Energy.

Some call it power, others call it force, some it call it a miracle, and you can call it whatever you want name it. I know it by the name energy. I don’t know much about it yet but I do know it lights the room, both technically and literally.  You’ll find it everywhere, in the workplace, at home, on the dance floor, anywhere literally. Albert Einstein wasn’t crazy after all to declare that everything in the universe is just energy.  There is a catch to that.

            According to Rhonda Bryne, the author of the secret; the universe is made of two kinds of energies. Good energy that encompasses love, serenity and satisfaction as well as the other kind of energy that is uncomfortable to talk about.  The universe (which is just energy by the way) responds according to the energy emitted. In other words, like attracts like. Confusing? Well in simple terms, if you think sad the universe will give you sad, likewise if you think happy, the universe will obey your command. Isn’t life just amazing?

            We all have problems, challenges we have to face daily , weekly, monthly basis. It is easy and tempting to just shut the door and sulk all day hoping some magic will make it better. Well, it doesn’t and most likely never will. The universe returns the negative you emit to it. The only way to beat the system is to emit positive energy. Positive energy returns itself. Start the day with a smile and watch how contagious energy is. “Energy” lights up the room, positive energy precisely lights up the room. It turns a whirlwind of disappointments and discouragement into success. That’s why we should hold on it. It is the reason to look on the bright side and be appreciative, a reason to live.

            Aristotle once wrote “The energy of the mind is the essence of life”. No, energy works magic. So here’s what you are going to do, you are going to appreciate the amazing features of life, keep your energy high. Why? Because, energy is the new currency.

Have fun!

            Have you ever wondered why people are just weird? The scientists, comedians and all those nerds we teased in school; why didn’t they just give in? Some probably give in but the quota am interested in is that of the proudly weird people. People like Steve Wonder, Albert Einstein, Wangari Maathai. They probably had hearts of rocks, but after long contemplation, I realized how they can afford to be so irrational. It’s simple, they enjoy what they do, or did.

            Enjoying means feeling excited about a task day in, day out. Everything else becomes noise, just noise. Noise about low statistics of succeeding, noise of how it is important to be ‘normal’, noise about how boring stuff has guaranteed success. Only excitement can build a strong wall against all this noise. It was really easy when we were young to just be engrossed in stuff we really liked. Then we grew up, chose careers everyone else told us to choose, before we know it; bills arrive.

            There is a concept known as resonance in Physics. In technical terms it means a system (or rather) an object oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequency; the natural frequency of that sytem. In English, it means at some frequency, a system (or in this case a person) will get too excited that it won’t matter who’s watching (or laughing for that matter).  We all have different natural frequencies hence we resonate to different things.

            Most people go through life doing things they don’t like, hoping the big break will somehow materialize or just  because it will look good on the CV . What if I told you that the break is not a miracle but a decision. In school we were just forced to study every subject under the sun. I hated it but I now know why; Natural frequency. The point was to realize one’s natural frequency and once you get it, you stick to it. Life is short; I know how cliché that sounds but it is sadly reality. It takes at least 10,000 hours to be an expert in anything, that is at least 417 days in undistributed focus on an activity and these hours don’t come around very often. Here’s the real deal: Stop going with the flow and perfect a skill you actually care about. The best time to enjoy is now, not tomorrow, not in the near future; that one has a story of its own.

            On his deathbed the politician Aneurin Bevan said “I want to live because there are a few things I want to do." Trust me when I say life is short even for the seemingly accomplished people.  Life is amazing, even though it is short, every step of the way is meant to be enjoyed. Have fun!

Wait a minute.

            Tomorrow, I will vow never to procrastinate again. Sounds familiar? Well, it’s familiar to me.  That’s procrastination put in simple terms. Some do it out of laziness, others do it out of fear, anxiety, you name it but the truth is we all procrastinate sometimes and for others a lot.

            In simple terms, procrastinating means facebooking when we should be working on an assignment, playing games when we should be productive, chatting when we shouldn’t be. It certainly feels good, for a short time while work keeps piling up. Before you know it, work just seems too impossible and down the drain goes your dreams. I have always talked about how unsupportive ‘friends’ can be an obstacle; procrastination is probably a bigger one. Procrastination is that static friction at the beginning of a journey, but once its overcome there is no stopping.

            It’s easy to be carried away by temporary pleasures; they certainly feel good, for a while. In the long run, they simply jeopardize the goals we surely set in our rightful minds. Sometimes winners win not because they are super talented but because they started early. Take an example of Sir Isaac Newton, he didn’t discover the law of gravitation by sitting around when his university closed but because he was proactive. We all given 24 hours in a day, somehow Leonardo managed to excel in 14 different professions in just 67 years of his life. I’m pretty sure procrastination was never in his vocabulary. Conversely, in most cases, quitters fail due to procrastination. We can relate to that.

              Temporary pleasures are just that, temporary. They are kind of like balloons ,take a lot of space but they are not really worth it. The real prize comes out of accomplishment.  A little medication called delayed gratification is probably the recommended weapon against procrastination. A little discipline and perhaps a routine will go a long way.

            “Due tomorrow, do tomorrow”, probably not a very good idea. William Arthur Ward wrote a couple of statements as a blueprint for achievement. I quote , “Decide while others are delaying, Begin while others are procrastinating” and he is right by all standards. The next time you are tempted to watch that movie or go to sleep, think of them as balloons. Every second spent on balloons is a step backward from the goal. Just do it dude, in the long run hard work  does pay.