Geet Vijayvergia - Geet Vijayvergia

The Equation of Time and Money

Sep 6, 2020 | 2 comments

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This is a short realization that occurred to me this Friday. This is like a derivation of how your time is money. I can’t help derivations, I study physics.

Social media sites grow exponentially within months. Why? Because you spend time on their apps and sites. A lot of time.

They make their money off the time you spend. To me, that is basically giving somebody your money. Because if you weren’t spending your time and energy there they wouldn’t have that much riches.

Your time ∝ their money

Your time = K*their money, K being the constant of proportionality.

Canceling out possession from each side, we have

Time = K*money

Instead of giving them your figurative money and literal time, you should give it to yourself.

That would allow you to either directly make money or do things that would enable you for the future, making you independent.

That’s all I had to say this week, because I’m not getting time from school, I don’t get time to think and since I don’t get time to think, I don’t get things to write about 😓

Being Stronger Than the Storm

Aug 30, 2020 | 1 comment

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Well hello there. If you’re reading this, chances are that you probably know me and I know you too. And from my limited perspective, things are fine for you (or at least I hope so).

But there are always struggles that others can’t see, battles that you fight for yourself, and sometimes even against yourself too. Obviously, I can’t see your struggles, if there are any.

If you feel things are tough right now, remember that they always were. It was you who got stronger. It was you who fought back. Stuff felt hard in 1st grade too. Can the same things that made you upset back in 1st grade, make you upset again? Of course not, right.

Its because you outgrew them, you overcame them. You left them so far behind that they can never haunt you again, never scare you again.

Besides, you overcame absolutely 100% of your life’s challenges. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be here, isn’t it? Think about it.

You've survived 100% of your bad days

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157344580719638196/

Know that things are gonna get both, better and tougher, one followed by another. You’ll be strong enough to crush them.

Having said that, I’d like to talk to you about when things are good, when they’re smooth. Enjoy it. Cherish your comfortable times. Make the best use of it. Do the important things if you don’t have any urgent ones. Work on things you always wanted to. Most importantly, prepare for the impending bad days. Things may be good right now, but you and I both know they’re never gonna stay the same. The jolt is going to come anyways but it depends upon you how hard it will hit you. Humans perform better in crisis when they see it coming.

P.S. I know this isn’t really what you expect. You expect to learn something new, but I was dreadfully busy the past week, and I just wanted to be there. I just wanted to talk to you. Besides, I didn’t want to break my streak of showing up every week because of getting lazy for just that one time. It’s that ‘one time’ only that brings your reliability down and makes you less consistent. So let’s just call this a cheat week, and instead of totally skipping out and absolutely not presenting anything, I bring you just a conversation on my behalf. Make sure to continue it 😉

P.P.S. There’s a new ‘rate the article’ feature at the end of the blogs. Make sure to check it out and rate all the blogs.

Post completion edit (I wrote this two days after I wrote the post): I think this post was more important for me than anyone else. Yesterday, I was feeling low without any apparent reason and I came to my own rescue. I silently recalled what I wrote about, and felt a bit better even if I didn’t look better. And the next morning I was perfectly fine. So every once in a while you’ll feel down, but know that it’s alright. Knowing that is comfort enough.

The Impact of Impressions

Aug 23, 2020 | 1 comment

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“Yo, dude. What are you so dressed up for? Going on a date at 9 in the morning?”

“Shut up, bro. I’ve got an interview. Gotta make an excellent first impression.”

“That explains the suit.”

We’ve all seen this situation, overheard it or maybe even witnessed it in person. First impression. Interesting thing, isn’t it? Make-or-break. Death-or-glory. But why? All I had heard as an explanation was because the first impression is the last impression. Okay, the first impression is the last one. So how does it matter? Why should I care about making a good lasting impression? I bet very few people actually have an answer to this. Answer this for yourself before reading ahead.

Be true to yourself. Answer it.

Good.

The answer to this is a simple concept of higher expectations and higher performance.

Whenever you appear in front of a person for the first time, they form an impression in their mind on how you’ll behave in the future, from the one time they see you.

If they see a hard working, dedicated and sincere you in the future, if their belief about you is strong. And what happens when you strongly believe in something?

You work on it, for it, towards it. Basically immerse yourself to achieve it. Similarly when the other person believes in you, they put their heart and soul to make sure that you succeed in your endeavours, that you come out better than the rest.

Don’t you just love it when people are working for you, rooting for and counting on you? Of course, everyone loves it. You know that there are people who will elated if you succeed and shattered if you don’t. You feel, “Oh! Maybe I don’t suck that much. After all, these people believe in me.” Therefore, your belief in yourself strengthens when you see people believing in you.

You start working for their sake, if not for your own. You start taking actions. The actions turn into results.

Results that reinforce and confirm people’s beliefs. This starts the cycle all over again, except with more certainty this time and becomes a snowball effect growing on its own results. This is called the pygmalion effect.

Source: https://www.theworldcounts.com/happiness/pygmalion-effect-examples

Like every coin, there’s a flip side to this coin too.

If they see a lazy, irresponsible and undisciplined you in the future, they don,t believe in you. They don’t want to put in efforts for you because they think you’re gonna do no good, and all the efforts will be in vain (even if it’s not true). This makes you lose confidence in yourself. When that’s gone, everything’s gone. You think “Oh! What good am I going to do anyways. Just let it be.” with this mindset, you take no action.

This also results in a snowball effect, but a shrinking one. The more this cycle continues, the worse situations get.

But the interesting part is that you can change anyone one of the two components which are in your control – your beliefs or your actions – to change the course of this cycle.

Now the next time you see your teacher being partial toward her favorite students you know what they did right 😉 and what you can do too. I’ve been the teachers’ favorite student myself 🙈

Just be confident, respectful, sincere and well dressed up 🙂

Slowing Down Your Overthinking Gear

Aug 16, 2020 | 3 comments

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Overthinking.

The invisible evil of Generation Z.

The same thing which keeps so many of us up at night (apart from a few smart people. They are truly very smart.)

UGHHHHHHHHH! Care to define the accused? I kinda do. According to the Oxford Dictionary, overthinking means to think about (something) too much or for too long.

For me, and I believe for many others too, it would mean to think about others’ actions and words to the point that things become something like what is shown in the tv.

Media vs Reality? | Media, Media lies, Funny pictures

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/145944844144789331/#:~:text=Saved%20from%20funnyjunk.com

And what happens because of this? We often jump to conclusions and end up taking things personally.

Jumping into conclusions

Source: https://memeguy.com/photo/291254/jumping-into-conclusions#:~:text=Likes:%201

When your friend doesn’t text you back, you feel like you’ve annoyed them till the end of this world and that’s the reason they’re not talking to you. Oh boy! Don’t even get me started on that one day when almost all of your friends don’t text back and you feel like the most worthless person alive.

You know what actually happened. They werent ignoring you. They were merely caught up in their own work or maybe forgot to check their phone (honestly, a miracle in today’s times).

Someone cancels backs out on the plan last minute? First thoughts – they don’t wanna hangout with me.

We hold ourselves guilty for whatever happens with us. We think it’s because of our shortcomings or maybe because we aren’t good enough.

Newsflash! That isn’t true.

We need to be a little less self-obsessed and realise that it isn’t always about us. Actually, It’s not about us in most of the cases.

When you don’t get selected for a job, chances are it was because there was someone better. Not because you weren’t good enough. And it’s not in your hands to make sure there won’t be someone better. You can only make sure you are the best you can be.

If someone shouts on you, it’s more likely because they were angry, upset, or maybe because something was bothering them and not because you were bothering them (unless, of course you didn’t do your chores before your mom reached home. In that case, you are the reason buddy. And pretty dead too💀)

Imagine a referee taking every single word thrown his way during a match personally. They wouldn’t be very happy now, would they? They actually don’t even need to take it personally. You and I both know that the words coming from the players and the fans are not said to the referee because he’s bad. They’re simply coming because they want to be right.

When you focus on the other person’s intention – when you see the world through their lens – you know there’s no reason to take it personally.

And this my dear friends works.

But not always 😬

Because it is hard to overlook comments aimed at you. It is really hard to not question yourself when someone undermines you. That’s when you should realise that it is about you. It is about the insecurities you developed. Insecurities that even a part of you feel is true. What do you do then? You empathise with yourself. You acknowledge the flaws and remember everyone has them and that you can work on them.

You also speak up for yourself. When you speak up for yourself, tell the other person about what’s bothering you – without blaming anyone – you give the other person a chance to listen to your side of the story and take your needs into account. After all, communication is the universal solvent.

This was my way of tackling a part (the biggest one) of overthinking. It has slowed down my overthinking gear quite a bit honestly. If you have a problem of overthinking, try these two methods consciously for a week and tell me how your week went. I’ll literally ask you.

You can check out my friend, Chehak’s blog (who knows we are awesome with our flaws too) Flawsome on the same topic, overthinking, to get another perspective on life.

This post was inspired by TED ‘How not to take things personally? By Fredrick Imbo’.

The Reading Breed

Aug 9, 2020 | 6 comments

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“They couldn’t keep students any longer in the school, could they?” Kavya sarcastically muttered under her breath while heading for the last period.

She dreaded school. It wasn’t the studies that bothered her. Why would studies bother such a bright student anyways? It was the people who bothered her. They were so into themselves, never cared to talk to anyone besides the friends they made in primary school. She couldn’t see why some people looked forward to coming to school. Studies could be done from home too. She wouldn’t come to school herself if it was not for the law. After all, there was nothing about schools that appealed to her.

What she did to get through her day was to attend her classes quietly without talking to anyone or bothering them and spend her breaks in libraries. Because spending your breaks alone seemed as sad to other people, even if it wasn’t. She felt that the library pretty much kept her out everyone’s eyes.

One afternoon when Kavya was going to the library after her Algebra class, she saw someone approaching her from across the corridor. They must be going to the people behind me, she thought. After all, no one talked to her. On looking behind her, there was pretty much no one there. She may have had to talk to someone that day. The approaching figure finally came to her and it was Vani, a smart, sharp girl from her class.

“Hi,” Vani said politely, surely not faking it.

“Hey.” Kavya reciprocated, slightly bothered that she wouldn’t be able to spend much time in the library now.

“I’ll not beat around the bush Kavya. The thing is, our school is participating in a reading and analysis speech competition. We need 5 people for the team and we’ve got 4. I have been noticing for a few weeks that you spend a lot of your time in the library. I think you’d be great for the team. Please don’t say no.” Vani explained all in one go as if she had been given a time limit.

Kavya had forgotten how to speak. She gathered her words and apologetically said, “Sorry Vani. But I don’t do competitions. I’ve genuinely never done competitions before. It’d be a shame if I came in and the entire school got its hopes high, only to let you all down in the end.”

“Don’t worry about that at all,” Vani said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes and her faint smile, “we’ll prepare you and we’ll prep you good. The entire team will help you out. Just say yes. I promise it will be amazing and we’ll win. But for that, we need you.”
No one had ever wanted Kavya so bad. No one ever needed her this much. She just couldn’t say no to this. There was just no reason to.

“Fine.” Kavya said, trying to hide a smile spreading across her face. “Who all are there in the team?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. There’s Chaitanya, Neil and Kisha. Of course, apart from me. See you tomorrow then. Recess, your den – the library.” Vani winked and sprinted away.

*****

Kavya did meet the squad the next day and the following days for weeks. They – mainly Neil and Chaitanya – insisted on calling themselves ‘The reading breed’.

She had gotten used to Chaitanya laughing at the most serious moments, urging Kisha to speak up first and add in her inputs, and Vani being the mom of the group and bringing everyone back on track. What she had not gotten used was being the victim of Neil’s nasty pranks. What he had against her, she’d never understand. So she tried to stay away from him as much as possible even if it was in vain most of the time.

*****

The competition day arrived in the blink of an eye. The reading breed’s school won, thanks to Kavya for breaking the tie. Maybe because she had tons of potential, hard work and a dash of beginner’s luck.

And what came along with the school trophy, was a realisation for Kavya.

All the people weren’t into themselves. Not all the people talked only to the friends they made in primary. Some reach out to others too. Not all people think that school was for studies only. It was something beyond that. It was a place where you made connections, a place where you belonged. And then, you have things to look forward to. People you are eager to meet.

She now no longer felt out of place. Now it wasn’t the law that brought her to school. She felt like she belonged here.

Kavya is still spending her breaks at the library, but is often accompanied by The Reading Breed.

_____________________________________________

P.S. This is probably the first work that I can call fiction. Maybe? I don’t know, you let me know. My aim was to present something different while still providing a lesson. Hoping it was accomplished 🤞

Also, do you want more of The Reading Breed? Comment down below.