Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2023

How committed are you?

Why simple goals just make sense!

Since 2018, my personal and professional life is committed to deliberate goal-setting. Before that, I would create a detailed matrix that quickly overwhelmed me due to its complexity.

The overwhelm became apparent at the end of every year. About half of my intended activities were not done! In trying to look smart, I had over-complicated things for myself.

That is why I decided to shift to a one-page goal template in 2018. I narrowed my goals down to four critical categories: Spiritual, Work, Health and Community. In total, I am committed to a maximum of twenty goals for the year.

Posted on Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Wing-it or Strategy? [Part 2/2]

Begin with the end in mind

Living with intention is the flip-side of winging that I explored in my last post. It takes prayer, patience, practice, proof and performance.

To swim against the current takes deliberate thought, direction and action. In other words, I need a strategy.

I cannot afford to rest on my laurels lest I become conceited and lose track of my mission. Once my goal is achieved, it is time to embark on the next one.

Being a good friend of a scorpion does not mean that you can’t be stung by a bee.” ~African Proverb

Posted on Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Coaches need coaching too!

Questions lead to deeper meaning

I contemplated on this during a conversation with myself on the day the International Coaching Week 2021 kicked off. With a deep focus on supporting my coaching clients, it can be easy to forget that coaching works for me too!

Cycling has become my channel to care for my mental, spiritual and physical health. Occasionally, my body becomes ‘non-compliant’ as lethargy births lame excuses of how I can ride another day. It does not take much to slide back into my lowest form. A place where laziness wafts in like the cold fingers of a cold night; where I just exist.

Posted on Sunday, May 3, 2020

Disciplines That Define an Intentional Leader

The ‘small’ things eating me up

Solitude has a way of illuminating our paths. As we slow down, deep truths seem to ‘magically’ emerge like from a hazy mist.

Slowing down in our present world sounds like an oxymoron. To find the time to connect with friends and family is like a far-fetched theory. My calendar ends up looking like a city map in a traffic grid lock. There is no breathing space, nowhere to escape.

Posted on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Set goals that matter!

Get out of dream-land and get doing

If each ‘New Year’ resolution we made was worth a dollar, the world would be free of poverty! Oh what a happy day that would be.

I stopped making resolutions decades ago. Those that I made just wouldn’t stick. Within weeks, if not days, I would go back to my comfort zone. And I wasn’t alone. Many of my friends were in a similar dilemma. That critical weight-loss program collapses in February. A reading habit shuts its pages with the first book of the year. The list goes on.

Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2019

Are you in position?

Leading from the heart outwards

Out on my regular cycling route, I had just come out of a sweet, fast descent feeling pumped!

My finger went for the gear shift in anticipation of the fast approaching climb. “Click!” Nothing! “Click, click!”Another two clicks just confirmed that I was in trouble. No matter how many times I pushed the lever, my gears weren’t changing. My rear gear cable had broken. In a flash, I was reduced from a 21-gear option to only 3 gears. And did I mention that I was only 20km into my 45km ride?

Posted on Monday, April 9, 2018

Feeling stuck? Get a Coach!

“I just can’t seem to reach my desired goal. And it is sucking the life out of me!” Has this been you in the recent past? Well, a coach is just who you need to help you out of the jam.

It makes sense to have someone else to help us navigate through difficult experiences or events. How many time do we resist any support, instead wasting time and other resources trying to solve it our way? I am not saying that we shouldn’t try, but we can go further with the right support system working for us.

For a number of months, I struggled with what I thought was an anger management problem. I was routinely on edge, snappy and confrontational. The frustration of feeling stuck and lost at what to do next was unbearable.

Posted on Friday, November 24, 2017

Leadership Not A One Day Event!

Growing up, my family knew more lean times than days of plenty. Sometimes there would be so little to go around that I would go without lunch at school. Now, let me clarify that there are people who have been in more dire situations than I was.

But back then I would watch my classmates munching away at hot dogs, sandwiches and cake while I consumed copious amounts of air-burgers. This was tough to deal with, both mentally and emotionally.

I did not want to bother my poor mother. She cared (and still cares) very much about all her children. Voicing my thoughts about the food would only spike her blood pressure off the chart. So instead of bothering her, I chose a very interesting method to block out the torment I was going through: books became my solace.

Posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Building Habit That Matters

5 essential components to hacking new habits

I am thrilled to bring you Michael Bungay Stanier’s guest article. He is the author of The Coaching Habit, a book that has added great value to my coaching practice. Michael is also the Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work.

Did you know that you may not be in charge of your waking up this morning? Your behavior is driven more by habit than your conscious mind!

It is less surprising when you realize that a Duke University study says that at least 45 percent of your waking is habitual.

There’s always been a lot of information out there on how to change the way you behave. Or more accurately, there’s a dense misinformation that grows particularly lush at the turn of each year, when resolutions are in the air.

Fortunately, there has been an increase in grounded findings, based on neuroscience and behavioral economics. These have helped establish a better, clear path over the last few years.

To build an effective new habit, you need five essential components: a reason, a trigger, a micro-habit, effective practice and a plan.

Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Unsettled – My Manifesto

Get busy living or get busy dying

Frustrated and unmotivated, I knew there was something greater my life had to offer.

But I felt stuck, like trying to walk in a sea of thick mud. My life was like a square peg being hammered into round hole. I wanted to thrive but this animal-in-a-cage mentality held in a vice-grip. I ran fast, but to nowhere.

These three thoughts plagued my mind in the dead of the night. Waking up in a cold sweat, they resounded above the chirping crickets and barking dogs:

I need a break!
I desire joy.
I can’t merely exist.

Shackled between my ears

I had heard this many times, “When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade!” Well, I got fed up with the lemonade business. I felt an urgency to see a break in the ominous grey clouds that hang over my head.