Bamboo In The Wind

It's a strange thing. Being present in the thick of the action and unconcerned about the surrounding.  We are completely unaware that we are at a distance from the hustle, trying to make sense of many things in one go. We experience quiet playback, randomly picking up signals, tuning into them, and turning up the volume. Is it intentional? Probably not. Are we drifting? Perhaps. All signals are intact, but we are unreachable for a moment. When invoked, we effortlessly assimilate into the surrounding, only to fall into oblivion shortly after. Is there a way to harness this state? If we entered oblivion with intent, it might mean context-switching on parallel thinking.  We can create space within us despite being in action. If we did, it might construe strength. An ability to go in and out of various bogies in a running train. The environment you experience in each is unique.  Finding a quiet, empty space for ourselves is such a powerful concept. Switch off noise we don't n...

There are instances where the evolution of our environment takes place without rules. There are no set patterns to follow, no restrictions, and no reward. Our experience depends on our attention, action, and comprehension of the results.  Actions continue or change based on how we understand the experience of carrying those out. If we feel happy and satisfied by performing the acts and if the results seem acceptable, there is a strong chance we might continue the actions. An unstructured environment thus brings an element of surprise, newness, and lack of discipline in many evolving natures of certain aspects of intense work areas. It reflects intensely busy yet inefficient transacting, interacting, and deciding methods.  It is so because it needs more structure in organizing the required steps for getting something done. It needs a system for decision-making. This work involves doing learning-tuning-repeating. The repeatability of results in such an environment is never guara...

You feel like being in the Wilderness when you are involved with something that is not your authentic self. We are governed by commonplace priorities that reflect society's norms. They are binding, restrictive, and hence imposingly adopted versions that you face friction with! In the long run, you can see everything going your way - family, office, career, recognition - and still be in the Wilderness. It's a vulnerable state to be in. It feels like a trap!  No matter how much fame and success we gain, the state of Wilderness is unavoidable. Traverseing through it needs reconciling with the difference you have developed between reality and expectations.  You must confront Wilderness hiding in plain sight with all your might! There is no use hiding from it!

Knowing we are back to our best is a terrific feeling! It stems from doing the things that matter. Being clear-headed helps avoid temptations. Saying NO to unnecessary distractions frees us to focus on what we want. Yet, it's hard to be like that. It is hard because we are perpetually biased to do better than o set our eyes on the competition and think we want to beat them. Focusing on competition is actually a distraction. Instead, concentrating on detecting our convictions does a whole lot of good. Beliefs are usually grounded in realities and based on our experiences instead of our biases.  Once we spot places of our convictions, we know we have gained a position of strength.  The strength makes us focus on fundamental needs rather than fashions, which are often pompous and short-lived! When we shed fashions, we are bound to back on the rise, calm and composed.

When we have pleasant experiences, it is usually because things look neat and tidy, spick and span. We are impressed with how things were organized, how expectations were set, and how the crew strived to deliver on those. We are also keen to see how we are handled when something unexpected comes across. Meticulously planning things to deliver something that changes things around us keeps us happy. More so when we see the care for what may go wrong. Because we then know you have built-in consideration for those affected by what you do. If that is our premise, it's only fair on our part to entrust you with the responsibility to give you a chance to serve. You may be starting out with rough edges around the corner. We know you will diligently plan and positively surprise us with your entire approach. And we know you will care to show understanding when you don't! That you will immaculately plan for us!

Many workplaces and institutional learning initiatives are set up to pursue the status quo. If we are willing to fit in, we are incentivized. Only if these places build an environment for exploration and learning from failures would it give rise to the boldness to pursue work that matters. These places are full of us. That means we must change how we think about setting up environments ourselves. Whether offered or not, we need to take charge and rely upon our ability to set challenging plots. Just wishing someone would do that for us won't cut it. This is why mustering the courage to express what we need and intend to accomplish is an essential trait.  Achievers know how to express much before they are seen to be achieving!

We resort to stopping any good action because of the story we tell ourselves. We can look at what we encounter with suspicion and find reasons that tell us how we will be robbed of freedom and taken advantage of.  Albeit,  being watchful safeguards our interests in the near term. It reduces cycles we spend on convincing ourselves of ways to avoid risks. And that is fair. The only caveat being it also brings a higher risk of constrained experience.  The more we learn from our surroundings with an open mind, the more opportunities for engagement it offers. It is bound to expand the horizon of our experience vastly. An open mindset has the potential to extract the best distillation of what we experience. It also attracts the best of our work!

The battle is between your adopted thoughts and those that emerge to you through your own discovery. The emerging thoughts involve stumbling into many unclear flashes and ideas. You discard many as superficial ones and segregate the lingering ideas that come back repeatedly to you at various times. These ideas come in front of you in multiple forms and shapes, but the underlying foundational thoughts relate to what resonates with you. We then begin to see the pattern. Once the pattern is clear, you find it easier to settle on the one that moves the needle inside you. Adopted thoughts, on the other hand, definitely excite you; they, too, engage you in constructive work and exploration. But what if they leave with the desire to tune into internal melody. What if they lack internal resonance? That is the inner calling we put aside due to resistance. We often only know we can face it once we find what we end up doing is not our first choice. And so, you must embark on a search for patterns...

Here is an example of the contrast in outcomes; a sample from the 2022 Soccer World Cup. When someone is adaptive over being rigid, there is a definite chance that will favor those who know how to adapt! There is much to learn from how Ronaldo and Messi ended their world-cup participation. The difference was in their approach. Ronaldo's conduct was out-of-tune with his understanding of his state as a player, and Messi's conduct was in-tune with his own. But that made all the difference in how they ended their prime time! Ronaldo, 37, flailed because he couldn’t adapt to his physical decline. He insisted on playing as if he were 10 years younger. By acting as if he was essential, he became superfluous. And in his final game, a flaccid defeat to Morocco, he came off the bench, contributed little, then left the field in tears -  without shaking hands with his opponents or consoling his bereft  teammates. It was a pathetic way to exit. That’s the counterpoint to Messi’s victory. ...

Often things we see, experience to learn about resonate with us. They do because we feel a connection with them. There is something inexplicable at first that looks relevant to us. We either feel happiness and excitement or get a sense of fulfillment. But we need to understand the reason for it. The reason we feel that way is because there is because we comprehend everything through a lens of our biases. The prior experience provides us the foundation of likes and dislikes. It gives us a reason to expect things to align with preferences we have built from experiences over the period. When we encounter a pattern of experience that matches our preference for what we have learned to expect, it places us in a comfort zone of knowing. We feel safe and balanced that new experience has ascertained our prior biases. When new experiences break that pattern, we are surprised. For, our horizon has just expanded. Our prior biases were shattered. The exposure to new uncertain territory is disturbin...

We take decisions for granted. Our hope is that the decisions made will ensure desired results. That is rarely the case.  Sound decisions need a plethora of preparation. For starters, we need to imagine the circumstance keeping aside the emotions. Decisions are an act that burdens us. The burden of not affecting others with our actions. We are marred by worry about how we keep everyone around who will be affected by our acts happy. Concerns like these make the decision process hazy. Our instinct then is to act in a rush and remove the haze. The tendency to make decisions in haste makes us address the burden by taking some action. But is the move likely to produce the intended result? Often, it doesn't. Because we have yet to analyze our possible responses to the circumstances and their impact - neutrally and ahead of time. If we isolate ourselves from the situation and apply ourselves to different combinations arising from our actions, the possible mind map of outcomes can emerge. ...

It shows readiness when we take the guard. We are prepared for the unexpected. We might not be able to handle it. However, we are ready to face it. Preparation in anticipation of the unexpected is a good contingency plan. Our expectations stem from our past experience of how things work. There is always room for corner cases that stump us, and then something we did not expect derails our plan. It's disappointing to be in a situation we are not ready for. When we take a guard, we know we need to face each situation coming away with equal diligence and great interest. And if things do not go our way, it ends our present effort, but we have to move on and prepare better for the next attempt. The state of alertness comes from revisiting where we are and knowing that there will be a surprise in store, no matter our readiness.  Take a moment; take a fresh guard. Often.

We make so much hue and cry about anything that appears ambiguous, resulting in more confusion than what existed. We emphasize good communication to get out of it. Understanding prevails because of good communication. It sure does when we have a good mix of speaking, listening, and translating what is learned into a comprehensive build-up of a realistic picture.  But what if the build-up of a picture in our minds is unrealistic? Despite attempts at establishing good communication? Then we begin to experience more chaos than what is warranted.  Dial down communication, then. Say less, listen more. The air will clear by itself!

While we chase fame, we often forget that it is short-lived. Fame is just a stop on an exploratory journey. It reflects the recognition of what you have done well. When we get to mile-post called fame, we realize it's temporal. We are well past it in no time with new continued explorations which have the potential to make us not see the same fame for too long! Thus, a conscious exploratory journey is the best way to march ahead. It makes us focus on long, arduous, yet fulfilling experiences rather than focus on glitzy momentary flashes of fame. It is often revealing. Much of our outstanding work gets done between such mileposts. And that is what counts in the end!

When we are in the groove, we experience the melody and are experiencing the best of our effort. We are in the zone. Anything we do brings results effortlessly.  The right company, a higher awareness, and interaction flow are critical in such circumstances. They bring clarity and purpose. Much of this is because the heightened push and intent we experience in a competitive environment makes us focus. When we are focused, we are intent on working on everything sincerely. That makes all the difference, even when we are involved in the most constructive work. When what we do is laced with sincerity, we significantly enhance our reach.  Focus makes what we do relevant and sharply applicable. This is a key to making the match between producer and specific consumer, relayer and receiver. There is an explicit handshake and benefit. The moment we get the reception, we know we have tuned ourselves to have an audience. The audience is what makes us feel in the groove. With the audience ...

Role models cannot be assigned. We need to develop a taste for what brings our best. The reasons we are at our best are because of demonstrating the best behavior, best habits, and best efforts. We feel good about attaining such a state. It's rarely one time job. We need to be able to do this day after day. Repeatability comes from seeing benefits. So, how does one get there? Often we learn from our experiences and people who demonstrate traits that indicate balanced acts and effortless navigation to progress. We know we want to get there but cannot without emulating those traits.  The more we play with emulating, the more we start experiencing the advantage of practicing. The exciting part of emulating is that it is an immensely intrinsic process. The force has to generate from within. The strength depends on our ability to absorb the stair-steps of well-being from someone or someplace. When we do, we have found a tap that satisfies our thirst. There is a positive source of energy...

Commitment is all about keeping at it in the face of adversity.  It gives you mileage for the long haul.  Allows you a chance to weather the storm.  Commitment makes you move away from the temptation to give up.  It means handling excellent or bad times with equal composure, patience, and trying persistence. It involves passing  through the tunnel and experiencing the sight of the other end of the tunnel. It requires sticking to your guns! It is a tool to swiftly negotiate disappointments and frustrations. Consistency reflects cyclical effort. It allows you to attempt your work periodically, so you have experience building experiments that enhance understanding with each cycle. Working in this manner usually evolves into the journey to perfection and gives rise to the error prevention process. Commitmenr and Consistency are mighty forces that produce creative and believable outcomes.

The moment of truth is usually unexpected. It is when the perception of reality and actual reality are on different planes.  We rely upon many assumptions that we begin to believe are accurate.  In reality, beliefs represent a set of possibilities based on an assumed version of attributes being true.  In the presence of unvalidated assumptions, our follow on actions based on them create an order of magnitude more uncertainty and risk of actions creating unfavorable outcomes. The best way out of uncertainty is to take action after thoroughly validating assumptions. They enhance the chance of favorable outcomes.

How we deal with suggestions we receive depends on how we listen and process the exchange. Our actions on recommendations largely depend on openness to ideas and belief in them being meaningful and progressive. In the absence of that, suggestions are brushed aside. Who has the onus to make suggestions implementable? Answer to this question that requires two to tango. The onus is upon those making suggestions to make them most relevant, application-worthy, and safe for recipients. The onus is also upon those receiving them to believe that the suggestion maker has the best interest in their mind for theirs. Their stature and experience will need recognition for the suggestions to be accepted. The impact of suggestions is fruitless discussion without ownership. It leaves a large gap because there needs to be more intent!

Nothing can be more frictionless than taking actions synchronous with your nature. They may appear insufficient, but they are always consistent.  Acting in concert with what is natural to you opens the possibility of getting an experience. You then never stop because of what others are doing and how. This allows you to build a feedback system by observing how others respond to you. You retain the ability to correct course in the most natural way possible. You can create a possibility to steer the interaction fruitfully while ensuring the other party stays interested.  Staying synchronous with your nature benefits only as long you keep the other side engaged. Once you lose the other party, you have lost the edge of staying synchronous with yourself. Actions are deemed overly in your favor. Most interesting interactions and productive creations are the outcomes of transparent actions that portray us precisely as we are in concert with acceptance of who others are.

Having poured our heart into our work, we can only hope to see how it is received. Sometimes, we won't see or hear how it went. What we receive is a function of what went into producing the work.  Consider who the work is for and whether they need what we created. Without that, it is wishful thinking to expect it to make an impact. Without realizing this, we are constantly in search of problems to solve. Future issues dominate our minds. No one can predict the radical Future, however forceful our argument about it is.  The Future is based on incremental enhancement to the fundamentals. So finding what is not changing gives us a chance to know a lot more understanding of why it has been around for a long time. Working on fundamentals is an elusive yet much-needed priority. It is the way to get an audience that counts on fundamentals! We can be sure to hear about how it is perceived.

Starting the game moderately and finishing it with a big bang reduces the pressure in the next tournament. Finals in any game are unnerving. Why not? You imagine your future with its outcome. A win will make you a hero, and losing will put you to dust! At least, so you think! Self-patting cajoles your ego. It becomes a hard-to-break habit. Winning provides an assertion about the quality of your effort. That you did it very well, perhaps better than someone.  It is always good to understand the quality of your effort. But an assertion about it? It needs to be more accurate on many fronts. Yet, it is often a judgemental view of the efforts you logged.  Assertions cause us to oscillate between two extreme ends of reactions on our effort. It can be a double-edged sword that bites you when you don't deliver the goods. It can then drain your confidence and drop energy to a low point. Your own feedback to yourself, on the other hand, provides a realistic view of strengths g...

Once things dawn upon us, the haze begins to vanish.  Haze is due to crowding of thought, clouding composure, and unstable thinking. A lot of what we do in such situation become wobbly. As fear of the unknown disappears, clarity emerges, and we start to make sound decisions. That is when we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Small achievements are the ones that remain in memory. There are so many instances that bring fame to our work and life.  But when it comes to the most satisfying moments, we need help remembering them. Why is it so?  We build very few relationships that are deep and meaningful. They are profound because they are made over a very long period and endure all kinds of experiences - both ups and downs. Experiences of these kinds make us see the person, situation, and emotions they bring in their natural light.  We cherish this transparent view of our experiences and also those that brought them. They are the ones that have the potential to shape our character and values. It does then matter if those experiences come from walks of work or life!

Anytime we wrap things to be achieved around goals, there is a danger of making the entire effort dispassionate and transactional. Plans make us focus on the expected outcome more than the expected emotions, commitment, and effort that develops the discovery of the result. Goals sure push us to win - at any cost. Goal-based plans often encourage incentives, but they also distance people with mistrust. Goals-driven systems are short-term measures and focus on immediate results. This generates animosity between those who contribute to it and those who define the goal measurement system. This means a poor focus on outcomes. Continuous broad direction, on the other hand, does not focus on declaring achievement mileposts. Constant effort makes us have our desirable journey at the back of our minds. In turn, such long-term, belief-based explorations become spiritual or cultural ones. Then we can quickly progress on such quests with conviction while setting measurable games that make it fun t...

When we change the things we do, we are on shaky ground. We experience an optical illusion. The plank of understanding we stand on is unclearly positioned. What we see and experience may not be legible, legitimate, or believable. Random actions give confusing outcomes. This is why we must compare notes about outcomes only by taking consistent actions. Of course, when the result is not desirable, some changes are often required, but they must be based on well-understood reasons for the results from earlier. When we reason out the efforts taken, we are bound to find what did not clearly work! When we stay with the same experiment and observe things that obstruct us from getting desirable results and something that yields progress toward intended results, we know which steps to discard from the investigation.  Consistency of actions while adding steps that yield results or discarding the steps that don't bring vastly beneficial clarity! The effective way to achieve clarity is to build...

When we indulge in a tiny daily move, it does not appear to make much noticeable difference.  Take building the skill of preparing a dish of our liking, for example. We make a routine out of it because we enjoy making it.  We do not burden ourselves with making it in larger quantities. We focus on improving what we make so that it tastes better, and we can learn by sharing it with others. The regularity makes it a solid commitment and makes the process more efficient.  The seemingly silent progression of daily moves adds up when we do the same thing tirelessly for an extended period.  Suddenly what looked like a simple dish we made for ourselves has a fan club! Before you know it, we have built a brand out of our hobby, and now there are regular takers! We gain significantly when we put ourselves to work a tiny bit every day. We benefit from a vast compounding of our effort. Results then are beyond our imagination. We have considerable skills, demonstrable work, and ...

It is hard not to get swayed by what we are experiencing. Anything we see kick-starts the factory of thoughts. We tend to brush aside the emotions we experience as a result. We see them as distractions from our main course. We find many alternative actions that make us put our feelings behind us. We don't realize they are sitting in the subconscious but never erased!  If we accept that our experience comes from our chosen environment, we must not brush aside our experiences.  Emotions result from our actions and experiences, and we must deal with them head-on.  Try resolving run-time!

We focus on easy efforts that are just in-the-moment priorities. For example, we might spend quiet time organizing a work list that is easy to maintain using to-do tools. We direct office staff who should know what to accomplish in their day. Or we react to customer complaints because they came our way. Albeit all of it is important. Are you the best person to do it? Are you on it because you just realized it must be done? One of many triggers makes us cling to work that is meant for our team members. We need to be kind-hearted and open to handing it to them. So we can when knowing the value of having colleagues around. When we can get over the hump that "we are the best suited for the job," we open more possibilities. Delegation is an outcome of such realization!

We build ties with friends, relatives, and colleagues. We think of that as vital work. What about making connections with nature and hobbies? Developing ties with self is as vital as developing them with others. It is just that such relations are harder to grow because it is scary to think about what you might discover and what it may feel like. If we learn to build connections as an essential need of ours, we have a chance to make an inward discovery of how they affect us. We also stand a chance to recalibrate which outwardly response we require based on what we find out! Without understanding the power of inversion - knowing what is essential and building vital support - we might make connections based on our insecurities. Anything built on insecurities is rarely vital! Best to go to the drawing board and rebuild it!

It depends on you and your outlook. With migration, a lot of your assumptions change. What held true in one place may not hold true in another.  The breakdown of familiarity and commonplace behavior patterns and routines generates cultural shock.  Adapting to cultural shifts requires embracing different ways essential to a new existence. Therefore each migration requires thoughtful consideration of what impact it might bring upon you. The dissatisfaction with migration results from the ill-conceived understanding of the cultural shock it brings. This paves the way to half-hearted presence, unhappiness, and confusion about where to belong. Migration needs concrete reasons, an understanding of the pros and cons, and clarity about how to graciously roll back if the decision does not go as expected. Same with job changes!

Saying what is on your mind has implications. It might mean you are suggesting something you must own and do yourself. That is responsible as long as you are willing to own the consequences that follow. It might mean you suggest someone else own something and do as you think. The implication is that it might yield a different benefit than you suggested. And then, you be held responsible for making the suggestion. Will you own your part of the responsibility? They followed the path because they believed you had a way out for them. Turns out that wasn't. If you own their part in failure and your part in making suggestions, you will form a formidable partnership. It requires trusting each other through the discovery of eluding success. That requires you to be bold and honest with who you are. Stepping forward and proposing is more challenging than you think. It exposes who you are!

Urgency is definitely required. It gives the focus and sense of immediacy to put things on the priority list! Scrambling, on the other hand, implies a mad rush. Getting to the endpoint at any cost. And the price is error and disappointment. Urgency, sure! But don't scramble!

Build it without fluff. Deploy the minimal.  Apply yourself.  Imagine how others receive you and what you have got. Build community of trust. Make sure to turn into into fan club.  Make something that fans will want to tell their friends.  Make sure to listen to folklore that comes back.  Build what you learned from it into what you make. Undoubtedly you will create an experience that will stick around.

When we are stuck in making progress, we need to create action to get going again.  It is a way to create new thoughts. What are actions? These are things that we must do ourselves. Like, making things. For example - gardening, painting, singing, playing, learning, meeting, etc. It also involves solving problems that yield outcomes. In essence, actions require a direct involvement from us to take up something we think about, use resources, learn from the surrounding and apply our skill to complete what we thought of.  Action has the power to change the bearing of our mind. And no. Actions does not mean thinking - alone. Actions involve thinking and then acting to produce output. Along the way, we generate the emotions of success, wins, joy, disappointments, sorrow etc.  It is intriguing that we can think but unable to act.  Everything can look futile in the absence of ability to act. In between lies the sentiments of courage and initiative. First step becomes possibl...

Experience is impossible without an open mind. Experience represents witnessing facts as they take place. When we reject what we witness as it does, we are usually doing so because it does not match our prior understanding of the world. We essentially are internally in disagreement with how we think things operate and how and when interactions flourish. In essence, there is no priority given to comprehending how continuity unfolds. Many positive outcomes are gratifying because we know we indulge in doing new things and looking at what transpired when we did it.  The positivity accumulates because we want more of that feeling that comes from actions we take. The adversity accumulates because us wanting less of that feeling that comes from specific steps we took. This precedence of understanding we have developed is the starting point of our actions in any situation.  We then say we have gained experience!

Takes guts to disentangle from a cobweb of unproductive thoughts. To come to think of it, cobwebs are such a flawless yet daunting creation; an architecture that is mind-boggling. It is pretty intricately organized to keep the prey in captivity. All this creativity is detrimental to progress and focused on enabling survival of builders of the cobwebs .  You never know what situation will trigger the cobwebs to start forming. It manifests in corners, in darker places, in moist environments. Usually there is a predator waiting at the center of it, waiting to drag you down. It is perfectly expected that there are times when we will step into cobwebs unknowingly and unwillingly.  But once we are in it, we know it stalls us, puts us off track. We are unable to locate the exit points. There are none!  Cobwebs are creation of our minds and exit points start with being in the bright, open areas. The way out is by transversing away from the center and towards the edge. Navigating ...

Trust is demonstrated by the placement of action. There are two sides to taking action. On one side, you can ask something off of yourself. Or on the other, you can ask something from others.  Interestingly, many of the actions begin and end with you! Of course, there is "the other" involved in it. But the pathway gets set by your part of the actions! You take up action by volunteering to get things done. This demonstrates your care for where others might benefit from your support. When it is unintentional about return benefit, your proactive support is bound to ease the pressure on others to get things done by themselves. It has the potential to generate the emotion of "being in it together." Or, you place responsibility on others to do something for you. Ask them for help in doing things for you. This demonstrates your willingness to accept your vulnerability in doing things by yourself. It has the potential to generate the emotion of "I need you to help me g...

Every so often, we wonder how we accomplished so much in life.  If we dig deeper into our memories, we will find innumerable instances of help we got from the most unexpected quarters. It is rarely a solo journey.  We are likely to find many noteworthy contributing factors that brought us here. Often we do not even notice the support we get. No, we don't. At least, not at the time we got it.  But that support was vital in our march, and it was proactive. Such proactiveness is rare and gracious. Someone saw us walking the tightrope under challenging circumstances and stepped forward on their own. It is only apt then that we respect what others brought us!

Signs of difficulties prompt us to think if things should have been done differently.  Were there different approaches and actions that could have led to a different result? No doubt, when the recipe is different, the delicacy will taste different. When hit by a roadblock, the best approach is to start again and employ new actions. It is bound to pave the way for new endings.  The ones we are looking for!

That is the feeling that is left behind. It comes from a sense of ignorance felt by those we are involved with. Anytime we try to accomplish something, we choose how to act. The act has a series of activities. Each activity has the potential to impact those surrounding the action.  Activities have a twofold impact. It can positively influence surroundings and enhance the effect of the action on others.  Or, it can weigh down the surroundings negatively and depress the effect of the action on others. When it is later, it hurts the sentiment of the surroundings. Someone at the other end of the action feels insufficient, in debt, or robbed of any benefit it could have provided. That generates the emotion that the interaction was inconsiderate!

No amount of theory, whether reading or listening to motivational speeches, triggers the real action. The real action begins by taking the essential step. And yet there is a myriad of difficulties in taking the first step.  It requires us to possess an enormous will and drive. Above all, it requires overcoming the resistance that tells you to "let it be." The internal drive is quite elusive until we notice it. How and when this drive manifests itself determines whether we will ever take the step in the right direction. For some, it is generated by themselves; for others, through a cognitive companion like motivational videos; and for the rest, through experiencing what goes on in the surrounding. External drives represent supporting casts that carry you when you don't feel like acting. If we start noticing how the self-generated drive acts, we will know the push it provides toward the first step. Once we start seeing, we will understand what makes it more robust and a for...

Imagine what you would be like if workplaces taught you to take risks?  What is the risk of failing and finding your niche? Miniscule. A lot would be different in your worldview.  In fact, it would also change how you behaved and what we did eventually! Instead, workplaces make you risk-averse! Their behavior stems from a set work pattern, defined work objectives, and mechanized testing methods. The evaluation of success requires reproducing past results and making them comparably better.  Better for who? For those who they wish to serve? For those whose help they enlist? Or, f or those who work for them? If workplaces focused on making things better for you, they would offer freedom to experiment and risk-taking. The implication goes unnoticed. But over time, It dramatically affects your approach to professional and personal aspects of life. You have no skin in the game.  Risk aversion teaches you to stick to a known path. You see, if you stay the course, you will m...

Have you ever faced the fallout of a bad software code check-in? You will see nasty feedback coming your way for not doing good code reviews and testing! There are immediate rumblings of delays, rollbacks, expectations management, and escalations. Because you added incorrect code, that does work! The discipline of running a pre-check-in routine was precisely developed to remind us what needs to happen before the code is checked-in. It provides a way to define completeness criteria for the conclusion of work. Put in place, it provides a safety net for avoiding costly mistakes after completing the work. In a way, the pre-check-in routine acts as the gatekeeper. Something that does not let you go past without the required due diligence. A pre-check-in routine is usually an added step before committing to doing something important.  When we are sure about having done the checks and balances for the work and the interactions we are involved in, we have a lesser chance of making mistakes...

The turning point is a thought of mind. It is rarely dramatic. You can never place a finger on one thing that brought you to a positive turn. Turning points are the end points of a series of experiments; many led to failures and made you wiser from learning about them. That is why when the following experiment that leads you to what you want feels special. Because you overcame the failure and did not stop doing the next experiment! It shifts your mind to deliver a more coordinated response. The turning point is a realization that you persevered!

When we are not sure, we choose the status quo. It is willing inaction. However, when we deploy the unwilling status quo, it can be problematic. It is inaction that you are not fully bought into. That is the block. And we need to worry about it! It is a powerful stalling force that puts us on a regressive path.   The block is resistance to accepting change and acting to learn and experience further to refine possible.  On the other hand, change is a response to our knowledge, experience, and inferred facts. The more we accommodate these, the more recursively we prepare ourselves to act. The wedge between progress and stagnation is the block. The quantum of openness to change adopted as a ritual differentiates people who progress from those who don't.  Situations result in the block, but the flexibility to change takes us to success!

They come from small steps often brushed aside as unimportant and insignificant. The fire inside an effort is rarely seen roaring for oxygen at first. The initial promise turns into a smoke screen! Flames are invisible, though. The sparks appear to be losing steam.  That is precisely a juncture where the effort needs the insertion of coal and sticks. To make the best use of the fiery heat that does not know which way to go. It keeps the fire in stealth mode. Shows enough signs that it's not out of action yet! And, usually, that is enough to keep the effort going.  Until there is a blowing wind that brings additional fervor. Our effort begins to turn into a burning fire.  We have a real chance to spread the efforts and turn that into a sustainable one that extends and goes viral! But first, keep the heat and little invisible fire going. Gains of the future are in underlying invisible flames!

You like to be in a certain way. You say you have specific preferences, habits, and ways of working.  That is just hype! It does not mean much until you have matching actions.  Doing things exactly the way you stated you like doing them makes you intrinsically act in unison with your public posturing. And that is good. You are believable and consistent! This representation offers a chance to generate the highest amount of trust. No one can deny you what you say and what you do. Thinking, saying, and doing things consistently defines who you are!

You are tempted to think about mainstream when you think about putting yourself out there. There is a general belief that mainstream areas of work will have takers. By being mainstream focussed, you get to draw the masses. When you focus on the mainstream, you join the mob of everyone else playing to the mainstream gallery too! The masses are inconsiderate. They are notorious for having varying expectations. And they are unclear. You are sure to lose focus while chasing indistinguishable groups. You will turn indistinguishable from the others chasing the masses. When you put yourself out there, turn to target a niche. When you focus on a Niche, you turn your attention to a more identifiable group that needs you. Your niche distinguishes you! Abandon the obsession of the mainstream!

If you are in the software business, it is hard to look at the customer's problems through the lens of the code. You experience their feedback through your product features or ways you service them post-sales.  There are days when some customers show pin-drop silence; it puzzles you that other customers continuously use your product. You need to carefully distinguish between the two. The silent customer may be forced to use what is not their choice. Or they may be turning to not using your product because it is difficult. Or simply that the product does not serve their need. Understand it firsthand, not through code usage alone! Once you ascertain that, by all means, give your attention to customers who use the product abundantly.  You need to offer your best features and serve them with special care.  First, pay meticulous attention to why someone is silent when receiving your offer to service them! You may be surprised!

Say it aloud, write it, read it, refine it. Say it aloud, rewrite it, reread it, redefine it. Read it to others, listen to them, and revise it from feedback. Clear thoughts get responses, comments, or criticism from those who want to know them. Thinking clearly results from the dialogue. It is a result of the conversation. Creating an opportunity for exchange improves thinking and creates thoughts that spread.

Spontaneity brings fear, the unknown, and chaos. The reason is simple.  Spontaneity represents spur-of-moment decisions leading to actions that open up the possibility of surprise, failure, or familiar experience. Spontaneity, however, has one clear benefit. It breaks the monotony of routine. It challenges the norm.  Spontaneity generates energy and has the potential to bring out (market) the difference!

It's easier said than done. Expectations weigh on our minds. In fact, they weigh us down. Thinking freely is a function of what thought absorption mechanism is available to you. Thoughts emerge and need dissipation. Some of that you share with yourself. But you also need a system to share and absorb it.  The system maintains the equilibrium in constructing a response to the thought clouds and clearing the air to think freely. Such a system constitutes the Self and other people. For the system to work, it requires trust, care, and sensible communication.

The wrong choice reflects the commitment to a cause that is your primary preference. You make choices based on sentiments, available data, circumstantial interpretation, and your understanding of what the future holds with the choice made. There is every chance that the choice made turns out unsatisfactory. Some preferences introduce difficulties and rough experiences. It looks like the end of the road, a thoughtless act and an irresponsible binding decision that you must live by. An emotional response like this represents your bias. It mainly stems from set beliefs of what is the norm. Norms are inferred from the ecosystems you belong to. Norms are statistical affirmations of what is right or wrong. They have extrapolated views of sporadic events turned into a continuum of belief systems that describes it be a reality. Such norms drive your behavior. Make-believe tells you that a wrong choice is detrimental, and you are stuck with it for a long time. Your job is the challenge, make-be...

If it is not your day, nothing will likely fall in place. The decisions you make, the work you do, and the interactions you have do not have the same energy and intensity as any typical day. And that sometimes gets frustrating. What is meant by it is not your day? It means you are struggling to focus. When too many things are crammed into our minds, it is hard to be laser sharp in attention. Weak priorities prevail and execution of everyday matters goes out of rhythm. That surprises you. How can something that you are so used to doing suddenly be an uphill battle? Focus is key to clear thinking and establishing the correct sequences. It helps prioritize affairs and smoothen the proceedings of what we set out to do. Focus comes from bringing attention to what is essential at any moment in time. It means being fully present. Dwindling attention recovers with having discipline. Thus the real trouble with focus is having discipline. That comes from having non-negotiable rituals. If establi...

People and books should be read repeatedly before discounting as uninteresting. It takes time to understand the ideas they represent. Time and again, we witness that circumstantial memory takes over how we experience anything. That is true for anything we do. How we come across people and interpret ideas from books in our first pass? Different days and circumstances leading up to the second pass can change how we find them.  The more passes we make, the better understanding of what we are involved in we get. Each pass provides us clues of more that we did not understand earlier. Same with our work. We may not figure it all out in the first go. We need to keep at it. Make more passes. Look at it from various possibilities and perspectives. We have to give feedback, take inputs, give more chances, change compositions, test them under varying conditions and see if we understand what we are doing better than before. When we are consistent with knowing.people, developing thoughts or doi...

There is a mad rush to follow the "in thing." Go after what is popular, do what everyone is after. You are deemed unusual if you are not in that race with everyone. You are not attractive, out of the norm. Saying "no" to things you don't enjoy is a great strength. It's just that it is hard to say "no." You are bound to disappoint people. They expect you to fall in place. And that is taxing. Especially when you are brought up considering others' views about you as vital. When others recognize you to be practicing customs, hobbies, and trends that they follow, you automatically move into their good books. You get an acceptance. You can fit in. You become part of their tribe. What if you enjoyed it for a while but felt suffocated after a while? Things that you adapt to fit in rarely resonate intrinsically. When they don't, it's a huge struggle to carry on with them. Saying "no" to what you are not ready for is worthwhile. Say no ...

It has become ever harder to retain people. Develop long-term associations. Literally, in any field of study, work, or life, people join forces to learn, experience to apply, and then simply leave. They abandon you after having made seemingly good choices at the onset! It's a rather intriguing but genuine problem!   At work, exit interviews after exit interviews show that employees leave organizations frustrated. Surprisingly, they leave their jobs frustrated after choosing their career and joining the organization's cause. Fat pays, stepping stone promotions, flexible environments, everything seems to favor the employees? But the satisfaction of working is simply disappearing. And that is worrisome. You run surveys, improve connections, develop technology to set up touch-points, cover broad vision, and have grievance resolution mechanisms. None of that seems to help beyond a point. Worse, many tools miss detecting the central issue that triggers dissatisfaction.  The central ...

When doing something, you like to have everything in order. There has to be a plan in place. There has to have a timetable of what is to happen and when. Once the tent of an expected experience is erected, you feel good for having planned a likable itinerary. You pat ourselves for having organized it with meticulous details. The day arrives full of surprises. Things you thought you had planned well do not go as planned. You are in for a huge disappointment. You feel let down. You dislike what you encounter. And that is fair!  But wait, what are you really disliking? The way you planned? The experience itself? Or that you are experiencing something you had not thought of? Dislikes generate when you encounter something that is not a primary concern or focus of attention. That is when the unexpected stumps you. It is not that you dislike what you experience. It is that you did not expect that experience at that juncture. You had not budgeted for it! The environment you want ...