Category: Personal Development

We all know who Leonardo Da Vinci was and we also know who Pablo Picasso was, if not all of us, at least most of us know who these men were. They were the outstanding artists of their times. No one comes close to the greatness of these greats in their field. However, we don’t know the names of the artists living in our city or in our nearby area. Why is that? Why do we know the names of few and consider them as the greatest, while we don’t know other people doing the same thing? The answer is simple, that the two great names are the names of the giants, but the point is, what makes them giants? Why do we know them and why don’t we know the others doing the same thing? The reason is the successful people don’t do different things, but they do things differently as the great Shiv Khera describes it.

In this blog, I will discuss some properties that successful people have which unsuccessful people don’t. Anyone who has these properties will become extraordinary and will move on the top of the ladder of success. Let’s look at those properties:

THE SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY:

The greatest minds and the most successful individuals don’t blame others, they take absolute responsibility of their success. When they fail, they don’t look outside and blame the other factors, they don’t blame the government, their family, their friends, and external factors. In fact they believe that the failure is due to their fault. They have done something wrong that makes them a failure.

I read a story of a coach once in a book by Earl Nightingale, that after his team lost, the interviewer asked him, “Why did your team lose?” The coach replied, “It rained”. The interviewer asked, “Just on your team?” This is a classic example of blame game, this coach didn’t take responsibility and blamed the circumstances for his failure. If he were a responsible person, he would have said, “We didn’t play well, we will improve next time.” Or simply, “The other team played better”.

What happens when we don’t blame outside circumstances and take responsibility. We simply understand the fact that we have a problem and we can solve this problem. The person who blames others tries to see the fault outside and never improves himself. This is what differentiates extraordinary from ordinary people.

INTEGRITY:

The second quality the extraordinary individuals have is the quality of integrity. It means they are 100 percent honest with others and with themselves. They always do the right thing; whether being right goes against them. Leonardo and Picasso didn’t steal anyone’s ideas, they used their own mind and presented something to the world. It is not easy to steal and plagiarize in today’s world because of media and internet, but in those days it was not easy to get caught. Yet they didn’t steal anyone’s ideas or copy anyone. Instead they used their own mind and worked hard and created their original piece of art. Integrity is the key to success, and it differentiates extraordinary from ordinary people.

Have you wondered why many movie directors remain ordinary? Because they steal ideas from other movies from the past or copy and plagiarize other countries movies and TV shows, yet they complain that why they remain ordinary? Remember, by cheating and stealing you cannot become extraordinary. The people immediately figure it out that this material, the story, or song is copied from somewhere else. In the eyes of the people, they lose respect permanently. Now even if they try to be honest next time, they cannot regain the lost respect.

KAIZEN PRINCIPLE:

The extraordinary people believe in Kaizen. What is Kaizen? Kaizen means improvement. The successful people know that they cannot be stagnant, they know the importance of improvement. That is why they try to produce better and better product or service the next time. That is why you will notice the quality of the artistic work by Picasso and Leonardo both improved as they aged. Because they learned from their mistakes and kept improving their paintings and work. They were never satisfied even at their best work, and wanted to produce something better the next time. Thus, they kept learning and improving and eventually became the giants.

Unfortunately, the ordinary people think they are the best and there is no room for improvement in their work; they kept producing the same kind of work and kept stagnant. Do you know what it means if you are stagnant? It means you are refusing to grow. In our “CiBNP Research Training Program” and the “Statistical Data Analysis Program”, we always teach our students that after you have produced a great article, try to improve it and produce a better article than the first version.
Let me tell you about my own self, when I see my previous work; I feel I have improved drastically. I am no way near the best or perfect, and I know that I have room for improvement. In fact I still consider myself as a student of writing. Because we cannot be perfect at anything, we can just be students. I also know that if I keep working on my improvement, I will be a way better writer than I am today. I know that there is no perfection, but excellence. I keep improving myself every day and keep learning in an effort to become extraordinary. You should do the same, always consider yourself a student.

CONCLUSION:

All of us can become extraordinary in our fields, we just need to model the extraordinary people. It will not be overnight; it may take a lot of years, but in the end, it will be worth it. Decide to be extraordinary in your field, even if it takes many years. Go achieve the greatness now. Don’t waste time on reading this blog, if you like it, then share it to help others.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

A student once asked this question in one of my sessions that, “I remain very motivated when I listen to your lectures or attend your sessions, but soon after I leave the place, I feel demotivated and down, how can I remain motivated all the time?”

The biggest challenge for many students is how to remain motivated all the time. I am writing this blog today to answer this particular question “how to be motivated all the time?”. Now imagine, and think about it, do you want to be motivated and energetic all the time? Do you literally want to be energetic all the time? What if someone you know dies, and you instead of getting sad, are looking happy, energetic, and motivated? Or lets’ not go to that extreme example, let’s use a normal example. How about if you have worked really hard for the past ten days non-stop, and now you want to rest, and you want to enjoy some sleep in the afternoon or early afternoon but because you wanted to remain motivated and energetic all the time, now you can’t sleep. The same thing can happen at night time when you want to sleep, but you are so motivated to work and achieve your goals that you now cannot sleep, even if you want to. Another possibility is that you wanted to enjoy some family time with your spouse and kids with a beautiful dinner and a movie, but you can’t sit on the couch for longer period of time; instead you keep moving because you are so energetic and motivated that you cannot sit peacefully. Just think about it, you don’t want that kind of motivation and energy. Do you?

What you do need however, is the ability to remain motivated and energetic most of the working time (during the day, if you work in day time), and/or whenever you want; let’s say you have an exam coming-up and you have limited time to study on a weekend and you want to remain awake for that particular night, now you need motivation. That is the kind of motivation and energy you need, that you remain motivated most of the working time or you can motivate yourself whenever you need.

Now lets look at some strategies that will help you remain motivated most of the working hours and whenever you want motivation and energy.

GOAL SETTING

The first and the foremost way to remain motivated most of the time (in this article “most of the time” means “the working hours” or “whenever you want motivation”), is by setting goals. Most of the people in this world are living a life without goals- they have no purpose or goal in their lives; they are like a ship without a rudder. Imagine! how a ship can travel without a rudder, it will go anywhere; there is no set destination or goal. Or imagine being on a road and no end-destination? Where are you going? Do we sit in the car without destination? Do we sit in an airplane without a destination? Then why do we live our life without a destination?

Time is passing by…you cannot stop time. No matter how hard you try. There is an end to this life for each of us, so do you wish to end your life with no achievements and no targets? The car of your life will run out of gas anyways, then why not reach a destination of your choice before your car runs out of gas.

Trust me, if you have goals, it will be very easy for you to remain motivated. Just set goals.

WHAT IS YOUR WHY

Most people who set goals, never achieve their goals. Then isn’t this a clear contradiction to the above point that goal setting produces motivation? Actually no, its not a contradiction. What I am saying here is that goal alone will not be sufficient to keep you motivated. The goal with a BIG WHY will keep you motivated. You cannot remain motivated for longer periods of time, if you don’t know “why” are you planning to achieve whatever you want to achieve.

The “why” gives you the real energy and motivation by providing you with the reason. Now remember, the bigger the reason, the bigger the motivation. The question is how can you increase your motivation. The key is to make the why as huge as possible, and increase your whys. Don’t have just one why, have multiple whys for your life and goal. For example, if your goal is to be a published research author, then just increase then number of whys. A big why is to have the prestige an honor of being a published author, another why is that why I want to be a published author? Because I want to be well renowned. Another why is, because I want to serve people with my article by providing more knowledge to others. Another why is that I will get promotions, I will get a better job, I will get be proud of myself. The list of this why can go on and on. There is no limit, just think about your whys and write a list of the reasons or whys you want to achieve certain goal. The more the whys the more the motivation, then it will be very difficult for you not be motivated most of the time.

REPETITION

The third and one of the most important ways to remain motivated all the time is by thinking about an example, can you be physically fit by just exercising once? Absolutely not, unless you exercise every day. Can you keep your mouth clean by just brushing once a year? No, you need it twice a day everyday. Can you just eat food once a year? No, you need to eat something at least two, three times a day, every single day, over and over again. The same thing is for muscle building, you need to life weight every day, again and again and then you will see the results. Similarly, you need to listen to motivational lectures and videos again and again, every single day, once a day or more. How often do you listen to motivational messages, videos, or audio lectures, seminars, podcasts or webinars? I bet only one to two percent of the people do it everyday, that is why only one to two percent people are highly successful in their lives.

CONCLUSION:

Don’t strive to be motivated all the time. Instead strive to be motivated most of the working hours or whenever you want motivation. Set goals, increase the number of whys, and keep listening to motivational lectures everyday, then you will remain motivated most of the time and will be able to motivate yourself whenever you need motivation.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Aren’t you surprised by the title of this blog? I bet you are. I am positive that after reading the title you would be curious that what kind of blog title is it, yet after reading this blog, you will highly likely agree with me and will believe in the philosophy of “Be the Tree”.

Just think about the fact that every single thing in this universe has a purpose. Human beings have a purpose (I discussed that in my purposeful living blog), animals, insects, even the non-living things have a purpose as well. There is not even a single thing in this universe that doesn’t have a purpose.

Trees are living beings as we all know. What is the purpose of trees? And what can we learn from trees? Lets look at the following purposes of “the tree” (yes I will use the article “the” for tree here to make a point), and see how we can adopt this purpose in our lives and be more beneficial beings to the mankind and the universe as a whole.

THE TREE IS A GIVER:

If we analyze in depth how the tree is helpful to every other living being, we will notice that tree is one of those creatures of nature that is a “giver”. The tree always gives more than it receives; no matter what. Let me elaborate it more, the tree takes water, minerals, and sunlight but what does it give us in return? It gives us more than we can ever imagine…. The tree gives us fruit, a single tree is capable of giving us tremendous amount of fruits almost every year or every alternate year. If we compare the amount of care it receives from us, we will realize that tree actually gives us way more than it receives from us.

The tree gives us fruit, it doesn’t matter who will benefit from the fruit. Even if a gardner who is planning to cut the tree, can actually benefit from the fruits given by the tree. This gardener is actually an enemy for the tree but the tree doesn’t stop its fruit for this enemy.

My question is, “Can’t we learn from something from the tree? Can’t we be like trees? Can we give whatever we have to others without any expectation of return? Can’t we become givers? Trust me…the principle of giving is really powerful; the more you give the more you receive, just like the tree receives more care just because it gives more and more.

The tree that gives more fruit is later taken care of more by the caregiver for obvious reasons. Because the tree is giving benefit to the society, the caregiver also gets benefited by the giving nature of the tree. Hence the caregiver takes good care of the tree and the cycle goes on and on. The more the tree gives, the more care it receives. The same thing happens with us as well. If we decide to be givers and keep giving, the nature will take care of us.

The tree gives us oxygen, helps our environment by reducing the overall high temperature, thus making the world a better place to live. The tree also gives us shelter, and shadow to help us in bad weather and bad times. Not only that, the tree benefits the mankind even after it is dead; we use the wood of a dead tree and use it for furniture, our couches, bed, etc. Not just that, the wood of the tree produces papers that we write on, and the tree and plants give us a numerous amount of medications that treat our ailments and the cotton tree (gossypium for example ), also gives us clothing by providing us cotton, and the list goes on and on.

Why can’t we be like the tree? Why can’t we give and give and give. Why don’t we understand that the giver survives, its the survival of the fittest according to Charles Darwin, and I believe the fittest is the one who benefits others more than anyone else. Can’t we just decide that we will always give more than we receive? Can’t we give more in our relationships than we receive? Can’t we give more to strangers than what we receive from them, just like a tree gives fruits to everyone, even a stranger.

The tree even gives us something even after it dies, similarly, we should be that kind of givers who give even after leaving this world. For example, my blogs and videos you watch, will give something to the people after I die. I want you to think about it, how can you keep giving after you die? May be write a book, may be your research articles, maybe educational videos, or by actually growing a tree, or donating for a charity hospital or helping a poor child graduate from school. All of these are the actions that will remain alive after you leave this world.

You don’t have to be Nelson Mandela, or Mother Tresa to give something that keeps serving people after your death, you just need to give whatever you can. Not all of us can be like these greatest people ever born, but if you can just be a fraction of those greats, and give something even if it’s extremely small in quantity or value, remember, you will be considered a giver, and the giver is the fittest that survives. Your name will probably live even after you are gone or you will see the fruits in the next life.

CONCLUSION:

Be a giver like the tree. Remember, the old woman who just gave a penny to Jesus, and Jesus considered it more than everyone else’s donations; because she only had a penny?

Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you give…you just need to make sure that you always try to give more to the nature than you take. It doesn’t have to be millions, because the key is your “intentions” and the quality of giving, not the quantity of giving.
Also remember not to show-off what you give, otherwise it will all be in vain.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Bob Proctor the famous speaker once said that I asked this to Earl Nightingale, “How do we manage time?”. Earl Nightingale replied, “ we cannot manage time, but we can manage activities.”

This is not a hidden fact that the life is given only once. Each second and each day, the time is running- in fact it is rightly said, that “Time flies”. Time literally goes by really fast, we cannot stop it, we cannot beat it, and we cannot manage it, we can just plan to handle it by managing our activities. Because the time is passing by so fast, most people have extreme difficulty living a life where they feel the time is out of their control; they just can’t do anything at all.

Many people just keep thinking about what should I do first, what should I do second? And what should I do in the end. As a result, nothing gets done. When nothing gets done, the end result is frustration, anger, lack of self-confidence, and stress. This stress leads to interpersonal relationship issues, issues at work, issues with health and so forth. This situation is not unfamiliar to you at all. The challenge is how can we manage our time? In this blog I will discuss how to manage time (oops manage activities to beat the time), and live a life without stress.

GOAL SETTING:

The time is valuable for those who have a mission in life. Those who have something to live for. Those who have a target, a goal to aim at. People who have a goal, and they know that we all will eventually die, and the time is running fast, only those people strive for the goal achievement and value time. The time management is not for those who have no goals. If you don’t have goals, then reading this article is of no value to you. When there is nothing to achieve then you can just lay down on couch and eat popcorns and watch TV. Thats a style of living many people are living, and there is nothing wrong with that if you are one of those people. But there is one serious problem with such a life style. When you don’t value time, you cannot do anything in life. You can’t even manage your daily life tasks and duties. The stress and frustration will eventually catch you; you simply cannot avoid it.

If you want quality life and want to remain out of stress and live a happy life. Then I suggest you set goals, you should have a mission, a purpose in life. When you have a purpose in life and you want to achieve that purpose, you will realize soon that you cannot achieve this goal if you keep sitting on the couch because the clock is ticking and the time is flying. We all will eventually die, and if we die without achieving our goals, and achieving anything in this life, then why did we come here? Make your life valuable, make it meaningful, make it purposeful. Only then time management will work for you, otherwise you will never value time. To manage time, we need to set goals, and thats the first step in time management.

THE RULE OF BUCKET:

This is the most important rule of time management. Lets say you have a bucket and you have some rocks in a sack and bag filled with pebbles. The bucket size is equal to the size of the bag with rocks and the bag with pebbles. Now if I ask you to fill the bucket with all the pebbles first, and then I ask you to try to fill the rocks in the bucket, will you be able to do it? Absolutely No…. But if I ask you fill the bucket with the rocks first, and then start pouring pebbles, don’t you think the pebbles will find a way and both pebbles and rocks will be easily fit into the bucket?

This is exactly the time management is all about, you need to fill the rocks in your bucket first. What are the rocks? The bigger responsibilities, the bigger tasks, the most important tasks that are a must do task for you. If you do your important tasks firsts, the least important tasks (the pebbles) will find their way. Lets say the least important tasks are not done, they will not affect your life and will not make a difference. But if your rocks (the important tasks) are left pending, your life will be affected and this situation will cause stress in your life. Just do the bigger tasks first.

THE CHECKLIST:

The most common and one of the best ways of managing time is to create a checklist of your most important tasks in the order of importance. The most important task is written on the top, followed by the least important tasks. You can also number them as 1,2, and 3 or A, B, and C. The A task needs to be done no matter what happens, and then the task B. Remember the key here is to not move to the B task until the A task is done. Stick with one task at a time and you will enjoy the fruits of the real time management.

CONCLUSION:

I do agree with Earl Nightingale but I also believe that you can manage time by just managing the activities according to a plan, and checklist, with a life with goals. If you do what I mentioned in this blog, you will notice your life will become a quality life that you will enjoy living. Once your life is on track, convey this message to others.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid