Month: January 2011

The Pebble in my Shoe

‘It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe’ – Muhammad Ali

Pure genius. I discovered this in full force today.
I was geared up for the day. The ‘high priority‘ list was so long that it didn’t look like a ‘high priority‘ list any more. But, nevertheless, I was all set to fight this.. I had signed up for such days in the coming month.
And a day which I would have normally gotten through by giving 110% required a 150%, thanks to my…. headphones!
Yes, these..
As everyone on the project sits together in a team room with no walls or barriers, the team room is a hub of activity at all times. And the only way to get ‘focus‘ work done for me is to put on my headphones to block out the activity.
And today, for the first time in a long time, I forgot my headphones. And boy, did it wear me out as suddenly, it required a lot more mental effort to shut off the distractions.
Worth remembering that not once did I feel the weight of the the long task list but the headphones..
Muhammad Ali’s insightful quotes never fail to get the wow reaction where I’m concerned.

‘Being’ world class:

John Yokohama is famous for a reason. He has taken a fish market (yes, a fish market) and a bunch of fish mongers and made them world famous.
And one of the key factors in this transformation has been John’s, and hence Pike Place Fish’s focus on ‘being’ vs ‘doing’.

Whenever a new fishmonger joins ‘World famous’ Pike Place fish, he is always eager to understand what to do. And that’s where he learns his first lesson – he will not be told what to ‘do‘, rather, he will be taught how to think about who he would like to ‘be‘.

For example, if John finds a certain fish monger enjoying the adoring attention of the crowd too much, a question he always asks is ‘Are you being famous? Or are you being someone who is making a world famous difference?’

His team understand the difference. They don’t expect John to tell them to stop enjoying the attention. They just expect him to remind them to ‘be‘ who they have committed to be.

Reading about John Yokohama’s philosophies and his focus on defining our actions by ‘being‘ vs ‘doing‘ has been very inspiring. Armed with this insight, John has transformed an ordinary Seattle fish stand to ‘World Famous’ Pike place fish – a stand known for the enthusiasm and energy of their crew as well as their ‘world famous’ fish throwing. They are SO famous that viewers even tune into a live feed of their stand online! Isn’t that inspiring? Do check out more on http://www.pikeplacefish.com/
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Fully charged

Note: Today i.e. Saturday is the equivalent of ‘Monday’ here in Oman and hence, is the first working day of the week.
The term that would best describe today would be – ‘Surgical precision’

There was something special about the day today. I woke up with a spring in my step, had one of those truly awesome days when you are ‘on the ball’ the entire time, meet your goals for the day and yet, feel fully energized and positive at the end of the day. And the 3 contributing factors are –

1. A weekend that was as close to ideal as it could be. ‘Alone’ time to recharge, lots of sleep and great food, sufficient time on all side projects and of course, enough time to write my book as well. That meant the weekend was ‘fulfilling’ on most front.
2. Amazing online meets/phone catch ups with loved ones. This ensured full emotional recharge.
3. Woke up to my beloved ‘Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock’ . If you have a chance to invest in good alarm clock technology, I would recommend it. This alarm clock and it’s graphs analyzing my sleep have greatly added value, and joy, to my life.
All in all, today was a day I would like to repeat from time to time. If I could have 3 such work days in a week for a start, that would be the start of the end goal to have productivity rivalling Bill Gates.
Okay, I don’t quite know how productive he is but I’m guessing he must be churning out days like this out of habit.. :)

Building – brick by brick

I’ve read many a book, seen many a video where the founder of a successful business or concept talks about his thrill at his first loyal customer/reader and how he/she toiled away in the early days to build some traction. What is always heartening to me is that most of these great achievements came one small step at a time, were built one brick at a time.

I can relate – for I experience a great amount of satisfaction when I notice a new ‘Like’ on the facebook page or a new follower on the blog. I immediately, pretty excitedly, check out who the new person is. And I’ve looked at bigger blogs and often wonder what it must be like to have a few thousand people read a post as soon as they put it up, to have more comments than they can handle. And I remind myself that there would have been a time when they, too, were read only by close family and friends.
I also remind myself that almost nothing in life comes thanks to a windfall. Millionaires don’t become so because they won a lottery. In fact, the ones who win a lottery almost never are millionaires.. the ones who build are the ones who are there to stay.
The tough thing to do is to keep building though because like in any journey, you are bound to have ‘wall-breakers’ or incidents that ruin that wall you built brick by brick. And as tough as it may be to continue then, what doesn’t kill us makes only makes us stronger after all.
And those who have tasted the joy of building will realize that it may not quite matter that the wall you built is not as big as you imagined it to be or not as game changing as you thought it would be. But, just the fact you spent years creating something that could be destroyed overnight (and it probably even was), made you learn, grow and made you somebody who you would never have been – had you never spent that time building.
And in the process, if you did manage to build something magnificent, that’s fantastic. Congratulations to you! The world will laud you for your ‘genius’. This message though, is for all those unrecognized builders – the ones who are still waiting for that break through, toiling hard to make a difference, make a dent.. make no mistake, the time will come. And when it does, all that you are doing now will only make sure you are ready for it.
Let the building continue, and in some cases, begin!
‘It takes 10 years to become an overnight sensation’ – Robin Sharma

As far as this blog goes, it’s 2 and a half years down. 7 and a half to go.. :)

A Walk to Remember

Ever since I’ve been on project here in Oman, I’ve literally zoomed through my ‘To Watch’ movie list. I barely made any progress on that list in university (contrary to expectations one would imagine) but it is a fact that I barely get to catch a movie in Singapore. Work takes care of the work-week, and friends take care of the weekends. There is the occasional movie we catch altogether but it basically resulted in me building a ‘to watch’ list.

In my case, 2 things have happened being away from family/friends –
1. I’ve watched more movies than I would ever have imagined. This is largely because my introverted nature tends to have me enjoy solitude over the weekend and this results in one movie after another being watched, and shelved.
2. I’ve watched more ‘chick flicks’ than I would have thought possible. I’ve always been the kind of person who loves the inspirational/thought provoking genre (Think Shawshank Redemption, Remember the Titans, Million dollar baby – most recently, The Social Network etc) that I’ve never been a big fan of chick flicks. But, of late, I’m beginning to move over to the dark side.. and gladly so because they often tend to remind me of the more overlooked simpler joys of life.
One such chick flick that stood out was ‘A Walk to Remember’. If you haven’t watched, I would recommend. The movie could have been made better but it’s story line and message were memorable..

The hero, in particular, is someone I’m sure we all will be able to relate to. A boy, who practically spends all his time being a person he isn’t, thanks to peer pressure. And the story revolves around his tryst with the heroine who ends up changing his life. And, what makes the movie special is that the storyline dares to resemble life.. (Saying any more would ruin it for you)
If you do get a chance to watch it, I think it would be worthwhile.

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I’ve been corrected by one of the commenters that ‘A Walk to Remember’ is not a chic flick –
A Walk To Remember is a 2002 American romance film based on the 1999 romance novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. (see wikipedia)
I guess my definition of chick flick differs from wikipedia. :)