Perspectives

The world seems to be changing everyday. Tiny small changes.

Of course, I'm sure change was a constant earlier too. It's only now that we notice it, thanks to the pandemic, thanks to the time to reflect and thanks also to the desire to get back to normalcy.

I've noticed that the more fussed and obsessed I am about change, the more intolerant I grow towards it.  Whether its work picking up pace, not picking up pace, change of inclement weather or even letting new people, new friends into our lives - the slightest of changes seems to evoke disproportionate behavioural reactions.

But one thing that I have found that offers solace and a sense of rootedness is spirituality. Meditation, chanting, yoga and pranayama are practices, that I can say, by experience, should not be forgotten. And of course, please add writing to the list. And blogging. And cooking. And spending time with loved ones. The list seems to grow longer and longer !

Well, looking at life, there seems to be plenty of things that seem to be a source of spirituality. It's all a matter of perspective - finding constancy in change and change in constancy.  

Splash

Work gathers, picks pace and pushes aside everything else, especially the hobbies that I had clung onto all these months. The weeds have been pulled out, the table is spanking clean, the files – ready to be opened.

I clear out a section in my mind and make space for new work stuff that I’m training to love. I do this between the lines of poetry in The New Yorker.

Cheers to work! Work, here I plunge. <Sound of water splashing>

Reset

Reset, reset and reset.

Your personal life, your creative life, your professional life at the beginning of every day.

Every day, we are given twenty four hours to better yourself, to move closer to your goals, to make a difference to the people around you. Every day is a new beginning. It’s upto us whether we want to live in the hangover of yesterday and mope and moan over losses or pull our socks, jump out of our quilts and do/continue to continue to do what matters most to us.

So forgive people, forget bad experience but learn your lessons, free up your mind, take a deep breath and just do that thing that you always wanted to do.

Once you’ve done that, move onto the next.

Looking upto success

When you embark on a new project, you are bound to hit roadblocks, bound to bump over road humps, bound to meet challenges. What helps you achieve success is your attitude – your attitude to carry on inspite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. For a determined mind can plough a hole through the hardest of rocks and toughest of mountains.

In the words of Earl Nightingale, motivational speaker, success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Success is not just the act of reaching your final goal but also comprises the small incremental steps that one takes on the journey towards achievement of the goal.

If your goal is to be a writer, you may not have written anything on a particular day, but if you have read a story that struck a chord, if you have flipped through the pages of a ‘how-to-write’ book, you still are making progress, for you have not wasted the day. You are one step closer to your goal and you are successful.

'Flow'

When you don’t realize how time has flown, immersed in work, when breaks to feed a rumbling stomach do not trouble you, when you come up for air only when somebody reminds that you have not taken a breath, you know you have found your calling, you have found your ‘flow state’.

When you have found your calling, you have found a life of joy.

Breaks

I ponder over what to discuss in today’s post, when a fly buzzes in front my eyes. It’s one of those tiny flies, one that the eye can barely perceive.  I can only feel and hear it.  I cannot see it.  I hit and clap randomly in the air but to no avail. It continues to irritate me. So I decide to take a break and walk around in my room.

I come back ten minutes later and pull out my swivel chair. It seems to have disappeared and I can once again get on with my work in peace.

So many things in life seem to work this way. Give it a rest and we feel better after a while. We get new perspective and the problem seems to have cleared itself out.

Let us learn to give ourselves breaks when we feel like it, so we can be more efficient when we really ned to be.

A thing of beauty

‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’

Keats began his poem ‘from Endymion’ with these great lines.

If we want to hold joy in the cup of our palm and the cockles of our heart, we have to find that thing which defines beauty in our eyes - anything that you find beautiful and connect to it, so you can be joyful, however fleeting the ‘forever’ part is.

It could be a quiet evening in silence, a session of meditation or a great book.

Personally, I find the power of words, very beautiful. To immerse yourself in the craft of weaving words – whether you are writing or appreciating what has been written is, for me, finding joy at a personal level.

What do you find beautiful? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Pause

Great is a mind that, in the middle of the rush to get nowhere, stops, pauses, breathes, looks around to savor the beauty of surroundings and learnings that a mundane everyday life brings with it.  

Blessed is a mind that feels the pulse of what is really important in the challenges that one is bombarded with.

It is when the mind stops, breathes and pauses that great things, the really beautiful things are manifested.

Routines

Life changes. One day cannot be exactly similar to the previous day. A person cannot be exactly same as he was the previous day. He has to undergo changes – some cells die, while new cells take their place, new thoughts take the place of old thoughts, new ideas take root in his mind. Change is the only constant in life, on Earth.

But what helps us remain grounded through the changes and what helps us deal with changes – minor or drastic is a routine. Routines keep us tethered to our moorings while our boat is rocked by a tempest. Routines are what power us to move forward and chart the choppy waters of uncertainty. Routines form our sheet-anchors when the world around seems to be changing colours a tad too fast for our liking.

Find a routine that is uplifting and stick to it. So you will be uplifted a little each day, no matter what changes are thrown your way.

Make it work

The cursor blinks at me at a frequency per second. It blinks at me in step with the ticking second hand of the red Titan time piece staring at me from the mantel. The longer I stare at the cursor, the more difficult it is to tame it and get typing. 

Enough is enough. I hunker down and type the first word on screen. 

I guess this is true with any problem that you face, any challenge that you encounter. The longer you stare at the problem, the bigger it looks, the bigger it grows. Instead, gather your wits and plunge headlong into tackling the problem. Sure, strategy and planning are important. But they are important only when and if you have a strategy and plan!

If you don’t have one, it’s time to make use of the best resource you have – YOU and move on without much ado!    

Hard Work

Hard work. Plain. Simple. Hard. Work. That’s the number one ingredient that takes you to the top. That’s the essence of what differentiates a winner from the ones who make it to a measly almost there. It can move mountains, change hearts and raise life from the dark pits of despair. Hard work can turn around a life like nothing else can.

Of course, grace – some call it luck, matters. But it’s important to remember former President of US, Thomas Jefferson when he said, ’The harder I work, the luckier I get.’

Whenever you stare at a dead end, when you feel hopelessly useless, when you feel the world turn its back against you – hunker down and work hard. It will lift your day and your spirits. Not to mention your game. UP.

Getting things done

That arduous and long pending task stares at you from the corner of your desk, gloating at how you just can’t get around to deal with him. You delay and dither until it is too late and cry over wasted time. You buckle down to do it, anyway and round it off half-heartedly when the hot breath of a deadline breathes down your neck.

You need not always keep things for the last minute. Things can be different. Tackle the gargantuan task at the first opportunity available. 

Break down the task into small bite sized rubber meals that you can chew up. And with every accomplishment, however small it is, reward yourself with a goodie – anything that you love – It could be a session of two minute meditation, reading a short short story, going for a walk or chatting up with a friend. 

And once you are through with your reward, get back to tackling the next small rubber piece that you can chew.

This is one method which I have found effective in tackling many of the demons lurking around in my procrastination closet.     

Self Reliance

“No one can save us. No one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

The Buddha’s words ring true as I read one of his many nuggets of wisdom. Every being here, has a path cut out for her. She has to walk that path, whether or not she likes it, whether she is attached to the destination or detached from the outcome. She has to face the changing cycles of seasons, brave the storm, clothe herself in layers during the cold and enjoy the sun on her skin during spring. Her sufferings are her own. As are her learnings that are born out of the sufferings.

No individual can share the pain of another. Parents may struggle and bring heaven to earth in their effort to mitigate children’s sufferings. The pain of a surgery, the pain of a heartbreak, the pain of an addiction and so on has to be borne by the child herself. Parents may try to soften the blow, provide a comfortable cushion to rest her tired head on, offer warm words of comfort, but the pain of the action/reaction/event has to be tolerated by the offspring. This is true of every other relationship – romantic, platonic, filial and so on.

In that act of suffering is hidden the fact of transformation, the possibility of metamorphosis. So let us not be afraid or shun the difficult times in life.

Let us not wait for sympathy/empathy/words of kindness from others who we think are our well-wishers. If the ray of hope shines through in their kind, comforting actions, let us be grateful. If not, let us not wait for it. Waiting and not receiving the kindness weakens our emotional fiber and slackens our resolve. Instead, let us be self-reliant and forge ahead with doing what according to us is the right path to emerge strong because of a particular event. Let us build good routines like meditation and yoga and incorporate them into our daily lives so we have some sort of ‘insurance’ cover to fall back on during the not so sunny days.

Strength

What is strength? Strength is the quality to remain true to your promises, to your goal and to your vision even when circumstances are not favourable. It is the ability to plod on and get your thing done even when the going gets inexplicably tough. It is the ability to remain true to yourself and to your values despite harsh criticisms and sharp, painful barbs of innuendos that the world will shoot at you when you set out on your path. Strength is what makes life bearable during the unbearable times and gives you the wherewithal to manifest better days. Strength is what helps you make a difference and leave everything better than what it used to be.  

Pure Joy

Expectations in life whittle the plain joy of doing something down. The Buddha very poignantly says, ‘Desire is the root cause of sorrow.’ You write an article, you expect to get published. You expect to earn hoards of regular, faithful readers. You expect a shower of praises. You go for a run and expect to cover the distance in certain time. You deliver a presentation, you expect that your superiors will clap you on the back.

Now imagine a scenario where you do the work for the joy of it, for the love it. You write because you love the process of creating magic with words. You run, not to create new records or make it within a certain time span, but because you love the wind in your hair and the sweat from the muscles working themselves up. You give a presentation after you’ve read everything there is to know about the subject and you genuinely, truly want to share your knowledge.

The two situations would start the working of completely different systems in your body, in your mind and in the universe at large. The first scenario would lead to stress, burnout and would sap your energy in not much time. The second approach on the other hand would invigorate you to work harder and lead you onto the path of joy, meaning and fulfilment.    

Life is pretty simple. Do things for the joy of doing them. And don’t burden that joy with the weight of expectations, applause and external validation.

Kindling a fire

I have had this conversation about motivation with many people before. Motivation is absolutely intrinsic to a meaningful life. When life gets dreary and monotonous, a single spark of inspiration is sufficient to kindle a burning fire to accomplish something new, something different, something that can bring about a change not just in our lives, but in the life of everybody else . 

The source of motivation is different for different people. Motivation for me comes from varied avenues. Mostly, it is by reading inspiring words of great authors and thinkers. It arrives when I watch motivational videos of the world's greatest achievers. It strikes when I am reading accounts of people who have left an indelible mark in their chosen fields. 

One poem that has never failed not to motivate me is the poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling, that I go back to again and again and yet again, whenever I need my dose of motivation.

Reproducing it here:

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

So, tell me, what is your source of motivation?