Thursday, 3 January 2019

Purpose of life


Goal setting

How boring? What is this? Never applied it beyond my work!! When I work my company and my bosses want this so I do it, to get incentives and bonuses. Sometimes even if I don’t make my goal, others do, and hence I should get my bonus , irrespective of the blow the company may take due to my underperformance…..Familiar?

In life , if you don’t know where you are going , any road takes you there. If you have a target , a goal to achieve something  and you have the available productive hours as I mentioned in my previous article ( I hope you recall!!), you can reach it provided you have a road map. Now , what is that ? All the roads I travel on here are full of potholes and make my life miserable when I need to reach my destination. Same here. Do you want to achieve your goal or reach your destination in the most optimal and smart access route? Then chalk out a plan and make that your route map or road map , finding out the best way to reach the goal.



This goes beyond the professional Goal setting exercises which major companies do and set the course for the year to achieve a common objective. Others, just dream and  drift. Learning from these and applying it to your day to day activities , one can make short term,Mid term and Long term Goals for each individual that will help you cruise through life. Let those be financial, Educational , Health, Marriage, Family and many more .Take  a book or on your tablet or PC and start putting things in sequence of priority as you see this life unfolding .Then put key milestones you wish to achieve with specific time line so that you don’t waste precious hours. Take a target date and benchmark it with the actual and tick of every step of the milestones you set to measure where you are at this moment. What you cann’t measure , you cann’t improve.

While working on the time charts , review these goals and milestones periodically as you may deem fit, as they are your goals. Create plan “B” just in case you need one for a rainy day. Keep moving ahead and you will realise how awesome you feel achieving those small steps you set for your self and later on in life look back and immerse your self in those moments.

How many of us refer to the KRA’S? How many review them quarterly to see if we are on course? Is it only the Managers job or you are accountable as well. Learn to own these , only then you have really “W O N “( O W N reshuffled ).

If you think you have really strived and achieved the goals individually and as a team, will you realise what it takes to be a good Manager. You not only own your own goals and KRA’s , but also your family and team members at work. Hence it is crucial to align the goals in such a way that all gears of the motor run in a direction that gives immense traction to the effort put by every individual. It’s  a WIN –WIN situation then. Help others, motivate them and synchronise where necessary to get your results. Communicate clearly and set the expectations at the start of the journey . You may make mid course amends , but these too should not be knee Jerk, hotch potch and erratic , that send confusing signal to you and your team members at work and home. Inclusive growth and prosperity is what one should seek and make each agenda clear and set priorities to make that happen.

Makes sense? If so , give it a shot and may be we could discuss this a few years down the line and evaluate if it made sense or not? For me and many others it worked. Degree of success etc.is relative and each has his own views of where he or she is today as compared to yesterday.

Just Do It


Decision Paralysis



To do or not to do!! Is closely connected with the famous phrase “ To be or not to be” by Hamlet. It is a deep insight, of your sheer existence.

In life you have many twists and turns, ups and downs where you need to decide which course to take. Many of us like to be the light house, and throw light to show the ship in the stormy waters , expecting it to navigate the course successfully , without captaining it. Having the steering wheel of life in your hand, will make you take charge of your life and every decision you make. It’s easy to point a finger and say , you were wrong. But , at least you took a decision and of course learn from it. Not taking one ,is Decision Paralysis.

Once you get habituated to decision paralysis , you create people who are comatosed and survive by a life line thrown in by someone with glucose or water injected into it. But , little do you realise , under the pretext of handholding , you make a cabbage of his gray cells and not allow him to grow or take decisions that are vital to your business success.

Every human being is gifted with a brain which is utilised to a maximum of just 10% , as per research done. Imagine 90% of that is wasted , and spread over a population of 7.7 billion globally , would be a huge loss. When we encounter a unique challenge or situation , we tend to look out for support .Do we apply our mind, common sense ,logic and evaluate how you could have solved it? Seeking help, support and inputs is always a good sign , deciding what to and what not to is your call. We sometimes work with a thought , what if my Boss says No!!!!?? I works with the principal of , do what you believe in and having applied your mind 100% and take a step , till someone says DON’T!!!.I still would like to question , why , so that I learn from it and evaluate the Pro’s and Con’s of my decision.

Every Entrepreneur is also taking a similar stance. He doesn’t have everything written down that carves his destiny. It is sheer grit, determination and  courage to take that one step forward towards the goal he wishes to achieve. You have 613,200 hours , assuming a life span of 70 years on a 24x7 basis .If I were to take 8 working hours per day it would 204,400 hrs. of your life span. If you remove the 24 years of your teenage and adolescence and youth  etc. till you start earning ,you have effectively just 134,320 hrs. of your life span. Do you want to be remembered for making these the most effective and productive hours for you and be called a successful person ? How you apply these hours to generate maximum bang for the buck is based on what decisions you take to reach there. There are interesting examples of Warren Buffet , Mukesh Ambani , Bill Gates , Narayan Murthy .You could take a leaf out of their page , but apply your own unique touch , which you have within and make it better .Don’t just follow blindly , apply your mind and live every moment.



If you want to scale the ladder of success in these 134,320 hrs.( Leaving Bonus Hours ,which are probably hard to find in these  stressful days) , you and only you will have to add maximum value to what ever you decide , that will take you to your ultimate goal. Coming to think of it , how many of us really have a personal and professional goal chalked out for us????

Blacck hole


The silo effect.

Many of us believe that we are the Masters of our destiny and that we must remain in those comfort zones so as to reach the ultimate destination. Somehow this leads to severe erosion of a healthy environment and blunts out your skills. Holing yourself up, without ever trying to see or experience the other side, you tend to be a chalk stick, and remain brittle.

One needs to blend in well to add real flavour to the dish one cooks and yet stand out unique as a component of the whole. This makes you jack of all. While you keep learning, keep upskilling and then you see sharpening your senses and staying ahead in spite of being together. This is healthy competition.



Trying to outdo someone in your sphere when you know you are good ,at it is a no go. The same if you attempt to step in other domains, learning the ropes, and hoisting the sails so that the ship sails through the stormy seas ,then you start becoming a successful captain steering clear of the storms in your life every time.



Getting over these barriers and stepping out of your comfort zones, you forget your armour and battle it out in all kinds of situations with great conviction. You start believing in yourself and realize that if one decides to take things up and go through the grind irrespective of his skilled domain, one can achieve mega feats that can Marvel the very best of Masters.



All in all, remember nothing really is out of bounds if you don't set boundaries for yourself. It’s seen, experienced by those who take up that task and set milestones for themselves and others to treat them like benchmarks.



Remember there is only one life, one opportunity, one knock at the door of life. It’s up to you to unlock that potential, if not, keep searching for the master key and become a lock with a hole so deep that you will never see light at the end of it.




Spice of life

The show must go on and therefore , each of us is in the struggle mode, surviving. I guess before birth we kick in the womb , probably wond...