Self-Deception - Life's biggest hurdle !!

Recently read something interesting about Self-Deception in Leadership Wired newsletter written by Dr. John Maxwell. Self-Deception is the inability to see that one has a problem. It is resistance to the suggestion that one has a problem. According to Dr.Maxwell of all problems in organizations self-deception is the most common and most damaging.

Accepting one's own faults or mistakes is not easy. This is so true with majority of people including myself. Though I fail to understand why it is so. This of course differs from person to person. I have always had difficulty accepting my faults gracefully. I am working on this but I have a long way to go. I really wish there was some easy way to do this. But human feelings are very complicated and hard to understand. I am not giving up, I'll keep trying. I hear that Self-Esteem is an important factor that helps in being able to openly accept one's short-comings and learn from mistakes. Probably, building Self-Esteem would be a good place to start with.

NBA - The Finals 2006!!

Sports or watching different games on TV has never been my favorite activity. I happened to watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday and to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. Of course, one of the big reason was Dallas Mavericks. What is amazing is this 2-3 hour basketball game is extremely fast-paced and totally kept me involved all the time. Just like movies, or plays, or any other TV show, it is amazing how these games can help us forget about everything else and just enjoy the moments. It actually is quite a relaxing activity.

I am now quite excited and want to watch the remaining games of the NBA finals as well with the hope that Mavericks win this years championship.

"What To Say When You Talk To Your Self" - by Shad Helmstetter!!

Recently I read the book "What to Say When You Talk to Your Self" by Shad Helmstetter. The author of this book says that whatever we say, think, or write has an effect on our sub-conscious mind. Our brain receives the messages that we give - silently, by speaking them out, or by writing. After some point of time, with repeated messages, our sub-conscious mind starts believing what ever we say, be it negative or positive. In this book, the author explains about a revolutionary technique called Self-Talk that can remove all the negative programming that is already in our mind and replace it with new, positive and vital energy.

The author says that our success or failure is controlled by the following key things.
- Behavior (what we do or do not do)
- Feelings (how we feel about something)
- Attitudes (perspectives with which we view life)
- Beliefs (what we believe about anything)
- Programming (our conditioning say from childhood)

He says that these five key factors play a great role in the kind of results we get, because programming creates our beliefs, beliefs create our attitudes, attitudes create our feelings, feelings determine our behavior/action, and actions create results. So it is very important for our minds to have the correct programming. He shows through various examples that many of us have a negative programming. He explains the Self-Talk techniques in great detail to achieve good and positive results in our day-to-day life starting with simple techniques such as phrases that we should use in life and ones that we should avoid.

This book is a good read especially for those who enjoy reading self-help books. Here are a few lines from this book that I liked the most.

" You are everything that is,
Your thoughts, your life, your dreams come true.
You are everything you choose to be.
You are as unlimited as the endless universe. "

"Ray" & "Walk the Line" - movie!!

I saw the movie 'Ray' a couple of weeks back. It was on my wishlist since a long time but kept getting pushed back in the list as it is not a thriller or a fast-paced movie. Only after watching this movie I realized how wrong I was. This is a movie about the life of 'Ray Charles' with Jamie Foxx playing the role of Ray. It is an excellent movie with very good performance by Jamie Foxx. I thoroughly enjoyed all the songs in the movie - no wonder Ray Charles was such a popular singer, pianist and song-writer. He came up with the concept of soul music. This movie shows how he struggled with his blindness, overcame all obstacles, and made an extraordinary career for himself. It is a very inspriring story. This movie also shows the negative side of his life, i.e., getting involved with drugs and women.

"Ray" has a quite some resemblance with "Walk the Line" which is another very good movie about the life of Johnny Cash, another very popular singer, guitarist and song-writer. The role of Johnny Cash is played by Joaquin Phoenix in this movie. This movie also has excellent songs and very good performance by Joaquin and Reese Withersppon. The lives of both Ray Charles and Johnny Cash have many similarities. Both of them faced a childhood tragedy which they could never forget. Both of them saw their dear brother die by accident during their childhood days and somehow held themselves responsible for it. Both of them got involved with drugs and women. Finally they get into rehabilitation. Through therapy they get away from drugs and also get rid of the guilt they have carried since childhood.

Both these movies are very enjoyable for those who enjoy music and like to watch inspiring movies about people who struggled to make an extraordinary career.