Inspirational Interview

Jon Stewart interviews T. Boone Pickens.  The energy and enthusiasim he has is contagious.  His commone sense argument for an energy independent America is very persuasive.

Uncertainity

Rajesh Setty wrote an excellent post today titled, "In Search of Certainty". He clearly explains for each of us how uncertainty is context dependent.

Embracing uncertainity is dependent on our willingness and determination to be creative. There is also an awareness component to it. Some people feel at ease to embrace technical/analytical uncertainity but others might be at ease external world. Generally, former is the case with young people and the later with experienced professionals and it has to do with resources. Being aware of internal/external resources will help us leverage them to embrace uncertainty.

Quote: Treating Others

I stumbled upon this quote from principledriven.com:

"Treat a man as he appears to be and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ask and you shall recieve

"Ask and you shall receive", "Knock at the door and it shall open" are quotes of wisdom. I recently stumbled upon Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I cherished this quote:

"I ask not for divine providence or more riches, but more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I received at birth: the power to control and and direct my mind to whatever ends I desire".

Tim Russert - The Legend

Tim Russet is one of the most accomplished and well respected journalist and a humble human being who suddenly died yesterday. I was personally shocked and moved to learn about this news last evening. I am a subscriber of Meet The Press podcast and religiously watch it every week.

Tim Russet asked focused and pointed questions that made the interviews interesting and informative. He did his homework and research to ask questions in a way that helps people to really understand issues. Through his work he showed his gifted ability to synthesize and analyze information and present it with simplicity and elegance. At this moment I am amazed by how his life has brought so many people come together and remember him. These are moments for us realize the Oneness in Humanity.

Hapiness for sale!

Happiness for sale at a Barnes & Noble near you!



[Caption]

Why is very powerful

I have always been fascinated by the power of questions and its potential to bring about radical change. Almost every problem that we face are opportunities in disguise. But how do we get to know the opportunity and find a solution to the problem? The answer is we need to think creatively. How to provoke creative thinking? Though there numerous ways for this utilizing the power of questions is one definite way.

In fact to quote Albert Einstein:

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them"

Again, questions can help us to change our perspective to a new level of thinking. There are different questions: Why, How, What, When, Who? Out of these questions "Why?" is the most powerful because when you ask "Why" question it puts us in a position that questions conventional wisdom.

Resourcefulness

I first stumbled upon the concept of Resourcefulness in a TED Talk by Tony Robbins and was instantly inspired by it. Also, more recently Steve Pavlina shared the concept and his view on this topic in a blog post. Steve puts the concept in perspective by clearly outlining Internal and External resources that are available at anyone's disposal at anytime. He also underscores the importance of Internal resources by sharing a hypothetical scenario and I can't agree more.

The internal resources are "invisible" and are available with everyone at all times and are Creativity, Self-Discipline, Confidence, Intelligence, Determination, Courage, Knowledge, Skills, Attitude, Passion and Awareness. The outer resources are Money, Assets, People, Technology, Food, Land, Electricity and Transportation.

Few years back I stumbled upon a lecture at Stanford by Google's Marrissa Mayer titled Creativity Loves Constraint. She was basically referring to technology constraints during product development and how creativity helps. So in order to achieve a desired outcome (product) one should use technology in a creative ways (external=technology, internal=creativity, determination, knowledge, skills). We all basically apply both internal and external resources everyday in our lives but we are "unaware" of it.

The challenges of life may be overcome by having awareness of the internal resources and being able leverage to create external resources effectively is a skill that can be learnt with determination, attitude, awareness (oh! all internal resources).

Lets see if we can stop complaining about limited resources and leverage what we have effectively.

Mentally Disabled Children

As some of you may be aware I am familiar with the challenges faced by Mentally retarded children and is personal to me. In my recent visit to India I observed and understood the need and importance for these children to be vocationally trained. As I understand presently there are training programmes available in special schools which focus on old trades -- cutting paper, making envelopes, etc. These trades are basically create low-value. It is my belief that in this age of global economy and research outcomes in positive psychology we can provide innovative training for skills which can create more value. In order to achieve this we need to identify inborn strengths and talents and match them against new economy trades and train them for the same.

In order to explore possibilities around these themes, at a high level atleast the following needs to be done:

1. Study the behavioral traits of these children
2. Identify patterns of behaviors if any from behavioral study (1)
3. Leverage consistent patterns and match against trades which create higher value

To enable conduct this study a questionnaire probing general behavior with an intent of identifying unique strengths and talents needs to be created. As a first step lot of research in psychology, current training methods/trades, etc. is required. I am writing to seek your interest in contributing to this effort. If you are interested in making consistent contribution please reply to this email and I will add you to a Google Group.

If you know of someone who has worked / working with these children or an expert - doctor, teacher or can in anyway help/advice in this effort please forward this message to them. Also if you know of any groups working in this area already please share with me.

As always I welcome your comments, ideas or suggestions.