Listen to the Noises

People care for you a lot.

That is why they would suggest, go from wrong side because it's too hot at 44 deg Celsius to ride 3 km to come around the right way. Going from wrong side is easy.

They also ask you to stop reading at late night and go to sleep.

While exercising, our mind suggests, don't go for one more repetition because you are comfortable with only 15.

Amazingly, sometimes we do listen to such suggestions - from others of self. These are the noises around and within us. We must notice them. They tell us the difference between success and failure, between excellence and mediocrity. If we are not aware of these noises, we won't know which alternative we have opted for, mediocrity or excellence.

We often start important activities with zeal and passion, continue it for 2-3 days, and then overconfidence comes at play. It says, I did it for 3 days, I can do it for ever. And then surprisingly, we stop doing it! Sometimes we don't even feel guilt. You know, it takes discipline to succeed. That's it! Discipline to continuously learn and improve is all that is required for it. Unless we know the noises which keep us away from greatness, how can we tune those out of our thinking? We need to overcome the overconfidence of doing something for a short period because ahead of that lies the satisfaction of big achievements. So listen to your thoughts which seek comfort and ease, listen to your people who use such nice and comforting words.

People close to us often say, "I say so because I care for you". Let me tell you this - if they care for you, they should know you. And if they know how hungry you are for making a difference in this world, they would instead find ways to support you in your actions rather than using comforting words. They would find ways to help you improve and be productive. When they come by any people or ideas that can promote you or help you become more effective and efficient, they would inform you. They would get excited just by the thought of you succeeding in your quest. If you are one of such kind, kudos to you! I love you for that. Please keep doing it. I wish success in your personal struggles for excellence.

Moreover, we are our responsibility. Will Smith suggests, "When I feel like having a burger or cheese pizza, I tell myself, 'Man! I love you so much that I cannot let you go on that path because after eating that, next day you will feel bad about it. You will criticize yourself' When my friends are enjoying when I have exams coming up, I tell myself, 'Man! I love you too much to feel bad after you are done with the party so better read and feel better that you continued with what you planned'. Think about it.

Let me know those interesting excuses your mind has given you so far. Let me know those noises.

P.S.- Along with a hand painted T-shirt, I gifted my fiancé (now wife) a non-fiction book on her birthday. Till today I wonder what she thinks of that act.

Benchmarking

A guy from West was speaking with Indian spiritual guru, " My mind is at peace now. I have learned a lot from you." He further asked, " You say I can be like anybody if I aspire for and perspire to be. Then please tell me, if I work to become like Henry Ford, can I be like him?" Gurus smile in a very special way when they see innocence in the seeker. He too did and replied, "Of course you can. But then you might miss a chance to be like Jesus."

Are you too missing such a chance?

Who is your ideal?

Who are you trying to be like?

What are the qualities you have acquired till this day? From where are those?

If I want to build a character, that of less than Rama's should be unacceptable. Isn't it? If I want to start a company, say in Finance, a goal less than Berkshire Hathaway could be said conservative. Right? If I want to evolve as a human being, isn't Krishna a choice better than any living person today? If I want to benchmark myself with someone for some quality, who should that be?

When it comes to choose a role model, child begins with parents. They are the biggest influencers after all. Child gets two options in the process - Whether or not to be like my parents. It is okay as long as child decides to be like his parents. If the opposite, then he gets infinite options. Imagine if this happens. You won't know what he chose out of other available alternatives until it is too late. As a parent, therefore, it is our duty to set high standards for our children. Isn't it? In order to do that, parents need to have discipline. You can't expect the child to have a habit of reading or exercising if you are not doing those. Parenting is leadership. Leadership is parenting. First you become that what you expect. You need to be what you expect from your boss or sub-ordinate. What kind of nation do you want? Creative? Strong? Humane? Become that and you will see that happen. It's called visual management. You need to show others how right things are done right. Then they follow you.

Let's look at India with respect to other countries. India has one third of the land compared to the USA but 4 times that of its population. Out of 47 states of the USA, only 8 states has the population more than 1 crore. Whereas in India, out of 30 states, the number is 21 states. Imagine the difference in population density! Number of cities in India have population more than the countries like Australia and Canada. In spite of such huge differences, isn't India being unrealistic when she sets goals which are benchmarked by the World Bank or the UN? Can India have any other model nation which can be taken as a reference for benchmarking growth and development? For example, Japan (has population density of 348 against India's 445 per sq. km.), Israel (Pop. Den. of 395), Korea, Rep. (Pop. Den. of 526) or Netherlands (Pop. Den. of 506). Can India be considered similar to these countries, only with bigger scale? India has great minds and strength of population to make it happen. Isn't it? I believe, if India sets just the right benchmarks, it can rise again as world leader not only at economic front but at spiritual, power and technology fronts as well. This logic is applicable to African countries as well. We say no two people should be compared. Then why countries? It's just that genres are different here. Can you say which movie is better - Interstellar or Inception? Haha..

Or, do we need to set ideals? Is benchmarking really necessary?

Because some kid is famous on a dance show on TV, parents make their kids learn dance. We need to learn the difference between influence and impression. Goals are not set based on influence. Goals and visions are the product of introspection. We need to learn about ourselves before we learn anything else. Our dreams, likes or dislikes - we need to discover them. A continuous search for betterment goes a long way. Whom did Berkshire Hathaway set as a touchstone? Whom did Apple set as a yardstick? Darwin had no reference theory when he gave the "theory of evolution". India was never into materialistic world in spite of being wealthy. Someday, someone came and told you, "because you don't have enough clothes to wear, you cannot feel happy" and you believed him! We were happier then than today. Ask your grandparents if you don't believe me. Those who are born in 1980s, almost none of your grandparents did job. They were all entrepreneurs or business people. They were all surviving on their skills. Now you are told, "if you don't have job, you cannot survive." Is survival that challenging? Or we have set wrong measures for what we call a way of living!

Connect with people.

Alexa can work for you. She cannot feel for you.

Love. :)

IMprove

Live is about living. Not proving.

Just like the word 'impasse' and 'impossible', word 'IMprove' may have yet another meaning which could be ' not prove'. Although it may not fit with the logic of previous two words, it is just a gesture meaning something that can't be proven. It is not because we can't prove it but because we don't try to.

We are surrounded by information and opinions much more than ever before. In such times, it has become challenging to figure out what we should do. Human is moving away from principles towards popularity. These days, it is expected that you must be famous before you actually succeed. Funnily enough, you can be famous without actually doing anything worthwhile. I recently noticed few faces in an Indian Express tabloid of March-18 who were among the top 100 influential figures of India and I have doubts about their actual contributions towards betterment of the nation. Once you become popular, people will be at your doorstep to use your fame for their agendas. You can choose this path of Nautanki (drama), which is actually very easy.

There is one more way to live. Here, you choose to live by principles. On this path, instead of Nautanki (drama), you choose class and higher standards. You choose here to improve and not IMprove. Believe me, only very determined survive on this quest. This is the path of people with strong will and resolute character. Here, you have to choose the song of your choice instead of listening to the one which is famous just because of its cheap words or video.

Once you figure out the purpose of your life, forget what rest of the world thinks and start your journey. Beware of the attractions of easiness. You have learned the way of discipline with lot of practice and patience. It's not worth losing for the thinking of the masses. It's true that economy prevails instead of ideology but this is why it is more important that you continue being the pillar of ideology. There are very few of your kind. This world survives because of you few. Whole humanity overlives because of you few, even when you don't know it. Even when they don't know it. And it is not necessary to prove it as well. You didn't start your journey to prove yourself. That was never the purpose. It was always much higher than yourself. You have grown much above than just thinking about yourself. Your time is much valuable. So just keep improving and keep reminding yourself that your action towards your purpose is the purest and ultimate satisfaction. No recognition or fame can surpass that.

Believe in your purpose and keep moving on.

Keep sharing.

Keep giving.

PS:

It is said that Prof. Chandrasekhar had to wait nearly 50 years before receiving the Nobel Prize for his discovery of 'Chandrasekhar Limit', a discovery made while he was a graduate student at Cambridge in 1930s. If his work had been recognized then, it could have led to the discovery of the Blank Hole decades earlier.

We Are Alright

We are where we are as result of our decisions to use our time and energy. We know that we should not fall into the trap of comparing our current state with someone else's. Instead, we should look at how far we have come from where we had started. With the resources and knowledge we had, we could achieve something so far. It's important to understand that although we are not at the summit yet, but still it is alright. It is alright because we are determined to be vigorously dedicated to our aspirations, forcefully disciplined in our actions and actively focused to achieve what we have started for.

Now we have resolved to be more articulate in choosing our company, be it in the form of a person, a book, a video or even a thought. Now we have vouched to run towards our goals with stronger will and full heart. We have chosen to treat people with the standards we have set for ourselves instead of based on their behavior. We have grown mature. We have learned to accept that we are alright the way we are. We have learned to walk further instead of settling with complacency. We are on the path of discovering how to run. Run towards our dreams. Run towards our fears, and beyond. Run through the walls of blankness without having the slightest worry about what lies past that blankness, that anxiety of unknown. We are ready to face our fate because our fate is in our hands now. We believe it. We take the responsibility of ourselves. That is why we are alright.

We learn. We share. We grow. We believe in our potential. We walk with confidence. We have trust in the strength of our hands and power of our will. We believe we can handle anything for we have the unwavering mind and a soft heart. We believe we can. That is why we are alright.

Save Nature.

Share good thoughts. :)

The Game of Imitation

Imagine there is a 2 year old kid sitting in front of a TV watching cartoon. What would he do? You know he would try to imitate the cartoon characters. Right? Imitation is an inborn quality. What we call innovation is an imitation through some inspiration.

Now think about this - What gives us kick? What gives us satisfaction? Convincing and roping in others to believe in and follow our belief system. What do you say? When someone follows your idea, your adrenaline shoots up. When someone agrees with you, your fears put the guards down. Isn't that the case with you? We want agreement of colleagues for minor suggestions and major decisions. We seek approval of friends, family and society for our behavior, life, life-style, dressing and what not. We live for these approvals and ultimately define ourselves with those set of rules. Isn't it? We use or see others use certain phrases like, "I can't do that. I am a shy person." or "Oh! He is always like that." or "Yes! She is always the first person in taking initiatives."

Important question is, shouldn't I ask myself, "Whom should I imitate?"? Do I have the knowledge of such principles and ethics which can elevate me as a person? Can I imitate such actions which can make me capable of helping others perform at their best potential? Can I inquire about whether anyone has lived a life which gave humanity a vision and a way? Has anyone shown the path to fulfillment? Has anyone lived an inspiring life in spite of the seemingly unfathomable challenges? Can I live by those codes and practices and disciplines? Can I at least try to do that? Because someone could do it, doesn't that give me a reason to believe in that possibility for me as well?

Rama, Krishna, Christ, Buddha, Mahavir, Muhammad, Shiva, Swami Vivekananda, Leonardo da Vinci, StephenHawking, Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Nikola Tesla, RichardBranson, Bruce Lee, Konosuke Matsushita - we can learn a lot from these people. If we imitate even one good quality from any of these personalities, imagine the difference we can make in our life and in this world.

Do read about these personalities. Know them. Learn their principles. Live them. This life is too short to experience all the ways. They have shown us the path. Imitate it and cultivate yourself. Develop your own path but start with the available knowledge.

Go! Make a difference.

Survive and Serve.

May I have a word with you?

What are your challenges?

How big are they?

How unique are they?

Has anyone who lived before you ever faced such challenges? If yes, what did they do about it? And how did they do it?

Very often, we tend to think that our struggles are huge and unique and others cannot even imagine the labor we go through, forget about understanding it. But haven't the people lived before us? We have been here since centuries and yet have not changed much as a person. We still believe in kindness, honesty, authenticity, respect, simplicity, perseverance, bravery and commitment. Don't we?

I want to say at this point that - We are not living our lives fully if we don't have the problems which require help of other people. We are not doing our jobs right.

At individual level, we handle the situations with knowledge, skills and attitude. However, once we become independent, using above three ways, we start recognizing the bigger issues which affect more than one individual. It is very important for a satisfactory life to learn about them and analyze them and make attempts to resolve them. Interestingly, most of those issues can be solved by either putting a system in place or by giving people right kind of motivation to maintain discipline.

Think for a while. What are the challenges you are facing? Are you playing big enough to have grander problems? You should, if you are not.

In today's time, where words like 'creativity' and 'innovation' has become cliché, everyone wants to find unique ways to solve the issues. But isn't it necessary to ponder that, does it really need a way other than the traditional approach? Reason is, I think, results are important and whether we get them using old ways or new ones it doesn't matter much. A mother gives birth to a baby just like every other mother has ever given and yet every child is unique. Isn't it? Similarly, we should first try to use the established principles to innovate as well as solve the challenges. Probably that is why in Japan people respect elders in the company irrespective of their designations.

We have a huge challenge of saving our planet from us. And there is a simple way to do that which is the discipline of keeping maximum one child per female/ couple. Governments also can support in this initiative by putting a system of birth control in place. It is very easy to implement. Governments have details of every citizen. They can start charging parents for every additional child because it takes a toll on economy after all. People care more about money than planet anyway. So, why not? Just a (good) thought but whichever motivation works for you is fine by me. :)

Richard Bach has observed - There is no such problem as big which cannot be run away from. May be that is why Elon Musk wants to run away from this planet. However, I want to buy him some time. That is my challenge, if I put it in another way. And I cannot do it alone. If we reduce population and pollution, we may survive for few more years which can buy Elon some time to find a way out. Instead of only rich people going to Mars, possibly he can take all the mankind as well as other millions of species with us. What is the point of living without the nature's music of chirping birds and beauty of colorful butterflies and amazing sea creatures? Right?

Journey so far...

With purpose comes leadership.

Since the day I suggested you to mind your own business, I have been trying to make you aware, and not just informed, that self-leadership is the best way to succeed at any front of life. Whether you are working in a team in your profession or in family or a society, self-leadership helps. Independence is the primary requirement for interdependence. That is why I have insisted on finding the purpose before passion. Journey through each blog has been a process of self-evolution. Blogging is my way of sharing with you the learning out it. If you notice, you will co-relate the sequence of blogs with your learning process.

It has been 18 months since the first blog. So far, 30 blogs are published. It has given me the opportunity to connect with people I have &/or had never met. If you live for 80 years, you have precisely 960 months to live. I'm glad I utilized last 18 months trying to improve and inspire others along with myself. I am grateful that I could get your love and attention. The journey so far have been very satisfying. Each life experience, and blog, has added value in my life and made me aware that there is a lot to know, learn and share.

It seems right. Utilizing time and energy to help others and connect with them at emotional level. There is nothing intelligent in an uncontrolled consumption and wastefulness. Even mad people can do that. It requires mindfulness to live a well-regulated life. "Live like there is no tomorrow" is the half truth. Nobody wants to die today. Instead, we should be prepared to live for 100 years and be ready to die after every breath. When we have little, we store it up just like we use dams to reserve water. We should realize that out of 960 months we had, quite a lot of them we have spent lavishly. It is time we put check dams in our lives. Whether we are spending time, energy, water or any other resources, we should do so sensibly. Our actions should be thoughtful and in favor of mother nature and the coming generation.

In which direction have you planned your journey? Is it towards preserving nature or the exact opposite?

Are you utilizing your resources effectively?

It's just 960 months. That's our journey. Make it count.

Find your purpose. Fulfill it.