Best Investment!

To become wealthy, you must save and invest. Government of India gives you tax rebate if you save and invest money. Today, there are numerous opportunities to invest your money. I was pondering over few which I am seriously considering; few of them are really good. We are over-serious for investing money in property & share markets. What about the most valuable assets like body/health, intellect, mind and soul? I believe you are truly wealthy if you are physically fit, successful in channeling your talent properly, have ignited minds and awakened soul.

I spent some time in self-reflection and explored my beliefs on making investments. The best investment we can make is the one we make in self development. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, Gautam Buddha, Socrates, Mohammed & Swami Vivekananda were the wisest investors in my opinion. They made investments in themselves. Don’t get me wrong, Warren Buffet is still the best financial investment tycoon today. But the point I want to make is: the time, energy & money you invest on your own self-development pays the best dividends. 

Self development is simply undertaking techniques to help you unlock your potential – to be the best that you can be.  You learn to stop letting negative thoughts and emotions hold you back in your life and you become free to live a life where you can go beyond the boundaries. Personal development is all about defining & executing personal development plans for improving self-awareness, building /renewing identity, developing your talents & soul, identifying & improving your potential, enhancing lifestyle or quality of life, improving health and fulfilling aspirations. It is initiating a life enterprise.

You make changes in order to become happier and more fulfilled. One of my friends developed a habit of reading 20 pages before breakfast everyday and he ends up reading 3 books every month. Shyamendra, a software engineer in a networking company started meditating few minutes in the morning & evening and increased his level of concentration to great extent.  Over a cup of coffee, Sr Vice President of Hindalco shared his health secret – ‘30 minutes of brisk walking every day and a little extra care in what I eat helped me to stay away from doctors for last 30 years’.  Small, tiny changes made over a period of time become gigantic forces which work for you. 

Here is the list of 5 things you can do to make big deposits in your account of personal development:

1. Pay yourself first; every month, set aside 10% of your income for investment in your own development. Buy books, attend trainings, go for a movie, buy great gifts to yourself.
2. Spend quality time with yourself; Take out two holy hours every day for self-reflection, meditation, reading, writing & planning your day, month, year and life.
3. Give back to society; We make living by what we get but we make life by what we give. Dr Suresh Singh (Medical Surgeon) just got admitted his servant to a school and spends 5 hours a week teaching her.  My wife & me, recently adopted six kids to sponsor their school education. I feel more confident and capable after that. I bet, you are richer than you think. Start giving back to society in whatever ways you can.
4.  Do more good; Pledge to do more good to yourself and to the world. Put your knowledge & ideas to execution and make difference.
5. Love your work; Your work is going to fill a big part of your life. You can’t really develop without developing skills which get you success there. Plan your own growth. Develop your skills which you think will take you places. 

Share your own ways of personal development on this blog by writing a comment.

14 Ways to multiply your productivity in just 14 days

 1.       Turn off the TV: This idiot box is #1 killer of time and it drains all the energy left after a tiring day or week. This actually makes people lazy and less productive. Avoid.   

2.        Read David Allen’s best-selling book ‘Getting Things Done’: This is one of the most important productivity books you will ever read.

3.       Become an early bird: You get 45 additional working days (45 x 8 = 360 Hrs) in a year by getting up one hour earlier every morning. Get up early before anyone else. Nothing beats a quiet house.

4.       Drink plenty of water: Drink a liter of water early every morning. We wake up dehydrated. Your most precious asset isn’t really time; it’s energy. Water restores it. While working during the day keep on sipping water frequently. It supplies more oxygen to your mind and makes it efficient.

5.       Find your own Pareto buckets: The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the result in life comes from 20% of the effort.  Find out these 20% activities for yourself and focus your energy on the same. 

6.       Observe technology fast: Turn all your electronic notifications off. Shut down your laptop. Put your phone on silent mode. Take your holy hour or two for meditating, reading & thinking. Observe silence for an hour every day.

7.       Love what you do: This will improve your concentration on work at hand which is actually the secret behind every great act in the history.

8.      Drink a cup of green tea: It strengthens your immunity, fights the cause of allergies, slows aging process, prevents wrinkles & acne and stabilized your cholesterol levels. It really reduces stress and bolsters productivity.

9.      Auto pay your bills: Enable auto payment on a fixed date for all your EMI and automate the utility payments from your account. Save energy and time for doing things which take you closer to your dreams.

10.   Shop online: whenever possible, avoid going to the store. Flipkart.com is one of my favorite sites. Or you can just buzz the neighborhood store and ask for home delivery.

11.    Take care: Your body is not a machine. Take proper diet & rest. Stop all the work and rejuvenate it for one day in a week. Pamper your senses by taking great care of them.

12.   Find a mentor: Right guidance is the rarest thing in this world. I owe a lot to my best friend, sister and mentor Dr Suman. She is a wonderful lady and is always there to guide and support in professional and personal life. Who is your mentor?

13.    Outsource as much as possible: No job is menial. But think how much extra time and energy you will save by outsourcing cooking, laundry, car wash, house cleaning and other such chore activities. In this time, do something else which adds more value to you.  

14.   Be happy: Happiness at work is the #1 productivity booster.  With a happy mood, you make better team, stronger relationships, higher sales and delighted customers. Research has proved that happy people are more creative, have more energy, learn faster and make better decisions.  

Remember, productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. So, persevere.

If...

I have been reading & researching about truly developed personality and found no better description than the ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling. I wish I could have read it to you in person. It is awesome. Even if you have read it earlier, it is pleasure to re-read this great piece of work by Kipling.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.                If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,                If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;                If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster               And treat those two impostors just the same;               If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken               Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,               Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,               And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”                If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,                Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,                If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;                If all men count with you, but none too much,                If you can fill the unforgiving minute               With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,               Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,              And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!                                                                                        –Rudyard Kipling

Listen

If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.                   - Turkish Proverb

Business means building relationships and I never came across a better tool for this than giving a patient ear to your ally. The ability to listen actively can improve personal relationships through reducing conflicts, strengthen cooperation; make you more productive, get growth in career and fosters understanding. Success depends on listening.

Give an ear, harvest gold of wisdom.

Listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret and evaluate what he hears. When interacting, people often are not listening attentively. They may be distracted by mind chattering or thinking about what they are going to say next (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements). Active listening is a structured way of comprehending, retaining and responding to others. Suspending one's own frame of reference, suspending judgment and avoiding other irrelevant internal mental activities are important to fully attend the speaker.

Active listening ensures that you not only hear but listen to the speaker and he knows that you are listening what is being said. Here are four golden points of active listening.

Point #1: Pay attention
Prepare with a positive, engaged attitude, give the speaker your undivided attention and acknowledge the message. Recognize that non-verbal communication also speaks loudly.

§ Stop all non-relevant activities beforehand  and focus your attention on the subject

§ Put aside distracting thoughts and things like daydreaming and cell-phone etc.

§ Follow and understand the speaker as if you were walking in his shoes.

§ Avoid being distracted by environmental factors.

§ Listen to the speaker's body language.

Point #2: Show that you are listening
Use body language and gestures to convey your attention. 

§ Nod occasionally, smile appropriately, make eye contact, lean forward and use other facial expressions.

§ Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes, ok, hmm etc.

§ Note your posture and make sure it is open and inviting.

Point #3: Defer judgment
Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments and beliefs can distort what we hear.

§ Set aside your prejudices, opinions and try to learn what the speaker has to say, not the other way around.

§ Don't agree or disagree rather encourage the train of thoughts from speaker.

§ Allow the speaker to make his point.

Point #4: Respond appropriately
As a listener, your role is to understand what is being said and make the speaker believe that he is successful in communicating the message across. You are gaining information and perspective. You add nothing by attacking the speaker or otherwise putting him or her down. Interrupting and making counter argument is a waste of time; it frustrates the speaker, at the same time limits your learning.

§ Ask relevant questions but let the speaker finish first. You can't really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.

§ While asking questions, quickly express appreciation and briefly summarize a preliminary point before you ask.

§ Give feedback. You can do it during the entire talk by using small verbal and non-verbal signals.

§ Be candid, open and honest in your response and assert your opinions respectfully.

§ Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing periodically.

It takes a lot of concentration and determination to be an active listener. But it is possible and you can do it. Be deliberate with your listening and remind yourself frequently that your goal is to truly listen what the other person is saying. Set aside all other thoughts and behaviors and concentrate on the message. Ask questions, reflect, and paraphrase to ensure you understand the message.

Remember what Carl Rogers said ‘One's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively.’ Start using active listening today to become a better communicator, improve your workplace productivity, grow your career and develop better relationships.

 Stay tuned to the blog for tips on other communication skills on Fridays to follow.

Read

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites and it gives you knowledge of the world & experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. 

                                                                                                                                                    - Elizabeth Hardwick

 ‘I was really most stupid kid in fifth grade. Other kids in the class used to laugh at me when got zero in Maths and English, most of the times.’ But my mother constantly encouraged ‘you are smart Benni, you can do anything you want to do; just get into the habit of reading. Education is the only way you are going to get ahead in life and be successful. Limit your time on TV and start reading.’

Dr Ben Carson with President Bush

Today Bennie is known as Dr Ben Carson, the most successful pediatric neurosurgeon in the USA. Nelson Mandela was right when he said ‘Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world’.   After reading so many biographies of successful people I conclude ‘Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways, in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.’

Here are three significant serendipities that reading furnishes us:

1.  Activates and exercises the mind

2. Forces the mind to analyze and discriminate

3. Pushes us to use our imagination and be creative

My summer feast

Reading is a fundamental part of one’s education and integral part of communication skills. Habit of reading makes one a good receiver and this helps to become a good sender too (remember communication process from previous article). People who learn to read early are generally more successful in academics and post that. By developing a reading habit, one can instill a love of books that lasts a lifetime and brings wonder, joy and knowledge. It makes one more creative, analytical and expressive for the outside world. And I would say, expressing yourself is a part of communication. 

 If reading is a habit you would like to get into, there are a number of ways to cultivate it. Few of them being as follow:

• Set a goal - Decide from core of your heart that you are going to become an avid reader and set a goal to read a fixed number of books in next three months. Explore area of your interests; get to know the best book in that area. Buy one and get started. Getting started is the secret of getting ahead.

• Set time - You should have a set time every day, when you read for at least 30 minutes. These are times that you will read no matter what - triggers that happen each day. For example, make it a habit to read just after waking up in the morning (definitely that’s a great start of a day) of before going to bed in the night. This will help you read minimum 15 books a year.

• Always carry a book - In India every person spends average one hour waiting each day. We waste lot of time in waiting for our turn at bus stop, railway station, cafeteria, people to come in the meeting (if you are punctual), at hospital for your turn, movie to start and traffic jams to clear. If there is a time when you have to wait you can always whip out your book and read. Wherever you go, take a book with you. Technology has progressed, now you can go for audio books and utilize your commuting time, too. If you start utilizing this one hour you can read minimum 30 pages a day which translates to another 40 books in a year for no extra time.

• Make a list - Keep a list of all the great books you want to read. You can keep this in your journal or on your system. Be sure to update it whenever you get to know about more great books. Keep a running list, and tick mark the ones you read. Once you make progress you can keep a book log. Where, you can maintain title of the book, name of the author, start date, finish date and your learning from the book on your system. Believe me it is satisfying and at the same time improves your documentation skills too.

• Reduce television - If you really want to read more, try cutting back on TV consumption. This may be difficult for many people. But this could create hours of book reading time. Moreover, now-a-days TV has become an instrument which feeds only negative things into your mind and fasting from it saves you from lot of energy drain. I decided in the beginning of last year (yes, 2010) to not let the idiot box snatch my time and it has made lot of difference to my energy levels & accomplishments.

•  Read to your kid - If you have children, you must, must read to them. Creating reading habit in your kids is the best way to ensure they’ll be readers when they grow up and it will help them to be successful in life. Find some great children’s books, and read to them. At the same time, you’re developing the reading habit in yourself and spending quality time with your child as well.

Start reading today. Stay tuned to the blog for tips on listening, writing & speaking on Fridays to follow.