Raw. Real. Unfiltered. Daily blogs. Often, less than 100 words
What is the place your thoughts wander towards, during meditation?
That is the place you need to address.
Most certainly it’s going to be difficult because that’s where the mind is seeking pleasure among productivity.
However, you don’t have any to be thinking of someone’s break up pics during meditation. Don’t you?
Today I received a LinkedIn DM from an old school mate.
Nothing real, just very small talk to strike a conversation.
And I decided to ignore it.
Not because I had some expectations of him and he had shattered them.
Rather because how long?
How long will we keep basing our dopamine on random DMs from strangers?
How long will we keep wasting our time in pursuits that cumulatively waste days from our years?
How long will we allow someone else to decide when will we be available on social and they steer the conversation?
The best people live on the edge of saying no. That’s where everything happens.
To listen to “yes’s” saying hundreds of “no’s” is the most important thing. Sometimes even in a day.
It is a strange world, of course.
And in this whole process of being open and sharing your thoughts with others, are we really safe and secure there?
Most people today are carrying an emotional load.
And if we choose to share ourselves with them, the advice that is going to come isn’t necessarily going to be useful, rather the opposite.
So how do we be open in the first place?
Simple. Communicate everything to God. I personally write a letter to God every single night before going to bed, and the way he helps is miraculous.
As weird as it may sound, it is the reason that strong people persist and are able to be the lighthouse.
Will you, starting today?
PS: No one will see it, you’ll be happy!
When people are in the whirlwind of their emotions, when they have given everything and still believe we deserve more, people lose their control over self, and start blaming others.
What they need right now, is not a closure.
What they need is a walk.
And we need walks all the time. To think twice before hitting send. It would save us a lifetime of regret.
Warren Buffet says that he enjoys his work so much that he would tap dance to work, and paint on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel.
Life is supposed to be like this.
At a point of time in my life, my life didn’t look like this. I hated my days.
Yet I continued investing in my learning.
And what came out of it, is totally novel.
Life feels blissful. Even if I work more, it is the best version of my life so far. Still to get better each day.
The thing that saved me, that will probably save you as well, is: investing in my learning each day. No matter what.
Everything else is just a byproduct.
You will feel whole.
You will feel better.
You will feel you belong.
You will feel you matter.
And you do.
The problem is not you feeling bad or empty. The problem is you not acknowledging it. When you do, you immediately take the dagger from the emptiness to yourself. And then you begin.
Is it okay to take yourself seriously?
Or should you be happy and easy-going?
The answer is: you should take yourself seriously and be easy going in the process.
Take your mindset seriously, and be easy going towards the first time mistakes (second timers are the ones you didn’t learn from).
Take your efforts seriously, and easy going towards someone else’s.
You always know when is it the time to be disciplined and when to chill. You just need to decide – which will come from practising serious discipline as well as easy going discipline.
It is hard.
The easiest thing is to sit on the couch and eat French fries. Or play Candy Crush.
Waking up in the morning and working out relentlessly didn’t come easy to Jordan as well.
It is going to take a lot out of you to get there. Yet if you don’t make the efforts to get there you will get to a place it would be very difficult to get back from.
Working requires hard work.
Doing nothing requires hardest work to deal with yourself.
You get to decide.
You know if it is right or not.
Wrong does not require efforts. Right does.
Efforts or nothing. We make a choice every single minute.
The light is always there.
Beyond the clouds when the flight takes off.
After the dawn.
Inside a book.
Everywhere there is the light.
We just need to let it know that it is important. It is needed. It is powerful.
For several years, I’ve seen Oprah repeat Maya Angelou’s words:
When people show you who they are, believe them!
I for the longest time used to think that this was not right.
And proved myself wrong over and over again.
Oprah was very very right about what she said.
When people show you they’re mean, believe them.
When people show you they’re kind, believe them.
When people show you they’re angry, believe them.
And while you do believe them, continue believing in your own power to be super focused and powerful to what you radiate out to them. You be you, perhaps they will show you a better side of themselves.
The most important person in a relationship is You.
We build trust by doing what we do for them when they are not around. That builds respect.
Respect is what we do for them when what they do is not what we want to do, yet we do it because we love and respect them.
Read the above line twice. It is important because this is why most relationships falter.
One of the best learnings that covid brought to us is not to put all your eggs in one basket.
Warren Buffet has been saying it for years.
Not only for finances, also for our emotions and sources of income.
More than anything else, we have learnt never to depend on external validation (malls, restaurants, movies,etc.) for making us feel.
Will they support you is not the right question.
The right question is, will you support yourself?
If our thoughts create our destiny,
If our time is limited,
If we have the power,
Then doesn’t it make sense to make a budget for our inner resources just like for our cash and expenses?
The limit is the quality of content and people you surround yourself with.
The limit is the books you don’t read.
The limit is the empathy you don’t give to yourself.
The limit is the chats you have while you shouldn’t.
The limit is the DMs you don’t send.
The limit is the smiles you knew you could spread.
The limit is your decisions.
If someone screws up their work, chances are they’re already feeling bad.
They came to you to know that it’s going to be okay!
Let them know of that ❤️
Your idol is doing something you don’t want to be doing.
The world is telling you to do that just doesn’t feel right!
Someone in the extended family is teaching how to betray others.
Everyone has their opinions and what they say is right where they are.
You do your own thing. Not because it’s hard. Rather because it’s difficult to be like someone else. When you are you, you will work harder than it is required, and you will feel zero fatigue because you are living by your own values.
Even if it is the same boring stuff every time, you know when you know.
1. Watering plants makes you feel humbler and happier.
2. Your parents need nothing other than your presence.
3. Cleaning with wiper is both abs and back workout, sweeping the floor is a great cardio.
4. Home cooked chocolate cake is super delicious.
5. Life is wonderful without TV serials!
People will not understand you. They will expect from you, yet they won’t probably reciprocate it.
What to do then?
Should you also reciprocate?
Well, we all have tried it and it never worked.
The only thing that could be the solution for everything, every single thing is to keep yourself strong from inside. It’s an insurance no one could take away.
Like every insurance, you have to pay consistent premium (aka learning) in order to actually avail the benefits.
Like every insurance, you will have to stop frivolous spends (hanging around with those people) to be able to pay premium without fail.
Recently I have started going deep into thoughts of Naval Ravikant and Kapil Gupta.
If you don’t know who they are, I won’t tell you bro, google them 🙂
And after reading their material, listening to their words – a strange thing happens!
All of a sudden, I derive zero pleasure in looking at posts on LinkedIn and Instagram.
The mind is drifted to a different plane of thinking, all of a sudden.
A place where it does not want to return from.
A place where the mind feels most nourished.
It’s immaculately strange, and conveniently the most beautiful place to be in.
Honesty I don’t know how to end this because I don’t want to preach you something, however I do want you to nudge to think deeper.
The mind thinks useless thoughts because it is conditioned to think so infinitely.
What if we start feeding our mind such such such powerful thoughts? Most people won’t, because misery loves company. The one or two that would, will change the world forever.