A Good Mentor - The Stairway to Success

The minute we are born we learn so much from our parents - to smile, to talk, to walk, to express ourselves. They were they ones who've helped us shape from a mere creature that was given something called as life to the person we are today. They are our first trusted counselors or teachers. Over a period in time, we start to gain all necessary qualities and skills to take care of ourselves and lead the way independently.

To be successful in life, its really important to do two things - learn the best practices and follow them. So how does one get to learn the best practices? Do those "Life's Best Practices for Dummies" kind of books help? Well, this is where the mentor steps in. A mentor is one who comes with a lot more experience and knowledge to don the role of a teacher or a trusted friend. The word mentor takes root from the Greek mythology.

Mentors are those who've walked the way, been there, done that. In the course of their travel, they amass so many learnings from successes and failures and build the journal of best practices. Successful mentors are those who can efficiently help their mentees by being able to observe them and clearly communicate to them in the same wavelength. Successful mentors can understand and foresee their mentees' actions and appropriately give them the right advice.

In career and in personal life, a mentor can create a noticeable difference - A Positive Change! One need not necessarily have a single mentor. There can be many mentors in one's life - someone who can help you excel in your personal life, someone who can help you identify the right steps towards a successful career growth, someone to help you with your finances and so on.

An ideal mentor is someone who you would like to be like. A good mentor is someone who is trustworthy. Finding a mentor is the first step one needs to take to walk the path to ultimate success. So, when are you going to find a mentor for yourself?

Where does Success come from?

Where does Success come from? "...from Failures" says Michael Jordan, the world famous basketball champ.

Photo Courtesy: George

The Winner takes it All...

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going...goes the famous adage. Though it is just a one liner, the meaning it conveys is a lot lot deeper. A winner in any walk of life; be it work, sports, personal life, health; breaths and smells the world a lot different from the losers and the easy goers.

I was reading Lance Armstrong's "Its Not About The Bike - My Journey Back To Life", and the introductory lines are really worth a lifetime. Here is a excerpt from this book -

I WANT TO DIE AT A HUNDRED YEARS OLD WITH an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my stud wife and my ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire, the perfect contradiction to my once-anticipated poignant early demise.

A slow death is not for me. I don't do anything slow, not even breathe. I do everything at a fast cadence: eat fast, sleep fast. It makes me crazy when my wife, Kristin, drives our car, because she brakes at all the yellow caution lights, while I squirm impatiently in the passenger seat.

"Come on, don't be a skirt," I tell her.

"Lance," she says, "marry a man."

I've spent my life racing my bike, from the back roads of Austin, Texas to the Champs-Elysees, and I always figured if I died an untimely death, it would be because some rancher in his Dodge 4x4 ran me headfirst into a ditch. Believe me, it could happen. Cyclists fight an ongoing war with guys in big trucks, and so many vehicles have hit me, so many times, in so many countries, I've lost count. I've learned how to take out my own stitches: all you need is a pair of fingernail clippers and a strong stomach.

If you saw my body underneath my racing jersey, you'd know what I'm talking about. I've got marbled scars on both arms and discolored marks up and down my legs, which I keep clean-shaven. Maybe that's why trucks are always trying to run me over; they see my sissy-boy calves and decide not to brake. But cyclists have to shave, because when the gravel gets into your skin, it's easier to clean and bandage if you have no hair.

One minute you're pedaling along a highway, and the next minute, boom, you're face-down in the dirt. A blast of hot air hits you, you taste the acrid, oily exhaust in the roof of your mouth, and all you can do is wave a fist at the disappearing taillights.

Cancer was like that. It was like being run off the road by a truck, and I've got the scars to prove it. There's a puckered wound in my upper chest just above my heart, which is where the catheter was implanted. A surgical line runs from the right side of my groin into my upper thigh, where they cut out my testicle. But the real prizes are two deep half-moons in my scalp, as if I was kicked twice in the head by a horse. Those are the leftovers from brain surgery.

When I was 25,1 got testicular cancer and nearly died. I was given less than a 40 percent chance of surviving, and frankly, some of my doctors were just being kind when they gave me those odds. Death is not exactly cocktail-party conversation, I know, and neither is cancer, or brain surgery, or matters below the waist. But I'm not here to make polite conversation. I want to tell the truth. I'm sure you'd like to hear about how Lance Armstrong became a Great American and an Inspiration To Us All, how he won the Tour de France, the 2,290-mile road race that's considered the single most grueling sporting event on the face of the earth. You want to hear about faith and mystery, and my miraculous comeback, and how I joined towering figures like Greg LeMond and Miguel Indurain in the record book. You want to hear about my lyrical climb through the Alps and my heroic conquering of the Pyrenees, and how it felt. But the Tour was the least of the story.

Some of it is not easy to tell or comfortable to hear. I'm asking you now, at the outset, to put aside your ideas about heroes and miracles, because I'm not storybook material. This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.

Cancer is like that, too. Good, strong people get cancer, and they do all the right things to beat it, and they still die. That is the essential truth that you learn. People die. And after you learn it, all other matters seem irrelevant. They just seem small.

Have a great day!

2008 is going to be a 'Running Year'

This year is going to be a special year to me as far as running is concerned. I've decided to make two things happen -

1. Burn the road everyday! - Yes, I've decided to burn the road and clock an average of 40 Kilometers (approx 25miles) a week
2. Complete atleast one marathon - Singapore Marathon is for sure. I've still not decided the second one
3. Complete as many half-marathons as possible (running the Chennai Runners' Classic Route itself is a half-marathon)

I've been averaging at 31.726 kilometers per week so far.

There is a section "My Runs on MotionBased" on the right side on the right side of my blog, that will have links to all my latest runs. Should you be interested in joining me during my runs, do send me an email. If you are a Chennaiite or if you are one of those people who frequents Chennai, I invite you to join Chennai Runners.

Regular running increases your physical and mental fitness levels(or, call it the Bodymind) and also aid you in cultivating ultimate self-discipline and self-control, which are some of the keys to success in every sphere of life!

Have a great day...!

A tip to Greatness...

Being great or feeling great is not essentially the way people perceive one to be. Its the way one feels about him(her)self. As I said in my first post of this year, the world outside of us is simply a reflection of the world inside of us.

Here is a tip that will help you live your day with a feeling of absolute greatness -

"In an A4 size paper, write down the positive affirmation that you've always wanted to feel like. Stick this on the mirror in your bedroom. Every morning, look at this and close your eyes for two minutes to visualize yourself as one who embodies that positive affirmation. Take three deep breaths and feel the freshness in you, the greatness in you. Walk out of the room with confidence!"

Do this for atleast 21 consecutive days (if you miss even one day, start afresh!) And, you know what? This works!

You can also apply this to get rid of a negative quality in you. Say, you would like to get rid of your anger. Just write down "I never get angry" as an affirmation. It works. Try it out..

Having trouble in Starting a good Habit?

Have you ever wanted to cultivate a good habit, and had a big time trouble of not being able to successfully convert the effort into a regular habit?

I've got an answer for you! Try this out as the first step -

"Make an announcement (preferably a written one) to the world that you are going to start this new habit 'X'. You would miss doing it for a couple of times. But the guilt, and the commitment that you've made to the world, would push your limits and slowly you will notice this good habit being a part of your inner self!

Have a wonderful day..!