Month: September 2017

4 Amazing Must-Watch TED Talks

 
I came across watch a Ted talk everyday challenge at multiple places. But that is not the reason why I watched. I watched a TED talk because I had lot of mobile data. Keeping aside the jokes, I wanted to see how a TED talk can change my life.
To your surprise and my surprise, TED talks don’t change your life just by watching them. I am sorry, I am not saying that you have to take action too. Because that is obvious. But what was not obvious to me when I started was, choosing a talk which actually gives me a new idea. I classify the talks I watched into 3 types.

Revision of concepts:

 
1.The puzzle of motivation – Daniel Pink
 
I watched it before but forgot that I did. It was a revision lesson. I am yet to read his book. This talk is about why rewards are not the right incentive to motivate a person to work.
 
2.The power of vulnerability – Brene Brown
 
I read her book the gifts of imperfection. That drove me to listen to her. This too was a revision because she repeated the same things which she wrote in her book.
 
3.How Boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas
 
I learned this concept in ‘Learning how to learn’ coursera course. Brain needs to go into a diffused mode after focussed mode to remember better and get into idea generating mode.
 
4.Power of reading from a reluctant teenager:
 
If you are not much of a reader, I suggest you watch this. I wanted to see what a teenager has to advise. She was good for her age.
 
5.Words, not ideas: How to write a book
 
The reason why we like a few books and why we don’t like the others.
 
6.Why you should define your fears
 
The talk by Tim Ferris validated my method of dealing with fear.
 
7.How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes
 
He mentioned the what why how principle. The basic principle which everyone needs to follow in every aspect of life.
 
8.The first 20 hours to learn anything:
 
Similar to what I read on fluent forever and also 4 hour chef. You just need to know the few things which is going to make you decent at it.
 
9.50 books in 50 weeks:
 
Title is totally unrelated to the content of the talk.
 
10.Refusing to settle- Quarter life crisis:
 
I hit this a few years back. Now, I am happy that I am on the same path as Smiley, the TED talker. I am grateful to have already met believers who made me feel accountable. Now I lead a life where I don’t have the money I wanted but I definitely have a meaning. It was one hell of a nostalgic talk. And if you are in mid life crisis, you should definitely watch this.
 

Learnt something new:

 
1.The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans:
 
I learnt that brain scan of a normal person and that with a disorder is totally different. Complex diseases like Alzhemiers can be detected as early as in twenties just through a brain scan.
 
2.Draw your future:
 
I took it as an action point. I want to draw how I want my life to be.
 
3.Why I read a book a day:
 
I always did not know how to apply the principle of ‘You are average of 5 people you spend time with’. Now I know that I have to spend one third of the time each with people less, equal and more than me.
 
4.My year reading a book from each country in the world:
 
This talk inspired me to read a book from each state of my country.
 
5.Brain Magic – Keith Barry
 
I don’t know how he did that magic. If it was an illusion or if there are actually techniques. This comes under interesting and not amazing because it was just an entertainment and not learning.
 
6.A rich life with less stuff – The Minimalists
I liked their creative way of presentation. The content was the same old one. Do more with less stuff.
 

Amazing Talks:

 
Long long back, I made a list of ted talks I wish to watch. I don’t even remember why I made the list and the source of it. But it turned out to be a magic box.
 
[emaillocker]
 
1.100 days of rejection
 
The first one I picked up from the list was 100 days of rejection. I thought it will be a story of a salesperson who failed for 100 days to succeed on 101st day. But boy! I was wrong. The speaker was an entrepreneur. His rejection story as a 7 year old boy cracked me up. And then the story as 14 year old. I saw the potential in the letter he wrote as a 14 year old boy. Keeping his old time stories aside, what he did for 100 days was amazing. Not for how much his rejection potential increased but for his creativity and for the way he fulfilled his dreams. I felt so inspired by him that I created my own list for rejection.He made one point in the end, “ All I had to do was ask”. That was the same point which Randy Paush mentioned in Last Lecture. My life has definitely improved after I started asking for what I wanted.
 
2.Happy secret to better work
 
The second one from the magic list. The Ted talk is only 12 minutes because the author talks really fast. Thankfully subtitles helped me follow them. It was good that I encountered this in the month of positive thinking. He told the same I discovered. You think positive by looking at the positive in the negative situation. This one too has an interesting beginning. I really liked the idea of a 7-year old looking for the positive in the negative. I don’t think I was ever that smart at that age. Even though he mentioned what I already knew, the speech left me feeling good. A few key points mentioned in the talk:

  • Medical school syndrome– I dont like reading about diseases because I feel I have them too
  • Newspapers– I stopped reading them because it makes me worry about something I can’t change
  • Looking at the positive in the hurt state– Kids cry because we tell them that is pain and they don’t if you make them look at something funny
  • Changing goal posts – This is what I have done countless time and it ruined my happiness
  • Chase the outliers and make everyone a outlier – makes the world a better place to live in
  • Everything is measured by average – You need to do different things to become above average
  • Why psychologists dig your past – So that you keep coming to them again and again

 
3.Why we marry the wrong person?-Alain De Botton
 
Outside my magic box too, I have an interesting life changing TED Talk. I had read it before in NY Times and was keen on listening to this. I found every word of his talk as gold nugget. The way you look at love changes completely after you listen to what he says. I wanted to hear more of his talks and stumbled on his speech at Sydney Opera house. Even though it is a one hour speech, I will vouch for its quality. After that, I subscribed for his youtube channel “ School of Life”.  
 
4.Why we love, why we cheat? – Helen Fischer
 
This one was amazing because she cared to explain the different steps of love. It is totally different from what media shows you. It explains clearly what is what and why what happens. I don’t want to summarize it because I want you to watch this and learn it for yourself.
 
 
[/emaillocker]
Moral of the story:
 
Just like how not all books are good, not all ted talks are worth your time. Ted talk becomes amazing only if you choose something which you have no idea about and are interested in knowing about it. Otherwise it is just going to be ‘an utter waste of my time’ to ‘thanks for revising my concepts’.
 
Happy watching ted talks!
 

How to think positively when everything is going wrong?

“Why should it rain on the day I have an important meeting?”
“How am I supposed to go to office without it affecting my clothes?”
“Why should there be so much traffic only today?”
 
There is no end to the train of negative thoughts. The meeting which would have went awesome will go okay because of this attitude.
 
But then you can ask me “ How else do you expect me to react in such a situation?”
 

Rule Number one:

 
You are not thinking positively for me. You have to think positive for your own happiness. If not happiness, at least for your health. In fact, you will be able to think positively only if you wish to be positive.
 

Rule Number two:

 
You can’t control weather. You can only control how you react to it. It is not only about weather. But every other external situation. I see a lot of unhappiness in my colleagues during appraisal time. They can’t control the salary hike they are going to get. Then why talk about it and upset themselves more.
 

Action

 
Now coming to the answer to your question.How else should you think on a rainy day?
You should thank god for giving another beautiful day to live. You should thank god for giving you an opportunity to get ready freshly just before the meeting. You should thank the traffic for diverting your mind from the pressure of the meeting and helping you relax for some more time. All these sound counter-intuitive and look like excuses. But I call it as looking for the good in the bad.
 
I embarked on a 30-day positive challenge and fell sick for a week. I had no other choice than to thank god that whatever my illness was, it was curable. I am thankful to have parents who took care of me when I was sick. I am thankful to have a job where I will not be removed from the rolls for taking off for a week. I am thankful to have colleagues who worked over-time to do my share of work.
 
But excuse me my friend, this is not a change which comes over night. You need a shift in thinking. If you just think that way today and go back to what you are tomorrow, it is not going to help. You need to look for the positive in the negative in every thought. This is going to be tough. But definitely doable.
 
Start doing this small exercise today. Daily write one thing you are grateful for. Every night before you go to sleep, just write this. Tell me the change you see in a month.

“What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.”

 
Happy looking for the positive!
 

Bonus Tip :

[emaillocker]Write a gratitude book for your partner, parent or children. Gift them that after a month. Trust me that is the best gift they would have ever got. It also strengthens your bond with them.[/emaillocker]
 

Book Review: Even Happier

Who does not want to be more happy?
As I was searching for more books on happiness, I stumbled upon this. I have been doing research on happiness for a year now but this was the first time I came across a book which has lots of exercises in it.
I was excited to see the introduction of book and expected a lot of fun. Even though not all exercises are clear and doable, some of them are. I have already tried a few which are mentioned and there are a few which are totally new and some of them are just repetition in different forms.
If you are a newbie, and has no idea about how happiness works, you will not gain much from the book. But if you are already perfect with the basics, it is a good book to practise on being happy to the fullest. The interesting thing about this book is it has a quote for every chapter. Even though some of the quotes don’t produce any effect, overall the quotes make you take action.
The chapters are very short. For some of the chapters, the explanation and terms mentioned have cleared a lot of my doubts. Even though this book is mentioned at week level, you can read it all at once and make notes and plan on the exercises you want to do for the year or lifetime.
Some of the chapters are vaguely related to happiness. But they still provide some value.
This book has been written for adults. If you are still a student, some of the chapters will not be relevant for you.
 
Important Lessons learnt from the book:

  • A few activities provide joy in the present. A few in the future. But focus on those which give joy both in the present and in the future
  • In order to cultivate genuine intimacy,the focus in a relationship has to shift from the desire to be validated to the desire to be known
  • The best way to increase self esteem is increase our failure coping mechanism
  • Little or no conflict within a relationship indicates that the partners are not dealing with important issues and differences.
  • Make children struggle so that they don’t pay for their luxury
  • Rat racers feel more despair after achieving material success because there is nothing left for them to pursue
  • People perceive their work in three ways: job, career and a calling. Make yours a calling

 
Why should you read this book?
Just like how we have practicals in college, this book is like practicals in life. If you want to have some fun practising, you should go for it.
 
Top 10 quotes from the book:
“What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even
money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.”
 
“True happiness involves some emotional discomfort and difficult experiences, which some self-help books and psychiatric medication attempt to circumvent.”
 
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. – Viktor Frankl
 
“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. . . . I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been
realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big
idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. . . . Failure gave me an inner
security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could
have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I
also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies. . . . The knowledge that you have emerged
wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will
never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.” – J.K Rowling
 
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare, is to lose oneself.” —Søren Kierkegaard
 
“The best way you can predict your future is to create it.” —Stephen Covey
 
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” —Annie Dillard
 
“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.”—Thomas Huxley
 
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?” -Marianne Williamson
 
“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.” —Mark Twain
 
Top 5 Action Points:
 

  1. Meaning exercise -Note down all the activities in the day but do only the ones you find meaning
  2. Healing exercise – Write a forgiving letter to people who have hurt you
  3. Do one kind act per week
  4. Take a walk in the nature
  5. Advice from Your Inner Sage – Go forward in time and write a letter to your current self

 
Books mentioned in the book:
 

  • The Power of Full
  • Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
  • Passionate Marriage
  • Radical Honesty, Brad Blanton
  • Return to Love, Marianne Williamson

 
Happy being more happier !
 

Why starting your day with notifications is bad

I woke up late today. I was irritated that the medicine I took makes me drowsy. There I put the blame of my over sleep on medicine.One negative thought makes you do another negative thing. I switched on data on my mobile to get some spice in my life. That was the next worst thing I did.
What do you think are the chances of it making my day brighter?
50-50?
No. It is not 50-50. It depends on what messages you expect from whom. If you text all good people in the night before sleep, you get good messages. Otherwise, it will not be. Let’s keep math for another day.
Now coming back to notifications, irrespective of whether they are good or bad in tone, they are bad for you.
 
Why bad notifications are bad?
 
Have you noticed that when you learn a new word, you will starting seeing that word everywhere?
 
Similarly when you start your day with negativity, you will be seeing more of negative happenings throughout the day. Not that your day becomes negative, but your focus shifts to negative activity
 
Why good notifications are bad?
 
Good notifications produce dopamine. Dopamine is the hormone which asks for more. It sets your day to ‘bring it on more’ mode. When you don’t get them more, you will start feeling frustrated and depressed. Since your mind is craving for it subconsciously, you can’t focus fully on any task.
 
Now that we have come to an agreement that notifications are bad for our health, how can we avoid them first thing in the morning?
 
I have previously tried these and they gave me wonderful results.
 

  1. Close all the conversations in the night: If you are waiting for a text from the previous night, you are more likely to check the notification on phone.
  2. Notifications from social media: What others are upto in their life is none of your business when it comes to priorities in life. How much others love you on social media also does not determine what you have to do today. So it does not make any sense at all to check these notifications.

 
What to do instead?
 

  1. Dump your thoughts: Brain gets good rest in deep sleep. You might get solutions for your problems during that rest time. Even if not for that, you can dump your early morning anxieties. When I start writing the first thing in the morning, I write about the dreams which I got in sleep. Dreams usually tell a little about our concerns in life.
  2. Read a book: Previously I used to read quora or Medium. Now I read a book so that I get the same happiness that prior ones gave. One idea in the morning will bring a lot more ideas during the day.

 
I am waiting to hear what makes you connect to the internet first thing in the morning. Do let me know in the comments section!
 
Happy getting rid of your bad habit!
 
.
 

30 Lessons in 30 days

What is the one thing which makes you happy?


I know the one thing which made me happy since my childhood. I felt happy when I learnt something new. I used to go to the library and spend hours in collecting information. I filled books after books with the nuggets I found. I found true joy in that.


One way for me to stay happy everyday is not by going in search of learning new things but by acknowledging that I have learnt something new. With the information explosion, I will definitely be learning something new daily. But how often do I look at it with my eyes? Very rare, I say!
 
That was the reason why I started a tracker where I make a note of what I learned that day. And this tracker definitely opened my eyes wide and I see the reality clearly and as it is now.


What have I learnt?


The spectrum of lessons I learnt with this exercise ranges from personal lessons to professional lessons.


Sep 5
Trust matters a lot. You can buy blessings with 5rs.

Sep 4
Don’t take bullshit without verifying
Be so good that people will write good things about you without you having to tell what you have done

Sep 3
Tailor your classes to the needs of the weakest students.

Sept 2
When you really want answers for your questions, they come to you.

Be careful about what you talk where.

Sept 1
Don’t sleep out of boredom.


Aug 31
It is very important to be yourself by letting away the inhibitions.


29 Aug
When you truly work for something, success does not really give happiness.

28 Aug
Work on what you promise.
Live upto expectations.
It is not that tough to look into mirror and smile.

27 Aug
Thank people.
Make a personal relation.
Relaxing has great benefits.
A good hot water bath can be super relaxing at times.

26 August
Sometimes all you need to do is dare.

It is not the reality which causes the pain it is the fear of reality.

25 Aug
There is lot of fun in decoration.

24 Aug
A few things work wonderfully. You just need to start using them.

21 Aug
It is important to make your presence felt in a meeting.
You should not reveal others secrets and make them feel embarrassed.

23 Aug
People don’t understand what you speak unless they have experienced it

20 Aug
However strong you are mentally, you will need someone when you are sick

17 Aug
Bad experiences can haunt you long after you have forgotten them too

16 Aug
Before you play a game, set rules for it

15 Aug
Don’t be short tempered when you talk for the first time to someone.First impressions matter the most
Don’t derive your self worth from your assets

19 Aug
With every fame, there will be someone to defame you

14 Aug
Always look at the bigger picture

13 Aug
Talking in RJ voice has its own advantages.

12 Aug
Don’t let others change your mood in an instant

10 Aug
Whatever your age is, act responsible

9
Aug
If you hurt someone, it’s your responsibility to make them feel good too

7 Aug
If you are really interested, ideas will start coming by themselves.

8 Aug
Don’t reject anything blindly. Don’t accept anything blindly.

4 Aug
Keep learning. You never know from where creativity can stem.

6 Aug
Don’t blame others for your mistakes

5 Aug
If you want to grow in your business, care for the people whom you provide the service.
Futile practice will take you nowhere. Only understanding why you are not able to improve will take you to places.

Take responsibility for your family.

Aim high. Do whatever it takes for you to reach there.

3 Aug
Everything is related. Excel in one area and apply knowledge to other areas.

2 Aug
Keep reviewing and practicing, one day you will get it.

1 Aug
Visualization techniques are so powerful .


When you want something, they keep coming to you.
31 July
Find small things in the other person and appreciate them


Show excitement in your voice when you meet someone you know


Discover what makes you happy and keep doing it daily.
If it is lessons tracker, write down the lessons you learnt.


Happy learning!
 

Why I don't believe quotes blindly













One of my favourite poems in my mother tongue says
“Listen to what everyone says. Analyse those words. Separate the truth from the lies and then follow the advice.”


Even though I memorised hundreds of poems in school, this is one of the few poems which stuck with me. By god’s grace, I still follow it.


Following which brought me a lot of good things in life and also a lot of suffering too. I suffered because I doubted the advice which professionals gave. So I had to go through entire loop of failure and success.


Keeping that aside, here is what my experience says:


Practice makes man perfect:


I don’t deny this. But it comes with exceptions. If you practise English alphabet everyday, you are definitely going to get good at it. You can tell the alphabet even if I wake you up from your deep sleep in the middle of the night. But can you speak a sentence in English just by knowing the alphabet? You become perfect only in the narrow fixed area. And it becomes a rote memory. Where is the logic? Where is becom
ing better in that?


I once saw a friend preparing for a test. She took an A4 sheet. Wrote the same symbol all over the paper till no space was left. Mind you, she was a 10 pointer. If getting a 10 pointer involves doing that, I never wanted one. I was happier figuring out how to think analytically. Ultimately do what makes you happy. Or what matters more for you. The end result or the means.


On a different note, I practise the same exercise everyday. The pain and strain which I feel on the first day, I no longer feel it on the 30th day. My body just got used to it. Yeah, you are right. Practise made me perfect. But once it got used to it, it does not give me any new results. The fat stops melting. For what fun does it have to melt?


But yeah practise makes man perfect. But just think if it is what you want.


Expect different results by doing the same thing:


Don’t you think it is the opposite of ‘Practise makes man perfect’? All through your childhood, you listened to the people telling you practise more, practise more. Now people tell you that you can’t expect the same results by doing the same thing.


To your surprise, I disagree with this quote too.


In ‘Think and grow Rich’, the author wrote about a gold miner who abandoned the mine when he was three feet away from the gold. What if you are that close away before changing your methodology?


You must be thinking “ How do I ever know when to stick and when to give up then?”


Well, don’t worry. It is quite simple. Just take a decision and stick with it.


If you succeed you are lucky. If you fail, you are luckier. You have learned a valuable lesson and your instincts have just become smarter. Fail at the earliest. Fail more now. Fail when you still don’t have a lot to lose. Fail at all small things.


So that once when something big comes your instincts are smart enough to tell you when to quit and when to stay.


Happy analysing!

The first thing to do after a massive failure

I failed a lot of times in my life.
Even though for a lot of people it does not look like failure, it was failure for me.
I failed to achieve realistic and achievable goals I set for myself.


Have you failed any time in life?


If you have never failed in life, you either did not set goals up to your level or you were strategies just happened to work in the right way.


If you are not setting goals up to your standards, you need to do it right now. Aim for something beyond your comfort level. Go ask your crush on a date. Demand a hike from your boss. Aim to be an all rounder at work.


If your strategies are just working right, you have learnt very little in life. The day they stop working for you, you are dead on the spot. Because you have never seen what reality is like. You have been taking minimal risks and happily getting along.


But if you have failed in life, failed really hard that life slapped you on your face and you thought there was no way you can stand on your legs again. I congratulate you. I am proud of you that you are alive and started your life from scratch again. I admire you because you have the potential to start any time from the bottom. Because what you have seen was just a trailer. Life is going to show you the movie soon. And I know you are ready for it.


Here is what I did after I failed multiple times in life:


Get some physical exercise:


This is my most favourite thing. I go on long walks and I keep walking until I am tired. Once when I flunked an exam, I walked from the exam centre till my home. I was too tired physically to indulge in self-pity. I was sane by the next morning.


Shut yourself from the world:


The last thing you need is sympathy. Your life did not end. You need neither self-pity nor sympathy. You are perfectly alright. If you feel a loss, make use of a diary.
I really hate it when people from all over the world send messages and make calls as soon as the results are announced. They are not concerned about you, they are just curious. You don’t need people who are curious about your life. Just switch off the damn phone.

Spend time with a loved one:


No, not for sympathy. Not for telling that you are awesome. Meet that friend who takes you to the best dessert place or the latest movie as if nothing happened at all. The world did not end. You need to distract your mind from what happened to you.
My parents don’t bother me with the result. They talk to me as if it was just another day. Their casual talk is what brings me back to normal.

Create the next opportunity:


You might not get another opportunity. But you can always create one. You can become better than before which makes you more valuable.


What should you not do?


Analysing what went wrong:


This is a step which should definitely be done. But not immediately after a failure. The more time you spend on this, the more you are beating yourself up. It is okay to fail. You need not brainstorm on it. You have given your best. There was nothing you could have done better. But if there are a few things think about them after you become normal.


Are you ready to set your next goal?


Happy embracing failure!

Why should you work on becoming better?


 Do you want to be successful?


Do you want a lot of money?


Do you want to be famous?


Do you want to be happy?


If not all the four, you want at least one of the four. And the more you chase it, the more it goes away from you. You work for it day after day, night after night. But nothing works. Even if it does it just lasts for a short time. You think you are unlucky. Your stars are just not aligned. You feel envy for others who are successful. Life becomes a suffering. You just end up accepting the life as it is. You will stop working towards your dreams. You take life as it comes. And one day you are finally dead. But your ghost lingers in this world. Waiting to get it’s dreams fulfilled. How will you achieve your dreams as a ghost without a body when you didn’t when you had a body?


Oh oh wait !


You are not dead yet. You are alive this moment. You are reading this. You still have a chance to become better. You still have a chance to let your soul to not turn into a ghost and make it rest in peace.


How is achieving your dreams related to you becoming better?


I want to share with you two of my favourite quotes.


“Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.”


“The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire.” — Jim Rohn


Is there anything common in between the above two quotes?


Both the quotes talk about you becoming a better person and not about chasing your dreams.


In the book Big Magic, the author writes that creativity comes to you when you are ready. Idea will want to come to you if it thinks you have the potential.


You need to build that potential. You need to become a person where everything else follows you.


Saddest reality about life is you don’t become great by doing good work once. But you become one when you have the personality of a person who does good work.


What should you start doing today for that?


You don’t have to do big things for that. All you need to do is small things which have tremendous effect.


You need to first stop telling yourself that you have achieved a lot for your age. It is good to love yourself. But not good to think that you are too good. You should keep striving for more. Now list down the areas where you think you have scope for improvement. Let’s limit it to 3 for now. Now write down 3 ways under each about what you can do to improve. There you set your goal. Now attach deadlines and systems to achieve them. Deadline can be a week, month, quarter or year. Systems are the habits which you are going to build to work on these goals everyday.


“ I am going to do ______ (habits) everyday. I am 10 times better in ______ ( time period).”


There you took an oath to become a better person.
Happy becoming a better person!

This simple exercise will help you take charge of your life

Image result for take charge of your life
How moody are you on a scale of 1-10?


Oh wait! Don’t jump and give your answer. How do you define moodiness?


If you have no consistency in what you feel in a short period of time, you can call yourself moody. You can rate yourself 10. If you are a more stable person, even if you are negative all the day, rate yourself close to 1.


Done?


How moody are you?


After reading the article, let me know about it in the comment section.


If you are close to 10, you need to definitely work on becoming more consistent. Even if you are close to 1 and it is because you are constantly feeling negative emotions, you still have to work on it.


But how did you measure yourself in the first place? Were you too harsh on yourself when you gave yourself that rating? Or were you too lenient? How do you know that you judged yourself in the right way?


I was not interested in learning whether I was a moody person or not. But I wanted to track my emotions and learn what life brings out of me everyday. I wanted to take a peek into my life and change it totally.


I searched for a few apps on android to see if there are any which will help me on my project. To my dismay, I did not find any. Then I went ahead and created a excel tracker to write down what I feel at which time of the day.


I diligently entered what I felt at various times of the day. In the first one week, I made too many entries. I had too much free time I guess. As the days passed, there were days when I was so busy with work that I did not feel any emotion at all the entire day. It was just neutral. I did not know what to enter in my tracker. And there were days when I did not know if I was describing my emotion correctly. I went and searched for definitions of emotions to make sure that I am not misleading myself.


Today, with the more than a month’s data I collected, I made a pivot table of the data and glanced through the entries to understand myself at a deeper level.


I got some interesting results. I found that my life was simple. I classified the emotions into negative, neutral and positive.


Negative:
Ther
e were 3 main issues which made me feel the negative emotions and two trivial issues like getting annoyed with loud volume of songs in cab and very low temperature of A/C in office.


Neutral:
The issues which I classified under neutral were random ones.


Positive:
The positive ones were doing activities where I was learning something new or talking to people who matter to me.


To make my life better, I just need to resolve the three main negative issues and do more of the positive things.


Making your life simpler is also easy. You need to have the fire to change your life and take charge of it by changing what is causing the trouble.


Happy tracking your mood!

Book Review – The Miracle Morning

Do you think there can be a magic pill to help you become better instantly?
This book gives you that ‘Life SAVERS’.


The key takeaway from the book is about SAVERS and nothing miraculous about the morning. Even though most of the activities he mentioned are better done in the morning, you can still do them when you find time in the day or before sleeping.


The author wrote a lot of pages and chapters in the introduction about the greatness of his mantra. It was annoying and not impressive. I was just waiting for the actual content to start. I didn’t need confirmation on how many people it worked. I just wanted to know how to make it work on me.


For the miracle morning to happen, he suggests to wake up with different types of alarms. I strongly disagree with waking up on force. I felt annoyed first thing in the morning today because of the alarm I had to set to leave home early. Every sleep has a cycle. I am better off waking up late than waking up for an alarm unless it is important.


SAVERS – stands for Silence, Affirmation, Visualisation, Exercise, Reading and Scribing.


I don’t do the first three but I do the last three. It has excellent practical suggestions on how to do affirmations and visualisations.That is the one thing for which I felt the book was worth reading.


And before concluding, he suggested to take feedback from people who knew you. I have done that a few times in my life before. And I can assure you that it is really helpful and constructive.


There were a lot of inspiring quotes and references in the book.


A few of my favourite quotes:


  • If you are committed you will always find a way to succeed.


  • It is not about blaming but about responsibility.


  • To make profound changes in your life, you need either inspiration or desperation


  • Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become


  • Every time you choose to do the easy thing, instead of the right thing, you are shaping your identity becoming the type of person who does what’s easy, rather than what’s right.


  • Average of 5 people -This is true in every area—success, health, happiness weight, income.


  • Constantly improve your circle of influence


  • Think about the kind of negative energy that surrounds you when you begin your day with resistance


  • An extraordinary life is all about daily, continuous improvements in the areas that matter most. —ROBIN SHARMA


  • When you see people who are excelling in an area that you’re not, does it seem like they’ve got it all figured out—like they must know something that you don’t know, because if you knew it, then you’d be excelling in that area too


  • Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right either way.


  • The wise begin with whys.


  • Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others


  • If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably  have to make time for illness. —ROBIN SHARMA


  • A person who won’t read has no advantage  over one who can’t read. —MARK TWAIN


  • Whose fault is it that it’s boring? And whose responsibility is it to make it fun again


  • An extraordinary life is all about daily, continuous improvements in the areas that matter most.—ROBIN SHARMA


  • Let Today Be The Day You Give Up Who You’ve Been For Who You Can Become


  • Every day, think as you wake up, ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ —DALAI LAMA


Action points:


  • personal development audio from Jim Rohn
  • Self-confidence affirmation from Think and Grow Rich


Sites mentioned:



Books mentioned:
 
  • Taking Life Head On:  How To Love the Life You Have While You Create the Life of Your Dreams
  • Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
  • What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshal Goldsmith
  • Marianne Williamson’s bestselling book, A Return To Love
  • The secret
  • Eat That Frog
  • Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
  • The Five Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman
  • The SoulMate Experience by Jo Dunn
  • The Seven Principles For Making a Marriage Work by John M. Gottman and Nan Silver