[SDP]

^^ what an unfortunate choice of a day to publish that list!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 5 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Completed "Hot, flat and crowded"
2. Completed "Emotional Intelligence" again.

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 4 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. Little bit of cleaning and organizing.

[ajitkumarlb]

Originally Posted by SDP

^^ what an unfortunate choice of a day to publish that list!

That was precisely what I was thinking when I saw the list... but we trust you SDP

[SDP]

Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 5 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Completed "What they don't teach you at harvard"

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 3 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. Negligible

[subraiyr]

SDP
Thanks for opening up this thread and congratulations on keeping up the momentum by your weekly reports. I too was in a situation sometime last year where i thought my life had gone upside down. There was complete lack of control on anything i was doing and this forced me to lose a bit of confidence in myself. Also, work did not help much since i was doing a job which required only 20 - 25% contribution and somewhere i felt that i was not being fully utilized. I had spent close to a decade in my firm and the comfort factor compounded to everything

So what did i do ?

I ran and ran and ran. I bought myself some trainer shoes, a nice pair of headphones and every morning i ran. All my energy was focused on running. It was not more of getting back to shape or losing the flab. To me running was something that was within my control and i wanted to keep it that way

I am a voracious reader and my all time favorite book has been Fountainhead. I was always the odd one out anywhere and i could relate well with the book and Howard Roark in particular

And then slowly i began to draw out a plan of action. I broke up everything into a 4 qudrant box. (We management folks are famous for it). For me it was controllable and not controllable on one axis and time on the other axis. I focused on the controllable first and got things lined up

In the meantime, i landed a new job which had its bout of issues and concerns. Today, i am still concerned but not stressed out about it and my life has got a rhythm to it.

Self comes first. And with that work and family are close second. I decided not to bring work back to the house and today thanks to the new job, i am at home in the evening and hit the track for a jog before sunset.

Kudos to you for keeping your resolve and continuing the thread. If you can please do post a review of the books you have read. It might help a lot of us here. I am looking forward to the review on the book by Dalai Lama

Cheers

[SDP]

Originally Posted by subraiyr

SDP
Thanks for opening up this thread and congratulations on keeping up the momentum by your weekly reports. I too was in a situation sometime last year where i thought my life had gone upside down. There was complete lack of control on anything i was doing and this forced me to lose a bit of confidence in myself. Also, work did not help much since i was doing a job which required only 20 - 25% contribution and somewhere i felt that i was not being fully utilized. I had spent close to a decade in my firm and the comfort factor compounded to everything

So what did i do ?

I ran and ran and ran. I bought myself some trainer shoes, a nice pair of headphones and every morning i ran. All my energy was focused on running. It was not more of getting back to shape or losing the flab. To me running was something that was within my control and i wanted to keep it that way

I am a voracious reader and my all time favorite book has been Fountainhead. I was always the odd one out anywhere and i could relate well with the book and Howard Roark in particular

And then slowly i began to draw out a plan of action. I broke up everything into a 4 qudrant box. (We management folks are famous for it). For me it was controllable and not controllable on one axis and time on the other axis. I focused on the controllable first and got things lined up

In the meantime, i landed a new job which had its bout of issues and concerns. Today, i am still concerned but not stressed out about it and my life has got a rhythm to it.

Self comes first. And with that work and family are close second. I decided not to bring work back to the house and today thanks to the new job, i am at home in the evening and hit the track for a jog before sunset.

Kudos to you for keeping your resolve and continuing the thread. If you can please do post a review of the books you have read. It might help a lot of us here. I am looking forward to the review on the book by Dalai Lama

Cheers

subraiyr, this is brilliant! Inspiring journey!
I have been thinking about writing at least 3-4 lines for each book I read. I do that on my FB timeline, but somehow have not done it on TBHP. May be I should start.

About the Dalai Lama book "The Art of Happiness", here's what I felt;

Completed "The Art of Happiness" by His Holiness Dalai Lama and a psychiatrist HC Cutler. The book is based on a bunch of interviews between the Doctor and the Dalai Lama. Although the answers by Dalai Lama make a lot of sense, I really wish the questions by the Doc were more coherent. I wouldn't say the book was a waste of time, but the fragmented way the content/message is structured really robs it off its true impact.

---------------------------------------------------------
Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 5 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Completed "Employees First, Customers Second" by Vineet Nayar.

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 3 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. An hour or so.

[idea]

Originally Posted by SDP

#2 Reading
1. Completed "Employees First, Customers Second" by Vineet Nayar.

How about a quick review of book. i am associated with organisation he heads. Lets see how much is difference between theory and practice?

[SDP]

Originally Posted by idea

How about a quick review of book. i am associated with organisation he heads. Lets see how much is difference between theory and practice?

This is what I noted on my FB timeline:

Completed "Employees First, Customers Second" by Vineet Nair (HCL Tech CEO) this week. The book does beat around the bush initially and I got tempted to abandon it. But slowly and steadily it reveals one different thought after another followed by small but firm execution steps to implement that thought. What's brilliant is that the book addresses even how they made the change sustainable and avoided it becoming another "initiative" that would have died its natural death in about a quarter's time. Must read for everyone working in the IT industry.

An outsider can only marvel at the ideas and the thought & persitence behind execution. Only an insider like you can comment on whether the philosophy actually works on ground and how do the employees see it. From that perspective, I would definitely look forward to your views about 'Employees First and Customers Second'.

[SDP]

Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 6 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Completed "Emotional Intelligence at Work"
2. Completed "What clients love: a field guide to growing your business"

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 3 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. Three hours of tidying up and cleaning.

[SDP]

Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 6 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 2-3 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Started "Lords of Strategy"

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 3 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. An hour of tidying up and cleaning.

[ajitkumarlb]

Back after a very loooong brake, with some break fixes

For a few more weeks, my only focus will back strengthening exercises and here is the update for the last week:

30 minutes of lower & upper back exercises on all 7 days

Hope there are no more brakes.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by ajitkumarlb

Back after a very loooong brake, with some break fixes

For a few more weeks, my only focus will back strengthening exercises and here is the update for the last week:

30 minutes of lower & upper back exercises on all 7 days

Hope there are no more brakes.

Welcome back Ajit! Take it slow and easy. We would look forward to you coming to full-form soon.

[ajitkumarlb]

Ok here is the week 2.

30 minutes of lower & upper back exercises on 5 days.

[SDP]

Good update Ajit. 5 days a week is very good!

----------------------------------------------------
Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 5 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

#2 Reading
1. Still on "Lords of Strategy"
2. Started a PG Wodehouse book as well.

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. About 3 hours of core work.

#4 Home-maintenance (neat-clean-tidy)
1. Three hours of tidying up and cleaning.

[engrohit]

Originally Posted by ajitkumarlb

Ok here is the week 2.

30 minutes of lower & upper back exercises on 5 days.

Originally Posted by ajitkumarlb

30 minutes of lower & upper back exercises on all 7 days

Hope there are no more brakes.

Hi Ajit

I hope you are doing these exercise under expert supervision, as back exercise if not done properly can cause more harm than benefit.

Also you should try and keep a mix of exercise as continuously working on a single body part does not make it strong in isolation.
Body has to be worked upon as a whole.

Various other exercises like running, weight training etc would also use back and abdomen and help strengthen them.

Just my 2 cents...

[engrohit]

Originally Posted by SDP

Good update Ajit. 5 days a week is very good!

----------------------------------------------------
Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for a brisk-walk on 5 days during the week.
2. Walked up 10 floors 5 times this week.

SDP, I have been silently following this thread for some time now.
Reading your opening posts on this thread, I could not help but smile. I felt it is me who has written this, such are the similarities in most of our's lives.
Kudos to you for actually taken the plunge and maintained the flow for last 2 years or so.

Regarding your physical fitness routine, now that you have been doing brisk walk and stairs climbing for fairly long time, may i suggest that you start adding weight training to your schedule.

Having met you personally in the Mumbai meet on 28th, i felt that you are in pretty good physical shape and you should now stretch the limit a bit and add more items to your workout regime.

How about discussing this further some day over beer in Chillies