Starting with a specific customer need leads to an innovative new product for senior citizens in India.
Also another example for a developing nation innovation finding a market in the developed world.
http://s.hbr.org/9XtZY3
Finding Happiness
Marshall Goldsmith’s study into happiness reveals an incredibly high correlation between people’s happiness & meaning at work & at home. Happiness has got more to do with us than the job or manager or community or anything else.
The study also finds that stimulating activities (high short term satisfaction) are as important as purposeful activities (high long term benefit) in the pursuit of happiness.
Some takeaways from the study:
- Reduce TV watching & surfing the web (for non-professional purposes)
- Spend time exercising & with people you love
- Challenge yourself
- Do fewer chores (as you define it).
Read the complete article here.
Other Personal Kaizen Channel posts referring to Marshall Goldsmith’s work:
Stabilizer, Improviser, Catalyst or Theorist. Who are you?
In this post, Eileen Oshea describes the four temperaments people are made up of. Identifying yours will help you make satisfying choices & avoid deep psychological stress.
- Stabilizers: Practical and down-to-earth, Stabilizers believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails.
- Improviser: Improvisers are excitable, trust their impulses, want to make a splash, prize freedom, and dream of mastering action skills.
- Catalyst: Catalysts are driven by a quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement and they want to help others make that same journey.
- Theorist: Theorists are the problem solving temperament, particularly if the problem has to do with the many complex systems that make up the world around us.
Read the full article here.
The Most Effective Habit
(Photo courtesy melolou)
Amongst the millions of habits that find mention in the history of successful people, I believe the early morning meditation is the most effective. It is simple, has multiple advantages & can help everyone.
Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that’s true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes.
– Peter McWilliams
In its most basic form, the habit consists of the following steps –
Step 1: Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight.
Step 2: Close your eyes & begin breathing through your nose. Feel each breath. Experience the inhale and exhale.
Step 3: Focus on the breathing for a minimum of 10 minutes.
Morning meditation is best done as one of your first activities in the morning – before newspaper or TV or coffee / tea.
Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose.
– Eknath Easwaran
If you are just starting with this habit, you will notice that initially your mind wanders about a lot. That is ok. Let those wandering thoughts come in, but gently bring your focus back on the breathing.
When practiced regularly over a period of time, this habit improves concentration, de-stresses & de-clutters the mind & increases positivism.
Other posts you might find interesting: