Take Control of Your Life – Yes, It’s Important.

How many times do you feel that you are a victim of circumstances? This kind of thoughts come to mind regularly, when something is not right. You feel that everything which is happening  to you, is because of the surroundings you have. However, the real reason behind is that you have low locus of control. Let’s discuss about this in this post.

Locus of control: It is a personality psychological term which measures how one thinks that he can control the events that affects him.

While  it is true that many events happening around you might be out of your control, but you can always control your reactions towards them. Your reaction determines that the situation is going to improve or it is going to be worse. And to control you reaction, you should have complete confidence in yourself  and your abilities that you can turn things around, however bad they are.

Stop complaining; identify solution instead

First thing you need to do is  to find out how you can improve the situation. Stop complaining right away, start identifying the solution. Complaining about luck or situation is not going to help anyways.

Practice makes a man perfect

You have to identify your strengths, the things you do really well. Start practicing them and master them. It will give you the required confidence to change the situation.

Positive attitude does matter

As Zig Ziglar said, it’s not your aptitude, but your attitude which determines your altitude.Having a positive attitude really helps in life. Your intelligence will take you at some level, but believe me, it’s the attitude which gives you an edge over others. Your winning attitude gives you the final cut over others. Consider the scenario of a race where every participant has almost similar body strength,  similar running tactics and similar abilities. In such case, the one will great attitude has certain mental advantage over others which will make him win the race.

And remember, having positive attitude is a habit, which you need to keep practicing. If you think you can, you definitely can. Otherwise you, yourself, are not sure about your abilities, others will get to know this really quick.

Follow your dreams

Have you ever thought that how exactly you lost the track of life? It is because you stopped chasing  your dreams. You started doing things what other wanted or expected you to do. Or probably, you may even  have started living someone else’s life. Wake up now. You will control on your life, once you do what you want to do, not what others expect you to do. Start chasing your dreams. It may be difficult, not impossible.

And finally, believe that you are the creator of your destiny

Yes, you need to trust that fact. God is there to help you (if you believe in God), good luck will also come to you, but you will have to work for it. God will be able to help you only when you can help yourself. And luck is a combination of opportunity with capabilities. To exploit any opportunity which comes to you,  you have to prepare for it. You have to build your capabilities and practice them to the perfection level.

You can create you destiny and you will, if you believe so.

Can Money Buy Happiness!!!

Can money buy happiness!!! It is a classic question which bothers thousands of minds. Being confused about the answers, people don’t get the right direction.

So before finding out answers to this question, we should really find out the meaning of the word: Money. The concept of money came into existence after the era of barter system which goods or services were being directly exchanged for other goods or services. However, there were certain limitations of barter system such as indivisibility of certain goods, absence of common measure of value, need for presence of double coincidence of wants etc. So money came into existence in terms of gold and silver coins. And that led to finally money being printed on paper in a very long period.

So if we analyze it, money is just a common measure of value for goods or services and a method of exchange. One more point is that there could be a time again, howsoever hypothetical, when barter would replace the money in times of monetary crisis.

The culprit here is the unequal distribution of money which makes us forget this concept of money that it is just a method of exchange. Also, you can definitely buy certain things which would make you really happy for some moments. Some people even say that if money can’t buy you happiness, then probably you are not spending it right.

Now, let’s talk about the question here, can money buy you happiness? So, the answer is that it depends on how you see money. If you see money just as a measure to ascertain financial security and to fulfill your day-to-day requirements in short/long-term, then yes, money can buy you happiness.

However, if you plan to gather as much money as possible just to see it grow like anything, probably you will never be happy. Because you will never be satisfied seeing your wealth at a certain level. If you have 1 million, and your aim is to grow as wealthier as possible, you would want 100 million. When you have 100 million, you would want 1 billion. I wonder, in such scenario, when this greed would be satisfied.

There is one more point that you would also be in worry that you might lose all this money or your wealth may be reduced. The reason could be anything, let’s take simple example, a thief might take it away from you. You can also lose it, if you make a wrong decision in business. All gone in a blow!

So basically, money can certainly buy daily needs, luxurious life, your travel holidays, status in society etc, but for peace of mind, the real happiness, you must have real confidence in your abilities. You must know that you can create wealth using you abilities. Money may come and go, but your strength lies with you. In such scenario, you would still survive in the barter system when you can exchange your capabilities for goods you need.

I have given my views, but I know there would be people who will have different view on the second important word in the question: Happiness. I will write a separate post on this topic too. I agree that the definition of happiness can be different for everyone. How do you judge it? Please share your views.

How to Deal with Criticism

Well, if you are reading this article and really interested in knowing how to deal with criticism, then let me criticize you first that there are much chances that you don’t take criticism positively. Or am I wrong? Better, I be wrong, otherwise not taking criticism in positive way may hamper one’s career in long run. Let’s discuss this issue which we face regularly at work.
Who likes being criticized, I don’t. But it is important to acknowledge this fact that we are going to face criticism in some or other way in life. So it is a skill to respond to criticism in positive way and use it to improve you. So how do you do it!

Understand that it is a part of life
Understand it, believe it, you just can’t escape the curse of criticism. It is in everybody’s fate. Even Mr. Obama, the most powerful man on this earth in present days, does face criticism for some of his policies. The higher you go, more criticism you face. Just take anybody’s example, Mahatma Gandhi, India’s independence fighter, he is also criticized. I don’t want to go into details because of sensitivity of the issue. But it is a fact, nobody is spared from criticism. So just accept it, you really don’t have a choice.

Nobody is perfect.
You will find more difficult to deal with criticism if you firmly believe that you are perfect. And trust me, nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. We are just humans; we are allowed to make mistakes. So when you make mistake, criticism will follow.

Criticism will improve you.
Oh well, if you take criticism in constructive way, it will definitely improve you. Criticism is just other people pointing out your faults. When they do so, you know that here is the area for improvement. Otherwise how else you would know that you committed a mistake. So when a person criticize you, thank him, not in person, better thank him in your mind.

Ignore the tone of criticism.
One may not feel bad about criticism, if it is not coupled with negative tone. It is usual that people criticize and shout simultaneously. Your boss does it in this way. Well my boss doesn’t, but everyone may not be as blessed as I am.
So ignore the tone and style of criticism, look for the suggestions people make via criticism. Anyways, who remembers the suggestions, unless there is some confrontation involved?

Don’t take it personally, cheer up
How many times it happens that the home-made food is not as tasty as it should be and you criticize your mother/wife/cook? They are so kind-hearted that they never take it too personally and prepare very good food next time. So when someone criticizes you, smile, cheer up, thank the person and don’t take it personally. You may feel bad for some time, that’s fine. But then smile and try to improve yourself using the criticism positively.

Take your time
Wait; don’t respond to the criticisms immediately. Take your time. If you respond immediately, you may mix your response with anger, which you might regret in future. So don’t ever respond to criticism immediately. If you are being criticized unnecessarily, use some time to gather some evidence and then respond with positive attitude. Believe me, if you are right, people will apologize.

Please share you views also, about how you have dealt with criticism.

Turn Your Dreams into Reality NOW

Everybody has some dreams, plans or ideas. However, how many of us actually start turning those dreams into reality? How many actually take action to meet the success they dream about? Planning is important, but action is more important.
I would give my example here. I thought of putting my thoughts about life, happiness and work at one place or website/blog. This thought first came to mind in year 2010. I actually started researching about it in November, 2012. I had a plan about how this website should look, what it should contain etc. I spent whole 7 months in just research about how to start a WordPress blog website, what is SEO etc. The more knowledge I was gathering, more I was contemplating about this whole idea.
One fine day, I decided that I would not research more. Either I am going to do it today, or just chuck the idea. Finally, I bought the domain name and web hosting within an hour and wrote my first post. But I realized that in my research of 7 months, I never read about solutions of the problems I was really facing about SEO, website look and feel, setting up plugins etc. I had to research afresh for the problems I was facing at that time and I found the solutions too. Whole research and planning phase helped, but the real learning happened when I started doing it. By the way, I am still in the process of learning.

So the message I want to give here is that you can’t learn swimming by staring at the river/sea. You have to jump into it. If you have any dream, just act upon it. Just start executing your plans. You will improve in the process of execution. Planning is good, but it is waste of time without action.
You must have heard that a mediocre strategy well executed is better than a great strategy poorly executed. So do strategize about how to convert your dreams into reality, but one day you have to execute those plans. Why not start today!!! The perfect day for which you are waiting for will never come. Life will not be just perfect ever. You have to make way for your dreams, for yourself.

But how do you do it? Here is an action plan for you:
1. First of all, just accept the responsibilities for your dreams. No one else is going to do it for you.
2. You must have planned something big for you. But if you can’t go gung-ho about it, go for small steps. Remember, most of the big corporations started from a garage or similar places.
3. Do have a backup plan. I will not recommend that you take miscalculated risks, just for the sake of doing it. Calculate your risks, have a backup plan, and start working.
4. Keep the target always in focus. Never lose your sight from the dream where you want to go.
5. Work hard, party harder. When you work, you do it passionately. When you enjoy, you enjoy to the fullest without worrying about work. But don’t keep on doing only one thing out of these two. Take time for both, work and party.
6. Compete with yourself. Set some milestones with timelines. Give yourself a treat, when you meet any milestone. But remember; give yourself a bigger treat, when you fail. Never be afraid of failures in life. Failures make you mature. However, learn from your mistakes and never repeat the same mistake again. Make a new one.
7. Don’t care about peer pressure. People will always find out something to say. Never bother about others. Don’t let them hold you back. Believe in yourself and go ahead.
8. Circle yourself with the people who support you and believe in you. Avoid negative company. And believe me, company matters.
9. Use the enthusiasm to make the progress. Use the beginner’s luck. When you are in the flow of doing something, don’t stop.

I hope, the above list if helpful to some of you. But I reiterate one thing, you have to start one day, so why not today!!!
Please do share your views by leaving a comment below.

How to Turn Rejections into Success

Rejections are omnipresent. They are present in the lives of everybody, especially successful ones. History book is filled up with such stories of personalities who were rejected at the early stage of life and they, finally, made it big at the later stage.

Famous Indian Film Industry star, Amitabh Bachchan, known for his solid voice and impeccable vocabulary of Hindi and English language, was rejected for the post of Radio Jockey in All India Radio stating the reason that his voice is not good.
In South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi was ejected from a train compartment which was meant for the ‘whites’, who later founded the base for Indian freedom and reached to the heights of becoming the Father of the Nation.
Above two examples show that rejections don’t stop you from achieving anything. In life, one has to make difficult decisions, and if he/she feels that peers will reject him/her, this fear will take away your effectiveness. One has to conquer this fear of rejection.

However, to transform rejections into success, one needs to learn some tactics and use them whenever any rejection is coming.

Stand up in the face of failure
This quality is also called perseverance. You have to be firm with your belief in your abilities. Some setbacks don’t define you and your career. So stand up in the face of failures and fight back. Remember, you don’t lose when you meet defeat, you lose when you quit.

Find out areas of improvements
Sometimes, failure or rejection happens due to the external factors. In such cases, one must have faith in oneself, as stated above. However, if your own capabilities don’t match up with what is needed, or if your 100% is not sufficient, then you have to find out those areas of improvements, and try hard to fill the gaps. Seek help from experts in this case. Giving up is still not an option.

Take rejections as wakeup call
Confidence is good, complacency is not. Sometimes, rejections may even work as wakeup call for you to get over complacency and position your mind to its best.

Study the norms of rejections for your peers
When you are getting too many rejections, just analyze the average number of rejections people get who are working in the same industry or domain in which you are working. And then compare that number with your rejection rate. For example, sales people often make many calls before they get the right customer.

Don’t get emotionally involved
If sales people start getting emotionally involved with their sales pitches, then each rejection may give them mental sickness. And that’s what we all should learn from sales guys. They never take rejection personally and try with other customer. Their “never say die” attitude is commendable.

Imbibe positive feeling into yourself and refine 
Whenever you get any rejection, just assume that something better is in the store for you. I have personally seen so many examples such that the person, who got rejected so many times, got the best deal in the end. So just don’t worry. You turn will come; God must have planned something for you. However use the waiting time to refine yourself.

So don’t spend any energy on feeling rejected and work on refining your work and abilities by getting positive. Understand that rejections and failures are your real test. Nobody is going to remember how you well did when you were already successful. People will remember how you fought back when you were getting rejections and failures.

How to Manage Stress

In today’s competitive world, we have lot of pressure to do well and to do that within deadlines. This pursuit of deadlines has given us the gift of stress. Stress could be the result of increasing credit card bills, lot of pending assignments or demanding personal responsibilities. However, stress is not always bad. Some people even perform better under stress. But everybody must learn to manage or control the stress when elimination of stress is not an option in the modern world.

Trust me, stress can be controlled. You just have to believe that. Once you take control of your life, stress is manageable. You will have to do some analysis of your life and stress is under control. That’s it.

1. Identify the symptoms
2. Find out the root cause
3. Do not go for short term relief
4. Search for long term fixes
5. Manage stress

Let’s discuss these one by one.

Identify the symptoms of stress
There are many symptoms of stress. Some of the common symptoms are:

• Tension
• Hunger loss
• Weight loss/gain
• Headache
• Lack of sleep
• Anger
• Worry
• Lack of concentration
• Feeling numb

Find out the root cause
Next step one has to do is the find out the cause of stress. Sometimes, stress can be because of momentary things like arguments, illness, getting married, getting late for important meeting etc. There can be some causes for long term stress, like poverty, death of someone close to you, having problematic relationship with your boss or having non-suited assignment etc.

DO NOT GO FOR SHORT TERM RELIEF
I have highlighted this point in capital letters. Reason behind that is, some people go with alcohol, drugs and smoking etc to get some relief for short time. Please don’t opt for such options. They are not the fixes for stress. Even overeating or anger outburst on others is not a good option.

Search for long term fixes
There are some checkpoints you should consider while looking for fixes for stress.

1. Check whether you can do something to correct the situation. If yes, then no need to worry. Or if no, then worrying about the situation won’t help anyways.
2. Check whether you are taking stress for small things. Sometimes, we do that. Things which have small impact should better be ignored if they can’t be improved.
3. Check whether you have set unrealistic goals for yourself. Don’t over expect from yourself.
4. Check whether there is any other perspective to the situation. See the situation from outside, it might lessen the effect.
5. Check whether you are not able to say “no”. Taking every work on your shoulder is going to put you under pressure for sure.
6. Check whether your priorities are in order. Write down tasks in “Must to-do” to “should do” to “nice to do” to “it’s ok if not done” fashion.
7. Check whether you are managing your time properly. Important things procrastinated becomes urgent after sometime and give you stress.
8. Check whether you are ready to compromise. Compromise is a good option in some situations.
9. Are you not expressive about your problems? If you are facing some problems, share it with someone.
10. Check whether you are taking stress about things you can’t control. Better, focus on things which are under your control.

Manage the stress

1. Sleep properly.
2. Go for exercise, may be jogging or walking. Or indulge in any sport that you like. Or you may even choose to go for kickboxing kind of stuff to relieve yourself.
3. Spend some time with nature, visit a park or lake or hill near your area.
4. Play with your child and see him/her smiling. I do that often, personally tested method.
5. Talk to a friend or someone you love.
6. Appreciate music.
7. Watch some comedy movie.
8. Read some good books. Best companion ever.
9. Adopt a healthy lifestyle:

                        Eat healthy, avoid junk food.
                        Exercise regularly.
                        Avoid alcohol, drugs and smoking. Not just avoid it, cut them out of your life.
                        Follow “early to bed, early to rise”.

Habits of Rich Guys, Which Poor Don’t Follow

Everybody came to this world the same. God gave us equal rights and (almost) equal abilities. However, some become rich and some become poor. (Well, that’s a different fact if someone is born with a millionaire or billionaire father.) There are some habits which rich guys follow and poor don’t. Even the guys who are born in rich families are taught to have rich habits. And these habits set the mindset and become practice which frames the fortune of the person.

Let’s talk about some of those habits which rich guys follow:

Save and Invest

Both rich and poor work hard for money. But rich people have the habit of saving some portion out of their income and utilize that money by investing it properly in good money-increment plans, which may be share market, mutual funds, property etc. Rich people always consider good money-making plans, like they purchase structured settlements. However, poor people fail to save money and recognize these opportunities. This habit of saving money is essential for being rich.

One important thing; save before you spend, not the other way round. Don’t save whatever is left after you have spent enough on your luxuries. Save some fix portion of your income on regular interval (monthly), before you start planning where to spend the left money.

Don’t just survive, try to increase income

Rich people don’t just work to survive financially. They also plan to increase their income, so they see their needs getting expanded in future. However, the poor people cutback their spending, instead of increasing the income. Worse, they take a loan/debt to fulfill a need, forget about luxuries.

Experiment with money

Rich guys never let their money lie idle. They experiment with it, by investing it into money-making schemes. They purchase structured settlements, invest in stock market, purchase real estate and do similar things. Even when they don’t have money to experiment with and have an opportunity which can earn money to them, they just build a business case around that opportunity and money follows that (which may come from investors). But rich people are never afraid of experiments and taking risks.

Don’t just visualize, Do it

This is related to the point I explained about experimenting with money. Poor people also see money making opportunities; however where they lack is the action part. They just visualize, dream about the bright future of the opportunity. They fail to take action, which rich guys never do. Rich people take actions.

Goal-setting

Rich guys set a goal for themselves and work hard to achieve that. However poor people also work hard, but not to achieve any goal. They work just to earn their living and as soon as that is done, they are content with it. They don’t think about exploiting their real caliber which may be much more than what they are actually using. So being ambitious about some goal helps rich guys in being richer.

Network for business

Both rich and poor network and attend social gatherings. They both have a social life. However poor people fail to use that network to grow their income. Rich people network for business. When they meet someone, they mean business. They aim to fetch something out of every meeting.

I will cover more on this topic in a different post where I will talk about destructive habits of poor which resist them from being rich. Hope, this post is helpful.

I would love to hear your comments. Please drop a line below.

Why and How to Squash Negative Thoughts

You do as you think. The thought patterns of a person define his/her personality. A positive person has positive thoughts in his mind. Negative thoughts build a negative person. It is important to stop and squash negative thoughts, because one negative thought leads to other, and this becomes a whole pattern of negative thoughts which hamper the overall personality and mental health. In long run, it just kills the career and mental peace of the person.

Negative thoughts can cause insomnia or low quality of sleep to a person. It may give concentration related problems at work and lack of quality time with family and friends. It can also give physical problems like headache etc.

So it is important to change negative thoughts to positive ones, as trying not to have negative thoughts doesn’t work.

First, be aware that you are having negative thoughts
To correct the wrong, first one has to acknowledge that there is something wrong. Recognize that wrong; identify those negative thoughts which are bothering you. Do you think that your company sucks? Do you think that you are an idiot in case of managing relationships? Do you think that you are not good at your work? Acknowledge these feelings if you are having one.

Identify the causes of these feelings
Think about why do you feel like an idiot? Why do you feel that you are incompetent? Get to the real cause.

Force your mind to feel awesome
At first, you will have to force your mind to feel good. Think about how awesome you are at some things, and then generalize it. Just believe that you are an outstanding performer. Believing is doing. There is a famous saying, “if you think you can do it, you can do it.” So if you think that you are good, you will become good. You will start behaving in that fashion.
Start believing in yourself.

Wake up with the positive thought
Start your days with a wonderful thought. When you go to brush your teeth in the morning, look into the mirror and say to yourself “you are good”. Wait. Rather say “you are too good”. And don’t forget to smile.
See, this whole scenario can be similar to one’s office work. If you are think that you can get “Exceeded Expectations” or “Outstanding” rating in your annual appraisal, you actually start working in such a way that you start deserving that rating.
Believing converts into doing.

This whole process of thinking positively changes your outlook towards life and related things. Once you start having positive thoughts, it leads to a series of positive thoughts and your overall personality becomes positive. Sooner, your colleagues start liking you and your company doesn’t suck anymore. Remember, nobody likes a crying baby. So chuck those negative feelings and start smiling with positive attitude.
And finally, even after trying hard, your negative feelings don’t go away, it is time to seek professional help. Fix an appointment with a professional therapist. These negative feelings need to be out of you at any cost. Don’t live with them. Just don’t.

Hey wait, one very important thing, I completely forgot earlier.
Are you surrounded by negative people? Believe me, there are some people whose life agenda is to fill negativity in other people’s lives. Just chuck their company, howsoever close they are with you. Eventually you will find other friends, but it is important to leave these negative people’s company in order to have a positive mindset.
(Personally tried and tested method)

How to Be More Efficient and Effective at Work

Well, who doesn’t want to impress his/her boss? Everybody does. Nobody wants to be neglected at workplace, and that happens when your boss remembers your name before anybody else and calls you for every other challenging work he can allot.
However, to impress your boss, you first have to prove your worth. You have to prove that you are the one guy your boss can bank upon. This dependency on you makes your boss like you. But how does that happen?
By being efficient and effective at work? Yes, to most extent, if not completely. This post is going to be about how to be efficient and effective at work and how to increase your productivity at work.

I will discuss about strategy first, and then we will go for tactics.

Strategize your way of working

1. One role at a time
You are a father/mother/son/daughter etc. at home and you act so. At work, you act as per the role you are given. So first thing, never take your role at home with you at office. Leave your home affairs at home and be a worker at work.
Also, if multiple roles and responsibilities are given to you at work, so don’t work on multiple assignments in a single go. Switch between roles while working on different assignments. Don’t mix these roles. It will slow you down.
2. Don’t confuse with multi-tasking
Get dedicated to one task as a time. Don’t dilute your attention and concentration among multiple roles/tasks. Some people talk about multi-tasking. However, checking mails, talking to colleagues and writing software program simultaneous is a different thing. But you can’t write two software programs simultaneously. You will have to focus on writing one program at a time. Any software programmer would understand what I am talking about here.
3. Do justice with your KARMA
You can’t ignore this. Whatever work has been assigned to you, you need to do it diligently. Don’t think about result. This is related to the lessons given in GITA, from Lord Krishna to Arjun, one of the great scriptures of Indian Mythology. (Check wiki for more details about GITA). When fruits or results of action become more important to you than the action itself, dedication for work becomes diluted.
Everyone aspires to get good feedback and rating in annual appraisal. That will happen automatically, if you do your work diligently. Don’t always think about promotion and good feedback. Focus on your work, rest will follow.
4. Once started, finish it
Play the game properly. Once you have taken responsibility of some task, take it to the closure. Thoughts of failure or success should not deter you from completing the task.
5. Don’t work just for your boss
No, don’t take me wrong here. Work for him/her, but not just for him/her. You have to love/enjoy your work to do it in proper way. Do it, because you enjoy the process of doing it.

Tactics to be more efficient at work
• Plan your work: Start planning your work on Monday morning and make a day wise plan. Better, prepare a To-Do list for each day.
• Organize your workplace: Reduce clutter at your work station. Organize files and folder at your desk and in your computer. You should know the place of everything when you need it.
• Don’t let important task become urgent: Important tasks ignored at right time become urgent after some time. Leave this habit right away. Procrastination never helped anyone.
• Eat the biggest and most important frog first: You may be aware about 80-20 rule that 80% of your time is consumed doing 20% of your tasks. Identify these 20% tasks which take hell lot of your time and plan for these first. Complete these first and other 80% can be done side-by-side or after these tasks.
• Set deadlines: It is important to have a deadline for each task. Until you have the deadline, you won’t feel the pressure to complete it. However don’t ever wait for deadline, try to finish before time.
• Take a break: Take period break in between work. Use that time to re-energize yourself, so that you start working fresh, once you come back.
• Delegate: Learn the art of delegation. These big corporations would have not been this big without delegation of tasks. No one person can do everything. If you have co-workers or sub-ordinates with you, delegate some of your tasks as per your and their capabilities.
• Focus on work: Last, but not the least, when you are at work, do you work. Don’t think about anything else at that time. As stated above too, don’t dilute your concentration.

I hope, these strategies and tactics would be helpful to you guys.If you use any other method to improve the efficiency and effectiveness at work, please do share below in comments.

Simple, but Ignored, Ways to Save Money

First of all, let me explain what a money-saving article is doing on happiness related website. It is here because financial freedom causes momentary or short term happiness to many people. So targeting this, I thought of writing on this. There might be more such articles coming soon, targeting short term joy along with long term peace.
So, why save money? You should do it to enjoy financial freedom after some time. Having a bank balance is one of the best ways to gain confidence in life. (Tried and tested personally)

So in this post, I will discuss about strategies and tactics about how to save money.

Money Saving Strategies:

1. Don’t depend on credit card
It is one of the golden rules. Use credit card only if you can pay the bills every month. If you think that you might not able to pay the credit card bill, better go for low-cost loans instead of high-interest credit cards. Clear all the credit card dues, the most expensive one first.

2. Never do impulse purchasing
Ok, you can do impulse buying for candies. But don’t do it for expensive luxurious furniture you see in the mall. Think about it when you are going to buy any expensive item. You will have fewer regrets in life, if you do so.

3. Track your spending

One must adopt the habit of tracking the monthly spending and should plan for it in the advance. One more thing, once you have planned your spending for the month, move the rest into saving. Make it a habit. Save before your spend.

4. Make short term saving goals
Plan about how much you can save in a year and break it into milestones for short period/ months. Think about how much you earn, how much you have to save to reach that goal and execute the plan.

Tactics or tips to save money:
1. Use the “Sale”
Use the discount and sale period for your annual clothing shopping. Don’t overindulge with brand names. You can find the same quality of cloth with lesser-known brands too. Also, if you plan ahead your cloths related shopping and do it during discount season; you may save hell lot of money.

2. Make a list of purchase items before you enter the super-market
Understand the dynamics of these super markets. All the items displayed there are to generate a purchase interest in you and you end up buying for products which you don’t even need or didn’t plan to buy. So go with a list of items in these super markets, search for these items, and pay for them and come out. Don’t look on other “DEALS”. These deals are there to increase your spending.

3. Economies of Scale in personal buying
Do the bulk purchasing for items which are non-perishable in nature. Some companies even offer discounts for bulk purchases. For example, buy 3, get 1 free. These types of items include soaps, shampoos, detergents, face cream, and oil etc. But wait; don’t overstock.

4. Use public transportation or ride a bike
Prices of Petrol/Gas are going up each day. You may save good amount of money if you use public transportation to your office.
Also, it would be even better if you ride a bicycle to office or shops. It has several advantages like no harm to environment, money saving and most important, health benefits. You may even save the money required for Gym membership to keep your tummy inside.

5. Save your money with a high-interest bank
Why to have money in a bank which gives lower interest than the other one with high interest? Make that decision quick and transfer your money to high-interest bank. Similarly, take loans from a low-interest bank.

6. When throwing a party, do it at home
Sometimes, you need to celebrate, and you should do it. However, celebrating at a lounge or famous pub or restaurant may cost you heavily. It will be less costly, if you celebrate at home. Invite people at your home and do whatever you wanted, it will not cost you as much as it would have at restaurant.

7. Save energy
Saving energy means that you are thinking about your children and grand children and giving them some energy which you could have wasted. Saving energy also means saving money, as you need to pay for it.

8. Research and compare the price, and then do the shopping
These days, we have a very handy tool for price comparison, called Internet. We don’t need to go to each and every shop around to check out the lowest price. Just compare the prices over internet whenever you plan to buy something expensive like camera, mobile phone, TV etc. There are lots of websites which do this favor to you free of cost, use them.

9. Ladies, don’t lighten your mood by shopping, it hurts
I agree that ladies feel light-hearted when they perform their favorite task, shopping. However, please don’t do it to de-stress yourself. Please don’t use shopping like chocolates which release good hormones in your body so that you feel good. Don’t do it to make you feel good, it hurts you financially. Do it when you really need to purchase something. Also, malls and shopping centers are not for entertainment, they are for shopping. Don’t go there when you don’t have anything else to do. (This applies to men too.)

10. Withdraw membership from where you never go
It’s ok, if you joined a gym to reduce your belly. However, don’t feel shy to withdraw your membership, if you don’t do there anymore. This applies to other services as well, which you pay for but don’t use. For example, I recently removed a landline phone from my home, as I never use it for calling. I call from my mobile, so why pay for a landline? Cancel the channel subscriptions you don’t watch.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it will surely make an impact if you follow these. Please share your comments below about your experiences and feedbacks.

How to Become a Go-Getter

You must have heard this term so many times, Go-Getter. Many people must have thought themselves as one. However, what does exactly being a go-getter mean and how to be a go-getter? In this article, we are going to discuss about the qualities one must have to be a go-getter.

Ambition and Hard Work
Ambition is the quality which drives the go-getter to achieve his goals. In order to be one, you must have ambition to achieve high in life. It will keep pushing you against your limitations.
Do you really believe in Smart work, not hard work? Let me tell you this thing that smart work is also hard, it is just in right direction. So ignore about being extra smart, you have to work hard for your goals, that too in right direction.

Responsibility and Faith
Go-getters take responsibilities for things or acts. They take the projects to the end and finish them efficiently. Once you have the ownership of something, then only you can have the credit of its completion. Half responsibility results in no credit for work.
Go-getters have faith in their own capabilities. When they accept a task, they know that they can do it, no matter what. Problems would be there, things won’t be easy. But they will have to find a way and they will.

Result-orientation
The go-getter is the executor. He dreams less, executes more. Go-getter is the person who is proactive in his actions. They just jump on things with full capacity and bring the results in. They don’t wait for perfect conditions for perfect results. They analyze the situations, and if situations are good enough, they execute their plans.

Risk taking and Perseverance
You have to learn to take risk to be a go-getter. As explained above, go-getters don’t wait for perfect conditions. They take calculated risks and act. Their quality of perseverance helps them to continue their efforts, even when they fail sometimes.
So take risks, fail miserably, but don’t let yourself down and stand up and start chasing again. Quitting is not an option for go-getters.

Do what you love the most and celebrate victories
Go-getters love their work. They do what they are good at and delegate the rest to someone proficient at those. Whenever they achieve something, they celebrate and pat themselves for achieving it.

Learn from mistakes and push the boundaries
Whenever go-getters fail, they don’t fret too much about it. They learn from them and don’t make same mistakes again. If they have less knowledge about something or less capabilities, they always push their boundaries.

Metrics matter
Go-getters follow goals which are clearly defined, time-bound and objective. They set clear numeric goals and work hard to achieve them. They don’t just meet these goals; they also try to exceed goals.

These are some of the qualities of a go-getter. If you want to be one, develop these qualities into you. The good news is that anyone can become a go-getter. It is just a matter of changing the mindset and lifestyle.

Forgive: Let Go Your Anger

Have you ever tried forgiving the person who has done something wrong to you? He/she may have eaten your deserved promotion at office, or he/she might have borrowed money from you and never gave you back, or he/she might have hurt you physically or emotionally. Have you ever tried to forgive these persons? I understand that it is very hard. Revenge is what you seek in such scenario. This is because revenge would give feeling of justice. However, revenge has never ending repercussions if the other person also has the same feeling.

Best revenge: be happy
Have you ever tried ignoring the person who is being harmful to you? Try it; he will go mad to the core. Just the fact that you don’t care about him, will make him crazy. He will bang his head on the floor, wondering why his efforts are going waste. And one day, he will stop trying.

Seek good out of bad
Try to find out what you have learned from the experience. See, when you don’t get what you want, you get experience. Seek something good out of that bad experience you had with this person. If nothing at all, you have at least identified one type of person, whom you should beware of.

See the other angle
You will find it easier to forgive others, if you start analyzing the situation from their perspective. For example, if someone has eaten up your promotion, you might want to see his angle. Probably, he is very ambitious and wants to reach the top very fast. I agree that it is not ethical to reach the top by riding on other’s shoulder. But see, that’s the difference between you and him. You are following moral practices, he is not.

Time heals
Have patience. The time has strong healing power. It can heal harsh wounds too. One day, you will find that whatever he did to you doesn’t matter much. You still did quite well in life. Seeing things at the hindsight will make you realize that everything connects. May be, the learning from that person’s experience helped you at several other places where you utilized that learning by not being gullible.

See divine help
If you believe in God, seek His help. He always does justice to his sons and daughters. Do good, you will get good from him. Do bad, you will get bad from him. Just trust Him, He will make things alright.

Your health is tied to what you think
It is guided by many doctors that our health is directly attached to our mental state. If we have anger in our mind, it causes bad health. Heart and Liver are two main organs which are directly impacted by anger.

All said and done, I agree, that complete forgiveness is not possible in some cases (I don’t want to comment such cases here, but I know some example where it is not possible at all). But being angry with life and someone is going to hamper your growth and mental state. You can’t spend your whole life fretting about one bad thing. Move on. Forgive them who did wrong to you. Lead a happy and healthy life.

8 Fantastic Ways to Screw Up Your Life

Well, it is your life. You have all the rights to live it better or screw up completely. I have seen people who screw up their life knowingly and they enjoy it I don’t know why. However, I am going to put some fantastic ways to screw up your life. You will learn here how to screw up your life. But the purpose of this post is not to teach you this. One should read this post to know that what those things are which one should not do to have a better life. Soplease take this post with a pinch of salt.

1. Being in a wrong relationship
There can’t be a better way to screw up your life than this one. Just be with a wrong or incompatible partner and your life is a mess. You will hate seeing him/her and still be with that person. What a life!

2. Keep fretting about something
Commit something wrong and continue fretting about it for your whole life. Never try to find out solution to the problem and keep worrying about it. Become a crying baby and no one will like you.
Also, don’t ever move on. Stay with that problem. If you have been beaten, then keep crying that you were beaten at that day and you will never forgive the person.

3. Make enemies and keep the fight on
Make sure that your have enemies. If you don’t have, start feeling jealous with someone. Criticize him publicly and boom, you have one now. It is not over yet. No, don’t accept defeat at any point. Keep the fight on and continue your exercise of being angry with your enemies, criticizing them and planning about harming them and similar activities. At least, you will have something to do in life. Keep it up.

4. Stay with the job you hate the most
Well, who likes going office daily? More so, when one has the job which he hates. Don’t quit. Stick with that job forever. If you quit, you will look like a loser in front of your friends. So never quit. You suck at this job because you don’t like it. But remember, you want to screw your life, right?

5. Over-promise; Under-deliver
Oh well, how can you accept that you can’t do something? Promise the things to boss which you know you just can’t do. Your bosses will hate you because they trusted your promise and didn’t plan contingencies in case you fail.

6. Live on credit and don’t plan to pay it back
Develop needs which are more than your resources. Start living on credit and credit cards and live your life expensively. If you don’t have money to buy expensive pair of shoes, take a loan and never plan to pay it back. Your life is screwed.

7. Live to meet others’ expectations
Other people have various expectations from you. Start living as they want you to live. Don’t live as per your wish. Take other people’s advice for everything and follow it, even if your inner voice says otherwise.

8. Be friends with negative people and do self-talking negatively
As everyone is free to choose the friends, select the negative ones who always talk about losing things, harming people, self-harm, low morale, low productivity and similar things. Make sure they contribute to your negative feelings. Also, do the self-talking negatively. For example, say to yourself things like that “I am a loser”, “I can’t do this”, and “I will do wrong here” etc.

Honestly, I can think of at least 50 more such ways which can mess up anybody’s life. But I think that if I write more on this, the readers will lose the focus from the above mentioned points which are some of the most important ones. So I stop here.

Also, you know any other fantastic way to screw up life which are important for others to know, please do share with us in comments.

What is Structured Settlement and How It Has Become Popular Investment Option

This post is going to be about a very niche topic; why you should purchase structured settlement and how it can affect your happiness quotient. First of all, let us understand what a structured settlement is and how it works.

A Structured Settlement is a financial instrument which establishes a stream of periodic payments and is mainly of use for injury victims. It arises mostly when a plaintiff wins a lawsuit and the payment for damages is awarded as a series of payments over a period of time. Under a structured settlement, person doesn’t receive lump sum compensation for his or her injuries. Rather, he or she receives a stream of tax-free payments to meet his medical expenses and basic living needs. This settlement can be paid to the person in any schedule as he wants. It can be paid in annual settlements or periodic lump sum every few years.

Benefits of Structured Settlement:
• Long term financial security
• Meet the burden of living needs
• Tax-free payments
• High fixed return with low risk

Selling and buying of Structured Settlement:

Sometime the plaintiff who is getting the payment of structured settlement annuity has a need of more liquidity. In such cases, the person contacts the company to explore selling structured settlement stream. Most companies who buy such structured settlement re-sell these to an investor and keep a commission with them. And then they repeat the process. So companies need both type of people, one who wants to sell structured settlement and one who wants to purchase structured settlement.

For investor’s perspective, no two settlements are the same. Each scenario can be different in terms of payment amount and payment schedule. Returns are generally high, as the annuity payments are backed by good insurance companies with no risk of defaulting. Payments are guaranteed and fixed to a date. Payment will happen even if the original annuitant dies. And the structured settlement recipients, due to need for liquidity, give up the healthy discount rate to get the lump sum cash now.

Why this has become a popular way of investment? This is because it can offer a guaranteed rate of return for many years. The returns are not pegged to inflation. They often pay between 5.75% to 7.75%. They are secure, as they are backed by major insurance companies. The beneficiary is just selling his rights to receive annuity payments. The buyer then re-sells it to stockbrokers or insurance agents that sell it to the public. Many factors now operate websites that offer free quote on the potential price of an annuity. By price comparison, the recipients can get top price.

Why to sell structured settlements when they are so good? In some cases, it is wise option. Some structured settlements are setup so that only one person can get the payment in his lifetime and it can’t be inherited by family. So if an old person holds such settlement might actually receive more money from the lump sum of cash than from the structured settlement payments. This fund could be used to buy long term care insurance.

Well, money can give you happiness and that’s the reason I thought of educating my readers about this investment option. A wise investment could be a best friend at the time of real need. So have one.