Being ethical

(Writing for 4th Feb)

He felt a hand at the back of his shoulder. The touch was to get Praveen’s attention by Raj. Raj wanted to ask the answer of question no 3 in the Class 10th Mathematics exam. He surreptitiously was trying to ask Praveen, but Praveen didn’t budge and politely declined by giving a stern look at him. This also got in the eyes of invigilator and he warned Raj. Praveen didn’t believe in cheating or helping in cheating. The value which he had got from his upbringing was not to do wrong and anything unethical.

Fast forward 6 years, he was in the engineering college. He was into the college journey and was in full youth, energy and the enthusiasm. He found himself pointing to Joy who was in front of him asking for answer of one question in Basic Electronics. He was the same Praveen who was against even small wrongs. But the college environment and friends with him have diluted his thoughts and threshold for declaring an event wrong had risen in his eyes. Small wrongs was right now for him.

You start accepting things which you considered wrong earlier. This slowly drifts in your mind and you start justifying your act by giving some or the other excuses in your mind. But what is wrong is wrong. You know it. If you are taking the credit of a task done by your team mate or by your direct report, you know deep inside that it is not right. If one is claiming incorrect capability of a product that it can do so many things which it cannot do, just to do sales, it is again unethical. We are into so many things and at so many different kind of environments that we adjust ourselves to that environment and start doing the same things as others even if that is wrong.

The question need to be asked always. Ask yourself “Are you ethical”. Only you and you can answer this. Do not accept superficial justification from yourself. Let the thoughts subside and keep on asking “Are you ethical” with relation to any activity you do. This will help you improve. Even if you have done small wrongs earlier, this will help you improve your future journey. It doesn’t matter much how you behave when all are watching you, it matter most how you behave and act when no one is watching you.

Last and the only page

(Writing for 3rd Feb)

What will you write about yourself and your activities if you have only one page and that is the only page you have. In the next 24 hours, you can write, draw anything about yourself, plan for the day. You may want to look into that what you have written may be before going to bed. This idea just popped up in my head and I found it quite interesting. This limits your thought and excitement for the next 24 hours and you would want to do your best in that duration and write about it. This will help you seeing yourself in retrospective and will help you in improving every day.

The last page could be either preserved or destroyed every day. The purpose of this is to improve everyday and learn from the past. You can be creative and innovative. This also help you not to go very far in future and be in present. The positive reinforcements and the tasks to be done during the day could be written. If you focus more on how to do rather than what and why to do, you will inherently improve. The focus on how will improve the productivity and results in better output both in personal and professional life.

Go ahead and write your life. It is an interesting journey and worth writing about. It is your life. Live it your way and not wait for anything to trigger. Live and write as if it is your last page.

Transformation Fear

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(Writing for 2nd Feb)

John had always seen at others participating in debate, racing events, recitation and other school competition and always thought that he would be better than the participants. In the mind he visualized that he would be the winner in those events. But the hesitation and fear of public appearance and stage fright prevented him from participating. The fear got reinforced in his mind with more and more non participation and thinking of himself as winner. The contrast thought and action made a huge mark which was almost indelible.

His fear continued from school to college and till early part of his job until one day a thought struck to him that he should do something which he think he cannot do. The trigger of this thought came from a mail in his company where it was asked to participate in a skit on the annual day of his company. He found himself on both sides while contemplating whether to participate in the event or not. Most of the times he found himself more comfortable being on the other side and in non participation, which any way was his inbuilt characteristic. This time he wanted to challenge himself and go against the comfort thought and comfort zone. While struggling with the thoughts of giving his name for the skit, he found his finger clicking on the send button of the drafted mail which he typed for participation in the skit. His heart skipped a beat when he clicked on send button instead of delete on his office blackberry.

Within a month after couple of rehearsals, he performed the skit on the annual day with other participants. The skit was very well appreciated and John’s performance was the cherry on the cake. People couldn’t imagine that a person whose image was of introvert could perform so well. He won a lot of accolades and his colleagues and other people remembered him with his role. This boosted his confidence and broke his image of non participant to participant in his mind. He started trying himself into new avenues like learning new languages, playing guitar, running and many other new things. His overall outlook started changing.

You need to come out of your comfort zone. You should try some small things which you think you cannot do. That brings a different perspective in life. The nervous energy in trying new things helps and once you are into that activity that brings confidence. You will get into a habit of trying new things and coming out of stagnancy. There is a lot to explore within you. You will be amazed to know about the new you. Its a never ending experience. Till the time you have the last breath in you, you can do anything and everything. You need to rise above yourself and the fear of transformation will slowly be gone from within you.

Change in 10 minutes

(Writing for 1st Feb)

Mick was told by Elizabeth, his manager, to create a pre-sales presentation for their company’s product. Mick noted that in mind, but hadn’t started working on that thinking that this may be one of the tasks which Elizabeth might forget and is not in the priority list. This assumption was taken by Mick as while communicating about this presentation, she didn’t mention the deadline which she usually used to give for the tasks.

Mick was comparatively relaxed and working on the daily list of items which he has to work upon as an executive. The relaxed period continued until Elizabeth bumped upon him and asked about the status of the pre-sales presentation. He fumbled in replying her and mentioned he will start on that soon. To her surprise, she blurted out why has he not started when the deadline is tomorrow and the next day they have to give the presentation. The anxiety nerves went all through his body and he nervously replied back that he will ensure that it is complete by tomorrow.

Mick went to his desk and took few deep breaths and tried to regain his composure. After 10 min, he thought of an earlier idea which emerged into his mind while his daily run. The idea was to focus on the next 10 min and only 10 min. Not more than that. This will ensure that he is truly focused on the work which he decide to do in that next 10 min. That was just an idea until this project gave him an opportunity to execute the idea. He started with that and opened a blank ppt on his laptop and with full focus started thinking and typing about the content which he has to write about the product. Things started flowing and it became a bit interesting and comparatively easier. He didn’t have the anxious moment of thinking about the presentation being delivered to the client. Rather his full energy was in this current moment of making the ppt to the best of his ability and knowledge.

He focused fully on creating a masterpiece at least from his side. He wanted the presentation to be his best. While working on that 10 minutes after 10 minutes after 10 minutes, he didn’t realize he spent almost rest of 6-7 hours in office and the first draft of the presentation was ready. He was satisfied about what he has done. While driving home, he has the peace and smile that he is not worried and he was engaged in the task he was given. He was deeply satisfied that the idea which he got out of blue, could be implemented. The next day he worked for few more iterative 10 minutes and came up with the final version of the presentation. Elizabeth was happy with the presentation and it went well with the client too.

Rather than worrying about tomorrow, day after tomorrow, next month, next year and any dreadful day (in your imagination) in future, if you focus with all your energy in the next 10 minutes, you can cool your nerves and can devote to the tasks in hand. This way you will always remain in present. However bad the situation be, if you accept it and then work upon the task which you have to do to come out of the situation at least for the next 10 minutes, it will not be long when the 10 minutes can become 4 to 5 hours. This will increase your productivity and will give you immense satisfaction.

Do it now. Days are less

Preet ran for the decided time and did his 10 min of meditation which he does just after the running. He does this meditation in a park which is adjacent to the School where his son Krish goes. Once he was done with meditation he looked into his watch and it was 7:58 am. A thought penetrated his mind that he could align with his son’s arrival in School and he may see Krish off at the school gate. Waiting for 2-3 minutes, Preet thought of tracing the path where his son comes from daily expecting he would see his son.

To his disappointment he was unable to see Krish. He was calling his wife Kiran to know about Krish but she was not picking the phone. Later almost when he reached at the gate of his housing society, he received call from Kiran. She mentioned she missed waking up on time and Krish was dependent on her to wake up as she was his alarm. So the situation was that Preet could not fulfill the desire of seeing off his son at school which he earlier thought he should do frequently.

He decided to not postpone anything. Do it now or do not repent of not doing. We generally go in the mode of postponing and thinking that we can do it later. That create a baggage in mind in a way that something you think should be done and you are not doing it. If you think a task has to be done, do it immediately or within the next opportunity. Else not doing and thinking to do that you have to do it , will create stress.

To come out of that stress, you need to plan and act for a shorter duration. If a plan has to be created plan it for 1 day and ensure you act upon that. You may want to have a long term goal, but if is better to have short plan and act on immediately. If you start acting upon short tasks and see that being completed, you will get that confidence.

Plan , Act , Plan , Act , Plan. Create shorter plan for a day and execute those smaller tasks, learn from it, repeat the exercise. Life is short. You do not have all the time and if you keep on waiting, you will always be waiting. Do not just wait to be happy. Be happy and content now.

This is unacceptable

(Writing for 30th Jan)

This is unacceptable ! How could you do this. Matthew was on top of his voice shouting at Martin. A minute before Martin broke the news that the project cannot be delivered on time as per the plan as there are certain challenges and the testing for the code build could not be completed. All hell broke loose for Matthew and he was shouting and saying “This is unacceptable”.

Martin was politely replying and mentioning the reasons for the delay in the start of the testing. The resource challenges, the environment challenges etc. He mentioned that this has already happened, so how can this be unacceptable. You have to accept what has happened, then we can sit together to assess what could be done from here to bring the project back to green. But Matthew was furious and he was again and again coming to the same point. As per the project plan, the testing should have been completed by this time and you are mentioning the testing hasn’t started. Again Martin heard the same three words “This is unacceptable”.

In any bad situation or event which has already happened, we find it very difficult to accept the event. If we do not accept the present situation, how could we progress. We will be stuck in questioning why it has happened and blaming each other. It is good to understand why that has happened to learn from it, but not for blaming and going deep into it and not accepting the situation. The project plan is a plan. There is no guarantee that the project will be delivered as per the plan. It has to be re-planned. Even after re-planning, many projects fail to deliver.

Rather than saying, This is unacceptable, we should accept it because it has already happened. Retrospect and learn from it. And Move on.

What If

(Writing for 29th Jan)

What If I am going to die today ? There will be one day that this will be true. And that day can be today. Why are we waiting for something to happen to start living. The death is always round the corner, so why not start living in present. Start exploring the life. We live in the limited constraints of our mindset and do not think beyond that. Lets look into the possibilities outside our mind world. This will bring energy and enthusiasm to live. We are not just to live in certain pattern. A lot could be done with the body and soul which we have.

What if I become billionaire. As a common person we generally do not say, think or believe these words. We find it difficult to imagine ourselves as a billionaire. If you want to be rich or you need a comfortable life and want to attract money, you should not feel discomfort in thinking that you will be rich or have that much amount of money. You need to remove the blocker from your mind. If you remove the inhibition in thinking about money, the possibilities of earning more may open.

What if I become happy, content and peaceful. No need to wait for becoming happy. That could be done now at this very moment. Unless you become happy and content now, you cannot be happy. Here happy doesn’t necessarily means laughing, cheerful, happy that deep inside you are at peace. So even if outside world is bad and harsh, difficult to you, deep inside you can be at real peace like the bottom of the ocean.

Explore all your What Ifs and see how those What Ifs can transform your life. Life is about exploring and learning, engaging, enjoying.

Hold my hand

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(Writing for 28 Jan)

While coming after my daily run, I saw a lady with her son holding his hand and walking towards the school. The boy who would be 10-11 years young was looking to be assured and was not thinking much about the road which he had to cross along with her mother. Contrary to that his mother was vigilant, eyes towards the school and rushing with her steps one after the other as if the race was between her two legs on who can be faster.

The boy’s speed to reach the school was governed by her mother’s rush and intention. He was least bothered if he will be reaching on time or if there are any cars coming on the way. Trust plays a big role here. In life scenarios, especially in difficult situations, we wait and wish if someone would help us. At that time even if you get someone who understands your situation and listens to you helps. A person cannot live his whole life alone. By basic nature human beings are social animal. And you need some people if not many to talk to you, to understand you or hold your hand.

You would have different trust or comfort factor with different people. With few you can talk for few minutes, with few you can talk for hours and open up. There are always few, may be 1-3 people, you can call at any time, talk to them, ask for help fully trusting that that person would surely help. Similarly you will be that person for few other people. These small circles, close circle of friends, then family and then few colleagues with whom you work, creates your world. All other things are in TV, internet, newspaper and in your imagination.

In this busy world no one has time for anything. Everyone is running after something or the other. The rat race is never ending. And you hear some or the other news about someone has passed on in family, friends or acquaintances. You will feel sad, reminisce some moments where you have last seen or interacted with that person and then get up and move on to do your daily chores. As you grow older, you will start feeling the need that someone should be there to hold your hand. The holder could be one of the person in your closest circle.

The boy going to school may not want his hand to be held as he goes into adulthood. He will have his dreams of independent world, going beyond the sky. The mother would still want to be with him, if not physically at least in thoughts and conversations. But sooner or later this realization comes back that you need someone to hold your hand, not physically but who is at the back and you have the trust and belief that he is with you no matter what. You don’t have to say to that person “Hold my hand”. You are already held in the love, care and trust.