Centre has decided to form a committee to protect the language, culture and land of Ladakh and ensuring citizen’s participation in the Union Territory’s development. The Committee will be headed by the Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and will include elected representatives from Ladakh, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, central government, and the Ladakh administration.
 
The decision to form the Committee came yesterday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah met a 10-member delegation from Ladakh who expressed their views about the need to protect Ladakh’s unique cultural identity. The delegation also spoke about the geographic location and strategic importance of Ladakh, its demographic changes and the need for generating more employment opportunities in the UT. 
 
While speaking to the delegation, Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated the union government’s commitment to preserving Ladakh, saying that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Ladakh’s land and culture will be protected and developed.

India and France will hold their annual Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi today. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will lead the Indian delegation while the French delegation will be led by Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic Advisor to the French President.
 
In a statement, External Affairs Ministry said, the two sides will hold discussions on wide-ranging bilateral and global issues. Mr Bonne will also call on other Indian dignitaries. The last edition of the Strategic Dialogue was held in February last year in Paris.

India and France will hold their annual Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi today. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will lead the Indian delegation while the French delegation will be led by Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic Advisor to the French President.
 
In a statement, External Affairs Ministry said, the two sides will hold discussions on wide-ranging bilateral and global issues. Mr Bonne will also call on other Indian dignitaries. The last edition of the Strategic Dialogue was held in February last year in Paris.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation the 306 Kilometer New Rewari – New Madar Section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor today.
 
He will also flag off the world’s first Double Stack Long Haul 1.5 Kilometer long Container Train hauled by electric traction from New Ateli -New Kishangarh during the event.
 
Governors and Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Haryana along with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal will also be present at the occasion.
 
The New Rewari – New Madar section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor is situated in Haryana and Rajasthan. It consists of nine newly built dedicated freight corridor stations which includes three junction stations in New Rewari, New Ateli and New Phulera.
 
The opening of this stretch will benefit various industries in Rewari – Manesar, Narnaul, Phulera and Kishangarh areas of Rajasthan and Haryana and will also enable better usage of the container depot of CONCOR at Kathuwas. This section will also ensure seamless connectivity with the western ports of Kandla, Pipavav, Mundhra, and Dahej situated in Gujarat.
 
With the inauguration of this section, seamless connectivity between the Western and Eastern dedicated freight corridors will be achieved. The Prime Minister had on 29th of last month dedicated to the nation, the 351-kilometer New Bhaupur- New Khurja section of the Eastern freight corridor.
 
The Double Stack Long Haul Container Train Operation which adds an enhanced axle load of 25 tons will maximize capacity utilization. These wagons on a long-haul double stack container train on the western freight corridor can carry four times in terms of container units compared to the current traffic on Indian Railways.
 
These freight trains will run at the maximum speed of 100 km/per hour as against the current maximum speed of 75 km/per hour on the Indian Railway tracks. It has also been decided that the average speed of freight trains will be increased from existing speed of 26 km/per hour on Indian Railway lines to 70 km/per hour on the dedicated freight corridors.

The idea of living a simple life with less stuff sounds attractive to many.

But often, they begin to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and defeated around the idea of owning less. That’s too bad.

Learning how to declutter your home and (and as a result, decluttering your life) doesn’t need to be as painful as some make it out to be. And the benefits are numerous.

The Benefits of Decluttering Your Life

There are many benefits to owning fewer possessions. Even then, it’s tough to move into action. That is… until the many benefits of getting rid of clutter reveal themselves:

Less to clean. Cleaning is already enough of a chore, but having to clean around things you have zero emotional attachment to (or worse, actively dislike) makes cleaning the house much more stressful.

Less to organize. Finding things suddenly become easier. Things don’t just “disappear” anymore. You can actually move around your home and enjoy the space, instead of moving around things that are in the way.

Less stress. Looking around at the clutter is a nausea-inducing sight once your home becomes cluttered enough. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look around and see a home you love?

Less debt. Spending less time shopping for material possessions and adding to the clutter means your wallet and bank accounts remain fuller, your credit cards’ statements are lower, and your home doesn’t get filled with costly things you don’t need.

More financial freedom. Most American households live paycheck to paycheck Nearly half of those surveyed carry credit card debt. Decluttering, paired with minimalism, will help you build up savings to keep you protected in case of unexpected emergencies.

More energy for your greatest passions. With less debt, more financial freedom, and a clean home, you can now focus your energy on the things you enjoy instead of worrying about “Keeping up with the Joneses.” This will ultimately make you happier.

Ok, so now you know the benefits of decluttering your life, but you may be getting tripped up by the very next question… where in the world do you begin?

10 Creative Decluttering Tips

If you’re struggling and need guidance on how to declutter, you’ll need to get creative with your plans. Here are several interesting decluttering tips to get you started on decluttering your home:

• Start with 5 minutes at a time. If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day.
• Give one item away each day. This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. Increase this number once it gets too easy.
• Fill an entire trash bag. Get a trash bag and fill it as fast as you can with things you can donate at Goodwill.
• Donate clothes you never wear. To identify them, simply hang all your clothes with hangers in the reverse direction. After wearing an item, face the hanger in the correct direction. Discard the clothes you never touched after a few months.
• Create a decluttering checklist. It’s a lot easier to declutter when you have a visual representation of where you need to get started.
• Take the 12-12-12 challenge. Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home.
• View your home as a first-time visitor. It’s easy to “forget” what your home looks like to a new visitor. Enter your home as if you’re visiting the home of a friend. Write down your first impression on how clean and organized the home is and make changes.
• Take before and after photos of a small area. Choose one part of your home, like your kitchen counter, and take a photo of a small area. Quickly clean off the items in the photo and take an after photo. Once you see how your home could look, it becomes easier to start decluttering more of your home.
• Get help from a friend. Have a friend or family member go through your home and suggest a handful of big items to throw away or give to someone else. If you defend the item and want to keep it, your friend has to agree with your reason. If they don’t agree, it’s time to get rid of it.
• Use the Four-Box Method. Get four boxes and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of the following boxes. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This may take days, weeks, or months, but it will help you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.

No matter which decluttering tip you choose to get started – whether it be one of these ten or one of countless others – the goal is to take your first step in decluttering your life with excitement behind it.

I recently had a wonderful conversation with my friend. During our chat, she told me about an interesting shift in thinking that occurred while she worked at a science museum.

During her time there, she learned how to treat failure like a scientist.

How does a scientist treat failure? And what can we learn from their approach?

Here’s what she taught me…

Treat Failure Like a Scientist

When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.

And that’s exactly how a scientist treats failure: as another data point.

This is much different than how society often talks about failure. For most of us, failure feels like an indication of who we are as a person.

Failing a test means you’re not smart enough. Failing to get fit means you’re undesirable. Failing in business means you don’t have what it takes. Failing at art means you’re not creative. And so on.

But for the scientist, a negative result is not an indication that they are a bad scientist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way.

Your failures are simply data points that can help lead you to the right answer.

Failure Is the Cost You Pay to Be Right

None of this is to say that you should seek to make mistakes or that failing is fun. Obviously, you’ll try to do things the right way. And failing on something that is important to you is never fun.

But failure will always be part of your growth for one simple reason…

If you’re focused on building a new habit  or learning a new skill or mastering a craft of any type, then you’re basically experimenting in one way or another. And if you run enough experiments, then sometimes you’re going to get a negative result.

It happens to every scientist and it will happen to you and me as well. To paraphrase Seth Godin: Failure is simply a cost you have to pay on the way to being right.

Treat failure like a scientist. Your failures are not you. Your successes are not you. They are simply data points that help guide the next experiment.

Do you love your job? And are you willing to spend more than 12 hours working? Not many people will be able to such, but there are several reasons that inspire people to work harder and longer.

If the goal of work isn’t to earn more and more money so we can buy bigger and bigger houses and fancier and more expensive cars, then what’s the point? If we’ve chosen to measure life’s success in more important terms than material possessions, why would we choose to work hard?

Consider these seven, just to get started:

1. Work forces personal development.

Work, by its very nature, presents challenges and growth opportunities. It requires us to improve and develop and become better versions of ourselves. The more we grow, the better at work we get… and the greater the challenges become.

2. Our work brings benefit to society.

Our work contributes to the good of society. It serves others, it enriches peoples’ lives, and it moves everyone forward. Whether we are bagging groceries, delivering mail, analyzing stocks, curing cancer, or managing other workers, we can view our work as an act of love to the people we serve.

3. Hard work is an example to our kids.

When we strive to do our best work each day, our kids take notice. And among the greatest character traits I hope to pass on to my children is the importance of working hard on things that matter.

4. Work hard at work to work hard at life.

We learn important life lessons when we give ourselves over to hard work: determination, attentiveness, responsibility, problem-solving, and self-control all come to mind. These lessons, in turn, serve us in other areas (health, relationships, hobbies, etc.).

5. Work hard to make the most of your hours. They will pass anyway.

Each new day brings with it an important choice: either we fill it with our best or we allow it to slip away. There is no other option—the hours are going to pass anyway. Choosing to work hard makes the most of them. Please note: I am not discounting the importance of rest or balance—I have written about both extensively.

6. Work is fulfilling, in and of itself.

In my opinion, there are few joys in life more satisfying than laying down at night with tired legs attached to a tired body. To know I gave my full energy to something important is an amazing feeling and fulfilling in itself.

7. Working hard keeps our lives occupied with important matters.

Living an unoccupied life is a recipe for disaster. Choosing to fill our time and energy with things that bring value to others helps keep us from selfish and foolish decisions with idle time.

There is value in hard work and minimalism does not remove the inherent value of it. In my opinion, it brings its inherent value in sharper focus.

Before ending this post, allow me to briefly speak to those of you disengaged at work—those who no longer find any joy in your specific role and want nothing more than to escape it.

I understand that not every job is enjoyable and feeling motivated to work hard comes easier to someone who looks forward to punching in the clock each morning (or evening). Sometimes, we are required to do work we do not enjoy. If that’s you, please remember, your enjoyment (or unenjoyment) of work does not diminish the inherent value in it.

If you are working a job you hate to provide for your family, you are doing a noble thing and should be commended. And working hard at it, in the place you are today, is your most important step out of it.

There were people in my career who seemed determined to fail. Despite mentoring, instruction, gentle correction, and discipline, they consistently chose the low road.What’s the low road? An appetite for excuses, blame, and underperformance. An aversion to personal responsibility.

In an a well known organisation -most employees will want to improve, and they will be open to useful feedback. Some, unfortunately, will always resist.This is frustrating because it takes time to build rapport with them for a life coach.Life coach would always point out their good qualities and successes at work. In short, they will develop trust with him. Yet they refused to own their mistakes or change behavior.

Striving for mediocrity

Any life coach would have watched a fair number of bright and promising employees repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot, thereby killing their prospects for broader career development and promotion.

It is frustrating to see employees with great potential who succumbed to mediocrity and the path of least resistance. Sometimes they were lazy. Other times, they became invested in a perceived wrong. Whatever the reason, they consistently fell short.There’s no judgment here, just disappointment that he was unable to help these employees.

Here are some of the mistakes you want to avoid at work.

Inconsistency

You’ve probably heard or read the advice, “Underpromise and overdeliver.” Sounds reasonable, but according to research, it’s not very good advice.I don’t see much harm in overdelivering on promises, but what’s most important is CONSISTENCY in meeting your promises.Employees who can be counted on to consistently follow through on assignments are golden.

In a established career, there will always be a handful of employees who became indispensable, go-to people because they consistently followed through on assignments.Other employees sporadically achieved great things, but they were inconsistent. If you want to stand out at work and not shoot yourself in the foot, worry less about being an occasional superstar and focus more on consistently doing good work.

Emotional immaturity

Emotionally immature employees take things personally, often play the martyr, and fail to take responsibility for their actions.Such individuals cannot work around their feelings to achieve positive outcomes. They expend more energy resisting or fighting things they don’t want to do or disagree with, rather than getting their work done.

For instance – one employee who worked very hard at finding loopholes in our minimum standards of performance. He often did the least work possible and blamed others for his low productivity. The effort he put into resisting work was far more than simply doing his job. Needless to say, he was eventually fired.Focus on doing an honest day’s work for a day’s pay. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by letting your emotions get the best of you.

Negativity

There will always be things in life to complain about. No doubt, you know people in your work who grumble endlessly about everything. Ask yourself, how much fun are they to be around?

Successful, well-adjusted people don’t waste energy on negativity. They work around setbacks and obstacles. They don’t quit. They focus on the goal, not the challenges.Don’t be one of those negative souls at work, bringing everyone down. You’ll only shoot yourself in the foot. Optimism can be a force multiplier, whereas negativity can become a cancer at work.

Gossip

People love to talk about other people, especially when it’s negative. They’ll even do it via text messages.Who are we to talk about others behind their backs? Do we think we are superior to them? Is it fair to judge, when we know little about their backgrounds, circumstances, and struggles?

If you want to shoot yourself in the foot at work, gossip about other people. It won’t take long before others and even your supervisor will figure out that you’re a gossip. And then they’ll think less of you.

Impatience

We live in an instant gratification world. As a result, we’ve become more impatient.We can order food and have it immediately delivered to our home. With a few clicks and swipes on our phones, we can purchase goods and have them delivered, or hail a ride to take us anywhere we want.

Technology has made our lives easier and brought many conveniences. As a result, we forget that most things of value in life take time to achieve.If you want an athletic body and six-pack abs, it’s not going to happen overnight. It will take many months of regular training and an improved diet.If you want to make more money, you’ll have to invest time and energy in developing rare and valuable skills. That means furthering your education, practicing, and applying your new abilities in ways that get you noticed. All of which takes time and sacrifice.

Impatient employees shoot themselves in the foot because they’re not willing to put in the time and make the sacrifices necessary to grow. Developing patience within yourself will serve you well, in dealing with other people and learning new skills.

All we have is our character

There are many other mistakes you can make at work, like dishonesty, backstabbing, etc. In the end, all we have is our character. Our reputations hinge on our work ethic and how we treat others.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with inconsistency, emotional immaturity, negativity, gossip, and impatience.

Embracing hard work, decency, and virtue will take you far in the workplace, and other areas of your life. Best of all, you’ll become a role model for others, which is how we make the world a better place.