in Prism of Life

 

1. Early to bed and early to rise

It is one of the very first axiom of life taught to us. Frankly we all struggle to translate this pearl of wisdom into action and I am no exception.

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One of the most effective techniques I discovered is setting an alarm to switch off every gadget present in the house around 10:00 pm. And then follow your daily routine of night rituals like brushing, gargling, flossing, journal writing, meditation etc before retiring to bed.

Waking up early allows you to be chief designer of your own day. Since your brain is well rested from sleep, it is not yet distracted by events happening around you, and therefore can focus better and can be pro actively creative in designing your day.

You can start with a morning routine that puts you on the path of self discovery and enrichment. You can write your 5 minute morning journal, exercise, meditate, read your book or listen to your favourite pod cast. This routine will keep you energised for the rest of your day. Try it for at least 3-4 weeks and you would be amazingly surprised to witness the results for yourself.

2. Writing journal every day

This one habit has serious potential to make some long lasting positive impact on your life.
Journalling your random thoughts will:

· Get your monkey mind something to chew on.
· Get chronological details of your own activities.
· Bring incremental but consistent improvements in your writing.
· Help you immensely in Goal setting.
· Help you get clarity on the future you want to create.
· Help you in making more creative.

All said and done..How should I make it a habit? It was on my agenda for far too long to be ignored anymore. So I was looking for a window of 5-10 minutes where this activity of journal writing could be incorporated. This trick of inculcating any habit is shared in The Science behind Habits

In fact Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, recommends writing far less than you wish to — only a few sentences or paragraphs at most. This will definitely help you avoid burnout. Even Tim Ferris, author of Four hour work week, recommends five minute morning journal, to get rid of your monkey mind

3. Stop consuming the news through popular Media

Almost every kind of media outlets do work under an agenda. Their primary goal is to psychologically scratch your fears to the surface deep rooted inside you.

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24×7 news is now an inseparable part of our daily life where exaggeration of any stupid incident has become the norm of the day. And it all boils down to economics of grabbing the most number of eyeballs. That’s the precise reason many of the successful entrepreneurs and innovators do recommend abstinence from mindless news consumption.

Now the real challenge is, how do we de addict ourselves from this bad habit? Well I don’t claim to have got myself completely detoxed. I am still a work in progress. What I have done is gradual reduction in my television viewing and complete abstinence from newspaper.

I have got a single News App named inshorts on my Phone. It curates high quality news in 60 words from different sites. Initially for a period of 1-2 weeks it proved quite challenging, since I too had become addicted to it for so long. But after a while, despite being quite irregular in accessing the news App I am not suffering from any of the so called symptom associated with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). As a result my world view has become radically more optimistic. And I guess this has contributed significantly in overall well being of my mind and body.

4. Food fasting and Internet fasting for 24 hours per week

Human body is an amazingly intricate machine. It runs non-stop for the entire duration of its bodily existence. Every time we put some food in it, the machine has to activate all its apparatus to convert that into life energy. It works tirelessly without any break.

Today every machine or electronic gadgets do come along with its operational manual. In the absence of any guiding operational manual, we all end up abusing our body. Only the degree of abuse may vary. Therefore, every once in a while, it becomes all the more important to give our body the kind of rest it deserves by fasting.

There is no doubt that for any mere mortal, fasting for a complete day can prove to be quite a challenge. Hence, you can start by skipping lunch or dinner once a week. If not, then you can start with having fruits instead of your regular lunch or dinner. If you can survive this gastronomical poverty for 4-6 weeks, then you are eligible for graduation to next level. Wherein, you could replace two meals by having seasonal fruits of your choice. And then, you do it for all your three meals. Thereafter, you can repeat the same cycle without having anything at all.

And same set of technique can be employed for Internet fasting. Let me forewarn you at the very outset that it was not easy for me and it wouldn’t be easy for you too. But once you start experiencing the associated benefits of this act, you would be in a better position to appreciate its worth. Because what it does to your sensory acuity is the thing to experience yourself!

5. Art of Saying “No”

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“No more yes. It’s either HELL YEAH! or no.” — Derek Sivers

We all are psychologically programmed to behave in a socially accepted manner. As a result we end up saying yes to a lot of things, opportunities and people. Beside the obvious fault in programming there is also this fear of unknown that keeps us engaged in a lot of useless and enervating activities.

Now the question is how could you possibly say “no” to anything if you don’t know what you want? Therefore, Knowing What you want is the only way for you to filter through a list of things that are mere distractions from your vision.

But if you don’t know what you want? Then you need not worry much, because you are in a company of majority who are most vulnerable to get tempted by every piece of the best things that cross their paths. And you can be rest assured that you will be utilised very resourcefully by those minorities who happen to have agendas of their own.

6. Keep Discarding all non-essentials from your life

There is a beautiful Verse in Chapter: 2 of Bhagwad Geeta that is so apt in caching all the essence of this wisdom:

VERSE 71:

vihaya kaman yah sarvan
pumams karati nihsprhah
nirmamo nirahankarah
sa santim adhigacchati

TRANSLATION:
That person attains peace, who by giving up all material desires for sense gratification lives free from attachment, free from false ego and sense of proprietorship.

We just love accumulating things. A cursory look at our phone’s photo and video gallery is a testimony to this fact. We end up investing so much of our emotional energy in things we accumulate that the very thought of parting with them becomes an emotionally draining dilemma.

The strong sense of proprietorship, even with our kids comes so naturally to us. The sense of ownership seems simply indisputable. As a result Coefficient of correlation is always +1 between the two variables “our attachment” and “our vulnerability”.

We can start with getting rid of all those things not used in the last six months. If that seems a bit of a challenge, then you can extend the horizon limit to one year. Just get rid of all those unwanted stuff and you will start feeling more positive energy around you.

After the physical de cluttering, you can gradually shift to mental cleansing. Here the first step is identification of all those negative energies accumulated through the years. Just being consciously aware of those energies will help you immensely in getting rid of them.

7. Stop obsessing about the outcome

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There is another well known beautiful Verse in Chapter: 2 of Bhagwad Geeta that successfully catches the essence of this wisdom

VERSE:47

karmany evadhikaras te
ma phalesu kadacana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur
ma te sango ‘stv akarmani

TRANSLATION:
You certainly have the right for prescribed activities but never at any time in their results. You should never be motivated by the results of the actions, nor should there be any attachment in not doing your prescribed activities.

Another beautiful Verse in Chapter: 5 of Bhagwad Geeta makes this even more unambiguous.

VERSE:12

yuktah karma-phalam tyaktva
santim apnoti naisthikim
ayuktah kama-karena
phale sakto nibadhyate

TRANSLATION:
A performer of prescribed activities giving up the desire for results of activities obtains uninterrupted peace; but a performer of fruitive activities becomes bound by obsession to the results of actions due to desire to enjoy the fruit of actions.

Josh Kaufman in his book, The Personal MBA, explains that when setting goals, your locus of control should target what’s within your sphere of control (i.e., your efforts) instead of results that lies outside the sphere of your control (e.g., whether it will end up being viral).

Numerous Research has shown that faith and confidence in our own ability to deliver is far better predictor of exceptional performance than expectation about any specific outcome.

Therefore, it is always advisable to deliver optimal performance without getting obsessed with outcome. Let your unadulterated organic output take care of your exceptional work. Everything else will automatically fall in place.

References:

*Bhagwad Geeta

*Essentialism  by Greg McKeown

*Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

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    • Thanks once again for your kind words of appreciation Sunil. These word means a lot to me and motivates me to keep writing.

      Lots of Love
      Piyush

  1. Excellent write up Sir! It’s high time we start living these 7 pearls of wisdom, slowly and gradually… …Sir, Specially liked the 4 th & the 6th one.