Personal Mastery

Make this new year your best year!

by

Today morning I wrote to my EnergyTech colleagues and shared one of my secrets which served me well over the last few years. I am posting some of it here so that my wider tribe can also benefit from this. I request you stay for a few more minutes on this post and complete reading it until the end. I am now forty-five years old, and I am more certain about a few things in life than I was at thirty. I am now getting a better handle on my growth and what matters the most for the rest of my life. I am now more excited and focused on my current trajectory than my current results, so should you be too.

A few years ago, I learned from my mentor to set aside some time to reflect on my last year and evaluate it. Since then, it has helped me position myself better and make the most of the opportunities and commitments in the following year. Every year during the last week, I answer the below questions without fail. So take your notebook and pen, and I encourage each of you to think of the below questions and try to answer them for yourself.

1) What wins, achievements, and special moments do you need to celebrate from the last 12 months.
2) What are the three best life lessons you learned from the last 12 months?
3) What outcomes did your choices produce during the last 12 months?
4) Which relationships have helped you grow, and which ones haven’t during the last 12 months?
5) What activities deserve more of your time and energy, and what deserves less during the next 12 months?
6) What are your top 5 goals for the next 12 months?
7) What are your top 5 values for the next 12 months?
8) What is your detailed plan to achieve your top 5 goals identified for the next 12 months?’
9) What books should you read during the next 12 months?
10) What tools and systems can you think of to achieve your top 5 goals during the next 12 months?

Personally, the last year has felt more like a roller coaster ride for many of us than a walk in the park! COVID-19 was and is still one of such testing times for me as it is for most leaders worldwide. Despite that, I could list more than 25 personal wins, achievements, and special moments in 2021, which I am truly excited about and thankful to the Almighty. I am sure each of you can think of such things and be grateful for them.

Today, we are writing the first page of our 365 pages book called 2022. It is absolutely in our hands to make each page better than the previous page. With better awareness, we can make better choices; with better choices, we are bound to see better results. So let’s just get started.
I’m excited for you as you begin this review process, and I guarantee you’ll make 2022 a better year in your life!

Regards,

Kishore Borra

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my books, “Don’t Coast” & “GET LEADERized” which are available on Amazon, Flipkart & Notion Press

Please subscribe to my social media channels:

Credibility is the new leadership currency

by

 

Do as I say, not as I do attitude won’t take you much farther in your leadership journey. You should be a worthy example so that people will say someday; I would like to be just like my leader. Your credibility depends on your track record of making a difference in people’s lives and people’s belief in you that you will do what you say. If you want to be a leader who wants to be followed or listened to, you should lead by example. By leading the way, you are creating confidence in the people around you. Always remember that when the leader lacks confidence, the team lacks commitment.

 

Once upon a time, a young boy was addicted to eating sugar. His mother warned him several times not to eat sugar as it is not good for his health. But the boy didn’t listen to his mother. Finally, the mother decided to get help from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. So, she took her son to the Ashram and requested Gandhiji to tell her son to stop eating sugar, as it is not good for his health. Gandhiji replied, “I cannot tell him that right now, but you can bring him back after a month, and then I will talk to him.” Hearing this, the mother was confused and upset that Gandhiji didn’t give any solution. So, she and her son went back home. After a month, they met Gandhiji again in the Ashram. This time Gandhiji looked at the boy and said, “Young boy, you should stop eating sugar as it’s not good for your health. Listen to your mother and follow her”. The boy promised that he would not do that again. The boy’s mother, out of curiosity, asked Gandhiji, “Why didn’t you tell him last time when I bought him here?” Gandhiji smiled and said, “Mother, last time when you came, I had the habit of eating a lot of sugar myself.”

A credible leader should always be a worthy example. Never ask your subordinates to do anything that you would not do yourself. Take every possible opportunity to show your team that you are willing to perform whatever is necessary for them to succeed.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels:

 

Self Leadership is the price tag of our leadership

by

My mentor John Maxwell says all the time that everything worthwhile in life is uphill. It’s uphill all the way. Our dreams, our relationships, our goals, and everything valuable in life are all uphill. That’s why you and I need to be super intentional because we only go uphill if we are intentional. The problem in today’s world is that people usually have uphill aspirations and downhill habits. You see, one can’t climb uphill with downhill habits. That is why most people don’t lead their lives; they accept life because they are not ready for an intentional upward journey, and they love to coast in their life.

The only way to go uphill is through self-leadership. Someone can’t have continuous success in life with downhill habits. It’s faster, easier, quicker downhill than it is uphill. If you have many uphill days and a few downhill days, they will cancel out all the uphill days. You will wipe out your 3 or 4 days of climbing with just one day of coasting. There is no such thing as accidental success in life. If I want to write a book, I should keep marching forward by writing one letter at a time.

Are you having uphill aspirations and downhill habits? It’s time for a reality check. You cannot become what you need by remaining who you are. It’s about time for you and me to stop waiting for the man or woman we want to become and start being the man or woman we want to be. No one ever improves by accident. Once you are done with your college education, you must take complete ownership of the personal development process since nobody else will do it for you.

Self-leadership is the bridge between intentions and actions. It makes habit your servant instead of your master. Let me tell you the strangest open secret of this world – either you pay now and play later or play now and pay later. No matter what life expects, you to pay. The question is whether you would like to pay on the front end or pay on the backend. The longer you wait to pay, the more you need to pay.

Uphill climbing Vs. Downhill sliding

  • Everything worthwhile is uphill climbing, and nothing worthwhile is downhill sliding. 
  • You get wins by uphill climbing, and you will get losses by downhill sliding.
  • You will be preparing by uphill climbing and repairing or fixing something by downhill sliding. 
  • High morale is uphill climbing, and low morale is downhill sliding. 
  • High self-respect is uphill climbing, and Low self-respect is downhill sliding. 
  • Self-improvement is uphill climbing, and no-improvement is downhill climbing. 
  • You are purposeful during uphill climbing, and you are aimless during downhill climbing. 
  • You are fulfilled during uphill climbing, and you are emptied during downhill climbing. 
  • You are making a difference during uphill climbing, and you are not making any difference during downhill climbing. 
  • Emotions without thinking are like downhill sliding, and emotions with right thinking are like uphill climbing. 

Consistency is the prerequisite of excellence. Therefore my first and foremost advice to you is never to underestimate the compounding impact of consistency. If we don’t grow, the most significant loss in life will be at the end because that’s when all the compounding takes place. Therefore our future, our growth, depends on what we do daily.

Fish that move in the same direction and speed as the river are the dead ones floating on top. Fish have a mission, and they swim in the direction necessary to achieve their goals. Life is like a river that always flows onward, and we must choose to either “go with the flow” or swim in the direction we decide to achieve our purpose and goal in life.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels:

 

Learn to trust the process

by

We should learn to value or trust the process more than the event. Are you thinking that reading a book or listening to a motivational speaker would create miracles in your life? Of course, the answer is no. Never overestimate the importance of an event and underestimate the power of the process. You might get the inspiration to start the process by attending an event. But, the process is ongoing learning which takes consistent, deliberate effort to grow each day. In other words, the process is more important than the event for a growth-conscious mindset. Therefore, attending an event or motivational talk or reading a book should only be considered a triggering point to learn a new habit or skill. What you do daily to hone that skill is what matters ultimately.

I watched a construction activity on a site right next to our office many years ago for many months. Initially, the land was sealed off with iron sheets with an entrance to the site before the commencement of the construction activity. After a few days, the digging started, and it went deeper and deeper each day. From my office desk on the 4th floor, I would look down to see the work going on every now and then during the day. I watched the engineers begin the digging for the foundation using hydraulic diggers. Later every day for the next few weeks, I noticed trucks shifting the soil out of the site. We know that longevity, stability, and safety indeed depend on its deep and stable foundation. Since I have an aerial view of the construction site, I could see what was going on in the site. However, for those walking next to the site along the road, it would appear that nothing is going on in the site since they cannot see anything visible.

After a couple of months, the earthwork was completed. The team started working on anti-termite treatment since termite infestation can weaken the building structure and damage wooden materials. Later, using reinforced steel bars, the engineers began building the framework for the foundation, followed by concrete work. After many months the foundation could reach the ground level. After the base was established, engineers started to build the walls. Almost after six months, people on the outside began seeing the building going up. However, I understood how much effort had gone in from my office, and the time it took for the building to get to that level. For some of the people looking from the outside, it appears that the building had come up ‘overnight,’ which was quite surprising for them when noticed for the first time. It is quite analogous to the illusion of ‘overnight successes. There is nothing like an overnight success, and it is a myth. You have to work for months and years to become an overnight success.

Let me give you a few examples and situations when we totally and absolutely ‘trust’ the process because we are extremely sure about the end result. Some people follow a hard diet because they know that the outcome of weight loss or getting back in shape is worth it after a few months. I am sure some of you might have already had the experience of enduring a long drive by bus, car, train, or flight because you always reminded yourself about the beautiful destination waiting for you at the end of the journey. Sometimes we take a headache pill and instantly feel relieved because we are sure that the tablet would start working within no time.

Trusting the process is long-term insightful thinking. It merely means a robust, resilient, and almost unshakable faith that keeps us going through difficult times with little complaints. It is because we’ve been continuously reminding ourselves about the end destination. For an athlete, trusting the process might mean having faith in his training abilities and his dreams of attaining success. It might be studying hard for a student and believing in himself that to clear the year-end or admission test with an excellent grade or rank. For a building contractor or engineer, trusting the process means having enough patience and faith to imagine a beautiful building upon looking at an empty piece of land. Trusting the process will give you the power to keep marching forward instead of feeling agitated, nervous, angry, or impatient because you’ve not arrived yet.

If you trust the process, you will stop asking how long it will take and start thinking about how far you can go. You will accept both positives and negatives, rewards and pains, sweat and tears, darkness and light during your journey to become the person you wanted to be. It increases your patience levels; the more patient you are, the more likely that you’ll be able to achieve great things and make all your dreams come true.

When you invest in your growth daily, you will notice small but progressive changes. After a while, people will start noticing that you’re not the same person that you used to be. Tell them the process you followed and be a rainmaker to support their growth journey. We all get the same 168 hours a week. Eight hours per day work and eight hours per day for sleep. It means a total of 16 hours per day. Therefore we have a total of 56 hours to pursue our goals and grow.

I want to make every hour count pursue my growth journey. After two decades of completing post-graduation from SV University, Tirupati, India, in 2001, all the hustle has led me to something. Today, I am working as the Managing Director of an IT company in Hyderabad. I am also a certified Trainer, Coach, and Speaker with The John Maxwell Team, USA, and my bigger dream is still alive. I have tasted success, and I want more of it. I want to grow, help, build, impact, serve others, and leave a legacy before getting buried.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels:

Reflective Thinking

by

#LeadTip: Self-reflection is an important development tool. Reflection is the ability to think back, observe yourself in action, and learn from it. It allows you to hit the pause button and ensure that you are still on track and not pushing forward in a direction you shouldn’t be going. 

What you reflect on always determines what you will learn. There is no doubt that leaders should believe in the future more and move forward when things go wrong. It is also important for leaders to spend a short amount of time reflecting on past errors in a productive manner. I call it reflective thinking, and it’s a discipline I practice regularly. Reflective thinking helps me understand what worked well and what didn’t. Mining the best takeaways from both successes and failures will help you to get better every day. 

A ‘5R’ approach can be helpful for those who want to practice reflective thinking.

  1. Review – Knowing what you messed up yesterday will help you plan a better tomorrow.
  2. Reflect – Think deeply to prevent your tomorrow from falling into the same traps as your yesterday. 
  3. Recover – Letting yourself feel bad for a short time will motivate you to fix what can be fixed and move forward.
  4. Rearrange – Realign your priorities in line with your learnings as needed.
  5. Recharge – Dwelling on the past with an eye toward the future allows you to bounce back with double the vigor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels: