Getting lucky.

Just try, if you are lucky you will get it. I have heard like a thousand people tell me that and

somehow I have managed to remain passive to it. Honestly speaking, am annoyed by anyone who

will tell me that (which is a lot by the way). If I was going for a lotto draw, that would be more than

appropriate , but if it’s an effort driven kind of achievement, I’ll just pass.

What is luck by the way? The English dictionary defines it as occurring by chance.

Mathematically that means there is 50% probability to succeed and 50% as well for failure.

Technically, It doesn’t really matter, how much efforts you put in, how many sleepless nights you’ve

had, or even how many sacrifices you made. It boils down to 50% for everyone. If anyone wishes me

luck, they implify that I have probably been working but I still got 50% chance of succeeding and

so I do need luck. Well, I don’t. I know how arrogant that may sound but I believe in a different kind

of universe. The one that works by the law of attraction, the kind that responds to persistence and

determination, and is isn’t just throwing success randomly.

When anyone we know succeeds, we go he’s lucky he’s smart, she’s lucky she’s got rich parents,

lucky this , lucky that. Guess what? Lucky doesn’t happen that much often and even if it does, it follows those who work for it. All these anecdotes are just an indication to how much discipline is

underrated. Bill Gates isn't wealthy because he is lucky he's smart and talented; he is surely smart

but we wouldn't be talking about him if he didn't put in at least 10000 hours with computers in high

school. Discipline for that matter creates luck, it produces hard work and sustains persistence.

Ralph Wado Emerson wrote; Shallow men believe in luck and circumstance, strong men ( and

women ) believe in cause and effect. What a way powerful way to summarize it all. Cause and effect, that's the discipline of the universe. I know we all want the easy way out but life doesn't work that way, and even with tough love it still is amazing..

The two cycles.

            First and foremost before I dig in, I would like to point out I owe this article to Rhonda Byrne, the author of the Secret. Technically I have ‘borrowed’ her idea but its not a bad thing if I also believe in the same thing, well because it is the non technical term. The vicious cycle is an idea I’ve always had at the back of my head but I never really gave it a thought. A circle has no beginning nor end, finding the beginning is just one of those questions about who came first, the egg or the hen. In real life we do have two cycles; the winning and losing cycles. In most cases we find ourselves in the loosing cycle, one that is almost impossible to break out of, but when e get into the winning cycle, it’s also difficult to break out of itas well.

            The losing cycle, It all starts with fear, fear of the unknown. And as we know, fear most likely results to failure. Failure induces more fear which results to even more failure, hence the cycle continues and it has seemingly no breaking point. Well, the good news is it can be broken and to my surprise too, by a single anecdote. Belief, it is hard to believe in success when all the experiences we accumulate is just failure, but it is possible. Who you are today doesn’t define who you will be but it is just a cumulative result of your past. The future is yet to be unfolded and it is made today and now precisely. This doesn’t seem like common sense but it does make a lot of sense. Madam Rosa Parks didn’t become a world renown activist by just looking at the present and accepting it. She had a world in mind where whites and blacks were equal. That vision gave her the confidence to stand against oppression. That was the moment she broke out of the losing cycle.

            The winning cycle like her sister is also popular. It’s the reason why Bill Gates will always be rich, Dr. Ben Carson will always be the best neurosurgeon in the world and probably why facebook will always e popular. They became winners, gained confidence and scored even more. As they say it, once a winner, always a winner.

           

            Winning is addictive, losing is vindictive; that’s  a fact for certain. Both winning and losing have cycles, it is up to us to decide which cycle we want to be in. We all want success , so it’s high time we used our powers as creators of our universe to enter the right cycle. It’s time to create that future that is blank yet full of possibilities. The future is in your hands; I know that sounds so cliché but it is true and probably the reason why life should be amazing.

           

BABY STEPS

            It’s too overwhelming. Yes, life is amazing but we all agree that sometimes it gets too overwhelming. It happens a lot when you have a big dream, an ambition that won’t let you sleep and that’s where the problem kicks in. It’s too big, too farfetched, too overwhelming to come true. The road to its accomplishment is infinitely long and you are already considering plan B, giving up.  The bad news is giving up is not an option and the good news is you are not alone. I don’t know about others, but I assure it happens to me.. a lot.

            When I get this feeling, I think of the first real accomplishment I can remember – crossing the road. Like every child then, I could not cross the road without an adult holding me. By the sheer urge of an immature experiment to impress I tried crossing the road – alone. Well, the experiment had a foreseen outcome; I was run down by a car. I am grateful; I came out unscathed, only a few scratches of course and wailing that lasted for the rest of the day. The scratches made me even more eager to learn. Teachers told us to look left then right continuously until there was no vehicle, then we could cross. I tried this algorithm but it didn’t exactly work. It was an infinite loop of looking left and right, since there were vehicles constantly, it was a road after all. So I added the element of timing, approximating the time a car would take to reach and intuitively I knew when the time was right. The first time I reached the other end of the road without an adult was a cornerstone to my life. I have practically built my confidence on that ever since.

            Any journey no matter how long starts with a single step. No one knows this better than Howard Aiken. Even with a PhD in Physics, it took him more than 5 good years to come with the Harvard Mark IV (One of the first usable computers). He started with the Mark I progressing all the way to the Mark IV.  I’m sure 5 years don’t just pass by overnight. We all relate to the tedious task of getting upstairs. The staircase seems quite long in the beginning but after taking one step after another, we reach up before we know it.

            One of Confucious famous quotes is “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” I don’t think I can add anything onto that. Start with small tasks, accomplish them, and move on, repeat this loop until you are there. Life is overwhelming, even with that element, it still is amazing.

Good morning!

Wake up sleepy head,

Be thankful you are not dead,

You might want to stay in dreamland and keep cruising,

But the world is waiting, so stop snoozing,

Warrior, it’s time to rise and shine,

Shine and follow the sun,

Birds are already up and singing with fun,

Warrior, it’s time to join the run,

It’s time to get answers,

To the 10 year long quests you have had,

Swiftly moving as dancers,

To face the fears that drive you mad,

Each morning nature gives you a second chance,

So don’t let yesterday’s worries come in the way,

Not all solutions come up at a glance,

So take it slow, relax, it’s a new day,

Fools!

            Once upon a time, a while back, there was me and there was social gatherings and well there was dancing. There was one thing in common for all these occasions; when the time to dance arrived I would just crawl to warm up my chair even though it wasn’t cold. When anyone tried to lift me up, I had a well rehearsed response, ‘Go ahead, I just don’t like dancing’. Well, I was a liar and not exactly a good one. Truth be told, I didn’t dance because I was afraid, of making a fool of myself.  I was afraid I would just go out of tune, topple over and everyone would just laugh. Overtime I have learnt to overcome this fear and even though I’m not the best of the dancers, nobody is laughing, so that’s a good sign and even more important I’m enjoying myself.

            Fools, we are afraid of looking like them; and so day in day out we crawl back to our warm comfort zones. That’s easy and comfortable and most of our friends/ family support it. But it doesn’t feel right. Well, the real fools are the ones who don’t try anything and consequently don’t learn anything. Maybe the world we live in expects adults to be perfect and cognizant of everything but we all know it’s not true. After all, we were all born fools; no baby knows algebra or musical notes or the map of the earth. That’s the point of life, to learn, and though we prefer to think that it ends at school, it doesn’t. Actually school is the most comfortable place to learn in. The world on the other hand is a better educator.

            We are all striving to get comfortable with almost everything, with our paychecks, our grades, our bodies. That’s noble, but once we get there its human nature to stay there, avoiding any form of risk.  You know you are in the warmest of your comfort zone if you wake up in the morning with nothing to look forward to, except perhaps lunch. That is wrong, unfair to the universe and as doctors may put it, unhealthy. Bill Gates didn’t become filthy rich by sitting on a regular income; he took actual risks. Nor did Thomas Edison invent gadgets by playing safe. The healthy way to go is to challenge yourself with something new, make a fool of yourself, make losses and really have a life. Success is not a guarantee but what’s certain is some good education.

            Socrates was a philosopher who drew a fine line between fools and the learned. He concluded that we are all fools because we don’t know that we are fools. He drew this conclusion more than 2000 years ago but it still makes sense. I’m not sure if there are any perfect people on this world or if such people can exist but I do one thing though. There is a whole bunch of fools and I don’t mean that in a bad way. The really foolish fools are those who listen to everyone’s voice and never try anything. The learned fools on the other hand are those who risk making a fool of themselves so, if have done that you are on the right track; It’s what ‘fools’ do.