my purple rain

Do you feel a sense of guilt or remorse when you go to bed in the night or when you wake up in the morning? Do you often feel that life is not going the way as how you would have wanted it to be? Well, if the answer is Yes, then what are you doing about it? How are you going to change this situation? Whatever be the situation or circumstances, some basic daily habits if followed religiously can help us to lead a meaningful life. It will help you to lead a beautiful life where you will have inner peace, a sense of belonging, growth for your self and a sense of joy. Remember what you do on a daily basis greatly impacts your life in the long run. The following daily habits will surely help you in leading a better life:-

1. Sleep early/Get up early:– This can be of immense benefit to you. When you get up early, you have couple of un-interrupted hours for yourself. Use it to your benefit. Read, write, exercise, and meditate…whatever that will help you in your life. Just remember- use your mind to create the environment and not let the environment dictate terms to your mind. For example,  getting up early in the morning and the first thing you do is to reach out for your smart phone and then just waste your time going through endless notifications, posts and updates …No, not a good habit! It is a real waste of time!

The morning time is very precious. How you utilize your morning hours will define how you would be spending your entire day. And remember, how you spend your each day would ultimately define your destiny!

Robin Sharma, the motivational speaker and the mentor to world famous billionaires has worked hard for four years to write the book – 5 AM Club! In the book he emphasis the benefits of getting up daily at 5 am and how to utilize the morning one hour to improve your life drastically

Getting up early would be possible only if you sleep early!…yes, that’s true. Ninety present of people spend their time watching TV late in the night. This is absolutely hazardous not only to your health but to your overall wellbeing. Another important thing- to sleep early, you must have your dinner early. There should be a gap of around two hours between your intake of dinner and going to bed. Post dinner you should engage in some sort of light movements of your body so that whatever you have eaten is digested properly.

So, the bottom line here is – you need to form healthy habits that would improve your life drastically in the long run. And believe me, once you start a routine and follow it daily for around two months – it will become a habit. Subsequently, you will find it easy to perform those habits. 

2. Have a To Do list Ready Prior Night– Spend some time before you hit the bed about your schedule for the next day. Think about the activities or the tasks that you would be doing. Better, write it down in your note book or in your diary. Set priority to the tasks. This way, you would be very clear as to what all things needs to be accomplished the next day resulting your day to be highly productive and also saving you on your precious time. Your daily plan would help you to set your short term and long term goals. Once you start achieving your daily goals then soon you will start achieving your short term goals as well. Achieving your short term goals would automatically yield in achieving your long term goals in future.

The crux of the matter is that your day should be productive enough to have a cumulative positive impact on your future.

Things to remember- Just making a To-do list is not enough but completing the listed tasks is more important! And to achieve this, you need to ensure that you have a focused mind and a positive environment around you.

3. Have your Meals on Time- This is very important. Ensure that you are having timely and healthy breakfast/lunch/dinner. Whatever be the circumstances and how so ever you are busy and engaged- still try to have your meals on time. If you want you can do it…all the time!

One of the key ingredients to a better life is staying fit and maintaining a healthy life style. Often this salutary knowledge comes to one self very late in life! But sooner the better! Physical activity along with good (read it as simple) diet is a must for a healthy and a happy life. There is a vast amount of information available on the internet on what to eat and when to eat etc. Make yourself aware as much as possible and then decide on your diet. Remember, the more informed you are the better decisions you will make. My suggestion would be to take more of homemade food rather than going for packaged foods. More raw fruits intake rather than processed fruit juice. These are very basic and simple eating habits that our parents and grandparents followed. And you can surely vouch what excellent health they had even in their old age!

4. Spend Quality Time with Family– As a habit; ensure that you spend couple of hours daily with your wife/kids/parents. Be just a family person during this time (forget about your big designations or how big a business tycoon you are…!). When you are with your spouse, just be a husband or a wife! Nothing more! Don’t treat your spouse like an employee of your organisation or one of your team members. And especially for the Husbands- never try to win over an argument with your wife…just accept that her wisdom is much more than yours (no pun intended!). Similarly, when you are with your kids, just be like a father or a mother. Don’t try to impose your maturity and the righteous of things on the poor kids. Enjoy the time with your children and ensure they also have a good time with you. Remember that you don’t distract yourself with TV or your smart phone while playing/interacting with your kid. The child will not like this. For grown up kids, try to have meaningful conversation with them trying to know what is happening in their world. Ensure that they are comfortable interacting with you. And lastly, don’t be harsh to your old parents. Along with love and care, they expect kindness and respect. Do make them feel important by listening to their views and opinion.

If you are staying alone or are single/bachelor, ensure you spend quality time at home where you can enjoy and relax by listening to music, reading, cooking or simply just laze around. Always remember that you might be alone but don’t make yourself feel lonely!

5. Be Honest- Lastly, ensure that you are neat, clean and honest in your thoughts and in your daily life. Be honest. Honest to yourself and honest to the others. Whatever be the situation or circumstances, never lose your honesty and integrity. Always hold your head high and be proud of your achievements- big and small, personal and professional. At the same time accept your failures with grace. Remember the greatest courage is to bear defeat without losing heart. Give yourself a chance to rectify your mistakes. You deserve a pardon from yourself. When faced with failure, feel the pain and then get up again with more vigour and enthusiasm to pursue your goals. And this cycle should keep on repeating till your last breath as you are in a journey- a journey leading to your freedom. Freedom from everything and….everybody!

I am sure if you imply these habits in your daily life and follow it religiously on a daily basis, you will definitely see the compounding effect within a short span of time. Do share your feedback and let me know if you found this helpful.

Cheers!

We have often seen in our daily life, in our home and at work place, how some people doing so many things single handed but always wear a smile on their face. We have seen them taking all the pressure or stress and still delivering the results in a timely manner .Despite all obstacles and issues (personal and professional) they never fail us in their behaviour and delivery. They portray a calm and restricted response in all adverse situations. Often we hear people say ‘Oh, how efficient they are!’ or ‘My god! They are really mentally strong!’

So, did you ever wonder what does it mean to be a mentally strong person? Did it ever cross your mind that, is being mentally strong an inborn quality or if it is a skill that can be acquired? Do you find yourself mentally strong enough?

Firstly, you need to know that you cannot become mentally strong overnight. It needs time and patience. A mentally strong person would be someone who can take pressure, both at work and at home, that is devoid of any anger, panic or any unnatural form of behaviour. A mentally strong person remains calm under pressure while performing his obligations in an compromised manner. He or she deliver results,takes criticism on face without getting hyper, mostly responding to the difficult situations rather than reacting to it, maintains his or her cool in all kind of adversity and finally have the guts to bear the pain without complaining. Yes, these are the attributes of a mentally strong person.

How can you attain these attributes? Well, you need to have the following attributes in your character to help you become mentally strong:-

Self Confidence   

Cultivate a sense of self confidence. Develop self-confidence over a period of time by working out independently, achieving small goals and small success. Reach out for help only when it is critical or if there is an emergency. Be very hands on with whatever you do. Have faith in yourself. Remember knowledge is power so acquire as much knowledge as you can by reading books on various topics. Gain experience in different environment and with different people. Getting exposure is really important. Remember, the dictionary meaning of self-confidence is ‘a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgement’.

Another way of developing self-confidence is to learn from your failures. Instead of losing heart and sulking over your failures, do a stock taking of the events and move ahead. There will be many more opportunities to prove yourself but just ensure you are not repeating your mistakes. This way you will gain confidence in yourself and in your abilities.

‘The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.’ — William Jennings Bryan

Facing Criticism

One of the toughest things in the process of becoming Mentally Strong is to learn how to face the criticism. There would be plenty of occasions when you will be criticized- un-necessarily. You have to learn to face the flak without reacting. And this is a big challenge! You need to understand that this is basic human nature- to criticize. And many a times, most of the criticism would be from the near and dear ones. The people whom you think you are close to. The best way to deal with it is – just don’t get too much bogged down with it. Just listen and filter out the trash- the small talks of small people! Keep in mind one thing- never inflate your ego when showered with praise and similarly never get bogged down when pelted with criticism. You should ensure that your character remains constant in all circumstances. You basic character should not change with time or situation.

Along with unwanted criticism, you may also have to face with insults and humiliation. In all situations, hold your head high and maintain your self-respect. There may be occasions, especially when dealing with close family members or during a critical job/business related situation, where you have to swallow your pride. Never mind! No one can take away your pride from you… you have earned it and it will always remain with you. Sometimes, when the winds blow very hard during storm, the gentle trees have to bend so that they can get straight again after the storm recedes. Mentally strong people behave like the gentle trees!

“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.’ ― Dale Carnegie

Accepting Failure

Mentally strong people are not afraid of failure. They understand that to achieve success they have to pass through the lanes and by-lanes of failure. And failing not once but multiple times! In fact they take lessons from their failures and ensure that they are not repeating the same mistakes again. Treat every failure as an event and always tell yourself- there would be another opportunity or rather many more opportunities!

So, who’s afraid of the failures? Not You!

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’ ― Winston S. Churchill

No Expectations

Mentally strong people don’t expect much from others. They are aware of the reality and are intelligent enough to manage alone if required. Once you start expecting from others…then you will be inviting only pain and disillusionment for yourself.

No, don’t ever expect from others because your expectations would never be met! The realities are very harsh and painful. Be prepared to accept that. Mentally strong people tread their path cautiously and never get derailed during their journey. If they get help along the way…it’s fine! Otherwise they find their own way to reach their goal. They move towards their goal with all the zeal and gusto…even if at times they have to tread it all alone.

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.’ 
― Alexander Pope

Never Complain

Mentally strong people never complain of their problems and discomforts. They bear the pain and ensure that they are performing their duties and delivering the results. You will see a gentle calmness on their face and in their behaviour. They will not make noise of the challenges that they face but would rather engage themselves in finding solutions. And, ultimately they do find solutions! That is what Mentally Strong people are made of! And once they are done with their job or have achieved their goal they will never brag about it. They will quietly move to their next goal or to the next obligation.

So, to become Mentally Strong, your focus should be to find solutions to the challenges you face in adverse conditions rather than making noise or getting panicked.

“Never tell your problems to anyone…20% don’t care and the other 80% are glad you have them.’ ― Lou Holtz

Life will never be easy. When you are done with one issue, two more will crop up! And the cycle will continue. What is the point in getting upset or to feel bad about it? Get your act together and ensure that you are Mentally Strong enough to tackle all the challenges that life has to throw!

And by the way, did you know that most of the sports people believe that it requires 90% mental toughness and 10% physical fitness to win the game??

Cheers!!