Making the difference!
It’s the question every graduate asks himself, on the day he leaves the college. There are many answers to this question in this tricky world. There are many paths which leads you to a successful life. But how to choose that one path based on your individuality, based on your personal goals, based on the things which you think will make this world a better place.
If you go through any path, you can make a difference. It’s not the decision of choosing the correct one. It’s the decision of choosing one. Paths are supposed to take you to a certain destination. You just have to decide for which destination you are most passionate. Having said that, let me cite a quote here. “In the end, reaching the destination isn’t what will make you happy, it’s the travel you did which led you there.”
Knowing what matters and what doesn’t, is the key to be successful in any task. It eventually leads you to the answers of any impossible looking problem. But for reaching there you’ll have to act. For example, for an obese person loosing weight is a problem. He can’t leave out on the cravings of eating junk foods. He thinks everyday that he will start exercising. He knows what will make a difference in regards to his problem of obesity. But all of this knowing is of no value if he doesn’t act. On the flip side if he start acting on the things which really matters, like eating appropriate calories on daily basis. Start exercising 3-4 days in a week and then shaping his way up to a fit body. This is what will solve his problem.
Don’t just think, take action!
Life will be way better if you start doing what really matters. You’ll be reaping great returns, which life gives to it’s courageous liver.
Every generation leaves a plethora of knowledge and resources for the upcoming generation to build upon what they had learned, so that the future generation don’t have to start from the ground up, they can just forge ahead from the point where the past generation had left of. So take your time listening to the people of your previous generation. People who had experienced life already. People who can really guide you on how to make that journey of life better. It can give you a head-start. Love your family, cherish you friends, take time out for the people whom you really care for, be emotional, take time out for the people who had supported you in the times of setbacks. How you make them feel will reflect on your future life. There is a famous quote by the great American author and poet Maya Angelou who died on this 28th May. I’ll cite it here in her remembrance and for your absorbency.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Emotions are the key to courage and alive!
We start feeling emotions from the very first day we get into our consciousness. We laugh with our friends to share our joyous moments. We cry when someone breaks our heart. We feel low when someone goes away. We feel high when we are with the right ones at the right time. These feelings are emotions. But what it is exactly? Is it human nature? Is it a way of interaction without having to say a word? Is it a deep connection of two souls which lights up the spiritual recesses? Maybe it’s all of them. But specifically, it’s the outcome of mutual state of minds. When two souls or minds co-relate, then emotions emerge.
Emotions are present in each and every one. Different persons picture it in their own way. Some say “It’s weak to be emotional. Emotions can distract you from the decisions you want to take for good.” I won’t deny it, but it’s not entirely true. A great mind had said, nothing is false, everything we see, we hear, we feel is truth. Cause everyone and everything has their own angle to the truth. In some situations, it seems to be true but in other situations, it may seem false. Here, another angle to the truth is that emotions are a very powerful feeling.
I’ve seen people going extreme in emotions, both in a good way and a bad way. But if you can channel this feeling in the right way, you can do great things to your life. If you love what you do, then you unknowingly put your emotions in that thing and this is what gives you courage in those moments of the reverse wind. When things aren’t falling in the right place, this is what keeps you going. Emotions are in there in your subconscious all the time. They keep you motivated.
Being emotional is a good thing and a bad thing. Let’s talk about the good thing first. Good thing is that it is the key to your courage in those low moments of life and it’s a key to being human. When we are emotional we do things with extremity. Like I said earlier if this extremity is channelized in positivity, the outcome will be great and positive for your life. The bad thing is sometimes being emotional can distract you from making the right decisions and emotions are channelized in negativity, which can make life really miserable.
From the experience I’ve had is, people who are emotional are mostly good at heart. But we should keep in mind that being emotional and being psychotic are way different things. While being emotional we shouldn’t forget the practicality of the situation. Emotion is human nature and Psychosis is a disorder. Emotional people are people who still can see the real picture and can adapt to the situation while being in that feeling.
Having some emotions towards our family and friends and the work we do, greatly enhance our relations, boost up our creativity, makes us alive. What is alive? Alive is a state of mind. A person can be breathing but still not alive, yes that’s possible. Until and unless he has emotions and feelings, he is way too far from being alive. Life isn’t about just being biologically and physically alive, but emotionally and mentally alive. Emotions are good but discipline is a great ingredient in the recipe of life. Life we really want is a mix of little emotions, great discipline and self-compassion.
Having said all of that, there should be a practical philosophy which everyone should follow. This can make you a better human being while being an emotional person. Our own values are very valuable. We should always let our values drive our decisions.
Recently I was watching an interview of Tim Ferriss on Mastering Any Skill. Tim had given great advice. I’ll cite him as stated – “The way I look at philosophy is, ideally it’s an operating system for life, for making a decision about what you should do and what you should not do.”. So the whole point here is we should leverage ourselves to be emotional cause it makes us alive, but at the same time we shouldn’t let our values fade away, we should follow a practical philosophy, which will eventually make our lives better and us alive.
A poem for today’s post by yours truly.
Lakeerein dhoondta hun us purane keelay ki maheen purani bunavaton mein…
umar jaise dhoond raha houn tere mere pyaar ki…
koi to bataye mujhe… beumar cheejon ki umar ka takaza nahi hota!
Taking the control of your own life!
- Letting go attitude
- Loosing out on my own values
- Being too selfless for those people
- Doing things which mattered to those people, but might be against my own values or morals
- Leaving my own regular routines (i.e. fitness routing), for giving out more time to those people
- Discipline
- To value my own values
- Stay on the routines, no matter what
- Self-compassion
- Do what I love
Life you really want comes with discipline, consistency and self-compassion, always!
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash
Life!
It’s not a predefined path towards happiness or sadness but a way which we carve out for ourselves. It’s based on the choices we make in our voyage.
Life is not a straight line, it’s a zig-zag path. Mixed with both the lows and highs of happiness and sadness. There has not been a single fortunate person who just had only happiness in life from the cradle till the grave and no single unfortunate one who just had sadness. Everybody, every single person experiences both the emotions in his or her lifetime. Though the ratio of these feelings differs for each and everyone.
If we want to live a happy and healthy life, we need to stay happy in a bigger ratio than sadness. How can we achieve it?
Anyone can achieve it, cause happiness is a choice not a state of mind. At times there will be situations that definitely gonna make us sad, but it’s our choice to fight them or to surrender. We do have a choice to surface up from that sadness. We have a choice to be happy. But it needs strong willpower to make that choice. More than 60% of people I know as friends, family or as close ones don’t possess that kind of willpower, which results in them being in a sad state which is totally unnecessary for them. They could choose happiness over that sadness but they didn’t, because their willpower was not that strong which didn’t allow them to move on from that sad thing. So how do we deal with this?
To reach a greater goal, first, we need to take the first step. That’s the most difficult part. Most of the people couldn’t make it there, because they don’t even take that first step.
Once we have taken the first step to get started, then we need to keep on moving by taking short but steady steps. Some people, after getting started, get so excited that they move on high pace, but they couldn’t keep up that pace and get tired of different circumstances like not getting the desired results or physical tiredness etc. and eventually they stop moving. But people who take smaller steps and keep on going on a steady pace and not thinking much about the goal but the process of reaching there, eventually get there.
Taking small steps and keep on going is not easy as it may seem, but it’s better than the former one. We must practice it with discipline so much until it becomes a native habit. Who said no efforts are needed? Of course, it will take great efforts, but won’t it be worth it? If it will give you a happy and healthy life.
Haven’t you heard, a healthy mind in a healthy body? In most cases it’s true. How could you achieve it? [Here’s a good article on 7 Steps to a Healthy Body and Mind.] There is only one way to be in a routine. Just show up every day, do it every day. Practice self-compassion each and every day.
Come on, make that choice, be happy be healthy. Show up every day for the routine you want to follow. Take that first step and keep moving.
Thanks to James Clear and Anca Dumitru for inspiring this post.
Inspiration only reveals itself after perspiration.
– James Clear
How long does it take to save a month’s worth of expenses as your emergency fund?
Every finance advisor today advises us that we should keep aside three to six months’ worth of expenses for emergency. But very less number of people end up saving that kind of emergency fund.
What’s the reason that rest of the people couldn’t do it?
Answer is very simple to this question, cause they save very less. Suppose you are saving just 5% of money from your whole income, that means you are spending 95% of your money in your expenses. So we’ll check how much time it actually takes to save only one month’s emergency fund.
By a simple formula, which I got from an article:
So you’ll be able to save a single month’s worth expense in 95/5 = 19 Months! Yes More than a year and a half for just a single month’s worth of emergency fund.
That’s a bad news, obviously. But there is a flip side to this situation. If we just increase our monthly saving to 10% the time needed to save the money for a month comes down drastically to 9 Months only. An exponential drop! Just Imagine, you saved 50% for 2 months so you’ll be able to get that 1 month’s emergency fund in just 2 Months!!
So the bottom line is we need to save money a little more than we usually do, if we want to save some good amount of emergency funds. How to seriously save money, you can get some help on that here. Rob Berger (doughroller.net) has explained it very well.
Here’s another link for a great article I found in Morning Star’s yesterday’s newsletter, 5 Steps to Build an Emergency Fund. Great Article.
Hope you enjoy today’s post and start saving more towards a great emergency fund goal! Good luck.
A poem for today’s post, goes by the title ‘Sea’ by yours truly.
Sea!
by Himanshu Sachdeva
I’m sea!
Flowing boundless and free!!
Letting the life be flourished,
And the creatures inside me get nourished!!
My waves live with soaring energies!
But inside of me there is an abyss!
Where live the darkest fears of mine!
It in fact is devil’s shrine!!
There lives no thing bright!
And it goes deep to infinite!!
Effect of alcohol on our sleep!
Alcohol Suppresses Deep Sleep, and REM sleep! Alcohol will suppress the 3rd, 4th, and 5th stage of sleep, which will result in a very light, un-restful sleep. Reduced REM sleep usually leads to a REM sleep rebound, in the form of intense dreaming or nightmares, which weaken your sleep for days afterwards.
Considering that most people combine alcohol with coffee to fight hang-over, this is a deadly combination for your sleep system! Alcohol also dehydrates your body, so even small doses of it will produce un-restful sleep. As you remember, your blood vessels dilate during deep sleep to allow more blood flow to the muscles. If your body is dehydrated this process is much more difficult because dehydrated blood doesn’t flow as well through your blood vessels as fully hydrated blood.
Note: Never Combine Alcohol With Sleeping Pills! If You Do, You’re Risking Your life!
Source: The book – ‘Powerful sleep’
Fear of the unknown!
Death!
The reality of life, is death. Knowing that if we are alive we have to die someday, is not a thought that would annoy your mind. But knowing that you have only 8 months to live is a thought that can recess the deepest and the darkest corner of your mind.
You would say why me? Why now? Why this?
All these questions, but one answer, destiny. Cause it was written in your destiny.
But on the brighter side, knowing this can free a personality from within your own self. The free one. The soothe one. The conquering one. Yes that’s you minus your fear of the unknown.
You see, it just takes a knowing to get out of a fear. Knowing of the time you are left with.
So likewise you only need knowledge, to clear up the fog of any unknown. Better you get inside the fog and spray it clear.
For example, I like football, I like watching it, but one fine day, some boys are playing in the back yard and someone kicks the ball hard and the ball just come rolling to my feet. Now I have two options, one – I’ll think if I’ll be able to kick the ball nicely and to a great reach, but I’ll be afraid, what if I couldn’t kick it? What if I missed the shot? What if I kicked it in wrong direction? With all these thoughts I’ll pass the thought of kicking and walk away. But on the other side the second option – I won’t think for even a fraction of a second and kick it with all my gut, I know even if I missed it nothing gonna happen! Seriously nothing! But if I kicked it hard and it went to a great reach. Boys will gimme a nice little smile and I would walk away happily.
A large part of the society is the former. The ‘miss it’ one.
That’s the reason I’m writing this right now. Cause I too had been through this shit myself. I had been the former and the latter both. You know which one felt nice? The latter one. Cause he took his chances to not to regret later.
The same way if you get to know the date of your death is just eight months away, you would like to pass each of your day like its your last. Exactly that’s what I’m talking about. Cause you will conquer the fear of the unknown. And live it freely.
So instead of getting yourself a deadly decease and than coming to the above feeling, why not just do a single thing which will help you throughout and you will be able to live like a free spirit and enjoy your inner self. That one thing will change you completely, it will get the frightened one out of you and will make you a true free man or woman. And that one thing is – Wake up everyday watching the sun rising through your window and think, hey! Get your ass out of bed quickly and do the things you really really love, dude it’s your last day! Do as much as you can! You never gonna get ‘this’ day ever again!
Moral of the story, live it like its the last day of your life! And conquer the fear of the unknown. Live well, live free!