Ajit Panicker's Blog, page 5

How to use storytelling to make your public speech interesting?

We all love hearing to stories. A story well told can hypnotize people. People listening to you might forget what you were wearing, what you were showing in your presentation, a graph or a fact, but would always remember the story you told.

In most of the business presentations, meetings and interactions, the business leaders and managers avoid telling stories because they feel that might make the presentation informal and not business-like. And so they fail to grab attention of the audience and establish an atmosphere of trust and respect with the listeners.

Two decades of my experience in sales, after-sales service and corporate training, has taught me that, be it an audience of 200 people or a presentation to an individual client, we should always use few personal stories in our speech. Professional public speakers always use storytelling and with it they make even statistical data, graphics and fact, more vivid and interesting.

The best stories to use in your public speech may involve true facts from your life, self –effacing humorous facts about your past mistakes and challenges, success stories from famous people’s biographies and stories that explore the history of your business.

Not every story will grab your audience’s attention and interest. We should consider few important points when choosing the right story for your speech.

First, to begin with you should give your audience something that will enrich their lives, from the richness of your own life or someone else’s.

Understand that it’s not bad to create excitement around your talks and presentations because the element of genuine excitement makes the presentation or the speech memorable and influential. It’s great fun for the audience. But just for the sake of displaying excitement, if the speaker tries to build up unnecessarily, the buy in itself might not be achieved.

Remember to always to tell a simple story. Make it emotional and personal. That’s it.

Stories don’t work when the audience can’t visualize what a speaker is talking about. We get lost if things are too dry or abstract.

Aim to create an image or stimulate the senses in some key way. Really effective storytelling allows the audience to put themselves into a situation that you’re describing. If they can’t see it or touch it or taste it, then your story won’t be as effective because they won’t be as interactive with the information you’re providing them with.

When you’re telling your story, try not to speak from OUTSIDE the experience using memorized words. Speak from within the experience, using personal perspective to help the audience feel, see, and hear what YOU feel about your topic.

It’s not just telling stories for the stories sake; it has an end point that means something for the audience. Don’t just tell a story because you think it’s fascinating for yourself, always ask yourself “What is it that I want my audience to get out of this story by the end of it?” Work your way to the end point of your story from its very beginning.

The “Magical Secret” which changed my Life

With the blog I set off some seven years back, I have come a long way to become a published author with two books to my credit. It feels super fantastic to have reached this stage where my second book, a romantic thriller novel is now an internationally acclaimed novel. Not only this but also that the same novel, I think I know you…Karunya, Do I?, would soon be put up at the world famed New Delhi World Book Fair 2018. It’s like a dream. From oblivion some seven years back to this day when I have more than 35,000 readers and followers, I am grateful to the almighty that he has graced his blessings on me. It feels majestic when people acknowledge your work in words and are up with praises for the great job I have done so far.

Friends, but let me tell you that the story has not been a hunky dory one. It’s been really difficult to keep up with my passion to write along with all the daily chores one common family man is usually responsible for. Especially with our own share of family struggle, my wife and I had to go through in the last 9 years, it has been bloody brutal.

So, I was telling you that it all started with a blog which I started on blogger.com which I named as Ajitkpanicker writes…. Those days I had ventured out with my own start-up with a company called Celeb Financial Planners Global, a private limited firm into financial planning for individuals. With the kind of struggle every start-up has, we too had our share of struggle to bring it to a stage where we could break-even. But finally we did it. We were three partners to the firm.

We were all ex-bankers with undying fire in our belly to win over the world. The trio we were, had set out to create a financial planning firm with at least 500 crores as the AUM in the first 5 years. But those goals and dream just got trashed into the bin, when after the first year of operations we could envision nothing but a bleak future for our company. Both of my partners started looking for greener pastures which could bring them faster money. And in those days the real estate industry was at its boom. They moved on, leaving me with all the sewing up to do. Eventually with all the fixed cost burgeoning every passing month, I had to finally hang up and bring the operations to stall.

Though I continued to live up to somehow manage the downside, which was actually not just a downside of the business but actually a back breaking state.  And the business collapsed. But before it could become a total loss, I sold off the brand and handed over all the clients and the relationships to the new owners.

And then I got back into a 9 to 5 job, grudgingly. I was left with no choice with a family to run and bills to pay with loans surmounting over my head. I continued as a freelancer and consulted the new clients, provided them financial advisory and managed their investments. But that was not enough and not a long term lucrative option to continue because people were absolutely unwilling to pay fees for financial planning. They could easily part away with their money to an insurance agent who would have made them buy a product which gave him the highest fee income to earn from. But they would not pay to a financial planner who could judiciously plan his life and his finances and help him attain financial freedom.

So I had no choice but to leave people to their financial illiteracy and work towards making my own life. There was no point waiting for the industry to get demanding and for the people to understand its importance. I would have wasted at least ten long years of my life only to make people aware of its importance. And I had no plans to do so.

I had in the meanwhile started taking up freelance training assignments. Of course I started off with training in insurance companies and banking sector, and then moved on to work for different training assignments at various other corporates. I aligned myself with at least a dozen training companies in the market who kept providing me assignments all the year round. At one point in time I was conducting 16-18 training sessions in a month. The trainings used to be on various soft skills. The programs I conducted were for sales, service and marketing professionals of the companies from the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, automobile, banking, consumer durable, real estate and insurance industry.

And in the spare time I had, I wrote. But before I actually began writing, I had revived my old voracious reading habit. I had begun reading like mad and use to finish off reading one book every second or third day. Books which had always been my friend, all my life were a big relief. I was relieved in a big way by reading but was still not able to let go out the flustered ‘me’ inside me. And so one day, I picked up a pen to write. That was the day. Just about seven years back.

Four years after passing out of MBA with flying colours, being the topper of the batch, the expectation of the family and the people who were known to me was extraordinarily high. Things at time do not turn out the way the world was expecting out of you or the way you had been thinking about yourself all your life. I used to get so pissed off, finding people on Orkut and Facebook, posting their achievements every now and then, that I had actually uninstalled the website from my laptop. Those days I did not have a smartphone to do so. Like it was said in that iconic movie, 3 Idiots, ‘It’s not your failures you are pissed off from, but the achievements of your friends and peers, which disturbs you more’. But no doubt, I have come a long way and evolved as a person. And have understood, the reasons are always our own insecurities and negativities and not anybody else.

I kept writing whatever came to my mind and continued with my training assignments. I had all the time in the world to read and write that I could not, ever have taken out, if everything had remained normal. Biggest thanks to that company which had thrown out about 7000 employees from all over the organization because of the cost cutting pressures. I too was amongst those fortunate ones. And the turmoil I had to go through did not cease till it had brought me crushing to the ground.

All what could have happened to a person in his lifetime happened to me and my wife in these years. And one day while trying to find a good read from a bookstore, I got hold of a book, which changed my life forever. I recommend this book to every soul I meet now, because if it could change my life, which was in an unfathomable shit, it could change anybody else’s. The book was “The Power of Subconscious Mind” by Dr. Joseph Murphy. I began reading similar books and began researching on the concepts written in the book. There are things in my life which have happened as I had imagined it to be, all because of the learnings I had out of such books.

I continued writing.

Sometime in loose sheets. Sometime on my laptop. But whenever I got time, I wrote. It was at times, a short story. Sometimes it was a wild imagination. Sometimes it was a dream. Sometimes it was just a conversation between two people.

I vividly remember they were two of my friends who had returned after their visit to the New Delhi World Book Fair. Arun Singh Ruhela and Pranav Dubey. They had come straight to my place in Noida, to my rented apartment. That day I did not have a training session. I was about to have my lunch when they came. And the chat we began with turned into a long whimsical wish. We were of course discussing about books, all three of us being avid readers. I don’t know what happened but I wished and said, ‘Wait and watch, the place you have come from as readers, the New Delhi World Book Fair and the place I’ll be visiting two days from now as a reader, a day would come when I would enter that space as an author’. And my, my. It has turned out to be so exactly true.

And this year, in the New Year 2018, my book, the second book, a romantic thriller novel titled, I think I know you…Karunya, Do I? would be put up for display at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2018.

Gratitude to the Lord and to all the people who have come into my life making me a person I am today.

These last seven years have changed my life.

In my next post, I’ll share the magic I learned which turned around my life like this.

 

My Top 10 Lessons of 2017

The year 2017 is about to end and we all are ready to welcome yet another year. The New Year 2018. Like every year, let me share with you my top 10 lessons of the year. The practice I began with, in 2010, when I wrote for the first time my top 10 lessons of the year. I had never imagined that those posts would actually change my life so much in the coming years.

One should always look back into the year which has passed by to remember, to pay gratitude to the events which have happened in the year, to feel great to have added many more new and wonderful people into your life, to have learned few more new things and so on. That’s what I think.

So looking back into the year which is just about to close its eyes forever to never come back again, let me share with you the lessons I learned this year.

1.       Habit of reading ~   Like most of the people, I too would have not welcomed the changes in my life so well, if it was not for the habit of reading. I ended the year 2016 and began the year 2017 with one major resolution to keep up with. And that was to read at least 32 books in the entire year. Though have not reached that stage where I could say I have done that but yes, after having read 23 books so far this year and the 24th being read, I’m pretty satisfied. The lesson I learned here is that reading keeps you enlightened and going. And of course it helps you get out of the most depressing of situations.

2.       Gratitude towards the smallest of things in life ~  The day I understood the Power of Gratitude, I have never missed a day, thanking for all that I have. Power of Gratitude continues to empower me this year also. Lesson is that one should not miss even a single day or an opportunity to express gratitude to the situation and things in life.

3.       Family time ~  Though have not been able to manage this one so well but yes towards the later part of the year, when my family which was away from our  home for almost two years came back. And my travelling reduced. I am now able to spend almost every evening with my two little kiddos and my wife. The three hours I cherish every day with them is something I look forward to every day. Lesson here is, that spending time with family, talking, playing and discussing things with them, de-stresses you completely. At the same time they too feel great and happy. Quality family time goes a long way in developing the children into wonderful human beings.

4.       Don’t mix work with personal life~ To maintain balance in life is the foremost thing one should do. Bringing your work home does no magic to your growth in your professional life. Instead it reduces your chances of going ahead.

5.       Devote yourself to a dedicated ‘me’ time~ You not only should manage your personal and professional life with balance but should also be able to take out time for your own self. For your own soul. The time in which you do things which satiates your soul. The time different from your personal and professional life. You too should live your life.

6.       Stop watching TV~  From past 2 years, I have successfully managed not to watch the idiot box, TV. For all entertainment I want to watch to, I switch on to YouTube, Amazon Prime videos or Netflix, where I watch what I actually want to watch, and not just what is being telecast. So, I choose to watch. The lesson I have learned is that I am able to spare a lot of time which I am then able to utilize to be with my family or for my own ‘me’ time.

7.       Get out of all unnecessary gossips~  Gossips at office or in personal life, I had got off with, ages back. But of late, these WhatsApp groups had taken a toll on life in a big way. So decided and made a big time exit from all the WhatsApp groups. Be it family, friends or official, because it had actually become only a medium of unnecessary forwards of pictures and videos. No warmth, just forwarded messages.

8.       Put yourself to a regular physical routine~ With a full time job to manage and so much of travelling involved,  I realized somewhere in the middle of the year that all this was taking a huge toll on my body. Hence I enforced myself to follow at least a 15 minute stretching routine wherever I stay, even if it is a hotel.

9.       Learn new skills~  This year I finished writing the second novel which got published on amazon with a bang. After all it was among the top 20 books out of the 250 books across the world at the American Idol for book lovers. But then I realized in the process of becoming a published author, I have also learned the art of editing, designing, proof reading, promoting and marketing the books. Towards the end of the year, I can proudly say that I have also become an active narration and voice over actor. And it is all because I love getting into the unknowns to learn the new skills. The result is that I am about to get signed for a narration assignment for a 3 book series, a trilogy on Harappan Culture.

10.     Accept your weaknesses and work on them~  The last but one of the most important one is that one should accept whatever he is not good at or whatever he is weak at. Even if you are not good or weak at something but want to make a world out of it, you can still do it. But then you should work hard on it to learn the best ways by reading and researching on it. Talking about it with the experts, take classes; learn from the best in business. So, you need to put your head and heart into it to become a master.

 

 

EMI Calculator to Loan of Success

Success is sought after by all but eludes the most.

Success cannot be measured on any scale. True it cannot be, because definition of success is different for different people. For what is success to me; the materialistic pleasures, may simply be immaterial to you.

I want happiness, I wish wisdom, I cherish relationships, I want wealth, I crave love, buy you may not. You may not be gratified by these alone; you may wish more or may be much less.

Over all these years, most of the people who have come my way have shared their desire to succeed with what success actually means to them, their own definition of success. Quite possibly, success for most of us is that level of achievement when we are able to fulfill our basic needs, the social needs, and the luxuries as needs and for some may be the self-actualization.

So does that mean we can measure success. Is the scale based on our own customized need gratification?

At the first place, do we really have a scale to measure success?

At least I have not found anyone so far who could give provide me one.

You know why?

It’s because we tend to see success in relative. We compare ourselves with people around us. Not with the one we idolize. Of course not, with our own selves. Now because we compare with others, we always tend to fall short of achieving our success.

You toil hard, day and night, stretching over weeks and months to reach there and as you are just about to reach, the other person’s already achieved success which you had considered as your benchmark, has raised its bar. You stretch more to achieve the new high set by the benchmark; the other person’s newly achieved success, and it moves onto the next level and once again you fall short.

Is this not the biggest reason of our unhappiness index soaring high, all the time?

So what do we do now?

Let’s take a loan. The Loan of Success.

The application to this loan has to be submitted to the Bank of Universe. The loan application has to be filled in with your personal details and the amount of loan you want.

The best part is that your credibility is not based on your existing CIBIL score. You might have been an all- time defaulter till now and you can still be granted the loan. And the amount can be decided by you. Quote any insane amount and receive it.

The only few pre-conditions to successfully get your loan approved are, that you would not compare yourself with others, you would compete with your own self  and you would have to continue to adorn the positive mental attitude (PMA).

But this loan too comes with some mandatory conditions to repay the loan. Of course nothing comes free. You will have to pay the EMI. EMI to the Loan of Success.

The first condition to repay the EMI to this loan is that you have to repay regularly. But the best part is that you are not required to repay to any one individual institution or person. You may also not be required to pay back within a stipulated pre-decided tenure. But you will have to repay this EMI all your life.

The EMI is not necessarily required to be paid in cash. It can be in kind. The kind again may not necessarily be the tangibles. They can even be the intangibles.

You can choose to repay by standing in support to the ones who need by simply being physically present.

You can choose to repay by sharing their sorrows and helping them come out of it.

You can thank them for the simplest of gestures they display in your honour.

You can love them for being what they are without expecting anything in return.

Do remember you are repaying. You are the borrower. You have taken a loan. The Bank of Universe has granted you the amount which you have always desired, the unlimited abundance which you had always wished for.

Now it’s the time to repay. And repay all your life.

Another condition to this loan is that you are not paid in full, in one go. Instead like the home loan, you are paid as and when you require. The next part of the already sanctioned loan which you could avail would also depend on your payment history.

If you agree to the above , your loan agreement would look something like this

Loan Agreement

Agreement of debt 

Parties

This loan agreement is made between :

Full name __________________of Address

And

Full name___________________ of Address_____________________________

Date of Agreement:

This agreement is effective from________________________

Period of Loan

This loan shall endure for a period of lifetime calculated from the time of effective date.

Loan amount

The borrower promises to pay to the lender _________________________ along with interest and other charges outlined below.

Interest

The borrower shall be liable to pay the interest rate in equated monthly instalments of _____

Prepayment

The borrower shall be entitled to pay larger instalments than prescribed  but can never pay back in full

Late charge

Late payment charges would be levied in form of an extra EMI , the next time the instalment is made.

Insolvency

If the borrower is declared insolvent, he stands an equal chance to become a beneficiary to other loan borrowers.

The parties confirm that this contract contains the full terms of their agreement but any addition to or variation of the contract can be enforced in writing and signed by self.

 

Execution

Executed by both Parties on _______________ 

Happily Changing Lives !!!

Why retire at 45?

These days it’s so common to find people around you talking about retiring early. Retiring by 45. 

It is really admirable. That’s what most of us would feel about people who are determined to achieve. But it’s not that obvious. If you browse on the internet, you’ll find countless articles on ‘why should you retire at 45?’ or ‘How to retire by 45?’ Probably those who believe it is such a charm don’t know that it’s actually not that fascinating.

Is it because they want to loosen up and chill out after 45 or are there some other reasons too?

There was a time in my life, when I too was running this race to finish by 45. For me too there were reasons.

I seriously admire both the extreme poles, those who are able to cut down their desires to the bare bones and live a very frugal life and the ones who have been able to strike super rich very early in their life.

I would reiterate, it’s not that obvious. Let’s understand why people actually want to retire early and why we should think a lot before pulling the ripcord too early.

 Few of the reasons which I think are: 

1.       People are working on roles which they feel is not their dream job and continue to remain disgruntled, working day in and day out. And some 10-15 years of being in that state, they feel there’s no point slogging like this for the entire life. Therefore, it’s better to slog harder for few years and enjoy life after 45. So it’s not their passion but their dissatisfaction which is leading them to believe on ‘Let me too retire at 45’ fad. 

2.       People are impatient. These days it’s not the hard work ideals but instant gratification, which most of us run for, every day. Society does not have that patience to wait for years, work for decades, learn along the way and earn that level of maturity with their pension. So it’s not their passion but their impatience which is leading them to dash to achieve this insane goal of ‘Let me too retire at 45’. 

3.       People say if it’s 80 what we are going to stay put alive, then with only 15 years after 65 and that too at that helpless physical state, there’s no point retiring at 65. Retiring at 45 is what, would give us years of pleasure.

The point of contention is that if you have decided to retire at 45, would you actually retire once you have secured yourself and are financially free or you would retire irrespective of it.

And if you achieve financial freedom and then retire at 45, is it still that great?

Remember, that your friends and family might not be able to achieve this ‘retire at 45’ goal along with you. After having achieved this state, to have all the time in the world to do anything you want in your life, will your friends too would have that luxury. What would you do alone, with all the spare time at your will? They would like to spend time with their family and friends, when they get free during the evenings or during the holidays, rather than spending time with you. It would actually get depressing. So it’s not only the financial gratification of the work which is the reason we work for, but a lot more than that, actually.

There’s a point in life which we reach when it’s not all about earning money, because we have earned enough. So whenever we reach that stage in our life, be it 45 or 65, it’s not about focusing on ourselves, but helping others.

Instead of focusing to retire at 45, if we are able to retire with financial freedom, irrespective of the age we are able to do that by, it would actually be the gratification in the real sense.

Be the Lighthouse at the workplace

Understanding the energy at the workplace: Being the Lighthouse

In the L&D space for more than 10 years now, I have often encountered people complaining about dissatisfaction at the workplace. Usually in every corporate monthly or quarterly meeting the team members have a plethora of problems in their plate at display rather than ideas to improve the grueling situations.

The meeting starts with a major problem (the major dish at the table), gets served with enormous number of miniscule problems (smaller dishes which are add-ons to the main feast) and then ends up with a mammoth sized ( supposedly a sweet dish at the end turns out to bitter the entire feast altogether) unexpected problem.

Considering a similar meeting in an organization, team members come out of the meeting with gloominess hovering all around them. They are distressed right at the beginning of the day.

Now let’s take two members out of all, who were attending the meeting, and check out how they dealt the aftermath.

Rishabh and Shubodh, both at par, designated to execute the same level of responsibilities at the company, were also part of this meeting.

After the meeting they went to the cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee and something to munch. Rishabh who has joined this organization, just about three months back is yet to come to terms with the way this team, this organization works. And Shubodh has been in the company for more than four years now.

Shubodh without realizing what his take on a situation could do to a new employee started blasting off at the policies, procedures and the way the manager is taking the team ahead. Shubodh has been part of all major projects which the company has taken up in the recent times. He is an important team member too. Rishabh is aware of Shubodh’s stature in the company.

He kind of admires Shubodh’s efficiency and result oriented focus at a given task. Hence Rishabh is prone to get easily influenced by whatever Shubodh expresses.

Somehow Rishabh gets influenced grossly by the discussions on various tasks at hand, and most of the times it was Shubodh who was the key influencer.

Rishabh, who had a flourishing track record so far in all his previous assignments at the other companies he had worked with, had yet not taken off here in this company. He had already spent six months in the organization.  In the very next month he had to undergo a performance review with the team head and the HR.

We as readers know what had influenced him so much that his career was at stake, but would the team head or the HR would ever be able to uncover the actual reasons.

The real understanding is, would even Rishabh be able to find out the reasons for a situation he had got into.

That’s something real, to ponder.

So I have my quick 5 ways to understand the energy at the workplace and keep it positive to foster great individual and team performance

Keep your home at home and work at work: Neither try to bring the work at home nor the emotional baggage’s of home to work. Keep it separate, as much as possible.


Be a lighthouse of positive energy: Smile, keep a positive attitude at everything which comes across you. See, think and act with the positive lens on. Try and spread the positive elements of being an old member of the team.


Communicate effectively: Keep absolutely clear understanding of every communication happening between two people. Don’t leave room for any ambiguity because if that happens, it creates a maze of gossips and complaints and the chain engulfs the team’s positive energy.


Approach problem as an opportunity: As an individual task owner, a problem which has surfaced before you should not always be approached as a problem. You should not get helpless and perturbed by it, rather should focus to look at it as an opportunity to find out one more way to resolve such a problem.


Organize self and the workplace: Ensure to keep yourself and the workplace organized all the time, because it reduces chances of errors at any given point in time.

 

Happily Changing Lives!!

 

10 ways to create ‘Productive Best Resources’ in your organization

Every organization, each of its departments and every single team leader wants productive resources. Isn’t it?

And not only just productive but probably, the “Productive Best Resources” (PDR) in their team.

The reason is very simple, we want the output to be more than the input. Revenues to be more than the expenses, so that margins beyond expectations can be achieved. But how do we do it, if we have just the resources and not their ‘Productive Versions’.

We interview people regularly to somehow get our PDR’s, but we rarely are able to hire such a resource. We usually get , just the resource and then we have to spend all our energy, time and money to train, prepare and finally make them fit for the role they have been hired for.

And this is not just with the first time employees, the investment is almost the same with even the vintage resources, who have some great industry experience.

So how do we go about making the existing resources into PDR’s. These are the 10 ways to create ‘Productive Best Resources’ in your organization:

Alignment of the Goals> PDR’s can only be made if they have their goals aligned with the goals of the team, the department and the organization.
Vision > The resources should be able to visualize their growth path in the organization for at least the next five years.
Value Creation > Value creation should be the objective of every task, every project undertaken by the resources.
Hard work > The notion of hard work, which is more the number of hours put more is the hard work, should be reviewed. Effectiveness of each minute put on a task should be analyzed.
80/20 rule > The time being managed should follow the 80/20 rule of ensuring that  80% of the most important tasks should get completed in the first 20% of the time of the day.
Curve of Learning > The resources should regularly upskill themselves by getting trained and by being completely updated in their area of operation.
Inspire by leadership > The resources should be led by the managers who inspire them to be the change to change the things around by demonstrating the change in themselves.
Communication > Productivity is to give your maximum and may be beyond what is expected out of you for the set number of hours you are putting up. But that can only happen when there is seamless communication between every channel in the organization.
Rewarding and recognition> For all that is being accomplished according to the organization’s expectations out of the resources, should be amply rewarded and recognized.
Positive Environment> An environment of increased productivity is only possible when the organization makes an effort to ensure a wholesome positive environment at work by various engagements for the resources.

 

21 Rules to every day Success

 1. Stop procrastinating & prioritize

To achieve what you want, you need to prioritize your day by executing the tasks according to the importance and the urgency of the tasks. One can create a personal and a work TO-DO-LIST and categorize them into ABC categories. Start with the most important and urgent task items early in the morning and then gradually move into the lesser important tasks and may be postponing the least important ones towards the end of the day.

2. Express gratitude for all that you have today

Continue to thank for what you already possess and thank for what you are aiming at. Let the Law of bliss work for you.

3. Discipline yourself to habits

Nothing can be achieved without discipline and repeated actions. A habit can only be formed if you discipline your life to routine and make consistent efforts to improve them.

4. Do not hold back your dreams

Do not fear to dream. Don’t hold yourself back to attempt what you want to. Give it a try at least once.

5. Do not fear to fail

Don’t worry about the result of the attempt you are going to make. Do not let the feeling of failure, which could just be one of out of the two results of an attempt get over you and stop you from attempting itself.

6. Explore yourself

Explore, Experiment and Extend yourself to unknown territories to experience the beauty of knowing yourself.

7. Do Value Creation

Create value at your workplace by delivering more than all others with the same type and quantity of resources.

8. Plan your Goals with timelines

Set Goals always with timelines. Timelines bring seriousness, sincerity and strength to the goals. It ensures closures.

9. Think, just think; out of the box or not

It’s not important that you have to be the Jobs, the Gates or the Zuckerbergs of the world. It’s not important to think out of the box, to make a mark. Important is that you should think and act. Wear a thinking hat for all your actions and decisions.

10. Welcome the Challenges ; see them as opportunities

Learn to welcome problems or challenges as opportunities. Wear a lens which helps you take them, as opportunities in disguise, because most of the successful people have seen problems as necessities which helped them invent the solutions in form of products.

11. Build Rapport with the environment  

Create long lasting relationships with the people around you at all levels. This world is run by human beings who have drastically extreme levels of human emotions. Understand emotions, strengthen mutual respect and create rapport with them.

12. Extend help to others selflessly

Do not hesitate to step forward and extend help to the people around you, selflessly. Let the environment feel you as a contributor in their growth.

13. Conduct a SWOT on the self

Regular and rigorous self assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats would help you hone your skills to up your level.

14. Don’t settle down in the present, but be happy with the present

Being happy and content with your present is important to let the positive energy work for you. But at the same time don’t settle down with it. Regularly unsettle yourself to add novelty to your personality.

15. Keep your Intentions pious to bring change

Things which you intend to change in your surrounding for others happen, only when you keep your intentions true to your conscious.

16. Motivate others with Self-Change, do not try changing others

Forcing change leads to nowhere. Motivate the change you want to see in others by displaying your changing self.

17. Celebrate accomplishments not necessarily the success

Small or big, whatever you accomplish, celebrate them to make the moments memorable. The moments stay forever as you age.

18. Spend more time with family to gain strength

Family time should be strictly family time. Keep yourself away from all distractions and all work when with the family. Devote your time completely to them. They are your core strengths who stand by you at all times.

19. Present yourself in style

Let the world feel your presence wherever you go. Present yourself confidently with your grooming and your magnetic behavior.

20. Negotiate win-win situations

Deal with various challenging situations to bring value to all. Negotiate in a way that the proposal brings results which are win-win in nature.

21. Learn, don’t try to teach lessons to others

Lecturing is the easiest way to display your intelligence, is what most people think. Instead learn from others and let them feel, they too know a lot. May be then place with subtlety, what you want to put it across.

Happily Changing Lives !!

Happiness at Will

We work day in and day out to earn our livelihood.

But have we ever wondered, what is the ultimate reason we wake up every day and live for?

Is it for money?

Is it to feed our family?

Is it to fulfill our dreams?

Can you reason out?

Is it not “Happiness” which we seek out every day.

It is for this ultimate gratification that we wake up every day and continue to seek for the entire day.

But when we see around, we hardly find people happy in their life. Most of them are cribbing about the various kinds of problems in their life. We all want happiness in our life and that too all the time.

Today I want to share with you those steps that can bring “Happiness at will” into our lives.

Let’s again do this, in 10 steps:

1. Most importantly, immediately stop thinking about the problems in your life. Stop thinking about the lack of any kind in your life, stop talking about all the ills which have happened to your life. Just stop chanting the sadness in your life to anybody. They say “sorrow” reduces only if you replace it with happy thoughts.

2. Start being happy for what you have today, for what you have already been blessed. Start practicing the ‘Power of gratitude’.

3. Believe that there is no shortage of any kind, no shortage of any resources which you want. Every imaginable thing is in abundance.

4.Laugh, be friendly to those you hate the most and see the ‘happy’ world being formed around you.

5. Talk less and listen more to nature’s music of green, blue and orange. Feel earthly, feel lively.

6. Give a smile, spread it around with every person you meet during the day.

7. Every negative thought coming to you should be welcomed with a glass of ‘happiness’ and should be made to feel helpless.

8. Help every person coming across during the day with the smallest possible gesture.

9. Try to celebrate the smallest of achievements during the day. Make yourself feel accomplished every day.

10. Retire to bed with ‘happiness’ to your soul, feel relaxed and rest your body to happiness.

Happily Changing Lives!!

Work like a Proprietor : Be the Boss on your Salaried Job

“My dear friend !! why the hell do you take so much of pain? What will you get out of this? Your extra hard work will hardly be paid off. Why don’t you just complete the tasks for which you been hired? You are just an employee; at the end of the month, you will just get your salary. Why are you dying to work so hard?”



Is this not a very familiar conversation which you often hear in and around your office?



It’s a mindset. A mindset which takes away the performance which a potential employee can display and come out highly productive.



A business owner if enjoys the profits which he makes out of his business; then he also has to bear the losses which are incurred. He takes ownership. Obviously, he has to, because he is the owner of the business. He would not limit his working hours to a 9 to 5 job because his business is his baby, his responsibility.

He would not make excuses for not being able to complete a task on time but would feel unnerved. He will ensure to complete that task by attempting again.



Now, if with the same mindset and an attitude of a proprietor, a salaried employee works, what will happen?



A huge shift would occur in the business.



The shift would be in the bottom line of the business,

The shift would be in the top line of the business,

The shift would be in the high retention of the employees,

The shift would be of the high productivity and efficiency of the employees.

But

The biggest shift would be in the high morale and boost with which an employee would persistently work on his job. He would love his job more, he would take pride in his job and would see to it that he always outperforms his last achievement.

With this attitude, the accountability would turn in, on its own. 



The salaried employee would feel the that he owns the job.



He would take the targets to achieve according to his own abilities and skills. He would continuously upgrade his skill sets because he knows to he has to become better, he himself has to change according to the changing environment of business and technology.



The various issues of taking leave without prior intimation, losing interest in the job profile, cribbing for the new role assignment would not happen because the individual himself would take up the new responsibilities and initiatives from the front. The biggest hindrance of evaluating his job with respect to his salary amount being credited to his account would be completely out.



It’s like each and every resource would be the part owner of the company.



You, the salaried employee have to feel and act like a business proprietor to be the boss of your job.

Happily Changing Lives !!