My friends keep telling me, Instead of living now I am preparing for old age. My response to this is simple: I have to stay healthy and independent.
To be both healthy and independent I don’t have t prepare or wait for old age. It is a virtue one can inculcate now and live every moment. When you are healthy, you can act/think and operate more rationally. When you are independent financially you can live life on your terms.
I find the airport center of innovation. Every time I travel I get to see something new. The premise is more efficient, making things get done quickly. Be it luggage drop, security check or getting your booking pass.
Once you are inside an airport, you find a complete cosmopolitan. People from various sectors, society, backgrounds immersed in a single place. Each has own reason for the travel: leisure, vacation or health reasons.
I also see elderly escorted by their sons and daughters.
With the advancement in technology, our lives have gotten much better. We are traveling more, spending more and have gotten closer to the world.
Our brain is the most volatile organ. It is the operating system of us. If the brain is in shape, we are good. If the brain is out of place we are fucked. In the book Behave, Robert Sapolsky throws some light on the same. For simple reading, I have collected my learning about the brain. It is a collection of many other books.
The brain gears:
Basal Ganglia The controlling instinct sits at the base of the brain. Simple survival (fight/flight) and decision making are controlled from here.
Limbic System The emotional part of the brain which helps us associate behaviors, memories with positive and negative experiences.
Cerebral Cortex The part of our brain which does all the thinking. It utilizes its effort in gathering and analyzing information before making a decision.
What we eat defines who we are. Does that mean eating can affect our thinking and responses to a certain situation? Going by current research on guts aka the tiny colonies of bacteria residing inside us it indeed us. These bacteria are alternate brain. These gut bacteria communicate with our brains and let us thrive.
People We become what we read and the people we are surrounded with. As a hunter-gatherer, we were always worried about our survival. This has continued with us until now. With advancement and consumerism, we got into hoarding and seeking more of everything. Surrounding ourselves with virtues people will help us become better and avoid falling for the trap and living life of a mouse always chasing cheese.
Habit Our brain is lazy, it takes shortcuts. It helps in saving energy. It loves automaticity. When you have a daily habit of something glass of coffee and reading, the brain will fight less and let you read. The same applies to brakes and changing gears of your car. Your brain has automatized it for you.
Exercise and meditation It has been proved by science that meditation and exercise have a great effect on our brains. The flow of blood in our brain helps in better functioning of our brain.
References:
Behave by Robert Sapolsky
Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work
Guts by Giulia Enders
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change
Spark: How exercise will improve the performance of your brain
Why do we have an opinion over something or someone? Are we all not trying to live a life of our own? Don’t we have our challenges and limitations? Why can’t we put ourselves in others’ shoes? Why don’t we realize that this life of ours is limited?
Ever imagined about the story of you cabby, cook, guard or cleaner. We are so busy with ourselves that they are nonexistent. If you ever get an opportunity, you will hear inspiring stories. Your hardship, grit, and perseverance will not come close to theirs. Every day is a new challenge, rebirth.
At times my friends tell me I am competing with a certain product, market or industry. This conversation gets dragged to infinity at times.
I have a standard template for the reply, I am painting my world with a unique paintbrush. I am working on solving customer’s pain points while sitting next to them. The only competition I see is ensuring customer happiness and delight.
Do I always succeed? I don’t, but I try to.
We need a small set of anchor customers and we have to delight them. Spending time on competitors is a distraction.
Nationalism has existed since the inception of divided territories. In recent times it has become a medium for propaganda. Be it, politicians, sales or marketing everyone is milking Nationalism.
We have divided the creativity and formed a wall on the concept of nation. Be it a developed or developing country, everywhere we have politicians talking about the country and reminding us about its past glory. Why do we have to drink kool-aid of the past when in present most of us are barely surviving.
What happened to the meritocracy? Did it turn into a thing for the continual showcase?
Why do we have to sell nationalism in our sales pitch or in our marketing brochures to get eyeballs?
Why is your LinkedIn profile says India First or helping Indian founders when the reality is the opposite? Why is this duality in positioning and practicing?
Does that mean I am not proud of being born in India? I am very much, but I dislike throwing nationalism as a cure for all the problems.
“Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one” ― John Lennon, Imagine
Why do I have to become someone? Why can’t I have my own identity? To be successful in life why do we have to aspire to be like someone else?
Why can’t we have life on our individuality? Who had everything figured in the mother’s womb?
Our identity should not be defined or built on imitating others, psychology talks about the individual difference for the same reason. I am not saying to be inspired by others, all I am saying is not to imitate or try to become others. Mentors have a place in our life, their virtues should be learned but they should not be embedded in us.
None of us are perfect. Accept it and make peace with it.
We are living in a world where everything is about maximizing. Be it productivity, wealth or happiness. We are so lost in this race that we end up sailing in many boats at the same time.
It does not hit us in the initial days of our journey as we self gloat about our products but as we progress we end up being a headless chicken.
Our human mind has limited resources, letting our mind wander is not a bad idea but focusing on one thing till the end is what makes us productive.