5 Minutes to Writing Excellence

Awareness is the key aspect that often goes missing when we start writing an article. If it is a professional piece of work, we tend to include the routine nuisances of the content, context and the jargons. This too is somewhat easy as we learn the way to get around as we face the challenges on a day-to-day basis. But when it comes to personal write-ups then the problem starts as we loose the grip. The awareness of the context falls and we tend to deviate from the topic.  One of the effective ways to check this problem is to turn on a timer and set it up for 5 minutes and begin writing. Once we start writing with such a limitation then our mind works well and remains aware throughout the writing process.

Five minutes of writing also helps us to stay focused as it is easier for us to stay focused for a shorter duration of time in one go without putting too much exertion or restraints on the mind. In face when we keep the focus of 5 minutes then it also becomes easy for us to take time out from our busy professional or personal routine to do the write-up.  Short duration of the focus makes it easy applicable and we can plan for a series of such focused writing when we work on a complex project which requires high degree of attention.  It also works when we write on a fun theme as the focus helps us deliver the best.

Contrary to the common observation, the limitation does no harm to the quality or creativity of the writeup. Since we know that we have limited time and to write something on a topic, this is the block that I have planned, it starts a preparatory exercises in the head and sets the motion going. Ideas start flowing in and you really do not have to work hard to bring the beautiful things on paper. It is a fact that what you inscribe on paper is nothing but all that is on your mind. The 5 minutes limitation only accelerates the process and allows all the relative ideas to drop on paper.

The beauty of 5 minutes writing is that you do not require much of editing, because most of the time, the editing is required when we write something which is out of context and which we do often. But when the writing is relevant and does justice to the theme then the scope of editing gets limited only in the areas of grammatical mistakes, misplacing of punctuation.  Such type of editing does not require too much time. Say for example if you write 500 words in 10 minutes then you would require just 5 minutes to do the editing. It is because you do not write anything irrelevant in a limited timeframe.

This rule of 5 minutes writing has done wonders for me and could definitely do the same to you as well!

Humanity Deprived of Sensitivity

Once in a month I go to a temple, and last Sunday I went to ISKCON as part of my monthly ritual and the moment I entered the gate, I saw two men carrying an old lady on their shoulders. I paused for a minute and noticed that the lady could hardly stand on her own, let alone walking on a normal surface. I saw these two men requesting the lady guard to body check the old lady and allow her to be taken inside the gate from the men’s entry once her checking is done. These two men never denied the checking or asked for leniency in security checking. They were just pleading to let the lady enter through the men’s gate or let them enter through the women’s gate after they’re checked at the other gate.

What followed after that left me upset for the day. The lady guard listened to none of their pleas and convincingly told these two men to let the lady stand on her own. She said nothing would happen, and if it did she would take care. There was another lady standing at the gate who seconded the first lady guard. As the fate of the old lady had it, the men let her at the mercy of the guard. The lady was standing with the guard’s support and the moment this guard bent down to check her, she uncontrollably fell to the ground. To these lady guards this was so amusing, they could not stop laughing. I rushed to help that lady, and by that time these two men too came close..as they had sensed this fall.

I felt bad and could not stop myself from arguing with these two insensitive lady guards. When I told them that they must not make fun of it..they said, bhagwan ke ghar me girna to achcha hai bhai sahib (it’s ok to befall at god’s place, brother)..I also felt bad as why do these people not understand it is not important to come to such places, no matter how divine or virtuous it might be when you are humiliated in such a way. Why on earth one must struggle to access divinity.

But why people come to such places is my least concern. I am more concerned with the insensitive attitude of the staff. Just because one cannot walk on her own, she should be deprived of her wish to move to the place where she finds some respite. Must she be confined to her home? We talk of equality, universal accessibility, infrastructural growth…boasting of our growing status in comparison to the west and this is how we treat those who are as important to the society as we are. This reminded me of the struggle of one of my mentors, the founder of accessibility. Now I can feel how difficult her fight has been, mainly because she has to fight against the indifferent and insensitive attitude of people rather than mere lack of infrastructural resources.

But I believe in happy ending and though this incident left me disturbed for the day but it also pushed me to seek corrective action from my end. I took the pledge, I will not expect others, the society, the government machinery or the people concerned to act but I will definitely do my bit.

Transparency at the Heart of a Promising Business

If you look at the success of leading international companies you will notice that they are very clear in their vision. The areas of business they cover, they services they offer as well as the target group they cater, everything is predefined. As the business evolves, the vision, the objectives, task execution process everything is accordingly redefined so that there is clarity in thought and action.

If we notice we will realize that nothing in our business world is ever static; it keeps on changing in real time. The moment it stops changing, taking new shape, it starts waning. It is this clarity which should be given due space in creating the DNA for the companies on the basic parameters of transparency. Before the companies bring the transparency to their dealing with the customers they need to bring it into the team. Their professional ethics, organizational eco system has to be transparent. They should give equal growth opportunity for all its employees without any biases.

It is this transparency which is playing a big role in the development of business domains marked by uncertainty, products or services of lesser value to the customers. While talking about Indian market, especially retailing, we see the rampant malpractices, failed commitments, lack of standard retailing practices, absence of customer’s grievances’ redressal mechanism. These are the reasons which have led to growth of organized retailing. In fact the service providers addressing these very problems are playing crucial role in taking the retail industry to the next level.

At present nearly 8 % of India’s total retailing is organized. The share of organized eretailing has risen to 10% of this total organized retailing. This is a remarkable growth which can be attributed to the value delivered by the online retailers. Of these retailers, Snapdeal has been one of the eretailers which has successfully positioned itself as the pro-consumer. The success it has achieved in such a short time can be largely accounted to the transparency policy it has adopted. Right from choosing a deal to getting the discount, a customer knows exactly what price he or she has to pay to the merchant against the services or product. There are no hidden conditions or confusing deals which naturally help the customers to come to Snapdeal for authentic deal on best products and services.

Similar initiatives have been taken by another rising e-retailer, Flipkart. The growth of these retailers is a testimony to their commitment they make and deliver to their customer keeping the transparency at the core. We shall have to keep the essence of this transparency for healthy business ecologic system.

If You Are Not Measurable; You Are Miserable!

Measurability is what your employer looks up to when it comes to your hiring. You are offered a matching price against the your skillsets that can be measured on different professional parameters like on time execution of assigned tasks, resource management, delivering expected outcomes etc. There are your core strengths as well as your other interest areas in which you may be assigned a task in case of likelihood. According to the tasks assigned to you, there is a price earmarked for your professional contribution.

When we talk about measurability it covers the entire gamut of attributes from your professional competence to your behavioral management, interpersonal skills, emotional immunity and all which can help the management to derive the optimum deliverables from you. It should also embrace the consistent approach towards excellence, i.e. how you are evolving with time. The more consistent you are in your approach the better it becomes for the management to gauge your skillsets.

But what if you are not living up to the desired parameters of the management? What if your skillsets are not measurable. The chances are you won’t be hired in the first place. Even if you manage to find an employer, you will not be able to hold the profile for long if your contributions are not up to the standards. You will not be considered for the routine appraisals, timely bonuses, increments and rewards awarded to the most deserving professionals.

As per the management standards, you should always be expecting professional recognition as well as monetary gains as you grow professionally. If anyone of the above is not happening, in spite of your continued professional excellence, you should start looking for change and most likely you will find the one which is suitable to you. However if this is you who has obstructed the path to progress then you should prepare to face the music. Holding up of rewards are not the only outcome, it brings with it whole lot of problems….well miserable is the term to define the outcome of the later attitude. So the choice is yours, whether you want yourself to be measurable or miserable.

Mentor Lives On Forever

Whatever we do, whomever we interact with we leave an impression. Each of us makes some mark on the canvas of time which can be good or bad. What differs between the ordinary way of doing the things and extraordinary way of doing the things is our approach. We act without planning, without considering the impact of our actions on others or without implementing the learnings derived from our past experiences. Whereas extraordinary beings who are revered as mentors work with perfection. This is where the mentor differs from the masses.

The mentor works with a planning, a vision, gives proper consideration to the impact of the actions on others and implements the learnings gathered from the past experiences. Whatever goes to the mentor receives his or her distinction and touch. If the noble and sublime thoughts are touched by him or her it gets concrete form and manifests properly. The various ways through which we are encouraged, motivated by the mentor always guide us and help us in dealing with the difficult situations with right approach and positive attitude.

The mentor does not necessarily fight for us, the mentor does not need to be with us all the time. He trains us to fight and win our battle on our own. Mentor gives us the vision and teaches us way and trains us to walk. Dronacharya did not fight for Arjuna, rather he fought against him but he was defeated by Arjuna, how come? Because he had taught him the lessons, well before coming to the battlefield. We may feeling his/her need forever but he or she has only two tasks before him/her. To give us all aim and to teach us how to get to it. If it is done he or she need not be guiding us tangibly. We may still feel the need to be guided all the time but the mentor is free once we imbibe and connect to his or her vision. After this imbibing all the responsibility falls upon us.

The strong thought waves and resolute will he or she evokes continue to surround us always whether or not the mentor is visibly guiding. If we live up to the vision set by the mentor we can feel his presence and their proximity. The mentor lives in the ideals. We can realize their immortality when we start believing and living his ideas.

The God is not far from us, we just need to look to the godly things around us. In the same way our mentor never bereaves or abaondons us we just need to live up to the ideals set by him. The mentor always lives in their ideals and lives forever.

We often complain about the short livedness. One can say that Thomas Elva Edison died young; had he lived more he would surely have done more good to the mankind with his kind of inventions. Saint Vivekananda, the greatest spiritual master, mentor of the centuries went to heavenly abode at the young age of 39. We can say that he would have touched, illuminated more souls with his spirituality had he lived more. But the mentor does not believe in longetivity, he or she believes in quality, perfection accomplishment of vision, setting up of standards and ideals. As long as we too believe in these things we shall always feel the connection with our mentor immortal.

Holistic Approach Towards Our Work

Low satisfaction at work place, decreased energy levels and low efficiency is the result of our inability to connect to our work. To me it is more than just the question of ethics. Ethically I should be justifying with my office hours, carry out the given assignments, follow the routine etc. If I am practicing all of these chores then it should be good enough for the organization and also for my professional career.

But I strongly believe if we are able to connect with our work in right sense we can get the impossible breakthrough through our work. By right sense I mean to say that the work should be looked at as a medium for excellence and evolution ultimately. I see lots of trainers use the phrases like 'work with passion', 'you should be passionate towards your work', 'passionate towards your goals'. On the contrary I think that we should try to work without passion because it dies down with time. It becomes disastrous to face work when the passion dries up. We need to understand that we should work for the sake of work; there should be no escapism. Whether to meet our social requirements, personal ambitions, material requirements we shall have to work.

By writing I am reiterating it to myself yes this is the way to go: Work without passion, work because you ought to, work because it is the most vital element in your evolution process.

Can't You Hear Me?

Can't You Hear Me? ...........Presays

We all fancy to be the masters of our mind always wanting to get or achieve what we think or dream of. We enroll ourselves for n-hours and n-days of seminars for the break(through) in our lives. In these seminars powerful orators descend, deliver and depart leaving us spellbound. We think 'man that was great! Barring a few citations whatever they said was right. I’ll try to implement a few of their suggestions in my life although it is very difficult.' As the days pass by that resolution diminishes. We hardly get the break(through) we always dream of.

The simple reason behind this is that we fail to recognize where the real stimulants are, where the real motivator is. That stimulant, that motivator resides right in our minds, in our hearts. Oh really? !! How come we’ve never realized it? Because we never try to listen to ourselves, listen to our hearts, listen to our minds. One of my very good friends is die hard fan of FM, he just can’t live without it. Though for me FM stands for frivolous mind but he takes it as twenty four hours’ fun music! If he is not talking (sincerely) he is listening to music while doing his routine work.

Of late I came to know about the classification by some intellectuals with some findings to back up the performers doing their chores while listening to their favorite music (even rock lovers find their ways to this chart). This music lover friend of mine would even go to sleep without turning the player off. In fact he was so fond of FM that he used to switch it off only when he dreaded the player to blow off. In that case he would turn on the cell phone player! Once on eccentric height, he asked, ‘buddy what’s the goal of life?’ I replied him that it is one, of which the manifestation varies from person to person. ‘Do you know what’s your goal?’, he asked to which I said, ‘yes’. He then asked me how he could find his goal. I said, ‘listen to your heart, to your mind’. He further asked how.

I told him to switch off the player, he instantly did. Then he started talking, I said, ‘don’t talk’. He obliged and took newspaper in his hands and started gazing through the pages. When I told him not to do that he unexpectedly obliged. He picked up 'oracle bible' and asked me while turning his Oracle Bible ‘now what?’ in sign language. I told him not to do even that, I told him to sit calmly and to listen to the mind.

He sat for a moment and then shot at me, ‘are you mad? Are you crazy? Of whole world you found me to experiment with’. I’ve no interest in finding my goals I’m better off without them. And to top that you having your goals found are no damn good than I. What are exceptional things you do man?’ Having said that he switched the player on and resumed listening. This was not unusual or unexpected behaviour. Most people behave in this way because it is very difficult for them to remain silent. Their minds are so impatient to make them listen that they shout like anything. This is because minds don’t know when would be the next time they’d get the chance to speak out, this is because we’ve ignored our minds and hearts for so long that they(minds) themselves have adorned a fiery getup waiting to roar and thunder whenever they find a chance.

But our minds will calm down and speak in rhythm, in harmony when we keep on listening to them regularly. When the voice waves from the mind subside then will come the turn of the heart to speak out. We then can fine tune the heart with little manual tuning from our part. All we have to do is to recite mentally ‘Allah, Allah, Allah…….’ or ‘Ram, Ram, Ram……’ His silent melodies start playing, something that could never surface otherwise. Sweet and soothing melodies of peace, serenity which we can not listen till we keep on attracting distractions. Amidst these harmonious melodies He whispers, 'son, do this, do that, do that way, take this aid....' I am not unique to receive His Call, in fact He is open to one and all. But we need to make a way for Him to say, to convey.

But can we hear Him in a day? No, we shall have to practice regularly. It is not that one fine day we remain seated trying to listen and the next day we rock the whole world on. To practice it on daily basis we’ll have to follow a routine. Our routine should not be marred or affected with our emotional ups and downs, working without passion and remorse. Ok this idea clicked to you, you started working on it and you succeeded too, but…what about me? I’m not of the same temperament, tenacity that you’re. Then won’t you help me out. Yes? Great! Now what we should do, how can we proceed? Since we share common place-n-space with others whether at home or in office we need to share our common time as well. Say for an hour or half we’ll enjoy the music collection, even I’ll listen to the songs you play. That will be great after all we can not work out efficiently for ten-tweleve long hours without a quality break. That will be the time when we all take our earplugs out and listen to songs from player with speakers on. After the break period is over we again put our earplugs on and help each other evolve through our work or try hearing our hearts, try hearing Him so that we do not find someone very special and dear residing within us shout at us, ‘Can’t you hear me??????’