Permit me to give you just a little background.

More than a half century ago an ordinary looking school boy selling tea earned fifty rupees a month. The other boys in his group earned ten. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, once challenged a group of his disciples. Here is what he said, “I want you to take a good look at Narendra. What he’s got that rests of you haven’t? Narendra earned five times more but is he five times smarter? No – not according to the school reports. They show he’s about average in his school.”

“Did Narendra work five times harder than you fellows? In fact he took more time than most of you to sell tea. Did he have more education? Better health? Again, no. he is about as average as an average guy could be except for one thing.

“The difference between Narendra and rest of you,” said Swami, “The difference is that Narendra thought five times bigger.” The Swami proceeded to show that success is determined not so much by the size of one’s brain as it is by the size of one’s thinking. Today he is the Prime Minister of India. Swami Dayanand (Giri) Saraswati is the spiritual guru of Narandra Modi.

This was an intriguing thought and it stayed with me. The more I observed, the more people I talked with, the deeper I dug into what is behind success, and the clearer was the answer. Most case studies proved that the size of the bank account, the size of happiness account and the size of satisfaction account is all dependent on the size of one’s thinking.

You Are What You Think You Are

I had heard a lot about the triumphs and tribulations of my ancestors in my childhood. I loved listening to the stories of valour and vanity of the lesser known nobles.  It is said that the urge to pen down such stories overtakes one sooner or later. I thought of attempting a study of lesser known nobles and my ancestors in particular. I soon realised that I had kept no notes whatsoever, let alone a diary. My uncle Bhagwat Singhji said, “Pratap, your doubts are illusionary; in fact there may well be some advantage, if you wrote from your memories, as they come darting back, when one embarks on the task”. There was no looking back. I started penning down my memories, meeting people and visiting places. Today, after 22 years of research I have published a coffee table book and it was unveiled by Maharana of Mewar on March 11, 2017. It was pursuing my passion.

So friends, resolve to put your ideas on your word document / notepad. An idea written or in some sort of picture or diagram form is very powerful tool than the idea presented in oral form.

The Tools to Think Creatively

1. Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution. Eliminate “impossible”, “won’t work”, “can’t do”, “no use trying” from your thinking and speaking vocabularies.
2. Don’t let tradition paralyze your mind. Be receptive to new ideas. Be experimental. Try new approaches. Be progressive in everything you do.
3. Ask yourself daily, “How can I do better?” there is no limit to self-improvement. When you ask yourself, “How can I do better?” sound answers will appear. Try it and see.
4. Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Capacity is a state of mind. Asking yourself this question puts your mind to work to find intelligent short-cuts. In business parlance: Do what you do better (improve the quality of your product) and Do more of what you do (increase the quantity of your output).
5. Practise asking and listening. Ask and listen and you’ll obtain raw material for reaching sound decisions. Remember: Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking.
6. Stretch your mind. Get stimulated. Associate with people who can help you to think of new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests.