Totally insane!

            Every great person was insane, every great person is insane. Atleast that’s what we  think of them. Let alone mad scientists, who had the highest level of insanity. Take examples of Michael Faraday, Isaac Newton, Plato, William Kamkwamba, Mark Zucherberg, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein you mention them. If we know them, it’s because they did something so rational that the world once laughed at them. It’s almost as if irrationality is our definition of insanity.

            Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I might sound insane; taking a definition of insanity from a supposedly insane person but perhaps somewhere within the lines of insanity arises sanity. There are insane people in the world but we accuse the wrong people of insanity. Somehow, we have come to think that conviction and insanity mean the same thing.

            Real insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, it is putting ordinary efforts and expecting extra-ordinary results. Insanity is doing nothing and expecting results. It is doing what is expected than acting out of intuition. Great people on the other hand are not afraid of rejection by family, friends or kinsmen; partly because they are really crazy but mainly because they know what insanity really is.

            All through history, change makers were deemed insane. Jesus was labeled a crazy drunkard and he turned to be the Messiah, Plato was considered crazy, it happens that he now defines all our politics, Marie Curie was dubbed crazy for combining womanhood and science, guess who ended up with two Nobel prizes. William Kamkwamba was already labeled crazy before he brought electricity to his village. At this point I’m starting to think insanity is actually not an offense. If someone calls you insane, it’s a modest way of saying you are probably going to make history and I can’t stand it.

            I’m insane, because I dream a lot, and I have a knack for doing what I’m told not to.  Better insane than dull; After-all insane people define civilization. I don’t mind being labeled as that kind of person anymore actually; I think it’s a compliment right now. I believe everyone has some sort of insanity waiting to be unlocked. Afraid of being insane? Join my ride, let’s make life amazing!

One step ahead.

            Someone once said ‘Life is 90% preparation, 10% presentation.’ It sounds like such an oversimplification at first, but when you come to think of it, it’s true. We spend nights and nights at school preparing to present an appropriate answer in the exam or the interview, we spend hours perfecting the killer power point for potential clients, and we spend years at work preparing that heavy retirement plan. Maybe the percentages may differ, but life is just a combination of various proportions of preparation and presentation.

            We spend lots of time learning and preparing. We should, after all we are born knowing nothing at all. We prepare until we are comfortable enough. There are two kinds of comfortable I know of; lazy comfortable and progressive comfortable and there is a major difference between them.  When you are done with a task and don’t feel like doing further, that’s lazy comfortable; when you are done with a task and are excited to do more, that’s as you expect, progressive comfortable. You are on the right track if you comfortable in the latter way.

            Proactive is all about asking the right kind of questions at the right time, gambling on the possibility that something good will come out of it. History makers made history because they didn’t get ‘comfortable’. Isaac Newton for instance was a student at the University of Cambridge yet not the typical University student. The university closed down for two years due to plague and Newton saw not an opportunity to chill but time to conduct experiments and fill our Physics textbooks.  Point is he took the chance and time to do something completely something.

            If there is anything I have learnt over the relatively few years of my life it’s that something is better than nothing. It’s better to feel bad than to feel nothing at all. It’s better to do something than to do nothing, because it’s the only way forward. It’s better to ask a silly question than to keep silent, better to try a weird activity than nothing. Being proactive means doing something when nothing is expected. It does tend have a rewarding effect, whether it be a conversation or a job offer.

             President Barack Obama once said, “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”  I find his advice quite self sufficient. Nothing in life is certain, we simply hope for the best. We can’t just sit and hope; we can’t afford to get comfortable.  Life is amazing and all, but for it to be really amazing you have to do something, prepare.

           

One life.

            

 You are the next Albert Einstein, with technology that is yet to be revealed I have seen you with all those prizes in your hands, and achievements that will define a century. Ok, that’s not true but you could be. After a bit of thinking, I just keep landing at one conclusion, resonance.

            “I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”  This is my favorite quote of all time by Isaac Newton. Not only does it involve the beach but also it makes me think of the future Newtons who will discover ‘pretty shells’. When you go to the beach you see different things. Some notice the shells, some notice sea creatures, others notice at all, but that doesn’t mean we should all see  shells. Diversity has beauty in it, but it isn’t meant to be a distraction. We all see different pebbles, have different problems.

            We are easily distracted from seeing the pebble in front of us most likely because we want to see what everyone else is seeing, or maybe our pebble is just too scary, either way we are not responding to the universe. Having read the biography of the mathematician Julia Robinson, I’m confident that there is only one approach to pebbles.  Forget Isaac Newton, Da Vinci and other weird people you find in every textbook. It’s time to work on your pebble; it took Julia almost a 20 and more years to solve the Tenth Problem.  It may take two years, 4, 10 or even a lifetime, it’s that feeling of accomplishment in the end that really makes life worth it all.

            There is a big difference between what we ought to do and what we want to do and most often we find ourselves doing what we are obliged to do. We are too easily distracted by what we see in others that we forget to ask ourselves if it’s what we really want. You can fake it, fool everyone that you are enjoying but you definitely can’t fool the universe. The universe responds to energy. It responds to passion, it is that simple.  History keeps reminding us that.

            We often hear the words, “Don’t take anything fore-granted, you might loose it” . Well, how about don’t take yourself fore-granted? You will definitely loose yourself.  You have one life, one chance, to make it all happen. Others’ spots are already taken, The universe doesn’t need another Albert Einstein or Steve Jobs. The universe needs YOU. You are amazing!

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.