Thank You!

Thank you, undoubtedly the most underrated phrase on this planet. No, I’m not talking about being thankful towards other people in your life (that’s a separate matter of discussion anyways!), but being thankful towards your own life!

So we get up every morning, travel to work, crib about the insane traffic on the streets or crowd in the public transport, crib about being at work, cry about the extra work hours, go back home, while away our time on the internet and sleep. This accounts for 60/70% of an average human’s life. While studying they can’t wait to work, while working they can’t wait to relax, while on vacation they dread the end of vacation and during retirement, they don’t know how they’ve spent their life.

We as humans have the tendency to take everything in our life for granted. Be it the food that we eat, the house we live in, the clothes we wear, the people we interact with, or a thing as simple as the air that we breathe. We keep waiting for something amazing to take place in our life, to earn more money, a better job, a better house, basically we keep sending happiness on a chase for a “better” something. Why do we end up making happiness a journey always? Since we’ve sent “our” happiness on a chase, we struggle to keep up with the journey and get depressed, anxious, sad and upset when the path seems too long. What we don’t realize is that we can convert this journey into an interesting ride and enjoy every millisecond of it!

When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to grow up and earn money so that our family could have a better life. As an adult who has achieved most of her childhood dreams, I still feel that my life is unfulfilled because I’ve replaced my childhood goals with a new set of goals and sent my happiness on a chase again. Getting my house renovated has always been one of my biggest and most prominent dream as a child. As I’m typing this, my house is being renovated and instead of feeling accomplished, I’m still waiting for a miracle to dramatically transform my life! Do I need to find any newer or better ways to complicate my happiness, hell no!

I’m glad I’ve had this realisation finally! Happiness, in fact, is a very simple process.

• Live in the present moment:- The best way to do this is inculcating the practice of journaling your daily life. Treat every day as the D-day rather than as a  run-up to the main event. After all, each day is precious, you’d never know if you’d live to see another day. So stop stalling all the pending items on your bucket list, treat life as a grand celebration and thoroughly enjoy each day of your life. And journaling it will help you reminisce.
• Practice gratitude:- This is most important. If we keep finding things to crib about, we’ll keep sending our happiness on a life long chase. Recollecting and writing down things you are grateful about will help instill a sense of achievement, fulfillment and most importantly happiness in you. Instead of cribbing about everything in life, we can just be grateful for the small little things that build the grandeur of our life.
• Be the “best” you:- Since it’s very evident from the first point that we need to pull ourselves out from the regretful past and uncertain future, we shouldn’t delay our goals, wait for a certain something to take place or a future period to achieve whatever we have set our heart to do. The best time is always “NOW“. So strive to be the best version of you every day, make each day count and crush all your goals in the present. Bring a full stop to your never-ending “waiting period”.

Sounds simple ain’t it? Wonder if it actually works? Well, no other way to find out than actually putting it to action! Let’s not complicate happiness anymore!

 

Know when to let go..!!

I am a person who dwells on the past. It is not a bad thing to revisit your memories, however it becomes a problem when your past affects the present. There are a million thoughts that race through your mind throughout the day. My thoughts range from regrets about the past to imagining situations about how I would have reacted in the same situation differently. One of my favourite hobbies is also thinking about a parallel universe where each one of my impossible thoughts come true. These kind of thoughts generate negativity about the present and also the future. You would find me staring at blank walls most of the time immersed in my own thoughts.

I’ve also seen people dragging a dead relationship. We meet a lot of people in our life, some we connect with mutually, some we don’t. The third and most painful situation is when one person wants to connect with someone who is least bothered. People who overthink tend to convince themselves to keep on trying. The phrase “If at once we don’t succeed, try, try and try again!” is drilled in our minds throughout school. We keep on trying and lose our dignity and self respect in the process.

It is very important to know when to stop.

When your thoughts over power your present as well as cast a shadow on your future, you need to stop.

Everyone has a lot of dreams and goals in our life. The situations I mentioned above create pitfalls in your journey to achieve these goals. We admire people who are extremely focussed in their life and keep on climbing the ladder of success. What we forget is the fact that each one of us possess infinite amount of ability to reach the pinnacle of success. People who end up succeeding in life are ones who have mastered the art of using thoughts to their advantage. There will be situations in life that side track you from your goals. In such scenarios, you need to keep your inner belief system strong. Always remember the below 3 points before making any irrational decision :-

• Be the master of your life, not the victim – “Live life as per your terms”
• Keep your dignity and self esteem in check – “Someone else cannot define you”
• You can achieve everything you set your mind to – “Nothing is impossible”

Be the person you wish to be “NOW”, there is never a better time. Always stay in the present and witness wonderful events unfold in your life.

If you are caught up in the web of self pity and despise, please go through the above 3 points again. The points though basic, can have a huge impact on you if you choose to believe in it.

All the best!!

How these 4 little changes in life are helping manage my time better!

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst – William Penn

Being a chronic procrastinator, I’ve always found myself running out of time, for no specific reason whatsoever. From reaching appointments late to sprinting like a marathon runner to catch my morning train at the last moment, I’ve done it all. However, my tardiness got the better of me last month when we missed my sister’s flight. I couldn’t handle the situation at all as this was the third time we had missed a flight. At that very moment, I decided to change, for the better!

The methods that I’m listing below are not foolproof or devised after years of research. These are the methods that has helped me, a chronic procrastinator, to value time and use it well.

• WRITE DOWN ALL THE TASKS AT HAND

I’ve always been a fan of preparing meticulous timetables with fixed time slots for specific tasks. These timetables have unfortunately never worked for me. Setting time limitations forces you to work haphazardly. Also, the disappointment of not completing tasks in decided time slot wrecks the entire schedule.

What I did : I’ve started writing down everything I need to do in a day first thing in the morning. This is the habit that I’ve developed at office to remember everything that I require to complete on a single day. I try to make this list as elaborate as possible, listing down all then small things that I need to do that day. This little change has worked magically for me to realize the amount and importance of tasks at hand and work accordingly. Also, the pleasure of striking off a task on completion is unimaginable!

Result : I now have a clear schedule of the number of tasks at hand and plan my day accordingly. This has also helped me to cut down on tasks that I may tend to forget.

• WILLPOWER

This might seem like a vague idea to implement. However, this is the single most important thing that can help in better utilization of your time. Everything boils down to one fact, desire to complete the task at hand. If you can find the reason why you want to accomplish a certain task, believe me, you’ll find a way and time to manage it. Before starting any task, find one reason that made you do it in the first place.

What I did : My Super list has given me a clear reason to achieve certain long term goals. For all the other mundane routine work, I try to time it and complete it in much lesser time on the next occasion.

Result : I can prioritize my tasks well and complete them in the order of importance.

• SET CLEAR REWARDS

This is the fun element to complete your work. Usually, our mind wanders or we delay the work at hand when it gets boring. What you can do is set a reward for completion of any work. The reward can be as simple as taking a break to buying that thing from Amazon which you’ve been eyeing since a long time. Successful completion of your task will help you enjoy the reward better.

What I did : The rewards set by me give me motivation to finish any task. I’m prone to taking a lot of breaks or indulge in long periods of doing absolutely nothing. Now, I’ve set these as my rewards which helps me complete my work as well as enjoy guilt-free breaks!

Result : Work is always fun when you have a reward waiting at the end.

• BELIEF

In officer Judy Hopps’s words, “Zootopia : Where anyone can be anything!” Now imagine your entire life to be Zootopia, this gives you the power to do and be anything you want. Always have a firm belief that you can accomplish any task at hand. From belief comes confidence, from confidence comes success! This realization is for those big dreams in your eyes. For all other work, the above three changes should suffice.

What I did : I’ve read somewhere that negative thoughts are the weakest when they first arrive. Whenever I’m apprehensive about certain work and have negative thoughts about it, I counter attack it with a positive thought.  They usually don’t return.

Result : I can cut down on delaying any task for the fear of not being able to complete them well. Attempting something has already given you an edge over those who are yet to begin or think they can’t do it. Life is a compilation of experiences!

Hope these methods help you in some manner to achieve your goals.

Ciao!