My 12 Quotes In My Words to Understand Life Better

1. If you want to minimize your expectations to minimize disappointment or pain; try increasing immunity to the given situation.

2. Immunity towards a situation turns into a habit.

3. People, who witness the hardest times, experience the greatest too.

4. Sacrifice, gift, love, appreciation are nothing when you receive them by asking for it, the beauty is when these come on their own.

5. Sacrifices are meant to be made not to be understood.

6. When in love, learn to read between the lines.

7. When you ask something don't expect the answer as you want it to be, that's a masked imposition.

8. If one isn't happy then he/she can't look to be so, as everybody is not an actor.

9. Analyzing a situation or behavior needs a dual point of view, as yours might be a biased one.

10. If you really want to do something, then just do it, only saying is a waste.

11. Hurting someone and expecting them to remain neutral, is like killing and asking not to die.

12. Loneliness is the slowest and the most promising poison.

Take a Stroll for Renewed Focus

“Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas”- J.K Rowling. I came across this quote somewhere, realizing how true it is. I got to remember, strolling with my dad…my friends, and my near ones. That leisurely walk has so much to give – bonding, ideas, peace and a break from a routine state of mind. There are times when we find ourselves going over with the routine. Life is getting too mechanical and we are about to become robots. Many people experience the feeling of not doing something worth, caught up with daily cores, lagging behind, in short unable to reach the desired outcomes.

As I told you, I find a stroll as a way of finding solution for all this bizarre state. It happened with me so many times, solutions to most of the problems, misunderstandings, idea droughts, were found while having a walk. A leisurely walk alone or with someone who you trust.

Have you ever observed your nature of mental state when thinking while sitting and when you do the same while walking? When you sit and contemplate, your thought process is mostly towards negative, making you gloomy.  Whereas, when you walk with your thinking cap, there is a balanced flow of thoughts both positive/negative and this balance drives you towards self-realization, unseen solutions with new ideas pouring in. When you walk with someone you both are on the same page, the ambience is supportive and thoughts shared float freely, unlike in room closed from all the four sides. A walk is fruitful for an infertile mind, so the next time when you are stuck in files staring at screen, nothing coming to your mind, get-up and stroll out in open.

Doing the same thing repeatedly ceases cognitive processes. You get up in the morning, leave for office, attend those lined-up meetings, drafting/sending replies to all the emails, you feel ridiculed, killing your colleagues in your head. Reaching home you have some other tasks and problems eagerly waiting. And what do you do for this state of yours? Nothing I guess; you sleep getting ready for the next day.

Walk out each time these feelings surface making you helpless. Stroll after a meeting;  you will find unconventional ideas coming to your mind and that of your colleagues. This happens as the focus is renewed; brain gets some fuel, making your thinking efficient and creative. Thoughts are reframed and a new light falls on issues you found hard to solve.

Happy Strolling! 

9 Ways To Self Upgradation

1. Competition with the crowd leads you nowhere other than the "crowd" itself. Compete with yourself to stay ahead of your thinking only.

2. Always try to know what you want. Clarity is power. Vague thinking creates vague goals and serves vague results.

3. Remember - Action speaks more than words. Whatever you say look forward to make it happen otherwise it will seem to be merely your non-serious approach.

4. Sport a day keeps the bad away! Life is busy and you are short of time, I know... But a little time devoted to play a sport you enjoy, will make you mentally fit, physically active, and fill you up with optimism.

5. Take a short quiz every day in your area of interest. Small Challenges re-energize your mind.

6. Look for learning new things every day in your area of expertise. Because, “In a world of change, the   learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”

7. When in despair or disappointment, think about the person you admire the most, and try to figure out what he/she must have done in the situation in which you are right at the moment. You will find some clues to the solution.

8. When the day ends, write about how it went and any other thing you feel you should write. This lets you   know where you are going wrong, improve it and record your happy moments to make you happy when   you read it later in life.

9. Don't leave a work to be completed tomorrow, because you know this least happens. Then why not complete it today.  Just like I'm completing this write-up...

Forget BYOD... Ready for WYOD - Wear Your Own Device?

Not much a past incident, organizations worldwide witnessed a trend called BYOD – Bring your own device. The trend refers to the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and to use those devices to access privileged company information and applications. The aforesaid trend was embraced on a fast pace and now BYOD is as common as bringing water bottle or tiffin box to the workplace. Some companies also felt worried with the trend as they viewed it as a threat to security. But the worry couldn’t stop the epidemic like spread of the trend and the IT companies were forced to adopt the same.

And here comes again, a trend that is rapidly rising – WYOD, that is, Wear Your Own Device. We already encountered the invention of wearable technology like Google Glass, wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display. Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format that can communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands. Well that’s old news, you would say. Then here is the new -  people have started to don wearable devices such as Samsung Galaxy Gear smart-watches that can be used to take calls when driving, capture video images, and listen to music when paired with an external Bluetooth speaker. 

Wearable devices can be more risky than the former byod brigade, as they are not very visible having more security implications. Though there are many productive use for businesses if emplyoees wear their devices to the workplace. Joe McKendrick - co-author of the SOA Manifesto – gives some examples of the usages, “a surgeon viewing critical health stats without looking away, or an airplane mechanic having access to every manual and procedure while working. Then there are the more conventional uses, like business messages and photo and videos of whiteboard sessions and more.” On the cons side, WYOD can bring greater threats to the businesses, many unseen.

Companies need to re-formulate their BYOD policies ensuring about corporate data protection and also that if the wearable device picks up some malware then corporate devices can detect them eradicating any risks to company’s data. It would be good if the organizations carve out a strategy for WYOD beforehand to avoid the panic they had during the advent of BYOD. A proactive approach can protect any future threats. Also, firms should look at the trend as opportunity rather threat as they can’t escape the trend which is having some brighter sides too for the corporates.

So let me have your views, what do you think about WYOD – a threat or an opportunity? How will you use it as a blessing for your firm? Have you started formulating policies and strategies to cope up with uprising trend?

Think upon and act on questions like these to stay ahead of your competitors.

Why you should Take-Up a Career Path of your Interest?

The state of education is still the same what it was years ago, and the mentalities related are same too. Not much has changed. Years back children used to study for the sake of grades, competition, for reputable job, money and were compared to their peers, that, “see their child scored that much in exams” , “their son has landed up a lucrative job” ; many more such, to induce in children a feeling of rising higher than others. And it’s all same today also.  Even I would say worse; as now education is all commercialized we pay to remain in the competition and pay more to win over others. No value of self-exploration and real identity. We do work because we were told and taught to do so. We hardly know who we are, we excel in what, where the minds’ sharpness lies, which work we can do sincerely with full devotion; we are nil about ourselves. 90% of us will talk about world crisis, problems but don’t know real us. If someone tries to move towards the path of his/her interest the people around hold them back forcing to follow the legacy.  We are moving into an era of mechanization, performing actions without giving it a thought just like a computer would do.

Why? Why follow this blind path which you yourself don’t know where it will end up? Why not follow your heart and pursue a career with your mind? Why can’t you have a career in which you are good at be it dance, writing, singing, or any kind of performing art or entrepreneurship?  I mean, come on stop behaving like herd of sheep!  Watching the movie “3 Idiots”, coming out praising concept and protagonist will not help you! Ponder over it expand your attention span.

I have listed out some of the reasons to follow your passion...hope this make you dream a little big and bold.

• To understand who you are.
• To not just mechanically do work rather to enjoy it.
• To have a work satisfaction, that is very less right now in service class.
• For being unique among the crowd.
• To feel happy and contented every day when you return home.
• To avoid boredom in your work.
• To utilize your caliber to the fullest.
• To have circle of like minded people who inspire you, criticize and help you improve.
• To become an achiever.
• To get-up each day with a passion for your workplace rather going for monetary reasons or just because you have to go.
• To justify your existence and identity.
• To present yourself everywhere in an excellent way.
• To be honest to yourself, your actions and your work.
• To avoid pretending yourself as who are not actually.
• Escape the state of conflict between the inner and the outer self.

Aren’t these things important for a contented life? We all feel happiness from within when we witness any of the above mentioned states. That joy knows no boundaries.

Don’t stop your child from pursuing what interests him/her. By doing this you are restricting the mental improvement, learning, satisfaction and later life contentment. You are just telling them to indulge in slavery of age old mindset. All the famous people out there, in performing arts, entrepreneurship or any unconventional career, with national or international identity, who followed their instincts, have been mostly college dropouts. I read somewhere that even Einstein used to hate the school system of education. Cultivate brain with nutrients of interest and reap the unimaginable success.

New Year Resolutions – 5 Ways To Really Reach Them

Resolutions on New Year – we make many and break many. Keeping up on a resolution has been pretty hard for us. We are guilty of it too, blame ourselves but don’t try on them again, what’s done is repent only. And we stop making them knowing that those won’t be fulfilled, we are so helpless. Poor us. Well, I will not freshen up your memories of broken resolutions and make you sad; instead I would share my way of looking, making and try on fulfilling resolutions.

Every year we make resolutions something like these – to lose weight, get a better job, drink less, study more, start a blog, etc. End up failing on all. We generally focus on outcomes, or say goals about which we are not even sure. Or say we are sure that we won’t be reaching them. Why make a goal that you yourself know is hard to reach?  And later repenting on failures doesn’t makes point! Failures are failures till you work on them to turn them into success; otherwise it’s just a habit. So I would suggest come out of the vicious circle of unreachable outcomes and focus on Process.

Yes Process, set your sights on process in 2014 and you will automatically reach your goal.

1. Work on Something Artistic – Most people find art as a waste of time, typically they know about it is taking up crayons and start painting, that’s what mostly kids do. But this is not a single form of art; rather I would say a primary form.  Art is story-telling, dance, games, drama, writing and many more acts that you can connect to imagination. Indulge yourself, in say, writing. But yes then the artistic devil creeps in. This devil will tell you hundreds of reasons why you can't write: "People will laugh at you. This is not good writing! What kind of sentence is this? Look at your handwriting!", but conquer it all to find yourself and reach your goal. Roland Barthes once said of Flaubert's novels,"Flaubert did not write a novel. He merely connected one sentence after another. The eros between sentences, that is the essence of Flaubert's novel." That's right -- a novel, basically, is writing one sentence, then, without violating the scope of the first one, writing the next sentence. And you continue to make connections.
2. Walk The Talk – You discuss about how pathetic your new device is, your job, the household problems, the project issues, all discussions on made on your couch, meeting rooms, in short, you sit and discuss. How many times it’s been that these discussions prove fruitful? Less I would say. Moreover, sitting prohibits your activeness, so why not come out of the room and walk the talk? This will let people more actively participate in discussions as two activities make you more attentive. And hey! You will lose weight too!
3. Make Stress Positive for you – In stress you keep thinking on something negative making the situation more stressful. View the world as a bunch of negativity, recalling all the bad moments and disappointments you had till the dat. This leads to work stress against you making you weaker and prone to chaos, indecisiveness and health issues, finally. So start doing positive things when in stress, care about someone, talk to a child, and try see the rarely seen side of stress – the optimism. Think how this stress will help you reach something you desired for.
4. Try Digital Detox – We have our gadgets everywhere we go. Mobile, i-pads, computers, lap-tops, i-phones are now unavoidable new members of our life. We can’t think of leaving them behind even for the tiniest of the activity. To make it short, we are slaves of technology now, which controls our lives more than ourselves. Take a step ahead and move out of the reach of daily gadgets – hop on a digital detox – while on a walk, a drive, or simply sitting in nature. The act would re-energize you, fuel up your thoughts, and bring forward some new ideas, solutions to problems, eventually you come to know your real being. All pollution in your mind fades off, and a new light enters.
5. Keep on Reading – We generally read the current affairs in newspapers and are done with our reading, feeling happy about it. Unaware of the fact that it was just enriching our knowledge base not our minds. Our brains needs food, food for thought and that comes through some motivational reading which could inspire us. So start reading motivational write-ups, I’m not saying grab a novel, that would take a lot of time and I’m sure you have less of it. Read blogs of motivational writer’s, of CEO’s, artists and people who you look upon. Articles on Linkedin in the section Leadership and Innovation would also help you and many more like this are there.

These all are another way of reaching your well-defined goals. Work on these Processes and move on the road to achievement, goals would seem to be near.

The Advent of "Disposable Social Media" – Yay or Nay?

There was a time when we kept records of only official papers and now we can even keep intact what we said on a particular day or time on social media. Social life is not limited to face-to-face conversations it has grown and secured a place of itself. You mind may not be able to recall what you said at a certain point of time, but these Social Platforms remember each and everything. Sometimes this proves to be a nasty thing and the other times a blessing. A smooth life can go upside-down when someone referring to these social records says in anger, "Oh you said this that day"! Same thing later fills you with grief, if some day you again come across it. We still find old posts of ours on Facebook and recall the old memories, what all good or bad happened; even others can also look back in our Profiles further interpreting the updates we make guessing out, "oh this may be happening in his or her life". Social Media has become a behavior interpretation tool. People peep into our minds and try to infer what’s happening in our lives; this is an inherent trait of humans, only they have got a proper tool now.

In this age of total dominance of social record platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, some other novice apps emerged with a totally opposite feature. Apps like Snapchat and Poke are based on the idea of not storing any Chat Conversations. Means you move only towards future leaving behind the shadows of the past; isn't that good for us? I've myself realized that many times I regret something I had posted, i still do have option to delete it but the post had already done its work - people have viewed, formed perceptions, interpretations and circulated in the circle. It’s all done. The thing is like protecting all your past, whether good or bad, coming across it in your present; we are actually not moving on.

I liked the idea of Snapchat, say whatever you want to and it vanishes after a few minutes. Leads to more freedom of speech, a carefree mindset and a liberty from past. It’s always good to live in your present and think about your future than living in your past. No over exposure of our personal lives, no retrieval and reuse, only new creations. Isn't that something awesome for our social health? Moreover, when you know it's going to be there only for a short amount of time, you will pay attention to it. Many a times it happens you are with friends or family taking out pictures and suddenly one would say "Don't Post them on Facebook"! And you are all thumbs down because you wanted to share them with people. People at times don't like to post on Facebook like platforms because they know that it will be there always giving out room to continued forming of perceptions and interpretations, which can be injurious to one’s life at any point of time. But the Disposable Social Media self-destructs whatever is shared, and you are free. This seems to give rise to a sea of new applications.

So what you opine, still Traditional Social Media or Disposable Social Media, is healthy for our lives?

Deeper thought would be, you want to always keep your past intact or be only in present and move on towards future...