Twenty Ten

Those 12 months, of the year 2010, have been special and unforgettable for zillions of reasons; primarily because I was into situations that I always wanted to handle earlier in life such as dreading dilemmas, difficult decisions, weird choices etc. I learnt that the scores of books which I read since childhood weren’t just ink spilled pieces of paper, they had deeper meaning.

Image from aisleone.net

In 2010, I also:

• Met stupendous people with infectious thoughts.
• Learnt that we control our lives through our actions or their absence.
• Realized that the most important lessons I learnt in college were “how to make friends” and “how to survive cultural shock.”

Less philosophical events such as keeping the new year resolution and getting a bike was no less joyous either! It wasn’t all romantic though; I made mistakes (there is a long list which can’t be put here), learnt things the tougher way, and procrastinated something important.

As we let go 2010 to enter into a new decade, all the digits of which is my date of birth (1.1.11),  new hopes emerge signifying a lot to be done on our part. For this new year I would still like to make mistakes (new ones though, repeating the old ones doesn’t sound wise) and try to have more control over procrastination.

Hoping to continue the good deeds and chuck not so good ones, let’s welcome the year 2011!!

Move with the Cheese

Thought of a change is perhaps more scary than the change itself but avoiding change is no wisdom either! When I was wary of the recent changes of the life, Spencer Johnson’s words, that he sold years ago, flashed through my mind (The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese) which made things a lot easier. When I read one of the best books about changes a decade back, I had no idea it will pitch in at a later point of time like this; I don’t remember anything about the Hem and Haw story now but the central idea of adapting to the changes continues to be Life’s panacea. I decided to move on believing that everything will work out okay, things look good so far!

Changes gives virtue and fortitude to endure adversities and lets us find ourselves. It allows to see things from different perspective thus giving meaning to life; there is no point avoiding life’s one of the greatest tools of wisdom by sticking to the comfort zone because there is no comfort zone in reality. Comfort is a state of mind and the earlier we understand the fact, the better we enjoy the changes! It expand the horizons as well, being at one place makes us think about life in a definite pattern; once we move on, we see the other side of the coin. Having said all this, have you ever thought whether changes or options presented to us are random or they follow a pattern? My friend, trying to be politically correct, said: “Most of the times it depends on the what we chose previously and the way we reacted to changes in past but they can be random as well.” Whatever may be the case, we can not opt for a change looking at good or bad, profit or loss because of the very fact that everything is relative. Many a times I’ve been reprimanded for not picking the option that made more logical sense but I was happy to follow my intuition.

So next time when a change knocks the doors, think of it as an opportunity to move to a different chapter in life’s book and enjoy the progress!

Uncomplicating Life

It was just like any other day and I opened my mailbox to check who all were tying to ruin my beautiful morning by expecting me to work on their problems; to freak me out there were almost 200 emails waiting to be read and not surprisingly, most of them were of no use at all. More than eightscore of them were automated alerts which made no sense and could be completely avoided.

The first thought that crossed my mind was why do people complicate already overburdened lives; if only I had an answer!

I tried to convince them to do otherwise but all in vain, they believe alerts which are not to be acted upon are “informative”. Never in my whole life did I notice such a gross misuse of the word! Weather report for every minute is informative but do we really need that information?!

More often than not such notions are the result of ignorance (ignorance is not always bliss) of people who are not able to differentiate useful information from spam and unfortunately the world is not scarce of such people. In the e-age which runs on information, it is imperative to use common sense so as to efficiently manage the show. For situations like these I like the Unix way, it throws an alert only when something goes wrong; if there is no message, everything went well. Didn’t they say, “No news is good news!”

The worst part of information overdose is that it makes us prone to miss the important details. I believe in the KISS (Keep is Simple, Stupid) principle and life can be a lot easier if we use common sense to filter unnecessary things out of it.

P.S. the post is not aimed to disgrace a person in particular rather the ignorance is being challenged.

Connecting the Dots

When I was in school, the drawing book had this game of connecting the dots to find out the hidden creature; Little did I know that the puzzle had much deeper meaning than we thought at that time. When we grow up, life becomes the canvas and the events play the role of the dots the difference being we can only connect the dots looking backwards. In the drawing book we get the hidden thing at once because all the dots are present in advance, life has very few of them when we start and more dots keep getting visible with the events that happen and the significant decisions we make!

If I look back, none of the subjects taught in school left its mark on the life’s canvas (I wonder why was everyone so crazy about maths then) but lessons on persistence, how to bounce back after a failure and how to communicate well are more prominent dots.

I attended college, had fun there and probably the best part was the friends I made and the people I met! I’ll always cherish college days not for the credits I earned but for the diversity of tough situations I’ve been put into and for the way thoughts of great minds affected me.  When I started working, I met people with highly influential thoughts and contagious winning attitude, I can write scores of pages about it but this is not the right forum.

As I connect these dots, the picture I see is like the tip of the iceberg; most of it is hidden and those are the events yet to occur. At this juncture, I believe these will somehow connect in future to complete the picture. I like the way life unfolds its mysteries, whenever I asked for something, instead of just giving it gift-wrapped life showed me the path to be followed to get what I wanted. On the way, I learnt to follow my intuition and to read life’s subtle signals; it’s like playing soccer more we practice better we become and the best part about learning, as they say, is that nobody can take it away from you.

10 years from now I hope to see more significant dots which uncover the bigger picture not in a way I want but in a way that brings good to everyone directly or remotely connected to me!

7 Real Life Lessons I Wish they had Taught me in School

No later than I finished schooling, the academic skills became obsolete and I found myself into real world which was governed by different set of rules. Probably the most important thing that they taught in school which holds good in real life is “Determination can do wonders!”

I wish they had taught life skills rather than uttering a single sentence for 16 years, “Study hard and get good grades which eventually will help get a good job.” Having said this, I do not mean that academics shouldn’t be given importance but other skills should be treated with equal importance too!

Following are the things I learnt the hard way and I’d like them to be a part of the education system:

• Life skills are different from Academic skills: I couldn’t agree more to de Bono “In academic thinking it is enough to describe, to analyze, and to offer explanations. In the real world, there is the action element.” They never use action oriented words in school, they don’t teach how to make decisions or take risks. They think laws, theories, and calculations are worth learning at the stake of everything else. While Real Life has no laws (apart from in-laws ) and everyone is presented with different kind of problems. Nothing is right or wrong, there are different definitions of success and zillions of ways to reach the destination!

Did your schooling too interfere with the education?

• Money is important: They always say learning is more important, but what’s the ultimate purpose? and if they really believe what they say, why do we have to shell out a huge sum for what they teach?!! I too believe in learning but it should have a purpose, and money is an important consideration! In school they used to give certificates to encourage good things or habits, I’m happy that organizations’ reward policy is more realistic!  I wish I had a dollar every-time I said, money isn’t important.

• Never Sell yourself short: You’re bound to have unique skills, it’s nature’s law. If you don’t understand the value of yourself, chances are, no one else will either. Don’t let others control your thoughts, don’t go by the trend or statistics when you decide to think big (there’s a magic in thinking big!) Don’t compromise on things if you think you deserve better. As they say, “It’s a very funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it!”

• Saying “No”: The word has magical power and you need to unleash it. Just remember the way you say “No” is as important as the word itself.

• Mind your own business (read be yourself): You are the captain of your ship and master of your destiny. Set your own goals, make decisions, take risks. Break the rules, play well, NOT necessarily safe. Don’t expect everyone to like what you think and do, everyone has their own thoughts and you have all the rights to be yourself!

• It’s important to win the war not every battle:Among short-term and long-term goals, latter is more important; and mistakes play an instrumental role. Schooling system punishes  those who commit mistakes but life has different take; mistakes have immense potential to help people succeed. It’s good to fail and make mistakes at times that, more often than not, becomes stepping stone to success! I second Edison’s winning attitude, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

• There is more wisdom in 2 heads than in one: Schools teach “United we Stand” but when it comes to achievements they want everything to be done on your own, they want you to master literally everything. In real life you do what you are good at and seek help when you think there is a better way out. As they say, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

What do you wish they’d taught you in school or you had just learned earlier in life?

If Only, I Could Quit My Day Job

Find a Job You Love and You’ll Never Work a Day in Your Life!

Unfortunately I have to work most of the days to make a living. If I were to negotiate (with destiny) for my favorite job, I’d go with the following sequence :

• Motivational Speaker
• Author (mostly non-fiction)
• Photographer
• My Current Job (Technology)

Having said this, I don’t mean that I don’t like my Day Job or I am not good at it.

Image from wordboner.com

Do I enjoy my job: Yes, because of following reasons:

• Challenges it presents every other day.
• Millions of dollars are at stake upon my decisions (the adrenaline rush is at its peak during those situations.)
• My skills have the power tackle catastrophic situations.
• I am good at it.

Have I ever thought of leaving the job to pursue my dreams: Yes and No.

Yes because I do want to desert the surrogate life and be myself some day.

No because I am not so strong at the moment to leave a promising career for something vague and uncertain and I am a strong believer of  “A Bird in the Hand is Better than Two in the Bush.” (I might be wrong)

What do I want from my current job: Financial Independence, it’s different from being Rich (one can never be rich enough). Financial independence is when we continue with the same lifestyle without us working, rather our assets work harder to achieve this.

How do I plan to become Financially Independent: If I knew that I’d be playing golf in my villa!   I am trying to learn how to.

What do I plan after that:

• Author a Book.
• Learn how to play Guitar.
• Learn French.
• Learn Photography.

My answer to “What do you do?” would be “I pursue my passions.”

Do I have a timeline: As soon as possible. (If only, I could do that now!)