Secret of Consistency

 Quite often people ask me, “What is the secret behind your consistency?” I am pleasantly surprised by this question; however, I don’t have an answer, because I don’t actually take any special effort to be consistent. But when people acknowledge and appreciate something, I realize that there should be something that I am doing right, to create that impression.

So, my first thought is, “How do people get a feeling that I am consistency?” As I introspect on this, I realize that there are a few things I have been doing more or less consistently.  So, if we look at it, it is just about integrating some sort of discipline into our daily schedule, which shows us that we are consistent. But, it doesn’t come just like that. In order to integrate this sort of discipline into our schedule, we need the following 3 C’s – Conviction, Commitment & Continuity. So, let me elaborate each a little more.

Conviction comes when we whole heartedly believe, that what we are doing is in the best interest of ourselves and others around us. It also needs evidence to support it. For example, my conviction to send a daily “Thought for the day (TFTD) to friends comes from the evidence, that people have periodically responded to my TFTD, saying that it had a positive impact on them on that particular day. It is this good feeling, that has been a motivator for me to stay consistent.

Commitments is not necessarily a promise we to make to others, but most often to ourselves. When we fail in our commitment, we fall before our own eyes, which is not a nice feeling. So, commitment can come only from conviction. When I am convinced that walking for 45 minutes is good for health, then it is easy to commit myself to this daily practice. One marketing mantra, taught by experts related to customer retention strategies, is this:

•     Over Promise and Under Deliver = Customer Dissatisfaction

•      Under Promise and Over Deliver = Customer Delight

•      Deliver what you Promise = Customer Satisfaction

According to me, it is practically impossible to give our customer delightful experiences, all the time, but we can ensure customer satisfaction, if we can just keep up our word. So, “Deliver what you promise” has been my guiding principle behind every organization or business, I lead. It may be the regular monthly programmes I offer through PALMS, the monthly newsletter PALMS PLUS being published or the free awareness programmes we offer through SPARK. It is all just the result of commitment, I make to our clients.

Continuity is another important factor that determines consistency. Anything done over a prolonged time becomes a sort of habit, like brushing our teeth twice a day or saying a prayer before leaving home. However, it takes longer period for the world to notice it. For example, we are organizing regular monthly programme for PALMS for 20 years (there are days there have been only 5 participants, yet the programme happens). So, consistency has to sometime face the challenges of uncertainty too and emerge victorious.

Despite all the C's, I realized that a blow could come to my pride of consistency from an unknown C called COVID lock down. It made me realise that natural force is beyond any human effort to be consistent. We were not able to organize PALMS meeting, which we have not defaulted over the last 20 years.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Mind Full or Mindful?

Mind Full or Mindful?

“Mindfulness means paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment, in the mind, body and external environment, with an attitude of curiosity and kindness”

-          Mindful Nation UK Report

 

Few days back, I attended a 5 day Mindfulness Retreat at a place called Dharamshala, in Himachal Pradesh. The place is located at the foot hills of the Himalayan Mountain range. It is a splendid place with awesome beauty of the magnificent snow capped mountains, waterfalls and water streams criss-crossing the small town. It is the place, where the famous Dalai Lama, lives too.

 

It was such a delight that a programme on “Mindfulness” was conducted at such an enthralling location. The programme was titled SMILE which is an acronym for “Shine with Mindfulness Inspired Leadership and Emotional Intelligence”.

 

I was curious to understand how mindfulness is related to Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. The programme made me realise the importance of mindfulness, in more ways than I imagined. I realised that Emotional Intelligence is the foundation of good Leadership and Mindfulness is the foundation for Emotional Intelligence. So, Mindfulness is the bedrock of being an effective leader. Emotional Intelligence consists of the building blocks of Self Awareness, Self Management, Motivation, Empathy and Compassion. And all these essential qualities can be acquired in the form of skill, if we can embrace Mindfulness.

 

We are living in a world of high stress, high distraction and high expectations and we are constantly trying hard to accomplish our tasks and achieve our goals, by putting more and more hours of time, but ultimately end off dejected, as everything seems to be a moving target.

 

So, how can mindfulness help? Here are some benefits, stated by mindfulness practitioners and experts. Mindfulness helps to:

• Reduce Stress

• Increase Focus

• Improve Emotion Control

• Increase Empathy and Respect

• Increase Resilience

• Improve Physical Well being

• Improve Creativity

• Enhance Collaborative spirit

So, the question to you now: How Mindful are you? Mindfulness calls for conscious and consistent practice. Are you willing to give it a try?

Is not the list tempting enough to bring Mindfulness to your life? So, how does mindfulness help us to achieve these? There are several mindfulness practices and techniques, that can be used. There were various tools discussed that can help someone to bring mindfulness to practice. I have shared a few of them as a separate article in this issue, under the topic “Mindfulness Practices”

 

So, what does mindfulness advocate? Mindfulness teaches us to “Think Less” which is quite opposite to the popular belief that people who think more, achieve more. Mindfulness believes in reducing the quantity of thoughts and instead focuses on the quality of thoughts. On an average human mind produces over 60,000 thoughts, out of which 80% are unconscious and negative thoughts. Thoughts are like soap bubbles and soon pop off. So, it is only a few thoughts that really matters to us. The differentiating factor between successful people and unsuccessful people lies in the quality of concentration.

 

Mindfulness discourages multi-tasking. It believes that if we have to do a quality work, there should be a singled minded focus on the task.

 

Mindfulness asks us to stay away from the many distractions that surround us and steal away our valuable time.

 

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com