Inspirational Series #6 - Secret of "Compelling Success"

Dearest Darling Friends,

Franz Kafka is considered one of the most creative and influential writers of the 20th century. Unbelievingly, he spent most of his time working as a lawyer for the Workers Accident Insurance Institute!

Then, how on earth did Kafka produce such fantastic creative works while doing his job?

The secret is simple.

By sticking to a strict 'writing' schedule.

He would come back from work and take a nap. He would wake up, write for a few hours beginning from sharp 11 pm, and only then, go to sleep. He did this again and again and again and again.

Research shows, many many great artists, businessmen, sportspeople and scientists, followed a consistent schedule.

Maya Angelou, one of the most outstanding poetess I have ever read, rented a hotel room to write. She arrived at 6:30 AM, wrote until 2 PM, and then went home to do some editing. She never slept at the hotel.

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon writes five nights per week from 10 PM to 3 AM.

Haruki Murakami wakes up at 4 AM, writes for five hours, and then goes for a run.

Sam Walton of Walmart was legendary for his weekly review of EVERY one of his over 9500 stores from 4.30 am to 8.30 am EVERY DAY!

When yoga guru BKS Iyengar was celebrating his 91st birthday, he was quoted saying, since the age of 14 (that is for 77 years) he might have missed practising yoga a maximum of 10 times. Can you imagine? In 77 years, not exercising for only 10 days !!! Phew! Mind blowing! But, that is what I guess is the secret of his high energy levels and brilliant health.

Sania Nehwal would appear for practice at P Gopichand's academy at an incredible 4.30 am for that was the only available time slot! For this, she had to leave her home at 3.45 am. It's up to you to guess what time she must be waking up ???

The work of top successful people isn’t dependent solely upon resources or talent or fortune or plain opportunity. Besides one or a few before mentioned factors, they follow a consistent pattern and 'work' routine. It’s the mastering of daily habits that leads to super successes, and not some mythical spark of genius.

Why are habits and routines so important in the making of schedules? Habits and routines are important in the making of schedules because they “free our minds to thinking about 'development and execution' in personally interesting fields of action.”

In my career as a trainer and as a counselor, I have seen supremely talented people waste so much of their lifetime 'trying' to decide what time to work or where to work from or worse still completely ignoring the scheduling process. They wait for the 'right mood' and never truly take-off. They never condition themselves to 'peak performance'. In the process, they impede their capacity to do their best work.

There are plenty of research studies done all over the world on willpower, habit formation, inspirations, creativity, literature, sports, peak performance and motivation to back up the above paragraph.

To sum it all up, if you’re sincere about compelling success, stop waiting for motivation and inspiration to strike or the right mood to set. Make it simple. Set a schedule for doing important work on a consistent basis. If a certain time works best for your 'important work', make that your consistent time.

Ironically, we set time to see movies, watch TV, read newspapers, all of them are not your 'important works'. By all means, do so. But, do schedule the 'important works' too.

You will be delighted with the results.

Looking forward to hearing from you on this topic. What is your take on this? What has worked for you? Would love to learn from your experiences.

With love, prayers and exceptional wishes,

Prachi

Imagine, when we wake up, we are given only what we had thanked for.