Disconnecting From Your Work To Be Creative

Jul 25, 2021 | 0 comments

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When you have worked really hard on something, it’s easy to see it as a part of your identity. And if it gets rejected, it feels like you have been rejected.

This is a really easy trap to fall into, because we see our ideas and suggestions as something that reflects us. But that isn’t true. It’s just an input, a representation of your knowledge on the said subject. It has nothing to do with who you are as a person.

Considering someone interchangeable with their work means ignoring all other aspects of their personality. It’s like saying that a person is just the same as their grades, or what they got on an exam (which we all know is one of the worst things to do to someone).

Realising your inputs aren’t the same as you is also freeing for yourself.

If we’re able to see things this way, then we’ll be less likely to take rejections so personally because they won’t have any bearing on our self-worth.

Moreover, it allows you to be more open to new ideas and suggestions since you are more focused on finding the best possible solution to the problem, rather than being focused on defending your idea and explaining why it’s the best (even if it isn’t).

It helps you recognise and appreciate a good idea, even if it’s from your arch nemesis. You do not feel the need to dismiss it because of your rivalry.

Plus, you don’t have the urge to put down someone else’s input because you feel that it threatens your own.

Separating yourself and your work makes it easier for you to accept the flaws and shortcomings in your work without being hard on yourself.

You can see that the criticism is not an attack on your own identity, but rather a constructive way to improve. It would be a sign to give attention to your work, not a sign that there’s something wrong with you or you aren’t good enough.

So the next time you find yourself in a group setting defending your idea, ask yourself that you’re defending it because it’s the best or because it’s yours?

Recap for memory:

Your work isn’t the same thing as you.
Separating yourself from your identity can benefit you.
Look at ideas, not the people they’re coming from.

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Wish For Bigger Problems And Overcome Them

Jul 18, 2021 | 6 comments

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We all have played candy crush in our lives, even if only for some time. Each level takes real concentration to complete. As you play, there are different obstacles that try to hinder your progress, including limited moves and lives.

But it’s not the only game that does this. All other games too give you resistance against winning. They make you face problems, demons and monsters. Interestingly, the higher level you are on, the bigger monsters you fight. How else do you measure how good you are at the game?

What is the main purpose of a video game? To have fun right? But is it really fun if you have nothing to go against, nothing to overcome? There has to be something that hinders your progress in order for you to enjoy it.

And people, you know that life isn’t very different from games.

The bigger you grow in your life, the tougher challenges block your way.

So if you are facing bigger, scarier monsters, it means you are going in the right direction.

Don’t be discouraged by the monsters that you have to face, don’t give in.

Be grateful for them, for they are indicators of your growth. The monsters are to let you know how far you have reached, how much you have grown. Oh and also to give you a sense of accomplish after you overcome them.

On the other hand, if you keep bumping into the same problem repeatedly, you simply are stuck on the same level. But one time when you’ll be playing it again, you’ll cross it without even knowing it.

So just remember, as you grow, the problems grow with you, not disappear.

Don’t wish for no problems in your life, wish for bigger problems.

I wish to get over my petty issues of completing just my homework and schoolwork and have the challenge of working and studying at the same time. I wanna figure out my time management and work out a schedule.

Recap for memory:

If you’re facing bigger challenges, you are in the right direction.
Overcoming obstacles gives you a sense of accomplishment, so don’t avoid it.
Don’t wish for no problems in your life, wish for bigger problems.

What are the bigger problems you want to have?

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What You Need to Know About Mastering a Skill

Jul 11, 2021 | 6 comments

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Ballerinas are graceful creatures, their beautiful movements seem to glide effortlessly. Just like photographers who can capture thousands of emotions in one picture. Or the chefs that make delicious food that is a treat to your eyes and makes you crave for more.

What they share is not just their talent and skill, but also the art of how to present their skill and make it a hit.

So while I may not be a ballerina, or a chef – I know one thing for sure – that mastering a skill is way beyond learning just the skill. Mastering a skill is not only mastering the technicalities, it’s more about how you present your work and getting an audience to appreciate that.

Presentation counts… a lot. It can really make or break your work. Presentation may be many things – it could be how you hold yourself, confidence in what you say or even how you display your work for others to see.

I’ve seen many people who have done their work with all their talent and skill, and then presenting/selling that piece may not be so good. Or there is someone who may have done an average job, but he knows how to present it and sell the idea better than you can ever imagine.

And believe it or not the second kind of people do well while the former are left wondering if their work isn’t good enough (which is not true, they just can’t it get their work to enough people).

(Remember that presenting a work well, but with no quality whatsoever does not work. Don’t do that. It’s neither good for you nor ethical.)

Looking back at my time as a writer, I can say that the pieces that did the best were the ones, which had a good message, was concise and people were made aware about it.

Presenting your work is not restricted to only showcasing something. It goes onto include how your work communicates with the environment.

It’s like riding a bicycle. Balancing the bicycle is only half of the work. How you ride it on the street with people all around and dogs chasing you is the other half of the work. And that’s the tougher half.

So how does this apply to you?

Whenever you decide to learn anything, you have two criteria to fulfill:

Learn the technicalities
Learn to use the technicalities in real life

One looks effortless, when both of them are achieved.

Many people focus on being good at one thing, but neglect on doing the other half of work. That’s when you see the results and say to yourself, “This is not as easy as I thought. This is hard work.”

Yes it is. Because you didn’t master both halves of your skill – that’s what makes it seem difficult.

Recap for memory:

To master a skill, you need to learn both the technicalities and how to use them in real life. If you focus on one or neglect the other half of work, your skill set won’t be complete and it will seem difficult when you get started.

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Using Your Feelings To Get Results

Jul 4, 2021 | 2 comments

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Ever watched a movie so good that it inspired you to reach for the stars? It happened to me yesterday after watching Mission Mangal. I felt like I could conquer the world and do everything in my life with the same passion, zeal and conviction.

It was one of the moments where you are in the ‘I can do anything’ mode. The music, and the overcoming of obstacles pushed me to complete some of my tasks and do some creative stuff.

It dawned upon me that the most cherished moments I have are the ones when I felt the best.

To say where I felt the best seems vague.

They were the ones which made me feel confident, accomplished, loved and helpful – to put a finger on a few of my best feelings.

But it doesn’t just stop at that.

Feeling that way makes me think of actually doing stuff and gives me ideas about what I can explore.

And from my observation, I am not the only one who acts this way if they are feeling great.

Most of my friends (and I’m sure you too) are their best selves when they are in a great state of mind.

You go to achieve great things and take massive actions for things you really care about.

Your thoughts become reality. You can create a life with the power of your thoughts. A person’s reality is an extension of their beliefs. This means that whatever you believe will come to be, so think about what kind of life you want and start living it!

That is the power of feeling great!

What do we know till now?

Feelings ➝ Thoughts ➝ Actions ➝ Results

And we 👏 want 👏 results 👏

You’d be crazy if you didn’t want for yourself and your vision.

So we understand, we want results and we need to feel good for that.

First, you need to understand what feeling good means for you.

It can mean feeling confident, loved, grateful, competent or energetic. These can be different for different people.

Then you need to figure out what exactly sparks these feelings in you. Many times these feelings are internal but these can also be created when you’re with specific people, when you are doing something, when you have a specific thing with you, or when you are at a particular place.

Kids are attached to their blanket because it makes them feel protected. Some people are attached to their home towns because it reminds them of their carefree times.

Watching others work out makes me feel inspired, which makes me think Imma work out now, and then I workout (because of the burst of motivation) and see the results.

It can be an absolutely random thing, as long as it makes you feel a certain way. I love formals because I think I look really smart in them and they literally say – I mean business (possibly the same logic why some people love stationery).

Here are a few things that make most people feel great.

Listening to good music
Seriously, who doesn’t get pumped after listening to music?
Talking to friends
Goofing off with my friends makes me feel really grateful for some reason
Looking at pictures
I haven’t really seen anyone else in person do this, but looking at really aesthetic pictures makes me wanna be in it. It just gives me butterflies. (Sounds kinda lame, but it is what it is)
You can also look at your own old pictures. They take you back to simpler times where you were less burdened by the world.
Going to places you love (Not recommended at the moment though)
Going to places cafes really makes you feel like the ✨main character✨ in your life
Dancing in the rain
You might say, well it needs to rain for that.
No, not really. Grab a water hose and get dancing.
Did that last week, 100% recommend it

Recap for memory:

Feelings ➝ Thoughts ➝ Actions ➝ Results
Figure out what exactly sparks these feelings in you
Do those things

Your turn now – Create a table like Name Place Animal Thing for yourself, for every feeling. State the feeling and a person, place, activity and object which causes that feeling.

Looking forward to reading your answers 😄

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Being In Control of Your Life

Jun 27, 2021 | 4 comments

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“How could he do this?!” she yelled through the phone.

That didn’t seem like the kind of conversation I wanted to have on a windy Saturday evening, but we went ahead anyway.

“Never did I think that he would go ahead and tell Amit everything I said about hating him. I told everything to him thinking that he’s my friend and the thought that he would actually tell him didn’t cross my mind.”

My cousin was ranting to me about how unfair it was that one of her closest friends had betrayed her and told what they discussed about somebody to that very person.

I had been listening to her for quite some time before I took a pause to think about the situation myself.

It did seem wrong of the friend to have done what he did, but I couldn’t help thinking that maybe my cousin was partly to blame for the way things went.

I mean, she was the one who told him about how much she hated Amit in the first place.

If I told this to her, I’d have the same fate as the friend. So my sense advised against it.

That night, this conservation had all my attention.

What the friend did was not justifiable in any way. But was it impossible? Unlikely, but not impossible.

This isn’t the first case of a friend snitching to someone else, that you and I have seen. I have had the opportunity of experiencing it firsthand, and I think so must have you.

While we trust our friends to keep our secrets, we take an unsaid risk by telling them anything.

Luckily, we don’t have to face the consequences most of the time. But when we do, it sticks out like a sore thumb forever.

Sometimes things don’t go your way. It’s just the way of the world, I guess.

And what do you do when that happens? Blame fate?

Nope.

You take responsibility. It does sound a little unfair to take the responsibility of something you didn’t cause; but ultimately it is your life.

It’s easy to point at someone else for something wrong in your life. But that’s like handing the keys of your car to someone else – someone who has already wrecked it.

Now you might go ahead and say that “The friend told the other person, what could have I done in that case?”. True but the words came out of your mouth.

As ruthless as it sounds, you can control only your own actions, deeds and what you say. The people you choose to keep in your life are there because you chose to let them be in your life. No one else has control over what you do and say but yourself, at the end of the day.

Control and responsibility go hand in hand. If you want your life to be under your control, you need to take responsibility. Be in charge of your own life.

On reflection, the friend wronged my cousin. However if she takes the responsibility of what she says and to whom from the next time, I think she’s good to go.

Bottom Line

Control and responsibility go hand in hand. If you want your life to be under your control, you need to take responsibility.

What is something that you are gonna take responsibility for in your life and how?

I’m going to take the responsibility of being prepared beforehand with my blog posts, even though the reason I lacked was because my school resumed.

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Transforming Principle: It’s Not Just Biology

Jun 20, 2021 | 2 comments

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Imagine you‘re a biology scientist in the 1920’s. You work with all sorts of things ranging from bacteria to rats. One day you decide to conduct an experiment.

You take up a type of bacteria (I’ll spare you the name for the sake of not complicating things) and mice.

You take both a harmless, rough variety (R strain) of bacteria and a fatal, smooth variety (S strain). You inject them in the mice and observe the outcomes.

As expected, the mouse lived after being injected by the R strain and died after taking in the S strain.

You decide to take the experiment a little further and inject the R strain and heat-killed S strain (when bacteria are exposed to extreme heat, they die and do not show their effect and do not cause infections).

Therefore, after injecting these strains the expected results would be for the mice to live.

However the actual results took a turn and caught you off guard.

The surprising outcome was that the mice died.

Give it thought why that happened. What could have happened after injecting the bacteria that the two seemingly harmless strains killed the mice?

Some might guess that the S strain wasn’t actually made inactive or wasn’t properly heat killed or something along those lines. But that’s not what happened.

As you injected the harmless R strain and the heat-killed S strain, the R strain transformed into a fatal form of the S strain.

This was the experiment conducted by Fredrick Griffith and is called “The Griffith Experiment.”

Griffith concluded that the R-strain bacteria must have taken up what he called a “transforming principle” from the heat-killed S bacteria, which allowed them to “transform” into smooth-coated bacteria and become fatal.

virulent – (of a disease or poison) extremely severe or harmful in its effects.

The transforming principle applies to us in the exact same way it does to bacteria – we are always changing according to what surrounds ourselves day after day because those things have potentials hidden to change us within them. The people around you can transform your perspective and way of being in the world.

In our human relationships, the transforming principle of an individual can bring out something in another person that was never there before.

It’s how Tony Stark brings out the best in Peter Parker and how Professor Dumbeldore guides Harry Potter to the defeat of Voldemort.

It is also how under Voldemort Peter Pettigrew became evil and Kaikeyi became greedy for her son under the influence of Manthara.

One wouldn’t have expected Pettigrew or Kaikeyi to do what they did, but when they were around Voldemort and Manthara who had a transforming influence on them, that changed.

There is always potential for something new to happen and you never know what will be brought out of someone else through the people close to them.

Those around us can bring out both the good and the bad in us, even if either is present in small amounts.

It’s important for you to choose carefully the people around you.

You are surrounded by a set of same people day after day, and their effect on you is tremendous.

In our human relationships, the transforming principle of an individual can bring out something in another person that was never there before; a quality that may be present but dormant.

Bottom Line

Be careful about who’s around you. You’re a product of your environment, surround yourself with the best.

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