Personal Development

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Beggars are choosers

February 12, 2007 in Personal Development | No comments

Beggars are choosersNo. Here we are not talking about the dilemma you face when a beggar approaches you for money or when you see a beggar with a sign saying “Homeless. Need $$.” There are many kind people who have expressed their concerns and thoughts about it earlier.

OK. Back to the topic. Why I say that beggars are choosers? For that, you have to understand that there are two kinds of beggars – those who beg by choice, and those who are forced to beg because of inconvenient circumstances.

Beggars by choice

This kind of people have made begging their profession. They just love it. They don’t want to do any other kind of work. They earn enough from begging and are happy with that. These are the people who choose to be beggars.

Beggars by circumstances

This kind of people are those who if given opportunities would change their ‘profession’ willingly. These are the people who need help. Unfortunately, I don’t see them doing anything different to differentiate themselves from the beggars of the first kind. They also ask for money same as the beggars of the first kind. Why don’t they have a sign saying “Homeless. Will work for $$.“? I am sure with this sign, they will get more donors and it’s also possible that someone might arrange a job for them. But they choose to ask for money.

So, what’s the point? Attitude. Second kind of beggars need to change their attitude. And so do we. We are all begging in one way or another. What’s important is to know whether we are committed to provide value in return of what we ask for. No one likes the beggars of the first kind. They are not providing any value to the society directly or indirectly. Don’t be one. Everyone has a choice to make. What is yours?

Be the change that you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

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Bend it like Beckham. But how?

February 7, 2007 in Motivation, Personal Development | 10 comments

How do some people become great achievers?

David BeckhamHow David Beckham is able to bend football so much? Watch this video that demonstrates his talent. Did you see the turn football makes before entering the goal post? People still wonder how he did what he did.

Some researchers studied Beckham’s game and came up with this explanation,

The wind tunnel technique we’ve developed at the University of Sheffield enabled us to analyse in detail, for example, David Beckham’s sensational goal against Greece in the World Cup qualifiers. We know that the shot left his foot at 80mph from 27 metres out, moved laterally over two metres during its flight due to the amount of spin applied and during the last half of its flight suddenly slowed to 42mph, dipping into the top corner of the goal.

This does explain the physics but doesn’t really tell how Beckham managed to pull it. He didn’t study physics to compute the acceleration, projectile motion, or wind effect for his kicks. But his brain was surely computing such factors based on his experiences, practice and instincts.

Tiger WoodsHow Tiger Woods is able to swing the golf ball into the pocket? Watch this video that shows his master shot. What was he exactly thinking before playing his shot?

Was he computing all the physics factor with his brain? Well, yes in a sense. He was using his experience, practice and instincts to figure out the best way to play this shot.

Sachin TendulkarWhy more than 1 billion people are die-hard fans of Sachin Tendulkar ? Watch the master blaster in action in this video. How he is able to play such classy shots with such ease?

If you look into their past, you’ll be surprised to find how much hard work they put in to become the best of the best. As reported in a Fortune article,

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.

It is evident that only those people who have worked hard for thousands of hours with proper mindset achieve greatness. Every great person has failed number of times in his life, but it is after such learning experiences they beat the odds and shine. But most of us are so blinded by their shine that we only see their present and fail to remember their past. What differentiate an average from a great are dedication and persistence.

However, we should not forget that any two persons working equally hard might not reap the same fruit of their labor. This can be attributed to their different mindset. Attitude plays a key role in one’s success. If you want to get out of your comfort zone and become an expert in something that you enjoy doing then you are in right mindset. And long hours won’t bother you. All great achievers like Beckham, Woods, and Tendulkar enjoy what they do. That’s why they can put in so many hours of practice without any complaints. But they are not practicing same shot again and again. Instead they keep trying new and difficult shots. They take one step forward with each moment and become comfortable with uncomfortable drives.

So, basically to achieve greatness,

  • we need to have a suitable mental attitude to be able to enjoy the things we do.
  • we should be willing to put long hours with dedication and persistence.
  • we should be willing to overcome the barriers and take one step at a time towards the unknown.

In conclusion, I would like to quote what Kathy pointed out from the book The New Brain:

For the superior performer the goal isn’t just repeating the same thing again and again but achieving higher levels of control over every aspect of their performance. That’s why they don’t find practice boring. Each practice session they are working on doing something better than they did the last time.

Read also: Bend it like Beckham. But how? Part 2.

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Getting ahead without MBA

August 18, 2006 in Education & Learning, Graduate School, Personal Development | 2 comments

Few days back one of my friends, who is working as a consultant in a software firm, was contemplating on whether he should do MBA or not. He is still undecided. Anyone in his shoes would be. You have to give atleast two years and thousands of dollars to get an MBA. Is it really worth? Can you compete and progress without an MBA? I had no answers to his questions.

race

So, I looked around to find some information that could help my friend. And I found a wonderful ebook ‘When you can’t earn an MBA’ by Rajesh Setty that talks about getting ahead in your career without MBA. According to him, if for some reasons you cannot do MBA, you can still get ahead of others following an alternate plan. I’ll list down his suggestions with my two cents in addition.

  • Check your attitude: Greatest of human freedom is to be able to choose one’s attitude. You can choose either to feel as a victim of the circumstances for not being able to do MBA or to take positive actions to do something about it. Your choice will either let you be where you are or allow you to move forward towards your goal.
  • Design an alternate plan: While the formal MBA provides you with a structured plan, learning by yourself will take you to develop your own plan to check your progress. This requires you to come up with metric to measure your growth from time to time.
  • Acquire knowledge at a breathtaking speed: Learn as much as you can from books, blogs, magazines, newsletters, websites etc. Today knowledge is accessible very easily but to avoid information overload you have to create a long term structured plan of knowledge-acquisition.
  • Belong to powerful networks: As Rajesh puts it, “It’s not what you know but who you know. And it’s just not who you know, but how you know who you know”. You can join professional organizations in your field, non-profits, alumni associations, etc. Building a network will always help you in long run. But it is a two-way road. Be ready to offer something valuable to others. Networks rely on trust, so be trustworthy.
  • Build great long term relationships: From your networks, you will know many influential and powerful people. Build good one-to-one relationships with some of them. But as for networks, this relationship is also a two-way road. You should be giving something of value to them and receiving something valuable in return.
  • Volunteer for engagements of higher value: Other than just doing your work efficiently, try to look for opportunities to participate in higher value enagagements. People do notice people who add higher value to the organization.
  • Lead a volunteer effort: Create opportunities to develop and demonstrate your leadership skills by taking initiative in volunteer efforts. Start on small scale in your group, department or organization. Do something where others can join you volunteerily.
  • Work with a startup for free: Identify a startup company and offer your services that are of interest to that startup. Use your networks to find such startups. Startup size is generally small, so they are always looking for people who can take more responsibilities and are well-experienced in one or two areas.
  • Make others win: Help others to achieve their goals, and you will find yourself moving forward towards your goals. If you help others, you will find no troubles in getting help from others.
  • Get a good mentor: Finding a good mentor is not that easy. You need to find someone who cares for you and your goals and is able to provide answers to your questions. But again, it is a two-way road. You won’t get a mentor unless you are of some value to him/her, because they would be investing their time and expertise in you.

Rajesh also lists 10 things that you have but the people doing MBA won’t have. In essence, you’ll have more time, money and experience than others to build on your strengths. Download the complete ebook.

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How to increase your attention span?

August 8, 2006 in Mental & Physical Health, Personal Development | 25 comments

How long can you concentrate on a particular task? The amount of time you can focus on a single task or activity is your attention span. It is affected by the way you do things. Short attention span is one of the major roadblocks in achievement of your goals. My attention span is less than half an hour but I want to increase it to atleast 45 minutes. From what I have read till now, it seems that there are many factors that affect our attention span. So to improve it means to improve on many other fronts, which basically help in overall personal development.

Sleep well:

Most of us fail to realize the importance of a good sleep. It is not just a form of rest. It helps our body to perform critical physiological functions. But it is difficult to determine how much sleep your body requires. Every individual has different needs. It doesn’t matter how many hours you sleep. What matters is whether your body is happy with that much amount of sleep or not. If I wake up by myself feeling energetic and enthusiastic for the day, I can say I had a good quality sleep.

Meditate:

Meditation is not a religious practice. It is important to be able to focus on only one thing at a time and meditation helps in doing that. It has spiritual relevance too but let’s not go into that now. I don’t meditate in traditional sense. For me, meditation means to focus on my body and my inner self without thinking of anything else. So, when I exercise all I concentrate on is my body rythm and breathing pattern and that’s meditation for me. Swimming is also an excellent option in which you have to concentrate on your body movements and breathing in order to swim well.

Healthy breakfast:

I read somewhere that the most brain damaging habit is not to have a breakfast. After the overnight fast and lack of glucose in the body, it is imperative to consume some protein and fiber rich food products. When I used to stay with my parents, there was not a single day that I missed my breakfast and all credit goes to my mother. But since I have been staying on my own, I have become more and more negligent. Running our body on low fuel till noon is not good. So, start having a healthy breakfast and get a good start for the day.

Limit TV:

Control your TV watching. If you observe your TV watching habits, you will realize that mostly it is waste of time. But that is not the only problem. All the programmes on TV show ads in every 15 minutes, so it breaks the continuity. Also, most likely you have a TV with a remote controller and your fingers are always playing with it skipping channels and surfing back-n-forth. This increases fidgetiness in your behaviour and it affects other aspects of your life too. I have reduced TV watching by restricting myself to 2 hours of TV per week. And when I want to watch more, I just rent a movie and watch it without a break.

Limit internet use:

This is easy to say but difficult to do. It depends on how much necessary it is for you to be online to get your work done. Most of the time, either I am searching for articles for my research or looking for some solution to software bugs. But now, I have made it a habit to print the article of my interest, leave my cubicle and read it somewhere where I don’t have access to net. But still many times I see myself using refresh button unnecessarily in the middle of some task. I am still looking for efficient ways to reduce the effect of this distraction.

Take time-outs:

Not just simple breaks but rewarding breaks. I reward myself with sunshine by going out for a walk after getting a task done in the lab. Breaks are generally distracting unless they are for a purpose. So, give a purpose to every break even if it is just talking to a colleague or checking your emails. You need to figure out what you need to do in your time-out to get a fulfilling break.

Read books:

Reading definitely increases your attention span. Read what interests you but try to avoid short stories. If I find some interesting novel/book to read, I find myself sitting for 5-6 hours straight without any breaks even if the TV is on.

Get close to nature:

This I accomplish by taking walks during my breaks, or taking a weekend off for some outdoor activity like camping. Attention span is mostly affected by stress, most of which comes from external sources. When you are with nature, you tend to go back into your natural state which is free from any kind of stress, worries or/and anxiety because that’s the way you were born.

    Obviously, you can see how the same activities can help in other aspects of your life. We all already know these things but still don’t follow them. Why? Because we don’t assign a goal to them. Without a goal, we cannot measure our development. Here I am targeting to increase the attention span. You will notice the difference if you follow even some of the steps and it will motivate you further. Moreover, you will observe positive effects in other aspects of your personal development.

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