success Archives — Page 5 of 5 — NIMBLE FOUNDATION BLOG

Courage to Continue Denotes Success

The word success as defined in the dictionary means “ the accomplishment of an aim or purpose” . True as it is but definition of the word success changes from person to person. Every individual’s definition of success is different. And why Not? We all have different aims, objectives, goals and purpose of life. And accomplishment of those would mean SUCCESS
to each one of us. Though there is no common definition of success many successful people have presented their views on success. Let us now understand what success meant to them and how best we can add to our success from their experiences.
A writer, statesman and a leader as he was Winston Churchill who has contributed immensely to the Britain’s victory in World War II has quoted that
“Success is not final, Failure is not fatal; It is the courage to continue that counts”. Isn’t it true? Many people think that if you fail at something , it is the end of your life. The suicidal stories you hear after the academic results are declared clearly indicate people’s
attitude towards failure. The quote mentioned above re instills the value of courage to continue the effort in spite of several failures. In short, perseverance is one of the keys to success.
When one wants to achieve something one should turn deaf ears to what people say about your endeavors . Because as the quote goes,” At first they will ask why you are doing it ;But later they will ask How did you do it?
Yes, this is especially important for the people who are torch bearers. Torch bearers are people who attempt to tread the less taken path and are the first ones to do so. When you are pursuing something different and novel, skeptic people always try to ask the validity of such pursuit. Well, if you are convinced about your effort and are ready to give in your hundred percent you will be successful at it. And then the same people would ask you the ways in which you tried to achieve such an untapped feat.
Life is a mix of good and bad times. We are successful sometimes and sometimes we do fail. The most important thing in life is to “Be thankful for hard times as they have made you.” Hard times are testing times. Failures should be visualized as a lesson. I t is rightly said,” When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”! Every struggle to get successful will make you wiser and stronger.
While achieving success it is important that you put your heart , mind and soul into excelling at what you have undertaken. If needed you have to sacrifice a lot in order to achieve something great. Swami Sivananda has rightly pinpointed the secret of success. He
quotes ,” Put your heart , soul and mind into even your smallest acts”. It is also very evident that there is no shortcut to success. It is well known that there is “No elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” Hard work in proper direction definitely yields success. ease everybody.
Success is a result of focus, hard work, learning from failure , loyalty and persistence .Indeed when you strives to excel at certain thing you are bound to be successful. When you balance your hard work with persistence and loyalty the end result will be none other than SUCCESS.
Nelson Mandela quotes” Don’t judge me by success but how many times I fell down and got back again”. If you have persevering attitude in life, nothing can stop you from being successful. Perseverance is a factor which differentiates between success and failure.
Success is , thus, relative to each individual. Unfortunately, many people don’t have goals at any time in life. Life is very short and the most important thing in life to be successful is to set some goals. What is a life without goals? People misconstrue goals to be only related to career and finances.
Well, negating that opinion you can categorize goals as:

Career goals,
Financial goals,
Health goals,
Family goals and
Goals for society
Hobby Goals
And Spiritual Goals

You have to take charge and set goals for yourself. The priority of goals would differ from person to person. You may feel family and health goals are more important than the rest of the goals. An ambitious person may prioritize on career and financial goals. Hobby goals are the goals which are meant for yourself satisfaction. Society plays an important role in everyone’s life. You should also set some goals which will benefit the society. It is a way to give back to the society where you belong.
Maslow’s pyramid of self motivation has the self actualization need at the top of it! Spiritual goals help achieve that need of a person.
While setting up goals make sure that your goals are SMART.
SMART Goals mean
S- Specific
M-Measurable
A-Achievable
R-Realistic
T-Time bound
Well, to achieve success be specific about what you want to achieve. The goals should have some yardstick against which you can measure your success. You should always have realistic goals and not unbelievable ones.
An example of setting a goal could be “ I want to reduce my weight by 1.5 kgs in a matter of 15 days. Once you do that you can start working over it by chalking out a plan and then executing the same.
Always check on what you have achieved against what you wanted to achieve And keep on bridging the gap, if any. When diligently persevered, success becomes a habit!!
Thanks for reading.

Exploit Your Talent to shine!

Lucius Annaeus Seneca quotes “ Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other”!
Talent is an innate ability which one is gifted with. Everyone, indeed, has been bestowed upon with some talent. But some people can identify it and some people take it unidentified to the grave. In short, identification of your talent is what makes the whole difference. Mere identifying it is not enough and it should be further developed by consistent efforts. Sometimes your talent may be of immense use in your career field and if you develop it proactively, then success is just a cakewalk for you.
Sydney Smith has convincingly brought forward the fact by saying,” Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.”
So this is the simplest way to achieve success!! Then why many can’t make it up to that success? Because the problem lies in identifying: what is your talent! The task of identifying talent becomes difficult given the number of influences one has from one’s childhood. The parents wish their children to achieve something without knowing what the child is good at. The teachers also imprint the minds of the pupils by their perception of good & bad. Peer pressure, further, adds to the influence which a person is exposed to in an impressionable age.
Thus, talent gets hidden somewhere in the routine life and one tends to be ugly duckling.
But once you know what you are good at and polish the same, life takes you to places.
One can transform oneself and understand one’s true self only when one has the ability to ward off these influences.
A mentor is the one who can help you identify your flair. If you do not have one, then it is essential to find one who can guide you to find your competence and further to enhance the same. A mentor is a consultant who may not be related to you though he will be interested to see your growth. Mentor could be a friend, a teacher or your parent.It is not only the individuals who get benefited by the mentors but many progressive companies are seen to hire mentors in order to help them grow.
Strong conviction in your ability makes you shine out in the crowd. You should eye million opportunities which you come across; given your inclination. Once you focus all your energies on your talent, you can make the best of any smallest opportunity you encounter. You should not let go any opportunity rather turn it into the golden one.
It is often said” When opportunity knocks, don’t let the fear hold you back.Open the door and embrace the opportunity which has come forth”!
Once you identify your talent ,it is more important to master it. In this fast growing competitive world you can’t relax with mere inherent talent. You should master the art to fortify it further with all the necessary efforts. You should have an action plan to exploit your talent and have to follow up the plan, diligently . A close monitoring of your action plan with the help of a written record is also a must while mastering your talent. Once a master of your talent, you can master success.
Keep yourself updated with the field of your inclination. Keep yourself equipped with the technological advancement in the field of your choice else you will be left behind. Identify the people who have made it great in the world, with the talent same as yours. Reading their life stories and experiences will also make you understand what it took them to reach their and how best you can have an edge. Get inspired from their stories.
Written reports of your journey at taming your talent helps in a long way, too. Always have a journal which helps you understand where you stand. Monitoring day to day progress towards mastering your talent is a continuous process. Create milestones and verify yourself against those. If your lag behind ,push harder to mitigate those.

No wonder with your continuous efforts you would transform the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.

May I invite your comments on my forthcoming book?

Introduction
“Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you will be trampled”!
Yes! Indeed, once one starts toddling or even before that the race begins and one keeps wondering “What made me lose and the other one win, the same race?”One questions oneself amidst the darkest deep nights until one gets no answer and finally blames it up to the destiny. One often becomes uncomfortable when one thinks about the failures one had especially when one doesn’t get valid reasons for the same.
But we tend to forget these monologues – thanks to the mundane activities of one’s life. But if we dig deeper, the exercise has the power to take us closer to the solutions. This book aims to give you an insight into life which is a mixture of ups and downs, failures and successes. Once we understand this and accept the reality, it no longer remains a jigsaw puzzle. Life is journey. All our goals are but milestones, and we need to enjoy the journey.
At a certain stage of life, one tends to compare oneself with others. It is indeed a natural tendency wherein one often measures one’s success, joy or happiness by comparing these with those of others’. And then confronts a battery of questions like below:-
“Why am I not rich like him? Though we studied together and are best friends how come he/she has achieved what I could just think of? What makes him/her so very desirable? In short, one tends to become jealous of other’s success. Jealousy, certainly, is best avoided but if nailed properly could give us the desired results like success, happiness, prosperity and also peace of mind.
Through this book, I have tried to help the reader understand themselves better to ward off various negative influences and personality development needs. These hinder your chances to succeed. The book addresses the personality issues, and shows the path towards improvement. It will help to elevate your self confidence to an untapped level.
The book also throws light on important habits, skills and behavioral traits which successful people possess and practice. The contents have been divided into following chapters.

Attitude:

“A bad attitude is like a flat tyre! If you don’t change it, you will never reach anywhere”!
Attitude defines the major part of your personality. It makes you who you are. It is the way you respond to what you face in your life. Thus, a positive person seeks opportunities in the various hurdles he/she encounters whereas a negative person finds faults with every situation. This book will help you identify your attitude and learn the ways to correct the flaws by adopting certain procedures.

Communication:

Today’s world is a shrunken world. Globalization has brought us closer but you should have a knack of able communication with the world around you. Both, verbal and written communication skills are a must you to understand others and to express yourself effectively. This book aims primarily at pointing whether you lack these skills and, if yes, the various ways to improve on these. We, also, look forward to hone your existing communication skills through this book.

Interpersonal skills: – Man is a social animal. We continuously interact with the family, colleagues, friends and society around us. We have to work with those around and seek harmonious relations with all. Interpersonal skills come into the picture when we need to build and maintain cordial relations with the society. Through this book we take you to the various methods which would help you imbibe the necessary interpersonal skills.

Continuous Improvement: – Stagnation doesn’t breed success! Is it not true? Today’s fast changing world demands dynamic people who keep abreast of latest information and the changing advanced technology. Successful people, often, have a quest to explore more, learn more and thereby, pursue excellence. But one cant be directionless in exploration. This book is a must have guide so that you know what are you heading towards.

Willpower: – Willpower is the strongest virtue which successful people possess and which helps them achieve distinguished success. It is the ability to perform consistently under the testing times and the ability to withstand the difficulties. Willpower, alone, often defines one’s success. This book sheds light on the way to focus your physical, mental and intellectual energies and to build strong willpower. Success, then, is just a few steps away with strong willpower.

6) Habits: – Power of good habits are vital to success. The book intends to inculcate all the basic formal good habits like humility, understanding, and empathy for others. It will also help you develop a sense of humor which is a rare trait these days. This book will enable you to enhance your self esteem be the best of yourself.

Time management: – Time and Tide wait for none. This might sound a cliché, but it is the hardcore truth. One needs to effectively manage this very resource which is equally distributed to everyone on this planet. This book will hold your hands and guide you to use time in the best possible manner.

How to use this book?
Well, before using this book one needs to have undergone a self analysis. An analysis helps in the long way to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses. One needs to retrospect about the successful times and identify what contributed to those distinguished events. Was it your sheer talent, initiative or a group effort? Once you get answers to this question, ask yourself again whether you still use those elements in your endeavors? If you encounter a negative answer, ask yourself again “Why not?”After all why should happy history not repeat itself?
It is equally important to ponder over the failures of life as it is to dwell over success. Failures are the major lessons to be learnt in life. Ask yourself,” When did I fail and Why?” Is it because of some shortcomings? If the answer is yes, note down the shortcomings and counter them with the methods in this book.
This book can be used as a reference manual for developing a desirable and successful personality. Of course, you need to answer all the questions tabulated in the self assessment form.
Happy personality development ahead!

Four formidable pillars of success

It is often said,” Nothing succeeds like success!” It is indeed the truth. Once you are successful there is no looking back. Many success stories are a testimony to this statement.The success story of Steve Jobs who was fired from his own firm is one to get inspired from.Stories like this have inspired us and keep motivating us to achieve success. We all desire success. Who wants to fail? We all have dreams and wish our dreams could come true. We often wonder ,” What will make me successful in my endeavor”?
Well, we here discuss the mantra for SUCCESS.
There are four formidable pillars wherein lies the foundation of success viz. courage, desire, direction and hard work. All these four essentials pave the way to success and work in cohesion to make your dreams come true. Remember success is never an accident. But it is a choice which one constantly makes. The choice of emotions, feelings, attitude and above all a discipline which one practises everyday until he meets success.
“You are the masterpiece
of your own life.
You are the Michelangelo
of your own life.
The David you are sculpturing
is you
(Dr. Joe Vitale)” This is the quote from a famous book ” The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.
Definitely who else can turn your fate towards success? It is only one, who has to be successful, should work out courageously in his life to realize his dream and his desires with relentless hard work in a particular direction. This, alone, could turn the tables to success. No one else can be held responsible for a failure and no one else can enjoy the sweet success than the one striving hard for it.
Let us discuss these “must haves ” which can lay a strong foundation for success as one can’t buy success- It needs to be built!
1) Courage:- ” Courage is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear.”
Courage is the ability to take up what sets you on fire. Courage is to pursue one’s passion and attain success. But many times the fear of failure takes one away from following one’s passionate dreams.
As the quote by Marc Anthony goes,” If you love what you do, you will never work for a day in your life! When you work for something you love, you tend to put heart and soul into it and the result is a fruitful outcome. So why not be courageous enough to achieve success by doing what you love? Michael Jordan , renowned Basketball player is the leading example of courage. He was courageous enough to pursue his dream of being a football player in spite of several failures..
Indeed, courageous terrains are the risky ones. But it is often said,” No risk is the biggest risk”. One needs to take calculated risks and foresee hindrances while one takes the path of courageous behavior.
Take up your passion as an adventure and go ahead with the well chalked out plan to achieve success without any delay!
It is true that Success is not final and failure is not fatal. So what is that differentiates between the two? Well, it is a continuous courage one possesses to overcome the failures and to convert those into success which really counts.
2)Desire- “ A desire is the starting point of all achievements, not a hope,not a wish but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”….Napoleon Hill
Indeed, one has innumerable desires throughout one’s life but to realize those desires one needs to work hard in a certain direction. If one desires something quite passionately, one finds a way and is ready to work hard to achieve it with commitment and dedication. If the desire is weak, one often ends up with an excuse. Many people desire to be millionaire, and many others to be a film actor. But why all of them can’t fulfill their desires while only a few carve their niche?
Well, one needs to have strong willpower in order to support the equally strong desire.
For eg:- If one fat person wants to lose his extra pounds, he should wilfully exercise and control his diet, or sweet tooth. Thus, exercising and controlling his dietary habits are entirely dependent on his willpower.
It is often thought that the desire is a product of will but rather its converse is true. Will is a product of desire. The more your desire to attain some height, or achieve something in life the more is your will to help achieve it.
Thus, we can also say that the distance between the success and failure is measured by power of one’s desires. A person who has unsuppressable desire is sure to walk the distance towards success sooner when compared to the one less desirous. This also leads to the fact that the stronger the desire the sooner the achievement. One should always dig into one’s desires and build a strong will to materialize the same.
Bill Gates has been desirous of the success his company enjoys today. Nothing can be achieved without a strong desire.
Let us now come to the most important of all the pillars:-
3) Hard Work:- For All your days prepare
   And meet them ever alike
   When you are the anvil, bear-
   When you are the hammer, strike!
                                                                                                                            ….Wings of fire by Dr A.P.J
The power of hard work can never be underestimated. Hard work always bears sweet success. There are proven stories which lead to the fact that determined hard work never gets unrecognized. Consistency in hard work leads to the sure destiny of success. There is no elevator to success and thus, one needs to climb the stairs. One should not only work hard but one should work in silence and let the success roar, eventually.
Hard work goes hand in hand with patience. One has to be patient enough to enjoy the success after one’s hard work. The best example is of the farmer. Farming is no joke. One has to toil hard to sow the seeds in the fields and be patient enough to reap the harvest. The crop doesn’t grow in a single day but takes its own time. The seeds of hard work needs to be nurtured with patient care.
It is nothing but disciplined hard work throughout the years which has produced the stalwart legends like Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela . It may be asked whether hard work guarantees success! It might not guarantee success but it helps in improving the chances towards success. It is often said that if hard work becomes one’s weapon then success is bound to be one’s slave.
One might encounter bad luck or bad moments in life but relentless hard work works as a alchemist which transforms into great success.
The Indian freedom Struggle led by M K Gandhi is a testimony of his hard work towards achieving independence.
And we now come to fourth pillar of ensuring success:-
4) Direction:- Direction of efforts plays an important role when striving to achieve success. Hard work should always be accompanied with right direction. Remember :-Hard work without correct direction leads nowhere.
Swami Vivekanand was guided by Saint Ramakrishna in his pursuit of higher self. A mentor is the one who provides for the correct direction and guidance so that one often reaches one’s goals without wasting time in futile ways. When one desires of something one needs to specifically chart out the plan, detail in the timeline within which one needs to achieve it and finally search out for a mentor who can guide accurately guide him onto the path of success.
Dr A P J has rightly quoted in his book Wings of fire
” When the student is ready, the teacher will appear!” With mere talent one can’t dream to achieve success. One has to get the ship guided in the proper direction else it will be drowned or may not reach its successful destination.
Acquiring success is not so difficult. It is merely when your desire meets a courageous and well-directed hard work that leads to success. Success is 99% perspiration and 1 % inspiration. Success comes to those who believe in the power of their dreams and desires. These people work hard towards achieving those desires with relentless conviction, dedication and discipline even at the cost of risking their lives. No denying the fact that hard work is indeed a two way street. You get back what exactly you have put in!!

All About Talent

Everyone is endowed with one talent or another. It’s important for us to discover the hidden talent. In fact the main purpose of education should be to identify the talent of an individual. However in our education system the students at school rarely identify what they have to do in life. Except for a few of them who become clear about what they have to do after the school well in time. In such happy cases, some of them are helped by their parents and some close relatives and a few of them by the teachers.

If the inherent talent is recognized and the child is encouraged to pursue a career in line with the inherent talent, he/she is bound to do very well in life. When you pick up a career where you enjoy your job, you are likely to excel in the profession.

Cicero, the great philosopher had said 2000 years ago:
“Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability”
It is true even today. Success of persons like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates confirm the veracity of the statement. Whatever you are by nature keep it; your line of talent lies in what the nature has intended you to be.
It is often said that you cannot come out of mediocrity if you are or have to pursue a career which is not to your liking. There is one school of thought that says “if you so desire you can start liking anything that you may be doing”. I don’t entirely deny the truth of the statement. But it is easier said than done. It may be possible, in rare cases, only with consistent efforts and training under a mentor. So, do what you can to discover your talent sooner than later, and leverage it.

Thanks for reading.

8 Facets of Ruinous Anger

Anger, we all know is of no avail. It serves no objective. It creates many problems, but offers no solution. Yet most of us get angry. What is Anger? And, why do we get angry? A good definition of Anger is- It is our response to anything happening which is totally against our wishes- something which is never expected.

In fact, we get angry because of our own short comings. If we are not able to deal with someone efficiently, we get angry. If we are not able to fulfill our commitment, we get angry. If our boss gets upset; again we get angry. We also get angry because of our arrogance. Almost anything may hit our pride and the result is anger.
Further, your junior repetitively makes a mistake, you get angry. You may even know that anger will not improve his conduct, yet, anger never abates. Your anger deteriorates his/her conduct. This makes an occasion for you to become even angrier. The victim may not show anything but will keep that in mind which is even worse.
You boss fires you over the delay in completing something that you had committed. This results in bitterness which may graduate into hate. Instead of trying to draw a lesson, an easier solution is adopted- rage.
The consequences of the dangerous emotion are known to all of us. If we contemplate and consider on these disastrous repercussions, will we ever do that? Perhaps yes! Bad habits die very hard.
Buddha said that you will be punished by your anger and not the person on whom you get angry.
Someone else said “speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret”.
Another clever man said that you should make your anger so expensive that no one can afford it; and make your happiness so cheap that people get it almost free.
Bruce Lee said “A quick anger will make a fool of you soon enough”.

Anger ruins your chances of success. Success requires following the plan with a cool mind. It requires eye for details while doing the job which needs meticulous attention. But huff will not allow it to happen.
Above all, wrath ruins efficiency. Productivity suffers. Power of concentration is diminished. Even though you may be able to complete some tasks on time, this foolish emotion will come in between. The task gets delayed and you go into tantrums. Reputation suffers. You may have earned it bit by bit, but the blow is sudden. If you lose temper, your help to a person is erased all at once. If people consider you short tempered, they will avoid you as much as they can.
Anger spoils your gains often. You may be on the verge of receiving some benefits, gifts or gains but anger spoils it all.
Lastly, but more importantly; anger is bad for your health. It increases blood pressure which leads to hypertension. We all know that continuous hypertension eventually results in heart attacks.
So never get angry!
Thanks for reading.

Pursuit of happiness should also be pursuit of success

18 questions you may ask yourself in 8 minutes every day. Observe the change in your attitude to life week after week. The questions are:

Have you written down your goals? And SMART goals?
Do you keep in mind that striving for excellence and not looking for perfection makes you more successful?
Do you realize that struggle and obstacles are the first steps of your story of success?
Do you have a strong desire to succeed?
Are you a person committed to your values and determined to win?
Are you able to shoulder responsibility?
Are you always prepared to do hard work?
Do you remain composed in difficult time?
Do you make it a point to learn from past mistakes?
Do you always avoid resorting to excuses?
Are you always courteous and polite without being subservient?
Do you maintain your discipline?
Do you believe in yourself and say ‘Yes, I can’
Are you able to work without supervision or reminder from others?
Are you persistent in your efforts and approach?
Are you proud of your excellent performance, whenever it happens?
Do you believe in continuous learning and have a mentor to help?
Do you realize that for achieving high degree of success, you much stretch in your efforts?

Thanks for reading.

What is Success?

In my last posting, we had discussed about the relative importance of knowledge, wealth and power in achieving success. We carried out a poll which ticked votes as 527 knowledge, 66 wealth, 50 power. But I had explained that the definition of success needs to be created in one’s own individual terms.

Today, I shall talk further about success. What is success? Amassing Wealth; or becoming extremely powerful; or acquiring extensive knowledge? The common parameter for an individual’s success would be how he/she is able to achieve their goals. Indeed, when you set a goal for yourself and you achieve it you are successful.
But what happens when you do not set goals? Or when you set goals which are unrealistic or unachievable? Another question that comes to mind is do you have to be successful according to your own parameters? Do you goals have to be according to your own liking and desires? Or does your family/friends and well wishers have any role to play? Should you/should you not take into account their expectations or even the current trends in the society? If one is a member of a community how can the same be totally disregarded?
One thing for sure is extremely important; that any success worth its name should bring you happiness.
For me true success is achieving bit by bit my goals which I must set as under:

My health goals
My Career goals
My financial goals
My social goals
My hobby goals
My spiritual goals

It means that I need to have some kind of measure for reviewing my success. I have classified these in the order of importance so far as I am concern. But how does one go about defining these goals and setting them according to one’s own priority – well that is a subject for any discussion.