Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘My Views’ Category

“Always have a sense of humor about life – you’ll need it – but always be courteous to boot.”

— Peter Jennings

The Happiness Habit

The Power of Positive Doing
by BJ Gallagher

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” Abraham Lincoln once wrote. I’ve long thought so, too.

Happiness seems to be a habit as much as anything—a habit of attitude, a habit of responding to life, a habit of action.

I recall seeing a sign in a manager’s office a number of years ago. It read:

“Happiness is available. Help yourself.”

I loved the double meaning—“help yourself” as if a big bowl of happiness was sitting on his desk, like a bowl of jelly beans, and all you had to do was dip your hand in and help yourself—and “help yourself” as in “take action on your own behalf.” It reminded me of one of my all-time favorite books, Happiness is a Choice, by Barry Neil Kaufman. Barry and his wife had a baby boy, their third child, who was diagnosed as autistic. At first, the couple was devastated—they thought their lives were ruined and their child doomed to a hopeless future. But once they worked through their initial reaction to the diagnosis, they made a huge choice: They decided to be happy. They said, “We can let this situation drag us into depression and self-pity, OR we can decide to love our child, make a nurturing family for him, and have a good life together. They chose the latter.

They rejected the advice of doctors who told them to put the child in an institution and move on with their lives. Instead, they completely redesigned their home and their lives to meet the needs of their autistic toddler. He couldn’t meet them in their world, so they met him in his. They sat on the floor and played with him, mimicking his shrieks, whoops and wild gestures. Bit by bit, they were able to build rapport with their son, teach him new behaviors, and coax him further and further into normalcy.

The boy grew and thrived under his parents’ unconditional love, patience, and teaching—it was a long, challenging process, but he graduated from high school, then college, with honors. And throughout those challenging years, Barry Neil Kaufman and his wife chose to be happy. They made it a habit.

How do you make happiness a habit? Simply choose it. Again and again. Habits are formed by repeating the same thing over and over again until it becomes the normal way you behave. Scientists tell us that if you repeat something consistently for 21 days, it will become a habit.

So if you want to really feel the Power of Positive Doing, start by making happiness your new habit.

5 Twitter messages of public interest..!

@nayyarahmad: @CMShehbaz @MaryamNSharif @umarsaif

1. r v so backward in IT that Pres, PM offices & ministries & departments can’t maintain a Twitter account?

@nayyarahmad: @ArifAlvi @sherryrehman

2. Sir, the officially recorded figure for the last year was 869 which means on an average over two ladies killed/day.

@nayyarahmad: @KhawajaMAsif @imf_pakistan @WorldBank

3. A Watt saved is a Watt produced then why can’t we close our offices and markets at 6PM in Pakistan?

@nayyarahmad: @CMShehbaz @MaryamNSharif @betterpakistan

4. Extraordinary challenges demands extraordinary measures.

@nayyarahmad: @CMShehbaz @MaryamNSharif @betterpakistan @imf_pakistan

5. 1 Mega Watt production cost is about Rs.1billion imagine the savings/day of just 1000MW from 6PM onwards if offices and markets r strictly closed?

Then our rulers say no one in the world respects us..!

US Secretary of State John Kerry today called over telephone the Indian External Affairs minister and ……… The Prime Minister of Pakistan..!

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Time Is a Midsize Company’s Most Valuable Resource

While poor time management hurts any firm, it’s especially pernicious at midsize companies. These companies must move quickly to make up for smaller competitors’ agility, but they also need to tackle big projects to compete with larger firms. Time, not money, is the most important resource for midsized firms.
Honor deadlines from the top down. Project management is worthless if the CEO disrespects deadlines. Make missing deadlines unacceptable at every level. Promote your best time-managers, and make the consequences of missing deadlines clear.
Ruthlessly cut projects until only critical ones remain. When a company tries to do too much with too few resources, projects inevitably end up late, mediocre, or unfinished.
Be transparent about a project’s status. In midsize companies, core projects affect every department since the business isn’t big. Leaders must keep team members informed about advances and setbacks, including missed deadlines, to assess the project’s overall progress.

Adapted by HBR from “ Midsize Companies Must Prioritize Ruthlessly” by Robert Sher.

My Twitter message to Ms MN Sharif

@nayyarahmad: @MaryamNSharif like India there should be statutory National Commission for Women in Pakistan, which is doing a yeoman’s job there.

Wake up ICC..!
Is it part of a grand match fixing going on in England?

In the 2nd ODI England got out for just 99 runs vs Sri Lanka.

In the 3rd ODI SL got out for just 67 runs in 24 overs which was overhauled by the England’s team in 12.1 overs.

This SL low score in an ODI is not even a score of a T20 match..!

This series looks a fishy affair to the whole world except the ICC.

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.”

Rachel Carson (1907-1964); Marine Biologist, Author

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan failed getting into his varsity basketball team during sophomore year because he was clumsy and was only 5 feet 11 inches tall.
High school and college sports performances are what NBA recruiters look into when scouting for talent, but Jordan had failed right from the start.
So, he locked himself up in his room to cry.
But he tried out again the next year and got into the junior varsity team.
He practiced the game every day and grew taller by a few more inches until he honed his skills to an unbelievable level. Years later, he became the NBA’s most famous MVP and the greatest basketball player of all time.