Just Imagine!!

Hi friends, do you know that imagination is a crucial factor in creative thinking which immensely contributes to your success. Some of you might say, “I cant imagine”, “I am not creative” and so on…but it is not true.

We are born with this power but most us use this mostly for creating negative emotions like fear and anxiety. For example, if a child fears going into a dark room - that means he is imagining some danger. If a student is tense before exam results are announced that means he is imagining poor results. If you are employed and you fear your boss, that means you are imagining a reprimand from him. If you switch off your mobile phone and reach home late, you might find your family members searching for you in police stations and hospitals because they are imagining that you might have met with an accident.

So all of us can imagine, but we need to use it in a positive manner.

Let’s do an exercise…

Close your eyes and imagine a rat flying like a bird.

Did you find it difficult to imagine? If yes, then you are perfectly ok.

Now, close your eyes and imagine a bird flying.

Did you find it easier to imagine this? I know it is easier but you would have pondered a little on which bird to imagine.

Now, close your eyes and imagine an eagle flying.

I know it’s easy to imagine this.

So, through this exercise we understood that our mind can easily imagine specific things that it has seen, heard or felt before.

You found it difficult to imagine a rat flying because you have never seen a rat flying. But if you draw a flying rat on paper your mind will capture it, and will play it back for you whenever you want to imagine it.

So, to enhance your power of imagination feed your mind with positive and creative thoughts constantly, which you can get by reading books on different topics, participating in creative discussions and more such things.

One more technique for developing imagination is squiggles. Ask someone to draw a line of any shape on a paper and then you try to use the squiggle to draw something meaningful.

This is a very powerful tool for improving kid's imagination but can be used by people of all ages. An extremely important role of imagination is to ensure your well-being. Imagining positive things about yourself will help you get into a positive frame of mind. It will reduce stress and fight fear.

When was the last time you imagined yourself winning something? When was the last time you imagined enjoying with old friends you have not met in several years? Start imagining a happier and positive self to get positive results. Imagine good, do good and good things will happen to you.

The Biggest Regret Of My Life

This regret is more like a confession - I feel I should have started early on my entrepreneurial journey.
I grew up in a middle class family with the belief that financial security is extremely important for the family and financial security can be obtained only by doing a secured job. So, getting a government job at any level was desirable. Unfortunately, I did my MBA and landed up with a sales job. Since the name of the company was Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HUL now), my parents were happy because the brand offered stability and security to its employees. They got more relaxed when I shared that many of my colleagues are above fifty years of age. My dad said "That means the company don't fire employees". The entire thought process was about making the future more secured.

Now, after 16 years when I look back at my life, I realize that stability is the biggest risk for an individual because stability is like the gutter filled with stagnant water where complacency breeds. Soon, this parasite named complacency multiplies fast creating an unreal world of comfort for its victim. When the victim loses visibility of the real world, the parasite comes back to bite the victim and suck all the comfort out of the victim's life. That is the reason we see people struggle with mid-career crisis, factory workers committing suicide after the factory closes down, depression, frustration and attrition on the rise. All this is accompanied by diseases like blood sugar, hypertension, neurological disorder, the list is quite long. Relationships suffer, family suffers ultimately filling the erstwhile stable life with chaos and uncertainty. Some weak hearts give up while others realize the hard fact of life - we human beings are designed to evolve by taking up new challenges, either we evolve or we perish, we cannot remain the same.

I regret understanding this quite late, changing the deep-rooted beliefs were difficult but deep introspection helped me understand who I am and helped me to follow my dream of becoming a speaker and a trainer. My new beliefs and my self-worth gave me the courage to take up new challenges and grow as a trainer, speaker and author. I am still learning everyday and evolving.

I believe this is true for everyone, either you are in job or business, you need to constantly look out for new challenges - you are secured and stable only when you practice the ability to fight everyday, you are happy only when you are confident of facing the odds, you are victorious only when you have killed the parasite called complacency inside you.

Do You Know The Book That Inspired Henry Ford And Thomas Edison

This is also a true story of great perseverance. During the great depression, an American named Orison Swett Marden decided to write a book to motivate the nation. He took a room above a stable and started writing the book. After a year of relentless effort he was on the verge of completing the book. One day he went out for dinner, when he came back, he saw that the entire stable was engulfed in fire. His more than 800 page manuscript was reduced to ash. Just try to imagine his state of mind when he saw his one year of relentless effort go up in flames.

He appealed to his greater self and decided to rewrite the book from scratch, note that at this point of time, all his notes were gone. He spent another year writing the book. After completing his manuscript, he offered it to various publishers, but no one seemed to be interested in the motivational book when the country is in depression. He then moved to Chicago and took a job. One day he mentioned this manuscript to a friend who happened to know a publisher. His perseverance delivered results. The book titled – Pushing to the front, was subsequently published. Eventually it became a huge success. People like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and J.P.Morgan all read this book and were inspired by it.

Do You Think Your Luck Is Bad?

I believe in luck and I completely agree with all of you that luck plays an important role in our life. When our luck is good we get success more often and when our luck is bad we face failures more often. So, bad luck actually means, bad times.

But do bad times come only to us or it comes to everyone ?

I am sure, you will agree with me that bad time comes in everyone's life. Be it Amitabh Bachhan or Sachin Tendulkar, every legend had their share of rejection during their bad times.

So I would like to rename Luck as Life. Every life on earth will have its ups and downs, it will never be the same throughout.

I understood from the life of legends that Luck is not bigger than your Vision.

Let us understand this through a situation. You and your friend, Ajay wanted to watch India vs Australia cricket T20 sitting in the stadium. It was a last moment decision, so getting tickets were very difficult. Ajay backed out and opted to watch the match on TV. But you persisted and managed to get a ticket.

You watched the match sitting in the stadium cheering the Indian team along with thousands of spectators. But unfortunately India lost the match, you and Ajay both became sad. Ajay was sad sitting at home and you became sad sitting in the stadium.

But, at the end of the day who enjoyed more? Who was able to join the thousands of fan cheering India…India? Who was able to take the players autograph? Who was able to click photos of the live match?

It was you…

So, inspite of India losing the match you will remember it as a memorable day of your life. But for Ajay it is just another match India lost.

Friends, now consider watching the cricket match in the stadium as your vision and India losing as luck. Luck was same for you and Ajay - India Lost. But you were able to derive higher value out of the same luck only because of your larger vision.

The same thing happens in our life. Two friends, Raju and Chandu won a lottery of 1lakh each. Raju immediately puts the money in Bank Fixed Deposit and started to earn an interest of 7000 per annum. Chandu had a larger vision - he starts a small factory with that money and soon becomes owner of 5 factories.

Then, Bad luck strikes in the form of recession - Both Raju and Chandu got affected.

Raju's bank decreased the Fixed deposit rate, his earning fell by 500/- and he started to earn 6500/- per month. But Chandu had to sell off his 3 factories. But even after selling off factories, Chandu's net worth was still higher than Raju's net worth

After a few years good time was back.

Raju's earning went up to 7000/- from Bank interest. But Chandu re-established all his 5 factories and became a billionaire.

Friends, Luck is Life, it will go up and down, you cannot stop it. Walt Disney faced bankruptcy, Steve Jobs was thrown out of his own company….but they bounced back because of their vision.

Your vision will determine the stage area on which you are going to play out your life. So, think about your vision and not your luck.

Self Motivation Simplified

Self  Motivation is the only form of motivation that can help us to bounce back after a major setback. Everyone of us is at some level of self motivation. This video will help you understand the elements of self motivation and how they influence our performance.