Bamboo In The Wind

It is more scary to feel we are in an endless free fall than to face actual free fall. Free fall occurs u expectedly and ends with an impact. The feeling of free fall, on the other hand, is worse. The sentiment is self-generated and hugely distracting in every aspect. We live in a world where we are responsible for ourselves and those around us. Thus, when we feel that we are in free fall, it impacts us and others in unimaginable ways. They start to learn about our situation that concerns them. They make assessments and pass judgments, which elongates our feeling of a fall. So where does it end? The feeling of a free fall originates from an inadequate assessment of self. That follows with making judgments heavily influenced by our past and views. When our actions based on calls we made do not appear to work, the feeling that we are in free fall begins. The way to end it is by assessing self by stopping the noise of judgments of others about us. Avoiding self-inflating inputs that misle...

Opportunities arise when we volunteer our time. Often it’s not always up to us to choosing what to contribute to. Not everything may be of our liking. But that is fine.  As long as we are giving a hand to making things a little easier or better or brings a smile on someone’s face or makes them stand on their own, we utilize our time well. Volunteering is an act of generosity where internally we feel we need to offer. Offering is in the form of sparing time, effort and most importantly our attention to something or someone else. It represents that we have sensibilities and store of an inner care that can extend to the world around us. Being able to see thing beyond and us and even more critically involving ourselves to improving them is gracious act.  An uncommon one. And hence, a special one!

We are taught to win and go after something until we encounter victory. Aimless chases can mistake ego trips we are on for ambitious pursuits. Eventually, such hunts falter and run into trouble.  The root of the problem lies in the blind belief in what we want over what we can have. There is a gap between the expectations and the reality of our readiness to make it happen. When that gap is wide enough, we cannot see the care, attention, and effort required to get what we want. That leads to positioning ourselves in a poor position, which places us at a problematic point of return. It is not impossible to improve the situation.  It precedes improving our belief that what we want is backed by our attention. Once our view is back to being realistic, floating in the waters until we can is an inevitable survival strategy.  Make great pursuits we see around us a result of surviving as long as possible rather than a frantic attempt to win at any cost. 

Jeff Bezos took a lot of ideas from Sam Walton of Walmart. Jobs and Bezos took many ideas from Akio Morita of Sony Corp. Steve Jobs learned a great deal from his conversations with Edwin Land, who was Polaroid Founder.  Jobs was even quoted as saying that Apple's journey was at the intersection of science and technology. The quote was Edwin Lands'! Could we have predicted that Jobs, who learned from Land and Morito, would have gone to build fascinating technology and the most innovative phone devices we have ever seen? Every person at the top of their game is always keen to absorb the vitals from their surroundings. They study people who came before them and try to learn the purest form of practice tips on building excellence.  Jobs and Bezos were no different. It is hard to know in advance what a philosophy, an invention, or an idea can influence. It is even harder to understand what a person affected by the influence will go on to create! Books are authors' ideas. Some re...

There is a strange thing about doing things on schedule. Schedules make us plan for things ahead of time.  Every slot in it is immaculately planned. And, when the time for action arrives, we simply want to walk away from the very thing the next time slot is meant to be for. Why do we work so hard to plan but find excuses to strike off what we intended for? One reason is that schedules are done with someone else's priorities for us. Someone else tells us what they need from us, or they tell us what is good for us. If we are accommodating these external inputs in vastly self-prepared internally thought schedules, we are usually comfortable with it. But what if our schedule is vastly driven by external triggers? That is when we tend to drop the ball. We don't have the emotional stake or the commitment required to complete every external trigger. Belief in the task assigned is a crucial aspect that drives motivation.  Motivation is the highest when we create a structure for action...

The sudden emergence of fog can be daunting to deal with! It is scary. And it hits us at a time when we are already on a turning uncertain terrain. The only truth about fog is that it's transient; while it's there, it masks reality. It makes us believe, albeit temporarily, that nothing beyond the line of sight it has pitched to us. While our beliefs are susceptible to illusions like these, we have vast experiences beyond the very moment that tricks us into believing the present. If we draw upon our vast past at various stages, we will know the terrain can be tackled based on our experience. Fogginess may narrow our line of sight, but the fact that we do have a line of sight is a big boost. All we need to do is to plan tiny steps to traverse only what is in a line of sight. And do so every time we execute the plan because we have an immediate benefit of adjoining line of sight, which became plausible through our willingness to march ahead! Tiny steps at a time, fog is bound to e...

We seldom realize that we are acting in self-interest to a level that practices self-preservation at any cost. But we often do. And it's dangerously detrimental.  We get fooled into self-defending prophecy to the extent that we harm ourselves in plain sight.  The reason is we refuse to see the truth. Instead, we create a basis for the circumstances to protect our self-image in our own eyes. That is blindsiding ourselves. This one is hard to fix. Unless there is the realization that what we are seeing and experiencing and what we are telling ourselves has a gap.  The gap reflects a need for more understanding. Our ego adds a flavor of distorted reality that is not a lie but a version of reality that we can stand behind as though we are doing the right thing even when we are not. Clearly, the path that earns a badge of trust, reliability, and dependability focuses on shedding the signs of self-preservation.  Open reception of feedback and believable productivity ensues...

It is hard to say we don't know when we don't know something. We respond with what we do know. Our approach could reflect two ways to think:  1) An attempt to demonstrate that we are superior in what we know, and  2) It could also mean that we want to convey that we are interested in what is being asked and are prodding for the conversation to progress.  The latter is an excellent attitude when done with care so as not to be seen as the former. It is common to say we don't know, even when we know something. It could reflect a few things as well:  1) We are vehemently protecting self-interest and are protective of preferences over what someone needs from us, and  2) We say so to make others psychologically safe that we do not know everything and there are things to learn. The latter is again an excellent attitude when it does not embed the quality brought in by the former of the two. Expressing a desire to improve ourselves can be magical for others who want to i...

There is a first-mover advantage. That is true in every aspect of our lives. The biggest staller in being the first mover is missing belief. Belief comes from within, the pre-authorized internal nod of reassurance that we have a proper thought. Belief is the root of aligning thoughts into a string of actions. Just saying it is one thing; generating an internal push to get to action is another. And a string of actions defines those who are movers. They build trust in themselves. Connect internal and external dots. And a small subset of them turns out to be the first movers!  It is not the passion, a subject or knowledge, or the area of our work; it is overcoming thoughts and moving into actions that matter.

They are unanticipated, cornering events. Yet, they always turn out bold.  Unorthodox experiments are courageous methods to put yourself out there. You must be prepared to face the risk of failing from the unexpected. But that is the whole purpose. To experience the unexpected. The thrill of being in such a situation gets you sharply focused. Just as the sharpness of mind triggered by the frigid body of waters in the snowy mountains! The goal of an unorthodox experiment is meant to regain composure and bring the focus on what matters.  Do the essential. Remove the fluff. Set your eyes on the finish line.