Tag: goals

Grit 👊

by drjurisharma, posted in Life

Hello everyone ! Have a wonderful and a safe day 🙋🏻

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Wikipedia’s meaning of grit is ‘perseverance and passion for long term goals’. This phrase seems to be more of a hard personality trait which can be the most valuable one when nurtured in our life’s success story. Angela Duckworth, a psychologist, made ‘grit’, the term of character trait, famous in her extensive research on its immense potential. She analysed different clusters of individuals from a diverse background. Her study has shown that persistent efforts with directed practise to hone a particular skill and focus towards a chosen goal can invariably lead to success more than just being talented or intellectually sharp. Having been born talented or born with an intelligent IQ is a blessing. But, if efforts are not enough to hone the ground talent, the talent remains unexplored and wasted. It’s a fact that not every one of us is equally gifted. But, yet, each one of us is born with this natural capacity of the inner strength of grit. Holding onto this innate capacity of grit can give us the courage to follow our dreams in the quest for success in life’s journey. To develop a skill or to unfold a success story, a mere talent or a sharp IQ is not enough. It is the continuous effort and perseverance to follow the passion and the learning from every failure that goes to make the person successful. Failures contribute more than success because, with each failure, you learn more and understand better.

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Unlike animals or lower creatures, human beings are born knowing nothing. They are just born with only one ability that is to learn. It is this character trait to discover and learn more that goes to make the difference. The Japanese philosophy of Kaizen is prevalent and mainstream, not only in business but also in every sphere because it resonates entirely with self-improvement approaches. It says, success can be virtually ahead, if we organise us, with continuous and constant improvements in honing a skill directed towards a targeted goal. Therefore, grit outdoes talent.

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The power of passion and persistent efforts has more thrust than being talented or having a sharp IQ. Learning to nurture a growth mindset and our capacity of grit becomes a better tool, not just in growing a particular skill but also in learning life skills that contribute through roller coaster ride of this life journey.

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The simple strategies that go to develop the capacity of grit: some of the outlines that Angela Duckworth ‘s book “Grit” has highlighted.

1. Understanding self, start questioning yourself. A self-analysis on what intrigues you the most, what exactly resonates with your personality and what gives us the ultimate joy in doing so. Understanding and acknowledging your inclination towards a passion is essential. When the clarity is centred, organising yourself or self-disciplining, building upon a growth mindset, the skills to develop, the strategies to follow, are the keys that are needed. Then, start building up short term goals and a greater purpose in this endeavour. Higher levels of goals, a greater purpose is co-related to the power of grit. Following a random passion, without any intention or targeted outcome is a hobby or a past time. So, a goal and a correct path are essential.

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2. Strive to improve every day. Slowly, each day, taking one step ahead. Improving and progressing in polishing your skill is necessary. Competing yourself to perform better than your previous day’s progress. Pushing yourself each day to try adjusting the expertise. Each time, you fail, you learn and understand better. Though failures are frustrating at times, failures give you a lot of information and better feedback than anyone else. It helps you to reflect upon and try again. So, a continuous effort of deliberate practice is essential.

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3. Building up a growth mindset is what matters the most. In a fixed mindset, you think that your abilities are firm, you are unable to grow further. You are what you are. That is how a fixed mentality functions which are not true at all. Even neuroplasticity says that the brain can change or undergo changes continuously irrespective of age. So, the brain has an enormous capacity to learn more and more and transform changes accordingly. So, it’s essential to practise and honing a skill which can bring out differences in the neural pathways.

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4. Improve and boost your morale. With each time failing, your motivation levels dropdown. Your negative thoughts keep haunting you continuously. Sometimes, your confidence becomes so low that you find difficult to sustain. In such a case, use a past positive memory of a good learning experience where you felt proud of yourself as the guiding memory. This ‘feel-good’ factor will help you disrupt your negative thinking pattern and push you to focus back and continue learning and attaining the skill and help you for striving to succeed.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love 💐

Post: Time ❤️

by drjurisharma, posted in Life, Uncategorized

Hello everyone ! Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend ahead 🙋🏻

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Establish Goals -for your personal, work & family life. Plan a Strategy -to meet your goals. Develop Habits -that will help you get what you want in life.

Courtesy: slideplayer.com

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

 

Post : Mind control : How do I get that ?😇🤔

by drjurisharma, posted in Uncategorized

Hello everyone ! Have a great day 🙋🏻

Our mind is illusional. Whatever, we think and perceive is our own derived illusion. It’s our biggest friend and at the same time can be our biggest enemy. Therefore, a common quote says ” You may die a hundred deaths without a break in the mental turmoil “ Our mind makes up everything that happens in our life – good or bad, big or small, ugly or beauty, sad or happy, success or failure, it ‘s all within this thing, called mind. So, how do I control this thing ‘mind’ and remain focus on my goal and life purpose?

Understanding the mind, and its content is very important and fundamental. What makes our thought world? How do thoughts are generated? We build up mental impressions through the different inlets of this outer world. The inlets can be :
*Five senses: sight, hear, smell, touch, taste
*Memory: That has been built up over the years of this outside world experience, right from the day we were born.
*Activity: That we perform , habituated and do throughout the day.
We create thought by an idea backed with emotion. Through different inlets, we build up thoughts as our mental content every day. We generate, perceive, analyse, process and ruminate our entire thought world. So, we keep doing the same mental activity of thinking, analysing, ruminating every day. The thinking pattern doesn’t change. So, does our behaviour and habits. It is uninterrupted, a never-ending process which we may not be even aware.
According to Yoga Psychology ( Yoga Sutras), our thought world mainly depends on mental fluctuation (Vritti) and thoughts (prataya). The mental impulses (vritti) are created through the different inlets like the senses, memory, activity which inturn create mental impressions generating thoughts (prataya). This is the reason, when we are in a positive , vibrant environment, surrounded by positive people, we generate positive, beautiful, creative thoughts. But, when we surround ourselves with negativity, we generate negative thoughts of guilt, anger, pain, hurt, jealousy and so on.

Normally, what happens, when we centred our mind for a particular activity, at the office or home. There are endless distractions. Okay, we try to control the distraction or cut down to some extent, but still mental fluctuations and wondering thoughts continue to distract us. This is because the memory continues to generate unstable thoughts in an unstable mind.
Therefore to manage our mind, we need to control our mental fluctuation and thoughts. The only way to control them is through a concentrated mind. A concentrated mind can be achieved through the power of attention. The power of attention is our very own property (which arises from self) which we can achieve by practising and training our mind. It is a steady power of awareness which is created at our own will. It is the only capability that we can learn to develop for mind control. Whereas, the mental fluctuations (impression) and thoughts are greatly influenced by our outer world, the external distractions. They are not completely within our control.

The different states of mind depending on the power of attention can be defined as
*Ordinary mind: When both the mental fluctuations (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are unstable. The mind is rather restless distracted, jumping from one thought to another.

*Focused mind: When there is less mental fluctuation (stable vritti) but thoughts are still wobbly (unstable prataya). This is the learning mind.

*Concentrated mind: When both the mental fluctuation (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are on the same line, stable enough. This is the highest level of attentive mind.

*Meditative mind: When the vritti and prataya are concentrated at the same point, on a similar goal. That is the mind is concentrated at one point say, your attention is entirely on your breath or a point of focus. That is when both mental fluctuation and thought are at the same point. This is the highest level of concentration.

The power of attention is similar to a focused beam of light where all your energies are focused. With this power of attention, you can learn, achieve, complete tasks and attain success in whichever areas of life you want to. That is the reason, we should always learn to perform an activity or task one at a time. So, we give our full power of attention. Handling multiple tasks all at a time can be like a scattered beam where all your energies are distributed. You can be able to do some while some are left undone. Your mind will keep fluctuating and your attention span will be variable and unstable.

So, how do I learn to achieve a concentrated mind with the ultimate power of attention? How do I control my mind, my inner thought world, daily? How do I focus my mind on one activity at a time? How do I take charge of myself? This is a self-learning task, an ongoing process. Two comprehensive ways:

1. To achieve the power of attention, two important things matter the most :
Awareness: Being consciously aware all the time. Feeding our thought world and thought process with positive, constructive and creative thoughts.
Will: Self-training and developing a restrained impulse towards worthy goals, purposeful life.

2.Control of thoughts:
*Exposure to right kind of thoughts: Feeding the mind everyday with right kind of thoughts. Reading good books, being in a positive, good company, surrounded by positive vibrations.
*Right behaviour: Good conduct, right behaviour pattern influence thoughts and emotions. That means reframing our cognitive abilities. Correcting our behaviour patterns as on when required.
*Right lifestyle and habits: Maintaining a regulated lifestyle and habits will greatly influence our mind. You cannot have a stable mind with an unstable lifestyle.
*Purposeful life: Working towards a specific goal, understanding and working towards a meaningful life. Developing a stable mind through meditation and prayers. This cannot be achieved overnight. It is an ongoing, self-learning process. You and I have to keep working on it daily.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

References: Science of Focus by Pravrajika Divyanandaprana (Vivekavani)

 

Post: 3 basics of a balanced life.

by drjurisharma, posted in Uncategorized

When your mind, body and heart are in a balanced state, you feel more free, calm and grounded.
A balanced life cannot have set standard rules for everybody. What work for me may not work for you? So a balanced life cannot be followed according to a rule book but instead can be created by each one of us in our own life.

For me, like many of you, balance life is a balance of personal, professional and social life. It is also a balance of mind and heart, both practical and emotional aspects of life.

In life, it is important to remember, that like time, energy is limited. When we feel that any aspect of life is consuming too much attention and energy, it is time for a change and correction otherwise it will affect the life’s balance.

Imbalances not only affect the mental health causing stress, anxiety, sadness or unhappiness but also affects the physical health causing sickness and diseases.

Many successful people and business leaders have been giving their success formula, their tips of creating a balanced life in the form of books, interviews, lectures. But do they really work for me or you? Each one of us leads a unique life, and it is up to us to create a balance in our unique ways.

3 basics which go to create a balanced life :

1.Set Priorities: It is important to acknowledge my priorities and boundaries. At whatever age or stage of life, we are, it is important to know which aspect of life such as professional/financial, personal, family requires more attention and energy. Accordingly, we need to divide our focus and plan. It is important to have goals and aspirations in terms of career/ finance but also keep a balance on the personal/family life. Too much attention on either side may create a whack. Be it personal, professional, social life, it is important to set our priorities right.

2. Self love and care: An important aspect of balance life, is taking care of
your physical wellbeing. In spite of your daily grind, you should always take out time for yourself. Practically speaking, if you don’t have physical wellbeing, how will you cope up with everything? Meaning your professional or personal/family life or grinding towards your goals and aspirations. Taking care of yourself, eating healthy, maintaining an active lifestyle are all very important for good physical health. Whatever be the day , good or bad, always keep loving yourself and stick to your healthy routine.

3.Enthusiasm for life : In today’s stressful life with continuous adversities, it is very important to have an adequate mental balance. Keeping an open mind, carrying an optimistic attitude is the best way to approach and deal with life. Things don’t turn out always as planned. Although you keep thriving for your goals and success, you need to have a bigger purpose in life. Life is not only about materialistic success. And it is too short to live with regrets and unhappiness. Some day, even if you may achieve your career success, you may not feel happy or contentment in personal life. So, it’s important to create a balanced life on every aspect of life to experience peace, calm, happiness and sense of fulfilment. So, enjoy and live life to the fullest.

Post: 2 intrinsic rewards behind adapting to a healthy lifestyle.

by drjurisharma, posted in healing, health, mental health, wellness

“Happiness lies, first of all, in health.” George William Curtis

Whatever your goal is, maintaining a fit body, weight loss, maintaining your blood sugar, cholesterol or reducing stress, adopting changes in lifestyle is not hard. But maintaining them is a tough calling. Old habits are hard to quit.

Avoiding a piece of brownie, or an extra glass of wine during Christmas or thanksgiving is far less appealing than on a normal routine day. You have no time to think about that extra calories in those moments. Hitting the gym or jogging in the morning on a cold chilling winter doesn’t seem appealing at all even if it may affect your lifestyle changes goal.

Evidence-based researches have shown that people get motivated to adopt and maintain their lifestyle goals based on 2 types of reward system.

1.Hedonia; When lifestyle goal is associated with more superficial outcomes like you are looking good, losing weight, your wrinkles have reduced, your belly fat has reduced. These rewards are short-lived, gives you superficial pleasures and temporary satisfaction but lack a deeper meaning or a purpose. So, when you default your routine, may give you unhappiness as you will miss the superficial outcomes.

2.Eudaimonia: When your goal is attached to a more deeper meaning or a purpose, you tend to get motivated longer or even life long. In the process, lifestyle changes don’t become a forceful routine but instead, turn into spontaneous habits which gives you more lasting benefits. Emotions are mainly expressed due to the limbic brain. When we are deeply happy, contented, this feeling has a lasting memory in the structures amygdala and hippocampus. So, when you have a purpose, a satisfying meaning which gives happiness, attached to your lifestyle changes, you are always motivated to follow.

Some examples of different scenarios while attaching your lifestyle goal to a purpose :

A middle-aged woman has started to become physically active, taking her exercises regularly to build up more stamina to look after and play with her grandchildren.

A young loving husband who was obsessed with junk food and alcohol, have started to quit his habits and adapt to a healthy lifestyle for the sake of his wife and his newborn child.

A young man or a woman who had a past unhealthy way of eating, irregular routine start to adapt healthy eating and lifestyle for the sake of his/her career.

A doting grandfather starts taking care of his diet and maintains his routine physical activity so that his diabetes is better controlled and that he can be alive for a long time to spend his days with his growing grandchildren.

Attaching lifestyle goal with a purpose, not only help you in overall health-related aspects but have also other hidden rewards. You are more in charge of your life, you have self-acceptance and self-respect as an individual, believing yourself better, improved relationship with others and overall personal growth.

Post: How to change a fixed mindset to growth mindset ? 4 simple realisations.

by drjurisharma, posted in Uncategorized

Growth is dynamic. Scientifically, we grow till our last day in this world. But as we age, though we keep ageing physically, our mindset get stuck at some point in life. We start developing certain thinking pattern, a mindset which becomes very difficult to change. The problem arises when this mindset starts interfering through our challenges in the journey towards our goal or ambition.

5 observations to change from a fixed to a growth mindset.

1.First of all, you forget that you have a super brain. Age has no relation to our learning abilities. Any kind of intelligence, skill, a habit can be acquired if you put necessary effort. Therefore, challenges in professional, or in personal life can be overcome if you aim to do so. That is how a growth mindset response.

2. When you have a fixed mindset, you are unable to take any kind of criticism. Instead, you become too self-critical of yourself. Your response to criticism is more emotional than practical. You take things personally. With a growth mindset, criticism can be big learners. You tend to learn from the criticism and find out ways to improve. Instead of being critical and judgemental of other’s success, you tend to get inspired, appreciate and learn from other’s success story.

3.Unlike in a fixed mindset, you get disappointed and give up easily, but with a growth mindset, you tend to continuously make an effort to achieve your goal. Take each day as a challenge, and thrive towards your success. You have this never giving up spirit.

4.The most important aspect of a growth mindset is believing in yourself. In a fixed mindset, since you are self-critical, you tend to see your limitations only. But with a growth mentality, you never argue with your limitations, instead, you focus on the opportunities and possibilities to achieve your goals and success.

Post : 5 takeaways from failure.

by drjurisharma, posted in Uncategorized

I have failed and you have failed. We all have failed. Yet, when we fail, we are so upset 😭, torn , collapsed that we don’t like trying again. Because none of us like failing in life, at work, at play, in business or even in relationship. But it’s actually the failures that teaches us the most. 5 take aways…

  1. Lesson taught : Failure teaches you the best lesson on why ,how and what went wrong in any task you did. It helps you become intelligent and frame better strategies.
  2. Grounded : It keeps you humble and grounded. Even when you get success , you cannot forget the pain and struggle you went through.
  3. Committed to goals : You are more determined to achieve your goals. Recommits you towards your goal.
  4. Overcome fear: You don’t have fear and insecurity any longer. Its keep you focus rather than anticipating the future or outcome.
  5. Support system : Tough days are good to acknowledge your true friends and family who stood by you and support you.

Post : 5 inspirational thoughts to begin your day.

by drjurisharma, posted in healing, health, wellness

‘Each morning we are born again, what we do today, what matters the most” Buddha

As soon as you wake up in the morning, the first thoughts that come across our minds are the worries and challenges that are niggling us for some time. It happens because of our habitual thinking and default subconscious mind programme. We get carried away by the same habitual programme. We follow the day with the same habits, actions, and end up with the same worries or some more to add up. Nothing new is expected or doesn’t happen.

So how do we change? Remember, change starts in our thoughts. The biggest source of motivation is our own thoughts. So start thinking differently, start breaking your daily thinking pattern.

” Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today with a new ending”

5 thoughts to begin my day.

1.Gratitude; Waking up with gratitude and being thankful for having a life and with loved ones around. ” It is through the gratitude of present moment that spiritual dimension of life opens” Eckhart Tolle

2.Openminded: Waking up with an open mind with optimism. I am open to endless possibilities that the Universe can offer. Keeping an open mind, all struggles and challenges seem very small and can be easily worked out.
” There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your thinking” Brian Tracy

3.Worthiness: Waking up with a feeling of self-worthiness is immensely self-empowering. A sense of self-worthiness can itself be self-motivating and inspirational. You don’t have to look outside.

4.Goal oriented: It is important to set some goals in the morning for the day. It gives you a much-needed clarity, to begin with.
But set higher goals in life which are beyond your reach at present. So that you can always have something to look forward and work towards it.

5.Fulfilment: Waking up in the morning with a sense of fulfilment, satisfaction so far in your life journey gives the much-valued joy and happy state of being.