the time foundation

[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

31^st May 2013

Fate and the Quality of Our Thinking

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

According to me fate has a very little role to play in our life. It is just one single page in our book called life and we should believe that one page cannot decide our life. There are many things that affect our life and one such important thing is the content and the quality of our thinking process. Our mind is an amazing thing and it controls our entire life. The way we used our mind so far has shaped our life and will continue to shape our life.

We may face an event which is totally outside of our span of control. We can call this `fate'. But how we respond and react to it is not fate. It is how we use our mind. Take the life of people whose fate took them through worst challenges in their life. Consider the life of Helen Keller. It was her fate to have been born with such a physical disability. But she did not allow her fate to decide the quality of her life. She allowed her mind to take charge.

So is the case of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner of Tour de France, after he was diagnosed to have cancer. He did not allow his fate to decide what he wanted to be in life. Take the case of Mark Inglis, the world's first double amputee to climb Mount Everest. Log on to www.Ted.com and you will see more and more such people who have conquered their fate through an empowering thinking process.

Fate may place a stone on our path, but our mind should decide whether to take that as a stepping stone or a stumbling block!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

30^th May 2013

Seek Help Rather Than Permission

When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life.

Abert F. Geoffrey

Between fight and flight, the human beings have the freedom to choose. We have the unique capacity to decide the quality of our life, independent of the will of others. We need the support and cooperation of others, and their input will prove to be very important in deciding our success. But ultimately it is our free will which should decide our life.

Seeking help of others is different from seeking their permission. When we seek help, we still retain our freewill. On the other hand, when we seek their permission, we are likely to surrender our freewill. When we decide on something, we have our own reasons and justifications for our decision. Sometimes we may not be guided by logical reasoning, but our intuition. Others may not have this input. Hence, they may not agree with our view point. Sometimes we may not have the maturity to accept the decision of others when we ask their permission and in the process lose our relationship.

Empowerment is a result of our willingness to take charge of our life. When we take charge of our own life and fate, we may go through a lot of tension and stress. But that is the only way to exercise our freewill.

Over this weekend, you may do an exercise. Take two important decisions you took over the last six months and check whether you sought the help or the permission of others to decide, and notice what happened to the quality of your decision!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

29^th May 2013

Concentrate on What You Can Do

Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.

Tom Clancy

If you read Stephen Covey's book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you will come to know about the concept of pro-activity. Pro-activity is doing something in the direction of the result that you want to produce and not finding out reasons or excuses. There are many things we cannot change, no matter how hard we try. This is what Stephen Covey calls the area of concern.

Successful people concentrate on what they can do, no matter how small it is. There are many things in our area of influence, as Stephen Covey calls. We should know what can and should be changed and what cannot be changed.

The more we focus what cannot be changed, the more we will become frustrated and helpless and we will become irritated and tired. We will lose our self-confidence and self-worth. It will soon become our habit to blame and criticize others. This is an escape route we find to avoid doing what we can do. We need to be very clear on what we can and should do and not on what we cannot do.

Over this weekend do a small exercise: Take a project which you feel you have not done well. List at least three things you can do to reach the outcome you have in mind. Break it up into small activities and slot one activity per day and notice what happens to your pending list over a period of time!

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

28^th May 2013

Use Your Time for You

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 other's 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.

Steve Jobs

Last week I noticed something very interesting on my worktable. I noticed a hive constructed by a wasp at the tip of my pencil! The pencil was blunt and obviously I had not used it for a long time. I was about to destroy the hive. But, I thought for a while. I asked myself why the wasp chose this pencil to construct the hive and not another pencil adjacent to it. The answer was very simple: I did not use this pencil and hence the pencil was available for the wasp to do what it wanted on it!

Can I blame the wasp and complain and criticize? Isn't the nature of a wasp to construct its nest on any convenient place? The problem is not the wasp, but my attitude with reference to my resources: I did not use my pencil and the wasp used it!

I learnt a very important lesson in my life. If I don't use my time to produce what I want to produce in my life, someone will use my time to produce what they want in their life! Isn't it a simple common sense? I will have to find out what I can do to make my dream come true. If I don't do this, others will fill my mind with such thoughts to realise their outcome in life.

Our mind has intuition and knows how to get what we want in life. All that is required is to invest our resources on what we want to be and be conscious of it. Else, the same resource will be used by someone else to produce what they want in their life!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

27^th May 2013

Ask for Responsibility and Be Passionate

Ask for the job you want. Ask for the salary you want. Ask for the responsibilities you want.

Brian Tracy

Anything given to us without our asking will not be valued. In fact, the harder we ask and yearn and get, the more will be its value to us. If we ask for a job and get it, we will love it and work to our maximum capacity. We will love what we got after a lot of efforts.

Many of us feel shy or perhaps afraid of asking for the salary we want. We need to understand that our time has a price tag that it is a marketable commodity. Any marketable commodity is sold and the sale price takes into account the value addition that has gone in making the product saleable. So is our time. We have to add value to our time by acquiring skills and knowledge so that we produce a value for the money that is offered to us.

The third component is the responsibility. If we ask and get the responsibility, we will love it and we will not get irritated in discharging our duties. We may struggle to discharge our responsibility. We may undergo a lot of stress and tension. But if we had asked for the responsibility and got the same, we will love the tension and stress that goes with it. In short, we will become passionate in doing what is entrusted to us.

Over this weekend list three things which you got after a lot of waiting and three other things very easily without asking for. Notice which you love most and you will understand the meaning of the above quotation!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-18T00:58:00.000-07:00

24^th May 2013

Inner Feeling Decides the External Behaviour

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.

Mark Twain

The quality of our inner feelings will decide the content and quality of our external behaviour. The software installed in a computer decides the output from a computer' In a human system the quality of the mind decides our external behaviour. If we call it `software' with reference to computers, we may call it `mindware' with reference to the human system.

Whatever we do just for the sake of money will have less quality content than those things we do for personal satisfaction. Just replace the monitory reward with personal satisfaction reward and see what happens to your attitude to work and the commitment level. A sports personality does not work for money alone. A multimillionaire may not want any more money, but he still works. These people work just for the love of their work.

Loving a person is a basic human instinct. When we move with people, someone may hurt us knowingly or unknowingly. It is human nature to feel angry or get hurt. The longer we harbour these feelings, the more we will feel angry and get hurt. Try to apply the `alt + ctrl + del' to this file in your mind and see what happens to your relationship!

The third part of the above quotation is even more interesting. Fear of criticism and judgement will prevent us from attempting anything new. Fear of failure will also have the same effect. Just ignore others' criticism and do your best and notice what happens to your enthusiasm and drive. We need others' feedback to improve our process of work. Every failure is a learning experience.

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

23^rd May 2013

Audit the Quality of Your Thinking

The only limitation in your life is the limitation of your own thinking.

James A. Ray

The quality of our life is decided by the quality of our thinking. The one factor which distinguishes the human beings from others is our faculty of thinking. We are not merely human beings. We are also thinking beings. Animals also think. But they cannot think in a structured way. They cannot use thinking as a `technology', but we can. We can focus our thinking, expand our thinking, refine our thinking, define our thinking, fine-tune our thinking, etc.

We can think big or we can think small. We can think about opportunities or about threats. We can think about strengths or about weaknesses. We can think about what we don't have or about what we already have. We can think the conventional way or think laterally.

The important point about thinking is that we are always thinking. Thinking takes place independent of our will. We cannot reach a situation where we say that we are not thinking. Thinking is a continuous process. The only option we have is to direct and focus our thinking and decide the quality of our thinking.

Many of us are not even aware of what we are thinking about. Being aware of the content of our thinking is very important since what we think will come true. The difference between successful and not-so-successful people is the way they used their ability to think.

Over this weekend, can you do an audit on the quality of your thinking taking into account the above parameters and guidelines?

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-18T00:43:00.000-07:00

22^nd May 2013

Valuable Assets Which Money Cannot Buy

It's good to have money and the things money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things money can't buy.

George Horace Lormier

We check our bank passbook to know whether we are secure financially. But do we ever check our `emotional passbook and balance sheet'? We want to know how rich we are in terms of our money and possessions. But do we ever check how poor we are in terms of some emotional assets which we don't have? Such assets include good health, happy family, goods friends, affectionate children, etc.

If you think for a while, no amount of money can buy the above assets. In our anxiety to earn money and secure our future, we sacrifice our present. A day will come when we will have enough money but no relationship and health. One day, we will realize that we were more busy acquiring material wealth and lost all our emotional possessions.

You need to know that your parents at seventies and children at tens are not going to be like that for long. Your friends and the people around you are too valuable to be ignored. Money cannot buy peace of mind and bliss. Money cannot buy true friendship and affection. Money cannot buy the satisfaction of raising a happy family.

Over this weekend, list all those things which money cannot buy and check whether you have any of them!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-18T00:35:00.000-07:00

21^st May 2013

The Commercial Value of Your Time

Execution is the reward, not the money money is just the by-product of perfect execution.

Jeffrey Gitomer

We need money and without money, we cannot even ensure basic comforts in life. The question is how much money we need and how much we have. The gap is accounted for by the value we create to others using our time. If we create more value, we get more value for money. If we create less, we get less money! Isn't it a simple common sense?

We have to understand that our time has a commercial value like any other product or a service. When we buy a computer, we come to know that computers are available in a range of prices. The entry-level computer can execute only a limited range of tasks. Its processing speed will be low and the technology used also will be lower end. If we have a high value project, we will not mind paying a very high price for the right type of computer. We take into account the return on investment when we buy a costly computer.

So is our time. We have to `market' our time and the `purchaser' of our time will take into account the return on investment. In any project, there are two investments: investment of money and investment of time. No one will invest on a project which offers very little return.

Answer this question honestly: If I resign my job today, will I get another job at the same salary or higher or lesser salary? Will my employer get another replacement for the same, higher or lower salary?

The answer to the above question is an index of the commercial value of your time!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] My blog!

2013-05-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

Dear readers.

You can follow me on my blog:

http://thetimefoundation1993.blogspot.com/

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-05-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

20^th May 2013

Positive vs. Negative

Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out.

Eleanor Porter

Take a sheet of white paper and draw a black dot at the centre. Show the paper to your friend and ask him what he sees. More often than not, he will tell you that he sees a black dot! The white background will not catch his attention. Only the black dot will get noticed. That is human nature.

The same principle applies to noticing the virtues or faults of a person. We may not be able to appreciate the good things in a person. We will immediately notice the not-so-good things.

The irony in life is what is noticed will grow. If you notice bad things in a person, it will grow in your mind. On the other hand, if you notice good things in a person, it will also grow. One way you can infuse self-confidence in a person is to tell him all the good things he has so that the same is reinforced.

We can apply this principle for our self-development also. We get agitated and feel bad when something goes wrong. Small mistakes make us lose our self-confidence and we start brooding over the same even after the event is over. Over a period of time, we become a `gloom factory'!

While we go through such a phase in our life, it will be a good idea to list all the good qualities we have and all the good things we have done. When faced with failure, it will be good idea to list all the success stories we have created, big or small. This will help us to bounce back to our original state of mind.

Over this weekend, list three people whose good things never appealed to you and list at least five things in which they are good. Give this feedback to them. Make it as a habit. Notice how the quality of your friendship grows over a period of time!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Vaname Ellai - May Edition

2013-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

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[Time-Management] Vaname Ellai - May Edition

2013-05-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

17^th May 2013

Check the Quality of Your Attention

I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.

Diane Sawyer

We have often heard that there is no substitute for hard work. In fact, if we think for a while, we cannot work hard if we don't pay attention. Paying attention is a very important quality that we have to develop. Paying attention means that we are fully involved in what we are doing and that our mind is fully on the task on hand. Through our five senses we communicate with the world outside. We see, hear, smell, taste and feel. The quality of these sensations depends upon the quality of our attention and attention span.

Attention is the ability to focus our mind on one thing. Attention span is the duration of our attention. Our mind is normally distracted and disturbed and jumping from one thought to another. A wavering mind will not gather any momentum. Our mind and thoughts have to be contained and controlled. It does not come to us naturally. We have to train our mind.

The most important pre-requisite for paying attention is our interest level. If we do not have interest in what we are doing, we will not get involved and consequently we will not pay attention. Next time you watch a cricket match or a football match, notice the quality and intensity of the players' attention and evaluate yours on your job.

Success or failure depends on the ability to pay attention to details. This factor also determines how much you can climb in your chosen field.

Stop reading this and check the quality of your attention: Can you recall the above quotation without reading it again?

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

16^th May 2013

Focus on Your Inner Dialogue

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good.

Calvin Coolidge

The dictionary meaning of the word `repress' is `bring under control by force', `try not to have or show a thought or feeling', `trying to keep your feelings or desires hidden'. We cannot make any progress by repressing our feelings or actions which we want to do out of our natural instinct. If we attempt to repress either our own feelings or the feelings of others, it will amount to manipulation. Such a change cannot last long.

On the other hand, we should focus our efforts in developing what is good. We have to choose to do what is good and not be compelled not to do what we should not do. Stephen Covey says that between fight and flight, human beings have the freedom to choose what is good. We should educate ourselves on what is good for us and focus on it.

Instead of saying, `I don't want to be lazy', say `I want to be active'; instead of saying, `I don't want to overeat', say `I want to eat right'; instead of saying `I don't want to smoke', say `I want to quit smoking for good'. This inner dialogue will give us the mental stamina to focus on what we choose. The more we repress ourselves, the more we will feel the tension and stress.

Over this weekend, list all the things which you have been repressing and see whether you can focus your attention to develop what is good.

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

15^th May 2013

Words Can Make and Break Relationships

Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.

Pearl Strachan

Spoken words, sped arrow and lost time will not come back. We have the liberty to use any word in any way. But we cannot have the power to stop the consequences of our words. Words can make and break relationships. Communication can be a very big tool to leverage our interpersonal rapport.

It is not what we mean but how we express is very important. Sometimes we may hurt or harm someone else's feelings knowingly or unknowingly. Like a crack in a glass, some relationships may be impossible to mend once strained. Years of friendship may be destroyed in a moment of emotional outburst.

We may have any number of reasons to be emotional and impulsive. But the person receiving the same may not and need not appreciate it. Spoken words are too powerful to be forgotten.

Over this weekend, do an important exercise. List at least three occasions where you got into a relationship problem with an important person. Recall what words you used and how you used the same. Place yourself in that person's position and introspect how you would have taken the same.

Maybe it will also be a good idea to do a small audit of how you talk with others, and check if there is a communication gap between how you express and how you should be expressing.

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

14^th May 2013

Programming the Mind: Must Have vs. Must Want

Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a `must' and a `want.'

Jim Rohn

Wanting to have something comes before having it! Read it again and you will be surprised to know how true this statement is. Human beings are very different from other species. Not only can we want something, we can also devise a strategy to get what we want.

It all starts with a weak desire, and the desire occupies our thoughts. Then the thought occupies our entire mind. What is in our mind permeates through our subconscious mind. We even dream about what we want to have.

When this happens, we feel we must want it. This state of mind gives us the mental and physical stamina to work for what we feel we must have. We become determined and focused. When this state of mind continues, we become obsessed and we don't think about anything other than what we sincerely want.

The more and more we want something, the more and more we get `programmed' like a computer. In a computer, once the programme is installed, it becomes `user friendly', which means that we can use the programme easily. There is a `flow' and we need not struggle to get the output from the computer.

Similarly, when our mind is programmed to get what we really want, the programme runs smoothly and we start having what we wanted. One way to programme our mind is to decide clearly what we want and go on repeating in our mind `I want it, I want it, I want it.' Do this exercise sincerely and you will know the difference between a `must have' and a `must want'!

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

13^th May 2013

Using Negative Emotions Constructively

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.

Glenn Clark

We have goals of various terms: long term, medium term and short term. We also have our day-to-day activities which cannot be ignored. The challenge in front of most of us is to keep our focus on our long-term goals in spite of whatever happens in our daily life. The secret lies in our ability to remain balanced.

Sometimes we are thrown out of gear due to our negative emotions and moods. The most common negative feelings are envy, jealousy, unforgiveness, selfishness and fear. We need to set a benchmark and compare our performance. But such a comparison should be constructive and should propel us into action. It should not retard our progress and effort.

Envy and jealousy have to be handled and channelled properly to give us the energy to be proactive and constructive. Else we will become very selfish and negative.

The quality of forgiving is very important. The ability to forgive not only others but also ourselves is very important to overcome setbacks and failures on our path to success. We have to accept the fact that we are human beings and we may make mistakes and it is okay to fail or struggle. This state of mind will allow us to analyse the reason for our failure and to take the failure as a failure of our effort and not a failure of ourselves.

Of course fear is a natural instinct. But fear has to be used as a positive energy and we should not allow fear to dampen our enthusiasm.

Perhaps you can do a frank introspection whether the above negative emotions are in any way stopping your progress.

N.C. Sridharan

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-30T00:25:00.000-07:00

10^th May 2013

`I Wish' vs. `I Will'

The most important thing in life is to stop saying `I wish' and start saying `I will'. Consider nothing impossible, and then treat possibilities as probabilities.

David Copperfield

There is an inbuilt power in each word we use to motivate us. Our conscious mind may not know that. But our subconscious mind will know. Even without our being aware, we are programming ourselves, and all our external behaviour is a result of this internal programme.

Just recall the last time you climbed a mountain either by foot or by a conveyance. The steeper the mountain, the more should be your effort level. Your effort level should be supported by your physical stamina. Your physical stamina should be supplemented by your mental stamina. In an automobile, when you press the accelerator, more fuel and air are rushed to the combustion chamber of the engine compartment and fired. This accelerates the engine and consequently the automobile surges forward. This principle is highly relevant when it comes to tapping our hidden potential. Whenever we want to strain our physical body, our mind has to be `ignited'. For this, our inner dialogue plays a very important role.

When we say `we wish', a certain amount of mental energy is released. When we say `we will', the mental energy that is released is much more. You have to experience this difference.

Do a small exercise. Identify two projects: for example, `to improve my handwriting' and `to reduce my weight'. For one project repeat this mantra internally: `I wish to improve my handwriting'. For the other project repeat this: `I will reduce my weight'. At the end of one month, check your handwriting and your weight. You will understand what I mean!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

9^th May 2013

Change in Us: Good or Bad

There is nothing wrong with change if it is in the right direction.

Winston Churchill

We are always busy, but the question is, `Busy in doing what?' We are always working; the question is, `What are we working at?' We are always communicating, but the question is, `What are we communicating?' We are always thinking, but the question is, `What are we thinking?' Similarly we are always changing, but the question is, `Is the change good or bad?'

The one thing which does not change is change itself. There have been a lot of changes taking place, both inside of us and outside as well. By the time you finished reading this sentence, some cells would have grown and some would have died in your body. Some thoughts would have entered your mind and some other would have left your mind.

In a factory, the production takes place continuously both good products and scrap. No one produces scrap intentionally. Creation of scrap is a natural process. Similarly, some unwanted changes also take place in us, like the weeds that grow along with good plants.

We have to do a self-audit once in a year to check the quality and direction of change in us. Perhaps, we can choose the New Year Day or our birthday, which is emotional. We can make two lists: in one we list all the good changes that happened in our life and in the other, we list all the not-so-good changes. For example, `I have changed my food habit by saying `no' to oily food' and `I have started social drinking'. After making the two lists, check which list is longer, and this will tell you which way you are progressing and whether the change is for good or for worse!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

8^th May 2013

First Change Yourself

Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The world is not a perfect place, and we are here to perfect the society around us. When we see people around us behaving not so perfectly, we blame them, complain about them or criticize them. Sometimes, we label them that they are not good. However, this approach is not going to make any difference. We will end up advocating the principle of helplessness.

If you think for a while, you will understand that we can make a difference in our own way to redeem the society. We can give the world the best we have and `enroll' people whom we know into this movement. If we do this honestly and sincerely, this `redemption movement' will gain momentum. Over a period of time, we will see more people becoming proactive and taking the first step towards making their contribution.

This is how any movement starts. Whatever you do, resolve today to do it in the best way. Ask yourself whether you can improve your performance and sincerely implement. Share this idea with at least five persons today. Let those five people bring another five people and allow this movement to catch on.

Don't try to change the world. First change yourself and some people who are very near to you. Do this sincerely and set aside a time frame everyday to this important society-building portfolio and see the result over a period of time. You will notice that what goes around will come around!

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

7^th May 2013

Responsibility of Parents

We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are certain things we cannot change. We need to adapt ourselves to manage them. The future is bright, but the going will be tough. The opportunity that we are going to have will come with its own challenges. We need to become fit to exploit all the opportunities that the future is going to offer.

We need to keep this in mind as our children grow. The skills and abilities that are required to manage the future will be completely different from the skills that are required today or even in the past. That is why in organizations, employees are taken through what is called executive and management training.

Our life is also an organization in which we expect our children to produce certain results and outcome. Just like an executive is prepared and trained to meet the business challenges, our children should also be trained and developed to manage the problems they are going to face in their life.

Just like the human resources manager in an organisation takes care of the development of the executives, the parents should take the responsibility to develop the soft skills in their children. I repeat: The parents should take up this responsibility, and not the school. The schools can concentrate on the syllabus and maybe to some extent on the soft skill development.

Basic survival skills like communication, assertiveness, time management, leadership, motivation, empowerment, lateral thinking, creativity, interpersonal skills, etc. are very important to succeed in life.

Over this weekend, can you ponder over this idea and eke out a plan of action to meet this requirement in your child?

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] 365 Thoughts for Self Improvement

2013-04-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

6^th May 2013

Duplication and Failure

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville

God created us as his masterpiece, and each of us is unique in our own way. There is no another `you' in the entire universe. There is no other person with your facial expression, thumb impression, character and trait. God wanted each one of to be unique let us implement His will.

In fact, this is applicable to any creation in the nature. You will not find two identical trees, two identical rivers, two identical mountains, etc.! Isn't strange? Duplication is not in the design of nature. Any duplication is artificial and bound to fail. People will accept only the original and reject the duplicate. Hence, the entire attempt to produce the duplicate is a waste of our efforts and resources.

Each of us has our own unique talent and the world is big enough to accommodate all our creativity and innovation. The opportunities available for displaying our talent are infinity. It may be easy to duplicate someone. But we will fail to make an impression in the society. We should have our own benchmark and role models and we may want to emulate them. There is nothing wrong in that. But emulation is different from duplication. We may like to emulate the values and principles of Mahatma Gandhi. But duplicating his external behaviour alone will be ridiculous and will not produce the same result which he produced.

We may fail initially to be our own. However, let us fail and learn from our failure rather than duplicating someone and fail permanently.

N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Vaname Ellai - April Edition

2013-04-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

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[Time-Management] Three minute success secret!

2013-04-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Our installed capacity is far greater than our exhibited capacity. We have all the potential inside us just waiting to be tapped. We need an appropriate strategy, that is all the secret!

In my three minute YouTube episodes I have tried to give you the gist of what you should do on a daily basis. Follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetimefoundation

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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