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How to Define Happiness: The Tale of the Fisherman and the Businessman
The tale of the fisherman and the businessman is a classic story reminiscent of Aesop’s fable. The moral of this story reflects the idea of what success looks like for each of us. Success, happiness, and contentment could be the simplicity that life already offers. A businessman once sat by the beach in a small village. As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore, having caught quite a few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at…
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8 Lessons from A Reluctant Businessman: Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia’s Business Philosophy
I encountered Yvon Chouinard many years ago after his talk on business’s moral role in environmental sustainability and immediately bought his book “Let my people go surfing. The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.” “Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward. Rather, returning to a simpler way allows us to regain our dignity, puts us in touch with the land, and makes us value human contact again.” — Yvon Chouinard “How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.” — Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman The word ‘reluctant’…
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The Art of Minimalist Living: 8 Tips to Start Living a Minimal Lifestyle
Minimalism is a simple lifestyle of having less, decluttering the home, and strategically finding ways to be surrounded by things with purpose and add positive value to our life. I recently moved from a cozy studio apartment into a one-bedroom and realized something alarming. All the backache and soreness I got from the move convinced me that I had too much stuff. Had I lived like many American consumers with a penchant for accumulating things? I had stuff that expired on top of two or three items I thought I needed. The puddle of clutter turned into a lake before becoming a swamp. As a result, my things are weighing…
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How to Master the Art of Active Listening
We develop bad listening habits when we enter a conversation without thinking emphatically about the other person. We carry the baggage of our agendas, and our sleep-deprived, social media-trained low-attention-span selves fail to create deep relationships because we do not know how to listen actively. Active Listening is a skill that is hard to master. When we talk, it is frustrating knowing that the person we are talking to doesn’t listen. Listening is an art form that must be developed and doesn’t come naturally for many of us. A great listener will use their active listening techniques to become great leaders in business and their social life and can become more…
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8 Ways to Manage Social Media (To Preserve Your State of Being)
Social media use is on the rise, especially among the young and impressionable. Therefore, we must set ground rules when using social media as it can negatively affect our state of being. However, responsible use of social media is possible. 1. Be Judicious. Do you let just anybody walk into your house with dirty shoes? Then why are you ingesting everyone’s moods, feelings, thoughts to enter your brain? It’s hard to maintain a grounded state when you have random people walking into your headspace. 2. Aim for Quality, Not Quantity. Follow people you admire and like only. Great people inspire you, give you great ideas, make you feel the…
