The 2-Hour Manifesto

[This blog entry is a note to myself. It is a note to push myself harder. In the right direction. Consistently. It's an effort to become better. Would love to hear your comments on how you have adopted ways to become better.]

• Challenge yourself to complete any task within 2 hours. 
• Grasp new concept within 2 hours. 
• Don't keep anything pending over 2 hours

Stop questioning your ability to complete something valuable in 2-hours. Know that you can do it. Push yourself to achieve it. Believe in yourself. It's a matter of just doing it consistently. Do it now, than later. Practice achieving it. Do it for 21 days. Make it a habit. 

When you're stuck with something, just think about it creatively. Give yourself a deadline. Stop debating with yourself. Just pick up the option you arrive at and run with it. Finish it in the best of your ability. Don't do shoddy work.

Reinvent your thoughts. Be creative. Think on your feet. Act on the run. Be emotionally compelled to achieve something in 2 hours. Feel a sense of joy and fulfillment upon completing your 2-hour challenge. Make a note of progress. Of achievements. Of points to improve.

Kill inertia. Break the pattern of distraction. Wire your mind to achieve something valuable within 2 hours. Know that you will achieve it. Monitor. Learn. Improve. Achieve. Grow. Don't be wary of trying. Try with full involvement, full emotions. Be compelled to achieve.

When in your 2-hour challenge, keep everything else aside. Remember anything that is keeping you from achieving your challenge is a distraction. Including phone calls, social media, newspaper, books, friends, TV, drifting thoughts, your past, your concerns, your worries, that new thought you felt like exploring further.

When you are feeling down, break the pattern. Do something to overcome it. Pile it with abundant, joyful thoughts. Take on the next challenge. Achieve it. Move on to the next. Learn.

Always replenish the massive energy store in you. Let the energy be replenished every time you WANT to. Feel energetic. Know that there's immense energy stored in you. Just unleash it. Be buzzing with energy. Let others feel it. Do it for yourself.

Take on the next 2-hour challenge. Achieve it. Move to the next. Feel the joy of achievement. 

Listen To That Wee Warrior Inside You

What is your purpose? What are you here for?

Anytime you feel lost, feel that you're losing the traction, feel you're not heading anywhere, feel that you're not doing something right - the wee little voice inside you will ask these questions. Every time. Without fail. Time and again. To help you get back on track.

Hear that wee little voice inside you. Hear it when it squirms. Believe in it.

It keeps making you uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with stagnancy. Uncomfortable when you do what you don't like doing. Uncomfortable when you're not trying hard enough. Uncomfortable when you're dishonest. Uncomfortable when you lie.

Try however hard to avoid it - it will keep pestering you. That's what it is there for. That is your true voice. It keeps channeling you in the right direction. It is your inner compass. It keeps telling your true purpose.

Train yourself to listen to it and follow it. Nurture it. Don't ignore it. It won't ignore you. It will keep coming back. The brain will tell you ignore it. Ignore the brain.

That's the warrior fighting on your side. Constantly. Relentlessly. To help you succeed. To help you become better. To help you get over your evils. Listen to it. Be on its side.

Listen to that wee warrior. Listen to your voice. Listen to yourself.

Old Times

Yesterday the following thought engulfed me: How must it be like to be old? How must our grandparents be feeling at that age of 65-70? Will I feel any different at 60? Hard to say, because I have not been through that experience.

Time-wise I would have grown, yes. At the family front, I might have become grand pa. But at the thought-level, at the mind-level, spiritual level, would I be any different than what I am? Hard to say. No clue whatsoever. Relativistically speaking, I have not grown in time with respect to myself.

I don't ask this question to senior citizens I meet, because of their seniority! But I want to ask someone, inquisitively, about how they felt when they were younger.

My journey of 28 yrs seems to have gone in a blink. On a computer you can create progressive versions of your files, and can subsequently view the changes/ modifications done in that file. In life, it does not happen. Every second, millions of varied inputs are acting on you, millions of improvizations taking place within you, millions of developments happening, millions of cells dying, millions of cells getting created, millions of thoughts shaping you into a better human being. But there's no way we are able to refer to our 'previous' version later... atleast for reference.

We just grow. Retaining memories which have influenced us in some way. Others, which have faded into oblivion.

There should be some way to compare notes between a person when he is young and when he is old. Someway, our young-self should be able to interact with our old-self or vice versa.

May be by the time I am 60, time travel would be a reality. And I would re-visit 8 Jan 2010, and meet myself to answer these questions.

Perception, Pretense and other Pastimes

From some days, I have been doing some soul searching.

Why is life the way it is? Could it be anyway different than what it is? What are others thinking about me? How will others react to my comments? Will others like my comments? Is he pretending to be what he is? What is his ulterior motive? Will others feel about what I am going to say? I have not been in touch with X person, what will he/she feel about it? Is this a good time to get in touch with X? Will X mind that I am getting in touch after ages?

All these questions, and many more, bothered me a lot for a very long time. I was too sceptical about expressing my own opinion, which is wierd because I always propogated that one should voice his/her opinion.

But sometimes you just need some 'time-out' from your routine. That is what I wanted. I was unable to focus on work, nor on family. Effectively, making me suffer in the process. I thought if I was able to spend time with myself for a while, I could sort out my messy life.

I was experiencing the widening communcation gap between my family, friends, near and dear ones. For no fault of theirs, I was going away from them, and I didn't know what to do. I just wanted the situation and my life in general to improve. I was neither opening up to others with my problems, nor solving it myself.

Somewhere I knew that I had the solution within me. Only, I was not able to find it. I was just moving along, without making any efforts to solve the problems. I was just waiting for things to get worse before I start controlling them. In this process, I was becoming more introvert and I was just growing an impenetrable shell around me. I had cut all communications with my friends and families, but still pretended that things were all fine.

Then came a point when I was no longer able to sustain the self-developed mountain of problems. I just had to find a solution. The phase of finding a solution was very revealing.

I spoke to my family about it. They offered me a simple solution and the root of my problem was identified rightaway. My problem was, I was doing too much thinking. I used to always think of things too critically - irrespective of their degree of seriousness. I used to think of all the possible outcomes/ possible responses/ possible turn-downs. You get what I am saying? I anticipated responses/ solutions/ problem-areas/ 'their' thoughts - positive or negative, and I refrained from acting on them. Thus, there was a huge delay in 'actions'.

These had become my bottleneck - my work, my family and I was suffering from it terribly. I was not open enough to do radical things, which was again very wierd because I am known to be a radical/ creative thinker.

Having identified these 2 major bottlenecks (and this is a very recent development), I am feeling immensely relaxed. But I knew that I still had to act on them.

This time I have decided - I will act on it asap without critically over-analyzing and over-assessing things. From past few days, results have been awesome. I am discovering that all these problems were my creation. I was only 'speculating' them. And they were becoming real. And they began haunting me.

So now I take quick decisions, and act on them. Life is becoming better again! Cheers!

An example of this is: Earlier, I would think for a long time about blogging my personal thoughts and sharing it with netizens. What will they feel about my thoughts, should I share my personal thoughts with them, etc. But I didn't bother much before writing this post. :) It is important to share than to hide. Sharing helps one grow.

PS: Another thought just struck me: Beneath every problem is a solution waiting to emerge and free itself!