Teacher

What credentials or degree one requires to become a teacher?
An Ivy league degree, exit from a successful startup or having millions of followers worshiping like a god on social media?

I don’t know. What I do know is that a teacher can be anyone, without any pedigree or affiliations.

The barista who taught you making pour over, your maid who taught you making paneer or the gardener who shared his wisdom on happiness. Are they not the teachers? Look around, open up and you will find a teacher everywhere.

Our nature, birds, animals are teachers as well.

Life lie

We are constantly fed with milestones and goals. At times they can be seductive and make us go out of our comfortability zone, make us think, build and believe. This is all good.

What about us living a life constantly on the edge: worried about future and carrying past biases. The constant urge to seeking a better version of self make us forget living in the present.

Why are we not taught in any books or by society to live in the present moment, give best at it? Why are we all incentivized so much of our better future? Why does the reality of now take a back seat in front of a glorified future?

criticize

It is easy to criticize someone, some architecture or art. It is extremely difficult to understand creators rational behind it.

We, humans, are loaded with our own biases, past experience, and expectations. We like to be always correct and get our opinions to stand corrected.

We live in an imperfect world and not everyone gives constructive criticism.

Mentor

The term mentor has become a modern day marketing jargon. Social media platform or business cards are embedded with it.

Why do we have to shout and make claims about being a mentor? Early days, a mentor would counsel his/her mentee, see him/her mature, excel in life. Our current construct has made mentorship a consumerized product. Anyone can become a mentor and everyone can buy it.

Until and unless you are connected with the person, respect him/her and open for taking criticism. How can you be mentored?

I have reached this far in my life because I got lucky and had many of them who helped me in shaping where I am right now. I am not saying am perfect, but I admit am better than before. I am getting better every day.

This journey called life has many twist and turns. Having mentors who can shape us, accept our imperfection, guide us to success makes this journey meaningful.

Cure

Where can we find a cure for our stupidity and anxiety? Will watching Netflix or listening to music be of any help?

There is a market for everything. Music which makes you fall asleep to video course for feeding positivity.

Nothing helps with eradicating the source but quick fixing it.

Will you need those apps which helps you in sleeping if you stop gulping coffee? Will, you need modern day preachers to fuel positivity in your life when you are self-aware?

A cure is within us, we don’t pay or buy it from the market.

Asimov’s four laws of Robotics

Isaac Asimov was one of the best thinkers of our time. He has written in length about a society where Robots take over in his book- I, Robot.

While reading emotional design, whose last half is dedicated to how robots will co-exist and what they are missing. I got to know about Asimov’s four laws of Robotics and most of these still hold true.

Distraction

Distraction is not limited to our overuse of social media. It is not something new to we humans. The vice has been around since eternity. Many sages and philosophers have spoken and written about it.

Distraction has more to do with our thoughts and our association with the world. We can get distracted over the decade-old brawl with our friends and weeks thinking about what we could have done to avoid it. The guilt, remorse of the past is a distraction here. It is affecting our present.

Distraction is also spending dubious hours on apps which guarantees to find a perfect soulmate, world view, news or constant barge of pings from parents, friends or neighbors on non-trivial issues.

Socrates talked about self-knowledge, knowing yourself. How many of us are practicing it?

Seneca talked about our shortness of life, the allocated time of our life is so short.

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” ― Seneca

“The unexamined life is not worth living” — Socrates

The only way we can avoid distraction is by being self-aware, utilizing this precious life moment by moment and keeping count of our actions.

Leisure

Why is Leisure so far fetched? Are we machines running on checklists? Or is it our desire to do the next big thing which keeps us running like a workaholic donkey?

I know many men who have made enough wealth to live a peaceful life, but, they are not satisfied. They are running like a headless chicken, competing with the younger generation for wealth, recognition and respect.

What about leisure, living with peace and harmony with self? Why is it that regret and fear loom only when we come closer to our death bed?

We have this one life, why can’t we live like a human and enjoying every flavor of it? How much money, wealth, respect means to us after our death?