagine what he may want in the short-term and what he could get if we had a relationship that lasted many years.

I make a mental note of all these things. Sometimes, when it is complicated, I write them down.

I also spend some time thinking about what would happen if the deal did not take place. I try to visualize it as clearly as I can. I try to imagine how I would feel.

If I sense that I will be very disappointed, I come up with a Plan B. (I've written about Plan Bs many times in the past, including last week.) By devising a Plan B, I can go into the discussion knowing that if we can't agree I won't care. Not caring is the most valuable asset one can have in negotiating. Joel taught me that.

Now back to the questions I posed before:

Question: When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?

Answer: Don't push at all. Make your case as clearly as you can. Show your counterpart how the deal will benefit him. But if he doesn't agree, walk away.

Question: Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?

Answer: See above.

Question: What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."

Answer: You are interested in a long-term relationship. Tell him about his oversight. Reap the benefit of the trust that will engender.

Some of my friends tell me that I am too "nice" when it comes to making deals. When they hear that someone I've helped get rich does something chintzy to me, they scold me and tell me to get tough.

But none of these doubters have enjoyed as much success as I've had in business. And none of them have as many longstanding positive business relationships.

There is a way to negotiate well without being a bully. And there is a way to win without seeing the world as a contest over getting the biggest piece of a pie.

By taking a long-term approach to negotiating, wealth and success will come easier and easier. That seems to me to be a smart way to do business. Don't you think?

Article by Michael Msterson

Website: earlytorise.com

Slow Down to Reduce Stress OR Reduce Stress to Slow Down

2011-02-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

One of my three goals for the year 2011 is to SLOW DOWN (the other two are focus and speed read) . I have made a conscious decision to slow down. Many people might think that slowing down means less productivity and less achievements. On the contrary, I have decided to slow down to be more productive and achieve more. I also want to slow down to enjoy my life more and reduce stress.
However, slowing down and reducing stress complement each other. If you intentionally and consciously slow down, the stress in your life will reduce. Similarly, reducing stress from your life will enable you to slow down.
We all feel stressed from time to time; it's part of being human. But luckily, there are simple things we can do to ease or even eliminate stress. Here is my list of actions for reducing stress:

Slow, Controlled and Rhythmic Breathing
Stressful situations lead to short and shallow breathing, which in turn leads to an increased heart rate and creates feelings of tension and anxiety. It is easy to reverse the process. What I do is completely empty my lungs with a large sigh. Then, breathe in deeply from belly on up, holding the breath, and exhaling slowly. I follow the 8-16-16 rule. (8-second inhale, 16-second hold, 16-second exhale). With practice, I intend to increase the durations by 1.5-2.0 time. This simple exercise sends better oxygen content to cells, improving health and ridding me from tension and stress.

Focus on Now
Focusing on now is a great stress buster as well as a very effective productivity tool. Thinking about long list of items on to do list will cause anyone stress. That's why it's vital that one focuses on only one thing at a time. Focusing on one thing, one thought at a time improves productivity, decreases mistake, and relieve your mind of feeling overwhelmed as well as your body of feeling physically stressed out and drained.

Make "To Do" List

To Do list is one of my most effective productivity tool. At the same time, it is great stress reducer, if you do not procrastinate and distract; otherwise, instead of releasing stress, it becomes a source of stress. I make a doable To Do list, i.e. plan and adjust activities so that adequate time is available to all the things. Once I am working at an item, I forget about rest. This provides me necessary focus as well as the assurance that other tasks have been catered for.

Start Early

Since couple of years, I am an early riser. The extra time in the morning provides me an opportunity to plan my day. On the other hand, freshness of early morning (I often go for a walk in the morning) acts as great stress reliever. I start the day on a positive note that continues till evening.

Success - Great Quotes (Part -1)

2011-02-14T04:40:00.000-08:00

William Jennings Bryan
Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.

Helen Keller
I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.

Abraham Lincoln
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

Vince Lambardi
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Henry David Thoreau
The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in the mind.

Norman Vincent Peale
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

Napoleon Hill
Concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite chief aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together. One leads to the other.

Two Funny Stories

2011-02-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

A few days have passed without a post, so I thought I'll just share two funny short stories.

Round Like a Shot
Round like a shot... Going to bed the other night, I noticed people in my shed stealing things. I phoned the police but was told there was no one in the area to help. The policeman said they would send someone over as soon as possible. I hung up.
A minute later I rang again. 'Hello', I said, 'I called you a minute ago because there were people in my shed. You don't have to hurry now, because I've shot them.' Within five minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, plus helicopters and an armed response unit. They caught the burglars red-handed.
One of the officers said: 'I thought you said you'd shot them.' To which I replied: 'I thought you said there was no one available.'

You are Father of One of my Children

John is in a queue at the Supermarket when he notices that the rather dishy blonde behind him has just raised her hand and is giving him a big 'hello'.
He is rather taken aback that such a looker would be waving to him, and although her face is vaguely familiar, John can't place where he might know her from, so he says, 'Sorry, do you know me?'
She replies, 'I may be mistaken, but I thought you might be the father of one of my children'
John's mind shoots back to the one and only time he has been unfaithful, 'Blimey!' he says, 'Did we meet on Frank's stag do in Newport? John continued, 'When I was released from the police station and got back to the hotel room, you had gone.'
No, 'she replies, 'I'm your son's English Teacher'.

Good Life or Great Life?

2011-01-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

Do you Want a Good Life or a Great Life?

People often say that they would like to do this or that, if only they had the time, the money, the education, or the know how. My question to them is always, do you want a good life or do you want a great life? You cannot have both.

Having a good life, in my opinion, means that you have food on the table, a warm place to live, and enough money to get by on. Having a great life means that you are living your dreams, doing being and having what you want. Living a great life not only affords you an awesome life but it also allows for you to be of service to others with both your time and your finances. I believe that we were all put on this earth to live a great life. Of course the meaning of “your great life” will be different from mine and from everyone else’s. But it is your great life and that is what it is all about. Using your talents and abilities to the best, for yourself and those around you. Serving the world from a place of abundance and prosperity. Using the eternal universal principals of honesty, integrity, kindness, forgiveness, courage, work ethic, spirituality, charity, love, humility, and faith we can all make the world a better place.

How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? This can only happen by his desire to fly that he is willing to give up being a caterpillar. That is the key to becoming a different you too. You must be willing to give up the old “stuff” that keeps holding you back. You must want to change more than you like the comfort and familiarity of what you have right now.

If you want a great life I urge you to find small chunks of time in your daily life to make the changes necessary to become or have what you desire. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with daily effort we too will find that we can accomplish magnificent things.

"Your only limitations are those you set up in your own mind, or permit others to set up for you." -Og Mandino

This is a gueat post.

Source:
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/do-you-want-a-good-life-or-a-great-life-296660.html#ixzz1CC4KIjmn

Improving Alexa Ranking

2011-01-15T00:30:00.000-08:00

I started this blog in Jun 08, and somewhere in Dec 08, I had the best Alexa ranking of under 500,000. Then came a long break, and my Alexa ranking dropped to 8 million plus in Nov 10. I have started blogging again and it is nice to see my previous hard work is paying off. There are over 50 articles and as I have started updating the blog by adding new articles, traffic is increasing. Entrecard and couple of forums are the main source of my traffic but I get more or less equal proportion of organic traffic as well. Within six week time, my blog's ranking improved to 7.2M, 6.3M, 5.5M, 5.2M, 4.5M, 3.5M, 2.5M, 1.5 and currently I am within 1.0M, a major figure or barrier. Not a great ranking but plenty of improvement. I target to be within within 500,000 by May 11 and within 200,000 by Sep 11. Not very high targets, I know. But I want to go slow, as I have plenty of other activities in parallel.

A 10-Minute Exercise Routine You Can Do Anywhere

2011-01-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

This is a repeat post.

First of all, let me say it from the onset that I do neither like nor advise quick fix solutions. I believe in “slow and steady wins the race”, “quality” and “hard work pays off” philosophy. Then why I am advocating a quick fix ten minute exercise? There are three reasons:
a. It is better to have something than nothing, which in turn is better than something negative.
b. Many people do not start exercise on the pretext of lack of time, initial fitness or access to gym/park. This routine will help them to “take off”. Starting or overcoming inertia is the main hurdle. Once a person makes a start, especially a small instead of an abrupt big start, he has very high probability to continue. Ten minute is about the time which any one can spare.
c. I myself followed this routine, when I was an exemplary couch potato, and now I enjoy not only high fitness level but also a very fit and trimmed body.

This exercise routine does not require any special equipment, space or work out programme. You can make your own exercise plan, depending upon your fitness level and choice of exercises. The main aim is that all your major muscles (legs, arms, shoulders. chest) are worked out and you have increased your heartbeat by at least 50% to your normal resting heartbeat. So if your resting heartbeat is 72, raising it to 120 is a reasonable target, though depending upon your fitness level, you may target higher heart rates. In a nutshell, it is a small cardiovascular plus resistance work out, where you use your own body weight.

Now coming to exercises equipment. As I mentioned, you don’t have to have special tools or access to gym. What all you need is to have sneakers, about 10 -20 m long space (may be your backyard, nearby beach, the parking lot etc) and access to stairs/have a small stool.
The exercises you are going to do are Squat, Sprint, Push Up and Dips. You may add a few variants of your choice, keeping in view that the requirement is to workout major muscles and your heart. Secondly, based on your current fitness level, you can increase or decrease the intensity or repetition of exercises and rest period.
Now here is a sample set:

a. Do 10 squats
b. Do 10 push ups.
c. Run 100 m
d. Do 20 dips
e. Stair (stool) – climb 40 steps
f. Cool down - Walk for 40 Sec

This forms one set of about 2 minutes. Repeat it 5 times.
Introduce your own variations. For example, if you are a beginner, start with 5 squats, 5 push ups, 50 m sprint, 15 dips and 30 steps. Increase the reps in the next successive sets.
Those who enjoy a good fitness level and workout regularly, they can also benefit from this workout when they are feeling “down” for a proper long workout or don’t have the time. Just keep the intensity high.

Flag Counter

2011-01-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

I signed up for Flag Counter last month. It is really fun. You can see it at bottom right hand corner. It continoulsy updates number of visitors from each country, displaying the flags. Since inserting the widget, it has registered over 300 visitors. No wonder that visitors from US are at the top. Let us see how much time does it take for the visitors from any country (well, from US) touch the 1000 mark.

The Flag Counter has become very popular with the blogging community. You can find it at most of the blogs. I have installed an Alexa tool bar that instantly shows Alexa ranking of the site/blog that I am visiting. It is interesting to see that some blogs have Flag Counter showing thousands of visitors but poor ranking. Can some one explain it?

Eight Great Books

2011-01-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

I started reading at a very early age and over the period of time, have read thousand of books. Initially, it was story books, then fiction and then serious stuff. As I have already mentioned in my article How Do You Read?, I grade each book that I read. Today, I wish to share with you my pick of some great books that I have read recently. These are (in no particular order, include both fiction and non fiction)

First Things First by Covey
The 8th Habit by Covey
Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
11 Minutes by Paulo Coelho
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
Speed of Trust by Covey Junior
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Would you add your favourite books to the list?

Sigh of Relief - Finally Able to Access My Blogger Account

2010-12-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

For no apparent reason, my blogger account became inaccessible for last couple of days. I Googled it, but that was of no help. I, however, came to know that a number of other bloggers have/had similar problems. One probable reason, as I learnt from forums/blogs/help desks was ISP setting. I just waited to see what happens in couple of days. I expected that things will be restored; it is only a matter of time. And things did restore. So here I am, back again.

How Many Blogs Can You Handle?

2010-12-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

How many blogs can you handle?

Well, I thought a professional blogger may be able to handle 5 or may be up to 10 blogs and a few websites.

I was wrong.

On blogspot.com, I came across this lady who runs not 10, not 25, not 30 but 32 blogs.

But the real surprise is yet to come.

She runs, or at least she claims to run, 537 websites.Now that is almost unbelievable.

In recent post, she says

"I have 32 blogs and 537 web sites, but I'm also online an average of 12 to 16 hours a day in order to manage all of them and keep them all current and up to date. It can be done, but not if you have a day job besides".

She shares details of her earning

"How I make money with them? Here are the sites that pay me:
Zazzle (I'm a professional artist, painter and illustrator)(I bring in about $200 per month here)
Squidoo (I write how-to and self help articles)(I bring in $75 to $200 per month here)
Etsy (I'm a doll maker) (I make $30 - $200 per doll sold)
LuLu (I'm a self published author) (I make about $4 per book sold)
Amazon (Marketplace)
Amazon (Associates)
Associated Content
eBay
CafePress
SpoonFlower (I'm a fashion and fabric designer)
Commission Junction
LinkShare
Share A Sale
PepperJam
Helium
Avon (I've been a representative for 16 years - sell exclusively online)
I use my blogs, FaceBook, Twitter, and MySpace to promote all of the above. I am also a member of more than 300 different forums and online groups. I also own 12 forums of my own besides.
If you want to make money the same way I do, just Google each of them by name, go to their websites, sign up, and than follow the instructions from each individual site.
"It should also be noted that my blogs are far from new, I've been online on chatrooms and forums 6 days a week since 1997, and I'm a professional author who write between 2000 to 13,000 words per day.
My oldest blog was started in 2003, currently has more than 4000 posts on it, most posts averaging no less than 1500 words, is a very tight niched blog catering to self published authors, and since I started tracking it in 2007 has had over 200,000 http://eelkat.wordpress.com/
unique visitors and usually gets over 1000 visits per day".

You can visit her at

http://eelkat.wordpress.com/

TOP GOAL FOR 2011

2010-12-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

Strange may it seem, but my top goal for 2011 is "a lot of time with my son". He is struggling with studies (mild dyslexia) and has some social adjustment challenges. I was away from him for about a year and a half due to my career commitments, so he could not have the support that he should have from his parent. Anyhow, no matter what, I shall be there for him this year. And I am making it a public commitment.

CONTENT IS THE KING

2010-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

I am a strong advocate of good content. If the content is good, people will read it, refer it, recommend it. Your traffic will definitely grow. But it is neither that simple nor that quick that suddenly, your site will be indexed by google and you’ll start receiving thousands of visitors overnight.

So once you have a couple of decent posts, start off with some promotion. You have a good product, so there is no harm in telling the people about it. To start off, I recommend smaller steps. Don’t straight away jump at SEO and paid advertisements. Instead, for first couple of months, follow these small steps, while keeping focus on adding quality contents:

1. Participate in forums
2. Ask questions, start threads.
3. Post decent, meaningful comments that provide value to readers.
4. Post funny, interesting comments.
5. Read other blogs and learn from their strengths.
6. Be generous in commenting on other blogs.
7. Include a link of your blog in your email signature.

8. Take full advantage of services like entrecard and blogexplosion.

Just start with these small steps. Don’t overload yourself. There is plenty of time to learn about SEO. Remember, SEO is really valuable when you have sufficient high quality content.

This is a repeat post from my second blog bloginghelpline.blogspot.com

Rules for Women - Part II

2010-12-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Here is Part II of Rules For Women. As you know, all rules have been numbered as "1" on purpose

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. Let us ogle. We are going to look anyway, it's genetic.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know the best way to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colours, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a colour. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really!!

1. Foreign films are best left to foreigners. (Unless it's Bruce Lee or some war flick where it doesn't really matter what they're saying anyway.)

1. It is neither in your best interest or ours to take the quiz together. No, it doesn't matter which quiz.

1. I'm in shape. ROUND is a shape.

1. Thank you for reading this, Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know we really don't mind that, it's like camping.

This is a repeat post.

Three Best Habits

2010-12-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

What are three best habits for life?
I was just web surfing when I came
across this question at a forum.

My instant reply was

Read Read Read
Plan and be persistent
strive to grow continuously

But that was an instant reply.
I'll think over it again.
In the mean time, you may share your view.
What in your view are the three best habits in life?

Excellence Vs Perfection – Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

2010-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I was a perfectionist. I used to try to produce flawless work; covering every detail, managing minute matters, planning to split seconds, not willing to accept any loophole, no matter how small or practically irrelevant it was. I used to get admiration and appreciation for my “perfect work”.
I was happy with these appreciations, cherishing these as medals won by proud soldiers, till I realized that these "medals" were a millstone around my neck and were slowing me down. I realized that my “perfectionist” attitude is costing me

My Effectiveness
My Productivity
My Efficiency and most importantly,
My Happiness and peace of mind

I finally realized that no matter how “honourable” and “bright” are the medals, perfectionism is a time-wasting, money-losing goal killer. The worst part is no matter how much time and effort you put in, nothing is perfect. It is impossible to reach “perfection”, so striving for perfection is foolish. On the other hand, trying to make things perfect can prevent you from ever achieving the things you want to accomplish.

A man would do nothing and achieve nothing if he waited to achieve perfection; could do a job so well that no one could find fault. So gradually, perfectionism will stall you.Probably you are using one of the “Windows” versions as your operating system. Is it perfect? Was any of the windows versions perfect? No. Now just think, if Microsoft had always waited to make Windows perfect before releasing it, had there been any Windows user on the entire planed?? NO.

So I have quitted my perfectionist’s attitude. Instead, I now focus on excellence. Excellence is short of perfection, but is practical, achievable and effective in terms of time, money and efforts invested.

How can we differentiate excellence from perfection? I have the answer in the form of "Exponential Curve of Excellence". This tool guides me on how much time, effort and money to put it... and when to stop and consider my work to be "finished." The graph is show below:

We know that quality does not improve linearly with time spent. Instead, there is an exponential (non-liner) relationship between the two. This means that the earliest efforts produce the largest improvements in quality. However, as you get closer to perfection, the curve flattens out. You still get improvement with time and effort, but the amount of improvement attained per unit of effort is substantially less after every hour invested. The real use of the Exponential Curve of Excellence is that it gives us a clear guideline for how much time and effort we should invest in a project and guides us till what time we should continue and when to stop.
If for any reason, one does not put enough effort into his work, he’ll stop at or before Point A on the Exponential Curve. Depending upon where he has stopped, that quality of his product will be anything from unacceptable to just average to good. At or just before point A, most of the people or companies stop. They end up with just good product.
Excellence lies between Point A and B of the curve. At Point B, one will still get significant improvement in quality in proportion to the extra effort. One will produce work significantly better than the competition and will be rewarded for his efforts. Look around you for the people and companies who excel. Their investment ranges between A and B.
Perfectionists go beyond Point C, investing substantial amount of time and efforts, gaining minor improvement in quality but never reaching perfection. This is a highly inefficient use of resources.
I’ll not totally denounce perfectionism though. But I’ll leave it for those few “crazy geniuses” for whom efficiency, effectiveness or productivity does not matter. They are more centred at personal satisfaction than anything else.
But for rest of us, the 99.9999999% people, EXCELLENCE should be the goal.
So I now aim for EXCELLENCE, not PERFECTION.

Personal Development Tips - The Lighter Side

2010-11-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

This site is all about Personal Development. In last few weeks, you had plenty of serious Personal Development posts. Now is the time to have some Practical Tips. So read on and enjoy:

1. Borrow money from pessimists — they don’t expect it back.
2. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up.
3. Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
4. Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
5. Teamwork is essential - it allows you to blame someone else.
6. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
7. Laugh at your problems; everybody else does
8. There are no short cuts to any place worth going
9. Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.
10.If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

And Finally, Always Remember

So Avoid Trying !!!!!

Note: This is a repeat post

Focus on Now

2010-11-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine recently shared follwoing tip for reducing stress.

"Thinking about the next ten items on your list of things to do is enough to cause anyone stress. That's why it's vital that you focus on only one thing at a time. Allowing only one task into your thoughts at a time - the one thing you are involved with right now - will improve your productivity, decrease mental mistakes, and relieve your mind of feeling overwhelmed as well as your body of feeling physically stressed out and drained."

Back Again

2010-11-21T04:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am back again. And it must be a great news for all those who were dying to see me come back. How many are they? Well, around zero. But who cares? My blog is a medium for self expression. And it contains some great stuff. And I am only interested in putting the stuff on the net. So, I'll continue doing that. One of my future topics will be oil pulling. Any body interested there?

After a Long Time

2009-05-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am back after a long time. When I started blogging in June last year, I was told "cyber space is littered with abandoned blogs". My blog is alo becoming one of those. I have changed the job and my new job requires me to be in the field most of the time. My internet access is therefore vey limited. Anyhow, I'll continue to add entries on and off. So this is just a welcome back entry.

Nourish Your Soul

2008-12-15T04:14:00.000-08:00

Today, I am going to share with you yet another interesting e-mail that I received from a friend. It is a story about a king with four wives. I hope you'll find it interesting. Don't forget to ponder the message for a while, do some soul searching and think about re-defining your priorities in life.

Once upon a time, there was a rich King who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best. He also loved the 3rd wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day that she would leave him for another. He also loved his 2nd wife. She was his confidante and was always kind, considerate and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem, he could confide in her to help him get through the difficult times. The King's 1st wife was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her. One day, the King fell ill and he knew his time was short.
He thought of his luxurious life and pondered, "I now have 4 wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone.

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"

"No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word.

Her answer cut like a sharp knife right into his heart.

The sad King then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"

"No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to remarry!"

His heart sank and turned cold. He then asked the 2nd wife, "I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?"

"I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave."

Her answer came like a bolt of thunder and the King was devastated.

Then a voice called out: "I'll leave with you and follow you no matter where you go."

The King looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the King said, "I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!"

In Truth, we all have 4 wives in our lives ...

Our 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.

Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others.

Our 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

And our 1st wife is our Soul, often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the ego. However, our Soul is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go. So cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now! It is your greatest gift to offer the world.

Distraction for Focus – Do You Play Mind Games?

2008-12-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

When I am stressed, am unable to find solution of a problem, need to focus on something complex or want to refresh my mind, I play “Free Cell” on my computer. I have a challenge for myself to never let the win ratio drop below 90%. This means winning 9 out of 10 games. This requires full concentration, full focus. People play such mind games for distraction. Though I also get distracted from the task in hand, but I have discovered an interesting phenomena; such distraction helps me to come back strongly to solve the problem, whether it is stress busting or finding solution to a complex problem.

How it works for problem solving?

Well, I think that when we have to find a solution to a problem, and we are unable to make headway, we get frustrated. This frustration impairs our ability to focus and find the solution. This further frustrates us and ……..Thus this negative spiral ensures that we are unable to find the solution.

When I switch to FreeCell in such a situation, my mind relaxes and regains its focus. Further, as I am fully absorbed in FreeCell, my mind “forgets” about the frustration associated with problem in hand. At the same time, the sub-conscious mind, the creative problem solver, continues working on the problem. After about 1-3 games of FreeCell, which normally takes about 4-6 minutes, my mind is fully relaxed, with all frustration vanished but at the same time, able to continue with high levels of focus. My sub-conscious mind guides me to problem solving by revealing to conscious mind the analysis it has done during that 4-6 minutes break. Most of the time, after this 4-6 minutes high concentration FreeCell break (which apparently seems a waste of time and breaking the concentration) I am able to have a clear understanding of the problem and probable good solution(s).

So if you feel that you are unable to make way ahead in solving a problem, take a break. This could be physical, but in that case, your mind will remain occupied with the problem. I suggest to go for a total mental shift; playing a mind game. You will be amazed by the results.

Top Entrecards Droppers – Nov 08

2008-12-03T00:45:00.000-08:00

Every month I start the blog posting with list of top 10 entrecard droppers for the previous month. There are four main reasons:

1. It gives me a topic to write about.
2. I feel connected with people
3. I provide a link to their site, without wanting anything in return.

And most importantly

4. I start the month with a thank you post.

Those who know the power of gratitude will understand the importance of starting the month with gratitude.

So here is my list of top droppers for the month of Nov 08:

Ocean Of Perspectives.com
Healthy Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle
Starting Over
Imagination Madness
Orangeinks
The Ranting Willow
Chronic Chick Talk
Dolly's Daily Diary
Creating a Better World
San Diego Backroads

And my I request you to visit my top entrecard droppers?
Thanks every one.

100 Blogging Tips – A Time for Self-Assessment – Part II

2008-11-22T02:26:00.000-08:00

This post has been shifted to

http://blogginghelpline.blogspot.com/2008/12/100-blogging-tips-time-for-self_15.html

100 Blogging Tips – A Time for Self Assessment – Part I

2008-11-16T02:19:00.000-08:00

This post has been shifted at

http://blogginghelpline.blogspot.com/2008/12/100-blogging-tips-time-for-self.html

Internet Fasting

2008-11-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

I'll be away for a business trip for about 20 days and I intend to experiment "Internet Fasting" during this time, i.e. no access to internet. No updation of my blog, except 2 or 3 scheduled posts, no particpation in forums, not social sites, no entrecard etc etc. Let us see how it is going to affect me and the site's health. I expect a major drop in Alexa traffic ranking. So let it be. But my major challenge would be to avoid internet.

Improving Alexa Ranking – Getting Within Top 1M Sites

2008-11-05T07:52:00.001-08:00

This is an importatnt moment for me.

On 20 Oct, I posted the article Alexa Ranking - Getting Within 1.5M Top Sites , explaining how my blog traffic rank has improved from 23M to 1.4 M in little over 4 months. Towards the end of that post, I mentioned that I would like to come within 1M Alexa. At that point, I thought that getting from 23M plus to within 1.5M is easier than getting from 1.5M to within 1M, as competition here is tough. So I set a deadline of 31 Dec 08 to get in top 1M ranked site. Little I knew that I’ll achieve this target within 11 days, instead of expected 11 weeks. I was within top 1M on 28 Oct08. And as you can see at the bottom of sidebar, todaya I am ranked 986, 511.

One again I must sya that I follow Alexa ranking just for the sake of fun. The real aim of blogging is to express myself and to share with others the good things and the good ideas that I have experienced and learnt.

Top Entrecard Droppers – October 2008

2008-11-05T01:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the list of top 7 EntreCard droppers for the month of Oct 08. As a token of thanks, I am giving their site’s link, with a request to my visitors to visit their blogs as well.

Brick For Jade
Ocean Of Perspectives.com
A World of Progress
Communication Exchange
With a Smile
Jill's Creative Cafe Page
Fish Hook and More

Thanks everyone.

Courage - What Really Is It?

2008-11-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

I intended to write an article on courage, everyday courage. So I surfed the web to find how courage is defined and I found some great quotes. Some of these even made me to cry. Today, I want to share these great courage quotes with you.

1. Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other. Samuel Johnson

2. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. Ambrose Redmoon

3. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Winston Churchill

4. Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. Mary Anne Radmacher

5. It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Mark Twain

6. People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fibre called courage. Mignon McLaughlin

7. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave. Mark Twain

8. Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow. Dan Rather

9. Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

10. Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid. Franklin P. Jones

11. One man with courage makes a majority. Andrew Jackson

12. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Raymond Lindquist
13. True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason. Alfred North Whitehead
14. To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity. Edward Weeks
15. For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived. John F. Kennedy

16. Courage is... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared. David Ben-Gurion

17. A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward. Jean Paul Richter

18. Have the courage to live. Anyone can die. Robert Cody

19. Courage is knowing what not to fear. Plato
20. Courage is a kind of salvation. Plato

21. Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. Arthur Koestler

22. A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. Ralph Waldo Emerson

23. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. G.K. Chesterton

24. In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. Mark Twain

25. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Harper Lee

A Missed Opportunity???

2008-10-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

During last three years, I have travelled almost entire Europe. It is indeed a treat to visit places like Paris, London, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Amsterdam etc. These cities have very rich culture and history. Their old architecture has always inspired me. Apart from other historical buildings, I have always made it a point to visit main churches and cathedrals. I have found exceptional statues, paintings, designs and engineering marvels; the result of blending craftsmanship of highest standards, love and passion.

During visits of these gems of human craftsmanship and passion, when I have absorbed the ambience, I climb, where possible, their towers. This is to follow my practice of climbing Eiffel, Pisa and many other towers. From top of these towers, one gets an excellent view of the city and it is usually an unforgettable experience if the visibility is clear and it is sunset/sunrise time.

The maximum number of stairs that I have climbed on a cathedral/church’s tower is 414 of Florence’s cathedral (Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore) (Photo on left).

Another tower was that of Bern’s Munster Cathedral, whose 350 steps I climbed with my 6 years old son on my shoulders (photo on right).

Last week, I had chance to beat this record. I was visiting Antwerp, whose Cathedral of My Lord Lady, which has a tower of 123 m. I was told it has over 600 steps. So after finishing my business, I rushed to the Cathedral.

Unlike other European churches and cathedrals, this cathedral has an entry fee of 4.00 Euro. Never mind, I though. But I was really disappointed once I enter the Cathedral. Excellent it was, however, I was told that climbing the tower is allowed only during summer. So it was an anti climax to my expectation that I was going to set a new personal record of climbing 600+ steps.

Never mind. It is a small world. Who knows I’ll there at Antwerp next year, or may be some other cathedral with even a higher tower and greater number of steps?

Embracing Universal Principles for Self Growth - Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina

2008-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with Steve Pavlina in 2007.
Well, to be honest, with his writing and ideas.
But can you separate a person from his writings? Mostly, YES. It is my everyday observation. But Steve Pavlina is one of the present day writers who walk his talk. He himself follows the path that he encourages other people to follow.
So for me, Steve Pavlina and his writing are reflective of each other. I differ with him on some of his ideas [like leaving behind the relations that hinder your growth or considering religion to be a barrier in personal growth], but overall, I find a great degree of resonance with his ideas about life. So no wonder that I have been following his blog very regularly and both my computer and my mind are “infected” by the files downloaded from his site and the ideas that he radiates, respectively.

OK, I have talked a lot about Steve and have not even introduced him to you. Steve runs the most popular personal development website, stevepavlina.com, which receives around 2 million hits every month (including 30 from me; at least, each lasting for about 18 hours). His site has over free 700 articles, most of which encourage the readers to challenge their existing beliefs and explore alternatives, think outside the box, find the truth and embrace it.

I was really looking forward to reading his book as, in one of his blog posts, he claimed that he has summarised in his book, all the essentials of personal development in 7 words. Now that was a big claim. Has he been able to do it? To find out, let me review his book.

Summary of Book

In his own words, Steve wanted to find a “a smarter, simpler approach — a set of universal principles that we can trust no matter what problems or circumstances we face in life.” In his quest to do so, he has found that there are 7 core principles, which form the basis of personal development. Three of these [LOVE, TRUTH and POWER] are the primary, while other four [AUTHORITY, ONENESS, COURAGE and INTELLIGENCE] are secondary principles. These can be effectively summarised in the following figure:

As you can see, each secondary principle has been derived from two or more primary principles [e.g Oneness = Truth + Love]. The book is, logically, structured around these fundamental principles. It is divided in two parts; (1) Fundamental Principles and (2) Practical Applications.

In part I, Steve gives an overview as to what it exactly means to grow as a human being. He does so by explaining the seven core principles, each explained in a separate chapter. Each chapter has plenty of examples and his personal experiences to explain how each of the principles affects an individual’s life; positively (when observed / in balance) or negatively (when ignored / out of balance).

Part II is about the implementation of the principles, the practical approach. Here Steve provides guidelines as how to apply the 7 principles in six main areas of life: habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality.

Comments / Review

1. As a regular reader of Steve’s blog, I know that he has a very honest, straightforward, open and no nonsense type of writing style. He has maintained the same approach in his book also, which makes it even more convincing and interesting to read. Steve has opened himself up and very honestly shared his life with us; the amazing transformation from a shoplifter, awaiting imprisonment sentence, to a person who has experienced personal growth of a level that very few have experienced.

2. Steve’s approach is “top down”; starting with the “bigger picture” and the universal principles that affect the bigger picture. This is where I find myself fully in resonance with Steve. If you follow the universal principles, the bigger picture will get better and will take care of smaller aspects; the bits and pieces. This is a holistic approach; not a fragmented one like many other books propose. Though some other books also suggest a holistic approach; however, these are somewhat abstract and lack relevant examples, real life stories and exercises to guide the readers as how to implement the core principles. This is not the case with PDSP; the book has plenty of real life examples as well as Steve’s personal experiences, making it easy for the reader to link principles with everyday life problems. I think Steve really deserves a lot of appreciation for this aspect alone.

3. The book tells us about the ideas, findings and the principles; conclusions reached by Steve. However, Steve does not impose his conclusions on readers. Instead, he encourages the reader to ponder, experiment, and find our own truths. The last chapter on Spirituality is an interesting read. He challenges established beliefs, tells us about his observations, and gives us guidelines to examine our existing beliefs. On the physical plane, he describes his experimentation with diet and shift to raw food, for example, and then asks us to experiment ourselves to find “our truth” vis a vis diet. This philosophy of self-experimentation is an interesting concept, which he suggests to be implemented through 30 day trials.

4. The book is a good mix of high-level philosophical approach as well as every day practical approach (e.g 66 ways/habits to improve productivity). It includes simple, practical, and easy to do exercises after many chapters, to integrate universal principles in our lives.

5. One interesting aspect of the book is that Steve does not only describe the core principles and how to integrate these in our life, but he also discusses the “potential blocks” that impede our alignment with LOVE, TRUTH and POWER.

6. Steve defines human intelligence as “one’s degree of alignment with truth, love, and power”. He says “you can’t be intelligent if you turn your back on truth and succumb to falsehood and denial. Similarly, it isn’t intelligent to withdraw and isolate yourself from everyone and everything because that would rob you of all your best learning and growth experiences. And lastly, it isn’t intelligent to weaken and disempower yourself. You can’t live as a truly intelligent human being unless you’re willing to embrace truth, love, and power” .I find this definition really relevant.

7. It will be unfair if I don’t mention that the book is excellently structured for the ease of read as well as the development of content. As you go along reading the book, you’ll also develop a good understanding of the principles and how to apply these to solve any problem or situation you face in life. Though Steve himself does not insist on this, but I’ll ask the readers to read the book sequentially.

8. This is definitely an easy to read book, thanks to Steve’s writing style and inclusion of examples and real life stories. But a word of warning; it will take a little while to sink, especially for those who have never tried “self-growth”. So don’t just read and throw it away if you don’t find it very appealing after the first read. Re-read and let it sink. It will have a life changing effect, I assure you.

What I Don’t Like About the Book

The title. Both the name of the book and the title page. The book has title in Blue and Red, a combination I never liked.
On the serious note, I think the key words of book’s title “personal development”, is not in consonance with book’s contents. The book is more on “personal growth” than “personal development”. For me, “personal development” is somewhat mechanical, somewhat worldly, somewhat practical; something to do with effectiveness and efficiency, like productivity tips, time management tips etc.
“Personal growth”, on the other hand, is talking about the principles, the core, the compass. It is about your greatness. It is about the spirit within that may continue its journey even after your physical existence on the planet terminates.
So my personal approach would have been to give the book a name that reflects more the “growth” aspect; like “In Pursuit of Personal Growth”, or “Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth”.

Final Words

We live in an age where “Personal Development” has become a “fashion”. No wonder that market, TV, Internet etc are flooded with books, CDs, videos and programmes offering fast, easy, overnight personal development. But as much as a “healthy body” is the result of life long good practices and mental approach and cannot be achieved through quick fix, get fit/slim pills and potions, personal development is also a life long pursuit. There are no quick fix solutions. It is a life long journey that require us to make and pursue, conscious, courageous decisions, which are aligned with universal principles, at each moment of life. By aligning life with truth, love, and power, one finds his life to getting better with each passing day; physically, emotionally, mentally, financially and spiritually.

So if you have taken up the first step of personal growth by realising that you are the creator of your life and there are no short cuts to it, “Personal Development for Smart People” is for you. But if you have not taken that step, read this book to take this first step.

And if you are already pursuing personal growth, like me, the book is a must read. It will make your journey easier as you’ll take advantage of Steve’s life experiences and his explanations of fundamentals of personal growth in a concise, easy to read and very practical way. The beauty of the book is that it is structured on principles so it is applicable to any area of life, be it money or spirituality or relationships or health.

I’ll end the article with two quotes from Steve

“If you forget everything else from this book and remember only one piece of advice, it is simply this: The most intelligent thing you can possibly do with your life is to grow.”

‘If it takes years to reach your goal, then so be it. The time is going to pass anyway, so you might as well put it to good use. Years from now you’ll either be where you want to be . . . or you won’t. You can either invest your time in growth or do the time in a cage.’

Start the journey please. Get infected by Steve Pavlina. You’ll love it.

PS. Do I have to tell you that yes, Steve has managed to summarise the fundamental principles of personal development in 7 words.

Alexa Ranking - Getting Within 1.5M Top Sites

2008-10-20T03:08:00.000-07:00

My site is now a little over four months old. On 17 Oct, it’s 3 month ranking, for the first time, has come within 1.5M (improvement by 20,001,994 places in last 3 months, to be precise). Though I had weekly Alexa ranking of around 0.7M or better for some weeks (it is 663597 for current week), I think 3 month ranking gives a more realistic measure of websites traffic stats. Today, I am ranked 1,479,584.

Improving Alexa Ranking is definitely not my target. However, it is a good (not accurate) indicator as to where I stand w.r.t my actual goal; to express myself and to share with others the good things and the good ideas that I have experienced and learnt. Better Alexa Ranking means more traffic, which means more readership.

I understand that higher traffic does not necessarily mean that more people are reading the posts. There are many “site hoppers”, who just land and leave. It does not matter to me. If some one does not find something of his interest on this site, he may leave. After all, it is exactly what I do. I visit 5-20 new sites every day. Only 25-30% of these sites keep me glued as they have content that catches my attention.

I would like to come within 1M Alexa Ranking by 31 Dec 08. I think getting from 23M plus to within 1.5M is easier than getting from 1.5M to within 1M, as competition here is tough. But again, getting better Alexa Ranking is not the aim; writing good content is. So I am not going to put in any extra or special efforts for getting to 1M mark. Let us see how it goes on.

NAILS IN THE FENCE

2008-10-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

I have recently received, from a friend of mine, this inspiring story about relations/ friendship, anger control and forgiveness. I want to share the message with you. So go on, please read the story.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, 'You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. But It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Remember that friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.'
It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND, even if it means sending it back to the person who sent it to you! If it comes back to you, you will then know you have a circle of friends.
YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED!
Now send this to every friend you have!! And to your family (they need to know that you love them too).

Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.

Self-Assessment – Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Wall?

2008-10-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

Steve Pavlina is one of my favorite write and I read his blog (Stevepavlina.com) very regularly. He has been gifted with a unique writing style (Steve will object to it, saying he has gradually developed his style) and has an exceptional capability to view normal day to day happenings as well complex questions with a different perspective.

Recently, his first book “Personal Development for Smart People – The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth” has been released, which I am currently reading. I’ll port a comprehensive review once I have finished reading it (and absorbed it): hopefully by mid of Oct. Today, I want to share with you a simple self-assessment exercise, which has got my attention and has made me to think.

Steve says that there are 7 elements of personal development, one of which is TRUTH. He says that truth lacks in our lives also because of falsehood and denial. He encourages readers to take small steps to gradually align with truth. In his book, he has proposed to conduct a quick self-assessment test to bring more truth is our lives.

So far so good. We all understand importance of self-assessment in personal development and mental/physical growth. What really intrigued me is the way he analysis self-assessment scores. Here is how he goes for self-assessment:

Notes:
1. Text from Steve is in Blue. I have re-produced certain sentences in Bold for emphasis.
2. It is important that you do the self-assessment as you read on. It will take just a minute or so.

Assign a numerical rating to each area of following areas of your life using a simple 1-10 scale. A 1 means this part of your life is terrible and could hardly get worse; a 10 means this area is absolutely perfect and you can scarcely imagine it getting better. Please take a minute to do this now. Here are the areas to rate:

Area of YourLife ........................................ Your Rating (1–10)

Habits & daily routine ___________________________
Career & work ________________________________
Money & finances ______________________________
Health & fitness _______________________________
Mental development & education ___________________
Social life & relationships _________________________
Home & family_________________________________
Emotions _____________________________________
Character & integrity ____________________________
Life purpose & contribution ________________________
Spiritual development ____________________________

Your answers should provide a nice snapshot of how your’re doing. Usually you’ll find that some areas lag behind the others, sometimes far behind. Interestingly, it’s in our weakest spots that we most often succumb to falsehood and denial, since those are the most difficult areas to face. But those areas can’t improve until you face and accept the truth.

Now I want you to look at those same numbers from a different perspective. Take every rating that isn’t a 9 or 10, cross it off, and replace it with a 1. So now each of them must be a 1, 9, or 10.

You see, if you can’t rate a given area of your life a 9 or 10 then obviously you don’t have what you really want in that area. This can be especially hard to admit when you think you have a 7. A 7 looks pretty good at first glance, but the true 9s and 10s are way beyond 7s. The 10s are so far out there that you probably can’t even see them from the position of a 7.

A 7 is what you get when you allow too much falsehood and denial to creep into your life. It’s a phony rating to begin with, a 1 in disguise. Either you have what you want, or you don’t. A 6, 7, or 8 is the answer you give when you know you don’t have what you want, but you aren’t ready to face up to it yet.

I know this sounds unreasonably harsh, but based on my own experience as well as what I’ve observed in others, people commonly rate some part of their lives a 7 (or thereabouts) when they’ve disconnected themselves from the truth. A 7 is a job instead of a purpose-driven career. A 7 is a comfortable living arrangement instead of a deeply fulfilling relationship. A 7 is an income that covers your basic expenses instead of providing true abundance. When you rate any part of your life as a 7, you’re really saying: “This isn’t what I want, but I’m not sure I can do better, so I’ll pretend it’s good enough. It could be worse.” However, the truth is that if you aren’t experiencing what you want, you’re already in the worst possible situation.

When you rate some part of your life a 7, it means you’re on the wrong path but you don’t want to accept it. You don’t want to acknowledge that you’re approaching a dead end, so you base your rating on on your position instead. “Look how far I’ve come down the wrong path,” you say. You assign yourself a 7 based on your location along the route, even though the path itself is really a 1. Your position doesn’t matter. Your rating must come from the path. You can be starting from scratch in a new career, a new relationship, or a new spiritual journey and still rate that part of your life a 9 or 10 if you’re on the right track.

Now look at each area of your life again, and ask yourself, what do I truly want? What is my dream, my grand vision? What is the deep desire I’ve been longing for, the one I hesitate to admit because I don’t think I can have it? What path do I most want to experience? Accept that you want what you want, and stop living in denial of your true desires.

I did the exercise and have rated some areas of my life as 7 or 8. None of the areas in my life is 9 or 10. Other people do regard me very successful in certain areas, but when it comes to self-assessment, I am quite harsh. I pursue Excellence and excellence after 8. Even if I “normalize” and bring up my grading in each area of life, some areas will still be rated below 8. So am I following the wrong path? Is my ladder leaning against the wrong wall? This will need some soul searching, some going back to my values and a lot of self-analysis. I want to know whether my ladder is leaning against the wrong wall or my self-grading needs rationalization.

The 6 Critical Mistakes Done After A Mistake Was Done

2008-09-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

Guest Post

This the first guest post on my site. I read this article during random surfing and after going through it, could not resist to ask the site owner for permission to post it on my site to share with my readers. So please read. I hope you’d like it too.

“Banji.. have you put on your belt?”
“Yes, mother.”
“Banji.. are you sure?”
“Yes, mother.. you can see it for yourself”, I said while showing the belt I was wearing.
“HAHAHAHAHA.. I was referring to the seatbelt”.
And all passengers in the car laughed at me. Guess what, it’s been 20 over years, and my mother still bring up that incident once in a while.
/end memory

Nobody likes making mistakes. However our life today can only be better if we learn from the mistake we did yesterday. There is also no way we can be 100% free from making mistakes. So we might as well just accept the fact that we will make mistake and keep learning from it throughout our life.

I believe that there is however another set of mistakes that we need to avoid at all cost - The mistakes we do after making mistakes. Enlisted below are some of the most common mistakes we usually do after making mistakes.

1) Refuse to admit that mistakes had been done Some people are so egoistic that they will never accept the fact that they had made a mistake. For this type of people, mistakes are signs of weakness and being the egoist that they are, they will never admit to that.
Another type of people who fall into this category is those who were always in denial after a mistake has been made. They are so afraid of making mistakes that they deny the mistake ever happened. These are not the kind of people you want to be around with.
How can we learn from our mistakes if we never actually admit there was one?

2) Try to forget the mistakes Some mistakes are embarassingly painful. These will usually be buried deep down in our memory with the hope that it will be forgotten. Personally, trying to forget our mistake is a very stupid move. If we forget it, it will be like buying a hideous van and burn it down right away. People will never notice the van but your money spent to buy the van is loss forever. Don’t you value your money?

3) Blame self or others. This habit has become sort of a built-in habit to everyone. Once a mistake was done, the first thing people will do is to find whose fault it is. It will never serve any function except the illusion that the mistake has been solved. It can be important however to do this if finding the fault will solve the problem.
The worst case scenario is when we are blaming ourselves for the mistake. Once we do this, believe me, there’s no way out. Our mind will use all of its resource to further punish ourselves for the mistake. It will be like a black hole with no way out. Don’t go there.

4) No room for forgiveness. This is sort of related to point 3. But it is very significant that it deserve its own number. Forgiveness is always the hardest thing to do. We can say anything, read all the books but when your life was screwed up by a person, it will be very hard to forgive him.
That is why, we need to have that room in our heart for forgiveness. Set up this room in our heart. We don’t necessarily need to forgive him right away, but knowing that there’s a room in there for forgiveness will definitely help later on.

5) Justify mistakes Very similar to point number 1, the person who make this mistake will come up with justification as to why a mistake was made. Remember the girl who cried wolf? She might made a mistake the first time thinking that she saw a wolf. And when the villagers came she made excuses that she was just fooling around. You know how it ended.
Justifying mistakes does not make the mistake go away. It will not help you learn from it either.

6) Refuse to analyze your mistake Being an engineer, when a problem / mistake occurs in an operation, the first step is always “redefining the problem”. Let say an operator forgot to switch on a pump and ruined the whole operation. I can straight away scold him or give him a warning letter. But this will not solve the problem. If he can forget the first time, the chances are he will forget it again later.

I should study if there were any possibility the pump can be run automatically and thus removing the problem altogether. Or maybe put up a checklist to help the operator remember.
Analyzing mistake is the most important things to do right after a mistake has been made. If not the mistake made will serve no purpose and you will find that your life is just one big boring loop where the same mistake is being repeated everyday
- I wonder -What’s your biggest shareable mistake in your life?

———– Personal Note ————–My biggest shareable mistake in life is when I was in my final year. I literally spent all my time chatting on IRC. I failed a subject and did poorly on others. That for me is my most expensive lesson in life.

Thanks Banji

If you liked this post, please visit Banji at http://lessoninlife.com/

How to Increase Productivity by Planning a Focused Day

2008-09-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

In my article Achieving Life Goals Daily Through Weekly Planning I have explained in detail how I follow a weekly plan for working each day towards my life long goals. Occasionally, because of different reasons, some tasks (generally the small rocks) cannot be accommodated in following days and remain unfinished.

For these LEFT OVER TASKS, I follow a JUST DO IT approach, following 1st generation time management technique. I prepare a TO DO list and find a less loaded day. I interleave all pending tasks with planned tasks for that day. Normally, the list is quite long and requires about 1.5 times the time I work in a day. However, I don't stretch my day. I find the extra time from focusing.

I start the day with the list, indicating priority of each task and approximate time to complete it.
I start of with completing the task in the sequence within the allocated time. I don’t bother about anything else. Don’t allow distractions. I just focus on that task, remain within the TIME BOX that I have reserved for this task. I know that my big rocks have been taken care of and this moment, I have only to manage the very task at hand. This intense focus enables me to finish the task, mostly, before allocated time.

In case I am unable to complete the task, I just stop working on it, unless I am very close to completion, after expiry of time.

If I have to delegate part of task (collection of data, reference etc) to my staff, I do it at the very onset. After delegation, I move on to next task and come back to this task once I have been provided with the required information.

The moment I finish the task, or as the TIME BOX expires, I move on to next task.

I have observed it to be a great way to overcome procrastination. The real gain comes from FOCUS.

Follwoing this approach, even if I complete about 65-70% tasks, I am 100% productive.

Look at the list of my TO DO list for Friday. Time mentioned against each is based on my experience and is correct with 10% variation.

1. Complete review report (1 hr)
2. Respond to 5 memos (45 min)
3. Write 3 letters to 3 companies (45 min)
4. Discuss under repair machinery with our subcontractor and take decisions ( 30 min). I sent an e-mail (5 min).
5. Rent an apartment at Barcelona for my vacation (30 min).
6. Collect required data and make an outline/first draft for my presentation for next meeting (1 hr)
7. Lunch (1hr)
8. Declutter (30 min)
9. 4 Telephone calls to business contacts (45 min)
10. Write an outline for next article (30 min).
11. Read/review report from Supply department (30 min).
12. Go through all e-mails/paper mails (45 min).
13. Attend one briefing and one meeting (1 hr)
14. Different chores (1 hr)
15. 2x 15 minutes breaks (30 min)

Total time required for all tasks: 11:00
Time available (0900 - 1700): 8 Hours (including lunch time and breaks)

I completed tasks amounting to 9-1/2 hours PLUS some emergent tasks that surfaced during the day. This is 120% productivity.

Boosting Metabolism – Facts and Myths

2008-09-08T02:56:00.000-07:00

(word count: 700)

In my article Fat Loss and Weight Management – Learn the Basics (Part I) and Part II, I have discussed the important role your metabolism rate plays in your weight management. Your metabolism is the rate at which you burn calories every day. So higher the metabolism rate, more calories you are burning and it is easier for you to lose/manage weight. It is like passive income or an autopilot. You do the hard work one and then capitalize on it with little further effort. Great, isn’t it. However, the problem is that metabolic rate declines with age (especially with a sedentary life style) and one finds it more difficult to burn body fat with workouts and diet alone.

The awareness of link between metabolism and fat loss/weight management among masses has given birth to large industry to provide shortcut / quick fix solutions for boosting the metabolism. These include, but not limited to, powders, potions, pills, drinks and secret techniques that are promised to raise metabolic rate and help burn fat. The fact is, very few of these metabolism boosters actually work.

I’ve examined the claims about popular metabolism boosters, from exercise to nutrition, to show which actually work and which don’t merit your attention and time.

1. Fat-burner pills boost your metabolism greatly. Most fat burners are simply caffeine pills with a few other ingredients, such as green tea, Hoodia etc. Independent research hasn’t proven the effectiveness of these pills. One may get an increase in mental energy through use of these pills, but that is all; one doesn't get a boost in metabolism or burn fat. So my advice would be “avoid fat burner pills”.

2. Breakfast boosts metabolism. My answer would be “Breakfast boosts metabolism indirectly, not directly”. Research shows that eating breakfast is associated with successful weight loss. I always advocate a rich breakfast, comprising of protein, fiber, fruit and vegetables. It keeps you satisfied and your appetite in check till your next meal. Consequently, you don’t indulge is junk food eating. Try having an rich omelet containing broccoli, mushrooms and onions.

3. Ice-cold water with lemon juice. The theory is that body will burn calories to warm up the water, while lemon juice is a natural fat burner. The fact is, it is not correct.

4. Green tea. The claim is that green tea burns an extra 80 calories per day. The fact is that studies have shown burning of 80 calories in young men on the first day of supplementation. But it is not a lasting effect as the body gets used to green tea. I personally take green tea for its proven health results, especially for heart. Otherwise, green tea will help you lose weight only if you replace your high calorie caffeine mug with unsweetened green tea cup.

5. Eating small frequent meals. This has been proven to be a good metabolism boosting strategy wityh additional benefit of helping in cholesterol control. It is simple and effective. Start the day with breakfast and then take small meals/snack/salads/fruit and vegetable servings every four hours. This will give you mental alertness as well as make body to burn more fat.

6. High Intensity Interval training. Definitely YES. In comparison to cardio exercises, high intensity interval training results in a greater increase in post-exercise metabolism. Interval training is simply a short bout of hard exercise followed by a short bout of easy exercise, repeated 5-10 times. The article A 10-Minute Exercise Routine You Can Do Anywhere provides a good start for high intensity interval training.

7. Strength training. Definitely YES and probably the best. A recent study from the Journal of Applied Physiology has showed that strength training doubled post-exercise fat burning. So strength training must be a part of any individual’s fat loss/weight management workout routine. I personally do strength training three days per week, on alternate days and work out all major muscle groups.

The conclusion is that magic pills and potions just don't work. The good news is that you can increase your metabolism through regular exercise and improved diet and eating habits.

In a nutshell, exercising, building muscles and eating the right foods in the right amounts help you keep your metabolism stoked.

Fat Loss and Weight Management – Learn the Basics (Part II)

2008-09-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

I finished part I of this article with the following diagram, describing the fundamentals of fat loss and weight management (click to enlarge).

If you analyze the diagram, you’ll find that there are basically 7 practical actions (top line) that you need to do to lose fat or maintain weight. These are:

a. Perform cardiovascular exercises
b. Perform resistance exercise
c. Stay Hydrated
d. Optimize meal quality
e. Eat frequent meals
f. Eat small portions
g. Avoid alcohol/soft drinks

Let us assume that you want to lose fat. This requires creating calorie deficit. So you need to keep calorie expenditure high and calorie intake low.

Now as soon as we are asked to keep calorie intake low, we think of dieting. Personally, I am a strong opponent of dieting. I did dieting only once when I brought my weight down from 104 kg to 82 kg. During the process, I realized that dieting may be a one-time option, but it is impracticable in the long run. Also, dieting has adverse effects on health.

So how to reduce calorie intake?

This can be done by optimizing food quality, staying hydrated, avoiding soda/alcohol and eating small portions.

Many people believe that optimizing food quality means deprivation; letting go all the foods one enjoys and switching to the tasteless ones. It is far from truth. I have not surrendered any of my favourite foods. I still take ice cream, desserts, cream rich cakes, chocolates, French fries, meat etc. The trick is, however, that I treat calorie rich foods as a treat. I take a couple of servings of these every week, really savoring and enjoying every bite. However, that is occasional indulgence and I don’t become addicted. The feeling that I can have my favourite foods is important to maintain a healthy diet without feeling of deprivation.

You can work out your own food optimization plan; at your own or in consultation with a dietitian. It is not a rocket science, just good (food) common sense and some knowledge of balanced diet. Just start on a conversion plan towards good food and make adjustments along the way.

Here is how I optimized my food quality and eating habits, I have gradually increased my intake of vegetables, nuts and fruits. I have cut down (cut down, not eliminated) red meat, oils, fats, desserts/sweets, soda drinks and alcohol etc. I now take 4 meals in a day; two regular meals in the form of breakfast and dinner. For me breakfast is something not to be missed at any cost. It is a proven fact that those who eat breakfast every morning are a third less likely to be obese. The reason is simple; eating first thing in the morning helps stabilize blood sugar, which in turn regulates appetites. And what constitute a good breakfast? A well-balanced breakfast includes fruits, breads, cereals, eggs, yogurt, nuts and milk etc. My breakfast includes all these. Well not all of these daily; I do keep varying my breakfast menu.

I take 2 comparatively small servings of fresh fruits/vegetables/salads/light snacks/nuts or combination of these as my mid day and afternoon meals. These two small meals keep my energy levels high and curb the urge to go for junk food. Dinner is another main meal for me. It is not very heavy, but has plenty of proteins. I normally have my dinner 3-4 hours before I go to bed.

I avoid soft drinks and prefer to drink lot of water. In my office and on my study table at home, there is always a bottle of water. I substitute soft drinks by fresh juices. Coffee is almost out. I take tea, with no compromise on taste. So my tea contains sugar, but by limiting the number of cups of tea to 1-2 per day, my sugar intake from hot drinks is minimal.

So just by changing my eating habits and careful selection of foods and drinks over the period of time gradually, I have reduced my calorie intake to my calorie expenditure without any feeling of deprivation. In case I am unable to carry out my exercise routines, mostly because of business trips, I slightly amend my eating routine and without even noticing the difference that I have given away any food, I am able to avoid fat accumulations.

Coming back to losing fat. One needs to go a little further to reduce the calorie intake. I recommend a slight change and reduction in each of your meals to reduce daily calorie intake by 200-400 calories only. This may look difficult, but if you just

substitute your soda/alcohol drinks by plain water

reduce number of coffee/tea cups by 1-2 per day

swap one of your high fat main meal with vegetable based low calorie meal and

skip every alternate convenient food/chocolate bar

You would have reduced the calorie intake by 200-500 without even noticing any change. Drink plenty of water and make sure you don’t feel starved. If you don’t take your planned low calorie but tasty meal, you’ll feel hungry, and there is all the possibility that you will succumb to some high calorie readily available convenient, but, junk food.

Second part of the calorie deficit equation is to increase calorie expenditure. The simplest and most direct way is to do cardiovascular exercises. However, there are some legal shortcuts; Maintain a high resting metabolism rate. This is done mainly through resistance training and is supplemented by avoiding alcohol & starvation and staying hydrated.

I personally like resistance training and high intensity short duration exercises for my exercise routines. These types of exercises are fun to perform, expand calories rapidly, shape the physique and put body on autopilot for burning calories while you are resting. Depending upon your fitness level, available time and access to local gym, you can make your own resistance as well high intensity short duration exercises routines. The simplest form is to do squats, push ups and alternate 1 minute sprint and walk for 5 to 10 times (each). Please see A 10-minute exercise you can do any where.

Resistance training is a must to maintain weight for following reasons
a. It burns calorie while you are exercising.
b. It maintains a high metabolism rate, so your body burns fat even when your are not exercising.
c. It programmes body to maintain muscle, so when your body has to lose weight because of calorie deficit, it is the fat that burns and not the muscles.

If you exercise the seven basic steps I listed above, these will help your body to lose fat/ maintain weight in other ways that may not be known to you. It is just like passive income; passive calorie expenditure. For example, if you take frequent meals and optimize your meal quality, you’ll avoid starvation. This will, on one hand, programme the body to retain muscles and on the other hand, will make your intelligent body to be comfortable with lower fat stores. The end results of these two is that whenever your body will lose weight because of calorie deficit, it will start with fats, not muscles.

To summarize this article, I’ll say take small and consistent steps daily in the seven areas that I have listed above and your fat loss/weight management will be put on auto pilot. You’ll have to make only small adjustments occasionally.

Enjoy a great looking, well toned and healthy body. Your health is your best resource.

This is a repeat post.

Exercise – The Lighter Side

2008-09-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

In my last post, Fat Loss and Weight Management – Learn the Basics (Part II), I have discussed the benefits of exercising. One of my visitors has sent me the “other side” or “lighter side” of the exercising. I have found it quite funny, so I am sharing it with you.

1. I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up.

2. I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

3. I don't exercise at all. If God meant us to touch our toes, he would have put them further up on our body.

4. I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

5. The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

6. If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

7. The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

8. And last but not least “ for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month”.

My Site’s value has increased by 500% in one month.

2008-09-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

In Jul, I just stumbled upon this site that calculated the value of a site. My site was valued $ 146/-. I did another assessment in mid Aug and found that with growth of traffic, the site’s value has also increased by 215%. And now after a month, with increase of content and traffic flow, site’s value has increased to $ 722. This is an increase of 500% in a month.

Great!!!!!.

But frankly, blogging is my means of communication and expression. Money has not entered the equation so far. Site’s value calculation is jus for fun.

So join the fun and find out your site's value by clicking the link below:

My site is worth $722.7.
How much is yours worth?

Fat Loss and Weight Management – Learn the Basics (Part I)

2008-09-01T06:39:00.000-07:00

“Fat loss is easy once you understand how hard it is... and it's hard if you think it is easy”.

About a decade ago, I was pursuing my Masters degree. We were 30 students in the class with diverse nationalities and professional & academic backgrounds. On the frist day, our course sponsor welcomed us with the news that in the last session, only 40% students qualified. Then he casually advised us to work hard so that we are among the 40%, not in the other 60%.

Having had an excellent academic background, I was very positive of earning my Masters degree with flying colours. However, the 40-60 equation as quite depressing. I resolved to live to my reputation and that is exactly what I did. I used to study for 18 hours a day; put in about 100 hours of work for course works/assignments carrying just 2-4% of weightage and so on. End of the day, I finished first class first; Masters with distinction with an offer to continue for university sponsored Ph .D (which I had to decline due to my job commitments).

I gained my objective.

But in the process, I gained something else as well: about 20 kg of fats.

Yes, long hours on the chair, lack of exercise and plenty of fat rich fast food had increased my weight from 84 kg to over 104 kg.

That was a shock.

I resumed my job with my company. First three months were busy and demanding and I could find little time for exercise. But one day I thought it was enough. If I’ll keep on waiting for the easy time to start exercising and control my diet, it is never going to happen. I’ll have to create time for myself. I’ll have to improve my diet. I made the decision and embarked upon an ambitious diet plus exercise regime. I alternated swimming, jogging, walk, gym in the daily morning and evening sessions and restricted my calorie intake to the minimum for about two months ….. and bingo. I achieved another goal. My weight came down to 82 kilo. It was great but I concluded that I couldn’t let my weight to cycle between extremes, forcing me to follow rigorous exercise and diet routines every couple of months.

So I decided to set my weight management basics in order; just like my academic and professional life. Step one was to define ideal weight for myself. With a height of 6 feet (180 cm), I must weigh 82 kg.

Next, I worked out the basics. In extreme simplicity, fat loss and weight management is essentially creating calorie deficit for fat loss (less consumption, more expenditure) or calorie balance (intake = consumption) for maintaining weight. The main advantage of working out the basics is that:

a. It is equally effective for both weight management as well as for fat loss.
b. It is extremely flexible. One can define his own routines, eating habits etc suiting to his/her very specific likes, life style and routine etc.
c. It is permanent, practical, wholesome and natural. There are no short cuts, no gimmicks, no starvation, and no magic pills. It is all about you, your life style and your self-discipline (I am intentionally not using the term will power as it apparently seems too demanding, whereas my concept of weight management is easy and enjoyable).

After going through hundreds of articles, books and programmes on weight management, fat loss, exercises, diets, life style etc, I concluded that the entire process of weight management/fat loss can be summarized in some basic steps. For the sake of simplicity, I have converted this information in a flow diagram given below (click to enlarge):

Time Management Tips - Get Organised and More Productive

2008-08-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

In my article Achieving Life Goals Daily Through Weekly Planning I have explained in detail my weekly planning approach that has enabled me to manage my time better, get more organised, achieve my life goals and most importantly, to be more effective and happy in life. It took me a couple of years to develop and adopt to weekly planning system. My planning approach is based on time-tested principles and has worked for me. However, I must say that planning approach, irrespective of how good and principle based it is, is perfect for every individual. Just like no one good diet is “the best” for all, the proven and efficient planning approached are also to be tailored to individual needs, requirements, personality, work habits, life’s purpose and goals. Very frankly, I must admit that I consider Stephen Covey’s weekly planning approach is his book “First Things First” (on which my approach is based) is better than my approach. But that approach is little “too much” for me. So while I did follow Covey’s approach, I tailored it to suit my unique personality and environment.

The basic point is to keep the basics or the fundamentals upfront and plan around these; you’ll not go wrong. So here are my four tips to help you start devising your own unique planning and time management system

1. Understand the Importance of Time: Understand and absorb the fact that time is your most valuable asset. Almost everything else, all other resources can be replenished, recovered, regained; but not time. You can more money than you have lost, recover your health, but you can’t regain the time. For an effective time management, you must respect the value of time. How you are going to use your time today will decide where you’ll be after a week, a month, a year and a decade. You use of time will shape your future; success or failure. But don’t forget that your time management will will also decide your present; this hour, this day and this week. You time management will enable you to balance your life and handle everyday life pressures of work, business, social, family, studies, personal development etc. and family, is a difficult task without effective time management.

2. Start with the Bigger Picture. You must have a clarity of your purpose in life: your vision and you life’s mission statement. Devise your time management system around your life’s mission statement. What is really satisfying for you and where you want to go. This will help you to focus on core values and will help you eliminate distractions; giving more time to you to get best out of life, today and every day. Your clear vision of the bigger picture will give you the strength and the courage to quit those useless activities and time wasters that do not lead to a truly happy life.

3. Planning and Execution. We all have plenty of ideas for effective time management. But what really makes difference between the successful person and a failure is the ability of the former to workout an executable plan and then execute it. Planning and execution is therefore, the most important and challenging element of the whole time management paradigm. Here as some practical steps:

a. While planning, breakdown your bigger picture in smaller workable parts and actions.

b. Define deadlines, timelines and set priorities accordingly.

c. Plan for the year, quarter, week, and day.

d. Update your yearly plan and plan the quarter once every quarter. Then plan individual weeks upto each day every week, so that every night, you have a clear picture of all the tasks that you want to perform the next day, with their respective priority / importance (important/urgent/urgent and important/neither urgent nor important).

e. Once you have the plan, just focus on the day and adjust weekly plan, if there is a requirement, at end of each day, refining the next day.

f. It is a good idea to have only about 5 really important tasks planned for each day. Don’t clutter your day with a big list of tasks, unless most of these are classified as may be. The must do should be those tasks (around 5 for a day) that are really important.

g. Find out how what is the optimal length of time for different types of tasks and how grouping of different tasks works best for you. I, for example, normally take a break (relaxing on chair/small walk/stretch etc) after 45-60 minute of mental work that requires intense concentration.

h. Develop good habit and your own tools for effectiveness like how to eliminate procrastination etc.

i. Always plan the unexpected. Leave in your planning some room for unexpected tasks that arise spontaneously.

4. Balance and Prudence in Time Management. When it comes to time management, people normally take it scheduling their work related task. Please don’t fall in this trap. Plan for whole person. Have time slots for fun, self, family, social life etc. If you are just scheduling TASKS, with no consideration for yourself and family, your time management will never be effective. You may be able to achieve some materialistic goals or tasks, but you will not be having a fulfilling life.

I assure you that reading this article will help you little, if any, if you don’t act. It is my experience that (for some strange reason) no physical change manifests until something moves physically; your condition will not change unless you act. So start acting. If you don’t think you are ready for big changes, start small. Have a paper and list 5 important tasks that you should complete today and start completing them. You may complete only 3 or 4. This failure does not matter as by starting to plan your day, you will set your sails to a voyage that will transform your life from just passing to really fulfilling and happy. So please start right now. This is the "right time" you had been waiting for all your life.

3- Column Blog Template – Get It Free

2008-08-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Blogger.com offers a number of ready made blog templates for beginners like me who do not have knowledge of HTML. If you use blogger.com for your blog, you must be knowing that all the standard templates have two columns. I had been using 2-column template for quite some time. However, I was not very happy with that. I thought that a 3-column blog would serve my requirement better. So I did some google to find a free 3-column template for blogger. I could not find any ready made, simple to download 3-column blog template. May be there are some available on the net, but I gave up after two days and decided to tweak the existing HTML code of my template and convert it to a 3-column template. I googled again; but this time for tips on tweaking the existing template. After a couple of hours reading information and tweaking the existing HTML code, I have managed to convert my blog to 3-columns. The results are not very great; there is room for improvement. But being a person who believes in action and follows “Ready – Fire – Aim” approach, I am happy with the results. I know I’ll be able to improve it over the period of time. The best part of whole exercise had been that it has given me a fair insight of HTML code as well as the confidence that I am able to modify the code to meet my requirements.

Very frankly, now as I am through with the exercise, I can say that it takes only 5 minutes to modify a 2-column template’s HTML code to convert it into a 3-column template. Though I spent couple of hours to accomplish this otherwise 5-minute task, I am happy that I did the exercise. The lessons learnt and the knowledge gained is worth the effort.

If you also wish to convert your 2-column blogger.com’s blog into a 3-column blog, I encourage you to do the exercise. It is worth your time. However, in case you don’t want to invest the time and are happy with the looks of my blog, feel free to leave your e-mail address in the comments. I’ll send you a copy of HTML code for this blog.

How Much is Your Site Worth? Update

2008-08-25T06:40:00.001-07:00

On 31 Jul, I made a post titled. "How much is your site worth?"!

At that time, my site’s worth was valued $146/-. Not bad for a site which was started as a hobby, was getting only a few hours per week of my time and which was only 50 days old.

I am not really interested in the site’s value (at least at the moment, and also current monetary value is insignificant) however, this is an interesting activity. The site’s value is updated after 15 days, so I have just checked it again. Well, the site’s value has gone up to $313.9. Woooooooooooo. An increase of 215%. Quite assuring !!!!!!!!!.

I don’t fully agree with the assessments. Some of the sites which I know are valued very high actually, are not valued accordingly. But anyhow, what is the harm in having some fun…….
So have fun.

My site is worth $313.9.
How much is yours worth?

Rule of Women

2008-08-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I published "Rules For Women". I got good response for that set of rules (from men, of course). Women, however, did not agree to my list, so I had some "not so good" responses as well. I, however, really enjoyed the reponse from Liz Strauss. Her response is in the form a story, concluding with a moral that all women agree to. So enjoy it.

One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked,

"My dear child, why are you crying?"

The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and she needed it to help support her family.

The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a golden thimble set with pearls.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a silver thimble ringed with sapphires.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

Again, the seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord reached down again and came up with a leather thimble.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "Yes."

The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy. Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney.

"Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the seamstress .

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, Lord. You see, I was afraid that if I said 'no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to George Clooney.

And so the Lord let her keep him.

The moral of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and honorable reason, and in the best interest of others.

Blogging – My First 50 Days

2008-07-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

I started this blog on 11 Jun 08 and have completed my 50 days. I think it is a good idea to analyze and review my blogging “career”. Based on my experience so far, I have already decided to continue the blog posting, as I have started enjoying blogging. So this review will essentially be in the form of “Gap Analysis”: What I wanted, what has been achieved, what can be done to remove the shortcomings, decision what to continue and what to abandon.

So first, the Objectives. For me, the objectives of blogging, in the order of priority, were (and are):

a. To contribute and share good things/ideas with others, thereby contribute in improving the lives of others (For me, it is my legacy that I would like to leave behind)
b. To express myself
c. To learn internet/running a website as a technology (both the science and art)
d. To explore internet as a mean of earning money (i.e. to see if I can earn money on internet)

I think that I have mixed results for objectives a. Whereas I had been able to write articles that would have positive impact on many lives, the readership is not very large so the message has not been communicated to many people. Interestingly, the article “10 minute exercise that you can do any where” has been the most popular article. Overall, there had been over 1750 page views. I prefer page views over number of visitors because I am interested in communicating the idea and “page views” gives a better measure for this purpose.

Since I wanted to communicate the ideas to wider readership, I attempted few traffic generation techniques suggested on the web. These included posting in forums, e-mails, blog carnivals etc. These all generated some traffic. I also submitted articles to different free article sites and it was satisfying to see that the message was communicated to a wider readership. In one specific case, one of my articles was viewed over 400 times on just one site within 15 days of posting.

Coming to second objective “To express myself”, I think I have achieved this objective as in last 50 days, I have 20 postings, expressing how I view and experience life. These included articles that express my values and ideas of life, personal development, self growth and approach to rising from mediocrity to personal excellence.

The 3rd objective, “Learning about running a website” was also achieved to a high degree. From a novice, having absolutely no idea of creating a website or HTML, I have successfully created and managed my website. The site has a decent layout, adequate arrangement of material and ads. I have plugged in “statcounter” and ads from Google AdSence and Bidvertiser. I wanted to experiment with some affiliate programme as well, but I have left it to some later time. The bottom line is, I have gained a reasonable expertise to create a website using a template, modifying HTML code to have a layout of my choice, plugging in required features and ads etc. So technology is not going to be a barrier for me.

Monetising their site is the main aim of most bloggers. This was not the case with me, but I wanted to experiment with it to assess blog’s potential for earning money, in case I decide to run an internet based business. I have monetised my site by plugging in Google AdSence and Bidvertiser ads. Whereas I was able to generate decent revenue (decent from my standards, i.e. a person who did not aim to generate money from blog) from Google AdSence, Bidvertiser was a complete failure (so far, at least). My Bidvertiser account indicates a whooping balance of zero point zero zero dollars. Technically it is correct to say that I earn at least a million times more from Google AsdSence than from Bidvertiser.

Future plans. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience so far. Though it is challenging, demanding and time consuming to post regularly, I am going to maintain this blog as I am doing something that I enjoy. I have made a few friends also through my blog. Some of the readers’ feedback had also been very encouraging and satisfying. To help someone in improving someway is a very satisfying feeling for me and forms a cornerstone of my vision of a great and successful life.

The area where I need to work more is traffic generation. Though I don’t find working for traffic generation very motivating, but then I think what is the value of an article if it does not reach the readers? Therefore, I have decided to spend 2 two hours sessions each week to promote the site over next one month. I have set the goal to have at least 8,000 page views by 100th day of this website, i.e. 5 times more page visits in the next 50 days. Hard Target?? May be. But I am very confident that I’ll achieve it. I‘ll report the result on day No 100. Do you think I’ll succeed?

How Much Is Your Site Worth?

2008-07-31T02:48:00.001-07:00

Today, I came across this interesting site which estimates the worth of any given site. I believe that it uses visitor's data and site's daily earning (actual or assessed) to calculate site's worth. My site has been assessed as worth $146.00. Interesting to see that my passion can get me some money.

To find out the worth of your site, click the follwoing link.

My site is worth $146.
How much is yours worth?

Article Categories

2008-07-28T01:46:00.000-07:00

Recently, one of the reader has pointed out that the archive section (on the right sidebar) is not very user friendly. He has pointed out that once the month “June 2008” is clicked, instead of article titles, all the entries of June appear. This is not very reader friendly.

I agree with the comments. In fact, when I started blogging, I used the built-in archive set-up of Blogger.com template. It was only at the start of this month, when archive set-up changed, that I was able to check this feature and find the shortcoming. So I have decided to modify the set up to make it more user friendly. I have two options. List the articles in categories and facilitate the visitors to navigate through their favourite categories OR to list articles chronologically, wherein only list of articles appears for each month and offer the visitor the choice to click on article which interests him. Another option is to have both the options. I personally prefer the first option: Categories. This is what I am going to work on during this week. I’ll also check built–in features that Blogger.com offers for automatic indexing. Next step will be to incorporate option 2 also. So eventually, I’ll end up exercising option 3.

Great Life - Decide What You Want From Life (Part II)

2008-07-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

The process of having a great life essentially comprises of following steps:

a. Your vision/definition of successful or great life
b. An accurate assessment of your passions, strengths and values
c. Envisioning your future and
d. Planning and taking action

a. Your vision of success A general vision of success is to have a lot of money, position of strength, great health, awesome figure, influence, big mansion, fleet of luxury cars, personal jet, great family life, lovers etc etc. That all is good. But it is too materialistic. You may or may not want this type of success.

Some people see success in things other than material gains. Just consider following quotes:

Money, achievement, fame and success are important, but they are bought too dearly when aquired at the cost of health -Anonymous

It’s great to be great, but it’s better to be human. -Will Rogers

Success is a journey, not a destination. -Ben Sweetland

I cannot separate success from peace of mind–the two must go together…- Anonymous

All of us are born with a reason, but all of us don’t discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others. -Danny Thomas

Success is knowing what your values are and living in a way that is consistant with your values. -Danny Cox

We see a marked difference in the ideas of success. It varies from person to person and even for a person, it varies over period of time. I therefore emphasise here that, to have a great life, define what is your idea of success. What does success mean to you? What would you have to be doing to feel that you are a sucessful person? Most probably, your idea of success or a great life will be a list of items/ideas listed above or their variants plus some more ideas of your own. Whatever it is, write it down. It is the first step. To help you further, here are some questions that you may ask yourself to come to your definition of success:

What is my deepest desire?
What would I like to accomplish in my life?
What would I like to accomplish this year?
Where would I like to be in 5 years?
Where would I like to be in 20 years?
What am I good at?

And look into all areas of your life:

Your career/ profession
Your family / social life / relationships
Your health
Your financial situation
How you have fun (how spend your holidays)

Answering these questions will help you to get closer to your idea of a successful life. I encourage you to give it a try and write down answers to 6 six questions that I have listed above. Go one step further and write down answers of first 5 questions for each of the 5 areas of your life listed above. Do you see some pattern emerging? This is just a start. You need to repeat this process over time to really find what successful life means to you.

b. An accurate assessment of your passions, strengths and values Each one of us is gifted with a unique set of passions and strengths and each one has his own set of values. Now let us explore our passions, strengths and values.

1. Passions Try this simple but effective approach to find out your passions. Complete the following statements:
a. My heart pounds with excitement when………………
b. I feel especially good about myself when……….
c. I get a lump in my throat when…………..
d. I lose track of time whenever I am………………
e. If I could be any person in history , I would be ………….
f. When I dream about the future I see myself……..
g. If I could change one thing it would be……….

Don’t be too concious about the answers. Write down whatsoever comes to your mind. Expand and refine it gradually.

2. Strengths Identify your strengths. Mark as many of the following words that you identify yourself with.

sharp supportive systematic decisive
inventive loyal conventional trusting
risk taker spontaneous methodical respectful
inspiring analytical team player meticulous
competitive determined self-composed sensitive
self-sufficient adventurous possessive accurate
intelligent smart composed well-disciplined
influencing enthusiastic steady perfectionist

curious calm unselfish thorough
Diplomatic self-assured dependable precise

By choosing the words, do you see a better self-assessment of yourself?

3. Values To achieve something in life, you have to set goals. To set goals, you need to decide what is important to you, what your values are. When it comes to values, there are no right or wrong values. They can be anything that you consider important or maybe something that you couldn’t imagine living without. Just make sure that the values you choose to define yourself are truly your own values and not someone else’s or imposed due to social conditioning. Look at the following (non-exhaustive) list and identify your values:

Achievement Adaptability Adventure Amusement
Assertiveness Balance Beauty Being the best
Bliss Boldness Bravery Brilliance
Calmness Camaraderie Care Cheerfulness
Clarity Cleanliness Congruency Cooperation
Decisiveness Dignity Duty Empathy
Experience Expertise Exploration Family
Firmness Fitness Flexibility Grace
Gratitude Growth Guidance Happiness
Health Heart Helpfulness Humor
Intimacy Learning Modesty Peace
Pleasure Proactivity Relaxation Richness
Self-control Silence Simplicity Sincerity
Solidarity Strength Tranquility Trustworthiness
Truth Valour Vigor Virtue
Wealth

c. Envisioning Your Future You have defined your vision of success. This is what you want from life. You have defined your passions. These are the activities that make you really happy. You now know your strengths. These are your tools to achieve what you want from life. You know your values. These are the guiding principles in your life. If your activities are aligned with your values, you will have a great life, irrespctive of the magnitude of material gains. Material gains will however, come your way.

The key to graet, successful and happy life is to align passions, strenghts and values work for envisioned successful life. However, if you have started this process fo r the first time, you’ll find conflicts in your vision of successful life and your values, passions and stregths. This being the case, follow your passions and values. You can always bulid the streghths needed to support your values and passions. Following this process, you’ll find a truly successful and great life. This may or may ot be the “successful life” that you envisioned at the start of this process. If it is not, then your present idea is more likely a result of social conditioning and childhood programming. Dump this vision. Follow the vision that emerges from your passions and stregths.

d. Planning and taking action The next step to achieving a great life is to set goals, plan and execute. But this is a complete topic in itself and will be covered in a series of forthcoming articles.

Great Life - Decide What You Want From Life (Part I)

2008-07-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the question “What do you want from life?” the people can be categorized in the following three groups:

a. The people who simply let their life happen. They never think about what they want in their lives and become victims of their own circumstance. Career is just a job to get by financially. A house is just a place to come and rest and eat, chosen primarily for cheap rent or closeness to work place.

b. The people who make their own life, who decide how their life will be. They have a clear idea of what they want from life, what they want to accomplish. They plan, set goals, workout strategies and have a clear picture how to achieve what they want.

c. The people in between the above two categories, who have some preferences, some goals, some visions. But they are indifferent about most parts of their lives. If they have some clear financial goals, they may ignore family, children, relationships, health and spirit etc. They lack a wholesome, balanced approach.

With so much of emphasis on positive thinking, personal development, goal setting, planning etc in the last hundred year or so, it is no wonder that we see a shift of people from category a to categories b and c. However, perhaps more than 95% of people still fall in category a and c, having either absolutely no or very limited idea of what they want from life. Is it acceptable? Is it a good way to live our lives? Should we really ponder what we want from life? This brings us to the question why it matters to know what we want from life?

To know what you want from life is the first step towards a happy, fulfilled and satisfied life. But one needs to be very careful to answer the question as what he wants from life. One can either “find” or “decide” what he wants from life. Knowing the difference between “finding” and “deciding” is a very tricky business.

You “find” what you want from "your" life once you explore yourself as to what are your values, what are your passions and what is the legacy that you wish to leave behind?

On the other hand, when you “decide” what you want from life, it is mostly under social pressure and childhood programming. You might think that “you" want fame, money, power and position. Nothing wrong with these desires, but one has to be very careful to pursue what he wants from life. It is possible that you spend years or even your entire life pursuing something which you believed "you" wanted from life only to find at the end of the day that your ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. So it is of utmost important to ensure that your vision of what you want from life is the right path for you. Your vision of how you want your life to be will decide whether you have a happy and satisfied life or a constant feeling of regret and emptiness.

Remember, it does not matter how hard you work, how intelligent you are, how desperately you have struggled for something. Unless you follow your passions and calling, pursue your unique talents, goals, dreams, and ambitions, you will not be truly happy no matter what you achieve materially.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to find their true goals, dreams, passions, and purpose. Instead of pursuing a rich and rewarding life that results from aligning one’s life with one’s unique talents, gifts and passions, people are socially conditioned and programmed to desire for just more; more money, bigger house, luxury car, social status etc.

So how to find or decide what we want from life to have a great life??? This will be covered in Part II of this article.

Rules for Women - Part I

2008-06-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

I received the following “Rules for Women” from a friend through e-mail. I found most of these to be really funny and thought of sharing these with you. So enjoy (My friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, has numbered these all as "1" on purpose).

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not tests to see if we can find the perfect present yet again!

1. Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. We don't remember dates. Mark them on a calendar and remind us frequently.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. We refuse to answer that question anymore.

1. Let us look. It doesn't hurt anyone, to look. And for us, its genetic.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions, and neither do we.

1. Sunday equals sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Most guys own three pairs of shoes , tops. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

The Science of Getting Rich – Part II (Review)

2008-06-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

The original version of Wattles' book is a little difficult to read and understand as it uses language of early 1900s and somewhat metaphysical and philosophical approach. Many people criticise the contents to be contrary to the title; saying that “there is no science in the process proposed in the book. It is all about faith, belief and imagination”.

When Wattles declares that “There is no disease - it is only an illusion" and "There is no poverty" as established truths, one suspects soundness of his ideas as well as the book, as disease, suffering and poverty is our everyday observation. Also, when Wattles’ says "Do not ask why these things are true, nor speculate as to how they can be true; simply take them on trust. The Science of Getting Rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this faith", people declare his teaching to be more like religion and less like science.

The people believing in religion/God, accept the ideas of the book, but at the same time suggest Wattles’ to replace the Universal Stuff by God, as what he teaches is effectively pointing towards a supreme being and general teachings of most religions.

I think the greatest objection on the book is its practicability. One is justified to ask that if the author claims to be presenting the science, then his theory must produce results like other scientific theories and rules.

Does it always produce results?
Do all the people who read his book become rich?
Does the book and its principles produce easy money?

The answer to all these questions is NO.

Yes, you read it correctly; the answer is NO.
Most of the people who have read the book and tried the process say so. So the book is just rubbish, and its recent publicity is just a commercial hoax?

The answer is, once again, NO.

To resolve the dichotomy of the two conflicting deductions above, one needs to understand the perspective of the reader. In part I of this article, you have read the summary of the book. To explain my point, I’ll just reproduce some key points of the book again:

1. There is a universal energy (thinking stuff) from which all things are made
2. When you form a thought in your head, you tap into this energy, and you actually create what you are thinking about.
3. To manifest something, simply hold an image of what you wish to have.
4. To achieve wealth, hold a clear vision of the wealth you wish to attain. Then express gratitude that this wealth is coming to you.
5. The riches a man receives will be exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision

So the formula is very simple: Think about wealth, hold an image, express gratitude, feel you have it and you’ll have it. BINGO. Unfortunately, in the real world, you’ll not have it.

The problem is that we are living in an age of “quick fix” and “easy money”. We keep on getting offers/emails to

“buy “ABC Get Rich Overnight Programme” for 3 easy instalments of $ 19.99 and you’ll start earning about $ 1000/- per day immediately. No qualification required, no work, the programme will do everything for you. You can just sit and relax and enjoy your holidays and luxury cars and bla bla bla”.

If these programmes are so successful, why Mr ABC is working hard to sell these for $19.99 per month? Why does not he run a couple of such programmes in parallel (after all, these do not require work) and start generating tens of thousands of dollars for himself?

So if a person with “quick-fix-get-rich-soon” mindset reads the book, he will only “read” rules (1-5) that are listed above. He will start THINKING and IMAGING and will HOPE that soon, through his sheer imagination power, the universal stuff will turn itself into currency notes and he’ll find the wealth under his bed next morning. This is never going to happen, except for films and those “ABC Get Rich Overnight Programme” promotional e-mails.

The problem is that of the perception. If you just change your perception, you will find that rule 1-5 only describe the result, the reward that you desire, and a metaphysical process. There is no mention of price. An immature, shallow, and “quick-fix-get-rich-soon” mind will focus on reward only. But those who study the book in-depth, they find that it clearly tells the reader the price to be paid for the reward he is asking for.

I copy, from my previous mail, summary point No 6. It says.

“To claim this wealth, you must be active. You must do all that you can do each day in a successful manner to make this vision a reality. Especially strive to deliver to others something of value greater than what they paid you for.”

Perfectly scientific, perfectly true. Is this not something that we are told by our parents, by our teachers, by successful people? One important ingredient of success or acquiring wealth is to be active, to act every day. Do what all you can do “in a successful manner” to make the vision a reality. And provide value greater than what you are paid for. Now this is what all the big companies, all the successful business, all the rich people are doing. Jus think about the internet connection you have. You probably are paying $ 10-30 for it, but see the value you are getting (or the value that you CAN get). Think about the light bulb. You have paid less than a dollar to save yourself from 10,000 unsuccessful attempts, the labour, frustration, time and investment that were made by Edison. The company producing the bulb is “active”, is “working every day in a successful manner” (and it invests heavily to update its “successful manner”) and giving you something of higher value than your money. If the company, and its owner, is rich, is it not a testimony of the soundness of principles described in the book?

This article itself is also an attempt to deliver something of value greater than monetary returns (if any). The value, or the richness, I am getting in return is the satisfaction coming from contribution or sharing something good. I am fulfilling some of my human needs (to express and contribute) and you are reading something of your interest, Fair trade !!!!!

Now when our Mr “get rich soon” does not find suitcases filled with currency under his bed the next morning after doing all the “imaging” and “gratitude”, he is to blame only himself. The book very clearly mentions that money will manifest through normal, physical channels; no direct conversion of thinking stuff into money (the thinking stuff is smart enough). See point 7 of the summary which clearly says “The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order”. And the established channels of natural growth, industrial and social order demand from a man to “act”; act in a right way, everyday, and with correct mindset.

The book also emphasises upon creative mind. Creativity is the heart of any business. Creativity is not restricted to new invention only; it is in fact an innovative way to tackle a problem, whether that leads to invention of a new gadget or a new business process or foresight to perceive problems and act proactively.

I believe by now you have got the ides. “The Science of Getting Rich” is not a quick fix solution. It is not a step-by-step tutorial to get rich. It is a philosophy. It is a new paradigm. It asks the reader to absorb and live the idea. It is a book to be read and referred frequently.

So if you want to be rich overnight, don’t read this book. You will be greatly disappointed and frustrated.

But if you want to live a rich life, I recommend you to have a copy of the book. It’s free PDF version is available on the net (http://www.xtrememind.com/science.pdf). You can download and print it. It will take a couple of hours to read, but years to understand, absorb and implement in your life.

How Rich Are You?

2008-06-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, while you are waiting for Part II of "The Science of Getting Rich", I thought to share with you this site

http://globalrichlist.com/

Just visit the site, enter your annual income and the software will show you How Rich Are You by giving you your standing in the world.

Be careful, it does not rank you on the basis of your wealth. It ranks you on the basis of your annual income.

By the way, I ranked within first billion.

Hmmmmmm. Richer than about 5 billion people!!!!! Not bad.

The Science of Getting Rich – Part 1 (Summary)

2008-06-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

The DVD “The Secret” has created lot of ripples since last one year. After watching the movie late last year, I decided to go through works of all people whose ideas formed the basis of the film. Last week, I got a copy of Wallace D Wattles book “The Science of Getting Rich” which provided inspiration for the film. I first read this book about 15 years ago, but could not fully comprehend it then. However, after years of practical life coupled with implementation of self help principles, I feel the theme of the book makes now perfect sense for me. Though quite old, the main theme of the book is as applicable today as it was in early 20th century, when the book was first published. So after re-reading the book I thought it will be appropriate to share with you the main ideas of the book as well as my comments about applicability and soundness of the principles, based on my experiences and observations. I have split this article in two parts; with this part covering the summary of the book while part II presenting my review. Here is the summary/main idea of the book:

1. There is a universal energy (thinking stuff) from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, fills the entire universe. When you form a thought in your head, you tap into this energy, and you actually create what you are thinking about, because thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. Mankind has the ability to create a thought and cause the subject of the thought to be created within this field of this universal energy.

2. To activate this ability, we must learn to harness our creative mind. Typically, we function with our competitive mind. But to create things with thought, we need to activate the creative mind. So we need to shift from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise we cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, as it is always creative and never competitive in spirit.

3. We can come into harmony this with Universal energy through the act of expressing lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies our mind with this all encompassing universal energy, the intelligence of substance, so that man's thoughts are received by the Formless. Man can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting himself with the Formless Intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude.

4. To manifest something new, simply hold an image of what you wish to have, to do or to become, in your mind and express deep and sincere gratitude to the Universe for having granted this to you.

5. To achieve wealth, apply this same principle - hold a clear vision of the wealth you wish to attain. Then express gratitude that this wealth is coming to you. You must have unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This way, an impression is given to the Formless, and the creative forces set in motion.

6. To claim this wealth, you must be active. You must do all that you can do each day in a successful manner to make this vision a reality. Especially strive to deliver to others something of value greater than what they paid you for.

7. The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that is included in mental image will surely be brought to the man who follows the instructions given above, and whose faith does not waver. The riches a man receives will be exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of his gratitude.

I leave you here to contemplate on the theme. Don’t forget to read part II of the article.

For Effective Stress Management, Put The Glass down

2008-06-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

We live in a time of extraordinary opportunities, which bring with it extraordinary expectations. But at the same time, it brings with it significant challenges, stresses and worries. Challenges are “good” stress that make one to be more effective and productive. But the flip side is, challenges may also lead to failures, disappointments, worries and “bad” stress. We all have moments of triumphs as well as failures. Satisfaction and stress remain a part of our life. Whereas satisfaction and sense of achievements charge us with energy to do even better, stress drains our energy and if not managed properly, puts us in a downward spiral.
To understand the exact nature of “bad” stress and how to handle it, consider this little story:
A lecturer was giving a lecture to his students on stress management. He held a glass of water, stretched his arm to full and asked the audience, “How heavy do you think this glass of water is?”
“About 400 grams” was the reply.
“Can you hold it for 1 minute” The lecturer asked.
“Yes” was the response from audience
“For 5 hours” he asked again.
“May be” came the general answer.
“And can you hold it for 2 days, arm stretched, no breaks in between?” He asked.
The audience nodded their heads in NO.
The lecturer explained, “Most of worries or stresses in our life are “small negatives” which weigh very little, as this water glass. However, what really causes discomfort is the length of time for which we remain clung to these, just like glass of water. If we hold glass of water in a stretched arm for a minute, it is OK. If we hold it for an hour, we will have an ache in the arm. And if we hold it for 2 days (if we can), then we’ll need an ambulance. It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier is becomes.”
“Same is the case with our burdens. If we carry these all the time, these will become heavier and heavier. And if we do not put these burdens or glass of water down, we’ll collapse”.
“So far effective stress management, put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again.”
There are a number of ways to implement this principle in your life. A few ways I follow this principle include:
a. When leaving office, I scribble my worries, stresses, tensions on a piece of paper. Then I tell my mind that
“Information is on the “clip board”, ready to be pasted when required. However, I am now going to run another programme “personal and family time”. I’ll see the contents of clip board tomorrow”
Strange it may be, but when the next day I paste the clipboard contents, many seem irrelevant and are discarded straight away.
b. Engage in an activity that demands focus, is challenging and absorbing e.g. reading, writing my journal
c. I “live in the moment”. That is, I focus my sensors on the present moment, so that if I am walking, I concentrate on my stride, the surroundings, the nature etc.
d. I maintain a list of small, meaningful tasks that need to be done. So whenever I feel that I am holding the glass unnecessarily, I engage in these “to do” activities, which may include replacing a light bulb, washing my car, writing a letter, or returning a phone call.
Try to learn to make your burdens, your worries to rest. Think of them like bottled water in your backpack instead of a glass of water held in a stretched arm. Bring out your bottled water only when required. Let it be helpful for you, instead of becoming your ruthless master.

How to Get Rid of Belly Fat?

2008-06-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

Whether you call it Jelly Belly or Love Handles, the fact is that excess fat, especially around your waist, is not only unattractive, it is a great health risk as well. It increases risks of heart attack, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, stroke etc. Unfortunately, efforts made by people to lose weight (actually fat), especially belly fat, are “looks” oriented and not rooted in the health consciousness. And it is no wonder that industry has capitalized on consumers’ desires and market is flooded with “quick fix” solutions for fat and weight loss, which will generate immediate and wonder results. No doubt some of these will generate “immediate results”, but in the long run, these will be ineffective. Maintaining weight and remaining in shape is a life style; a resolve, not a pill to swallow and get the results.

Before I go on to discuss how to lose jelly belly, let me put forth a harsh truth.

“You can not spot reduce belly fat. You will lose fat all over your body”
Now, without going into complex, and confusing for some, details of weight loss mechanism, metabolism, and difference of calories from difference sources etc, weight loss facts can be simplified as:

a. If you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.
b. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.
c. If calorie intake is equal to calorie burnout, you will maintain your weight.

An average person needs to burn 3500 calories to lose one lb of weight.

It can be concluded that reducing calorie intake, in other words dieting, will lead to weight loss.

So Dieting is the best solution????

Absolutely NO.

Dieting may be effective in the short term and you will shed off some pounds. But soon, your body’s natural intellect will tell your metabolism system to “slow down”, as it has sensed some “starvation, food shortage” and to survive, the body must now preserve and burn less calories. So after some time, you hit a plateau. By then, you will also be fed up from dieting and gradually, will come back to your normal eating habits. Guess what next??? Rapid gain of those lost pounds, plus plenty in bonus.

An ideal, healthy, safe and effective-in-the-long-term fat loss and weight maintaining strategy will have these three elements:

a. Eat Healthy. Just forget about diet, which brings with it feelings of deprivation and hunger. Instead, try to replace your poor foods by healthy foods. Healthy foods/meals include lean protein, lots of vegetables, whole grains and fruits. Choose foods that are close to their natural state, for example raw carrots etc. On the other hand, any food that is high in calories and fats and low in nutrients is a poor food. A word of caution; while changing your eating habits, don’t try to overdo it and eliminate everything overnight. It will put you under stress and chances are, you will soon come back to your previous eating habits. Go slow. Make one to two changes in your diet and eating habit a week and continue doing it. You’ll find your belly fat disappear for ever. Here are some practical tips:

Week 1 (starting from today and right now)
Observe your eating habits. Write down everything that you eat for one week.
Identify poor foods (soda, deserts, snacks, tea/coffee, alcohol etc)
Identify poor eating habits (eating a lot in front of TV/computer, when tense etc)

Week 2 onward
Replace one or two poor foods with healthy foods (soda by fresh water, snacks by nuts or salads comprising of lettuce, carrots, cucumber etc, reduce alcohol consumption, sugar in the tea, give up tea/coffee etc)
Improve eating habits (dine in kitchen instead of in front of TV, drink lot of water, eat only when hungry, no nibbling while surfing the net etc)
Remove candies, cookies, cakes etc from your kitchen cupboard and instead, buy fresh fruits and vegetables and put these on your dining table/refrigerator

2. Exercise. And I am not talking about sit-ups or crunches. These will strengthen your abdominal muscles and will HELP lose fat, but these are simply not sufficient. You need to adopt a cardiovascular exercise routine to reduce body fat. To start with, I’ll recommend walking. It is easy, does not require high fitness levels to start with and requires only a pair of good shoes. Try to walk at least 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week. Instead of focusing on time or intensity of walk, concentrate on the fact that walking is a mean to exercise your body aerobically on a regular basis. Other options include riding a bike, swimming, jogging etc. Once you intend to increase the intensity, add variety and improve strength, see the article A 10-Minute Exercise Routine You Can Do Anywhere.

3. Build Muscles/Resistance Training. Well, it certainly will improve your looks, but more importantly, it will help you lose weight (actually, fat) quickly and efficiently. Muscles burn extra calories, even when you are asleep. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn in a 24 hour period, and hence, more fat burning. Additionally, building muscles give you the power to carry on your daily activities more effectively and with energy to spare. Again, A 10-Minute Exercise Routine You Can Do Anywhere is a good starting point for building/strengthening of major muscle. Depending upon your specific goals, you may opt to join a gym for muscle building.

And finally, some practical tips

1. You must have a RESOLVE to have a healthy, trimmed and energetic body
2. You must have a goal; how you want your body to be and by when
3. You must have a work plan for the year, broken down to week and day.
4. Focus only on the current week and today. Review your progress monthly.
5. Start small, but start today and stay PERSISTENT.

Remember, it is your right as well duty to have a great body and health. And you must have it.

You Must Have A Great Life

2008-06-19T07:09:00.001-07:00

Sometime ago, I was of the opinion that everyone has the RIGHT to have a great life.
Not anymore.

Now I believe that everyone has the DUTY to have a great life.
I believe it to be a duty because we have all the potentials and the tools to live a great life. And I believe it to be a duty because only by living a great life ourselves, we can enable others to live a great life.

A great life is the minimum that we must aim for. Living a great life must be a goal of everybody.

But what is a great life?

Most of us never bother to contemplate this question. We are happy to “Go with the flow”. Those who think often stop at the first step: equating tons of money with a great life. They believe that having money and everything that money can buy; luxury seaside villa, a brand-new car, a large screen TV, vacations abroad, becoming famous etc. will bring them happiness and fulfilment. Does it?? YES, but partially. Only for some moments of the day. But you will remain “empty” most of the time, because a great life goes well beyond money and materials that money can buy.

So what is a great life?
The answer to this question will differ from person to person, but essentially, there are four elements of a great life. The difference in personal approaches is due to the fact that each individual will have slightly different emphasis on each of these elements. However, the ultimate great life is achieved when

a. these four elements are balanced synergistically
b. we strive everyday to improve in these areas.

These four elements are

1. Material and Physical Needs. You have a body, and probably a family, to feed. You have to manage material needs for self and family, including home, car, clothes etc. Your body needs to be in optimal health state. So to have a great life, you must have VIBRANT HEALTH and FINANCIAL FREEDOM. The financial freedom does not imply plenty of money, but enough money to meet your requirements and rid your mind of worries. Going a step further, an “Abundance Mindset” is more important than actual “quantity” of money. A mindset that is happy with the available material possessions, offers gratitude, and hopes for better has the real financial freedom. Similarly, maintaining a vibrant health is essential to a great life. Vibrant health does not stop at “absence of disease”; rather it is a state where you feel energetic, enthusiastic, active and ready to “Just Do It”, whenever there is a physical or mental challenge or positive activity.

2. Intellectual Fulfilments. We as human, desire to grow intellectually. We need to learn so that our “intellect” self feels growing. Growing intellectually is the key to human progress. And you grow intellectually when you learn or teach, when you dream, when you set and achieve goals, when you use your knowledge as well as imaginations to find answers. Reading, discussing, problem solving, project completion, learning new skills etc are essential for our intellectual fulfilment.

3. Emotional Aspect. To have a great life, we need to feel fulfilled emotionally. And for that, we need to love and be loved and recognised. Care, respect and love for your family, relatives, friends and fellow men are the binding fabrics of human society.

4. Spiritual Growth. Whether one believes in religion or in higher intelligence or in universal consciousness or in nothing at all, we as human have certain spiritual needs. This requires us to do something for others for someone who is “bigger than us”. And the best way to do it is to make unconditional contribution, random acts of kindness and to leave a legacy.
So a great life

Must have a great purpose, which is chosen consciously and is aligned with universal principles of good, to grow and maintain a balance in all the four areas.

Some people believe that Great Life lies in great things, great actions and great works only. It is a misconception that stops most of us to be great. Greatness lies in most of the small things and small events. Everyone lives a great life for a small time. Your favourite teacher at school that impacted your life positively lived a great life. Your uncle who supported you when you were emotionally broke lived a great life. Have you read the story of "star thrower," boy. This little boy was found walking on a beach after a storm, throwing starfish back into the ocean so they won't die on the shore. Someone criticizes him for wasting his time, noting there were millions of starfish, and the few he saved won't make much difference. The boy silently bent over, threw a starfish into the surf and replied, "It made a difference for that one."

Just make a difference for someone and continue doing it. You’ll live a great life.

A nutrient-dense way to reduce your tummy

2008-06-14T03:21:00.001-07:00

If you're trying to trim your tummy, don't let this advice go to waste.
New research shows that adding almonds to your diet may not only aid your weight-loss efforts, but also reduce your body fat and significantly cinch your midsection.
The 24-week study, published in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, included 65 adults who were either overweight or obese. Half of the participants ate a low-calorie diet plus 84 grams (about three ounces) per day of almonds. The other half ate a low-calorie diet plus their choice of complex carbohydrates. Both groups consumed the same amount of calories and protein.
At the end of the study, the almond-eaters enjoyed a 62 percent greater reduction in weight, a 50 percent greater reduction in waist circumference, and a 56 percent greater reduction in fat mass as compared with the other group.
To target your tummy and boost your weight-loss efforts, trade in your "energy" bar for perfectly portable, nutrient-dense, raw, organic almonds. A one-ounce serving is about a third of a cup or a small handful.

What Are You Piling – Gold Or Garbage

2008-06-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

To be more successful, to be more effective, one has to work more and work hard. However, every human being, no matter how ambitious he is and how long he is willing to work, requires some time every day to do something that gives him pleasure, which refreshes and relaxes him and which charges his batteries for the next day’s hard work. These relaxing and recharging activities that we undertake during our repair time, and which are vital for an efficient workday, can be categorised into following three categories:

a. Gold. Have positive effect on us (improve us in some way).
b. Garbage. Have negative effect on us (damage us in some way).
c. Neutral. No or very little effect on us (leave us almost unchanged).

It is my observation that we all spent some time in each type of category. However, what really matters is that how much time, and with what intensity, we spent in each category? That is to say, whether you are piling Garbage or Gold or just “spending your time”. Your choice of Gold or Garbage activities will ultimately determine your long-term growth, personal development and effectiveness.

I personally grade these three types of activities on a scale of –10 to +10. Activities that fall between +3 t0 +10 are gold. Activities falling between –2 to +2 are generally neutral and anything below –3 is Garbage.

The more gold you have, the better your life is, and more developed and successful person you are.

The more garbage you have, less developed you are. You don’t have an effective “self” or a successful/great life, even if you have plenty of money.

How do we decide what is gold and what is garbage? My criteria for each type of activity and the activities that people generally pursue in that area are:

Gold Activities (+3 to +10)

These are the activities that have positive short and long-term effects. These are absorbing, engaging and challenge your intellect, body or emotions. Since these are challenging, one tends to avoid these, especially when he feeling low physically, emotionally, or mentally. However, once engaged, a person gets absorbed and may even lose sense of time. Consequently, these activities refresh, recharge and build up energy, making it easier to continue. A key characteristic of such activities is that when one has finished these, he feels satisfied positively, feels good about himself and has a sense of fulfilment.

My choice of Gold activities include

a. Reading a really good book. For example Steven Covey’s “First Things First” or “The 8th Habit”, Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, Coelho's "Al-Chemist" etc.

b. Exercise. Jogging, weight training, walking. These really refresh me and one hour of exercise allows me to add 2-3 hours of mental work or quality time with family.

c. Yoga and meditation

d. Watching a really really good movie. A film like “Forest Gump”, “The Secret”, “Ben Hur”, or some educational and inspiring documentary etc.

e. Exploring/learning something new. This could be as small as a learning new words or basics of a new software module or may be something more challenging like flying and aircraft.
Visiting a new place (during an evening or a complete holiday package)
Tasting some new food/drink

f. Getting involved in emotionally engaging and intimate activities like making love, spending some quality time with family or friends, teaching something to your kids.

g. Writing, whether it is a diary, journal, article or a book

h. Gardening. Gardening provides light exercise, is engaging, and can be a great stress reliever for many reasons, including getting you into the sunshine and fresh air, creating more beautiful surroundings to come home to each day. A side effect is the sense of contribution towards nature, which, in the long term, a major positive impact on your life.

i. Some challenging games or puzzles that develop focus and concentration

The signs of a Gold activity are that it is intellectually or physically challenging, teaches you something worth knowing, develops a skill worth having, or improve your existing state (physical, emotional or intellectual). During the activity as well as later on, you have a strong sense that you are doing the right thing. It builds your self-esteem and confidence as well as your energy levels. And mostly, it is stress relieving.

Neutral Activities (-2 to +2)

These activities have no major long-term negative or positive effects, but have short-term positive effects as these rejuvenate a person. These are generally not intellectually or physically challenging and therefore, are easier to engage into. A conscious and positive person chooses these activities when he is physically and mentally tired and is not bothered much about long-term positive effects. After end of such activities, a person may feel physically or mentally refreshed, but most probably, it will be a very short-term effect. Neutral activities include:

a. Fun time with friends, without any intellectual or serious discussion
b. Watching light TV sitcoms and shows like “Friends”
c. Reading novels, magazines etc
d. Watching a sporting event
e. Listening to light music
f. Light computer games like “Hearts” and puzzles
g. Drawing and Paintings.
h. Learning to play or playing music instruments.

Whereas some of these activities have the potential to move to Gold activities, depending upon how you are engaged in these, a word of caution for Neutral activities. Neutral activities do not have a long-term negative impact if one engages in these for short period of time only. However, spending too much time in activities of this category will effectively make that very activity Garbage. You will come to know about it when, at the end of the activity, you have the unpleasant feeling that you've wasted your time.

Garbage Activities (-3 to –10)

We generally know that we must avoid activities in this category, but even then, we all tend to spend some time in this category. The difference, however, is that people with high self discipline and confidence spend a very little time in Garbage activities. This happens only when they are extremely low in their energy level, tired and exhausted for any reason. At times, it is a conscious choice or a revolt against self-discipline, just to challenge oneself.

On the other hand, people with low self-esteem, having self-doubts and low energy levels spend most of their recreational times in Garbage activities.

Whatsoever the reason, the indication that one is engaged in a Garbage activity is that he gets a dull pleasure during activity and feeling of guilt or loss after the activity. Even during the activity, there is a voice deep inside telling us that we are engaged in a self-destructive activity. It disables you intellectually, emotionally, and physically. During such activities, one is less capable of performing complex skills or dealing with complex emotional or intellectual issues.

Garbage activities include:

a. Watching too much rubbish TV shows (like Jerry Springer Show, WWF etc)
b. Getting drunk
c. Watching violent movies
d. Doing anything that you'd be ashamed to talk about with others
e. Reading cheap novels or gossip magazines
f. Surfing the net without any specific objective
g. Using drugs
h. Internet chatting and attending forums (at any given time, if you are participating in more than 4 forums, I assure you that you are just wasting your time)

So What to Do?

Personality/character of a person and the way he uses his spare time are reflective of each other.

Confident, highly energetic people having high self-esteem, self-discipline and a positive attitude towards life mostly choose Gold activities.

People with low self-esteem, doubtful and lacking self-discipline spent most of their leisure time in garbage activities.

The great news is,

People spending more of their time in Gold activities develop self-esteem, confidence, and high energy levels.

I invite you to make 2 lists.

A list of all the activities that you do in your spare time and categorise them as Gold, Neutral or Garbage.

Make another list of activities that you think are Gold and which you should undertake.

Analyse list of current activities.
Make a resolution to discard Garbage activities.
Slowly and gradually replace your current Garbage activities with Gold activities of your second list.

And enjoy the positive results over the period of time.

Bumper Stickers - Fun on the Road

2008-06-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

I have always enjoyed reading bumper stickers. These crisp and brief statements often make those rush hours less stressful. Here are some, which I am sure you’ll enjoy:

Life . Like A Roll Of Toilet Paper
It Goes Faster Near The End

I Respect Your Opinion
I Just Don't Want To Hear It

Jesus Is Coming
Look Busy

If You Can't Live Without Me
How Come You're Not Dead?

Constipated People Don't Give A Crap.

If You Can Read This, I've Lost My Trailer.

Horn Broken...
Watch For Finger.

I Have The Body Of A God - Buddha.

Eat Right, Exercise
Die Anyway.

He Who Hesitates Not Only Is Lost,
But is Miles From The Next Exit.

Fight Crime: Shoot Back!

(Seen Upside Down On A Jeep)
If You Can Read This, Please Flip Me Back Over...

If Walking Is So Good For You,
Why DoesMy Mailman Look Like Jabba The Hut?

Caution - Driver Legally Blonde.

Heart Attacks:
God's RevengeFor Eating His Animal Friends.

How Many Roads Must A Man Travel Down
Before He Admits He is Lost?

All Men Are Animals;
Some Just Make Better Pets.

Politicians And Diapers Should Be Changed Often
And For The Same Reason

Look out!
I drive just like you

Gun Control Means
Using Both Hands

Lawyers - Criminals
I Forget the Difference

Just When You ThinkLife's A Bitch
It Has Puppies

God Created Man First
You Need A Rough Draft Before A Masterpiece

Why Do Women Fake Orgasms?
Because Men Fake Foreplay

Caution…
I Can Go From 0 To Bitch In 2.5 Seconds

Be Nice To Your Kids…
They'll Choose Your Nursing Home

Get Even …
Live Long Enough To Become A Problem To Your Kids

My Kids Think
I'm An ATM

My Wife And I Were Happy For 25 Years.
Then We Met.

If Money Is The Root Of All Evil
Why Do Churches Beg For It?

Remember Ladies;
It's NotMen's Minds That They Want Blown

Drugs Lead Nowhere…
But It's The Scenic Route

Earth First…
We'll Screw Up The Other Planets Later

Jesus Loves You
Everyone Else Thinks You're An Asshole

Love Thy Neighbour
But Don't Get Caught

My First Post - 11 Jun 08

2008-06-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

Life is so rich, so colourful,

so beautiful.

It has so much to offer.

The universe has everything in abundance.

We all should have the

bounties of life.

We all should have.

But most of us suffer from miseries.
Life becomes a dreadful experience.

I want to change it.
I have changed it for myself.
It was through inspiration from others.
And I want to inspire others to change their life for the better.
I want to contribute for betterment of others.
I want to make a difference in other peoples life.
No matter how many people.
No matter even if there is none.
I want to strive.
For this is the least I can return for what I have been given by others, by my life.

I want others to have abundance in all fields of life.
Health, wealth, love, learning, materials and above all, a rich spirit.

So that more and more people can say

"Life is a wonderful experience.
It is beautiful.
And I want to share with others"