My Thought For This Friday (12/25/20) - Nature

Staring at Nature and watching natural events have a way of making us feel accomplished even after doing anything.

My Thought For This Friday (12/18/20) - Love and hate

 Always question the hate and always answer the love.

My Thought For This Friday (12/11/20) - Family and Friends

 The value of family and friends is best evident when they alone rue a loss or grieve a death, even though everyone and everything else will move on after a brief pause. 

My Thought For This Friday (12/4/20) - Flashback

Movies in all languages make this mistake. When flashback is shown as if narrated or recollected by a character, that person should not be recounting the story with scenes in which they were not part of. They should be in every scene during the flashback and only then it makes sense. 

My Thought For This Friday (11/27/20) - Defeat and Victory

The thing that hurts after a defeat and the joy that one feels after a victory is because of the same thought: what could have been if not for this outcome. 

My Thought For This Friday (11/20/20) - Greatness

 Meeting expectations by delivering every time it is expected is a true sign of greatness.

My Thought For This Friday (11/13/20) - Settling for less

Rather than waiting to do the maximum with the best option that is yet to come, it is better to do the minimum even with the less better option that is already in hand.

My Thoughts For This Friday (11/6/20) - Civility

Pointing out a mistake in our leaders is not uncivil in a Democracy. In fact it is essential. If one desires they not be pointed out, then the responsibility of avoiding it lies with the perpetrating leader.

My Thought For This Friday (10/31/20) - Voting

We will have to do very many hard things for a long time (protesting) in the future, if we fail to one easy thing now (voting).

VOTE

My Thought For This Friday (10/23/20) - Assumption

 The success of American economy lies in nearly every customer feeling "I got a good deal" regardless if it is truly a good deal. 

My Thought For This Friday - Courage

Courage comes from conviction, which in turn comes from belief, which in turn should be based on fairly evaluated observations. 

My Thought For This Friday (10/9/20) - Budding personality

Although not surprising but yet unclear at that time, there are incidents in your childhood you can point to that portends nearly all most aspects of your eventual personality. It is interesting to look back and see how the evidence was there for your budding personality.

My Thought For This Friday (10/2/20) - Accountability

Empathy, sympathy, forgiveness, and mercy should only be there for someone who was not willfully ignorant and knowingly negligent of multiple forewarnings. Importantly, it should not be expected by the perpetrator. That is how accountability works.  

My Thought For This Friday (9/25/20) - Grief

 

When only more thoughts come to the forefront than words. 

All of us will miss the live voice of Shri. S. P. Balasubramaniyam, who recorded his voice for more than 40,000 songs during his career. He passed away at the age of 74 on Sep. 25, 2020. But he will continue to be summoned by folks to sing their emotions. 

My Thought For This Friday (9/18/2020) - Quietly Effective

Today's thought is a family edition, as it is my wife's birthday. One thing I always appreciated in Sadhana is how quietly effective in everything she does. It is indeed quite something. Happy Birthday Sadhana Ravishankar.

My Thought For This Friday (9/11/20) - Hard work

Similar levels of hard work gets interpreted differently based on the outcome. Extent of hard work behind an unsuccessful outcome tend to typically viewed as not enough while that underlying a successful outcome is typically assumed and under appreciated.

My Thought For This Friday (9/4/20) - Teaching

The joy in teaching comes from watching the student's joy in learning something new. The satisfaction in teaching comes from watching the student's satisfaction from figuring out or connecting the dots. It is like having the front row seat to assuredly wait and watch the sun rise or bud blossom.

My Thought For This Friday (8/28/20) - Obstruction

If you can’t do good, at least don’t stand in the way of others doing good. If you obstruct, you are actively being bad even though you are not doing anything. 

My Thought For This Friday (8/21/20) - Conscience

Conscience is nothing but self application of fairness to all your actions and thoughts. 

My Thought For This Friday (8/14/20) - Choices

Bad choices are convenient in the short run but mostly end up being bad in the long run. Good choices are difficult to make in the short run but mostly turn out to be good in the long run. 

My Thought For This Friday (8/7/20) - Apologies

It is right to apologize to people for doing the wrong thing. But it is wrong to apologize to people for doing the right thing.  

My Thought For This Friday (7/31/20) - Conscience

If we loose shame, we loose something. If we loose conscience, we loose everything. 

My Thought For This Friday (7/24/20) - Cooking patience

Cooking teaches patience like nothing else.

My Thought For This Friday (7/17/20) - Greatest equalizer

Cell phone camera is the greatest equalizer in my life time. It has become the greatest democratization tool, witness, talent unearther, leveler of the playing field, and a documentarian. Coupled with the ability to share with others, it has given voice to individuals in many aspects of life like never before. 

My Thought For This Friday (7/10/20) - Values

Hold not only yourself up to the values that are important to you but also others in your life. 

My Thought For This Friday (7/3/20) - Looking Within

To be comfortable in one’s own skin is to look within, understand one’s potential and capability, and doing all one can to realizing them. Just like a tree never puts out branches that outmatches the capacity of its roots.  

My Thought For This Friday (6/26/20) - Disappointment

A negative outcome or less than desired outcome some does not give one the right to be disappointed. Only those who worked hard, gave all they got, and tried their best earned the right to be disappointed. 

My Thought For This Friday (6/19/20) - Eradicating racism

Unless racists themselves realize their mistake and decide to change, racism cannot be eradicated. Still, it does not mean efforts to change their minds or appealing to their conscience should not be attempted. Those who are demanding an end to racism must accept the truth that the real change is only possible when racists themselves decide to change.  

My Thought For This Friday (6/12/20) - Coming clean

The relief one gets from coming clean is incomparable. It is like having cleaned up a kitchen. It is important for the focus and space you need for the next task. 

My Thought For This Friday (6/5/20) - Competency

It is important to appreciate and value competency in people, even if you disagree with them. Their competency will prove critical in tasks important for you. 

My Thought For This Friday (5/29/20) - Racism

Racism (and casteism) hurts because others control you using something you don’t have control over (skin color).

My Thought For This Friday (5/22/20) - uncertainty

Uncertainty is a big deal among kids. Validation is one way to counter that uncertainty in themselves. Validating is the reason behind celebrations, cheering, and recognition. Support from family and friends also help kids by validating their efforts.

My Thought For This Friday (5/21/20) - Competence

Never underestimate or slight from competent people. 

My Thought For This Friday (5/15/20) - Unfairness

Some things in life are unfair. Deal with them, like the cards you have been dealt in a card game. There is no point in waiting for a magic fix; instead, you just have to focus on playing the game well.

My Thought For This Friday (5/8/20) - Process

It is always important to let the process take its course. The product that emerges from such efforts is usually dependable. Even if the outcome is not the desired one, in the long run it will turn out to be the right one.

My Thought For This Friday (5/1/20) - Having it easy?

Every generation tells the next that they have it easy. This should be avoided because each genearation also encounters new challenges that were not faced by previous generations.

My Thought For This Friday (4/24/20) - Sharing

A plant and a teacher have something in common. Both share only a part of themselves (seeds and knowledge, respectively). Yet a forest and an educated populace sustains the sharing for days to come. 

My Thought For This Friday (4/17/20) - Control

You can only control things upon which you have control. You can’t control things upon which you don’t have control. Doing the former and not doing the latter should be our goal.

My Thought For This Friday (4/10/20) - Respect

The real respect for you can be seen in your funeral. Of course you won’t be there to see it. So if you really want to see it while living, wait till you are out of power and you have no favors to offer to anyone. 

My Thought For This Friday (4/3/20) - Uncertianity

‘Take it day by day’ never came closer to home like it is now. Keeping expectations lower, simplifying things, and being grateful for even small matters is the best way to deal with uncertainty.  

My Thought For This Friday (3/27/20) - Being good

Be a very good person before being very good in your job. That way, even if you fail at second, the first one has a chance to come to your rescue. 

My Thought For This Friday (3/20/20) - Defeat

A defeat should never be called ‘coming up empty’. Because every defeat has a lot of learning and lessons to offer.

My Thought For This Friday (3/13/20) - Learning Lessons

Both losses and wins have valuable lessons to offer us. But we tend to learn more from a loss than a win because we look back after a loss and tend to look forward after a win.

My Thought For This Friday (3/6/20) - hunger

Never judge hunger and those who are hungry, unless you have experienced it involuntarily. It is a great blessing indeed when one doesn’t have to worry about his/her next meal. So, appreciating this thought is completed the moment you are humbled by it.

My Thought For This Friday (2/29/20) - Anxiety reduction

One thing that came to my mind during last week’s a long trek in Grand Canyon:

A way to reduce anxiety during a long haul is to remind yourself you are one step closer to the destination than even the moment when you felt anxious.

My Thought For This Friday (2/2120) - Being positive

One way to stay positive is to realize things could have been lot worse.

My Thought For This Friday (2/14/20) - Learning to listen

Today is a good day to think about learning to listen, as it will go a long way in strengthening relationships. Imagine like you are in a dentist office and the hygeniest is attending to you AND talking to you...Exactly.

My Thought For This Friday (2/7/20) - surprise fun

Unplanned gathering is fun, as the expectations are low and anxiousness caused by waiting are kept to a minimum. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/31/20) - Distrust

It takes multiple efforts and longer to earn trust; yet, most of the time, it takes only one mishap to quickly loose that trust. Just like one match stick is enough to destroy a forest of trees.

My Thought For This Friday (1/24/20) - Illusion

When you are in a hurry, it always appears others are slow and vice versa. The difference between the two sitstuions is your state of mind. Not what is happening outside. Morning commute is a good time to see this for yourself. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/17/20) - wondering about complementing

Reading few obituaries made me think, how much of what was stated in there were actually shared with the person who passed away when he/she was alive? Complement and share good things about some one then and there. Otherwise, they may not be alive to read what is said in an obituary or funeral. 

My Thought For This Friday (1/10/20) - expectation VS reality

It always takes more time than you think to finish anything. Starting early and trying to do even a small bit at a time are some ways to break the initial inertia. Wrote this in atonement font.

My Thought For This Friday (1/3/20) - Responding to Kindness

Accept a kind gesture by someone with kindness. Decline a kind gesture by someone with even more kindness. Never take someone’s kind gesture for granted. You never know if you will get it again and because that someone likely put in some amount of thought and active energy in showing you that kindness.