Sharpening the saw

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  ~Henry Ford

Would you go to or recommend a doctor who had stopped studying his profession the moment he graduated from medical school? A doctor that no longer kept up with the latest medical advances? Would you consider him competent? What do you think would happen to a professional athlete who stopped training when he made the team? The one who said he/she gets all the training needed by participating in games or matches. How long do you think he/she would last?

So why is it that the vast majority of sales people stop learning or  for  that  matter anyone  in professional field reluctant to  learn new way  of  doing  things and  keep on doing  things  that  they  had  learnt

. I am constantly amazed at those who think they can get all they need from on the job training. This is utter foolishness. The best of the best never stop learning. They never stop training. They never  stop trying to get better. They understand that they do not know all there is to know. They understand that they are not  the most successful professional  in the world and thus they can still learn to be better. Ever wonder why there are very few High performers in  all  field ? Ever wonder why those that don't quit spend their careers mired in  mediocrity? The problem is, that learning, training, practicing...it all takes an investment of time, effort, and in many cases we  fail to understand  that some  times  Unlearning ,and  relearning  is  essential part  of  any  professional life I  mean  successful professional life  . Most are not willing to  make those investments, certainly not all at the same time. Oh ,they will always have an excuse. It won't work for me. My customers/business/product/service is different. Whatever the  excuse, it is just that...an excuse. Nothing more, nothing less .

Invest nothing in your future, get nothing back. Very simple. If you truly want to find success in your  chosen field , you will  understand right here, right now, that  you must never stop learning. Never stop getting better. Never stop Axing  your  saw .

 Yes Might  have  heard  this  story  many a  a  times but  I  feel  it is  ok  to  repeat Habit #7 in Steve Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is called “Sharpen the Saw.” Covey uses the common analogy of a woodcutter who is sawing for several days straight and is becoming less and less productive. The process of cutting dulls the blade. So the solution is to periodically sharpen the saw.I’ve found that in practice, however, most people fail to understand what sharpening the saw really means. If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity begins to fall off, common wisdom says to take a break, maybe even go on vacation. However, that isn’t sharpening the saw — that’s putting the saw down. When you put down a dull blade for a while, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up again ! then  what  is  sharpening  the  Saw?

.Sharpening the saw is actually an activity, just as the analogy suggests. Think about what it would mean to sharpen the saw of your life. Here are some saw-sharpening ideas: attend  training relevant  to  your  job  ,Learn a  new skill  that  is  Relevant  to  present  day need  of  your  Job where  earlier  skill  may  be  obsolete  or  need  changes Now the woodcutter can’t just alternate between cutting wood and sharpening the saw indefinitely. Downtime is needed too, but it isn’t the same as sharpening the saw. The woodcutter can become even more productive by sharpening the blade, studying new woodcutting techniques, working out to become stronger, and learning from other woodcutters. Forgetting to intentionally sharpen the saw can lead to a feeling of burnout. If you merely alternate between productive work and downtime, your production capacity will drop off. You’re still working hard, but you don’t feel as productive as you think you should be. When you sharpen yourself regularly, you’ll find that you can flow along at a steady pace week after week without getting burnt out. Whenever I feel burnt out or overwhelmed, taking a day or two off helps a little, but not very much. What yields a much greater benefit for me is attending a weekend seminar, reading an inspiring book, or having an interesting conversation.

 It’s common to see people return from a conference with a notable spike in motivation that lasts for weeks. But this isn’t really a break or a vacation — going to a conference is an activity, but it’s the kind that often increases energy and motivation. How are your various blades doing? Your skills, your knowledge, your mind, your physical body, your relationships, your motivation, your commitment, your capacity for enjoyment, your emotions — are all of them still sharp? If not, which ones are dull, and what can you do to sharpen them?

I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.  ~Eartha Kitt

Bangalore going to Dogs

 Passing  by a  school near  our  house all  of a sudden someone grabbed my jacket from behind. Taken aback, I turned around to find a little girl. She was wearing a brown pant  with   matching shirt her   age  may be 5 years .I was staring at her in astonishment.As though to respond to my curiosity, she raised her finger and pointed towards my left.

Looking into that direction I found a street Dog gazing fixedly at both of us.The little girl was passing by and upon seeing the dog lying by the side, she got scared to go any further.To help her arrive at her destination, I held her hand and walked some steps till she could walk the rest of the distance. 

This was to draw attention towards the street dogs that are seen loitering about all day and night. They pose a serious threat.  Yes We knew it was bad, but not this bad and  defnitely Bangalore  is  going  to  Dogs!!. it  seems there is a stray dog for every 37 persons in Bangalore city, according to a study by NGO Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. Apart  from  attacking  small  kids they also pose a lot threat to road commuters, especially to cyclists and two wheelers, traveling at dusk. They chase these travelers, in most cases, cross frenziedly across the streets unexpected. The result is obvious, the travelers hurt and left to bleed on the road side and in some cruel cases, attacked by these ruthless packs
The main reason behind such a menace is that we fail to check the increasing population of stray dogs. The city municipalities have there after successfully captured many stray dogs with the help of expect dog catchers, but were criticized for their cruel treatment and killing of the captive dogs by PETA and other animal rights activists. In the land of Ahimsa, we need not resort to brutal killing of these abandoned dogs, but surely must prevent stay dog menace effectively and scientifically.With all due respect to Menaka Gandhi and her opinions, I think we should try and painlessly eliminate the dogs that cannot be adopted. These dogs are hungry, wounded and live in pathetic state. What is the use of keeping these dogs and allowing them to multiply. The number of children who have been mauled by dogs, the number of people getting bitten everyday, is reason enough to take drastic measures

In Western Europe, there are lot of associations for the welfare of abandoned pets and stray dogs. There are also centers for pet adoption. We hardly get to see any stray dogs or cats on the street there. We need to set up such welfare organizations and adoption centers for dogs in India too.
On  lighter  vein  Dogs from  Bangalore  can be ported to wild life sanctuaries as they are becoming almost 'little' tigers and lions. One more question to all those who are against killing these mad dogs, do you restrain from using chemicals to killing bugs like mosquitoes and others, if not then how are they different from these canine that causes threat to normal life?

Passion

The story is told of the young man who approached the philosopher, Socrates, and said, "Socrates, teach me what you know." The great teacher looked at the young man and said, "Do you really want to know all that I know?" "Oh, yes teacher, I do," the student replied. "Then walk with me for a while," Socrates said. So they walked for a while in silence. The learned philosopher slipped his arm around the young man's shoulder and guided him off the path and into the shallow waters of a lake. The young man thought that this was a strange way for the philosopher to teach him what he knew, but after all, he was Socrates, so the student decided to go along with what was happening.

They continued to walk into the water; it rose to their ankles, then knees and hips, until finally they were standing in water to their shoulders. Suddenly the arm that was around the young man's shoulders tightened around his neck and pulled him underneath the water's surface. This was a very strange way to teach the student what he wanted to know, but this was Socrates, after all, so he submitted. He grabbed a breath before he went under, so he wasn't bothered for the first fifteen or twenty seconds, but after about 30 seconds he wondered when Socrates would let him up. He gave a signal to indicate that he had been under long enough and wanted to get out. Another few seconds and the young man began to fight for all he was worth. He kicked and clawed and scratched, but the hold was strong and he began to lose his strength.

At that moment Socrates pulled him out of the water and dragged him to the shore where he began to revive him. When he caught his breath, angry and confused, the student looked into the face of one of the greatest philosophers of all time and said, "What was that all about?" Socrates looked into his eyes and said, "When you desire  and  passion  to know what I know as much as you just desired to live, then you will know".and  you  should  have  should  have passion and  give  everything  to  achieve just  like how  you  wanted  nothing  but  air to  survive  when  you  were inside  water

How strong is your desire  and  passion ? How much do you really desire  and  have  passion  to start your own business, to be really successful in keeping your resolutions and achieving your goals, then your desire  and  passion  has to be everything. Nothing but  the one  GOAL

What does passion have to do with living a life of Abundance and Happiness? Everything! And I do mean Everything!

Having a passion for a thing, whatever it may be is an extremely powerful emotion which creates positive vibrational frequencies that will attract to you those events, conditions, and circumstances that you have a desire to create.

First let’s take a look at the definition of passion as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary….

PASSION applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable . b : intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction

The only passion that the majority of people that I speak with on a day to day basis have about there jobs is focusing on the five o’clock buzzer, or Friday afternoon anticipating escaping from what they perceive to be their 5 day prison only to have to return a few days later and begin the same dreaded process over and over and over again, many of them for the rest of their lives. Do you think that they will ever stand a chance of experiencing a life of real fulfilment? The answer, to put it quite bluntly is NO WAY, NO HOW. It CAN'T and NEVER WILL happen. It is an absolute impossibility, unless and until they change the emotions that will allow them to do so!

Think about the people you know that love what it is they are doing. Now think about the people that dislike or feel forced to do what they are doing. Do you see a difference in the outcomes that are produced?

With passion, you want to learn, you always want to figure out various ways to improve certain processes- and you do not complain or show a sour face when you have to stay back to complete your job. A few months of doing that will undoubtedly get your boss and big boss’s attention. Which employer do not want a dedicated staff who is interested in what they do? Appraisal will then be favourable and with that, comes better bonuses, promotions, etc. Believe me, if you dislike your job, no matter how hard you try to hide it, the bosses will soon figure Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

 T Alan Armstrong quotes I don’t sing a song unless I feel it. The song don’t tug at my heart, I pass on it. I have to believe in what I’m doing. – Ray Charles

changing the world

We always feel that we are perfect & 0thers should be corrected..It is like cleaning the mirror instead of cleaning our face".

The world is a mirror. When someone is nasty to you, it is really just a reflection of your own nasty self, so if you want a nasty person to change, look for the nasty aspects of yourself, so  there  is  no  point  in  cleaning  the  Mirror. !!

I Do remember reading Mother Teresa quote It goes something like this:

“If everyone cleaned their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.”

What does this say to you? To me, it says that we can only change ourselves, and our first priority should be changing our ways and beliefs, cleaning our own doorsteps. Always We want others to change,   we  expect world  to  change as per  our   specification but  somehow it isn't a very exciting prospect when it comes to changing ourselves. Remember this, it’s not the world that needs to change, it’s ourselves, our perspective  towards  LIFE and focussing on  making a difference in the  world matters  a  lot

This desire to change the world all sounds very heroic and noble and grand. But is it possible? Is it really possible to change the world,?, I don’t think it’s possible to change the world. We  need  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  fact that there’s a difference between changing the world, and making a difference in the world, I believe you can do one but you can’t do the other .I think it is possible to make a difference in the world, perhaps to a small handful of the world’s population..

Let me explain with a famous Zen  story which you might have heard already

 A Elderly man was walking along the beach, admiring the beautiful view. As he walked, he noticed that a large group of starfishes had been washed ashore by the receding tide, and they were struggling to get back to the water. The man was saddened by this turn of events, but accepted that there was nothing he could do to change anything.

The man walked on, continuing to notice the large numbers of helpless starfishes, until he saw another man in the distance standing at the water’s edge amongst the starfishes. Curious, the elderly man walked over to him, wandering what he was up to.

As he got closer, the elderly man could see that the younger man was picking up starfishes, one by one, and throwing them back out into the sea. Astonished, the elderly man got close enough for the other man to hear him, and then he called out.

“Hey! What on earth are you doing?”

The younger man turned to him and smiled, then turned back to the sea, still continuing his duty of picking up and throwing starfishes.

“I’m helping these starfishes get back into the ocean.”

The elderly man couldn’t believe it, why was this man wasting his time throwing starfishes back? There were thousands of them here, it would take him days! He voiced his thoughts.

“Why are you throwing them back? There’s thousands of them here, it’ll take you forever! How can you possibly hope to make a difference to these starfishes?”

Remaining calm, the younger man continued his duty without looking at the elderly man. Just as he threw another starfish back into the ocean, he replied.

“I made a difference to that one.”

The moral of the story sums up my point about wanting to make a difference. We can make a difference to individuals, even to groups of people. A rare few of us may even influence whole communities and societies. But to change the world outright? To throw thousands of Starfish no its  quite  difficult

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.and the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

One  of  the  other things  I  learned  over  a  period  of  time  is  accepting  people  as  they  are  with  all  their  flaws   after all  we  are  all  human beings and  prone  to  make  mistake

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however,

I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive instead  of trying  to  change  them  Completely

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

Taking people for Granted

Never take someone for granted. Hold every person close to your heart because you might wake up one day and realize that you’ve lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones

After watching sridevi:s performance in  English  vanglish  Boney Kapoor had tears in his eyes. He felt that for 15 years, he had taken his wife for granted, ignoring the fact that she had been an actress

It seems that most people like to say that we don't take others for granted but to be honest, I think most of us do take at least one person for granted in our lives, sometimes a lot more than one. Some people may not even realise it. I think it is a common human habit....definitely not a good one, that's for sure. Taking other people for granted can lead us to many regrets during our lifetime

Our mothers, fathers, family, and friends are the core that we interact with everyday. We must always realize that there are no guarantees that each one of them will be available to us at will. By thinking that they will always be there, we can very easily take them for granted. The good deeds and contributions that they make to our lives can sometimes go by unnoticed. We casually can mutter a phrase like "Mom's always there", "Ramesh  is  a great friend", "Isn't Dad great?" like a programmed response, like  a tape recorder  with not a  second thought to it.

It may  happen  one day, out of the blue, the phone doesn't ring, the E  mail stop coming...the person is gone. At that point, we begin to realize just how much we've lost. The space that's left in our lives, that was once full, is now empty. Regret starts creeping into our thoughts that maybe we didn't say enough to the person, while they were still here ,maybe we  ignored that  person .Even though it is very hard, and sometimes impossible to change the past, we can change the present. Look around....think about who in your life contributes to your development on a regular basis...and those that you, too, help. "Thank you" is not a very difficult phrase to say...but its meaning to a given person can be tremendous. It’s okay to tell people how much you need them, and how much you love them. 

Always tell someone how you feel, because opportunities are lost in the blink of an eye, and regret can last for a lifetime.

Do it while they're here, and do  you know  studies  have  proved and  even  you  might  have  noticed   that we  are  usually harsh with  the  people who  care  for  us we  take  them  for  granted 

That’s all ok  but   best  part  is even  we  are  many a  times  taken  for  granted !! then how  to  recognize ?  why  this  happens ?. We might not notice and not care, especially when it is done by people close to us: family, friends. But when it happens on a regular basis it hurts badly. then we need to  do  some  thing  about  this . How to know when you are being taken for granted? we can  sense  and  list  out  many  things ,like  You always are there to offer your help, yet when last time you were the one in need everyone you called up was busy.,your  feelings  are not  cared for .not  loved enough ,ignored ,neglected , People assume you will always be there and each time you are not is taken as a personal offence or  maybe You notice that people forget to tell you things that matter There are many  reasons why  people take you for  granted but one  major  reason  which I  think  that  contributes to  this habit  of  taking people  for  granted  is   not  knowing  difference  between Expressing   LOVE   and Excessive   love  or  obsession love[blind  love]and  giving  too much importance to  them.

As I mentioned  earlier we  should  express  our  love for  people  who  care  for  us and also it  is  fair  enough if  some  one expresses  their  love  for  us but  when  it  crosses  limit  and leads  to  excessive  love  or  obsession  then we  are  at  their  mercy  where    we  are ready  to go  to  any  extent  to make  them  happy 

This is the biggest reason why anyone start taking you for granted. If you are obsessive about  them  and tell  that  person that what he/she means to your life, he/she will start thinking that whatever happen you are never going to go away they  will sense that you  have   become important part  in  their  life more over these are  the people who have power to make you smile as well as cry and when people become so important in your life, you become weak in front of them. You start living your life the way they want and try to do whatever makes them happy. The day others know their importance they will surely take you for granted. . So, if you think that the one you love is taking you granted, it’s time to rethink about that relation.  .  Before  discussing  on  this  let  us  understand ,What  we  should  do when you are  being taken for granted?

1]Do  not panic and make assumptions   after all there might  be  logical explanation  and not understanding the cause may  make things  worse  for you  and  them .Dont  hold  it or  make  it  sound  accusing or  blaming Just  talk    to  the concerned person and  clear  the  air

2]Try  to draw line and Learn  to  say NO. As hard as it seems ,it is still possible. Give it a try. Start with smaller things. People will take you for granted only as long as you let them. Saying ‘no’ is the first step on the road of not letting them do it. When you say ‘no’ to someone the world won’t turn upside down. It will be at the exact same place. You should realize that whatever is meant to happen will happen. Good or bad.

 3]Treat  people as you want to  be treated

Old cliche, maybe, but it does work. Before blaming someone for taking you for granted, see if you do it

 4]Stop being goody  goody  always,  You are human. You have emotions. You can get mad, you can be sad, you can be upset. If people know how you feel they won’t take you  for granted

Finally the most  important  lesson

5]Do  not  compromise on  your  self  respect

You can’t run around giving people second and third chances. You can’t let them take advantage of you. You can’t be there for them always even when they let you down all the time. Relationships are always worth fighting for but sometimes you can’t be the only one fighting …ist  it ?

Don’t take people for granted. No matter how much they love you, people get tired eventually.