Life Skill #3: Be happy, have Fun...

Life Skill #3: Be happy, have fun. It's a natural life skill, that's how humans have actually survived 'natural selection'.

Who doesn't wants to be happy or have fun ? Will it be a life if there is no fun ? Then how come it becomes so difficult ? For some it's damn easy and for others it's next to impossible why ? Well, I am not answering any of these question. This is something higher than the intent of the blog.

Anyways - for yourself & for everybody else on the team, know - the performance scales up multifold with happiness quotient rising. It rigs up the adrenaline, it attaches meaning to everything and works up to cope up with stress & confusion.

Remember happiness is viral, it spreads. It's not the successor of success, it is what leads to success.

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum point and I will move the entire world

-in draft-
-truly yours

Life Skill #2: Listen

Are you sure, you listen ? Is listening for sure a Life Skill ? Yes, my friend, listening is much dearer life skill, it is actually a survival skill, it will keep you alive in the time of natural selection.

The act of listening is referred primarily in two intents: listening for yourself and listening for others.

Listening for yourself is something related to 'sniff & scurry' (of 'Who Moved My Cheese' fame) wherein one  should listen with ears to ground (on the rails) for the sound of the train. It doesn't matter if one is in the tunnel or not; whether one can see the light at the end of tunnel or not - one needs to keep checking the rails. That's how you survive - you know the sound, listen to it, place thy ears firmly on the rails & listen

Listening for other is bit different. It's actually paired with the act of 'talk'. This is something related to latest blog of 'Tom Peters' - titled 'Time to revamp leadership training'. He is brave. He says - 'Leaders do People'  and to accomplish this - Leaders must listen, Leaders must become aggressive listener. Simply put -  "The goal: Become a full-fledged "professional listener." "

Over many years, I have met many organizational leaders, however I know only few who actually listen - and 'coz they listen they 'do' people. They bring out wonderful 'Wow' each time they interact (listen followed by talk)

The art of listening is not mastered in day or few. It takes patience (actually courage) to be on a chair & listen.

It will take effort to purposefully stop in between and listen to the thoughts of peer, even thyself or the surroundings. Practice the habit by reading a lot of stuff of wider spectrum, visiting places, get into situations, attend interviews, participate in fresher hiring drives over weekends, attend lectures, listen to audio books, stop watching TV - visuals interfere with listening, stop discussion and just listen, play with kids who talk a lot, solve without uttering a single word, use power of silence, improve vocab and use proverbs (this require command on language & literature both).

Doesn't matter where you are, who you are - stop talking; listen for a while, listen to the air, enjoy the fragrance, listen to sound of your soul; connect to thyself. Connect to Life Skill #1: Be Aware

The 19 Es of Excellence

I tried, I failed...I tried again, I failed again...I tried once more to find a better way to put this thought across, I failed again, thus with my head held high, I am reproducing these directly as read from cover page of The Little Big Things - Tom Peters. All credits to our Guru - Tom Peters 

Original Article The 19 Es of Excellence

Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!) Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!) Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!) Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: "Blame no one! Expect nothing! Do something!") Empowerment. (Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, "What do you think?" Then listen! Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate!) Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.) Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!) Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.) Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing rules!) Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se "works"!) Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.) Empathy. (Connect, connect, connect with others' reality and aspirations! "Walk in the other person's shoes"—until the soles have holes!) Experience. (Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: "Insanely Great"/Steve Jobs; "Radically Thrilling"/BMW.) Eliminate. (Keep it simple!) Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!) Evenhanded. (Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!) Expectations. (Michelangelo: "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Amen!)Eudaimonia. (Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle's philosophy. Be of service. Always.) Excellence. (The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses!) 

If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?

Stop Whining Start Winning

When was the last time you got anything by 'whining' around ? Don't think too long or loud...it happened when you were a kid & your parents gave you whatever you wanted, whenever you were throwing 'tantrums'. Did this procedure lasted long ? How did it felt afterwards to you, or your parents ? real soon, there were scoldings and then you were ignored!!!.

What's happening to the saying 'squeaking wheel gets the oil' ? In times like now, isn't it giving way to 'squeaking wheel is Replaced' or rather 'Performing wheel gets the rubber'.

....to continue....

Life Skill #1: Be Aware, Be Aware NOW !!!

Life Skill #1: Be Aware, Be Aware NOW !!! - this is life skill #1. Why it's #1 is out of context. The context is how to 'Be Aware' and use this skill to sustain.

In order to be aware, one needs to connect. where to connect, well connect thyself to yourself, connect to your intuition, connect to your HEART (not the mind), connect thyself to the next...this is how you would be aware, this is how I am aware.

Be Aware, keeps - Alerts On !!! These alerts ensure that opportunities find us, 'Alerts On' makes us available, keeps our radical valencies available for new connections to be made or stale connections to be kicked, yes my dear friend, while you make new connection, remember to Kick Stale Connection !!!!

Be aware to embrace glory, to kick habits, to smile and to appreciate novelty, to participate in revolution and leave mundane rotation. Be aware to speak, to say 'yes' and to know when to stand in denial.

Awareness will keep the flame alive, it will not let you rest, unless you achieve satisfaction, unless you attain peace, unless you reach enlightenment.

Be aware It's not success, It's not destination...It's the journey, It's the path, It's all about Salvation....!!!!

- this life skill was shared by my childhood friend 'Sandeep Gupta' - he is a traveller, he is on road to peace. He loves to smell the roses :)


I do not know why this chant is continuously going in my heart. Till I get the exact reason, I let it be quoted here in this first post on Life Skill to 'Be Aware'


'Then I saw the congo, creeping through the black. Cutting through the jungle with a golden track' - Vachel Lindsay' - The Congo. Movie : Dead Poet's Society.

Introducing Label: Life Skill

What is a Life Skill ? Definitions in wiki or dictionaries would differ, but this is how I define it. 'Life skill, is a trait, it's an attribute, which has the ability to make or break one's life.'

How does a skill qualify to be a life skill ? Let's understand from example. In stone-age, or say when man was hunter, the art of throwing stone or a spear was a life skill, 'coz man's life was dependent on it. Today there is no need, McDonalds and KFCs across the globe would prepare delicious meal for thyself.

As humanity has progressed, different life skills are required at different ages for different purpose to suit human desire for excellence !!!.

I was discussing this subject with couple of my friends, and I discovered that there exists a huge list of life skills today, every body considers or qualifies a very different set of traits he or she has honed over the period of years as life skill. This discovery gave me an idea to introduce the label 'Life Skill' and to write on the specific traits illustrating how these traits differentiate 'Winners' from 'Whiners' plus how to seed and nourish these skills.

So I ran a query within my friend circle to know all they can tell on these Life skill from the varied experiences they had. I received amazing response which is enough to trigger many many thoughts to publish under this label.

Folks, keep watching this blog and specifically the label 'Life Skill' to be illuminated.

Stamina - Winner's Pill

Stamina: the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort. This is how, any English dictionary define it.

How do I categorize 'Stamina' ? I classify Stamina = Winner's Pill.

This is one trait, one ability which can turn table in one's favour in any endgame. For those who have any doubt, can watch any movie from 'Rocky' series. The chant of 'No Pain...No Pain' keeps the momentum, keeps the focus, keeps the desire to win intact.

Linking the thoughts generated in the previous post - A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a mentor should enhance chain's stamina, each link's stamina to hold, to sustain prolonged physical & mental effort.

Stamina to work with the team and alone, stamina to learn and impart learning, stamina to pull and to push, stamina to hold grounds, stamina to move forward, stamina to say 'Yes, I can' along with Stamina to say, 'No, I quit'.

Understand folks, do not confuse stamina with stubbornness which in my opinion is a negative trait and harmful to peaceful workspaces.

Build & nurture stamina within each link of chain, within each team-member of your team, within each leader in your leadership sphere and the result shall 'surprise you'.

Next time, when you fall or you see your links failing, instead of doubting the skill, respire, respire and see through the soul for stamina. It's hidden somewhere, behind fear & near to desire to succeed. So folks build on to it...and then cherish the sweet fragrance of success.