Wake up IV - no time?

Who says CEOs don't need to worry much and enjoy their life? Who says that they have a relaxed life? Who says CEOs don't need to bother about being punctual? It is just another myth! CEOs are just as hard working as other employees and many times are even more hard working than the rest of us. They value time and consider every minute they spend in work to be precious.

Robert Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot (who was considered one of the best managers GE ever had), comes to office every day at 6:15am (a time when most of us struggle to step out of our cosy dream world)!

They say that most meetings are an organized way of wasting time – we have so many meetings every day and invariably you will find that it will get delayed by a 5 or 10 minutes because people haven't arrived. A 5 minute delay by one person in a twelve member meeting effectively wastes one hour for the group in total. Do your math and check out how many minutes would be wasted in an org. having 70,000 employees. It is also not respectful to keep others waiting. The little things keep accumulating to make us slog at the end of the day – next time you have a meeting ensure you are there in time.
If CEOs amidst their hectic schedules are able to do so why can't we?

---

Wake up V - In God we trust; do we?

A colleague and I were discussing about investments when we realized that we worry so much about investment that in the end we never use the money! And we know that we won't carry any of it to the grave. US dollar notes bear the national motto "In God We Trust" but when you look around you kind of wonder whether we really do!

We put in extra effort in our work and expect immediate appreciation;
we buy a stock and expect it to rise in value immediately; we propose and expect
an instant acceptance! Whatever we do we want immediate results in our favour.
Anxiety causes tension, jealousy, increased blood pressure and a variety of problems.

Everything takes time – your extra effort will reap rewards over a period of time; the stock markets will reward you over a period of time; your proposal has to be assessed before you are accepted! Unfortunately most of do our best for a short while, find that we don't get any appreciation and then slump in dejection – which ultimately helps us achieve nothing.

Chris Gardner (a self-made millionaire in the stock markets) struggled for years before he established his own brokerage firm. For 5 years he worked from early morning till late nights, was broke and spent nights sleeping in parks and even in a toilet (a part of his life is depicted in the film "The pursuit of Happyness").

So give your best and leave the rest; there is someone above who will ensure that you get your rewards at the right moment. Perseverance ultimately wins.

---

Wake up VI - Careful; that is a costly item!

Anything that we spend a fortune to buy we guard with utmost care: be it an expensive toy or a luxury car. But how much care do we take care of the most precious asset that any of us could have? Any guesses….the human body.

"What fools indeed we morals are
To lavish care upon a Car,
With ne'er a bit of time to see
About our own machinery!"
~John Kendrick Bangs

Estimates put the cost of our body at around $45 million! We've got a gift worth millions which we abuse knowingly and unknowingly! We do things that we know harm it – smoking, excessive drinking, excessive junk food, unwanted tension, unwanted pressure to clog our body and break it down. It is not just physical abuse but mental abuse as well – desire, jealousy, anger also add to the pollution of our body. Life is meant to be enjoyed some would say but it shouldn't lead to destruction at the cost of enjoyment.

Think about it: would you be so inconsiderate if you had paid so much money to buy something as valuable as the body?

People have said, "Your body is a temple, but only if you treat it as one. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in. "