Cordially Yours

It is a fascinating irony that people do not use their full potential . This absolutely has nothing to do with the field they are involved in. Why people are reluctant to use their full potential is a quandary that remains unsolved to date. Though there are folks who come out with sound and strong performances, that of most others is shamefully and incredibly mediocre. Are such  cringeworthy  performances due to the fact that people do not realize their own potential, or is it fear that prevents them from using their full potential? Both reasons seem to be true. The first reason that people are ignorant of their full potential is justifiable because almost all of us never care to pause for a moment to analyze and realize our optimum potential. Truly speaking, if people make use of even a fraction of their dormant potential, they can reach unimaginably amazing heights in their lives. The second reason is fear. It is a general belief that people are afra...

If someone tells you that she has certain goals in life, and she is working hard to achieve them, it may strike a chord with you. You may have goals as well, but the question is whether your efforts are taking you on the right path that can take you towards your goals. If you haven't been checking this, you don't need to worry. You can begin the process now. How? We will find out. 1. Let's not go back to ponder why you have never checked if you are moving on the right path. You cannot put the clock back. So, put your past behind you. Start thinking about the ways you should adapt to improve the results of your efforts. Begin the process by stopping to dwell on the past.  2. Be honest to find if you are committing any productivity mistakes. These mistakes can be expensive. They can drastically decelerate your journey. They can undermine your reputation as well. Now, what are these productivity mistakes? a) There may be certain times of the day when you feel you are fresh a...

How Do You Define Success ? If you ask this question, you will receive various answers because the definition of 'success' will vary from person to person. While a few people may be agnostic towards questions like this, a person may say that he wants to amass wealth within 10 years. So, his view of success is to become rich. Another person may say that they want to climb the rungs of their career ladder and that their success trajectory will end only if they reach the top position in their company. The focus here is career-oriented and not money-oriented. Similarly, there can be as many definitions for the word "success" as there are human beings.  A study of the lives of highly rich may reveal that not all of them are happy. This means that money cannot get you happiness. If a rich person boasts that he is a heavy-hitter and that he keeps working for 90 or 100 hours a week, what is the use? How can he enjoy his life? He has thrown work-life balance to the wind. He do...

Should you worry about how others judge you? The answer is an emphatic "NO." The point is the moment you stop worrying about criticisms or how others, including your close relatives and friends, judge you, you are fast-tracking your success. Further, you will be coming out with optimum output because you have unloaded the burden of getting the approval nods of others.  Let us assume you have made a big decision. Of course, you might have thought about it a thousand times before making it. But others may feel that your decision is goofy. So what? There is no need to worry about what they think because if you focus on what others feel, you suffer from temporary amnesia. Thanks to such obliviousness, you forget your goal or vision of your life. So, you cannot achieve it. The moral is that instead of worrying about what others feel or how others judge, you must keep taking all the steps required to achieve your goal. Reasons why you should stop worrying about judgmental...

Almost everyone including those who have embraced renunciation and those of the mundane type has goals. Since every individual is unique, the goals of people vary also. Unfortunately, not all people achieve their goals. You may wonder why the number of people who fail is much higher than those who are successful. This post may throw light upon this phenomenon and show how to achieve success .  Is having goals good or not? Having goals in life is certainly good. But will it alone get you the success you aspire for? The answer is a resounding "No." You may now ask: "Then, why the heck experts including the troglodytes and the contemporary gurus are asking us to have goals in life?" According to them, if your mind consistently focuses on your goals, you will hit upon ideas to achieve them. But the reality is completely at variance with what they opine.   Why are you not getting results despite your focus on your goals? You have great ideas. You do not fail to seize wha...

You will not find a person who does not want to be successful on this planet. Even an ascetic who does penance on the Himalayas may have goals and want to succeed in achieving them. But the question now is: Is the route to success tough or easy? Let us dive deep and find out. What is success? Success is nothing but achieving the goals that we have set. Of course, goals may differ from one person to another because every individual is unique. Some may want to amass wealth, a few others may be looking for leading a peaceful and hassle-free life, and yet a few others may wish to have a fabulous and enviable career.  Is achieving success tough or easy? The fact is achieving success in life is easy provided you follow certain ways. There may be hundreds or thousands of steps that may make your journey towards success smooth but almost all of them come under a few major ones. What are these major steps? 1. Introspect and be clear about what you want to accomplish. Spend some time, in f...

There is so much more to life than money . But there is a widespread misconception among people that being or becoming affluent is the ultimate goal of life. If you have amassed enormous wealth but if you are not able to enjoy your life due to the  health issues that confront you, what is the use of all your wealth?  Poor health is a bully and a villain and it can ruin everything in life. If any of you have doubts about this in your mind, there is a classic example in recent history that proves beyond doubt that health is more important than anything else. The example is the life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. A peek into John D. Rockefeller's life would reveal that he earned his first million when he was just thirty five. He continued his business with such a crazy persistence and passion that his gross business grew to $500,000 a year. But he never believed anyone. He always worried about losing his wealth. This wrecked his health so badly that his daily food intake was e...

The number of people with huge ambitions may perhaps be less than those who think that they are leading a contented life. Even among ambitious folks, only those who make their plans and put those plans into action are likely to succeed . Others will have to remain where they are till the end of their life because they are just day-dreamers. If you belong to the group of those with huge goals and if you have set your goal, you can try the following thought experiment to fast-track your success journey. Unfortunately, this experiment is not very popular and that is why not many pursue it. But ancient relics seem to contain details of it. Never forget the fact that ancient relics, in general, do not talk about scandalous stories. So, you can afford to be bullish on the experiment. Let us dig a little deeper into it.  What does this experiment need? The point that this experiment is related to the mind and not one that is carried out in a laboratory is worth reiteration....

You may be holding an important position in your company, pursuing a profession, or running a business. But being a cog in a company even if it is large or just getting along in your profession or business is not enough to get rich . Of course, there are a few so-called experts out there who may advise that you should slog still harder to get rich. But fortunately, there are experts who have a different perspective altogether and who say that it is not necessary that you should spend long hours on your work and slog to become rich. According to them and rightly so, there is an easy and cool way to acquire riches. Let us dive a little deeper and find out more about it.  1. Do a focused study to find out what interests you the most. There may be a few things that may interest you. You should do a purposeful and focused study to find out the niche that interests you the most. You should acquire as much knowledge as possible about the niche. Remember that this cannot be a one...

If it is said that life is a roller-coaster ride, it may resonate with almost everyone including you. In fact, for some of you, this ride may be quite wild. Of course, how people cope with the tribulations of the ride depends mainly on how they are able to stay calm during such periods. Unfortunately, if you do not learn to stay calm when you suddenly face difficult challenges, your entire life can get torpedoed.  Now the big question is: How can you stay calm during such situations? The characteristic traits of every individual are unique and so, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all formula for this. Nonetheless, there is a prescription that can help every one of us surmount those situations without causing much damage to our life journey . You can learn this particular step by having a peek into the life of Joannie Rochette, a bronze medalist in skating at the Winter Olympics held in Vancouver in 2010. Two days before the finals, Joannie lost her mother. Her mother had been ...

That every individual is unique is backed by loads of research findings. This being the case, a question arises as to whether you can emulate or reverse engineer the winning ways of successful performers. Before answering this question, experts make it very much clear that they are not making any dogmatic suggestions that you should embrace all the ways of these high performers.  On the contrary, you should use your cerebral faculties to choose only those habits or ways you think are suitable for you. In fact, these experts hasten to add that it is enough if you incorporate only the following three common habits into your life. Let us dig a little deeper into these. 1. Succumbing to the gravitational power of your bed even after the alarm of your bedside clock rings is dreadful and bubonic. Further, as soon as the alarm rings, your body begins secreting Cortisol, the wakefulness hormone. Waging a war against this hormone and trying to continue your sleep will make y...

The question of whether it is possible to become wealthy in life without toiling much may interest everyone including you. The question may sound bananas as well because, since childhood, every one of us has been taught that we should work hard for several years to become wealthy. But according to some modern thinkers, whatever we have learned is nothing but a conservative perspective. The firm opinion of these modern thinkers is that it is possible to get rich without working hard, robbing a bank, stealing, hitting a jackpot, or winning a lottery.  One such modern thinker was Thomas C. Corley, who was just not an author but a financial consultant as well. His research involved a study of the lifestyle and habits of millionaires such as the way they lived, watched TV, their food habits, and so on. The study included self-made millionaires as well. In addition to interviewing millionaires, Corley interviewed those who earned just average incomes also. He found that the f...

That Bill Gates is a different person is an undeniable fact. He is at present the fourth richest person on this planet. Why is he successful? As an entrepreneur, what does he do differently to earn his success?  Those who have watched Gates from close quarters say that he loses patience if he comes across people who waste time. They also point out that he meticulously plans his day and that his schedule covers every single minute of his day. But is this the only habit that makes him successful ? The answer is a big 'No.' Of course, planning the day is important. But there is another habit of Gates that is responsible for his successful entrepreneurial journey.  The habit is: Bill Gates wants to work only with lazy people. Is he crazy? Does he really like to work with lazy folks? To everyone's surprise, the answer is a 'yes.'  Why?  To this question, his answer is: “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy w...

As an ambitious individual, you may have set your eyes on high goals . But if you have average habits, it may be very difficult for you to achieve those goals. In other words, you should get rid of those average habits, and only then, you can cultivate extraordinary habits. Only after you "imbibe" these extraordinary habits, you can become a high performer and achieve your big goals.  The question now is what are the habits that make you an average person. Let us find out. "Average" Habits Unfortunately, the impact of these average habits is too subtle to be felt which means you will not be ashamed or feel guilty about following those habits or behaviors. Thanks to such obliviousness, you will continue with these behaviors. Therefore, you may often be wondering why you are not able to move even an inch towards your goals despite putting forth the so-called required efforts. This may lead to frustration. Some of you may even decide to quit as well.  As experts point ...

Do you have a scarcity or "have-not" mentality? If so, you may not be ready to believe that you can earn large amounts of money . Similarly, if you are in the habit of worrying about everything, you will never believe that there are people who are always happy regardless of the difficult situations they face in their lives.  What does this mean? This means that you are focusing on the wrong things. In the first instance, you are choosing scarcity instead of abundance. In the latter case, your focus is on difficulties and not on solutions. So, what is the remedy for this? It is by changing your mindset and focusing on the right things, you can have abundant wealth, enjoy great health, be happy always, and so on. Never forget the fact that what you focus on keeps expanding. But what are the ways to change your mindset? Hang around only those folks who are positive-minded. You should make it a point to hang around positive-minded people only. You may say that this is not possibl...

The thoughts about the problems you are facing are certainly unpleasant. They may make you sad as well. These thoughts may pertain to an argument you have had with your spouse, an offending remark by your superior at your workplace, a rejection by the person whom you love, or a disturbing news story you read in the morning newspaper. These thoughts may not impact you if they remain in your mind for a brief period. But if they continue to plague your mind for a prolonged period of time, you should certainly take steps to drive them away. Blocking thoughts from your mind is a challenging proposition because those thoughts always have the trait of rebounding and haunting you. But there is good news because it is possible to block such thoughts. Remember that by preventing these thoughts from occupying your mind and diluting your focus, you can de-clutter your mind and this will go a long way in helping you accomplish great feats. On the contrary, if you keep thinking about the issues...

When you were a kid, you learned hundreds of things and several of them are lies. Unfortunately and thanks to your naivety, you started believing all of them including those lies. You may be believing a few of those lies even now also. If you want to know real facts, you have to deactivate those beliefs. What should you do for deactivating them? You should unlearn the lies . Let us look at some of the lies you might have learned and that you must unlearn.  1. A big lie about happiness. You may have been led to believe several things. Here is a classic example. Elders and parents, though their intention is not malicious and they want to genuinely protect you, may have led you to believe that if you study well and pass your examinations in flying colors, you can come up in life and earn well. So, when you do your schooling, you study hard and score high grades. Are you happy? You think you are. After your schooling, you enroll yourself in a reputed university. But due to various extr...

If you browse the Internet, you will find endless materials that emphasize on the importance of having goals and striving to achieve them. But on a number of occasions, you may have certainly wondered if you are doing a great disservice to yourself by focusing too much on achieving your goal. Precisely put, you are wasting your life by imagining about the alluring promise of an undefinable land called "future." Unfortunately, such promised lands may not exist at all, not to talk of reaching them.  In his essay entitled "The Station," Robert J. Hastings metaphorically describes that everyone of us is traveling by a mystical train called life. We will be continuing our journey with the anticipation and belief that we will be arriving at a station when the train takes the next bend. We keep imagining that the station will be beautiful and will provide a panacea that may solve all the problems of our life. We may also imagine that when we arrive at the station,...

When asked as to what has helped them achieve success ,  successful people may come out with various answers. But when asked this question, Dan Kennedy replied, “I get asked this question a lot… and my answer disappoints most people… “ I do not like answering the question because any answer is a lie by omission. But, if I must, the answer is NOT the collection of more and more information (although that’s useful and a behavior held in common by exceptionally successful entrepreneurs) — it is implementation." He hastens to clarify, “But even this is complex. Action andimplementation are not synonymous, anymore than activity and accomplishment are… everyone is active. To implement means: to put a decision, plan, strategy, etc. into effect. That means there is action tied to strategic purpose, and there is something DONE… Put into effect. “ Implementation is the conversion of inspiration, idea, and already known + gathered information into accomplishment.” In short,...