Hero worship

Nadigudem police filed a case against Telugu super star Mahesh Babu following a complaint from Toomu Sateesh Kumar of Tellapalli village that he was addicted to liquor seeing the advertisement of Mahesh Babu. The complainant further said he fell ill as a result he could not attend the interview. The SI said cases have been registered against the Royal Stag owner and distributor along with Mahesh Babu. He also said that action would be taken after consulting with the higher authorities

I  wonder  what  made  this Person  to  file  a  case and  hold  Maheshbabu  responsible .Don’t  you  think it  is  stupidity   on  his  part  to  blame  so  called  celebrity for  his  mistake  of  getting  addicted

 One reason that we care so much about celebrities is that we see these stars as idols. Someone to aspire to become, someone  worth emulating . This can be a good or bad thing, depending on the target of the admiration. The common myth is that celebrities are rich, they are obviously famous, Celebrities can do or have anything they want. In many cases they seem to be above the law. Moreover there are dozens of tabloids that just love to display an un-flattering picture and story of a celebrity  and  make them infallible ! and it  feels  good  to  Ape  them .

  Of  late Indian  Culture is  slowly  being consumerised by  television ads, movies, magazines, newspapers, tabloids, and latest  addition being  Internet which are filled with products to buy and most of these ads have celebrity images pasted all over them. People buy products that they have seen celebrities using on  screen or  print media.  Millions of  Indians  keep tabs on the personal lives of at least a few select celebrities, whether or not they admit it. The average teenager could recite the personal information of karina kaif   better than they could of the local social worker, But why? Why do we care so much about people that we will most likely never meet? What keeps Indians  hungry for more celebrity gossip? blindly  following  them  has  become  order  of  the  day

.., Deep down most people want the lifestyle of a celebrity because they are rich, beautiful, and popular  and  we  need to  follow  them  at  any  cost . Because most people mentally develop with social interaction we seek it in our later life - thus the desire for popularity and acceptance among our peers and cohorts. Modern day sociologist calls minors the "sponges of our culture." Most celebrity fixating begins in the years before adulthood. Sociologists and psychologists now know that our behaviours are not developed by biological deterministic factors but by sociological deterministic factors. The sociological deterministic factors that guide our behaviour originate from one or all of the agents of socialization: family, school/education, peer/cohort groups, mass media, and work.  The reason why we view celebrities to a higher standard then an average everyday person is because we are brought up with that idea placed in our minds as children which then stays in our minds throughout our  later part of our lives .

one  such thing  is  media glorification to  be  blamed which  places everything   and  anything on  celebrity  as  breaking  news!! .other day  I turn on local  news channel  and they were filled with news on local film  actor airing  his  views on  his wife  and  how  he  is  planning to  ditch  her !!. and  you switch  on  to  other  channels  again  the  same  story  is  repeated and  added  to  this   a big  panel  discussion on  this so called  breaking  news was underway .I  wonder  Why does anyone care what goes on in this  actors  personal life? They are people like you  and  me  and they put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. As Dr  Wayne W  dyer in  his  famous  book  your  Erroneous   zone  says ‘All of  your heroes are  people .They itch  where  you  itch they  have bad breath in  the  morning just  like you ,..and  he  goes on  to  say that All your  Heroes or  celebrities are no better then you ,in  any way ,,politicians ,actors ,athletes, rock stars  or  whoever  are just skilful at what they do –nothing more None of these  so  called  celebrities   are any better than anyone else. They may have a special talent, so  it good for  them  but everyone else has a special talent too.

We have far too many problems in our world and important things to address that are newsworthy, than to be worrying about a celebrity’s short comings. Do I agree with his behaviour? Absolutely not, but it’s none of my business. Sports figures and celebs are given way too much clout in our society. If you want to celebrate their positive achievements and enjoy their work, that’s one thing, but to put them in the position of being able to decide how  you  should  lead your  life  is ridiculous, and  it  is  also  sheer stupidity  to blindly  use the  products  they  endorse   whether it  is  toothbrush , beer or  safety pin  .for  all  you  know a  celebrity   endorsing  beer  may  drink  milk  in  his  real  life !!

let’s quit giving these people so much power over our lives.

“We are all alike on the inside.”
― Mark Twain

priority

Make the decision today to take back control of your life. Set right priorities, pre-plan your life and start  living on purpose.  –Sir  M Vishveshwarahia-

We pass though different stages in our lives. Each stage with it brings new challenges that have the potential to make or break us. What we pick ultimately becomes part of our destiny. When it boils down to choices, priorities help us to clear the confusion and put things in right perspective. When we know what is important for us in our lives, our efforts and energy gets streamlined in a definite direction to help us achieve the impossible. Setting priorities in life is more of a skill which helps us remain focused and value things that matter the most

This is a story from one of the books of India, called "Lives of Saints". There was a young man, a Brahmin by birth, in a certain village. The man fell in love with a bad woman in another village. There was a big river between the two villages, and this man, every day, used to go to that girl, crossing this river in a ferry boat. Now, one day he had to perform the obsequies of his father, and so, although he was longing, almost dying to go to the girl, he could not. The ceremonies had to be performed, and all those things had to be undergone; it is absolutely necessary in Hindu society. He was fretting and fuming and all that, but could not help it. At last the ceremony ended, and night came, and with the night, a tremendous howling storm arose. The rain was pouring down, and the river was lashed into gigantic waves. It was very dangerous to cross. Yet he went to the bank of the river. There was no ferry boat

. The ferrymen were afraid to cross, but he would go; his heart was becoming mad with love for the girl, so he would go. There was a log floating down, and he got that, and with the help of it, crossed the river, and getting to the other side dragged the log up, threw it on the bank, and went to the house. The doors were closed. He knocked at the door, but the wind was howling, and nobody heard him. So he went round the walls and at last found what he thought to be a rope, hanging from the wall. He clutched at it, saying to himself, "Oh, my love has left a rope for me to climb." By the help of that rope he climbed over the wall, got to the other side, missed his footing, and fell, and noise aroused the inmates of the house, and the came out and found the man there in a faint.

She revived him, and noticing that he was smelling very unpleasantly, she said, "What is the matter with you? Why this stench on your body? How did you come into the house?" He said, "Why, did not my love put that rope there?" She smiled, and said, "What love? We are for money, and do you think that I let down a rope for you, fool that you are? How did you cross the river?" "Why, I got hold of a log of wood." "Let us go and see," said the girl. The rope was a cobra, a tremendously poisonous serpent, whose least touch is death. It had its head in a hole, and was getting in when the man caught hold of its tail, and he thought it was a rope.

 The madness of love made him do it. When the serpent has its head in its hole, and its body out, and you catch hold of it, it will not let its head come out; so the man climbed up by it, but the force of the pull killed the serpent. "Where did you get the log?" "It was floating down the river." It was a festering dead body; the stream had washed it down and that he took for a log, which explained why he had such an unpleasant odour. The woman looked at him and said, "I never believed in love; we never do; but, if this is not love, the Lord have mercy on me. We do not know what love is. But, my friend, why do you give that heart to a woman like me? Why do you not give it to God? You will be perfect." It was a thunderbolt to the man's brain. He got a glimpse of the beyond for a moment. "Is there a God?" "Yes, yes, my friend, there is," said the woman. And the man walked on, went into a forest, began to weep and pray. His  priority  changed  from  that  on  wards ,paradigm shift from  Girl  to  GOD .Throughtout  his  life  till  then  his  priority  was  this  girl and  all his  thoughts , action  everything  whatever  he  did was  focussed on  this  girl and  in  the  bargain  he  risked his  life to  meet  her by  taking  help  of  a  sepent , dead  body  what  not ..Passion  yes this  young  man  had  mountain  of   passion  but  his  priority  was  wrong  

How  do  you  relate  to  yours  and  my  life ? Your life today is a result of the right or wrong priorities you have set. Is your life controlling you or are you in control of your life. our life is the same way. People spend the majority of their life living off of what was purchased in the check out line rather than what was pre-planned. Not planned, not orchestrated and not intended. Then  how  to to clear the confusion and put things in right perspective

Of  late I  have  slowly  started  adopting one  principal  which  has  helped  me  to  a  great  extent  and  remove  confusion  in my  life  as I I  have understood difference between      important  &  urgent . and  have started preparing  the  day  in  advance by  setting the day, and sticking to the  priority set to  best  of  my ability Allow your life to be governed by what is important rather than what is urgent. There are always multiple things that could be done.

 In the horse and buggy of life, which are you? Are you making the choices for your life or is life making the choices for you?
If you don’t prepare your day before hand, your day will tell you what to do. Do something with life or life will do something with you .Right  priority is  the  key

The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.
- Brandon Sanderson

response vs react

We  all  have our ‘hot buttons’ ,circumstances that set  off  and  often make us  behave in  exactly the  opposite way from  what we would like ,we  lash  out  at  others ,feel frustrated ,we  cry when we  wish  to  have  rational discussion ,shout at  some  one in a traffic ,

Its  perfectly  all right to  show  our  emotions once  in  while .This  may  be  due  to  misunderstanding  with  friend , cancelled  date, fight with  your  spouse  ,  confrontation  at  work etc  reason  may  be  many which   will  turn you from a rational ,competent Adult into  hurt ,angry  child .occasionally  pressing the  hot  buttons its  perfectly  OK  but If this  happens too  often that  is if the  hot button sets  off too  often  then that needs  our  attention

Why  this  happens ?what  is  science  behind  this ?one  of  the professor  of psychology and  neuro centre at  Newyork university explains that some  people suffer  from Emotional Dyslexia where hot buttons buzzes always . He also  says  that now days due  to  world  being competitive and  stressful every urbanite or  so called civilized people in cities  are partly  suffering  from  this new phenomena called Emotional Dyslexia which is  considered to  be  fundamental impediment to for  being a  confident happy adult .

 what  is  this Emotional dyslexia ?

You  have probably heard of  dyslexia as  it applies to  learning disability  in children  where brain misreads the stimulus it  receives and  does  not process them  properly ,for  example a person with  dyslexia might know something but  unable to  express ,he  might recognize a word but writes  backward ,you  might  have  seen the  Hindi  movie Tare zamin par … yes that  boy  was suffering from dyslexia .Now  emotional  dyslexia is similar  in sense that  information  from outside world is short oriented/short circuited ,it bypasses the  cognitive part of  the  brain and  you  react without benefit  of  thought .Its being  in  child :s seat 

Explaining  further the  message to  the  brain will reach directly  to amygdale the  emotional  center   Instead of neuro cortex the  thought  center of  the  brain .During primitive  times this bypassing occurred  because  of Nature of  survival  where  quick  Instinctive reaction to  danger could  be life  saving .Even  today you  might  have  seen when  people are in  real  danger we often see them acting with  exceptional emotional power .It  is perfectly  all right where communication  from  outside world  is  short circuited and  reaches emotional part of   the  brain, but if  people perceive danger where it  doesn't necessarily exists and reacts  in  emotional  Zone too often  then definitely that   leads  into interpersonal conflicts  at  work  place , fight  with spouse ,road rage  or many  such  unpleasant event  in  life .As I  said  earlier Present day  stressful world Contributes  to a  large  extent this instant  reaction in  us.

 Question   Is  there  a way  out ?  yes we  need  to  learn  to  RESPOND   not  REACT

That  is  operating  from  thought  center  instead  of  Emotional  center

.

It refers to the fact that we have choices about our behavior   In any given situation, no matter what our senses tell us, we have choices.  We don’t always recognize it, but we have choices.  You could diagram the situation like this. we receive some form of stimulus which is generally people or events.  For each stimulus, we can either choose a response, or we can simply react.  There is a big difference between responding and reacting.

Let’s consider an example that happens to me on a regular basis.  I live in Bangalore and commute to work so I am often dealing with traffic issues with other drivers.  Especially in the morning, people tend to be in a big hurry. , people are often running behind schedule and feeling stressed.  It is pretty common to have another driver cut me off or act in a rude way.  Consider how I act differently toward this same event depending on whether I am having a good day or bad day:

On a Good Day - If someone cuts me off in traffic on a good day, I might choose to simply wish them well or say a prayer for their safety.  After all, there are days when I am in a hurry and so I am able to feel empathetic toward others. ………            Operating  from thought center

On a Bad Day - If the same thing were to happen on a bad day, I am unlikely to choose that positive response.  I am much more likely give the other driver a one-finger salute or tell them where I think they should go.     Operating  from  Emotional center

Notice that under the exact same stimulus, I am likely to have two very different outcomes.  One is a positive response which I have selected from a myriad of potential responses.  The other is a reaction that may or may not involve any thought.  The Key  is being on  Good  day  always !!

Now  question  comes  How to respond? How  to  be on  Good day  always

1. Space. Create a gap between you and the stimulus, either time or distance. It doesn't have to be for long but just enough for you to cool down   and put things into perspective.

2. Tone.  Choose your tone carefully when speaking to someone over an incident that may have upset you. It’s not just what you say but how you say it.

In spite  of  this  …What to do when you react

Apologize. Yes, it’s really that simple. It’s not right to “fly off the handle” no matter how unfair you perceive things to be. It’s disrespectful and you can imagine how it would feel if you were on the receiving end, not so great.

To some of you this may come as a bit of a shock but, you’re not perfect. No one is. We all make mistakes, we all say dumb things occasionally, we’re only human after all. Not only is it important to apologize to the other person, it is also important to forgive yourself. Don’t get hung up on it. Take note of how you feel and what you did or said. Remember these actions and feelings the next time you’re presented with a less than ideal situation, and don’t make it a repeat performance.

To say “I can’t help it” or “I  am what  I  am ” doesn't cut it. You do have a choice. Get control over yourself and revel in the feeling of empowerment that comes from it. Choose to feel proud of the way you respond to situations however, don’t expect an overnight transformation Even I  am  learning slowly and  have  started to  Respond but  still I  feel it is a  long  way to  achieve the  desired result something that takes lot  of conscious  effort from  my end

. Response is always good, reaction is always bad. Response is always beautiful, reaction is always ugly. Avoid reactions and allow responses. Reaction is from the past, response is here and now.     OSHO-.

You decide

“Today I am in control because I want to be. I have my fingers on the switch, but have lived a lifetime ignoring the control I have over my own world. Today is different.”
― A.S. King

Earlier I used to avoid making decisions, but I am improving myself and making decisions all the time now and taking action. Sure I find myself wondering ‘what if this will go wrong’, but that is the only way to learn. Remember during  your  childhood how  you  learnt cycling , the only way you learnt was by   making  the decision to go out on to the Road with your bicycle and trying  to  balance, by  doing  so  there  was  a  chance you may get it right for the first time, or  fall flat  straight, but  you  dint  give  up as that  was  only  way  to  learn  cycling as decision  was  yours .Making decisions and taking responsibility for them puts you ahead of so many people in the world who are allowing others to make the decisions for them ,which  I  feel  is  suicidal 

 

you  might  have  heard  about  a man  who was riding home on his donkey, while his boy walked beside them. A traveller came along and said, "Father, it is not right for you to ride while you make your boy walk. You have stronger limbs. So the father climbed off the donkey and let his son ride. Another traveller came along and said, "Boy, it is not right for you to ride while you make your father go on foot. You have younger legs."  

So they both mounted the donkey and road on a little way. A third traveller came along and said, "How stupid! Two fellows on one weak animal. Someone should take a stick and knock you off its back!" So they both climbed off, and all three went along on foot, the father and son left and right, and the donkey in the middle.  

A fourth traveller came along and said, "You are three strange companions. Isn't it enough if two of you were to go on foot? Wouldn't it be easier if one of you would ride?" So the father tied the donkey's front legs together, and the son tied its back legs together. Then they put a strong pole that was lying beside the road through its legs and carried the donkey home on their shoulders.  

 

It’s an Aesop fable, this story. The man, like all men, didn’t set out to carry the donkey. He was on his way to sell the donkey but he listened to people and  decided , and like all men who listen to people, he ended up carrying the donkey. The saddest thing about this man who carried the donkey is that he did it for a good reason. His heart, like most hearts, was in the right place. His ears weren’t. He listened to anyone who had something to say  and  decided  at  every step-  

Aesop meant to say that you can’t please everyone.  And by  doing  so  you  will end  up carrying  the donkey  .  I learnt that, as Aesop said, sometimes, there’s nothing that one can do that will seem right to people. That it’s wrong to even try to do something that will appease everybody because that will break you in the end, But the biggest thing I learnt is that It  is better to  listen but  act  as  per  your instinct  and  experience 

 

. yes  as one  of  the  wise  man said  

 

‘’ it is  better to  take advice from an expert or somebody who has experience with the situation. And be careful of taking advice from people who have no experience with the decision you are making’   finally YOU DECIDE’ 

 

 “Trust your instincts, and make judgements on what your heart tells you. The heart will not betray you.” If you allow others to make decisions for you instead of making your own decisions, then they are running your life. In effect, you're giving them control and you are living the life they think you should have. Who's life do you want to live? There  is vast difference  between  taking inputs  and  feed  back  from  others and  deciding  then simply acting or  reacting like  a  puppet  

 So …

… Practice making decisions. On  your  own .  Start small, but make decisions and take responsibility at every opportunity and change the things you are not happy with in your life.  You will get better and better at decision making and each decision will take you a step closer to your success.

Setting priorities in life

Spend time with those you love. One of these days you will say either, "I wish I had," or "I'm glad I did." Zig Ziglar

There are things which are important to us in our lives and at same time there are things which may be clearly worthless. Setting priorities in life is all about separating things which are important from things that do not hold much significance. Ability to set priorities is something that can be easily mastered provided you know where you want to head forward in life. But to start with, do we even know what is important to us and whether the time we invest is getting its real worth. This and many other questions need to be pondered upon as we dig deeper into this subject

I  remember reading  some  where  story  of a professor  who stood before  his class With some  items in front of  him. When the class began, he picked up a large empty Jar  and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full. yes  They  all  agreed that it was full.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full. Again  everyone shouted that indeed  it  was  full

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar signifies your life. The rocks are the truly important things, such as family, health and relationships. If all else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be meaningful. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining “small stuff” like material possessions. If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles. The same can be applied to your lives. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are truly important. and  by  the  time  you realise it  will  be  too  late!!

I  am  not advocating that  we  need  to ignore  small stuff   yes , we need material things also but  it depends  on  which  goes first inside  the  jar . Pay attention to the things in life that are critical to your happiness and well-being. Take time to get medical check-ups, play with your children, go for a run, meet  your  friend . There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, or fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first – things that really matter other  things  will  follow . Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.

We pass though different stages in our lives. Each stage with it brings new challenges that have the potential to make or break us. What we pick ultimately becomes part of our destiny. When it boils down to choices, priorities help us to clear the confusion and put things in right perspective. When we know what is important for us in our lives, our efforts and energy gets streamlined in a definite direction to help us achieve the impossible. Setting priorities in life is more of a skill which helps us remain focused and value things that matter the most.

Make the decision today to take back control of your life. Set right priorities, pre-plan your life and starting living on purpose

.

customer experience

I read  some where that 75% of a sale is experience driven. The Other  day we  wanted  to  buy Washing  machine and   visited  a  showroom  let  us  call  it  X .Expressionless  Salesman took us through the  shop  ritually without answering  our  queries regarding  the  brand  displayed  ,more  over  he  lacked  enthusiasm  , icing  on  the  cake was   When we vocalized that we would prefer to see all  brands  before deciding the older guy behind the counter joked about confusing him and  his  staff . As a result of that experience we walked out of that showroom without purchasing . The second   showroom  call  it  as  Y  was attended by  experienced personal who give  his    full  attention ..He  explained with passion and  created positive experience  for  us . We were able to select the brand that we wanted and  lady behind the counter was attentive and courteous. We walked out buying the  brand  we  wanted and   believe  me I  felt  that some of the washing machine  brand had a better features  than the first showroom  we visited, or maybe it's because we didn't get to  see fully the  brands  in  showroom x or  maybe  the  attended in showroom Y  made  us  comfortable and  satisfied us    with  all  queries

The point of my article is not to rave about the showroomY, but rather to emphasis the importance of creating the experience for your buyers. By creating the experience you increase your sales rate by I  dare  to  say more  then 90%.

There is a vast difference between being a happy customer, and being a truly satisfied customer. If you want to increase your sales in a grassroots way, focus on improving the customer experience. Keep in mind the critical element of emotion, and its role in sales and marketing. Please your customers immensely, and they'll come back for more. And, they'll bring their friends. Your success in sales is directly determined by the way you are perceived,

Consider this analogy: if you flip on a red or blue spigot on a water cooler, you get either extremely hot, or extremely cold water. In either case, if you stick your hand in that stream of scalding or freezing liquid, you’ll usually react in a fairly significant way.Customers react in much the same way toward their experience with your business: only an excellent experience, or a terrible one, will generate a response. if the experience is tepid, the customer will go on their way without remark.

These tepid or lukewarm customer experiences are the ones we want to address. You may have previously felt that as long as the majority of your customers walked away happy, without a complaint, you were doing well. If you want to take full advantage of the customer you worked hard to find, making them happy just isn’t enough.

Experience driven marketing is about creating a customer experience that is more than just acceptable…So how do you provide a truly satisfying customer experience?

 Here are several aspects to consider :First and  foremost Be an expert on your product or service. You should know more than your most knowledgeable customer. Memorize product specifications and features, and be familiar with any complex vocabulary relating to your product or service..Second most  important Be  Enthusiastic and be reasonably excited about your product or service! You don’t have to do somersaults, but make sure to smile, make eye contact, shake hands where appropriate, and maintain an up-beat attitude.  Moreover this  helps in  Connecting  with the customer emotionally.  This  I  feel  is  very  important  ,do  you  think you  would  like  to hear from a sales person with  a dead  pan  expression ?. In fact,   expert  feels that emotion accounts for 85% of a buying decision  and .that "people base their decisions on a complicated mixture of emotion and reason," and that "emotionally satisfied customers contribute far more to the bottom line than rationally satisfied customers do."

More over with  my experience in  sales over the  years I will  share  with you  one  important lesson   that please  leave the  formal business  speak at  home ,BE friendly –Enjoy what you  do ,Have fun in helping the prospects to make the  right  decision  on the  product  you   are selling  thereby helping  them to EXPERIENCE

“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close, in fact, that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.” – Steve Jobs

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