Category: Everything else

The ‘I Can’t’ Strength Test

Our language makes all the difference in the world to our attitude. Jack Canfield illustrates this best in his workshops with a simple test.

He asks the participants to stretch their left arms out. Then, Jack pushes down on their left hand to test their usual strength.
Now, Jack asks them to think of something they can’t do like ‘I can’t play the piano’ and start saying it aloud. And when Jack pushes down on their arm, it is ALWAYS weaker.
For the final part, he asks them to reverse it by saying ‘I can ….’, and voila! their arms are strong again.

No wonder there was no stopping us when we were toddlers. We were invincible and constantly told ourselves so – we thought could crawl/climb over anything! But, little by little, as we were taught ‘the ways of the world’, our sense of invincibility wore out until we no longer believed we could.

Our brains are designed to solve any problem and overcome any obstacle as long as we feed it with great fuel – the right attitude. So, are we going to take ownership and remove ‘I can’t’ from our dictionary?

Here’s to ‘I can’, and strength this week!

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Source: Success Principles by Jack Canfield

The Post-Stumble Momentum Project

Lumosity has some fascinating games. Some of them involve 45 second bursts where you have to do some particular activity (decide if the current card matches the previous etc). And very often, you find yourself going through a great run – fast and accurate.
And suddenly, you make one mistake. And voila.. you just lost that accuracy. And the immediate focus is to get back that previous momentum and then you make another mistake. Is all hopeless?
The best piece of advice I received was a tip after one of these games that said ‘After you make a mistake, slow down, refocus and then go for it again.’
Games are so beautifully representative of the biggest game that we play (check: are we having enough fun?) – the one call life.
I experienced a blip yesterday and one that is not really in my control. And just as in the game, I felt like I was going backwards. The blip was minute. But it doesn’t take much to crash a huge jet plane right. All it takes is a little bird to fly into it. (law of conservation of momentum at play – for the science geeks)
The big test is really in our response. (Note: Response, not reaction)
So how do we respond to get our momentum, cheer and spirit up again? Thoughts on how you do it are very welcome. As for mine, I daresay you’ll read about it on this space someday.. haha

The Uber Wallpaper

There are times when I surpass myself. No, really. There are times we all do. You know – there comes this moment when you feel you are SO smart and smile knowingly to yourself. I guess you can relate. If you can’t or if you feel it’s been too long, it’s time to take some swings. (Do write in a note and I’ll be happy to give you a few suggestions – the key is to try a few small ideas out and fail at them!)
Anyway, one of those moments this week was when I made my wallpaper. We spend a fair amount of time on our laptops/computers these days. And I was sick of looking at random wallpapers that were often sucking energy rather than giving me some.. So voila..

The inspiration behind this is simple –
1. The Values come from the PDT Test I took a few days ago. I needed a way to reinforce these.
2. Pictures of ‘my people’. I have shaded most of the part above white so as to not completely embarrass the bunch. But, I guess you get a sense.. :) The reason for this is that it gives me something to smile about every time!
3. Dreams. This ties in with images of my big dreams and places on my bucket list. (A home in the mountains, nice car, a dog! etc). I have these images printed out as photos in my room in my place in London but as I’ve been away for a while, I’ve begun missing looking at them wistfully in the morning.
And as I’m writing this, I realize these reinforce the top 3 values – Integrity (i.e. reminding myself of my commitment and, hopefully, walking the talk), Family (‘my people’) and Desire (Keeping the hunger alive with ‘Dreams’ and things to look forward to).
All in all, I am very happy with this. There may come a time when I will want to take it off so I can look at a beautiful landscape maybe but then I’m sure I’ll want it right back again as this never fails makes me smile.
Here’s to a good wallpaper all!
PS: As you can see, I am a big fan of the minimalist desktop! I think it greatly helps our minds become orderly.

21 Small Habits that will help simplify your life

  1. Breathe. When stressed, lost in a problem or the past or future in your mind breathe with your belly for two minutes and just focus on the air going in and out. This will calm your body down and bring your mind back into the present moment again.
  2. Do one thing at a time. You’ll get better results and feel better and less stressed while doing those things.
  3. Write it all down. Use your mind for better things than remembering what to do. And the mind is often like a leaky bucket. So write down all your great ideas, insights, and thoughts before they go missing somewhere and add what you need to do to a to-do list.
  4. Do all your food shopping once a week. You’ll save time, energy and possibly money.
  5. Stop doing what you don’t like doing anymore. Life changes and so do you. If you you don’t like doing something anymore then stop doing that (even if it may take some time before you can do so by for example switching jobs).
  6. Stop trying to please everyone. There will always be people who you don’t get along with or that do not like you for some reason.
  7. Stop trying to do things perfectly. Go for good enough instead and when you are there you are done. Get things all the way to done this way and then move on to the next thing.
  8. Pack your bag before you go to bed. Then you don’t have get stressed out by that in morning and you are less likely to forget something.
  9. Throw out the things you haven’t used in 1 year. Go through what you have and ask yourself if you have used it in the past year. If not, give it away to charity or a friend or simply throw it out.
  10. Ask yourself simplifying questions every day. Questions like “What is the most important thing I can do right now?”.
  11. Keep everything in its place. If everything has its own place then it is whole lot easier to keep your home reasonably ordered and decluttered from day to day. This also helps you with your inner stillness as the outer environment affects how you feel on the inside.
  12. Cook more food than you’ll eat. I usually make two or three servings of what I am about to eat. This cuts down on time that you spend on cooking and you’ll have to do less washing up in general. Plus, it’s good to have portions of food to bring to work to save some money.
  13. Write shorter emails. I tend to write emails containing only a few sentences, usually between one and five. If you focus on keeping it short and focused then you’ll probably discover that this is a good solution in most cases.
  14. Ask instead of guessing. Reading minds is hard. So, instead ask questions and communicate. This will help you to minimize unnecessary conflicts, misunderstandings, negativity and waste or time and energy.
  15. Use a minimalistic workspace. My work space is just a laptop on a small black desk made out of wood. I use a comfy chair and there is room for my glass of water beside the computer. That’s it. There are no distractions here. Just me, the computer and the water.
  16. Check everything just once a day. I check my email inboxes, blog statistics, my online earnings, Twitter and Facebook just once a day. I combine all that checking into one small daily ritual at the end of my work day so I don’t slip and go checking it more during the day and waste my energy and attention.
  17. Choose small daily acts of kindness. Instead of small acts of judgment and criticism towards the people around you.
  18. Don’t make mountains out of molehills. Before you you start thinking too much about something and building it up something big in your head, ask yourself “am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? And if you get lost victim thinking in some way then ask yourself “does anyone on the planet have it worse than me right now?”.
  19. Spend 15 minutes each Sunday to plan the next week. Write down your plans for the week, organize your prioritized to-do list and get ready for the week before you are in the middle of it all. This will help you to find more clarity, get more of the most important things done next week and minimize stress.
  20. Cancel subscriptions for things you rarely get around to watching or reading anyway.
  21. Spend more time with people that help you to keep things simple. And spend less time with people that drag you down into overcomplicating everything and creating unnecessary drama.
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Every once in a while we come across a gem that makes us think about what we do and how we could do things better so we are happier. This was one of them for me.. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks to the Positivity Blog

Inbox Zero is in the mind

If you are wondering what Inbox Zero is, check out this link to Lifehacker introducing Inbox Zero by Merlin Mann.
The link contains slides (my recommendation would be to check them out..) and a video (1 hour!) if you have the patience.
Merlin’s concept revolves around the fact that we have limited attention span. Focus it on what’s most important. Merlin recommends 5 folders in your inbox so you can deal with your email better. Check out slide 11.
The core idea is as simple as the name – Inbox Zero. Keep your inbox down to zero emails. Now, I have heard from many that this is ‘impossible’. We are in the age of email after all. And I read about Inbox Zero when I was getting 50-60 emails a day myself back in university (I used to work with a dot com start-up and hence, received all emails – team emails, support emails etc). My inbox hence, ran to the 100s, if not 1000s. Anyway, all that changed when I decided to implement Inbox Zero. I spent a crazy weekend categorizing emails and acting on them and achieving Inbox Zero.
And I can confidently say that, to this day, I am grateful I did that because I have been on top of my email ever since. I maintain Inbox Zero, both at work and at home. My email habits differ from Merlin in that..
1. I have folders for all my email to file them, of course.
2. I just use a ‘WIP‘ folder i.e. Work in Progress for any email that is ‘on hold’
3. A Newsletters folder that I clear on weekends
4. Clear emails primarily in the morning (before work) and evenings (after work) but also clear the simple ones during breaks at work. And if I have way too many, then I have the commute which is a great time to clear email.
There was a time when I was addicted to my email, but I’m into a more disciplined approach these days. That’s the thing about anything that revolves around ‘GTD’ i.e. Getting Things Done principles – they don’t require disciple, but they do require a disciplined approach. And GTD in life is like a bath, you need to take one atleast once every day else you begin to stink.
I have personally found Inbox Zero brilliant for the fact that it helps me focus on one important email at a time. Every time I need something done, I transfer an email from ‘WIP’ to my empty inbox and just focus on what needs to be done to respond to that email. Of course, all email notifications are ‘off’!
Of course, I am an out and out Outlook fan and I have heard the whole Gmail logic of ‘don’t bother clearing email. Just label and search them.’ Yeah yeah. I don’t buy it.
Email can be very stressful. There is no worse feeling than having that niggling feeling that there is an important email sitting in your inbox waiting to be cleared.. and Inbox Zero just helps you sleep better at night. It requires effort though – every single day. If you believe in doing a bit of cleaning every day to ensure your room/home is clean, then you will know and understand what it takes.
But, just like coming back to a clean home after a day of work, it is well worth the effort.
If you decide to give it a shot, all the best! Keep me posted.. and do let me know if I can help in any way.
PS: I’ve also heard from skeptics that it would be tough to keep it up as I get lots more email. I’m still waiting for the day… and that only emphasizes you are better off doing this today rather than tomorrow.
And if you need inspiration, in life, there are reasons and results. And reasons simply don’t count. :)

2 Factors that cause us to blow up

1. Insecurity (Most common)
2. Unfair Treatment
I had a niggling my existing assumption that it was ‘Insecurity’ didn’t make complete sense.
Now, it feels right.
Except, I am more likely to point to ‘unfair’ when a lot of it could be ‘insecurity’. As always, these border lines are fuzzy. But, atleast, this one’s more accurate.
Helps me when I get annoyed with myself the next time I lose my cool unnecessarily!