“The free communication of thought and opinion is one of the most precious rights of man; every citizen may therefore speak, write and print freely.” –French National Assembly in 1789
Interesting read of the history of publishing. Could not agree more with the above quote, there is nothing more important to me than the ability to freely express my thought, opinion and even action as long as it doesn’t harm anyone intentionally.
Thoughts are the root of everything we experience in our life. So why do we entertain bad thoughts if we know that bad thoughts are bad for us and good thoughts are good for us?
Mind, like a farmland, needs to be plowed, weeded of bad thoughts to get the crop of Ananda (Joy). It takes no effort to let weeds grow in the garden, it takes no effort to let bad thoughts grow in our mind. It takes a lot of deliberate practice and effort to remove the weeds and fertilize the flowers and plants.
We reap what we sow, we cannot sow an orange seed and expect to reap a papaya. We reap good life by sowing good thoughts, so why not go ahead do it? Someone rightly said, everyone wants to be rich but not everyone wants to work for it. We all want joy and happiness and peace but not all of us want to work for it.
I recently found this interesting book by James Allen, mentioned by Les Brown in one of his talks, you can read it for free on Google Books here, enjoy the good thoughts 🙂
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results” — James Allen
“Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces—to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it—and makes it burn still higher.”
I don’t know why it took so long for this book to come to me, recently heard of this masterpiece on life and living by Gibran Kahlil Gibran on a couple of podcasts and went to look for it on Google. Luckily, this book is available for free reading on the Internet Archive, this gem of a book was in plain sight but never crossed my radar, how sad. I believe it’s one of the finest books that I have read and very simple yet ridiculously profound.
More people should read this book, however young or old you are, doesn’t matter. I hope that by mentioning it here, the book gets on the radar of at least one other person in this world, if not, that’s cool too!
“When Love beckons to you, follow him even though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings unfold, you yield to him
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you
And when he speaks to you believe him
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses the tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth
He threshes you to make you naked
He sifts you to free you from your husks
He grinds you to whiteness
He kneads you until you are pliant
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.”
Identify and don’t tolerate problems that stand in the way of your achieving your goals.
Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
Design plans that will get you around them.
Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.
What do you think? No-brainer?
What does having clear goals mean? I have a goal to get six-pack abs, but is that a clear goal? No. It’s a goal without a time box. If it were “I have a goal to get six-pack abs by Dec 31, 2020 6PM”, that would be a clear goal. Having a goal is not enough, what if you have the clear goal in mind but you don’t stop eating cupcakes and drinking soda every day. What if you don’t start doing the right workouts, take the right nutrition. Having clear goals is not going to automatically get you the six-pack abs, so then what else needs to happen?
Identify the problems. Solving problems is not limited to math class. Once you have set a clear goal, identify the problem(s) that stand in the way of achieving the goal. It’s the diet and the workout routines. that are not aligned with the six-pack goal.
Once the problems are identified, understand what exactly is causing these problems. Are you clear on which foods to eat and which to avoid? Are you clear on how much quantity to eat? Are you clear on what nutrition to take? Are you clear on which exercises to do to strengthen the core? Are you clear on how long or how many reps to do? Are you aware of which workouts are not recommended? Diagnose and get to the nitty gritty of the identified problems.
Once the problems are well understood, design a plan to get around them. May be it is the late night craving for an ice cream or skipping the hard workout routine. Design a plan to work around late night snacking. Keep healthy snacks at hand in case the craving kicks in. Avoid buying cakes, ice creams and other sugary snacks. Cut it at the source, once it is in the pantry it is harder to resist. Keep it away from sight, out of sight out mind can help. Skipped a training day, get back on track immediately. Don’t expect six-packs abs by walking 5 miles every day. If you want six-pack abs, you need to follow the recommended routines very strictly.
If you are not seeing the results, go back to Step 1 and rinse and repeat until you get the results. Don’t give up, don’t get distracted, don’t imagine progress, don’t be tempted, keep the focus or give up and go home, it’s better than pretending.
“Humankind is being led along an evolving course, through this migration of intelligences, and though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream”
The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
Rumi reminds us that the world is an illusion, unfortunately when we are in the dream, we perceive whatever is happening to be real.
When we wake up from a bad dream and realize that it was just a dream, we feel better that everything is fine. Do we feel the same when the dream was good? Let’s say, you were talking with your beloved mother whom you have lost many years ago, and you were having a great time and then you were woken up by the loud sounds of this so called reality, you would call the reality a bad dream and you’d rather go back to sleep to continue the dream.
Does the fact that you were having an enjoyable dream make it any less of a dream? I guess it’s still a dream after all, whether it is a good one or a bad one!
Adi Sankaracharya’s Brahmajnanavali Mala verse 20 states that this world is an illusion and Brahman is the Truth.
Rumi says that we are all being led through an evolving course. Who is leading us, where is the course heading, how long is this course, is there a destination or is the course a looping one? If we finish where we started, is there a point in starting at all?
This quote is attributed to Pablo Picasso. I find it true that inspiration comes to those who work. Then why is it hard to do the work. If you haven’t read Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, you must. It explains the reason why we are not working, it’s called the Resistance. Resistance keeps us from doing the work of our lives. Resistance comes in many shapes, sizes and forms and its only goal is to stop us from doing the work.
Do The Work by Steve Pressfield
How can we escape the resistance and do the work. I believe starting the work is half the battle but the other half is being disciplined to continue the work started all the way to the finish line. It requires not only discipline but conviction, dedication to the work started and a strong belief that it amounts to something in the long distant future.
Easy Peezy ha? Well what are you waiting for, get to work!
Rethinking medical education for the 21st century clinicians and caregivers around the world.
Shiv Gaglani is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Osmosis.org, a leading health education platform with an audience of millions of current & future clinicians as well as their patients and family members. Shiv’s primary passion is developing innovative and scalable solutions in the fields of healthcare and education. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, snowboarding, skiing, running, and flying.
“You don’t make the impact you want to have by starting things but by finishing them! –Shiv Gaglani” Enjoy my conversation with Shiv
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
“You don’t make the impact you want to have by starting things but by finishing them! –Shiv Gaglani”