JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

THis video is funny, powerful and gives you some of the most important lessons. If you have a dream and if you are little bit serious about achieving your dreams then watching this video is a must

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

Adrenalin Fun

In the early days of my training life, i used to be too scared to be in front of people on a stage. specifically if the strength of the crowd was above 100 people, i used to shit in my pants. At that time, any training including more than 50 people would be 'No training Zone' for me.

Like everyone experiences days when they have to do something that they are really scared doing - i also had mine. It was when one of my colleague bailed on me and i had to do the training all by myself. I tried calling the other trainers to fill in for me, but it was a short notice and no one could to make it. I was stuck and i was stuck badly. I had no other option with me but to go ahead and start the training myself. I was able to feel adrenalin rushing throughout my body. I literally started shivering. My senses were distorted. I already started seeing everyone laughing at me before even i went up on stage. I could already hear everyone making fun of me.

As i was getting closer and closer to the stage the feeling of adrenalin inside my body increased exponentially. Just 2 mins before i had to start - i finished drinking a whole bottle of water. While i was drinking a simple thought crossed my mind.

Where am i focusing on?

My Focus was mainly on imagining people laughing at me. Imagining that i am going to screw up. I realized keeping my focus on everyone not laughing at me wont be of any help. As the more i focused on everyone not laughing at me, the more are the chances of getting laughed upon (Its like i tell you don't think of pink elephant while the first image that would have came to your mind will be a Pink Elephant). While, if i shift my focus to making a difference to everyone, there is a chance i might not get laughed upon.

That was it, as i realized this, i told myself - "What the heck - Lets have Fun" and i jumped into the training making sure i have fun training and making a difference.

Obviously by now, you already know the result, the training went really well and the feedback was also pretty good for the beginners. But, more important than training going well, it was the fear that i got rid off, made all the difference. Next time when i went into a training with larger crowd - i felt very much comfortable doing it and at the same time had lots of fun also.

Here is the exercise

Step 1: - Think about at least 5 different things that you are not comfortable doing. Preferably within the next 2 days.

Step 2: -  Just go ahead - Tell yourself "What the Heck - Lets have Fun" (Or any other substitute that you prefer) and Jump into the situation having that adrenalin rush of not knowing whats going to happen at the same time curiosity of how much Fun you can have doing it.

Step 3: - While you are doing this be aware of the place where you are keeping you focus on. If its not useful, shift it to something that you find useful.

 Have fun Doing new things, while i would love to know your experience of doing this exercise.

Posted via email from What don't you know?

The Not knowing principle

Sometime back I went for an interview for the job profile of Quality assurance executive. My job was simple - Watch movies, Find the digital audio/visual errors in the DVD (If there are any) and Log it. In simple terms, I was going to get paid for watching movies.

It was a simple job to do and to acquire the job I had to appear for a test, where they would show me few clips and I was required to find errors in them. It sounds very easy and in fact it was very easy till I started using my brains. I wanted to catch all the errors which were present on those clips. So I started using all the NLP principles i knew - peripheral vision, overlapping of audio and visual to synchronize it with my mind, relaxing my mind - here is the best one - Let my conscious mind take over because I knew conscious mind can take only 2 bits of information at a time while for the test I needed around 6 (It was my calculation). While I used all these principles I lost focus from detecting errors to using all the knowledge I had about NLP. The result was obvious -  for the first few clips I was hardly able to finds any errors. It was just, in break, when I asked myself a question which totally changed the way I saw the next few clips.

If I didn't have some of the knowledge I had, would the test have gone better?

The answer to my question was undoubtedly 'yes'. In the process of detecting all the errors that the clips had, I ended up finding almost nothing. The tools and techniques I knew made the task more complicated inside my head than If I would have not know certain things to produce the same results. I believe without the knowledge I would have surely done much better.

As soon as I realized this, I told myself - 'if I want to detect all the errors there is only one thing I can do - Not know all the tools and techniques I know and GET back to the basics.

I am not saying knowing those tools and techniques is bad or not useful. Knowing those techniques are certainly useful - but we need to get aware of the times when knowing some of the things that we know are actually coming in our way to get results or deliver some outcomes. Also sometimes we tend to use our knowledge and skills as an excuse for not doing something.

Sometimes just by sticking to the basics and keeping it simple can make most of the difference.

Here is the Exercise for you

Step 1: - Take a piece of paper and list down the goals and outcomes you need to achieve in next 2 months.

Step 2: - Put down the list of things that you need to 'not know' to achieve these outcomes and goals easily?

Step 3: - When you get aware of the things that you are not suppose to know, just park them in some place of your mind where they are not lost, at the same time not coming in your way to achieve your Goals and Outcomes. (I call this place Parking Zone)

Step 4: - Get the total Focus on your goals, while at the same time be aware of your Parking Zone. Whenever you need something out from your Parking Zone,  just get back to that location of your mind where you have established your Parking Zone and pull out anything the things that you require.

If these things come again, all you need to do is be aware of them and park them in your parking Zone.

Posted via web from What don't you know?

The Not Knowing Principle

Sometime back I went for an interview for the job profile of Quality assurance executive. My job was simple - Watch movies, Find the digital audio/visual errors in the DVD (If there are any) and Log it. In simple terms, I was going to get paid for watching movies.

It was a simple job to do and to acquire the job I had to appear for a test, where they would me few clips and I was required to find errors in them. It sounds very easy and in fact it was very easy till I started using my brains. I wanted to catch all the errors which were present on those clips. So I started using all the NLP principles - peripheral vision, overlapping of audio and visual to synchronize it with my mind, relaxing my mind - here is the best one - Let my conscious mind take over because I knew conscious mind can take only 2 bits of information at a time while for the test I needed around 6 (It was my calculation). While I used all these principles I lost focus on detecting errors to using all the knowledge I had to do the best and the result was that for the first few clips I was hardly able to finds any errors. It was just, in a break, when I asked myself a question which totally changed the way I saw the next few clips.

If I didn't have some of the knowledge I had, would the test have gone better?

The answer to my question was undoubtedly 'yes'. In the process of detecting all the errors that the clips had, I ended up finding almost nothing. The tools and techniques I knew made the task more complicated inside my head than If I would have not know certain things to produce the same results. I believe without the knowledge I would have surely done much better.

As soon as I realized this, I told myself - 'if I want to detect all the errors there is only one thing I can do - Not know all the tools and techniques I know and GET back to the basics.

I am not saying knowing those tools and techniques is bad or not useful. Knowing those techniques are certainly useful - but we need to get aware of the times when knowing some of the things that we know are actually coming in our way to get results or deliver some outcomes. Also sometimes we tend to use our knowledge and skills as an excuse for not doing something.

Sometimes just by sticking to the basics and keeping it simple can make most of the difference.

Here is the Exercise for you

Step 1: - Take a piece of paper and list down the goals and outcomes you need to achieve in next 2 months.

Step 2: - Put down the list of things that you need to 'not know' to achieve these outcomes and goals easily?

Step 3: - When you get aware of the things that you are not suppose to know, just park them in some place of your mind where they are not lost, at the same time not coming in your way to achieve your Goals and Outcomes. (I call this place Parking Zone)

Step 4: - Get the total Focus on your goals, while at the same time be aware of your Parking Zone. Whenever you need something out from your Parking Zone,  just get back to that location of your mind where you have established your Parking Zone and pull out anything the things that you require.

If these things come again, all you need to do is be aware of them and park them in your parking Zone.

Posted via email from What don't you know?

Laying the First Brick.

I had ventured into a E-commerce business about one and half years back. The Potential of E-commerce Business - was and still is - massive. When i started it, i had heard the stories about some great entrepreneurs who ventured into this industry and made a fortune out of it. Having heard this stories i had only one Goal in mind - To Be one of them. I wanted to make it big. Do whatever it takes to make THE PALACE for me. Every time i thought about taking any action towards my Goal, i could only see one picture - That Palace. I had realized that my Goal had a picture and it was building that Palace. Every time i set up any meets or made any sales call - building that palace was the only thing that came to my mind. I did that for about 8 to 10 months just to realize i was not producing any results out of it.

Then one fine day my friend showed me a video of Tony Robbins interviewing John Reese who was the first person in the world to make a million dollar in one day with online sales. He achieved this while having hit by a hurricane. You can find that video here .

One of the things that John Reese says  - You always start with laying that first brick,

Focus on making that 1$ first.

This line really made a lot of sense to me. When i started the business all i ever thought was to build that palace. And that is where i directed all my Focus. And whenever someone would reject my offer, i would take it as an obstacle in building palace, which was not very useful. While Knowing where to reach and Having a clear goal in mind is very important and at the same time it will be also useful to to keep your focus on laying down that first Brick and another Brick after that. Most of us get confused by being focused on the goals while they forget the necessary actions that are required to hit that Goal. All we need to do is keep the Picture of the palace in mind while keep your focus on laying down that one brick at a time. You keep your focus on laying down those bricks and you keep doing that everyday - in no time you will have your palace ready automatically.

Here is the Exercise

Take down a piece of paper and divide it into 3 columns

Step 1: - Write down Goals which are very important to you NOW in the first column.
       For Example: -  Selling specific number of products, Scoring good marks is Exams, Reducing Weight.

Step 2: - In column 2, Write down what are the necessary steps that has to be taken to Reach that Goal
      For Example: - Building a database, Making a study schedule, Taking only specific amount of calories everyday.

Step 3: - In column 3, Write down what is the first step that you need to take in reaching your goal.
    For Example: - Making 10 Sales calls, Studying for 2 hours, Eating only list of food items.

Step 4: - While keeping your Goal in mind, Keep your Focus on Step 3.
           You can stop worrying about how many sales you will make or how much syllabus you will complete or how much of weight you will reduce. Just keep you focus on Implementing step 3 and you will reach your goal without you knowing it.
"Keep laying those bricks everyday one by one and you will have your palace ready" - Its by me. :)

Step 5: - Every night check column 2 and create list of actions that you want transfer to column 3. Focus on these actions till you reach your goal.

Have Fun Building the palace of your dreams

Posted via email from What don't you know?

The Wealth Cycle

I am inspired to write this post from one of the articles of Micheal Neil. I really love his insights on life and money. In one of his post he asked a question which really made a lot of sense to me. That was

IF you had all the money in the world, how would you live your life?

Of course money is not the most important thing to consider when thinking about improving the quality of life, but when i answered this question i got aware of at least 10 different things that i would do differently if i had all the money in the world. This things are not materialistic. This were mainly related to my habits, behavior, beliefs and values. So the point was when i was operating from the frame of having all the money in the world - that helped me shift my mindset and the way i operate my life. Through out my day i was in a much positive states and i utilized lot of internal resources effectively. This in turn helped me create wealth which again helped me made my internal system much resourceful and effective. This ended up being a cycle where i created wealth to improve my skills and qualities as a person which in turn helped me create more wealth. Although i still haven't reached the place where i would like to reach, its still a start. And Now i am sure that i will achieve all the things that i want - very soon. 

Here is the exercise

Step 1: - Take a pen and paper and put down the answer to the following question

  If you had all the money in the world, how would you live your life?

Make sure to write this in terms of qualities and skills that you would like to achieve.
For example: - Here are the few questions that you can answer
- How would you feel in the morning as soon as you wake up?
- What kind of beliefs you will have when you know - you have all the money in the world?
- What kind of values you will have?
- How would you feel, or what will be the voice in your head telling you - while you are with people (It could be a meeting, Family gathering, in a class room, spending time with your loved ones)?

Step 2: - Once you have written it on a paper, you will know what will be different from how you are now to how you will be when you have all the money in the world.

Implement all the things that you have written down knowing you already have all the money in the world.

Keep the changes for at least 30 days and notice how you start a cycle of being more resourceful and being wealthy. You can keep the cycle going till you want.

Have fun creating your own Wealth Cycle to Achieve Success.

Posted via email from What don't you know?

Design your World

Around 5 years back i was really good at studies. One of the things i really love is learning about new things. Mostly the things which i have never heard of before. And studies was always about learning new things for me. At that point of time i had created a structure for myself. which i didn't know was there until few days back when i got aware of it.

During that time, i had kept my study table just next to a window. This window had an excellent view of trees all around the place and i could also hear trains passing by (i love the sound of it). That spot was magnificent. What was even more excellent was whenever i sat on that study table (which i considered as study Zone) i was always in the state of curiosity and learning. Whenever i went into that Zone to study i was always focused and i was able to understand and read much faster and easier. On the other hand whenever I studied in some other room or some other place or some other space in the same room, i realized i was less effective. More over Whenever i wanted to study i was automatically driven to that study table near the window.

One of the things that i made sure i did was, whenever a negative state or unwanted state is triggered, i would instantly come out of my Zone and deal with it first, then enter my zone again (Like when dad starts asking me for my accounts, i used to make sure i come out of my zone and then talk to him. Because most of the time it ended up in a fight). For the first few times it was very frequent but as the days passed the frequency of having unwanted states decreased and i got better results.

There is also other part of my life when i was not so good in studies. This was the time when i had moved to bangalore from ahmedabad. This was a new place for me and i still had to create my Zone. Obviously, at that time i was not consiously aware of creating a Zone. It just happens. This time in bangalore in my room i had created a excellent space for Fun and Creativity. As much as i liked this new Zone, I surely was not able to study with the state of Fun and Creativity. Most of the time i ended up spending in reading books not related to studies, playing games on xbox and watching movies. Its just one day before exam that i start studying and end up getting average marks.

All of us in our day to day life have created different Zones for ourselves. We have a specific desk in our office that can be our work Zone. We have a Bedroom in our house that can be Relationship Zone. We have cafes which can be connecting Zone. In each of these Zones we have attached a state to it. Now these state can be useful or not so useful -but- it will be there.

What will be useful thing to do is to get aware of The Zones you have created for yourself and what kind of states are you triggering in those zones. You check this by thinking about your Zone and noticing what is the first state that comes to your mind. High chances are that, this is the state that you have attached with your zone. Make sure to re-check it.

- A student who has been called in principals office can have attached the state of fear to Office (Zone) because he might have got a suspension before in that office, while some other student who has always been acknowledged in that office can attach the state of excitement in the office.

- For relationships a lot of couples attach the state of anger, irritation or boredom to their bedroom (Zone) while the others could attach the state of Respect, Romance, Fun to their Bedroom.

- Some people at their work desk(Zone) can attach the states of Boredom, Fear, exhausting while the others could attach the states like Fun, Creative, Passionate. 

Next, will be useful to write down in every zone that you have created - the states that you have attached are useful or not.

- For your Study Zone it will be useful to have states like Focused, Energetic, Curiosity. Also at some level Fun depending on how we take it. (When i say Fun, i mean Having Fun in studies not start thinking about other Fun stuffs) While the states of tension, pressure, Boredom would not be that useful.

- For your Work Zone you may want to have the states of Passion, Creativity, Even Peace. While you may not find the states of Anger, Tension, Pressure very useful

- For Relationship Zone you may the states of Love, Respect, Fun very Useful. While you may not find the states of anger, Frustration, irritation very useful.

You need to decide what kind of state will be useful for your Zones. For everyone the experience of each states will be different and so you will be the best person to decide for yourself.

Also make sure to keep a check weather the states that you are attaching with every Zone is aligning with the outcomes of those Zones. Like fun can be useful in your playing Zone while not as much in your Study Zone.

3rd step is to either create a new Zones for all the states that has unwanted Emotions attached to it, or shift the Emotions that are attached to the Zone. I personally find the previous one much easier but of course it has its own limitations.

- Get a new Study place
-You can make a request to give you a new cabin for your work Zone Or shift the states attached to your already present work Zone.

In relatonships Where couples have attached their Relationship Zone as Anger, Frustration and irritation can tend to amplify their states if they happen to start a fight in it. While Imagine, if they start a fight and just till the fight ends they come out of their Zone and may be go to a Romantic Dinner for fighting. Most likely the fight wont be as strong as it could have been. This is one of the useful ways to remove unwanted Emotions from your Zones. All you need to do it get out of the Zone whenever you are triggering an unwanted state. Get the Desired states in place and move back in.

You can also create New Zones if you already dont have them. (Like Creativty Zone, Imagination Zone, Dreams Zone Etc).
Once you create them, just install the desired states in the Zone.

Here is the Summary of the exercise: -

Before you do this exercise, it will be useful to get a pen and a paper.
Once you have pen and paper make columns

Step 1: - Get aware of The Zones you have created for yourself and also Zones that you would like to create. Write this down in the first column

Step 2: - Check what kind of states are you triggering in those Zones. Write this down in second column

Step 3: - Find out where all there are unwanted states attached to any of your zones and circle those states.

Step 4: - Either create a new Zones for all the states that has unwanted Emotions attached to it, or shift the Emotions that are attached to the Zone. I personally find the previous one much easier but of course it has its own limitations.

Step 5: - Write down all the states that you want in your new Zone or in the same zone in the next column.

Step 6: - Make sure if there are any unwanted states getting triggered you move out of that zone. Get the required states n place and move back into the zone.

After few days you will notice that whenever you get into your Creation Zone (It could be study Zone, Fun Zone, Work zone, Connecting Zone, Dreams Zone Etc) you will automatically trigger your desired state.
If they are not getting triggered then it could be due to one of the 2 reasons
- The intensity of your states are not high enough. So you need to intensify it
- unwanted states are still attached to your Zones and you need repeat Step 6.
 
You can use this techniques in several ways. You can create your own ways. I Would love to know how you have used this article in your life and how it has helped you?

Have Fun Creating and Designing your world according to how you want it to be. Make sure you use a lot of creativity and Imagination to do that.

Posted via email from Nishith Shah