Author: animeshjmathur

Happiness

Energy, Gratitude, Happiness, Human Brain, Yoga

Happiness is such a fundamental thing, as far as I am concerned, that I tell all my team members that there’s no point in doing a job if it doesn’t get you to be happy.

I have written a lot about gratitude and how it helps you feel more happy, safe etc. This is one practice that I follow a lot.

In addition I do a little bit of Yoga / Pranayam (different kinds of breathing exercises) everyday in the morning because it gets me tuned a little better to start my day. Just the fact that I take time out in the morning without looking at my phone ensures that I don’t get any SMS or WhatsApp which can cause me to become anxious.

I don’t get a newspaper at home, I don’t watch newspaper on TV and I don’t have any apps on my mobile or tablet that can give me news because all these channels only vend negativity in some form or another, which gets my brain anxious

So while I wrote about activities which stop me from getting anxious (consciously or subconsciously) as per Steven Kotler there are actually methods by which you can ensure happiness.

In his book The Art of Impossible, he also talks about Gratitude as one activity to increase happiness. Then he talks about mindfulness – while I use Yoga. Then he says even exercise makes you feel happy because it helps you reduce cortisol levels, thereby reducing stress, while increasing feel good neuro chemicals.

Finally the most surprising thing that I read was a good night’s sleep. I have known that a good night’s sleep is critical for being alert and active. But this alertness and activeness is because of the higher energy levels that you have after a good night’s sleep. As per Steven, because of the higher energy levels, your brain feels more capable of solving the challenges ahead and therefore you feel more secure, which in turn leads to feeling more happy.

But when you are under pressure, these are the exact things you stop doing, which causes a negative spiral to take place. So how do you ensure that you do these four things even when you are stressed…. I don’t know…but would definitely like to know if any of you has been able to crack this code.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Teach something…learn it forever

Human Brain, learning

Today, 5th September is celebrated as Teachers day in India. It is in memory of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, who was the president of India, a scholar and above all a very respected teacher. So today I was thinking about the teachers who left a deep impression on me and made learning enjoyable.

Some of my own colleagues also sent me thank you notes today for having helped them learn. I used to hear Joe Polish, multiple times, on his podcasts of ilovemarketing.com, talking about the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone.

I used to relate to it because I personally like to get down to the basics of the technology, then conceptually figure out an analogy from a different walk fo life and teach. If my understanding is clear then I will be able to put it into different scenarios successfully. If the analogy is from an area which is dear to the person who is hearing it from you then, they will will immediately absorb the concept.

So for my colleagues who prefer to look trendy, I speak in terms of fashion brands to explain concepts. For people who are more commercial, I have to speak in terms of business. A lot of people have told me that I could become a good teacher because I teach very complex technologies, very simply.

Till now I had not realised why I am able to do it. I generally used to think that I have a unique ability to understand from first principles both – marketing and technology together, which for some reason, others are not.

When I was reading the Steven Kotler book – The Art of Impossible – I have written about this book earlier also – what struck me was the way our brain is wired to learn something. Dopamine is a key hormone which helps in learning. So when we understand something dopamine is released. When we are able to build a story or narrative around it, further dopamine is released making the memory pathways even more permanent.

I think this could be one of the reasons why all the old religious texts had stories built around them, since there were no concepts of writing more than 10000 years back in India. Students were made to recite things. The recitation would involve multiple sensory organs and hence get the brain more active and the stories would keep the narrative constant.

The more you realise the way our brain works, te more you marvel at what a machine we humans are. With more and more scientific discoveries around the operation of the brain, I am in even more awe about what is the limit to our thinking.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Can-Do

mindset, possibility thinking, problem solving

The first international foray that I was personally involved with was into Singapore. The OEM partner (the elephant that we chose to ride at that time) that we used to work with had their regional headquarters in Singapore. The India geography was part of South Asia which used to be clubbed with ASEAN at that time.

While we had our own operation in the US also, this was the first international operation which would be handled out of India. Eventually we were able to execute business in 11 countries out of India.

The various people whom I met in our partner’s office were nice and helpful. However there was one lady who I remember even today because of a phrase she used “CAN-DO”. She was responsible for the business from Singapore for our partner.

I remember we were both in the car and she was explaining the challenges that they face while doing Implementation and asked me questions on various scenarios and how we would handle such situations since we were based out of India. After I had answered all the situations honestly she just mentioned ” I like your CAN-DO attitude “. We eventually went on to do business in Singapore and all the other ASEAN countries for years.

I have always tried to find solutions with whatever I have – quite often I have failed, but a lot of times I have succeeded spectacularly but no one had given this attitude of mine a name. This possibility thinking has got me a lot of rewards.

Now when people try to keep show casing all the reasons why a problem can’t be solved, I use the same term and ask them to learn to get a “CAN-DO” attitude.

Till next time then …. “CAN-DO”

Carpe Diem!!!

Ferocity – 2

Habits, problem solving, Questions

In the last post on this topic I had pointed out how Steven Kotler talks about Ferocity , in his book The Art of the Impossible, to be able to achieve impossible dreams. The basic premise is that if you make a habit of going after big problems and solving them , then you can achieve Impossible dreams.

Having worked on this aspect I think it is also important to ensure that we learn to anticipate the small problems that can come our way while attempting to handle the bigger ones.

Otherwise the small problems act as a diversion of your energy and resources. You end up trying to manage the small things and the bigger prize gets away. There’s a phrase in English about missing the forest for the trees which would be apt for this.

So while you go with a ferocity to making a habit to solve bigger and bigger problems, you also need to make a habit of diagnosing the roadblocks.

Just yesterday while we were at a customer location to handle some complex issue, just the fact that we did not have an adequate answer to a minor question derailed our discussion. I had warned my colleague, who was accompanying me , and whose line of work we were talking about, this question was coming up for sure, but he didn’t take it seriously and our sign-off discussion got derailed.

Especially when you are targeting a problem which has a human element , then knowing about the nuances of the people involved and how they could derail a process has to be planned out well in advance.

Till next time then….

Carpe Diem!!!