A day repeated, over and over again... Life is nothing but a day repeated over and over again x number of times. What’s x? Well, it seems that we do not have an idea and in the absence of an accurate number, we tend to just ignore its value. It comes out be around 24,000
Artificial urgency or doing things before they are urgent. The world works on artificial urgency. The University Exams, the education calendar, the company’s financial reports don’t need to be annual. But making them annual serves a purpose. It takes the choice away from the person involved. You can’t make exceptions anymore. It keeps the machine running.
Intentions and actions How many times do we do something which is exactly opposite to what we intend to do? We intend to study to score more marks and instead end up bingeing the entire series. We intend to be healthier but end up ordering from the food delivery apps. We intend to
Ignoring the Hiccups On the way of our practice, we would run into hiccups. Something would happen. We would cheat on our diet. We would not sit down and finish what we had planned to finish. We would get distracted. We would lose our willpower. The common tendency is to analyse these hiccups
The purpose of pain. And how to handle it. Pain serves a purpose. First, it could be good pain or bad pain. Good pain is like the one that we feel while working out. That indicates that we are making progress. Similar pain is felt, in the form of fear and anxiety, when we
Would you do it even if you were sure it would fail? In the book ‘The Practice”, Seth Godin asks the question, “If You Knew You Were Sure to Fail, Then What Would You Do?” Would I write this blog if no one read it? Would I write my book if it didn’t sell even a single copy? Would I meditate
The superpower earned through repetition Michael Phelps. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Seth Godin. Tim Ferriss. How can Seth Godin communicate so seamlessly? How can Elon Musk apply first principles to complex problems and execute the seemingly impossible with so much relative ease? How can Tim talk to the top performers in the world with so
What is the worst that can happen? If you did not send that email today. If you did not publish the blog today. If you did not make the calls today. This is Resistance’s trap. It makes us focus on avoiding the downside rather than embracing the upside. And we fall for it. As we have
Writing and thinking. If I ask you to write something, anything, for 30 minutes, you’d ask “What do you want me to write upon?” “What are you expecting?” “What is the purpose of this exercise?” But instead, if I just leave you for alone for 30 minutes, with or without your smartphone,
Being kind to myself This is one of the toughest thing to do. And this is one skill that we need to learn. We can be kind to others, but how can we be kind to ourselves. How can the voice inside our head be the kindest of them all. It takes conscious emotional
Misplaced priorities We tend to favour going with momentum instead of deliberately calibrating the direction in which we are moving. A symptom of this is excessively busy behaviour. Because we do not know where we want to go to, we start moving in many directions at once. It is difficult to pause
The intention to finish There is a significantly different quality of mind when our intention is to finish something. Most of the time this quality is evading us. Thinking about a decision and deciding something are very different. The thinking can go on indefinitely and it is that which brings a lot of pain.
Gravity and Sisyphus Sisyphus was punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Most of us look at this like a curse and a punishment. I have started to believe otherwise. What
Unnecessary complications. Should I use WordPress to publish my blog or Medium? Should I write short form blog entries or long form? Should I email this blog daily to my subscribers or weekly? I can and have spent weeks and months deliberating about this in my head. This and numerous other unnecessary
Full body (and mind) engagement. Have you tried the warrior pose in yoga? You can’t do it unless you have a full body engagement. The legs muscles are engaged, the shoulders, the neck, everything is engaged. And just like that, the mind is also engaged. Mind follows the body and body follows the mind.
The one who plans and the one who does. Are they the same person? Does one empathise with the other? Is there a healthy relationship between these two very different people. Doesn’t matter if they are both called by the same name. Can we be more empathetic towards our tomorrow self? Can we make things easier for him/
Show up! Outcome is the side-effect of showing up. There are a lot of reasons for not showing up. There is always tomorrow. But, when you do show up, things start to happen. Showing up is in your hands, the outcome is not.
Mount Everest and... One would rarely hear someone saying, “I am preparing to climb the Mount Everest in the next few months and I am also preparing for _________.” Doesn’t work that way, does it? If you are going to climb Mount Everest and every ounce of your energy, focus is not directed
Making implicit explicit. It’s tough. But it always feels better on the other side. You can do it by writing things down or by telling them to others. Or a combination of the two. Things are generally more scary in our mind and once we write them down, we can start working
Shame! The secret sauce of creatives. More than anything else, it’s shame that makes the world go round. We study for our exams, we submit our assignments, we finish our work, because we don’t want to feel the shame when someone asks “Why didn’t you do it?” As with creatives, mostly there is
The difficulty in delegating stuff. The critical skill of an entrepreneur is the art of delegation. They can get other people to believe in their vision and do everything that’s needed to fulfil the vision. The magic of being a freelancer on the other hand, is to do stuff on your own. Especially the
Imminence! The state or fact of being about to happen! That’s how the dictionary defines imminence and rightly so. Imminence is why you are able to attend a live yoga class but keep procrastinating on the YouTube video that teaches you to workout. Lack of imminence is why you keep
anxiety Anxiety vs guilt. Most of the time, we consider anxiety as a negative emotion, something that needs to be avoided. And most of the time, we keep experiencing guilt. At least for me, guilt is the default emotion. I am always feeling guilty of one thing or the other. I have rather become
action Action first, system later. If you are trying to make a change, especially one that will improve your life, then there is a tendency to seek to build the perfect system. This act of planning the perfect system seems like a noble pursuit but that is the worst thing that you can start with.
Creativity Keep calm and carry on! Why the world needs your magic now more than ever. Yes, we have a situation. Yes, things are not normal. Our survival is at stake. How can you not panic? The default is to panic. Everyone is panicking. Why shouldn’t I? Panic and fear do not take us far.
