Welcoming constraints

constraints, creativity, Fear, Human Brain, possibility thinking, problem solving, Uncategorized

I have written multiple times before how I used to be scared when problems came my way.

One of the first people to influence me against being scared was the writing of Jay Abraham. One of the things that has stuck in my mind is one statement – the bigger the problems you solve, the more you can earn.

Over the years, as I have matured the ability to handle challenges has also changed but still there are times when constraints baffle me.

Realizing that its the rain which tries to create all our challenges has helped me in managing the thought process around handling constraints.

A book that I found useful with a good set of tools for welcoming constraints is A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden.

While a lot of people will talk about looking at the positive side of things and about, thinking out of the box etc. This book gives practical tools which if you use make your brain actually look for options and find solutions.

The more I read about the challenges that we face, the more I realize its our brain which creates mountains out of mole hills.

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!!!

Thinking and Action – frameworks

Affirmative action, books, Flow, Frameworks, Habits, Human Brain, possibility thinking, problem solving

Till now I have been generally written about how the brain gets positive feelings when you do a gratitude exercise or when you do charity etc. This feeling helps your brain see more possibilities. This was actually topic of my last post. While all of this is true, I still was not able to figure out what will ensure that I keep taking action on a continuous basis because at the end of the day, just thinking won’t get you there, you need to take action.

This is not to degrade the thinking process. As a matter of fact if you spend time into thinking then the chances are that you will find a solution which may be extremely elegant and solve the problem. But you need to have the grit or persistence to work on the solution, figure out if it actually works, if it doesn’t, go back to the drawing board and find another solution.

How does someone ensure that they are always taking action. What will create that behaviour which will make me ensure that I am moving in the direction, to achieve my goals of the impossible while I am coming out with more creative solutions to handle my constraints.

While I am not sure if I have all the pieces of the puzzle in place for me, I do think that there’s a combination of things which I have observed when I have read the following 4 books – Tiny Habits by B.J.Fogg, The Art of the Impossible by Steven Kotler, A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan & Mark Barden and Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol.

So two of the books – in no particular order – are about solving problems and handling constraints, one is about creating behaviours and the last is about taking your brain into a high performance agenda. over the next few weeks I will try to see if I can take out the best pieces of advice and put it into a framework for myself and see the results.

So there are some low levels activities which I completely stop doing – like writing emails. Then I create behaviours for small things which can make a huge impact for me, find processes and frameworks to resolve constraints – thinking tools and then get into flow to figure out creative solutions. If I can have prompts to help me do all this then I would have really figured out a way to not get stuck from time to time in time.

Once there’s a behaviour based on a habit, then my brain will also not get over worked. With the energy that I conserve, I may actually figure out even better solutions.

Is this too much of a fancy. I don’t know. Let me put it in action and see. I will keep you posted.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Gratitude – it makes your more resilient

Decisions, Fear, Flow, Gratitude, Habits, Happiness, possibility thinking, problem solving

This was news to me. I have always spoken about being grateful for whatever we have in life instead of bothering about what we don’t have. This habit has held me in good state, because God has genuinely given me a lot to be thankful for. That doesn’t mean I don’t have aspirations, but I definitely don’t get anxious about things which don’t come my way.

What I learnt over the last few weeks is that gratitude gets more dopamine into your brain. That spike in dopamine helps the brain feel good. Since the brain is designed to make you safe always, it is always looking for the next point of danger. So the brain is always looking for the next negative item.

When the dopamine enters and the brain feels safe, it does not have fear. When it feels safe it is willing to think of more possibilities. The moment you get into a possibility mode, you tend to solve problems better, you take better decisions and better decisions help you get better in life. You get into flow state faster because negative things are not bothering you.

When you are able to solve problems, then your brain does not get frustrated with the impediments that come your way.

When impediments come your way, your brain goes into negative mode trying to visualise all the negative situations in a snowball effect. When that happens, your ability to think of solutions goes down. And you get further frustrated, which leads to anxiety and most health related problems start from there.

Therefor being gracious, having gratefulness, is extremely good for your health. when you have good health automatically you become more resilient handling tough situations physically also.

Till next time then, be grateful for all that you have.

Carpe Diem!!!