Author: alearningaday

Celebrating the world, diversity and life..

What better video to cap the weekend and look ahead at a wonderful week..

There are very few videos that are truly unifying. And this is one.
I’ve found it so positive that this one is now on my sidebar as a reminder to myself – never to forget.. and never to stop celebrating this life!
Wishing everyone a great week ahead!
Oh, and of course.. ‘Boom de ya da boom de ya da…’ :D

On Mojo’s

Have you noticed that star athletes always tend to have unique pre-match habits/mojo’s? Some examples are –

– Michael Jordan always wore his North Carolina Tar Heels shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for good luck
– Wade Boggs (Baseball) believed he played best when he ate chicken before a game and earned the nickname “Chicken Man.”
– Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar always wears his batting gloves only after stepping onto the field and never in the dressing room
– Chelsea and England football defender John Terry has a whole host of habits including his insistence to sit in the same seat in the team bus and listening to the same pre- match music.

Robin Sharma (in ‘The Greatness Guide’) suggests we create our own ‘Mojo’/ our set of habits that help boost our performance.

Inspired by this, I began writing my daily list of learnings, blessings, goals, big dreams, ‘die by midnight’ and commitment to myself followed by signing off on the commitment with a flourish. And I have indeed found this a very positive way to start my day.

Do you have any mojo’s yourself? :)

The Tale of 3 Restaurants

I have 3 restaurants closest to my place –

1. Al Arez (Lebanese):
I assume the staff training manual here must say –
a) Never smile at a customer
b) Always pretend to be busy.. ALWAYS
c) Always behave like you’re doing the customer a big favor
2. Slemani (Iraqi Kurdish – yes, I’m near Edgware Road for those who recognize it)
Here the manual is slightly different –
a) Look down upon customers
b) Make them feel stupid
c) Don’t just look down.. be arrogant while you can
3. Mahal (Bangladeshi owned Indian)
Here, we have..
a) DON’T make eye contact with your customer. IF you smile, look elsewhere (see below)
b) Don’t smile.
c) Be disinterested
I have abandoned 2 but I still get food from 1 and 3.
Why? Because of proximity.
It’s amazing how my threshold to take crap increases thanks to convenience. Unfortunately, thanks to many customers like me, these service providers forget how far simple courtesies go.

The big learning here – Whenever you build a business, make sure you are easily accessible and score high on the proximity scale. That’s why businesses with top notch and easily accessible customer service always run out winners!

The human mind

It’s amazing how many thoughts and ideas can come and go.. but how one can take hold of you.

On the positive side, that one thought can hold your attention and give you that energy surge. It can push you to do something about it and once something is done, the thought can manifest itself as a part of your life, can change it..
On the negative side however, that one thought can also bug you. It can force you to retreat into that shell and spend hours mulling about why things are the way you are and can force you to ask yourself some tough questions. It could have been an amazing business meeting, an amazing positive interaction but that one thought could gnaw at the positivity and make it feel sour.
How incredibly powerful. I now appreciate the power of ‘I think, therefore I am‘

Musings on the news

– I’ve been keeping tabs on the Japan situation over the last few days. For obvious reasons, this is on the front page of every news paper. There are lots of disturbing pictures, stories etc.

Those didn’t really ‘disturb’ me as much as 1 piece of news did. The cyber scam industry has boomed post disaster. Suddenly all domains with ‘japan’ and ‘tsunami’ on them have been taken and millions of dollars of ‘donations’ have basically been whisked away by scammers.
It disturbs me that this is the extent to which people can go to for easy money.
– Suddenly, the many dying in Bahrain and Libya don’t seem to matter as much
– God save the Japanese. The nuclear reactor situation looks bad. My prayers are with them..
– As I read the news papers every morning on the tube, I can clearly see why I decided to go for a newspaper less diet for many months. Life seemed more positive without pictures of amputated people and the like. That isn’t to say there is NO positive press but hey, positive press is not ‘sensational’ and that doesn’t make money.
– Money.. scams, bad press, banks, recession. Root of all evil? That, I can’t say but definitely the cause of many evils.
– This disaster has reminded me once again that there are so many things that are just WAY beyond our control.. and has reminded me of the quote –
‘Do what you can with what you have where you are’

True, so true.

The Flower Vase

(At my new place)

Daily morning ironing due.
Yawn.
Put shirt on the table like area and iron.
My travel iron hasn’t got a long cord.
And darn, there’s a flower vase which restricts the area.
I’m sleepy.
Let’s get it done.
(Done with some discomfort)
Ironing time again.
Darn that flower vase.
If only it wasn’t there.
If only..
—
And then I moved it.. and ironed in a peace
—
It sounds like a simple thing but it was a breakthrough of sorts when it happened this morning. It illustrated to me how easy it is to build a mental barrier (you just have to be lazy and a tad sleepy) and how hard it is to break it post that because you ‘slip’ into a routine.
And you only seemingly break it if you dream of a scenario without the problem itself!
Dream. Act. Discover. Learning of the day.