Comparisons don't take you forward.

Output and Results, do.

Let me begin with a story

The emperor's personal stylist, despite all his efforts of making the emperor look smart, he was upset that he neither enjoyed the influence, status nor got the price equal to the emperor's personal secretary.

He gathered courage and one day poured his woes to the emperor, who listened to him patiently. He said, "Ok, we will test it out. There's something very special happening in our capital today. Tell me about it?"

The personal stylist was baffled, didn't have the answer, but, asked for a little time and dashed off into the streets.

He asked everyone what's special that's happening in our capital today.

After meeting many, he found a big new ship had berthed in the harbour.

Feeling elated about the finding he rushed to the emperor and told him, "Your majesty, a big new ship has arrived to our port today."

The emperor said, "Good. Where is it from?"

The stylist didn't know the answer and dashed off again this time to the port, and found it has come from Hong Kong. Delighted he rushed to tell the emperor about his finding.

The emperor was happy, and said "Good, what did it bring?"

The stylist had no answer he rushed back to the port, found out and came to report.

The emperor acknowledged and kept asking more and more information that the stylist had to make almost twenty trips back and forth to the port and got tired.

The emperor calmed him down with sweet words and said relax.

The emperor sent for his personal secretary, who came in almost in a flash. "Your highness you wanted me." The emperor said, "Yes. Can you tell me what's happening in our capital today?"

The personal secretary said "Your highness there's a buzz today because a big ship built in 1949 of teak from Burma, owned by a Chinese Business tycoon, with a capacity of carrying 250 elephants, has come from Hong Kong carrying silk, spices, herbs, scents, rice and tea, captained by Ching Lee, with 65 other sailors has been berthed here. It is believed that after a week of selling some of its wares and refilling essential stocks it leaves for its long journey to Jamaica."

The emperor was mighty impressed, and glanced at his stylist, who gracefully bowed both to the emperor and his personal secretary and said, "Pardon me your highness for my stupidity and for being such a loud mouth. I understand where I belong. Thank you, your highness for exposing my ignorance, naivety and for opening eyes to reality."

Just sit down and think about yourself and see how your are performing. Are you like the personal stylist or the personal secretary. Chalk out what are things you can do to personally shape yourself for meaningful roles in your career.

Inspiring true story Originally Published in the Readers Digest. THE LONG LIFE OF ROOM 1108 by Laurie Olson, Dayton, Nevada

A long flight of weathered steps led to a hollow wooden door with rusty numbers beckoning us into room 1108. Inside, we barely noticed the lumpy bed, faded wood paneling, and thin, tacky carpet.

We could see the seashore from our perch and easily wander down to feel the sand between our toes. We returned again and again until the burgeoning resort tore down our orange-shingled eyesore. Forty years later, my husband periodically sends me short e-mails that declare the time: 11:08. “I love you, too,” I write back.

Clarity

"Clarity precedes success." - Robin Sharma

“A lack of clarity could put the brakes on any journey to success.” - Steve Maraboli

“Clarity affords focus.” - Thomas Leonard

Nothing Grows by itself.

Biologists often talk about the "ecology" of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn. It grew to become the tallest because no other tree blocked it's due sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no squirrel dug out the acorn, nor did any rabbit chew through its bark as a sapling, no lumberjack cut it down before it matured.

Let's get to real life now..

What is the question we always ask about successful people?

We want to know them, we want them to know us,

we want to know what they are like,

what kind of personality they have,

how intelligent they are or

what kind of life styles they have,

what special talents they may have or

be born with,

in short, we want to become what they are, because we assume that it is those personal qualities that explain how they reached the top.

We believe they certainly from hardy seeds, but, we do not know the sunlight that warmed them, they soil in which they were able to put down their roots, and the rabbits and lumberjacks they were lucky to avoid?

Believe me no one will ever tell you the entire truth, but, what is certain is that they had the right people in the right places at the right time for the right purpose, providing the in-puts, clearing the path, urging them, eeking the, nurturing them, tutoring them, mentoring them, coaching them. There's another truth to this, all this either happened or the individual made it happen. All the same, there was a process a method and the individuals hardwork too. Indeed, there are no short-cuts to any progress in your career.

Seek the right people even if on teams at a price, because you are sure to derive value out of it.

Commitment

"Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there." - Haile Gebrselassie

“Commitment is an act, not a word.”- Jean-Paul Sartre “Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality.” - Abraham Lincoln

Make SMART MOVES.

Three Important Questions to ask yourself..

Yes, be it in business, career, sports or life, there are three important questions to ask yourself for all your money's worth.

01. Why do you want to achieve and become, what you want?

If you know the answer for your "why" your "what" becomes easily visible, and your "how," will invariably find a way to get it.

2.     "What" do you stand to believe - your principles, your values, your ethics, your priorities?

You achieve what you believe about your abilities and your skills. You beliefs, your values and principles help provide the energy and discipline that drive you towards your goals. Beliefs and values are what roots are to trees, because trees will get uprooted if the roots aren't deep and widespread. Just like strong winds test the strength of trees to withstand force

Even we, can be tested on values and beliefs as performance can take a beating in the face of competition and pressure.

03. What is your action plan?

How will you prepare, organize yourself to execute actions to reach places you want to get to.

Your answers to these three questions could be the platform on which you build your performance.

You increase your chances of doing well when you plan properly, prepare carefully, when you execute your tasks well, and when you respond sensibly and positively to results.

Good preparation requires clarity, simplicity, attention to details and superior execution calls based on solid decision making, which comes from mastery of basics, mastery of self, pure clear thinking, good concentration and calmness, both of mind and body.

Debriefing of performance in the end is a powerful weapon that is often neglected. It allows you to monitor standards, correct mistakes, make better plans and do better next time.

Zeal

"Zeal will do more than knowledge." - William Hazlitt

"Zeal without knowledge is fire without light." - Thomas Fuller

"Zeal is a volcano, the peak of which the grass of indecisiveness does not grow." - Khalil Gibran

MANAGEMENT vs LEADERSHIP

There's a difference between management and leadership.

Management is about doing stuff - the daily operations for the tactical things to get done.

Leadership, on the other hand, is about people. Itis less about what you are doing and more about you're being. It is how you show up for your people. It is about being available to handle the human side of things.

When we are constantly at tactical things like

-  what milestones to hit,

-  what metrics to reach,

-  what products to ship,

-  what project deadlines to meet... what have wry little time to care for the people who make these critical tactical things happen.

On the other hand leaders aren't responsible for results as much as they are responsible for those people who get the results. And without the support of our people, it is us leaders who have to feel and take more responsibilities for even those tactical things because we know ultimately it is our butt that's on the line.

What if we focused more of our energy on leading and building relationships with our people so that we can trust them, and they can trust us?

Then we can empower them to take accountability for the tactical, which would open us up to do what we do best as leaders - look to plan for long term future.

If you are in a leadership position in your organisation, consider asking yourself this question, "What percentage of my time do I spend MANAGING vs LEADING?" If leading percentage is smaller imagine what would be possible if the numbers were reversed.

Mindfulness

"With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment." - Nhat Hanh

"Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes." - Nhat Hanh

"Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that." - Jon Kabat-Zinn

Get Your Priorities Right

We live in an age of information overload and excessive pressure, which often plays tricks with our minds and our perceptions.

They destroy our sense of priorities and make the line between what is really important and what is not, blurry.

We often give trivial things importance they do not deserve and make make mountains of mole hills.

Concentrating on the important priorities first is the key to good performance.

The story below about big and small apples illustrates effects of high and low priorities on concentration and performance.

An apple farmer once asked his two sons to sort out the stack of apples into piles of big apples and small apples weeding out bad apples.

His sons worked hard all day long and when they finished the job they called their father to show him their work.

The impressed father congratulated them and asked them to mix the the two piles - the big and the small ones again.

The boys were furious because they thought their time was wasted. Anyway, they did as he said.

The father then asked about the other small apples piled up near by. They said, those were bad and rotten apples which they discarded.

"Very good," said the father and added, "If I told you to remove the bad and rotten apples from the entire pile, you'd have missed some of them, but, now because you looked at each apple carefully you were able to check if was big or small apple, and in the process you didn'tiss out on the bad ones and we're able weed out the unwanted.

Prioritise first, performance will improve by itself with the clarity that prompts action.

The point is High Priority items are the ones that determine action, and Low Priority items, however, shouldn't be ignored, they must be taken into account too.

Enjoy the festival. May the Almighty Bless all of You and Everyone Yours - ABUNDANTLY, GENEROUSLY, and INFINITELY.

Pressure and the Mind

Pressure can either be a friend or a foe. In the right proportion it can lift performance to great heights, but, if it gets out of hands it can mess up everything including health and a career.

The ability to cope up with pressure usually separately great professionals from the others. It is also true that even great professionals sometime succumb and fall victims to chronic pressure.

In life, we constantly play two different, but, interrelated games - a public one (outer game) and a private one (inner game).

The outer game is played in a way everyone can see. It needn't be only against opponents.

The inner game is played in our minds, it is against us. An unseen game in which there is constant interaction between our thoughts and feelings, our goals and fears, our confidence and our doubts, our strengths and our weakness. Many of us fail to either recognise or acknowledge our vulnerabilities. We play this game all the time without being too aware of it.

Formal instructions, mentoring, training, or education usually do not address the inner game as such, hence playing the outter game becomes difficult. Coaching helps get a "mastery," of our inner game.

Champion professionals, play both these games well, therefore they are Champions.

This is not to say it is difficult, it calls for a high amount of Discipline, Dedication, Hard work, Integrity, Practice and Zeal.

It is Within You

We are ruled by our limiting beliefs

Too often we believe we are not good enough; something is not working for us and it needs to be fixed; something is missing; and something special needs to be added to make it worthwhile. These limiting beliefs often hide the wealth within.

This story will explain...

A young man inherited a statue of clay, which was in the possession of his family for ages. He was feeling ashamed to show it up proudly to anyone. Wished it was of gold, so when he did earn some wealth, he had the statue gold plated, as it was made to look the way he wanted.

Over a period of time flakes of gold started peeling off from the statue. He began to spend more and more time and money on maintaining it. Was growing very frustrated.

One day his grandfather him, the young man showed him the statue, feeling rather embarrassed and ashamed because of it dishevelled appearance, of clay somewhere flakes of gold somewhere.

The grandfather who knew the statue well, recognised the statue and started to rub it with aoist cloth. After roving the clay, he said, "Many many years ago, this statue must have fallen in mud and clay, to cover it up completely and they must have forgotten to wipe or wash it, and so it must have become covered. You wouldn't know."

Saying this he began to rub the statue even more vigorously and as he did so he began to remove the stuck clay and the bright yellow metal started to appear.

"The grandfather then told the grandson, "Underneath the clay statue has been one of solid gold from the beginning. You didn't have to put more gold on it. From now on all you have to do to show up gold is to remove any clay or dust that settles on it."

Like the clay on the gold statue, poor vision, limiting beliefs, negative thoughts, self doubts, poor excuses and habits hide the wealth within which undermines our desire and ability to perform well, to succeed. These obstacles are like the anchor at the bottom of the sea, holding up everyove we make. Removing them sets our inner resources free.

Performance is better more often by understanding ourselves well from within, and from constantly - learning, unlearning, relearning, being curious, creative, innovative, being interested and by being present 100% every moment.

What are you waiting for them, start unearthing the gold lying hidden inside each of you.

Opportunity

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." - Henry Ford

"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." - Bobby Unser "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle

Change Your Beliefs and Perceptions and you will change your Performance

Good morning folks. It's a relaxing Sunday morning, a cool gentle breeze brushes my face, while

I sit to script this message after enjoying my cuppa steaming aromatic coffee, a little while ago.

Henry Ford said "If you believe you can or if you believe you can't, your right."

I was on a call last night with a friend, who has tonnes of self belief and loves taking on odds, especially things that others say she can't do. She thrives in proving them wrong. She has on her own steam come a fair distance in life battling several odds, overcoming several obstacles. She is really a "powerhouse of energy," carries a lot joy and is adventurous by nature. She is in terms of sport a very "talented" and a "gifted athelete," in the race of life she runs wanting to better her own timing, as she isn't in competition with anyone. This script of today is dedicated to that friend Very Special friend VS...

She reminded me of

Roger Bannister, the English Athelete who created history by breaking four-

minute barrier for the mile. Until then no one believed that it was possible to

run a mile in less than four minutes. Once Bannister smashed the limiting

belief, the task became easier because everyone knew it could be done.

Within a year, the race was run under four minutes by forty atheletes and

with ten years 296 times.

What's the lesson here?

If you want to achieve something really worthy, change the limiting beliefs that are holding you back and the negative self-talk that is sabotaging your performance, your career, your life.

Beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and self-talk control our emotions and behaviour.

If you change your belief, you'll change your perception,

if you change your perception, you'll change your thinking and your self-talk, and

if you change your thinking and self-talk, you will change your feelings, action and performance.

If a plant grows in a bottle it will take on the shape of the bottle and will be confined to it even though it has the potential to become a large and beautiful tree. This is exactly what happened to my friend who was bottled up.

To get that plant to grow one would have to break the bottle to set it free.

The plant will grow mature, bear fruits and propagate.

Like the bottle, limiting beliefs inhibits growth. Unmindful of all these she has earned enough laurels and has set her mind on much bigger things with which she wants to impact several young life’s by empowering them and enable them reach the potential as quickly as possible.

Inspiring true story Originally Published in the Readers Digest.

A Date With Fate

by Emily Page Hatch, Wilmington, North Carolina

In a kitschy bar in Cambridge, he asked to sit at my table, though later he would insist that I made the first move. I was intrigued by his tattoos. He thought I went to Harvard. All we had in common was that we’d both almost stayed home. Friends had dragged us out on a frigid February evening. We still never agree on anything, except that it’s a darn good thing we sucked it up that snowy night. Our wild blue-eyed son always stops us in our tracks, reminding us that fate is just as fragile as our memory.

Believe

"Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution." - David Joseph Schwartz

“Be brave to stand for what you believe in even if you stand alone.” - Roy T. Bennett

"Believing in yourself is not for you; it's for every person who has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your life will touch the same way five minutes from now, or five centuries from now." - Jaye Miller

Envision

"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100%." - Arnold Schwartzenegger

“Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion.” - Dorthea Brande

"I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me." - Lady Gaga

Stop - Start

In any mechanical vehicle - motorized or mechanical. One uses the brake to stop and the accelerator pedal to start.

You thought it was only for vehicles, but, no you too have to use the start and stop to make progress.

Let's see how :

Stop worrying about how to get attention.

Start paying attention.

Stop obsessing about creating awareness.

Start becoming more aware.

Stop making people want things.

Start making things people want.

Stop analysing data

Start seeing people it represents.

Stop trying to be more interesting.

Start becoming more interested.

Stop keeping score

Start forgetting the past incidents.

Stop hoarding.

Start sharing.

Stop competing.

Start collaborating.

Stop comparing.

Start noticing.

Stop doubting.

Start doing.

Stop striving.

Start caring.

Stop wondering about what's next, start from here and right now.

If you have this, you will go places.

In a fast paced world that we preside over now, we can't be blamed for looking at instant gratification, speedy growth, quick buck, fast food, and lightning quick answers to whatever we want to know or solutions for whatever we seek, because there's Google to our rescue which provides us all answers, muchore that we want or have bargained for.

We want to become information rich because we wanted to show off that we are intelligent, and our IQ is high.

There's one driving force which fuels all of this that makes us explore for new things, new thoughts and new ideas.

You may be wondering what's all this.

Yes!

You guessed it right, it is just one thing that drives all of us from "the cradle to the grave," and that is CURIOISITY. The impulse to seek new information, the craving for new experiences and to explore new possibilities is a basic human trait, and that is called CURIOUSITY.

CURIOUSITY drives us to view critical aspects more creatively. History is a witness to all of this and bears a testimony to it for most breakthrough discoveries and remarkable inventions of mankind - from flint stone for fire to wheels, right down to the much talked about and awaited driverless cars.

This when it comes to an organisation, it seems so paradoxical as both leaders and employees receive an implicit, message that asking questions is an unwanted challenge to the authority.

People are trained to focus on process and process alone, for guaranteed performance results that lead to the milestones, goals and vision of the organization.

On the other hand it is the same management of organization's that urges it's people to maintain a

sense of wonder, which is crucial to creativity and innovation.

The most effective organizations of the world and their leaders look for ways to nurture their employees' CURIOUSITY to fuel leaning and discovery.

See where you are and see where is your CURIUOSITY, leading you to in every step you take.

IQ - EQ - DQ - RQ

Brian Herbert said,

"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.

People are definitely the greatest asset of any organization. It is only as good as the people who make it. It is not going to make a difference whether the company makes cars, cosmetics, capsules, writes codes or makes rockets.

That which makes these things happen is

IQ (INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT) -> Building Knowledge.

The ultimate source of happiness, is our mental attitude, which comes from wisdom, and that is built on knowledge.

EQ (EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT) -> Having Emotions

Once in a lifetime, you meet someone, who changes everything in your life.

Emotional Intelligence will say, "No matter what age you are or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you have setting unique to offer. It's your life, because of who you are, and that to me has meaning. Trust and long lasting relationships are built by Emotional Intelligence.

DQ (DECENCY QUOTIENT)-> Having Decency Greeting and treatinng people following etiquettes.

RQ (RELEVANCE QUOTIENT) -> Being Relevant.

While you are waiting someone else is already doing it.

It all comes down to employee engagement.

It all comes down to recognition.

It all comes down to leadership, which leads to everyone feeling ownership and accountability for the results.

You can ask a team to achieve targets or even accomplish a mission, but you never can order excellence.

People do not buy the product, they buy the experience. It can be Apple, Mercedes, IKEA etc., - it's thoughts and products you have bought for sheer experience.

Majority vs Minority

If you were to cook 3 glasses of rice, would you be adding 3 glasses of salt to it?

Certainly not!

So in every rice thing you cook, the quantity of rice always outnumbers the salt, but, a little salt added, enhances the taste of the rice.

Look at the ceiling of room that you are right now in. You'll see the bulb is 1:5000 of the room, but, when it gets dark after sunset, one flip of the switch turns on the bulb which makes darkness flee.

If you and I are the "salt" of the earth that adds taste and the bulb the light of the world, then that "little you and I," has the ability to make things happen.

Sometimes we feel overawed, outnumbered, and overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of evil or wrong doers, so we choose powerlessness and decide to go with the flow instead of standing up for what is right and opposing the vast majority.

Little doesn't mean "insignificant." Our presence should make a difference because youou and I are certainly significant. Let's stop being on the side of the majority, for it is a trivial majority, whereas we are an impactful minority. They could be the rice, we are the salt, they could be the room, we could be the bulb, let's make our influence felt.

Remember, this always.

Inspiring true story Originally Published in the Readers Digest.

PERFECT DAY

by Marybob Straub, Smyrna, Georgia

We went looking for a wedding dress on Sunday. Laughing, we made for the door of a bridal shop. This would surely be the first of many stores before we found the perfect gown. Having witnessed other brides and their mothers, we vowed to be happy in these moments. Unexpectedly, my mind went back to the day we brought her home some 27 years ago. I said a silent thank-you to the young mother who, by letting her go, allowed her to be mine at this precious time. Two hours later, there she stood, in the dress of her dreams. My beautiful girl.