While walking through the Crossword Magazine store, the only intriguing fact for me was the Biography/ Autobiography section is getting larger.Perhaps its part of the fact that people want to read, visualize and empathize with the protagonists more than ever before.
There was another thought on TV that made me visualize that came from Amitabh Bachchan's story about his father.He had won the award of best actor in school and next year could not participate due to measles.His father sat with him in what could have been the parallel time of the school event for 3-4 hours.He said "If what you think happens, its good.But if what you think does not happens, its even good." This is because in the second scenario, God wanted something better to happen for you.
Another important biography with impact is about J R D Tata in "Beyond the last blue mountain".The fact that National interest could be so important part of the business intrigues me.
But the auto biogaphy which is currently ruling the charts is that of Sachin Tendulkar. Released recently, it shows how dedication and devotion for the game made the person be called as "God" of the game.
Taking all the above 3 in context of visualization, I think Sachin would have visualized his innings like crazy (eg. Perth test when he scored the century), JRD would have visualized the enterprise to be still in the greater good inspite of various conflicts with the politicians of the day and perhaps Bachchan with age has visualized that acting as his forte will take him to new levels of recognition.
Creating a mental image of where you want to be down the line helps in focussing the energy and attitude in the right direction.But one should not get the mental image as wishful thinking but a belief system for which one is constantly driven to achieve.
Hence its critical to visualize first and make them happen next.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 8, 2014
Being SMART
Goals must be SMART is the first thing they teach you for any Process Improvement projects as well as annual appraisals.
S = Specific
M= Measurable
A=Attainable
R= Relevant
T= Time bound
It helps you to be efficient at all times while providing and receiving information.
For eg. W4H if applied to real life situation helps us in basic actions to winning deals :)
It helps if you have an exact goal and you reach exactly there and not surpass or get beaten by it.Setting improbable targets will lead one to nowhere.
I had thought at the beginning of the previous year to start running a Marathon.This year I realized that there is no point in running it.It was all there in thoughts with no action attached to it.
All I wanted to do was remain fit and loose the extra flab.So I reduced the target to a 1 km walk or run based on the time permission.It has helped to some extent that I now practice something that I believe is achievable.With time permitting and I becoming more regular, I might decide to improvize on the health goals but for now this looks like the best attainable goal to start somewhere.
From knowledge perspective,I had thought of no targets once I completed my MBA.This has left me to become a static person with very little content to talk of.Since I somehow behest loose talks and sycophancy, I will not reach anywhere.Hence I have a self fulflling prophecy to start for a Phd or do some certification.Let me see how I take it from there.
S = Specific
M= Measurable
A=Attainable
R= Relevant
T= Time bound
It helps you to be efficient at all times while providing and receiving information.
For eg. W4H if applied to real life situation helps us in basic actions to winning deals :)
It helps if you have an exact goal and you reach exactly there and not surpass or get beaten by it.Setting improbable targets will lead one to nowhere.
I had thought at the beginning of the previous year to start running a Marathon.This year I realized that there is no point in running it.It was all there in thoughts with no action attached to it.
All I wanted to do was remain fit and loose the extra flab.So I reduced the target to a 1 km walk or run based on the time permission.It has helped to some extent that I now practice something that I believe is achievable.With time permitting and I becoming more regular, I might decide to improvize on the health goals but for now this looks like the best attainable goal to start somewhere.
From knowledge perspective,I had thought of no targets once I completed my MBA.This has left me to become a static person with very little content to talk of.Since I somehow behest loose talks and sycophancy, I will not reach anywhere.Hence I have a self fulflling prophecy to start for a Phd or do some certification.Let me see how I take it from there.
Cell Phones and Intelligent devices
I first saw the cellphone or the hand phone in 2004, a big one, with few friends who used it to talk with their family.By 2005, I had it as my birthday gift.I had never imagined that over the next 10 years, the device will undergo so much change that from connectivity it will move to the level of experience everything.
The first few phones I had were stones to be more precise and were used more for talking to everyone and moved on to listening to music as well.The last phone had some internet facility so I could check my mails at times.But the current Android phone has taken it to a different level with Whatsapp being the toast of all.
You are connected all the time get any information on the go and can be omnipresent in whatever sphere of influence at any point of time.This has reduced the attention span to enormously low levels and the human touch is missing everywhere now.
The idea now is it take every device to Internet of Everything.Create intelligent devices and they will understand what is required from them.Devices like these will have everything except the human ability to understand the problem.If they get to the level of understanding every problem, a lot of solutions will start generating and they will procreate to the level of "Matrix" thereby questioning the very existence of humans.
Since Change is the very essence of nature, if an idea has been created, it is possible that Inception and Matrix will happen in the near future, the timeline of which is to be ascertained.Till then we must enjoy every progress that Technology is making.This is at the expense of certain people who are rendered worthless and have to relearn the new skills for survival.Being a hunter - gatherer was never ever ever a bad option :)
The first few phones I had were stones to be more precise and were used more for talking to everyone and moved on to listening to music as well.The last phone had some internet facility so I could check my mails at times.But the current Android phone has taken it to a different level with Whatsapp being the toast of all.
You are connected all the time get any information on the go and can be omnipresent in whatever sphere of influence at any point of time.This has reduced the attention span to enormously low levels and the human touch is missing everywhere now.
The idea now is it take every device to Internet of Everything.Create intelligent devices and they will understand what is required from them.Devices like these will have everything except the human ability to understand the problem.If they get to the level of understanding every problem, a lot of solutions will start generating and they will procreate to the level of "Matrix" thereby questioning the very existence of humans.
Since Change is the very essence of nature, if an idea has been created, it is possible that Inception and Matrix will happen in the near future, the timeline of which is to be ascertained.Till then we must enjoy every progress that Technology is making.This is at the expense of certain people who are rendered worthless and have to relearn the new skills for survival.Being a hunter - gatherer was never ever ever a bad option :)
The Writer
I started writing essays from Class 6th since that was the only competitive thing to do then.I had a terrible stage fright and would get tense on speaking something which was written somewhere and not what I had thought of.I wrote a terrible essay with a superlative bad handwriting in Hindi back then on our freedom movement.
In class 7th, I won a prize for writing something on Energy conservation and from then I started taking writing as a serious form to express myself.One of the best essays that I would have written was on the role of education in class XIth with an awesome handwriting in Hindi.Essay writing also helped in improving my self confidence in speaking as well as Quizzes in the small pond of Shaktinagar. It was an important aspect to have structure with introduction, content and a good conclusion forming part of them.It helped in improvising answers one wrote in exams as well.
I do not have a good handwriting and I lost touch with the handwriting after class Xth. Whatever good would have remained was lost in the computers and now Whatsapp.
During engineering, there was ample time to explore the KNIT library and Tanda library for reading whatever novels were possible. Preparing for CAT was an add on motivation then.After joining Hell and reading so much stuff to levels that you would have already concluded your thought process by end of 1st para of the case study into a framework.This created an attitude of stereotyoing certain things.This is good in some ways but kills the very creativity at times.
I used to have a bigger canvas to think when I started blogging in 2006.I would write on any topic I felt I should be sharing my views on.With age, all this has gone and being a born spectator has taken over the being.In fact, it should have been the other way with acquired wisdom getting added to the knowledge you have.This would thereby had increased "Vivek" quotient.But then the Rashmi rathi lines of
"Jab naash manuj par chhaata hai,
pehle vivek mar jaata hai"
has taken over for no reason.
I believe there are still loads of new things that have happened since blogging started. We have Quora to answer all the random Questions, Wikipedia to provide inputs on any topic of interest and the ever present Google with the Android Apps avataar to help you at any point of life.
But what has happened in all these years is the time spent on reading and reflection has reduced considerably.Probably that's the reason I really like the Caravan magazine I got hold of last week with a fresh perspective and readable essays on topics of interest.
You are what you read has become an important part of the writer's existence.Will try to read a bit more than I have been doing over the last 5 years.Its a never ending journey and becoming blank on topics where you could talk for ages is something to be frowned upon.
So from now on I will try to write about stuffs I had read or will read.The topics will not be restricted to Philosophy as has been the last few posts but also Gyaan on
Because you do not become a winner by just one stream of thought.A multitude of ideas sometimes describe a part of what you are and still there is so much for imagination.
In class 7th, I won a prize for writing something on Energy conservation and from then I started taking writing as a serious form to express myself.One of the best essays that I would have written was on the role of education in class XIth with an awesome handwriting in Hindi.Essay writing also helped in improving my self confidence in speaking as well as Quizzes in the small pond of Shaktinagar. It was an important aspect to have structure with introduction, content and a good conclusion forming part of them.It helped in improvising answers one wrote in exams as well.
I do not have a good handwriting and I lost touch with the handwriting after class Xth. Whatever good would have remained was lost in the computers and now Whatsapp.
During engineering, there was ample time to explore the KNIT library and Tanda library for reading whatever novels were possible. Preparing for CAT was an add on motivation then.After joining Hell and reading so much stuff to levels that you would have already concluded your thought process by end of 1st para of the case study into a framework.This created an attitude of stereotyoing certain things.This is good in some ways but kills the very creativity at times.
I used to have a bigger canvas to think when I started blogging in 2006.I would write on any topic I felt I should be sharing my views on.With age, all this has gone and being a born spectator has taken over the being.In fact, it should have been the other way with acquired wisdom getting added to the knowledge you have.This would thereby had increased "Vivek" quotient.But then the Rashmi rathi lines of
"Jab naash manuj par chhaata hai,
pehle vivek mar jaata hai"
has taken over for no reason.
I believe there are still loads of new things that have happened since blogging started. We have Quora to answer all the random Questions, Wikipedia to provide inputs on any topic of interest and the ever present Google with the Android Apps avataar to help you at any point of life.
But what has happened in all these years is the time spent on reading and reflection has reduced considerably.Probably that's the reason I really like the Caravan magazine I got hold of last week with a fresh perspective and readable essays on topics of interest.
You are what you read has become an important part of the writer's existence.Will try to read a bit more than I have been doing over the last 5 years.Its a never ending journey and becoming blank on topics where you could talk for ages is something to be frowned upon.
So from now on I will try to write about stuffs I had read or will read.The topics will not be restricted to Philosophy as has been the last few posts but also Gyaan on
- Books I read- Probably a synopsis
- General Studies as they call in IAS terms
- Fiction
- Thoughts that come and go :)
Because you do not become a winner by just one stream of thought.A multitude of ideas sometimes describe a part of what you are and still there is so much for imagination.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Musings when you have nothing to do
Read this really good article on HBR
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/how-philosophy-makes-you-a-better-leader/
"SANE” mnemonic, drawing on key questions posed by preeminent Western philosophers: Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and the Existentialists.
Socrates: What is the most challenging question someone could ask me about my current approach?
Aristotle: What character virtues are most important to me and how will I express them?
Nietzsche: How will I direct my “will to power,” manage my self-interest, and act in accordance with my chosen values?
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/how-philosophy-makes-you-a-better-leader/
"SANE” mnemonic, drawing on key questions posed by preeminent Western philosophers: Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and the Existentialists.
Socrates: What is the most challenging question someone could ask me about my current approach?
Aristotle: What character virtues are most important to me and how will I express them?
Nietzsche: How will I direct my “will to power,” manage my self-interest, and act in accordance with my chosen values?
Existentialists (e.g., Sartre): How will I take full responsibility for my choices and the outcomes to which they lead?
Took me to the most important definition of Existence precedes Essence :
A central proposition of Existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which means that the most important consideration for individuals is that they are individuals—independently acting and responsible, conscious beings ("existence")—rather than what labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or other preconceived categories the individuals fit ("essence"). The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their "true essence" instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them. Thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life.
Took me to the most important definition of Existence precedes Essence :
A central proposition of Existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which means that the most important consideration for individuals is that they are individuals—independently acting and responsible, conscious beings ("existence")—rather than what labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or other preconceived categories the individuals fit ("essence"). The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their "true essence" instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them. Thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Dreams and Destiny
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
- The Alchemist defining Destiny
"Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep."
- The Wikipedia taken from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved 2009-05-07
So just like the chicken and egg conspiracy, dreams and destiny are also quite interlinked and its difficult to predict what comes first.Dreams have been subject of study in philosophical and psychological contexts.It has also been part of "Visioning" or "Day dreaming" that a lot of men do and succeed in.
"He believes in his dream for, ‘It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting"
On the contrary, there is also a Freewill theory that states that Character is non deterministic. So probably dreams and destiny are also not related.One of the key lessons for me in destiny had unfolded last year leading to a life long tag.This was not something that I had dreamt of but probably some one else had already conspired about it.And all the universe conspired in achieving the goal and help it in making part of my destiny.Probably it was all about freewill.
These have been moments of doubts, lack of self confidence and a lot of detachment.I don't know if and when will I be back to normal.But going into a down time brings a lot of courage in you and makes you relate that in the end its only between you and God.
"Courage is the most essential to understanding the Language of the World…"
No one will remember you for the colleges you went or the companies you worked for or PPTs you had made or the happy family trips or the functions /get togethers you went to.
"Don’t think about what you have left behind, everything is written on the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever…"
Its about the journey that one takes and has to take with courage. Dreams and Destiny will always conspire to take you to the next station and probably even further in this never ending learning of life.Not everything in life can be planned and surprises will happen.Else life will be too monotonous for any dream to be achieved or destiny to be realized.
"When the old man says, “The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.”
And now even the below lines start making sense to me :-
"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love".
“If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: The fear of failure."
Probably last year this time, I was overconfident of doing everything right at being at the right place at the right time and all that. I had no fear of failure and then came the shock that was to change everything.
There were 4 failures that the Alchemist had referred to and I have probably experienced all of them to some extent - >Fear of thinking the dream is realizable,Fear of losing love when its the stimulus,Fear of failure and Fear of realizing the dream when its near.
And inspite or despite of these failures we continue to work towards our destiny for there are so many things that life has to offer and one cannot stop living just because there are so many risks all the time.So just believe in the omens like the "boy" and work your way to destiny.
- The Alchemist defining Destiny
"Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep."
- The Wikipedia taken from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved 2009-05-07
So just like the chicken and egg conspiracy, dreams and destiny are also quite interlinked and its difficult to predict what comes first.Dreams have been subject of study in philosophical and psychological contexts.It has also been part of "Visioning" or "Day dreaming" that a lot of men do and succeed in.
"He believes in his dream for, ‘It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting"
On the contrary, there is also a Freewill theory that states that Character is non deterministic. So probably dreams and destiny are also not related.One of the key lessons for me in destiny had unfolded last year leading to a life long tag.This was not something that I had dreamt of but probably some one else had already conspired about it.And all the universe conspired in achieving the goal and help it in making part of my destiny.Probably it was all about freewill.
These have been moments of doubts, lack of self confidence and a lot of detachment.I don't know if and when will I be back to normal.But going into a down time brings a lot of courage in you and makes you relate that in the end its only between you and God.
"Courage is the most essential to understanding the Language of the World…"
No one will remember you for the colleges you went or the companies you worked for or PPTs you had made or the happy family trips or the functions /get togethers you went to.
"Don’t think about what you have left behind, everything is written on the Soul of the World, and there it will stay forever…"
"When the old man says, “The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.”
"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love".
“If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: The fear of failure."
Probably last year this time, I was overconfident of doing everything right at being at the right place at the right time and all that. I had no fear of failure and then came the shock that was to change everything.
There were 4 failures that the Alchemist had referred to and I have probably experienced all of them to some extent - >Fear of thinking the dream is realizable,Fear of losing love when its the stimulus,Fear of failure and Fear of realizing the dream when its near.
And inspite or despite of these failures we continue to work towards our destiny for there are so many things that life has to offer and one cannot stop living just because there are so many risks all the time.So just believe in the omens like the "boy" and work your way to destiny.
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