Success is Easy - What is Your definition of Succes

According to the Google Search Engine, the definition of success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, or a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. The definition and the true meaning of Success differs a lot. The meaning of success depends from person to person as no two persons are same. To me, what success is not, is being materialistic.  I don’t think that success can be attributed to financial prosperity, fame, or fortune.  However, the standard definition of success may beg to differ.

I evaluate success in myriad ways. While at work, success to me means completing a given task on time and feeling happy about it, thinking I could not have done it better! This is not enough though - the results should be great and the people involved should have a memorable experience. Success at work can be doing something extraordinary for our customers, help them experience something really incredible. 

When I am not working, I enjoy facetiming my niece, listening to her stories and solving her puzzles so at that time I derive success from the simple pleasures of life. Success is having my parents look at me and be proud of who they see. It is being someone my friends know they can rely on and the person who does what she says she is going to do. Success is as simple as having a peaceful sleep at night knowing that today I have not done wrong to someone. It’s knowing I did the best I could that day, with what I was given.

According to a Life Hack article titled “The Real Meaning of Success” - To be successful means to first define success for yourself and then to start living your life based on your OWN expectations and  on your OWN terms. The term OWN is important, it has to be yours ( something you personally believe in, not what others expect you to).

After this write down your goals, share your goals, and figure out how you achieve it.  Even if it means deconstructing each goal into smaller goals and even smaller goals. You will figure out a way when you OWN your goals. Finally, go and do it. 

The Life Hack “The Real Meaning of Success” has a wonderful quote:

“Because continuously living everyday with expectations that are not of your own is a day that is not truly yours” . See what is truly yours , check with yourself every day , are you doing something which you truly believe into ?

Most importantly success is never letting other people define what it should mean or look like to me. It’s deciding for myself and pursuing it with a persisting determination. Today, success to me is about having a purpose, the one that I define myself. I used to think success was about stuff (bank balance, car, house, gadgets) , until I got that stuff and was still inherently unhappy. That’s not success, that’s materialism and ego.  Not that these are unimportant things, they do bring in temporary happiness , but don’t have a lasting effect.

Think about the current situation, you might have bank balance , money in your account but you would have definitely experienced not being able to get all the things that you need daily during this lockdown. The magnitude of that feeling might differ from person to person but all of us have experienced that. If something that this lockdown has taught me, is to be Kinder and Compassionate about people around me , and that has helped me to sleep well at night.

I remember a saying from the Holy book Bhagavat Geeta  – “Tum Kya leke aye ho , Tume kya leke jaoge?” ( What have you brought into this world , What will you take back with You).  In second chapter ,Lord Krishna explains, that You are not this body You are the soul. You just take some form of body in every birth according to your OWN KARMA. You live INSIDE the body, and YOU ARE NOT BODY. Your actions (Karma) will define your success, it will define your foot prints , it will define how others will remember you . Ask yourself how will you want others to remember you , asking this simple question to yourself can help a lot in changing your actions. So next time  when your actions ( intentionally or unintentionally) hurt someone in your pursuit to be successful, stop for a moment and think “ Am I not over defining what Success means to me” .

Let us all be the leader we wish we had - Leaders Eat Last,Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek is one of the best books on leadership I’ve ever read, I am reading it for the 3rd time now.

Not only does Sinek provide an aspirational message contradicting most modern leadership advice, but he backs his argument with neuroscience and he delivers his message in an authentic way. This is not an ordinary Leadership book, it shatters some of the misconceptions we have with respect to leadership. It takes stories from real life personalities , talks about trust, circle of safety . These are things we ignore as we grow but these are this aspects which differentiates  true leaders from impersonating leaders.

“Some believe we should always put other first -- that if we don’t look out for the group, the group won’t look out for us. Others believe we should always put ourselves first and that if we don’t take care of ourselves first, then we would be of no use to anyone else. The fact is, both are true." - Simon Sinek

The majority of this book revolves around four chemicals, how they make us tick and their impact on leadership roles.

These four happiness chemicals are:

Endorphin: the pain-masking chemical (we most often get a rush of endorphins from running or weightlifting called a “Runner’s High” that helps us push our bodies through tough workouts. This feeling is actually addictive and that’s why you see so many people who are addicted to working out.

Dopamine: The goal achieving chemical(Dopamine is what produces that irresistible urge to check every notification on your phone.

Each time we clear the notification, respond to the text, or read an email it gives us a boost in dopamine. Since dopamine makes us feel great, we instinctively do things that give us a quick dopamine fix without considering the value of those things.)

Serotonin: The leadership chemical (When people see you and respect you as their leader, it boosts your serotonin by making you feel great and it boosts their serotonin because they trust you.

Sinek calls serotonin “the leadership chemical.” Our bodies release serotonin when we receive public recognition. Serotonin creates our positive feelings of pride and status. Think about the feeling you had when you received an award or walked across a stage for a graduation ceremony. Serotonin caused that positive feeling. But your body will also release serotonin if you watch someone else receive recognition. Serotonin explains why we love to thank people who have helped us or we will work to make other people proud.

Oxytocin: The chemical of love (Leaders that get out amongst the people to shake hands, give high-fives, and give people one-on-one time to address their concerns do.

Their presence among the team increases oxytocin. When you're a leader, assuming that you aren’t a tyrant that is, both you and your employees will feel happier.)

According to Sinek, oxytocin leads to the best feeling of all: the feeling that makes you feel safer when you are with people that you love. Oxytocin causes that feeling of safety that you get when you believe that someone has your back. There are many ways to generate this feeling. For example, oxytocin is why hugging feels good or why a mother and child develop a bond. 

Let us also discuss about Cortisol here: Cortisol is the fight or flight chemical in our body. Its release results in feelings of stress and anxiety, which serves to alert our bodies to signs of danger.

Sinek divides these four chemicals into two separate categories -- selfish and selfless.

• Selfish chemicals -- Endorphin and Dopamine help us get things done and achieve more.

• Selfless chemicals -- Serotonin and Oxytocin strengthen our social bonds create meaningful connection/collaboration.

Think of a situation when you felt “ Safe” somewhere or in the presence of someone.  Key to becoming comfortable (and feeling safe) is to start acting in a way that releases oxytocin. What made you feel safe, did the environment relaxed your mind or someone did something for you? Think of a time when someone left their very important work to spend time with you ?

Start doing small acts of generosity. Then keep giving and keep sacrificing. And then one day you might build up enough oxytocin in your body to feel safe.

Leaders can make the choice to start sacrificing, start giving, and start the cycle of generosity and oxytocin. As human beings, we appreciate people that give time and energy – the things that we cannot get back. It feels nice to do and get things without giving or expecting something in return.

Sinek reminds us that anybody can be a leader. The position gives you authority but that doesn’t make you a leader, your actions do. Leadership is about small sacrifices and choosing to care. It’s about the little human elements that we too easily forget.

As Sinek concludes, “leadership is a choice and every single one of us can make the choice to be the leader we wish we had.” 

Be the person, you wish you had in your life to guide you, help you, understand you and who would spend time and energy on you.

Success and Failure is not Permanent , but You are.

“Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”- Steve Jobs

We have so many trainings, courses, whole curriculum designed to teach us management but when we look around, we do not find something which teaches us to be leaders. Does Leadership come with a title? Something to think about;

Being a good leader is never easy, it might look seamless and easy to many of us. While a leader's actions may be scrutinised when things are going bad, it is their leadership qualities that shine through the worst of times. It is these same qualities that employees look up to, respect, and work very hard for.

I have met some great leaders in last short 10 years of professional life, this week I will take some time to express my gratitude to those individuals who have influenced me immensely. I still am touch with these individuals because my relationship with them has grown beyond my work and they have touched my thoughts personally.

The first leadership quality that had a lasting impact on me and I try to practice it every day:

Integrity  . 

In one of my favourite books by Simon Sinek, Integrity is defines as a key component to build Trust. “Leadership is about integrity, honesty and accountability. All components of trust.”

“Integrity” is a word you hear almost every day, but it’s not a word that people spend a lot of time thinking about. If you try to define it, what would you say? Something which I saw and felt real-time from my closest mentor – Randy Majerle are some of the great examples of integrity . Randy as I fondly call him is friend, mentor and an honest critique. I have known Randy for over 8 years now and something which has remain consistent over these many years is how well he expresses his thoughts and intentions clearly. While working with him professionally I had noticed that he would keep honesty in his conversations, he would not sugar coat when things were not right. I always felt that it is important to get the raw flavour of information so that you can take the right action and not be in a hallucination that things are alright. He would up front present his intentions and his follow-up actions would back up his intentions. Even now when I talk to him, he coaches me not to become complacent and whenever he sees signs of it, he immediately tells me to correct my course of action. Without integrity, there is no real success. Believe me real success is far more fulfilling than decorated success .

You can’t and should not expect your followers to be honest when you lack integrity yourself. The root of integrity is about doing the right thing even when it’s not acknowledged by others, or convenient for you.

There are countless examples of integrity in everyday life—and yet we seldom see them. Let me put  some of the examples that I have experienced:

·       As a kid , I had been pretty adamant about things that I wanted to play with. I have given hard times to my parents with my never ending tantrums. At times they have scolded me and shouted at me, but I remember the times when my parents would come to me in the evening explaining why I could not get the things at that time. They would apologize for not being able to get the things I wanted and shouting at me.

·       While driving a two wheeler or a four wheeler on road, have you ever noticed a fellow commuter who patiently waits for others to move without honking aggressively? How you drive says a lot about you—how you treat people you don’t know; how you handle anger;  and the extent to which you suffer from entitlement. Sometimes we think that the fellow commuter has no urgency to reach his/ her destination. Perhaps we would like to believe that someone who drives slowly or non-aggressively is simply less busy , but driving in a cooperative manner that is mindful of your fellow commuters is actually a sign of integrity. 

I believe most of you would have had the same experience as kids. Now think, how many times in recent times, have you tried apologising to someone when you have been hard on them? How easy it is for you to apologize? How easily you accept a mistake on your part. When was the last time you gave credit to someone who really deserved it.  If the answer to that question is very difficult to retrospect, stop for a moment and then think how you can change.

Stay tuned for my next article, I will talk about the Happy Chemicals which drive our actions and the way we react to things.

Bouncing Back - Train your brain to first acknowledge adversity and then rewire it to maximize resilience .

From "Why Me " to " What can I do about it "

How many times in the last month have you said to yourself, “I can’t take this stress anymore,” or “Why do I keep overreacting to such little things” or even “Is this all there is to life?” Think about it?

At the same time how many times did you tell yourself , “I would not have tried this otherwise” . How many times did you find yourself doing something which you would not have attempted previously. Well I can say every day I am doing something which I usually would not have done. For example , giving a haircut to my husband twice in last 2 months is something I would not even dream previously. Prior to this new norm , every month for a haircut, my husband would grumble and ask me, “ Why don’t you cut my hair in home and we can save Rs 450 ( ~ 7 USD)”. I have always mentioned him that I would be paying for his hair cut and he should not worry about it .

I started planting seeds in my balcony garden, I attempted planting a ginger to see if it would grow, it did. My happiness knew no bounds when I saw the first shoot grow. In spite of so many things going around, these small occurrences bring in joy in my life every day. Not that I am not aware of what is going on around, but I prefer to see good in the face of adversity. We all should do that. We all have a fortune cookie in our life and it comes in different forms , it is just that we don’t pay attention to it.

“Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Greitens, 2015)

In the past 2 months, I started reading exhaustively, most of my late nights and weekends are spent reading. There are three books that I recently read which gives a whole new meaning to resilience . In this article, I will try to share my key takeaways from these three books.

Resilience is something that is within each of us, but how we use it, and how well are key determinants in our overall well-being and quality of life. So stop feeling helpless about situations, circumstances around you. Stop asking yourself “Why me” .

The first book that I started reading somewhere in March was “The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to finding your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles – Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte”

Key Message : Resilience has transforming Power. It transforms hardship into challenge, failure into success, and helplessness into power. Resilience turns victims into survivors and allows survivors to thrive.

Increasing resilience does not come easy and it requires work on your part, and it will require your commitment.

The book will help you get a  better understanding of who you are and why you behave in the way you do, than ever before.

The authors have grouped the seven skills of resilience into two categories:

Know thyself skills( helps you build your self awareness) and

Change skills ( helps you change your perspective, action towards situations/incidents)

The foundation of the seven skills of resilience is built on the simple realisation that our emotions and behaviours are triggered not by events themselves but by how we interpret those events.

• Learning Your ABCs: When confronted with adversity, listen to your thoughts, identify what you say to yourself when faced with a challenge, and understand how your thoughts affect your feelings and behaviour.
• Avoiding Thinking Traps: Don’t make mistakes that undermine resilience.
• Detecting Icebergs: Identify your deep, maybe hidden beliefs and determine when they help and hurt you ( see and identify your unconscious biases).
• Challenging Beliefs: Find new problem solving/thinking strategies so as to not pursue the wrong solutions ( age old method might not work, rediscover your ways).
• Putting It in Perspective: Stop thinking about “what if” and perceiving every failure as a catastrophe ( everything that happens is not a what if situation, don’t over relate things )
• Calming and Focusing: Stay calm and focused when overwhelmed by stress or emotion ( I usually practice this – I start counting from 100 to 1, or turn on the “Breath” application on my Apple watch).
• Real-time Resilience: Change your counterproductive thoughts into more resilient ones ( search for solutions keeping yourself fully aware of the problems).

The second book that read was “Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back – Andrew Zolli and Anne Marie Healey”

The book primarily focuses on why do some systems bounce back from a crisis while others fail? A wide range of examples from systems as diverse as coral reefs and international finance are taken to study and explain the power of resilience. They explain the nature of resilience and what factors contribute to it.

• Resilience enables a system to bounce back from a crisis.
• Resilience is a complex quality found in systems as diverse as finance and ecology.
• Systems can remain robust when expected stresses hit. However, they are vulnerable to new attacks.
• Resilience exists in positive systems – like the body’s immune system – and negative ones – like terror networks. You can learn from both.
• Diversity increases resilience and is often found in “clusters,” like cities.
• Resilient systems work in networks and can cooperate or not as needed.
• Supportive communities produce resilient individuals.
• Resilient systems continually reinvent themselves in a flexible “adhocracy,” a social structure that allows constant change within a set of “fixed values and purposes.”

In every form of adversity one thing remains constant - All of them acknowledge that resilience requires “continuity and recovery in the face of change,” particularly change imposed from an external source.

Resilient systems heavily use “tight feedback mechanisms” to tell when a sudden change is imminent and prepare your mind to adapt/face the change. Acknowledge the change , the more you ignore, the more you will feel helpless. Keep yourself calm, practice meditation, adopt a hobby , spend some time in silence. All this will help.

The third book that I just finished reading is “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy – Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant”

The idea of the book is to focus on Option B instead of lamenting over an exhausted Option A. Everyone has a lot of plans, but the reality is not all plans work out. You might feel lost, sad, depressed when things don’t go the way you want them to be , but what is important is have you tried identifying what your Option B is?

Option B is a book of resilience. Resilience that enables people who went through periods of dark times like sexual assaults, death of loved ones and the violence of war to rediscover joy. We may not always get our Option A, and this book will teach us how we can make the best of our Option B.

Option B combines Sheryl Sandberg’s personal insights with Adam Grants ground breaking research on finding strength in the face of adversity. It goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere and to rediscover joy. Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. It illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces.  It brings in hope, hope that not everything is lost, time changes, it heals people but we need to allow others to help us.

Helping someone cope up with their sadness can bring in immense strength in you. If you have not done it yet, start doing it.

Sadness/ Tragedy / Emptiness are not permanent and we should not hold on to them.

Sheryl says - “Tragedy does not have to be personal, pervasive, or permanent, but resilience can be. We can build it and carry it with us throughout our lives... we can all find strength within ourselves and build strength together. There is light within each of us that will not be extinguished.”

The book—Option B— is about recognising that light, and to hold on to it to overcome your grief. There is always a light, light of hope and strength to overcome adversity.

Accept the imminent change, change your perspective ( have a solution seeker mindset) , get to your Option B. Give yourself a chance to feel the joy of happiness in the face of adversity.

Love , Hope & Resilience - The power to pull yourself up every-time you fall

Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up ~ Proverb

Even in the face of adversity, some of us are able to show resiliency, the ability to “bounce back,” How do we become resilient? Are we immune to emotional ups and downs? or our power to to see the brighter side stronger than lamenting over the pain?

When I first read about resilience, I immediately thought about optimism. Perhaps those who survive the cruelty and harshness of life were the ones who stayed positive in all the madness.

Though optimism is indeed part of resilience, it is not the only contributor. Rose-colored thinking and living in a far reality can be dangerous when it comes to resolving conflicts. If there’s no reality check, you’ll forever stay a dreamer and not an executor.

My close friends know me as someone who keeps trying what she wants , someone who has a strong will to achieve the things that keeps her happy. Sometimes I get questions on how do I manage to think and visualize something which is not evident to others. This too is linked to my childhood. 

In one of my previous stories I mentioned that I used love building imaginary castles with my friends and spend hours fighting unknown enemies, someone who spent half of her day during the summer holidays just playing some random games. You can imagine how crazy I was just to spend time outdoors. At one of time, I could not imagine staying indoors .  I was in my 3rd standard , when during one of my summer holidays I seriously felt sick. My family doctor diagnosed it as an affect of playing outdoors in sun . In India we call it as “Loo” ( not the English one, but the Hindi one which means “Sun Struck”). I was advised to stay indoors and rest for at least 14 days. I remember mom used to keep wet cloth on my fore head to reduce my body temperature. After almost 20 days of sickness, I started feeling good. Mom started feeding me some “Khichdi” to bring back the strength . What I missed most was my playtime with my three closest friends. So as soon as I gained little strength, on the 25th day, I ventured out to play. By afternoon the temperature rose again and I collapsed. I don’t remember what happened in between but in the evening when I woke up, I found myself in the chamber of my family doctor. She reprimanded me and said I was given two injections to reduce the temperature. I didn’t quite understand what was going on at that time, but I was only worried about not being able to play with my friends.  That summer was the worst summer, I was in and out of hospital , lost two months of school due to my sickness. I remember the period so clearly because it had set a lasting impact on me. I started to lose interest in studies, most of the days I would feel weak and spend time sleeping/resting, I would get tired if I would run. My immunity had taken a hit. 

For almost 3 years after this I did not participate in any outdoor sports activity. In school competitions I would mostly sit away watching other kids play and participate in games. I was never a studious student, to be very frank I was a below average student who used to get a rank of 23 or 25 in a class of 30 students. In school you would have friends only in either of the two cases- either you are good in sports or you are a class topper. I was neither of them. Most of my early school days were spent without any real friends. 

Then came a change, Papa was transferred to a near by place and we moved to a new town. I got into a new school in the mid of the year. I feared going to school , however Papa promised it would be different. I was surprised to see that students were given options to select the type of extra curricular activities that they would want to participate. I took up Sketching and Knitting. Soon I made friends in my Sketching and Knitting classes. I started feeling positive, this impacted my concentration and studies. For the next 3 years that I was in this school, I never lost my first position in the class. I moved back to my old school due to my father’s transfer and surprisingly I came first even in the mid of the term. Coming first in the class became a regular thing and after that I have always remained in the Top 5 positions whether it was school, or my engineering. I have bounced back from a phase where I always felt like a loser to a phase where I know I can do it. I think it is very important to have trust in yourself first, because if you don’t trust yourself no-one else will. I would spend my time writing down difficult points 10 times in notebook till I understood them, I was never good in memorising concepts, but I was very good in finding out ways to understand the concepts. Even today I write a lot , I refer multiple sources to get better understanding. I still do not get sleep at night if I have left a work mid way or if I have an open question from someone who has asked me for help. 

Resilience is not a trait that is either present or absent, but consists of behaviours, thoughts, and actions that experts agree can be learned and developed by anyone. It’s therefore not our exposure to potentially traumatic events that determines later functioning, but how we respond to them. So just how can you strengthen your resilience muscle? Having a loving and caring support system, both in and outside the family, is one of the key components, or protective factors, in building resilience . Also maintaining a positive view of yourself and your surroundings is critical. 

If you can’t see positivity, here is my tip : Say to yourself , “everything happens for a reason and may be I am not able to see the reason now” . The ability to manage intense feelings and impulses, problem-solving and communication skills, and the capacity to develop realistic plans and see them through will go a long way in strengthening your will power.Maintain an internal locus of control, or believe that you, rather than your life circumstances, impact your successes. 

Building resilience is not a one-size-fits-all journey, but unique to each person’s personal identity and development, and may hinge on one’s cultural practices and beliefs. Therefore, it’s important to understand that not all approaches will work for everyone. Similarly, as not all individuals respond the same way to a traumatic event, the strategies they adopt will vary depending on their given response style. 

It is never easy to get up after falling down, but it is not Impossible to get up. Sometimes it really takes a good fall for you to realise where you really stand. You do come out stronger.

Just Cause and Why - Have you realised the difference..

What Is a Just Cause ..... Do you have one??

I come from a humble background, my father is a retired South Eastern Indian Railways employee.  I still have vivid memories of my childhood....  where in the last 1 week of every month, it would really become difficult for mom to run the household. Weekly grocery amounts would decrease, vegetables would be limited to only Potatoes, Onion and Tomatoes. Today when i think of those days, it seems so difficult but ironically during those days, the last week seemed same as the other weeks. 

Papa did get many offers to join better opportunities in private organisations but he would avoid them every-time. I used to wonder why would he do that considering our financial situations would have improve greatly. Papa would say - "In my role, I sign off critical consignments and a single mistake would mean humungous loss for the regional railways".

He was so protective about the work and the damage it would cause if minute details were ignored....I hardly remember him taking leaves from work except for the times when he would be really sick. It seemed really strange to me seeing him go to work with the same enthusiasm years after years. I am sure many of us would have the same story to share. Over the years, he has made strong relationships which have gone beyond his working years. He has made friends for lifetime. In fact yesterday while I was talking to him, I was worried how he was managing with his daily groceries. Smilingly he mentioned Mr. X ( keeping the name private) has already made all arrangements so that he gets all his medicines and daily groceries on-time. It has been 2 years that I have seen him and mom, but he assured me his friends are taking good care of him. Strangely he asked if I have a Mr/Ms X here on whom I can rely in case of needs. It made me think do I have one? The answer was relieving .. Yes , I do have my safety circle who would extend immediate help if I ask them. 

Catching back on my previous article-- on Infinite Vs Finite mindset...Infinite Vs Finite let us see what does a 'Just Cause' means and how everyone of us should have one. Do we already have one but dont realise.  Just Cause is visionary and aspirational. A Just Cause is a reason for you, the team, or the business to exist.

There are five criteria to have a Just Cause. It must be 1) for something, 2) inclusive, 3) service oriented, 4) resilient, and 5) idealistic. ( Courtesy : Simon Sinek Just Cause )

For Papa , his Just Cause was , how he would provide the best service to clients of South Eastern Railways within his maximum capability. Optimistic that he was doing his bit in strengthening the economic situation of the country... (might seem unrealistic to us but he was pretty sure that he was making his contribution) . He made this his “true north” on the compass. 

I believe this is in my genes, there are multiple things that I do in both professional and personal life that do-not necessarily have a tangible outcome or bring ins monetary or time savings . I do them because I believe I am bringing in a change in someone else's life or may be contributing to the society. Most of the times I think How does my action bring in positivity in future ,  what is my vision of future , what kind of relationships I would want to foster.  

"Our Lives are finite, but life is infinite" 

I would want my relationship with my colleagues to go beyond my professional relationship.  For me being a mentor, friend is much more important than being a manager and thats what drives my actions . Does this mean practicing this will always be a win on professional growth?? Not necessarily... but I have made a conscious decision of what I want to choose. Not a very easy decision to make but worth it. 

How is it different from "Why" -  "Why" mostly deals with your experience in the past. Why definitely will frame out your "Just Cause" . Our Just Cause is our WHY projected into the future. It describes a future state in which our WHY has been realised. It is a forward looking statement that is so inspiring and compelling that people are willing to sacrifice to see that vision advanced. ( Courtesy : Simon Sinek Just Cause )

Think about your Just Cause.  Spend sometime thinking how would want the world to remember you? Do you want to be just a name or more than that. 

More Next week... Stay Tuned....

Leadership Signs which Kids teach us --- Food for thought

This week’s post on what we can learn from kids in our lives. 

As we grow up, we tend to forget what we loved when we were kids. For example, when I was a kid, I loved spending hours and hours in creating imaginative castles, threat situations with my friends and strategies how to come out successfully of those imaginative situations. Even when I created those threat situations, I would not know what comes next, after 3 hours of playtime, we used to come out successfully of the imaginative threats. 

Last week on my Birthday, my 3 year old niece called me up for singing a birthday song on #FaceTime. As I was speaking with her, she kept showcasing numerous tricks, jumping on the sofa, taking a leap, trying cartwheel …, not all her tricks were successful. However what amazed me, was her attitude of just moving on. 

If you’ve ever watched children play, then you would see that some just seem to be natural born leaders and it comes to them with little to no effort. They take charge without even really trying to make it happen. With the rigid mindset of adulthood, we often abandon creative pursuit – especially as professional leaders or organizations as a whole –either for lack of time or due to the realization that your masterpiece looks nothing like that bowl of fruit. Try ignoring what you can’t control, do what you can control....

Children, however, see what their mind’s eye wants them to see, so they lose themselves in dancing, jumping, singing random songs to express their feelings, coloring, finger paint, clay or sand castles, creating priceless works of art that absolutely must receive prime refrigerator real estate. This is how they continue to learn, grow and invent. Effective leadership requires you to pull yourself back to that time and lose yourself in something you love

In a child’s mind, everyone they get to play with instantly becomes a new friend. They act like this person is their best friend and will be for all of the time within minutes of meeting each other. They savor the moments they have with each other to the fullest. They aren’t afraid to ask personal questions and get to know each other. They make instant plans to spend more time together if their parents allow it. Every time I talk to both of my niece, what amazes me, that they make realize about every minute details throughout that week - what did I cook, do I have chocolates, do I have groceries, did I do something interesting, am I having my food on time? It is surprising that I should be doing it myself as a part of daily self-awareness exercise however I rarely do it these days. Very important to start it up again.  

With all the joy children find, it’s no wonder that they see the silly and humorous in what would be considered uninteresting or mundane from our vantage point. Studies have found that the average child laughs roughly 200 times a day while the average adult laughs 14-17 times a day. These statistics alone are enough to make you cry. My 3-year-old sweet heart had hurt her knee but in spite of that she was smilingly trying out new tricks. Even in the bad times, effective leadership requires that you find a reason to laugh. It might be a lot of work at the time. It is worth it. Find out a reason to smile…. I am sure you will have one everyday.

— More next week…. Stay Tuned….