Category: Everything else

Looking ahead triggers desire and ambition while looking at how far you’ve come triggers happiness and contentment.

The feelings around looking ahead can change markedly depending on when you’re looking ahead. If you are experiencing one of those rare moments when you feel completely in control, looking ahead can be fun as it’s full of dreams and possibilities. However, if you are experiencing some frustration at the current situation, looking ahead can be a source of irritation and frustration.

“This still hasn’t worked out. Will it?”

”I’m at a loss for what needs to be done for me to get to…..”

It’s tempting to avoid confronting the frustration altogether and it seems at odds with the purpose of the “looking ahead” exercise. I’ve learnt 2 things over time though.

First, our mind is more than capable of holding multiple conflicting ideas at once. As long as we’re open to the idea of doing so, our mind will go with the plan. We control the mind. So, it is perfectly possible to hold feelings of ambition along with more painful feelings of irritation and frustration.

Second, this tension of conflicting thoughts is a source of action and growth. It’s similar to the tension between finance and operations, sales and marketing, and design and engineering in great companies. They hold conflicting ideas but, if managed well, it leads to better end products. The irritation we hold helps spur action and the ability to entertain 2 conflicting thoughts helps give us perspective.

Life isn’t a joy ride. Irritation and frustration in moderation are important. We just have to remember that we don’t have to be consumed by them.

We choose.

This week’s book learning is part 2 from a 3 part from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. (Part 1)

When Phelps was a teenager, he often got very nervous before races. So, at the end of each practice, coach Bowman would tell him to go home and “watch the videotape. Watch it before you go to sleep and when you wake up.”

The videotape wasn’t real. It was a mental visualization of the perfect race. Each night before falling asleep and each morning after waking up, Phelps would imagine himself jumping off the blocks and, in slow motion, swimming flawlessly, and imagining what it would feel like to rip off his cap at the end.
He would lie in bed with his eyes shut and watch the entire competition, the smallest details, again and again, until he knew each second by heart.

During practices, when Bowman ordered Phelps to swim at race speed, he would shout, “Put in the videotape!” and Phelps would push himself, as hard as he could. It almost felt anticlimactic as he cut through the water. He had done this so many times in his head that, by now, it felt rote. But it worked. He got faster and faster.
Eventually, all Bowman had to do before a race was whisper, “Get the videotape ready,” and Phelps would settle down and crush the competition.

Sketch by EB

By establishing a ‘keystone’ habit of visualizing victory every morning and night, Bowman and Phelps created a platform from which another habit – calming down and performing during a critical race – became effortless. The visualization keystone habit had prepared the soil from which other habits could grow.

So, how did all this come together when Phelps faced the greatest challenge of his life? Stay tuned..

Today, set aside 10 minutes to write to a teacher. A teacher needn’t be a teacher in the traditional sense. It can be anyone who’s taught you something, consciously or unconsciously.

Tell them what you’re up to, tell them what you’re learning, and share your experiences. If you are short of words, just say thank you.

They’d love to hear from you. And you’ll feel great after you’ve written to them.

I sure did.

Inspiration: A talk by Deepak Malhothra from HBS – recommended by a friend.

Your lost calories don’t show up when you look at your exercise scores at the end of the first week. They show up after 30 weeks of exercise. By then, of course, you’ve judged your progress as insignificant, stopped exercising altogether, and let the resistance win.

Scr*w the over-analysis of the results. Stop judging your progress.

The first step to making progress is just making progress.

Focus on putting in your best shift and getting work done. The rest will follow. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter… show up and get stuff done anyway. The world will be better for it.

Today’s post is courtesy of The ALearningaDay Challenge. We have 11 participants who are going all out on daily blogging, daily book reading, and daily exercise. I’m sure I’ll get down to putting together an index of all their blogs soon. But, for a taste, do check out The Book Bytes Project. With 14-15 book snippets every day, it’s an example of ‘inspiration guaranteed.’

Today’s blog post is a re-blog from Shweta, one of the regulars in the ALearningaDay community.

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Just Do It

I just spent an entire weekend with my one-year old nephew. The sweetheart is just learning to walk, and keeps waddling around the house, falling with a loud thump every few minutes. He is also beginning to say his first words and calls everyone ‘appa’ (or father).

Besides serving as an unhappy reminder that I’m growing old, the little tyke reminded me of how important it is to just believe. If babies ever pondered over how difficult learning a language is, they would never get around to mastering one (as they all do).

Sometimes, the walls around me are simply the ones I create. The most interesting people around me are those who have stretched the limits of what is considered possible. I find that most Americans around me grow up with this attitude—they do not let themselves be limited by their perceptions of their abilities, but keep moving towards their goals. It’s an attribute that inspires awe. For it is better to fail than to never have tried at all…

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My favorite quip here is “If babies ever pondered over how difficult learning a language is, they would never get around to mastering one (as they all do).”

A very nice reminder the next time I find excuses to weasel out of learning something new.

You are the biggest part of your life experience. You see the world through your eyes, process it with your thoughts, and act with your motives and ideas.

When you sign up to learning and changing yourself bit-by-bit every day, you see these thoughts, motives, and ideas change. So, in changing yourself, you do change the world.

It may just be the world you see and experience.. for now. That’s how it begins.

Gates, Allen, Jobs, and Wozniak wouldn’t have been able to help make the world become more productive if the world they saw didn’t have personal computers in it. The personal computer revolution that changed the world that began in their minds and at their desks.

Big changes have humble beginnings.

Big presentation today? Expect your computer to hang right in the middle of the presentation.

Big product demo today? Expect your phone to be agonizingly slow.

The bigger the stakes, the higher the chances that something will go wrong. It just does, doesn’t it? You’ve probably been in many situations where you’ve asked – why NOW?

You can of course blame it and make a joke about it. But, what you need in your toolkit for next time are 3 important things –

1. Prepare for the worst case. The very worst. Always. Back up everywhere.

2. If something untoward happens, remind yourself that this happens to everyone. Keep calm and work through one solution after another.

3. Find your sense of humor, crack a joke, and move on.

As this wonderful graphic says.. “Expect problems…. and eat them for breakfast.”

Attribution: Bitsofwisdom.org

This is my new wallpaper. What a great thought..

I’m interrupting normal “book learning” service today to bring in a special broadcast – the world’s first official LearnoGraphic on Willpower.

We’ve been thinking about a way to summarize books and concepts for over a year and we’ve been very inspired by the thought of creating “LearnoGraphics” – infographics for learning. Please find our first attempt attached. The full image is available on www.LearnoGraphics.com and the full graphic’s home will be here.

Hat tip to EB for all the amazing graphics and for being my partner-in-crime on this one and to Roy Baumeister and John Tierney for “Willpower” – the inspiration behind this LearnoGraphic.

Look forward your thoughts!

it’s unlikely you will be happy tomorrow.

The promotion, the new car, the vacation, and the exam result aren’t going to change much. Sure, they’ll give you that momentary burst of joy but not much more. If you’re waiting for happiness to “happen,” good luck.

Happiness isn’t too different from the exercise habit. It takes a bit of work, is a bit painful (imagine that), and requires you to make a commitment to being thankful for what you have. If you find yourself having difficulties with being thankful, spend a day at a home for the underprivileged and your issues will sort themselves out.

If you’re complaining about happiness sitting in your comfortable chair, staring into a computer screen, and scrolling down a facebook news feed – shame on you.

Go out there. Do something. Help someone. Play. Read. Run. Laugh. Love. And then repeat everyday.

There’s a reason they say “be” happy. “Be” is a verb.