Life Leading Quotes – for personal & career life

Past few months I created & referred many quotes in my conversation in social networking sites. I compiled them and provided here as reference for all of us.

Created by Me:

#1 – In any discussion(or conversation),our mind will accept only those thoughts that we believe true to our mind & reject all others as junk.Though consciously we do so,we will still store opponents message in the unconscious mind & validate when an event occurs.

Outcome of the event may strengthen the belief or shakes our belief system which may lead to change in mind – can be exactly opposite to our earlier stands

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#2 – In health – nothing happens immediately (other than accidents). All are accumulation (or deficiency) of very very minute unnoticeable quantity on daily basis, but things are visible on a day which changes our life after that – example cholesterol, sugar, kidney stones, etc. Why don’t we understand this and avoid on daily basis to get rid of big surprises later?

Though I mentioned it as health, this is applicable for any department in life example – career, character, relationship, etc.

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#3 – If you want to take a bad name, no need to do big sin.. be a manager.. automatically your name will get spoiled..

i like to share a story of my friend’s friend who is the main inspiration for the above quote.

That guy was a manager some years back. There was organization wide headcount reduction. This guy had 12 reportees & need to cut it to 6. Though he is against this move, but he cannot resist much. When he called people and told them about their departure – that feelings of employee, that feeling of that manager – no need for me to explain here. Repeated question which developer asked is “Why me? You are also part of the process with management & you are biased to this guy.. that guy.. why can’t i stay & send that guy”.. manager guy explained his status and stand on this mgmt move a lot.. but still no believers as the situation is so critical.
After that pain my friend’s friend renounced that position and joined as developer in organization.. he resisted any managerial position there after.. tell me is that is that managers fault of implementing organization policies? Can this be understood by the sacked developers unless they really move to a position of manager? I know still some guys left complain about this event and this manager is in bad pages of those guys..

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#4 – Ever you do a task very well after saying ‘NO’ at first, people don’t forget about the ‘No’ that you said & feel hurt till the end. Understand that word has more power to win heart.

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#5 – Ultimate difficulty in life resides in hearing a ‘No’ when you expected ‘Yes’ & vice versa. When we are putting a question across, we need prepare our mind for opposite response to what is expected. We are not doing this at all & getting sadness, angry, frustration, etc.

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#6 – “Rich gets richer and poor gets poorer” you heard in ‘Sivaji’ movie. It is not because of the fate it is because of the activities they do. If you do right things again and again.. you always tend to get right results hence rich gets richer.. vice versa for poor.. reverse your action in that way reverse your results..

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#7 – People wants to impress strangers & want to make new friends.. but they take their loved ones’ for granted.. start impressing from your closest circle that will create ripple effect & pay you back…

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#8 – Doing charity to an old age home without taking care of your old parents in home is worthless..

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#9 – When you compare with someone do this – character-wise compare with someone having very good character higher than you and try to be that guy.. money-wise compare with someone having less money and get satisfied

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#10 – Even a very small stone can stop your vision if it is kept very close to your eye. Problems in life are also like that stone. Decide where do you want to keep the problems – near or far?

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#11 – Your silence in a meeting talks louder than the powerful comments passed. “Speech is silver, Silence is gold” My mom tells this from my childhood.

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#12 – If two people agreeing in all terms then one is redundant. Conflict is healthy & required for progress

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Frozen Thoughts Magazine:

#1 – Never keep any mementos of sadness. Anything that reminds you of a past that’s not worth remembering, get it out of your life. Collect enough mementos of happiness. Anything that reminds you of a past worth remembering is worth preserving.

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#2 – Have at least one relationship beyond doubt and judgement, that will liberate you from your worries

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#3 – Man lives like a ‘victim’. He keeps assuming that he has done ‘sacrifices’ for his family, for his society, for his God. But, everything that unfolds in his life is the result of his ‘choice’. There are no sacrifices. (FT-Jun 11)

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#4 – The proof of the process is in the results it produces. We need excellence and not explanations. We need results and not reasons. (FT-Jun 11)

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#5 – While your success depends on what you communicate with others, your happiness depends on what you communicate to yourself.

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Quotes by other popular people:

#1 – There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient.When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. – KEN BLANCHARD, Author One Minute Manager.

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#2 – When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion – Dale Carnegie

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#3 – Here are some statistics to consider about Emotions: People experience an average of twenty-seven emotions each waking hour. With nearly seventeen waking hours each day, you have about 456 emotional experiences from the time you get up until the time you go to bed. This means that more than 3,000 emotional reactions guide you through each week and more than 150,000 each year!

Of all the emotions you will experience in your lifetime, nearly two million of them will happen during working hours.

It’s no wonder that people who manage emotions well are easier to work with and more likely to achieve what they set out to do (Bradbery and Greaves, 2005).

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#4 – “Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice” – unknown

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#5 – If you perform an activity in the same way again and again, you can expect same results without fail. So don’t blame others for results. This is called – “The Law of Cause and Effect”(Brian Tracy).

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First things first – A Great Time Management Lesson

I cannot agree more with Stephen Covey after I read his book “First things first” especially when he explains about 2 x 2 matrix with classification under Important & Urgent tags. This is also called as urgency/importance matrix or time management matrix or time leadership matrix.

 

In Importance angle, a task can be considered either Important or Not so Important. In Urgency perspective, it can be Urgent or Not So Urgent. Once a task added in our list, we start classifying it in these 2 perspective. It is not always true that one task will remain in the same quadrant throughout the life – priority changes and hence quadrant it holds changes.

First quadrant holds tasks that are “Important & Urgent”, we will do it for sure immediately. Example: Customer issue, heart attack.

Second quadrant is for tasks that are “Important & Not So Urgent”, this is where things lies for long time due to procrastinating behavior. Actually, we need to take real care of this area as we may sit longer time on these till it get real urgent. Example: exercise, medical checkup, Insurance plans, Pest control in home

Third quadrant is for those activities that are “Urgent but not so Important”. Due to its urgency, we tend to finish them up as soon as first quadrant activities are completed. Example: emails & phone calls, employee interruption chats

Fourth quadrants are time wasters tasks which are “Not so Urgent & Not so Important” ones like TV, movies, facebook. They are generally easier to do and have less stress associated with them. While enjoyable these tasks do not move you towards your goals.

Main idea in this model is to work proactively on important things with some good breathing time i.e. in quadrant 2. Working in quadrant 1 is stressful, but it is not so in quadrant 2. We need to be careful in clearing of quadrant 2 tasks & in case they are not handled properly they can produce many quadrant 1 tasks that makes life more hectic.

Use best judgment based on your experience & reduce time spent on quadrant 3 & 4 that gives enough time for us to concentrate on quadrant 2 activities. Best method to evaluate quadrant 3 activities are ROI. Ask “What return I get if I spent so much of time in this task?”. Trash those activities classified as quadrant 4 – never bring them back.

Work on your Strengths

Sometime back, I blogged about one video of Maxwell’s conference under ‘Success Lesson’ title. I got impressed with his statement – ‘work on your strengths & not on your weaknesses’. Human life has a mix of both strengths & weaknesses. To my knowledge starting from childhood every human is programmed to tackle their weaknesses & not to work on their strengths. Our teachers and parents advise us to concentrate on subjects with low score & not to the subject with high score. There is a sure interview question on strengths and weaknesses of you. I know few people who told truth about their weaknesses not got selected for the job. We feel guilty about our weaknesses, spend whole life to overcome it & die without achieving anything. But in history, you can see those who really understood how to improve their strong talents were(are) the Champions. They are the one who diminished their weaknesses by outperforming on their strength areas.

The whole world is there to talk about my weaknesses. But how to find my strengths? how to make use of my strengths? I searched for more info on this topic. I got a reference about one book ‘Now, discover your strengths’ by Marcus Buckingham. Though I tried a lot on getting the online assessment that comes along with the book, it took almost a year for me to get that.  Today I did the online assessment using Strengths Finder 2.0. I got top 5 strengths of mine. When I shared the list to my wife, she got really amazed on the reality of the assessment results! It is exact reflection of me  in a PDF report! Along with the list I got dozen of action plans for every strength.

Now, I feel a lot better, that too in the beginning of 2010, with my top 5 strengths known to me & action plans ready to work for next 11 months to make this new year a best year in my life. I encourage everyone to take the online assessment. It costs me just 600 bucks (Indian Rupees or USD$20) which is cheaper when compared to the results you are going to achieve for the entire lifetime.

Measure of success

Whenever we are stepping into a new year, we review all our previous year plans, achievements & of course failures. For the new year, we set new goals, renewed old goals, great wish list. No matter where you are what you do, you measure success in that activity. Success produces happiness. To me, the measure of success is -

“Your success is not measured by outsiders praise but by your rejoicing heart”

Benchmark set by our mind will vary from our manager’s expected level. They praise(or scold) you for every activity you performed based on their expectation. But, sit back and think how do YOU feel about the outcome? Do you feel happy? Then you achieved it.

In case you feel unsatisfied, then also you need to be happy as you learnt a new way to get higher level of satisfaction.

Last year was a great year for me. I enjoyed connecting with you all by blogging about leadership, project management. I did lot of study about various topics. This gave a me a different dimension about things I already knew. I interacted with many blog readers. It gave me more enthusiasm to share more informative, useful articles/post. Late last year, I started tweeting. Today I integrated that with this blog too.

As I mentioned in my earlier post -

Success is not a single peak point just everyone likes to touch, it is a journey in a never ending upward path where every step you progress can be termed as ‘Success’.

In my success journey, you are having an important role. Thanks and welcome to you! Come let us progress in right direction & develop ourselves as ‘Leadership Champions’.

Mental Preparation for Leadership

Your Altitude is determined by Your Attitude. Attitude is formed in mind that drives the action. Preparing mind is more important internal activity for Leadership. Communication is vital piece in preparing the mind. What you think is expressed through your communication. “Integrity between what you say and what you are” – is important leadership quality. In order to explain mental preparation, communication I present conversation excerpts that happened between me and my friend sometime back.

One day, my friend came to my home with a long face. I asked him for the reason. He told someone in the road scolded him with bad words.

I asked him – “Have you replied to that person?”.

Friend told “Yes. I did. I used all the bad words I know against him and his family”.

I asked - “Is that the person known to you?”

Friend told - “No. I am seeing him for the first time. I don’t know what went on his mind to scold me”.

I asked – “Do you think what you did is right?”

Friend told – “Yes. How come he can scold me in the road? I need to give him reply. But still I worry I haven’t scolded him with strong words as he did”.

I asked – “Can you tell me one thing. If a person comes and scold you an “idiot”. Do you think “you are an idiot”?.

Friend replied – “No. But how to stop him then?”

I told – “Anybody can wound others body as it is outside and accessible. But words wound only when you allow it to reach your mind. Tell me this – Do you accept a parcel which has address of your neighbor?”

Friend replied – “How come? I don’t accept as it is not for me.”

I told - “In the same way, if anyone uses words that are not for you, you need to ignore.”

I continued – “Visuals & Words are direct entry to your mind. If you allow them fully then they will take control of your brain. You act as per others wish. In your case you allowed & completed accepted his words and then replied to it. Is that right?”

Friend replied – “Oh. Yeah. He would have thought I was somebody else and did so. I am wondering Why I reacted there. Even now I am carrying that worry with me. Its is not right.”

I told him – “Here are my advise -

Have faith in yourself.

Don’t allow anyone to easily control you by words.

Take conscious effort to filter out unwanted things reaching your unconscious mind.

Using bad words is like having unripened fruit when ripened fruits (i.e. good words) are available.“

References:

1. “Manase oru Manthira Saavi”(Tamil) Self-development discourse by Suki Sivam.

2. Thirukkural (Tamil) by Thiruvalluvar