Maximise Potential

Self-esteem is a key quality that determines your overall success. Lack of self-esteem will result in a feeling of inadequacy, depression, anxiety and an inferiority complex.  Here are seven ways to develop your self-esteem to a high level. Develop a high appreciation for life – This is the starting point for high self-esteem. When you understand that your life has meaning and there is a specific purpose to your life you get excited about the possibilities and opportunities. Your life is important and you have a unique contribution to make in this world. Maintain a gratitude log – Appreciate all the good things you have in your life. There will always be things that don’t go our way and we all have multiple things which we are not happy about. However this attitude will not take us forward in our lives. We should take the opposite route and write every single thing we are grateful for in our lives. This includes family, job, colleagues, and everything else that you a...

Given the opportunity of life is one of the gifts that can be put to great use. I like this quote “Our life is god’s gift to us and how we live it is our gift to god.” That is a great quote and shows that we have an opportunity to use this gift to contribute. Here is my A - Z of life which can help you get the most out of life for you and your loved ones. Accept Reality   – Life is not easy and even the most optimistic person will face hurdles. Even if you have all the money in the world you would still have some problems. The starting point of getting the most out of life is to accept reality as it is. Once you do that you can handle anything life throws at you. It is how your respond to a crisis that determines what you get out of life.   Boldness   – We get one chance at life and none of us know if we will get another chance. This means this is the chance to showcase our brilliance and bring all our talent to the table. Being bold doesn’t mean in my opinion d...

The most recognizable phrase in the entire history of mankind is when Neil Armstrong said “This is one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.” What is easily forgotten is there was someone else with him and that was Buzz Aldrin. I loved his recent book titled “No Dream Is Too High” which he wrote with Ken Abraham. It was very inspirational. In Oct 1957 Buzz Aldrin was serving in the US Airforce and stationed in Germany, the Soviet Union was well ahead in the space race. They launched Sputnik. A year later NASA was formed with the primary aim for reaching space. April 12th 1961 was when Russia sent first person to space the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Of course we all know the rest of the story with John F. Kennedy setting the audacious vision to put a man on the moon by the time the decade was over. Interesting the first time Buzz Aldrin applied to be an astronaut he was turned down. He set the world record for space walking in his first spaceflight as pilot of Gemini 12....

I love leadership books about leaders who have really done it. One such leader who has done it big time is Colin Powell. I loved the book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by Oren Harari. It is well written and has the essence of leadership anyone can apply. The author says Powell has had a truly extraordinary career which reflects strong values, hard work, discipline, exceptional standards and high integrity. In 1989 he received his fourth star and was appointed by George H. W Bush as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1993 he retired from the military. From 1993 to 2000 he was a much sought after public speaker. He also served on various boards. Then of course he became Secretary of State during George W. Bush’s reign. There are some Powell principles mentioned at the end of each chapter which were interesting and some gems. Here are some of them with my take on it. Define the new game and expect everyone to play it:  This basically means take the time to clearly ...

It is amazing what the Olympics can mean for all of us. It is a true triumph of the human spirit in action. Anyone who participates in the Olympics deserves applause because of the amount of preparation they put in before an event and the type of trials and tribulations they undergo even before they have the privilege of participation leave alone the winning of the gold medal.  I was interested to see what we can learn from the Olympians and how it can help us get the most out of ourselves. I have expanded each letter of the word Olympian so that we can awaken the Olympian within.  O for Optimism  – Just to participate in the Olympics athletes have to put in a minimum of 4000 hours of preparation. This requires nothing but complete optimism on the part of the athlete which only a few people are willing to do. It has been researched that a lot of us suffer from learned helplessness. The way to overcome this is to be developing an overall optimistic view towards li...

This Interview with me was recorded by Cornelius Fichtner from The PM Podcast. Here is what Cornelius wrote about our discussion: Please click here to listen to the interview right now... Global delivery models have changed the way IT services are delivered and many organizations use them. They are the way of the world. The significant benefits include the ability to provide round the clock services, ensure business continuity, level the playing field through best-in-class consulting, and finally provide key cost advantages for all organizations alike. But there are also challenges, because we have now have virtual teams with its members around the world and we may never meet them. So what’s a project leader to do? Shyamsundar Ramanathan ( http://maximisepotential. blogspot.com /,  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ shyamsundarramanathan  ) says that first of all, the key to success of this kind of delivery model is communication. And then he has seven specific recommendat...