Some are empathetic. Some are – Life’s tough, you gotta deal with shit sometimes. Some are – What’s the big deal? Been there myself!

For me the most important thing is to be sensitive. You don’t know when someone will choose you to “download” the Devil that’s closest to plaguing their souls on you. You aren’t chosen because you’re most qualified to handle their woes. You aren’t chosen because you are a pillow for the miserable to shed their tears.

In the transactions that’s rife between people, in the blossoming of those exchanges, in the language of the smiles between us and in the questioning glances that our eyes cast with each other there forms a friendship quietly sometimes unbeknown to even our souls, let alone to each other.

In those quiet moments grows a trusting bond that even the long miles that are the distances between our geographies, or even the lack of physical presence cannot explain – there’s a till then undefined purpose for the meeting.

Take your friendships seriously. Look for the simple Signs of emotional disturbance. The angst that’s visible. Did you catch the worry in that voice? Did you see the fear in those eyes as they furtively glanced from here to there? Did you hear the sadness in that voice? You can – if you are really present in just a casual catch up over coffee. But you miss it because sure you did say less catch up, but you didn’t say you’ll be glued to your phone and you’ll keep nodding your head ‘listening’ to your friend speak. Because you are this multi-tasking expert. Go ahead, I’m listening, I just have to answer this incessant Boss of mine!

Or in the many casual carelessness’s that we’ve committed when we failed to either listen, or when we were too busy to give time.

You don’t need to be anything special. You just need to be someone’s friend to earn their trust.

Just be there when they need you.

Go ahead Reach out and Be That Rock for someone who needs you in that moment.

https://lnkd.in/deKficsP By John Legend from the Original by Simon & Garfunkle

Or Look at a Modern day sportsperson who just made Wimbledon number One and who suddenly sprang from nowhere to somewhere. Somewhere Big.

Where am I? You perhaps wonder.

You compare yourself with others. Unwittingly you belittle yourself. Whatever your smallest victories you don’t think its compare worthy. In short you are not good enough.

Don’t be fooled.

Because that Gosh Look at these Succesful People is just an Image that is put on by someone who told them they’d be offered a zillion dollars to appear in some publicity. They took a golf game, for example – Got some golfers and then put them in front of a world audience and then said see – how a small town / unheard of place can be put on the world golfing event and how we can have instead of a few people – but a million people watching – the world watching.

The Golfers were just playing their game.

Most of them didn’t have world class trainers. Or were rich. Or were mentored by angels or anything. Or in fact didn’t even have a decent education.

They just played their game.

Aren’t we all doing that very same thing? You are that fabulous coder that your co cannot live without. You are that security supervisor in an airport. Without your go ahead a pilot cannot board a passenger.  You are the doorman in a hotel and bowing down at those that seem to be better than you. You are that Priest in a temple in rural India. You just being there to continue a lineage.  You are that secretary that manages a very busy executive. S/he is sane because you are competent to manage his time.

You are all just doing the same thing. Being the best version of yourself everyday.

If you are a tight salaried family living to a budget you know how to plan your money. If you could do that – put your kids through college, look after them and others in your family. You don’t need a Financial Planner in the real sense of the word to manage your money.

But you think they are Smart People!

Your education matters. Don’t belittle it seeing a 10th standard drop out become a National Champion. Somewhere in the distant future either he will decently complete his education or will buy himself an honorary title – because you got the education which no amount of money can really buy. Or nothing can kill it.

Pride yourself in what you are doing. Don’t compare yourself with anyone. There’s only one you and you are reading this post.

Take a look at YouTube and look at all the people across the world – not these golfers or tennis players or nothing like that – but look at people who are great cooks because of their passion, look at that bread maker in Iraq and you will wonder how many trained bakers can twirl bread like that in the air. Or look at that street food guy in Chennai making these fabulous dosa’s. Do you think he compares himself to Chef Ramsey?

No. They go in there every day and recreate their magic – day in and day out.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you aint good.

Because You are Precious. 

Just been recognised

Just got a Certificate

Just got A Degree

Just been promoted

On the other hand

I see very few posts of companies becoming more humane, #managers being more human, #leaders becoming role models and #transformation at the work place that leads to Personal #life Transformation and indeed Societal transformation.

Post the #pandemic the rat race has clearly begun. You see it with the traffic snarls, you see it with the number of patients going to doctors with an “I can’t put a finger on it” ailment / syndrome. The doctor of course calls it stress. That’s pretty convenient to park under because no one really knows what causes stress or where it is located!

You see it everywhere. Even the hatred that’s spewed out against establishments, those we don’t agree with and I wonder.

For what purpose?

I lost a few friends to #covid and they didn’t even see it coming. That curved ball called death? Like you and I they had plans. Spend time with family. Relax. Enjoy. Laugh. Cook. Graduate to becoming a friend to spouse and kids.

Poof.

Gone up in cemetery ashes. Now just a photo on the wall.

What’s left?

A random message on someone’s phone.

A faint memory of a colleague, a friend that’s pushed back as every new day brings it’s own pressures into play.

Or A LinkedIn account that’s the only thing that’s not been updated – Current Post – Dead!!

Mulling over that a friend sent me this forward

And I guess most of the Tom tomming here or wherever else is just that.

How we decipher what’s happening to us.

Take it easy. You have got just this moment.

In a world that is full of people making up a persona that they aren’t – Tom is a refreshing change – where he comes good on his own “This is me Dude” Persona.

That’s not easy to do. Try being your own self for a day in the office and you’ll have a dozen people telling you that it ain’t done! Tom not only stands eons apart from the rest of the crowd – but he also comes up with something that is not easily digested in the modern era – Intuitive Wisdom.

I was gobsmacked when he told me that he was “downloading” an intelligence that allowed him to ‘see’ the whole story series that he wrote starting with his Oasis Within.

We didn’t connect today with that Oh! Great to have connected with you Bobby or Great to have connected with you Tom usual one liner. It was a soul connect of the highest order. I knew that I was meeting an old friend for the first time in this lifetime. Tom and I have met before. Except I don’t remember from which Oasis that he’d stopped to quench his intuitive thirst and where my caravan had stopped too to pick up somewisdom and a map that would lead me beyond that now, back then – so long ago.

For any of those here looking for true #wisdom, true #leadership and if you want a map maker especially if you are lost in the desert of all that confusion that modern living and #challenges can throw at you

Reach out to Tom Morris

One of the finest examples of a modern day Philosopher that I have had the pleasure to come across ever in my life and a fine gentleman too!

They don’t make many like you Tom.

Here’s to Frienship and To Longer Conversations in the near future.

P.S. Tom – I couldnt help capture the moment. Apologies if I didn’t say cheese!

https://lnkd.in/dzPsh2cU

It was with deep sadness that I gotta read about Rakesh Jhunjhununwaala’s passing.

I didn’t know him personally but I knew people whom he was close with.

Just like everyone else I followed his exploits on the stock market and then the launch of his airline Akasa Air – deep down my admiration for the man grew.

But that’s not the point of this post.

This is to all those people who work so hard to conquer the mountains they’d dreamt of but find no time to enjoy the view.

Take some time off, enjoy your life. Chill. Spend time with your loved ones. If you have enough then seek those lesser blessed than you and try to make a difference in the lives of those who desperately seek an unseeing God.

62 is no age to die. Especially when you consider that he could afford the best of healthcare, the best of doctors. Rakesh Jhunjhununwaala’s Blessings / Grace ran out.

I believe, that’s what you need most. Grace to enjoy the fruits of your labour, Grace to be blessed with a healthy and long life. Grace….

When you are gone no one cares about your wealth, about the millions you’ve left unspent in your bank, about your social status in society – practically nothing.

But you’ll be remembered for the lives you impacted, for the several good you did for those that weren’t even remotely connected to you, for the big heartedness you displayed when you could’ve chosen to be otherwise.

Mind you that’s what Rakesh Jhunjhununwaala did in his lifetime although those things aren’t spoken about. Visit Narayani Dham in Lonavala and you’ll know more about this beautiful man who left us abruptly almost as if without even a goodbye.

Rest in peace Rakesh. There might never be another bull on markets anytime soon.

A Tiny #Thought

One of the best ways to improve #performance is to change where you start.

You don’t necessarily need to start at the bottom of the mountain to get to the top. You can learn from the people who came before you.

Standing on the shoulders of the people who have done what you want to do changes your starting position. You’ve unconsciously done this all your life. Consider how you learned calculus in school. Isaac Newton climbed the calculus mountain years ago. And while you might never reach the summit, you’re certainly not trying to work out everything for yourself. Learning from his work allows you to st #work art halfway up the mountain.

There is a wrinkle worth pointing out. Most of what you learn in school changes slowly. However, in the real world, a lot of what you need to know to get ahead changes quickly. And that means finding someone with a lot of experience and learning from them isn’t the best approach.

#experience can be deceiving. When I worked at the three-letter-intelligence agency, I had a mentor who was 25 years older than me. While it was well-intentioned, the specific advice he offered me to get ahead wasn’t relevant anymore. It worked for him 25 years ago, but the environment had changed too much. However, his general #advice was spot on.

When starting a new job, find the person that just got promoted from the role you got hired into and ask them for specific advice. The word specific is important. These are the tools, the #techniques , the #skills that worked in the same situation you’re coming into. If you talk to someone who climbed the mountain a long time ago, odds are the specific advice isn’t as relevant as things have changed.

You control your starting position more than you think. For specific advice, find someone a step or two ahead of you. For general advice, find someone older who can put things in perspective.

My response:-

This is a good piece if you want a #conventional#life, a conventional #career#growth and a conventional / predictable end to a carefully thought out plan.

I don’t suggest this for anyone who wants to materialize / #Manifest in this life time – Real Growth!

What’s needed is to realize the gifts that one is possessed of – trust me – each of us have unique gifts

What’s needed is to develop ( #development is a slow #process . It takes faith, it takes a step a day approach and it takes complete involvement) that gift.

That can only happen when you have started to move from #intellectual thinking to #intuitive thinking. You move from thought to flow. You must progress from I think too I feel.

That’s when you come up with #Eureka moments. Those are the moments that will Move You Forward.

That’s when you are in a Flow State and you come up with “out of the world” or “out of the box” ideas.

Thus – my oft repeated one liner is…

Delve Within #Discover Self