Realign with your vision

Every endeavour that man has ever taken up has been with a purpose. There has been a problem statement and the answer to the question of why to solve the problem has given rise to a planned activity. A very simple example for this is our education system. People enroll their kids into schools because they want their children to be educated so that children are aware about things around them and eligible to use this knowledge to create a sustainable livelihood. After some time the focus goes more on marks on paper than the education that the kid has embodied. That's where parents need to realign their vision to educate their kids than merely seeing them as marks-vending machines. When you get off-track with any of your activities and you aren't having fun doing it, then ask yourself as to why you started it and realign with your original vision.

The world is filled with a lot of chaos today, and there is too much of information bombarding happening from all directions. We start with an objective which over a period of time becomes subjective. I have observed so many people who started to work hard to excel in life and after some time were working hard only to be better than their friend. There will be a lot of factors which shall influence our course of work. Sometimes they will affect positively while some other times they shall affect negatively. We needn't change our strategies only to increase the influence of positive factors or decrease the effects of negative influences. By doing so, we are only giving more respect to factors which appear during the run-time than the future vision. The moment you try to adjust your flowchart of action as per the run-time factors your remodeled plan shall start taking you towards a new end which you had never envisioned at all. Just like how there is an end for every start there is an end result for every plan. The moment a plan changes, its end result also changes. Hence we must focus on keeping ourselves abreast to our visions and regularly go through our vision statements realigning ourselves to our visions. Only then our true visions shall get accomplished in the true sense.

No matter what, at the end of the day, we are all humans, and not Gods. We need to brush every day and we need to take bath everyday to make sure that we are physically clean and neat. Similarly, we need to give some time on a regular basis to maintain our visions and dreams clean and to realign along with them. There is too much of information dirt that keeps floating in the air around us that sits on our positive thoughts of life and blinds us from remembering our visions. We need to get them back each time we tend to forget them. Revision is as compulsory to a dreamer as it is to a student who wishes to score in his exams. A student's dream is limited to a dream of marks but a dreamer's visions are as unlimited as the width of the sky. Go back and realign with your visions of and for life.

Exposure and experience

The world is filled with so many diverse things that one lifetime isn't sufficient enough to witness all of them. Some of the most intricate miracles of nature are hidden in different parts of the world. Working for regular food, clothing and shelter is a normal routine that everyone is forced to do on a daily basis. Those who accomplish this responsibility will definitely want to see what more life can show them. In order to experience new things we need to have some knowledge about what all is happening around us. That is where exposure comes into picture. Lack of exposure leads to lesser number of chances of experiencing different dimensions of life resulting in an unfulfilled life. All of us would love to live our lives to the fullest extent possible.

The world is so vast in geographic scale that it is impossible for a person to set his foot on every step of the planet. Thanks to the internet world which has brought down the entire world to just our laptops or mobiles. In spite of earth turning into a global village, the challenge to know everything is really huge. Just knowing from far also doesn't help much. One needs to witness the unexplored portions of life. A very simple example is that of an engineer and a commerce graduate. An engineer doesn't know anything in the commerce field apart from his engineering syllabus. Likewise commerce doesn't understand head and tail of engineering. One need not be an encyclopedia knowing everything but one must definitely have awareness about the things existing around. That is where one needs to take initiative to learn about new stuff on a daily basis. Once sufficient knowledge has been thrown light upon, one must not just stop with the exposure; s/he should get into volunteering into tasks that can give him/her an experience of how the field works. If one has undergone such experiences in few diverse fields, then that person will be much more aware and careful in real life, and there are very less number of chances for him/her to get deceived by anyone else. Ignorance has definitely cost a lot even to the wisest best of one single field. One needs to have an all-around knowledge to challenge the current world.

The world shall not initiate any process to come to your home and let you know all that's happening around. You will have to get of your comfort zone called house and go out to explore. You might have the fear of unknown but what you need to explore is the same. Shed your inhibitions, become a kid and start exploring the world as a newbie. The world has lots of new things to offer for sure. As you keep gaining exposure about new happenings, simultaneously put your hands into activities that you have never done till date. This wholesome experience shall enrich your life in multifold manner.

Far-fetched dreams

Everyone has dreams. Everyone wants to live a life that's filled with luxury and harmony. Yet, not everyone is able to live one such life. Having the best state of life in terms of health, wealth, people around and status in the society is a dream that every soul aspires to enjoy. Achieving all of these is definitely not a very easy task. One has to struggle through the climbing process to reach heights in life and challenge the inconsequential side-effects of his/her own acts to achieve all these. The best sculpt body, abundance of wealth, name and fame take not just few days or weeks or months; they take years of dedicated hard work and commitment to accomplish. Hence they become far-fetched dreams of life for many.

People are often used to quick results in life. 2 minute noodles, fast food restaurants are some of the simple examples to state that people don't have the patience to have what they want. They are in a hurry to have food, travel and even to sleep. Big dreams always demand high tenure of time to result in reality. Since they yield only after sufficient long amount of time people lose the passion for achieving those. The motivation to sustain the interest goes low day by day as the time to accomplish the dream seems really too far to be true. Lack of motivation is not the only factor. When the dreams become so big that they need a lot of time to materialise in our lives, people also start tending to doubt whether the dreams will really convert into reality after all the hard work or not. This lack of belief in one's own efforts shows sufficient number of examples around who tried achieving the same dreams but failed miserably. The non-guarantee of what might come up in the future drives the focus of people away from their dreams, and thus many of their dreams become far-fetched. The moment people have thrown the dream into the far-fetched ocean, it's difficult to bring them back and believe that those dreams are achievable once again in life. Temporary failures to accomplish small dreams also push the belief away from us that we will be able to achieve the bigger ones. As a result, many of the dreams become far-fetched dreams of our lives.

Sacrificing one's own dreams is just not the loss of that single person. All of us together form this society that surrounds all of us and each one of us cast our influence on the lives that breathe in our environment. The moment we categorize some of our visions as far-fetched ones, we attribute the same to similar dreams of others around us. In a way, we are discouraging the person next to us, also, from dreaming big in life. Just because we couldn't focus and believe we bring down others beliefs too and ultimately slower the civilization progress. If we can bring back our far-fetched dreams on our to-do list and dedicated daily efforts to accomplish, then, not just we will accomplish them but we shall also be an inspiration to million others to launch back their far-fetched dreams into existence and help thousands of others to aim for such massive achievements of life.

The Positive Fear

I was taking a class for some students of a school about public speaking. One after the other, all students came on the stage to share the stories of leaders. They shared stories about Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhiji, Mother Theresa, Sachin Tendulkar and many others. These students were supposed to narrate these stories without the help of any print material. Each one of them tried to give the best speech possible. Some had practised the speech at home but still couldn't share it easily. They had a kind of fear which was obstructing the flow of speech through their vocal chords. Not just these small students, every speaker has this fear lurking inside before s/he goes on the stage.

Fear is one of the best motivating factors. The fear of failure has stopped many from taking action while it also has helped many to always win because they were afraid of failure. That apprehension inside us before we jump into doing something or expressing our talents or skills in front of people is called fear. There is an uncomfortable feeling due to the fear of not being accepted by the audience. Steven Pressfield says that every performer shall always undergo such fear before any performance. So, it's natural for one to fear. In fact, the presence of that small amount of fear before plunging into the open air of performance is a symbol of your seriousness towards your work. It's a positive fear that inhabits us for a temporary interval of time. The butterflies inside the stomach accelerate their speeds as we are just about to take on the stage. Let them not choke your voice down your throat. You must rise above it and deliver your performance. Let that positive fear be an indication that you are in the right direction than becoming a deviation in your path to success. Use the positive fear as a positive morale booster to boost your performance better. This fear is not because of any self-doubt about one's own preparation or talent, it's just a warning unto us to not let down those who have trusted in us and believed in our performance.

Not just in any stage performance alone, even in life too, such positive fears keep attacking us every now and then if we are trying to do something new every now and then. This positive fear differs very much from the real fear of performing. The positive fear compels you to take on the stage of life to exhibit all that you have got. On the other hand, the real ferocious fear shall stop you from even trying. Hence, use this positive fear which can be overcome very easily by taking a simple single step towards action. No matter which field you are in, taking initiatives will always be challenged by a positive fear. Accept the fear and take action, and the victory shall come and dance in your arms.

Don't brag if you cannot nail it

Actions speak louder than words. There is no way we can underestimate this statement. Only your actions can nail down things that you want to happen than just words about what shall happen. No matter how long you spoke in front of the wall it shall not break. The moment you take the hammer and bang it against the wall there will be an instant crack on the wall. Bottomline- only action can make things happen and not mere words. Bragging has become one of the best ways to showcase why one shall be a great person in the future. Mere bragging shall only live for the moment and die away as instantly as it originated.

Plans are always made much before the implementation. Sharing about your future plans is always fine but bragging about those is not a good idea, unless you're the decision-maker. People are unfortunately misled to believe that the world runs on their decisions while the person holding the reins is sitting somewhere else and watching the game. If you brag about something that shall happen from your side and you don't hold the key to make it happen, then obviously your bragging backfires at you. People are only going to lose belief in your words thenceforth. You must have the complete clarity about the time by when you shall deliver what you bragged about some time back. Unless that happens, you are just going to make fun about yourself in front of your audience. People shall remember your open commitments made on the stage and shall come back to ask for the delivery. It doesn't matter whether the commitments you made on the stage can impact these people or not. They are always with the hawk-eye to find out whether you will stand up to your bragging or not. Unless and until you have the complete control of the scenario there is no point in bragging. You have to be the person who can nail your commitment down and only then do you earn the rights for bragging. If the delivery is promised or controlled from someone else the better option is to be a step away from bragging.

In today's world people want to make you feel that you have the leadership to take decisions. It's only to make you feel that you are meant to carry a lot of responsibilities. The money is not transferred into your account until the banker signs the cheque no matter how much ever money he promises to transfer at your wish and will. The final control is in his hand to sign the cheque. One should not get under the assumption that people promising us freedom to shout will give the freedom to deliver the promise too. Ultimately the control shall lie in the hand that funds your plans and plans your actions. Beware about this hand behind your back before assuming that you are the hand. Don't brag if you aren't the hand to nail it.

Bigger reason than black money for underdeveloped India

Debates and discussions have been going on from decades together as to why India has still remained as an underdeveloped country, why the rupee value against dollar is consistently falling, why are the middle class people still struggling and the poor still suffering. Politics has been blamed, governments have been blamed, and the entire system has been blamed. One of the prominent reasons always blamed by majority is the black money. Politicians, people in government, people having black money are way lesser than the entire population of the country. This small knit of people cannot be alone responsible for an entire country to lag behind in development. The problem of underdevelopment is deeper and has its roots in every household of the country. Few people cannot hold the nation back from development. Majority of the Indian population is a part of this process to keep India still a developing country. Wondering how?

The culture in Indian families plays a crucial role in the development of India. Development of any nation can happen when the people belonging to it are bringing out ideas and business ventures that not only satisfy the nation’s population but also bring in customers from outside the country. More profits earned by the nation’s citizens only increase the taxes collected by the same nation. The same money can be used for better development and infrastructure of the country by the government. This means that more and fresher businesses must start in the country which is nothing but pure entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship comes with its own challenges. It takes time and money to build an idea into a financial viable systematic business model. This requires the entrepreneur to be free from any other burden apart from funding his own basic necessities of life and his idea. Unfortunately, in Indian middle class family system, parents bring up children with good education mainly to secure a good job which can yield enough income to take the responsibility of the household. With lack of financial planning, even the parents would have invested all their earnings to bring up their children with an expectation that they would take up a good job post education and take care of the financial liabilities of the family. This is a check-mate option for a person who dreams about entrepreneurship because, while setting up a business one cannot expect returns instantly that a high paying job can give though there is a higher possibility of the same business yielding multiple times the job income 5 years down the lane.

This being the typical scenario in majority of the middle class and poor families of India which accounts for the majority of the Indian population, not many new ventures are springing up which can rise the economy standards of India. Rather, all the youngsters from such families are ready to work as cheap labour in jobs for the multinational companies which make more profits by earning their profits in dollars and paying these people in rupees. The pay scales offered also satisfy the family constraints of such people and hence there is no push towards entrepreneurship. As a result, the entire country is running slow in the race towards development. The entire population is holding the reigns of development of India than a mere few people in governance or business.

This is where the western world races ahead in development as the family culture over there makes youngsters find their livelihood on their own by getting into part-time jobs rather than depending on parents. Adults are wise enough to plan their retirement and don’t depend on their children. As a result, entrepreneurship finds a fertile soil to germinate seeds of ideas and harvests of profits amongst these young entrepreneurs who enjoy the freedom of experimentation along with the shoulders free of any family liabilities. Naturally, more ideas convert into business solutions which reach out to the entire world’s population bringing in foreign money into the country improving the economy standards of the western nations.

Until the present generation parents realise this hidden truth, and stop blaming all the umpteen number of reasons for an underdeveloped India and provide the scope of freedom for their children to walk on the route of entrepreneurship to bring their ideas into reality, India is only going to delay its own progress and process of achieving the expected development standards. India is not the only country suffering from the issue of black money. There are so many developed countries of the world too that are facing the same issue. The roots for underdeveloped India are not superficial in the reasons seen by the bare eyes. The roots are deeper knotted in every family household of the Indian population.

Phone etiquettes

Hats off to the wonderful technology that has developed in communication that we are able to connect to anyone in the world with just the click of a few numbers on our phones! While some of us have to still upgrade from landline phones to mobile phones, majority of us are fancying around with the latest smartphones. However, while the technology has progressed a lot, yet the usage of this technology has to get more streamlined. Out of the many experiences that I have had with phone communication I would like to share certain phone etiquettes that we need to follow in order to make our communication better.

1. Never call a person repeatedly until s/he picks up the call unless it’s a dire emergency or a question of life and death. This is one of the most irritating things that can befriend you from the person whom you disturb this way. People are held up in driving or traffic or in washrooms or in some really important meetings when they cannot take calls. Such recurrent calls only waste your time and energy and create unnecessary tension on the receiver’s end.

2. When you call a person and the person has not reverted by picking up the call, then make sure to drop a message so that at least the subject of conversation is known to the receiver. This information helps him/her to take a priority to call you back. If your missed call is not backed up by a message then the chances of getting called back also reduces.

3. If there’s some urgency that you need to talk at that moment apart from any emergency mentioned in the abovementioned point, then give at max 2-3 calls only but not more than that. Drop a message that it’s extremely urgent for the person to revert to you. Still, if you don’t receive the call then find out another way to solve your situation by yourself or just wait until the person reverts to you.

4. If there are none of the urgencies mentioned above and if it’s just for some information or casual talk, then give a call half an hour later after the first missed call followed by the message if you haven’t got back the call from the person you intended to call within half an hour. Give a reminder call of just 1 or 2 more for that day and not more than that.

5. When you are calling people in high positions during office hours, it’s always better to send a message requesting if you could call the person. You might receive a Yes/No message or a call itself. This will show that you respect and value other person’s time.

6. Online messengers have completely cut our costs on SMS. Hence updating the status of work over online messengers with your reporting authorities will always cut down call costs and help in better and consistent reporting equipping faster communication. I have used Viber, WeChat, Hike, Line, Facebook messenger, Google hangouts and Whatsapp, and I have found Whatsapp as the best online messenger which is light on phone in terms of CPU and memory usage. Also, Whatsapp notifies you only if there’s any incoming message from your contacts while there are no advertisements or other messages from the app that unnecessarily disturb you.

These are some of the etiquettes I believe which shall enhance our phone communication. If you have anything to share about the same please feel free to share.