Never Give up

Most of the time we begin with some goal in the mind. Work towards it, then all of a sudden we stop working towards it after a few failed attempts. We complain saying we cant do it because of this this this and this....
The fact is, we fail only if we stop attempting. Another attempt is needed, who knows how close we are to achieving our long cherished goal? Most of us remember the story of king brute and the spider. The spider kept of falling in the attempt to build its web; but never ever gave up, before completing the web. When a spider can give in so much to attain what it wants to attain, we are after all humans!!!
Why do we generally give up? Well the reasons for giving up may be many; not interested in doing it, a disheartening experience, Finding it really hard to compete, or even the fear of failure. The fact is that a positive approach of going all out and facing the situation itself changes the dynamics of the system so much that the we feel an intense energy which helps us succeed.
Give up like impossible should not be a word in one's dictionary. An attempt which has not met with success has to be analyzed and seen how it can be better attempted and work to wards it...give it another try; don't give up.

Try somethign innovative every time.

If I do something the same way I get the same result, but one of us want status quo. Continuous innovation is an absolute necessity in life. We need to innovate and create a lot of satisfaction for ourself.
Innovation might be in varied aspects, the process or the product itself. Its necessary that we innovate on either of them to realize and obtain a greater knowledge level. Innovation if a natural process to human beings, not many creatures have the ability to innovate as humans do. The ability of the brain to create and imitate has given us this ability to innovative a prime place is all endeavors.
Its essential for a happy existence that we tap into this master talent of ours called innovation, within the framework of our duty there are a lot of innovation which is possible an which has to be done. An innovation need not be radical, it can be stepwise and innovate slowly to reach a higher level of sophistication.

Dont let work accumlate

An important thing which I have observed, by repeated mistakes of mine is that I let work accumlate. This is a habit of procrastination which is so omnipresent. When I have to do some work, there is something that is too small to do, I procrastinate to push it to the next day, a little more adds to it, I have a bit more to do that day, but I am a bit busy today, will do it tomorrow, well it has accumlated for a couple of days, but I think I have to give some more time than the stipulated time, so I will give a few hours this weekend. I push it even further; but on the weekedn there is something that is more precious and am hard pressed to finish it off, so I am not able to finish it.
This is typical of any person, though I have observed it in myself, I get to hear of it from a lot of my friends itself. So what is a good way to solve this problem. The solution is simple - The same old mantra of having a bit of patience to finish off the work before I sleep. It may require you to extend the sleep time by about 5 minutes, but it is worth it. This patience, will develop a discipline, which will help us take care of these small trivialities very quickly and with least effort over a period of time. I recall some of the things when I first did I took over an hour to do it, but through rigorous practice, I was able to reduce the time to less than 20 minutes. Once discipline sets in, we gain a mastery over time management. We have the energy to do much more than usual, we stretch our limits and improve continuously - kaizen as the Japanese people call it.
They practice this thoroughly, through effective use of this technique, Japanese auto manufacturers were able to challenge the US auto companies in their own market. This is the strength of keeping to the basics, practising for improvement regularly. So dont let things accumlate - It reminds me of a kannada adage which says - "What cannot be bent as a sapling cannot bent when it grows up to be a tree." So when you realise there is a small things to do, it means you can continuously work to improve it and reach a greater perfection. Strive for continuous improvement; even when you are hard pressed. The benefits are worth the effort.

Enjoy the journey

Many a times we want only the results, we are not ready to put in the effort to get things done. We expect results for any effort that we put in, not really checking if the effort is worthy of the results that we expect.
We look at the fruit, and expect all the fruits to be attained if we aim and hit the arrow, how ever what is more important is to get the focus, the effort, the tension in the string and a lot many parameters into consideration and then make our call. Inspite of all the external variations, we need to have enormous patience and practice in achieving the goal.
The purpose of a goal is only to give us directions, its is not the destiny itself. The effort put into achieving the goal, is a reward in itself. Through systematic effort to achieve the goal we would work upon our weakness and try to make them our strength. We intended to experiment and improvise and get perfect. So, do you think its the final achievement that makes us or breaks us?
Surely no, the effort put in makes it worth the reward immediately, the talent fostered and the skill generated will help us, and will remain with us all the time... so its more important to live in the present and enjoy the journey rather than complain about not reaching the destination...

Face Challenges upfront

Swami Vivekananda once gave an anecdote form his life experience - he had been wandering in the ghats of banaras, when a group of monkeys attacked him. He began running in the opposite direction, and the monkeys began chasing him. Some wise man sitting there, suggested - "Turn back and face the brutes"; when he tried facing them the monkeys began running away helter skelter.
Though this might be just an anecdote, it gives a lot of valid insight into the way we live. Most of the time we try to hide, or run away from our problems. The minute we decide to solve our problems, face them upfront, accept challenges things begin to change. We see success; we get breakthrough.
Life is always a challenge, what joy in living if there is no challenge in life???
Life keeps giving us ample opportunities to try and correct our self, improve over self. But blame it on the human nature - we generally crib or complaint and wont act to correct. We run away blaming fate or luck for having pushed us into situation; the reality might be that we have blocked our perception and avoid seeing the reality. We want to live in a world of pleasure, of happiness but dont want to work towards it.
Its time we wake up... accept things as they are, face the world, challenge our assumptions... work with enthusiasm, and not accept defeat. We are the masters of our destiny, we have it in us to change wht happens to us so lets not run away from the challenges that we face but live up to them and create history like never before...
Never say die...

Try harder - it doesnt hurt giving the best.

Mediocrity is one of the worst things to accept. All of us have the intention of achieveing big things in life, we want to do a lot of things, but don't quite achieve it primarily because of the hard work we need to give to achieve it.
Giving the best under every circumstance is perhaps the hardest thing to do. Consistency is hard to attain too. Giving 100% each and every time you try to do a work is one of the best challenges one can set for oneself. It needs almost all the ingredients.
However, any person is able to raise from the satisfactory level which is generally accepted and reach the levels of mastery, its only because of the hard work, patience, discipline that this ha been possible. But an important question arises... if I keep doing the same thing wont I get the same thing, they why should I try doing the same thing again.
Well, the whole point is that it doesnt have to done the same way; even if we assume the environmental variable are all the same, what differs it the commitment we give to the task each time. We need to be a greater state of alertness in every attempt. When we are more alert than the previous attempt we are raising our creativity, our levels of hard work, our dedication, our devotion to the task at hand.
With all the Ds and the Ps in place its inevitable to give successful results, but doesnt guarantee any. Its the process which taught us all that we have learnt, its not the result. The result is only a measure of how much we have learnt. Its thorough our efforts that we gain experience; the reward of the hardwork is the experience which stays with us. This is one thing which cannot be robbed away from any one of us, will stay with us for life.
So it never hurts giving the best so lets try harder.

Learn to Learn

Learn to learn, and then there is nothing more to learn....Well this is what I would say!!! This seems to be one big bulls eye that any one can hit... learning how to learn... It seems to be the mother of all the knowledge any one can obtain in a life time.
Once an individual learns how to lean; then everything else becomes a end product of this mastery. The skill of learning how to learn is a hard nut to crack; but its not impossible to do it either. I only know some key ingredients in this process of learning how to learn which are absolutely essential - discipline and patience. These are two key things that any learning process will possess, patience to understand the process and discipline to give equal importance to the ingredients of the process.
If we find a very knowledgeable person, he/she has found his own discipline in learning and possesses infinite patience while learning.
To learn how to learn there is no big theory as I see; its all in getting practical. The biggest challenge any one would face is the laziness in approaching the challenge. How ever a person who has the will to command his mind wins the major battle in learning how to learn. Once the mind is made up its only a matter of working with discipline, un-evaluative and un-perturbed to reach the set destination.
Sounds simple but hard to implement rt, its exactly like the hard nut I told you - hard to crack but very tasty inside.

Read Regularly

Reading is one of my hobbies; I was a strict academic book reader till graduation days. I dont remmeber reading any other books except may be a couple or three of them, just becasue they were lying around in the hostels.
As I joined my job, and being the restless guy that I am, I felt completely guilty of wasting my travel time when I neither drive, nor putting the travel time to any worthwhile use. That is when I started reading books which I had purchased from some book store - some of these purchases were just because I had heard the name of these books some where. Initially I was very apprehensive about reading fictions, so would buy only the non-fiction scientific kind of books. I began reading books in the travel time and helped me know a lot of things.
In an otherwise boaring and monotonous habit as a software engineer this hobby opened up a new stream to learn the things I never knew before, or increasing my understanding on the ones I knew. I read books on Philosophy, history... well loves each one of them...
This is one of the most terrific hobbies I have ever cultivated has opened my eyes to a whole plathora of things. I have taken a lot away from this hobby... try it and you will realise what you have been missing all the while if u arent one reading freak... You manynot like all the books you find... so choose and stick to ur interest...

Single step at a time...

Some times it looks as though the target I set for myself is very far, not achievable - almost next to impossible for sometime. I sit back and think of it for a moment; i realise its not really difficult - its only a long one. It is just that I dont have the patience to wait for that long a time...once I realise this is the problem it gets easier for me to fix.
There is a Chinese saying - "The jouney of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Infact a golden rule - keeps us away from the thought of giving away easily; sticking on when it matters the most. In my earlier article on patience, I have defined patience to be some what similar - the ability to keep ones cool all through the process; not reacting before it is actually necessary to react. I have made this rule for myself - "One second more..."
Following the rule, I am able to improvise in that last second where I am able to get to a better decision. That once second more of information; the once second more of patience, the once second more of work which we give to our brain, provides us ample time to work on the necessary decision.
My friend Sumanth S K had once told "If you can postpone making a decision, it is better to do it; if its a bad thing that you would be venturing into, you might change your mind and abstain from commiting the bad thing. If you are making a good decision then it will help making a better decision as you get more information."
The key message in this is - if you can push deciding if possible by some more time... use it...
Think about each thing and get into the details make yourself comfortable and then get ahead... every single step that we take is a decision process. So take one proper step each time and you will reach the peak.... just need to be patient.

Joy in Giving

There is a unique joy in sharing... in giving people what you have. The joy is what I recently experienced... it was almost the fist time I shared some thing selflessly... the joy was enormous...

It started with an initial hesitation... which had prevented me from sharing whole heatedly till date... but some how I decided to give it and the joy on the face of people who received the gift was enormous....

You need to experience the joy if you are really haven't tried it... and for those who have experienced it... hats off... I am a new entrant into your arena...

Try out somethign new often

If I try to do the same thing, I get the same thing - then why should I try to do the same thing... with each attempt I need to improve. I need to "experience" and take the "learning" and use it to improve.
We are not going to improve or realize any of our talents if we keep the status quo; the status quo is only a temporary fix... we need to break the status quo and get to the next level. As the japanese ideology for the same - Kaizen; which signifies continues improvement; we too need to learn to focus continuously on improving ourselves and reaching a greater height.
Steve Jobs once mentioned that we need to ask ourself if we are doing something new daily; and if the answer to this question is no for a long time; then it means we are not going on the right path. So, great people realize the importance of improving constantly - lets be wise and learn from them, we need to improve constantly.
Every one of us are born with a lot of talent, there is a certain set of talents that we are aware of, as kid we experimented a lot and discovered our talents. With each talent being discovered within us we were so excited and happy; but now when we are grown up - neither do we know of the joy we had nor do we experiment to find our hidden talents. We loose ourself in the crowd some where...we consciously don't want to come out and try something different. We try for security all the while, but if I don't take the risk I wont get the reward.
By this I don't say quit the job your doing and focus on your search for the talent only; I would suggest develop a discipline to constantly look at ourself, search for avenues which we haven't explored earlier and go search for them. It may be about learning a new instrument, painting sketching, trekking... anything - anything that you don't usually do.
I keep trying to do something that I haven't done earlier very often - I wait for such a chance... each time I challenge myself with something I haven't done earlier... experiment and then seek avenues to improve upon it till I am satisfied with it. The approach I would have initially taken might not be the best; but definitely its the start of learn by experience....
Go get the experience of what you are!!! that is the real you... enjoy the journey...

Patience...

Patience is definitely one of the most precious things to possess; given that we are all in a hurry to finish things; and in the process we tend to do many things simultaneously. Does patience mean not getting angry? As I see it patience is much more broader than that; not getting too excited and reacting to something just another part of the game.

Patience is the energy which keeps us composed when things are not our way; it is the energy which helps us work with a clam mind. The end effect of being patient is clarity of thought and the determination to wait till we complete the work we take up.

Patience has worked wonders, while for me it not just increases the time to clearly think and compose myself, it also lets me make better moves than I would have otherwise done in a reactive mode. As I see it, there is hardly any difference between composure and patience - the most important thing when we are composed or calm is that we need to use the brain.

We need to learn to use the brain more consciously, which gives us a better control of what we do. Definitely through practice, the conscious execution of any activity over a period becomes a second nature. The conscious application will let us master the techniques better, the tools better and there by ensure that we reach a higher level of expertise in the domain.

Of late I have been practising this, and I feel this a better way to do things rather than the same old usual way of doing things. I feel more lively and happy this way...

The thought action divide

I was reading a book when suddenly something struck me....it was like this....I thought it was really hard to finish this book...but lo... I am almost engrosses in it, and I think I will be done with it tonight itself.

Well this is just what I mean by the thought action divide - generally we make a mental picture about something and then proceed. In some cases the follow up of the thought is through action and in other cases its just left as a thought.

While in the second case, where we take no action; the result is almost determined as untried and therefore failed; I would classify the first case as a better case. But this process of acting upon a thought doesnt ensure success to me.

This is the first step I need to take once I get to work form the thought. This first step has to be followed with another, then another and so on till I get to achieve the thought. The key to the first lock to obtaining anything is action; don't leave any thought un-acted up on.

On another aspect there is the concept of wishful thinking, and no doing. While wishful thinking makes one feel happy about the possibilities of future; its important to work towards achieving that thought. The more focused I grow on this thought the more profound the action and its impact.

We need to bridge this thought-action divide to start off...so why keep procrastinating?

God is in the Details

I was just walking back from the mess when suddenly this struck me. What does the master actually know? some more thought on the same and I realised - the details.

When you pay attention to details, you become a master. The general way of handling any tool, or knowing any knowledge can be accessed by any one; but to be a master u need to understand the tool/knowledge better than the rest. There is no second thought about it. Though I am using the words tool and knowledge here it doesn't limit to that, there are a lot of other areas this can be seen.

If we look at a master musician, we realize that he has spent far more time understanding the instrument. The mastery the maestro presents is a manifestation of the attention to details, uncovered over years of practice to reach perfection and make it a new level.

The example is just a real life scenario of the importance of knowing the details... The details are important. Very important. To rob the words of my friend Ashwini Patil's words - God is in the details. You need to focus on each and every detail to be excellent, to be the best, to beat the best dont rest...keep focusing on the minutest of details.

If you consider the ability of kun-fu trainees to do what we cannot do, it is only by sheer practise, discipline, and the attention to details. There is the Chinese saying - "If you know youself, you master your body, there is no weapon more stronger than you. You can use your body as the sowrd to guard yourself."

The attention to details makes us aware - infact fully aware of what we do. We rely less on chance and more on effort(or rather say... what was understood to be chance earlier becomes a route you know).

May be this awareness of and attention to details by the so called 'gurus' in the Indian context have given them a huge importance. Their attention to details makes them appear more than human...some times supernatural...that I guess is why they the guru (read master) to God in the sloka
"Gurur Bhramha, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha
Gurur Sakshat Parabhramha, Tasmai Shree Guraven namaha..."

A musical mastero attains the hight of perfection, but is able to understand a lot of related areas by mapping to ones domian of expertise at various levels; even this is by attention to details. The attention is what I would call as concentration. The more one concetrates, aka focuses on understanding the domain, giving details a higher weightage (this comes by observation) the mental processes set in helping improve and stay aheas in the race...becoming a master in the long run.

Focus and attention to details come only through patience, practise, and perseverence. The 3Ps hold the key to being the God.

Set goals!!!

I was reading the Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma and he makes a mention of the importance of setting a goal in life. He give six reasons which are enough to take control of our work and some part of our destiny.

The six reason which make it essential to set goals are focus, growth, intentionality, measurement, alignment, inspiration. Each one of this is definitely important for us - goal is the motivationg force which gives us these six things as a gift.

Its though goal that I am able to focus, Robin indicates that if we write our goals some where and read them for around 5 minutes once we wake up, it helps us keep our focus. I havent tried this but will definitely try it.

The goal makes me grow as an individual, lean more, improve with each attempt... this is hard to find grow if I don't know what I am moving ahead. This gives me another reason...the measurement. When i know what my ultimate target is, I can measure myself as I move. There is intention of the goal in all that I do, all my work gets aligned into my goal...it inspires me into action towards ataining the goal. though this is a simple yet powerful idea.

I will definitely try this out.

Give Your best

Today is Engineer's Day, which marks the birthday of one of India's most profound statesman - Sir M Vishveshvarayya. A man of remarkable will, an epitome of professional perfection as I see it; his work even to this day remind me of his larger than human contribution to the state and the country.

Sir M V once said - "your job may be just to clean the railway crossing, but do it so well that no other railway crossing in the world is as good as yours." This is just an indication of the crave for excellence one has to have in ones life.

We are not born perfect, but its through effort that we all grow in life. Reflecting upon myself, the areas I have put in effort are the areas in which I am the leader. It takes a lot of systematic effort as an individual to attain success.

Its through systematic and focused effort that every great achievement has been done in the world. Making a systematic effort is most important area to work on for any individual to reach his aim, completely involve yourself in doing the work. This is the secret of self mastery and leadership in any field of life.

Giving the best in what we do is the work we do, is only possible throug the systematic effort. Giving the best to what we do makes us the best in what we do. Be it Bolt or be it Fedrer, all are the best because every time they get into action they want to give the best. To give their best they have followed it with systematic effor over a long period of practise.

I will remember to be the best you need to give the best. The best only comes with systematic practise...

-Chi