My Thought For This Friday (12/28/12) - Holiday

When you forget the day of the week, it means it is a holiday or you are in a vacation. 

My Thought For This Friday (12/21/18) - Family

Returning to family is like coming to rest under a tree. The tree is always there to welcome regardless why you came, never questions why you are tired, and you can choose when to leave.

My Thought For This Friday (12/14/18) - Novelty

Novelty has a tendency to make something look better or worse than it actually is. Giving time will help confirm those initial impressions.

My Thought For This Friday (12/7/18) - Kindness and hatred

Even though you share kindness with some one, it feels like you gained something. And the opposite is true when you hate someone. Still, it is puzzling why we show kindness few and far between. 

My Thought For This Friday (11/30/18) - Judging others

Always evaluate people based on not how they fall but how they get up. Always judge people not on their mistakes but whether they show contrition and how they recover from their mistakes.

My Thought For This Friday (11/23/18) - Love is the norm

Random and quiet act of kindness you happen to see unexpectedly is the best evidence that love and humanity is actually common and the norm. Unfortunately, random acts of violence gets the publicity. Remember this next time you see and hear the bad news of violence on the radio or TV. 

My Thought For This Friday (11/16/18) - Shame

To feel shame one must have conscience. 

My Thought For This Friday (11/9/18) - Accountability

Demanding accountability ensures that one does not learn the wrong lessons; without it, one may think they can get away next time also with the same non-effort.

My Thought For This Friday (11/2/18) - History

We should study history so that we don't repeat the WRONG ones.

My Thought For This Friday (10/26/18) - Heart

The only time it stops working is the last time you will ever work. Such a high bar to meet on your behalf, yet it is mostly forgotten  - Heart

My Thought For This Friday (10/19/18) - Edge

I feel we all become philosophical when we reach the edge, from where we can’t go any further - be it a beach or shore or cliff or a summit.

My Thought For This Friday (10/12/18) - Defeated

It is easy for someone to be gracious to the defeated, if you happened to be the winner. It is a good idea for winners to give time and space for the defeated to absorb their loss without trying to tell them anything.

My Thought For This Friday (10/5/18) - Food

Food is likely the first anti-depressant ever discovered.

My Thought For This Friday (09/28/18) - Hard lessons

While I am always prepared to learn, it is still hard when you have to learn the some lessons the hard way. 

My Thought For This Friday (09/21/18) - evaluating and judging

The goal of a teacher should be to 'evaluate' so that she/he can come up with ways to help the student improve. It should not be to 'judge' and simply point it out to the student, as that does nothing to improve the student performance. 

My Thought For This Friday (09/14/18) - Encouragement

Encouragement from a parent or true friend shows that they believed in you even before you did.

My Thought For This Friday (08/31/18) - Birthday

May be it is a sign of aging but just feeling happy to be alive is the best birthday gift.  

My Thought For This Friday (08/24/18) - Ending relationship

When you have to end a relationship, never abandon it unannounced. At least fight, unload, rant, and then end it. Then at least there is some closure. 

My Thought For This Friday (08/17/18) - devolution

I always wondered, but could never understand, the devolution of how one is addressed in an email thread. That is, the first email starts with Dear Dr. Palanivelu and the 10th one starts with no name like a text message....

My Thought For This Friday (08/10/18) - Timing

There is never a good time to do or think something bad. And, there is never a bad time to do or think something good.

My Thought For This Friday (8/3/18) - Lessons

It is always hard on you when you learn  lessors the hard way.

My Thought For This Friday (07/27/18) - Belief

Belief is supporting a conclusion that was formed with no supporting evidence and one that remains immune to any contradictory evidence.

My Thoughts For This and Last Friday - Pain (07/13/18 and 07/20/18)

1. Regardless if it is intentional or unintentional, pain inflicted still stings. So watch out for your actions

2. Being diplomatic in words and actions is not to avoid pain, but to alleviate it. 

My Thought For This Friday (07/06/18) - Priority in caring

Our time in this world is limited. Each minute you spend worrying about people who don’t care about you, it is a precious minute wasted and not spent on people who do care about you. 

My Thought For This Friday (06/29/18) - Truth

If the truth hurts, don’t get mad at the messenger who brought it to you.

My Thought For This Friday (06/22/18) - Humility

One by product of defeat is humility.

My Thought For This Friday - 06/15/18) (Home)

Home is comfortable to a fault that you are numb to the comfort it offers and don’t realize it until you leave it. People who love you are like that too. 

My Thought For This Friday - 06/08/18 (Wedding Anniversary eve edition)

The goal of a relationship should not be its long duration. Instead, if the focus is on: fairness, honesty, trustworthiness, building the confidence to speak your mind, critiquing the partner with a goal to help them improve, having the guts to admit mistakes, being able to be one's self in their company, using flaws as a cue to be complement, developing the ability to say sorry, being able to forgive, and solely doing things you hate for the partner's sake, then the relationship will automatically last long. 

My Thought For This Friday (6/1/18) - Feeling helpless

Not knowing what to do next when you clearly know you should be doing (and wanting to do) something next is the worst kind of helplessness feeling. 

My Thought For This Friday (5/25/18) - rejection and betrayal

Rejection and betrayal can cause a world of hurt. Former is caused from thinking what could have been and the latter is from thinking it should not have been. Hence, between the two, betrayal hurts more. 

My Thought For This Friday (5/18/18) - Assumption

One can reduce assumptions if you realize there is always another side to every event, argument, story, and statement. Double checking or cross verifying is in order before assumptions are made. 

My Thought For This Friday (05/11/18)- decision timing

Don’t do grocery shopping when you are hungry and don’t take important decisions when you are angry.

My Thought For This Friday (05/04/18) - Teacher's role

Teaching students the art of questioning and helping themselves find the answers should be the goal of any teacher. I encourage my students to ask questions by saying that no question is stupid (they don't ask questions fearing not to make a fool of themselves in public) and that if you are asking questions means you are indeed learning. 

My Thought For This Friday (04/27/18) - Power of negativity

One sun's light can hide innumerable stars. Similarly, one negative act by you can hide/obfuscate all the good deeds you did before.

My Thought For This Friday (04/20/18) - Parenting tip

I approach parenting of older kids (high school or greater) like it is 24/7 customer service. Give the confidence to them that you are always there for them (only a phone call away), expect them to not call all the time (which is a good thing anyway, as it means everything is going good!) keep checking once in a while (for managing your own anxiety), and not be there with them all the time (avoiding being an helicopter parent and preventing them from learning from their experiences). Everyone is happy. 

My Thought For This Friday (4/13/18) - Fool

Some one is a fool if he knows nothing but thinks he/she knows everything.

My Thought For This Friday (04/06/18) - Superstition

One tends to believe more in superstitions when they believe less in themselves.

My Thought For This Friday (03/30/18) - Confronting Complexity

Brain and heart function in opposite directions when confronting a complex situation; while reasoning simplifies the situation so that we can deal with it, emotion amplifies our sensitivity so that we can feel it.

My Thought For This Friday (3/23/18) - Honesty

Being honest not only involves having the courage to admit one's mistakes to correct them but also being proud of one's skills to sustain them (as long they are real). For some reason, the latter is viewed as being arrogant; on the contrary, I feel it is necessary to be self-assured and build on your strengths. 

My Thought For This Friday (3/16/18) No whining

Life is sometimes about how you deal with the cards you were dealt. You may sulk sometimes about the cards you got in a game; still, you get on with the game. Same approach can help sometimes in life.

My Thought For This Friday (03/09/18) - Differential effects of anger and excitement

We place more emphasis or remember words spoken by someone when they are enraged than on what they say when they are overjoyed. Anger and rage seem to give additional negative connotation to already harsh words. On the contrary, excitement does not seem to add anything special to already pleasant words.

My Thought For This Friday (03/02/18) - Getting rid of greed

To self rid of greed, one requires conscience and self-reflection.

My Thought For This Friday (2/23/18) - Root cause of lying

You are bound to say something stupid or lie if you try to defend the indefensible.

My Thought For This Friday (2/16/18) - Courage

Courage is the public display of bravery that you readily show when remaining anonymous

My Thought For This Friday (2/8/18) - Preparing for the worst

Anticipating and preparing for the worst has its advantage: if it happens as expected, then you are at least not shocked and if it does not happen, you are at least pleasantly surprised.

My Thought For This Friday (2/2/18) - Competing wisely

When entering a competition, first study and recognize your weaknesses and opponent's strengths; then, focus on your strengths and opponent's weaknesses. Reversing the order of focus is not a recipe for success.

My Thought For This Friday (1/26/18) - Virtues of appreciating

You may not get everything you like in life but you should at least try to like everything you do end up getting in life, as for some it may not even be the case. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/19/18) - Respect

Mutual respect is the foundation of all relationships, including love. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/12/18) - Being kind

Say something nice to some one, as it may be the only good thing they heard all day or another one enhancing their already good day; either way you won't be wrong. Don't say something bad to some one (unless necessary), it may be the only bad thing they heard all day, which means you ruined a good day for them or you were piling on an already awful day; either way you will be wrong. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/5/18) - Passion

What we do without planning ahead, without being told to do, or without the need to meet a deadline is most likely what we really love to do.