I would suggest and say that there is lot of it or atleast believe that there is lots of it. People today connect more with others, there is lot more love, sharing and caring in this world.

And sometimes with these things around also people want to satisfy themselves and be happy by buying it rather than feeling and living it. These are the reasons why i say that you can find happiness without buying it.

Happiness is just a State of Mind: Remember happiness is just a STATE of MIND. Imagine you are feeling dull or not at your best and then you see a long lost friend then what would happen? You step into a state of happiness and start recalling many happy things that happened in the past with the friend. Or say you are sad and then you see a darling little child, you start playing with it, how do feel?

If you don’t have money?: Everyone in the world does not have enough money to buy materialistic things that make them happy. So does that mean that the poor ones are not happy. So you cannot actually buy happiness.

Happiness is just a Choice: You can be happy this moment. Have a smile on your face now and thinking of happy people, your happy moments and happy life. (Don’t just read this, do this small exercise now…). Did you feel happy. Why? It is just a choice that you make. What you want to focus on? You can always crib about things not happening the way you want and at the same time also be happy that many things are happening itself. Which do you think is a better choice?

Have you felt jealous about some people who always tend to be happy? How do they do it? Simple, they know that Happiness is a State of mind and that nothing can buy it and importantly they make a choice to be happy. So BE HAPPY ALWAYS

Here are the differences that I feel in the mindset of Successful and Unsuccessful people.

1. Unsuccessful people lack of Will – Successful people have the will in them to always pursue their goal irrespective of what happens and what setbacks that take place. Its that indomitable will that actually guides them towards the goal on whatever happens and whatever challenges that come their way. People who are not successful are not ready to face the challenges head on.

2. Successful people take responsibility and control their destiny – Successful people do not give any excuses or point fingers to others and they feel that they are in total control of their destiny. They do not want others to control their life especial when the results are not what they want. They take the responsibility and work towards the change.

3. Success is a Must for Successful people – For the unsuccessful people success is just a wish or a want. They do not put themselves on the line while successful people put themselves on the line and make sure that they make success MUST for them. They do not let anything a wish to have, or a like to have but for them its a MUST have.

4. Unsuccessful people get carried away and lose focus – I call these people are opportunity hoppers. They do not focus on the goals and what has to be done for their goals. They get easily distracted and lose their focus. When they lose their focus they do not take action on their goals that they are supposed to and in the process never get to what they want.

5. Focus on the Solutions and not the Challenges – Successful people focus on the solutions and not the challenges and hence there is a lot of positive feel in them. when you focus on the challenges (Problems as many people call them), there is only a negative feeling and hence it drain the resources and the abilities to find solutions.

6. Live disciplined lives and stick to the commitment – Successful people always live disciplined and act with integrity. Come what may they keep up their word and do what they are supposed to do. For them their commitments are more important than anything else and hence they reach their goals easily.

7. Successful people take Failures in their stride – Failures are feedback for them and not a setback. They are capable of handling failures and learn to make the right choices on how to react to the failures than getting bogged down.

8. Successful people invest on themselves – They make personal development a must and are humble and ready to learn from everyone. They don’t feel that they are the best always and are ready to learn. Self development is a priority for them.

If you look at the above 8, it just says that Success is about the Mindset and when you carry the right mindset you too can take your life to the next level. None of the above said has anything to do with the field you are in, or the skills that you posses to be a the best. Its your attitude, your mindset and your ability to feel in control of your life.

What Sachin has just done is something even more bigger I would say. Usually people in the world of sport don’t hang around for a long time. Their body does not respond to them the way they want to and does not help to be on top. But this great man again proving that its just a mindset and going out to achieve the top. Not just the top, a record which probably will be etched for a long long time and something that is not going to be so easily beaten.

A 100, 100′s. Is it a feat, a record, an achievement? What do you call that? Look back for a moment and forget the numbers. 100, 100′s is a feat, is an achievement, but if you just cloud that number in your mind, who is this man Sachin Tendulkar?

Does he has super natural powers, does he posses some talents that he was born with or he is like we call like a new Avatar? When people in his present team were barely born and were crawling babies or some may be not even born he started playing cricket for the nation and has made him reach the top?

Several factors which we know is what made him what he is told. I guess enough has been told about his dedication, his hard work etc. And that is what is being said time and again and is there anything different that I am writing here? Well I don’t think so as those are the few qualities that really made a difference.

Even a small boy he used to do that. Practice 14 to 15 hrs non stop and literarily drop down on the dinning table. When kids at his age usually have other things that they get carried away, he used to play cricket, not as a hobby or a pastime but as passion and ensure that the 1 Rs. coin that the coach would give to the boy who gets Sachin’s wicket on the nets was always retained by him.

These are what really made Sachin what he is told. Now we can feel happy and proud about Sachin, but then what do we take forward from there?

I started this article asking is Sachin the new Roger Bannister. Definitely yes. Similar to us, he did look up to people and got the inspiration from them to achieve what he has achieved today. So we too can the same inspiration from him. We too can learn whatever lessons that we can from this great man and emulate or forget emulate follow them at least.

Sachin when he started was not different from anyone of us. Today may be he is like the greatest of all but when he started he was just a young boy. So those people out there, learn from Sachin. Not just cheer and be happy about his achievements and get emotional when he is playing (Oh yeah I do get totally involved when i watch him play.. hehe) follow his foot steps. Not literally in the game of cricket but in your own life, in your area of Expertise.

Be the Sachin Tendulkar, In years to come many people may hit several 200′s in one day games, may be few may even his 100+, 100′s but who created that phenomenon? Its Sachin Tendulkar.

Quoting Shakespeare – Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

So what is Sachin? I allow you ponder over that and let him be a force of inspiration and motivation for your Success in Life! Live a Greater Life!

What is Passion?

I love my job.. and so do many people and does that mean Passion? The word passion is most of the time misunderstood or taken to what do you like doing. Well if you ask people what do you like doing then it would be sleeping, eating, resting, for the kids playing computer games and so on. So is that what is passion?

So what exactly is passion?

I time and again tell people that do what you are passionate about or do what you are passionate about. Well I also know that its easier said than done. So what is that you must do?

A few quick points to understand your passion.

1. If you don’t have to work for money and you just have to spend time adding some value to the society what will you do. You know why i wrote the later part is because when i ask people if you have enough money in the bank and you don’t have to work for money, they say they would prefer to sit at home because they are so much bugged in life of what they have been doing over several years. And also they would not realize how boring and dull life would become if they stop working all of a sudden. So this is one of the ways to identify your passion

2. The 2nd possible indicator of passion is, rather than waking up in the morning and getting out of bed, is there something that will help you to jump out of your bed. Then it just means that you are passionate and excited about that work and that should be your passion.

Remember a passion is something that should excite you. When will you be excited if when your performance is good and when your performance be good, when you excel in some area of life. So the secret to passion is also to understand your strength and improve on that more to be able to be the best. Remember people who are successful are not just passionate but also excel in their field. So to be passionate excel in an area of life. Make that your passion and be at the top.

Dream Big : The first way to break out of the comfort zone is to dream big. Let your dreams be so big that you have that courage and motivation to work on it every day. Like Dr. Kalam says Dream is not what you see when you sleep…It’s the thing which does not let you sleep”.

Do with Passion: The reason why many people slip into the comfort zone is lack of passion. When there is passion there is then there is a never ending thirst to always be the best at it. So do things with lot of passion. Either you do what you are passionate about or be passionate about what you do.

Self Belief: A strong sense of self belief will help you to believe that you can manage things quite well even when you step out of the comfort zone. Belief that you can do it, the belief that things will be great and that all is for a purpose are useful beliefs to carry and move on.

Learn to take failures: Never fear failure because it may even happen to you when you are in the comfort zone. So be ready to take failures are feedback, as learning lessons and continue your journey breaking the comfort zone.

Make Mistakes: Its quite fine to make mistakes. End of it you do not do it willingly and just unwillingly and hence they would just be a slip and not a big mistake which you can learn to bounce back.

Stay there: Make sure that you can stay there longer and ensure that your goal is reached as you step out of comfort zone. At no point in time its worth to get back to your comfort zone. So Persist.

Step out of your Comfort Zone !

It is during these tough times that you need that strong will and strong power within to sustain them and move on. So how you handle these tough situations.

1. Hold on – Remember that is most important aspect. Hold on for some more time because you never know whats the solution and for all you know you might just spark off with a solution immediately. So why give up when the gold mine may just be one step away.

2. Be Grateful – It may not be something that easy to do during the tough times but it is important. Rather than saying “Why Me”, ask yourself what all gifts do you have in your life and how can you make use of them?

3. Find the ultimate purpose – When you really know the true purpose of what you are doing, you will really find the way to handle the tough times. Those are the moments when you will have the strongest will to ensure that you hang on and do whatever it takes to come out successful of the situation in place. Finding the purpose will give the true and real meaning of the situation in hand

4. Things will change – Realize that things will change. The same cannot sustain for the rest of your life. There is a time when you will be out of the adversity and have a much more peaceful and joyful life and its important to understand that things will change.

5. Have Faith and Belief – Have total faith and belief that you are capable of handling things and that you will find the a solution. If you playing a role (in whatever capacity either at home or at work) things have been given to you because you can handle it. So have the self belief that you will be able to overcome the difficult times and things will change.

I would not call Tough times as tough, I would call it as Testing times and when someone is testing me I would like to prove that I am capable to handling it. So allow yourself to go through the testing times and come out as a Champ.

Self Discipline is the ability to get yourself to take some action in the most consistent manner. it does go a long way in many things in life. This is what i keep telling kids when they want to be disciplined. Discipline is something that you don’t like doing but is something useful for you.

For example you may not like waking up at 6 am in the morning but then it is useful for many. You may be tempted to eat that extra bit of chocolate cake or anything similar but then not succumbing to that and making sure you stick to whats useful is what is discipline. Being able to hit the gym consistently is discipline.

Discipline comes with understanding what controls them. Its like how you build a muscle in your body. You may not do it overnight but then you do it consistently over a period time and then only your muscle builds. So how do you build it?

Step 1: Understand yourself.

‘I know myself’ is what probably you are sounding now. But trust me you may know your likes, dislikes, your behaviors etc. which are only conscious. You may not be aware of many things that you act and react subconsciously. When you want to wake up in the morning, but then you just pull the blankets over your head and sleep again (don’t ask me Praveen how do you know what i do? hehe) you do it subconsciously even without your knowledge. This is what i am mean by understand yourself. Look at what is that you must have to break to ensure that you will turn out to be disciplined.

Step 2: Develop the Mindset

Create the will power in you that you can actually make it happen and that you will be disciplined. If for example if you say that you can never wake up early in the morning come what may you can never do that. Instead make it a point to accept and believe in yourself that you can also do it. That way you will find all possible ways to be more disciplined. Find out references for yourself where you have been disciplined. Understand this metaphor, your body has been disciplined in the sense that your heart beats in the most disciplined way, so is all otter parts of the body. So you have been used to being disciplined, may be you just need to train yourself in other areas also.

Step 3: Break the Trigger and create a new pattern

This is by far the most important thing for you to do. You need to find out from step 1 as to what is that particular thing that is not helping to be disciplined. If for example you want to wake up in the morning every day then look at what is that trigger that is not helping to do the same. It could be the bed that you sleep on or the alarm that rings. So you must quickly change that a create a new pattern that will force you to wake up in the morning. Look at all the positive and negative consequences of you not waking up in the morning (in this example). Look at the consequences of not being disciplined in the area that you want then you would automatically have the right force and the push to be more disciplined.

Step 4: Stick to Step 3 and practice

Everything comes with practice and make the more you do the better it gets. You can make anything a habit if only you do things repeatedly. When you do something for a long time then you ought to do it the next day as well. For example if you take a particular route to the office and then you follow that every day, and on a holiday when you want to go somewhere else, you pick yourself up to take the route to your office? Right? You are so much conditioned for the same. So the best is it make it a point to do it every day. Then you will make things a habit. Even if you do it for 7 days with great difficulty then firstly your mind begins to accept that its possible for you and you can do it, and secondly you body also starts acting accordingly and when the mind and the body are in sync then you get disciplined automatically.

Make it a point to do it every day and make sure that you are disciplined. Successful people have been disciplined in life and it is easy for you as well.

Discipline is the defining fire by which talent becomes ability – Roy Smith

People always ask me, Do I need to have a resolution. It may not be a must for you to have a resolution but then I feel it gives more strength and power when you have New Year Resolutions.

The word resolution is from the word Resolve. So we have so many things to resolve from the past year and apply them and make changes in the them in the future.

Few Reasons why New Year Resolutions work

1. Self Motivation and Self Inspiration – When you have a resolution for yourself then you know that its your choice and not someone else. You push yourself to ensure that you have your resolution achieved. This is quite important for you because you know you have done it and its for yourself that you set on a special day.

2. A lot of clarity – New Year resolutions give in a lot of clarity of though and action. You start dissecting your past and look at things that you have not done and hence a great self reflection for yourself. That is the time when you know the pros and cons of what you have done and what you have not and hence gives you clarity to ensure that you take consistent action

3. A great opportunity – New Year Resolutions are always a great opportunity for you to Architect your life. This is the time you can mould the life you want to especially when you are in the mode of celebration and your mind is in a super high state. This is the time to be positive and hence look at all the possibilities.

So set your resolutions and importnat make sure its for yourself so that you will consistently take action. All the best and here is Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

What drives people are 2 things, Pain and Pleasure. With smoking the Pleasure component is so high that unless its negated with something so painful will not help him come out of the habit. Most drivers in Dubai come here with the intention of giving the best for the family. So is Mr. X, and he has 2 children, a 5 year old boy and a 3 month old girl. So I had my trump card to play with and started asking him how will it be if he orphaned his children (I know this is quite raw but I had to give him a painful experience).
He was shaken for a second. Becuase he was in blaming the govenment, stating that why are allowing smoking when they are not allowing drugs. So I simply asked him, ‘The government also does not allow suicide and still people do, so it lies in individuals to define whats right and whats not! I wanted to scare him a little more on the consequneces of smoking, and then told him if knew how the lungs look like? He was not sure, so picked my phone and drew the lungs with holes in it. I told him in normal lungs there are no holes and since he is burning them down with smoke, a few months later that how his lungs will be. All this shook him a little and then decided to push him more!

My collegeue then said stop it now! Well thats one big challenge many people face! Not taking Action on time. My collegeue was really pushing him to stop now! Now that was a challenge for me to make him accept the change instantly. Thats when I believe that the Brain works at a great speed if you want to! So I just gave him a metphor to keep him in a fix. Tomorrow never happens.

NLP always told me this, Speak in the others persons language. The example I gave him was this. Assume that your are driving and see a truck crossing and what do you at that moment? So here is a conversation that we had (Mr. X – The Driver, PS – Praveen Sherman)

Mr. X – I apply the brakes
PS – and how quickly
Mr. X – Immediately
PS – what would happen if you do it after 5 mins
Mr. X – an accident and crash
PS – and?
Mr. X – probably even die
PS – So what do you stop smoking? Now or later?

So I was expecting the next one. How about reducing it to one or two? So I continued the conversation

PS – Shall I give you some few drops of poison? Just half a spoon?
Mr. X – Oh no!
PS – So coming back to the same thing, if you see a truck when you do brake?
Mr. X – immediately
PS – so what happens if you brake only half? Do not brake fully, so what are the consequnces
Mr. X – crash and accident.

By this time I felt that I had almost won him and made him undergo that split second choice. Remember Changes always happens in a Heart Beat!

PS – Hold the Brakes now and full! And if you have a cigaratte now give it to me! (not for me, but to throw it out )

So he handed over one to me, I did felt good at that moment for making a difference in this guy. Pray for this guy for him to stop smoking for ever. I told him to call his wife and tell her that he has stopped. That will give him a better push!

A request to all those who smoke, you know what to do Wishing you all a wonderful 2010!

This is a great way to start a New Year! I am gifted to have helped him and I am sure more in the future! Welcome 2010!

I have always been a great fan of Micheal Jackson and then when I started training I had him as a model because of the kind of energy what he has on stage. He is simply superb.

And after the movie I could learn more about this great man. I would want to see the best things that this man did and learn from him. This movie was some of his rehearsals that he did for his final tour. And just 8 days before he was to go for it, he died.

1. Humility – So humble he was during his rehearsals. For the man he is he can have so much ego in him. But he is cool and humble. He has the humility to say, I am not able to hear things properly and not say you guys dont sound proper

2. Passion – At the age of 50 he still dances with the same passion. He did not look tired even for a minute.

3. Intensity – Oh.. you just need to feel it.

4. Perfection – He exactly know what he is doing and is a perfectionist. Even a small change in the sound he immediately pointed it out. And he did not move on till it was 100% perfect. I was wondering how he did it and thats when my friend told me “thats why he is MJ”. How true right, but we too can do it.

5. Energy – There is no doubt that the only reason he is so powerful is his energy. And at 50 he has the same energy as he was 25 years ago. When the Thriller Song was rehearsed I was just oozing in energy and he exactly does the same way he did when it was shot 25 years ago.

6. Compassionate – he went and hugged all dancers, technicians. He did not throw any tantrums and was really compassionate and loving. And thats what he said to all. Pass on your Love to everyone

7. Challenges himself – He was put in a crane to reach towards the audience and give them a great feel. So he alighted the crane and the director tells him, be careful and this is only half the height that it can. MJ immediately tells everyone “This guys is teasing me and he knows that I want to go higher”. Thats what he has always wanted

8. Think Big – Everyone who works with him believe that he is a big thinker. He wants the best of  everything and never compromises on his desires

9. Walk the Talk – When he makes a mistake he immediately accepts and corrects them. Thats what makes other do their best. (if you just stand next to him I think u’ll start feeling his energy in you. He just vibrates with so much enthusiasm and energy). And after a small mistake when he stops and the directors asks if he wants to practice again, he just says “Thats what rehearsals are supposed to be”

10. Social Awareness – He is not just singing what he likes or what others like. He says in the movie the he loves plants and nature and how we must protect them

11. Performer – Its just not important to know what you are doing, its equally important that whatever you do, do it differently and effectively. No one can beat his creativity.

I am going to live the above and if not be MJ, be close to what he has achieved. MJ we miss you.

Live your Passion