Inspiration – Page 22

Lessons From India 2: Being Grateful For What You Have

Inspiration, Life, Personal Growth, Spirit, Travel

This is part two from my Lessons From India series. I am holidaying in India right now so make sure you subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss out on the up-coming stories and lessons.

This lesson is about simply being grateful for what you have. It is a lesson that hits you like a tonne of bricks when you arrive in India – there is poverty, disease and suffering everywhere and your intial reaction to those things is always “BOY AM I LUCKY”.

As you guys know, I have been to India many times. The funny thing is you never get used to the suffering. On my trips I have seen children who have their legs broken so that they can beg better. I have seen street dogs so diseased they can hardly walk. And I have seen men die in the streets while onlookers simply ignored them.

Intially I got depressed about all of this. I spent a lot of time in my hotel room hiding away from the suffering and the chaos. It took me a long time to learn that getting depressed about the suffering is not the right way. It took me a long time to realize that there was a lesson amongst all this garbage.

Now when I see suffering in India I think about how lucky I am. I am comparatively very wealthy – I have a house, a job, a family and a whole set of immunisations. I have it made.

The suffering still upsets me. It upsets me a lot. But it no longer gets me down and out. When I see people suffering I try to help where I can but I also make sure I take some lesson away from the situation. In some round about way this makes the suffering of the world not so obsolete.

So today’s lesson for all of you out there is simply to take a moment to reflect on how lucky you are and be grateful for that. The next time you feel like the world has you on your knees remember that there are others out there worse off than you and be happy for what you have.

I am convinced this is a big key to achieving satisfaction at work and in life.

See you soon!

Originally posted on July 13, 2008 @ 5:58 am

How to Become the MVP at Your Work

Inspiration, Spirit

Michael Jordan Slam Dunk

MVP is a sporting term that stands for Most Valuable Player. Every year one player in the league is awarded this title to acknowledge their skill, leadership qualities, outstanding sportsmanship and overall excellence in their area. It doesn’t always go to the player who scores the most goals or points. It is quite often the player who brings the team together, motivates them and forms a solid base for the point scores to work from. The MVP is reliable, innovative and above all he/she is respected.

I think that the workplace is a lot like a sporting team. You have to work together to get things done. Everyone has their own skillsets but without a good group of people around you your work is going to be much more difficult. In this post I want to show you how you can become the MVP at your work.

How to become the MVP at your work

Becoming the MVP is not an easy process. Micheal Jordan was awarded the MVP many times but it did not come overnight. It took years of training and hard work and dedication to the team. The same will be required of you. If you want to become your team’s most valuable player you will need to put in a lot of hard work and stay focussed.

Help others
The first thing the MVP does is take care of his team. They motivate and inspire people when they are down and they get thing moving when people are lacking energy. The MVP will also help other when they need it even if they have to put aside their own needs for a while.

If you want to be the MVP at work you should try and be there for other people. If they need some help with a task you should always have your door open so they can come in and ask questions without fear of being percieved as stupid. This does not mean be a pushover that everyone uses when they feel lazy. It is about helping people grow and become better.

Be level-headed
The MVP stays calm under pressure. You hardly ever see a great sportsperson lose their temper. Sure they fire themselves up but they will never let themselves get out of control.

An office MVP is also calm and level-headed. They stay cool when the deadlines are on and they do not yell at people when they are feeling the pressure.

When you can keep calm like this other people will come to rely on you. They will also learn from your example and develop calmness themselves. Hopefully, sooner or later your whole team will become level-headed players who are able to operate under extreme pressure. This is seen a lot in the army where the officers and commanders are trained to stay very cool. If they lose it their troops will also lose it soon enough.

Dress well
It might seem insignificant but the MVP’s around the work are always presented perfectly. They have neat haircuts, cleanly shaved faces and their clothes are sharp and fresh.

Dressing well conveys a sense of professionalism. When you dress well it shows people that you are ready to do business and you are 100% right for the job. What you wear on the outside quite often reflects how you are on the inside. A sloppy dresser will rarely do well at high powered meetings because he will not be percieved as organized and in-charge.

I find it quite amusing that we humans place so much importance on our clothes. It is very materialistic. However, this is the reality of the business world so it is important to make sure you look sharp and portray yourself as a professional person.

Refine your skills everyday
When other people were asleep in their warm bed Muhammad Ali was out on the street running at 4am. When they were getting ready for bed at 11pm he was doing a weights session. The MVP’s of history always seem to work harder than the rest. They are devoted to their art and they refine their skills every single day.

To become an MVP at work you have to be the best at what you do. You need to do it in such a way that shows you have gone above and beyond in your training. You need to know your subject matter top to bottom and have innovative ways of applying your skills. This is the true arena of the MVP.

Some effective methods of doing this include:

extra study
finding a mentor who is willing to show you new methods
taking risk and trying new things
travelling overseas to see how things are done there

This type of thing will help you refine your skills and teach you new ones. By doing this you will become a valuable member of your team because you will be able to teach people things. It is not about knowing more than them – it is about being able to help them grow into their full potential.

This is what MVPs do best.

Originally posted on July 4, 2008 @ 3:03 am

The Benefits of Having an Inspiring Image at Work

Inspiration

photo credit: Carlos Y.

Work can drain your inspiration. The daily grind can break you down so that after a few months and years you have forgotten about your long term goals and dreams. One way that you can help prevent this is by keeping an inspirational image on your desk.

Why keep an inspiring image at work?

Images are used everywhere. We use them in advertising to entice people to buy a product, in religion to inspire faith and trust, in magazines to illustrate a story or experience, etc.

For example, I could tell you a story about a young starving boy I met in the slums of India. I could talk about how his face was gaunt and his ribs protruding through his skin. Whatever I said, however, it would never have the same effect as one photo.

A picture really is worth a 1000 words – it can conjure up emotion and transform your mental state – and that is why you should keep one in your work space.

Here are some ideas for inspiring photos you can keep on your desk:

A personal hero

Michael Jordan from the famous dunk contest

“As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” – Ernest Hemingway.

The most common and probably the most effective photo you can keep on your desk is one of your personal hero. As a Buddhist I have a small picture of my teacher in my office. Whenever I get stressed or start to lose motivation I look over at the photo and it reminds me why I am working and gets me back on track.

The photo of a personal hero should be of someone who you want to become like. It might be Bruce Lee or Michael Jordan. It might be Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi. It might be Jesus or Buddha. It might be your father or mother. Who ever it is you should make sure it is someone you want to become like. This will inspire you when things get tough.

Photos of our hero help us connect with a deeper part of ourselves that our job quite often suppresses. This is one of the most important things you can do for yourself – connect with your deep sense of potential and hope.

An inspiring landscape

photo credit: bbjee

Another popular image to have in your workplace is an image of an inspiring landscape. My father has worked in real estate for over 40 years and in his office is a photo of the first commercial property that he ever sold. He says it reminds him of the good old days.

For me it is mountains. I love the Himalayas and so a picture of some snow capped mountains with a surrounding forest or waterfall really makes me feel good.

A photo of a wide open space is the best thing to have in your office because it makes you feel less trapped and confined.

A negative event

Tiananmen Square

Sometimes I think that it might be a little depressing to have a negative event pictured on your wall. However, I know a lot of people who have something horrible up on their wall as it inspires them to work harder and stay focussed on their goal to help.

For example, I know someone who works for an animal protection service and she has a picture of a dog that is near death from abuse and starvation. The photo is of the dog’s eyes and the sadness it is communicating is palpable. She says when she looks at this photo she is able to put aside all her selfish ambitions and problems and just put all her energy into the cause. This is quite a powerful thing.

I think if we are going to have a negative thing pictured on our wall we should also have something positive. For example, if you have sick dog on your wall you might also put a healthy and happy dog on the other side to show that you are making some progress. If you don’t you might find things get a little bit depressing.

Your family

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu

Having a picture of your family on your desk is probably the most common. It reminds you of why you go to work in the first place and gives you something to look forward to as you know you are going home to them at the end of the day.

There is something extremely comforting about having a photo of your family at work. Your family is your clan, your team. They are people who will always accept and love you. This is a good thing to be a part of when it seems like the world is all about competition, speed and stress.

Can anyone think of any other good pictures or images to put at work?

Originally posted on June 17, 2008 @ 4:24 am

How to Get Interested in Your Job Again

Inspiration, Life, Spirit

photo credit: purpleprimate

“When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.” – Eric Hoffer.

Over time we all seem to lose interest in our work. The first month on the job is characterised by good work ethic, motivation and friend making. But as one month fades into two we slowly start to get bored. After a year or two we wonder why we ever took the job in the first place. In this post I want to look at a few ways you can get interested in your job again.

1. Look at the jobs other people are working
One thing I like to do from time to time is take a look at some of the other jobs in the world. When you look at the jobs that other people are working you can inevitably find some interesting aspects about your own work. For example, if you work a desk job you might realize that it is much more interesting than being outside in the heat digging up roads and paving streets. Or, if you work outside you might realize that being out in the sun all day talking to your work mates (while you dig up that street) is more interesting than sitting behind a desk.

2. Study the history of your profession or firm
Sometimes it is really interesting to discover the lineage of your profession or firm. If you feel like you are a part of something bigger you quite often become more interested in it. This is why people follow sporting teams. Take a few minutes each week to look into how you firm got started, who started it and so on. You might find you have a really interesting history at your workplace.

3. Find new and interesting challenges

photo credit: ninkinanka

Mrs. Daily Minder remarked on her way to work this morning that she always finds work interesting when she gets new challenges. Even though they might be difficult or sometimes frustrating it is better than sitting at your desk all day doing the same thing over and over. If you find work is getting a little boring then perhaps ask your manager for some new challenges. They will be extremely impressed that you have asked this and, even though it means perhaps more work, it might mean you have a lot more interesting things to do.

4. Remember why you started
Most of us have some sort of positive motivation for starting the job we are at now. Some of us might have taken it because we needed more money to support our family. Some of us might have taken it because we thought we could help a lot of people. Some of us might have thought that the subject matter was really fascinating. But, as always, this motivation drifts away as time goes on and before we know it we are bored again.

If you can re-connect with that initial motivation you might be able to make your job more interesting again. Finding a lasting motivation for work is extremely important for your long term satisfaction. Sometimes when I don’t feel like writing an article for The Daily Mind I always remind myself that thousands of people encounter this blog and something I write might help one of them. This motivation always gets me going.

5. Make new friends
Whenever I listen to my friends talking about their work they are always at their happiest when they are talking about things they have done with their workmates. Making friends at work is one of the best ways to get interested again as these people will help you get through the workday – everyday. We are at work for eight hours a day, five days a week. If my maths is correct this means that we see our workmates even more than we see our own family! Try and make friends with the people around you at work and your day might become more interesting.

6. Get a new job
If you want to get interested in your job again and you really cannot get it happening at your current work then maybe you need to get a new job. Sometimes our work just doesn’t turn out like we hoped. It might be a collegue that we cannot connect with, an unreasonable boss or something to do with the work itself. If that is the case then getting a new job might be the only solution. Start looking in the papers and if you apply and get a new job then quit your old one and promise not to make the same mistakes at your new place of work.

Take a look at this interview on Guy Kawasaki’s blog about escaping corporate America. It has some really good points on how to get out of your job, how to know when to leave, how to find a better job and so on. Some of the tips are really handy for people who think that their job might be a dead end waste of time.

7. Ask the hard question
Would you be better off at a new job or would the same problems all pop up there as well? Like the opening quote of this post alludes to – is it you or the job that you are not interested in? This is a hard question to ask.

Conclusion
Staying interested in one job for many years is not an easy thing. Don’t just expect it to happen by itself – start putting in the work that will help you stay stimulated and interested when you might otherwise be bored out of your mind. If anyone has any other tips I would love to hear them.

Originally posted on June 11, 2008 @ 2:39 am

How to Work a Job and Still Attain Your Life’s Goals and Dreams

Inspiration, Mindfulness

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my job and how it seems to get in the way of the work I need to do to achieve my life’s goals. However, I need the job as it pays my rent and supports some of my hobbies. So how do you work a job while still trying to attain your goals in life?

How to work a job and still attain your goals in life

Music star, professional athlete, novel writer, home owner… everyone has a dream or a goal that they want to attain in this life. Here are some tips to help you work towards that goal while still working a day job.

1. Sleep when you are dead

“I never sleep cos sleep is the cousin of death…” – Nas

One of the hardest lessons to learn is that if you really want to attain a goal in life while working another job you need more hours in the day. This is probably going to mean that you will sleep less and work harder but getting up early is something that has to be done.

The above quote is one of my favorite quotes of all time and it comes from New York rapper Nas. It is a very profound quote and shows us the link between sleep and death. We have one life to do something meaningful. One precious opportunity. What waste it sleeping?

You can sleep when you are dead.

2. Write down your dreams
When you write down a dream that you have you turn into a goal. You make it something concrete and achievable. A dream is something that is a little bit far out and unreachable but a goal is something that you can actually get to.

If you feel like your work is getting in the way of your goals then write them down. Having something visual in front of you will help you get all those thoughts out of your head and let you calm down and assess the situation. Write down your dreams so you know exactly what you are trying to achieve.

3. Give your goals a time line
The next thing that you need to do to turn those dreams into concrete goals is give them a time line. When you affix a date to some dream you turn it into a goal that is now becoming a reality.

For example, if you say that you want to be able to play the guitar by the time you are 30 you have a much more specific goal than if you just said you’d love to be a good guitar player. By saying that you want to do it by 30 you now have to do the work that is required to do it in time. It is a lot like working towards exams in November – you know they are coming so you do the work.

4. Break them down
One problem I have is that I stress about everything way too much. I think about work and tax and staying fit and then on top of that I stress about when I am going to find time to achieve my dreams and goals. However, I have found that if you write them down, give them a time line and then break them down into smaller chunks the stress really dissipates. [Read more…] about How to Work a Job and Still Attain Your Life’s Goals and Dreams

Originally posted on May 28, 2008 @ 3:23 am

Eureka! How to Have Eureka Moments Like Archimedes

Inspiration

Archimedes

Stepping into his bath to relax one day Archimedes saw the water level rise and suddenly realized that the volume of the displaced water was equal to that of the body part he submerged. He was now the first person in history to be able to calculate the volume of irregular objects. He was so excited he screamed out “EUREKA!” and ran down the street naked.

So how can we have a eureka moment like Archimedes?

Sudden understanding requires relaxation

photo credit: Cheekybikerboy

Nothing resembling a eureka moment ever came from a tight mind. All the great minds of the past had their sudden understandings when they were relaxed or when they had properly trained their mind to quiet down. In Archimedes’ case it probably had a lot to do with the warm bath. He had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to do any work and was going to chill out in a bath. Eureka!

If you think about it it is quite logical. If your mind is tight you are focusing on forcing an idea to come about. Your mind will be full of thoughts like “I must think of an idea” or “I must have a eureka moment”. It won’t happen. If, however, your mind is quiet there is more room for new thoughts to come in or more space for you to notice a small thought that might otherwise sneak through.

Relaxation is not just a physical act. It is a mental one. This is important. You could by laying in a hammock by a pool in Hawaii and your mind would be going at a hundred miles an hour thinking about this and worrying about that. Relaxation has to take place in the mind for there to be enough space to be creative, inventive and original.

Sudden understanding requires lots of study (but not too much)

photo credit: Wonderlane

Many people think that people like Archimedes just had sudden realizations without doing any work before hand. However, it is important to understand that their sudden realizations were not really all that sudden.

If you think that Archimedes just got into a bath and had a spontaneous out of the blue realization about “volume” then you would be wrong. The man was a very smart and diligent physicist who spent his days mulling over problems just like this one.

If you want to have a eureka moment you need to do hours and hours of study in the given area. You need to know every angle, history, mechanic and so forth. Once you have this background information you will be more likely to have a breakthrough.

However, there is a danger. People who study too much often lack experience in their field. In Buddhist monasteries the teachers are very careful to ensure their students don’t put study over meditation because if they do they run the risk of over conceptualizing certain concepts or ideas and missing the point. Experience is very different from theoretical understanding.

Think of study as being like reading about an elephant. You can learn about its height, trunk, eyes, memory and so on. Now think of experience as being like actually going to the zoo and seeing an elephant. It is a very different thing and in most cases study pales in comparison.

Like Archimedes when he saw the water level rise you need to see your field in action if you want to be able to penetrate its nature and come up with something innovative.

Take a look at buddhist master Mingyur Rinpoche and how he made took a theoretical concept and made it experiential and came up with something quite innovative – using panic attacks as his meditation practice:

Sudden understanding requires new perspectives

photo credit: gaelx

The story of Archimedes and the bath occurred after he was given a crown by the king and asked to determine whether a dishonest goldsmith had used some silver instead of pure gold. The problem was he couldn’t damage the crown by melting it down and weighing it so he had to find some other way. He found that way when he had a bath and his perspective changed.

It is very difficult to have an understanding if your views and opinions are very solid and fixed. People who have great breakthrough moments are those people who are willing and able to think out of the square and look at different ways of doing things. This, of course, is a lot more difficult than you think. Human beings are accustomed to doings things a certain way and to think outside of that conceptual framework is extremely hard.

To look at a problem with a new perspective you can do things like:

Set aside religious dogmas
Talk to people from different backgrounds and cultures
Work at a different time of the day
Approach a problem using a new forumla
Etc.

Of course you don’t have to do these things all the time – just change them when you are focussing on the problem you have at hand or change them occasionally to help you gradually shift your perspective.

Sudden understandings require a clear mind – meditate

photo credit: bandita

One of the best ways to make your mind more “likely” to have a breaktrhough is by keeping it clear, healthy and well trained. The best way to do this is to meditate.

Meditation clears your head of a lot of thoughts and makes you more disciplined and open. When you have a lot of space in your head you are more receptive to certain ideas and new ideas seem to flow more easily.

It doesn’t matter what meditation you do the yogis and scientists all agree – it is good for your intelligence, creativity and your brain health. Perhaps try some simple breathing meditation. This will help you get out of the habit of “normal thinking” and put you in a frame of mind where eureka moments are more likely to occur.

Sudden understandings require patience

The last thing I want to talk about is the art of being patient. Every great idea in history was a result of weeks, months or years of work. If these people weren’t patient they would never have had their history altering moments. Like them, we need to be patient. Without patience our great potential will not have a chance to manifest – give yourself time!

Have you ever had a eureka moment?

Originally posted on May 23, 2008 @ 3:48 am