Sharing Ideas Sharing Thoughts

Let me skip discussing the importance of planning. Focus or concentration is super-important for succeeding. All great business person, sportsmen, leaders, scientists etc. exhibited an ability to remove all distractions and focus their attention on one object. The next part is to visualize the execution. It does not mean wishing or hoping that one will succeed. It is about mentally (visually) rehearsing all the steps that will follow. Now execute and give your 'A' game. The prize is already yours. You just have to go and get it.

Learn to trust life

Consciously or sub-consciously, if we evaluate a situation for our personal benefits and ask "what's in it for me" then we may need to reflect a bit. Similarly, during social/professional interactions if we judge a person by his status and ask, "how can this guy be useful for me / how can I benefit from him" then we need to reflect more. Perhaps we are taking more than we are giving. And there should be no shame in this because we have been moulded like that. And we act out of fear of losing something. What if we decide to challenge our assumptions and start seeing things differently? What if we see how can we help someone and how can I give more?

Why are we here? What is the purpose of our lives? These are interesting questions. I think: Our roles are defined and the script is written. All we have to do is to 'play our part well'. It's a complex, real-time, 24x7, 3D, immersive movie. Our interactions and events are defined and the stage is set. We are hooked to this world through our senses which results in our 'ego' taking over our wisdom. What we have to strive for is - to give our 'A' game in ' each ' moment and stay untouched by this delusion? It doesn't matter what our role is; we have to live our part well so that this cosmic movie is a grand success. PS: We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game - Randy Pausch

I have been meditating twice daily since March 09th, 2012. Today, I complete 6 years of this activity.  I have also been exercising twice daily for 15 minutes since the above date. These are freehand exercises. By the grace of God, I never missed the meditation or the exercise even once. So I devote at least an hour daily to these two activities. Lets do the Math. 6 x 365 = 2190 hours. I am closer to the 10,000-hour target.

In her TED talk - my failed mission to find God - Anjali Kumar shares the 3 common things that we all seek; Health, Happiness and Love.  This isn't something we don't know and yet these 3 simple things are usually out of our reach.  In my view, these are not goals but a way of life; and with practice, we can experience fulfillment in life. So, what can we do? 1. For health - eat right, think right and exercise. [Not feeling good about oneself will likely lower immunity and bring sickness.] 2. For Happiness - I am still figuring this out. Let's find out WHY we get unhappy. It is when things don't go as EXPECTED. Aha! DESIRES are the root cause. Maybe focusing on the action instead of the result is the key. Thinking about the outcome makes us worried and fearful. We can learn from kids who are happy without a reason. So how about reducing control, 'letting go' and loosening ourselves a bit. Additional thoughts. Giving freely, practicing kin

This one is for the teenager's and young adults When someone asks you a question, 1. Listen deeply and understand the question. Know what exactly is being asked. 2. Don't be in a hurry to answer. Let him finish. Think through your response. Use the time to create a structure in your mind. 3. Get to the good stuff ASAP. Preferably in the first sentence. And then support your answer with evidence and reasoning. 4. Be brief and to the point. 5. Use examples, stories to illustrate when required. An Example: Qn: What is your short-term professional goal? An average answer is like: Well! I have been discussing this with my friends and mentor's and there are a number of things that I am passionate about. I have always been interested in the financial world but I also have a strong bias for technology. But, I think I'd like to become a successful wall street trader in 5 years from now. A better one: I see myself as a Director in a top financial firm in 5 years.

Why do we eat? Because we are hungry or to provide nutrition to the body to stay healthy What do we sleep? Because we are tired or because we are re-charging our body for the next awesome day. Why does a student go to school? To get certifications or to learn. Why do we work? To make money or to seek fulfillment by doing something that excites us. To follow our purpose, our passion. Why do we wake up in the morning? Because we have to go to work or because we are drawn towards a higher goal - to serve others through our unique gifts. In the above questions, if you answered the former then maybe you are drifting in time and space - you are sleeping. And if you chose the latter then you have propulsion and rudder - you are awake.

We want an ideal life. Everything in our lives should be right. We seek good health, lots of money, happiness, love... But that is not the nature of life. Life will have it's ups and downs and we should face those enthusiastically. We want consistent results. Instead, we should aim for consistent effort. We must strive to play our part well and to give our best in every moment. While simultaneously having fun because challenges make life exciting. Will you go for a movie in which everything is perfect from the beginning to the end? So enjoy this roller-coaster ride, stop comparing, give in your best and be grateful for what you have.

In life, we win some and lose some. And we try and maximize our wins. In the process, we let our emotions impact our performance. Constant worry about the prize may make us fearful. A better way to live life is to always give our 'A' game without worrying about win or loss. PS: This does not take away the importance of goal setting. Rather, it implies to focus our mind on the work and not the result. 

"Don't change my circumstances, change me". "Kindly guide me and strengthen me" This sounds like a good prayer because we are asking God to give us the strength to overcome the obstacles. We are seeking success through empowerment. Instead of begging to God, we can express our need in simple words and assure him of our best efforts. Similarly, when we ask someone for help, the main component of work must stay with us. And the other person should be the source of guidance and support. 

When someone says or does something that we do not approve, we get hurt. And we mull over the incident over and over again, thereby preventing our emotional healing. To heal a wound we need to stop touching it. To stop thinking about it we must "let go" - forgive. When we forgive (genuinely), we stop feeling hurt and that gives us joy. We feel encouraged to engage with that person again and then re-establish the relationship. At times, we may realize that there was some misunderstanding or maybe we were partly responsible.  Forgiveness requires compassion, empathy, a willingness to understand the other person (someone hurts you when he is unhappy himself). It also requires common sense - because we should do things that are beneficial for the good of self and others. One of the ways to forgive someone is to visualize good things for him. "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." - Louis B. Smedes

I have been struggling with this question since last 15 years. I used to think it was awareness. Which is true but I am sure there is more to it. I think consciousness is - " Your sense of being" - "Your identity as you know it". It is the sum total of who you think you are. All your experiences, knowledge and wisdom. The above explanation links it to the "ego". And that is how we limit our consciousness. We draw boundaries, we consider ourselves as separate. We fail to see the inter-connected-ness. For example, the wave in the ocean may feel it is separate from other waves and/or the vast ocean. In reality - they are all the same. When a wave dies, it merges in the ocean. And then rises again as a new wave. That is why wise people ask us to expand our consciousness. To realize that we are all one. The following talks are helpful to develop the understanding and Paramhansa Yogananada has explained it beautifully in his works. Consciousness -- th

Yes, they do. We are who we are because we reinforced our belief with certain thoughts. A child who feels that he is not good at Math constantly tells himself that he can't understand Mathematics. Similarly, a woman who thinks her nose is imperfect or someone who feels that he is clumsy is augmenting their belief with those thoughts. And we rationalize this by saying - "It is true, I see it all the time". Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Years of telling ourselves something makes us who we are. Similarly, if we keep good thoughts and practice affirmations, we will get into a virtuous cycle. 

Success does two things: 1. It makes you bolder 2. Doubters become Believers. It may take a little longer but eventually - "The man who wins is the man who thinks he can". Do not ever give up. Never. Never. Fight another day. Have the patience and persistence of a hunter

Let's take health. Mr. X's teeth keep troubling him. He constantly lives with pain and regularly visits his dentist. He wishes that he had taken good care of his teeth when he was younger. Mr. Y has heart issues and he has had several interventions to keep him alive. He realizes that the oily food he consumed in past is the culprit. Now, all he can eat is raw, bland food. Do you think we should motivate our children to reduce their screen time and help them maintain good vision? Apart from health, where else would you make changes if you could live your life again?

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are hot topics nowadays. I would like to flip this and ask - are we humans, naturally intelligent? In general, we can distinguish between right and wrong. And we know what is good for us. For example, we know about eating right, the importance of exercise, positive thinking, spending our money wisely, maintaining relationships etc. And yet we continue to repeat our mistakes. Why? Maybe we are not as good learners as we ' feel ' we are. However, simple things may help. Such as reviewing our day before going to bed, challenging our thinking and our assumptions, asking for feedback. This will give us a list of things to work on. Choose the most important. Practise till it becomes a habit. And then move to the next item. Nowadays even machines are working hard to learn and get 'intelligent'. Therefore, an ability to learn is very important. But as humans - Aren't we naturally intelligent? PS: Common Sense is anot

Asking the hard questions can be extremely uncomfortable. But we don’t learn and grow by sticking with what’s comfortable.  Some of the questions, we may ask ourselves: How do people see me differently than I see myself? What do I want my life to be like in next 5-10-40 years? Am I thinking long-term? What would I do if I wasn’t scared? What’s stopping me from doing the things that I should be doing? What’s the most important lesson I’ve learned so far in life? Am I living that lesson? What do you care most about? What do you really want?  Am I a driftwood or am I a boat with a rudder? Can I think for myself?  Do I love?

Happiness or Success? It turns out that the two are not related. Someone can be happy without being successful ( How we define success is another question)) And someone can be super successful and yet super unhappy. Many of us believe that we will be happy when we achieve our goals. But did it really work? Happiness says - I won't be yours with pre-conditions? Maybe we can learn from the children who are happy without a reason. But if I really have to choose one before the other, I'd say that someone who is happy has a positive disposition which helps in attracting success. Feeling good about oneself may be a pre-condition for success. 

What is our internal dialogue when we are sick? We say things like - I am not well. I have this pain. Etc. And how are we feeling? We hate the experience. We resist it. How about? 1. Ignoring the negative thoughts and having a positive conversation with ourselves. Such as, I am well. This is temporary and will soon be over. I am getting(feeling) better. 2. Surrendering instead of resisting. Knowing that our transgression from health laws in past has resulted in this dis-ease. And I accept it. It's OK.

Further to yesterday's post... 1. Right food - Have 3-4 small meals. First meal of the day is important. Eat slow. Chew well. Eat consciously and savor your food. Include lots of nuts & fruits (these are good snacks when hungry). prefer veggies over meat. There are plenty of protein options in vegetarian food. Avoid very spicy. oily, sour food. Reduce salt, sugar, refined flour and processed food. Eat at least one home-cooked meal. Don't be greedy for food. 2. Exercise - preferably in the morning, freehand - stretching and strengthening exercises, running is helpful. 15-30 minutes daily is good enough. Maintain the routine - rain or shine. 3. Right thoughts - Positive thinking. Be happy. Smile Additionally - sleep and wake up at the same time. Try to sleep early and wake up between 4-5 am