Deer In Front of My Balcony

Sadiaa, my sister-in-law, went to our balcony to water the plants a little earlier. Low and behold she saw this beautiful deer in front of her. I was in a piano recital for Ahyan, so I regretfully missed it. In the early morning when I was coming back from MCA after Fajr prayer, I saw some wild jerkings on those trees but couldn't see anything as its quite dense. It must have been there since then. But its gone now, at least for the day!

9 Things To Do To Achieve Top Performance

Here are 9 great insights for achieving top performance from the experts in our program.

1. View busyness as a lack of focus.
There’s a satisfying rush we experience when there’s too much on our plate: we feel needed, challenged, even productive. And yet that pleasurable experience is an illusion. It robs us of our focus, and prevents us from making progress on the work that matters most.

2. Own your time.
Our most satisfying work comes about when we’re playing offense, working on projects that we ourselves initiate. Many of us know this intuitively, yet we continue to spend the vast majority of our days playing defense, responding to other people’s requests.

3. Avoid the “Victim Trap.”
When things aren’t going your way, it’s easy to point fingers or feel sorry for yourself. However, the more we embrace negativity, the more that negativity spreads. As author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind T. Harv Eker points out, “Whatever you focus on expands.”

4. Intentionally leave important tasks incomplete.
Instead of aiming to finish important tasks in one sitting, try leaving them incomplete. Doing so will encourage you to continue thinking about your work in different settings and, in the process, position you to uncover creative solutions.

5. Make a habit of stepping back.
The best solutions reveal themselves when we step into the shower, go for a run, or take a vacation. Top performers view time off not as stalled productivity, but as an investment in their future performance.

6. Help others strategically.
Avoid saying yes to every helping opportunity. Instead, specialize in one or two forms of helping that you genuinely enjoy and excel at uniquely.

7. Have a plan for saying no.
Have a strategy in place for saying no, so that you don't have to stop and think about how to phrase your response each time you need to turn someone down. Create an email template, or write out a script that you can use when doing it in person.

8. Make important behaviors measurable.
To make progress toward any goal, it helps to track our behaviors. Bestselling author Gretchen Rubin sees monitoring as one of the keys to behavior changes, saying, “If you want to eat more healthily, keep a food journal. If you want to get more exercise, use a step counter. If you want to stick to a budget, track your spending.”

9. Do things today that make more time tomorrow.
Top performers look for ways to automate or delegate activities that are not a good use of their time. Not sure how to get started? Ask yourself this question: How can I use my time today in ways that create more time tomorrow?

My Favorite Fictional Characters of All Time

My Favorite Fictional Characters of All Time (in no particular order) are - Lion-O of The Thunder Cats, X-Man Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk and Ceaser of The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes -

A Quick Look At The Gone Year 2016

Another year went by - 2016. Let's visit the highlights that happened around me.

Highs

• Suhaila got admitted to public school. She got the sibling privilege as Ahyan is already a student there at Parkmont Elemetary School.
• Adobe Systems acquired TubeMogul at the end of the year. So I am now an Adobe employee.
• Started understanding Quran with meaning as well Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadiths. I am expecting it to be a 5 to 10 years journey to finish even for once if Allah wills.
• My parents-in-law came to visit us and we all went to attend Sadiaa's convocation at Tufts University, Boston, MA.
• Watched the best Bangladeshi movie in recent times Aynabaji. Amitabh Reza Choudhury's visit to us was a great bonus.
• Participated in Millionaire Chess 3 in New Journey, probably the last edition of MC for foreseeable future. It was great to meet Amy Lee with my family during her trip to bay area.
• Sadiaa got a job in San Francisco and she moved to our place. The kids are so fond of her and its a blessing for Shusmita as well.
• Started listening to audiobooks and finished 56 books this year (one book I couldn't include in goodreads).
• In the year end trip, we rode in hot air balloon. A tick mark from bucket list.
• Litu Bhaijan visited us from Japan with his family.
• Finally started managing my personal finance actively.
• Attended some great sessions face to face with Sheykh Yasir Qadhi, Ustaad Nouman Ali Khan, Al Jazeera's Mehid Hasan, Professor Reza Aslan.

Lows

• Donald Trump won 2016 US Presidential election defeating all republican competitors as well as democrat candidate Hillary Clinton by surprise and by miles.
• A series of terrorist attacks all across the globe including the one in Dhaka's Artisan cafe left many of us paranoid and highly frustrated.
• My USCF and FIDE chess rating remained below 2000 dropping slightly.
• I haven't been able to start working out despite thinking about it several times.

Donal Trump in 2016 US Election

Which Shakespeare Play Should I See? An Illustrated Flowchart

Source Credit: http://goodticklebrain.com/home/2016/4/18/which-shakespeare-play-should-i-see-an-illustrated-flowchart

Evils of Remaining Silent

"ওরা প্রথমে যখন কমিউনিস্টদের ধরে নিয়ে যেতে এলো,
আমি কোন কথা বলিনি,
কারণ আমি কমিউনিস্ট নই।
তারপর ওরা যখন ট্রেড ইউনিয়নের লোকগুলোকে ধরে নিয়ে গেল,
আমি নীরব ছিলাম,
কারণ আমি শ্রমিক নই।
তারপর ওরা যখন ফিরে এলো ইহুদিদের ধরে নিয়ে যেতে,
আমি তখনও চুপ করে ছিলাম,
কারণ আমি ইহুদি নই।
ওরা আবারও আসল ক্যাথলিকদের ধরে নিয়ে যেতে,
আমি টু শব্দটিও উচ্চারণ করিনি,
কারণ আমি ক্যাথলিক নই।
শেষবার ওরা ফিরে এলো আমাকে ধরে নিয়ে যেতে,
আমার পক্ষে কেউ কোন কথা বলল না,
কারণ, কথা বলার মত তখন আর কেউ বেঁচে ছিল না।
 
-জার্মান কবি মার্টিন নিমোলার কবিতা