Mindful Mind Matters More

The provocative power of thoughts of any action is a reflection of thought process which is guided by positivity or negativity of the mind. This thought process is derived from the mind power. You will become a successful person, if you have a control on your mind. It is a proven fact that the working pattern of your body and thoughts are interdependent.

Mind is a powerful sensory and discerning factor as most of the time, in our day to day life, it does not allow us to think in linear path; it allures us to think in a zigzag pattern ultimately leads us to distress, evil and hardship. The people who are guided by controlled mind, they are in a position to neutralize the evil effects and subjugate his mind for his welfare and also others benevolence. It is said that every controlled mind is a reflection of plus factor of mind with respect to attitude and openness. Further, mind is very much influenced by attitudinal pattern. If you draw a curve of mind and attitudinal pattern, plotting x & y axis, it takes the shape of an upswing curve because mind’s power is inversely proportional to attitudinal pattern..
The word ‘attitude” itself is an important determinant factor to sharpen the positivity of mind because of inherent meaning of all its alphabets.

A = Attribute to be positive, T = Try to change if the attitude is negative, T= Total control to negate your negative thoughts, I = Instinct to use to visualize the positive, even in adversity, T = Think to start every thing with positive and constructive approach, U = Understand all your inherent strengths, D = Develop your conscious to achieve the best, E = Energize your inner self to influence outer self to be always positive.
To augment the power of positive mind, the followings are to be inculcated in your daily routine.
* Sole searching:
Many a time, in your life, you feel yourself less enthusiastic and ponder on anxieties caused due to various perceptions which may or may not have any relationship with your career, social life or materialistic despondency. But such behaviour is quite radical. Because, even otherwise your brilliancy is undoubtedly beyond questionable, the negative thoughts may crop up in your mind just because of above situations. Nothing is achievable easily and so you have to toil excessively and endlessly to earn other people’s support services, their co-operation and good wishes with plus factor of your mind.
* Build up yourself:
A normal person of average calibre, even otherwise possesses several abilities which are up to the mark with respect to any prevailing standard may require investing his energy continuously for overall growth. You have to upgrade your skills, knowledge, and keenness to float in the corporate and social environment.
* Plan, follow and improve:
You have to relentlessly upgrade the power of your mind focusing your concentration on all the alphabetical meaning of ‘Attitude’.
The famous couplet of “Genesis” of the Bible says that during the creation of the universe, the first thing, God said “Let there be a light” because the total universe was under the clutch of the darkness. God never said, “Let there be darkness.” In the similar way, in our day to day life, we have to always encounter the darkness with a light and a positive power of mind. Ultimately, mindful mind only makes us triumph

The Eight Indomitable Laws of Success

Success is a dirty word. Still, all of us have an urge to smell its fragrance. But most of the time, it allures us to illusion. The more you try for it, the more you will be in pain to achieve. It is said that “Hardworking is a key of success”. But it may happen that despite your hard working, you are deprived to get the taste of success. You have to understand that life is not a bed of roses, it is full of thorns. Try to inculcate the following rules as a part of your life and success is bound to come.

1. Law of positivity: You should keep the positive frame of mind and no dust of negativity should be accumulated in your mind. If at all it layers, you have to clean it by a broom stick as you do for your house. If you adopt this simple technique, you yourself will find the difference.
You have also to keep high self respect, internal peace and strong spiritual connection so that you are full of positivity. You need not be a high calibre person to maintain the positivity. Any average person even with mediocre capability can keep positiveness of mind. This is really an asset and first and foremost traits of a successful life.
2. Law of physical Energy: Physical energy is the vital aspect of life. It provides power. Power comes from proper eating habits, regular exercise and adequate sleep at least for six hours so that you are full of energy.
3. Law of socialize: To achieve success, most of us become workaholic. We forget everything around us. We feel work is the only triumph card in life. It is completely wrong. You have to always strike a balance between your working life and family as well as social life. If you devote 8-10 hours time to work, at least half of this time qualitatively should be given to your family and social life. The more you content with your family life, the more your professional life will blossom. Your deep connection with your family members and social friends will give you inner peace and if your inner peace level is very high, automatically success level will increase.
4. Law of Integrity: Don’t procrastinate. If you can’t do anything or do not want to undertake any job even it is very trivial, say so. Everybody likes frank confession. The more you bring conflict, the less you will be successful.
5. Law of smile and praise: We are very jealous to provide praise to others good work. If you are able to shower praise for others achievement, you will see the environment is full of exuberance which will definitely produce the best output. I have seen many academically brilliant people who are very miser in this activity. Even for a small achievement by an office boy in my company, I praise profusely. Same is the case with smiling.
We seldom provide smile and on the contrary most of the time, we are pervaded with gloom. Someone rightly says that a cloudy sky will not a match for sunny disposition. The more you smile, the more enjoyment will be in your life.
6. Law of knowledge: Most of us after completion of our studies completely get rid of studying habit and very rarely study which is absolutely a wrong phenomenon. We all read morning newspapers and magazines to get acquainted with the updates of politics, social, entertainment and sports. To increase knowledge, it is not adequate. The knowledge regarding your specific field is to be increased everyday. If you want success in your life, you have to continuously study for long hours per day. But, if time is the constraint, then study at least an hour for any subject related to your profession and supporting that profession.
7. Law of Altruism: Out of eight attributes, this is the hardest one. Some people show great altruistic power in all their endeavours. They feel others pain and always think for their benevolence. The concept of altruism is to be practiced continuously because more you show your selfless love for other’s prosperity, your own success curve will increase.
8. Law of Divinity: This is the most vital aspect of a successful life. With your hard work and following the above laws of successful life, you can definitely obtain success but to get spiritual divine success, your mind is to be exercised regularly. It is to be toned. There are certain practices to acquire this wealth. Every morning after wake up, you have to think some joyful incidents which bring happiness to your mind. And then, if you look into the mirror, you will find a glow on your face. You can continue this exercise for at least five minutes. In the same way, if you chant some hymns or spiritual songs during the time of your shower and if it becomes practice, you will also gain divine connection. Materialistic success is definitely required but you will be getting all your success in real sense, if you are able to achieve divine connection with God.

As per the perception of many of my colleagues and friends, I am their Guru. As per Sanskrit language, the meaning of guru is …. “gu” who shows path in darkness and “ru” means to dispel the same. So, by giving knowledge to these people who are mostly qualified engineers, I make them to practice these laws so that they are able to transcend the obstacles of darkness to achieve success. If they are able to find out success based on these laws, why not you?


                                                                    The End

Hypocratic politician of Seventeen hundred Century.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet was written   in 1600-1601 and it is one of the best  tragedies,ever written.It stands long as a real revenge tragedy in western civilization. This tragedy was very different from the tragedy of Seneccan tradition and it was risen to a great height by its subtlety,refinement and humanism. Cladius,the antagonist of the play was a very shrewed person like today's politician. In fact, after the death of Hamlet's father when he was mourning prolongly, he suggested that very much mourning is not advisable because it is ireligious.Even he passed strictures for Hamlet's erratic behaviour.   This shows his hypocritical attitude because he characterizes Hamlet for his extra mourning as betraying ''its will to reach heaven door''.Despite his heinous crime of murdering his own brother, he showered a word of wisdom and advise to his nephew, Hamlet. So, it is evident that during sixteen hundred century also, there were people like Cladius who was capable to turn the table by sweet talks
In twentyfirst century, we have number of Cladius who arouse the masses with their sugar coated pills in terms of talks to enjoy the materialistic value in their lives.

Goal Setting

Goal Setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time-targeted objectives. It suggests that it's an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them. In business, goal setting has the advantages of encouraging participants to put in substantial effort and because every member has defined expectations set upon him or her (high role perception), little room is left for inadequate effort going unnoticed. 

Dream big visions and the visions drive you to dream goals. Once goals are defined, plan of actions takes place. Concrete action plans and calculated efforts turn your dreams into reality and win you exuberant success. If your aims, desires and aspirations are properly formulated in right direction, you are automatically charged to concentrate on your endeavours with great enthusiasm to reach the goal. When your behavioural pattern conforms to the above state of mind, goals dreamed by you become challenges for you. 

If you try to assiduously visualize your goals, you must be full of zest and vitality. You have to make yourself capable enough to accept the challenges that come to your way and to convert them into the steps to success. If you raise yourself to such position, nothing can prevent you from reaching set targets. We all strive very hard to achieve our goals by exerting whole hearted efforts, but even after achieving the same, we do not feel satisfied or we do not rejoice.  Why?  The reason lies not with the achievement of goals but the goal itself does not bring any enthusiasm to otherwise nonchalant employees.  

Setting of goal and measurement of the progress are very important. Goals are to be fixed very scientifically with a tremendous zeal for the same. People mostly follow the method called as SMART which is the most ideal method of setting goals.  It is as under:-

S          =          Specific things which are being qualified

M         =          Measurement

A          =          Attainable

R         =          Realistic

T          =          Timely

This method will definitely invigorate a person to put his best to convert the set goals into reality.  But, sometimes, it happens that the people, who remain successful in achieving goals, lack profound involvement in their endeavours which results into a total apathy to their own achievements. The main reason is that the goals set by them fail to rejoice them even in case of their achievement.  If this is a fact, then the goal setting is quite discouraging.  These might have not framed in line with the need of personal goals. Definitely, personal goals are the derivatives of the organizational goals and vice-versa. So organizations must see that their goals meet the personal values of employees. A goal setting should have a very wider prospect.  It should not be visualized merely as a yardstick to achieve a periodic target or pass an examination which is conducted each year for any given course. An achievement is seen with the exertion of resources and the toils put in so that a complete joy, pride and self-satisfaction are truly enjoyed.

How to fix goals: To be most effective, goals should be tangible, specific, realistic and have a time targeted for completion. There must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal. For example, setting a goal to go to Mars on a shoe string budget is not a realistic goal, while setting a goal to travel to Mumbai as a backpacker is a possible goal. To be most effective, your goals should be tangible, specific, realistic and have a time targeted for completion. There must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal.

Motivation: Goal setting also requires motivation. Simply setting a target may lead to progress in the desired direction, but understanding why the target is desired encourages personal investment into the achievement of the goal. In the motivation film "The Opus" (2008), achievement expert Douglas Vermeeren explains this important principle clearly: "When people talk of clarity it often gets described as just writing down your goals. The most important element is often left out. That is finding your motivation. If you want to get to your goals quickly you have got to clarify on why you want it. What does it mean to you? Why do you need it in your life? And the stronger and the more important the why, the more power you will have to pursue that goal." 

How goal setting works: Simply urging employees to “do their best” will prove as an advice only.  But if a goal is established and set for them, they will have to focus their attention to the same. A goal is thereby of vital importance because it facilitates an individual in focusing their efforts in a specified direction. In other words; goals canalize behavior 

Mystery of Happiness

Happiness and distress are the two sides of life’s coin.  As in a cricket match, everybody wants to win the toss by calling the “Head”, same way, all of us want to be very very happy in our lives all the time but that does not happen.

Life is always confronted with many up and downs, obstacles, miseries, despondency and many other constraints. We have to pass through this vicious cycle and in this way only,  one acquires mental strength to become stronger to lessen the gravity of distress so as to enjoy the happiness in life. The people who are not able to do so, are always in the slough of distress.  Apparently, they seem to be happy, but their countenance will always be hovered with gloom.  If we delve in the root cause of this cycle and if we take this as normal phenomena of life, we will not be perturbed at all.    

A person may have adequate money, wealth and materialistic comfort, but still he will be deluded from the real happiness.  Contrarily, an average and middle class person with a high spiritual quotient and less materialistic comfort may be full of happiness. 

We know that there are different quotients i.e. Intelligent Quotient, Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient.  In the same way, I have come out with a Quotient of Happiness.  As per me, happiness quotient is derived from a mathematical expression of platonic  love / conditional love. If this ratio is greater than one, the person is moving towards self realization and there is no doubt about that.  But, if the ratio is lesser than one, then the person is always living in stress and when the person is always in stress, he cannot enjoy the real happiness. 

To know this, we must understand the difference between platonic love and conditional love.  If we read various sonnets particularly 147 of William Shakespeare, most of them are based on the principle theme of love.  In his sonnet no. 147 which consists of many poems, he has expressed his passionate love which is more like a conditional love for a dark lady, although the literary researchers are still unable to find who is this dark lady.  In the same way, Katherine Fowler Philips (1631-1664), the greatly admired poet of her times has expressed her platonic love in her many sensual poems when she touches the issue of beauties of very many eternal things without delving to the sexual connotation at all. 

Platonic love is nothing to do with materialistic love, physical love or even greediness.  It is only the love without hankering to get anything in return.  In short, it is only to give and in turn, nothing to get and finally is to be engulfed in the environment of happiness.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) is represented by EQ = W x IQ. (Intelligent Quotient)  “W” is the present insight of a person, his ability to give any judgement and his ability to understand others.  This understanding of others is very important to derive happiness in life.  If we fail in these activities, then our lives will be like a dead wood because happiness is a sequence and combination of other’s happiness and its effect to your life.

We can understand others very well, if this emotional quotient is very high and again this can be represented by a mathematical value in binary digit i.e. 0, 1.  “0” represents absence of these qualities, stated above and “1” represents presence of these qualities fully.  If a person is devoid of these qualities, then he is almost an autocrat person.  But, if a person possesses all the above qualities then his emotional quotient may be equal to IQ.  Such persons are truly democratic and the persons who have high grade of emotional quotient, it is seen from the research that they have high spiritual quotient.

We should not misunderstand the spiritual quotient as people who are only sages, monks, and priests.  Even common man can have high spiritual quotient. No sooner we have a maximum spiritual quotient and also have high emotional quotient; we will definitely enjoy the happiness in life.  Needless to say that people with high EQ and SQ, will be always believer of platonic love.  They sacrifice their own comfort and ensure other’s happiness.  They are always ready to extend their co-operation for others benevolence.  This doctrine of platonic love is not easy to be inculcated in one’s character and for that matter, consciousness and automatic nervous systems are to be energized with abundant positivity. For example, if a person is met with an accident and if someone extends his help to the victim even though he is completely an intruder and takes him to the hospital daring all the consequences and ensures his recovery, then he shows his platonic love because in turn, he will not get any return.  There are galore of people who have given their lives to see the smile on other’s face like Mother Teresa, Sister Nivedita etc.  They were always happy.  No one could ever found them in distress.

When we go through this mental process or achieve this higher strata of mental configuration which is known as real waking consciousness, we feel tremendous ray of sunlight passing through our mind and automatically it gives a glow on our face and our body is also getting sensitized with positive energy ultimately taking us to the lap of never ending happiness. This happiness is beyond any expression and it can be only enjoyed blissfully.

If we do more and more this type of work considering the concept of platonic love, happiness will definitely be increased to the highest level.

Power of Positive Thinking

Success in various fronts of social as well as professional life is definite for the people who posses an inherent quality of energizing their thoughts with positivity. They are classified as the people with positive mind frame who do not get provoked and indulged in any sort of mental block. They are like any other human beings. The only difference is that they avoid blaming their luck for their failures and do not concentrate much on their weaknesses. They consider failures as stepping stones to success. 

This is one side of the coin.  The other side is also prevalent.  There are people who always discuss the mistakes committed by them in the past, murmur, curse the environment and situations for their failures. Such attitude expels positivity from their minds which in turn brings abundant failures to them.

Always remember that you can be better than what you are.  You have to have full trust in your ability and intelligence.  Your body is like a highly acclaimed machine and your brain a critical asset. You can definitely accept the challenges of the surroundings with this combination.  To make these all happen, the attitude, a very important factor and a significant personality trait needs to get increased.  It is the attitude that helps you to think in a positive way and the same can create a magic in your life. As per Winston Churchill, “An attitude is a small ingredient, but makes a lot of difference in one’s life.”

Provoking Power of Thoughts: 

Any action is a reflection of thoughts and the thoughts are directed by a positive or a negative approach. You can become a successful person, if you are influenced to induce your thoughts.  The results of researches show that the working patterns of your body and your thoughts are interconnected with each other.  If you are endowed with a positive frame of mind, you will be able to lift your spirit.  Contrarily, if your mind is always hovered with the negative thoughts, you would surely encounter the failures. In my professional life, I come across different types of personalities and I have the privilege to segregate an intellectual lot having haughty nature and ample money and the lot other having less materialistic strength with tremendous positive attitude.  And relying upon my knowledge, I opine that the second lot makes history and always smiles in their lives beatifically.

Take the instance of the environment of your office where all your activities are governed by your mind. Gravity of your acts makes you judge the level of your performance and the performance gets accelerated when the acts are influenced by positive attitude. You are able to produce the output beyond the expected level with the help of a constructive behaviour and the consequence will always be positive.

The success is never a result of feeble efforts. A structured and continuous process of development of various skills and knowledge bestowed with positive thoughts, guarantees right thing to happen. So, to exuberate in life, fill your mind with positive, productive and sensible thoughts. This will bring a noticeable difference in your attitude towards life.     

Soul searching:

Many times, you feel less enthusiastic and ponder into anxieties due to different perceptions which may or may not have relationship with your career, social life or materialistic despondency.  But such behaviour is quite radical. Though your brilliance is doubtlessly unquestionable, the negative thoughts may crop up in your mind just because of the above type of mindset of yours. Negative thoughts as stated above, will destroy your inner energy i.e. positivity and throw you in the shackles of despair.  Nothing is easily achievable unless you toil hard and earn others support, assistance, co-operation and good wishes.

This is just a guide line. But to energize your inner self with the power of positive thoughts, you have to continuously introspect till the time; you recognize its importance. 

Build up yourself:

A normal person of average calibre, possessing several abilities conforming to the prevailing standards, may require investing his overall growth.  To survive in the corporate jungle, you have to continuously upgrade your skills, knowledge and maintain the eagerness. Always concentrate on the jobs you like the most and the jobs you know more about it.  This keenness will only bring more colours to your life and will help your career graph to ascend.  

Plan, follow and improve:

If your planning is perfect and accurate, you will have a success of abundance with extraordinary results.  You have to immensely master the techniques and skills required for the job you are involved into.  Planning is very important and if it is foolproof, the results cannot be haywire.  A person who does not recognize the importance of planning, cannot reach the desired destination.  Here comes the perspective of attitude.  Without right attitude, it is extremely difficult to grab success in life. The success is like a war which is full of mirth and despondency.  If you rush with strong and calculated planning supported by a scientific approach, no one can prevent you by reaching the success. 

It is very essential to concentrate on the strength instead of weakness. No one should mourn about what they do not have; rather an approach is to be laid on what he owns.  Celebrities, all round the world, never give importance to their limitations.  Their attitudinal behaviour always guides them to positive thinking. And this character alone remains benevolent to lead them to success in their lives. Always maintain an attitude of constantly upgrading yourself with the latest developments coming up all around.  By indulging into self development, you will be in a position to improve upon your performance in any field. Also remember that as soon as you are complacent, your development graph will start travelling downward.      

Attitude: can be defined as follows:

A          =          Attribute                      to be positive.

T          =          Try                               to change if the attitude is negative

T          =          Total control                to negate your negative thoughts.

I           =          Instinct                         to use to visualize the positive, even in adversity.

T       =      Think                       to start every thing with positive and constructive                                                      approach.

U         =          Understand                 all your inherent strengths.

D         =          Develop                       your conscious to achieve the best.

E         =         Energize                        your inner self to influence outer self to be always 

                                                             positive.

You have to remember that your attitude as well as the viewpoint of others for you, affect the routine business of the people connected with you in the professional and social life. Your attitude proves to be one of the major success fetching elements in today’s competitive working environment where you have to work as a team. It is tricky for you to overcome the obstacles coming on your way, if you do not own a balanced attitude. Thoughts should be sensitized and strengthened with vision to eradicate negativity from your behaviour. By practicing this hypothesis, mind will be energized gradually to pursue the positive aspects.  This will, at a later stage, become a habit and get transformed into a natural element of your attitude.

Attitudinal behaviour and its impact on career:

Attitudinal behaviour plays a very important role at the start of your professional career. When you appear for an interview, interviewers notice your attitudinal behaviour very subtly because they know that they can train and twist you talents to suit their job requirements but can’t change your attitude to make it adaptable to the work environment. 

You can conquer the obstacles, if you have a positive attitude which emphasize on the brighter aspect of your life.

In my long professional career as a marketing man and as a departmental head, I have been always encouraging on coaching my people and bringing the best out of them. I have noticed that a person having positive attitude and “can do” approach can achieve success even if he is weak in some areas. On the contrary, a person though very brilliant suffers a lot because of his negative attitude. In today’s arena of global competition, companies always in search for the right people who can show immense power of positive attitude in all spheres.

Mostly, all the companies are now conducting psychometric analytical tests to measure the candidates’ attitude and thereby to identify their potentialities for success.  You have to be the master of your mind and not a slave. By doing this, you will be able to control your mind and will be in a position to always concentrate on positive things around you.

Keep away from negative:

Life is full of mysteries of successes and failures.  Everyone has to face this naked truth. Failures quiver a person’s confidence and develop a negative outlook in him which further worsens the situation when everything starts seeming gloomy to him. A famous couplet of “Genesis” in the Bible says that during the creation of the universe, the first thing, God said was “Let there be a light”, as the total universe was under the clutch of darkness. God never said, “Let there be darkness.” In our day to day life, we happen to come across the situations which present dismal pictures before us. If you are calm and quiet, and can maintain a positive frame of mind even in the situation of adversity of life, positivity will grow and enable you to always see only the brighter part of life. I would like to put forward a classic example of positive attitude which many of us know very well. Mr. Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, the eminent scholar, was one day summoned by his mother.  When he reached the river Damodar in the late evening, he, because of heavy flood, could not find any boat to reach other side. Since, he had made up his mind to meet her mother by hook or crook, overlooked the fanatic situation of river, swam the river, reached home late night and touched her mother’s feet.  What a positive attitude he showed!  This example glorifies the significance of struggling against all darkness and negativities of life.

Attitude V/s Success:

Attitude and success, both are hand in gloves. Success is directly proportioned to positive attitude.  You can never dream success without positive attitude.  “Can do” attitude only can transform your actions into reality.  Please keep in mind that there is no shortcut to success; real success is always a long route. Mind boggling efforts, pain-staking work, eradication of negative thoughts and tremendous perseverance are the nuts and bolts to achieve success. In a journey to success, you will come across many circumstantial hurdles like resource crunch, negative criticism, discouragement, etc.; but you need to keep all your positive thoughts intact to sustain the motivation which helps you perform your best.

There is no magic to reach success.  Your whole hearted efforts with brimming confidence bring you success. If you engage yourself in any undertaking, intensify your potentialities and concentrate all your attention on the task undertaken with a constructive approach, you will find your missions completed.

As a marketing coach in my present employment, I impart training to young engineers to help them mould their career. I profusely teach them the fact that they must develop the right attitude to master the fundamental principles of product development and marketing operations.  During the initial six months of their probation period, I make them understand the significance of positive attitude, in absence of which, they may face enormous problems ahead.

Further, many people believe that positive attitude is an inherent element and it is a domain of some particular group of people. But it is not correct. Even, if you are an average qualified person having a mediocre brain, you can learn and practice the positive attitude.  To drive your thought process in a positive direction, you need not be highly qualified or should have an extraordinary brain power.  It is only a matter of consciousness that how you shut the doors of your mind to block negative thoughts. This is the main and important quality which needs to get sharpened for becoming a positive person.  It is true that negative thoughts cannot be completely vanished but they can be, of course, minimized by increasing the layers after layers of positive thoughts and then it will automatically become a habit of your usual life at a later stage.  Once you are habituated to discharge your duties with positive thoughts, the influence of negative thoughts will become insignificant.   

Finally, there are galore of examples of eminent personalities.  A few are Nawab of Pataudi, Ten Zing Norgay, etc.  Pataudi, despite his one eye, with shear grit and determination, he established himself as one of the greatest cricketers in the world. Same is the case with Norgay. He conquered the invincible Mount Everest with a tremendous attitudinal power.

So, think positive, act positive, and no doubt, the outcome will definitely be positive.

Create a habit of reading

There is an importunate relationship between creation of writers and perusing the same by readers. Writer exemplifies his imaginations and gives them a body of words. Readers grasp, chew, swallow and digest all that is served by the writer depending on the intensity of the inscriptions and gravity of the same. A man is always eager to learn from his surroundings.  He does so by observation, conversation, experience, reading and sharing his thoughts with others. From the medieval to the renaissance stage, man has evolved a tremendous inclination for reading.  All have their own ways of reading and mastering their techniques to maximize the benefits of reading.  Reading is a typical habit and people read according to their own style.  Some people read silently and some loudly. 

According to the National Reading Panel, reading skill scatters through various domains which are termed as “phonemic awareness”, “phonics”, “fluency”, “vocabulary” and “reading comprehension.”  Reading habit is a constant practice, and it can be developed by regular reading which is derived from adding of many things.  All the above domains definitely invigorate the readers to read effectively.

Habit of reading:

The habit of reading should be instilled in a person from the childhood so that the habit of reading grows along with his age. The initial stage up to the age six is known as zero stage. This stage is recognized as a pre-reading stage or a reading readiness stage.

Once the zero stage is over, a child enters into an initial reading stage.  This is known as the stage one.  In stage two, which starts from the age of eight onwards, a child is in a position to identify the importance of reading and also confirms his/her willingness for reading habit. This stage is called confirmatory stage. In stage three, the child reads more and more for the purpose of effective learning.  This stage starts normally at the age of ten.  In stage four, when the child leaves this phase and enters into adolescent phase starts developing opinions, expresses, view points, etc.  In the final and fifth stage of reading habit, a person concentrates his attention on a particular subject and forms his own judgment based on the pros and cons of reading materials.

Modus-operandi of reading:

Peoples’ tendency towards reading depends on the quality of reading materials. They devote their attention if the narrations, characters, context and style of the reading materials are lucid. They remain engrossed with the texts. Out of many techniques, the most prominent are the three viz. scanning, skimming and concept making techniques. All these tools, if effectively used can augment a skill of reading considerably.

Anyone who decides to purchase or a hire a book from market or library, he at first sight gives a cursory glance at a book stall. People ascertain the contents meeting their reading taste. Then, they scan the materials and skim the contents using the concept mapping technique. This concept induces the brain to record the information given in the book and understand the interconnectivity of the ideas expressed in the book. The concept mapping technique helps storing information into the brain. A combination of these three tools enhances a desire to read the particular book.

Another popular reading technique is SQRRR which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review. As per this method, whatever you are reading, survey is critical. The survey will raise questions, and the answers thereof will make you to pay for the text.  Readings will further lead you to recall the contents and store it into the memory for further review. Many people take another method of reading which is known as stage-by-stage reading.  In the first stage, the entire contents are scrutinized with some of the portions of the text and are cross checked with rapt attention.  Thereafter an opinion is formed.  If the opinion is positive, the readers focus his attention in depth to the contents and separately concentrate on the introduction, the control portion and the end of the reading material. This stage is known as a previewing stage.  Here, the readers make their judgment and form an analytical view on the worth of the book as far as reading fully is concerned.  If this stage is also positive, a book is to be read thoroughly, contents after contents so as to take the fragrance of the narrated text, style, etc.  When this stage is over, automatically the readers would like to call back their memory to review the contents. This method of reading provokes the readers to form a habit of intensive reading to enhance the skill.

To increase the effectiveness of reading, following suggestions should be considered.

1.         To give importance to quality reading. Quality reading will enhance the reading skill.

2.         Reading is a structured method. You need to decide as to what to read and what to skip, depending on your interest, time, inclination and commitment.

3.         Always keep a dictionary handy.  If you are not able to recognize a particular word, you should immediately rely upon a dictionary for solution.

4.         Do not gobble the words of the text. In that case, you will not be in a position to enjoy the pleasure of reading and derive its meaning.

5.         If you are a fast reader with a speed of 200 to 300 words per minute, you may stick to the same, but without deteriorating the quality aspect of the reading.

6.         You must be sure of the reason of your reading.  If you indulge in the clueless reading, it cannot be classified as a quality reading.

7.         Always concentrate on the subject and its contents and context of the materials.

8.         You have to stick to 3 “Ws” before you undertake reading.  These are “why”, “what” and “when”. The combination of these three “Ws” will decide the quality of the reading.

9.         Make a habit of reading of exceptional kind of books instead of particular type of reading.

10.     If you are not able to retrieve the meaning of the contents of the material, revisit the same later on, but do not exert pressure on your mind. Excessive pressure will jeopardize the concept of quality reading.

11.     Your reading schedule is to be set in such a manner that it coincides with your ability of grasping the text.

12.     If you find a certain portion of the reading uninteresting, leave it, and stop reading it for the time being.  A volatile mind will not be able to digest the meaning of the text material.

13.     While reading, underline the important phrases, narrations, words, dialogues, etc.

14.     Develop the habit of converting the texts in your own words.  This will enable you to read fast.

15.     You can eliminate the prologue portion of the text, and after reading, you can scribble the main theme of the material in your journal so that the reading becomes easy.

16.     It may happen that you generate your own thoughts during the process of reading and if so, the same can be entered in your journal and it will help you to recall the reading.

17.     Do not insist upon reading auxiliary verbs, conjunction, prepositions, and definite / indefinite articles to easily understand the meaning of the text.

18.     Practice the habit of keeping colour pencils, so that the relevant portions of the text pre-decided by you can be color-codified.

19.     Try to visualize the written text into a pictorial form for easy understanding.

20.     Spare some amount of time each day for reading. This will be ultimately become your habit throughout the life.

21.     Try to read the words, sentences, paragraphs in one go because that will make you focus more on the text.

22.     Do not stick to any specific reading materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, study materials, etc.  Let it take its own course of action as far as reading is concerned.