Reference Points

It was the last exam of our second semester. I had reached the exam hall a bit early since I was done with the revision somewhat two hours before the exam. My semester exams were okay okay and I didn't wanted this one to go away in a similar fashion.

While I sat on my bench,I saw the guy who sits ahead of me. There's some unusual thing about this guy which would make you respect him. He wears specs,has mustaches and light beard but doesn't care to trim them. Neatly dressed and quite reserved. His face remained quite expressionless and calm,knocking out the exam fear.

In the first four exams,I had not talked to him much,but this time,I decided to get into a conversation with him. He was from the Electrical Engg department which I understood from the orange strip on his ID card. 

Me: Today's exam is a bit tough.. I guess there will be a lot of diagrams to draw

He: Yeah.. I'm sure there will be some tough numerical as well.

Me: Lets see.. anyways,done with all the chapters

He (In a modest way): Don't know.. Lets see :)

Me: Ahem! Don't try to be so modest.. how much did you score in the first semester?

He: Umm.. 9.37 points. 

It was a sudden shocker for me,he was the college topper and I guess he had scored the highest in the city as well. He didn't ask my pointers and by then the supervisor had entered the hall. 

That evening,I was back to home after a long train journey and from the shelf,I decided to pick up 'The Greatness Guide' by Robin Sharma (P.S: I love reading his books again and again,it rejuvenates my spirit). I reached a particular topic called  'Choosing Reference Points'.

I re-introspected my performance over the year,I mean the last two semesters. I found that I wan't aiming much from the exams,thanks to the tremendous amount of complacency I had gathered during the year. The entire year was spent without much hard work and with low expectations.

I decided to change this habit and start with new and more efficient habits. I asked to myself "If he can,why can't I?" after all god gave me everything that I needed . I decided to set him as a reference point for my exam performance. I decided to set some more reference points as well. For example,there are some guys in my class who are good and regular at completing assignments,I'd refer them for my progress in assignments and continuous checking would help me buck up whenever I get loose and lag behind. Some guys are good at workshop,some are good at managing the class affairs. When I check their performance and I try to learn from them,it does wonders.

"There's something to learn from everyone around us,all we need is a positive attitude"

The best thing about reference points is that you always get a direction and standard. Merely saying that I'll get 9 points this semester becomes a bit vague,at times you don't know how to approach things. Don't ignore the fact that there are some smarter people around you and it's always wise to learn from their work and get it incorporated into you work. 

Top quotes-Part 2

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” 
E. James Rohn


"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons."
Johann Schiller


Giving is the secret of abundance.
Sivananda


"Development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we seek." 
 Dalai Lama


"Fortune favors the brave." 
 Publius Terence 


"If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough." 
Mario Andretti


"True change is within; leave the outside as it is." 
 Dalai Lama


"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever."
Lance Armstrong


Source:
Tweets that I came across

The Teacher of Management

There's a post graduation course called Masters of Business Administration, more popularly known as MBA. These graduates are hired by firms where they exhibit their extraordinary skills of managing affairs,be it handling clients,handling the clerks,managing the accounts and so on. (P.S: I don't have much knowledge as I am an engineering student). These managers are paid huge amount of money to manage the affairs of company and optimizing the company's performance.

Okay,now coming to the point,this post has got nothing to do with these MBAs,I just thought of enlightening the readers with all the knowledge (or ignorance,whatever you call it) about the same. Apart from these professional institutes that teach management skills,there's one more institute or I say a single teacher who teaches management,called life (I guess you've already guessed it!)





Life introduces us to different situations at different ages. Each of these stages of life has good things to cherish about and some challenging things and difficult times. Fortunately,be it good or bad,situations always teach us something or the other,and almost every time we face some them,we always find a refined version of us! (Well the fact can't be ignored that some incidents leave us in deep trauma,and if that has ever happened to you,my sympathy is with you and 
yeah! Time is a great healer of wounds).


In life,at different situations,we are surrounded by different types of people,ranging from parents to teachers to girlfriend(s) to wife to children to bosses to clients. Each one of them have different expectations from you,as an individual and you need to manage all the relations pertaining to them! Initially we may not be good at all of them, we may tremendously fail at things,but life,by virtue of time and failures,teaches us to become better in managing people and handling situations. These lessons aren't provided by any other school or college in the world.

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."
Dale Carnegie

 Situation after situation,our life gets molded,and if we look back at time,we will realize that how some difficult situations that we came across left making us stronger than ever,and also improving our management skills. Late Mr.Steve Jobs puts it in a better way:

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

The best part of life is that knowingly or unknowingly,we get enrolled to it's course of learning and that we remain a student of it at any age. Willingly or unwillingly,we need to take the lessons and learn from them. Truth,no matter how bitter it is,always brings about positive changes. Miracles can happen and who knows something miraculous is waiting to happen in your own life,thanks to the better manager you are becoming!

Sources:
Wikiquote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

Brainyquote: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_success.html

Edison Quoted

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress."


"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."


"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."


"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work."

"There is no substitute for hard work." 

Some random Quotes

Here are some random quotes that I came across on twitter.


"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."
Casey, M. Kathleen


"Improvement begins with 'I'." 
Arnold H Glasgow


"Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future, challenge the improbable and attain the impossible" 
William Arthur Ward


"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." 
Jim Rohn


"You are not defeated when you lose. You are defeated when you quit." 
Paulo Coelho


"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." 
Albert Einstein


"It matters if you just don't give up." 
Stephen Hawking 


“If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.”
 Lucy Larcom


"I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." 
Larry Bird

Mind Power

Mind Power is a highly talked about topic. Everyone wants to know about its secret,since they want their life would change drastically. Several books have been written on it,and infinite blog pots have posted. But probably I never get most of the matter.

However,on a general level,I feel mind power is simply how much powerful our mind is. To measure the strength of muscles,we have different parameters such as the amount of load one can lift up,or the number of push ups one can made,etc. Similarly the power of mind can be determined by the level of imagination.

Improving the life


Once we can imagine the advantages of an improved life,we get motivated to improve it. For example,when we imagine how our life would be if we end up some addiction,then it would be easier to overcome the addiction with a newly motivated mind.

Mind Power and Memorization

Imagination naturally enhances our planning ability,and also memorization. It is easy to remember anything if we can imagine how it happens. For example,if we want to memorize how an AC generator works,we can read and simultaneously construct a generator in your mind,and simultaneously imagine how the constructed generator works. This is equivalent to watching a generator being constructed at a workshop. Once we've imagined it in our mind,it is easy to reproduce and hence memorization is made a lot easy.

Aims For A New Year

This is that part of the year when we probably realize that we've screwed up it all when it comes to new year resolutions. So I am aiming to make this year somewhat different: No specific resolution,just three general aims that would make my life a bit simple and joyful.

Lets hope for some positive changes

Aim #1: Would expect reasonable changes

Life can be enjoyed the most when we enjoy every single achievement we make. So basically my first aim includes not aiming a weight reduction of 10 kg in one month, 1 kg sounds reasonable. 9 pointers sounds much impossible,probably 8 seems to be more achievable. Reasonable aims are more probable to be achieved.

No More *sob sob*

Aim #2: Won't take it personally

We miss out on enjoyment when we start taking things personally. When we learn to laugh at ourselves,we start feeling much lighter + a bonus: people who "like" you increase in numbers.

Leave laziness behind

Aim #3: Would try to run "The Extra Mile"

Probably we can do better than that what we think we can. If I think I can stay awake on exam night till 12 pm,I would try to aim half-an-hour more. I may fail at times to remain awake for half-an-hour,but may achieve 10 min. of extra study time. Isn't it an achievement? :)

Well,not much time's left before new year beginning. Without thinking much about the consequence,I begin with these three aims. Lets see what happens *fingers crossed*.

Random Inspirational Proverbs

"Fall seven times,stand up eight"
Japanese Proverb




"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come"
Chinese Proverb




"Smooth seas don't make skillful sailors"
African Proverb




"Vision without execution is a daydream. Execution without vision is a nightmare"
Japanese proverb




"Flies flock to the lean horse"
Italian Proverb




"Count Your nights by stars not shadows;count your life with smiles,not tears"
Italian Proverb




"If there is no wind,row"
Latin Proverb

Preventing Mental Fatigue

Every time we study or perform any other activity related to the use of mind,mind usually speeds up. However,due to speeding up of mind,mental fatigue also occurs. Common signs are: irritation,depression,distractions etc. This is quite similar to over-heating of machine elements which sometimes causes malfunctioning.

 In case of machine,over-heating can be avoided by shutting down machines. Similarly in case of mind,mental fatigue can be avoided by shutting down the mental activities for a while in between long sessions of work. Common ways of doing this are:

• Listening to music
• Chatting with friends
• Breathing Exercise
• Taking a walk 
• Playing outdoor games

With a proper balance between work and switching off,we can achieve optimum results.

Getting Motivated

"Life is a RoLlErCoAsTeR. Full of ups and downs."

Unfortunately we don't find the same sort of situations around us all the time. Getting low emotionally is a common problem faced now-a-days. I am no exception and I get upset sometimes,due to peer pressure,some fights,failures,fatigue etc. However getting motivated keeps the me going ahead in this journey of life.


"Survival=Life-motivation."


I would like to share things which inspire/motivate me:

1.Parents: My parents always motivate me when I need it. They listen to my problems and give solution. Their experience and wisdom help me to solve problems and they give the necessary support to stand up when I fall down. There are innumerable ways in which they inspire me. Our parents are god in disguise.


2.Biographies: I love to read and watch biographies. Great men have faced immense pressures,opposition and criticism. But their tenacity and enthusiasm has made them overcome the opposition. This attitude of theirs really inspires me to go ahead in life.

3.Poems: I got introduced to poems most probably due to academic studies,but I have a special interest for them. Reading them gets me to a good mood. Poems are short and concise, a few lines can do the job what sometimes large numbers of  pages can't.

4.Quotes:  Quotes provide us meaningful and thoughtful excerpts about life,friendship,family and numerous                          other topics. They motivates us when we are down with failures or pressures. The easiest source to find quotes is twitter search

5.Nature: The last source of motivation which I wold like to share is nature. Everything in this world which almighty has created inspire us. Right from a simple flower,bee or a cute animal to the eclipses,nature makes a great attempt to refresh our mood and motivate us in life.