Wednesday, February 26, 2014

If You Please.....


Improving relationships is something we are all concerned with.

One easy way of improving relationships is trying to please others. What can make a relationship stronger than making the other person happy? This is what many of us think.

But the problem is when you focus on pleasing someone, you are restricting your focus. For example, you can lease a child by agreeing to whatever it demands. But doing so will not be in the interest of the child. In attempting to please the child, we may end up doing something against the child's welfare and development.

You can please your boss by doing things that will please him but this may not be in the interest of the organization. When something is not good for the organization, it won't be good for your boss also in the long run. So ultimately the boss will not be pleased.

Please remember that if you start with the objective of pleasing someone, you are approaching the issue from the wrong side. You can (and should) think in terms of being fair to others, courteous and polite to people but not in terms of pleasing others. A person getting pleased by what you do must be an incidental outcome, not the principal outcome.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
                                                                                                       -  Bill Cosby

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Fun Way To Keep Your Brain in Shape - 2


In the previous post, we discussed how playing simple mind games can boost your brain power.
I will list a few simple games which anyone can play.

11)   Finding new uses for popular products:
Ask your family members to suggest what uses a pen can be put to. Initially, they won’t be able to think anything except for its intended use as a writing instrument. But a little thinking will bring out other uses. Once one person comes out with a new use, other people will see the fun in the process and start thinking differently. You will soon have a list of several uses for the pen. I am listing a couple of uses letting you discover more for yourself!  Paper weight, measuring scale, a weapon for self defence, a punching needle etc!

22)    Guess Who the Caller is: When the telephone rings, before it is picked up, everyone should come out with a guess about who the caller is. You just give them 15 seconds to guess before you pick up the call and just watch the fun!

33)      Puzzles of various types:
1    There are hundreds of thousands of puzzles of a wide variety ranging from  spelling bee to problems requiring creative thinking . The emphasis should be on fun. For example consider this  simple puzzle :
How much mud will be there in a pit measuring  6” by 4” by 5”.
Most of the people will calculate the volume of the pit and come out with an answer like 120 cubic inches (6 x 4 x 5 = 120). Then you can point out to them a pit will be hollow and there will be no mud in it! Such a simple answer will be exciting to anyone who hears this for the first time.


If you make it a habit to spend at least a few minutes everyday in playing mind games, you  will not only make your brain sharper in perception and wider in perspective,  but also become a more cheerful, confident and powerful personality. Did I  mention that your life will become more enjoyable and relationships will also improve?

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Fun Way To Keep Your Brain in Shape


People take a lot of pains to keep our body in shape. But most don’t think much about keeping our brain in shape. Perhaps they feel that the brain being the intelligent part of the body is capable of taking care of itself!
True but the brain needs a little push from you by way of initiative. There is no need to go into the intricacies of which part of you has to do this. After all, the process is simple and automatic. In fact, your brain itself can trick you into taking the lead to help it do things to keep it in shape. The very fact that you are reading this post is an indication that your brain is at work!

You have to keep your brain in shape but you also should do it in a fun way.  So, the only way you can do this is to make the process interesting and entertaining. And you can do this through mind games or thinking games. These mind games will tune up your brain and boost its power. What more, by making these games a habit, a part of your routine, you will also become creative and come out with amazingly innovative solutions to your problems.

You can play these games alone but they will be more fun and will be more effective if you play them in the company of others. You can involve your family members also.

There are innumerable games you can play. These games are not like traditional games in that they don’t need any physical exertion from you. Being mind games, you can play them while sitting, moving (travelling) or sometimes even while working  (if you can manage to ensure that the work is not affected)!

In the next post, I will list a few games


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Three Free Gifts You Can Give to Anyone Anytime!


Recently I came across an article on gifting. The author advocated that we develop the habit of gifting with no expectations in return. I pondered over the kinds of gifts anyone can give anyone else and thought of a few. These are gifts that don't cost a penny. We are capable of generating these gifts anytime just by wishing. and these gifts are very valuable since they will make the receiver happy, encouraged and empowered. Here are three gifts that you ca give to anyone any time.

1) The Gift of Acknowledging: We are often in the midst of a number of people. How many of them do we acknowledge? Just acknowledge a stranger by a simple nod of your head or a smile or a greeting like 'hi' or 'good morning' and discover the instant change your action creates in them. You will be surprised to discover how much people crave for being acknowledged. If you extend this gift to the neglected people like sweepers, restaurant waiters, shop assistants etc, you will be making their day!

2) The Gift of Thanking: We do thank people but do we do it always? Some of us have a notion that we need to thank people only if they help us voluntarily. But what if we thank someone even if we pay him for doing what he does? Have you ever thanked a vendor from whom we purchase things? We feel that he should thank us for giving him business! But just see the effect of thanking someone even if you pay him for his service. Let it be a bonus. It doesn't cost you anything  anyway. But it can make a lot of difference to him. We thank a doctor for his service even though we pay him, sometimes through our nose. Extend the same privilege to "small" people who do us a service. See the electrifying effect it makes on their moods and eventually on their lives. I am not mentioning the effect it can have on the quality of service you will get from that person the next time because you are doing this with no expectations.

3) The Gift of a Compliment: How many times we care to compliment someone for a good job? A good job is taken for granted. We feel that we should only point out the mistakes or shortcomings. Develop the habit of complimenting people even for small things. 'Be lavish in your approbation and liberal in your praise' says Dale Carnegie. Start this with your family members. Observe the change such compliments make to their disposition. In the case of children, compliments can transform their personality making them more confident, better skilled, more powerful and more achieving.

There are several other free gifts which you can discover for yourself!