How can I better use & apply knowledge?

Not applying what you learn, is the best way to
convert your time and effort you invested
in learning into waste 

Learning a lot and applying nothing, is as good as learning nothing. What works for me is a process that I have been following since a long time. A process that involves breaking down all my life's lessons into small parts and grouping them under relevant categories to which they belong, once all that is done, I associate them with a skill or quality or a personality trait, which allows me to move into the 'Action' part. Let me also add that these life's lessons can be taken from personal experiences, observation from surroundings, a small but inspiring talk with friend, a seminar or a book or even a movie.

Here is the process:

1. Make an immediate note of the thing that you have learnt. Do not do this for all small bits that you learn everyday but only when the learning is worth noting down. You can make a note of that on Google Keep, a clutter-free note taking app. I use it most of the times
2. The note should NOT exceed a line or two. Try following the twitter approach of keeping the note restricted to 10 characters
3. Pick a fixed date of a month and that day you can read all your notes and convert every lesson into a personality trait
4. Once you make the list of these personality traits or qualities or skills that you need to work on, you next step is to do a self-check to understand how many of those skills or qualities you have but need an improvement on, or you do not have them and need to cultivate them in yourself 
5. Once you know exactly what areas you need to work on, GET STARTED immediately. 

To make things more clear let me cite a quick example:

1. If in the month of July, when I sat down for simplifying my 'lessons learnt' and came up with a list of three skills, like Communication to myself and to others
2. Now I proceed with a self-check and felt that I need improvement in the communication that I do with myself (may be I talk with a negative tone inside my mind about myself and this leads to a lowered self-esteem) 
3. My next step to really apply that knowledge will be to catch myself the next time I indulge in talking negative inside my head, I can of course further do a quick R and D about how to get more in control of this self-talking habits and how can I improve it in order to achieve greater level of happiness and motivation in life

How to stay positive during tough times?

Probably some of the best things that have ever happened to
you in life, happened because you said yes to something

Although, failures and difficulties are not desired by anyone, on the contrary they are most disliked, but it would be wise to say that one learns the most during low times as compared to times of success, happiness and prosperity. The dark phases of my life are mainly responsible for strengthening me up and preparing for higher responsibilities. These times are fantastic teachers. But one needs to stay calm & composed & do not lose focus of his greater goals in life while experiencing nerve wracking turbulence on this rollercoaster. Here is a a list of things that have helped me in standing tall during difficult times.

1. Avoiding the company of the 'pessimist types' as much as possible: The kind of people you interact with determines the quality of your life, when you are facing tough times, you will tend to feel low and if you meet pessimists during such times, the pain you are experiences just gets further compounded. I have experienced that pessimistic people have a habit of looking at sad faces and showing temporary concern just to know what is wrong with you and once you share your problems with them they will invest their time and energy in making you feel from bad to worse. Better avoid such a company.
2. Being in the company of positive or at least neutral minded people: Taking forward the point discussed above, the best way to stay motivated during difficult times is to spend at least an hour or two (may be over a coffee or just over the phone or a chat over facebook/Whatsapp) with people who understand you and who are wise enough to listen to you without interrupting or judging and can give you the much needed space you deserve in order to de-stress yourself 
3. Awakening your Spiritual side: Spirituality works for me like magic. I do not intend to exaggerate this but I have always found my peace when I connect with God. I meditate, worship, chant his praises and spend time in having a dialogue with Him. Although this may or may not necessarily make my problems disappear, but it does charge me up with peace and hope within and that in turn toughens me up to triumph through tough times
4. Getting some 'feel good' kind of entertainment that should be strong enough to charge you up: Reading inspiring books, if reading is not your cup of tea, listening to songs or watching that are motivational (My fav one being 'Yes Man'). Entertainment works when people don't.
5. If you are in situation where you do not have positive people in your life, it is better to take a break and remain alone for some time: When I use to meet people who were experts in turning 'bad' to 'worse' and 'worse' to 'much worse' and sometimes turning even 'much worse' to outright 'pathetic', I realized how important it was to spend some time with myself. 
6. Exercise, preferably something that involves group activities like Zumba: According to a study done by Mayo Clinic, regular exercise can increase self-confidence, it can relax you, and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety.

When Life is running away from me - A Poetry

I think poetry is a smart way of putting
loads of thoughts in a few lines

When life is running away from me,

I pause and wonder if I've done anything, 

That would make God proud  

When I realize that the answer is NO,

I wake up & reinvent myself, 

Being Sorrowful, becomes a luxury

When life begins to run faster, 

I pause and wonder,
If I've ever bought a smile 

To a despaired heart.

When I realize that the answer is NO,

I wake up and set my priorities right,

Being too egoistic, becomes a burden

When life is running away from me, 

I pause and reflect if I've done anything,

That will bring smiles & cheers to people, 

Even after I am gone

When I realize that the answer is NO,

I arise from my comforts and become,

The best version of myself,

Complaining about how unfair life is, becomes insanity

Does meditation help for depression?

According to WHO, depression is a common mental disorder,
globally, more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression

Meditating in its technical definition is described as an activity that involves in focusing one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation
In depression one tends to think mostly self-destructive thoughts that further complicate the whole problem. Meditation on the other side, helps in relaxing your mind from the incessant activity of thinking. It gives your mind a much needed break. When you meditate regularly, one tends to feel as if you have gained some degree of control over your thoughts and emotions and at the same time you start feeling like you are living more in the present moment and less in the future or past (which is precisely what one tends to do in depression).
I remember enrolling for the Art of Living Part 1 course back then in 2009 and as meditation was practiced regularly it did bring me a very strong sense of clarity in terms of summoning up my strengths together so that I can take steps to resolve all my issues within myself one after another. However, I did not stop at meditation alone. I started watching motivational movies and documentaries, 'The Secret by Rhonda Byrne' being one of them. Started reading some inspirational books and started making myself open to new and positive people in order to create some healthy connections that can help me get out of this rut (I strongly believe that the people you hangout with affects the quality of your life).
As a conclusion I strongly think that that if you are depressed for a very long time and if you do not have anyone in your life who can give you the space where you can free your emotional burden, then meditation and spirituality are the two most powerful tools that can turn the tables around, provided that you keep walking on that path until you feel completely refreshed on an emotional and mental level. I say all of this as someone who suffered from a combination of social phobia and depression for more than 4 years of my teenage life.

Is your Life trying to tell you something? Are you ignoring it, unknowingly?

If you wonder why Life keeps on giving you the same headaches again and again
to handle, it is time to look again with a different viewpoint

Since a long time I have been going through such disheartening experiences and there came a time when I got fed up. That turned out to be my eureka moment. They say, when you are at your lowest, true wisdom from within springs forth and that makes things fall into perfect perspectives. This is precisely what happened with me, the lesson I learnt can be summed up in a line that goes something like this -

"Unless and until I do not CHANGE for the better, these experiences shall never STOP so it is better to toughen my mind up & transmute such insults into a force for good a.k.a motivation"

I strongly feel that such experience will continue to happen unless you have learnt the lessons that are meant for you. What we need is a change on a very personal level, a change that will put an end to our weaknesses in that specific area. I term this as 'personality evolution' where you evolve and progressively become a stronger version of yourself. I noticed that the moment I start emanating confidence and strength, people who otherwise may just simply insult me to satisfy their own egos, STOP and rethink before doing so. This is not a talisman of any kind but a radical shift of your thought process from:

1. Self-limiting to Self-liberating
2. From weakening to strengthening 
3. From giving too much of momentousness to what people say and think about you to paying more attention to what YOU think about your 'SELF'. 
4. Taking the focus from the external frame of reference and turning it into internal frame of reference 

Feel free to comment below and add to this list or if you have had similar experiences where you were fed up with certain things that bothered you way too much and finally you 'changed for the better' and the issues just ceased forever, do let me know about how the whole story unfolded and what did you learn out of it.

How do you understand a person whom you can not see?

Most people tend to portray a slightly edited version of themselves whenever they are in conversation with someone over an online chat or a talk on the phone or absolutely any platform that fits into this category. Although it all depends upon what one wants as an outcome of that interaction (like impressing the other person so that he or she will start liking you and may look forward to meet you in person or simply a conversation regarding something related to your work where one receives no personal or social advantage). How can one understand the personality or get an overall gist of one's character without actually meeting that person? Here is a list of things that I use as parameters that help me get a quick glimpse of HOW he/she is. All of these have their origin in my personal experiences with people whom I've never seen but have had great deal of conversations over the internet for quite a long period of time.

1. In a casual chat, allow her to choose the topic of the conversation and pay close attention to it. The topic she chooses to discuss most frequently, determines her level of awareness and maturity. 
2. If you have the scope of getting into a discussion with her about anything that is intellectual and pay close attention not just to what her opinions are about it but also to the way she frames her opinions
3. To take the point mentioned above to the next level you can simply take up a hot or slightly controversial topic (for example say, racism) and start playing a temporary villain by putting forward an opinion that should sound as if you are pro-racism and then wait and watch what her reaction is. Be careful not to make too radical statements or else if her personal values are strong, she might just start ignoring you, if you know what I mean.
4. To know how much of an empath she is, just try to share a couple of your serious issues with her and give subtle hints that you are feeling low due to them and see if she helps you out to get rid of your emotional burden and offers you the space where you can share your issues with her at ease
5. If she is a truly a gem of a person, she will turn her kindest side towards you so as to make sure that you end the chat with a smile on your face

As a conclusion, I think the key is to carefully observe not just what they mostly speak about but also the way they put their thoughts across to you. Personally, when someone indulges in pointless and insignificant talks with me on a regular basis, I end up considering that as a strong indicator of that person's immaturity and his/her restricted limits of awareness.

How to make a woman fall in love with you? Or can you?

The best way to approach a woman you love is to be yourself, be true to your core values and love her truly for what she is. If she is wise enough to understand your worth she will inevitably fall in love with 'Who you really are'.

Beyond being YOURSELF there are certain things you can practice to be the best person of her life:

1. Understanding her (with all her complexities) 
2.  Giving her the 'space' where she feels supported & cared 
3. Listening without interrupting and without jumping to conclusions 
4.  If at all you are angry at something that she has done, then you need to express it against that specific action of hers and not against 'herself' as a person, as this will hurt immensely and will give her a strong reason to re-think if she can really "be with you forever" 
5. Whenever she is talking something important, pay 100% undivided attention to her
6. If you have understood her basic psyche you will reach a stage where even if she wears a fake smile, you will immediately know the difference. Whenever that happens, make sure you exhibit your concern and ask her if she is upset over anything and if turns out to be the case then you need to wear you 'Good Listener' cap and allow her to empty her heart out 

How to know if you are an Introvert or an Extrovert?

Introvert vs Extrovert

From early childhood all the way till the age of around 22 I remember being introverted in my outlook and orientation towards people. Avoiding public gatherings, feeling a sense of shyness while introducing myself to people and remaining quiet most of the time specially when I am in a group of people, these and many more such instances had become a norm for me. It was after a series of experiences that in a way turned me fearful of people, I decided to embrace change. I began exploring the social side of life. I am now touching 27 and in the last 4 years I have successfully turned the tables around and I can write this with no doubts that today I am a people's person (no exaggeration intended)
Although the reason behind why I changed is a long story in itself and not relevant to this discussion too. However, in the capacity of my introvert-turned-extrovert experiences I can jot down a few points that may help bring clarity in knowing if you are an introvert or an extrovert.

1. As an introvert (or so to say) I was never sure about saying YES to attending an event where I will be seeing many unknown faces. Whenever someone use to invite me for a party (or any like event) where most of my fellow attendees would be strangers for me, my immediate natural response coming from within would be a sense of awkwardness. Today, when someone calls me to join for a similar gathering I feel neutral most of the time and in some cases I feel excited too
2. This may be an unusual indicator but a couple of years back I use to avoid putting my picture on social media accounts as well as on any messenger apps as opposed to today, where I am quite comfortable with it
3. When I have made a new friend and if at all that person asks me general questions (just to get the conversation started) I use to feel as if he/she is getting personal. This use to make me perceive them with an eye of suspicion. Today, I do not feel that anymore. On the contrary, I would admit that in most conversations, I am the one who takes the initiative of getting the conversation started and I am quite active in asking general questions in order to know more about that individual (I stay away from asking questions that have a possibility of making that person feel uncomfortable in talking to me, that way I am mindful of being under my limits)
4. You meet someone new, you both talk for a few hours and then after a couple of days or may be a week or two you see this person again, would you take the initiative of saying a 'Hey, What's up?' or would you remain passive and expect him/her to greet you?

How can you practice Gratitude in the midst of Suffering?

One of the ways in which I practice the attitude of gratitude is by looking at those who are given lesser than what I have received in terms of health, love, resources and relationships. No matter what we go through, there will always be people out there who are going through 'worst' than our version of 'bad'. The moment I look at those less fortunate and the kind of life they are struggling with, I feel blessed in the midst of my hardships. The only challenge is that when we feel low, we do not really think of these thoughts as we are busy looking at our problems (at times magnifying them) & at the same time we also spend a great deal of time asking ourselves the 'WHY me God? Why me?' questions.

I have noticed that when times are too tough for me to face, it is the feeling of being thankful to God for all His blessings that prevents me from becoming too weak and falling into the pit of hopelessness (the vulnerability of which is very high in times of crisis)

A few quotes on Gratitude that I take a look at on a regular basis:

“When you see a person who has been given more than you in money and beauty, then look to those who have been given less.”
Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h)

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." Gerald Good

"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get." 
Frank A. Clark

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." 
Willie Nelson

"In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

How do you Motivate yourself when you have no external sources of Motivation?

I believe that inner motivation is more powerful than any other motivation that comes from an external source like an individual, movie, seminar, book etc.

Motivation that has its source 'within oneself' triumphs over external motivation as it comes from deeper understanding that carries with itself a heavy emotional strength. As an example let us consider that my family and friends suggest me to hit the gym and get in shape. Although I do understand and value the concern they have for me and it does make perfect sense too, but for some reason I do not have an inner drive or that necessary enthusiasm to reduce my weight and tone myself up. One fine day, I take a good look at a picture of myself where I stand beside my 'in-shape' office colleagues. As I look at myself carefully, I begin to realize how unattractive I look with these excess pounds. This is where I link my weight with my 'looks'. Soon after this realization, comes an inner push to do something about it & from the next day onwards I myself hitting the gym and adopting healthy eating habits.

Although, there are a number of ways one can motivate oneself. They all differ person to person as we all have different beliefs and attitudes. Let me jot down a few of them that have worked for me.

1. I do a simple but powerful exercise that involves looking at where I was a few years back (3 to 4 years back) and then compare my life at that time as to what it is today. I then write down at least 10 significant changes that I have experienced so far and also look at the ways they have affected my life (whether positively or negatively). When I realize that NO extraordinary improvement has taken place, I consider that as a wake -up call to take better quality decisions and actions 
2. Doing a quick self-analysis on whether my capabilities have been used to the fullest or have they been largely unused. This gives me clarity on my all the mental and emotional blocks of my life. This helps me understand where I am stuck. Once the root cause is detected, a strong current of self-motivation gets triggered to get rid of that root cause which is not allowing me to live my potential to the fullest. One such example can be the fear of public speaking that hinders many opportunities that I would otherwise grab if I at all had the necessary confidence in that area 
3. Death too can act as a tool for self-motivation, at least it does in my case where I tend to visualize myself on my death-bed and I am full of regrets about my unfulfilled dreams just because I was not motivated enough and always gave excuses. The moment I imagine this picture, within a few minutes I feel the rush of inner-motivation, the feel of which is strong enough for me to be at my peak performance.
4. The last tool I would like to mention is something that I rarely use. It involves comparing yourself with someone else (especially someone who is of your age or younger and who started his/her life from a similar background as yours) This may not work positively all the time as there is a risk of a subtle feeling of jealousy dominating this entire process and making it counterproductive. But on the positive side, it can act as a strong source of inner-motivation as it will make you understand all those areas where you were weak and where this 'other' person was strong. The underlying thought that one should have is -"If they/he/she can do it so can I"

5 tips to make Life more SIMPLE

Uninstalling Whatsapp and instead switching to the primitive ways of communicating i.e. Calls or/& Texts:
This will help you get rid of many insignificant and time consuming chats that people engage in via Whatsapp or other messenger apps. I can say this from my personal experience as I am NO more active on Whatsapp since more than 3 weeks and getting back to simplicity i.e. Calls and Texts has made life productive as it gives me more time to do things that matter to me, thus cutting down completely on the time that I use to spend on aimless chats (which was almost 70% of the time). I am still in touch with my close buddies as well as distant friends via text messages and calls, in fact, we meet more often these days than before.

Getting up early (like 5:30 am) and sleeping before 12 at night.Since last more than 25 days I am getting up around 5:30 am and sleeping at around 11 pm or 12 midnight. How is think making my Life simple? Well, as my family gets up around 8 or at times 9 am I get a good deal of 3 to 4 hours of a complete 'ME' time. How does it affect the quality of my Life? I am a book lover and so the moment all my family members are up, the "necessary silence required to focus"and that "reader friendly" ambience gets thrown out of the window. Although, here I am talking about reading, but it is applicable on any activity that adds value to life and that demands you to be in an environment where no one will disturb you for a few hours daily.

The moment you find yourself in a group of people or an individual talking S*IT about things that 'matter to you' just walk away instead of trying to reform their/his/her thoughts:This might sound like avoiding a potential or perhaps a valid debate. But the simple truth is that you cannot change people's thinking. No matter how much you try. Many times it happens with me that I am at a party or in a meeting with office colleagues or at a cafe with my friends and not always but sometimes they end up talking about things that at best, irritate me or at worst, hurt me. It is better to quickly walk away or just pretend as if you have got a call on your cell phone (this can be done using a fake call app) or use any other similar strategy. When should this behavior be exhibited? Only in those situations where talking to them is like wasting time and energy. However, if you are in conversation with someone who is open-minded and wise enough to listen to you, then you can surely invest your time and energy in clearing any misunderstanding that he or she may be having about the subject being discussed. Why is this important? I have noticed that we tend to spend lots of time & effort in being defensive about our beliefs and actions especially when we notice that we are being ridiculed/criticised. Understanding that our values and life's choices are highly independent of what others think and that we alone will be living its consequences, will liberate us from wasting our time and energies in being defensive about them and rather preserving the same energy and time to be used creatively for higher purposes.

Being NON-JUDGEMENTAL:Being extra-judgemental is one of the most easiest ways of over-burdening your mind with lots of unnecessary baggage. Being too judgemental can result in "our body and mind bearing the brunt of that negativity" writes Dr. Cynthia Thaik in this article on Huffington Post

Use KaizenKaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that revolves around continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency etc. Our brain tends to consider 'BIG changes' as a threat and so it tries avoiding it by creating reasons and excuses, this habit of ours can be tricked when we break down that 'Change' into 'tiny changes' executed everyday consistently. I think that Kaizen is one of the best tools that adds simplicity to life by breaking down a BIG activity or BIG change into small bits and acting upon every 'bit' daily. Example - Reading 20 pages of a 400 pages book twice a day (Once after getting early in the morning as discussed earlier in this answer and once before going to bed) will allow me to complete that big fat book in 10 days.

Do you have some more tips to share? just type in the Comment section below.

How I took control of my emotional attachment?

I have been in this situation multiple times where I meet a woman of my age or slightly elder to me, I hang out with her a couple of times and indulge in some quality conversations that makes me instantly connect with her. What makes me instantly connect is the fact that many of them exhibit those specific qualities that I value the most. After a few weeks, I feel like I need to talk and meet regularly. More than two days If I do not meet that person, something just doesn't feel right. In almost every experience I realized that the person who lost the most, in terms of valuable time and mental and emotional energy and also the one who went through the most emotional pain was myself. The blame for this lies solely on me.

After going through such experiences repeatedly and paying the price too, I decided to do a detailed self analysis on myself and realized a few things that can be summed up as follows -

1. There was in me an intense need to be in a companionship especially with someone who can make me feel accepted and in whose company I can find happiness, this was so subtle that I too was not aware of its power to make me emotionally weak. This feeling was responsible for creating that urge to connect with like-minded individuals and specially women (because I think that the kind of love and support we receive from our best friends or special companions from the opposite gender is quite different than that we experience in the company of people of our own gender). When I think of why I had this strong feeling at the first place the only answer I find is in my upbringing where I was in an environment that made me an introvert for quite a long time in my life. Being lonely for most of the time was like a norm for me. Not interacting with people and being quite homely despite of being a boy which is quite a rare scenario, just complicated the whole problem even more.
2. In a very weird way I use to feel that this person with whom I am attached may not be there with me tomorrow. This scary feeling just intensified my attachment
3. The most simplest problem with me was that my mind went back and forth between two extremes: first one was where my emotions dominated my reason & the second was when my reason dominated my emotions, it is today I realize that the solution lies when reason and emotions are perfectly balanced
4. The moment I meet someone and that person happens to be like the one who gives me the space that I longed for, I get attached with her quickly, this is mainly because I have a fear that once I lose this person I will never again get someone like this in the future. This is quite a deep thought, if you reflect on it.

Now let me jot down a few things I did that improved my life.

Can you judge someone's personality on the way they TALK?

Communication is the best and the most quickest tool to know a person within a short period of time.

I use the following as my parameters:

1. I pay close attention to what topics they randomly choose to talk about. If they talk more about things that are less significant like the a drama on primetime TV or that break up of a friend in the next class, then it is the first indicator of his lack of maturity. I would rather prefer someone with whom I can have value conversations at least 60% of the time if not all the time.

2. The language used should be clean, if way too many Fs are used (like once in every 20 seconds) then it is again a signal for me to start looking at the nearest exit and to avoid running into him or her again.

3. If I am talking about something important about myself or my life, then I would expect them to listen to me uninterruptedly. Interrupting in between to talk something that is unimportant at that moment gives me a big reason to shut such people off my life. Basic empathy is an essential ingredient in any relationship.

4. Talking too loudly (specially in a public place), is another indicator of that person being unconcerned about social mannerisms which is a reason enough for me to judge him/her about the personality he/she has built so far.

5. Talking while using mobile phone way too much is a big NO. This makes the person appear more interested in talking to someone across the network via Whatsapp or any other social media/messenger app than the one sitting right in front of them.

Although the list is long. But for now these are the essentials of how one can be judged or known at a basic level, by carefully observing the way they talk.

You make them feel good, but why do you feel low?

I have been in situations where being an empath has resulted in a heavy draining of my own positivity. However, that does not make it bad, as life is not always a sunshine. In order to dispel the darkness created by sorrows and depression or regrets or absolutely anything that 'does not feel good' we all need empathy from those who know/understand us or perhaps from anyone at all (specially when we are in desperate need of it).

My experiences have made me realize a few things that one needs to know about empathy (these are from a standpoint of an empath) and I can sum it up in two points for you.

When you allow yourself to understand them and their issues and detect the emotional pain in them that needs healing through counselling (which is precisely what empaths do directly or indirectly), it ends up lowering your own battery of positive energy. Their situation may or may not improvise, but our heavy investment of wisdom, words and time costs us emotional weakness. Sometimes making us feel blue without even knowing why we are feeling that way.
They may end up becoming depended on you as they begin seeing in you a strong source of understanding and support (I think of these as the two really important pillars of empathy) they will start coming to you every time they feel low, thereby making them further weak because now they are slowly getting into the practice that will sooner or later make them incapable of healing their own selves. After all how long can they rely on you? Forever?

The key is to give them some space because that will allow them time to build their emotional and mental muscle. Once, the strength gets build up then you can play the role of a motivator who will simply connect them with their 'own stronger self within' whenever required.

He is busy working for you, while you are enjoying your day off.. WHO IS HE/SHE?

Whenever I shop in a mall or talk to a Call Centre agent at 2 am in the morning to reschedule my flight booking, I just can't help but feel grateful for all the wonderful things that I am blessed with.
Why do I feel that way? Read on and allow this one to sink in...

It is a festive holiday and I am shopping in a Mall for a new cell phone and there is a salesperson on the other side of the counter helping me make an informed choice about the cell phone that I should buy. I end up window shopping and leave the kiosk without buying anything. He greets me with a smile as I leave his vicinity, his eyes looking at other people who are ready with their set of questions. The smile is still ON. 

As I now drive back home, I am flooded with thoughts of gratitude that makes me thank God in all sincerity for His endless blessings, (believe me, enjoying my time on a festive holiday spending time doing a little window shopping is just one of them).

If you are reading this, I request you to make it a point of greeting them and speaking three simple words 'How are you?' with a smile, whether you are in front of a salesperson in that store or talking to a call centre agent on the phone, doing this will not cost you a buck but it makes them feel valued and that is an incredible feeling for most of them if not all.

Trust me, I have been a call centre agent for more than 2 years and I know exactly how it feels like.

What do you do when your Emotions & Logic battle each other

Emotions flow effortlessly towards what we value. Emotions are strong and subtle signals that spring forth from an inner mechanism that we as human beings have within ourselves. This mechanism allows us to sense how we "feel" about something. Logic is when we use the information and data that we have gathered in our life so far and translate that knowledge into a set of principles to judge and decide what is right and what is not. For example, feeling sad while witnessing the plight of hard working labourers in a steel factory or loving that girl/guy with all your heart and soul despite of the fact she/he is not at all interested in you. These are examples of your behavioural responses being guided solely by emotions.
However, to understand logic let us consider this example, let's say a mediocre salaried salesperson gets a job opportunity from a company based in abroad with a far better salary and higher position, but the challenge is that he will have to migrate alone to that place and there will be no leaves for the first two years of employment, this would mean that he cannot come down to meet his old parents or his wife and children for a span of two years. Bang on starts a fight between emotions (that advocate staying near his family with the same job but with peace of mind of being with the family) and logic (that advocates taking that opportunity and working hard for a few years to improve his own career and raise the family's standard of living).
In conclusion, I have personally observed that emotions dominate over logic. But the only exception is when values come into picture. If career development is my priority and if I am emotionally strong enough to stay away from my family for 2 years, then I would definitely grab that opportunity without wasting any time.
My experiences have always been of emotions getting a strong dominion over logic. But in those scenarios where logic was more in alignment to my values I chose to scrap my emotions away. To quickly share my experience in this regard is when I was getting attached romantically with a woman who had different priorities. Later after looking at her from a non-emotional point of view I realized that I was traveling on the road towards a destination that wasn't meant for me. I then chose to free myself from those emotions.
So the one line answer is - Emotions rule logic. With exceptions being those situations where your emotions conflict with your values.

Is your social life increasing or limiting your Intelligence?

The quality of social upbringing one has had during all his childhood years as well as his teens, determines to a greater degree his/her intelligence as well as his/her ability to "learn and lead". Super Brain, a book written by Dr. Deepak Chopra along with Prof Rudolph Tanzi, gives us details of how our brain makes connections and how more & more neural connections directly or indirectly define the level of intelligence that one will reach. There is a point that one of its chapters make - The more variety of people we meet on a daily basis and the more we have healthy interactions with them regularly, the more neural pathways begin to take shape.

Using Death as a powerful tool to challenge all your Fears

Being aware of your mortality and understanding that every day is numbered and that your life has a bigger purpose that only you can fulfil, is the key to fearlessness.
Death creates urgency. When you realize that not defeating your fear can result in you growing old with a life unlived and die with regrets, you will summon up the mental & emotional energy required to conquer your fears and let go of them.
Freedom from fear only comes from inner-willingness to do so.

A quick hack for boosting your Productivity

According to a recent study done by the Acoustical Society of America confirms that employees can get more done and feel more positive if there are nature sounds playing in the background while they work.

During three sessions in the same room, the researchers asked 12 participants to complete a test requiring sustained attention. Each session featured a different soundscape in the background: office sounds muffled by white noise, office sounds masked with the sound of "flowing water in a mountain stream," and office sounds with no masking noise.

What did they find? When listening to the natural sounds, the workers not only performed better on the task, but also reported feeling more positive about their environment than they did in the other sessions.

You can get started by using YouTube, just type in the search bar 'Nature Sounds' and you will have a long list of nature sounds (some with still images and some with soothing videos). Another quick tip that will save your bandwidth is to visit TuneIn, a portal where you will find almost all worldwide radio shows being streamed online and through their App. TuneIn enables you can listen to any Nature Sound radio among millions of other genres.

Happy Productivity!!!

Do you know a lot but apply a little?

Yesterday, I met a wise man, who gave me a very intriguing piece of wisdom in less than 3 minutes.

Here's what he said -

What is knowledge? It is to know something. But is knowing enough? No, in fact it is a waste of time and energy to learn something that you are not going to act upon. Let's say there is a person who knows very little, let's say that on the scale of 1 to 100 he only knows 1% and he successfully applies that 1% of knowledge in 100% of his actions and then there is another individual who has gained around 99% knowledge on that scale, but has applied only 1% in practicality.

Who do you think is better?

Of course the former fellow, because his action was 100% in alignment with his knowledge. Even if one is to argue that he knew little as compared to the one who has 99% of knowledge.

But then the question is - What good is knowledge if it is not acted upon? In fact to act upon what one knows leads develops one's understanding, which can be taken to the level of Mastery which is done by being consistent in practices.

The Joy of Reading - A poem by Me

When I read,

I leave the world behind,

When I read,

I enter a place unseen,

Renewing my existence 

with the turn of every page

When I read,

I feel detached with all that surrounds me

When I read,

The sounds of people howling around,

turns into whispers

When I read,

I embark on a journey

Exploring new terrains of wisdom,

Formed on the landscape of crisp white pages

When I read,

I depart from all my worries and anxieties

When I read, 

I become the story 

As well as the storyteller,

I become the memoir as well as the experiencer

I become the guidance as well as the guide

I then close the book and return to the world I call mine

A world that no longer has any hold over me,

Looks like from the burden of ignorance,

I am now forever free

Although reading did not change, 

Even the smallest ant or the tallest tree

But, I write my heart out in the last line of this poetry, 

That reading indeed liberated me 

What happens when you get off from Whatsapp for 30 days

Being a 'passionate' Whatsapper since 2012 It was not less than a challenge for me to even think of getting off this messaging app that has today become like a parallel world we socialize and connect in. A world that allows you to message, talk and share your life's funny or not-so-funny moments with those who really matter to you and at the same time it also pushes you to entertain and reply just for the sake of replying, to those who matter the least and who just want to engage in a random purposeless chat. The 'blue tick' update made matters even more difficult, by empowering the sender to know whether his messages were being read or ignored. It made things much more interesting, because if you are online for quite some time and no blue ticks are seen, it clearly means that you are way too busy to check his messages. If on the other side the 'blue ticks' are seen and you still haven't received your much awaited reply then it is perceived that the 'iron hearted' recipient is not interested in chatting with you or that he may have many things on his to-do-list that seek immediate attention.


It was back then in August last year that I decided to deactivate my Whatsapp account for 30 days just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity about what changes will it bring to my life if any. 

Here is what this experiment revealed -

1. Those who really want to keep in touch with you on a regular basis will still message you those "How are you" and "Wazzup buddy" lines through SMS. This confirmed that I had a few friends among many for whom those regular conversations were more important than my 'online' presence on some messaging app.
2. Then there are those who keep on sending quotes and hilarious videos and they suddenly got disappeared from my life and remained invisible till l was back on Whatsapp.
3. I felt like I was getting more time for doing productive things and for some reason my productivity improved
4. I become more actively engaged in living my social life like the good old days where I use to directly call up my friends and tell them to meet me in that Cafe down tge road within 10 minutes.
5. Yes, I ended up paying slightly higher bills due to an increase in Calls and Text messages. But when you compare time with money, it will get clear to you that money makes a comeback but time melts away forever
6. As a not-so-pleasant surprise I realized that many of my friends existed just because I was active on Whatsapp (I no longer consider that as friendship anyway)
7. Finally It got clear to me as to how many people are worthy of my time, because not everyone is interested in knowing how you are once you are away from the platform that gives them the convenience of reaching you with least efforts, if you know what I mean

In conclusion I think the entire experience did make a positive difference to me so as to make me understand the volume of insignificant talks that I use to enage in with people. Today I am active on my Whatsapp account, but the difference is that I no longer engage in long chats involving an exchange of hundreds of messages along with a couple of pictures and videos or voice notes in between them. I simply call them, talk to them about things that are of importance or meet them over a coffee for a casual exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Note: These are purely my experiences and opinions and I am in no way against using Whastapp. I think it is one of the most useful apps there is. However, one needs to be careful not to over indulge himself/herself with it so that over a longer period of time it begins substituting real life interaction that we use to have so far for years.

Do you share a good news about yourself with someone who is depressed ?

I was with my friend who has been asked to leave from his position as a manager in a well known company. The same day I received a promotion at work. As we met for a coffee that same evening, I made it a point to be a good listener and did not share with him the news about my promotion. A few days later when he got a better job than the earlier one, I just texted him and shared about my promotion while congratulating him on getting his new job.

Although, I had the choice that day of casually talking to him about my new position at work, but then, what would that do to him? Would it make him really feel good or would that make him feel even worse than before?

If communication is a skill then, knowing when to talk about and when not to talk is wisdom.

Never outshine your Boss

One of the ways to get what you want from your boss is to make him feel as if he is the smartest person in the room, all the time, every time. However, be careful and make this as subtle as possible, stay away from making it appear obvious. It is a part of our nature as humans to seek direct or indirect appreciation of what we do from people. Even if we claim to be independent and totally free of what people think, we still desire them to react cooperatively to what we do. In conclusion if you want to win over your superior, you will need to let go of your habit of proving to him that your ideas and plans and better than his (which is quite a common mistake we make in order to prove that we are the best ones in the team). Instead, start making them feel special by making them feel safe, cheerful and appreciated. Remember this is one of the ways you can win him over and bring him to your side, once you have established your reputation firmly, there will be no need for you to continue making him feel that way, as by that time you will be on your way in creating a brand of your own within the organisation.

 Author Robert Greene explains this in the very first chapter (title being 'Never outshine your Master) of his book 48 Laws of Power.

To know more about 48 Laws of Power click here.

Jobseeker, how good are your good looks?

Like many of you I too use to think that good looks do help in a job interview until I came across a research that claims the opposite. A study done in April this year claims that attractive men are less likely to be given a job in a competitive workplace because they intimidate bosses. "It's not always an advantage to be pretty" said Professor Marko Pitesa, from the University of Maryland where this study was conducted.