Cannot understand what to do?

I have come across few people recently. I find one very interesting thing common in all these people. They want to do something but are not sure what to do. Most of us face such situation in our lives. Some of us get confused and make lives miserable. Now, the question is what should be done in such cases?

I do believe that it is good to have that desire to do something. One can easily get bored with day-to-day routine. When the ball is rolling smoothly then there is no excitement. All of us want excitements in some form or other. What I think is that this issue can be tackled in various ways such as:

1. Be focused on what you want: In order to do something else, it is really important to be focused and know what you want. Unless you don’t know what you want, you have no way to go. And it would be risky to be in this situation. You have to have complete sketch ready of your requirements, likings or desire in order to do that something else. But hey please do not desire something just for the sake of it. This approach is kind of calculated where you take calculated risk.

2. Try to make things in hands exciting: If you are not sure of what you want, then probably you can try to make things in hands exciting. You can sharpen your skills, polish up your competencies a bit and apply those competencies to the day-to-day things in your hand. You will no longer get bored. This is the safest approach so far.

3. Just go with the flow: happy go lucky. Hip…hip…hurray. The probability of the success of this approach would be very low. Basically, you just do whatever you want to do and don’t worry about all those ifs and would have happened things. Just do what you want but never regret. No, you are not allowed to regret if you take this path.

Cheers,
Amol

Quote of the day

"When it comes to lending money to friends, you end up losing both - money and friendship."

Cheers,
Amol

Quotable Quote

“Luck in life always exists in the form of an abstract class that cannot be instantiated directly and needs to be inherited by hard work and dedication.”

Cheers,
Amol

Life is an echo

I came across this beautiful quote somewhere:
“Life is an echo; all comes back, the good, the bad, the false, and the true.
So give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.”

Cheers,
Amol

Change

Most of us do not really welcome changes. Especially if that change is not the desired one. No matter who says what, there is always a little resistance for change. So, what is really meant by change? Somebody has already defined change as given below:
“To make or become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence”.

Based on my personal experience, I can say that any change is always for a good. Let it be changing the job, changing the house, changing the clothes, changing the mobile or changing the world. One has to respect changes in his/her life. Do not be afraid to change. Accept it and trust me you will gain a lot out of it. That little bit of resistance for change in you has to go. To change the world, you have to first change yourself.

Cheers,
Amol

When it comes, it comes from all the sides

When it comes, it comes from all the sides. Can you relate this phrase to what I am going to write? I guess that you have already. The word ‘it’ in above mentioned phrase is really subjective. You can replace it with any word and it will hold true. If you talk about challenges, obstacles in life then one fine day you will find lot of obstacles in your path coming from all directions. If you talk about happiness then you will find that good news would come from all the sides for you. That moment in your life is really important. No matter what happens, you have to have your feet on ground at that time.

Cheers,
Amol

Man of the Series against South Africa 2007- Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin has done it again. By scoring 99 and 93 against South Africa, he has once again proved his critics wrong. He also shared the Man of the Series awards with Yuvi. That shows his great heart as well. Keep going Sachin and I am sure that you are going to do much more with your bat in the coming series. Sachin has also scored 15000 runs in the ODI. Isn’t it achievement and also proof of his temperament? Keep going Sachin…..

we are looking forward to have many more thousand runs from your bat.

Cheers,
Amol

Professionalism

Professionalism is nothing but pursuit of an activity as an occupation. You can choose any profession and succeed in it. But professionalism matters in every profession. Professionalism is not about money only. It has various other dimensions as well. So many times we hear this phrase that this particular person is professional. We all have our own definitions of it. I am not trying to redefine it here but just want to add various dimensions to it for software professionals.

So, what makes you a real professional? One can start with attitude. Your attitude is the most important thing. You should have positive attitude otherwise it will be difficult to achieve results. In today’s result oriented world, having the right attitude in conjunction with passion and desire to work will give fruits of success. Typically, people crib about bad working conditions, salary factor, partiality etc. In larger organizations, you will always find some reason to blame for. But if you have positive attitude then it will emit positive energy and ultimately positive results. No matter what happens, you should concentrate on tasks in your hand. While doing people management since last few years, I find a very common trend. People just carry their outside/personal/family problems to workplaces. And that affects your attitude, your working style and ultimately output. I believe that ability to ‘Switch on and off’ is the key factor in being a true professional. Irrespective of all the problems, you should concentrate on job in your hand. You just cannot run away from your basic job duties because of the blame game. You can be right or wrong as well but that should not take away your focus from job in hand. One thing you should always remember that you are getting paid for doing your job. That job can be anything from writing code to painting walls. For example, if you have heated arguments with your driver then it does not mean that your driver should drive your car carelessly. You as an employer will not accept it. Right? Similarly, if you have problems at the work place while working on live projects or products in Software industry; then that do not mean that it should affect your customers. Customers should get high quality products because that is why they are paying for. Isn’t it? Young generation developers may find lot of job opportunities but they should also concentrate on professionalism. You can be a child at home. BUT you cannot afford to be a child or behave like a child at work. That will not be tolerated any way. So, having right attitude and positive energy is equally important.

You should have right kind of skill sets required for your job. Of course, having right attitude is not sufficient. It has to be supplemented with right kind of skills. Most of the times, you will be given tasks to work on new technology features. You just should not run away from these tasks just because you are not aware about it. You have to train yourself continuously to acquire desired skill set required for your job. Consider you are the best batsman in the world and you have been asked to open an innings without a bat in your hand. That is the role of skill set. You have to have that kind of bat of skills if you want to bat for your team in any cricket match. ;)

Communication is also equally important pillar of the professionalism. You have to have communication skills. You should be able to express your selves. You should be able to understand what has been told to you. You should able to understand requirements. You should be able to write professional business mails. In short you have to excel in verbal as well as written communication. Then it is has to be in conjunction with manners. It is all about how you talk to your managers, sub-ordinates, customers etc. Trust me, how you greet people is also counted sometimes. Giving a smile or saying hello to the people around you is not going to harm you. But it definitely portrays positive picture of you.

Dear friends, these are just few petals from the professionalism flower box. As and how you march forward in your career you will go on finding other petals from the box. :)

Cheers,
Amol

Silence Please…………….

In today’s world of noise in the form of vehicle horns, music, mobile phone rings, ipod etc., how many times you strive for no-noise zone? Do you still want to hear those bird songs, sound of silence in the jungle? If yes, then you are probably sailing in the same boat. Endless chats with customers, friends, colleagues, tracking e mails, horrible traffic can somehow force you to experience that silence, which we used to experience sometimes back. That quiet world, greed landscape, flying birds and so on………

I agree that to live in the modern world sometimes we have to sacrifice few things. But that does not mean that you have to move away from nature. Even though you live in metro cities, it is always possible to take some time and be close to nature with your family. I always try to keep on exploring new places. Unfortunately, most of the times you cannot afford to stay away from your work place more than 2-3 days. So what? Just step outside the house early morning, make sure that fuel tank is full and then just start driving. Sometimes, it better to start unplanned. Go to new places which you have not heard about. Try to find out isolated corners, and then just sit there closing your eyes. Take deep breaths and listen to the voice of trees, birds, air. Continue to take deep breaths and trust me within few minutes you will be enlightened with happiness. You will then only concentrate only on the silence. This will help you to solve most of your problems in your head.

Amboli and Mahabaleshwar ae some of my favorite places where I usually go to listen the silence of nature. And yes, you need not have to go far, if you are living in Pune then there are still few places where you can go. Sometimes, it is necessary to take such short breaks and then again start the battle of life. :)

Cheers,
Amol