Happiness.

Humans generally have the tendency to operate from the paradigm:

Have -> Do -> Be.

Implying, If I “HAVE” this -> I will “DO” that -> and thus “BE” that (For the future)
&
If I “HAD” that -> I would have “DONE” that -> and thus “BECOME” that (For the past)

However, if we were to keep questioning ourselves on the purpose of our existence, my take is that we exist for the purpose of being Happy!

Now, if that is true, then we should reverse the paradigm and “BE” Happy and “DO” everything that gives us joy & Happiness and the whole world shall connive to make us “HAVE” everything & more than we need to help us “BE” Happy.

Here comes the interesting part.
Humans are one animal who is Happiest when “Giving” Happiness!
So, what should one “Give” ??

There was this absolutely wonderful lady who was Happiest when she was serving and helping the destitute women & children in the streets of Kolkatta. She knew how to “Love”. Her passion was to “Serve” with whatever she was good at, and she was good at “Loving” and taking “Care” of people. She decided and made it her life mission to take care & “Give” the abundance of “Love” that she possessed. She did, what she was BEST at, and she gave her whole life to fulfill the one purpose she had, and it was not in taking, it was in giving her everything to love and take care of the destitute women & children of the streets of Kolkatta. She was awarded the Noble Prize amongst so many other awards, she is known as a Saint. We all know what a wonderful, caring, loving & Happy human being that Mother Teresa was.

What I have learnt from the above is that, I must find my life purpose, I must find what am I good at, I must find what gives me joy & Happiness, I must find my passion, and having found it, I must share, I must show others the joy that I have and how everyone can possibly have the same joy & Happiness by sharing & giving & loving & just by being a good human being.

There is enough and more in this world for Mankind’s needs. It is Mankind’s Greed that is causing all the problems.

I have no clue if my rantings above make sense.. or even if they are the real truth, but lately I have come to believe in this, and find that I’m so much a Happier person.

The 50 New Rules of Work

-Robin Sharma

1. You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
2. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
3. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
4. To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
5. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
6. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
7. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
8. Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
9. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
10. Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
11. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
12. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
13. Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
14. Get fit like Madonna.
15. Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
16. Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
17. Good enough just isn’t good enough.
18. Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
19. An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
20. If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
21. Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
22. Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
23. Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
24. The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
25. If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
26. Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
27. The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
28. The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
29. Smile. It makes a difference.
30. Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
31. Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
32. Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
33. Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
34. The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
35. In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
36. In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
37. Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
38. You become your excuses.
39. You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
40. The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
41. It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
42. The client is always watching.
43. The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
44. To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
45. People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
46. Every visionary was initially called crazy.
47. The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
48. Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
49. Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
50. Lead Without a Title.

I encourage you to share + discuss + debate these with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results

The legend of the Phoenix

The legend of the Phoenix bird comes from ancient history.

It goes that this bird lives for a thousand years. At the end of this period, it starts to make a nest and then, when the thousand years are at its end, it sits down and goes up in flames. Out of the ashes a new phoenix appears to live for another thousand years.

Legend states that it can even change into a human being after 5 cycles.

For me it means that it is possible to renew one self in order to reinvent one self. We have to see the possibilities to rise from the ashes.

When the Phoenix rises from the ashes a new era starts.

My strong belief is that everybody can rise from their ashes and start all over again. We just have to see the possibilities. And the possibilities are there. They are already in all of us.

Each and everyone of us starts their life as a strong human being. We have an indefinite amount of inner strength. But in the course of our lives, life-events occur that break down, bit by bit, this inner strength.

We get uncertain, lose our selfconfidence. People try to thrust themselves upon us through intimidation and sometimes even through agression and violence.

Through the Phoenix example we can see, feel and know that we can be strong again, to see possibilities instead of boundaries.

The Phoenix teaches us to re invent ourselves, experiment and continue until we are supremely happy being what we are.

The Phoenix helps us learn that to fail is normal and expected and natural, but to let the failure stop us from heading towards our goals of being happy is an act of cowardice, inhuman and unacceptable for the supreme species that inhabits this earth.

The Law of Compensation

By: Brian Tracy

You Get What You Give
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," wrote that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. It says that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.

Increase Your Value
This Law of Compensation also says that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The income you earn today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you want to increase your compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.

Fill Your Mind With Success
Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness and satisfaction, are also the result of the things that you have put into your own mind. If you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities.

Do More Than You're Paid For
Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is what is sometimes called the, "Law of Overcompensation." This law says that great success comes from those who always make it a habit to put in more than they take out. They do more than they are paid for. They are always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. And because they are always overcompensating, they are always being over rewarded with the esteem of their employers and customers and with the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.

Provide the Causes, Enjoy The Effects
One of your main responsibilities in life is to align yourself and your activities with Law of Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting that it is an inexorable law that always works, whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to institute the causes that are consistent with the effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remind yourself regularly that your rewards will always be in direct proportion to your service to others. How could you increase the value of your services to your customers today?

Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you do. This is the great secret of success

36 Random Insights On Exceptionalism -Robin Sharma

1. Average people are dedicated to leisure. The best people are devoted to learning.

2. The ordinary wait for the energy to do a task. The exceptional do the task because that’s how they get the energy.

3. A job is just a job if all you see it as is a job. (Work is a vehicle to promote Full Self Expression of Your Creativity+Ingenuity+Talent).

4. The most precious asset of a businessperson isn’t time. It’s energy. Manage yours well.

5. Love your family. What’s the point of getting to uber-Success yet arriving alone?

6. From a participant at my recent Lead Without a Title event in Doha, Qatar: “The true measure of the greatness of a person is the length their shadow casts on the future.” Love it! Genius.

7. Manners matter.

8. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. And every day’s a performance.

9. “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” Oscar Wilde.

10. To double your income, triple your rate of learning. The best invest in their professional and personal development.

11. The primary purpose of business is the delivery of as much unusual value to as many people as possible.

12. Use music to boost your motivation.

13. Be ethical like Buffett. Rock the house like Bono. Innovate like Edison. Serve like Mandela.

14. You dishonor yourself when you play small with your talent.

15. Ideation without execution leads to delusion. What makes Google Google is not the idea behind Google but the culture of execution that is Google.

16. Don’t work at world-class for the money or the ovations. Do it for the pride you feel on a job brilliantly done.

17. Keep a journal.

18. Spend time in solitude. The only person you’ll be with your whole life is you. Why not get to know-and like-yourself?

19. Watch “The Fighter”.

20. Work hard. Industry stands at the foundation of Mastery.

21. Remember that the quality of your practice determines the caliber of the performance.

22. Speak your truth-even when your voice shakes.

23. Leaders leave a trail of leaders behind them. If you’re not developing the best in others, you’re not leading.

24. You know you’re doing genius-level work when people start to dislike you.

25. Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to Mastery.

26. Develop your friendships. Respect your elders.

27. Make time to have fun. Life is short-enjoy the ride.

28. The bigger your dream, the more important your team.

29. If you have average people, you’ll have an average company. To have a great company, hire and coach great people.

30. Remember that your doubts are nothing more than the lies your fears have sold you.

31. Leadership is simple. It’s not easy. But it’s really really simple.

32. Leadership’s mostly about 3 things: Impact+Influence+Inspiration.

33. If you’re not inspiring those around you, you’re not Leading. You’re following.

34. Think for yourself.

35. “Potential unexpressed turns to pain.” From “The Leader Who Had No Title“.

36. Take brave risks. At your End, it’ll be the risks you didn’t take versus the ones you did that most fill you with regret.

Very Inspiring!

Emotional commitment: The most important Manager Commitment

A manager's emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined. It's the kind of commitment that solves unsolvable problems, creates energy when all energy has been expended, and ignites emotional commitment in others, like employees, teams and customers.

Emotional commitment means unchecked, unvarnished devotion to the company and its success; any legendary organisational performance is the result of a bunch of emotionally committed managers.

Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted, said Einstein. This is a guy who conducted early nuclear experiments on his own hair and so is perhaps not your most reliable organisational thinker; still, he had a point.

The really important measurements of emotional commitment include the ones a company can't see until managers need to show them. Ferocious support for the company when the company needs it most is one of these hidden metrics.

Any manager can appear fully productive and enthusiastic simply because they're financially, intellectually and physically committed. But if you've ever witnessed a human being emotionally committed to a cause — working like they're being paid a million when they're not being paid a dime — you know there's a difference and you know it's big.

The old conflict

It may be big but it's not easy. The key neurobiological source of emotional commitment is the ability to live your own deepest values in a relationship or environment — I'm not telling you this; your brain is telling you this. As a manager this means the relationship with your company and your environment at work.

Manager may be a great job to have and you may be having a great time doing that job but embedded in the job description of any manager is the requirement to constantly subordinate or compromise personal values in favour of company priorities.

What your company wants done and how it wants it done must regularly take precedence over your own deep preferences. This is what it means to be a manager: serve your company first.

A company is an organism and like any organism its natural first priority is to survive. It needs managers to survive and it needs them to marginalise their own values and beliefs in favor of company goals and methods. As the company believes it needs to be the dominant organism in the relationship, it causes managers to detach emotionally from their jobs.

To really get that emotional commitment, a company would have to reattach managers to their own deep drivers — allow them to live their own values and act according to their own personal codes.

This has Company Nightmare stamped all over it. If managers were allowed to live their value of Family, maybe they wouldn't work 50 hours a week, stay away from home constantly or constantly take the job home with them.

If managers were allowed to live their value of Integrity, maybe they wouldn't represent a product to customers as performing the best and at the lowest cost when it doesn't, it isn't — or it doesn't even exist yet. If managers were allowed to live their value of Health, maybe they would resist conditions of constant stress.

If managers were allowed to live their value of Freedom, maybe they would demand autonomy in decisions that must be executed exactly as conceived.

It is understandably the great fear of the corporate organism: If I set you free to pursue your own priorities, you'll leave me and I'll die. The problem is, managers are already free. They're free to detach, which is about as free as one can get. The company may have captured their minds, their bodies and their pockets, but that doesn't mean it's captured their hearts.

The New Truth

The cause cannot always be the company; instead, it must also be managers' pursuit of their own values within the company. This isn't licensing chaos; it is ensuring control. There is no more reliable way for the company to become the cause than by not always insisting on being the cause.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world!

Staying Motivated in Challenging Times

by Dave Kahle
Here's some real-world advice on how to stay motivated even during these difficult times.

Sales is an emotional roller coaster, and unless you figure out how to manage those emotions and keep yourself motivated, you'll have a difficult time succeeding. This is particularly true right now. The economy continues to struggle, and unemployment is higher than it has been for years. Many companies are cutting back, there are fewer jobs available, and pressures to perform are greater than ever. It's easy to lose our motivation.

However, even though the world around us may be dreary and depressing, that in no way reduces our personal need to do the best we can. That means that we all have a responsibility to stay motivated.

It is amazing what a difference a few degrees of attitude adjustment can make in our performance. Try this little exercise. Tell yourself these things: "Business is terrible. All of my customers are struggling. Nobody wants to see me, and when they do, it's just to complain." Now wallow in those thoughts for a moment, and note how much energy and enthusiasm you have.

Now, think the opposite: "I have great opportunities. My customers need me more today than ever. I have valuable solutions for them. It's a great time to have this job." Roll those around in your mind for a while. Note how much energy and enthusiasm you have.

As you reflect on this exercise, it's clear that your energy, enthusiasm and drive to succeed come as a result of your thoughts. And here is one of the most powerful truths known to mankind: You can control your thoughts.

Going beyond "positive thinking":
Succeeding in difficult times depends a great deal on our motivation. Staying motivated requires us to take charge of our thoughts.

I've heard dozens of salespeople say, "I've tried positive thinking. It just isn't me." I agree that it is difficult to patch a bunch of positive thoughts on top of an essentially negative personality. The issue is deeper than that. Let's, therefore, examine the deeper issues.

At the heart of motivation lies a pair of powerful beliefs that you must embrace if you are going to successfully motivate yourself. Without a wholehearted commitment to these foundational beliefs, all the techniques and tactics for self-motivation are like spreading wallpaper over crumbling plaster. It may hold temporarily, but it is soon going to deteriorate into a mess.

Here's the first foundational principle: You must believe that you can do better than you are now doing. The second is this: You must accept that it is your responsibility to do so.

It's simple and commonsense, but, the more I observe people and salespeople specifically, the more convinced I am that the majority of people do not share these core beliefs. Rather, they are in the habit of making excuses for their situation. They believe fate, not their actions, determines their success. They believe success is for someone else, not them. They never really grab unto the first of these foundational principles.

Others believe that they can achieve greater degrees of success. They embrace the first principle, intellectually, but they never internalize the second. They become content with their situation and remain in pre-established comfort zones. They look at their manager as the person who is responsible for their success, or lack thereof. Maybe it's their parent's fault, or their spouse's, or... the list goes on.

Whether you are struggling with a lack of energy that accompanies a bad day, or you're depressed and frustrated with your lack of progress on a larger scale, examine your core beliefs first. If you really accept these two principles, you have the keystone in place to become highly motivated.

Having said that, here are a couple proven techniques you can use to keep yourself motivated day-to-day.

Have something you are working to accomplish:

This can be an important and compelling goal like saving enough money for a down payment on a house. When you are working toward something like that, your emotions of the moment tend to be a lower priority than your drive to achieve. If you are trying to make money for a home for your family, so what if you're tired or depressed? You get out and do it. The same is true for having a compelling purpose. I believe that every salesperson should be able to articulate clearly his or her purpose in life. I once began a ten-week sales training program with a requirement that everyone write a two-sentence "life purpose." Why? Because it gives power and focus to everything you do. In your job as a salesperson, there will many difficult times when things don't go your way. You may lose a big deal, or be unable to get anyone to return your calls. At times like these, it helps to view them within the context of a larger perspective - your life purpose.

Proactively put positive thoughts into your mind:

Make a point of taking charge of your mind and the kind of thoughts you choose to think. Wise and thoughtful people for ages have discovered an extremely powerful principle: Your actions arise from your thoughts, and you can choose your thoughts. Controlling and managing your thoughts is one of the basic tenants of Zen Buddhism, for example. In the Christian context, the apostle Paul said, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Philosophers, educators, and thinkers of every generation conclude the same thing. But the power of this truth is not reserved just for philosophers. Salespeople can make use of it as well. The reason you may feel depressed or anxious is because you are thinking depressing or anxious thoughts. Change your thoughts, and you can change your feelings. Change your emotions, and you can change your behavior. Change your behavior and you can change your results. It's not as difficult as it may sound.

Take action:

Do this -- invest in a couple of audio programs - good, positive stuff - or find something at the local library. As you drive between appointments and on your way home from work, listen to those tapes or CDs. You'll find yourself thinking positive thoughts. Those positive thoughts will lead to a more positive attitude. That attitude will manifest in more focused actions. Those actions will lead to better results. Read educational and inspiring books and periodicals. Hundreds of good sales books are published each year. Spend 30 minutes at your local Barnes & Noble, Borders or business bookstore and you'll find several works that will interest and stimulate you. The World Wide Web is awash with resources. Then there are hardcopy publications. There is no limit to the amount of positive, educational material available to you. If you are not regularly exposing yourself to some of this, it is because you are choosing to not be motivated. Succeeding in difficult times requires you to take charge of your motivation. Now is the time to take this most important step to becoming a true professional.