Cordially Yours

There is a common belief that those who can read or write are literate.  This is perhaps the reason why we come under the influence of the fallacy popularly known as the Lake Wobegon notion, according to which those who possess high academic qualifications or read or write well have great skills. But if you look around, you will come across several successful people who have not attended Ivy League educational institutions or do not have high-sounding college degrees. This forces us to rethink and redefine literacy.  Even those with high qualifications seem to love non-challenging, normal environments. If they are subjected to challenging environments, they panic. In other words, when the question of facing challenges arises, they are just average. On the contrary, illiterates or even laymen may tackle tough situations with ease. This is not to undermine the importance of acquiring high qualifications or skills . So, the question now is: What is literacy? If you face a t...

Who does not want to succeed in life? Such a human being is yet to be born, and even in the future, the birth of such an individual is doubtful. But what prevents aspirants of success from succeeding? The answer is: These aspirants just wish for success, but they fail to take concrete and purposeful action. In fact, taking action is a granddaddy idea that will certainly fetch you success. In this post, let us dive deep into this topic There is not even an iota of doubt in the fact that people often fail because they do not take timely action. By not taking the required action at the most appropriate moment, people lose the advantage that accompanies this step. The question now is: How can you ensure having this advantage? Here are a few tips. 1. Rewrite the rules you have been following. The human mind is a wonderful machine. Since you are an aspirant of success, you may often come up with ideas. Unfortunately, you may not remember these ideas when you need them the most or when you w...

Life is a fickle pendulum. Sometimes, you feel energetic and enthusiastic. On the contrary, there may be times when you feel burnt out. When you feel burnt out, you will not enjoy your life. You cannot focus on anything. The result is that you may start wondering if you will ever achieve your goals. What should you do when you feel burnt out? Please go through the following suggestions. 1. Learn to manage your time judiciously. Only those who need the lobotomy procedure will underestimate the importance of time management . Every one of us has only 24 hours a day. If you squander this limited but invaluable resource, you will not only not be able to achieve your goals but will often feel burned out as well. Frustration will set in. This will ultimately retard your progress. This means that success will appear to be ever-elusive. So, it is imperative that you should learn to manage your time wisely. 2. Prioritization is the key to avoiding feeling burned out. You may have seve...

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, like many other people, may nurture a genuine wish to improve your life. The very thought of leading such a life may stimulate you. "Decoding the ways to improve your life is not difficult at all. If I work hard, I can achieve this aim," may be your strong belief. If you are an advocate of such an opinion, please remember that this is the very opinion that may handcuff you. You must get yourself unshackled. Otherwise, you may find it hard to achieve your wish. Why should there be such a difficulty? The reason is that unless you build a strong and disciplined character devoid of pettyfogging activities, you cannot improve your life. This statement need not put you in despair. You do not need to commiserate as well. The reason is that if you build your character, you can become a horseshoe that immediately attracts a fulfilled and improved life.   Of course, some people lead an undisciplined but good life. But remember that the good life they lead is sel...

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...

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...

If you feel that it is all blurry when you start taking steps to achieve big things in your life , it is not your fault alone. Most people feel the same way as you do. The beginning of the post may appear inappropriate or facetious. But please read on.    In your life, you may have come across people who have achieved extraordinary success in their fields. What are the lessons you have learned from their achievements? Can your success expeditions be similar, or can you achieve similar success? If such questions crop up in your mind, the answer to them is that you can succeed like them or even surpass the magnitude of their success. But how to accomplish this? If you are ready to piggyback on their ways, you can easily achieve your aim. How do you think you should go about this? We should find out. 1. While comparing your ways with those of people who have achieved stupendous success in their fields, you may find that their ways are completely different from yours. Y...

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...

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...

Can you be obstinate and stick to your old ideas? To this question, experts emphatically avow that you cannot afford to be. Things and more particularly, technological developments are happening at a meteoric pace and so are trends. If you stick to your old ideas, you will be branded a clumsy conservative. Further, you will not be able to get the results you desire to have. Competition is fierce in every field and reluctance to change will spell doom to your personal and career growth . Only IQ-challenged people, perhaps out of their naivety or due to their stupidity, will refuse to heed the advice of experts. Please read on to know a little more about this topic. The step of adapting to changing trends can be described with a single word spelled " Reinvention ." You have to reinvent yourself. You have to think of and embrace ideas that suit the new trends. Only then, can you move ahead and get the results you desire to have. Here is a classic example. Before the advent o...

Of all the mistakes people commit, the worst can be the mismanagement of their days . The result of this mistake can be so profound that it can ruin their lives. This post intends to help everyone check if they are managing their days judiciously and if not, how to eliminate ruthlessly those wrong things they do. They need not take radical steps. Instead, they have to embrace the "Kaizen" mindset to stop taking incorrect steps that lead to the mismanagement of their days. How to find out if you are mismanaging your days? If you cannot complete the tasks on your to-do list at the end of the day or you feel that your output is below your expectations, it shows that you have not managed your day wisely. Though there can be several reasons for this, the most important can be you have not planned your activities properly. Even if you have made a plan for the day , you have not executed the plan effectively. What can be the most appropriate way to start a day? The most effectiv...

Does everyone think your performance is below par, be it in your workplace, sport, vocation, or other sphere? To put it differently, have you not achieved the high-performer tag yet? What can be the reasons for this? Have you thought of any plans to correct the situation and improve your performance? If you have no clue as to how to go about it, here are a few ideas to become a high performer. In the book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey puts "being proactive" on top of the list of habits of high-performing successful people and rightly so. Several experts have corroborated this. This means if you want to be a high and effective performer, you have to be proactive. For example, if you have a team meeting the next day, you should be ready with all your presentations the previous day itself. So is the case for a sports meet, an event, and so on. In short, being proactive and preparing well for your activities is the key to being an effective ...

"Do you want to become a millionaire ?" You may say "Who doesn't want?" My next question is: "If you want to become a millionaire, are you taking the right steps towards achieving this? Have you ever done an introspection to find out if your current habits are helping you in your journey? If not, what is/are the habits should you get rid of?" Experts firmly opine that if you want to amass wealth, you should quit a particular habit. Do you want to know what this habit is? Please read on. You may say "I am working hard for 40+ hours a week but my financial status is not improving at all." This statement reveals that a particular habit is sabotaging your journey. The fact is that you are not alone. Hundreds of thousands of folks toil and toil but they do not achieve huge success . What is the reason? The reason is that these folks, like you, are not planning and preparing for their journey. They haphazardly lead their lives. There is no doubt ev...

You may be a well-read person or may have very high skills. But do your knowledge and skill guarantee success? History even from the time of troglodytes reveals that high talent or wisdom does not guarantee success .  On the other side of the spectrum, some people may achieve stupendous success even though their knowledge and skill levels pale compared to those you possess. Why this success paradox? Let us try to find out. You should first know the ingredients of success. According to conventional-minded experts, hard work with a sense of purpose will get you success. On the contrary, modern gurus opine that you need not work hard but should do smart work to succeed. Regardless of what experts opine, you need to know the reason for the huge success of a few less-skilled people and the average lives of those highly skilled and knowledgeable folks. Why such a difference in the lives of these two groups? Researchers, like you, have always been wondering about this parad...

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...

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...