Habits of people who never get stressed!!

1. They say no to difficult people. Less negative energy, less stress.
2. They meditate. More meditation, less reactivity to stress. ex: Vipassana Meditation
3. They exercise. A natural de-stressor. ex: Office Gym or Walking for an hour daily.
4. They smile. Smiling makes you happier, which means less stress.
5. They act. Procrastination leads to stress.
6. They get 8 hours of sleep. A tired mind is easily stressed. ex: 9pm to 5am
7. They practice acceptance. When you stop arguing with reality, you’ll feel less stressed.
8. They read books every day. Regular learning make you sell your skills at higher price.
9. Getting up early, just before 5AM. You never regret this habit in life time. it creates more time.
10. Never share your personal problems or secrets with anyone. except with your parents. 
11. Drink plenty of water. body toxins will be released and inturn you feel very lighter.
12. Keep a Straight Posture. Your body language controls how you feel and vice versa.
13. Create a reward system. After 'x' minutes of focus, give 'y' minutes of break. ex: pomodoro.
14. Live in reality, not in social media.

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The Present (The gift that Makes You Happy and Successful at Work and in Life)

The author narrates a small story between a young boy and an old man and explains the importance of the present (now) to make our lifes better and happier.

Author wants to convey 3 important points out of this book: 

1. ALWAYS BE IN THE PRESENT

When You Want To Be Happy And Successful Focus On What Is Right Now. Use Your Purpose To Respond To What Is Important Now.

2. LEARN FROM THE PAST

When You Want To Make The Present Better Than The Past Look At What Happened In The Past. Learn Something Valuable From It. Do Things Differently In The Present. 

 3. ALSO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

 When You Want To Make The Future Better Than The Present. See What A Wonderful Future Would Look Like. Make Plan To Help It Happen. Put Your Plan Into Action In The Present.

 This was already told by swami vivekananda in his famous following quotation

We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.

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"The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

The One Minute Manager reveals three secrets to productive and efficient managing as told through a young man's search for the perfect managing and leading skills. The One Minute Manager is focused on, not surprisingly, a one minute manager. The man is a venerable leader that is highly spoken of by his employees, his three secrets being the key to his success.


The first secret is One Minute Goals. This involves a meeting of the manager and the employee where goals are agreed on, written down in a brief statement, and occasionally reviewed to ensure that productivity is occurring. This whole process takes a "minute", which truly means it is a quick meeting, however it is not limited to just sixty seconds. The purpose of one minute goal setting is to confirm that responsibilities of each working is understood, understanding that confusion leads to inefficiency and discouragement.


The second secret to one minute managing is one minute praisings. This involves being open with people about their performance. When you catch someone doing something right, a goal of the one minute manager, you praise them immediately, telling them specifically what they did correctly. Pause to allow them to "feel" how good you feel regarding their importance to the organization, and finish by shaking hands.


The third secret is the one minute reprimand. Being honest with those around you involves reprimanding when a wrong has occurred. The first step is to reprimand immediately and specifically. This is the same as the second secret, and it holds an important aspect of the first secret: it enables an understanding of responsibilities and how to complete them correctly. Following the reprimand, shake hands and remind the person that he or she is important and it was simply their performance that you did not like. The one minute reprimand consists of the reprimand and the reassurance, both being equally important. If you leave the latter out, you will not be liked by those around you and they will attribute mistakes to them being worth less, which is far from the truth.

For More info please go through this PPT

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"Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson

This much-talked-about and much-written-about book by Spencer Johnson deals with change - the ever constant star in the horizon of our lives. It comes in various forms: in workplace, in family life, in beliefs. More often than not it is unsettling in nature. People refuse to accept change, clinging to old habits, to familiar and comfortable sets of routines and patterns - wishing that change would not touch them. But unfortunately, it does. This book provides a simple and practical way to handle change.

Speaking under the allegory that equates characters Hem and Haw with everyday people like you and me, and cheese with anything that we hold dear, the book unfolds a little fable. The story line runs like this: Hem and Haw, along with two little mice Sniff and Scurry, search actively for cheese in a maze. When they find it, they visit the place everyday. Slowly, complacency grips Hem and Haw. They lose drive and begin to take the cheese for granted. As a result, when one fine morning they find their usual place empty of cheese, they are taken completely by surprise. They keep on sticking to their old work-habits and attitudes, wishing futilely that the cheese would come back by itself. When it doesn't, Haw is the first to recover. He accepts reality and confronts his fear. He asks himself, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" This helps him overcome his neurotic fear and change with the changed situation. In doing so he regains his lost vitality and happiness and realizes that inactivity is worse than any activity. Soon enough Haw discovers new cheese. But wizened from his experience, he never grows too comfortable for change to take him by surprise again.

The learning's from this fable are encapsulated in a few brief points: -

•     Change happens
•     Anticipate change
•     Monitor change
•     Adapt to change quickly
•     Change!
•     Enjoy the change

 Be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again!

For more information please click on this link

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Peaks and Valleys – Spencer Johnson - Review

This was a helpful book on managing the good and bad times in life. He had tips for getting out of the valley sooner,  staying on peaks longer, and getting to the next peak. Although this was a secular book, it was easy to see Biblical wisdom. An example would be staying on a peak longer (managing your good times): be humble and grateful, do more of what got you there, keep making things better, do more for others, say less, save resources for your upcoming valley.

If you enjoy reading parables, you’ll enjoy reading Spencer Johnson’s latest book, Peaks and Valleys. The author has several number one bestsellers including “Who Moved My Cheese?” He knows how to tell a good story.

The story basically goes like this: A discouraged young man meets a wise old man on a mountain peak. The old man shares his wisdom about life’s peaks and valleys. The young man then sets out to put his newly learned lessons into practice. The key he soon realizes is to find a comfortable balance between the lowest valleys and highest peaks.

How you handle living on a peak or down in a valley is based on what you’re currently viewing as a positive or negative in your life. You have the ability to turn the valleys (negatives) into peaks (positives) by changing your perspective or view of the situation.

Moral of the story: How well you handle the valleys in your life, will determine how much joy you’ll find on the mountaintop. The view from the peak is sweeter when you’re at peace with yourself and your life. By conquering the fear of living, you can truly appreciate the view from the highest peak.

Spencer Johnson believes there is a deeper sense of purpose and gratitude when you pass your powerful life’s wisdom on to others. “Help people make good and bad times work for them too.”

You’ve heard the old saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Whether or not you’re in the right place in your life to appreciate the wisdom of Peaks and Valleys will determine how much you like or dislike this book. Spencer Johnson shares valuable wisdom in just 112 pages.

This well-written story is a quick read – probably can be finished in an hour or two. The subtitle of the book really says it all: Making good and bad times work for you – at work and in life. The key piece of wisdom I took away from Peaks and Valleys is in knowing how to find an inner peace and balance between the everyday peaks and valleys in my life.

I recommend this book if you’d like an empowering boost of self-motivation and day-to-day wisdom. If you do decide to read Peaks and Valleys, please go to our forum page and share your thoughts and opinions.

"Be humble and grateful. Do more of what got you there. Keep making things better. Do more for others. Save resources for your upcoming Valleys."

For more information please read “Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life”

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Summary of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The Seven Habits - An Overview

Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:

1. Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us.

2. Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves.

3. Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.

Much of the success literature today tends to value independence, encouraging people to become liberated and do their own thing. The reality is that we are interdependent, and the independent model is not optimal for use in an interdependent environment that requires leaders and team players.

To make the choice to become interdependent, one first must be independent, since dependent people have not yet developed the character for interdependence. Therefore, the first three habits focus on self-mastery, that is, achieving the private victories required to move from dependence to independence. The first three habits are:

    * Habit 1: Be Proactive
    * Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
    * Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habits 4, 5, and 6 then address interdependence:

    * Habit 4: Think Win/Win
    * Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
    * Habit 6: Synergize

Finally, the seventh habit is one of renewal and continual improvement, that is, of building one's personal production capability. To be effective, one must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving one's capability to produce. Covey illustrates this point with the fable of the goose and the golden egg.

In the fable, a poor farmer's goose began laying a solid gold egg every day, and the farmer soon became rich. He also became greedy and figured that the goose must have many golden eggs within her. In order to obtain all of the eggs immediately, he killed the goose. Upon cutting it open he discovered that it was not full of golden eggs. The lesson is that if one attempts to maximize immediate production with no regard to the production capability, the capability will be lost. Effectiveness is a function of both production and the capacity to produce.

SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN HABITS

Habit 1:  Be Proactive

• Highly effective people take the initiative. They are proactive.
• They do not impose limits on themselves that prevent them from acting.
• They recognize that they have the freedom to determine the kind of character they will have.
• They may not be able to control their circumstances, but they can decide how to make the best  use of those circumstances.

Habit 2:  Begin with the End in Mind

• Effectiveness is not just a matter of reaching a goal but rather of achieving the right goal.
• Imagine ourselves sitting in the back of the room at our funeral. Imagine what people could honestly say about us based on the way we are now.
• Do we like what we hear? Is that how we want to be remembered?
• If not, we must change it. We must take hold of our life.
• We can begin by drafting a personal mission statement that outlines our goals and describes the kind of person we want to be.

Habit 3:  Put First Things First

• We should never  let our most important priorities fall victim to the least important.
• We spend our time reacting to urgent circumstances and emergencies, and never invest the necessary effort to develop the ability to prevent emergencies in the first place.
• We confuse the important with the urgent. The urgent is easy to see. The important is harder to discern.
• We must spend more time on  planning, avoiding pitfalls, developing relationships, cultivating opportunities and recharging ourselves.
• We must focus on “important but not urgent” activities.

Habit 4:  Think Win/Win

• Highly effective people strive for win/win transactions.
• They try to ensure that all the parties are better off in the end.
• They know that any other kind of transaction is destructive, because it produces losers and, therefore, enemies and bad feelings, such as animosity, defeat and hostility.
• A Win-Win  mindset can help us multiply our allies.

Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

• To develop win/win relationships, we must find out what the other parties want, and what winning means to them.
• We must  always try to understand what the other people want and need before we begin to outline our own objectives.
• We must  not object, argue or oppose what we hear.
• We must listen carefully, and think about it.
• We must try to put ourselves in the other party’s shoes.

Habit 6:  Synergize

Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person's own solution.

• Effective synergy depends on communication.
• We often don’t listen, reflect and respond but, instead, we hear and react reflexively.
• Our reactions may be defensive, authoritarian or passive.
• We may oppose or go along — but we do not actively cooperate.
• Cooperation and communication are the two legs of a synergistic relationship.

Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw

Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.

• We must take care of our bodies with a program of exercise that combines endurance, flexibility and strength.
• We must nourish our souls with prayer, meditation, or perhaps by reading great literature or listening to great music.
• Mental repair may mean changing bad habits, such as the habit of watching television.
• We must work to develop our heart, our emotional connections and our engagement with other people.

Recommended Reading

Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin S. Sharma

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds:your mind transcends limitations your conciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new great wonderful world"

"Quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts"

"There are no mistakes- only lessons. See setbacks as opportunities for personnel expansion"

The Techniques:

(i) Opposition Thinking (think positive when you are in negative mood).

(ii) The secret of lake (Imagine total day in advance)

Good Quote: "Secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it"

Follow your purpose

Set clearly defined personnel, professional and spiritual goals, and then have the courage to act on them.

Good Quote: "YOu will never be able to hit a target that you cannot see"

Techniques:

(i) Write goals on a piece of paper.

(ii) 5 step method for attaining goals.

- Imagine mental image of outcome of goal.

- Get some positive pressure (Pressure can inspired you to achieve great ends).

- Attach a timeline to a goal.

- Follow majic rule of 21(if we repeat same action daily for 21 days it will become our habit).

- Take every experience as a lesson.

Self Leadership

1. Do things you fear.

2. 10 Rituals of self leadership (or) 10 Rules to Self Leadership

i) Gym exercises 5hrs a week.

ii) Yoga 30mins (breating exercises or pranayama)

iii) Vegetables , Fruits & grains should be part of the meal.

iv) Read 1hr daily to upgrade the knowledge in interested areas.

v) During the day end write all actions done by self and do self assessment for improvement.

vi) practice to wakeup early (i.e. sleep daily not more than 6-7 hours).

vii) Start day very positively with music " Spend every day like last day in life"

viii) Spoken word (Self affirmations work like mantras to reach our targets)

for exmaple: " I am inspired, disciplined & energized".

ix) "You sow a thought, you reap an action

Reap and action, you sow a habit.

Sow a habit, you reap a character.

Sow a character, you reap your destiny."

Do little things every day to build character.

x) Last but not least important principle is "Live a Simple Life".

-Focus only on priorities & activities truly meaningfull.

-Reduce your needs, unless you reduce your need you will never be fulfilled.

Time Management

i) The Ancient Rule of 20( 80% of the our results depends on only 20% of tasks what we do daily).

ii) Have the courage to say 'No' (learn to say to the things which are not important and not urgent)

iii) The death bed mentality (Live like today is last day in life and do what ever you can finish before end of the day)

For Richer Relationships

i) Practice daily acts of kindness

ii) Give to thos who ask.

iii) Cultivate Richer relationships by remembering the most important days(like birthdays, marriage anniversaries). Also small tokens of affections to members of family & friends is must to show our affection.

iv) Practice gratitude and grow your destiny.

v) Finally Live in present not in past or future.

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