Come Forward to be Beheaded

Today in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of Sikh’s, called together a huge crowd of over 50,000 Sikhs to join him for a meeting. This was an era in history where Sikhs were facing a difficult phase as they were facing continuous persecution at the hands of the Mughal rulers.

With everyone expecting to hear words of comfort and encouragement to stand strong, they were surprised to see the Guru draw his sword and shout ‘I want a head.’

There was a big silence, but the Guru went on repeating his demand until someone was brave enough to come forward. Guru Gobind Singh took the volunteer into his tent and after a while he came out by himself holding a sword covered in blood! The crowd gasped and started to disperse.

Then the Guru repeated his demand “I want a head” and eventually another volunteer stepped forward and went into the tent with the Guru. Yet again the Guru came out of the tent alone, with blood on his sword. The Guru repeated his action another 3 times until five volunteers had entered the tent to be beheaded.

By now, everyone who was left from a now very much depleted crowd must have been wondering what is going on. Then the Guru came out of the tent with his sword and the five men walking behind him, still alive!

‘This was a test,’ the Guru explained, ‘to see who has faith in their Guru”. This was a test of who was brave enough to fight against injustice and tyranny being suffered under the rule of the Mughals. This was the day the Khalsa was created to instill in people qualities of courage, self respect and confidence to always fight for the weak against tyranny and injustice.

How does this apply today?

Even today we are all fighting to do what is right and what we believe to be worth fighting for, yet we suppress our ideas and not follow through on actions for various reasons. There are lessons here that we can learn and apply to ourselves and in our businesses.

The three most important lessons:

Lesson 1: In the face of adversity, muster your courage and stand strong for what you believe in. If you believe something needs to be changed, be brave enough to start that something. Take a good look at yourself and what you do and challenge yourself to do what you really want to do.

Lesson 2: Have faith in yourself and others. If you believe change is needed, others will follow. The path isn’t easy and people will move away. But as the few who believe and have faith that the change is for the greater good, others will follow. Take that leap of faith.

Lesson 3: Be clear in your purpose. This is probably the most important lesson. Why do you want to do what you want to do? What are the benefits and to whom? A clear purpose can be very empowering and motivational for you to make the changes in yourself, your attitude and behaviours to reap the benefits for the greater good. Change has to start with you.

Happy Vasikhi to one and all.

p.s. If you are not familiar with Vasikhi, please do take the time do find out more.  I acknowledge I have only shared a part of the full story in this short blog.

 

Who is Inspired by you?

Everyone has an inspirational story to …

Have you discovered yours?

 

It’s International Women’s Day 8th March and our 2016 mission is to support 100 women in discovering their own inspiring stories, to be awesome and pioneering in changing perceptions of what we can and cannot achieve.

Most women don’t see themselves as inspiring. This means fewer role models and tough challenges for everyone. By acknowledging your own worth and sharing your own inspiring story – together we can break down barriers that hold women back. So let us help you in being that awesome woman recognised by others.

Book your free consultation on recognising your hidden awesomeness by emailing info@kaurvalues.com or phoning 07590 993094

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Do You Recognise Arrogance of Authority?

A friend of mine emailed me the following (apparently true) story on “Arrogance of Authority”

As funny as this story is, it reminds me of what I often see in organisations where managers in responsible positions are so focussed on doing their job well, that they become oblivious to things, that if addressed would improve their overall performance and efficiency. Improvements are suggested all the time but managers are not engaging.

These managers grow unreceptive to new ideas or small changes because they religiously adhere to processes as instructed and lose sight of the important stuff. The important stuff includes why they are in the business in the first place and what the business vision and goals are.

It is not the manager’s fault, as they often work in organisations that compel them to cram more work in less time, meet demanding target indicators and have their performance challenged in annual appraisals. They unintentionally block out any form of communication that might help them because their experience tells them that they know better and in any case they have not got time. They have not even realised what their behaviour in the work place is conveying about them and the organisation’s culture. After a while the suggestions stop coming.

However, it does pay for these same managers to step back occasionally, be open minded and invite feedback from people they interact with at all levels. Someone will often try and tell them something that will make their job easier or more efficient, someone may want to share an innovative idea or someone may simply want to share their experience. Managers need to make time for these people, who are helping them. Managers need to openly engage to continually improve.Here is an example of someone in authority who learnt the hard way why it is important to engage with people regardless of anything else. Enjoy the story…

The Arrogance of Authority

A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas, and talked with an old rancher. He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.”

The rancher said, “Okay, but don’t go in that field over there…..”, as he pointed out the location.

The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me!”

Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.

“See this badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…. On any land!!

No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear……do you understand?!!”

The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull……

With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he’d sure enough get gored before he reached safety. The officer was clearly terrified.

The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs…..

“Your badge. Show him your BADGE…….. ! !”

The lesson to be learnt is – never ignore the small guy.

Listen, listen and listen

Engage with your staff, stakeholders and customers. If you stop listening, people will stop engaging, when that happens….well, showing your badge won’t help!

How is your Attitude today?

Did you make any New Year Resolutions? How are you progressing?

Would it surprise you to know, that in the UK 78{2d8ca8a57a2be9c4e7c5f608c633b8d2972cbc20ea13f00e48eca0a2f3e4a9f8} of people who make New Year resolutions fail to meet their goal, according to a study by the University of Bristol. Other research indicates that the majority of us will have given up on our resolutions 4 weeks into the New Year even though the goals may be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time phased.)

Goals are often not met when one vital catalytic ingredient is missing: Motivation. Your motivation gives you the energy and the persistence to keep going and take whatever actions are necessary to reach your goal.

Motivation is needed in everything you do, regardless of whether the goals are personal or business orientated. Only you can supply the motivation, as it comes from deep within and therefore only you can influence how much motivation you apply to your daily actions.

The first step in ensuring that you reach your goal is to understand what fuels your motivation and what drains your motivation. Your motivation is fuelled by

  • creating a strong desire to achieve your goal,
  • possessing a strong positive attitude and
  • having lots of confidence.

If you are lacking in any one of these qualities, you will not experience the same levels of success that could be attainable in reaching your goal. In fact you are most likely to be a contributor towards the 78{2d8ca8a57a2be9c4e7c5f608c633b8d2972cbc20ea13f00e48eca0a2f3e4a9f8} statistic.

Out of the three motivational ingredients needed, attitude is the most influential, impacting on both your desire and confidence levels.

Your attitude comes from your thoughts, feelings, evaluations and experiences influencing your beliefs about yourself and the values you hold, which in turn impact on your behaviour. These values represent what you believe to be true and do not need a rational or logical explanation to justify them. We each behave in accordance with our beliefs as if they were true, thus making them true. Examples of attitude influencing behaviours include not walking under ladders or stepping on paving slab cracks if we believe it to be unlucky, no further self-explanations are needed.

Therefore, if you believe at a subconscious level your goal is not achievable, chances are, you are right. This means no matter how SMART your goals are, until you believe that you can achieve that goal, the thought of taking actions will drain your motivational energy because of your subconscious belief. To believe you can achieve that goal you need to have a strong positive attitude to match.

Your attitude fuels and strengthens your beliefs and it does not matter whether your beliefs empower or limit you. Be consciously aware of what your beliefs are, and whether these beliefs are helping or hindering your progress.

The good news is, it is easy to change your attitude in order to generate a high motivational energy state to ensure that you reach your goal. You can change your attitude, provided you are totally committed and brave enough to do so. The key is to reprogram your beliefs by being positive and open minded. Reprogram your embedded beliefs by continuously focussing on positive and empowering thoughts. Rephrase any negative beliefs you have about yourself into strong positive affirmations. Instead of telling yourself “I can’t, it is impossible”, tell yourself “I can and it is possible”.

Once you have mastered positive thinking, combine it with a strong desire to achieve your goal and create an empowering belief to grow your confidence and then experience your motivation grow and your goals being smashed.

So how is your attitude today impacting on you achieving your goals?