Distinguish Yourself (#151 – #200)

Rajesh has been writing a series of posts on the topic of “Distinguishing Yourself” on Life Beyond Code. Here is the complete list

#200 – Understand the story behind the story (Nov 24, 2008)
Drama plays a big role in most of the stories that you hear – so much so that the story behind the story gets completely buried.

#199 – Exit gracefully (Nov 24, 2008)
When you exit gracefully from a relationship, you just found yourself some “extra” time on your hand. You can decide to use that time however you want.

#198 – Don’t focus on the “derivative” at the expense of the “core” (02 Nov 2008)
If you are not careful, the derivative may take over the core and you will win the sub-project and lose at the core project.

#197 – Be comfortable with “nothing” ( 16 Oct 2008 )
Go ahead and enjoy the “something” by appreciating the “nothing” surrounding it. You will not only be more comfortable, you will put people surrounding you at ease.

#196 – Be aware of your circle of awareness (02 Oct 2008)
It requires a lot of maturity to be aware of your circle of awareness. This is one of the areas where “ignorance is definitely NOT bliss.”

#195 – Stop sending “MeMails” (23 Sep 2008)
Emails are usually read. MeMails are usually discarded

#194 – Copy “being” rather than copying “doing” (20 Sep 2008)
Copying “being” is not easy. But who said that you would get a premium by doing something that’s VERY easy to do

#193 – Watch your “Effort-Value” curve (25 Aug 2008)
Without leverage (higher output for lower input) there is no time for you to acquire the knowledge.

#192 – Get in their shoes (23 Aug 2008)
At a basic level, getting into someone’s shoes is to think “how the other person may be thinking.”

#191 – Add an extra “Thank You” (14 Aug 2008)
Go ahead and give that gift. Just one more time in a day and you will make someone’s day.

#190 – Stop punishing yourself un-necessarily (12 Aug 2008)
You are already at a loss because something bad happened. Why do you want to get into a deeper loss by losing your cool?

#189 – Disproportionately shift the baseline over time (11 Jul 2008)
As your baseline deviates from the standard baseline in the marketplace, you start gaining competitive advantage that is hard to beat easily.

#188 – Avoid Graffitti (21 Jun 2008)
Just graffiti and spray painters cause a lot of harm to the owners to the building, engaging in introducing noise anywhere will cause a lot of harm to others who are engaged in that community, website, blog or company.

#187 – Raise awareness on your offers (11 Jun 2008)
What activities should I be engaged in to increase the awareness for the need for my offers to the marketplace?

#186 – Stop pushworking (20 Apr 2008)
“Pushworking” is a term I coined for the practice of simply pushing your way to announce something whether the other person is interested or not.

#185 – Pay attention to your zeroth impression (06 Apr 2008)
Zeroth Impression is an assessment people can make of you without even talking to you.

#184 – Invest your time to understand filters (11 Dec 2007)
In this fast moving world, people don’t have a lot of time to listen to things that are not relevant to them.

#183 -Increase your capacity to increase the capacity of others (26 Sep 2007)
You are gold if you can enhance someone’s capacity as they pursue their life’s passion.

#182 – Structure yourself to get high-quality help requests (09 Sep 2007)
If you are not happy with the quality of help requests that are coming your way, what can you do in the next three months to change this?

#181 – Remember your friends when you don’t NEED them (24 Aug 2007)
Remember a few friends with whom you have lost contact for a long period. Pick up the phone and call them or send them an email.

#180 – Build flexibility into your future (23 Aug 2007)
Current flexibility is shaped by your past actions. Similarly today’s actions will shape your future flexibility.

#179 – Invent new possibilities daily (20 Aug 2007)
In other words, while you are accumulating resources and knowledge to chase your big dream, what new dreams can you paint in parallel with ALL the resources you have today?

#178 – Welcome new rules (15 Aug 2007)
You need to welcome the new rules and eagerly wait for them.

#177 – Be (truly) there for someone (19 Jul 2007)
Loneliness is probably the biggest unacknowledged problem today. Lonely people have a hard time accepting their situation. It is a matter of self-esteem. If you admit that you are lonely, it is almost admitting that you are screwed up. That is hard.

#176 – Stop believing in your own (weak) excuses (02 Jul 2007)
Excuses are OK but the real problem is when you actually believe in those excuses.

#175 – Create the ultimate lasting impression (24 Jun 2007)
You have created a lasting impression if people that matter most to you miss you in their past.

#174 – Surprise someone positively (at regular intervals) (28 May 2007)
The roots for many interesting things that have happened in my life trace back to one or two caring gestures or acts. Yes, those acts that almost cost me nothing – all it required was caring beyond the current market standards.

#173 – Capitalize on your accidents (05 Mar 2007)
I am sure your life is filled with accidents (good ones) too. How are you planning to capitalize on them and who do you have on your team to help you capitalize on these accidents?

#172 – Manage costs associated with your contribution (04 Feb 2007)
Whether you want them or not, there are costs associated with your contribution.

#171 – Be wiling to enjoy the incomplete (23 Nov 2006)
I can confidently say that one of the biggest time-savers in the last decade for me is this philosophy of having a wilingness to enjoy the incomplete.

#170 – Stop using prime-time for questions of wonder (17 Nov 2006)
I think there are some questions for which it is hard to find “good enough” answers.My only advice is that if you are getting carried away by these questions during your prime time, please be aware that you are knowingly engaging in this activity.

#169 – Know when to be absent (03 Nov 2006)
There are times when you are better off being absent

#168 – Take responsibility for what you communicate (21 Oct 2006)
Think about scenarios in your own lives when something more than words was very important. It will be a different world out there once you start taking responsibility for what you said overall (with and without the use of words)

#167 – Be Thoughtful (12 Oct 2006)
Wanting to be thoughtful is easy but actually practicing it is hard.

#166 – Get people to respond; not react (02 Oct 2006)
It is definitely not the knowledge that is the problem. It is in the execution. Think about how you will behave next time when you are having that DIFFICULT conversation.

#165 – Leave a door open at the corner (01 Oct 2006)
It happens sometimes – people push you to a corner and make you do crazy things. Actually, when you are pushed to a corner and there is no way out, isn’t it logical to fight with all your might to survive?

#164 – Don’t rationalize your emotional decisions (25 Sep 2006)
While it would be good to fantasize about this, it would be impossible to get all our decisions based on pure logic. We are human beings and many of our decisions are emotional.

#163 – Watch your “Fix Them” to “Fix Me” ratio (24 Sep 2006)
It is so easy to want to “Fix Them” rather than to “Fix Me.”

#162 – Provide options; but not too many (05 Sep 2006)
The winning formula, typically, is to provide options but not too many of them.

#161 – Discover your “Niagara Factor” (19 Aug 2006)
In the next few days, think whether you have been ignorant of your “Niagara Factor.” If you are, it is not too late to fix it. By being conscious of this, you can channelize some of your energies to make it even better.

#160 – Manage your automatic subscriptions (14 Aug 2006)
Under subscription may mean that you are not available to people that are close to you and over subscription may mean that you are beating yourself to death to please everyone (except you) A balanced approach is what is required.

#159 – Know when you are lucky (13 Aug 2006)
My personal stand on luck: I think there is luck but you should not depend on it. You should do whatever it takes. In the process, if you get “lucky” sometimes, it’s a bonus!

#158 – Avoid the dangerous trap – “Use and Go” (09 Aug 2006)
The cost of the “short-term advantage” you will gain by the “Use and go” attitude is not worth it.

#157 – Pay for Ideas (06 Aug 2006)
A few years ago, one of my teachers taught me to “pay” for ideas. The world has never been the same once I started putting that into practice.

#156 – Manage perceptions of you in the marketplace (27 Jul 2006)
I know you should not judge a book by its cover. People do. So if the book is good, why not spend some time to get a good cover?

#155 – Watch your insurance policies (23 Jul 2006)
Just those simple insurance policies that will protect our ego just in case something we say doesn’t turn out the way we said it would.

#154 – Never invalidate contributions (19 Jul 2006)
Remember, if you move around with people who invalidate contributions of others, it is easy for you to fall into the same trap.

#153 – Use humour right (18 Jul 2006)
It all depends on what kind of humor we are talking about. Humor when not used right can simply hurt someone or make them uncomfortable.

#152 - Re-visit your undocumented rules at regular intervals (09 Jul 2006)
We all have undocumented rules in our lives. These rules play a big part when making decisions.

#151 – Enroll people to provide progressive feedback (07 Jul 2006)
You need a new set of eyes (smart ones) to look at a project at every crucial stage. Progressive feedback requires discipline and planning but works like magic.