Tag: change

People

The saint and the prostitute

There was once a saint who lived up there, in the mountains. To meditate. And think positive thoughts.

In the hut, just opposite to his, used to live a prostitute. Every day, she used to look at the saint and be inspired – as to this is how I should be living my life – filled with positivity, and thinking of God.

Meanwhile, the saint used to look at the prostitute’s house, and think about how she is ruining her life, how her life is terrible, and how he would never want a life like that.

Several years later, they both died.

Up in the clouds, it was decided that the prostitute will go to heaven and the saint will go to hell.

“Why, I was meditating whole day?” rebelled the saint.

Here’s what the administrators up there told them:

It is not what you do, it is what you are thinking about whole day, that makes the difference. While you were busy mocking the prostitute in your mind, she was busy idealising a meditative lifestyle.

It turns out, our thoughts actually run or ruin the world.

Thoughts

Lessons from the lit train journey

Travelling in a train right now.

Started late afternoon. Will reach at night.

Thought something incredible:

During the day, when we peep out the glass window, we see nature.

As it gets dark, and we peep out, all that we see is our own reflection. Nothing external.

Darkness reveals ourselves to us. The pain, powerlessness and peeping for peace – show us who we really are.

No matter how much we wait for the morning to come, if we ignore the dark, we create another version of our dark in the light as well.

Life

45 KM per hour

I drove 70KMs yesterday.
All the way to Manesar to my place.
Took 1.5 hours – typically less time, but it was good because the roads were empty, because of Sunday.

If we calculate the average speed, it is 45 KM per hour, as per this.
However, did I drive at that speed?

Not at all.

Rather, for most part of the journey, it was 80-100 KM per hour, due to national highway being empty.

It was rather the slow movement at some traffic signals, that brought down the overall speed.

We all know this. We’ve all experienced this. We are at a place of accepting this.

However, this is what makes life go average:
Small useless insignificant things done small number of times, come down to reduce the overall average of your phenomenal epic performance.

Our days, certainly, aren’t any different from those drives.
The question that might help us, is: Are we setting ourselves up for the 100KM per hour drive, or the 20 KM per hour, that brings the huge average down?

Process

Random life lessons

Haven’t done a life lessons blog in quite some time, so here you go:

  1. You cannot enforce love. Not for people, not for work.
  2. Stay away from having calls during the afternoons. Sleep, baby!
  3. Stretching is as important as (if not more important than) working out.
  4. Sirsasana and sarvangasana are lit.
  5. Ghee khichdi with papad is the ultimate tummy-filler.
  6. Life becomes joyful when you are grateful.
  7. It takes years to get to a place of doing it in seconds.
Knowing Yourself, Life

The only problem with our problems

The only problem with our problems is we think we shouldn’t have them.
We, thus, go about hiding them from others.
In so doing, we aren’t doing well either – neither at work nor outside of work.

What’s the solution, then?

The solution is to tell those around you, that you are going through some problems, that might not make you your 100%.
If we don’t tell them and try to do whatever we can, “whatever we can” becomes our default standard.

This is not who we are.
And living life as someone else, helps no one else.

Thoughts

Pro tips for productivity

  1. Go for a walk to the parking of your home’s building during working hours. We can’t wait for offices to open up, to get our much needed share of outdoors.
  2. Read a lot, baby!
  3. Be kinder than necessary.
  4. Request, instead of dictate.
  5. Apply #4 for yourself as well.
Success

Three things to change your life right now

1. I could list out thirty things

2. But you already know of

3. The One Thing that will change your life.

It is all about what you do right now, once you know that you know.

Career

It’s been a while

It’s been a while, and all this while, I have been thinking of what I’ve lost. I never knew I loved my old work so much. Who misses work so much?!

Everyone has to lose everything some day. What stays back is how you responded to such losses.

You know what’s the worst part? A friend of mine is dealing with another loss and all this while I have been bringing her back. And she’s recovering quite well, despite the fact that she is the most vulnerable om the weekends.

Another example I see is of Brahma Kumaris. They had a well established network of services in India, when a senior Sister of the organisation was told to leave this and begin her services in London. And as much as she resisted it, her stint in London paved the way for more and bigger services.

Strange how “me” and “mine” works. While in reality, only God is mine. Because I am not this body, I am the observer in this body. That observer is answerable to God – to create karmas that set an example, not something that sets ego boundaries.

Nishtha, no we are not going back. Staying true to your karma is your dharma. And life always moves beyond.

Writing

Why a blog?

Why choose writing a blog – when you can be famous on Instagram Reels?

Because writing makes you a better thinker.
It distills the cloud in your head and gives it clarity.
More than anything else, it makes you know yourself better.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a career in writing or not.
But if you write daily, you career is definitely going to be higher because of writing.

For me, I’ve been writing here for several years now. A blog a day. To make myself a better thinker. And to know myself.

The world wouldn’t be any different if I wouldn’t write. But I am different. Which, in turn, makes the world different.

Uncategorized

So much injustice?

Think of a team of 20 people.
All are doing their work.
Some are rockstars, some are just getting along.

But you see the management treating everyone at par.

When you are a rockstar, this might irk you.
Someone else who is not performing is also being treated as well.

But…there comes a time, when things get levelled up.

We’ve all experienced this before.
The question is: What are we experiencing even when we are doing our best work? Envy or happiness?

Books

A relationship of 10 years!

It was June 2011 when my friend dragged me to a seminar after college.

It was “Aadarsh Amdavad”, a 15-day self-help workshop, that consisted of:

  • Daily 2 hour sessions by an acclaimed speaker
  • Had a spectrum of audience instead of a narrow group
  • It did not want us to “get better”, but the way it was designed, ended up making us better.

After that fortnight of daily wisdom, I felt a surge of happiness that I didn’t want to let go of.

So I started walking to Crossword Book Stores near my college, after the workshop got over.

For hours, I would just sit there and read, not knowing I was getting into an affair it would be impossible to get out of.
For hours, I would not care about anything in the outside world, just me and the books.
For hours, daily, it was a retreat from everything else in the world!

That love affair has lead to a lifetime partnership with books now.

More than anything else, keeping myself lost in that world has lead me to find myself, over and over again, peel by peel, page by page.

Here’s to a decade of that relationship 🙂
Here’s to a relationship that is with you ALWAYS…
Here’s to a lifetime of companionship!!!

People, Success

Happy – not anymore?

Even thebiggest happiness could being about a place of sadness if you happen to compare yourself to others.

Someone else, younger than you, is going to get all the things you have been waiting for.

Does it feel bad! Maybe yes.

Should it feel bad? The answer to this could never be yes.

What’s the solution, then? The solution is to put yourself in more I more situations like these because that only would help you work harder and challenge yourself more often.

Think over it. Someone else won, you lost; and then you created your own plan of confidence a reality.

Emotions

Feeling low?

With all that is going on in the world we need to be more powerful from within.

Trust yourself, your mindset is the biggest asset.

No news. More positivity. And some time in nature by going to the balcony / terrace.

You are all you have. And you can’t afford to lose your happiness like this every single day!

Humour

A peek into my DM’s

People reach out on social media to get work done. Quite normal.

But I don’t do this kinda work 🙂

Some of the reactions of my team members:

1. I have a nibha. I can assist you in writing 🤣🤣🤣

2. I have some unsent letters, lemme know if you want to use them. Doing a giveaway 🙂

3. O boy, ye bhi outsource hota hai?

And many 🤣🤣🤣 emojis.

Have you ever done something weird like this?

Career

Jobless for a year

Last year, I resigned from my job in March 2020, got relieved in June 2020.

Started freelancing then. Learnt multiple ways of sourcing new clients. Did wonderful work. Made a bit less than my salary but absolutely loved every day of the last one year.

After all this hustle, this April I got myself to a place where I was making more than my last drawn salary. And lo and behold, I got a job offer (that begins on 1st June) for a job I love.

So I said no to some of the prospective clients, said yes to working with some of those along with working full time on the job. And I guess we will 2X my last drawn salary at the start of the new job, leaving how things take us further to the future.

So, it is easy to demotivate myself by saying “I was jobless for a year”. Well, this is how society has conditioned us to believe.

Except, the truth is:

1. I finally had the courage to pursue my passion of writing, by giving up the stability of a full time job.

2. That taught me sales, negotiation and persuasion skills, along with polishing my skill set as a writer.

3. I was able to try an internship in content creation, among other things, that finally lead me to having a full-time job as Content Manager with one of the top brands of India.

4. I was responsible and accountable for my time.

5. I was finally not killing myself daily.

Thus, I was (and still am) living a life of choice. A privilege a lot of us have however very few of us have the courage to live by it.

The best part? For the first time in life I’m going for a job for which there is no degree on my resume, just a skill set and an experience to prove its mettle. Isn’t that amazing? 🤩

Emotions

Just one, just one!

You’re just one video / one book away from a better mood.

You’re just one chat away from a worse mood.

And you’re just one pause of silence away from discovering the plethora of joy within you.

Which one will you start with today?

Family

Parents and kids

When parents force their grown up kids to do something, kids feel pressured.

When kids finally take their plunge, they feel guilty.

And I want you to know – in either situations, do what is right. It never goes out of style. When you do that, you don’t need to feel guilty. Do your best. And then trust yourself.

Family

Wonderful analogy about parents

It is said that people blame their parents for their less than normal childhood.

That isn’t true.

They are just trying to understand how our immediate environment shapes our lives. And then take the charge to change it. And that’s precious.

Self Love

Five tips from tears

1. Think in questions.

2. Don’t send that email.

3. Surround yourself with the right books.

4. Workouts are therapy.

5. Dance, baby!

Knowing Yourself, Process

How transformation feels like

We don’t go from eating junk to eating healthy.
We go from finding solace in food to finding solace in inner powers.

We don’t transform from an angry teenager to a calm one easily.
We go from using energy on others to using it on our own senses.

We don’t go from being fat to think.
We go to changing the stories in our head.

We don’t become a morning person one day all of a sudden.
We become one when we die in the morning despite working whole night.

It turns out, transformation does not mean having a change.
Transformation means using the old habit to become a new one.

Use the bad to become the good.