Maximise Potential

Getting Back to Happy by Marc Chernoff and Angel Chernoff is one of the best books I have read in recent times. Reading it did make me happier which is always a good sign. Read books and articles that make you feel better about life and yourself. There were many hacks which are worth your attention. One chapter I liked was the one on how to get motivated. If you think about it most of the people in work are generally very skilled in their area of expertise but it is motivation that separates high performers from the rest. Here are the motivation hacks with my take on each. Get motivated by finding your why – Your why in my opinion is the mission of your life. Once you have a personal mission in place you will automatically feel motivated. So, take the time required to come up with a mission statement for your life. This requires some introspection and soul searching but I think it would be an effective use of time. Get motivated by eliminating distractions  – I agree with this b

Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. It is not something you arrive at. It is something that comes because of taking positive actions. So, it is better not to pursue happiness directly. Instead focus on doing high leverage activities and you will be happier. Here are my 9 G’s of happiness. Gratitude – This is truly the first step to any type of happiness. Whenever you are feeling down take your journal and write down everything you are grateful for. This exercise will make you feel a lot more peaceful and any temporary pain will reduce. Gratitude truly is the gateway to a happier life. Some people suggest writing down the things you are grateful for the first thing in morning. I have already written it down and review this in the morning. It sets your mind for a good day. Goals  – Goals are something very personal to every individual. The key to happiness is to go after your goals and not something the others around you want. This is the key to happiness.

We can learn a lot from successful entrepreneurs. In the recent issue of Inc Magazine there was a mention of the 10 traits of entrepreneurs as identified by Gallup. Here are the 10 traits with my take on each. Knowledge –  I love this word because all of us have to perform with the talent we have. Apart from that we can also enhance our talent with knowledge. We only act on what we know and once we increase our knowledge base the chances of our success increase exponentially. Risk – I think everyone knows that to get different results than what we are getting now it is important to take risks. The level of risks taken by each person is different. So obviously self-awareness helps in ensuring you don’t take a risk that is not aligned with the person you are. Delegation –  Top people know where they need to focus on and they build great teams with awesome people to work on the other activities. Delegation is the key to a successful leadership journey. No one person can do everythi

Here are 5 books I liked reading recently. They cover the gamut of careers, happiness, creativity and much more. Rebel Talent by Francesca Gino - I really enjoyed this book. This makes you think differently. The tag line is why it pays to break the rules at work and life. Some of the suggestions are to seek out the new, encourage constructive dissent, have open conversations and find freedom from constraints. An Audience of One by Srinivas Rao  – I loved this book. It is simple to read and basic point is to create for creations sake. The point is don’t write to build a following. Instead write to satisfy your curiosity and then if you get a following great. Also, your environments play a role in your creativity. Practice solitude, remove all unnecessary newsletters, make fewer decisions and live by your own values. There is a lot of good stuff in this book which I enjoyed. The Meaning Revolution by Fred Kofman –  While the subject matter has been well covered by many books I st