Working on your dreams is important

Life, Leadership Coaches, and old Dreams

John Maxwell is one of my favorite leadership coaches. I was listening yesterday to one of his podcasts. It was on achieving your dreams.

It reminded me of one of the life-changing decisions I had to make to quit Theater and settle down. 

John Maxwell is one of my Favorite Leadership coaches

I do miss Theater and acting, but having a family is a thing of its own. Sometimes quitting is an art. 

But today's blog post as the blog title suggests is not on the art of quitting. It's on achieving your dreams.

Read this article

Our Childhood Dreams

Children are so hopeful and positive

Think about it, we all have had some fantasy or dream that we wanted to achieve. We wanted to see it become a reality. 

For some of us, it may hold true that our dream has come to the past. 

But for most of us why do we not see our dreams becoming true.

One Simple Solution

When I heard the solution, it made me realize why people or even myself may have decided to give up on some of our dreams. 

What were the reasons or situations? Was it the difficulties that made us give up. I am sure each of us can know it for ourselves. 

According to John Maxwell, the reason that people leave is pretty simple. People do not have enough reasons to continue. 

We run out of enough reasons to hold on and fighting for what we believe we deserve or want. 

The path to achieving our goals is always faced with challenges or difficulties of its own.

Read this article

Enough Reasons to Pursue your Dreams

Reasons keep us grounded. They fix us on the path to achieving our goals.  

So an important aspect of achieving goals is having enough reasons. 

These reasons must be powerful and must be something that pulls us through our challenges.

So do you have goals? Do you have reasons that ground you? 

Goals that are worth pursuing that have challenges and of course good reasons.

This insight has been quite powerful to me. 

It has helped me realize that besides hard work and good planning in life. 

It is also important to have good reasons.

Putting it to the Test

So what do we do with this new information? Of course, we must use it. 

You could start by taking some time out of our schedule and focusing on some of the goals that you are pursuing.

Try listing down reasons that you find these goals worth pursuing.

Next Step, Evaluate the reasons that you have written and chosen. 

Choose Five reasons from the list.

Remember these reasons when you need some motivation. 

What are your reasons to hold on to your dreams?

Conclusion

Please do join our FB community...Click Here!

John Maxwell Leadership Podcast

P.S. Note: Please note these are not Affiliate links. I am just sharing a resource I find very insightful and useful.

[full-width]

Context and Backstory matter in communication and Life

In an argument, Have you had the feeling that you have been misunderstood?

Do you feel like you have been misrepresented? The reason is all about context and perspective (in most cases).

I would like to speak about context. A good communicator is the one who gets his message across effectively.

The effectiveness of good communication can be different for different people. But primarily it is about getting the message across.

When we are communicating and people misunderstand us it could be for many reasons, but setting the context is an important part of Effective Communication.

Context is important in Communication

So whether you are listening to someone or responding to someone, to understand them better we must get the context right.

So Besides being loud and clear in your speech and words, set the context right to communicate better.

Life and Dogma

I just came across this quote from Steve Jobs, " Don't be trapped by Dogma...". This got me thinking about Dogma from a Religious sphere and personal growth related sphere they were the same and different both at the same time. In the Religious sphere ( I am referring to Christianity, that is my belief system), it is based on God-given revelation, so logically it cannot be contradicted as God ( All perfect being is revealing it), but the dogmas that we carry about things in our lives or we may say related to personal growth are not revelation and therefore can be replaced. 

Your own experience matters

We may come up with better ideas and ways of looking at things. Sometimes we can get so caught up in other People's experiences that we can hold our selves back from experiencing it ourselves. So like in Religion we need to build our own reservoir of personal experience and learning to grow. We must build ourselves by daily succeeding or failing.

Being Guru or Sophist

Some days ago I was watching a video critiquing a major Internet guru. I won't name him, because I do respect him and I learned a lot of ideas from him. People say he is a scam because his courses are exorbitant and they do not produce the result as they imagined it. This kind of criticism really makes me think whether skills and growth are achieved only in a day, a year or a couple of months.

It is so easy to speak badly about people, but the fact is that Personal growth is a Personal Responsibility.

Importance of Trying

I believe like anything it requires constant learning, application and course correction to achieve positive results.

Imagine if you are learning acting professionally and expect to become a thorough actor overnight it is senseless. Of course, there are prodigies, but the rule for the rest of us is to constantly work at ourselves and learn more so that we can move further down the road to self-development.

The relevance of Healthy criticism

I would like to say that criticism is essential but also healthy appreciation can go a long way. There are a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing ( Fake gurus or Charlatans ) and we must practice critical thinking, but not applying what you learn and not keeping healthy expectations is not healthy and not realistic as well.

In Short

Be Real, Keep Learning and Try it out, If it works for you try to get better at it.

Keep checking this space for more articles. Do join our community on Facebook and share this insight with a friend.

Even taking small breaks can be a small step towards your goals

It's been little above a year for this blog. I would like to thank you for your constant support. I started this blog to explore my blogging side. It seems to be growing and I have been appreciating the joy of writing and more importantly expressing ideas freely. I have got a good amount of feedback and I try to constantly learn and improve my posts.

Read about my previous post, the cost of being too nice

So What have I been up to?

I blog only when I have something I think it's important to share. I know it may not be the best or the most lucrative strategy for a successful blog. But I choose to share ideas and information to help people. Topics related to Life skills and management have really fascinated me. The people who know me personally know that I share a huge passion for theology, comparative religions and debunking conspiracy theories ( Though sometimes I slip into believing some of them...Lol). But I want to keep that for another website and another series of blog posts.

In the background, when there are no articles I read about different topics and I also try to learn a few things about other blogging platforms. There is a lot to learn and its fun. I would encourage you to start a blog of your own. You could even share a guest article on this blog. Of course, I would review it before posting it. 

Taking a break

I have been using these past two months to narrow the focus on the topics I have been sharing and would love to share in the future. As an Educator and Soft Skills Trainer, I naturally would love to share topics that I am training or researching on. After much pondering, I realized that it made more sense to write about these topics and share some personal opinions and reflections. So I would be constantly exploring strategies related to life, marketing and adding value to the marketplace aka Entrepreneurship. I will be writing some posts or even creating useful content on the same.

Check this article on How to motivate people with good presentations?

Sharpening the axe and learning more

Been learning a lot about the mistakes I make on this blog. Articles from Neil Patel and Shoutmeloud by Harsh Agrawal have really helped me. These websites are a great resource for any new blogger. Recently a friend had asked me about me my blog and how to begin one of his own. I would say, there a lot of great blogging platforms online. Blogging platforms like Medium and Blogger are also great and pretty simple to start. Please do comment and share your feedback, It will really help me grow and blog better.

Some benefits of taking breaks

Taking this mini-vacation from blogging has helped me realize the importance of a whole range of things. I would like to share one related to blogging, I realized that focus is very important not just as a strategy but also help make things more structured and easy. So when blogging, It would be important to soul search a bit and understand the 'Why' behind the decision to blog or to start any project.

The other thing I realized is that it is important to not focus on the wrong things. Sometimes it is easy to confuse goals with outcomes. For example, Writing a great series of blog posts on Life skills can be a goal. But thinking that I will make $ X from it is an outcome and not a goal. Now making this outcome the sole focus is wrong and poor judgement. May be people may disagree with me. But I am okay with that. I think its more important to focus on goals and have a good metric to evaluate its success. Outcomes are important, but they are not the primary focus.

So Wrapping it all up

Take your well-deserved break. Focus on the goal of your choice and don't confuse outcomes with the goals you set. Achieving your goals needs strategy and structure too. I wish you a Happy Learning Day!

Further Reading

The importance of Taking Daily Steps towards your goals

Some beautiful and inspirational quotes on Gratitude

Short Reflection on Preparedness and how it brings closer to success

Do Comment, Share & Like this Post!

[full-width]

Starting out and Achieving our goals always start with the First Step

Achieving goals by this one great step

Way No.1: 90% Planning and the Rest is execution

It said that a lot of people have really great ideas and plans, but lack of action is what stops them from moving ahead. It's not still the end of the year, so there is always a chance for a new beginning. We must use this as an opportunity to start on our plans. As an IT student, I had learned that success to most projects is 90% planning and the rest is execution. But many of us are just stuck in the first phase and seldom thinking of moving to the next.

(Read here, how I started out blogging, Click Here) Blogging was something that I always wanted to do and now doing it is, of course, a learning experience and a journey by itself. I think more than writing skills, it is being vulnerable that can stop us. A small step to open ourselves to others can take us a long way.

Way No.2: Failing is okay

What is keeping us back? I am sure there are many good reasons. But I think one of them could be the fear of failing and looking bad. Failing is okay, but not trying to work on your goals can be a source of major regret. I once heard this from a motivational speaker and this idea really caught my imagination. He said that imagine you are on your death bed and you start thinking of all the things you could have done to achieve those goals and dreams. 

Imagine all the possibilities of how things could have been. Imagine all those possibilities haunting you and crying to you for concretizing or work on them. Now think that you are going to die with all these regrets someday. (Chriseducator.com)

Is it all worth it or is it worth it to work on those goals or dreams you aspire. I think one must sit down and think about it.

Way no.3: Determined Action

Powerful Quote from Tony Robbins

I would like to leave you with this quote from Tony Robbins. He is a great motivational speaker and he has changed many peoples lives. This is what he has to say about being successful.

Tony Robbins: Take Action

Concluding thoughts:

First steps are difficult and so is the beginning of any new project. But with proper planning and deliberation, we can find our way ahead. Our focus should be on excellence and not just perfection. A right attitude can be a real game-changer.

I think this mantra sums it all up for us.

"Audacious Goals + Massive ( Determined ) Action"

Further Reading:

The Overthinker’s Guide for Taking Action: A Complete Guide
https://startupbros.com/overthinkers-guide-taking-action-complete-guide/

How to Take Action: 12 Habits that Turn Dreams into Reality
https://www.positivityblog.com/how-to-take-action/

Why Is It Important To Take Action?
https://www.seeken.org/important-take-action/

Simple things in Life and the miracles they bring

 Being Pensive

When I get pensive and thinking about the good and bad times it's the simplest things that amaze me. Let me share, for example watching our children grow so fast and see them share their views on things can be so insightful. Life moves ahead so fast.



Today, I shall try to include share some ideas on Life's simplest things. How to cherish small things and how to create your small miracles of Happiness? But before I start speaking about it, Here is my favorite quote on the simple things in life. I believe it captures the beauty of simple living.

It is the simplest things in life that hold the most wonder; the color of the sea, the sand between your toes, the laughter of a child.- Goldie Hawn

Searching for the Extraordinary

I think sometimes we think doing extraordinary things can make us happy. Now I see the great wonder in simple things. All this started with the idea of choosing to be happy. When we are at our lowest we only recollect the negative and we get into a pithy party. But just shifting your attention to simple things can bring so much joy. I believe when we choose to be happy, we try to seek joy. Focusing on simple things can be a source of great joy. It's like God's hidden miracles that bring us back to our childlike wonder. It makes us smile or cry (whatever).


I once missed drowning while on a vacation. Post that experience, I realized the beauty in just being safe. The joy to interact with people and dream about possibilities. Being dead in that pool would take a lot of things away. So let's consider some ideas that can move us in that direction, towards more simple living.

3 Points can be quite an enabler to simple living:

• Being Intentional: Intentional would mean being deliberate. So can one spend a day intentionally, Start by planning your day. Have a script for your whole day. Keep a planner or a set of tasks to plan your day. I use Google Keep or Tasks for this. It's a really great tool. Start rethinking the effectiveness of your attitudes and workstyles. Take time to pause and reflect on what tasks have you completed during the day. Reflect on how your actions have helped you grow physically, spiritually and financially. Have you been effective to your immediate friend circle or community? These could be some questions to help you focus your actions and tasks.

Reflect on how your actions have helped you grow physically, spiritually and financially. 

• Start with Average and move ahead with excellence: Focus and perspective can really shape a lot of projects, sometimes our drive towards achieving perfection and perfect situations can cripple us. They can take away our control. To change that, Start with average, meaning average results. If you have not been able to change that habit or go on that diet 100%, no problem. Just start out and constantly improve your rate of success. Do not give up on your goals and yourself. This can be a great way to move towards achieving our goals. 

Do not give up on your goals and yourself. 

• Learn to use the Pause button: Responding and not reacting can be useful, a great way to start being responsive could be to learn to take time to stop and think. Just using the pause button can help us rethink our approaches and attitude to difficult situations or even to learn new ideas and rejuvenate ourselves. It can be used to create those small moments to generate great ideas or even just to relax.

Responding and not reacting can be useful

Now there is another way to enjoy life's small miracles. It could be by being grateful.

Here is my list of things I am grateful for:

10 Things I grateful for ( Increase list to 10 things )

What's your Gratefulness list?

Concluding Thoughts

It can be so empowering to have the ability to create happiness and enjoy the wonders of the life we have been gifted. Sometimes life situations can be challenging but by hard work and using our tact and intentional living we can improve our lives and our experiences.

Please do comment, share and give your valuable feedback. Thank you. Ciao!

Further Reading

Friends and Friendship

Understanding the 'Why' behind Gratefulness
Five Easy Ways To Facilitate Gratitude Journal Styles

[full-width]

[full-width]

What are the limitations of Positive thinking? Learn the Pros and Cons

Just be a bit more positive and things will change for you. You will achieve the stars and the moon in the sky. That's what it can be made to be by some people. Well, for some it is a better approach to approaching issues. I am talking about Positivity and Positive thinking. But one thing I learned from years of studying and learning, a lot of ideas have its limitations. In this article, I shall be exploring these negatives of Positivity,i.e. Positive Thinking. One of the best books I was asked to read was The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. (I think for a lot of us thinking negative was like normal.) I must confess it has helped me. I was recommended by a friend's mother. The book has a lot of good ideas on how to be more positive.

But here are some ideas I believe could be limitations to Positive thinking.

List of Negatives of Positive Thinking

Ignoring the obvious

Magical Thinking

Self Deception

A wrong view of Reality

Some side effects you must consider...

Bad Thinking Habits:

It's my personal opinion that bad habit leads to bad consequences. Right thinking is an essential component of better living. So also over positivity, It should be tempered with critical thinking and some amount of realistic thinking too. All this is quite a mental exercise, but that's a good way to a better life.

Pointers to help on Practice Effective positivity:

Conclusion

Positive thinking is a great approach to enhancing ourselves and our lives. Like many good ideas, it can be misused and should not be. Healthy rationalism and critical thinking can help us make better decisions.

I hope you liked this article. Please comment and share it, thank you.

Further Reading:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/creativity-and-personal-mastery/201004/why-positive-thinking-is-bad-you

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/O-zone/the-negatives-of-positive-thinking/

https://greatist.com/happiness/positive-thinking-negative-benefits

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950

https://greatist.com/happiness/positive-thinking-negative-benefits

[full-width]

 Friends are like companions that journey with you till they reach their destinations. It would be unimaginable to live without them. I used to have little to few friends, A lot of great books and ideas helped me along the way.

Developing yourself is a life long process and I think friendships can really play a key role in it. The positive side of social networking is the power to connect quite easily, of course, there are many articles on the side effects of it. But we must not forget the benefits too.
It's great having friends.

[full-width]

[full-width]

Some interesting ideas and quotes that help understand Gratitude

Practicing Gratitude can really make a difference in Personal growth and here are some encouraging words to help you

Check my posts on Gratitude and reasons behind practicing gratefulness. Click here and here.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough

     - Oprah Winfrey

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

        -Eckhart Tolle

The Struggle ends when gratitude begins.

         -Neal Donald Walsh

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation.

        - Dalai Lama

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

         - G. K. Chesterton

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

          -Elie Weisel

Remember the past with gratitude, live the present with Enthusiasm, look forward to the future with Confidence.

          -St. John Paul II

Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful & fulfilled life.

          -Jack Canfield

Do let me know in the comment section if you find these quotes interesting.

More Quotes on Gratitude:

https://www.success.com/15-thoughtful-quotes-about-gratitude/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/gratitude

https://www.inc.com/jeremy-goldman/17-inspiring-quotes-about-gratitude.html

[full-width]

Master Guide to Resourcefulness: Learn Four Mantras to be Resourceful

What does it mean to be resourceful?

The Dictionary defines resourcefulness as the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties. I am sure we all have experienced situations that make us feel the same, All our dreams, plans and work on whether on a pet project or something major, things turn out differently. We all have been there. I think this is the most common thing to our human experience, things turning out different than we expected. This is where being resourceful becomes the only resort and sometimes can be a gamechanger.

Issues or Problem...doing it the donkey's way

Issue or problems can come to us in different forms and can smack us, bring us down. I read this interesting story in an article in the Des Moines Register by Harvey Mackay. It's on the story of a donkey who is narrating to his grandson an incident when he was stuck in a ditch. The donkey mentions a moment when he had fallen into a ditch. After a long wait, a farmer notices the donkey. He later waits until the next morning to tell other villagers. Instead of saving the donkey, they decide to bury the donkey. They start throwing mud at the donkey. The donkey had a choice to panic and die or use what he had. So the donkey decided to use the mud thrown at him. He would climb up the pile of mud and at last, the donkey saved itself. Sometimes life can be like this, it can take such twists that land us in difficult situations. (Read the entire story at the link mentioned above) Imagine if that donkey had not been resourceful, he would have been dead. Sometimes making a difference requires us to use whatever we have, but also to persevere and see the opportunity in difficult circumstances.

Fighting a painful situation

This next story will tell you how. This is the experience of a close friend. He had been through a painful breakup, he had two choices whine about it or just move on. So he moved on, it was quite difficult for him. He concentrated his energy on his studies. It made a huge difference and got him into a good college with a scholarship. He had used his painful situation to help him change his life and help him achieve his goals. He had been resilient and resourceful too.

Resourcefulness can work wonders. But the question is how does one be resourceful. Is there any way or method to help us. I believe there are ideas that help us be resourceful. These ideas I can say have been tested and tried from my experience, I can say it works.

Here are some of them, Check it out:

Stick to your goals

I think the most important thing to be resourceful is not to forget your goals. But sticking to goals would mean also sticking to them when there doesn't seem any way forward. I think this would be really productive in finding healthy solutions. Although going off tangents can sometimes be good, it could lead to good ideas and also great discoveries. But sticking to your goals gives you a focus and helps you to deal with the 'why' behind what we want to achieve.

Think alternatives

Yes, thinking alternatives is important to be resourceful. This could mean start with understanding the position of our current situation and what are some solutions. One could start with brainstorming ideas and then jotting them down. The feasibility of each idea should be considered.

Lose the war, Win the battle

It's okay to fail at the beginning, cause ultimately lack of resources and bad ideas should not stop us from trying and pursuing our quest to achieve our goals ( but the feasibility should help you decide that. Small failures are fine and they give feedback ( It's like healthy to course correct). Ultimately, It's about the vision and goals that one has in minded.

Attitude Matters

 Being open-minded and confident I think is important to be resourceful. I think these two qualities are important. Being open-minded can help you be creative and Confidence can bring in the faith and hardworking required to achieve success. Lack of confidence brings in scrupulousness (that is good), but also self-doubt that can make people not give their best and ultimately force people to give up.

Bonus One

What to do when there are no alternatives

1) Delay
2) Don't choose when you are in difficult situations
3) Confidence doesn't mean being stupid: Learn when to quit

The first one can seem counter-intuitive (I know), but sometimes it's important to not make bad choices thinking they are good and then repenting about it. It is important to have some space to make choices. (That's my take, do let me know in the comment section if you disagree). Being confident is important and learning when to quit is even more important. But this is for another article.:)

Additional Ideas

I think an important key to being resourceful is to build a person's emotional and spiritual quotient. This helps a person to succeed and effective.

Some Interesting Ideas

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-why-resourcefulness-matters-marilyn-price-mitchell

https://in.pinterest.com/erin_wing/teaching-resourcefulness/

For Teams

https://www.resourcefulmanager.com/team-building/

NLP Exercise to be Resourceful

http://www.oakdust.com/Resourceful_states.htm

Summary

Further Read

Prepare yourself with these 7 Strategies to a Highly Effective Presentation

Speeches and Presentations

In India, we have just had a General Election and we have chosen the leader to guide us into the future. One very striking quality of Narendra Modiji, our Prime Minister-elect is that he is a very good orator and politician. He has a well-seasoned personality and captivating side to him, his presentation and thoughts are put forth quite clearly and succinctly.

I believe that a good presentation depends on various factors. They all combine to bring the message to the audience. Of course like anything else, practice and proper feedback will help you master it. That's the thing about skills regular practice and good feedback helps you succeed.

My Personal Experience and Boring Speeches

As an educator, I have been more into teaching young adults and presenting to people from the industry. It was quite an opportunity to deliver training at a School to students of Grade 4. I just used less lingo and adapted the topic to their needs. My delivery was quite similar to what I have been used to. I got good feedback and experience. Let me be clear, I am a good speaker but not the best. I strive every day to be better. Here are 7 highly effective strategies that I have noticed good Speakers use. One thing amazing about good Speeches they not only inform you but also have the ability to move you to action.

So Let me start with some of these powerful but simple ideas.

Use Pointers not paragraphs:

Choosing better over Best

Here is a quote from Nelson Mandela on Choices to guide us on the same...

Hopes vs Fears

Wish you all the best and May you make good choices with your hopes as a guide.

5 Reasons to Blog and why I started blogging

Communication is exciting and fun, although it can be challenging for a lot of people. I used to be quite shy as a person, but after a long effort, it helped me deal with this challenge in a more structured way. I faced a similar challenge while trying to start with a blog.

Why Chris Educator?

Purpose & Prose

Learning Curves

Starting your Blog...

Why Blogger

Wordpress is awesome and the Benefits of Blogger

Blog Identity: The difference it makes

The Basics

Naming your Blog

Why People Blog? Hobby, Money and much more

Perks of  Blogging

Categories & Types of Blogs

The Price to pay: Is it Expensive or Cheap

Pain areas of Blogging

Resources for your blog and related costs

Enhancing your Blog: How to spice it up

Marketing your Blog: Getting Heard

Purposeful Blogging: Intent, Intentions...