Your idea of Success, is really Your Idea?

Today's TED talk was about the current society's idea of success and failure and its repercussions on the humanity as a whole.

The speaker started with the days of grief that he used to have on the weekends when he was dealing with the career crisis thinking where is his career headed. He talks about how these days snobbery has become a global phenomenon. Snobbery i.e. the practice of observing a part of a human being and assuming and making image of the individual as a whole based on that. 

This happens a lot in the social settings where "What do you do?" has become the most prominent question and we make the whole image of the person in our mind based on response. So, what is written on your Business Card has become important for the people than the real you. 

We are living in the times where it is a general belief that if you have the right talent, resources and hard work anyone can achieve anything There is nothing particularly wrong with this ideology apart from the fact that this also means that if someone is not very successful then it is because of their own reasons and hence are responsible for it.

Because of this, in general, there is more career related anxiety in people these days. Earlier people did not used to expect much from themselves and from their careers but now with "anyone can achieve anything" mentality most of the careers are in grief.

In previous days human beings used to centre the life around other forces like God, Universe, Nature etc and used to worship them to find the answers. These days, on the contrary human being believes he doesn't need any of that and can pray to himself and believe in himself to achieve anything.

Due to this situation, there is a contrary thinking that if I am a failure I am because of my own; which increases the suicide tendencies in humans while the truth is that Success and Failure are just random events and should not be made to be the centre of the human lives. 

This also takes us to the reasons as to why this sort of mentality has prevailed. Primary reason is the media that keeps highlighting the success stories of the people making it sound easy, logical and likely rather than being random.

Because of all the media hype, the idea and definition of success for people has not been unique rather, has been dictated by what they consume from the media. It is such an unfortunate moment when you achieve someone else's definition of success and realise; after investing a significant amount of time and energy in it that you did not want it in the first place.

To conclude, it is important that we think deeply about what our idea of success really is and then go about achieving it rather than running around the media's or society's idea of success. 

Let's Write

This might sound a little odd but I have no clue what I am going to write about in this post. Okay, you may still read it to know what am I going to write about as you and me both get revealed to this together. Oh well, before writing this post, lets just talk. So, I would like to know how are you doing these days, what is going on at your end ? Hmm? Sorry?... 

Ohh.. How can you answer, this is not voice chat, is it? :P Hmm.. Let me think... how about you leave that as a comment? I will take up from there, thanks. Okay, yep I am doing good too, just that I am still thinking what should I write about? Experience, travel, politics, opinion, festival.... Ahh there are so many topics I can take and get myself started with any one but still I do not know. 

This is weird. :( But, has it never happened to you, that you have to select any one out of so many permutations available and you end up investing so much time in selecting one that you just lose interest in all of them? Well, happens a lot in my case. :-/ I am just afraid that this post might not end up like one of such cases. Ohh no, I will think, choose, decide and select one to get started.. I do not want you to get bored. 

Oh by the way, in case you actually are getting bored, you should check the Popular Posts on the right side block, you surely would find something interesting posts to read there. 

So, how about writing about writing? No really, I mean I am writing this blog post and here you are reading it so why not write about this itself? So, tell me why, according to you, I am writing this blog post? Yep, you can use the comment to answer. I will reply in comment itself. :) 

Actually, well, again it may sound weird, but I just am writing this to make sure that I do write something today. To get better at something, we need to ensure we do it as planned and try to make it a habit, isnt it? Only then we get better at it. Hence, in spite of being confused on the topic, I am just writing it. :)

Do let me know your thoughts about it ? in the comments of course and also give your feedback on this blogpost (only if it is good :P). :)      

“गुज़रा ज़माना”

बहुत याद आता है वो गुज़रा ज़माना,

वो प्यारा सा बचपन वो मासूम फसाना,

सुबह रोज़ उठकर वो यूनिफॉर्म पहनना,

वो टाई में उलझना वो पापा का सिखाना,

बस स्टॉप पर बस का इंतज़ार करना,

वो खिड़की वाली सीट की ख्वाहिश होना,

"स्कूल प्रेयर" और "थॉट ऑफ द डे" से दिन की शुरुआत,

वो "PHE" और "फ्री पीरियड" की राहें ताकना,

"लंच ब्रेक" से पहले "बोरिंग मेथ्स" पढ़ना,

और लंच ब्रेक में सबके टिफिन टटोलना,

फ्री पीरियड में होमवर्क पूरा करना,

फिर शाम को ज़्यादा खेलने की उम्मीद होना,

हर "आन्सर" के बाद वो लाल लाइन खींचना,

और हर एक "डाइयग्रॅम" को सुंदर सा सजाना,

घर जाके सीधा टीवी से चिपकना,

वो मम्मी का डांटना खाने के लिए,

शाम से पहले होमवर्क की जल्दी,

छत पर फिर फुल ऑन क्रिकेट खेलना,

वो दादा दादी से क़िस्से सुनना,

"पता है, आप सुना चुके हो" ये बार बार कहना,

वो मम्मी के हाथों का गर्मा गर्म खाना,

वो पापा के आने का “वेट” करना,

सब का छत पर जाकर फिर बातें करना,

तारों और सड़क की गाड़ियों की गिनती करना,

वो पापा का कहना जूते पॉलिश करके रखो,

वो मम्मी का समझाना स्कूल बैग भी जमा लो,

और कुछ ही देर में,

फिर जल्दी से सो जाना,

वो नया दिन फिर वैसे ही जीना,

पर हर दिन में खुशी, हर दिन में कुछ ख़ास होना,

हक़ीक़त था जो, अब हुआ है फसाना,

हक़ीक़त है जो, होगा वही फिर फसाना,

बहुत याद आता है वो गुज़रा ज़माना,

वो प्यारा सा बचपन वो मासूम फसाना |

Thinking, Planning, Doing - One at a Time

In our daily life there are so many chores that demand completion. Some of them require no or little thinking while others may require not just thinking but a session of detailed thinking before we are convinced and are able to complete or rather say start it.

Amidst all such thoughts and actions cycle what we may tend to forget is about priority. Unfortunately, the systems around us are all architected in such a way that there are so many issues and problems that do not deserve our attention but we tend to scale them at a higher position in the priority list. Consequentially, these no so important issues or tasks or problems start taking a decent amount of our mindshare and concentration while, considering what their actual significance is, it is best to postpone them and not provide our mindshare to them.

The other way round, we also need to identify those tasks, traits that deserve to be on our priority. Some of them are being happy, introspection, knowing one's strengths etc. 

Oh ok, there is no need to think much about this. Just keep in mind the not so important things in life may actually be very important and those lists you made but did not complete may not be that important that you need to loose the peace of your mind and some time to observe this world.

So, we need to Think, Plan and Do. But, the first step, thinking, needs to be of much more significance.

To Do or Not To Do

No matter what field you are working in, at some point of time we all use the concept of the To Do List. This is something that people at times use not only in their professional life but also in their personal life. It indeed is a very effective method to keep an eye on all the tasks at once and to ensure that we do not miss on anything. Though I am not really into such kind of planning etc. but ever since I have been into the working force I have had to start using it and I have to admit that it really does helps to complete the tasks in time.

I have been using the To Do lists in diary rather than any electronic form because I was more comfortable with it. Also, some people who had tried the electronic forms of To Dos recommended that the hard copy format is effective. Nevertheless, you will find that people preferring the electronic form are more than that of the hard copy. I personally believe that writing by hand has its own aura and conjuration.

Anyways, I then started off with the electronic mediums for the To Do lists. Now, there were ample numbers of options available, which one to choose? After some basic search around I started off with Evernote and Wunderlist. Initially, you may take some time in being familiar with them and being habitual to them but slowly and gradually it becomes an important component for your day to day activities and also to plan the week or month well in advance.

Evernote is an amazing tool for taking all your notes, web pages you like, images etc in one place and has amazing methods to categorize data and retrieve as and when needed with the help of Tags, Notebooks (and similar jargons) etc. So, this is something you can use for long term thing.

For day to day, Wunderlist is an awesome tool or actually not Wunderlist but Wunderlist 2. It has a very neat interface and is very simple to use with the options of creating different lists for different tasks, adding notes to individual tasks, marking them crossed when done, setting up reminders etc.

So, you can use Wunderlist for short term planning and Evernote for long term planning & single point repository for notes, content and data you would like to visit time and again.
To add on to that, you can use both of these on your cellphones as they have their apps available.

Amazing tools they surely are but every now and then I also use my diary, not sure if any electronic tool would be capable enough to make me switch entirely to the electronic form!

Do try them and happy planning.

Find them here:

• Evernote: https://evernote.com/
• Wunderlist-2: http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist

Go do something wonderful

The title of this blog post is actually taken from an advertisement of intel processor. Find the video below.

Indeed it is very true that it is an innate tendency of every human being "to create". This tendency cannot be denied and is true for every individual.

Though, we, as a part of a mechanical society try to fit in, unaware of the fact that this is not an ideal or perfect community of which we intend to be a part of.

In the process of our aspiration to fit in, our innate creativity, because of not being properly nurtured, slowly yet strongly keeps depleting day after day. Moreover, in general, since we do not take any efforts to replenish those energies, we hence tend to lose this characteristic. Not a good thing to happen, is it?

Hence, the need of the hour is to be more creative, everyday. It may be in any form art, craft, prose, poetry, song, article or any other thing; the primary objective is "to express" in a creative manner irrespective of the medium or method used.

So, lets do something wonderful. :)