Describe a moment of peace you experienced today. (Day8)

 

With renovation work going on at home, there has been lot of noise and dust at home for many days now. After non stop work going on for few days, got a one day relief due to some material not being available for the work to continue. It was really a great relief as working from home meant that I could not escape even for that duration that I am working. I would suggest anyone getting renovation work done to avoid it while staying at home. It really becomes messy and noisy. The only benefit being that you are there to supervise things live and get course correction done immediately. 

Apart from that taking day off from work also helped as it helped me to cut off totally from work and not worry too much about the other kind of noise that typically happens at the workplace. The peace and calm replacing noise and chaos was welcome as I could introspect and connect with myself. The next thing I need to do is plan for a getaway after all the renovation work is completed and spend time in nature. The monsoon has brought temperatures down and there is lot of greenery around. It is an ideal time to hit the road and travel to the countryside and relax. 

Another thing I need to start doing after a long break is to meditate and connect with the peace and calm within. The peace I externally experienced recently actually made me realize that I have to get back to the daily practice of meditation to connect with the inner peace. It had helped me a lot in the past and this is the best time to restart.

What are your goals for the coming week? (Day7)

 

The upcoming week will bring in some challenges due to some renovation work going on at home. However, I have tried to stick to my goals. One of the goals that I have been trying to hold on to is to write blog posts. The 90 day blog a day challenge is part of this endeavor. This blog post has been the 7th blog post since I started to blog daily. I am hoping to keep the momentum going each passing day and definitely into the next week as well. There is a long way to go. The good part is that I have started and that too after a long pause. 

Apart from blogging, I will also be targeting to read a book and also learn new skills. Daily journaling is what has helped me keep track of multiple things that I have identified as actionable tasks to achieve my goals. Looking forward to next week with renewed enthusiasm and vigor. The goals I am targeting in the next week are: reading a book, writing a blog post daily and learning a new technical skill.

Having goals and working on them with an action plan is a rewarding experience. Especially with so many distractions, all thanks to mobile devices, the thought of actionable goals does not seem practical enough. Yet here I am keeping track of my goals daily and working on it in some capacity or the other.

What's a skill you'd like to learn or improve? (Day6)

I always wanted to explore music. Especially playing the flute or the violin. Someday I will fit this in my schedule. Currently, I am focused on learning some tech skills which will help me stay competitive on the job front.

Music has always been a stress buster and something that would make me nostalgic. Listening to old Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi songs have always helped me to escape all the noise and bustling around. SP Balasubramanium, KK and Lucky Ali songs are also something that elevates your mood. I am hoping someday I will be able to play these beautiful melodies on a flute and/or violin. 

One day, I will achieve the goal of playing a musical instrument and it will most likely be a flute or violin. Once I reach that stage, I will surely be coming and posting about it on my blog. Possibly my blog will become a musical blog where I post about my adventure in music. I know it is wishful thinking to say this even before I start holding a musical instrument in my hand. However, no harm in having dreams that challenge you. 

Until that wonderful day arrives, wherein I would be playing a musical instrument, I will continue listening to old melodies and keep that desire to play a musical instrument burning within me. 

What's one limiting belief you'd like to let go of? (Day5)

The limiting belief that I do not have it in me to be a good public speaker is something that I would like to let go of. I have already started to work on it by joining Toastmasters Club. I always had decent written communication skills. I can even speak in meetings, both online and offline. However, delivering a speech on stage did make me anxious. 

In order to overcome the limiting belief around my abilities to speak in public, I started participating in Toastmasters Club meetings on Sundays. I am now able to learn from fellow speakers and have started to understand that great speakers are not born. They become great speakers after relentless practice and spending time on preparation. The mistake I used to make is to think that because I have good communication skills, I can just go there on stage and start talking. However, I soon realized that it is not that way. Yes, eventually when you have mastered public speaking skill, you will be able to do that. In the initial days, you need to prepare the speeches well in order to deliver an impactful speech that resonates with the audience. 

I also learnt that to deliver a speech well, one needs to get the audience actively involved. You just cannot go on blabbering. The opening and the closing of the speech needs to be absolutely solid and something that helps you to create a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). The speech given by Swami Vivekananda at Chicago in 1893 is a great example of this. He started off by addressing the audience as "Sisters and Brothers of America". This helped him to connect with the audience instantly. 

I am now focusing on practicing my public speaking skills at Toastmasters and I am sure I will be able to deliver public speeches with greater confidence and also leave an impact on the audience with my speeches. Crushing limiting beliefs like this slowly but surely is the goal that I am working on.

Reflect on a challenge you faced today and how you overcame it (or plan to). (Day4)

The challenge I faced today was to find time to read a book. With so many distractions, all thanks to smartphones, it is easy to lose track of time. This is exactly what happened as I did not stick to the plan of reading a book that I have started reading recently. 

I am glad that I chose to read a book after so many days. However, it is definitely not an easy task to carve out time for it. It is not that time is not available. It is about how to manage the time at hand effectively to fit reading time in the schedule. I have started a practice now to start my day with a list of actions for the day. At the end of the day, I just check whether I have ticked all the tasks or not. I have set a target for myself to read 11 pages per day of a book. The number was arrived at by figuring out how many pages need to be read daily in order to finish reading the book this month. Now that I have a fixed number and specific goal to achieve, it becomes easy to stay focused. I did miss reading one day. However, I decided to compensate it by reading double the number of pages the next day. When you look at a book, it does feel overwhelming when you look at the total number of pages that the book holds. However, breaking it down to number of pages to be read per day, it does not seem that intimidating. The problem remains the same, but it was easier to get it addressed when it got broken down into smaller chunks.

This simplistic approach at looking at the problem, helped me overcome the inertia that prevented me from reading books. Earlier, I would get started but struggle to maintain the momentum. Now, I know that reading books is like a marathon and not a 100 metre sprint. You need to pace things well in order to complete the race. Going all out, will only result in abandoning the race mid way.

What's a small act of kindness I witnessed or performed today? (Day3)

 I am not sure whether this qualifies exactly as a small act of kindness that I performed or not. However, this definitely the closest it can get. I had been to city market for shopping along with my daughter today. We happened to be at a shop which had 2-3 stairs to climb from the street. We had been there to buy some stuff but looking at the crowd, we decided to skip the idea and revisit later as we were not having any urgency. 

While we were moving away from the shop by climbing down the stairs, an old lady coming from the opposite direction just spontaneously held my hand to take support to climb the stairs. I realized it and just stood there firmly so that she does not lose balance and was able to reach the shop with ease. No words were exchanged between us. It was all non verbal communication. 

Additionally, in the morning we had an unannounced guest at our window. A crow who often visits us in the afternoon typically, chose to visit us in the morning for breakfast. I just placed two pieces of chapati near the window, which it happily ate and flew away. Again no words spoken as I do not understand crow language :-) 

If it would not have been for this blog topic given to me, I might not have even made a note of these two events from today. 

A moment today that made me smile (Day2)

Today, I visited a Ganesh temple near my home with my wife. When we got there, the evening aarti (prayers) had just started, so we joined the crowd. After the service was over, we sat down on a bench on the temple premises, as we often do, because the atmosphere there is quiet and peaceful. Then we saw two or three little girls, who seemed to be about two or three years old, running around the temple and having a good time. I couldn't help but smile as I watched those innocent faces laugh as they ran. The little girls bumped into each other from time to time, too. I wasn't the only one who was smiling, though. I noticed that the other people in the temple were also smiling and enjoying the giggling and running.

This made me realize that having fun doesn't have to cost a lot of money. All you need is a few like-minded people who are willing to get together and interact without any expectations. We can only savor special moments like this when we put down our phones, which have enslaved us.

I also happened to revisit my childhood days and was left wondering what really have we achieved growing up. We have left simple pleasures somewhere in the past and using our present grumpily to attain a future state that will make us happy. It is nothing but a mirage that we are chasing. The sooner we realize it, the better we will deal with our present life. Right now it is a mad rat race where we are simply running around in a random fashion. The kids were running around randomly too but they were atleast happy doing that. 

We adults have simply forgotten to have a hearty laugh while being uncertain about what is going on. We need certainty in everything. Suspense excites us in movies but it makes us anxious in real life. It is high time that we realize that life was, is and will be uncertain. It is this uncertainty that we should be celebrating as that is the very character of life. The ups and downs in life need to be enjoyed like kids climbing up the steps of a slide and sliding down from the other end. They keep doing that and just do not get tired repeating the actions.

What's one thing you're grateful for today, and why? (Day1)

Today I am grateful to have started reading a book after a long time. It all started with  the daily habit of creating a to do list for the day which is evaluated at the end of the day for execution. 

As part of this exercise, I asked myself a question, Why can't I finish reading one book per month? That way, I will end up reading 12 books in a year. I then checked out the total number of pages in the book and figured out that there are 263 pages. Oh God! That is too much said the devil in me. However, the angel in me, chose to challenge the devil. 263 pages does seem overwhelming but why not divide the number of pages with the number of days remaining in the month. I ended up doing that and figure out that it will take just 11 pages per day to achieve the goal of reading the book in hand. This is why asking challenging questions is important. It is only when you ask the right question that you get answers that sets you free. Otherwise, you will end up preventing yourself from taking action. 

Moreover, once the ball gets rolling, the momentum will take it forward. The trick is simply to get started on a daily basis to work towards a longer duration goal. More often than not, it is inaction on our part that results in limiting ourselves from explore our full capability and potential. Stepping out of the comfort zone is the need of the hour. Distractions of all sorts exist in today's world but it hardly takes few minutes per day to stay focused and achieve your goals. Consistent and disciplined effort is what decides how successful you will be in life. 

So, the one mantra to remember in life is ABCD - Always Be Consistent and Disciplined in life.

India wins T20 International World Cup

I had a sudden travel plan for some personal reason and happened to be travelling to Kerala on the final match day of T20 International world cup between India and South Africa. Around 8 pm India time the match started. Rohit Sharma had won the toss and elected to bat. Since I was travelling by Konkan railway, the network was on and off as it passed through ghats and tunnels. Most folks in the train were watching the match like me on Disney hotstar. 

The match did not start well for India as Rohit and Rishabh were out pretty early. However, Virat who wasn't performing well throughout the world cup came up with a great performance to hold one end. Axar Patel took risks and scored well at the other end. With little cameos here and there the team managed to score a total of 174. It did feel short considering the South African batting lineup. However, it was still something that could be defended. 

It was South Africa's turn to bat and the Indian bowlers managed to take couple of quick wickets. The South African team still maintained a descent run rate in the power play overs. After the powerplay overs as well the South African team were cruising along easily. Kuldeep and Axar were getting hit despite their great performances in previous matches. Klassen's wicket by Hardik was the first turning point. With the required rate around 6, the game was still tilted in South Africa's favor. Rohit brought back Bumrah earlier and he got Jansen's wicket. David Miller though was still looking dangerous. It was in Hardik's over that Surya Kumar Yadav took a great mindful catch of David Miller's by juggling the ball at the boundary line that totally tilted the game back in India's favor. He was going to cross the boundary line after catching the ball due to the momentum but threw the ball up in the air inside the boundary line, crossed the boundary line and came back in to catch the ball again. This I feel was the moment which changed the course of the game in India's favor.

Though it was a struggle to watch the match with the on and off network, in the end the result made it worth all the trouble.

Kudos Team India for bringing the T20 International world cup back home and also for the consistent and unbeaten run throughout the world cup tournament.