Winners are grinners, but how much competition is too much?

Competition is great. We all have been brought up hearing mantras like ‘survival of the fittest’, ‘winner are grinners’ and ‘may the best man win’.

• In the workplace and on the sporting field winners are rewarded, whether it is with money, a medal, a promotion, or even just praise. Winners are celebrated. In recent years, there has been some backlash against this ‘win at all costs’ attitude.
• There are times when we need to be more conventional and to follow orders without question. There are times when it is more productive to be relentlessly focused on moving forward, even to the point of being unforgiving of mistakes.
• Competitiveness comes under the cluster of aggressive defensive behaviour. At the extreme end of this scale, individuals don’t just desire to win, they feel a compulsion to win at all costs. These are the people who are willing to risk everything in order to be right. They will put themselves, their teams and their families in precarious situations to avoid failure or the possibility of losing.
• Many of the successful people we admire are driven and unrelenting, single-mindedly focused on reaching the top, sometimes to the point of forgetting the people around them. These people set the bar high and don’t let anyone take advantage of them. They can always be relied upon to be 100% focused on getting the job done.
• If being competitive got us to where we are, is there such a thing as too much competition? And if so, how much is too much?
• Competitiveness and the relentless need to win, to do better, to be better is causing us stress and is ultimately killing us. This need to win and be better is also not making us happy.
• Stress puts strain on our health, our families, our children, our marriages and even our careers. Stress, a leading contributor to heart disease, is an inevitable result of continuously pushing ourselves to outdo each other in work and in life generally. With one Australian dying of cardiovascular disease every 12 minutes, removing stress from our lives is more important than ever.
• Our children are pressured to be better students, to look more attractive, to get more likes, retweets and followers, to go viral. Much of the time, they are competing against people they have never even met. Plastic surgery is increasingly popular. For women alone, the rates of plastic surgery have grown 538% since 1997. This is directly related to the competitive desire to be skinnier, younger and prettier.
• Divorce rates are also increasing because our spouses aren’t sexy, romantic, sensitive or fun enough. Social media suggests that everyone else has these amazing relationships, so we should too.
• In the workplace, employee satisfaction is decreasing, in part because it has become less acceptable to be content with simply doing a good job. Instead we are supposed to be continually focused on the next promotion, the next role or that next big bonus.
• This competitiveness means that we can’t be happy when a colleague does well; instead, we turn a critical eye on ourselves to work out why we aren’t doing as well, or we look outwards to others we might blame for our lack of success.
• Employee tenure is dropping as all of us strive to be better than one another. More of us are looking for the next best thing. The grass is always greener, there is always someone to surpass, another promotion to get, another business to start or to buy.
• Bigger cars, buffer bodies, more money… This non-stop drive to be and to have the best in everything is simply unsustainable. Something has to give.
• How do we find the right balance? How much competition is enough and how much is too much? Now I know that what I saw as a strength – competitive nature – becomes a weakness when it is taken to its extreme. It causes stress, physical exhaustion and an inability to be proud of what I have achieved. I am always chasing the next milestone, the next challenge.
• I also know that when I manage to balance my competitive drive it becomes the key to my success. Finding the balance isn’t easy but I recognize that it’s essential in order to be successful over the long-term, at the same time as maintaining my physical, emotional and mental health.

Each of us needs to find our own answer to how this necessary balance might look for us. So, how much competition is too much for you?

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Wealth

Wealth is a lot of things. It is much more than just money.

• Merriam-Webster defines 'wealth' as abundance of valuable material possessions or resources.
• The United Nations definition of inclusive wealth is a monetary measure which includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. Natural capital includes land, forests, energy resources, and minerals. Human capital is the population's education and skills. Physical capital includes such things as machinery, buildings, and infrastructure.
• Wealth means different things to different people. Wealth has a meaning that varies from person to person as well as family to family.
• Wealth is what you accumulate — not what you make. If you were to stop working tomorrow, how long could you support your current lifestyle? That is what makes you wealthy.
• A community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources to the benefit of the common good is known as wealthy.
• The wealth of households in the world amounts to USD 280 trillion (2017).
• The net worth of a person, household, or nation – is the value of all assets owned net of all liabilities owed at a point in time.
• Wealth is created through using labor and/or capital to make things, or provide/perform services, that other people find valuable. In the modern information economy, computer programmers often create wealth too, so it isn't necessary to create a tangible product in order to create wealth.
• Wealth means being able to be financially free to do the things you love, to live the way you want to live. But it also means being healthy, and to know that your family and the ones you care about are healthy and spiritually whole, and that they’re contributing.
• Wealth provides access to more. While money doesn’t make you happy, it does give you freedom to not worry about those financial stresses
• Having excess income allows you to be more involved with family and community.
• If you’re a healthy person, you are already wealthy. If you have your health, if you have your life, you can accomplish pretty much anything if you get the right mind-set.
• Material aspect of wealth is very important, because everything else is much easier to plan around if you are financially stable.
• For the poor it is always survival mode. The transition from scarce resources to financial security will be a challenge. It’s always about choices.
• Spending and taking care of money is a skill — not everybody has that skill.
• On the business side, wealth creates opportunities. On the personal side, wealth is about having more security and giving more to those you love.
• Wealth means you have the luxury of being able to provide for your family and determine how much work you want to do.

Rich is having abundant financial assets: money, real estate, investments, material possessions, etc. Wealth has four categories of assets:

1. Core Assets: your family, values, faith, health and the individual well-being of each family member;
2. Experience Assets: good and bad experiences, education, reputation, networks, knowledge and the wisdom of each family member;
3. Contribution Assets: contributions made to the well-being of others;
4. Financial Assets: money, real estate, investments, material possessions.

Life lessons

1. We must love.
   It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. It’s a truth so profound we can discuss it only with aphorisms. Yes, we must love, even if it breaks our hearts—because, unless we love, our lives will flash by.
2. Love isn’t enough.
   Although we must love, love is not enough to survive. We must take action to show others we care, to show them we love.
3. Happiness is not for sale.
   We can’t buy happiness. The stuff won’t make us happy. At best, material things will temporarily pacify us. At worst, they will ruin our lives. They will leave us empty, they will leave us depressed, and they will leave us even more alone.
4. Success is perspectival.
   Success is neither amassing wealth nor possessions. Having a six-figure job, the house with too many bedrooms, the luxury car, the tailored suit, the expensive watch, the big screen TV, and all the trappings of the material world would seem make you look successful. These things can make your family and friends proud of you but that is not success. All these luxuries are not luxuries after using them 20 times.
5. Make change a must.
   I didn’t have the feeling in my gut that things must change. I knew they should change, but the change wasn’t a must for me, and thus it didn’t happen. A decision is not a real decision until it is a must, until you feel it on your nerve-endings, until you are compelled to take action. Once your shoulds have turned into musts, then you are ready for change.
6. The meaning of life.
   Giving is living. The best way to live a worthwhile life is simple. Continuously grow as an individual and contribute to other people in a meaningful way. Growth and contribution is the meaning of life.
7. Health is underestimated.
   Our well-being is more important than most of us treat it. Without health, nothing else matters.
8. Sentimental items are less important.
9. Your job is not your mission.
   There’s nothing wrong with job and hard work, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of life’s more important areas like health, relationships, passion.
10. Finding your passion is important.
    Passion is not preexisting. You can cultivate a passion that aligns with your principles and desires.
11. Relationships matter.
    Every relationship is a series of gives and takes. For the relationship to work, both people must contribute to and get something. If you just give but don’t get, you’ll feel used, exploited, taken advantage of. If you only take but don’t give, you’re a parasite, a freeloader, a bottom-feeder.
12. You don’t need everyone to like you.
    We all want to be loved but you can’t value every relationship the same. You can’t expect everyone to love you the same. Life doesn’t work that way. When people don’t like you, nothing actually happens. The world does not end. You don’t feel them breathing down your neck. In fact, the more you ignore them and just go about your business, the better off you are.
13. Status is a misnomer.
    Similar to success, our culture places an extraordinary emphasis on material wealth as a sign of true wealth, and yet too many people of  “status” are miserable. They don’t seem wealthy. One’s true worth is not determined by his or her net worth.
14. Jealousy is a wasted emotion.
    Competition breeds jealousy, although we give it prettier labels like “competitive spirit,” or “ambition.” Jealousy is ugly. It is never a way to express that we care. It’s only a channel through which we broadcast our insecurities.
15. Everybody worships something.
    There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.
16. I am not the center of the universe.
    It’s difficult to think about the world from a perspective other than our own. We are always worried about what’s going on in our lives. Why am I not happy with my life? We are strongly aware of everything connected to our lives, but we are only one ingredient in a much larger recipe.
17. Awareness is the most precious freedom.
    Minimalism is a tool to rid ourselves of excess in favor of a deliberate life. It is a tool to take a seemingly intricate and convoluted world, cluttered with its endless embellishments, and make it simpler, easier, realer. It is unimaginably hard to remain conscious, attentive, and aware. It is difficult not to fall back into a trance-like state, surrounded by the trappings and obstructions of the tiring world around us—but it is crucial to do so, for this is real freedom.
18. Be on the mountain.
    This term as a metaphor means for living in the moment. When you climb to the peak, don’t immediately plan your descent. Enjoy the view. Be on the mountain. Just be.
19. We are scared for no reason.
    We are often scared of things that don’t have a real effect on our lives (or that we can’t control, so we’re worrying for no reason).
20. Change is growth.
    We all want a different outcome, and yet most of us don’t want any change in our lives. Change equals uncertainty, and uncertainty equals discomfort, and discomfort isn’t fun. But when we learn to enjoy the process of change—when we chose to look at uncertainty as variety—then we get to reap all the rewards of change. That is how we grow.
21. Pretending to be perfect doesn’t make us perfect.
    I am not perfect, and I never will be. I make mistakes and bad decisions, and I fail at times. I stumble, I fall. I am human—a mixed bag, nuanced, the darkness and the light—as are you. And you are beautiful.
22. The past does not equal the future.
    My words are my words, and I can’t take them back. You can’t change the past, so it’s important to focus on the present. If the past equaled the future, then your windshield would be of no use to you. You would simply drive with your eyes glued to the rear view mirror. But driving this way—looking only behind you—is a sure-fire way to crash.
23. Pain can be useful, but not suffering.
    Pain lets us know something is wrong: it indicates we must change what we’re doing. Suffering, though, is a choice, and we can choose to stop suffering, to learn a lesson from the pain and move on with our lives.
24. Doubt kills.
    The person who stops you from doing everything you want to do, who stops you from being completely free, who stops you from being healthy, happy, and passionate—is you.
25. It’s okay to wait.
    Sometimes it’s okay to wait a little longer for something. Why rush if you don’t have to? Why not enjoy the journey?
26. Honesty is important.
    Honesty, at the most simple level, is telling the truth—not lying. It’s supremely important to be honest, and it’s hurtful when you’re not.
27. Openness is just as important as honesty.
    Openness involves being honest while painting an accurate picture, shooting straight, not misleading other people, and being real. Openness is far more subjective, and you must be honest with yourself before you can be open with others. This doesn’t mean you must put your entire life on display. Some things are private, and that’s okay, too.
28. Getting people’s buy-in.
    Adding value to other people is the only way to get their buy-in. That’s how you get their buy-in.
29. Hype is cancerous.
    So often we fall for the hype (“Buy More, Save More!” and “Three Day Sale!”), and we are suckered into rash buying decisions because of scarcity and a false sense of urgency. We can train ourselves, however, to not only resist such hype, but to have a vitriolic reaction to the hype that we avoid anything that’s hyped. 
30. I’m still trying to figure it all out.
    I don’t intend to promulgate my views and opinions as some sort of maxims by which you should live your life. What works for me, may not work for you. Hell, sometimes it doesn’t even work for me.

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More lessons:

1. It’s not about how people feel about you, but how you make them feel.
   Growing older has shown me the cool kids aren’t always the happy kids. I realized what people think about you isn’t nearly as important as how you make them feel.
2. Consider all advice.
   It’s amazing how much smarter our parents appear as we we get older. In many instances, if I had listened to my parents’ and grandparents’ advice, I could have avoided learning lessons the hard way. I told myself that even if I didn’t agree with what someone was telling me, I would at least consider their advice. This has forced me to look into the mirror to consider what I must change.
3. Happiness comes from within.
   Happiness comes from within, not from the things we own.
4. You’ll never be happy with more until you’re happy with what you have currently.
   It’s as simple as that. I discovered I usually don’t get rewarded in life with more until I appreciate what I have currently.
5. Forgiveness is incredibly important.
   There is a profound saying in the bible: “Freely forgive others as you forgive yourself.” When I learned how to let things go and easily forgive others, I was a much happier person. In fact, I found the bigger the wrong I forgave, the better I felt.
6. You can count your closest friends on one hand.
   As you grow older you find out who is actually your friend and who isn’t.
7. Being honest is always the right thing.
   Even when I have royally screwed up in life, I have found honesty punishes me less and gains trust more.
8. If you lie, you will get caught.
   If you lie, you will probably have to tell more lies to cover up the original lie. It’s a vicious cycle.
9. Although honesty is important, I don’t have to be completely transparent.
   Just because something is true, I don’t have to say it. I needn’t spew forth every thought that enters my head.
10. People are inherently good.
    Even the people who’ve treated me poorly are still good at some level. None of us are perfect. This has helped me be less cynical.
11. Slow down.
    We all need to slow down, breathe, and pace ourselves when we get overwhelmed.
12. Friendly people at work aren’t necessarily your friends.
    Be careful whom you open up to at work.
13. Stay true to yourself.
    If it doesn’t feel right, if it doesn’t feel good, if it doesn’t feel like you—then don’t do it. I’m much happier when I follow this advice.
14. Every decision matters.
    Every decision we make affects our future. There is no such thing as a zero-sum decision.
15. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
    Every decision we make costs us something: be it time, emotion, money, etc.
16. “Act as if…”
    Be the change in the world you want to be. Either way, this line has helped me throughout my life.
17. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt. 
    You needn’t care what people think or say about you. What they say or think is only true if you believe it’s true. Don’t let anyone get the best of you.
18. Some of life’s most profound advice is found in platitudes.
    “You can be anything you want to be,”
    “Life’s too short,”
    “Time heals all wounds,”
    “Good things come to all those that wait,” etc.
    Don’t dismiss it just because it’s a platitude.
19. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
    It’s easier for me to avoid jealousy, it’s easier for me to forgive, and it’s easier for me to overlook the negative things in life.
20. It’s all small stuff.
    Until you have a few life-changing experiences, this isn’t clear. I have had a few close calls with myself, friends, and family which have shown me how small my problems are.
21. If you don’t take care of your health, it will fade fast.
    I don’t think I need to articulate this one any more. 
22. Relationships are important.
    Don’t burn a bridge with another person if you can avoid it. You never know who will decide your fate.
23. Live life with passion.
    If I didn’t have passion in my life, I would be bored to death. If you’re bored, focus on your passions. If you don’t have time for your passions, make time.
24. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.
    If you’re not growing in life, you are simply living out your days.
25. Contribute.
    Contributing to someone else, or to a community, will make you feel good. Contribution is what makes me feel the most alive. Contributing to others keeps me going, gets me up in the mornings, and continues to inspire me.
26. In twenty years you will regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did do.
27. Life is happening now!
    Don’t forget to live life in the moment.
28. Learn to let go.
    This was a hard lesson but it serves true. Sometimes it’s just better to let things go. 
29. Everything changes.
    Things don’t look different day-to-day, but when you look back ten years it’s all different. Change is an absolute, and we should plan accordingly. Don’t fool yourself.
30. Procrastination is useless.
    I realized that no matter how long I put something off, it’s still there the next day. 

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Gujarat model OR Gujarat muddle?

Scholars have shown that Gujarat’s development achievements are actually far from dazzling. The State has grown fast in the last twenty years. And anyone who travels around Gujarat is bound to notice the good roads, mushrooming factories, and regular power supply. But what about people’s living conditions? Whether we look at poverty, nutrition, education, health or related indicators, the dominant pattern is one of indifferent outcomes. Gujarat is doing a little better than the all-India average in many respects, but there is nothing there that justifies it being called a “model.” Anyone who doubts this can download the latest National Family Health Survey report and verify the facts.

• Development economist and activist John Dreze today said there was "no evidence" that the so-called "Gujarat Model" was a model in any sense, pointing out to the state's backwardness in social indicators.
• Almost all ranking of development indicators, whether it is social indicators, human development index, child development index, multi-dimensional poverty index and all the standard poverty indexes of the planning commission. Gujarat almost always comes around the middle.
• It was the case much before Modi became chief minister and it remained the case after that, said Dreze, who helped draft the first version of NREGA (now called the MNREGA).
• He describes the Gujarat's development model as a counter-example, because of the disappointing social indicators inspite of the high growth in terms of standard economic indicators.
• Dreze believes that something lacking and it can be an illustration of the limitations of relying on private-enterprise growth for development in the larger sense.
• Commenting on ratings-agency Moody's recent upgrade of India's sovereign-credit rating to 'Baa2' from 'Baa3', Dreze says he doubts the credibility of such an index. "If you dig into the methods behind these indexes, there is very little to them, except that they are taken seriously!"
• He also raised concerns about the Aadhaar scheme, fearing that it will create an infrastructure of surveillance. His opposition to Aadhaar was not related to welfare programmes, but civil liberties. Aadhaar multiplies the power of the state to keep track of everybody over time - he said, flagging apprehensions that it could lead to stifling of dissent, as a lot of the databases that are going to be linked will become accessible to the government.
• Dreze partly blamed the stagnation of agricultural growth for the unrest and the recent agitations of Patidars, Jats and others for reservations. The people, who have seen the size of their landholding shrink with the population explosion in the last few decades, have certainly suffered. That creates a sense of grievance, but there must be other things also.

 

Read the article "Gujarat Muddle" dated April 11, 2014

Any development model with Public Private Partnership (PPP) is fundamentally flawed and unsustainable because it enables few enterprising people become extraordinarily rich at the state expense, breeding corruption and impoverishes the state and its people. The state ends up paying huge amounts of money in future payments in the range of 2-10 times. Consequently rich poor divide will increase. Modi's Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train is another white elephant in disguise which will enable Japan loot away our money perennially. Development based on market borrowing is not development at all but is similar to selling family silver for fancy expenses. 

Health is wealth

Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Just because your body is free of disease doesn’t mean you are healthy! Health is as important to a person as is wealth. Only a healthy person can work with efficiency to earn wealth.

Earning more money is good, however forgetting our responsibility towards health is not right. To earn more, one needs to work more. But bad health reduces our body and mind capacity to work more. An unhealthy body gets tired very easily. And a tired body easily loses motivation and self-confidence. If the youth doesn’t acquire healthy habits the nation can’t become strong.

Maintaining good health requires regular good habits and a disciplined life to be healthy. Good habits like regular exercise, balanced diet, positive thoughts, cleanliness and fresh environment help to maintain a healthy body.

Physical exercises are planned repetitive bodily activities that are done to gain good health and maintain physical and mental fitness. Physical exercises repair the body or a part of the body. It strengthens the body and makes the body muscles stronger. It helps to lose excess body weight and prevent obesity. Also, it helps to delay the process of aging and keeps a person healthy and young for a longer time.

Balanced diet helps to maintain or improve overall health. Proper nutrition is required for the organs and tissues of the body to work effectively. A healthy diet provides all the essential nutrients to the body. A balanced diet provides an adequate amount of fluid, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and calories to the body.

Personality traits such as optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. The positive thinking that usually comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management which is associated with many health benefits. An unhealthy mind results in an unhealthy body. Good mental health helps you to make the most of life and enjoy it.

For attaining a healthy and disease free body cleanliness is very important. A fresh environment leads to a fresh and healthy body. It reduces the risk of catching communicable diseases. A disease free environment is called a healthy environment. And to obtain a fresh environment it is the responsibility of the people to inculcate healthy habits.

Now is the right time to start working on one’s physical and mental fitness. It is never late anytime. Whenever a person realizes the importance of good habits, it is the right time to start working on it.  One should keep this in mind and take healthy steps for a better tomorrow.

Who lives medically, lives miserably ... a Latin proverb

Hard work is not the path to well-being. 

Feeling good is the path to well-being ... Abraham Hicks

Prosperity Is more than having money

The record levels of financial aid, over the last 30 years, to reduce poverty in the poorest nations of Africa has failed. The message is simple: Money as the lone transformative power for lasting national prosperity is not enough. A country needs more than just wealth to be prosperous. It needs to endow its citizens with basic human freedoms, that come from a safe water supply, a roof over their heads and the ability to hold politicians to account for these and other essentials of life. It needs to educate its children and take care of its elderly. It needs to develop a society in which people trust one another. It needs to foster a climate of entrepreneurship and innovation. None of these are achievable without the rule of law and strong, democratic governments. 

• If you ask the average person what she believes is the definition of prosperity, the typical response would be monetary wealth. True prosperity encompasses abundance of wealth, happiness, health, career, relationships, home & family and wisdom. Money has little utility after certain level.
• Wealth alone does not make for a happy and successful society. 
• Happy citizens are produced as much by democracy, freedom, and entrepreneurial opportunity as they are by a growing economy.
• Looking at one's bank balance, we may discover whether the man is rich or poor but we learn nothing about his character, his enjoyment of life, the state of his health, the quality of his education or his attitude toward the people around him.
• GDP is a measure from an age dominated by heavy industry, designed to calculate a nation’s economic production. It has evolved to become the key device used to weigh a country’s economic success, tweak taxes and tackle inflation. The measure works less well with the growing importance of services.
• Finland’s GDP per capita have decreased sharply, but its real wealth, in terms of its citizens living in a free, safe and successful nation, has improved.
• The findings of the 2010 Prosperity Index are: smaller northern European countries rank highest while the bottom two places are occupied by Zimbabwe and Pakistan. The U.K. ranks 13th (same as last year) while the U.S. ranks 10th. 
• Progress and prosperity is as much about well being and contentment as economic success. 
• The critical factors fueling prosperity are open markets, high personal freedom and strong civil society. But given the fragility of such ideas, fury against globalization and rising mood of ugly intolerance, it is always good to restate these important points.
• Nations at the bottom are improving faster than those at the top - but there are important exceptions.
• Plenty of countries, from China to Chile, have shown convergence towards the United States, the world’s biggest economy.
• Britons come third for generating prosperity, despite sluggish growth due to structural reforms but the ratings down to tenth due to their failure to share wealth. This is seen helping open divisions in societies to alarming degree. 
• Oil is exposed as a curse for developing countries, corroding democracy while fueling corruption and rent-seeking activities.
• New Zealand is picked as the planet’s most prosperous place, edging out Norway and Finland. This isolated nation is reliant on agriculture for its economy and its exports – a sector that thrived after government started to ditch subsidies in 1984. Farmers screamed this would be driving them in droves from the land. Instead they were forced to cut costs, innovate and respond to demands from consumers rather than bureaucrats. Now, they are some of the world’s most efficient and inventive producers.

Before national leaders can create effective policy to increase economic growth and social well-being in their country, they must first answer two fundamental questions: What is prosperity, and how is it achieved? 

Gross Domestic Product is an incomplete way of measuring 

a country’s progress, GDP captured  everything except that 

which makes life worthwhile ... Robert F. Kennedy.

Superb Speech by Mr. Ratan Tata given at Symbiosis, Pune

Don’t just have career or academic goals.

Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.

There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts.

Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

Don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here.

We are like a prepaid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends.

Do we really need to get so worked up?

It's OK, bunk few classes, score low in couple of papers, take leave from work, fall in love, fight a little with your spouse... It's OK... We are people, not programmed devices..!

"Don't be serious, enjoy life as it comes"

Do share it with all the good people in your life....