Monday morning blues

Everybody has problems on Monday morninsg. Beginning of the new week, all unfinished work from the previous week, time wasted during the week end, all the work we wanted to do over the weekend but never did, all come together. On top of it, if you get any new personal or other problems (say flat tire or a minor accident) on Monday morning, it feels like the whole world is out to get you. They say 'black Monday' for a reason. Majority of the heart attacks in the work place are reported to occur between 9 AM and 11 AM on Mondays. You can verify part of this information at - http://www.bluehealthadvantagene.com/information/index.php?contentid=241. It does not state the time window. But, some other source on the internet has that information too. Following is from the above link.

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Black Monday Syndrome

More fatal heart attacks occur on Monday than on any other day of the week. Why? It’s called Black Monday syndrome. How could our hearts know what day of the week it is?

You’re feeling trapped — out of control, not challenged and stressed from your job. Fix these and even the phenomenon of Black Monday can be overcome, although the so-called solution to fixing stress is not that simple. Stress-causing conditions at work and at home can contribute to your overall sense of loss of control.

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A quotation comes to mind - "Everybody has problems on Monday mornings. Smart people also have Monday morning problems but they are working on next Monday morning's problems."

This quotation was said with respect to project managers. But, I think anybody can relate to that. Only way to avoid monday morning blues is to plan ahead and get work done well in advance. If we use Fridays and if required Thursdays well to plan for the next week or at least part of next week, we can avoid many problems on Monday. One effective way is to block out time on your calendar on every Thursday and Friday to plan your next week. If required, plan to do some work over the weekend so that you can start Monday in as relaxed mode as possible.

Cheers!

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Talents

"We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts." - Madeleine L'Engle

Similar quotation that comes to mind is - "what you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God."

Another one is -"your knowledge is only as deep as your action."

We may be able to take some credit for our talents. If we have worked hard for them, we can take some credit for them. If a musician  has practiced day and night for many years, I think it is fair to let him or her bask in glory a bit. Denying that does not seem very fair. So, talents acquired by one's hard work deserve some leniency. Others are merely circumstantial. For such talents and characteristics, we can only be thankful and not proud.

I think somebody said - "I am not concerned about my talents. I am more concerned about the talents that I have but do not know." This is so true. We are many times not aware of our talents at all. Only way to figure them out is to keep doing different things. Some things click and some do not. Some things we enjoy and some things we do not. That's how we figure out where our talents are.

Talent needs to be nurtured. Innate talent goes only so far. If we want a talent that serves us well then we need to practice a lot. Some great musician said -"If I do not practice for a month, my audience will notice. If I do not practice for a week, my family will notice. If I do not practice for a day, I will notice."

Cheers!

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Pennies and dollars

"Politeness and consideration for others is like investing pennies and getting dollars back." - Thomas Sowell

Politeness, I think, many of us understand fairly well. Consideration? Not sure. Suppose, you walk into a room full of strangers who are busy with something and nobody raises their head to acknowledge that you have walked in. How does that feel? It feels weird. Is it not? I say those people did not show any consideration to you at all. Not saying that they did anything wrong. But, consideration was not there. If even one of them raises their head, looks at you and smiles at you, you feel so much better. Now they have shown you some consideration. I write about this because this comes to my mind as one very common situation when we miss showing consideration to others.

Granted, you are very busy with something. But, taking a moment to acknowledge the stranger and asking a simple question 'how may I help you?' goes a long way. The stranger may have a simple question. Or he may be lost in the building or something. It is hard for him or her to face a group of strangers who seem to be very busy with something.

Another thing is we also have to be careful so that we do not feel that we did not get any consideration at all. Sometimes we are not sensitive to people's schedule and drop in without any announcement or prior appointment. That upsets people. If you develop such a habit, people think showing no consideration to you is the only way to get rid of you. So, plan your work  and the time you need from others. If you work that way, chances are good that you will receive consideration. "Your lack of planning does not constitute urgency on my part."

Another aspect of consideration is what  I call consideration from facilitators and leaders. Sometimes as a meeting facilitator you have to make it a point to remember quieter type of people of the group.You have to make an extra effort to bring such people into dialog. They appreciate that too. Just prod them gently and they will open up. If you, as a meeting facilitator, do not show this consideration, then you are going to miss on important inputs that quieter people may have. It is for you to lose. You may only get the inputs of loud mouthed people which may lead to biased decision making.

Another aspect of consideration is remembering and acting on your promises. If you commit to doing something for someone, either deliver as committed or renegotiate your commitment well in advance. We all make commitments in good faith. Sometimes after we start working on them, they seem to take longer. That's the time to stop what we are doing and spend the necessary time to renegotiate our commitment. If we do not take time to do that, we may blow up our commitment and that will be sure lack of consideration. In a way, it is better to factor in time for such items in the original commitment.

Acknowledge, acknowledge and acknowledge.....that's the heart of consideration. People do not care much if you agree or disagree with them. What they care for is your acknowledgement. If you hear other person's point  and make sure that they know that you have heard them, that's acknowledgement. This simple act is a big consideration. One thing to be careful about is to make sure that they understand the difference between acknowledgement and agreement. They are different. Many times people see that you have acknowledged and mistakenly assume that you have agreed too. Be clear about it. Even when you are making a case for something, be sure to get what you want - mere acknowledgement or agreement. If you are looking for agreement, be sure to ask for it explicitly than assuming that if people have not contradicted you means that they have agreed.

Cheers!

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Success

"You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need." - Vernon Howard

I think a wise chinese man said -"all I need is a bowl of rice and a glass of water." That is nirvana when all we want is absolutely only that we need. Gandhi said - "there is enough in this world for everyone's need but not for anyone's greed."

I feel lesser we have lesser the clutter we have to put up with. People say they travel light. I say we should live light. Two suitcases. Be mobile and you will see how free you will feel. You are your own master. More you own and want much more, they are like handcuffs even if they are golden handcuffs. They tie you more and more to where you are. Every time you need to take a tough decision, you have to take stock of all that you have and chart your course accordingly. Own a house? then chances are you are not going to move to far off place for a different job even if you are miserable in your current job. I advocate living lightly just to keep my choices wide and open.

Every time something breaks down, I feel good these days. I junk it and never bother to buy another one unless it is something I absolutely need it. It's been a life long mission reduce clutter. Documents? Scan them and throw them into a terra byte hard drive. If you are worried about your hard disk, try to get some space online and store them there. But, do something about the junk that accumulates. Rent everything you can own. Money? Should be accessible from anywhere with your laptop.Car? Something which has good market value and people should be willing to buy it off your lot if you choose to sell it. Electronic stuff? Don't buy gadgets unless you really need them. Music system? Better buy a great sound system and stream to it from your laptop. Huge TV? I do not know. I would not get one. I would rather buy an expensive laptop with largest screen available and watch online.

One clutter that I am still trying reduce is a huge collection of books. I know many of those books are outdated and nobody wants them. But, somehow I do not feel like throwing them away. May be I must do that to reduce my clutter. Books come on so many diverse subjects that I feel like keeping them for life. May be I should try online or electronic readers like kindle.

Hey, anytime for ready for anything to reduce clutter. Two suitcases. That should be mantra if we want to be truly mobile. More the clutter more you are stuck to where you are.

Cheers!

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Society

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." - John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), inaugural address, January 20, 1961

I think this is a quotation to remember every time we feel resentment towards schemes helping the poor with our tax money. If every part of society is not well off, none of us are going to be really well off. Everyone should have at least basic needs met. It's like  body. If one organ is not well, the whole body feels the pain. You have two options, either treat the organ or amputate it. Amputations do not work all the time. Even when they work, they result in permanent loss. So, it is better to take care of the whole body.

I do not believe late president Kennedy meant that we should simply dole out hand-outs to poor. It should be need based. If there are people in the society who just do not want to work, it is a different matter. We will have to understand what is wrong in our social set up which has created such people in the first place. Nobody becomes a liability to society just like that. It is probably the circumstances that made them like that. So, we have to address the root cause. May be it is lack of education or something else.

Humans can only survive as a symbiotic group. There are no other ways. Everyone has to be able to live with their basic needs met. Only then some of us can be well off compared to others.

We can even take this one step further. How about animals? If number of animals we have around is not controlled, they will be on our streets. We see this in developing countries. Innumerable dogs, cats and cattle are left to tend to themselves. They create so much problems on the urban infrastructure that they can bring a city to halt. We have to control their numbers in the first place. At least we have an option to put them to sleep without much pain. Although it pricks our heart to do so, we at least have an option. But, better option is to control their number is in the first place by neutering them in the first place.

Cheers!

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