GO GET YOUR GOLD MEDAL

More ‘TO-DO’ With Less…

2011-12-10T23:06:53Z

This post is a continuation of my last one, namely, ‘Better ‘TO-DO’ Each Day...Day After Day’

The word ‘Less’ in the title of this post connotes less time and/or less resources.

Let us first assume that you are in Stage 1 of Daily ‘To-Do’ lists, that is, you do not make a to-do list for your daily activities.

The moment you decide to start making a Daily ‘To-Do’ list, you will move to Stage 2.

Irrespective of the stage you are in, you must keep the following in mind while preparing a Daily ‘To-Do’ list: -

· Include all possible activities including the mundane and routine activities. Since these activities eat into time, you must acknowledge their existence and their impact on time available during the day.

· Always have a time estimate for each activity recorded against it. For example, you may record 20 minutes against an activity ‘Pay Bills Online’.

· Your activities must include the daily and weekly chores (weekly as applicable on that day of the week), as well as trivial activities such as collect mail from the mail-box, have morning coffee, take a nap or call my old classmate etc.

To achieve Stage 3 of Daily ‘To-Do’ lists, you must follow a well-known principle or method of time management that will help you prioritize and complete activities by the accorded priority.

Brian Tracy, who is one of my many mentors on time management, calls this method “Eat the Frog and the ABCDE method”. Under this method, you prioritize the activities, and on most occasions, the items of the highest priority are the ones that are most detested or the ones that demand immediate attention. These are the ones that stare in your eyes as big ugly frogs. Brian goes on to say that if at the start of the day, one eats his/her ugliest of frogs, one is assured of an easier day thereafter.

But, to ‘eat the frog’, you need to know what are your frogs of the day. Since the term ‘Frog’ is relative, you will have certain ‘frogs’ on an easy day too.

To discern the frogs from other activities (through prioritization), you may apply the ABCDE method, where you mark the activities by the following criteria: -

‘A’ tasks/activities are those that cannot wait and must be completed on priority. The impact of not completing these tasks/activities is severe. You should complete ‘A’ activities before you attempt others of lower priority. If you have multiple ‘A’ activities, you must force-rank them as A1, A2, A3 etc, with A1 being the most important.

‘B’ tasks/activities are not as critical as ‘A’ tasks/activities. These should be done. However, the result of not doing them is that someone will be inconvenienced, but there may be no serious repercussions if these are not done.

‘C’ tasks/activities are ‘Could Do’ tasks/activities that can always wait until the next day.

‘D’ tasks/activities indicate that these should be ‘Delegated’ to others.

‘E’ tasks/activities are candidates for ‘Elimination’. Often we get into the habit of doing things without any good reason. These tasks/activities could be eliminated after careful examination.

Let us talk about Stage 4 (An Optimal Daily To-Do List). This is achieved with practice and rigor. Essentially, while preparing the Daily ‘To-Do’ list the night before, you must try to identify opportunities of: -

· Concurrent execution of tasks/activities: One of the examples could be ‘thinking’ while walking the dog! This method helps in combining an important task with a not-so-important task so that both can be performed concurrently.

· Deriving synergy from combining the activities: One such example could be having a list of groceries handy when going out to run a routine errand. So, one trip in the car fulfills the purpose of transporting you to the place of errand as well as the grocery store. A good time-saver.

A Stage 4 Daily To-Do List accommodates the most number of activities per unit of time and also ensures that the most critical ones get done first. To achieve a Stage 4 Daily To-Do list, you must start with a Stage 3 Daily To-Do List and must incorporate the ‘time and effort saving’ opportunities listed above.

Do’s: Preparing a Daily To-Do List

· Always make a to-do list for the day the night before.

· Record the time estimate against all activities/events in the list.

· List all possible activities in the list, including the routine and mundane ones. Sometimes, routine tasks/activities are the ones with opportunities for amelioration and time-saving.

· The list must be handy at all times during the day.

· Always keep some slots for ‘Your Alone Time’ to reflect as well as the ‘Fun Time’ to unwind.

Don’ts: Preparing a Daily To-Do List

· Do not try to prepare the list in your head. If you cannot read the list, you will likely miss all opportunities of deriving synergy.

· As far as possible, try to address all activities on the same day. If the interruptions are beyond your control, include those activities with the same degree of priority in the next-day list.

· Do not hesitate in making changes to the list as the day progresses. When the list meets the reality, some changes are always in order.

Daily To-Do Lists have always made life better, easier and more rewarding for their practitioners. Those who start making Daily To-Do Lists and also start following them, they are instantly rewarded with favorable results from the very first day.

This is what some of them shared with me when they took to using Daily To-Do Lists : -

· ‘I had time to spare even after completing my tasks in the morning!’

· ‘I could never imagine that I could accomplish so much in a day!’

· ‘Although I had a lot to do today but there was no pressure at any time during the day. I knew what to do if time ran out…’

· ‘Every day I discover new openings to do more, by eliminating inefficiencies from my daily chores.’

· ‘My very first Daily To-Do List gave me a ‘Wake Up Call’ reminding me of my obligation to my long-term goals…’

I will conclude by repeating what I said in one of my earlier posts on ‘To-Do Lists’,

‘Historically, no human being has been able to devise a more efficient method than following a carefully crafted Daily To-Do list in order to get more done during the day, be it having fun or completing pieces of work.’

Better ‘TO-DO’ Each Day...Day After Day

2011-12-09T04:09:00Z

In my last post, ‘What DoYou Have ‘TO-DO’...Today? ‘, I talked about the significance of a Daily To-Do List to get all things done during the day.

But making a To-Do List alone is not a panacea for time management. There are efficient and not-so-efficient ‘To-Do’ lists.

So, how do we come up with an efficient ‘To-Do’ list?

Since the effort put in through a Daily To-Do list is a building block of the overall effort towards our long-term goals, we must break our bigger efforts into smaller chunks so that they could be addressed bit by bit in each Daily ‘To-Do’ list. For example, if you plan to finish a do-it-yourself project in 6 months, then there must be a quota of effort dedicated to your To-Do list on a daily basis. In other words, you will tend to execute your project bit-by-bit daily for the next 6 months or until it is successfully completed.

To accommodate smaller chunks of bigger efforts in your Daily ‘To-Do’ lists, you will need to calculate the size of the chunk in terms of time. Let us say, you came up with 1 hour worth of effort on a daily basis towards this DIY project. This one hour effort should then become a permanent fixture of your Daily ‘To-Do’ list until the project is successfully completed.

When you get down to populating the list a night before, you should include all types of activities, big or small. When collated fully, the list will attain the shape of an inefficient to-do list. The varying efficiency of the to-do lists results in the difference between a not-so-successful person and a successful one.

The efficiency of a to-do list has less to do with how pretty or systematic the list looks. It has more to do with getting your important things done imperatively. The not-so-important activities could be relegated to a later date. With little practice and rigor, you may be able to address the low priority items/activities also along with the high priority ones.

Your list of daily activities is very personal to you. You will tend to learn from your own experience and you will likely go through the following stages before your list becomes as efficient as it could be: -

· [STAGE 1] No Daily ‘To-Do’ List – You will not get much done during the day

· [STAGE 2] A Daily ‘To-Do’ List - You will have captured what to do but you may run short of time due to disruptions

· [STAGE 3] An efficient Daily To-Do List – You will complete the high priority activities but may have to sacrifice the low-priority ones in case of disruptions

· [STAGE 4] An optimal Daily To-Do List – You will complete the high-priority activities along with the low-priority ones by deriving synergy out of combination of activities

If you start at the very beginning, regular practice and rigor will help you graduate to the next stage(s) over time.

In my next post, I will talk about a systematic technique to reach Stage 4 of Daily To-Do Lists from a scratch as fast as possible.

What Do You Have ‘TO-DO’...Today?

2011-11-25T00:09:09Z

When we plan to manage our time in the best possible manner, we strive to get as much done as possible in the time available.

If you have read my post on ‘Planning Horizons...', you would appreciate the need to abstract the plan to the highest level (based on how much we want to ‘look ahead’) and then drill it down to the granular level as we roll along the time-line.

The more imminent the event, the more detailed is its treatment. Thus, our plans translate into a list of actions on a day-to-day basis at the atomic level. Please remember that the hurdles we encounter in the execution of our daily tasks are the reality of every plan that is drawn on paper.

It is by effecting daily tasks that we realize the biggest of our plans. In other words, what we may set out to achieve in 10 years will still start with the execution of actions on the first day and each subsequent day thereafter for the next 10 years!

It needs no further emphasis that the daily list of actions/activities/tasks is the building block of all endeavours we undertake in our lives irrespective of their complexity and magnitude. This is where our plans meet the hard reality of life. Since we also have to carry on with our normal daily life while tending to our goals, this daily list invariably consists of routine/mundane/trivial activities as well.

We all know such lists by a name, ‘To-Do Lists’. I will talk about ‘Daily To-Do Lists’ today.

Daily To-Do lists essentially serve four purposes: -

· They help organize our day

· They help us achieve our larger goals bit-by-bit (we eat the elephant one bite at a time)

· They help us shake ourselves out of the lethargy or paralysis that is so characteristic of procrastination (when the most humungous of efforts is broken down into bite-size pieces of work, it is not so daunting anymore)

· They help us put our heart and soul into the task at hand without worrying about the slippage of other tasks during the day (because when we have the tasks mapped out on the to-do list, they are less likely to fall through the cracks)

Always treat your Daily To-Do list as a single step in the long journey towards your goal(s). If you do not take this single step, you are not going anywhere. If you do not take this step in the right direction, you may be moving away from your ultimate goal/destination.

Before we immerse ourselves too much into the science of To-Do lists, let us quickly evaluate if life is possible without To-Do lists. We as human beings are easily excitable during the course of numerous events in a day. Historically, no human being has been able to devise a more efficient method than following a carefully crafted Daily To-Do list in order to get more done during the day, be it having fun or completing pieces of work. So it is possible to go on with our lives without following a daily to-do list day after day, but we are likely to lose sight of our bigger goals. And probably, no alarm bells may go off in our minds even if we continue to procrastinate.

Our daily To-Do lists must take into account the items to be done on priority; the items that contribute towards the larger goal and that keep our plan(s) on track; and also, the items that we need to do on a daily basis to live our lives. In other words, the list should have everything we need to do during the day and be purposeful at the same time.

It is prudent to make our daily to-do list for the next day a night before. This is because certain items on our to-do list may need us to prepare ourselves mentally ahead of time, such as an important presentation at work the next day.

Please stay tuned for my next post on ‘The Mechanics of a Daily TO-DO List’ where I will allude to the method of making an efficient and practical daily to-do list along with the techniques to optimize the list for maximum benefits.

The Dash to Victory is Not a Dash, Per Se!

2011-04-23T00:58:00Z

If you are amidst competition in your field, you have to stay on top of what you aspire to achieve. And, when the path to the destination is a long drawn one, it is not advisable to spend your energy before it is absolutely necessary.

While competing at the highest level, the resolve of all competitors is equally top-notch. What matters at this level, is the judicious use and timely exposure/disclosure of one’s resources or faculties. It is akin to preserving one’s winning hand until the very end.

Let us take the example of a 5000 metre track event in a competitive setting. In most cases, one who wins in the end does not start off as a leader in the race. Victories by leaders who lead in a race from start to end are either very few and far-between, or are characterized by weak or no competition.

In majority of the cases, the ultimate winner is not so obvious to the observers. Does that mean that an underdog has a better chance to win? No, not exactly. Rather, it indicates that a lot more goes into ensuring a winning performance in a competition than meets the eye.

To better understand this phenomenon, let us analyze the 5000 metre event. It is a very challenging event in athletics both in terms of distance as well as the intensity of sustained effort that needs to be packed into it.

Closely watch how seasoned professionals run this race. A champion’s approach is somewhat similar to the following: -

Phase 1 - Initial assertion: A champion starts strong so that he/she forms the leading pack. Also, when the champion breaks away from the crowd early in the race, it ensures that he/she does not have to get bogged down by inhibiting factors that result in loss of momentum at the very start. These are generally experienced as elbow-pushing and toe-stepping manoeuvres that tend to waste a lot of time and energy of those who subject themselves to this ordeal.

Phase 2 - Gauge the competition: This is a continuous exercise. It is essential to gauge what sort of calibre one is pitted against in the leading pack. A champion needs to re-evaluate every time an additional competitor joins the leading pack. This evaluation is pivotal to planning and launching one’s winning effort. The members of the leading pack carry out continuous assessment by testing others’ mettle in spurts from time to time. This manoeuvre lasts the longest and it eventually separates the men from the boys. In other words, this gruelling tussle results in the not-so-good ones falling out of the leading pack by and by. A point to note here is that, in a closely contested event, a clear leader in this phase may not be in an ideal position to gauge others’ moves accurately. And, that is why; this apparent leader is more likely to miss out on the constant evaluation of the competition around him/her.

Phase 3 - Finish strong: The evaluation phase (Phase 2) helps the champion to determine who his/her real competition is. Thus, a champion focuses on those and does not worry about the rest in the last phase. Usually, in the last lap, one invariably finds a few who break away from the leading pack as well. Needless to say, the timing of breaking away from the pack is very important. Ideally, it should be the distance over which the breaker (potential champion) can sustain the lead till the finish.

Now, if you liken a champion’s approach to how you should be approaching a competitive scenario, you would realize that the execution of 3 phases above needs a lot of preparation and homework. Please do not shy away from preparing yourself, or else, you may not find yourself lasting long enough in the leading pack.

At this moment, I feel the imperative need to acknowledge that this is not the only approach that guarantees success in the end.

Last, but not the least, here are some principles you must consider before you subconsciously saddle yourself with all undertakings as competitive activities: -

Know that competition applies to only those scenarios where more than one participants fight/compete to achieve a single common objective. A company offering similar product/service as yours is not your competitor if it operates outside the area of interest of your company.
Not all development/improvement efforts should be treated as a race. Like, do not compete with your team-mates while working as a team.
Irrespective of the state of your preparation, do not underestimate your competitors as they may have prepared equally well.
Apart from planning, preparation and a systematic approach, tenacity helps.

Do Not Look At the Scoreboard

2010-08-24T05:22:00Z

When I started this blog more than a year back, I urged you (and I continue to urge you) to ‘Go, Get Your Gold Medal’.

In my opening post ‘What is this blog about?’, I had asked everyone to make the “right and intense effort” to go for the gold without any malicious intent towards anyone. Moreover, your ‘Gold’ does not have to compare with anyone’s ‘Silver’ or ‘Bronze’. Your ‘Gold’ is what ‘You’ want to achieve, not what you want to achieve before others do.

Yesterday, I got a chance to witness John Wooden speak on true meaning of success.

For those who do not know who John Wooden was – “Born in 1910, Coach John Wooden was the first person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and coach, while ESPN ranks him as the greatest coach of all time, across all sports. He died on June 04, 2010.”

John Wooden, affectionately known as Coach, led UCLA to record wins that are still unmatched in the world of basketball. Throughout his long life (100 years, to be exact), he shared the values and life lessons he passed to his players, emphasizing success that’s about much more than winning. And, winning is much more than scoring!

So, when I listened to him, I found the very words that corroborated my definition of success. This is what he said about success: -

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.”

One belief you must rest assured with, is that, it is difficult for others to judge if you are successful or not. Much like the ‘coach’ says, “I think it's like character and reputation. Your reputation is what you are perceived to be; your character is what you really are. And I think that character is much more important than what you are perceived to be. You'd hope they'd both be good. But they won't necessarily be the same.”

So, stop judging your own character through the eyes of others (who actually form your reputation).

And, do not look at the scoreboard, because that’s not where your ‘Gold’ is.

Here is another sportsman, George Moriarty, a Major League Baseball umpire, who has this to say about success: -

The Road Ahead or the Road Behind

"Sometimes I think the Fates must grin

as we denounce them and insist

the only reason we can't win,

is the Fates themselves that miss.

Yet there lives on the ancient claim:

we win or lose within ourselves.

The shining trophies on our shelves

can never win tomorrow's game.

You and I know deeper down,

there's always a chance to win the crown.

But when we fail to give our best,

we simply haven't met the test,

Of giving all and saving none

until the game is really won.

Of showing what is meant by grit;

Of playing through when others quit.

Of playing through, not letting up;

It's bearing down that wins the cup.

Of dreaming there's a goal ahead;

Of hoping when our dreams are dead;

Of praying when our hopes have fled.

Yet losing, not afraid to fall,

if bravely we have given all.

For who can ask more of a man

than giving all within his span.

Giving all, it seems to me,

is not so far from victory.

And so the fates are seldom wrong,

no matter how they twist and wind.

It's you and I who make our fates –

we open up or close the gates

on the road ahead or the road behind."

Planning Horizons: Leveraging the Principle of Abstraction

2010-06-05T16:15:00Z

The dreams that you honor and want to pursue, you need to keep those in sight at all times.

Dreams that are achievement-oriented do not come true in a flash. You need to work at them. Every small action of yours in the current time contributes to the bigger picture of the future, with or without your intention.

That is why, for your immediate or short-term plan to be of some consequence, it should be in line with what you want to achieve in the long-term.

Here comes the dilemma...

On most occasions, we do not have a long-term plan. We do not always take time to 'dream' far out in the future that gives us something to work towards!

When you have dreamt well enough, and you know where you want to go, you need to figure out the 'route' to get there. You must be able to mark the 'route' with milestones that are relatively smaller targets to keep you on course leading to a bigger objective.

As you proceed, the milestones that are nearer are easier to 'see' and assimilate. Those farther away on the timeline are still 'fuzzy' until they come nearer with time. But how do you always know you are moving in the right direction? Well, you don't, until you develop this art.

This art is based on the ‘Principle of Abstraction’. The mechanism and practice of abstraction reduces and factors out details so that one can focus on a few concepts at a time.

Let me recount to you a fun exercise I indulged in a few months back. Last winter I had planned to drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Although it is the straightest and the easiest route one can drive on, I thought of getting an 'overview' of my journey with Google Earth software. Those familiar with Google Earth would know that this software has the ability to show the route from one point to another at various scales. A route spanning multiple cities or states, can be shown as a stretch of about 6 inches or less on your desktop by 'increasing the view-altitude'. As you reduce the altitude, you reduce the scale and can 'zoom in' to see details of the route at various levels.

I chose to 'fly' over the route using Google Earth. While I was flying, I would often raise the altitude (zoom out) to check if the direction in which I was moving was leading me to my destination. This is the very essence of planning!

If you can zoom out to get an overview of next 5 years, you have a planning horizon of 5 years. With practice and focus, one can learn to set one’s sights on the coming 10 or even 15 years. Let us say if you plan for the next 15 years, you should also develop the ability of ‘zooming in and out’ to gauge how the next 10 years, the next 5 years and the next 1 year look like. Does what you are doing now lead you to where you want to go 5, 10 and 15 years from now?

Remember the more you ‘zoom in’, the more you are obligated to carve the details. The more you ‘zoom out’; the better is the bird’s eye view of the path you have undertaken, and the higher is the ‘Level of Abstraction’. The ability to zoom out to see the bigger picture is the ability to achieve higher abstraction.

This practice of abstraction helps you to vet your plan for its relevance and efficacy on a number of planning horizons i.e., a look-ahead level of 1 or 5 or 10 or 15 years!

Once you realize the importance of maintaining a rolling window of planning horizons, it will be easier for you to spell out the near-term and long-term objectives.

Take time to ruminate on this concept, and stay tuned for my next post in which I will run an illustration of this concept.

Until then, stay strong!

Make a Commitment to the Whole World!

2010-04-18T23:41:00Z

When you take on a new challenge you need to be mindful of not wavering on your way to achieving your goal.

In my last post “When It All Becomes Too Much to Handle... “, I had talked about reserves of energy that we all abound in.

The very fact that these reserves may be wrapped in layers of comfort, support, self-preservation and resignation, the comfort of keeping them under the wraps lends itself to many excuses along the way.

The key to success lies in coming out of this comfort zone and exposing oneself to the ‘unknown danger’ that only lurks in one’s mind. One of the techniques of unwrapping reserves is to hold yourself to the promise that is required of you. As long as you are the only one who knows about your resolve, you have a convenient outlet to ‘un-commit yourself’ on the slightest pretext.

What if more people knew about your undertaking? You will acknowledge that ‘abandoning your program’ would not be as easy if that was the case. This is exactly what you must do to keep yourself on course!

Yes, make a commitment to the whole world or more specifically, to the people who matter to you in your life.

Here is the best example from our recent past. In the Summer Olympics of 2008, there was one athlete, Michael Phelps, who had set a personal objective to win 8 gold medals. When the burden of promise of a single Olympic gold medal weighs so heavily on an individual, imagine what Michael Phelps must have felt under the weight of his own commitment.

But, what followed set Michael on a more resolute march towards his target. The intention, that is, Michael’s personal target of 8 gold medals, was released to the whole world through the media and that in a way, must have coaxed Michael Phelps not to waver and keep his promise in the end!

Not only individuals, this technique seems to work well with larger groups, and nations as well. We have one example from recently concluded Winter Olympics of 2010. The host nation, Canada, concluded the games with the most number of Gold Medals in the history of Winter Olympics. Canada had started an ambitious program called "Own The Podium" years before the event, and they had made it known to the whole world. By jove, it did deliver in the end!

When It All Becomes Too Much To Handle...

2010-02-28T12:21:00Z

What I am going to talk about today is that moment in our life when we feel too overwhelmed or tired or simply bored of what we had been doing for a protracted period.

This feeling of exhaustion or tiredness or boredom may result from a number of factors, some of which are: -

· Monotony

· Sustained degree of difficulty in what we undertake

· Our own state of fitness or alertness

· Age

· Sickness

· Emotional setback

· Disruptions (circumstantial or intentional)

In colloquial terms, some of us may like to term this condition as ‘burnout’. Let me admit that I am not an expert to either define or diagnose ‘burnout’. So, I will steer clear from taking on the role of a psychiatrist.

Let us not deny ourselves the fact that success is not served on the platter, and in most cases, it demands unprecedented effort if we want unprecedented results.

What we all have to accept is that quest for excellence asks for unwavering devotion and a high degree of resoluteness.

Now, when you take up the challenge and sometime later, you confront this condition that mars your progress, you need to do something about it.

Let us examine this condition deliberately. Firstly, when you are in it, it seems difficult to find a way out. Moreover, you get a sense that you have been going it alone for a long time and you need some moral support.

Let us be aware that we are all gifted with an unending reserve of energy which resides within us in multiple sachets each individually wrapped in many layers of comfort, support, self-preservation and resignation.

Here are some instances when you might have found yourself suddenly tapping these reserves sub-consciously: -

· When you realized that your destination was nearer than you thought...

· When you became truly aware of the value of incentive(s) at the end of a long road...

· When you found evidence of someone else successfully performing a feat similar to what you are attempting...

· When the upkeep of your promise reigns higher in your mind than the pain you are going through...such as, your attempt to achieve a goal for the direct/indirect gain of your dear one(s)

· ...and so on.

Now that you have probably come to realize some of the ‘tools’ that can help you ‘unwrap’ these pockets of energy, here are some of the generic ways you may adopt to ‘keep going when the going gets tough’: -

· Divide your bigger task into smaller and manageable chunks of effort that you can record as ‘completed’ more often and that help you determine how much closer you are to your destination

· Identify the perceived value addition in return of your effort. Note/list/enumerate it and constantly remind yourself of that value while working towards securing it

· Study the field of your undertaking for similar precedents in history (but only those that were successful in the end)

· Make a promise so noble that enables you to see gains beyond yourself at all times

I will dwell more on the aspect of steadfastness in my future post “Make a Commitment to the Whole World!” as well.

Stay tuned.

The Tenacity Will Present Itself!

2009-12-17T00:56:00Z

As a learnt behaviour, tenacity needs to manifest itself in the actions performed by us.

I am sure there must be 1001 ways to ignite the “fire in the belly”. But, the one that is relatively more intuitive for those interested in consciously developing this trait is, by subconsciously injecting it in their ‘plans’!

So, it needs little emphasis that you need to have a plan that is both good and workable (I will dwell more on ‘planning’ in my posts to follow later...).

For your plan to be called ‘good enough’ to lead to actions towards definite objectives, you would always need a ‘critical eye’ (not yours but of other person(s)) to evaluate your plan on a continual basis while you plan/re-plan to achieve those objectives.

Since you are expected to be always ‘married’ to your plan, an objective evaluation by another party will assure you of the ‘soundness’ of your plan. If not sound enough, the same evaluation will lead you to improve your plan.

A good plan makes optimal use of resources that include your time and capacity.

With an assumption that your ‘good plan’ does not leave you any slack, try and achieve more than the objectives set in your plan always and every time. The resulting actions thus, will start showing a streak of tenacity, before you realize.

I know most of you would retort, “Was it this simple?”

Please do not get unduly perturbed. The solution is really this simple!

The execution needs some practice, though.

Successful businessmen apply this technique very effectively. They always actively look for opportunities that will help them exploit the situation to their advantage. If they merely follow a plan, they are not likely to be as tenacious when an opportunity presents itself! The urge to over-achieve ensures tenacity in good measure!!

REMEMBER [From the teachings of Karate]

The punch that packs the maximum power is, not the one that is directed on the stomach but the one that is launched with an intention to break the spine!

Blog Approved For Inclusion Into "Best of The Web" Blog Directory!

2009-12-10T02:19:00Z

The less said, the better. The pictures below speak for themselves!

Thank you, friends (all readers of my blog) for the unrelenting support to make this blog worthy of this accolade!!

How Can I Plan When Life Is So Unpredictable?

2009-12-03T01:28:00Z

As I get down to write another post, I know I have to oblige my friends who are eagerly waiting for the NEXT post on “Tenacity” soon after “It is TENACITY, My Friend...” post.

Then, why this post?

In fact, what I am going to talk about today will set the stage for the much-wanted post on developing “Tenacity”.

I will no longer beat around the bush. Planning plays a key role in ensuring success.

But, let us first be clear about the purpose of planning. It is a human tendency to assume that if the planning is complete and the resulting plan is a good one (how do you know?!), things (as planned) are likely to go your way.

It is this assumption that leads one to believe that it does not make sense to plan the events/actions/activities of one’s life when the run of the life is unpredictable. Yes, it does not make sense at all if you look forward to a fail-proof plan!

There has never been a plan that was fail-proof, nor will there ever be.

And, I will put it this way – it is all the more imperative to plan when the turn of events is unpredictable.

Plan while accepting this inevitable truth that you will have to change your plan. Thus, the purpose of planning is not to solely develop a good plan, but, it is to plan or re-plan to ensure your objectives are achieved even in the face of uncertainty!

What must you plan for? – Everything.

- I am aware that too much of planning tends to kill spontaneity. However, those who achieved success through spontaneous demonstration of brilliance actually planned some or all aspects of their spontaneity!

What needs to be planned? – Time and Timing.

- When you determine what you need to do (actions), plan those in the Time available and also plan the Timing of your actions.

When is your planning complete? – Never.

When your plan is called a “Good Plan”? – Only after you have achieved your goal on or before time!

Will something not go according to your plan? – Almost always. When that happens, make suitable changes to your plan.

It is TENACITY, My Friend

2009-11-25T00:30:00Z

If and when you get a chance,

...try discerning the 'killer instinct' of a chess champion, often clad in a calm demeanour, but very evident through his actions that are a result of consistently looking ahead several moves...

...imagine yourself in the shoes of a champion marathon runner who perseveres for 26 miles and then pumps in extra energy to take the decisive lead in the last stretch...

...carefully follow the gaze of a mountaineer who may climb up at a steady pace looking down, but who looks up at regular intervals to mentally plot or correct a route to the top...

...try living the nausea of a boxing champion who is battered, bloody and bruised on the face, with no strength in his arms and legs, but is the one who does not lose sight of the 'target' where he must land his punches to score points consistently...

...try following the train of thought of an excellent orator whose mind's 'eye' runs through the words ahead of his delivery of a mesmerizing speech...

When these marvellous people are busy putting up their best show, they are predisposed to numerous distractions, impeding pain, weakness within, shortness of breath, mind drawing a blank, and stomach tied up in knots...

Then, what keeps them ticking...? It is TENACITY, my friend!

Some of you may be inclined to liken these examples to one’s determination or grit.

Essentially, tenacity is different.

Your grit or determination helps you hold on to your resolve until the very end, but it is tenacity that enables you to attain an edge over your competitors. It is tenacity that gives you the ‘killer instinct’ that makes the difference between the ‘Gold’ and the ‘Silver’!

So, how do you develop tenacity?

Good news is that tenacity can be inculcated!

In my next post, I will talk about some methods of infusing tenacity into our actions.

Keep In Touch...

2009-10-24T15:35:00Z

There are occasions when we regret missing an opportunity because we did not get a “heads-up” or a “tip-off” in time to take advantage of it. On most such occasions, a live person is more likely to give us the said “tip-off” than an event or a sign/symptom or an occurrence.

Who would this very desirable person be? This person could be our well-wisher or a friend. Haven’t you found asking yourself, ”Where are all the well-wishers gone?”.

Yes, you may not find them in abundance anymore. What devoured such divine creatures? They have all become the victims of the very pace of life that they chose to live in the first place. A careful introspection will reveal that you and I are also probably subjected to similar extinction from others' perspective.

So, is there a way to convert/nurture more/fresh well-wishers in our lives? Yes, there is. And, it is so simple. Be a well-wisher yourself. Very soon, you will have some growing around you.

Let us now figure out the way it is implemented. All I ask you is to call/write one different/new contact out of your contact list on a regular basis. The idea is to regain touch with your acquaintance on any ground (preferably, with no agenda) and show your support (to any extent feasible).

It is possible that your acquaintance may be taken aback at first since such interactions are very rare in a highly competitive world. Your diligence should win them over. If your gesture is not taken in the correct spirit by your acquaintance, then you will have a reason not to harbour misconceived notions about that person, as it is. Oh, how easy you will make it for yourself!

Let us also dwell on what will make this touch a warm/genuine one. Your attempt of getting in touch with your acquaintance should be an honest effort. For example, if in an attempt to maintain contact with your friends/acquaintances, you tend to share borrowed email content (email-chains or forwarded ready-made content), you are more likely to annoy your friends after a little while. I will not call it an honest attempt because before the email era, we never thought of maintaining/building our rapport by simply tearing some pages out of a magazine and posting them in an envelope to our friend(s)!

The technology has covered a lot of ground but we, human beings, are still a by-product of flesh and bones and have not yet evolved into robots/machines. By all means, use the power of technology to its fullest to get closer to the people you know, but please do not distort the concepts of “keeping in touch”.

The resulting camaraderie or bond will stand you in good stead at some stage in your life. The more number of people you continue to touch, the more is the probability of you being offered a scoop when you need it the most!

Anatomy of Failure

2009-09-10T02:09:00Z

Having overcome the fear of failure (see my blog post “What would you do?” of Aug 15, 2009), it is equally important to realize that when we tend to push the envelope, failure is a very strong possibility in our initial attempts.

Could we do without failure at all? Ideally, failure is unwarranted.

Philosophically speaking, it is this very failure that makes the success so sweet. But it is not so easy to have an abstract viewpoint immediately following a failed attempt.

So, what do you do when you fail? Well, do yourself a favour by not suppressing your true feelings. It is essential and healthy to feel bad about the failure. That is the easiest way to fuel your motivation for another attempt.

Do not anticipate failure but do not rule out its occurrence altogether. Treat each failure as a ‘wake-up call’. It is an honest feedback of your shortcomings with reference to the goal(s) you set for yourself.

In some cases, the journey to a point of failure is actually a mark of achievement to a certain degree. At the point where one fails to pass the driving test, there is actually a certain percentage of progress (30 or 60 or 80 percent) towards becoming a licensed driver. This realization helps in alleviating the frustration that comes from failure. It verifies that all your effort has not gone in vain.

Looking at an instance of failure as a ‘road travelled so far’ also helps in identifying the gap between the current capability or achievement and the desired one. Thus, when used objectively, failure works to your advantage, and evidently, helps you focus on bridging the gap.

In spite of preaching all positives about a failure, I do not want to instil in your mind that failure is essential for you to succeed. If you have not encountered failure so far, it is possible that, in most cases, you did not need that ‘wake-up call’. This could mean that you identified and mitigated the risk of failure before it actually occurred.

Successful people make this tendency of pre-empting the crisis, a habit.

What Would You Do?

2009-08-16T02:18:00Z

I will talk about one possible quintessence of success, which, ironically, is its opposite.

Yes, I will talk about failure today.

Let us do an exercise. Repeatedly ask yourself a question until your conscience is prepared to answer it honestly, and when it is, listen to that answer intently.

And, the question is...”What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” (This quote is attributed to Dr. Robert Schuller)

If your conscience comes up with a mind-boggling response; you have just made yourself realize your ability that resides in your unfettered inner self.

When we attempt perceivably difficult feats, we need not necessarily succeed the first time. Unfortunately, 99.9% of us do not cross the threshold of fear to even experience that initial failure.

The failure should only be an outcome of you not knowing how to do things the right way. It should never be a result of you apprehending failure before even attempting it.

The attempt becomes a reality when you are not inhibited by the thought of failing. Thereafter, it may take you more attempts than others, but success is guaranteed.

Do not forget that every repeated attempt needs you to ask yourself this same question with the same faith and intensity. Needless to say, it is more rewarding and less frustrating when we answer ourselves honestly.

I ask you again,

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

When you hear yourself answering honestly, do it.

When TIME Is A Limited Resource…

2009-07-08T09:27:00Z

From my last post, I will continue to talk about the Time-Math. Having realized how Goal-Fitting can help us hone our skills by keeping time on our side, another technique, Goal-Seeking, can be applied to “seek” a desired outcome within the time available.

If we develop both short-term and long-term planning horizons, there is less likelihood of having to resort to the Goal-Seeking technique. Remember, we intend to plan to succeed. Planning ahead is preferable but, sometimes, in spite of our best efforts we find ourselves in a tight spot and are constrained for time.

So, assuming you have limited time and a definite effort (i.e., we know how much total time we need for the desired outcome), you may follow the following sequence of steps to apply the Goal-Seeking technique: -

1. Determine the maximum amount of time (generally, in number of hours) you can devote to the desired activity(ies) on a daily basis.

2. Calculate if the total effort will suffice to achieve the result/outcome by the given deadline. If not, deliberate on Step 1 again to make it feasible. In other words, innovate to spare more time for the effort, e.g., you may find more time than normal on Wednesday evenings and/or Friday mornings (hypothetically speaking). At the end of the re-calc exercise, if the total time available does not measure up to the total effort required, you may conclude that your goal is unrealistic. In other words, it might become impossible for you to make TIME your ally for the desired purpose.

3. Assuming the calculation (in step 2) works out fine, follow your plan religiously (this is easier said than done, hence, see Step 4).

4. Constantly work towards diluting the disruptions. This is how you do it: -

· Try and over-achieve on a daily basis and notionally bank the hours (keep a record of these hours). This will stand you in good stead when, on a particular day, you lose time due to any reason.

· Have a disruption-dilution plan in place. Assuming you do not have not any banked hours at your disposal, determine in advance the sacrifices you will be prepared to make and correspondingly, the number of additional hours you will be able to devote to bring the execution of your plan back to a state of normalcy.

Ideally, a sound plan should not have any element of the Goal-Seeking technique. And also realistically, once you get down to applying this technique, it is not as easy to implement as it appears mathematically.

There are occasions when you may need to apply this technique to achieve the desired result. For example, on a bigger scale (when the goal is not too personal to you), you may resort to getting help from others, delegation etc. to meet the deadline.

Note that very few people have tasted true success using only the Goal-Seeking technique. The Goal-Fitting technique is a better way to make TIME your ally. You may initially have to apply the Goal-Seeking technique to get into the Goal-Fitting mode, and the sooner you do it, the better it bodes for your success in future!

It All Adds Up!

2009-07-01T03:24:00Z

I will talk about time today. Almost all high-achievers plan to get time on their side when they plan their journey to success. Time proves to be our biggest ally in the arduous path to our goal. And, when on our side, it never lets us down!

Make sure you keep time aside and devote it to your purpose regularly. It is this regular acknowledgement of time that turns into a winning formula almost at all times!

Time-Math is very strong and produces amazing results. And the two methods to apply this math are: -

· Goal-Fitting Method

· Goal-Seeking Method

Goal-Fitting Method: Let us say you are planning for the next 12 months. You decide that you can easily spare one hour a day on work days to devote to self-improvement initiatives. Since you are likely to get approximately 246 work days in a year, you will have 246 planning hours available at your disposal. You can now use your discretion to fit activities leading to not one, but multiple self-improvement goals in those 246 hours. All that you did was to acknowledge just one hour of your work day. Imagine a person who inculcated this habit and continued doing it for say, 20 years – that’s almost 5000 hours! Now imagine the difference between two persons after 20 years where one chose to learn to dance and the other did not even acknowledge that one hour of his/her work day. 5000 hours is a difference between a professional dancer and a non-dancer! You must remember, none of those two set out with a goal to become a professional dancer.

Those who have perfected time-math have turned out to be masters of multiple skills, and the casual observers often make the mistake of calling them “gifted” or “exceptionally talented”. By doing so, they like to resign to a belief that it is beyond their means to achieve such excellence.

But, here is a living proof. One of my very dear friends, who is also my batch mate from NDA (National Defence Academy), holds the distinction of flying 22 different types of aircraft in his flying career of almost 24 years(when I last checked earlier this year)! Beat it if you can!! It is very likely that among all other techniques he must have employed, time-math has played a significant role in his success.

But, remember, there are exceptions that almost go hand-in-hand and the time-math does not work well with those: -

1. Do not apply time-math to count the number of hours “wasted” or “taken away from productive work” while you are on vacation. This is because for best results, your body needs to recoup unconditionally.

2. Do not apply time-math to more than reasonable number of hours since it will prove counter-productive.

Sometimes, to meet exceptional pressing demands in one’s life, one may have to apply time-math to the extremes. Well, such occasions will call for mastering techniques of overcoming protracted fatigue and monotony. I will talk about those some other day.

I will talk about the Goal-Seeking Method in my next post. Until then, make a promise to yourself to get time on your side!