Posts from — October 2011

An illusion called stable Life

If we ask people what’s the life they want to live, most people would vote for a stable life.

People want a life without problems. A life which sails smoothly all the way.A life in which everything happens exactly as they had planned.

They want a safe life. In other(their) words, a stable life.

If I ask the same question to a new college pass out, what he want to do after studies ? He generally says, he wants to do job and within 5 years he will become stable in career. He wants buy his own home after 7 years. He will even go to an extent that he may become a manager after 10 years. He can also predict what he will do after retirement.

I say. Wow!!!.

He predicted the next 20 years. Not bad.

This is not just true with college pass outs. This is the same answer we get if we ask the folks who are in their mid-careers.

Mind you, I am not at all saying that opting for a stable life is wrong. If you are fine with it, you can skip the rest of this article. But if you are not, then read further because I am going to discuss something extraordinary. And this article is for you.

Now, first of all , what’s a stable life? How do you define a stable life?

Is it your job that makes your life stable?

Is it your control over money that makes your life stable?

Is it your capability of earning  a constant income?

Is it all of the above?

What if any one of these go wrong? Suddenly you are unstable. Isn’t it true?

You see, people often follow other people: whether in studies or career. They believe, it’s the education that determines their success at life. They focus on marks , grades and ranks.

Even in career, they (blindly) follow others. They will do what others did. They buy homes because others did. They fall in debt trap because others fell (but didn’t warn them).

Even after getting the job, people think that the they will be in the job forever. They plan their next 5 years, 10 years and 20 years keeping job as center-point.

Now, can you tell me what’s going to happen next year or next week or even tomorrow or even next moment?

You can’t predict what’s going to happen the very next moment with you. Why? Because you are going to face it now. You would be proved wrong if you predict something else. That’s the point.

So, most of the 5 years, 10 year and 20 years plans never work. Because they are just plans. In most of the cases they never happen.

You are much bigger than your plans

I want you to realize that you are actually much bigger than your plans.

You are much more intelligent than you thought. You can do amazing things which you never thought.

How?

Just stop living like a robot. And you will start experiencing the incredible things life has to offer.

Who is judging your capabilities anyways?

Why do you think you can never create something awesome?

Why do you decide that you can’t start your own product?

Why do you rule yourself out?

Who is judging you?

It’s none other than your self limitation judging you.

Time to break the wall of self limitation. Come out of fear.

I have a great news for you

Despite your decision to live a stable life, you still have opportunities to create something amazing in your spare time.

How?

Look within.

Think about your strengths. What are you strong at?

Do you specialize in something?

Do you have deep knowledge of something from which others can benefit?

What are you passionate about? Discover your true passion.

Can you create something out of your strengths or passion?

You can.If you try and take the first step.

Because, you are no more a robot. Congratulations for reaching this stage.

Create something – You in action, now

Take a paper and list down all the topics you’re knowledgeable. Also, mark few topics which really excite you.

Can you create something out of it? You can, just join the missing links.

Let me tell you a small example of mine. When I accepted my first website development project (which was for a temple), I didn’t even know what is HTML. I took it up because, I wanted to learn web development in real time. I wanted a challenging assignment. I spent time in learning, applying and finally launched the site. It has been 4 years now, that website is pretty popular and brought me lots of recognition.

Since then, I have created many sites and blogs including the one you are reading now.

Who knows, I may create something new tomorrow or may come up with a book or a software tool. I don’t know. And I love this uncertainty. It makes my life interesting.

Coming back to you.

If you love teaching – You can create an online teaching website where you deliver virtual lessons with help of technology.

Do you love singing? Why don’t you launch your own music album?

Are you a great writer? Why don’t you start a blog?

Are you a full time software employee? Why don’t you create new application which automates lots of things and breaks the routine working process at your office?

You can develop an iPhone app, an android app.

Think crazy ideas and see whether you can implement one of those.

If you don’t specialize any of the above, don’t worry. You can still create something new.

” Need is not always mother of all inventions. Sometimes you need to create the need “

Destroy the Robot within you

Destroy the robot within you called self limitation. That’s what holding you back from creation, achievement, fame.

Stability is just an illusion. It holds you back from growing. It ties your hands with fake limitations. It masks your immense potential.

Instead of running behind stability – Think, experiment, explore and create.

Try something new.

Think about an idea and see whether it can make your life. If it can’t, think another idea.

You are human, who can breathe, smell, smile and most importantly, create.

You are not programmed. You have real intelligence.

You are not a Robot. Stop living like one.

Create something. Be awesome.

 

Don’t be afraid to dream
For what is life without them
Dreams are like rain on a parched land
They add beauty and joy to the life of man

Dreams can set you free
To break the shackles of misery
To help you escape all drudgery
To propel you towards victory

Dreams can give you wings of fire
To set you on the path of glory
To burn your name on the pages of history
To blaze a trail that is inspiratory

Dreams are the breath of life
They can give you hope and install courage
Through obstacles they will help you pass through
Go now , dream dare and do

Thanks for the inspiring poem by Ashwani Kumar from Motivational Thoughts For You

The sleeping fox catches no poultry- Benjamin Franklin

Procrastination is a serious disease that can slow down the progress of any person and prevent him from reaching his goals no matter how clever he was.

Procrastination can take many forms but one of its worst forms is waking up late or wasting a lot of time sleeping.

Your productivity during a day is governed by the amount of time you spend awake and so you if you gave in to bad sleeping habits then you will find that your progress in life slowed down too much.

So how can you become an early riser?

1.Break the cycle

If you have been waking up late for the past few days or weeks then you must break the cycle by waking up early one day even if you didn’t get enough sleep. Most people think that if they slept late then they have no other option but to wake up late. This is actually wrong. The only way to adjust your sleeping habits is to force yourself to wake up early one day so that you find yourself tired at the end of the day and so sleep early.

2.Do you want to wake up?

this sounds like a strange question but lets think about it. When you are about to travel to a new country for a vacation, don’t you find yourself eager to wake up even if you didn’t get enough sleep? Of course you do. And the reason is that you want to wake up. Sometimes waking up late is a kind of protest which the person unconsciously makes when he doesn’t want to face those uninteresting tasks he has to do throughout the day. If that’s the case then you need to examine your daily tasks and find out why they appear as burdens? Are you in a right profession or job?

3.Play around with your biological clock

we all know that the biological clock is the inner device that regulates our energy throughout the day. Good news is that you can control your biological clock to a great extent!! As soon as you wake up, try to get exposed to sunlight for sometime (by opening all windows for example) this wont only make you feel energetic but it will alert the biological clock timing in a such a way that will help you sleep better when the night comes. On the contrary if you didn’t get exposed to sunlight your biological clock wont be adjusted and you might not feel like sleeping at night.

4.Are you getting enough sleep?

Insomnia or the lack of the ability to sleep at night can be the reason you don’t wake up early. Insomnia has many causes but in most cases the reasons are psychological. If you don’t want to sleep because you feel that you didn’t get enough of that day then you might never be able to wake up early the next day. Find out the reasons that are preventing you from sleeping at night especially the psychological ones and after you deal with them you won’t have any problems in getting a good night sleep.

I hope you liked the techniques for becoming an early riser.

This is a guest article by M.Farouk Radwan from 2knowmyself. If you want to guest post on this blog, please check the guest post page for details.