Category: Everything else

This week’s ‘Book Learning’ draws inspiration from ‘First, Break All The Rules’ by Marcus Buckingham-

The 8 best housekeepers at Disneyland had 1 thing in common – they had the exact same ‘ritual’ after they finished cleaning a room.

They would lie on the guests bed and turn on the ceiling fan.

Why?

Because this is the first thing a guest would do. They would walk into the room, flop on the bed and turn on the fan. If dust comes off the fan, then no matter how clean the rest of the room is, the guest will assume the room is as dirty.

To these great housekeepers, a hotel room wasn’t just another chore to be completed. It was a world, a guest’s world.
When they cleaned the room, they looked through the guest’s eyes and imagined how the world would look.

They truly epitomized ‘Begin with the end in mind.’

After spending a week working on a spreadsheet that became steady complicated, I found myself losing track of what the purpose of the sheet was. It took some help and a lot of stepping back to get back on track. And I was struck by how powerful making a habit of this would be.. To ensure I approach what I do with the end in mind – just like the star housekeepers!

Here’s to approaching tasks by ‘beginning with the end in mind’ this week!

Seth Godin had a truly fantastic post yesterday and I would like to share it with you.

Talker’s block
No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.

Why then, is writer’s block endemic?

The reason we don’t get talker’s block is that we’re in the habit of talking without a lot of concern for whether or not our inane blather will come back to haunt us. Talk is cheap. Talk is ephemeral. Talk can be easily denied.

We talk poorly and then, eventually (or sometimes), we talk smart. We get better at talking precisely because we talk. We see what works and what doesn’t, and if we’re insightful, do more of what works. How can one get talker’s block after all this practice?

Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.

I believe that everyone should write in public. Get a blog. Or use Squidoo or Tumblr or a microblogging site. Use an alias if you like. Turn off comments, certainly–you don’t need more criticism, you need more writing.

Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something.

If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing. If you’re concerned with quality, of course, then not writing is not a problem, because zero is perfect and without defects. Shipping nothing is safe.

The second best thing to zero is something better than bad. So if you know you have write tomorrow, your brain will start working on something better than bad. And then you’ll inevitably redefine bad and tomorrow will be better than that. And on and on.

Write like you talk. Often.
—

I thought this was fantastic. And if you ever need proof on how writing can get better with practice, do check out the Archives of this blog. :)

This posts combines a vaguely related bunch of thoughts – the common thread being this blog.

1. Disqus Ranks: Disqus has been testing ‘Disqus Ranks’ on AVC and Gotham Gal blogs. Essentially, it tags each commenter based on their activity in the community. Fred has gone for a ‘bar’ theme with him being the bartender and the rest being ‘instigators’, ‘regulars’, ‘familiar faces’ etc while Joanne has gone for a party theme.

I’ve personally found this feature fun and meaningful. It acknowledges your involvement in the community, encourages you to get more active and perhaps most importantly, it adds a feeling of ‘one-ness’ to the whole conversations.

This is a feature I am VERY excited about. And I can’t wait for Disqus to roll it out so we can have it here. I’m already thinking of a theme and am leaning towards a ‘flight’ theme with a steward (yours truly) and frequent flyers (i.e. you). Suggestions are welcome of course! :)

2. Pseudonymity: Mark Suster wrote a great post yesterday on the importance of Pseudonymity i.e the importance of encouraging anonymity and pseudonymity in communities. This was as a follow up to a short post by Fred on ‘Real Names’

I found this very relevant because I never understood the concept till a few months ago. I somehow associated anonymity with critics who didn’t want to say their real name. But, over the past few months, I’ve seen Anonymity/Pseudonymity on display (again at avc where we have a standard bunch of regulars – one great example is the Fake Grimlock) and I fully appreciate the positive effect a bunch of fun avatars can have on a community. And it’s been a nice learning to see how Fred welcomes it as well.

As I’ve said a few times, I visualize/hope we’ll have a learning community going here and I think the place to start would be to lighten the mood a bit. I’ve already requested a talented friend for a goofy avatar and I’m looking forward to that!

3. ALearningaDay.me: I finally have my ‘short form’ blog up as a result of my commitment to execute on the Fred Wilson School of Blogging and this completes the transformation.

And while it is obvious from the number of times his name shows up on this post, a big thanks to Fred Wilson for all the learnings I’ve had from watching him operate as a blogger over the past few months. Thanks Fred – I know you probably won’t be reading this but you’ve made a huge difference!

And here’s hoping these little changes will be the start of something very special..

I am a firm believer.

The happiest people I’ve met have had tough tough experiences that have shaped them in the past.

They represent true success, in my definition as well.

Why else do we chase success, if not for happiness?

I’ve found myself appreciating life more after many failures and low points.

The journey’s too short to spend time sulking.

So, if you’re not happy today, take more swings. Ask that girl out, ask your boss for more responsibility, start work on that side project, commit to that crazy exercise regime, find a job that best uses your talents..

You probably will not be ‘successful’ in everything you try.

But there is a chance that you will  probably be that bit happier.

Joy wouldn’t be good if it wasn’t for pain after all.

Worth a shot. 

Thanks to my amateur video days with ExpressionHappens, I have worked with a few video editing softwares – we used Windows Movie Maker when we started and eventually switched to Adobe Premier Pro. Post talk show making, I took a liking to Camtasia Studio as Adobe Premier Pro, while very advanced, was far from simple (typical Adobe product).

And then came Prezi. I had been waiting to test it for a long while and it was in July when I tried it for the first time, to great results. And post RealAcad, it was soon time for a 2nd attempt. This time, however, I ran into difficulties. The simple reason was that I needed a video file and Prezi doesn’t do that for you (runs contrary to their business model). The end result anyway was pretty enjoyable and definitely a welcome change from the traditional ‘video’.

Over the past few months, one of my ‘know yourself’ projects have been to understand the impact of – Food, Sleep, Play, Work, Initiative-Work on my energy and happiness. By Initiative-Work, I refer to everything I do beyond being an Associate at a-connect.

And I’ve realized the priorities are as follows –

1. Sleep
2. Work
3. Play
4. Initiative-Work
5. Food

Now, this means a few things:

– Food doesn’t impact my happiness as much as I thought. As a result, I find myself finding a combination (eg: a couple of lunch places I like) that works and sticking to it. Not much variety required. No frills.

– As a result of this, one of my bigger challenges during the day is to make sure I eat (!). Once I get into a state of ‘flow’, I often forget to eat for long periods/postpone it and that’s resulted in more than a fair share of stomach trouble! As a result, I have alarms on my phone every 4 hours..

– Initiative-Work is very important to my happiness and keeps me going. However, I find I’m less driven if I’m not feeling ‘utilized’ at work. Much less driven actually.

– Play and exercise has a direct impact on all additional initiatives. Most of my ideas pop up during my early morning Hour of Power.

– But the biggest revelation of them all has been the importance of sleep to my energy. I have been pushing myself to sleep 8 hours for over a year. And, now my Sleep Cycle alarm clock confirms an average of 7hrs 30 mins of sleep.  The difference between a sleep deprived day and a fully rested one is pretty stark – during the former, the period following lunch in particular is less productive, I need to listen to high octane music and getting through some parts of the day can feel like a chore while during the latter, I feel myself literally powering through. And of course, I have numbers to back this up.

Essentially, this little experiment has been exciting as I’m beginning to understand what makes me tick. The results have led to conscious choices very regularly. For example, I was back home late last night and had 2 choices – sleep 6 hours, do my exercise and go to work or sleep 8 hours and go to work. And I made an informed choice. And of course, I’m willing to bet the day has been far more productive and happier than the alternative would have been.

What is also cool is that each person has their own ‘drives’. I know friends who don’t value sleep as much as I do and others who don’t value work (;)).

What are your energy drivers? 

This week’s ‘book learning’ draws inspiration from ‘Success Principles’ by Jack Canfield.

Sheila was upset with her job. It paid well but she didn’t enjoy it. And yet, she needed the money. So, a change was out of question for the moment.

And hence, it was normal for her friends and family to hear her constantly complain about her unhappiness at her predicament. During one such complaint session, her dad took her aside –

‘Why don’t you complain about gravity?’
‘What do you mean?’ – she retorted
‘In many ways, gravity is a bit of a pain right. If it wasn’t for gravity, we could fly.. But the fact that it exists causes more inconvenience that we can imagine.’
‘But we can’t change that!’ – she responded exasperated.
‘Can you change the fact that you need to keep your job?’
‘No..’
‘Why don’t you think of it like gravity? Accept it for what it is. And move on.’

Often, the big reason for complaints and unhappiness is because we are stuck in a situation we don’t accept. Maybe thinking of these situations like we think of gravity would help ease the pain.
Besides, complaining is a bit like vomiting.. It makes us feel better but everyone else feel worse.

Here’s to thinking of gravity every time we have trouble accepting a tough situation this week!

A simple idea.. but potentially very powerful!

I had this conversation with a friend where he was talking about a comic he had read ages ago that described life as a naturally dirty (yucky, chaotic) process.

When a baby is born, the baby emerges bloody, dirty.. and it is the human reaction to clean it, bathe it, clothe it etc.

That got me thinking about all natural human ‘things’.

Sex is characteristically dirty, yucky, chaotic.

Love and relationships are, for sure, extremely chaotic.

Food is a characteristically dirty process. The making of food and the cleaning up are both very messy. Oh, and the consumption can potentially be very messy as well!

Play is naturally very dirty. Even those who escape ‘play’ in the normal sense of the word and head to the gym have sweat to deal with.

If companies are an essential part of human life these days, leading a corporation is incredibly messy as well. You are likely to be keeping board members and shareholders at bay while solving a plethora of people issues within your company and of course, dealing with dozens of personal crises at the same time.

Parenting is incredibly messy and chaotic as well, of course. Just ask your mom.

Thanks to rigid education systems, we are often tempted to ask for, and expect the same level of structure and predictability when we start living ‘real’ life. The reality, however, couldn’t be farther away. We are ‘made’ by our ability to deal with the chaos that life brings with it. The ones who make a difference are not those hanging around waiting for ‘structure’, they are the ones who are out there finding structure for themselves within the chaos.

That’s because they probably understand that structure and cleanliness is a personal need – it is a need that serves our desire to believe that things are ‘under control’, when they really never are.

Contrary to popular thought, I argue, it actually takes a lot of courage to embrace chaos. And then, of course, do what it takes to make us feel comfortable in the dirty, messy, yucky and chaotic process that is this wonderful life.