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Great Ideas Take Time To Be Accepted

Great Ideas Take Time To Be Accepted

Feb 20, 2022 | 2 comments

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A couple of days back, my father brought a bird feeder home. It was gifted to him by one of his friends who’s an avid bird watcher and gave it as a gift to spread awareness about birds.

The birdfeeder was pretty easy to set up – just fitting in a piece or two, and voila! You had your birdfeeder ready. It even had seeds for the win.

Excitedly, I and my younger sister put it up on our terrace expecting a flurry of small birds gathered around the birdfeeder the next morning.

The next morning, we had nothing *cricket chirps*.

The next day, nada.

We got practically nothing till the next 3 or 4 days. We were even about to take the feeder off.

One afternoon we saw a pigeon lurking around the birdfeeder.

After observing it for some time, we saw it pecking its beak in the birdfeeder.

We paid attention to it for some time, and after making sure the pigeon understood what it was, we rejoiced. But we took care that we were not loud enough to shoo the pigeon away.

The same evening, the bird feeder was full of pigeons (and even some crows) making their way to the new attraction.

It was now confirmed – the Birds’ society had caught on to what the weird-looking thing was.

 

Gazing at the birds, it struck me that it’s not the birds that couldn’t understand what this new thing was.

Don’t we all react the same way to a new idea or a change?

It takes time for a new idea or a concept to get accepted and spread – even in human society.

It takes time for people to get familiar and acclimatized to new things just as the birds took time to know that the weird-looking thing was a bird feeder. 

Whenever a new idea comes in, it is assessed and scrutinised before it takes its industry by the storm. 

Many a time, they even get rejected before they are accepted by the masses. There’s no dearth of examples to prove this point.

People remained unconvinced when Pythagoras told them the earth is round, and not a flat surface. Galileo was sentenced to house arrest for telling people we’re not the centre of the universe, and we revolve around the sun, not the other way round.

The bottom line is that people can be slow to change and it can even take successful ideas some time to catch on. However, that should not deter you from creating your ideas and spreading them out in the world.

 

Recap for memory:

  1. People react slowly to change.
  2. Often you might face resistance when coming up with something revolutionary.
  3. Great ideas may even get rejected before they’re widely accepted. However, that must not keep you from spreading your own ideas.

Negative Ions For A Better You

Negative Ions For A Better You

Feb 13, 2022 | 0 comments

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Everyone I know is a big fan of at least one of these natural experiences – mountains, beaches, oceans, forests, thunderstorms, rain, waterfalls, or just an open field with lots of sunlight. Some even love more than one of these. I bet even you love at least one. 

There’s something so refreshing about them, it’s almost as if you can breathe better and more freely. Maybe you’re even more relaxed, happier, or at peace. 

There’s something in the air and while it may not be love, some say it’s the next best thing – negative ions.

To understand negative ions let’s have a little science lesson. I’ll try my best to make it as simple as possible.

Science 101

Everything is made up of atoms, which is in turn made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. There is an equal number of protons and electrons in an atom.

Protons have a positive charge, electrons have a negative charge, and neutrons – as you might have guessed –  are neutral or have no net charge. Since there are equal protons and electrons in an atom, it is electrically neutral.

Protons and neutrons are deep inside the atom so it’s practically impossible to take them out of the atom. The electrons, can, however, move from one atom to another because they’re on the outer side and are much loosely bound.

When an electron is added or removed from an atom, the atom is now called an ion.

When you remove an electron from an atom, it’s called a positive ion, aka cation (‘cause there are more positive charges now) and when an electron is added, it’s called a negative ion, aka anion (because there are more electrons now).

ions image

Hope you’re with me till now. You can give that another read if you want.

Now that we have established what a negative ion is, we’re done with the science lesson.

Let’s get back to our favourite part – How do they impact us?

Negative ions have more positive impacts than you’d think (pun absolutely intended). In fact, they’re so beneficial that they’re also known as the vitamins of the air.

Negative ions in the air can make you feel happier, more positive and energetic. They are believed to increase levels of serotonin which helps with depression relief or stress reduction among other things.

These vitamins of air are an important part of our respiration, and an increase in their supply results in smoother respiration, hence improved metabolism which stabilises body weight (imagine losing – or gaining, as per your requirements – weight just by getting some fresh air). Not to mention that better respiration also results in improved lung function and a boost in the immune system.

Negative ions are a natural way to manage your emotions. They can help you feel less fear and nervousness, as well as lower the resting heart rate so that it’s easier for people who are trying to reduce their stress levels. They also regulate sleep patterns and the circadian rhythm. 

Improvement in sleep patterns tends to enhance concentration and learning ability.

This overall progress in your health provides a feeling of wellbeingness.

Now you might think – something this beneficial has to be rare, right? Only to be found in the forest and mountains or for the lucky ones living near the beaches?

Well, well, well. It’s my pleasure to tell you that you’re absolutely wrong.

While you’re correct that they’re found in the mountains, forest, on the beach, they are not restricted to these places.

Negative ions are present during rainfall and after a thunderstorm. There are even plenty of negative ions in the sunlight and are even produced by plants. No wonder our parents emphasise so heavily to go outside for a walk. 

I even have a speculation (I repeat, it’s a speculation – not evidence-based, just intuition based). The reason people have seasonal depression is that, during the colder months, we tend to stay indoors, rarely getting sunlight. This results in a drop in our negative ion levels and therefore affects our mood.

And it’s not even surprising considering fresh country air has 2,000 to 4,000 negative ions per cubic centimetre whereas on highways in rush hour or a traffic jam, the level can be far below 100 per cubic centimetre. The negative ion level for indoors is also roughly as low as 100 per cubic centimetre.

However, there’s one room in your home, indoors with higher negative ion concentrations. Guess which room is it?

Kitchen? Nope. Your bedroom? Nope again.

It’s actually your bathroom. More specifically, there’s one thing in your bathroom that creates  negative ions.

That thing is your shower head. I know, pretty cool.

It has the same effect as waterfalls where water clashes with water.

Now you have no reason to not be exposed to negative ions!

 

Recap for memory:

  1. Negative ions are beneficial to our health in a number of ways, from improving our mood and sleep patterns to boosting our immune system.
  2. They’re present in nature, but can also be found indoors – even in your bathroom!
  3. So the next time you feel down, get some sun, go for a walk or just head for a shower.

P. S. I know this might not be like a typical blog post. It’s not directly related to productivity or self-improvement, but this is something that has positively affected me so much that I just had to share it with you.

Here are all the sources if you wanna do more reading 🙂

Negative Ions – The Vitamins of Air

The Effect of Negative Ions

Negative Ions Create Positive Vibes

Negative Air Ions and Their Effects on Human Health and Air Quality Improvement

Better Regret Something You Did Than Regret Something You Didn’t

Better Regret Something You Did Than Regret Something You Didn’t

Feb 6, 2022 | 2 comments

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In case you didn’t know, I (and most of my friends) turn 18 this year. It’s even my golden birthday. I know, exciting stuff.

With things like 18th birthday coming up, most people (I just mean me and my two best friends) give their past, present and future life some thought.

One such thought had popped up in one of my friend’s head and she put it out on our group chat (we literally use the gc for thinking out loud, they’re like lil self-reflection sessions hehe).

She asked, “What is something you regret not doing in the past 17 years?”.

Even though the question was clearly what you regret not doing, I just thought it said what things do we regret?

I started out listing mine:

  • Not branching out enough – Even though I talked to more people in high school than I did in primary or middle school, I felt like there was a lot more potential for me to make new friends or meet new people
  • Not listening to my parents about my friend group – Back in middle school, I didn’t have the most supportive friends. They wouldn’t treat me well but for some reason, I couldn’t see it. My mom, however, could and wanted me to look at it. But I feel like, for a good amount of time, I chose not to. 

I still can’t understand why I remained in that group despite the fact that I shared no values with them. Were they popular? Yes. But did I care about it? Heck no. 

I guess I was just afraid to be alone. What it looked like from my perspective was that if I leave even this friend group, I won’t have any friends at all. (Spoiler alert – that belief couldn’t be any further from the truth)

 

Stating these regrets and a few others out, I recognised one common factor amongst them all. 95% of my regrets consisted of stuff that I didn’t do. 

You see where I am going with this?

This means there are more people are on their deathbeds thinking about the stuff they could’ve done but didn’t than people thinking of the mistakes they did make. There are more people regretting not 

  • Giving their family enough time
  • chasing their dreams
  • enjoying their life
  • Taking enough risks
  • Travelling enough
  • Living for themselves

than people regretting a wrong financial decision or the wrong profession. 

Woah, got really pessimistic there for a minute. But hope I made my point clear.

 

We keep on fearing their outcomes, not grasping that the long term compounding guilt of not doing it easily outweighs the fear.

Whenever in doubt whether you should do it or not, just think –  would you regret not doing it in the future? If no, toss it. If yes, make sure you do it with your heart and soul.

 

Recap for memory:

  1. Majority of our regrets are made up of the things we didn’t do.
  2. The long term compounding guilt of not doing it easily outweighs the fear.
  3. When in doubt, just ask – would you regret not doing it in the future?

You Are As Strong As Your Weakest Link

You Are As Strong As Your Weakest Link

Jan 30, 2022 | 0 comments

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If you had (or have) chemistry in your 11th grade, you would have probably learnt somewhere that “the slowest step of the reaction is the rate determining step”.  What that means in simple words is that the slowest part of the process decides how fast (or slowly) the process will finish. There are even a couple more variations of this, like “A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo” or “a chain is as strong as its weakest link”.

I knew what it meant but this month, I truly understood it.

For our CBSE English project, we had to work in groups of 4 – 5  on a given topic.

Even when we had formed our group, we had to add in another member because one of the students from the class was left over as per the group distribution. As for our group members, well… Some of them wouldn’t be my first choice because of their work ethics.

Having no other choice but to work with the group formed, we moved forward. 

The tasks were allotted and work was started (or so I assumed).

The truth was that most of the members (by most, I mean 2 people) just saw the texts and that was about it. No response, no question, nothing. There wasn’t even any feedback on what I sent on the group as my work.

Basically, progress was slow. And frustrating, for those who were actually working.

The project’s due date came closer and closer and were done with just half of the project (mind you, with an added advantage of an extra member). In fact, the deadline was 25th January and we still haven’t submitted the project 🙂 Still waiting for merely two website links for the bibliography. How fun!

The point I’m trying to highlight here is simple: You’re as good as your weakest link. Even though 3 of us worked fairly hard (hard enough to submit the project before time), we weren’t able to complete it – just because the rest of the members did not match the pace of the group and slowed us down too. We were (I guess we still are as of today) a group which means we were dependent on each other for our progress.

And I don’t mean this just in a group setting, I mean it in an individual scene too.

Instead of having these 5 group members, I have 5 subjects in my grade. Even if three of my subjects are thriving, but I suck at two of them, I’d be doing just marginally above average. So to increase my percentage, it’d be a better idea to pull up on those two subjects, rather than working super hard at the other three subjects which I am already doing great at (I’d need to focus on those three too, but not as much as the bottom two).

It’s important to know that the slowest step of a process is usually what will determine how long it takes for that process to be completed. The faster you make that particular step, the faster (or better) the entire process becomes. You need to work on your weaknesses to the point they’re not hindering your growth or pulling down your strengths.

Strengthen your weakest link, and your overall strength will dramatically increase.

 

Recap for memory:

  1. You are as strong as your weakest aspect
  2. Working with the super slow member can cause frustration, and even restrict your progress
  3. Strengthen your weakest link, and your overall strength will dramatically increase

How to Stick to Habits Pt. 2

How to Stick to Habits Pt. 2

Jan 23, 2022 | 0 comments

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Has it ever happened with you that you start with a habit but get off track in about a week (only to come back and give it a shot again)?

If yes, then I’m glad it’s not just me. I make sure to start a habit like waking up early but get derailed as soon as 3 days. 

But I came to know where my problem lies. Reading one of James Clear’s email from his email course 30 Days to Better Habits, I almost had a eureka moment. While I read it I went, “Woah! Every one of the handful people who read my blog should know about this.”

Whenever we think about the habits we want to develop, we think in terms of the things we wanna achieve, or in one word – the outcomes. Wait, that’s two words. Nevermind that. 

We think, “I wanna read everyday” or “I wanna wake up early”. Even though we pay close attention to what we wanna achieve, what we often fail to consider is who we wish to become. And it is an important aspect to consider if you want to make an improvement stick. Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are; which is why we need to focus more on “identity-based habits”. 

These are the habits which focus more on who you want to be than on what you want to accomplish. Because this change you want to bring about is linked with your identity, it’s much more likely to stick. The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.

If this sense of ‘who am I’ is so important, then where does it come from in the first place?

The short (and the most context appropriate) answer is your habits.

It’s basically a loop where you do an activity repeatedly because you think you are the kind of person to do those thing, and then you think you are that kind of person because you do those things.

The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior. And the more you reinforce the identity, the more natural it will feel to repeat the behavior.

More importantly, it’s not an overnight process. It builds up over time. Every time you follow through your habit, you cast a vote for the type of person you want to become. Everytime I wake up before 7 am, I inch closer to the person who wakes up (reasonably) early.

When you start believing that you are the person you were working to become, you don’t have to work for it anymore, you don’t have to put efforts in it anymore. When I start believing that I am a morning person, im no longer trying to wake up early, I just am someone who wakes up early.

The focus should always be on becoming that type of person, not getting a particular outcome. In the beginning, when you are trying to become that person, it’s more important to follow through habit – even if youre not good at it, even if its not organised or perfect – consistently.

Recap for memory:

  1. Start by focusing on who you want to become, not what you want to achieve.
  2. Whatever you accomplish will be the attributes of the identity
  3. What you want to accomplish → the type of person you want to become → what activity would that person do → do it with out caring for the result, do it for your desired identity

P.S. I’d can’t recommend the 30 Days to Better Habits email course enough! It gives so much valuable info, more importantly usable info.

Your Skills Are More Valuable Than Fancy Tools

Your Skills Are More Valuable Than Fancy Tools

Jan 16, 2022 | 0 comments

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Fun fact about me – throughout 3rd grade till 8th, I was known for being a hairstylist (some said I was a good one 😊). It was like one of my core personality traits. Everybody who was well acquainted with me – be it my aunts, my classmates, or my dad’s friends – knew that I could make creative hairstyles (oof, it’s hard to put it without making it sound like I am bragging). I had even made one of my aunt’s hairstyles for a close wedding we were attending.

The good thing was, I enjoyed making hairstyles. Afternoons were spent making hairstyles on my mum who got a relaxing head massage and I got a head to practice on.

What I thought to be unique about this was the fact that I never used anything fancy. No heat, no extra tools, or creams or sprays. Just regular combs, clips and rubber bands.

At the time, the best thing I could think of, which could take my hairstyling skills to the next level was – a straightener. It would let me create so many variations of the same hairstyle and I’d be able to add textures, waves and curls and whatnot.

However, as I grew a little bit older (I’m still not grown up and I doubt I ever will be) I got out of practice. After school, I used to be more tired and didn’t spend as many afternoons hairstyling. Moreover, I stuck to the regular braids throughout my 9th and 10th grade (not sure why. Maybe because I thought the braids I made looked too childish and not as mature? I don’t know what I was thinking).

Understandably, I wasn’t in touch with the skill as much, and my interest somewhat dropped.

But now things have changed slightly. 

Now that I’m (just a little) older, I have a straightener, and surprise surprise even a curling wand. I have begun to get my feet wet again. I make a hairstyle here and there, even one style mumma’s hair if I’m feeling very enthusiastic.

But between the 3rd standard version of myself who made hairstyles with just the basic stuff and the one that has a straightener, I’ve learned one thing.

The straightener doesn’t do much. You don’t even necessarily need it. It’s a tool and it only works additionally.

What actually does the job are your skills, your curiosity, your willingness to learn and your interest in the topic.

If I had to judge the current me with the tools and the older me without any fancy tools based on their (or should I said my?) hairstyling skills, the current me wouldn’t stand a chance. And that’s saying something, considering she’s the judge, you know?

And this isn’t about just hairstyling or a straightener. It goes in everything. Sure, tools help you out and they let you do your work better. But having just the tools means nothing if there is no work to improve.

This is the same scene with any other skill, you don’t need to have the best camera for being a great photographer or have the best paints and canvas for being an artist. The tools are useless if you don’t have the skills, or more importantly the interest and willingness to learn. Besides, a great photographer is a great photographer, with or without the expensive camera.

Like Tony Stark said to Peter Parker, “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”

Recap for memory:

  1. Skills, and willingness to learn and improve >> Fancy tools.
  2. Tools are pointless if there are no skills for it to work in addition to.
  3. A great photographer is a great photographer, with or without the expensive camera.

P. S. While writing this post I thought of a video I had seen long back, where a professional photographer tried clicking pictures with a toy camera. Here’s a link to it if you’re interested: TOY CAMERA CHALLENGE