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How are you setting your goals, Inside-out or Outside-in?
Last week I was describing the concept of “Living from inside-out” to my class participants in a high tech company. The example I gave – If you target to become a VP of a company that is an “outside-in” way of seeing your goal. The “inside-out” approach could be – I want to innovate, drive a product (what kind?) that I care (fill in here with why you care…) and I am willing to take risks, sacrifice my comfort to make it a success (define it using your values). Basically you are defining your intention qualitatively; you are not attached to a certain form of it. There is a good…
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Feeling overwhelmed? You might be overloading your PFC
Do you often feel overwhelmed? Do you wonder why it happens? Understanding how our brain works might give you some ideas. The part of the brain behind our forehead is called the prefrontal cortex(PFC). PFC is a tiny part compared to the rest of the brain (where permanent memory resides, in the form of patterns). PFC mainly performs executive functions (processing, analysis, decision making, etc.). PFC needs lots of energy to function, not only that, at a time it can handle only a few pieces of information, e.g., three numbers at a time. For example, think about a ten-digit phone number, when you have it like 4258234417 VS 425-821-4417, notice, which format is easier for you…
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Too many to-dos… Not enough time…Cause or Symptom?
My friend Amy calls herself lazy as she is always running behind her infinitely long to-do list. Even when she is sitting down she feels guilty that she was supposed to do something useful. She says sorry a zillion times as she frequently cancels our coffee/phone chats at the last moment. Seeing her hyperactivity makes me feel underperformed:). I have been wondering why we are always behind despite all the hard work? Why she feels compelled to say “Yes” to every request? Recently found some answer from this article. Saying “Yes” 1. Avoids conflicts 2. Takes less time than pausing to decide whether or not the request is truly important 3. Feels…
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A Baby step isn’t just for the Babies
In my 1:1 coaching and group classes, I have been teaching this concept from TED on how to create your own vision (what do you want) and design baby steps to take you closer to that vision. A baby step is not just the execution; the idea, the planning, even as simple as carving out a solid 30 min from your busy day to think about your vision could be a baby step. A baby step gives you more clarity about your vision; it gives you added experience and learning. Even when you fail, a conscious baby step always takes you closer to realizing your vision. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said…
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Drive – The Surprising Truth about what Motivates us
Carrot and stick – reward and punishment- is an age-old technique for getting things done by others. The corporate world has adopted this mantra almost as the panacea for employee motivation. But Daniel Pink tells us a different story. He says carrot and sticks works well only when the task is algorithmic (well-defined steps), it loses its effectiveness for tasks that requires even little bit of thinking and creativity. In today’s world, most high-tech jobs have lots of ambiguity and demand lots of creativity in order to perform them well. According to Pink, employers need to start thinking about different ways of motivating these knowledge workers. When an employee gets…
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Already Off Track for your New Year’s Resolution? Find out how to do better
Found these statistics – almost all Americans make a new year’s resolution. The bad news is that half of them break their new year’s resolution by January 2 and more than 90% of those resolutions are forgotten by April 1. So if you are having a hard time keeping your resolution you are in the majority group. If you want it otherwise here is some food for thought. Take a look at the bigger purpose you had for your New Year’s resolution or goal. The purpose is the soul of goals and goals are the means by which you express your purpose in the world. If your goal is to…
