Friday, June 29, 2012

Answers to my questions

Everyone of us have lot of questions about life and the world around us. We seldom dare to ask anyone these questions most of the times because we ourselves are not quite sure about our questions. All of us are flowing in the current set ages ago. Certain patterns, certain customs are just imposed upon us and we don't dare to question any. Also there are few subjects that we want to learn about but we aren't sure about whom to ask those questions. Even I was swimming in this ocean of questions and doubts about living and the way of living and am still conitnuing but in due process I was fortunate enough to have some really high-level discussions with highly wise people and was able to get few answers for my questions. As Robin Sharma says 'When the student is ready, the teacher appears', the same happened with me. I will be on one such fortunate trip again by tomorrow night where I'll be getting lot of confusions and questions cleared by my mentor but before that I would like to share with you some of the answers that satisfied my questions.

Q. Why is it necessary to have dreams to buy vehicles, ornaments and houses?
A. We can work only for a limited age. As we get old we won't have enough strength to work and earn income. So we need to build sources that can yield income in our old days. Renting a house can help us serving as a source of income in the later stages of life.

Q. What is a vision and who is a visionary?
A. A vision encompasses for masses. For example: there might be just one new coffee shop started by a person but if he is a visionary he will have a vision to have thousands of coffee shops all over the world. A visionary will always think and plan of expanding anything that has started so that it can serve large masses of people.

Q. What is spirituality and how can one become spiritual?
A. Spirituality is all about how much you can understand yourself. It's about how you can empathize with anyone around you. You would have reached the highest state of spirituality when you can enjoy in the joy of others and when you can feel the sadness to the same extent as that of the victim.

Q. Though people have big dreams in the beginning, why do they give up but do not persist on achieving them?
A. People want results quickly. They get disheartened when their expectations are not met with the real results after their initial efforts. They are not satisfied with the way dream comes into reality. They aren't ready to accept that they need to work for a long time to achieve big goals and when the result happens in a much smaller size they give up without continuing to build upon it to make it bigger.

Q. What is the level of purity of thoughts?
A. A pure thought can be as pure as a rain drop. Still the rain that rains through the impure polluted environment gets polluted and can result in acid rain causing lot of harm to the animalkind but just think about those rain drops that fall over a greenery or a forest or on top of the mountians. Its the purest form of water and that is the level of purity that should be associated with our thoughts.

I have represented very few discussions in the above scenarios. I still have lot of questions for which I am searching for answers. Even if you have questions like these please forward them to me. If I can answer them I will try my best to provide the best answer else I will make sure to find the answers to them. Life is all about exploring and sharing and we don't have lot of lifetime to learn everything ourselves. Hence take the help of mentors and wise people to learn the answers soon and to grow through life faster.

Please share your questions and answers with me on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Thursday, June 28, 2012

How do Winners think

First of all let me make it clear that winners are not a set of people who are born winners right from birth, I am talking about the winner attitude here. There was a very nice statement that I had heard from my Mathematics lecturer in college 'Everyone is good, everyone is bad, only the percentage varies'. Just elaborating this statement, everyone has every possible attitude inside, the question is which one he/she develops the most and showcases to the world. In this particular blog I would like to talk about the winner attitude which is very essential to lead a life that's worth living. Before I start I would like to quote the famous oneliner of Mr. Shiv Khera - "Winners don't do different things, they do things differently".

Oftentimes we might have noticed around us that there are people for whom nothing is impossible, they seem to have all the energy, all the time, all the knowledge that is required. Its not the question about time or effort or knowledge or intelligence or anything else, its all in the attitude and that is the attitude of a winner. Winners always see the results first in their mind and then bring it into reality irrespective of whether other people agree to their imagination or not. Winners are never taken aback by anyone's lame comments because they are very sure and honest in their trials. Even if they fail in achieving something that was planned, they have the egolessness to accept their mistake and the childlike curiosity to unlearn their faults and relearn the right methods. Winners are not selfish to win only for their ownsake at the cost of hurting someone else. They keep in mind the well-being of their peers before doing anything. Winners know it clearly well that celebrations come for one day after days of hardwork and perseverence. They always know that they will be the winners and that is the reason they behave always like winners. They clearly know that there are never any shortcuts to hardwork. They know very well the consistent consistency that is required to be a winner. They know that the games keep changing and new challenges keep coming up, so they can't rest after winning over few problems of life, they continue to play the game of life and its hurdles as passionately as a kid forever. They clearly understand the mortality of human life and hence strive hard to accomplish and contribute as much as possible in one single life.

How people think is the way how people do things in life. If you have a reason for not doing something, someone else has a reason of doing the same thing. The world can never stop for you, the time is eternal and always ticking and we have a limited amout of time on this planet earth. Lets develop the winner attitude in us which will not just specialise our area of expertise but will expand our credibilities in every field that we step into. I didn't want to use the antonym of winners in this blog because winners don't even like to think about that subject. Their thinking is just pure enough to concentrate on winning.

Please share your valuable feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Monday, June 25, 2012

Listen to what you talk

Thanks to the Almighty who has blessed humans with wonderful sense organs and also has given the right usage to each one of them. Even animals have tongue but they can't use it to talk like us. Barring a few exceptions of people with special abilities most of us are lucky enough to have this wonderful ability to talk and communicate with ourselves and with others. We keep talking the whole day with our family, relatives, friends, colleagues and sometimes strangers as well. Sometimes we chatter even while sleeping and indeed its fun to watch those who do this. There is a famous saying that our thoughts become our words and our words become our actions. Probably its too difficult to control our thoughts but my question is can we control what we talk?

We chat about innumerable topics and gossips, we talk about cinema, politics, religions, opinions, sports and trillion of other topics. Most of the times our thoughts just get converted into words and flow out of our mouth. There is no check in between whether what we are talking is going to make some sense or not. Also our ears are not placed in front of our mouth, they are placed on either sides of it far from it. Seldom our ears actually listen to what we say. They are more inclined towards listening to what the others have to say. Even physically its tough to bring your ears near your mouth. I was just thinking, had it been the case somehow that our ears would have been the first to listen to whatever we spoke then this world would have been rid of half of the talk pollution that exists now. The ability to talk is called in Sanskrit as 'Waakchhakthi'. I probably couldn't write in sanskrit here. 'Waak' means to talk, 'shakthi' means power, both combine to give the word 'Waakchhakthi' which means the Power to Talk. In the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhiji, he explains how he used this power of talking so well that his silence and his words were both equally powerful enough to help him become powerful to lead huge masses. Even Rajnikanth explains that when you're silent, people wait to listen to you talking and when you talk they give their full concentration. Also the weightage to the words of a guy who speaks less is more than that for others who keep blabbering always. Use your power to talk wisely.

Feedback loop is one of the best ways to drive ourselves towards perfection. I suggest you to listen to what you talk. Pay complete attention to what you're saying, record it and play it again in your mind and try if you can find a better way of saying the same. This will not only improve your efficiency but will also fill the necessary power into your words. When you analyse what you want to speak, you will definitely convey more in less words. This will strengthen your mental ability as well. Silence has power, control yourself from blabbering unnecessary speeches because people characterize you by the way you speak. Don't allow yourself to become a chatterox, listen to yourself- what you talk to others and what you talk to yourself in your mind. Filter off the junk and produce the required right combination. Lets utilize Waakchhakthi - the power to talk in the best way possible.

Please pour in your power of feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Everyone's making noise

You step outside your house and you start hearing the honking horns, shouting vegetable vendors, running mill, chatter boxes on the pedestal and loads of other sources of noise. The tap-tap sound of plastic balls, never ending barking of the street dogs, sound waves travelling from different vocal chords and loud speakers just jam our hearing system every moment. There's so much of noise around due to more of unwanted reasons than wanted ones. All these noise enter our brain and misdirect the nerve impulses' direction of travel. The blood rushes through the veins and probably gets jammed without knowing where further to travel because of this sound pollution. Noticing all these I can't stop myself from saying 'Everyone's making noise'.

Amidst the clutter of distorted sounds do we have enough control to concentrate on the things that we are supposed to. When we plan we plan the plan so well in silence without any disturbance that we give the necessary importance to every detail of the plan but the moment we get out into the chaotic world all our planned stuff gets filtered. I sometimes keep wondering why is there no filter for our senses. Just if we could filter what content we would like to hear, what we would like to see, what we would like to smell, what we would like to feel and further. May be talking and tasting are the only aspects over which we can have some sort of control, not the complete control because our eyes and nose taste the food through the appearance and smell before our tongue can taste it. There is just too much of distortion and disorganization in things around us that we get distracted from the path we would have set for ourselves. We forget our life affairs in between the current affairs, we misunderstand our goals living amidst so many fools, we neglect the essentials watching others' pontentials, we ignore our own dreams among the worldly sreams. Its time for us to wake up from the sleep we are living everyday counting on others more than on us.

FOCUS and REINFORCEMENTS are the two keys which will unlock the unperturbed path to our success. You might have heard a zillion times that 'Where Focus goes, energy flows'. There can't be a simpler statement than this. You need to focus on what you want to do and accomplish. We have to accept that we are human beings and have limited memory and concentration. Everytime we lose our focus from our goals we need to reinforce back what we had decided to do and reorient ourselves in doing them again with full zeal. Write down your dreams and goals and focus your complete energy on achieving them. Reinforce in yourself everyday the pleasures associated with achieving those dreams of yours because the moment you let lose of yourself you are sure to be submerged under the ocean of confusions and commotions because 'Remember! everyone's making noise'.

I would love to read through your complaints and compliments on the blog on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Expression is a must

In my dream last night, I met Dwayne Rocky Johnson alias The Rock, the superstar of WWE Universe. I was ecstatic to bring him to one of my friends' home. The Rock was 6 foot 4 inches tall, dressed in one of the best stylish suits with a french beard and with his awesome smile. I was filled with joy of having met him face to face and was smiling continuously throughout the episode. Even my friends were wondering as to how I had got the chance to bring the Rock home. Rock was very friendly without an air of being a celebrity and was sharing his experiences of life with us. After sometime the Rock had to leave to the airport and I escorted him back. I could see myself in complete happiness when I met the Rock and in some sort of a sad feeling when he was going back. I could see myself expressing these emotions in my dream.

Friends! not only the emotions or feelings everything that you think or feel about something or someone has to be expressed if your thought or feeling has to have some value. Until now humans haven't been able to develop a techonology that can read the impulses running in your mind and print out exactly what you are thinking about. Might be the blood pressure variation can determine whether you're in an excited state or in depression state. Apart from these no one can get to know what you think about them. You might be having a million thoughts in your mind on how to develop this world but unless they are expressed not even a single one of them will turn into action. Great Thinkers were called as Great Thinkers because they not only did the thinking work but also expressed their thoughts. In today's world of chaos people have lost the hope that there is no one to listen to their thoughts or feelings. This is one of biggest misconceptions that has to be broken right now. You are on this earth for a reason. God has provided you with the ability to think and dream in order to use it to better the place where you were born before you leave it. Make use of it and make sure of it that it serves the purpose. The form of expression need not be only talking. Some people express their thoughts through movies, some through blogs, some through dramas, some through poems, some through talks, some through music, some through journalism, some through actions, some through business, some through paintings, some through architecture and loads of other billion ways. Ultimately if your thoughts have to reach the world you must express.

Those who shy away from expressing their thoughts and feelings not only lose the benefits that would have reaped if they had expressed but also would deprive this universe those advantages of their thoughts. If the scientists hadn't explored and experimented their thoughts not only would they have lost out on so many Nobel prizes but also this world wouldn't have been so advanced as it is today. When you don't express your feelings to the other person, he/she doesn't know how much you feel for them and vice-versa. The other person can feel for you only when you can feel for him/her which you must express. When I couldn't control expressing my emotions in my dream would I stop myself from expressing myself in real life!

I hope you wouldn't curb yourself from expressing your opinions, thoughts or feelings about this blog on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Friday, June 22, 2012

Test yourself

Everyone of us are put through the system of learning right from our childhood. We spend lots of hours learning new things and practising the learnt things. I am not talking about just the conventional form of education of going to school and learning. Even those who do not have the facilities to go to school learn some sort of work which they have to use in order to earn their living. Not just the children or the youth, even the working professionals keep learning new developments in their work, new technologies. To convey in short everyone on this earth is in a continuous process of learning.
 
Atleast in schools and colleges, there are regular tests and exams in order to validate the learnings but once we come out of the education system not just by age even by syllabus, whatever we are involved in is the syllabus of life. Are we sure enough that we are performing to our best capabilities in the activities other than studies. Marks determine our performance during studies but when we are in other activities there is no one to rate us by marks. We will be only given feedback which cannot measure our performance levels. Hence it is necessary for us to test ourselves regularly. We have to set the measure for the results that we expect of actions done by us. Just sharpening the axe without using it to cut the log never tells us how sharp the axe is or how much more sharpened it should be. Whatever you are doing test that activity time and again. Set a benchmark that you must touch everytime you test yourself. Life is too short to wait for the circumstances and life's challenges to test our strengths. Develop various kinds of tests to test yourself. This will not only keep you guard about your skills but also will help in sharpening your abilities.
 
Just imagine if Sachin Tendulkar had stopped playing cricket in practice matches just because he played very well in the international matches. Then Sachin wouldn't have been the Sachin we are proud about now. He practices in the nets and in practice matches to test himself as much as possible because he needs to be perfect when he is playing for his country. Likewise to be the best and the perfect in whatever you are doing test uourself regularly. All the very best.
 
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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Leverage of SUCCESS

I hope everyone of you have heard of the example of lifting a big stone with the help of a small stone and a lever. Here the big boulder is the load to be lifted, the point where the lever is held on the small stone is the fulcrum and at the other end of the lever the effort is applied to achieve the movement. Similar to this, the analogy is how we can do big burdensome work with the help of small resources available around us. In the example the big boulder doesn't get moved if either the lever doesn't exist or the small stone is not present. Also if the lever and small stone are used separately we can't achieve the task. Both lever and the small stone have to be used in the synchronous manner to accomplish the goal. Once these conditions are fulfilled the effort is leveraged through the small stone to move the big stone. Once this is done even the success is leveraged by the small stone. Here is where we enter the topic of LEVERAGE of SUCCESS.

Team work has been a very prime topic in the current world scenario about which I have talked about in one of my previous blogs. In the present blog let's see the post scenario when the team work has achieved success and how it can be leveraged across the team to grow success even bigger. For example, consider an employee of a certain company who is working in one of the divisions. If the company is big enough to have clients all over the world, then whenever this employee meets any stranger he would be representing his company. He would talk about the sales, clients, products, deals and everything about his company with the other person. Even if he is just a normal employee who is not involved in the sales or clients consultation organizations, still he would love to talk about the success of his company in those regards. If Reliance pertochemicals has made good profits, then the people working in Reliance Communication will also use this success story to promote inspite of not belonging to that division of Reliance. I hope these examples have given you clear idea by what I mean by leverage of success. We human beings are social beings. Somewhere or the other we represent an organization or a community or a team. Though individual efforts are highly important for success we need to learn how to utilize the current success to build the future success. At that time you're at your will to utilize rightly the success of the other divisions of your organization to promote your work. Use one success to build another one on top of it. This is what I clearly mean by 'Leverage of SUCCESS'.

Similarly when we see this topic from the individualistic perspective, an individual himself represents an organization. He can definitely perform lots of functions courtesy the skills and the wonderful human body blessed upon him by God. Today most of them are losing their inner capacity by comparing their skills with that of the other in one particular work and feeling inferior. Everyone is good in atleast one activity, some in studies, some in sports, some in art, some in speaking etc. Recognise the task at which you're an expert at. Read through the methodology at how you became so proficient in that particular arena. First of all celebrate the success of being good at one skill. Think through that pattern and learn how you became good in that area and apply the same logic to strengthen yourself in the other areas where you feel you need to excel at. Efforts yield success, efforts plus the lessons from previous success yield the next success in much lesser time.

Success is undefined. Its unique for every individual's perception. Please share how you will use the leverage of success formula in your life on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

HARD to change but NECESSARY

"Change is the only constant thing on this earth". I feel there is no argument about this statement. Its not only valid for the earth but valid for our lives too. Yesterday I blogged that we need to learn from pain. Today we will see the next step which is nothing but implementing the lesson. Lesson once learnt but not implemented is equivalent to unlearning it. In the constantly changing world when we have 'n' number of priorities, it becomes increasingly tough to decided what actions to perform at what time. A definite plan is necessary so that the output of our actions are at the optimum level. Let's see going forward about the need for change in our life.

I used to generally come home from office by 9:30pm and do my blogging. Due to this I would have to go to sleep a bit late. I also had to go to gym in the early morning at 5:30am. Since I was going to bed late, I couldn't complete the 8 hours of sleep suggested for those who workout daily. On the other hand due to this I have missed going to gym few days. That is when it got me thinking as to what I need to do in order to be regular to the gym. The simple answer was to sleep early. But if I do that I wouldn't be able to blog, which I couldn't accept because ABAD{A Blog A Day} is a commitment. When both these priorities came at the same time the only thing that could be done was CHANGE my routine. I had to change the time I blog so that I can go early to bed. That is the reason I am writing this blog at 7:15pm itself today. Whenever you feel that you'ren't able to do all the things that you wish to do then the only answer is CHANGE. It might be hard to change, you might not see any possible way or reordering things but you can't help it if it's necessary, you'll have to change. You'll have to break the old pattern and introduce a new pattern in your daily schedule. Only then you'll be able to accomplish all the things that you wish to do.

Unfortunately people are much aversed to the thought of change. If you ask the working people if they can change their schedule, the first expression will be of that wide eyebrows. We have tuned our mind to do the same things that we are doing day in and day out. It seems difficult to introduce a new methodology. This is the time you should erase the program and think of the goals to be achieved and change your routine accordingly. If the world followed the same style of lighting fire from rubbing stones we wouldn't have seen lighters today. If the old-fachioned style of dressing with leaves was followed still we wouldn't have been so fashionable today. Everything has to undergo a change as per requirement. Just taking a decision to change is not enough. Succeeding the decision, there must be immediate action taken to implement the change required which is what I am doing with my blog for today.

I hope your will break your old pattern of just reading the blog without commenting for today and respond with your opinions on the topic of CHANGE on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Monday, June 18, 2012

Famous are made fun of

A stone is thrown at a mango which is high upon the tree top not at the pumpkin sitting on the ground. Even people want to conquer climbing big mountains not the valleys down. Its been in the human psychology to either conquer bigger achievements or blame them if they can't. In the first case I would salute those people who would dedicate themselves to achieve every great thing that they possibly can but today I would like to throw some light on the second type of people. There is also a special reason behind this blog. Today most of them are afraid to become popular, famous, big, great, the best because of the surroundings that they are surrounded with.

I would like to start with few examples. Have you seen the photo of my birthdaymate Albert Einstein? Many of them say that he looks like a psycho in the pic because of his random hairstyle. If someone is found very geeky he is teased as Einstein than complemented with that tag. I still remember one of the short stories that I had read in my college wherein there was a person who had got a one billion dollar note and everywhere he used to go he used to show that note for payment. Since in those days people din't have that much money they used to think that he was the only person in the town who had only one billion dollar notes with him. Eventually this person became so famous that artists started making his caricature in newspapers. This is when I remembered the caricatures of movie stars, politicians, sports people in newspapers. Every common man might not know the common man the next door but will definitely know the famous ones and these are the ones that even he wishes to be one but because of various reasons he doesn't become famous. As the story of fox which thinks the grapes are sour after trying for it, even the common man cannot accept that he was unable to reach the limelight and that is the point when his ego stops him from accepting his faults and in order to lower the prestige of those who are famous he starts making fun of them. This is the reason that people read gossips about famous people and feel entertained that even they are of the same kind. This is what yellow journalism is thriving on.

Due to all these reasons, most of the upcoming youth are really having an aversion towards famous people because the moment they keep one as an idol a gossip breaks out and they lose the respect. With recurring cases of such types they tend to feel that being famous you are targeted for every small thing that you do which keeps them away from even thinking of doing something big and growing big. The moment anyone takes up an initiative to create something great there are hundred fingers to point out and laugh at that person. This is the reason that people have lost faith and hope on doing great things itself rather than even thinking about getting famous. Remember one strong lesson which will be the solution for this entire blog and that is "Kya kahenge log, sabse bada rog" which means "If you're thinking about what people will talk about you then that is the biggest disease". Just don't care about what others have to say, decide what you want to do and give your best efforts efforts to achieve it.

Please share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A day off

Today I was watching the movie 'Karate Kid' in which one of my favourite actors Jackie Chan has played the role of a KungFu master. In the movie he trains Will Smith's son everyday on KungFu and after a long stretch he tells him that he will have a day off to have fun because too much of training is bad. Probably the reason I was watching the movie was also the same. I had taken a day off my regular routine activities to just be free of all work. Probably I even made my mind free of any thoughts of work. Probably this is what the inspirational speaker Sujit Lalwani defines as the break point in his break point theory.

When the car is driven continuously for miles together obviously after a certain point the engine gets heated and it wouldn't be able to run the same way as before. You will have to refill the radiator and allow for the cooling time for the engine to return back to its normal running mode. May be even the tyres would have rubbed enough against the rough roads and the need to replace them arise. Similarly even we humans have certain limits when it comes to how long we can work continuously. The moment the work fills in too much of the head and you're unable to give enough attention for relaxing your mind you will start feeling the aversion towards work in small amounts but you will still continue because of logical reasons to work. As this proceeds the efficiency decreases which will be even more frustrating. This is the time that you should recognise yourself and give sometime yourself for fun else the engine can never ever work in the best state. The small period of relaxation will help to reorient ourselves towards our goals and visions and help us view ourselves and our style of working. This introspection will lead to better output from the next day. I have even read that as per research the best people work in small bursts of energy than continously.

Probably I could give a day off for me from my work but I was wondering why I wanted to blog irrespective of the self-declared day off. Then is when I realised that ABAD{A Blog A Day} was a promise that I had made to myself and more than that I had declared it public that I would be following it no matter what. As Rajnikanth once said that you can create and change the will(legal document) but never change what you have spoken on a stage in front of people, may be my declaration of following ABAD held me strong to come back to blog even on a day off. Probably this is the reason that some of the most successful people declare what they will accomplish amidst the public and use it as a subconscious reinforcement to achieve it and achieve it for sure irrespective of any kind of obstacles in the journey. Might be this is the reason that leaders can work for long periods of time without breaks as they are always with people taking up commitments and working hard to fulfill them. So I would advise even you to declare whatever you want to follow and achieve publicly so that you can enjoy the benefits of it.

Please share if you have had any similar experience on

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Thanks Anthony Robbins for the lesson, Thanks God for the slap

 A small introduction of Anthony Robbins from wikipedia. Anthony "Tony" Robbins(born February 29,1960) is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his informercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within. Robbins writeS about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication and enhancing relationships. Robbins began his career learning from many different motivational speakers and promoted seminars for his personal mentor, Jim Rohn. He is deeply influenced by neuro-linguistic programming and a variety of philosophies.

In one of the books of Anthony Robbins where he explains about how he became a motivational speaker he says that when he had joined an organization for speakers everyone who had enrolled there used to give two speeches a week but Tony Robbins used to give two speeches a day because he had a very clear goal of becoming a SPEAKER. So he used to do it the maximum number of times possible and he teaches that if you are wanting to be a professional in something you need to do it everyday and not just on a weekend. Even Robin Sharma endorses the same idea in his book 'The Greatness Guide'. Thanks to both these masters. They had passed on a lesson which they had learnt, to me theoretically. Today I learnt the same lesson practically. Today I was given an opportunity to address a gathering of 40 people for an inspirational talk. After speaking for about 20-30 minutes I faced one of the tightest slaps I have ever got on my speaking ability. I just felt that I had misearbly failed to keep up to the standard of an inspirational speaker that I aimed to be. The sole reason for this was I was practising the profession of a speaker for few minutes once a fortnight or sometimes once a month. I had concluded on my own that based on my job timings this is the best that I could give for my speaking career. Folks! you don't achieve what you want by just giving your best, you achieve it by giving what is required to achieve it. This was one more solid slap on my ignorance of the lessons of the experienced. Though one of my friends said "Awesome" after I spoke I clearly could read the audience feedback. At that time I felt that you should never ask your friends for feedback. They are too good to say the truth straight on your face because they care for you and can't see you feeling hurt. When the live feedback is from the audience in front of you, you need not ask anyone else.

Friends, please don't make the mistake that I have made. You don't become a painter by painting on your weekend or a singer by just singing a song on a sunday. If you are eyeing any of the professional career based on your interest better implement that interest everyday into action. If I can extend it further implement it every moment. A businessman who is involved in his business every second of the day only makes profits not anyone who opens the store once a week. Its very simple - if you're a student you need to study everyday, if you're a chef you need to cook everyday, if you're person in job you need to work everyday to get paid excepting holidays. I still am into brainstorming on how I'll implement my speaking practice everyday. Hope you start your preparation soon enough to avoid any slaps later.

Only waiting for your comments and feedback on
is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Friday, June 15, 2012

Frustration means Fluctuation

Everyone of us are ruled by these non-physical entities called as emotions. Our moods vary from time to time. No doubt that with great efforts and continuous training of the mind we can reach the level of being stable irrespective of the mood variations but this is not at all a simple task. Also not everyone will be able to achieve it. Even the best who were believed to have the highest control over their feelings had to surrender to the same at times. Lot of things result in the emotions that we emote. The surrounding circumstances, our perception towards situations, our very own health conditions etc culminate together to result in the emotions that at times take complete control over us and our decisions and hence actions.

In this particular blog I am taking up the topic of 'Frustration'. Probably everyone on this planet have gone through this state of mind. Might be sometimes even God gets frustrated watching the things that humans are doing. In general, people have an expectation set against the work they do, the treatment they get from peers and family and lots more. Whenever these expectations are not met there sets in frustration. The worst part of frustration is the resultant of it. When we get frustrated we make some of the most nonsense decisions possible which might later cause trouble not just to us but even others for which we regret later. Frustration sets in when our earlier logic is disproved. Human mind is very good in logically analysing what has happened than in forecasting what can happen. So when the mind sees that what it had planned to happen doesn't match with what has happened, it can't digest it and hence puts us into confusion because the mind can't accept that it's logic can go wrong. By the time the mind understands the situation the emotion that settles in us is frustration. We get into a dilemma about our own decisions. This is what I call as fluctuations. So frustration means fluctuation. So how do we resolve this?

When a mathematical problem is given to you to solve without sufficient data obviously you cannot find out one perfect solution for it. In the same way when mind doesn't have all the information it needs to analyse something it gets confused. This is what happens during frustration. Obviously its difficult to stop the frustration from getting in but it definitely is possible to ward it away soon enough. The moment you get a hint that your mind has too many random thoughts running and you can't take your next step immediately take a sheet of paper and start writing down whatever is running in your mind. This will be the best way to put down valid thoughts on paper and mind gets rid of unnecessary ones and starts focusing on writing. Thus you make the mind free from confusion. Once you have written down all possible information, think over about your goal and what might have missed to reach it because of which you got frustrated. Add that and setup the next action plan. The main part here is to bring back the mind from jittering condition to stable condition to think.

Try this method the next time you get frustrated and let me know your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

I just hope you don't get frustrated ever!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Nothing also has a THING

For past few days when I was writing blogs one after the other day by day there was a strange sense of feeling that I am having no more topics to write. Obviously this couldn't be true because the world doesn't end with just few blogs. The lessons of life which can help us elevate our thinking and attitude are uncountable in number. How could it be even possible that there were no more topics to write upon! That is when I realised the presence of the brick wall. The brick wall which stands as a mental block only to stop us from reaching our best competencies and capacities in order to build our credibilities. My promise to myself to write a blog a day was powerful enough to break this brick wall. I had to cross the temporary mental barrier and move into the world of possibilities. That is when I felt "even Nothing has a THING in it".

Then, when I just gave few seconds about this thought I realised how many times we people give up on continuing forward just because we feel we have tried in every possible way. There is a sense of complacency that blocks our innovativeness to expand more because we assume that we have expanded it enough. Also when there is no success after multiple attempts the belief in finding the solution to the problem at hand decreases exponentially. There is little motivation to better our approach to the challenge and give one more powerful shot at it. There's a gloominess that encompasses our curious thinking and stops us from trying again. This is the time we need to remember that the best chance always stands in the adversity. That is when we have to search for the slightest positive clue that can open the lock of the box of solutions. Nothing is possible on this earth has been an age old adage which has time and again disproved the misconceptions of man. Just keep the optimism on to find your next step when you feel you're stuck.

Try and try again was one of the poems that I had learnt in my schooldays which holds its value from generations to generations. A magician brings out a dove from a cap which was empty just a second before. The audience is just made to believe that the cap was empty. In the same way our surrounding circumstances get built in certain scenarios that we see nothing at first but then just think that you are the magician who has to bring the dove out of the cap. When you feel it's all over that is the time to realise that it's just starting all over again just like the phoenix because even nothing has a THING in it.

Please share your valuable comments on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

When cheated to save

Once upon a time the ancient English empire had arranged a voyage for the elite class of United Kingdom. The clergymen, business stalwarts, sportsmen and other classes of people were boarding the ship for the first ever time in their life and they had paid huge sum for this amazing 5000km ocean trip which included every kind of entertainment possible and the food feast was arranged by the best chefs of England. The trip was scheduled for 30 days and every common man of the Victorian land was dreaming of this kind of a trip in their future births atleast. The arrangements for this event which was the first of its kind ever had gone on for six consecutive months and more than a thousand labour was entitled for this task. The ship itself was loaded with five hundred staff for serving three hundred people.

Obviously for such a high valuable voyage the Captain who was appointed was the best of that time. He had an experience of hundreds of water travels. He was assigned the highest titles of England for his service to the nation. He had his best preparations made before the start of this fabulous journey and had all the maps which could help him during the travel. He had mastered the usage of the then available instruments which were necessary to have the best measurements of current flow, wind speed and direction and other important elements. With all these ready the magnanimous journey began with the flashes of light which filled the sky. Celebrations were going on the deck as the journey began. Dance, songs, games were the nature of play. Some spiritual people were inclined towards speeches by clergymen. Almost ten days passed like this when there went up a red signal in the sky all of a sudden. A very loud siren rang to deafen the sound of music and shouts of people. Everyone on board was shocked and were in panic. Then the captain came upon the dance stage to announce to the crowd the most awaited reason for the recent happenings. He begged apology first to let the people know that there had been breakage in the ship's base due to improper maintenance and water was sneaking in through the cracks and informed that the trip had to be abruptly stopped to make the return to the shore in concern of safety of the voyagers. The audience were in no mood to listen to this excuse to cancel the most awaited trip of the century and demanded a fix to the problem than to end the excitement of the trip. There were arguments bouncing between the Captain and the crowd. Everyone on the ship was disheartened finally to lose the battle and agreed to turn their back on the trip and as per his request people helped the staff to throw out the water that was entering the ship slowly through the leakage points. The most hated 'U' turn had been taken.

Upon reaching the shore back home the sad travellers were welcomed back by their family to listen to their unlucky trip. The law and order of the land had ordered a severe punishment to the Captain for being reckless about the ship's maintainence. Everyone was furious against the Captain. All his titles were to be stripped off the next day of the return. When the Captain was given the last chance in the court to defend himself he told that he had cheated the people. He repeated "I cheated to save them" and disclosed the true reason behind the cracks in the ship's base was none other then he himself. He had made those cracks. Everyone in the court was awestruck listening this. Then the Captain explained that he had seen a very big iceberg right just few kilometres away from the ship covered under the fog through his telescope and knew that there would be no escape from hitting it if the ship continued forward. He explained from his earlier rough encounters with the scary nature that on such occasions you really never know how many more obstacles stand ahead. The temperature might really go low enough to solidify the blood or more icebergs can raise above the water level and contruct the passage. He knew that he couldn't prove his intuitions to the people on the ship until they saw it through their bare eyes. That's when he decided an alternate way of convincing people to return back home and made the cracks in the ship. He apologised to the people for being crude enough not to disclose the real reason instead cheat them only to save them. Everyone were in tears just imagining of what would have happened to them if it was not for the Captain's presence of mind and later everyone thanked him for saving their lives to move on with the life which was saved the Captain.

I have tried to bring out the best analogy possible through this story of mine and many of my friends' real life experience. Please share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Action first Power next

I have to really appreciate today for the amazing meeting that I had with the young entrepreneurial minds of bangalore. Congratulations to everyone reading this blog because you're going to witness an event right here in bangalore in next few months which will be a life transforming one. You can contact me later to get the further information about this fabulous event but today I would like to share my head-fake learning from this meeting with my friends. 'Head-fake' is a concept wherein you learn something while you're actually doing something else. Thanks to Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch who taught this through his book 'The Last Lecture'. Please do watch his video on youtube titled as 'The Last lecture' which has the best lessons for life. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for awakening many people in the world to work for their dreams.

Coming to my head-fake learning, it was one which was in the form of random pieces of a zigzaw puzzle in my head from a long time but today it took the right shape to solve the puzzle and teach me one of the profound lessons of life. Let me ask a question - "If you were given a chance to be either a CEO or an employee of a company, what would you choose to be?" I am damn sure that in most cases the answer would be "CEO!" because there lies power in the title and also very good remuneration as well. Might be such questions come only in a blog not in real life because when you have the talent in you and you have proven it to yield results there are no questions but only pleasant orders. Let me make it more clear. If Sachin hadn't played the best cricket during his childhood days neither would his father allow him to drop education and continue his sport nor the selection committee would take him to the national team. If Bill Gates had no idea about DOS before he met the IBM guys his Microsoft wouldn't have been the biggest software giant today. These examples can continue forever because whenever man showed his preparation to the world, it threw back opportunities at him.

You would have seen many people around you telling that "I can do that, I can do this" when they wouldn't have actually done any of them till then. Infact why should I spare myself from this blame? Even I have made statements like this very often only to realise that I couldn't standby my words. It was a very tough truth to accept but had to because that's how life teaches us lessons. Everyone of us are submerged under the layer of ego underwhich we claim to do anything if given a chance. Folks! come out of your school. It happened only in school where you were sent to sing though you didn't know to. In the real world big responsibilities aren't entrusted upon you just because you like it. Its more a question of deserving. The world grants you chances only when you have proven to the world in the past that you have been experienced enough to carry out the task else you will still be talking about what all you can do but never do them because you are waiting for someone else to grant you power to execute them. Write down every task that you want to do or like to do or love to do. Plan how to execute them with the best resources you have. Go all out and do them irrespective of the fear of failure or the negative criticism of the people. Only then you gain expertise at doing them. This is going to add to your portfolio on what you're capable to do and then the world recognises it to give you more power to execute a lot more of them. That's why I named the blog "Action first Power next".

Please come out of the dream world where you can even fight world wars barehanded. The world vests interest and power in the hands of those who can use them for better results not with those who just talk what they can do than actually walking their talk. Do let me know what are the significant activities that you have taken up in your life. May be we have an opportunity for you because when preparation meets opportunity there is SUCCESS.

You can contact me on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Small dreams are the catalyst for bigger ones

Even before starting off with the blog I have posted the conclusion as the title of the blog and I am also very sure that many of you will agree with me. Dreams have been the driving force of life. Some dreams are assumed to be the basic necessities of life and everyone has to work to accomplish them. Infact the best definition that I had heard about the dream was "Any positive thought that enters the mind" from Sri. Sumit Lalwani. If you can think deep about this statement you can realise that you can live your dreams not just everyday but every moment. Different people attribute different sizes for their dreams. I just feel more than the size of the dream the satisfaction and happiness of accomplishing it is more important. No doubt that bigger dreams when accomplished give more happiness but in this journey let's not forget that every small dream is also every important.

Today was the first time that I took my younger brother and mother to Cafe Coffee Day. I had treated so many of my friends and colleagues in CCD but not my family. So this was one small dream that was inside which materialised today. Might be my mom din't like the Cappuchino of CCD that much but I could see the excitement of coming to the CCD the first time in my her and my bro. They were really amazed to see the arrangement of chairs designed for sitting so comfortably just for a sip of coffee. The music that was running around amused them. Also the new fun filler combo contained a Belgium chocolate shot which tasted the best today because it was the first time. Remember 'First impression is the best impression'. The most happier part was that they could just sit over there and have coffee and the shot without any urgency to leave or the server disturbing them to order the next item which is the normal case when you enter the old-fashioned hotels. This was indeed a dream accomplished for me after a long time. May be I never observed so much about what happened in a CCD in my previous encounters. I had attended so many meetings and celebrations in CCDs but this was something special. May be that's the reason I say 'I was living my dream today'.

This was a very small dream but the accomplishment of it motivates me to take upon bigger ones. Most of us in our chase for achieving big dreams forget to live so many of the small dreams which would have added more enthusiasm into us. After all life is a string of beads of small moments. You never live life at one stretch for a year or even a day. You live it moment by moment. Make every moment special by having dreams which can be lived for a moment. As I said previously dreams' sizes differ from person to person. Might be some of your small dreams can be the big dreams of others. In the process of enjoying your small dream you might have helped the other person live the dream of his/her life. You are the designer of your life and its components called dreams. Dream of every smallest thing possible because life becomes more enjoyable not by just living it but by living its dreams. While we connect the dots of life lets also connect the dreams of life as closer as possible.

Please share your small dreams which have had the mega impact in your lives on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
I would love to read them too...............

Friday, June 08, 2012

1st impression is the BEST impression: Y/N

I don't want to have a debate whether this age old notion is true or not. Impression is just another word for perception is what I feel. Its once again a feeling. Moods are bound to change, so are feelings. Some of the most accepted Laws of the world were broken with new discoveries and inventions. I don't have to give examples of any because you already know many. When the biggest notions of mankind were proven false with the passage of time then it is no wonder that even impressions about things, places and people can change with new experiences. 'First impression is the best impression' - this thought has ruled the world from a very long time and I don't mean to demean this fact but want to just share my experience.

Today I went to my office cafeteria and ordered a dish called 'Meso salad'. The first time I had it was around a year back when I really hated and wasted more than half of it. But today I just had this strange instinct to try it again and went for it the second time. This time it just became my favourite dish. I was really wondering over this paradigm shift of desire. Infact for past one year I have been marketing to everyone to not to have this meso because it was very bad and I, myself denied trying it for more than a year. This was the effect of the first bad impression. But today when I gave the second chance to meso to impress me it did it fantastically. Then I thought- how many times we build notions about people around us just meeting them the first time and conclude about them? All of us know that none of us have a scanner built into us to judge anyone's character just at the first glance but still we are specialists when it comes to opinionize about people and more than that we feel great about it also. Just because the first impression was not so great we end up not even talking to the same person for years together to only realise later that he/she had lots inside him/her to enrich our lives. We regret for that also.

Just imagine what would have been our fates if our teachers concluded about our future the first time they saw us. No doubt we were childish when we were children. Our teachers and parents took the patience to help us grow into better adults. The first impression is not just cast by the person alone. It also depends on the circumstances of that first meeting. It would be the biggest mistake if we created a stern impression about anyone seeing the first time. Let's give a second try. Life is big enough to go through different kinds of experiences and circumstances. You never know when the inner beauty reveals itself to the world. Infact hope itself means to expect things to be better next time. If everything had got decided in the first impression itself then there would have been no progress in the world. Remember there is always not just a second chance but a next chance as well in life before we conclude about anything.

Please share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Thursday, June 07, 2012

When a smile flashes light

"Smile is a curve that sets many things straight" - What better explanation than a mathematical one for something that is so special as SMILE. May be God blessed only Karna of Mahabharatha with different jewellery all over his body at the time of birth but He din't forgive to asset everyone with the most luxurious jewellery of life called SMILE. Unfortunately Karna lost every piece of jewels that he was blessed with in due course of his life but this special gem SMILE stays with us forever until our death and also after death in some hearts and memories. Its only a choice whether you want to wear this precious element over your face alltime or save it only for special occasions.

I used to have a dream in childhood that wherever I am going I should see people all of whom would be smiling at me and wishing me. So I used to say 'Hi' to every person whom I knew on the road or on the pavement and give my best smile. 'Give respect take respect' was taught to me in school. I just extended it to 'Give smile take smile'. Having a smiling face is one of the best gifts you would have got from your parents. Thank God! that there is no eligibility criteria of marks or rank to smile at someone or to be smiled at. Smile at the security guard while entering office or school. If you know his name wish him accompanying with his name. This best combo of a smiling wishing can make the day enjoyable for him. Sound cannot travel as fast and as strong as light. Even if you are far away from a person give a wide smile if you can't or don't want to shout. That smile itself would have reached the eyes of the other person. How nice would it be when you are walking through the cafeteria and you are smiling and wishing people at every step. Probably others who don't know you might think of you as a celebrity. What's wrong in feeling like a celebrity! When just a girl's smile can make boys go mad can't your smile make a stranger a friend. Trust me I have tried and tested this and it works. I have made many friends starting just with a smile.

There is always a soothening effect of a smile. Just imagine that smile of a just born baby which is toothless. It can make you forget every worry of life for a momemt. Lets continue this string of moments in life. Perhaps there will be certain times when you are really down and not even able to lift your cheeks. That is the time the seeds which you would have sown earlier reap the fruits. The moment you see a person he will smile at you first because he knows that's your special trait. 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction' as Newton says. So that smile will light up the smile inside you. Especially if that person to flash the morning smile on a guy is a beautiful girl you just have to say "Subaan Allah"!!!!!!!!!!!

Please share your flashes of smiles in the form of comments on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Look in for your advantage

"Work is the second name of Life" says Sujit Lalwani, well reknowned inspirational speaker. If so, no doubt that every moment of life we are doing some or the other work. Sometimes might be because of our very own personal interest or sometimes because someone else has forced us to do it. Whether we accept or not everyone of us is bound to work to have a life. The only choice here is what kind of work you would love to do. Would you be happy only if you get to do the work that you like to do? Are we really sure that we know the work which we would love to do forever in life? These are some of the questions I would like you to ponder over as I share my experience with you in next few minutes.

"Unceratinty is the other name of Life" I say. You never know when God throws a challenge upon you. You can just escape it and lose the experience of it or you might just want to catch it to gain the advantage of it. Beware! God keeps throwing one after the another. Its your choice whether to catch or miss it. I have observed many times that whenever a tough task is assigned to anyone the first reaction is that of frustration in most of the cases barring a few exceptions. Some cases it might even end up in rejection of taking up the task. The prominent reason for these frustration and rejection is the fear of deadline and the lack of willingness to put in extra efforts. If there's no deadline then there is no point in doing anything in life. Infact even Life itself is not spared from not having a deadline. At these instances either people try to put the task on someone else's shoulders or start giving silly reasons even before starting the task as to why it can't be completed. This seems more like a negative approach to me. This is where I say "Look in for your advantage".

No doubt that whenever there's a challenging new task you are bound to learn something new. Learning new means growth in life. When 'Growth' itself is the synonym for 'Life' as stated by Sri. Sumit Lalwani, why not take up the new task? The tougher the task the more you will learn for sure. Coming to the point of fear of deadline, when you know you have put in your hundred percent efforts to the maximum extent possible, you would have definitely made progress in the task if not solved it completely. Everyone around you would be sane enough to understand it if explained with proper proofs. You might not have found a solution to the problem at hand but you would have atleast found 'n' number of improper ways which won't yield the result intended similar to the story of Thomas Alva Edison. Sometimes we would have underestimated our own capacity. You might just finish off the task almost in half the time than that given to you. You know about your performance only when you perform not by just speculating it.

In any work or task or challenge or problem you are offered look in for your advantage. More than worrying about what benefit the task has for anyone else look in for what it has to offer you might be knowledge or experience or fine tuning of your performance. I would like to conclude this topic by the famous quote of the young energetic speaker Sujit Lalwani - "When you love something do it, when you don't love someting don't do it but whenever you are doing something, better love it".

Please feel free to share your feelings, thoughts and opinions on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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Monday, June 04, 2012

Ladies! Learnt a lot from you

This blog is a complete dedication to all those beautiful girls, ladies and women who have made this earth a better place to live in. Before starting off with this post my mind was in a dilemma whether to take up this topic or not. I was quite unsure about my preparation on writing this blog. Also there was a small inhibition that friends might tease reading the title itself but then I thought to myself that this topic has been running on the mind quite often. Either today or some other day I will have to put it into words and I chose TODAY itself because I remembered that as soon as I woke up today the first face I saw was that of my mother's. Everyone of us have been lucky enough to see unknown face of God in our mother's heart. Neither me nor anyone in this world can prove if any love is bigger than the love of a mother for her children. Well! God didn't stop at one. He knew that there was a requirement of lot more of these fabulous females to look after these menacing males. So He also blessed us with sisters, cousins, aunts, grandmothers and friends who are girls(I know I couldn't have used the short form here because you might just take me wrong).

I think while God designed men, He introduced lot of functionalities that they could perform various amount of vareity of functions but didn't give much importance to UI(User Interface). As a reason though lots get done inside the output shows to be very plain like the initially designed operating systems of the world. If you are not a techie I would make this simple saying that men are really low on expressing themselves and their emotions. Anyways they are still better than a stone. But later God realised the error in the early design and made sure that the best form of display with all the best functionalities was introduced while creating females like that of Samsung Galaxy S3 which has the tagline - "Designed for humans". I think females were created with a tagline - "Designed for mans"(I apologise for the spelling mistake). Trust me girls! We need you. Men by themselves are not capable enough to extract their full potential. We need you to be not just behind us but along with us because you are the powerhouse of inspiration. Men can create anything but women will be the ones who will fill life into the creation.

Like most men even I grew up from being a boy into a man. In the process I was forced to think that I was no more a small kid but a grown up who should always be seriously focused on work and work more on logic than feelings. Thanks to the Almighty that this misconception was broken soon. I must confess here that when I used to see girls around who were grown up still behaving as kids I used to get irritated. I would take it as rather childish than childlike. But as time progressed when I saw the same girls taking up serious decisions of life for themselves and for their families I had to admit that I was a fool to think they were kiddish. They had really grown far more than I had imagined. That was the time when I learnt that you don't have to be really serious all the time just because you are no more a teenager. No one on this earth has ever defined how a child should behave and how an adult should behave. Its all influenced by the society we live in. Its time to change guys. In childhood we were lot more happy because we enjoyed every small thing of life. We didn't need a Samsung Galaxy S3 alone to be happy. We could be happy with just a chocolate a day. Might be we guys forgot but thanks to these marvellous ladies who never let go off the child within them.

Ladies are special. They get happy when you buy them a rose a day rather than a rose garden after ten years. They value precious moments of life like the first time you met them, the first time you called them, the first time you went out for a movie, the first gift you presented them etc. We guys are sometimes really low on memory(manufacturing defect) that we forget these precious moments but remember the score of Sachin in Sharjah Cup. Ladies know the right time for fun and the right time to be serious. Your spouse or girlfriend would enjoy the bike ride with you more than a ride in Mercedes Benz driven by a driver just because you bought it to enhance your prestige in the soceity. They would love to get wished from you first than anyone else on their birthday. I used to think that whistling was a bad manner but offlate realised that girls enjoyed it when done in the right manner. They love to get impressed, impress them you boys.

Well before I conclude I would like to thank every woman on this earth for having been such a strong support for us. Might be if not for Smt. Sudha Murthy we would have never seen Infosys or Sri. NarayanMurthy. If not for our mothers we would have never been the sane guys that we are today. As the old adage says home is the first school and mother is the first teacher, indeed ladies are the strongest support to hold families together. Thank you once again ladies! I have really learnt a lot from you.

Its easier to find out the footsteps of fish in water than to understand whats going on in a girl's heart. Well! guys haven't grown to that level still. Keep teaching us ladies. Indeed I have learnt a lot from you.

Please pour in your heartfelt feelings on is.mohanbn@gmail.com