Be Happy – Fight Against Stagnancy Bravely (Part 1)

Sometime it happens with us that when we are in the journey of growth, when we are growing delivering our best, when we are endlessly driven and motivated to get our goals, we feel that we are getting stagnant, we get nervous, and we are keeping procrastinating on our plans. Often, we solve one problem, only to get back into another one. This is called stagnancy.

Stagnancy may mean inactivity, being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation, without any chance of progressing ahead. We feel stagnancy when we experience chronic procrastination on our goals, when we feel that we are no doing anything, when we keep turning to sleep, eating, games, mindless activities and entertainment for comfort, when we know that we should do something, but yet we keep avoiding it, when we do not achieve anything new or significant for last 1month, 2 months or for long period or when we have a deep sense of feeling that you are living under your potential

When we face stagnation in life, it’s a sign of deeper issues. Stagnation is a symptom of a problem. There are many reasons we have for our stagnancy. All of us have goals like losing weight, earning more money, finding a life partner, setting up our business, achieving performance targets, being fitter, and building better relationships, so on. Some people seem to have no problem achieving their goals. Some, on the other hand, don’t seem to be able to make any progress. At the end of the day, if you feel that you could not achieve what you had decided for the day, it may be possible that your failure may be due to any of the following reasons:

You are procrastinating very frequently.

You keep putting things off. You talk about how you want to do something but you don’t act on it. You are like the dog who keeps howling because it’s sitting on a nail. However, he refuses to get up from the nail. Because it’s not painful enough. You procrastinate on taking action because the situation is not painful enough for you yet. However, the times when it does become painful enough are often the times when it’s too late to do anything. Either you start taking action, or you give up for ever. Either that or you waste a lot of time every day on low value activities.

You are lazy.

Thinking and planning are great but it is action that leads to success. It is only by doing things and doing the right things that you change the world. If you have clear goals but are not making progress towards them then look at your activity level. If you are a writer are you writing enough? If you are a salesman are you selling enough? If you are a leader are you leading enough? Great sportsmen and musicians practice for hours each day. Picasso painted over 20,000 pictures. Persistence pays dividends. How high is your work rate? And how much time do you waste on activities that do not advance you towards your objectives?

You underestimate your goal.

Achieving a goal is about getting from point A to B. From point A, you create an action plan that gets you to point B. It sounds foolproof, except the action plan isn’t 100% valid. That’s because you’re setting the plan from point A. You haven’t even been to point B, so how do you even know if it’ll get you to B? At most it’ll be help to bring you closer to point B, but it’s not going to be 100% accurate. Almost all the time, people fail because they underestimate what it takes to achieve their goals. What should you do then? Over-commit your resources and review your progress constantly. You must adjust your plan of action and adapt accordingly.

You spend more time defending your problems than taking action.

You complain how you are not getting the results as you expected. When people try to give you suggestions, you spend more time justifying why their suggestions will not work and defending your lack of results than brainstorm with them on how to get out of your rut. Spend less time talking about your problems and use that time to think about solutions. Then act on them. You’ll get a lot more results this way, and you’ll be happier.

You’re too enclosed in your own world.

You don’t venture out beyond your normal routine. You do the same things, talk to the same old friends, act the same way, circle around the same issues. It’s no wonder you stagnate. Open yourself up – take active steps to grow. Get to know more people – people who are driven, positive and focused. Get new, refreshing perspectives. Read new books. Add new blogs to your subscription. Ask for feedback on how you can improve. You may go through this blog again and again. You may find something appealing to you.

You’re not working smart.

You do the same thing over and over, even when you don’t get results. You apply brute strength to your goals, without strategizing how you can apply this strength more effectively. If you are not getting what you want, it’s a signal it’s time to change what you have been doing. See how you can do this in a different, smarter, more effective way. Look at people who have achieved the same results before, and learn from them.

If you know you have a weakness, you have to find a hack to get around it. Compensation, if you will, would be a good way to describe putting this old truth into action. If you know you are poor at organizing, go shopping for the easiest filing tools that will force you to be more organized. People who don’t have time to read books can listen to audio-books while commuting. There are endless examples for this concept, and all it takes is just a tiny bit of creativity.

You avoid taking action due to your fear.

You avoid taking action because some of the things you have to do intimidate you. You rather delay the process as much as possible. Unfortunately, results are not going to come automatically from delaying. Results come to people who pay their dues, not people who avoid the work. The fear isn’t going to go away by waiting it out. Face the fear and do it anyway.

You’re easily distracted.

You get distracted by things thrown in your way. Your attention gets diverted from your goals. Your ability to stay focused is instrumental to achieving your results. Be clear of what you want and stick to it. Don’t let anything (or anyone) distract you. These are the obstacles to see how serious you are about getting what you want.

You over-complicate situations.

Common among the neurotic perfectionists. If you are a neurotic perfectionist, you blow the situation out of proportion and create this mental image that’s so complicated that it’s no wonder you don’t get anything done. Things are usually simpler than you think – be conscious when you are adding unnecessarily complications for yourself.

You give up too easily.

You give up before you even get anywhere. You settle for less, forgetting the goals you once set. That’s bad because then you are just stifling yourself and making do with what you have – and this isn’t who you are meant to be. You have to first reconnect with your inner desires. If you cannot fail at all, what would you want to do? What are your biggest hopes and dreams for your future? What is the future you want to create for yourself? Reignite your vision and don’t ever lose sight of it. It’s your fuel to your success.

Be Happy – Fight Against Stagnancy Bravely (Part 1)

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills (Part 4)

Communication is the key to success in any relationship. Whether it is amongst family members, with your community, within a group, team or an organization, effective communication plays a vital role in the upward and downward flow of information. We must ensure easy flow both sides.

To develop our communication skills, we may think of an organization as a human body, and the various sections/professionals working therein as parts of the body and the top management as the brain. As we understand, the entire human body functions only because there is a constant exchange of signals between the brain and the different parts of the body. Therefore, for being a part of successful organization, you will have to ensure that there should always be well-defined channels of communication between the professionals and the top management.

Factually, it is not just a matter of creating communication channels but encouraging employees to communicate without fear. We have to remember that an environment where the communication process is not hindered in any way creates an atmosphere conducive to growth. Keeping in view the fast pace of life and challenging opportunities surfacing every moment, it has become inevitable to have live channels of communication, both formal and informal so as to transfer critical messages top down and bottom up.

Some organizations have started to hold one-day or two days seminars inviting the whole staff from top to bottom indirectly to review the communication channels whereas some organizations have set up a separate department for dissemination of the information and solving out the grievances of the employees. Human Resources Department of some organizations issue newsletters through which the employees are asked to contribute their views. This process helps the top management to capture the employees’ concerns and issues pertaining to the productivity of the various motivational factors. With the glut of information available with the staff, it becomes easy for them to validate the grapevine, re-validate the news and hear it from their leaders rather than on speculations.

You must Create a Value Proposition.

To develop your communication skills, you may imagine a world where everyone is in sales. Really, in some fashion, everyone of us is always in sales, not like a professional salesman on some retail counter to qualify with the sales to be made but you are a salesman when you are trying to sell to your spouse your ideas for the next holiday; Maybe you’re pitching a new project to your boss; Maybe you are headhunting someone to join your firm. It’s all selling, and, whatever your offer (product, idea, project or job) it’s important to have a really strong value proposition.

A value proposition is a short statement that clearly communicates the benefits that your potential client gets by using your product, service or idea. It "boils down" all the complexity of your sales pitch into something that your client can easily grasp and remember.

You may use audio-visuals.

For an effective presentation of your views, you may choose a right format of the audio-visuals. A picture is worth a thousand words. This is certainly true when you're presenting and explaining data. You can provide tables setting out the figures, and you can talk about numbers, percentages, and relationships forever. However, the chances are that your point will be lost if you rely on these alone. You may put up a Line or Bar graph, Pie chart, Venn diagram graph or some picture and suddenly everything you're saying makes sense! They help people understand data quickly. Whether you want to make a comparison, show a relationship, or highlight a trend, they help your audience "see" what you are talking about.

The trouble is there are so many different types of charts and graphs that it's difficult to know which one to choose. Click on the chart option in your spreadsheet program and you're presented with many styles. They all look smart, but which one is appropriate for the data you've collected? Can you use a bar graph to show a trend? Is a line graph appropriate for sales data? When do you use a pie chart? The spreadsheet will chart anything you tell it to, whether the end result makes sense or not. It just takes its orders and executes them!

You can add up some clippings from some popular movies, parts of speeches by the celebrities etc. in support of your statements. Kindly ensure that you are there to justify why you have put up the clippings.

You must get the right messages across in the right way.

Have you ever received a memo and felt the sender really wasn’t thinking about what you needed to know or hear? Maybe you have attended corporate presentations that have simply left you cold? Or perhaps you’ve even delivered communications yourself and realized, in retrospect, that you really hadn’t got the measure of your audience and their needs.

This is at best frustrating. At worst it is such a huge “turn off” that it can have a negative effect, or even produce an effect that is the exact opposite of the one you had intended.
Whether you need to communicate general day-to-day information or "big news" about major changes in your organization, the best communications start with some good planning.

The first step is to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. What do they need to know, and want to hear? What’s their preferred way of receiving information? What will stop them listening to what you have to say? And how will you know that they have got the message?

So there’s quite a bit more to good communications than preparing a good memo or presentation! This tool will help you through the preparation steps and so help you
create an audience-focused communication plan that’s sure to get your message heard.

You always need to market your message!

Good corporate communications is very much like good marketing. You have a message (product) that you need to 'sell' to your audience (customers). If they are going to 'buy it', you must package the message so that they can understand it and pay attention to it. You must make sure the value and benefit outweigh any downsides (the 'price' you are asking them to pay). And you must reach the audience through the right communication channels. Then, following the communications (promotion), you must be able to measure the effectiveness and how well the message is bought.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills (Part 3)

Many times, it happens that we have to put up our views publicly, in a gathering of more than two, tens or hundreds of people, in a seminar, in a public meeting sometime all of sudden or sometime under a scheduled program. Some speakers get nervous as soon as they are summoned to put up their views through a podium. Some do it very smoothly. It depends upon the individual psychology.

We must care for our words.

For better public speaking, we need to keep care of the purpose of the meeting. We must care that our message is clear and concise for which we should make preparations in advance if that is a pre scheduled meeting. If it is extempore speech, we must care for the mood of the gathering and continue to restyle our deliveries but targeted to the conclusion we wish to bring about. We must pay due attention towards our action so that the people may find us fully stunning.

We must care for the conclusions we wish to bring about.

When we are going to attend some meeting, we must remember the purpose of our attending the meeting. After the meeting is over, what should be the conclusion? When we are in meeting, we must be mentally ready for any sudden development like the organizer may ask us to deliver ‘two words’ without any prior information. To make good impressions on the audience, we should make some working on the subject of the meeting before hand. For that purpose, we must understand what we want to say, whom we want to tell and why they might want to hear it.

We should know to whom we are going to speak. What are their interests, presuppositions and values? What do they share in common with others; how are they unique?

What do we wish to communicate? One way of answering this question is to ask ourselves about the ‘success criteria’. How do we know if and when we have successfully communicated what we have in mind?

How can we best convey our message? Language is important here. We may choose our words and continue to make face reading of our audience. In advance, we must have a plan how we would make a beginning, middle and end. If time and place allow, we may consider and prepare audio-visual aids.

When? Timing is important here. Develop a sense of timing, so that your contributions are seen and heard as relevant to the issue or matter at hand. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. ‘It’s better to be silent than sing a bad tune.’

Where? What is the physical context of the communication in mind? You may have time to visit the room, for example, and rearrange the furniture. Check for availability and visibility if you are using audio or visual aids.

Why? In order to convert hearers into listeners, you need to know why they should listen to you – and tell them if necessary. What disposes them to listen? That implies that you know yourself why you are seeking to communicate – the value or worth or interest of what you are going to say.

When it comes to wording your message, less is more. You're giving your audience headlines. They don't need to and are usually not expecting to become experts on the subject as a result of hearing your talk.

If you're using slides, limit the content of each one to a few bullet points, or one statement or a very simple diagram.

We must be ready for all eventualities.

Preparation in advance is one of the most important factors in determining our communication successes. When possible, we must set meeting times and speaking and presentation times well in advance, thus allowing ourselves the time we need to prepare our communications, mindful of the entire communication process. By paying close attention to each of these stages and preparing accordingly, we can ensure our communications will be more effective and better understood.

Of course, not all communications can be scheduled. In this case, preparation may mean having a good, thorough understanding of the office goings-on, enabling us to communicate with the knowledge we need to be effective, both through verbal and written communications.

We must try to make our delivery unforgettable.

Our delivery of the speech must be unforgettable, no matter how we prepared and crafted our clear, concise message. For that purpose, we must dress up perfectly. For delivering our message clearly, we can use some examples to bring our points lively, we may keep our body language up-beat without staying stuck behind a rostrum, we can have slow delivery – some pauses can give us indications of the audience if they are taking interest in you or not. For a variety, we can use a variety of tones of voice and visual aids. And, we must keep our self confidence alive throughout our speech as we can face some unruly mob actions too.

Be Careful, Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills (Part 2)

We can exchange our views through any mode of communication – by personally meeting or through phone, mobile, fax, email etc. In personally meeting your presentation of yourself matters a lot as while communicating or exchanging the views, you can have face reading and restyle your speaking accordingly to suit the circumstances. Yesterday, we had discussed the same factor.

But where you are not present in person, your words and delivery mode thereof work a lot. If you are delivering them with a lot of patience, you may too have an opportunity to continue the delivery otherwise the listener may switch off. It means that you need to give an opportunity to the listener also to present his matter simultaneously.

In your presentation, you must be brief but explicit in conveying your matter with intention to explore out the reaction. You must adopt only those words which can be easily understood by the listener. Under etiquette, you should use the same language which the listener can understand. Now, people use the words of different languages side by side, you may do the same – there is no harm to do so as with your mixing of the words as the listener is doing, he may not feel you as stranger.

Whether you are exchanging the views in person or through some other mode, conversation, dialogue and careful negotiation have its own pleasure. Agreements and disagreements, being conveyed with smoothness, knowing that it may shake up the aims of meeting, perform the role of enriching us with various factors. When we use the language gracefully in interacting with others and listen to them with patience, our acts bridge good contacts amongst enemies too. Sometime, we feel the desire to talk to someone even during a short journey period, somewhere we are waiting for something together or maybe he is our new neighbor just because he is speaking sweetly. Any twist can make the relationship bad and worse. It is the miracle of the communication skills he might be adopting knowingly or unknowingly but that may impress or affect you much.

We have for some time been observing that our bilateral communications are under the pressure of restlessness perhaps due to short of time available at our disposal. It is resulting into our increasing intolerance which we never thought of seriously. Why? Our socio-economic and cultural contexts are being changed due to our liberal thinking mode. For some reasons it is better as now we do not attach much importance to the marital relationship within our own castes/communities but when it becomes money-oriented, it does not end happily. Some decades ago, the life styles of leaders in political life, stars in sports, films and other celebrities were copied by the general mass but now, they are loosing their sheen because of their own behavior. They may take it as their personal life but they forget that their fans share their attitude with them as any bad action on their parts affects the million lives as well.

While communicating, we usually do not care about the grammatical rules of that particular language we are using and the meaning of our statements get lost or disturbed towards wrong interpretations. Now the media is strong enough to highlight it but with a temporary effect, this fashion of wrong spellings, wrong grammar, wrong pronunciation continues to leave behind worse results. We must care for these flaws timely.

While communicating, we are reducing the use of words, instead we have started to use signs. If we continue this practice the next generations may start to use pictorial signs to communicate with each other. But this process is never found competent enough to express our emotions perfectly. Earlier, man was doing so, when he found incompleteness, he invented language. But again, we are turning back to primitive stage. We will have to care for it at the earliest.

While communicating, we are not alert enough to ensure that some where we are lacking etiquette also and use abusive words unknowingly. Why do we do so? It is irony that we hear it frequently and do not oppose it until we are particularly targeted at. If we do not tolerate it initially, the other one will not be able to utter in our presence. For reciprocation, we should also observe etiquette in our deliveries too.

While communicating, we are now-a-days not attaching much importance to our addressing also. Whether our listener is senior to us or not, we just add Mr. or Miss before their names and start to address, it is not good. In the past, we tried to build up some relationship and make the addressing accordingly to show our affection there. We can resume that practice.

Our words have voice, our words have meanings and our words have musical tones also. If we mix up all these qualities in a beautiful equation, we would find that our deliveries may get many fold results. Just we need practice to do so. We must improve our communication skills.

On this subject, we may discuss a little more, tomorrow also. In the mean while, we must continue to develop our communication skills further.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication Skills (Part 1)

It is the most pleasing matter if you are able to exchange the heart-felt emotions with your near and dear ones in the shortest spell of time. If you are a doctor, lawyer, engineer, social worker, leader of a group or a head of family, you need to have good communication skills for the success. If you communicate your agreement/disagreements smoothly to other ones, it develops your relationship further and in spite of your disagreement, the affected party would be able to understand your reasoning through your effective communication skills.

When you say something of yours, when you listen something of other patiently, such frequent exchanges make up a bridge between both of you. Those persons who exchange the thoughts very politely, patiently and smoothly become easy friends. You may have to unlock your communication skills, try to be simple in communicating your statements and grasp the intent of other’s statement quickly.

effective communication skills are essential for success in all walks of your life – within your family, your business circle whether you hold a large corporation, a small company or a home-based business, whether you are in politics – local level, regional level or federal level, or you are with your clients if you conduct professional services.
To improve your skills, you must evaluate how effectively you communicate. A self assessment may help you to identify the areas you should focus on for improvement to produce effective and inspiring spoken, written and electronic communications to individuals and groups.

Why do you wish to get your message across?

Effective communication is all about conveying your messages to other people clearly and unambiguously. It's also about your quickly receiving information that others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible. For this purpose, both the senders of the messages and the receivers have to undertake effective efforts. If there is an error in communication process, resulting into the messages having been muddled by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient, if not detected at the earliest, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted effort and missed opportunity.

In fact, communication is treated to be only successful when both the sender and the receiver understand the same contents as a result of the communication. In other words, we can say that by successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you actually send do not necessarily reflect what you think, causing a communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of your goals – both personally and professionally.

In spite of the increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals continue to struggle, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This inability makes it nearly impossible for them to compete effectively in the workplace, and stands in the way of career progress.

Being able to communicate effectively is therefore essential if you want to build a successful career. To do this, you must understand what your message is, what audience you are sending it to, and how it will be perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding your communications, such as situational and cultural context.

You must adopt smooth way of communication.

When you wish to communicate, you must foresee the problems which may come up at various stages like at the point of the sender- he does not have proper means or there is some break down in the means he was willing to use, at the point of encoding the message if necessary, the sincerity of the channel you are going to use, decoding of the message at the end of the proposed receiver, feedback and the most important, the context of the message being sent. At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion.

To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the eruption of problems at each stage of this process, with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist within each of these stages of the communication process.
You must make your First Impression great one!

Approximately within three seconds, someone can evaluate you when you meet for the first time. In this short time, s/he forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed. With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person’s impression of you is formed. These first impression can be nearly impossible to reverse or undo, making these first encounters extremely important, for they set the tone for the all the relationships that follows.

Observe meeting time strictly.

So, whether they are in your career or social life, it’s important to know how to create a good first impression. To make your first impression great one, you need to be on time which has been fixed for meeting. You must understand that arriving early at the venue of meeting is much better than arriving late. The excuses forwarded by the late comers are never welcomed.

Present Yourself Appropriately.

Whenever you go to meet someone, you must first make yourself easy and comfortable. If you are not feeling so, this can make the other person uneasy and that’s a sure way to create the wrong impression. If you are calm and confident, so the other person will feel more at ease, and so have a solid foundation for making that first impression a good one.

To present yourself appropriately, your physical appearance also matters. The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you and your appearance is usually the first clue he or she has to go on. You must dress up according to the occasion, country and culture.

Have A Winning Smile with openness and confidence.

“Smile and the world smiles too.” So there’s nothing like a smile to create a good first impression. A warm and confident smile will put both you and the other person at ease. So smiling is a winner when it comes to great first impressions. Your body language as well as appearance with smile on your face speaks much louder than words.
Use your body language to project appropriate confidence and self-assurance. Stand tall, smile (of course), make eye contact, greet with a firm handshake. All of this will help you project confidence and encourage both you and the other person to feel better at ease.

Do Only Small Talk .

Conversations are based on verbal give and take. It may help you to prepare questions you have for the person you are meeting for the first time beforehand. Or, take a few minutes to learn something about the person you meet for the first time before you get together. For instance, does he play golf? Does she work with a local charitable foundation? Is there anything that you know of that you have in common with the person you are meeting? If so, this can be a great way to open the conversation and to keep it flowing.

You need to Be Positive, Courteous And Attentive.

Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile. Your good manners and polite, attentive and courteous behavior help make a good first impression. In fact, anything less can ruin the one chance you have at making that first impression. So be on your best behavior!

One modern manner worth mentioning is “turn off your mobile phone”. What first impression will you create if you are already speaking to someone other than the person you are meeting for the first time? Your new acquaintance deserves 100% of your attention. Anything less and you’ll create a less than good first impression.

You must note down Key Points of every meeting.

You have just a few seconds to make a good first impression and it’s almost impossible ever to change it. So it’s worth giving each new encounter your best shot. Much of what you need to do to make a good impression is common sense. But with a little extra thought and preparation, you can hone your intuitive style and make every first impression not just good but great.

There are many more tools to develop your communication skills which we may discuss in the next post. But we may continue to develop our communication skills further.

Be Happy – Develop Your Communication skills.

Be Happy – Don’t Avoid Resistance (Part 2)

Resistance to the changes plays a vital role in forming our personality and progress. Why do we so often choose to avoid it? There are many reasons for it. We can identify them through their early signs. If you can catch resistance early, then you can respond to it before it takes hold, effectively nipping it in the bud.



Gossip

Whenever a change is announced, you can hear the beating of drums from those who may feel to be affected with the change proposed/announced. You will get the varied opinion. You can put on your well wishers to keep their ears to the ground what is being said around across the tea tables, canteens or during lunch hours when staff sit together or your spouse joins the favorite group or company. You may have to watch the attempts to organize the resistance.

Grumbling and complaint are natural ways of airing discomfort, so you should not try to squash it (you would fail, anyway). The biggest danger of it is when it is allowed to ferment in an information vacuum.

At the earliest, you must respond to gossip by opening it up, showing you are listening to concerns and taking them seriously, and providing lots of valid information that will fill the vacuum.

Testing

Just as a high school class will test a teacher's ability to maintain discipline, so also will some brave soul test out what happens when they resist change. They may, for example, not turn up to a meeting or openly challenge a decision.

How you deal with such early resistance will have a significant effect on what happens next. For example you can jump on the person and squash both them and their words, or you can take an adult position, describing what they have done and assertively questioning their motives.

Collectivism of resistance

Resistance can happen both on an individual case-by-case basis or people may band together.

Individual action

Individually, people may resist, although this is generally limited to the extent of their personal power. For those with lower power, this may include passive refusals and covert action. For those with more power, it can include open challenge and criticism.
Handle individual action individually, starting with those with greater power. As necessary, you may need to make an example, and disciplining a senior executive can send a strong signal to other resistors.

Collective action

When people find a common voice in organized resistance, then their words and actions can create a significant threat to the change, even though they are individually less powerful. Trade Unions are a classic example of this.

Organized resistance is usually a sign of a deep divide. People will not go to the bother of organizing unless they have serious issues with the change.

Manage collectives by negotiating with their leaders (which can be much easier than dealing with a myriad of smaller fires). You may well need to make concessions, but you at least should be able to rescue some key elements of the change. You can also 'divide and conquer' by striking deals with individual key players, although this must be done very carefully as it can cause a serious backlash

Gandhi Ji says,"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny." Similarly, there are drivers for and against the changes. We can sum up as below:

Beliefs

Beliefs are basic drivers of thought and behavior. If you can understand their beliefs, you can begin to change them.
• What are their beliefs about people? Their rights? Their capabilities?
• What beliefs do they have about themselves?
• How strongly do they hold these beliefs?
• What are the beliefs that they have that led them to oppose the change?
• What beliefs do they have that could be used to help convert them?

Values

Values are guides and shapers of behavior that tell what is right and wrong, good and bad, important and unimportant. Understanding a person's values tells you what they will not do as much as what they will do.
• Are any of their values being transgressed by change actions?
• What are their stress values? Are these being triggered?
• What values can you appeal to, to persuade them to change?

Goals

Goals are the deliberate objectives that we set ourselves to satisfy values and needs. By identifying these and how they are affected by change, you can
• What are their career goals?
• What are their social goals?
• What other goals do they have?
• How are any of these affected by the change?

Perceptions

The perceptions that people have of the change is based on their internal systems and the inferences they make. Perception is reality for the person, even it if is not really true. It therefore makes sense to understand how they perceive the change.
• What are their perceptions of the change? What do they think will happen?
• What are their perceptions of other stakeholders in the change? Do they think others will help them? Do they think others will gain unfair advantage?
• What are their perceptions of those implementing the change? Do they think the change agents will be fair? Do they think they are competent?

Potential

A critical question about opponents of change is what they can and are likely do to oppose the change.
• What power do they have?
• What is the source of that power? (position, expertise, social, etc.)
• How might they use that power? (blocking, persuading others, etc.)
• What would the impact of that action be? (local, widespread, etc.)
• How might their power change?

Triggers

When you understand the power that a person who is opposing or may oppose the change, the final step is to understand their triggers, those events that would tip them into action.
• What would lead them to use that power? (events, actions, etc.)
• What would defuse them beforehand? (involvement, listening, etc.)
• What would bring them down after they had started resisting? (listening, threats, etc.)
• Who do they listen to? (friends, social leaders, senior people, etc.)
• What could other people do to contain or convert them? (words, action, etc.)

When resistance to change occurs, then it is very helpful to be able to spot it coming and hence respond appropriately to it (rather than be surprised when the change mysteriously fails).

Sometime, resistance becomes visible. We may like to prepare ourselves to meet challenge. How that visibility may come about, we may discuss in the next post. In the meanwhile, we may not avoid resistance but face it bravely.

Be Happy –Don’t Avoid Resistance.

Be Happy – Don’t Avoid Resistance (Part 1)

Generally, we understand resistance as the action of opposing something that you disapprove or disagree with. If you make a short list of things you like, relish or love, I doubt the word resistance will show up on your list. Resistance isn't something that most of us cherish or are drawn to - at least personally. True, some may enjoy observing resistance as a third party to it - which could be one explanation for boxing , wrestling, or where your favorite team is resisting the opposition - but few of us look for or enjoy resistance.

Why do we so often choose to avoid it?

We are taught to avoid it. As kids, we are taught to agree - or at least get along - with our teachers, our parents, other authority figures and other kids (or at least not make our disagreement or disapproval public), and while the purposes for these behaviors might not be completely about resistance (they may also be about respect among other things), most people seem to connect the lesson to avoiding resistance.

In fact, there is a common phrase that reinforces this teaching - "taking the path of least resistance." We don't want to be called names. Extensions of the "that's what I was taught" reasoning are the thoughts that "I don't want to rock the boat, or cause a scene." If you avoid resistance the boat may stay stable, but if you do confront issues, propose potential changes or just not agree with someone you might be called names - like "rebel" or "troublemaker."

We think resistance is a bad thing. If you think all mushrooms you see in the woods are poisonous, you'll avoid them. Likewise, if your belief is that resistance is inherently negative, you'll tend to avoid it.

Sometime we take resistance as personal attack. If someone resists our idea, we might take that resistance as a personal attack. Have you ever been told your idea was stupid or that your approach wouldn't work? Even if the comment wasn't a personal attack, it often leaves us feeling that way. Since most people don't like to be attacked (even verbally), logically, you can avoid that feeling by avoiding the resistance.

We don't know how to deal with it. If you have long avoided resistance, you might not know how to deal with it in a positive and constructive way. Resistance is like many other things, if you don't have knowledge and the proper tools, you might shy away from it.

We think it will lead to conflict. For many people resistance and conflict are synonymous. And if you don't like conflict and see it as the necessary outcome of voicing your resistance; you'll likely avoid the resistance in the first place.

We think avoiding it is the easiest approach. Humans are basically lazy. Since most people consider "the path of least resistance" to be the equivalent of the "easiest path", that is often the one selected. It only makes sense, after all, to avoid something we think is bad and that would be difficult to do something about anyway, right?

So is all of this avoiding such a bad thing? Generally, yes. Why? You know, resistance promotes growth. In the physical world without an opposing force (resistance) we couldn't strengthen our muscles. In the interpersonal world, resistance is a sign of energy; energy that can be used in positive ways, but only if it is explored.

If no one disagrees with a new idea (offers some resistance) will a better idea be found? Without opposition (or resistance) how many new products would be created? Without some admission of problems (a sign of resistance) will teams or relationships ever be revitalized?

Ask yourself which of the excuses outlined above have you used in the past, and how would you benefit from overcoming your urge to avoid some resistance today? You know! The rationale for resistance is often quite straightforward as people justify their actions to themselves. If you want to overcome resistance to change, you may answer the following points.


No Change required!

Even if you offer me a new house with or without some consideration, I may not be very concerned to take what you offer if I am happy where I am now. People who have been in the same place for a long time are usually in this state. They do not need to change and will view any suggestion of change with distaste. In course of time, you might have become accustomed to the circumstances and a new set may disturb your routine life.


You are satisfied!

Needs are basic drivers of action. If needs are not perceived as being particularly threatened and the current situation is relatively comfortable (particularly in comparison with the proposed change) then you may say that you will be happier to stay where you are.

If people already have their needs met, then you will need to shake the carpet and provide some sort of threat to those needs.


You may care for your investment!

When you have invested a lot of time and energy in building up your position, both socially and organizationally, then any change may mean bad news. Social investment creates a person's sense of identity. Organizational investment gives them control. Sliding down the ladder that you have so painstakingly climbed over the year is a long way from your shopping list.

Where people have invested heavily, you will either have to show them how to get to a similar position in the new organization or otherwise reduce the value of their investment (for example by moving the people over whom they have social influence).

You can not leave something in midway!

When you have committed to achieving a goal, either personal or emotional, then a part of your integrity and hence identity may be bound up in achieving the goal. When I have partly completed something, I am also affected by the need for completion, such that I will feel uncomfortable with stopping now.

When people are busy, you should find ways for them to complete the work in the shorter term, perhaps by nudging their goals so they have less to do to complete. If possible, you may have to turn their work towards something that will be useful for the new organization.

The results of the change may not be so beautiful!

Although you want to move, the final resting place of the change looks significantly worse for you than the current position. You may feel it is like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

If you want people to voluntarily move, then it must be to somewhere better than they are now. You can create this in two ways: first by making the present position worse (though be careful with this!) and secondly by building a rosy vision to which people can then attach their dreams.

If the change is nothing to do with me, if the benefits are all for other people or the general organization, if I just do not buy the 'vision' as sold, then I will feel no pull and I will not buy into the change.

You may offer forth a brilliant vision, but do the people buy it? Make sure your communications are clear and couched in terms that people can understand and buy into. Make your visions inclusive, such that people really can and will buy the change.

The way to move about is not known or may appear to be difficult!

If I buy the vision, I may still not be able to know which way to jump. Some change projects sound wonderful, but people are left wondering what to do (even the managers). Grand plans need to be turned into tactical detail in which people can see and easily take the step forward.

Further, the final destination may be great, but the journey from here to there looks very uncomfortable. The anticipated pain of the transition is more immediate than the distant and hazy future, and I respond more to this than to any inspiring vision.

Make sure the transitional period between now and the final change does not appear so uncomfortable that people refuse to join you. In practice, it may not be that bad -- what counts, though, is the perception of the people, so design the transition well and then communicate it well.

The persons who are suggesting for the change may not be trustworthy!

If your experience with the persons is not good previously, you may not likely to buy the vision of the future. If you are going on what I perceive as a perilous journey, then I will not trust you and will not join you. The integrity of leaders is a very important attribute. If you want people to follow you, then you must give them good reason to trust you.

Your determination not to change!

Even if people do not want to change, they may still have to do so, albeit truculently. Some people, how ever, have the wherewithal to refuse.

You may ignore the change!

One of the questions you may ask is 'What happens if I do not go along with the change?' If the negative implications for your non-compliance are negligible, then you may not happily join in.

This sort of situation occurs when the person in question is so valued by the organization that the idea of them leaving is unthinkable. This is often where difficult choices around change take place. What do you do with the laggards? If this problem is not addressed, then the people around them may take their lead and before long you have a silent revolution on your hands.

Another reason why a person can happily ignore the change is because they can stop it. People in senior positions often treat change as being a good thing -- as long as it is for someone else. When faced with change themselves, they may do whatever it takes to scupper the change, for example by refusing to give needed access or other support.

This is a good test of the senior sponsor of change -- which may need to be the most senior officer in the organization. Those who actively oppose the change must be dealt with -- preferably kindly and in in an understanding way, but ultimately in a firm and final way.

When considering stakeholders who are opposing the change, do a deep analysis of their personality to give you better ability to manage their opposition and convert them to the cause of the change.

This analysis should help you to decide whether and how you might convert the person to the change cause or, if they are implacable opponents, how you might control or contain their opposition.

Since resistance to the changes plays a vital role in forming our personality and progress, we may go through its other aspects in the next posts. In the meanwhile, please do not avoid resistance – try to correct the things in your favor.

Be Happy – Don’t avoid resistance.

Be Happy – Extend Solace To The Needy

Madame de Maintenon, who was the wife of Louis XIV of France, 1635-1719 rightly quotes, “The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others”.

Solace what we understand is something that gives comfort, consolation, or relief. It is comfort in sorrow, misfortune, or trouble; alleviation of distress or discomfort.

We understand that every one of us has not born with a silver spoon in the mouth. Life isn’t always easy and sometimes it gets too much difficult for some. Some time you feel as though your life is spinning out of control? You may be getting depression. It is a serious and life-threatening illness which can strike us at any stage in our lives.

Mostly, depression is caused by emotional issues. Very few families are untouched by depression. This disabling illness can be brought on by loss or stress and is much more severe than feeling upset and down. It is a severe condition that leaves a person feeling alone and miserable and unable to control their emotions and carry out daily activities. You can provide solace by visiting the affected person more frequently.

Depression is treatable and people should be persuaded to go to counseling and talk about how they feel. After a crisis people often can't recognize the signs of depression and anxiety or they ignore them. Finding solace is about reaching a state that even though something terrible has happened to you don't feel pain and you are able to find solace or comfort in certain activities and how you are living. It means alleviating the pain associated to a tragic or depressing event in your life so you and the people around you can continue to enjoy life.

While we can't always control what happens to us or around us, we are in control of the way we react to it. Adversity can be overwhelming but it is always an opportunity to re-discover your passions and what really matters to you. Finding solace when times get daunting is extremely important in order for you to continue to live a healthy life.

When does a person deserve solace?

• Moodiness and frustration that is out of character
• Difficultly in dealing with personal criticisms
• Spending less time with friends
• No interest in going out to have fun
• Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
• Loss of passion, dreams and goals
• Difficultly sleeping through the night
• Increased fatigue and physical pains
• Drinking or drug problems
• Being reckless and careless, like driving dangerously

If you recognize the symptoms of depression in yourself or someone you know it is very important to request help. The first step is to find a doctor or health professional who you or they can talk to!

Counseling

Think of therapy and counseling and you get the idea it's about taking and crying till you are too exhausted to cry anymore. Yes you're right, but sometimes it is necessary to do it, to lose control and outwardly express your emotions. Seeing a counselor means you will be asked to talk about your problems, what you are feeling and admitting your guilt and anger.

Some people don't want to cry and feel too ashamed to talk. As a result they become less likely to go and seek help. Then, the person becomes less likely to venture away from home because they know they have no control over their emotions and they don't want to upset others by losing it in front of them. This is extremely common behavior for bereaved individuals. They often come to believe that others do not want to be around them because they don't want to deal with their grief and pain. This can go on for years and then the person ends up feeling very alone. Such isolative behavior over time unfortunately results in a loss of social support. Because it is too difficult to heal in the company of oneself a grieving individual may benefit greatly from counseling or from grief therapy groups.

During any type of counseling session displays of emotion are encouraged because it is a very healthy part of the healing process. And having a time designated for it means that a person is better able to keep hold of their emotion around friends. It is very important that a person does not isolate themselves for fear of expressing pain. A social network is vital for healing to take place and for a person to find comfort and solace in times of sadness and distress.

Research supports the idea that individuals suffering from depression, grief or a disorder can find solace through counseling. Counseling helps individuals to cope in times of adversity and can assist individuals to adopt healthier behaviors.

Counseling is very beneficial for people trying to deal with rape, spouse abuse, suicide and running away. The counselor’s purpose is to help you deal your crisis. Families living with suicide often have difficulty in believing what has happened. Grief and anger are painful and exhausting and with intense pain may come the need to express that. Suffers can find solace with the help of support groups.

Individual Counseling

You may need counseling if your problems come from your thinking patterns and your behaviors. Problems such as grieving, anxiety disorders, depression and phobias can be hard to discuss which is why this private one on one style of counseling is good for finding solace.

Family Counseling

Family Counseling helps to resolve family members' issues by discussing the situation together. It helps the whole to family to adopt new ways of thinking and behaving to help a member get well. If an adolescent has a problem with alcohol or substances then this type of counseling can help each member of the family to adopt new ways of communicating better with them.

Group Counseling

Group Counseling is exactly as the name suggest, people group together to discuss their problems under the guidance of a counselor. Members of the group may share the same problem but this is not always the case. People may find solace in this type of counseling knowing that there are other people who understand their pain and gain strength knowing they are not the only one with struggles.

Self-help and support groups

Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous are groups of people who meet regularly to discuss their problems and to support and help other people with the same dependency as them.

Apart from the above, there are many methods to provide solace to the sufferers. You can choose any best one amongst them. But we must consider it as our pious duty to provide solace to anyone we know that he/she requires to realign his/her life. Silvia Hartmann composes the poem “Solace” very beautifully to convey what it means. With due respect to the composer, I may put up the lines herebelow:

Solace

by Silvia Hartmann

Solace did I seek within your arms,
and haven calm you were
when all around us raged the night
and seas as high as mountains
threatened with their roar.

Enfoldment of silence
and a stillness born of ages
did I feel from you,
so patient your acceptance
of my tears and of my youth,
you questioned not,
just stroked my hair,
your breath the tides,
the hush of nightwind
caught in stately elms
oh how you soothed me,
healed me of the days -

In your remembrance,
a gust of rain
the window holds at bay.

If you find that you need Solace to help overcome depression or know someone, a friend or family member who you suspect is suffering from depression then help them get well. You can seek some professional help or take the depressed one in a friendly environment at a retreat. It will be your true service. God will be happy with you!

Be Happy – Extend Solace To A Needy One.

Be Happy – Be Rich (Part 6)

Yesterday, I made mention of the role of leverage and gratitude in making us rich. There are some other factors which do have appreciable role in this process. We may have a glimpse of the same in the following lines.

Creative Thought

Another principle in preparing for richness is the process of creative thought. Creative thought means focusing on one’s desires in order to bring them into reality and taking the steps that are needed in order to obtain one’s vision. Every thought of form, held in thinking substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established. The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon formless substance, might not cause the instant formation of the house, but it would cause the turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance.

Everything starts as a thought. We think of something we desire and we want to get it. In order to get what we first thought about we need to focus our thought on it and determine what actions are required in order to obtain our desire. For example, if we start by thinking that we would like to build a house, we then focus on this thought and come up with a plan for our house, we think about whether we will be building the house ourselves or whether we are going to need to call someone else in to do the various processes. If we are building the house ourselves we will give thought to how each piece of the house is going to be built, what materials we are going to use, etc. If we are getting someone else to build it for us, we will decide who we are going to get to help us and then think about what needs to be communicated to them and about what they communicate to us. All this takes focused thought regarding the object of our desire, our house.

There is also creativity in thought which few people have tried to obtain or use. When a person has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. People have, so far, made little or no effort to cooperate with formless intelligence – to work with the parents. The individual does not dream that he can do easily what he sees the parents doing. As individuals reshape and modify existing forms, they give no attention if they may produce things from formless substance by communicating their thoughts to it. How their parents created and looked after in spite of all the oddities they might have faced when you were a child and not able to think how and when to urinate, or meeting natural calls of your body. But they made it possible to enable you to stand. You do not have any right to teach them but you must learn how they made you so competent to know how they believe that this is possible and their reasons for believing so. However, you can make the submission of your thoughts and convince them if you understand that your parents do not know the facts.

Everything starts with a thought. In order for anything to happen that thought needs to be focused and so become creative thought which leads to the creation of that which is thought of in the mind in reality. This is usually done by just modifying and reshaping stuff that already exists.

A Call To Action

To plan your journey to richness, you need to know your desires and vision. Spend some time doing the exercises on vision. Decide what the things are that you really want in life. Make a mission statement for your life that encapsulates exactly what you want to do or be in a sentence or two. Once you have this expand it to a vision statement which will give more detail about what you are trying to accomplish. The next step after you have decided what exactly it is you want in life is to set yourself goals with a deadline. Be realistic but set deadlines that you want to have your goals done by. This goal setting helps you focus your thought, shows you what needs to be done in order to accomplish your goals and helps you in achieving what it is you desire.

Focus on your goals and what it is you want to achieve. The idea here is to build up your desire and determination to follow through on your plan. Spend some time each day thinking about what it is you are trying to accomplish, think about what you have done to get there and plan your next steps in reaching your goals.

Use this time to practice gratitude as well. Keep a “gratitude journal” where you write down those things that you are grateful for. By keeping this discipline you are not only focusing on your goals but also opening the way for more riches in your life through the acknowledgment of those you already have.

Now, you need to define about your profile – are you a creator, mechanic, star, supporter, dealmaker, trader, accumulator or lord? Your richness profile will help you discover what your goals should be as well as how you are going to go about reaching them. Your richness profile also helps you determine how you are going to go about leveraging value – are you a multiplier or a magnifier? How are you going to leverage value in order to create your richness? Think about what assets you own, how you are going to create richness and how you are either going to make sure that this can only be done with you, or alternately, how you are going to multiply this so that many others can help you create your richness as well.

The important thing is to get going. Set your goals, discover your richness profile and decide how you are going to leverage value and then start today on your path to richness. By taking small actions every day you will find your fear of being rich decreasing and you will be able to better internalize that which you have been learning and so gain more from it. Each day take some time to do a couple of actions – write in your gratitude journal, set yourself goals and work on becoming the best you can be.

Conclusion

It is a good thing to be rich, to desire richness, not only to help you live a happy life but also to have more to serve others. This richness is available to all who will follow a couple of simple principles.

Your richness begins with your passion and vision. By creating your vision and realizing your passion you are concentrating your creative thought in order to bring these desires into reality. How a number of persons we know became rich in a very short period, irrespective of the fact that some of them are creators, mechanics, stars, supporters, traders, dealmakers, accumulators and landlords. Each of these richness profiles has their own unique way of making richness and leveraging value. By finding out what your richness profile is you are able to do work you enjoy and that comes easily to you and where you will be most successful.

We also had a look at gratitude and creative thought. Gratitude is a vital principle to richness as it acknowledges the riches you have already been given and opens the way for more riches to come your way. Creative thought is concentrated thought and desire which is able to lead to the creation of that which is desired.

If you find something good in these lines, you may follow and feel relaxed in your journey to become rich and richer. It depends upon you how to implement them.

Be Happy – Be Rich.

Be Happy – Be Rich (Part 5)

In my post of Friday, June 18, 2010, I had dwelt upon our richness profiles. Now, we may proceed on. We are aware that each of these different richness profiles leverages value in a different way but in order to be a success at richness creation all do need to leverage value in some way.

Leverage

Leverage is required in order to create richness. There are two types or polarities of leverage, namely, multiply and magnify. The way you leverage value is determined by your richness profile and personality type.

Introverts are more likely to leverage value through the process of multiplying. Multiplying means creating your systems so that they can be done without you and then multiplying them; the way to multiply is to ask the question, ‘how can this happen without me?’ Multiplying is about making things as simple as possible and then making many. A successful businessman does it. Richness Creators such as Henry Ford, Warren Buffet, John D Rockefeller and Ray Kroc have leveraged through multiplying, whether through their systems, investments or franchises.

Extroverts tend to leverage by magnifying. Instead of creating simple things that can be done by a number of people they leverage by making things able to be done only by them. The way to magnify is to ask the question, ‘How can this only happen with me?’

Magnifying is about making things as complex or unique as possible so that you become indispensable. Richness creators such as Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Jack Welch and Donald Trump leverage by magnifying, whether through their unique brand, leadership or deal making niche.

A study of the working of Microsoft and Apple points out the importance of leveraging value. In the 1980’s, Microsoft did not have the best software but it was better at leveraging what it had by using the entire PC industry and making its software suitable for all types of PC’s. Apple on the other hand was trying to develop all aspects of its industry and diluted its effectiveness. In the mid 1980’s the effect of this leveraging by Microsoft was demonstrated when Steve Jobs was ejected from Apple, while Bill Gates took Microsoft public and made an instant $236m.

Leverage is a vital component of richness. You may leverage on one of two poles, namely, multiplying or magnifying. If you are an introvert you will tend to leverage on multiplying while if you are more extrovert you will tend to magnify. Whether you multiply or magnify the important thing is to leverage value in order to create richness.

Gratitude

Another principle for obtaining richness is that of gratitude. Gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the blessings come. In order to obtain richness, apart from desire we need to start with gratitude. We need to be thankful for what we already have, acknowledging that whoever we are and whatever situation we are in we have already received many blessings. This gratitude opens the way for more riches to come our way.

We must believe that there is Some One extra-intelligent who created this universe and the substance, from which all things proceed. This substance gives us everything we desire. We must relate ourselves to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude. Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment. We should engage ourselves in charity as much as possible after examining, just cursorily whether your donations are going to eligible persons or not as the growing habit of the society due to some religious attachments, some people treat the receipt of donation as the method of easy earning.

Believe me, those who are needy and get your help in time mostly become your well wishers and if by chance you are caught in some tragedy, you may see them first in the line of sympathizers or your helpers. If we are grateful for what we have already received we open the way for more to come to us. You know what it feels like if you give someone something and they do not even acknowledge your gift? The chances are that the next time you will probably think twice before offering them a gift, because if they don’t even acknowledge your gift then they can’t be too grateful for it. Yet daily we fail to acknowledge God’s many gifts to us, why should He therefore send more if we aren’t even grateful for those we have?

There is a law of gratitude, and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law if you are to get the results you seek. The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the supreme intelligence is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement towards you.

We should daily start our day acknowledging God for His many blessings in our lives and so opening the way for more of these blessings to enter into our lives during the day. Gratitude is one of the laws in the science of getting rich. You give something to the society; the society will definitely value your contribution and may return to you many times whenever there arises some need for the same.

There are some more factors which can enable us to become rich and richer. We may consider in our next post. In the meanwhile, we may examine ourselves where we do stand and how we can improve ourselves to become richer.

Be Happy – Be Rich.

Be Happy – Be Rich (Part 4)

My first real job was as an Assistant Accountant in a State Government Undertaking. In my young age, I had got great benefits of learning a lot – I took the opportunity to enter into each department, to learn about their basic working in name of audit of their accounts involving their income and expenses heads etc., but as a low ranking employee of the undertaking, my take home pay wasn't worth bragging about. I was earning a comfortable living for a 18-year-old, but I didn't think that I had enough money to invest. It turned out I was wrong.

One day, I had an opportunity of discussing the priorities of investments out of meager salary with our Managing Director, belonging to Indian Administrative Services. Though I knew his academic back ground, the talk with him made me rethink the way I viewed investing. During the conversations I brought up the topic of investing and mentioned I would like to start in a couple years when I had more money. He listened to me giving several excuses why I couldn't invest and then, he said something that changed the way I think and act about investing.

He told me saving and investing wasn't hard, you just have to treat it like a bill. He said, "When your salary comes in each month, you pay your bills, right?" I nodded. "So treat investing like a bill. If you want to maximize your savings, you may put at least 10 to 20% of your salary in fixed deposit at least for one year, each month. If you want to make it easier, then go to the finance office and request them for a salary linked savings scheme, you'll never think about it again. When such fixed deposits mature next year one by one after each month, reinvest them for a longer period. It will cultivate your habit of savings and ensure a good amount for you if you ever needed that to meet some ambitious need, like construction of house or higher education or happy family settlement. If I am not able to do so, I may get some good insurance policy - that will arrange risk cover as well as payment for my needs in future.”

It turns out he was right. It's not that I didn't have enough money to invest. I just wasn't prioritizing how I used my money. Treating investing like a bill forced me to make investing part of my budget. I followed his advice and set up an automatic withdrawal from my salary and I began investing in a fixed deposit every month. I accumulated a lot in a set of the eleven years following our conversation, and for building my house, I did not need any additional assistance from any corner. That 15 minute conversation literally changed my life and might just make me a millionaire by the time it's all said and done.

This concept of paying yourself first applies to different types of investments as well. Perhaps the most common way to take advantage of automatic investing in salary linked saving schemes, In fact, many brokerage firms will waive account minimums if you agree to fund your account with a minimum contribution each month. Some brokerage firms even offer lower transaction costs with automatic investments.

If you do not get any fixed salary, you may ask some financial consultant to contact you every month, week or day to collect some amount from him and invest it. Since he would get some incentive, he would come to you surely and in order to meet your commitment, you will be under pressure to ease out the money. Or, you can ask your banker to transfer some amount to the savings plan as and when balance in your account exceeds a particular limit. That will become your savings.

Here are three reasons you should consider income linked savings.

It is easy.

You don't have to remember to do it. Just set it up once and you know it will get done.

There is no emotional barrier.

It can be difficult to write a check each month for a future goal when you have current wants you could easily fulfill with those funds. Automatic investing makes it easier to stick to your long term plans.

You don't try to time the market.

Market timing is almost always a losing battle. For the average investor, dollar cost averaging can be a great way to avoid market timing and ensure you get your money in the market for a longer period of time. Automatic investing gives you the greatest opportunity to realize the growth of compound interest.

If your circumstances permit you, you can become millionaire by allocating your income on the above lines. Kindly remember, you can effectuate the savings only when you are under pressure or you put apart, with strong determination, some amount out of your income as fixed time deposits, before allocating funds to your regular and contingent expenses.

Be Happy – Be Rich.

Be Happy – Be Rich (Part 3)

Earlier, some submissions were made through this forum in regard to our efforts how to become rich. In the same sequence, we may continue to make efforts on some more suggestions given below. It depends upon us, sincerity of our efforts and the direction how rightly we choose in our own circumstances, to succeed in our mission of becoming rich and more rich.

Understand Your Richness Profile

Apart from your vision which determines in which direction you are going to go in order to make your richness, your richness profile is the next thing you need to understand in order to go about making true richness. Everyone has a richness profile, a personality type that goes about making money in a certain way. You can be a creator, mechanic, star, supporter, dealmaker, trader, accumulator or lord in your richness profile. If you function according to your richness profile you will find it a lot easier to make money but if you are trying to follow someone else’s richness profile, you will experience frustration as you will not be nearly as successful as that person is in their richness profile.

The first richness profile we are going to consider is the creator. Creators enjoy the creative process – creating new products and new companies; they are not so good at the day to day running of the business. Successful creators therefore delegate as much of the day-to-day running of their companies to others as possible and focus in on the creation aspect. Good examples of creators include Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal, Anil Ambani, Kushal Pal Singh, Azim Premji, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and JK Rowlings.

The second richness profile is that of the mechanic. Some successful mechanics are Henry Ford, Sam Walton, and Jeff Bezos. Mechanics like to get hands-on with their business, and enjoy working with their product to finish and perfect it. Mechanics may take years to get going as they are not very good at starting things but once they do get started with their business can often turn out better products than their competitors due to their desire to perfect their systems.

The third richness profile is the star. Stars have strong personalities and use this to their advantage. Stars are in demand and if they are not careful can burn out. Good examples of stars are Amitabh Bachhan, Michael Jackson, Michael Schumacher, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton.

Dealmakers are the next richness portfolio. Dealmakers make their money through making deals where there are significant value differentials. Dealmakers often come into an industry as it goes past its prime, act on the moment and make millions in a moment. Good examples of dealmakers are Robert Kravis, Donald Trump and David Geffen. Traders are another type of richness profile. They may be introvert or extrovert but they love to seek out bargains and then sell the items at a higher price. Extroverts may do this through hard bargaining and may be found in the import/export sector, whilst introvert traders in many other fields use analysis of markets to find their bargains and sell at a higher price. Unfortunately many traders have never really traded but only see one side of the business (either buying or selling) whilst many people who consider themselves traders are not meant to be traders in their richness profile.

The accumulator is the safest of the profiles, relying on a system of incremental growth to achieve richness. Although the accumulator profile is one of the easiest to duplicate, the real accumulator is someone who has patience and sticks to a system. Accumulators come in two forms. The accidental accumulators are those who made their richness elsewhere and are now reinvesting their richness in property, stocks or other vehicles. These are not good role models as they are not the richness profile of a real accumulator. The second are the ones who fit the profile and have made their richness through their strategy. This includes everyone who has bought and held on to a set of assets over time, whether in company stock, property, land, or any kind of appreciating collectible. The most well known accumulator is Warren Buffet.

The last richness profile is the landlord. Land Lords can be found wherever there is a fixed asset that is generating cash, whether it is a rented property or a leased vehicle, whether it is a gold mine or an oil field.

Each richness profile has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. In order for you to make money you should ideally follow your particular richness profile as this is where you will function best and be best able to use your own particular characteristics to optimize richness creation.

By combining your passion and vision and working according to your particular richness profile you can optimize your chances of creating richness and enjoy the process as you function where you are supposed to function. In the next post, we may discuss further on this subject.

Be Happy – Be Rich.

Be Happy – Be Rich (Part 2)

On April 13, 2010, I had made some submissions through this forum. Again, we may have some thoughts over the issue of being rich.

Every one of us wishes to be rich. Why? Why should you not be a rich person?Every person knows that money is something which enables you to meet your requirements. Some people may preach that money is not every thing. But they accept that money is something important for our life, for our survival and for our enjoyments. In this process, have you ever wondered why some people seem to have it all, they make plenty of money and love what they do while others struggle to get by? How some people just get into the right business and make a success of it, while others try to emulate their success and fail?

Being rich is a good thing, that there is plenty to go round and how you can go about getting your share of richness by following your passions and working within your richness profile. The path to success is laid out, there is a science to getting rich and by following a few steps you too can find all the richness you need and be the success you have always yearned to be.

In our childhood, we were always made to feel that it was somehow wrong to be rich. Personally, I watched my father struggling as a shopkeeper and felt that, that was the way it was somehow supposed to be. The people in my surroundings were telling me that ‘money is the root of all evil’. When I crossed my age of adolescence, my parents proposed my marriage. I thought how it would be possible to look after my spouse and our off-springs if I did not have money, sufficient money

A deep thought made me understand that money itself is not evil; many good people had abundant richness. They give this to everyone in order that they may live fulfilled lives, for themselves and for others.

It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich. If you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to your efforts of getting rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all the efforts. It is your duty. If you neglect this duty, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to humanity, for you can render humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself. Why did God place so many resources at your disposal? You will have to make rightful efforts. Your right efforts will make you rich.

It is a good thing to get rich and to study how to get rich because by becoming rich you are able to live more abundantly, you are able to do more and be more as you have all that you need at your disposal. By having this abundance you are better able to live for God and for others by reaching your full potential and giving yourself what you deserve. If you do not become rich you not only deprive yourself of your full potential but you also deprive others of what you could be giving to them and you have less available to give for the service of God.

There is a plenty of richness all around.

Another common misconception is that there is a limited amount of richness and that in order to get this richness, competition is required as only a certain number of people can gain this richness, and as much the richer some people are, the poorer others will be. The truth is that there is a plenty of richness for everyone and that if you put certain principles into practice you too can gain this richness without depriving anyone of their share.

No one is kept in poverty by shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. A palace as large as the Capitol at Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in India alone, and under intensive cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than we have ever imagined, together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously. The visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible.

As a result, there is no need to deprive another by competing for the same resources dishonestly. Each person can achieve the richness that is due to them without depriving another. You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from anyone. You do not have to drive sharp bargains. You do not have to cheat or take advantage. You do not need to let anyone work for you for less than he earns. You do not have to covet the property of others or to look at it with wishful eyes. No one has anything of which you cannot have the like and that without taking what he has away from him. You are to become a creator, not a competitor. You are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other person whom you affect will have more than he has now.

Know your passion and vision

Before you must be rich, you should know your own passion and vision. Finding true richness means doing those things that you truly enjoy. In order to make use of the power of your thought of becoming rich, you need to crystallize your thinking and know exactly what it is that you want. you need to be able to picture it clearly so that you can make it a reality, this means knowing your passion and vision.

In order to create a vision for your life you should look at your passions. What is it that you truly love to do? What comes naturally to you? Have a look at your possessions and see if they hold a clue to what truly inspires and invigorates you. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. If I had all the money in the world, how would I spend it?
2. If there was nothing holding me back, what would I do?
3. What do other people see in me? What do I want other people to see in me?

Once you have the answers to some of these questions, have a look around at your possessions and have considered what it is that truly inspires and invigorates you then you should have a pretty good idea what your passion is. The next thing is to create your vision.

In order to create your vision, spend some time considering your passion. Your vision will come out of your passion. What you love to do will determine where you truly want to go. What do you want to accomplish with your life?

A vision is a dream, an idea of what you would like to achieve in your life. It takes your passion and creates a mental form of your passion. The more you focus your vision, the more you think about it and about what it would take to get there, the closer you will come to giving it physical form.

Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that a person can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things. To permit your mind to dwell upon the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best, and to become the best. The creative power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention.
You therefore are required to know your passion and vision so that by focusing on them you can become what you would like to be. You need to focus on your vision, the mental form of your passion and so make ourselves into the image of your passion.

In the next post, we may consider the next step we may take to become rich.

Be Happy – Be Rich.