Sunday 30 June 2013

Procrastination- Termite of Success




There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way and not starting.

-Gautam Buddha


Do you put things off until tomorrow? Do you get sidetracked from your goal by involving in many low priorities tasks? Do you wait for the perfect time to do things and then miss opportunities? Do you avoid dealing with difficult issues with the hope that they will go away? Do you ignore minor problems until they turn into full blown predicaments that demand your immediate attention? If all or any of the answer is ‘yes’ then you are suffering from a serious ailment called procrastination.

Termites are small insects often referred as white ants. They live inside wood and eat it from inside. From outside, the wood looks healthy, okay and normal but from inside due to eating of termites become hollow and thus useless and of no practical importance of any kind. A huge tree could be fall by a little blow or its own weight owing to its hollowness from inside as a result of termite activities. The problem of termite is considered very seriously in many countries of the world that no insurance is guaranteed to those houses which are found to be infected by termites.

Procrastination may be considered as termite of success. Like termite, the habit of procrastination eats away the personality of a person from inside. He may look normal and confident in appearance but from inside he is broken and could be blown away by little push of life.

A bollywood blockbuster ‘Tare zameen par’ literally mean ‘Stars on the earth’ is a story of child who is suffering from a learning disorder called dyslexia in which one is having difficulty in learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension despite normal intelligence. The child in the movie conceals his inability of reading and writing properly into his naughtiness. Others think of him as mischievous and wicked but he is helpless and do not want to reveal his incompetence to become a subject of prank among others. He found his self respect in being called as naughty but do not to become a center of pity and sympathy in society. The problem is same with procrastinators. Procrastination appears as laziness, the habit of resting before one gets tired but underlying problems may be different and even serious.

Procrastination is not mere laziness but a mask behind which deeply rooted serious threats of success are hiding. The underlying problems may be inadequate purpose, lack of goal or motivation, shortage of planning, lack of physical or mental strength to execute plans, fear of criticism or rejection, fear of committing mistakes or taking risks etc. Sometimes lack of concentration also fans procrastination. Arrange a separate working place, make its environment work friendly and do not let others to enter it and disturb its interior harmony.

Write down your goal and purpose for achieving the goal. Try to give a pictorial representation either by self drawing or cutting pictures from somewhere else and pasting on paper. Daily review it at least twice a day; one before sleeping and another just after awaking in the morning. If possible, try to visualize it on mind’s screen at junction of eyebrows and nose. If you are seeing it in dream while sleeping is a good sign.

Make a schedule of your daily work and include activities of morning walk and listening music in daily routine.

There was once a problem with Indian Railways. Indian Railways is the world's ninth largest commercial  employer and one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,000 km (40,000 mi) and 7,500 stations. The problem was untimely running of trains. This created a situation of panic over the nation. Lots of complex strategies were discussed over the issue but solution came in the form of simple idea; an idea of extending duration of running time between the stations. If you are not able to finish your assigned work in the given time then reschedule time span with requisite extension. This will boost a new energy and confidence in your bloodstream.

Prepare a hierarchical list of procrastination activities based on your extent of resistance. Start with lower level in the list having less resistance to activity. Action is the only antidote to procrastination. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “A man is hero not because he is braver than anyone else but because he is brave for ten minutes longer.” Just do it when you feel procrastination’s cloud over your head. In the words of Pablo Picasso “Action is the foundational key to all successes.” After successful completion of task, reward yourself. Reward may be anything; it may be collection of pebbles for each completion. It is a symbolic activity to reassure you that you have done this and could do anything else. By seeing your collection and increasing numbers of pebbles in it infuse a new enthusiasm in you.

Fear is nothing but indecision and postponement. Indecision crystallizes into doubt; the two blend and become fear. On the other hand, a firm decision melts fear and its execution in form of action evaporates away the fear.

The art of a young cartoonist was stated as rubbish and rejected by many cartoon editors. He was Walt Disney whose concept of Mickey Mouse was widely acclaimed and even considered as masterpiece. J. K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, was rejected by 25 publishers. So procrastination directed by fear of criticism or rejection is a lame excuse for not to proceed a action.

Mistakes are footsteps of learning. The most important fact about mistakes is that many important discoveries and successes came about as a result of so called mistake. Charles Goodyear, during an experiment in 1839, accidentally spilled a mixture of sulphur rubber on to a hot stove. The result of this smelly-smoky was vulcanized rubber and the birth of a billion dollar industry. The group of effective medicines on bacterial infection called antibiotics was also discovered as accidental mistake.

The greatest risk ever mentioned in history is the risk of not taking any risk and if you are prepare to take that risk then you are capable of taking any risk.

Just do it! First you make your habits; then your habits make you.

-Lucas Remmerswaal


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Hope the article fans the flame of POSITIVITY within you.

Have a nice day!

Saturday 22 June 2013

Dream is not conception but architecture

Make no little plans they have no magic to stir men’s blood. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.
–Deniel H. Burnham

Dream is not conception but architecture. Dream is not mere implantation of wish in one’s mind but the planning, designing, and construction of wish into physical reality. As Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said that architecture begins when two bricks are put together so dream begins with wish; wish is not the entire building but foundation only. Le Corbusier wrote: "You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is Architecture.” Dream requires a sense of passion and enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Dream is visualization of planning in every aspect with minute details. Visualization and detailing are very essential part of physical reality, lacking them may turn down the transformation of dream into reality. Try to see it as you see dream while sleeping. It is a very important process. A detailed design is an essential constituent for the construction of magnificent monument. Each small element contributes to its brilliance. It is said that little things make perfection but perfection isn’t a small thing.

For descriptive visualization of dream one should write the title of one's wish on piece of paper then add attributes in point-wise manner, then comes the purpose of goal. There is one quality that one must possess to win is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and why one wants the same not any other things. After elaborating the purpose on paper, come back to goal and break it down into some definable mid-term goals which could be used as milestones during execution. Further, break each mid-term goal into a series of organized little steps. Definiteness is an integral part of productive dream in terms of date and time with other quantifiable entities. This written portrayal is clear and vivid picture of one's dream. Don't bother about execution planning at this stage, just concentrate on mental picture, try to visualize with minute details. That's it. It is said that well presented problem is half solved.

To help a plant grow, one never pulls it to make it grow faster. Constantly picking it either is no help. What does help is take care of its environment, watering, fertilizing and other necessary things and true to its nature plant grows on its own.  The most important thing is to determine exactly how much one is ready to care and pay for one’s dream. There is no free lunch in the world.

Don’t wait for explicit plan to transform dream into reality when designing part is over but set in motion with initial necessary steps. St. Francis of Assisi said “start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” In the words of Pablo Picasso, “I’m always doing thing I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.”

The feelings of passion and enthusiasm along with elaborative visualization invoke the Cosmic Consciousness to formulate a plan which will probably flash into one’s mind through the sixth sense in the form of an inspiration. Treat it with respect and act upon it as soon as one receives it. Shekhar Kapur, the famous filmmaker who portrayed the story of the great Queen Elizabeth on silver screen, once said “What I’m going to do is not what I plan to do. I put myself into absolute panic. It is my one way of getting rid of my mind. I align myself into chaos. Out of chaos some moments of truth come. All preparation is preparation. I don’t even know it is honest. I don’t even know it is truthful. Truth comes on the moment organically.”

Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action and despite more than ten thousand failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality. Dreamers never quit.

When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as choice of mate or a profession, the decision should come from unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves.
 –Sigmund Freud

Saturday 15 June 2013

Fear- A conditioned mind state

He whom many fear, has himself many to fear. –Publilius Syrus

Fear is not an objective reality but a state of mind. A state of mind is something one assumes. Like any mind state, it is subject to control and direction.

Mark Barad, a scientist of UCLA, conducted a conditioning experiment on rats in which an electric shock was applied to metal floor of rats’ cage along with a feeble noise. It did not take long for the rats to brace themselves for the shocks as soon as they heard the noise. It is because the noise is associated with electric shock deep in their unconscious mind. In the language of neurologist, it is said that their amygdalas paired the noise with the shock, and the noise created a fear response. Further experiments were done on the same rats. This time, rats were exposed to same feeble noise but without electric shock. Habitual hearing of noise without the shock made the rats fearless once again. Similar experiment was done on a little child, Albert, who had no fear of laboratory's test animals to induce fear of white rats in him by John Watson, an American psychologist. Whether it is psychology or neurology, one thing is certain that fear is a mind state and is prone to conditioning.

It is interesting to note in a race of prey and predator that most of the times prey win despite their low capability compared to their predator. The reason is the survival mechanism given to them by nature, fear. Fear starts neurobiological chain reaction in the body which releases the chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing, energized muscles and many other things that make them capable to exceed their normal performance. In other words, fear is not failure but a driving force to leap beyond one’s abilities. 

There are many forms of fear seen human’s psyche. The prominent one are fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of ill health, fear of loss of love, fear of age, fear of death, fear of lack of ability etc. In fact, these are not fears but lame excuses for inaction. It is an old proverb that when there is a will; there is a way. In case of fear, one needs to be brave for few more minutes and one succeeds. It is said that life begins after fear.

As far as excuses are concerned all great companies whether Microsoft or Apple were started in garages only with great idea. No one in the history was ever praised by cent per cent; Jesus was crucified and Socrates was poisoned. David Copperfield was penned after the tragedy faced by Charles Dickens in his first love. Socrates once told that one should indulge in love; if accepted, one will be on higher planes of consciousness through love and if rejected then also he will be on higher planes but through philosophy. Excuses of young age could be countered by citing examples of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and old ages by Colonel Sanders who founded KFC at the age of 65. No one is ever in the history is blessed with immortality. So, mourn over inevitable is not justifiable by any means. Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Thomas Alva Edison and many others were initially declined for their inability.

Nature has endowed man with absolute control over one thing and that is thought. This fact, coupled with the additional fact that everything which human creates starts in the form of thoughts, lead one very near to the principle by which fear may be mastered. On the other hand, indecision crystallizes fear and there is some kind of action for any form of fear. Determine your cause of fear and associated action. Take action promptly. Be decisive.  

I’ve learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away fear.                 -Rosa Parks                                                                                                                                                                                  


Saturday 8 June 2013

Motivation- Fuel of Success

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
-Jim Rohn

Desire sets fire but fuel of success is only motivation. In fact, the spark that ignites is motivation itself. Motivation is the ‘cause’ part of cause-effect duo. It is the reason behind any behavior.  In reality, any deed could not proceed on its own without any reason. Each and every action must have a cause. This is the basis of Karma theory or the theory of cause and effect. Cause and effect are not two entities but one, Karma; the micro-level is cause and macro-level is known as effect.

A group of American car executives went to Japan to see a Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line, the doors were put on the hinges, the same as in America. But something was missing. In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door to ensure that it fit perfectly. In Japan, that job didn't seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the door fit perfectly. Their Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly. "We make sure it fits when we design it." Motivation could be understood in terms of ‘Why’ which designs success.

There are many theories put forth to answer the ‘why’ of human behavior. Some emphasize importance of goal as driving force; some consider necessity as motivating factor while a few also focus on input-output ratio to be the determining part. The popular one includes theories of Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, David McClelland, Adams etc.

Athletes in a race have to run fast to reach the finishing line. Is it the finishing line that they are running for? Of course not but for trophy; are they really running for trophy or may be there some sublime personal reasons such as gaining reputation, commitment to someone, earning bread, passion for running etc.?

Muhammad Ali was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. He is a former professional boxer. He is a descendant of Pre Civil War era American slaves in the American South. His father painted billboards and signs and his mother was a household domestic. In spite of these odds, he won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He lost only five matches in his entire boxing career. He mentioned in his autobiography that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend of his were refused service in a restaurant at Louisville because of being a Negro despite he was a Olympic Champion who bought pride to his motherland. Some whites tried to snatch his medal. He explained his feelings as “The Olympic Medal   had been the most precious that had ever come to me. I worshipped it. It was proof of my performance, status, a symbol of belonging, of being a part of the team, a country, a world. It was my way of redeeming myself with my teachers & schoolmates, of letting them know that although I had not won scholastic victories, there was something inside me capable of victory. How could I explain I wanted something that mean more than that? Something that was so proud of me as I would be of it. Something that would let me what I know I had to be, my own kind of Champion.”

After extensive studies, researches and analysis of enormous statistical data, it is found that manipulation and inspiration are the only ways to motivate human behavior and the factors behind motivation is either pleasure or fear. A behavior is manipulated by way of incentives or punishments. Inspiration could be obligatory or personal.

Pleasure and fear are opposites but complementary as poles of magnet which cannot be separated; it doesn't matter how hard one tries. Life itself is an excellent example. Oxygen is very essential to sustain life. Life without oxygen could not be imagined; even in a dream. Oxygen is oxidized in the process called oxidation in the mitochondria of cell where electrons are passed between different molecules, with each pass producing useful chemical energy needed for life but in the very process also releases free radicals of oxygen called oxidants which accumulates over time and shuts down mitochondria, causing cells to die, the organism to age and finally die. Oxygen is pleasure as it gives life and fear because it takes life. Life is a paradox, full of irony. All natural phenomena or processes are concoctions of pleasure and fear and it rests with us which one we choose to see.

There lived two brothers; Sohan and Mohan. Sohan was a drunkard and very cruel, always beating his wife and children while Mohan was a caring husband and responsible father. There was a big difference between their character as of sky & earth. It was something very strange for brothers who were living and had grown in similar conditions. This generated curiosity among the people to find out the reason. Sohan was asked first and he said that his father was also a drunkard and was doing the same. It was like “Like father like son.” But when Mohan was asked the same question, his reply was astonishing. According to Mohan, he was decent and generous because of his father’s deed. He was suffered a lot and decided not to suffer any people and would lead a peaceful life. It is not the condition which is responsible for the motivation but how one takes it.

Every act we do intensifies the motivation behind it in proportion to contributions it made. An act carried out identically could affect different people differently, or even the same person differently at different times because the motivations for the act are likely to be different. If the feelings that lead the action are of pleasure then the particular act intensifies the pleasure. If fear is the motivation for an act, the act intensifies that fear.

Napoleon Hill ranked the desire for sex expression as top most stimuli for human mind. He opined that desire for sexual pleasure is so strong and impelling that the human freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. Anaïs Nin, author of Delta of Venus, praised orgasm in the words: “Electric flesh-arrows... traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. It is the gong of the orgasm.” The duration and count of orgasmic pleasure is transitory and limited. Human want to extend their duration and counts. This is reflected in the sales report of aphrodisiac products. On the contrary, there are women who have hundred orgasms a day; climaxing every thirty seconds. Their experiences are not pleasure but agony. They suffer from women’s rare disorder called Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD). The persistent arousal is a restless, painful feeling that drives these women mad. Kim Ramsey said “People who don’t understand the disorder think multiple orgasms are a luxury, but I’m constantly in pain.” As it turns out, far from being blessed with a succession of divine orgasms of mega proportions, sufferers of PGAD are very deeply traumatized by the condition. Gretchen Molannen committed suicide after years of battling her affliction. Wilhelm Reich, an eminent psychoanalyst, well said that the pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.

-Wayne Dyer

Saturday 1 June 2013

Belief- Powerful Tool To Mend Reality

Belief creates the actual fact.      -William James 

Reality! What is reality? Right now, you are reading this on a computer or somewhat related devices such as laptop, smart phones, tablets etc. You see letters and pictures on the screen of the device but are they real? My answer is ‘yes’ as well as ‘no’. ‘Yes,’ because you are seeing it and ‘no,’ because what appear as letters and pictures on the screen is actually projection of pixels on screen which are controlled by ‘on’ and ‘off’ of logic switches in processor. To render something on screen, such as a letter, the processor has to tell each pixel to be light or dark, or in case of color displays, what color to be. 

Do you know how you see color? Ganglion cells in the retina receive input from many color sensitive photoreceptors and produce sequences of electrical spikes that go to the brain. The sequence of spikes is a code that represents the image that falls on the retina and is transformed into the experience of color and shapes. The concept of ‘qualia’ may be interpreted as an interface which converts these electrical spikes into experience. It is the brain that registers a specific frequency of light and the experience associated with it we name as specific color. In the words of Sir John Atkins, a noted neurobiologist, “I want you to realize that there exists no color in the natural world or sound, nothing of this kind, no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent; the only reason a rose is red that you have a nervous system that registers a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation or light as certain experience that we called red.”

In light of science, as revealed by quantum physics, the Universe is a field of zero-point energies where reality emerges from it and merges in it as reality pops in field of pixels in bitmapped display screens. Thus physical theory became converted from a theory about 'physically reality', as it had formerly been understood, into a theory about human knowledge. This view is encapsulated in Heisenberg's famous statement: “The conception of the objective reality of the elementary particles has thus evaporated not into the cloud of some obscure new reality concept, but into the transparent clarity of mathematics that represents no longer the behavior of the particle but rather our knowledge of this behavior." The observed physical world is described rather by a mathematical structure that can best be characterized as representing information and propensities: some information about all the possible choices is simultaneously present in the quantum state, and the possibility that any one of the mutually exclusive alternatives might be pertinent. Whichever choice the experimenter eventually makes, the associated set of predictions is assumed to hold.

Quantum theory of the general nature and rules of behavior of the reality in which our human knowledge is imbedded opens door for belief as a powerful tool to mend reality. Quantum theory often entails that an act of acquiring knowledge in one place instantly changes the theoretical representation of some faraway system. The quantum non locality of nature suggests the way to the development of a rationally coherent theory of nature that integrates the subjective knowledge into an objectively existing and evolving physical reality.

The reality making effects of belief could be seen in the cases of mental disorder. In schizophrenia, a patient could see persons in real 3D view as we normally see but these persons do not exist for others. Schizophrenic see as well as talk with them as real but the passing by would see schizophrenic talking himself. A schizophrenic could hallucinate in any sensory modality:  visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, etc.

Multiple Personality disorder or now called Dissociative Identity disorder is a bizarre syndrome in which two or more distinct personalities inhabit a single body. In people with multiple personalities, there is a strong psychological separation between each sub-personality; each will have his own name and age, and often some specific memories and abilities. Frequently, for example, personalities will differ in handwriting, artistic talent or even in knowledge of foreign languages. Clinicians reported isolated cases of dramatic biological changes in people with multiple personalities as they switched from one to another. These include the abrupt appearance and disappearance of rashes, welts, scars and other tissue wounds; switches in handwriting and handedness; epilepsy, allergies and color blindness that strike only when a given personality is in control of the body. Some multiples have to carry two or three different pairs of eyeglasses to accommodate their alternating personalities. One multiple, admitted to a hospital for diabetes, baffled her doctors by showing no symptoms when one of her non diabetic personalities was in control. There are cases of women who have two or three menstrual periods each month because each of their sub-personalities has its own cycle.

Dr. Bennet Braun, a psychiatrist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago documented a case in which all of a patient's sub-personalities were allergic to orange juice, except Timmy. When Timmy drinks orange juice he has no problem but if other sub-personalities drink orange juice, the result is a case of hives. The hives will occur even if Timmy drinks orange juice and another personality appears while the juice is still being digested. What's more, if Timmy comes back while the allergic reaction is present, the itching of the hives will cease immediately, and the water-filled blisters will begin to subside. 

Such remarkable cases of mental disorder are leading scientists to assess how much psychological states can affect the body's biology, for better or worse. The researches and discoveries of such patients offer a unique window on how the belief could mend reality. Anything less than reality is hope not belief. Hope needs faith to transform itself into belief which is equivalent to reality.

Let me tell you about a paranormalist, Uri Geller, who is well known for his trademark performances of spoon bending. He gained notice for demonstrating psychokinesis, dowsing, and telepathy. His performance included bending spoons, describing hidden drawings, and making watches stop or run faster. Geller said he performs these feats through will power and the strength of his mind. Magicians have said that his performances can be duplicated using stage magic tricks. A number of scientific experiments was conducted on him with varying results but could not confine him into the boundary of psychic or magic.

The power of belief is also reflected in many achievements. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former professional bodybuilder, actor, producer, director, businessman, investor, and politician who won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times. He served two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011. Schwarzenegger believed in power of ‘belief.’ He once said “I envision myself being there already - having achieved the goal already. It’s mind over matter.”

Morris E. Goodman had air crash in March, 1981 and ended in a hospital completely paralyzed, couldn’t drink or even breathe. The doctor told that there were no hopes and the only thing he could do was blinking his eyes rest of his life. He believed he would walk by Christmas that year. He practiced visualizing himself walking out of hospital on his two feet. First, he had hope then he added faith to it to transform hope into belief which eventually turned out into reality. He did walk by that Christmas.   

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
-Muhammad Ali