A first impression is the last impression – If you fail to make a good first impression, then you are all set to come last in the race because you will never get a second chance.

This is what  I was taught during my schooling, colleges and even the same advice was passed on to me while taking up employment.

I believed this advice firmly and decided that I will always try to make a good first impression in order to succeed.

While this advice of making a good first impression pushed me to start my career with a bang , but the fact was I was not able to keep the momentum going.

I met with failures very soon and embraced frustration, found myself in clueless situation.

I was a teenager who jumped into information technology industry immediately after my college wrestling with keyboard and learning MS DOS and Word star (which were popular in those days) sitting in front of that monochrome monitors.

When I was trying to make a good first impression my job, I was forcing myself too much during the first few days of employment to make others think that I am the fastest learner and will do everything that was given to me. I was saying yes to every work coming on my way.

My bosses liked my super-charged attitude and  soon trusted me as a valuable player in the team. Their impression about me was that I had learned everything in a short period of time.

But, that image was short lived. I was no more a new employee and since I had set the benchmark high during my initial days (reason: to make a first impression), I was assigned multiple tasks and asked to complete all in stiff deadlines. Soon, my enthusiasm started coming down. Pressure was building up inside me to complete pending tasks.

I just couldn’t handle those. Advice of making a good first impression was working against me.

I failed. I couldn’t complete the tasks and ended up with silly mistakes. Because, I underestimated the value of time for learning the new system.

I thought I had understood everything (at least tried to show like that) .

The first impression thing screwed up everything. I failed miserably.

This was almost a decade back. Then, I was not aware how to progress in life. I didn’t know that the ultimate progress in life is learning things in correct way and implementing them in right way. What I was trying was to build a skyscraper with weak foundation.

Thanks to personal development, which opened my eye to my inner self.

When I took up a task of discovering myself and decided to fix myself, I started experiencing an exact opposite of what I was taught during schooling, colleges.

I realized that first impression is not the last impression. And judging the life based on a ‘first impression’ could bring me dangerous results. And allowing some one to judge me on my first impression would have the same effect too.

My experiences were not limited to my job or competitive areas, there were chunks of lessons in other areas of life such as buying habits, relationships and much more.

Lessons were pretty clear.

First impression is not the last impression.

You just need to be yourself , natural and practical.

Everything falls in the right place if you focus on creating a solid foundation.

Research is always accurate than trusting the hype.

I learned these lessons because I had reversed the popular belief called making a first impression.

Instead of trying hard to make a good first impression, I started involving in the new job as a brand new comer. I was humble, polite and hardworking. I started with smalls steps by putting my efforts into understanding each module of the job and slowly understanding the whole ecosystem of the work.

I was seeking information from seniors and thanked them for their inputs.I admitted my silly mistakes and corrected them immediately and kept going.

Surely, I was on the right path. I started getting more and more support and attention from seniors and the boss over the time. I didn’t focus on making a first impression, I just worked hard and focused on developing a strong knowledge base. I was slow but steady.What I was trying is to release my true potential.

A strong foundation was built.

Results were outstanding and I was appreciated for my contributions and that developed more confidence inside me. This is what I practice after those life changing lessons.

I hope you got the message in the above story.

So, don’t try hard for making a good first impression. You will be MISJUDGED. Because you look artificial when you try to make a good first impression. Instead, be natural, be hardworking and honest.

Nobody can (should) judge a person or a thing based on first impression

This is the core message I wanted to convey in this whole article.

Most of  first impressions are not real. They are either inaccurate, deceiving or fake.

Let’s look at your own daily life examples.

How many times you have seen a new person, and at first thought he looks like a baddy. However later after spending some time with him, you found that he is a humble and a good guy. A first impression about him was unreal.

How many times, you have bought a new phone by it’s first look and later found that it lacks some of the very important functionality? You would have surely surrendered yourself to aggressive marketing which would have created an urge inside you to get this new phone. A first impression of the gadget was worth a 5 star rating. But what you failed to notice is ,first impressions are some created to infuse a sense of urgency within you to buy the new gadget immediately whether you really need it or not. In the age of consumerism, you might have experienced this many times.

As a manager, how many times , you wrote off a new employee thinking that he is  ineffective because he failed to make a good first impression? You later surprised to see that he is doing quite amazing in some other team. First impression of the new employee again deceived you.

You can’t judge anyone based on their first impression because you are ignoring a simple truth that human behavior is complex.

This truth not only applies to human behavior but extends itself to other areas of our life as well.

The worst thing that can happen to people is they might get married to a wrong person if they judge him/her based on the first impression.

I hope you can imagine the consequences.

What is the right way to judge a person/situation/stuff then?

You need to have patience and thankfully, there are plenty of resources available for research.

You need to analyze the pattern over the time, instead of judging a person/stuff/situation instantly based on the first impression.

In fact, it’s no more optional. You SHOULD adopt this habit right away if you want to make RIGHT choices and handle the situations in a better way.

Stay calm and observe the variations over the period of time.

I am sure , you will come to an obvious conclusion soon which is far accurate than the instant opinion which was created based on the first impression.

If you are a boss, don’t judge a new employee on day one or even within a week. He might be misjudged. Instead, give him a month. Extend your support to him and expose him to valuable information. Offer constructive feedback for his silly mistakes. Appreciate his small accomplishments. Soon, he might do wonders for you.

If you are tempted to buy that new gadget by seeing it’s first look on TV or internet, don’t rush to buy it immediately. Instead, hold yourself back and wait for user reviews and feedback. After going through reviews, if the gadget still excites you, go and pick it up. But if user reviews are all negative, do you still want to take the risk?

If you see a business offer coming on your way which is too good to resist and offered with unbelievable goodies, be patient and step back for allowing yourself to do some research. You might even later find that the business offer was nothing more than a scam.

If you are a software programmer and the code you just wrote works perfect in it’s first run (by it’s first impression). don’t hurry to celebrate. Instead, observe the code behavior in the whole ecosystem of the project. Test the code in various scenarios and see that how other modules respond to your code. By doing so, you will be a better programmer. Real programmer spends most of the time in testing, not in programming.

I am sure, above examples showed you the consequences of exercising  judgement by first impression.

I am not saying that first impressions are always false, but they surely need a second look.

Don’t worry. Life will give you a second chance. Observe, analyze and work hard.

A long lasting impression is what you should be aiming for, not for the temporary first impression.

Your turn

How about you? Have you ever judged some one by their first impression? Or have you ever been judged by some one based on your first impression? I am genuinely interested in hearing about your experiences. Tell your story in the comments.

Photo credit : free digital photos

Because if you want your audience to get engaged with your writing, you need to have a design that highlights content rather than flashy widgets. Minimalist themes are just right fit for a content based blog.

During my journey of blogging, I have come across many minimal WordPress themes which are great and do a great job in highlighting content.  I am using Coraline for planetnaveen.com with little customization done from my side.

In this article, I am providing links for 20 minimal (yet awesome) WordPress themes, so that you can kick start your blogging in 2012 with a clean and minimal design.

If you are already a blogger and looking for minimal WordPress themes, then just hang in here. Below are great collection of minimalist themes and most importantly, they are FREE !!!

1. ProtoType by ThemeHybrid

2. Outline by ThemeHybrid

3. Twenty Ten By AutoMattic

4. Picolight Theme

5. Admired Theme

6. Evolve by Theme4Press

7. Precisio by Theme4press

8. Shadows by WPExplorer

9. Simply Delicious by mmminimal

10. Minimal Expert by WPExplorer

11. Bueono by Woo Themes

12. NeoClassical Theme by Chris Pearson

13. Structure Theme by ThemeHybrid

14. Life Collage by ThemeHybrid

15. Zen Habits Theme By Leo Babuta

16. Modernist Theme

17. Fungus by DynamicWP.net

18. BonPress by WPZoom

19. CopyBlogger Theme by Chris Pearson

20. Coraline theme by Automattic

I hope you liked this collection. Let me know if you could use them your blog/website by dropping a comment below

Photo credit : freedigitalphotos.net

This is a guest post by Jason Fonceca from ryzeonline.com. To guest post on this blog, check guest post page.

You’ve been taught some things in your life — maybe directly, maybe not — and they’re horrible.

And if they’re left to reign terror in your life, they can easily turn your life horrible too.

Dramatic enough for ya?

Alright, so they’re not horrible, but they are important. They’re things that peers, authorities, and society has hammered into us, and that we absorbed eagerly, thinking it was in our best interest. I’m going to tell you exactly what these things are, but first, I want you to imagine a life free of these things you were taught.

There are a group of people who’ve taken some bold steps, and learned things for themselves, and realized certain things we were taught stop success. These people live lives that many people want.

Imagine waking up every day on a schedule that you set. Imagine having no problem getting paid very, very well for doing what you love. Imagine being popular, well-liked, and praised and recognized for your works. Imagine having tons of ideas, spreading across multiple industries, and creating what you want, when you want.

Imagine living in the realm of the 1-percenters. Imagine creative and financial freedom. Imagine whatever success means to you.

It doesn’t have to be so pure and strong and socially respected, and I’m not saying this article’s going to instantly teleport you there, but I am going to help you smooth out the journey for yourself.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could move along with your creative ideas, without getting derailed by weird beliefs you never meant to have anyway?

Most people have secret success stoppers that they never talk about or think about, and no one else talks about them either. Well… I do.

Know Your Secret Success-Stoppers

Yep, most people have secret success-stoppers that they learned early and learned well, but which are holding them back, big time. See if any of these click with you:

Change Is Hard

This one is killer

Let’s take a look at some things society repeats over and over, and you may have absorbed like a sponge and agreed with.

• “Don’t rock the boat.”
• “It takes 30 days to change a habit.”
• “You’ve gotta resist temptation.”

Sound familiar?

Well, it’s all bull****. There are times to rock the boat, like when you’re fed up with settling and compromising your dreams, and you need to speak up and express yourself. This is how change happens, someone decides that they’d rather move towards their dreams instead of keep the boat steady for the status quo. Make a change, life is change.

It only takes a split second to change a habit, and that second is when you make a badass, truly committed decision, backed up by some action. You might stumble a bit on your path, but that habit is as good as changed, because you’re passionately focused on changing it. Maybe you’ll research habit-changes. Maybe you’ll read Switch by the Heath brothers. Maybe you’ll go to AA. Maybe you’ll do it cold turkey on your own. Whatever the case, it all came from the passionate, burn-bridges decision to change. Make a change.

Resist temptation? Hah. How bad is it really?

People aren’t lazy or resistant to change, often it’s just someone told them that the ‘change’ they’re interested in is ‘a temptation’ that is ‘BAD’. They simply get worn out resisting what they’re heart is calling them too.

If you think about it honestly and consciously, what ‘bad’ things will REALLY happen if you go with your gut? You know if you’re tempted out of some lame need to fill an emptiness or escape life, or if it’s a call from your gut to be who you really are. Try it, make a change.

Change Is Hard is something society teaches. Anything that deviates from the norm is generally met with extreme pressure. Well, you’re worthy, you’re valuable, and you deserve change in your life.

Truth: Whatever the pressure is, consciously and deliberately making a change brings success.

Decisions Need No Attention

This one’s killer too

Decisions are not made by default, and like any skill, they require attention and practice, at least in the beginning.

You might as well face it, chances are you suck at decisions.

Well, you don’t suck, but you’re probably nowhere near as good as you think you are at making them.

“But, I’ve been making decisions my whole life!” you say.

“And if they’re working so well for you, why are you still reading this article about success?” I reply “Not only that, but doing something poorly for 20 years doesn’t mean you’re good at it, it usually just means you’ll have to break your poor habits to make progress.”

If you really are great at decisions, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

Decision-making is a world-shaking skill. Good decision-makers are rise-to-the-top, one-percenters. They know how to commit and persist. They know how to make their decisions count and stick.

Not only are you not as good as you think, but you also probably don’t practice, learn, or attempt to get better at decision-making – and it shows – you can see the results in your life.

Can you make the ‘hard decisions?’ Can you take a stand for what you want in your life, and then calmly express that to your spouse, even if you feel it may result in separation? Can you decide you want a career change, and then actually stick with that decision, back it up, and tell your current job it’s time for you to move on?

It’s okay if you can’t yet – decisions take practice, and the big ones are something to work up to.

You may want to be awesome at decisions, but you can never improve in this area until you realize where you currently stand, and what next steps you’ll need to pursue. Maybe that means admitting you’re about as talented at making decisions as you are at climbing Mount Everest — and you’ve put nearly zero attention on mastering either.

Any mountain can be climbed, starting from the bottom, and taking one proper, practiced, step at a time, and as we saw above, Change Is Easy.

I`d like to go over things you may have been taught about this, but almost all of it is silent teachings. You have examples all around you of friends, family, teachers, governments, etc. who are generally terrible at making decisions.

• They can`t decide which spouse they want.
• They can`t decide what job they want.
• They can`t even decide what to do on Friday night.

These are the people most of us learn from.

There are courses for math, reading, gym, etc. but one of the most important skills in the world is taught neither by parents, school, or society. That of making committed, backed-up-with-action-decisions.

Tony Robbins + Napoleon Hill both have fantastic teachings on successful decision-making, and I have a mini-course that touches on it offered at RyzeOnline.com.

“I’m A Master Decision-Maker” is a belief that I want you to have, but I want you to come to it honestly, by admitting where you are, making peace with that, and then improving yourself by taking steps until you really believe it.

Successful people are excellent decision-makers. They don`t agonize and live in worry whether the results are good or bad, they simply make peace with their decision, decide, and then back-it-up with action.

Receiving Is Hard

Yep, you guessed it… killer.

Did you parents, teachers, and friends teach you that you’re valuable, creative, unique and worthy. That you deserve fulfilling experiences, money, rewards, gifts, respect, etc?

Or did they teach you that “a good person doesn’t accept things in return”? Did they teach you that “rich people are snobs or wasters of money?” Did they teach you that funds are limited and the “rich take advantage of the poor,” leeching all their dollars?

Were exchanges and gift giving in your family normal, common, and understood, or was there an air of mystery and scarcity to it (ONLY on Christmas!).

When someone offers to pay for your meal, do you find yourself making a big deal of it, saying “no, no, I couldn’t” as if that person separating from any of the dollars on YOUR account is unbearable?

Did you learn to criticize anyone who seemed to be “just doing it for the money?”

All this adds up to a very simple idea that people absorb directly + indirectly:

Receiving Is Hard, and there are many rules and complications. This means you’ll never really have a smooth flow of good things into your life. A belief that receiving’s hard and complicated is killer.

Truth: Receiving is a normal, easy, simple, healthy part of the economy and of life. I love receiving, especially in regards to my creativity.

The Wrap-Up

So you’ve learned three deep, dark, secret success-stoppers that hold nearly everyone back, now it’s up to you what you do with that info.

A ‘pro move’ is to DECIDE to CHANGE and RECEIVE some feedback.

To do that, you just have to comment below and engage the community. Start some conversation on this blog on these often overlooked subjects. Get yourself to take ACTION on them.

Decide to contribute, and receive some feedback: comment.

Or you can do what 99% of the population does and skim this article, read it and move on…

…then you’re training your body and mind not to value success and growth, and not to contribute, act, or take steps towards your own success.

Step up

About the Author: Jason helps you successfully bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be, using his clarity & insight to help you rise in all areas. He speaks, writes, and offers sexy success-coaching at http://RyzeOnline.com. He’s been featured on Firepole Marketing, Building Digital Empires, and PuttyLike. Follow him at @jasonfonceca.

I am not doing well since winter has gifted me and my family a horrible cold and I am sneezing more than I type.

However, that doesn’t stop me from wishing my dear readers a very happy new year

A Big Thank-you to you

Really, without your love and support, I wouldn’t be even thinking of writing and running this blog as I play two roles already in my life. One being a full time software programmer at office and other as a responsible family member (husband and father) at home.

Blogging has been a great friend to me. I am now attached to it and with my readers. My passion for writing is deepening by each passing day.

Thank you readers for reading my articles. I am not sure whether all of my articles helped you or not. But, I continue to share tips from my experiences.

Thanks to my email subscribers who opted in and follow my posts. I hope I never spammed you

Thanks to them who downloaded and read my eBook.

Thanks to those wonderful bloggers who hosted my guest posts.

Thanks to those who liked my facebook fan page.

Thanks to those who followed me on twitter.

And finally , thanks to YOU, who is reading this post, right this moment.

This blog is growing

I love to say this. This blog was started in March 2010. Since then, traffic is growing steadily, especially during 2011. To put rest to your curiosity, this blog gets about  1/10th of traffic what ThinkTraffic gets That transforms into about 3500 Page views a month roughly. planetnaveen.com has google pagerank of PR2 and alexa rank of 821206

So, I have a long way to go.

My favorite posts of the year (This includes the posts I wrote on other blogs as well)

The Incredible Benefits Of Saying No

21 Ways To Find Happiness in Simple Things

Release

Why Discovering Your True Passion Is So Important In My Life

Life 1.0

I am keeping this post short and wishing you again a very Happy and prosperous new year 2012.

I found a great new year desktop wallpaper which you can download here.

45 Free eBooks

Dear readers,

I am excited to share few really wonderful and valuable eBooks for enriching your knowledge. They are absolutely free.

I have enriched my knowledge by reading most of them.

These books cover topics such as personal development, blogging tips , lifestyle.

Download these free eBooks and read them however you want (on PC, kindle, mobile or tablet).

Here are the 45 free downloadable eBooks.

1. Get More From Life – By Scott H Young
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here  and here

2. Focus – Leo Babauta
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

3. The Bold Living Guide – by Barrie Davenport
Category: Personal development
Download the book here

4. 92 Life Lessons – By Tiny Buddha
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here  (Check the right side of blog and enter your email to receive the eBook)

5. Value 101 – By Stuart Mills
Category: Personal development, interview series
Download the eBook here

6. Peace Love And Connection – By Tess Marshall
Category: Lifestyle development
Download the eBook here

7.  Seven Keys To Discover Your Passion – By Jonathan Mead
Category: Lifestyle development
Download the eBook here (You will also get 2 free guides as bonus)

8. Non verbal Website Intelligence – By DIYThemes
Category: Website intelligence
Download the eBook here

9. How To Live A Simple Life in 30 Days – By John Sherry
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here

10. eBooks The Smart Way- By Pat Fylnn
Category: eBook creating guide
Download the eBook here

11. Beginners Guide To SEO – By SEOMOZ
Category: Search Engine Optimization
Download the eBook here

12. Get Profitable Niche Ideas – By Glen Alsoop
Category: Niche website ideas
Download the eBook here (Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

13.  How I Grew My Subscribers To 10000 in 12 Months - By Glen Alsoop
Category: Blog traffic tips
Download the eBook here

14.  Make Money Blogging – By Daniel Scocco
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here (See at the end of article where you can enter your email to get the eBook)

15.  Empower Your Writing – By Farnoosh Brook
Category: Content Writing Tips
Download the eBook here

16. Personal Success Blue Print – By Peter James Sinclair
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here

17. Basic English Grammer – By Daily Writing Tips
Category: Content Writing
Download the eBook here

18. Keyword Research and Competition Analysis – By Tom Ewer
Category: Search Engine Optimization
Download the eBook here

19. Everything You Know About Traffic Is Wrong – By Martyn Chemberlin
Category: Content writing, blog traffic
Download the eBook here

20. Getting Results The Agile Way - By J.D.Meier
Category:Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

21. Impossible The Manifesto – By Joel Runyon
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

22. 8 Personal Development eBooks – By Celestine Chua from the personal excellence blog
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

23. How To Be Chosen One – By Amit Sodha
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

24. The Intuition Premier – By Angela Artemis
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

25. Get A Life That Doesn’t Suck – By Benny Hsu
Category: Personal Development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

26. Free Series Email Course – By Onibalusi
Category: Freelance Writing Guide
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

27. Info Product Idea Kit – By Tristan
Category: Guide on How To Come up With Great Idea eBooks and membership sites and more
Download the eBook here

28. Starting A Blog – By Peter Clemens
Category: Blogging advice foe beginners
Download the eBook here 

29. The Best Of Positive Provocations – By Zeenat Syal
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here 

 30. 101 Powerful Affirmations – Yee Shun Jian
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 31. Best Of Change Your Thoughts – Volume 1 and 2 – By Steven Aitchison
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 32. Your Guide To Creating A Powerful Life Vision – By Adrienne
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

33. 32 Most Powerful Conversion Triggers Of All Time – By Oliver Olsen
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 34. 279 days to overnight success- By Chris Guillebeau
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 35. Blog Profit Blue Print – By Yaro Starak
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

 36. 4 eBooks from Blogging Teacher – By Paul Cunningham
Category: -Email marketing, blog maintenance, WordPress plugins
Download the eBook here

 37. 101 Ways To Beat Bloggers Block – By Blogging Bookshelf
Category: Blogging advice
Download the eBook here

 38. 52 Headline Hacks – A Cheat Sheet For Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral – By Jon Morrow of Copy Blogger
Category: Content writing
Download the eBook here

 39. Self Love Stories Of Bloggers – By Evelyn Lim
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 40. The Authentic Dreaming Worksheet – By Danielle LaPorte
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

41. How To Create Our 1st Website - By Income Diary
Category: Website creation
Download the eBook here

 42. 7 Timeless Habits Of Happiness – By Henrik Edberg
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here ( Check the left side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 43. The Guide To Being Human – By Justin Mazza
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here( Check the right side of the blog where you can enter your email for getting eBook)

 44. 8 Pillars Of Lasting Happiness- By Rahul Singh
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

 45. The Five Secrets Of Happiness – By Fred Tracy
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

As a bonus, here is another inspiring eBook

Small Ways To Make A Big Difference – By Raam Dev
Category: Personal development
Download the eBook here

I hope you enjoyed this collection of free eBooks.

I have also created a PDF of above list which can be easily shared with others. Download the PDF here.

Follow me on Twitter to get updates or become fan on my facebook page. Be informed and receive up-to-date information. I don’t want you to miss the goodies

Photo Credit: pixtawan

You just need to do a simple thing.

Release.

If you work for someone, don’t just work and deliver an ordinary result. Instead, razor sharpen your focus and release your true potential. Make the challenges look small. They are really no match to your intelligence. You will start seeing an amazing growth in your career graph.

If you are a creative writer, don’t just write. Instead, release your thoughts like a flow of water. Let them flow. Don’t hold any of them within you. You will be surprised to have a totally new perspective for your writing. Let an incredible masterpiece begin.

If you are a musician, stop composing that new song now. It’s not the best one, yet. Instead, close you eyes and release all vibrant tunes hidden inside your musical soul. Don’t let music become permutation and combination of few tunes. Instead, release everything. Touch the other tunes. Create a melody which yourself want to listen again and again. Be a versatile composer.

If you are a painter, don’t focus on colors. Instead focus on ideas. Release all your imaginations onto the canvas. Then, let a marvelous piece of art take birth from your imagination. After all, art is such a wonderful media for expressing your creativity. Why have you been limiting yourself so far?

Give your loved one, a warm hug and tell them how much you love them. Love needs to be expressed. Release your affection. Talk to your near and dear ones about how much they are important in your life.

You will be delighted to experience the real warm feeling of being with family.

How did you miss to release these emotions so far?

May be because, the person reading this post is not real you. You are lost somewhere in the overwhelming digital distractions. Or may be immersed yourself too much into an illusion of speedy life.

However, life need not be so fast that you miss to enjoy the prime moments of it. Aren’t the magical moments that are recipe for a wonderful life?

I know, there is real you inside.

You just need to release him.

I promise, your world will be never same.

And why not? After all, we are so much drowned in clutter that we either succumb to too much commitments or suffer from painful stress of not being able to live a happy life.

Joshua from The Minimalists beautifully explains why he doesn’t own a television. Raamdev wrote an awesome essay about his plan of traveling 3 countries with $3000 in his pocket.

LJ Earnest discusses how eliminating choice will help you to get more done

Did you see what’s happening?

We need drive backwards to actually move forward in the right lane.

It doesn’t matter what speed you are going in life, however , what matters is , where are you going?

Reducing unwanted clutter from life and detaching ourselves from unwanted burdens makes us feel light and reclaim the time for doing what we really love.

Having said the above, I want to know your views or definition about minimalism.

According to you, what is minimalism or minimalist lifestyle? And in what ways , becoming a minimalist can benefit your life.

If you ask me the same question , which I love to answer -

Minimalism according to me is , deliberately detaching myself  from attractive options and involuntary participation which make my life unnecessarily busy. Because when I am less busy, I create something of really good quality.

Note that I have used the word deliberately here in above sentence. Because without deliberate efforts, it’s not going to be easy to become a minimalist.

Back to my original question. What is minimalism according to you.  I want to know.

Write your thoughts, ideas in the comment section and let’s start an interesting conversation.

This is a guest post by Avadhut Nigudkar from Finance Walk. To guest post on this blog, check guest post page.

If you’re looking for a job and don’t want to lose even a chance to meet your prospective interviewer, I suggest you go and meet small business owners, who can give you the job that you want.

For you and the interviewer (in this case, the business owner) the interview will not be a formal one. It will be a “chat over a cup of coffee or breakfast”.

The small business owners are highly focused on their products and services. They want to produce and sell the product first and recruiting is not their main focus and so, they may not have a dedicated Human Resources person or department. The business owners themselves may not be trained in interviewing skills and have no idea of conducting interviews.

What you can expect

First of all, don’t expect the interviewer/owner will be on time. He may have different tasks to do and the interview may not be a priority for him.

Be punctual and show that you are serious about this job. Expect a number of questions from him, like:

• Tell me about yourself
• Run me through your CV.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Why do you want this job?
• Why do you want to leave the current job?
• What makes you different?

If you have prepared well for the above questions then you can face the interview confidently.

Interviewer is not HR person here and so, he is totally unaware of how he is conducting the interview. So, you can take initiative and lead the interview.

What you can do

1. You should be prepared and confident to lead the interview. Treat this as an opportunity and prepare well.
2. If the interviewer is not well prepared, you should take the lead and ask all the information about the job and the company.
3. Ask the required details about the interviewer and the company. The interviewer will go on and on and tell you all the required information.
4. The interviewer will tell you about the company, how it started, their future plans and about the job that you are applying for. This gives you time and opportunity to settle down and build rapport.
5. Tell the interviewer the research you’ve done about the company and how much you know about the company. Impress the interviewer with this information.
6. When the interviewer is going through your CV, he will go through the jobs you’ve done and the skills you’ve acquired. Provide relevant details and your key achievements in each job.    After this, the interviewer will ask you whether you want to ask anything or need any more details about the job. Take initiative, and ask relevant questions like “What kind of projects I will be working on”, or, “What are company’s values and vision”. These questions show that you are interested in the job and want to think of long term.
7. If the interviewer doesn’t mention about the next step, take initiative and ask him when can you expect a call/ email from him. Ask him what would be the next step—job offer or second interview.

Show your confidence no matter what type of interview you’re attending. You can highlight your key achievements with highlighter pen and explain them in detail when the opportunity arises.

Give good examples of what you’ve done—don’t wait to be asked!

So, next time someone from a small or medium sized company wants to meet you over a cup of coffee, say yes, prepare well and give the interview confidently.

I’m sure it’ll be a WIN- WIN opportunity.

About author: Avadhut Nigudkar is a Career Coach and founder of FinanceWalk.
He writes on Career Selection, Attitude building, Personal Branding, Job Search, Resume Building, Networking and Interviews

Lot’s of interesting stuff will be available there as I progress my writing there. Right now, you will find few articles and an awesome offer if you are blogger or website owner. I will design your blog header image for Free.

That’s right.

I am keeping this post short. Please go and check it out and let me know what you think about it.

If we ask people what’s the life they want to live, most people would vote for a stable life.

People want a life without problems. A life which sails smoothly all the way.A life in which everything happens exactly as they had planned.

They want a safe life. In other(their) words, a stable life.

If I ask the same question to a new college pass out, what he want to do after studies ? He generally says, he wants to do job and within 5 years he will become stable in career. He wants buy his own home after 7 years. He will even go to an extent that he may become a manager after 10 years. He can also predict what he will do after retirement.

I say. Wow!!!.

He predicted the next 20 years. Not bad.

This is not just true with college pass outs. This is the same answer we get if we ask the folks who are in their mid-careers.

Mind you, I am not at all saying that opting for a stable life is wrong. If you are fine with it, you can skip the rest of this article. But if you are not, then read further because I am going to discuss something extraordinary. And this article is for you.

Now, first of all , what’s a stable life? How do you define a stable life?

Is it your job that makes your life stable?

Is it your control over money that makes your life stable?

Is it your capability of earning  a constant income?

Is it all of the above?

What if any one of these go wrong? Suddenly you are unstable. Isn’t it true?

You see, people often follow other people: whether in studies or career. They believe, it’s the education that determines their success at life. They focus on marks , grades and ranks.

Even in career, they (blindly) follow others. They will do what others did. They buy homes because others did. They fall in debt trap because others fell (but didn’t warn them).

Even after getting the job, people think that the they will be in the job forever. They plan their next 5 years, 10 years and 20 years keeping job as center-point.

Now, can you tell me what’s going to happen next year or next week or even tomorrow or even next moment?

You can’t predict what’s going to happen the very next moment with you. Why? Because you are going to face it now. You would be proved wrong if you predict something else. That’s the point.

So, most of the 5 years, 10 year and 20 years plans never work. Because they are just plans. In most of the cases they never happen.

You are much bigger than your plans

I want you to realize that you are actually much bigger than your plans.

You are much more intelligent than you thought. You can do amazing things which you never thought.

How?

Just stop living like a robot. And you will start experiencing the incredible things life has to offer.

Who is judging your capabilities anyways?

Why do you think you can never create something awesome?

Why do you decide that you can’t start your own product?

Why do you rule yourself out?

Who is judging you?

It’s none other than your self limitation judging you.

Time to break the wall of self limitation. Come out of fear.

I have a great news for you

Despite your decision to live a stable life, you still have opportunities to create something amazing in your spare time.

How?

Look within.

Think about your strengths. What are you strong at?

Do you specialize in something?

Do you have deep knowledge of something from which others can benefit?

What are you passionate about? Discover your true passion.

Can you create something out of your strengths or passion?

You can.If you try and take the first step.

Because, you are no more a robot. Congratulations for reaching this stage.

Create something – You in action, now

Take a paper and list down all the topics you’re knowledgeable. Also, mark few topics which really excite you.

Can you create something out of it? You can, just join the missing links.

Let me tell you a small example of mine. When I accepted my first website development project (which was for a temple), I didn’t even know what is HTML. I took it up because, I wanted to learn web development in real time. I wanted a challenging assignment. I spent time in learning, applying and finally launched the site. It has been 4 years now, that website is pretty popular and brought me lots of recognition.

Since then, I have created many sites and blogs including the one you are reading now.

Who knows, I may create something new tomorrow or may come up with a book or a software tool. I don’t know. And I love this uncertainty. It makes my life interesting.

Coming back to you.

If you love teaching – You can create an online teaching website where you deliver virtual lessons with help of technology.

Do you love singing? Why don’t you launch your own music album?

Are you a great writer? Why don’t you start a blog?

Are you a full time software employee? Why don’t you create new application which automates lots of things and breaks the routine working process at your office?

You can develop an iPhone app, an android app.

Think crazy ideas and see whether you can implement one of those.

If you don’t specialize any of the above, don’t worry. You can still create something new.

” Need is not always mother of all inventions. Sometimes you need to create the need “

Destroy the Robot within you

Destroy the robot within you called self limitation. That’s what holding you back from creation, achievement, fame.

Stability is just an illusion. It holds you back from growing. It ties your hands with fake limitations. It masks your immense potential.

Instead of running behind stability – Think, experiment, explore and create.

Try something new.

Think about an idea and see whether it can make your life. If it can’t, think another idea.

You are human, who can breathe, smell, smile and most importantly, create.

You are not programmed. You have real intelligence.

You are not a Robot. Stop living like one.

Create something. Be awesome.