Category: Everything else

After months of plotting this move, I am happy to announce that ‘A Learning a Day’ has taken the next step – to go live on it’s own domain.

And that deserves a toast – to all of you who read, comment and encourage this blog as it is you who made this possible. Thank you!

1. Track your spending daily. You can use a program like Mint or simply design a spreadsheet. This will allow you to see where your money goes and discover ways to slash spending so that you can save more. I know that everyone gives this advice. There is a reason: it works.

2. Make the effort to pack your own lunch and prepare meals and snacks at home. This is not only thrifty, it’s also almost certainly healthier than buying food at restaurants and will help you stay fit and healthy long into your retirement.

3. Learn more about investing and the different options that you have. At a minimum you should understand all the basic terminology involved in investing and make it a point to know the fees involved in your retirement account.

4. Look for ways to increase your income. Even an extra $100 a month that you can throw into your retirement fund can have a big effect down the road, especially if you’re still in your 20s or early 30s.

5. Spend time visualizing your goals. This will make it easier for you to stick with your plans and stay committed to working towards your long term goals.

6. Be ruthless in removing clutter from your home. This might seem unrelated to saving for retirement, but clutter can weigh us down. When we are constantly seeking to remove clutter, it makes us less likely to spend money on objects that we don’t truly need or love. As a bonus, you can also make a little extra cash by selling items you no longer need or want.

7. Keep your home and vehicles well maintained. Maintenance is cheaper than repairs and will allow you to keep your car for many years before you replace it and could possibly help you sell your home for more money down the road.

8. Look for inexpensive forms of entertainment. My advice would be to be on the lookout for inexpensive or free activities in the community such as art exhibits and free concerts. Maintaining a rich network of social acquaintances can help you learn about new opportunities and feeling connected to your community will help increase your happiness. Happiness, in turn, makes it easier to find the motivation to work towards your goals.

9. Discuss your plans with your partner often. Make sure that you are both on the same page and are fully committed to working on things together. When one partner feels like their concerns aren’t being heard, they can become obstinate and sabotage the other’s efforts to save. Make sure that you both feel like you’re part of a team.

10. Don’t forget to have a little fun today. Constant deprivation is no way to live and the truth is none of us know what will happen in the future. Spend time every day focusing on working towards a good retirement, but don’t forget to spend most of the day living in the here and now. It might even make more sense to take a year off now to travel or work on a personal project and retire at the traditional age. Choose the timetable that makes the most sense for your own life.

From Mark Suster’s insightful article here.

Have a great day! :)

This might border on delusional but hey, I’m a single child. So, I did and still do a lot of talking with ‘me’.

There’s so much I want to do, so much I want to share. That does border on narcissistic – i.e. super egoistical to think that I might have something of value to give – especially given I’m a stupid 21 year old. But, I would argue that bloggers, as a community, are narcissistic as we obviously feel we what we write and think is worth reading!

Anyway, to give an example of the dilemma I’m facing – I’m 5 chapters into my book, I’ve a small IT system I’d like to get going for myself, I would like to move this blog over to alearningaday.com and would like to think through an iPhone app idea I have.

These, of course are only the initiative goals – then, there are the many life goals – so many places to travel, so many more people to connect with, so many more ideas for things to do with and for, people I love, to thank them and express my love for them more than I do now etc etc.

And of course, so much more to do at work to make an impact.
—

I’ve realized though that it only helps if I focus on building one day a time. I realize that I can’t execute on the idea for the iPhone app, the shifting of my blog and the writing of my book all at once. In fact, just the thought of doing all these things at the same time would overwhelm me and I’d end up doing nothing at all (which has happened many times in the past!).

So, it’s shifting of the blog for December and the rest of the book for the rest of next year. Patience is a virtue and as much as I might want to have a garden full of flowers all planted and ready by today, there are so many other balls to juggle and I realize it’s best to focus on planting one sapling at a time.

‘What if I run out of time?’– I ask myself. It can be interpreted as a rather ‘dark‘ question but I merely see it as practical. After all, I intend to push myself to be curious and ‘child like’ for a long time now and I guess as long as we keep curiosity alive, we are always going to want to build and improve.

So, what if I do run out of time? Well, atleast I would have build what felt most important to me and atleast I would be remembered as someone who built, cared and loved.

I guess one of the big inspiration factors in life IS to build something that would out-last our life-span.

Interesting approach..

Have a great day!

I was told yesterday – by someone I respect immensely.

While I’m still trying to grasp what it means, I’m reminded of a very insightful article that spoke of a football manager whose greatest critic was himself – so much so that the journalist surmised that he probably ‘wilted against his own stare’.

Powerful words these.

Love this..

Happy Tuesday all! :)

Let’s start with <=3 priorities for this week then! :)

Have a good one guys!

Rob had a tough situation at hand as he was facing intense resistance from Brad as he offered a few tips for Brad to improve his productivity at work. The annoying part here was that it was Brad who had asked for his point of view, and now that he was giving it to him, he was feeling a strong push back.

It was then that he recalled an exercise his boss in his consulting firm had taught him.

‘Put your palms together in front of your chest. Let your right arm be the client’s resistance and your left arm be your response to the resistance.

Then, move your right arm towards the left, and your left arm to the right at the same time. If you hold this position, both hands are stuck in the middle. That is what will happen if you counter resistance – tension goes up, energy gets drained and you get stuck.

Now, let your left arm give in to the right arm’s push. At some point, your right arm will stop as it will have pushed as far as it can go. If you hold this position, you will notice that the right hand, the resistance, gets tired and drops of its own weight to the centre. Now, contacted but unopposing, the left hand can maintain its own position with no tension and little loss of energy. Rest assured, this will always work…

…pushing cannot last forever, after all‘

Smiling at the memory, Rob listened till Brad got tired of defending himself and eventually requested Rob to help him. And, help him he did..

As we are constantly involved in the act of giving advice (sometimes solicited, other times not), we’re all consultants and always have clients of varying kinds. I hope this little exercise is helpful in making your next consulting gig more positive and easier.

—
Source: ‘Flawless Consulting’ by Peter Block