Category: IYW

The least active complain the most #IYW

The least active people on Facebook complain the most about more active people, often about them oversharing.

The person who does not use Twitter or Facebook complains about people wasting their time on the service. He complains and is concerned about privacy issues around sharing!

The least active people in the office complain and criticise the most about the people and teams doing most of the work.

The person who knows the least about a topic, normally is the one criticising the most. Just start the topic of current politics and observe all super experts talking around you!

Stop complaining
Just because you don’t have anything useful to share, don’t criticise someone who has something to share, even though it might not be adding value to you or the world – or at least that is what you think. Get over your resentment.

Media Consumption #IYW

So how many blogs are you subscribed to? How many Twitter followers do you have? How many Facebook feeds are you subscribed to? How many readings apps do you use on your iPad/hand held device and how much time did you spend using them this past week just reading blog posts and watching videos?

Generally speaking it seems that we are over consuming  media these days. As writers get smart in crafting the headlines of their web posts and video tag lines, we feel the urgency to rush and consume that piece of media. Sometimes we feel angry and frustrated by the time we reach the end of the article or the video, as the content failed to provide us the return on investment for our time.

I am no exception and I admit that I am an information addict. But every now and then I consciously ask myself these questions:

  • Would watching this video or reading this article increase my knowledge base or add value in my life?  [This is before I consume the media]
  • [After I consume the media] What are the chances that I will remember the name of the author and/or contents of this article in a weeks time? [If the answer is no, then it is a lesson/reminder to minimise such content consumption moving forward]
How do you decide on what media you will consume? What patters have you identified? Are you on any information diet?

Pleasure/Achievement Principle #IYW

Happiness comes down to doing things that are fulfilling and to have a happy life, you need to have a fulfilling life. I read about an interesting principle leading into this theory called Pleasure/Achievement Principle by Chris Skellet.

In order to live a fulfilling life, we must strike a considered balance between pleasure and achievement.

So just filling your life with small and big pleasure is not going to make you happy and fulfilled neither will a life of being the richest person on the planet. One needs to strike a good balance.

Number of Candles on Your Cake #IYM

Alok Kejriwal posted a short story on Facebook today and it’s worth sharing.

It was Humble Monk’s birthday today. A cake with 32 candles was brought in. After Humble monk had lit and blown the candles, Sensei said, “Often, the number of candles on a cake represent the number of people that have supported us, to reach that age. A 2 year old child has 2 candles on her cake; one each for her mother and father; a 90 year old man has 90 candles on his cake that represent the 90 special people that made him see that day. When you blow your birthday candles, think & thank the people that made you worthy of your special day.

I have my own philosophy on why birthdays should be celebrated and this story gives another reason to not only celebrate the birthday but be grateful to all those important people in our lives. Thanks a ton Alok.

Grow #IYW

Try something today which you have not mastered yet and you will grow fast (procrastination should not be that one thing). Allowing yourself to try something new which you have not tried before is allowing yourself to grow.

First accept people for what they are #IYW

I heard a friend complaining about how his brother is just not having the way he expects him to. Thinking and over thinking about this made my friend really upset. I asked him a question – “Are you exactly the same as to what you wanted yourself to be?”

Battling with people to keep our ego’s satisfied causes a lot of pain and grief both in the short and long term. It makes us restless.  It annoys us and makes us angry. Maturity is in first accepting the people and celebrating the fact that they are what they are.

Celebrate with people for who they are rather than who they are not. No one is ever going to be who you want that person to be.

Once you truly accept this, dealing with that person/group/organisation will become easier. Don’t accept this and you will be constantly fighting and blaming and tearing each other.

Don’t Cry to Win but Try to Win #IYW

Don’t Cry to Win, Try to Win

These were my words to my 4 year old daughter who started crying as she did not become the ‘king’ by finishing her dinner first. The competition was about finishing up the meal first and the person who does that becomes a ‘king’. While I was trying to match her pace and was eating slowly, at some stage she let her efforts go down and incorrectly  assumed that she can be winner by default all the time for just playing.

As I uttered these words, I realised that not only children but adults too cry when they don’t win. Winning can have many meanings but to put it simply in this context, when something does not go as per the wishful thinking of the person. The crying is in the form of abusing the system, authorities, seniors, blaming fate etc. Just because of wishful thinking, does not make anyone a winner by default. The person under this wrong impression most probably does to win and starts crying. To win, people need to try first, take action and that too bold actions.

Even following this mantra is no guarantee that you will win, but at least you know that you tried. The people involved will also know that you tried and  just not crying of failure on your wishful thinking. That is what makes a difference.

If you make crying your strategy to win whatever you are trying to win, it may work for one time or two but eventually people will get sick of it and leave their goodness hat aside . And there is a name for such people – Crybabies.