Cordially Yours

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...

Like many others, you may also be nurturing a few goals in your life. But have you ever paused to check if the methods you choose to achieve the goals are effective and purposeful? If your methods are not effective, you will continue to labor, but there will be no results. Effective methods consist of several factors. One of the most important factors is proactive thinking. How can you develop the habit of proactive thinking? You may find the following tips useful. 1. You should first make up your mind to embrace proactive thinking . The reason is that it can be a major game-changer. There can be absolutely no excuses. If you do not choose this habit, you can never address the issues that confront you during your journey towards your goals. The real nature of issues is that they crop up at unexpected times. They come unannounced as well. Unless you think proactively, you will get stranded. It will decelerate the rate of your growth. It will retard the journey's progress as well. S...

Getting fascinated by your plans to achieve your goals is a great thing. But this fascination and excitement should not turn into impatience . Of course, if you are impatient, you will not rest until you finish your tasks. But in your urgency to achieve your goals, you may not follow through on, or even ignore, the important steps in your plans. This is wrong. Such impatience may ruin your dreams, and your aim of achieving your goals will be in peril. So, how can you get over this habit of becoming impatient that forces you to ignore the important steps in your plans, such as following through? Here are a few points to ponder over. 1. There is ample evidence to show that achieving overnight success is akin to chasing a mirage .  The phenomenon of being impatient is not at all linked to the nature of your goals. Since you cannot achieve overnight success, you should consistently work to achieve the goals you have set. There is no place for impatience in this process, and so, yo...

You have been making sincere efforts to achieve big growth , but you falter along your way. The reasons can be varied, but the fact remains that you are not able to achieve the goals or sub-goals you have set. You get stuck. The roughness of your failure has bruised your mind. So, you are no longer in the mood to move forward. You now feel that your failure is an ominous indication showing that you are facing an insurmountable obstacle to your growth. Is this situation real, or can you move ahead despite the failure that hit you hard? The answer is: Yes. This situation may be real, but it is not insurmountable. This means you can return gallantly to the path that will take you towards your goal. The main point to understand is that if you do not learn to bounce back after a setback, you will never achieve the growth you are aiming for. Not being able to bounce back is the biggest obstacle, and it is much bigger than all other hurdles you have faced or may face during your growth jo...

Why should you be ready to change your plans ? You set goals and make a few actionable plans to achieve them. But when you undertake the journey, you may face unexpected hurdles, however superior your plans may be. Remember that there can never be bullet-proof plans. That is why you have to make the required changes when you face hurdles. Of course, it may not be necessary to make complete changes to your plans. But you may have to make certain tweaks so that you get rid of the hurdles you are facing. Of course, it may be necessary to change your plans when there is a misalignment between your goals and your plans. Never keep dwelling on your old plans once you have revised them. An expert was asked, "How to find a solution to a problem?" He replied, "A problem will continue to remain so unless you realize that the problem itself will be the solution." What does he mean by that? The precise meaning is that a problem provides you with an opportunity to fine-tune or t...

What is success? The meaning of the word "success" is not the same for everyone. Why? The reason is that every person is unique and so is his or her perspective. But in general, the very thought of earning substantial money gives people tingles of excitement because, according to them, possessing or earning abundant money is the sign of success, and if they have a good amount of money, it will ameliorate their life.  It is also true that those who are not well-off nurture a tinge of jealousy towards affluent people. Communists call inequality in distribution of wealth unjustifiable. On the contrary, capitalists feel that communists' definition of equality is nothing but rannygazoo. Regardless of the opinions of communists and the capitalists, that success is nothing but earning substantial money is a myth. Points to ponder. 1. Experts sagely nod their heads and say that success is all about our goals and the strategies or ways we adopt to achieve them. In fact, setting t...

Even highly successful people cannot boast that they always have good days . This means they have bad days as well, perhaps more infrequently than those who achieve average success. You may wonder what "good days" and "bad days" mean. Good days are those on which you successfully complete all the tasks you have planned. Bad days are those on which nothing works out and whichever task you undertake remains incomplete or does not move an inch from the point of its start. Have you ever given a thought why, on certain days, you are not able to carry out the tasks you have planned despite all your sincere efforts while, on some other days, you are able to complete your tasks? To put the question differently, why do you feel completely satisfied with your performance on certain days while it is quite the opposite on some other days? Let us try to find out the answer to this question. The question obviously leads to another question. That is: "Are you good at organizi...

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...

Experts emphatically advise, and rightly so, that there is no limit to learning . In fact, learning pervades every stage of our lives. As a child, we learned to crawl, stand, walk, and all such motor skills. As a kid, we learned to identify objects, read, and write. As adolescents, we learned how to make friends and connect with people. This learning process continues till the end of our life. But unfortunately, we get caught in the milieu of life and so, we forget the fact that we should be open-minded to learn life's lessons. In fact, if you are open-minded and willing to learn, you will get unimaginably valuable lessons from everywhere including unexpected sources.  Regardless of the field in which you operate, you should be ready to embrace ideas from completely unrelated fields as well. You can cross-pollinate such ideas and blend them appropriately with the concepts of your field. This strategy is popularly known as "cross-fertilization of ideas" and this will great...

What is high performance?  Though the meaning of the term " high performance " differs from person to person, Brendon's definition that "succeeding beyond standard norms consistently over the long-term" seems to nail the right meaning of the term. Experts categorically opine that if you want to achieve stupendous success, you have to be a consistently high performer, regardless of which profession you pursue and which field in which you operate. But whether it is possible to be a high performer on a consistent basis is the question. The answer is an emphatic "yes." But you have to develop a few habits and follow them meticulously in order to become a consistent high performer. We will now look into one of the most important habits. Make use of your "golden hours" judiciously. "Golden hours" are that segment of a day when a person's mind is fresh and she or he feels energetic, enthusiastic, and rejuvenated. If you use these hour...

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...

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 ...

You may have goals in your life and may want to achieve them. But like most of the people, you may also think that you have to toil like whales to achieve them. But here is a piece of good news for you. There is a simple strategy that will help you accelerate your journey towards your goals. You need not worry if the simple strategy that is going to be suggested will embarrass you or will hurt you because this easy strategy will neither embarrass you nor hurt you. On the contrary, it will hasten the process of getting you the results.  In fact, this strategy is being used by experts in almost all fields. It has an immeasurable power that can heal ill-feelings, disarm the opponents, and captivate people. This tool will move you towards others including strangers and not far from others. It will help you navigate the differences or grudges you may have with others. The only problem you may face is this strategy can become an addiction. But you need not worry because it ...

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,...

Almost all of us, at some point of time, realize that reality is vastlydifferent from what we have imagined . For instance, when we begin a certain task, we think that things will happen as we expect. But many a time, things may not work as we expect. Due to this, we may experience disappointment, anger and stress. Similarly, when you were about to finish your graduation, you might have thought that companies would queue up for offering you a job. But it might certainly not have happened. Likewise, when you have a business idea, you may think that there cannot be a better idea than that. But when you try selling that idea, you may find that there are no takers.  The point is that there is nothing wrong in imagining or dreaming but ensure to add a dose of pragmatism to your imagination so you will not be disappointed when your expectations remain just a pipe dream.  Aiming high is certainly good but aiming unachievable things can be counterproductive. On the ot...

Businesses that want to succeed in their ventures should target the right audience and touch what is known as "emotional chord" in their prospective customers for inspiring them to hit the 'buy' button. If you own a business and if you aim to expand your customer base, you should have answers to a few questions because the company that provides you with copywriting services or the copywriter who has agreed to take up freelance writing for you may need these details.   If you answer these questions comprehensively, you can assume that you have won half of the battle. Though the company that offers professional copywriting services may not require answers for all the questions, the more answers you provide them with, the better are the chances of you getting compelling copies from them. You can be certain that such compelling contents will showcase the product or service you offer in the right manner so the prospects who have the purchase intent will be targe...

If you are newly married, you and your spouse may have to do a lot of financial planning . Both of you will be beginning a new life and so, there may be expenses for setting up the house. Once you set up the house and spend the initial few months, you should discuss about having kids and about saving for annual vacations, for buying your own home, for giving the best education to your children and so on. You should also discuss about saving for retirement. If you start planning for your shared retirement early, you will live more happily during the retirement period than how you live just after your marriage. The only way for planning for all these is to understand the goals, expectations and needs of your spouse. Of course, you should have clear ideas about your goals and needs also. The following points may be useful to you and your spouse while doing financial planning: 1. Both of you should discuss openly about your future goals. You may want to retire early and your spouse ma...

Day in and day out, we commit many silly and foolish mistakes and these mistakes are the major obstacles for our success . The problem is that we refuse to recognize these mistakes and make necessary changes to our habits. That is the reason many of us continue to suffer and do not achieve the success we aim at. But, in the case of successful people, they learn from their mistakes and are ready to make modifications. This includes changes in their habits also. That is why they are able to succeed and enjoy lift to the fullest. It is not enough if we have goals. We should work towards achieving them. The process involves making changes to our attitude and habits also. If we are driven by a strong desire to achieve our goals, we will not hesitate to take the right steps for translating our desire into reality. But, there are some people who do not take these steps and when they fail to achieve their goals , they blame others for their failures. The only way available for these peo...