Maximise Potential

Talk Like TED  by Carmine Gallo is one of my favorite books. I bought it while waiting in an airport in 2015. It was a breezy read and I have read it several times since this. Most of us may never deliver a Ted Talk but we can all learn to be better communicators which is the meta skill of the 21st Century. Learning to speak on our feet puts us in a firmer footing in anything we undertake and can also help us further our aspirations. Here are the 9 Public speaking secrets with my take on each. Passion   You should only speak on a topic which you are passionate about. He shares the example of Aimee Mullins, a double amputee and world record holding Paralympic runner. Mullins' TED talk changed the way we look at people with disabilities. The author says Mullins is passionate about unleashing human potential. He also asks us to find our passion by asking what makes our heart sing.  Storytelling Here the example of Bryan Stevenson’s Ted Talk is provided. He received a...

We all want to be high performers not only in our careers but our lives as well. The High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard is one of the best books I have read on this subject. There were 10 distinct categories of life that he says are important for us to audit and see where we are at. Here they are with my take on each. Family – A strong family life improves every other area of life. Some of the richest people sometimes seem to say they haven’t spent much time building their family. I think before we reach the end of our lives we want to ensure we have a strong well-knit family. Friends – It is not the number of friends that matter as much as how good they are. So, having a few close friends with whom we can confide is a great stress buster. Health – Everyone’s health situation is different. Of course, there are specific health conditions which require special attention. However, this portion of the article is barring any health conditions we can make the most of what w...

We all want to be high performers not only in our careers but our lives as well. The High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard is one of the best books I have read on this subject. There are some feelings he mentions which is associated with high performance. Here they are with my take on each. Full engagement – When you are fully engaged you generally produce your best performance. Find ways to love your work and connect to a higher purpose.     Joy – This is as simple as it gets. Deliberate gratitude has shown to instantly boost happiness. It can also lead to joy. We cannot feel drudgery while doing our work. Confidence – Without confidence we are literally dead in the water. I have written in detail about confidence. If you work in your strength areas, appreciate your uniqueness and develop skills you will feel more confidence. Here is my article on self-confidence. 15 Keys to Self-Confidence Purposefulness – Connect to a strong personal mission. Peter Dr...

Daniel Amen is one of the premier experts on mental health. One of the books he wrote recently is Memory Rescue. In one of the chapters he gives some simple suggestions on how to reduce stress and increase happiness. Here are some of them with my take on each. Start every day with passion – When you start the day with the phrase “Today is going to be a wonderful day” it does make you feel better. It also sets the tone for the entire day. Lot of science-based research on this.    Write down 3 things you are grateful for – This is as simple as it gets. Deliberate gratitude has shown to instantly boost happiness. The only thing is we must do it to get the benefits.   Send a note to someone you appreciate – Appreciating someone else is oxygen to the soul. When you appreciate someone else you feel great about yourself. Limit screen time – Taking a digital detox once a week or even once a month can improve our overall feeling of happiness. It also reduces anxiety an...

The Millionaire Next Door which came out in the mid 1990’s gave hope a lot of people with jobs that they too can make a million in their lifetimes. Now for the 21st Century Chris Hogan has written Everyday Millionaires. To be fair there is nothing that is earth shattering here but as a lot of people say success comes down to the fundamentals. First the myths about millionaires are discussed. The common myths are the wealthy didn’t earn their money, the wealthy took big risks with their money, and the wealthy have better education. Finally, there are 5 keys to become an everyday millionaire. Here they are with a brief description of each. Millionaires take personal responsibility – This shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us. We cannot really succeed if we are blaming someone else. This is all about developing the inner power. Some of the suggestions are to own your mistakes, take advice from others and use a financial planner.   Millionaires practice intentionality – This is ...

I am not a huge fan of biographies. It is tedious most of the time and takes a long time to read. However, I got into biographies thanks to Walter Isaacson. His book on Steve Jobs was the first one I read. After that I have read all his biographies including his latest on Leonardo da Vinci. It was illuminating and informative on one of the most creative men of any time. There was a section on lessons to learn from Leonardo. Here are 15 of them with my take on each. Be relentlessly curious  – Curiosity is the hallmark of creativity. Being curious is also a sign of having a growth mindset. Being teachable helps us in bringing our creativity to the fore. Being open to everything can help our curiosity. Never be afraid of asking questions. Seek knowledge for its own sake  - Leonardo did not know how heart valves work to paint Mona Lisa but he still did it. Sometimes we should just pursue something despite whatever results may show up. Retain a childlike sense of wonder ...

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. It is the progress towards what we want that makes us feel better about ourselves. Success is not reaching a destination because sometimes we never reach where we want to go. We also can overcome failures better if we view success as a journey. Here are 8 things I have learned that can help us on our success journey. Never Give up - No matter what happens in life never give in. Life is not a sprint it is a marathon. If we want enduring success we cannot be impatient. Rome was not built in a day, we can’t lose weight in a week, and we can’t become world-class in a year. As researchers have confirmed for anyone to attain mastery in their chosen craft it requires 10000 hours or roughly 10 years of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is not easy, it involves sacrifices a key word to remember when considering the long haul. You must keep practicing a skill for several years before you get public acclaim. Tony Robbins says...

Successful people have a few common characteristics that make them great. Not every successful person can be a master of all these but awareness of them can help in increasing these qualities in ourselves. Following are the 11 common traits exhibited by successful people that I have observed across various fields including sports, business, and arts. Self-Discipline I put this at the top of the list simply because without self-discipline nothing is possible. Self-discipline is a quality that can be developed by having a clear idea on what we want and then ensuring the desire to succeed is greater than the consequences of not doing it. If we want to exercise 5 times a week then we can imagine the enormous benefits of exercise and visualize that while trying to keep the end goal in mind. If we want to achieve all the things we want then self-discipline is the best place to start and we have 100% control on this. It is resolving to do what we have set out to accomplish in both our ...

At the outset let me tell you that I am a huge fan of Rahul Dravid. Irrespective of which team you support the world over people, commentators, former players and current players all admire this man. The reason Rahul Dravid is so likable is his even-headedness. I think one of the best compliments Rahul got was in 2007 when he handled the bad press and public ire when the team was ousted in the first round of the World cup with immaculate temperament.  As Martin Luther King noted "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”  Rahul Dravid after the defeat said, "That’s the beauty of sport" and he was graceful in defeat. He even went to Tamim Iqbal and congratulated the young man for his innings which took the game away from India.  Sachin Tendulkar is a genius not everybody can emulate him, but Rahul Dravid can be used as a role model for his perseverance...

With 2019 in full swing we all have resolutions and goals we want to achieve. We also want to make sure this excitement doesn’t just last for two weeks but lasts for the entire year. So how do you keep this excitement going for a long time? For me one of the ways to keep this motivation ongoing is to keep reading. Reading is one way to be positive about your future and it is also relaxing for me. It also provides a great relief from the negative news cycles. So here are some good books I enjoyed reading this year. Leadershift by John Maxwell  – These are 11 changes every leader must embrace. I have read most of John Maxwell’s books. I would say it is surprising to me how he keeps coming up with new insights on a topic he is world renowned for. I would say this is his best book since the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. He is in his elements and has hit this one out of the park. He says you can’t get too far in your second half in life without a strong mission. The other cha...