Happiness is not an elusive muscle.

All of us want to be happy, but only very few have a clue about how to get and remain there. Are you aware that your Happiness & Emotional quotient go hand in hand, with both of them feeding on each other?

One of the main reasons for stress levels to be so high in the Indian context, is due to the fact that Indians are among st the lowest ranked when it comes to the “Emotional Quotient”. Over the years, working with people on their Emotional capabilities has given me  an amazing insight.

It has convinced me that happiness is not something that only Martians are capable of. Given below are some of the things which each one of you can do to work on your Happiness & Emotional quotient –

Exercise to begin with:Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it’s actually proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming depression. The release of proteins and endorphin’s which make us feel happier, is something which no pills or counselling can replicate.

Even a minimum of 20 minutes a day with some kind of exercise will not only get you brownie points @ the Emotional level, but also make your heart thank you for the calorie burn. It helps to know that that people who exercised feel better about their bodies even when they saw no physical changes.

Sleep More:Most of the people I interact with in my Wellness Seminars & personal Coaching are used to logging in an average of 4-5 hours of sleep or worse, follow a erratic sleeping pattern. This is the worst one can do to help themselves. I strongly believe that skimming in your sleep department will eventually make you sensitive to negative Emotions.

What I have seen through the years is that sleep-deprived people, fail to recall pleasant memories but on the contrary,recall gloomy memories just about fine. Now when this works at your Sub conscious level again & again, you can gauge the long term crippling effect it would have on your overall wellness area.

Help others & Practice Gratitude:One of the best known secrets I have learnt over the years is, to be happy from the inside; the easiest way to achieve this is to help others. Kindness, produces the single most reliable increase in well-being than any exercise according to me. No wonder Kind persons stand out in a crowd with the sheer Aura around them.

Being thankful,to begin with  for the things each one of us is blessed with, will go a long way in improving our own happiness quotient.

Meditate:In my opinion Meditation helps you rewire your brain for happiness. On most of the days, I begin my day through meditation and can write volumes about how this one habit has helped me to get more focus, clarity & purpose in life than all the other put together. Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down.

It’s often been proven to be the single most effective way to increase the happiness quotient drastically. Recent research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness. The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure, through mediation is most profound discovery which can be used for amazing long term benefits.

Again being happy is a choice more than a chance. I have seen humble people with very few things of their own, but extremely happy & content in life. I have also seen the exact opposite with people who seem to have almost everything, but find themselves very unhappy.

I hope you have found solace through this Blog article of mine that it is more than possible to rewire your own mind through some of these steps. Do check on the Strategy session page where you can interact with me for a Complimentary session to work on this

As usual I would love to hear from you on my mail Id coach@satishrao.in or on my Face Book Fan page. If you have found this Blog article useful, do take some time out to share it with your friends & family. Singularly I cannot spread this word too far, however if we team up we can help this message reach out to a lot many more,who deserves to be Happy. 

Being compelling is just a beginning

Are you making an unsuccessful effort in reaching out to people when trying to sell something or like in my case reaching out to people in helping Transforming Lives? Well to be successful, you need to work first towards selling yourself. Without this, you might be blowing great opportunities that may never come around again

As I type these words, running in my mind is the story of one person (AK) who has ended up changing the dynamics of how politics is going to work in the Indian Context. Being compelling is one of the key traits of such a person.

Each one of us can work towards being compelling in our own journey if we pick on what a person who is compelling is doing.Some of these, according to me would be

What can you contribute:  To be compelling needs one to be in the service of a greater good. I strongly believe that once you are clear as to what you can offer, you will contribute in a great way to people’s lives & they will eventually need what you are offering.

This is when the compelling part will begin to take care on its own. What is paramount is to communicate in a way that people will understand and respond favorably towards you..

Truth always prevails:  Being truthful is critical to long term success, be it in your professional or personal lives. What you are offering across the table must not be based on fancy packaging or abstract language, but on real facts and figures.

I have seen people whilst hard selling, covering up facts and coming up with a fancy sugar coated offer, which most people can see through. Remember that genuine benefits are always better than fancy packaging.

This, in my own opinion will get to the core of being compelling.Over the years I have worked on identifying this traits in people,which has helped me to a large extent.

Simplicity & freshness is an attention grabber: Work on making things as simple as possible. This will ensure that you will grab people’s attention. No one has the time to go through complex explanations and solutions. Making it simple & crisp will help your audience see you through a fresh pair of eyes.

Once you change a person’s perspective, you will have his/her attention and you can build on this. The answer needn’t be huge and life changing. It has to be just something they don’t normally hear or read. People love to learn and will follow those who teach them something valuable.

Some of the biggest changes are the most simple ones.Not convinced,well you will find it for sure  if you look for it.

Communication is another key:  The responsibility to communicate with your own audience begins & ends with you. Context is critical and when people know that you are sharing something of value, they will invest time in your offerings. It makes sense to do one’s homework to study the audience & listen to your own pitch with their perspective in your mind.

How you can say it will make all the difference in the long run. Once you begin to adapt these things, in your own environment the confidence & purpose will come through in your voice & the image you are trying to project to others.

Eventually being compelling is not something which happens in a day, but will take considerable amount of time to work on. However once you are perceived as someone who is compelling, then it is just a matter of time before you can step into the arena and be a game changer.

Working towards being Compelling is not an insurmountable affair just like so many among st  us have shown,it just requires persistence,vision and most importantly the fire within, to get there in spite of any challenges.

I would love to hear from you on my thoughts on being compelling. What is that makes a person a game changer? You can reach me on my mail id coach@satishrao.in or on my Facebook Fan page.If you have found the thoughts useful do take some time to share it with your friends & family.Knowledge is something which needs to be shared & not kept, is the logic I have been living with for  quite some time.

Healthy Habits Can Also De-rail Your Progress

Getting into an exercise habit is one thing, but sustaining it for a life time is another. As you might have guessed, I am addressing how you can sustain the momentum and ensure that you see  some amazing progress in your wellness area.

Ample experience, has given me an insight on how to ensure that one need not commit “common mistakes” in the gym and outside as well. Mind you, these are my own experiences & acquired knowledge and in no way the ultimate gospel for fitness.

You do more of what you like: Addressing weakness is the quickest way to scale up your progress. In my opinion addressing and strengthening your weak areas will help you in the long run. Each one of us has something which we favor and we tend to do more of this, than required.

Falling into this trap of doing what you like & not doing what you need is far too common. Therefore ensure that you focus on your weak areas and work on them. Your core might be weak or flexibility might be an issue. Once you overcome this, you will see drastic improvements.

You are not including compound movements: Very few people include Squats, overhead press, pull-ups etc in their workouts. Most of the people I come across are more than happy doing isolation movement exercises like bicep/triceps curls. These are great but the real growth is in compound movements, because they use more muscles and lead to more lean mass.

These exercises are metabolically demanding and release more body composition improving hormones, than any other exercises. When you take the effort of hitting the gym, you need to maximize the benefits of compound movement exercises.

Your eye is on everything else but the clock: Time is the most important factor you need to consider once you step into the gym. I come across far too many people who spend time, talking and socializing in the gym. In their book, they are working out but it is of no use. You need to keep a hawk’s eye on your rest periods.

Start a set before the appropriate rest period and you may be sacrificing strength. Wait too long to start your next set and you could be killing any metabolic effect. Keeping the muscle under tension for a specific amount of time in the gym, is critical to deliver the desired long term effect of hitting the gym.

Recovery is a new word:  If you have been a regular reader of my Blog, then you would have read this before – “you build muscles & burn calories outside the gym and not in & during the workouts”. Therefore not focusing on your sleep and food intake & timing, is the surest way of going down the path of No progress. Refer to my previous posts on the similar topics.

Familiarity breeds contempt: Well this logic seems to work when it comes to your workouts. Your muscles tend to get used to the same exercise and will stop growing. If you have been sticking to the same type of workout for more than 45 days, then it is time to move on and speak to a professional trainer.

He/She will get it realigned to suit your goals. There is no one way of putting a finger on this though. I generally keep changing my exercise regimen every 3-4 weeks just to keep the tempo going.If our muscles do get familar with certain kind of exercise then they do tend to stop growing.

See what does fit you and customize accordingly. I will be more than happy to hear from you, on this on my mail id coach@satishrao.in or on my FaceBook Fan Page. 

What do you choose to do from today?

About three years ago, I choose to live my life on my terms and even though it has been a very different life professionally, it has been more fulfilling, satisfying & forthcoming.

Many times when people reach out to me, they ask what made me leave a cushy job in the corporate world and start working with people to help them work on some of their biggest challenges, professionally & personally.

I was sure when I handed over my resignation that, whatever I would end up doing, I was going to stick by  my values, beliefs and desires. When I look back I can say with pride that I have kept up my promises.

However some lessons are always learnt the hard way & sharing them will help you to take the first few steps in the direction you desire.

The only approval you need is your own:  Earlier on I used to look outside for reassurance that I was succeeding. I always felt that I was uncomfortable in my own skin. However today, it is a different matter altogether.I strongly believe & seek my approval to attract the people who appreciate what I offer as a Life & Wellness Coach and only then, work with them.

This approach has made me sign up with some incredible clients with the same set of values and belief structures.

Your desires are what eventually matter:  As a Life Coach it is very easy to see potential clients with just about everybody. However one needs to understand that not everybody is comfortable with change. Therefore having a great potential to make people change, might be not enough but the desire to position yourself in that role is what puts you on a firm footing.

If you ask yourself the right questions, you will eventually get to know your desires. Most times the answers are within us. We need to ask the right questions to get to them.

Pay yourself first:  I am sure to some of you; this may sound selfish but look at it logically. To offer legitimate guidance and support, you must be strong, stable, secure financially and emotionally. This is the key and unless one is in this plane, you cannot step up and put in more than 100%.

The easiest way I did this was, by keeping my materialistic needs very low, creating a positive environment around me and maintaining a healthy mind & body. These did not happen in a day but over the last couple of years. This according to me will put one on a pedestal, to help others selflessly and abundantly.

You might be venturing out to be an Entrepreneur, lawyer, politician or even a Life & Wellness Coach like me. Irrespective of the journey you are about to take, this will play a critical role in going forward.

Cherish the experience: It has not been an easy ride for me and will not be, going forward. However life teaches us in different ways and I am always open to” learn & unlearn” every day of my life.

Over the last couple of years, I have yet to live a day where I didn’t learn something, connect with someone of value or observe the inspiring beauty of a small thing. For that, I am always grateful. These are the small things in life which will be one’s guiding posts and help us navigate this cluttered world.

I am sure you would have begun to think differently if you have come so far in my Blog. How you choose to Live is your prerogative. However if you feel that this is the time & day to choose differently, then reach out to me for a strategy session which is absolutely complimentary.

We can team up together, to carve out a new path in your life’s journey. As usual I look forward to hearing from each one of you  at my mail id Coach@satishrao.in or on my FB Fan page.