Only few people will have story that is so grand as the story of Taj Mahal. Or the beauty of the Niagara. Or the size of the Grand Canyon. That won’t prevent us from telling stories everyday. We are telling stories to others and we are telling stories to ourselves. We are even telling stories to ourselves about stories we are telling stories to others. We live in our stories.
Continue readingPosts Tagged → Distinguish yourself
Ways to distinguish yourself #200 – Understand the story behind the story
Stories make it easy to communicate something but if the stories are flawed they can just communicate the wrong thing – and, in a compelling way. In other words, stories can help and if you are not careful, they can hurt. Think about what happened last week. You heard stories from political leaders, you heard… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #199 – Exit gracefully
I have always believed that there are only two kinds of relationships – those that are “long term” and those that are “very long term”. Yes, I am exaggerating a bit but when you approach your relationships and put them into one of those two boxes, your perspective on relationships shift. In reality though, some… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #198 – Don't focus on the "derivative" at the expense of the "core"
First everyone is working on one or more big projects – actually at least two of them – one in professional life and one in personal life. Every big project is typically made up of several sub-projects or we can call them derivatives of the core project. Depending on the nature and scope of the… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #197 – Be comfortable with "Nothing"
Take a dot. Put some “nothing” in it and.. You get a doughnut! Take a doughnut. Put some “nothing” in it and… You get a zero. Take a zero. Put some more “nothing” in it and… You get a bowl. Take a bowl. Put some more “nothing” in it and… You get an arc. Take… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #196 – Be aware of your circle of awareness
It requires a lot of maturity to be aware of your circle of awareness. This is one of the areas where “ignorance is definitely NOT bliss”. What you want is typically within your circle of awareness. If “what you need” to reach your goals is outside of this circle of awareness, you may not make… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #195 – Stop sending "MeMails"
I am using a personal example here but I have talked on this topic to MANY people and the experience has been the same. Today I received a mail from an acquaintance. It was a long email about a milestone that their organization achieved. It included a detailed explanation of what the milestone was with… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #194 – Copy "being" rather than copying "Doing"
You aim to become like someone (may be a role model, hero or just someone that you aspire to become) and start copying what they are “doing”. You soon realize that you are not getting the results that they are getting. Simple reason – you are not them. You simply cannot recreate everything else that… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #193 – Watch your Effort-Value Curve
When you are at the beginning of your career, you really work hard and for all that effort the “real value” that you add may not be that significant. This may not be a problem as people know that you are just “starting.” As you learn and become better at your job, it takes less… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #192 – Get In Their Shoes
I mean really really get in their shoes. Well, not literally! At a basic level, getting into someone’s shoes is to think “how the other person may be thinking.” If you really want to get into their shoes, you need to find out the “worldview” of the person. What is their outlook and approach to… Continue reading