Everybody is a Genius

Most of  you  must be wondering, what happen to  Suchi, why all  of  a sudden  she started blogging…

I  am member of the local Toastmaster club for more than 2 years.  As I work remotely from  home, do  not have the opportunity  to  step  out of my home much. Hence in order to  improve by  public speaking and presentation  skills joined the club, to  deliver prepared speeches twice or thrice a month. It also  gives me an opportunity  to  dress up 😎 and interact with  other  toastmasters. 

Most of  my  topics are based on organizational  behavior. The other toastmasters liked my subject and the speeches that I delivered. They ask  for the soft copy  of  my  speeches. Although  the title  says everybody is a genius, need to brag myself a little -  I  do  take lot of  time and effort to  prepare my  speech…. Hence wanted to create a repository and came up with blogging….

Apart from prepared speech, we do  have  ‘Thought of  the  day’  in  our agenda…. Shared an interesting thought - Everybody is a Genius! – by  one of the Tamil greatest poetess Avvaiyar.

Everyone in the world is great in something or other.  Even a small Stick is useful -  it is used to  prick our teeth, when needed.

Avvaiyar  -  3^rd century  poetess elaborate this further… she talks about the small living creature’s miraculous work, which  cannot be  replicated by us, humans too…

Who  taught  the tailor /weaver bird  to  make its nest? It makes its nest with only with his beaks…. Careful  enough  to  pick  the green grass , which are more  pliable than the dried ones. Also the female picks her male bird only after inspecting the nests he builds. 💡

Next, who  taught the  termites to  build  their mounds…. They build with  their antennae ONLY. They construct their mounds with separate quarters for the royal King & Queen , nursery and workers. They are the pioneers for the nowadays realtors -  selling apartments / flats. 

 

Honey bee is next -  who taught this insects to  store a liquid nectar up in the beehive…

Spider spins its web and comfortably catches its prey in it too…. smart but sticky strategy.

Just for  the benefit of  my followers,  who  know  Tamil 

வான்குருவி யின்கூடு வல்லரக்கு தொல்கரையான்

தேன்சிலம்பி யாவருக்கும் செய்யரிதால் -யான்பெரிதும்வல்லோமே என்று வலிமைசொல வேண்டாங்காண்எல்லார்க்கும் ஒவ்வொன் றெளிது!

Everybody  is a Genius.  Tap into  yourself , and find the genius in  you….🔨

Work Life Balance

Have you  ever thought , I should wind up work  today 30 mins earlier and take care of couple of errands  or go home and prepare kid’s favorite  dinner….

Yes , for  every  working person  their work ALWAYS  takes  precedence.  Some say  they give priority  to  their  health  and go  to  gym or  do  exercise for  1  hour  a day…  Is physical  health  the only one in  priority after work? What  about  personal  / emotional  and spiritual   needs?

Work  Life balance  is just NOT just dividing the hours  by 2.  It is neatly dividing your active hours by  having the flexibility  to  get things done in  your profession  life , while  you  still  have  the time and same  energy  to  enjoy your  personal  life.  Flexibility here means some days -  like  you  have an audit  /  delivery  to  be completed -  so  we stretch a little  at office and we compensate that over the week ends.

My few pointers  to create a better work –life balance

1)  Accept that there is ‘NO PERFECT’ work  life balance.

Everyone knows that there is NO perfect schedule -  some days we  focus more  on our work. Some days we focus on  personal priorities.  Balance is achieved over the time and NOT each  day.

That is the reason we have  vacation  days /  paternal leave  where we focus more on personal fun activities  than NOT  to  think  about  our work. 

One tip  here  -  be your 100%  wherever you  are…. If you  are in the office /at work -  focus on work  ONLY.  No  social media / personal calls/emails….  If you  are with  your  family -  do  not  look  at the work  emails  on  your  phone.

2)  Do the job that you  love or  try  to  love the job  that you  do.

Most of us  need to work  -  it is a societal  norm.   Work is NOT just for getting money  ,  need to  have the soul  satisfaction  factor too.

Passion  is THE energy. For a surgeon,   who is very  passionate about  his  work -  can conduct a surgery for  hours together and never feels  tired and  never complains of lack  of stamina.  But  once when he returns back  home  and if his  wife  ask  him  to  accompany  her for  shopping  -  then  he needs REAL  stamina. 🙂

3)  Prioritize your health.

This  does NOT say only  about your  daily  routine exercise that is needed. Also  when  you  are sick  -  take enough rest / medical  help  and recover early than  to worsen  the situation  and take  number  of sick  leaves. 

A day  or 2 away, helps  in faster recovery  and  also  NOT to  spread the germs with  other  co-workers. 

Also  when  you  are sick  you  are less productive.  Remember you  are NOT your 100%.

4)  Don’t be afraid to  unplug.

We live in  a connected world  that never sleeps.   So  be prepared  to  give some space for  other  thoughts and ideas….  I  like  to  use an analogy  here.

When  we fill say  a small  packet of  quinoa into  a container….  When it is  about to  come to  the brim , we all  stop the filling and try to  give a  tap and  some quick shakes to  release any  air and make  the grains settle more closer  so  the container can accommodate more grains.  The tap  and shake  is  compared  to  the unplugging.  

If you  work  from  home -  just  go  to  the mail box, to  collect the mails /  pick  the kids from  the bus stop.  If at office, go  to  the break  room -  get a cup  of coffee /  cool  water. Or  check  on  a colleague, who  was sick last week. 

Once you  return  back  to  work  -  you  will  have  definitely  a better solution  to  the problem -  you  were looking into.

5)  Take a vacation.

There is a saying -  All  work NO play makes  Jack a dull  Boy.

The vacation  can be 1 day  or 2 weeks -  this  helps  you to  recharge / revitalize.

But plan your vacation  with  proper  notice so  you  need NOT be concerned about   taxing  your colleague when  you  are away  or worry  about  the work  load after you return. 

6)  Set goal  and priorities.

We are all passionate people  and hence all  our aspirations are very  HIGH. But we need to  set SMART goals -  for our  career , health  and relationship.

·       Specific

·       Measurable

·       Achievable

·       Realistic

·       Timely

Start small and build from  there…  If  you  are trying something new in  your  life -  say  walking daily  -  you  cannot  aim  for 5 miles from  day 1.  You start with  2 miles and gradually  increase  it.

To  conclude -  Work  life balance will  mean different  for  different set of  people -  but we all  have commitments.  Neither   the government nor  the corporate  that you are working  for  can regulate this -  it is an individual’s responsibility.

 It is important -  you  remain  flexible and constantly assess,  what cap  to  wear -  when, where , and for  how LONG.

                                                            Good Luck!

P A S S I O N

Passion -  what do you mean by  this word….. ardent affection , deep interest , strong liking /desire.

Eg of Passion -   

1. For some of us , cars  are  passion…. 

2. For some of us , keeping our body fit is a passion....

3. For some of us , our day  to  day  work  is a passion -  LUCKY !

- Want to apply all of their skills and all of their energy into their passion.

For  my  daily  walk - Stop , kindly do  not put me in above category #2... 🙂

People who  have seen / worked with me or know me very well,  might graciously put me in category #3👍

Due to the  health  reasons, I force myself a rigorous walking in our neighborhood  for  45 to  50 mins, at least  3 or 4  times a week, even when the temperature outside  is 30°F . I  prefer walking outside than the elliptical at  home. 

I  do invite various Tamil motivational  speakers  virtually  for  my daily  hike...  Suki Sivam, Parveen Sultana, Illangai Jeyaraj....  I  heard an interesting  short story  on passion from  Parveen Sultana. 

                                                         

Happy  to  share the fictitious fable ...

A group  of ants and a grass hopper were  neighbors…. As we all  know the characteristics of the ant – ‘Save for the Rainy days’ … they  worked every day without rest. But our friend grass hopper was a fun loving person, playing his  guitar passionately all day.

The ants warned him - start working and save grains. But the grass hopper thought that it was not  his  cup  of tea…. But continued to  play  his  instrument….

As he was doing this,  he noticed  the ant's  characteristic. So he called the queen of ants for a discussion.

Grass hopper said  "As  I  play  my  guitar , I see  your ants are gathering more grains than when I  am NOT  playing the guitar. So  in some way I  am helping your  team to  produce more, so  you  have to  pay me , when I  am playing and your team is working…." 

Grass hopper managed to negotiate  a deal  with the queen -  so  he continues with his passion of playing the guitar and also  get paid by  the ants.

The best feeling in the world is getting paid to do , for what you love….  

Manage to  make your  Job as  a passion….. or find one...

Skills are cheap , but Passion is PRICELESS.