Popular belief while trapped in mind is that it’s happening only to us.
Whereas it has happened to infinite of us and will happen to infinite in the future. The reason everyone keeps talking about it is further proof of that…
If we can understand this, it allows us to change perspective and be out of it.
Also, it does not take a cosmic intervention to be out of it but our values, learning, and ability to think of new ideas. The well prepared is always out faster and faces a lesser trapped mind situation.
Hence the benefit of always learning and unlearning.
But let’s be sure any trapped mind situation is quite common so let’s not make it more than it is.
If you add up the hours you spend each day interacting with your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop or television, you may realize that you’re spending the majority of your waking life staring at a screen.
Sure, much of this screen time is useful or necessary, even sometimes enjoyable. But there are a lot of other times when our screens distract us from things that are truly important to us—whether it’s the people we love or the activities that bring us meaning and joy.
So let’s take back our lives from our screens by balancing screening time and real lifetime.
If we are making the hard choices now then the long-term will be easy. If we make the easy choices now, the long-term life will be a lot harder.
In what to eat, if we are not eating all the junk food and making the hard choice to work out, then the long-term life will be easy. Won’t be sick. Won’t be unhealthy.
But if we eat junk food, do not work out and take easy choices now, the long-term will be much harder for our body & mind.
The same is true of values.
The same is true of career & goals.
The same is true of saving up for a rainy day.
The same is true of our approach to our relationships.
Knowledge by itself has not much value until it provides actionable items.
For example, gaining knowledge of investments & finance by the best sources still won’t get you richer, unless you apply it.
Wisdom is baking knowledge through experience, failure, and success. Mentors, coaches & experts are so valuable because they provide knowledge with actions.
But at the same time, knowledge is the first step towards success.
So while accumulating knowledge it’s critical to gain experience through practice & failure. Ultimately leading to success.
A day without anger (resentment) is the most productive day. We accomplish most on that day in comparison and are more energetic at the end of the day.
All the talk about focus and increasing productivity is thrown away the moment we meet anger or resentment.
Observe a day and notice that the more we feel angry or resented about things or people, the day becomes more exhausting.
It’s like a video (computer) game, you have an energy bar when you start and anger keeps eating the bar till you bleed out at the end.
So…
If its chronic anger (resentment) start taking baby steps to solve it.
When we make a mistake at work, we replay it in our head for days or even weeks? This kind of overthinking is called rumination, and it can lead to serious anxiety.
To break out of the cycle, there are a few things we can do. For one, identify the rumination triggers. Do certain types of people, projects, or decisions make us second-guess ourselves? Notice when (and why) a situation is causing to start overthinking things. And try avoiding it for some time till we are back to normal.
It can also be useful to distance from negative thoughts by labeling them as thoughts or feelings. For example, instead of saying “I’m inadequate,” we can say “I’m feeling like I’m inadequate.” These labels can help us distinguish what we’re experiencing from who we truly are as a person and an employee.
Another way to short-circuit rumination is to distract ourselves. When our brain won’t stop spinning, try taking a walk, meditate, workout or fill out an expense report — do any simple activity to focus on for a few minutes.
With practice, we can overcome the rumination and get back to our productive selves.
We all have our “Wall of Safety” that gives us a comfort zone.
For child, its the parent that doesn’t allow risking.
For adults, it is the social norms that doesn’t allow risking.
For poor, it is the daily wages that doesn’t allow risking.
For richer, it is the steady income that doesn’t allow risking.
It’s a cocoon to protect and allow us a path. On introspection, there are a lot of cocoons safeguarding us. While it keeps us comfortable it creates restrictions and boundaries.
Unless we break out, we will keep continuing what we are. But there is always a choice to explore, be different, perhaps better. Or be in the cocoon.
We are often told to pursue work we’re passionate about, but for many people, this simply isn’t feasible. Luckily, research shows that doing something you care about outside of work can benefit both your personal life and your career. Look for ways to craft your job to allow for more time for non-work passions.
For example, if you have some autonomy over your hours, start your day early to make more time in the evening for cultivating other interests. These extracurricular activities can be a way to develop skills, meet new people, or decompress. To find the right activities, ask yourself what you care about that you haven’t been able to pursue in your job. Outside of work, you have the freedom to try new things out, so experiment.
Remember that passions can wax and wane over time, and it’s okay to stop one activity and pick up another. Find other people who care deeply about your shared interest so you can build a sense of community.
Only a privileged few are able to match their passion to their job, but leading a full life outside of work allows us to bring our best selves to the office — or anywhere we go.
The flawed theory is that top-scoring students lead a successful and fulfilling life. Hence the push to score A+ in exams.
There’s no reason to think that this should be true.
Doing well on tests, paying attention to what’s being asked, being diligent in short-term error correction–these are the main hallmarks of someone who is good at school.
None of these are important once you’re charged with charting a new path, with figuring out what to do next. In fact, sometimes they get in the way. Too much of clutter which is irrelevant in the current life situation(s).
The educational regime was invented to produce compliant workers.
But the most compliant isn’t always suited to be the bravest, the most empathic or the most intuitive, these are far more important to lead a successful and fulfilling life.
Task Performance goes up initially and then falls down.
Steps:
1. We apply willpower or use an external factor to get motivated.
2. We improve on the task as our motivation level increases.
3. Once we cross a level, motivation drops for the task as we stop applying willpower, and start failing on the task.
4. As we fail, we feel further demotivated and self sinking cementing our belief that the task is something we cannot do or are not interested in.
It’s the same old story again and again for most of the time. But if we look back what stayed with us is something we were able to do repeatedly, daily, weekly & monthly.
Hence “Routine” is a much better then “Motivation”.
Dictionary definition of Routine:
Routine – a sequence of actions regularly followed.
Create a routine to improve yourself in any task. Routine will slowly grow into a habit and in the end, lead to excelling in the task(skill).
I always wanted to learn guitar and tried picking it up multiple times.
Joined guitar classes, registered in a band, group practice, bought different types of guitar to keep motivated. It always went well for an initial couple of months but after some time it dropped and then completely gone. After a year or so had to start again.
After a lot of frustrating cycles, I decided to play guitar for 2 minutes Daily (Routine-Small steps). Even if I just take the guitar and do a couple of strumming but do it daily consistently.
Today I am much better at guitar, learned acoustic guitar to a decent level, and can play in front of an audience. I still keep practicing for at least 5-10 minutes on an average daily. And trying to play the violin now :).
Motivation comes and goes, but if we follow a Routine however small it is and it slowly grows into you!
