I spent almost an hour at the Writer’s Reference section at Barnes & Noble today. Flipped through many books to find the right one. I couldn’t. Is the book that would help me get past my writer’s block the right one for me? Is it the one that shares experiences from established writers along with their tricks and techniques? Fiction or non-fiction? Should I follow Stephen King’s footsteps? What should I do? Where do I start? What is it that I want?

I want to write a book and get it published someday (soon?). I want to be known as an author, maybe even retire as one. Not sure what i would write about though. Leadership? Management? Fiction? It’s too early to decide.

What about skills? How do I learn the skills? Are skills important? Do first time authors work on developing their skills first?

Reading is a skill writers must have and I am weak at that. Maybe that’s where I will begin. Depth of knowledge, as it was pointed out to me recently, is important or maybe even missing.

I guess I will start there then.

We all make mistakes all the time. But not all of us realize that we have. Even when we do, how many of us are comfortable with apologizing and making amends before it is too late? Anytime I see someone who puts his/her guilt, pride, ego and other emotions aside to take the time and pain to say “Sorry” or send apologies and are willing to take baby steps towards redemption, I am impressed.

This post is the 2nd of my Communicate Your Way To Success series.

I believe success comes to those who realize their mistakes early on, are self-critical, does not hesitate to apologize and have the will to set things right. This mindset leads to good communication as communication is not just about writing and speaking well, it is about your actions evident in your body language. Your body will act positively when your mind thinks/speaks positively.

What prompted me to write this post was a letter that I received yesterday from a top official of a utilities company that I have service with. To me, this letter speaks volumes of their customer service and I have not seen many public service companies who would take the time to apologize for the mistakes they’ve made, knowingly or unknowingly. To quote:

Please accept my apology. Rest assured we have learnt from this mistake and we will take appropriate steps to make sure this does not happen again. We are committed to providing our customers with excellent service, and we intend to meet or exceed your expectations in future transactions.

Do you hesitate to apologize?

“Keep me posted.” How often do you hear that in a day? Whoever you are, whatever your role, there is always someone asking you to keep him or her posted. Frankly, I am sick of it. My job is turning out to be just that. I can’t “do” anything because I am always on the phone or meetings or writing minutes of the meet to keep everyone abreast of what’s happenning. Don’t get me wrong. I know it’s part of good communication to keep my stakeholders in the loop. But at a point when it seems like a full time job (and I end up writing about it on a blog), that’s when I know there’s ‘sumthin wong’.

Isn’t this why the role of a Personal Assistant came about in the first place? I think so and that’s what we need. Every PM who manages multiple projects or accounts needs a PA. It’s a win-win situation for all of us. Everyone gets to do their job, what they signed up for.

Good communication turned bad, that’s what is happening here. The world is moving at such a fast pace that there is just too much happenning around us. We are all so well connected across borders and continents that communication is becoming cheaper, faster and efficient. But it has also become an untamed beast, taking over our lives. The sad part is that we have no time to stop and embrace all the simple things in life like the clear blue sky, a cool breeze and silence.

Let’s try to remove the complexity out of communication. Too much communication is like a drug that’ll make you want more and more, manifesting into behavioral changes such as anxiety, paranoia and eventually brain damage.

What do you think? Do you think I’m exaggerating or is there something to this? Keep me posted.

Another year has gone by for the lap31.com and for me. It is time to gear down, head into the pitstop, change tires, refuel and get back out on track as quickly as possible.

1…. 2…. 3….

The 32nd lap saw more of my toastmaster speeches, a lot of guest posts and a little bit of experimenting to invoke my creative writing skills. It was fun writing my very fictious “On A Normal Day”.

I also got my chance to co-author my first book, Age Of Conversation 2, many thanks to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for the unique opportunity. So what if it was just a 1 page chapter! We all have to start small. AOC2 is my first step to publishing my own book someday.

I admit that I wanted to accomplish a lot more last year. I wanted to be more frequent at posting new articles, create a collaborative environment, offer more tips tricks techniques and tools…. none of which took off as I hoped it would. Just goes to say that hoping is not good enough. We need to work hard to raise the bar. Instead, I let myself be distracted.

In this new lap I hope to get back on track, step on the gas and fly.

5…. 6…. the sound of tires screeching, the smell of burning rubber… a white misty smoke filled the air. I drive onto the 33rd lap.

Have you ever asked your boss for a raise, or a friend for a big favour, and been apologetic about your request? What happened? You got a refusal. What else could you get? If you were enthusiastic, sure of what you had asked for, taken his consent for granted, the result would have been favourable. People find it very hard to refuse someone who takes their consent for granted.

If you are planning to get something big, try this method; first make a strong mental picture of what you want. Figure out in detail. Write out what you want, and more or less how you are going to set about getting it. Follow the architect who draws the blueprint of a house in detail before it becomes a reality. Don’t bother about the likely setbacks and obstacles, tackle them when and if they come. Keep this slogan before you:

“They Can Conquer Who Believe They Can”

Once you set about getting what you want, don’t let anything stop you. Follow the example of a great person who said: “I’ve been up and down all my life. Lots of people said I was through; but I never thought much about it. I always was too busy to worry about my troubles”. Stop worrying about troubles, and learn to face them. “Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble”, says G.W.Lyon. Keep that in mind. You can will your way to success or failure, to victory or to defeat, to happiness or misery.

Life will pay any price you ask from it, only thing is don’t approach the ocean with a teaspoon!

A young boy sat on the bridge and watched the fish in the stream below. “I wish I could catch one of them”, he said to himself. A passerby, who heard him, stopped and said,

“My boy, if you really want to get your wish, stop wishing and start fishing”!

Manual: Competent Communicator
Assignment: Speech #1 “The Ice Breaker”
Comments: It’s been almost 2 months since I joined the Toastmasters club in my area and today I gave my 1st speech – my icebreaker. As usual, I prepared for it in the 11th hour but I am glad I did it. I got encouraging reviews from my club members and I can’t wait to give my next one.

You know, preparing for this icebreaker was not an easy task. What is it about me that I would want you all to know. Who am I? What a tough question? I thought to myself: If I am a word in the dictionary, what would be the synonyms that define me? Hmmmm… lets see. Lazy, Stubborn, Selfish, Couch potato…. that wasn’t going anywhere.

Then I remembered. It struck me that this is not the first time that I have had to reflect back on my life and ask myself that question. So, I thought: Why not take this opportunity to talk about what happened on the day I turned 30.

The day I turned 30 I remember being so paranoid. Everyone around me said that I was experiencing a mid-life crisis. Maybe I was. I thought about the 30 years of my life that had gone by and I asked myself… What have I achieved? Did I make the right choices? What could I have done more? I thought about my experiences, the lessons I’ve learnt and the choices I’ve made. I didn’t have all the answers but I did not want to quit asking. So, I decided on May 12th of 2007 that I was going create a website to talk about my life through my experiences.

I’ve always wanted to collaborate with others. We are fortunate to live in a world where collaborating across borders, countries and continents is so easy. It is so easy to share thoughts. But what’s easy is not always done. The website is my way for us to collaborate.

I call my website lap31. Why? I am Formula 1 “Schumacher” fan and I also love driving. I’d like to think of life as a F1 race. We are the race car drivers trying to get to the checkered flag. Some of us are in the lead competing for a podium finish, some of us are falling behind, some of us are being lapped and some quit. lap31 is a pit stop, where we stop and analyze the laps we’ve completed; where we can talk about what we’ve achieved, what we’ve learnt, the choices we’ve made; where we prepare for the laps ahead… but are we ready to lead?

Today, lap31 is nearing a total of 2000 visits with an average of around 10 visits per day. It’s not a lot but it keeps my passion alive. I am the main contributor and being a Manager by profession, I write a lot about leadership, team motivation and global project management. Through my writing, I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of bloggers out that who share my passion. I learn from them and they motivate me to continue writing.

I hope you have learnt something new about me today and I am glad I got this opportunity to talk about my passion.

Thank you for listening.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“Looks professional. Nice work.” She said.

Basically, that’s the response I got from all those who I asked about the new and improved lap31. It just goes to show that looks do make a difference.

But it is not the look that really made the difference. It is the feel, which is an outcome of the WordPress theme I’ve chosen. That’s right! lap31 is no longer powered by Drupal. Why? Well, Drupal is great but it was a nightmare upgrading to newer versions. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I believe WordPress makes it very easy for me to manage the site. I am impressed. Also, the new lap31 will enable a lot more wannabe writers/bloggers/collaborators to contribute. WordPress makes it so easy. All you’ve got to do is reach out to me at lazymale@lap31.com. Overcome that laziness and Just type away. That’s what I do.

I had only one main objective in mind when I was redesigning the site and evaluating layouts – to make it easier for You (the reader) or You (the contributor), to find your space on lap31. That’s why the new layout is sectioned into the following broad categories: Leadership, Project Management, Productivity and Motivate Me. It also helps me focus my writing to these specific interest areas.

I am excited about this new phase for lap31. There are many articles lined up for this month. My interview of Andrew Filev, the founder and CEO of Wrike, a leading online project management software. My chat with a friend who shares his experience of handling project team members and motivating them. These are just a few of the upcoming attractions. I hope you are as excited as I am. So, be sure to tune in.

Thank you.

It’s a small world. We’re all connected. Technology and the internet enable us to communicate easily; faster. You and I can talk right now if we choose to. This is the age of the internet, of blogs, of collaboration, of conversation. This is the age of people reaching out to you and me to bring us all together to share thoughts; to collaborate.

Drew and Gavin have seen it work once. They co-authored “Age of Conversation I” with 103 collaborators around the world. Now they’re back with AoC II and the votes are in. Those of us who’ve voted to be a part of AoC II are waiting for the roster to be published. But whether we get selected or not, let’s be sure to appreciate this age of collaborative writing. Let’s watch how AoC II shapes up to be the next bestselling collaborative book and let’s get inspired. Let’s spread the word.

lap31 supports collaboration and the “Age of Conversation”.