Conquering hesitation

Now hesitation is a vicious circle. It will block you. And it keeps blocking you. The more you let it block yourself, more hesitant you keep getting. Slowly, it becomes a problem to the extent that you are no longer able to communicate with others properly. Of course, the degree varies. You may feel hesitant only when approaching strangers or opposite sex or seniors. It differs person to person. But the traits are same. You want to say something. Want to do something. But you can not. Your mind holds you back. It will project all sorts of negative consequences.

Baby Steps

Hesitation can not be killed in a single day. You have to make conscious efforts. conscious small small efforts. Slowly curing it. You can start with identifying things that you are hesitant in doing. Now sort them. Where you feels least hesitant on the top and so on. Now if may so happen that that even the first item in you list is proving too much to handle, them think of smaller things, which you would be less hesitant in doing. So start with it. Collect you guts and go ahead. Do it. Now proceed to next item only if you feel confident. If not, repeat the first item few times, till you feel ready for next. Keep taking baby steps. Do not try to measure, how much you are out of it. To think about hesitation is to get into it even more.

The most commonly seen hesitation is to communicate with strangers, opposite sex or seniors. There is one more – expressing yourself in public. I feel we need discuss all four in detail. So instead of clubbing them together, I will break them into different posts.

 

Buck up

It is so easy get lost. So easy to loose the motivation. There are so many distractions that its unbelievably hard to remain focused on your goals. I am going through the same these days. Office work and family life keeps me so busy that I am getting hardly any motivation to pursue my goals for this year. And time is running out fast.

We once discussed about the perseverance. Habits of Innovative People : Habit 6.

We should preach what we follow. But today am in situation where I need to follow what I preach. I realized that as you grow up the ladder in your organization. It becomes harder and harder to remain focused. How to get out of this situation?

Let me take this as an opportunity to experiment with myself. And try to find a way to deal with it. So here is what I am going to do. Firstly, I need a way to keep reminding myself of the tasks which are getting delayed. Alarms or To Dos won’t work because they will remind me when I will be busy doing some other work. I am taking few post-its and pasting them over my work desk, on TV and on door of my bathroom. This should remind me when I am not technically busy.

Memory is taken care of. What about motivation? Rather Self-motivation.

I should now do a SWOT to take stock of my situation.

This shows high degree in Threats and Weakness. Unless I make opportunity quadrant heavier or Weakness quadrant lighter, it will remain a very uphill task. So to achieve this, I am now marking each day 10 to 11pm for my tasks. This shall remove the time management from weakness. Now if I add brainstorming activity this dedicated slot, I see opportunity for new ideas. This should now balance my SWOT. Lets see how it goes now. Will keep you posted.

 

Life

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
                              John W. Gardner

 

Half knowledge is worse than ignorance

I was discussing this with Praveen the other day. And he brought this interesting point. People would start learning something and then will leave midway (why?). Then, they are left with half knowledge. Now not only they would suffer from misusing it but will cause pain for many innocent victims too.

The problem Praveen mentioned was application of Design Patterns. This everyone agrees that patterns are grossly misapplied. And many times they create unwanted trouble instead of help. That’s why Anti-Patterns where published. To warn people of they traps.

Lets generalize it here. Like Dilbert’s boss, we will find many people who would start learning something new. Not because of need, but they want to use the jargon like others. Now they would loose the patience half way. Off course, any subject gets complicated after few chapters. Then it becomes a test of learning ability and patience. Which we know these kind of people lack. Now starts the massacre of technology. Such people will start with throwing the new jargon they picked…left and right. You will look for a corner where you can go and scream. Like Praveen said…”If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. So this monkey will now take the knife and will start cutting whatever comes its way.

I feel taming such people is the biggest challenge for managers. Not because they themselves suffer from this problem. I am talking about those who know that this is a problem and are technically sound too. (I have a manager like that. At least at the point of writing.)  Such people prove as liability than asset if part of design team.

How you deal with such people?

Caution. Never get into argument with such people. If you can not get rid of them, then only way is to help them improve. If you are their manager, enroll them to trainings. The money spent on their training will get justified by the bugs they will not be introducing. Which will improve others productive too. Now, if you are their peer or worse, their subordinate. Motivate them to learn. Throw advanced jargon so that curosity drives them to learn. If you have a manager like that, make presentations and involve them in discussions so that they get a better hang of things. Its not an easy job. But its your only chance that can save you from night outs. Fixing the design issues they brought in with their half knowledge.

 

Thanks Keng LEE

for the appreciation and your valuable comments.

For other readers, Keng LEE is a KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURER & TECHNOLOGY EXPLORER. He is an avid blogger and you may find some very insightful reads at OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES.

 

Make most of what you have got

We haven’t discussed about innovation for quite sometime. Today lets talk about dealing in innovation with limited resources. This is the case quite often too. We feel the spark of great ideas but then we let it go due to a seeming resource crunch. Seldom its money. Mostly its time that we say we don’t have. But I am not going to talk about time management. That’s one topic beaten to death. So lets focus on the other important issues.

So the crunch you would generally feel, other than time, will be either be money or technical know how. The money is not so important. We will come back to it later. The technical skill is a much bigger hurdle than generally anticipated. And later you discover it, the more it hurts. Because it completely blocks you. No amount of time or money will then help.

Now obvious thing to say would be to update your skills and keep learning and blah blah blah. I prefer different approach.

Just in Time learning

Basically, you don’t learn something, until you know you will need it soon. It doesn’t mean you wait till the very moment you need it, then block the work and start learning. Its Just in time. Just when you anticipate its the right time to update or acquire certain skills. No bullet lines Use common sense. Evaluate you learning speed, available time, etc and figure it out.

This way you can mitigate the risk of technical know how to a certain extent. But some time the JIT learning will tell you that the time required is not feasible or perhaps, the technicalities are way too complicated for you. In such case, I suggest you extend your team. Or build one, if one is not there already. Its better to collaborate with subject matter experts, rather than trying to learn and become one. But to ensure control over things, I suggest you acquire basic knowledge, even if you are taking services/help of an expert.

Now about the money. Well that’s where the real test of innovation is. Before you start looking for innovative ways of raising funds. Spend some time over what resources you have at hand. What can be borrowed feasibly. Brainstorm over ways you can implement your idea with whatever you have got. You will find mostly you can use inexpensive ways to simulate the actual implementation. This would help you gathering funds because you will have a working proof of concept.

 

Silence is golden not charming

Silence is such a nice weapon is you really know how to use it. Yeah. When I say silence is weapon the first thing that comes to mind is the silent treatment we are given by girls.

But you don’t have to be a girl to know how to use silence. And anyway silent treatment is not the only way you would want to use it.

If you work out your expressions correctly, you can use facial expressions combined with silence to convey many things. Like when you don’t know the answer, you can remain silent and give an expression that you know it but not going to tell. Off course, you should be using such tactics are your own risk. Common sense is something nobody can teach. You will have to learn to use our own head over here.

Other day we discussed that more you know less you speak. And in front of stupids, don’t even utter a word. Shut up. Remain silent. Because anything you say, they will be using it display their stupidity that will not only piss you off further but will also provoke you. so don’t fall into their trap. Counter them with your silence.

You can use silence to counter anger also. Remain silent when you are very angry. Because you don’t know what you will say or do. Which eventually might be more damaging for you only. I am not sure if counting techniques work. But deep breathing should. If it worked for The Incredible Hulk quite likely it will work for you too.

The people who generally remain silent are much more unpredictable. The others can’t judge what you are up to. And so you can use it easily to keep them guessing about your moves. Not just that. As a side effect of it, when you have something to say, others pay attention. Now you better do justice with their attention else you will be soon marked as dumb. Use you silence to clear your thoughts. Be sure of the point you wish to make. Few words will do the trick that long speeches can not.

Let me add a contradiction to what we just discussed. Though Silence is so useful, but if you can not woo people with it. For that you need to talk. And please talk sensible. If you blabber then you should read my previous few posts.

So basically silence is an interesting. Experiment with it. And let me also know what all you could achieve. And as of being charming, we will talk about it more in coming posts.

 

The more you know the less you need to say

This world is full of stupids. And specially those idiotic species who can blabber on any topic non-stop. Full confidence. As if they know it all. (What? I am one of them? Huh. As if I care if you say that).

But the more you know less you need to say. I will tell you why my blog doesn’t come under that. But later.

How many times this occurred to you that you joined a conversation where someone is blabbering without knowing the facts. Do you correct that person? why take the pain. Two reasons. That person will never accept that he doesn’t knows anything about what he is speaking. (Am not gender biased. Read He as She if you like it). If you correct him, he will straight take it on his ego. Making it a prestige issue. And will start cooking false reference which no one can verify. And the second reason being, why waste your time and energy on such stupids.

How to deal with them? Ignore them. The are all around us. We can’t fight with each one of them. We might need their help someday. So keep silent. But if he is really pissing you off, then this is what you do. Guide him. Ask open ended questions and raise such topics which you know he has no clue. Slowly he will venture too far for everyone to see that what he really knows. This should give sufficient joy to you. And if you really don’t care, then take him down as soon as he spits out something very lame. Everyone would be watching his recklessness and will be eager to join you in taking him down.

Now the reason why you and me don’t belong to that category is that though we know and we like to tell. We don’t force our self on others. When we don’t know something, we say we don’t know. We say what we know and make this clear that this is what WE think.

 

Deepest desires and worst fears will always come true

Things that we fear most always take shape right in front of us. So thus the most desired things too. What could be the relation between the two? I have a hunch that when we are fearing something so much, we are probably erasing the boundary between fear and desire. The subconscious mind is so much focused on that one thing that it probably forget it wants it to happen or does not wants it to happen. But then why it is so biased towards happening and not towards not happening.

I have a weird thought about it. When the consciousness of universe touches your consciousness it only gets a image of what it is on focused. Ignoring what you mind and circumstances want from it. The consciousness of universe is only looking for things it can make happen. That’s probably why it is so biased towards happening.

Now the obvious question is can we tweak it? May be there is a way to do that. But I won’t know it. How can you program your consciousness. I don’t think we can want enough something that we really get it. It has to come from within.

 

Don’t be cannon fodder

Last night we discussed the importance of updating the skills. I guess I missed to iterate on what will become of you if you miss updating your skills. Well, my dear friend, you become cannon fodder.

You become cheap labour and dispensable. In any industry, you are just a resource. If you want to feel better, I will call you human resource. Now, I am not going to feed you the same old vague story of moving up the value chain. What I am highlighting today is the Darwin’s theory of Survival of the fittest. If you are fit. And skilled. You will survive. Its all about adapting with change and blah blah blah.

But what happened to our idea of last night, that keep learning the skills of your interest so that you move towards it. If I tell you to adapt and for sake of it acquire the skills to survive. You will end up just like any other blind mice in the rat race.

Learn at a brisk pace. And always run your own race.

Survival is must. So that goes without saying that you need to do what it takes to survive. But beyond that, don’t just keep changing with time. Change the time. Be the Agent of Change.

Change the circumstances of that you don’t just keep chasing your dreams. Change the hurdles so that you can realize the dreams and what always interested you. Off course, this never going to be easy. But the easy thing is to chase, not change.

So don’t be that 80% that is fed to the cannons of difficulties so that the skilled 20% can then win the war. Be in that 20%, so that you go and win your war.

 

Skills are like money

Skills are like money. If the are not increasing, then they are depleting.

Which ever industry you are working in. Whatever domain. Skills are the best and mot important investment. They control your relevance. Your reputation. Your compensation. So never discount their importance. Updating skills is important and keep learning new skills is even more important.

Time generally leads the list of excuse we make for not updating our skills. Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day. If you are not getting enough time to update your skills then perhaps time management is the first skill you should go after. I am not scoping just the technical skills. Technical know-how is just a fraction of the skills you should be looking to acquire.

We often neglect the importance of soft skills. Communication skills are as vital as technicalities of your work. A job well done is not worth enough unless you are able to communicate the success to relevant people. We communicate through various media – voice conversations like debates, discussions, presentations, interviews, etc to written media like electronic mails, papers, articles, instant message conversations, etc. Each media warrants certain level of skills to be effective. so identifying the common modes of communications you use and acquire necessary skills to become effective with them.

Many times you are stuck in work which is not in agreement with your interests. Though it is very important to follow what interests you but many times either is not feasible or not as easy as said. Such circumstances need special handling. And off course extra hard work. If you are going through such scenario then what I would recommend for you is that you to focus not just towards the skills that interests you but keep upgrading on your work related skills too. Basically, you keep improving in the work you are doing besides keeping yourself up with the skills you wish to shift to. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

 

Too proud to beg, too dumb to steal

Remember that It’s probably me song? Too proud to beg and too dumb to steal. That is what most of us are. If you are one like that, what you do? You search the city for one friend and it’s probably me. That’s how song goes. But that doesn’t makes it untrue.

Too proud to beg, too dumb to steal? – go look for friends.

The friend you should be looking for is yourself only. On one can help you until yourself is ready to help. Next you reach out to the wise ones. It is easier to point out other persons mistake. But more difficult is to empathise with them and come up with a better action for those situations. So go look out for friends who would do this for you.

With two friends already your side, what remains is the friend who would help you execute what your wise friend have told you to. This is the most tricky part. Be very sure of the person you are taking help from. Be very careful of false friends. One wrong pick here will screw you for ever.

So when your life is fixed. No need to beg. No need to steal. What you do? – Help others. Go help those who are like you were once.

 

Battery charging complete

In case you been wondering where have I disappeared. I was too tied up with work. And now when work had finished, I took a break to recharge. Feeling good about life again. We will be talking again soon.

My sincere thanks to all my friends and well wishers who not only kept me motivated to keep writing but also suggested ideas and topics. We will soon be discussing them as well.

 

Curing Mediocrity

We have seen various forms of cost cuttings in companies. From shortage of toiletries to laying off people. But I am yet to see a cutting of Mediocrity. In my opinion, it is the single largest reason for loses. Yet its seldom that something is done about it. Many managers seem to accept it as fact of life. I feel that its mediocrity saving mediocrity. If someone is tolerating mediocrity then its a reflection of its own mediocrity. Before you object that your hands are tied. I am ready to discount only those cases where you don’t have authority. But if you have authority yet you tolerate mediocrity then its a clear proof of your own mediocrity.

It is like a virus. It tries to replicate itself. And if your defenses are not as strong, it gets into you. So how to counter it? What should you do when you face it. Before discussing what to do, let me warn you what not to do. Never confront it. The first rule of mediocrity is that you don’t talk about it. Ya am copying that from fight club. But that doesn’t make it wrong. If you tell such a person that he is mediocre, you will not only lose the trust of that person, but also any chance you had of curing him.

So when I meet such a person, first thing I would do is to remember my achievements. The honor, the pride I used to get each time I climbed those stage stairs at my school. That motivates me so much, I can never let mediocrity into myself. This is how we can prevent it. But how to cure it…in others.

Curing Mediocrity

Motivation doesn’t work on losers attitude. That needs to be fixed first. I feel Kick and Carrot is a better option. You force that person to perform. And then reward him (consider him as him/her/it). You make it a cycle, till the person gets used to it. Then even if you remove the Kick, the person will get used to working hard. But before you release the pressure. Its important to motivate the person. So as to charge him enough to continue with hard work.

Sometimes a person is just too lazy. The spark is there. He will work hard but just too lazy to go that extra mile that will make him shine. I really don’t know how to cure laziness because I am myself a lazy person. But I have a tweak for you. Give that person mundane task. That will bore him and then he will start thinking to counter it. Out of his laziness he would then try to find to cut short on the mundane stuff. He will. Remember he is hard working. Before you question me let me clear how a person is lazy yet hard working. Such person will work hard but would be quite lazy to tell anyone. He will continue to slog but won’t do anything to change things. So you need just introduce to change. And make him comfortable with change. That’s why I say, give him very boring task. Then he will try to change it. Make him initiate the changes. And when he reciprocates, reward him, motivate him. Never ever try Kick and Carrot on this person. You will only push him deeper in the quicksand of mediocrity.

 

Think New

Always think of something new; this helps you forget your last rotten idea.

                                                             Seth Frankel

Look at this way. The only way to erase old memories is to create new memory. Now its upto you; what kind of memories you create. Be careful, because they are the only thing that will stay with you….till the very end.