8. Steps That Will Make You Happier

Today there’s solid research on techniques that can increase your happiness and fulfilment in life.

1) Use Your Happiness Autopilot

Researchers at Duke have found that more than 40% of your daily actions are autopilot habits that don’t use up your decision making brain power. So let’s tack a little add-on to one of those ingrained habits.

Here are 2 ideas.

• Before you sleep, think of 1 thing that makes you feel grateful.
•  when you get up in the morning, glance at a photo that makes you feel happy.

What will you choose to add to your autopilot?

2) Choose “Good Enough” Instead of Perfect

Place the motto “good enough is great” in your mind. You’ll be saving time and effort and you won’t be berating yourself since you planned to adhere to your new motto. You can tell yourself, “I know I could do more with more time and more effort but it’s not necessary.” Think of that 60-page report you produced when a 10-pager would have been good enough. Easing up on yourself will add to your happiness.

3) Do What You Love

Don’t say, “When I retire, I’ll do what I love.”  Spend some time doing things you love, even if it’s not your business. Decide when you can devote a little time on a regular basis. Or, is a career change needed?

4) You must decide how To Choose Your Friends

Researchers at Harvard say choosing your friends wisely is one of the most important factors related to happiness. Do you have some friends who sap your energy when you’re around them? Perhaps they’re frequently complaining and reminding you of negative events? Zap these people from your new friend list and replace them with optimistic people who make you feel energized when you spend time with them. And besides spending time with them, spend money with them also (see #5).

5) Spend money with discretion

Michael Norton, Harvard Professor and co-author of Happy Money, says purchasing material items like televisions, clothes, and coffee machines won’t make you happier overall. People are wired to become happier with social connections, so spending your money on experiences with friends will give you the biggest happiness boost. So my advice is, “Spend your money on concert tickets or on a yoga retreat with a friend and enjoy the happiness surge.

6) Enjoy The Funny Side

When we crack a smile—a genuine eye crinkle that researchers call a “Duchenne smile”—our cardiovascular system calms. Laughing takes it one step further partly because it forces us to exhale. Simply exhaling lowers our heart rate and induces feelings of calm.

Smiling releases endorphins, which combat stress hormones. My advice is, “You should practice smiling right now, even if you feel foolish. You’re canceling some of the stress cortisol and you’re increasing your happiness—a double bonus.”

7) Convert Obstacles into Challenges and face them boldly

No one gets through life without encountering obstacles. Each time one pops up, try to convert it as a challenge that you can handle. If you need support, think of a time when you surmounted your fear and successfully took action. Be a problem solver. My advice is, “Say ‘How can I fix this?’ Questioning opens the creative parts of your brain and you may come up with more than one solution.”

8) Random Acts Of Kindness

Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky has shown that practicing acts of kindness gives people a happiness boost. In addition, the recipient becomes happier and this even extends to people who merely observe the act. These acts don’t need to be anonymous, as her research shows. The observers often want to pay it forward.

So please add more acts of kindness to your week and help make the world a happier place.

Happiness is not expensive.

Today, when there is so much of information available on all human emotions and the reasons thereof, no one has any right or reason to be unhappy.
 Actually earlier too, there was never a reason for people to be unhappy. Abraham Lincoln said in the early 19th century that ‘most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.’ However at that time there was no internet, literature was scanty and hardly available. Today, with the internet all the information and the images that one may require to collect about happiness, are easily available.
He informed me that he collected the pictures from Google images. Further, he collected the entire written material from Wikipedia. Please spend some time to look at the pictures and also a few minutes on reading the text which he collected from Wikipedia.

A smiling Rebecca L. Felton0
Research has produced many different views on causes of happiness, and on factors that correlate with happiness, but no validated method has been found to substantially improve long-term happiness in a meaningful way for most people.

Sonja Lyubomirsky concludes in her book The How of Happiness that 50 percent of a given human’s happiness level is genetically determined (based on twin studies), 10 percent is affected by life circumstances and situation, and a remaining 40 percent of happiness is subject to self-control.

The results of the 75 year Grant study of Harvard undergraduates show a high correlation of loving relationship, especially with parents, with later life wellbeing
Psychologist Martin Seligman asserts that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures, and provides the acronym PERMA to summarize Positive Psychology’s correlational findings: humans seem happiest when they have 

1. Pleasure (tasty food, warm baths, etc.), 

2. Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity),

3. Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness),

4. Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger), and

5. Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals

6. Abraham Harold Maslow, an American professor of psychology, founded humanistic psychology in the 1930s. A visual aid he created to explain his theory, which he called the hierarchy of needs, is a pyramid depicting the levels of human needs, psychological, and physical. When a human being ascends the steps of the pyramid, he reaches self-actualization. 

7. Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as peak experiences, profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient, and yet a part of the world. This is similar to the flow concept of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.

8. Self-determination theory relates intrinsic motivation to three needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness

HEALTH

1. Richard Davidson‘s 2012 bestseller The Emotional Life of Your Brain argues that positive emotion and happiness benefit your long-term health. From a study conducted in 2005 by Andrew Steptow and Michael Marmot, findings have found that happiness is clearly related to biological markers that play an important role in health.

2. At University College London, Steptow and Marmot collected health and well-being data from 116 men and 100 women. All 216 participants were middle-aged, British civil servants between the ages of 45 and 59. The researchers aimed to analyze whether there was any association between well-being and three biological markers: heart rate, cortisol levels, and plasma fibrinogen levels. Interestingly, the participants who rated themselves the least happy had cortisol levels that were 48% higher than those who rated themselves as the most happy. The least happy subjects also had a large plasma fibrinogen response to two stress-inducing tasks: the Stroop test, and tracing a star seen in a mirror image.

3.In Happy People Live Longer, Frey reports that happy people live 14% longer, increasing longevity 7.5 to 10 years.

4.Steptow and Marmot furthered their studies by using their participants three years later to repeat the physiological measurements. They found that participants who scored high in positive emotion continued to have lower levels of cortisol and fibrinogen, as well as a lower heart rate.

5.Despite a large body of positive psychological research into the relationship between happiness and productivity, happiness at work has traditionally been seen as a potential by-product of positive outcomes at work, rather than a pathway to success in business. However a growing number of scholars, including Boehm and Lyubomirsky, argue that it should be viewed as one of the major sources of positive outcomes in the workplace.

Six Parameters to Analyze your Audience before Preparing your Speech

Whenever you’re preparing a speech, it is necessary to know your audience thoroughly. After all, you deliver the speech to help your audience in one way or the other. It could be a speech to inform. It could be a speech to convince or influence your listeners. It could also be to entertain the audience. You cannot succeed unless you study the audience beforehand. We have chosen six most important parameters which will enable you to know your audience well enough. These are as follows:

1. How many people will attend?

You need to know approximately how many people you’re going to address. A speech which is meant to be delivered to a small group of 10 people may not be valid, for example, for 40 people. When the no. is small, you have to be personal. This is not possible or feasible if you are speaking to a large crowd. Even the language you may use will have to be different for different groups.

• What is the gender composition of your audience?

It’s also necessary to know the gender composition of the audience. Treatment of your speech should be different for a group of male or female or both mixed males and females. Your message should crafted according the majority of the people you are going to address. The way you handle ladies only group may not be suitable if you’re addressing an all male crowd. Women and men react differently to various topics at most of the time.

• What is the purpose of the speech? Why you have been invited to speak? The general attitude of your listeners should be known to you. This is particularly so when your objective of speech is to convince or persuade. Application of mind on the issue will provide you sufficient information about the reaction of audience. For example if you are addressing an uninformed group, you will have to be more detailed and rather basic in expression. Further, if you expect your audience to be more apathetic or against the subject, you will have to modify your speech accordingly. Such knowledge beforehand will also help you to determine the language and the method of delivery of your speech.
• What is the age group of the audience?

It’s equally necessary to know to which age group your audience belongs. Younger people will react in a certain way to a topic. It may be totally different from the response of elderly audience. If the crowd does not represent a particular age group and has both young and old, you have to write your speech accordingly.

• What is the educational qualifications in general of your audience?

It may also be required to know the formal education of your audience, generally speaking. When the audience is highly educated, they will look for a trainer to speak in their language. Undoubtedly, this will be quite different from the language you will use to address a group of people who may be doing well in life but whose qualifications are much lower. The objective of the speech will not be served if the listeners don’t understand the implications of the message involved.

• Is the audience composed of a specialised group? What is your qualification to address such specific group?

Whenever you are speaking to a group of people who specialize in one subject or the other you have to be sure of many things. Superficial knowledge of the subject will not work. Your definition of the topic should connect with the level of the specialized knowledge that this group may process. More of professional jargon may be expected from you, lest you appear to them too elementary. The language of the specialized group is best used as their own.
All the parameters detailed above will come in handy for formulating an approach which would be most suitable for the audience you are going address.

QUICK VIRTUAL MEETING DO’S & DONT’S

Credit To:

Ms. Shikha Saksena

Advertising and Screen writer

Let me boggle your mind with certain numbers, Zoom video conferencing had 10 million that’s 100 lakh daily participants in December 2019. Can you guess how many daily participants it zoomed to in May 2020, 300 million that’s 3000 lakhs. It’s the fastest growing app worldwide with meeting participants increasing by 2900 percent in 2020. It’s valuation? 100 Billion dollars in the pandemic! That’s 10000 Crores. Now add to this figure the multiple other virtual conferencing sites like Google Meet, Teams, WhatsApp, etc., etc.

Phew! 

Let that settle in.

Welcome to the new world order. Remote working, work from home, these are the only buzz words we hear lately. Pandemic hit all of us real hard. And what it has taken away is the personal interaction. The work day starts early and ends later than late. Like the Burger king ad says “Joe wonders if he is working from home or living at work” These are definitely confusing times. The perks of skipping or bumping into your annoying boss or colleague for only 8 hours at office, are now gone. For them you are just a ping away and now staring at each other, discussing for long hours is part of your daily routine.

Goodbye water cooler chats, gossip sessions and smoke breaks, hello backache, screen fatigue, ear aches and no escape, no falling ill and staying at home. Now before you start feeling too sorry for yourself. You must realise that everyone across the globe is finding it difficult to cope with this. Especially being cooped up in compact houses with parents, kids, armed with masks, sanitizers, WhatsApp forwards! And as Helen Keller pointed out, “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face”, a good motivational quote only this time it means straight at the computer screen. 

So how do we make the WFH better? 

With some good virtual meeting etiquettes. Start with an audible hello or good morning to announce your presence. Greet people with affection, pass on your good vibes. Then mute your microphone so the speaker doesn’t get distracted with noises seeping in from your house. Make your background clutter free, nobody wants to see your hanging clothes, unmade bed and scattered existence. Spare them the eye sore. What do you feel when you see a mismanaged space? Do you frown, feel distracted, uncomfy? Then set up a clean well-lit workspace with the camera placed at your eye level. A nicely painted wall with posters, books, table, vase in the background. Own the space, make it warm, let it reflect your personality. Let a lot of light fall on the face so people can make a connection with you. 

Even if you are working from home now, you must project the best version of yourself. If you dress up well and groom your hair and face, you will feel good about yourself. And this love for yourself will show up in meetings. 

Once you are all set up. Do remember to Be present, just like you would want someone to listen to you intently, you need to respect their time, opinion, so don’t multitask.

Let people finish their point. Don’t interrupt or speak simultaneously, even if your point is important. Make small notes of what is being spoken during the meeting. Put your comment in the chat box, so that you don’t break the flow of the speaker.

If you are new to the team or client, give a small intro on yourself in 30, max 60 secs. Start with your name, position and something that will give your team mates a glimpse of your personality, something to talk about later. Don’t forget to show your team how excited you are to work with them.

Your body language is a big giveaway, especially now when people can see you at long stretches. Sit in a confident posture with your arms resting comfortably. Eating during an e-meet is a big no-no, it is distracting for everyone. Sip on beverages, that’s fine but if you need to eat, ask for permission, turn off your camera and mute your mic. 

Show people that you care for them, ask them about their families, ask them if they need any help. And most of all share a warm smile. Smiles are infectious and that’s the kind of thing you want to pass on to your e-mates.

Now you are ready to zoom in, isn’t it? Let’s do a quick check:

Set up your computer in a well-lit place. 

Make the background appealing.

Be well groomed.

Greet people with affection

Be present, listen intently, don’t multitask.

Do not interrupt, comment in chat.

Project a confident body language.

And most of all smile, it’s infectious.

THE ART OF COPYWRITING

Credit To:

Ms. Shikha Saksena

Advertising and screen writer

Some million years ago, when I told my really old relative I was in advertising and I do copywriting, she asked so what do you have to copy? I was like really, was she living under a rock, this is so prehistoric! This is not happening. I told her advertising is one of the oldest professions and I write ads to sell products. She replied oh you are in sales. The more I explained the more in circles our conversation went. And then I remembered words of Meghan Anderson, VP at HubSpot, “Don’t push people to where you want to be; meet them where they are”.

Post this realization our conversation changed, I explained her differently and soon my relative started recounting famous ads, taglines she loves, she even started singing her favourite jingles to me.

That for me is the first skill as a writer, as an advertising professional you have to develop.

Always try to understand your target audience, how they think, what they do, what they feel and what is their need that your product or service is fulfilling. So, first point ‘Know your audience’.

You can only understand or know your audience if you know what do you have to sell to them, the product, right? So, the topmost point to remember is, ‘The product is your hero’ and so it goes without saying, you need to know everything about your product.

Once you know your product and your audience’s need, it will give you an insight, a breakthrough into the mind of the customer. And if you can fulfill the customer’s emotional need, it’s a home run. Otherwise like David Ogilvy said “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” So, another point ‘What’s the insight?’

Then comes an even more exciting part, The idea. Point no. 4 ‘What do you have to say?’

As a writer, in advertising, your gender, age, status, they all are immaterial, Idea is the only currency that works. Idea is king. Period.

And the icing on the cake is Point no.5 ‘How do you say it?’ This makes me recall what Albert Einstein said “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

Do you remember a brand called De Beers? In 1999 they came up with the most memorable slogan of the 20^th century. Do you know what it was?

‘Diamonds are forever’ This slogan built the diamond industry. It presented the idea that diamond is a necessary luxury. So be it love, proposal, marriage, you have to say it with a diamond.

Closer home no one can ever forget the ‘pakad ke rakhna chodhna nahi’ ad. I am sure you know this. Fevicol. The way they have imprinted in people’s mind ‘ki fevicol aisa jod lagaye koi na tod paye’, the slogan is the fevicol we can never let go off, it’s so strongly entrenched. This is the masterful stroke of Piyush Pandey, who joined O&M as a servicing person but started writing Hindi copy for his clients and soon changed the face of Indian advertising. So, you get it, servicing guy can be a writer

Now. what do you think made these brands, leaders?  Well they sold the idea far more differently from their competitors. Hence always remember Point no.6 ‘Know your competition in & out’ so that you can offer your customer something different.

Now that you know the core, don’t you think you can write? Your task is simpler now that you know why, what and how.

See we humans have been trying to interact, connect, communicate with other humans since time immemorial, be it through nonverbal expressions of sound, gestures or through cave paintings, symbolic scripts.

To communicate, to align the listener to our thought process and convince him of our view point, that content is already thought out by us in our mind.

Our mind has already written the first text, first copy, of what we are looking to convince the listener about. Whether you verbalize the same or write it on paper, I guess it is safe to say you already are a copywriter. Isn’t it? So, you don’t have to become a writer, a copywriter, you already are.

Now let’s get the ball rolling, let’s see some iconic ads and then, we will all write an ad.

I will give you a brief, yes, I know it sounds strange when the client servicing personnel comes to us dangles the client’s brief. And then we creative lot have to find creative ways to sell that brief.

So, the brief: Baker’s Delight bakes soft, fresh bread and would like to make it to the breakfast table, tiffin box, picnic basket of every family. It is a whole wheat bread, made with health, hygiene and affordability in mind, it costs 20 rupees for 12 slice pack. And its competition is Wibs.

While writing remember the things we discussed

‘The product is your hero’

‘Know your audience.’

‘What’s the insight?’

‘What do you have to say?’

‘How you say it?’

And

‘Know your competition in & out’

Also, never forget the words of Ernest Hemingway, ‘Write drunk, edit sober’.  Of course, many amongst us would think that hey that’s a great start, let me pour myself a drink. I know I would have. But hang on what the amazing Hemingway was saying is be drunk with passion when you write and when it’s time to edit, be sober, be detached from the words so that only those remain, that, which are relevant. Editing is nothing but rewriting. Because the craft of writing is arranging the words in perfect symphony so that it feels soulful. The art of writing, like any other art is simply to love what you do.

 How can you to be more efficient and productive using the ABC model of Attitude?

Do you believe that God exists? What’s your opinion on politics? What are your favorite pizza toppings? These questions may be seemingly unrelated, but it’s likely you have strong opinions about all three of these topics. Developing opinions and forming likes and dislikes about everything around us are part of our daily lives. These attitudes affect the way we live and the choices we make.

Attitudes can be defined as evaluations of ideas, events, objects, or people. Attitudes are generally positive or negative, but they can also be uncertain at times. For example, sometimes we have mixed feelings about a particular issue or person. Regardless, attitudes are an important topic of study for social psychologists because they help determine what we do – what we eat, how we vote, what we do with our free time, and so on.

Every attitude has three components that are represented in what is called the ABC model of attitudes: A for affective, B for behavioral, and C for cognitive. Although every attitude has these three components, any particular attitude can be based on one component more than another.

In other words, each component can also be the answer to the question: where does an attitude come from? There are affectively-based attitudes, behaviorally-based attitudes, and cognitively-based attitudes.

Structure of Attitudes

Attitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.

One of the underlying assumptions about the link between attitudes and behavior is that of consistency. This means that we often or usually expect the behavior of a person to be consistent with the attitudes that they hold. This is called the principle of consistency.

The principle of consistency reflects the idea that people are rational and attempt to behave rationally at all times and that a person’s behavior should be consistent with their attitude(s).

Affective Component

Affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

It is related to the statement which affects another person.

It deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface about something, such as fear or hate. Using the above example, someone might have the attitude that they love all babies because they are cute or that they hate smoking because it is harmful to health. The affective component refers to the emotional reaction one has toward an attitude object. Think of someone – we’ll name her Alice – who has ophidiophobia (a phobia of snakes). A snake is an attitude object. Whenever Alice is exposed to a snake – whether she sees one or thinks about one – she feels extreme anxiety and fear.

Behavioral Component

Behavioral  component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to behave in a particular way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intention of a person in short run or long run.

Using the above example, the behavioral attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’, or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc.

Cognitive Component

The cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. It refers that part of attitude which is related in general knowledge of a person.

Typically these come to light in generalities or stereotypes, such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’ etc.

Attitude in Organisational Behaviour

Viewing attitudes as made up of three components – cognition, affect and behaviour– is helpful toward understanding their complexity and the potential relationship between attitude and behaviour. The object of an attitude is represented as a prototype in a person’s memory. Then an individual uses an attitude as a schema for evaluating an object. The person may assess the object as good or bad, positive or negative, favoured or not; then the person determines the strategy to take toward it. The accessibility of an attitude, or ease with which it is activated, affects its implementation. Personal experience with the object and the repeated expression of the attitude increases it accessibility. In this way, attitude-related information helps process complex information.

How to get best results from social media

The rise of social media has raised many questions. Is it good for developing the talent or otherwise? Do people know how to leverage the very effective platforms? Is social media being miss used? Is social media heading to the credibility or influence of celebrities? And a lot more!

This is what I feel about social media:

Befooling people in the age of social media is losing one’s own credibility. Social media is a platform where an ordinary man can express himself/herself without spending any money or without using any influence. One doesn’t have to depend on anyone in power to use the media. Because, no power is controlling it. Should the owners of any popular site decide to exercise any control or should they try to create some kind of influence on any issue, this is bound to be construed as personal agenda. Personal Agenda is against the spirit of Social media. 
Social media is fast growing only because it is free and fair. Regarding freedom, I reiterate that if there were no freedom of expression, Social Media would never have achieved the popularity it has gained in such a short time. Another very important factor in its favour is that it is participative. Anyone can start a discussion, contribute to the existing one; start a group or join one already there. Besides, it is not just confined to exchange of views or ideas. We can share pictures, movies, audio/video files etc. Undoubtedly, Social Media encourages to be social, to be creative and effective. It is a boon in this Brave New World.

Earlier, Television gained its popularity because of the ease of entertainment without the arduous task of going out to the theatre one can watch a programme news or even a movie: all sitting in the comfort of your home. But it took quite some time. Where television swayed the mind of people, lots of program producer emerged. Training institutes for training programme producers also came into being. The channel owners provided the infrastructure and producers created such programmes as would engage the audience. Producers who applied their mind and understood the audience likes and dislikes could make such serials which continued for years. But there is a rub. Some people did find that these serials offer no value and were a ploy to engage them. The TV was termed an idiot for which I consider it is.
But so far as Social Media is concerned, it is also engagement, but it is of a different kind. Here each person becomes a participant if he/she desires to be one. There are always group of people who share their views. There are people who have comments to offer. And as said above, it is not limited to discussions. Sharing of pictures, videos, knowledge on different subjects are both engaging and entertaining. It is for each one of us to make full use of this unique Free Gift.

Prime Qualities of  Leaders in Pandemic Era!

Leadership Skills in times of Pandemic

The leader has to be adaptable. He must change according to the environment and challenges of the time.
We all know that COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a paradigm change in our world. More so in our workplace needs, and habits.

The three most important attributes or qualities that a leader must focus on can be explained by 3 letters: B C I. What do these represent?

1. Letter B stands for Beliefs and values
2. C stands for Creating line leaders
3. I stands for Influencing

Now let me elaborate each of these three.

1. Beliefs & Values

It necessary for the leader to infuse beliefs & values among the team members more than ever before. When people come to the office, they are working in an environment which ensures that focus is on work. However, when they work from home that is not possible. At home, distractions disturb them in spite of their effort against it. Therefore, cordial polite reminders of the leader’s Belief and the work-values will play a pivotal role in improving productivity.People who are not used to working from home have to be continuously motivated to maintain focus. So relying on beliefs and values help people maintaining focus when they work from home.

2. Create Line leaders

Secondly, it’s necessary for the leader to infuse leadership qualities among the team members. It means that the leader has to inspire team members to be more responsible and accountable. They should get full credit for what they do and there should be some kind of competitive spirit among team members in order that they can see themselves as stars. In other words it means that the leader is creating leaders; that the focus is not on exercising authority but only on creating more leaders. Since all are working from home each participant needs to think that he/she must take up leadership role himself or herself. This is the only way the productivity can be achieved in spite of the distractions of home working.

3. Influence instead of Instruction

Thirdly, it is necessary for the leader to influence his team members more than ever, rather than instructing them or advising them. Instruction or advice is okay when you are face to face. It’s okay when you are physically available to be monitored. However working from home does not allow face-to-face meetings. It gives a kind of weird independence to the person who works from home. Policing by the leader is never recommended but in the current scenario it is not even possible. So its necessary to inspire the team members to influence them to work with their own motivation. Your leadership is measured on a scale which has different parameters now. Understanding this the leader must become expert in influencing his team members to work to live up, to their own expectations.

Without doubt, in the new normal of Pandemic era, new principles of infusing beliefs, inspiring your people to emerge as mini leaders and relying on influencing more than instructing need to be adopted.

The 3 Key Points To Consider In Realising The Life Changing Goals:

setting your goals is both an art and a science; above all it requires great application of   mind.

First, you must write down your goals in clear specific language. Then Start with not only visualizing but also seeing your goals as clearly as you have written down. For example, if your goal is to go to Italy and visit Venice, activate your imagination and see that you are in a boat in Venice. Likewise, if you want to buy a specific expensive car say BMW, you should imagine or see yourself riding the BMW. You have to figure out that the sense of believing that you have already achieved the goal is to start looking at it.

Goals should be set in all your specs of life. For example you must set your career goals, financial goals, family goals, health goals, social goals, recreational goals and spiritual goals. Among these whatever you have already specified is fine but the balance aspects of life also need to be covered. Therefore spend some time to set your goals. These goals have to be realistic. The best test for the goals is that they should be SMART.

1. S stands for specific.
2. M stands for measurable.
3. A stands for achievable.
4. R stands for realistic.
5. T stands for time bound.

 Unless you write time bound goals and devise in detail the plan of action, these goals will be just wishes.

1, Face Obstacles:

Firstly you need to understand the obstacles. If all things were very easy then nobody would need to create goals, write goals or work hard to achieve them. Things are not easy and they will never be easy. Once you see yourself achieving your specific goal, then you sit down and work out what are the kind of obstacles you might face. There will definitely be some obstacles, which you can visualize. And one more important thing to remember is that as you move forward towards achieving your goal, some unexpected obstacle will also come which you will have to conquer. It is only your determination, your decision and your perseverance that you will some way or the other help achieve the goal that you have already imagined.

You can beat any obstacle with grit, determination and perseverance when required. Create a mental picture that the obstacles are coming and you are conquering all the obstacles. Imagine that there is an athlete who is running an obstacle race, while he is running fast; he is also crossing the obstacles. Likewise, now that you know what kind of obstacles will come, you imagine crossing those obstacles, picture yourself conquering those obstacles and still carrying on with your mission.

2. Clear all Doubts

Many doubts can arise in your mind. It is normal. However, clear all the doubts, clear your mind of all doubts which often come, which are quite natural. You say to yourself, nothing doing, no such doubts will stop me from achieving my goal. I have a clear picture of achieving my goal, I am determined and I have created a mental picture of conquering my obstacles. Therefore, there is no doubt that I can do it. The goal itself is a challenge. And all the obstacles that you face while pursuing the goal, will also be kind of smaller challenges. Face the challenge. It is an opportunity which will definitely enhance your courage, which will give you more will power to pursue and to be successful. Stay on track. Keep up on the track following the same thing, which you have defined and seeing yourself achieving it. There should be no diversion. Staying on track will definitely make it easier for you to overcome the obstacles and reach your goal. Eventually show the world you can do it.

As I say, SUCCESS stands for,

1. S See your goal
2. U Understand the obstacles
3. C Create positive mental pictures
4. C Clear your mind of self-doubts
5. E Embrace the challenges to face them boldly
6. S Stay on track
7. S Show the world you can do it.

When the goal is a big project, define it and write it down. Then have a very strong desire for it. That is the kind of motivation, which is necessary to follow the steps that I have already mentioned.

3. Make goals Time Bounds

Believe in yourself; that you can do it and then you will do it. If it is an arduous task and a big project, split it up. Split it into smaller goals and then give a time line to those smaller goals. You must review these every day. You have to review what you have done. You have to check if you have come up to your expectations or not. This step is extremely important. Schedule it, add a timeline to all smaller goals and then do it.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is crucial for a significant life. When you want to do something important, When you want to contribute something to the society, When you want to progress and achieve your goals in life; all such situations demand critical thinking. Without your ability and habit, to think critically you are not able to solve even day to day problems. How can you then pursue the path of excellence? How can you participate in the development of the organisation for whom you are working?. How can you promote your own business, if you are an entrepreneur? And, how can you enhance your status if you are a professional?

Traditionally, critical thinking would prescribe activities like observation, analysis, inference, communication and problem solving. Undoubtedly the complexity of life forms a major headache. Let’s see how can we handle it effectively.

In order that you easily remember these varied activities, we have devised a simplified system by which you have to remember the simple word, SEARCH when it comes to critical thinking.

Let’s examine how this common place word SEARCH empowers us to develop the habit of critical thinking and help us change our life. So, what does SEARCH stand for?

S stands for study 

E stands for enquiry

A stands for argument

R stands for ramble

C stands for communication 

H stands for “Headache Gone”.

Let’s start with S for Study:

Whenever there is a problem and you want to make your best decision study the problem. It requires critical thinking. The first step is to understand the problem from all angles. You need to thoroughly study it before you proceed to take the next step. Open ended questions with WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW, WHEN, WHY. These questions will through light on the problem from all angles. You will fully understand it. This study will enable you to understand the problem fully. 

The second step is Enquire.  You need to know what are the possibilities of the solutions which are feasable  and practical.  This can only be done when you ,make a detailed analysis of the problem. Your enquiry on various components of the issue will enable you to make a detailed analysis. Thus the enquiries you make will show you the various possibilities of the reasons as well as the solutions.  Undoubtedly, it will reduce you headache about the problem to some extent as you will see the ray of hope. 

The third step is arriving at an argument. It means that from the study and enquiry the assumption or inference that you can derive. This will take you closer to the solution. The data which you have collected in  the above two steps   will help you form the base of your final argument.

The fourth is ramble. It means the possible ways things can go wrong. As they say, as per Murphy’s Law, even when you plug all visible loopholes still a new will emerge and things will go wrong.  So therefore Rambling or observing disruptions is necessary. This is a kind of acting as a devils advocate. This is useful when the stakes are very high.

The fifth step is communication with all concerned wherever necessary. The communication can be verbal, non verbal written and audio visual.  Share and receive information with other verbally, non – verbally and in writing.

 The last step is reaching the solution or we might say ‘ Headache Gone’. This process of problem solving by analysing communicating information, by studying the various angles, by understanding all the possible handicaps one can be sure of achieving the best  possible solutions. 

So whenever you have to take an important decision or you face an unexpected challenge, follow the above six steps and remember the simple word SEARCH.