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Madagascar

The Animal Instinct

Movies are a huge passion for millions around the world. And weirdly so, I get to watch them quite rarely! Thanks to my buddies, I literally fell of the chair yesterday when as I sat laughing and musing over Madagascar 3 – Europe’s most wanted – one the happiest, cutest movies I’ve seen!
It was downright hilarious to watch all the outrageous Rajinikanth stunts being performed by the lady-cop Chantel Dubois – the hideous Animal Control officer Captain thirsty for Lion Alex’s head. The wit & smartness of the animals filled me with excitement all the way -The monkeys, penguins – each one at their wittiest best!

Amidst all the fun, profound messages are baked in all through the movie…
The age-old circus headed by Vitaly (The Tiger) being transformed in totality by Alex who came in with a different mindset! The risks Alex took and the way he got the entire team prepared with absolutely no previous circus experience… The power of self-belief, innovation, risk taking – indeed took them all onto a path of re-invention, putting up a nearly impossible show together!

Vitaly, the excessively passionate Tiger most acclaimed by all – that always did the impossible, retired and hid in a  burrow after a much embarrassing, rather horrifying accident. It retired from taking any risks, ever. It was a treat to watch Alex artfully elicit the states of peak performance by erst-while awesome Vitaly, anchored it and got it to get back to doing the impossible all over again.

Most of the Animals out there modeled Alex’s bravery and alas – Alex ended up doing all of those things that he didn’t imagine possible either. Going past his self-imposed boundaries of comfort and really being a leader. Practicing, what he subtly preached.

Team work at it’s best – Innovation at it’s best – And literally all of the Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing that we saw this entire Team go through.

It’s amazing how each of the animals were each other and how they got together using their individual strengths and team effort together to save Alex from having his head beheaded by the hungry Dubois.

The question really is - how many Vitaly’s are there in your team that were once awesome performers? Do you know what those Inflammable’s are, that destroys confidence and morale of your team?

Do you know how to pull your socks up and align everyone to your vision? In the process, are you now capable of identifying Gia’s (Gia the Jaguar Alex eventually fell in love with) in your team? Those subtle Influencers that make it easier for you, that work for you in their capacity in facilitating the team towards winning?

 

What matters is – are you an Alex, yet?
Whether you are or not – go watch Madagascar. And likes Alex says, “When humans go all aggressive and passionate, they say they have the ‘Animal Instict’ in them! Go now –  Rejuvenate the Animal Instinct in you and lift your Empire up – a million times more.

June 24, 2012 2 Comments
Tree in Hand Tree in Hand Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur, here’s your call!

As Entrepreneurs, there is always a Never ending list of things to do. No matter which tool(s) you use to organize yourself, when you find yourself thinking about work day and night, shutting off from social life, sitting in front of your laptop from Dawn to Dawn… You have successfully entered the Life of a Maniacy New Entreprenuer!

 

So much to do… So little time… Everything looks important! It’s been ages since you took off. You can’t take off in peace. Guilt wraps you round your neck and squeezes you till you get back to work… Eventually Productivity slouches…. And Argh. Vicious circle all over again. Useless shopping spends… Hole in pocket. Bigger darkcircles round your eyes.
Once again – Welcome to the world of a New Entreprenuers Life!

 

 

Having been in this rut at some time in my life, here are some tips to get you past the nonsense!

1. Maintain an online journal – I highly recommend Backpack journal.
Post quick updates of your work as you finish work one by one. It’s like tweeting or updating status on facebook. At the end of the day – you look at your journal – there! You have a measure now of productivity. It’s just one of the most brilliant tools for patting yourself on your back when you deserve one (most times until now, you probably didn’t even know when it was time to pat your back) or kick your ass when your dashboard looks like mice excreta.

 

2. Maintain a simple Today’s Goal list:

  • Business
  • Transactions
  • Personal Transformation

Business – Put in those things you are going to do today that takes you one step closer in the direction of your Business Goals

Transactions – Are those day-to-day work of transactional nature. Those admin stuff.
We tend to get caught doing so much Transactions sometimes, that it can get frustrating. List your Transactional work for the day and Cross it off the list when you complete it. Ensure you make a Journal Entry once the work is complete (or progressed significantly)

Personal Transformation – What are those things you’ve wanted to do for Personal Transformation? Reading that long-pending book? Working out? etc. etc. List it. And DO IT

 

3. Celebrate Success!

Treat yourself everytime you do something that’s worthy of Celebration! Go out! Gift yourself a spa treatment. Sip cold coffee! Celebrate!

More often than not, when you’re caught in rut, you forget what it is like to smile and celebrate completion of significant tasks, achieving milestones. Remember – Direction is what is important. When you cross a milestone in the Direction of Goal Completion, Celebrate at the end of Milestone completion rather than wait, wait, wait, wait till the Goal is Complete!

 

4. Get a VA

I use a Virtual Assistant from Timesvr.com – They’re well trained. They do neat stuff. Delegate most of your Transactional work to them. It takes some time to document those regular transactions that you do every day or week on week. Document it one-time and delegate! It is so worth the Training, Documentation time you invest. Spending a tad more for more free time for you is worth a million. Be Stingy Not! Get a VA now. You’ll find work for the VA to do when you just go sign up there.

 

5. Get out of your Office

Go for a Drive. See the world. Have a plant at home. Play with your pet. Do any of these things EVERYDAY. It’s a Sanity-maintaining-necessity!

 

6. TAKE A DAY OFF

Last, but not the least. MAKE SURE you TAKE A DAY OFF a week! Every week. EVERY week! One Day. Take off! And don’t slouch around. Do happy stuff.

And watch how awesome you will be when you return to work the next day.

 

 

Here’s wishing all you Entrepreneurs so much joy! May you grow your business and yourself multi-times bigger, more profitable and really make a difference! Progress everyday and Rejoice! :)

 

 

June 22, 2012 0 Comments
Dilli_Haat

NLP from a Rural Craftsman

Most times, people assume NLP is this whole bunch of tools and techniques created that makes one perform like he has been injected with performance steroids or some random high performance spirit has entered the person!
Well, maybe!

But the point is – we miss out on the obvious! The fact that NLP itself evolved by modeling those people who were considered geniuses in their fields… Those that produced results consistently! NLP patterns and techniques are only a systematic assimilation of some of the patterns successful people in the world use!
You unconsciously use a lot of NLP too!

 

I noticed again today how simple and profound it is when someone uses NLP so naturally when in absolute rapport…
I was strolling around ‘Dilli Haat’ – a place where rural craftsmen display their work for sale… As I lay my hands on these beautiful embroider purses, he said – “Only Rs. 350 ma’am. Kitne piece lenge?” (Meaning: How many pieces will you buy?” and I thought to myself! Wow! What a powerful ‘Presupposition’, that! He delivered with such natural charisma in absolute rapport!

Here we are, Training many many about each of these language patterns and how powerful they are.. And this boy from the rurals spinning language patterns so powerfully in his native language… Impressive, in totality!

There was another lady I picked up some stoles from who spoke about How there’s a lot of handwork on it and it would make me feel rich! Complex Equivalence pattern that!

The question really is – when you already have so much of NLP embedded within you that you may not even realize, how much more awesome can you get when you can power-pack your language, yourself in totality as an instrument to influence just about anybody with just a little more practice baked in along with a whole wealth of awareness of NLP happening all around you!

 

 

May 15, 2012 12 Comments

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