It depends

So you want money,

Getting it has no guarantee,

You can get millions or just a penny,

It all depends on opportunities you choose to see,

So you want happiness,

Who said it’s something you can’t attain?

 You can be extremely happy or worse,

It depends on how you deal with your pain,

So you want fruitful relationships,

To be surrounded by people who actually care,

You may get acquaintances or close kinships,

It depends on your choice and flair,

So you want to shine in your work,

Like a candle in the dark,

You may stand out or suck,

It depends on your effort not luck,

You may want everything in the world,

Good news is there’s no absolute formula to use,

Forget all that has been said,

For it all depends on the path you choose,

It's called a brain.

          

What’s your first morning thought? In other words, what comes to your mind just before facing the day? Well, my answer is not fixed. I could be thinking of Plato’s philosophy, or the routine of the day or may be (most likely) breakfast.   When we get busy, we don’t find the time to think, and perhaps don’t even notice that it’s a new day.  I believe morning thoughts shouldn’t be wasted, they should be channeled to make an amazing day and life eventually. Here is why:

         What is thinking anyway? Having studied for almost as long as I can remember, I’m used to thinking, at least I thought so. I once read that 33% of the world is starving.  Normally this would be regarded as a statistic to prove the higher rate of hunger in the world. I’d probably put it on an essay and get extra points for research. But that’s not thinking, not even close.  It is just reiterating what someone observed and that doesn’t do anyone any good. True thinking would occur if I contemplated on the family that can’t afford at least a meal a day and what life is like in those shoes; if I thought of the person who dies every 3.6 seconds due to hunger then do something about it. The English dictionary defines thinking as, “The process of using your mind to consider something carefully”. Well, considering is just not enough, Thinking involves a whole lot of cognitive process, empathy, patterns, point of view and eventually leads to problem solving.

         When we stop thinking, we become statistics. Let’s consider one example; When society says you won’t make it in a particular industry and you ‘believe’ it to fit in, you are becoming a statistic; increasing the percentage of people who won’t pursue it and further proving that the industry is ‘difficult’. How about a revolution instead? Prove everyone wrong, inspire more people and make an impact in the world.

         We are constantly bombarded with information that we have forgotten how to think. Somehow thinking has been reduced to following instructions.  There is nothing wrong with considering others' opinions or even adapting them. There is something totally when opinions become our go to source to make life-long decisions. People make opinions out of what they see or have been instructed to see. In most cases, they are not always right; It is that little voice in your head that is closest to the answers. Why? Because, it knows what is happening in the back end, it knows exactly why this procedure failed and that passed. Sometimes It knows exactly what will happen in the future. It would be foolish to ignore such a reliable source.

        

            Sue Grafton once said, “Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it “Screw reality. Who defines reality any way? Here is what I think, you make your reality.  Reality is conceived from thoughts, plans and actions. You know that voluminous part of your body that is attached to your neck. Yes, the part that has been securely protected with a thick skull, it’s called a brain; use it.

        

        

        

It never makes sense.

           

            It all made sense, mechanics, gravitation, light, they were all sorted when Isaac Newton proved all those theories. When he said that light could not bend it made sense, we believed that inertial and gravitational mass were the same, we all believed time and space were absolute. Then came  Albert Einstein who defied all that we knew and proved that light can actually bend then nothing else made sense. Life is messed up, anyone who has ever worked at something will attest to that. I mean, we pray but we don’t get answers, we put in efforts but we don’t get what we want, we try but somehow the universe doesn’t recognize that, just when we have connected with people, they leave. Life doesn’t make sense sometimes.

            So what now? After all those failures and disappointments, give up and quit. It’s the logical thing to do but it’s not exactly the right thing to do. If you agree on that, you are not alone. We all get confused, we all lose and we lose more often than we win. Dreams are not cheap; they require all the threads you can pull up.

            I have been listening to the song, Loser like me by Glee and it just says all the right words especially this part “But hey, everyone you wanna be, Probably started off like me.”   Everyone who has made it big, everyone who fulfilled their dream started small, probably where you are right now. I like using Albert Einstein not only because he was weird, but because I have recently read his biography and I have to say there is lots of free lessons to be grabbed there. Many young people give up on their career because of all those rejection letters from job applications. It is interesting to find to find Albert Einstein faced the exact same thing, his father had to take the initiative of writing letters to professors just so he could get a placement; with or without payment. Had he given up and resorted to being normal, we would be at least a century behind in science and technology. Morale of the story; hold on, learn.

            I know how naive this may sound.  Many grownups will tell you dreams are fairytales, they never come true. Most likely because they don’t know what it’s like to accomplish something. When you look back at how far you have come, it feels nice, doesn’t it? You defied the laws of gravity at some point and nothing else matters. Take the feeling and hold on to it, it’s the feeling you’ll feel when you have finally accomplished your goal. Stop listening to all that noise even if it comes from your own head.

           

            Follow your intuition no matter how wrong your brain thinks it is. Being dynamic as it is, Life is far from sorted.  Hold on to hope because it’s the only way up what have you to lose anyway? I remember an all time classic proverb “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. I don’t know who said it, but I know he mastered the art of seeing the big picture; he mastered the art of seeing the amazing aspects of life. No matter how confused it seems at the moment, there will always be that amazing end where it will all make sense.

Reasons why you should listen ( or not)

            “Monitor your thoughts”, It’s what every great philosopher or inspirational book recommends, because they say your thoughts eventually your actions. That’s true, but since I’m a scientist, I’ll tell you exactly what happens until thoughts become actions. When you think of something, the subconscious receives new information and perspective and associates it with previously known information and experiences. In the meantime thousands of connections are made from one neuron to another. The conscious mind then takes the conclusion or plan and puts it into verbal terms, sooner later they become what you say and ultimately what you do.

                                                                                                                                         

            When someone calls you a loser or tries to discourage you, your subconscious mind interprets this ‘information’ and creates a thread that accumulates all your failures to prove the point. You may think  you can easily ignore these opinions but the there is a catch. Your subconscious mind is poisoned, your subconscious is the mastermind in the background and if even a small part is poisoned, life changes from being amazing to being about survival. Likewise if someone encourages and you actually take note the subconscious is nourished.

            We live in a world we inevitably have to listen daily; adverts, billboards, not to mention the people in our circles. We are constantly listening to opinions; consequently we form opinions out of them especially opinions about who we are. That’s fine, its what society does but one weakness of society is that it doesn't allow room for exceptions, development or possibilities. The way you are is how you are expected to always be. It is at this point that you should protect your sub-conscious by shutting your ears. 

         

  Sometimes, it is crucial to listen, ‘sometimes’ means on occasions of constructive criticism or when other opinions are in line with yours. We call this set of people like-minded people. They may not tell you good things all the time or praise but you can just tell if you are thinking in parallel.  These are guys you should listen to and speak to. Why? It’s simple, because they push you ahead, and you don’t have to waste energy just convincing them. Besides no one ever made it alone, not Albert Einstein, or Mark Zucherberg, or Rosa Parks. They were all surrounded by the right kind of energy.

            Elbert Hubbard  once wrote “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”  Its that simple. People will talk always as long as you are working on something. If they talk good, well, you are lucky and build on it, but if they talk bad, you are not alone. Everyone who made something of themselves faced this once upon at a time. While at this I'm reminded of an African quote I read a while ago, it goes, “Children throw stones at fruitful mango trees”. So if you are getting stones right now, just know that you got the mangoes.